Monthly Archives: June 2008

NADA

Guns Are Further Proof…

If there is anything more controversial — and shocking — than saying, “There is no god,” it would be declaring “the world would be a *MUCH* better place without any guns.” Further, lest you think I’m just an idealist (which gun owners believe is dangerous enough), I’d vote/pray/wish/beg/pay for the destruction of any guns possible. But relax, gun owners, you’re safe and secure, even though you live in fear that you might not be so. There will never be a day in America when you can’t own a kill-stick. Maybe the real solution is a spell that guarantees the only people ever hurt by guns own them. Now, that’s too idealistic. peace, mjh

E. J. Dionne Jr. – The D.C. Handgun Ruling

In his intemperate dissent in the court’s recent Guantanamo decision, Scalia said the defense of constitutional rights embodied in that ruling meant it “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” That consideration apparently does not apply to a law whose precise purpose was to reduce the number of murders in the District of Columbia. [mjh: Impeach Scalia!] …

[I] hope this decision opens people’s eyes to the fact that judicial activism is now a habit of the right, not the left, and that “originalism” is too often a sophisticated cover for ideological decision-making by conservative judges.

The Atheist's Pulpit

There Is No God

2 Comments

I am not at all surprised that I am out-of-step with 92 percent of Americans. I am certain there is no god. I’m only driven to declaring that when there is so much noise from the other side.

World news Feed Article | World news |

By many measures, Americans are strongly religious: 92 percent believe in God, 74 percent believe in life after death and 63 percent say their respective scriptures are the word of God.

But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God’s existence, as did six in ten Jews.

Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent “absolutely certain” of it.

World news Feed Article | World news |

It’s funnier that I am out of step with one in five atheists, in that I know what atheism is and they don’t. One can be a believer with doubts (that’s healthy), but a doubter who believes is an agnostic, at best. Of the 8 percent of Americans who don’t believe in God, what percentage are “self-identified atheists”? (Not believing in god isn’t the same as calling yourself an atheist, obviously.) Of that less than 8%, 21% — less than 2% of the whole — aren’t actually part of that 8%, unless this is recursive, in which case there are no non-believers.

Perhaps these ‘atheists’ who believe in god (even with certainty) are actually anti-theists or antaga-gnostics: Those who hate god. I was one of those for a long time. It’s a real waste of energy. peace, mjh

Religion in American Culture — Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Welcome to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Based on interviews with more than 35,000 American adults, this extensive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious makeup, religious beliefs and practices as well as social and political attitudes of the American public. This online section includes dynamic tools that complement the full report. For a video overview and related material, go to the resource page.

Religion in American Culture — Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Election

Casting Bibles in Glass Houses Upon the Waters

1 Comment

Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting’ Bible – washingtonpost.com

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy _ chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”

“Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles,” Obama said.

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament.

“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said.

“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”

Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama’s campaign, said in a statement that a full reading of Obama’s speech shows he is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families. “Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together,” DuBois said.

Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama’s argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion’s terms but in arguments accessible to all people.

He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the “lowest common denominator of morality,” labeling it “a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”

Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting’ Bible – washingtonpost.com

James Dobson should know a fruitcake when he sees one (every damn day in the mirror). While I would be uneasy with Obama finding biblical justifications for anything other than doing away with the War Department, Dobson’s insistence that only Dobson knows the truth should be all anyone needs to turn their back on him and run away. Judge not, Jimmy. peace, mjh

Obama dismisses Dobson criticism about Bible
By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer

Asked about Dobson’s assessment, Obama said “somebody would be pretty hard-pressed to make that argument” that he was distorting the Bible.

Obama supporters also responded to Dobson.

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist pastor from Texas and longtime supporter of President Bush who has endorsed Obama, said Tuesday he belongs to a group of religious leaders who, working independently of Obama’s campaign, launched a Web site to counter Dobson at http://www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com. The site highlights statements from Obama and Dobson and asks visitors to compare them.

Caldwell said he has great respect for Dobson’s advocacy for families, but said the criticism of Obama was “a bit over the top” and “crossed the line.”

See also Evangelical Leader Blasts 2006 Obama Speech, by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR

other voices

This Week’s WTF?!

Today’s paper was full of interesting letters, though this one takes the fruitcake.

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters to the Editor

Limit Voting to Vets, Property Owners
A RECENT front-page article reported on skyrocketing property taxes. Of course, the main reason for this is that fewer and fewer of us are supporting more and more of us. My contention is this. I believe that the only people who should be able to vote are active or retired military personnel and those who own property. That would encourage people, perhaps, to own real property, and it would put the exploding population of do nothings right where they should be, and that is OUT, with a capital “O.”
JT, Albuquerque

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters to the Editor

I give JT the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t realize he’s just endorsed a view long held by racists, slave-holders and fascists. I don’t assume – based on one letter – that he is any of those things. However, it is quite clear he is an idiot. peace, mjh

other voices

What More Will It Take?

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters to the Editor

A Can-Do (Everything Wrong) Party
CONSERVATIVE PUNDIT Cal Thomas is right — the Republicans and conservatives are certainly the “can-do” party of the United States. They can continue to ignore the millions of Americans who have no health coverage and bleat “socialized medicine” every time a remedy is suggested. They can trash and exploit the environment. They can turn a blind eye when the U.S. president ignores, undermines or circumvents international treaties and laws like the Geneva Convention. They can gleefully slash taxes for the wealthy and for corporate America. And they can turn a billion-dollar budget surplus into a trillion-dollar deficit in order to finance a war that was predicated on half-truths and fear mongering. If the Republican Party has not demonstrated their absolute unfitness to rule this country, what more will it take? Do we dare wait for the smoking gun to take the form of a mushroom cloud?
BRAD JAFFE
Albuquerque

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters to the Editor

Amen, Brad. peace, mjh

other voices

Let’s Finish Destroying What We’ve Started Before Destroying Something New

updated 6/25/08

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters to the Editor

Drill the Leases You Have, Not Our Last Wilderness
THE DEBATE over America’s energy needs is often riddled with misinformation and fear mongering. The level of propaganda by the pro-drilling forces has reached a pinnacle of disgust. As Sergeant Friday once said, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for public lands, both onshore and offshore in the United States, increased 361 percent. This is a staggering statistic that should not be overlooked when debating energy needs in this country. The Bureau of Land Management has issued over 28,776 permits to drill on public land. Yet today, only 18,954 wells have been actually drilled. In other words, 10,000 well permits have been stockpiled by the already cash-bloated oil and gas industry. In addition, 47.5 million acres of onshore public lands are leased by oil and gas companies. Only 13 million of those acres are actually in production. America cannot afford to stoop so low as to allow the oil and gas industry to drill the last, best, wild places left in the country like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or Otero Mesa. … Conservation, fuel efficiency, renewable energy, tax incentives for businesses and strong-willed leadership by our elected officials in Congress is the right answer. Misleading propaganda by an industry and its allies in Congress will only take us further down the path of high energy prices and destruction of our last wild places.
NATHAN NEWCOMER
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Albuquerque

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters to the Editor

Well said, Nathan.

This weekend, I heard a pundit say, “We will not conserve our way out of this problem. We will not ‘green’ our way out of this problem.” (Clever dick.) News flash: We will not *solve* this problem if the solution involves oil, a finite resource which we are going to run out of some day, whether tomorrow or in a hundred years (in your dreams). When you are rushing towards a cliff, don’t mock people who suggest slowing down. When you call yourself a conservative, try conserving something. Oil in the ground is money in the bank.

peace, mjh

dreams

Ich Traumte

The dream had been going on for a while before I became aware of it. In the dream, a group of us were preparing to depart a foreign city. I was gathering my belongings, which seemed to be scattered around several cluttered rooms. Two women I didn’t recognize asked if I had and extra ball cap. I said not to worry, I had five but wasn’t sure where they were at the moment. Suddenly, I realized my group had already left for the airport. I worked my way through the labyrinthine halls of the hotel and out onto an unfamiliar, foreign street. All the while, I was thinking how I was going to have to find my own way to the airport and possibly change my flight info and that these were tasks Merri is much better at. Optimistically, I considered one person might move faster than a group, which surely had allowed more than enough time to get to the airport.

Traffic seemed to stop at an intersection. A man was in the equivalent of a wheelchair combined with a motorcycle. He veered abruptly across the intersection at 90 degrees, though this surprised no one but me. Traffic stopped and started in incomprehensible ways, following signals lost to me. I realized I didn’t have any clues as to which direction to move in. Where was north? Which direction did I want? I overheard someone say, “‘kuchen,’ that sounds interesting.” I was in a German-speaking city. I walked in an arbitrary direction. The streets got narrower and more Old Worldly. I was descending a narrow, steep flight of steps — nearly a ladder — surrounded by people. The guy in front of me stopped at the bottom of the stairs and said, “I understand you’re trying to get to the airport.” Now, with a group of American students (how did I know?), I said, “I know how to ask, ‘Wo findet man den Bahnhof?’ but I don’t know how to say ‘airport.’ (In the dream, I congratulated myself silently on that construction. Bahnhof is train station. My waking mind recalls ‘Flughof’ as airport. I spent a lot of time in German train stations. I was never in a German airport.) Turning to a woman, I added jokingly, “It’s not aeropuerto.” She considered that for a moment before agreeing. I awoke to a thunderclap as the dog appeared beside my bed.

peace,
mjh