Science and Religion

from What’s New:

Science owes its success to a culture of openness in which Nature is “The Decider.” Anything else is just religion.

—Bob Park

Why the Rethugs Bombed

Let’s Be Clear

A lot has been said already about the ‘06 elections, and a lot more will be said. Most of this will be crap. So let me just be clear:

The Republicans lost the ‘06 elections because they are crazy people with shitty policies that have all failed.

Crucial to any analysis of yesterday’s results must be the fact that they started a war based on bullshit, and then they quite literally made a bloody mess of it.

Also, they’re completely corrupt and incompetent, self-righteously religious, willing to gay bait and race bait, and generally all they do is tell lies and act like total weasels and whine about the phony bugbear of the “liberal media.”

Please alert Cokie Roberts.

Legal Dictatorships

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”—Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Time to Break Silence

A time comes when silence is betrayal.
— Martin Luther King Jr., April 4th, 1967

On Dictators and Their Sycophants

"Whenever a ruler makes himself a dictator, all the wicked dregs of the nation — I do not mean the pack of petty thieves and earless ruffians who, in a republic, are unimportant in evil or good — but all those who are corrupted by burning ambition or extraordinary avarice, these gather round him and support him in order to have a share in the booty and to constitute themselves petty chiefs under the big tyrant.”
—Etienne de la Boetie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, 1548

On Reality

"Reality is that which, when you don’t believe in it, doesn’t go away.”—Peter Viereck

The Spoiled Preppy Preznit

"When he [Reagan] was running, he was aware of the issues and what was at stake. That was true of all of them [Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, Clinton]. They were adults, and this guy, George W., as far as I can figure, is just a spoiled preppy.”—Robert Scheer

On Bush the Governator

"You [Bush] govern like Billy Joel drives. You’ve performed so poorly I’m surprised that you haven’t given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the city of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky. I’m not saying you don’t love this country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.”—Bill Maher

Liars, Liars

"If what Scooter Libby said to the grand jury is true, then this latest development clearly reveals yet again that the CIA leak case goes much deeper than the disclosure of a CIA agent’s identity to the press. The heart and motive of this case is about the deliberate attempt at the highest levels of this administration to discredit those who were publicly revealing that the White House lied about its uranium claims leading up to the war. The Bush Administration knew that Iraq had not sought uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapon, yet they went around telling the Congress, the country, and the world just the opposite. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Valerie Wilson’s husband, publicly spoke out with proof that the administration was not telling the truth on uranium, the administration engaged in an orchestrated plot, which now reportedly includes President Bush, to discredit Ambassador Wilson and dismiss any notion that they had lied about pre-war intelligence.”—U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey

Oxygen of Democracy

"The information blackout may serve the short-term interests of the present administration, which is allergic to criticism or even to probing questions. But it is a disservice to the country. Worst of all, the Bush administration’s information policies are conditioning Americans to lower their expectations of government accountability and to doubt their own ability to challenge their political leaders.

Information is the oxygen of democracy. Day by day, the Bush administration is cutting off the supply.”

—Steven Aftergood

USNews.com: With his polls down, Bush takes flak on Iraq from a host of critics--including a key mod

"Things aren’t getting better; they’re getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It’s like they’re just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we’re losing in Iraq.”—Sen. Chuck Hagel, June 2005

dissident freedom vs. assimilated conformists

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”—Abbie Hoffman

I do not like your Christians

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”—Gandhi

What Good Fortune

"What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.”—A. Hitler

Perhaps they are Really that Stupid

"Aside from the disturbing civil liberties aspects of the Pentagon spying on local peace groups, it makes me scared to think that the folks in charge of protecting us from possible terrorist attacks can’t tell the difference between a terrorist threat and a peaceful citizen gathering. Are they really that stupid?”—Gail Sredanovic of the Raging Grannies