Monthly Archives: May 2006

The Atheist's Pulpit

Ask god

4 Comments

In church or temple this week, I want you to think about the following story:

ABQjournal: Around New Mexico
Body ID’d as N.M. Woman

MOUNT AIRY, Md. — Police on Friday identified the woman whose body was found on the side of Interstate 70 early Thursday as Dusty Shuck of Silver City.

Investigators said Shuck, 24, was last seen in New Mexico about 10 days ago.

Authorities confirmed Shuck’s identity through fingerprint analysis and determined a cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and a slit throat.

Passers-by found her body Thursday along the shoulder of eastbound Interstate 70 in Mount Airy, west of Baltimore.

As you sit there closer to god, ask him two questions: Why was this your plan for her? What is your plan for her vile killer? Let me know the answer you get.

(updated Mon 5/8/06) I’ve heard some believers say our minds are too puny to comprehend god’s plans. Well, perhaps Shuck was going to be the mother of the antichrist or vote Democratic in the fall.

Christ was born to his sacrifice. How many times did Dusty cry to god in 10 days? Who was saved by her sacrifice?

I could understand if people believed god created everything and got overwhelmed or lost interest. But people believe god is actively involved in their everyday lives — that they have a direct and personal relationship to god. How can anyone believe that. I know faith is beyond reason — so is madness. mjh

[updated 6/7/06]

ABQjournal: AROUND NEW MEXICO
Woman Seen Day Before Body Found

FREDERICK, Md.— Dusty M. Shuck, whose battered body was found along Interstate 70 in Maryland on May 4, reportedly was seen alive in Breezewood, Pa., the previous evening, a Frederick County prosecutor says.

Shuck, 24, disappeared April 24 after her mother, Lori Atwood, dropped her off for a doctor’s appointment in Silver City.

Deputy State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith said Tuesday a man and a woman told Maryland State Police investigators they saw Shuck at a Petro truck stop in Breezewood, about 25 miles north of the state line the evening of May 3.

“We don’t know what she was doing there and how she got there,” Smith said.

Shuck’s body was found about 5:45 a.m. May 4 along eastbound I-70 a few yards from a trucker rest stop near Mount Airy, about 95 miles east of Breezewood. Her throat had been slit and her upper body had multiple injuries, including blunt force trauma to the head, police have said.

Dump Duhbya

More of the Same from the Republicans

Scandal, job worries lift GOP insurgents to wins By STEVE EDER and JAMES DREW, BLADE STAFF WRITERS

The rising tide against Ohio’s Republican establishment on Tuesday swept away two of the party’s biggest names and scored a victory for GOP candidates who challenged business as usual in Columbus. …

That opening paragraph sounds so encouraging, speaking of insurgents and change within the Ohio Republican Party. But who is the number one “insurgent”? Ken Blackwell, current Ohio Secretary of State, who delivered Ohio for Bush and is riding a wave of evangelical support. In other words, the challenge is from the Radical Right — hardly a change of any kind. mjh

Republicans predicted that Democrats will focus on the scandal but fall short in providing plans for creating jobs and boosting the economy. [mjh: not one of the many scandals you’re thinking of]

John McClelland, a spokesman for the Ohio GOP, said the Democratic ticket is “woefully inexperienced” in comparison with the Republican nominees, who also include U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and U.S. Rep. Bob Ney. [mjh: under investigation for involvement with Abramoff, Ney is very “experienced”.]

“[We] have longtime officeholders such as Mike DeWine who won handily, Betty Montgomery who won handily, Bob Ney won handily in his district, but at the same time you have agents of change such as Ken Blackwell, who has an agenda of growing the economy by cutting taxes, fiscal restraint, and government integrity and accountability,” Mr. McClelland said. “Those are issues that resonate across Ohio. Those are issues that Ken Blackwell is going to run on in November and issues we think we are going to win on.”

Actually, those are the issues Blackwell will run in public on. In private, among churchgoers, his campaign is completely different. mjh

Ohio 2004 election thief grabs Gov nod while (surprise! surprise!) voting machines malfunction

other voices, The Atheist's Pulpit

This Week’s WTF

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Country Lacking Real Values

WHAT HAVE you bleeding hearts done to my beautiful country?

We can no longer say or print “Merry Christmas” for fear of offending someone who doesn’t believe in Christmas. Nor can we say, “Happy Easter.” No longer is there a “Christmas” vacation. It is a holiday vacation. Nor is there an “Easter” vacation. It is spring break.

We have rewarded laziness and call it Welfare. We have killed our unborn and call it choice. We have polluted the air with profanity and an abundance of pornography and call it freedom of expression.

Children today have no heroes. Politicians lie and sports athletes use drugs. Parents call it searching for self-esteem. God is no longer allowed in school. The majority of Americans want and some have demanded that prayer be returned to school— to no avail. Morality has become a cesspool of depraved minds.

Once again, I ask, “What have you bleeding hearts done to my beautiful country?”

RONALD J. GRUBE
Albuquerque

Take a deep breath, Ron. It’s my country, too.

I’m an atheist and I believe religion has caused as much harm as good and I still say “Merry Christmas” to people. Shame on you for opposing the more inclusive “Spring Break” — not everyone believes in Jesus.

Or would you require everyone to worship Jesus?

God may not be in school, but he’s in both Houses of Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court (8 Catholics, 1 Jew — 0 atheists).

And World War III centers around two reactionary religious zealots and the ironically named “Holy Land.” Holy? The fanatical, devout followers of three religions with trivial differences between them will show their faith in god by destroying each other and the rest of us. Some faith. mjh

mjh’s blog — ‘War’ on Christians Is Alleged

Dump Duhbya

Congress may consider mandatory ISP snooping

Congress may consider mandatory ISP snooping | Tech News on ZDNet By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com

It didn’t take long for the idea of forcing Internet providers to retain records of their users’ activities to gain traction in the U.S. Congress.

Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a Republican, gave a speech saying that data retention by Internet service providers is an “issue that must be addressed.” Child pornography investigations have been “hampered” because data may be routinely deleted, Gonzales warned.

Now, in a demonstration of bipartisan unity, a Democratic member of the Congressional Internet Caucus is preparing to introduce an amendment–perhaps during a U.S. House of Representatives floor vote next week–that would make such data deletion illegal.

Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette’s proposal says that any Internet service that “enables users to access content” must permanently retain records that would permit police to identify each user. The records could not be discarded until at least one year after the user’s account was closed.

It’s not clear whether that requirement would be limited only to e-mail providers and Internet providers such as DSL (digital subscriber line) or cable modem services. An expansive reading of DeGette’s measure would require every Web site to retain those records. (Details would be left to the Federal Communications Commission.) …

In a move that may have led to broader interest inside the United States, the European Parliament last December approved such a requirement for Internet, telephone and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. …

Critics of DeGette’s proposal have said that, while the justification for Internet surveillance might be protecting children, the data would be accessible to any local or state law enforcement official investigating anything from drug possession to tax evasion. In addition, the one-year retention is a minimum; the FCC would receive the authority to require Internet companies to keep records “for not less than one year after a subscriber ceases to subscribe to such services.”

Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the free-market Cato Institute, said: “This is an unrestricted grant of authority to the FCC to require surveillance.”

“The FCC would be able to tell Internet service providers to monitor our e-mails, monitor our Web surfing, monitor what we post on blogs or chat rooms, and everything else under the sun,” said Harper, a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. “We’re seeing a kind of hysteria …. The result will be privacy that goes away and doesn’t come back when the foolishness is exposed.”

Dump Duhbya

ID Law Stirs Passionate Protest in N.H.

ID Law Stirs Passionate Protest in N.H. By David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post Staff Writer

The controversy in New Hampshire surrounds a federal law called the Real ID Act, which was approved last year after it was tacked on to a bill funding the war in Iraq and relief for tsunami victims. Its principal backer, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), said he wanted to close the kinds of loopholes that allowed some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers to obtain official identification.

The bill requires states to check whether driver’s license applicants are in the country legally, and to require documents showing their birth date, Social Security number and home address. The act also requires that states find a way to verify that the documents are valid.

The deadline is May 2008. If states cannot meet the new requirements by then, the bill says, their licenses may not be accepted as identification at airport security screenings, federal buildings and nuclear plants. …

“We care more for our liberties than to meekly hand over to the federal government the potential to enumerate, track, identify and eventually control,” [Rep. Neal M. Kurk (R)] said, before quoting Henry and his state’s defiant motto, “Live Free or Die.”…

Emboldened by that success, groups opposed to Real ID staged a rally in late April in front of the statehouse where, according to a report in the Concord Monitor, some wore “666” on their foreheads — indicating their belief that a national system of rules for driver’s licenses is a step toward the “mark of the beast” prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

NADA

Some Plan

1 Comment

New comment on your post #1721 “Meet Heather Wilson”

so if you don’t want drilling in the refuge, and you don’t want drilling off the coast of florida (which has proven oil reserves of more than saudi arabia and the chinese are starting to drill off the coast of cuba), what do you propose we do about high gas prices?

you can’t decrease prices unless you increase supply. we can’t explore for oil in the us, can’t refine more oil in the us, because the environmental lobby refuses to let us do it.

but who whines loudest about gas prices and oil profits? [signed,] jeff

Thanks for writing, Jeff. If you have found me whining about gas prices, please point that out to me. I’ve been meaning for some time to tell everyone that I think gas should be $5/gallon or more. One day, we will look back at $5/gal and think “boy, was that cheap.”

I’m not sure who whines loudest about gas prices. Perhaps someone who owns an SUV, RV, ATV, snowmobile and a jet-ski?

As for profits, I despise many of the practices of the Extractive Industries, especially the bribery of public officials for endless tax breaks that become profits. However, those profits are actually middling as percentages.

The argument of Big Oil versus Alternatives is very much like the argument over cars versus public transportation. Everyone ignores how much we subsidize Oil and Autos when they whine about costs of alternatives.

Oh, but let’s not talk about alternatives. Let’s attack each other while changing nothing. Some plan.

Why aren’t conservatives conservationists? Why doesn’t it appeal to conservatives to conserve oil. There is no better place to store oil than in the ground where it is now — think of those worthless-to-you wild places as savings accounts. Accounts I hope we never, ever draw on.

I don’t see the logic of destroying irreplaceable wilderness for replaceable oil. If you believe oil is irreplaceable, then you must be prepared for the world to end in 50 or 100 years — whenever we run out. Is the plan just to use it up as fast as we can? Some plan.

Let’s go through that again. Pick whatever time span you like between 50 and 200 years. At the end of that time, which may be within your lifetime, there will be zero oil left — none, zip, nada. Now, picture that world and tell me how much better it will be if there is also zero wilderness — none, zip, nada. Some plan.

In less than 200 years, people will think about oil the same way we think about whale oil — how could it have been worth the destruction? Will they also wonder how we could have been so stupid to destroy what we have already for oil? mjh

ABQjournal: Study: Wilderness Protection Good for Economy

Dump Duhbya

Watch Ohio Republicans Renominate Ney

Prosecutors Opt for Wide Probe of Rep. Ney By Susan Schmidt and Chris Cillizza, Washington Post Staff Writers

Federal prosecutors signaled this week that they have decided to pursue a wide range of allegations about dealings between Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, rather than bringing a narrowly focused bribery case against the congressman.

Ney faces a primary challenge in his eastern Ohio district Tuesday, as his ties to Abramoff have become national news. It is the first time since his 1994 election to Congress that Ney has had to compete for his party’s nomination. …

The allegations against Ney have taken a toll on his political career and his prospects for reelection.

Ney will face off against financial analyst James Harris in next week’s Republican primary in Ohio’s 18th District. Despite his travails [mjh: read “crimes”], Ney has won the uniform backing of district Republican officials and is favored to win. …

Democrats acknowledge privately that the only way they can win in this Republican-leaning district, which President Bush carried with 57 percent in 2004, is for the election to be a referendum on Ney. He has vowed to remain in the race even if he is indicted.