Wow

Extremely, extremely good column by Ted Rall. Read it.

A bit of humor

My love for Jon Stewart knows no end. He is wonderful and he should fight with Bill O'Reilly more often.

What is this "hypocrisy" you speak of?

Fact: The military blatently discriminates against non-heterosexuals, and cheerfully engages in some things that some people find morally questionable, such as torture and murdering innocent people.

Fact: The federal government demands that any colleges and universities recieving any federal funding give the military a free pass to try to recruit students.

Fact: The federal government claims that they are within their right to revoke all federal funding if a school is so bold as to slightly limit recruiters' access to students.

My opinions: This looks, to me, to be dangerously close to the military getting too snuggly with the legislature. Because of that, it also looks to me like the federal government explicitly condoning discrimination. I'm no fan of the military, and would like to think that anyone smart enough to be in law school is smart enough to see the major problems with the military: a law student is likely capable of going out and getting a real job that doesn't involve mindlessly following orders to murder people and embracing bigotry. But seriously: what the hell makes the military so special? Why do they get such bonuses such as complete control over educational funding?

As we're constantly reminded, it's an all-volunteer force. People can try to argue against this but they've yet to convince me: Anyone who joins the military is in some way accepting their policies as 'right'. This means you obviously don't have a problem with, say, a president deciding to go and invade large sandy countries who happen to have a massive supply of oil. And you don't have a problem with bigotry and intolerance, to say nothing of killing people.

So...my sympathy is limited for the military, both the brass and the peons. They signed up for it entirely willingly, therefore, they deserve whatever they get.

No Jesus in here!

A federal judge just recently ruled that the Indiana state legislature can't open sessions with an overtly Christian prayer - CNN link.

WHY can we not just ban prayer outright in government settings? I'm not advocating the outlaw of prayer: I'm just saying that it has no place in official government business. Know why?

If a prayer that explicitly mentions Jesus or "Christian terms" is an "official endorsement of the Christian religion", then isn't a prayer that explicitly mentions some form of deity (e.g., "god") an official endorsement of theistic religions?

I have news for the Psychotic Religious Nuts that make up so much of America and our government. I know it might be hard for you to understand, and might even make your head hurt a little bit, but here goes: Not everyone shares your belief in god. This means that yes, there are some people who don't buy into Judeo-Christian beliefs. This also means - and this is the hard part, so just do your best to keep up - that some people don't believe in any sort of God.

Yup. Us godless heathens. I myself have no hesitation to identify myself as an atheist. I don't believe in the God of the Old or New Testament, of the Q'aran, any of the Hindu deities - none of them. I believe in logic and science (note: please stop trying to replace these with your fictional deities), in observable evidence of things, the scientific process, and even a good dose of Occam's Razor. If you're looking to explain something, have two possible theories, and one requires an entirely unprovable and untestable belief in some magical mystical God-type-thing, then...I'll have to go with 'keep it simple and keep your god out of my life, thanks'.

Also...can I just skip straight from here to December 26th, and thereby avoid all the Christmas Gluttony?