Rational Russian -- Withering Lies

Separation of What and Why?

Espresso Land — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:25:44 +0000

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. That’s not the American way, pastors — at least not when it comes to the (supposed) separation between Church and State! Remember that the First Amendment was written to protect your religion, too!

Turns out, some pastors, unsurprisingly, have been meddling on the political front — straight from their tax exempt pulpits. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever been inside of a religious place of worship (not necessarily Christian), and political “endorsements” generally fly out of fanatical mouths at an alarming rate. Why bother looking up a candidate’s stances on important issues when you can have a pastor/rabbi/etc. tell how to cast your vote. Besides, who are you to argue with gods’ humble servants?

In this particular case, Gus Booth, who is also a delegate to the RNC, is basically confused about his rights under the Religion Clause. He thinks the IRS is “intimidating churches” into staying out of politics. Yes, that must be it, Gus.

Or… It could be that your church in Warroad, Minnesota, hasn’t been paying a dime in property taxes, thanks to its status as a non-profit organization. In return, your only job was to stay out of politics, just like our founding fathers intended (in the First freaking Amendment, moron).

Tags: Separationof Church and State, religion

Bigotted Uneducated Jews?

Espresso Land — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:56:34 +0000

But those nice Jewish boys are usually so sweet! How could it be? Well, as it turns out, radical Jews are just as ignorant as any other religious radicals, blinded by their faith. It looks like some radical Jews have found a new enemy: Barack Hussein Obama. Obama’s allegiances are with Jesse Jackson Jr. and Louis Farrakhan, according to the site, so how can any self-respecting Jew even consider supporting Obama?

There is a whole “movement” now dedicated to “exposing the truth” about Obama. There is even a Facebook group with only 400+ members thus far.

This is straight from their website:

Unfortunately America has refused to win every single war she has fought after World War II. Our leaders have been more concerned about world opinion, sparing “innocent civilians” and “winning hearts and minds.” Israel has done the equivalent in her recent battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This refusal to win wars is all due to the pernicious influence of the Left, which has gained a major foothold in the Democrat party in the U.S., as well as the European Union and Israel. Therefore, JTF is also opposed to domestic fifth columnists who attempt to undermine America’s and Israel’s will to defend themselves and to properly fight their wars. Barack Hussein Obama is an example of a fifth columnist. We have started Jews Against Obama to expose him as being just that.

No, it turns out that the Jews are capable of making baseless, unsupported claims without any regard to truth (or even an opposing point of view, for that matter). So yeah, the Jews are bigots, too.

Tags: Jews, Politics, Obama

Religion is Evil

Espresso Land — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:10:35 +0000

As civilization enters a global “information age,” some things that were not always obvious in the past, are becoming more and more obvious — almost to the point of “crystal clear.” Religion is the root of all evil, and continues to be used for evil purposes by all sides.

Shiite Islam? Guilty. Christians? Guilty. Hindus? Guilty. Monks? Guilty. Jews? Guilty!

Shiite Muslims:

Hassan Nasrallah

Religion: Shiite Islam

Who is he?: Secretary-General of Hezbollah

Country: Lebanon

Quote: “If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak, and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology, and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli.”

Christianity:

Joseph Kony

Religion: Christianity/personality cult

Who is he?: Commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)

Country: Uganda

Quote: “[The spirits] speak to me. They load through me. They will tell us what is going to happen. They say ‘You, Mr. Joseph, tell your people that the enemy is planning to come and attack.’ They will come like dreaming; they will tell us everything.”

Hinduism:

Yogi Adityanath

Religion: Hinduism

Who is he?: Religious leader and member of parliament from Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous province

Country: India

Quote: “I want Muslim votes, too. But wash them in Gangajal [Ganges water] first.”

Buddhist Monks:

Athuraliye Rathana

Religion: Theravada Buddhism

Who is he?: Monk and member of parliament

Country: Sri Lanka

Quote: “Peace negotiations simply made the LTTE [Tamil Tigers] stronger. We mustn’t talk to them; we can crush the LTTE. It is like surgery.”

Jews:

Dov Lior

Religion: Hasidic Judaism

Who is he?: Head rabbi of Kiryat Arba settlement

Country: Israel

Quote: “A thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew’s fingernail.”

Free Tibet? Free Palestine? Even “thou shalt not kill?” All slogans for the religious zealots to prove to themselves and their peers that they have god-given authority to murder the opposition. Therefore, remove religious authority from this straight-forward equation, and you get just a little bit closer to peace.

Apology NOT Accepted Yet

Espresso Land — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:32:29 +0000

After being named “Worst Person in the World,” Representative Davis decided to privately apologize to Mr. Sherman, a prominent Chicago atheist. That is great news for Mr. Sherman, and I’m personally glad that he accepted her apology, however, I am still offended — and nobody apologized to me (or any other atheist, for that matter).

CHICAGO (WBBM) — State Representative Monique Davis is apologizing a week after she blasted an atheist activist during a hearing over a million dollar grant for a South Side church.

Because of Davis’ rant, she was named Tuesday night as the “worst person in the world” –a dubious award doled out daily by news commentator Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s “Countdown” program.

Rep. Davis told atheist Rob Sherman that, “What you have to spew and spread is dangerous” and that “This is the land of Lincoln where people believe in God.”

But, after being on the receiving end of a week’s worth of public criticism, Davis called Sherman yesterday to apologize.

Sherman says Davis told him she “took out her frustrations and emotions on me and that she shouldn’t have done that.” Sherman says Davis’ explanation was “reasonable” and that he forgives her.

According to Sherman and State Rep. Jack Franks….Davis claims her outburst was triggered by learning shortly beforehand…that there’d been another Chicago Public School student killed.

State Rep. Jack Franks was chairing the hearing that day and says Davis’ outburst was uncharacteristic, adding “she was having a bad day.”

Chicago public school students are going to continue to die needlessly as long as the second amendment continues to be interpreted that all citizens have the right to bear arms. The authors of the constitution didn’t make many mistakes, but they made a grievous error here. Innocent kids are dying every day as a result. Unfortunately, god does not have anything to do with this problem. Atheists and theists alike, do not want any children dying in the 21st Century.

Representative Davis, you have to speak out against intolerance for all people — not just religious people. In the land of Lincoln, God has never prevented gun violence, and never will, but the humanist movement could. Maybe if you can learn something about the people you demonize, you would understand that we hate intolerance and guns, and promote reasonable solutions to many human issues.

Separation of Church and State is a critical principle in the US Constitution, and therefore, using public funds to rebuild a church is illegal. Mr. Sherman, who just happens to be atheist, brought this to your attention, and you lashed out at him and all atheists. You owe us a public apology.

I’m including my original email here, as well, for your reference.

Atheists are simply not religious people (lack belief of a God, or
deity), and are not a threat to communities. It is generally a
misconception to equate atheists with “evil.”

Strict gun control, an issue that I personally wholeheartedly support,
is in no way related to atheism or the general beliefs of atheists.

Personally, until a few days ago, I was an outspoken supporter of your
policies and proposed legislation, as my personal views align with
yours on many different fronts. However, the separation of church and
state is one of the most important concepts in the US constitution,
and your recent attack towards atheists was misguided. Therefore, I
will not be able to support you any further, unless you issue a public
apology to Chicago atheists that you obviously offended.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or would like to meet to
discuss this further.

Thank you,
Rational Russian
Chicago Resident, Supporter, and Liberal Democrat

Breaking News Story: Atheists are Umong Us!

Espresso Land — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:31:27 +0000

Riveting, marvelous, and insightful!

Contrary to popular belief, as it turns out, atheist kids do NOT have problems making friends… Wow!

Human Disgrace

Espresso Land — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:54:20 +0000

I don’t know what to say about this… Unfortunately, I watched the video. I highly recommend that you do not (it will make you physically ill). In my mind, the human race is not entitled to make decisions regarding death of any animal. I’m particularly appalled with this, since it’s happening right now, in Canada (an otherwise progressive country in many respects).

Please, just sign the petition. It will take you 3 seconds!

Unprovoked Capitalization for Jesus

Espresso Land — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:10:59 +0000

I really enjoy reading opposing views, on any topic, but I honestly enjoy reading others’ religious responses. Oftentimes, I find their views to be lacking in a verity of respects (most notably, logic), but one item of interest regularly startles me: Capitalization of Regular Vocabulary.

Why is it that Christians, Muslims, etc., always capitalize words such as, truth, gospel, holy, word, and reason? There many other examples (feel free to comment), but why is this done? Okay, some capitalization is obviously necessary. Jesus Christ — first and last name. Lord — proper title. Heaven and Hell — names of places, albeit imaginary. Holy Bible — title of an old book.

But today, I came across a post of a fellow atheist where he displayed an example of an email that capitalized “Good News.”

Really? Good news is not a title of anything. It’s not a place. It’s not even a day of the week or month. It is, quite simply, the opposite of “Bad News.” Why does it have to be capitalized? Do all religious people have the god-given right to capitalize every word they want? The line must be drawn Somewhere!

Tags: capitalization, christianity, jesus, god

Dear Sally Kern

Espresso Land — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:15:45 +0000

Sally, I have written to you on several occasions now, but I still haven’t received a reply. Is something wrong with your email? Maybe you need someone to help you with the fancy computer of Oklahoma? Why haven’t you answered me? WHY???

If I were one of your supporters, would you reply to me then? Anyway, Sally, I hope you take the time to reply. Here’s what I wrote the first time, on March 12th:

Sally,

Hate speech in any form cannot be tolerated at ANY level of

government. Shame on you as a teacher and “representative” — you are

held to a higher standard, and you cannot preach bigotry.

As you can see, this is not an anonymous email, as I am encouraging

you to see that even people who are not directly impacted by your

views (me, a heterosexual male) do not respond positively to your

rhetoric, as exhibited on YouTube, and is all over the Internet.

Thank you,
Me

Sally, I think you are too blind to see that god hates people like you. Any reasonable Jesus would not give up his own life to support a bigot… Your own bible tells you so. Open your eyes, Sally!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: SallyKern, Oklahoma, God

Best Quote Ever

Espresso Land — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:54:16 +0000

“Almost everyone would concede, for example, that a presidential candidate who wanted to outlaw interest on loans and revert to a barter system would be an absurd steward for our troubled economy. So why isn’t there a similar consensus that someone who believes the Earth is 6,000 years old and that Noah’s Ark is an event in zoological history would be an absurd leader on issues such as stem-cell research, climate change and renewable resources?”

– John Allen Paulos, author and mathematician

Tags: religion, atheism, politics

How to Trap an Atheist?

Espresso Land — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:42:01 +0000

I found the following brilliant quote that I would like to share:

How to trap an atheist:

“Serve him a fine meal, then ask him if he believes there is a cook.”

Brilliant! Here are several minor revisions, all on the same line of thought (please feel free to add more, since the possibilities are endless):

“Put him on a flying airplane, and ask him if he believes there is an engineer.”
“Give him an apple, and ask him if he believes it sprung up from a seed.”
“Give him a paper and ask if he believes it came from a tree.”

Tags: Dinner, God, Atheism