Westboro Baptists Picket Paul Walker Funeral

In yet another classy move, the "God Hates Fags" Westboro Baptist  Church is announcing that they intend to picket the funeral of Paul Walker.  Of course, their so-called "pickets" have nothing to do with anything that the individual might have done, but are just an increasingly desperate attempt to grab publicity by an ultra-rightwing fanatic religious group in the US that can't understand why nobody listens to them.   If Westboro Baptists weren't so crazy one would almost think that they were secretly being funded by Atheists or the Illuminati, just to make Christian Fundamentalists look like a bunch of raving loonies.  Fortunately, no shadowy organizations have to waste a penny to fake such a thing, because the genuine fundy nutcases do a so much more authentic job of looking crazy all by themselves.

Funny How Syrian chemical attacks stopped

Isn't it strange that there have been no more chemical weapons attacks in Syria.  That is highly mysterious, because Republican apologists for Assad absolutely insisted that it was the rebels who carried out the attack on their own people to draw in Western support.  See Republicans in the US were terrified that Obama would pull a "George Bush" and bomb Syria, thus gaining a boost in wartime popularity.  They couldn't allow that.  The freepers and  tea party loonies even did their usual mouth frothing about how Obama staged the whole thing.  But if the rebels or Obama had staged chemical attacks in Syria then why did they stop all of a sudden when Obama finally put his foot down and told Assad, "Do it again and I will personally F**k you up".  Once Obama said that, Assad aggreed to turn over his stockpile and "miraculously" there have been no more chemical weapons attacks for the Republicans, or the Russians for that matter, to try to blame on the rebels or Obama. But you would think, if the rebels or Obama had been staging these that the attacks would have continued.  Then they would have said, "look you can't trust Assad.  He's still committing genocide, and the West needs to intervene."  That didn't happen because the rebels and/or Obama were never behind the numerous chemical weapons attacks that were correctly blamed on the Assad regime.  That's called using your brain, and political/religious fanatics should try it once in a while.

Supreme Court to Hear Hobby Lobby Religious Lunacy

The Supreme Court has announced that they will hear the case of Hobby Lobby, which argues that they should have the constitutional "right" to impose their religious beliefs of their employees, by denying them medical coverage, on things like contraception, even if insurers offer it at no additional cost.  By their argument, a company run by a Jehovah's Witness should be able to tell employees that they cannot get blood transfusions.  A company run by Scientologists should be able to tell employees that they can't get psychological counselling.  Does the Supreme Court really want to do something this supremely stup!d and open the door to this boundless kind of superstitious lunacy?  We can only hope that a sane majority prevails on the court, despite the presence of some complete religious nutjobs like Thomas, Scalia, and Alito.

Obama Responsible for Broken Condoms

In a typical piece of broken logic, right-wing cartoonist A.F. Branco has decided that Obama is responsible for broken condoms everywhere.  That's right, in a recent cartoon that apparently is supposed to be "funny" if you're a republican, he actually tries to blame Obamacare for a guy getting an STD on the grounds that all the free birth control is going to make women sleep around more, and therefore contract more STDs.  Of course, if the guys were using condoms in the first place then these women wouldn't be getting STDs or be able to pass it on to men if they did have them.  But let's forget medical science, because it clearly has a "liberal bias". Clearly, Obama must be using the NSA to sabotage condom factories, so that more condoms will break, creating more STDs, so that more people will want to enroll in Obamacare.  Only, the cartoon has already anticipated that, because it complains that the healthcare.gov website doesn't work.  So it is also Obama's fault that this guy has never had government subsidized healthcare, which republicans fought against tooth and nail, but now he needs.  I seem to recall Mitt Romney trying to argue that you can't wait until your house burns down to buy fire insurance.  When even Mitt Romney makes more sense than the current batch of republicans then you know that their political philosophy is in trouble.

By the way, Mr. Branco also complains that the healthcare.gov website is not working, but then how did these women in his cartoon get their free birth control.  Furthermore, why are they complaining about not being able to get on the website when they opposed any kind of government healthcare in the first place.  If you work at a job that already provides healthcare, or if you make more than four times the poverty limit then you can't even qualify for this government healthcare.  So if republicans weren't all a bunch of trailer trash losers, and had real jobs then they wouldn't be worried about buying health care on the exchanges.  If republicans really were rich, as opposed to just always voting to give tax breaks to the rich and ship their own jobs overseas, then they would also be able to afford healthcare themselves without going to any federal website to buy it.

Historic Iranian Deal...with the Devil

A short-term deal, brokered by the US and UN, with the Iranian government over their nuclear program has been announced.  This marks the first time in over 30 years, that the US and the Iranian government have successfully engaged in formal diplomatic relations of any substance, and decreases the likelihood of an eminent military showdown.

Of course, a lot depends on whether Iran will be serious about complying. The usual complement of rightwing, chickenhawk, blowhards lined up instantly to condemn the deal before they had even read it, insisting that Iran can't be trusted, no matter what.  Similarly, even more rightwing theocratic blowhards in the Iranian legislature are similarly skeptical about a deal with the "Great Satan".  And, of course, nutty Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, immediately said he wouldn't recognize the agreement.  No kidding, considered that you weren't invited to the negotiations nor asked to sign it.  It seems that religious extremists in the US, Israel, and Iran all prefer conflict to diplomatic solutions, and seem to have vested interests in keeping their little holy wars going.

Student Body Prez at Northwest Christian U Is An Atheist

The Student Body President, Eric Fromm, at Northwestern Christian University admitted in the student newspaper that he is an atheist and has been one for a long time.  Predictably, some of his fellow students have complained, but so far, the school has not forced him to resign his position or to disenroll.  Certainly there are some "christian" universities that would run him out on a rail.  The school leadership doesn't sound happy either, but are expressing a grudging tolerance with condescending remarks like, "If we all had our wishes, we wish Eric would be a strong Christian man". 

Interestingly, Fromm indicates that he has found some support on campus, and that there may be a few closeted atheists like himself on the campus.  I suspect that, in actuality, there are huge numbers of people who don't believe in God, but realize that it is more advantageous to pretend.

In fact, I propose that many rational atheists are living a modified version of  Pascal's Wager, that I will dub Aaron's Wager. In my version, it is a safer bet, if you truly don't believe in God, to pretend publically that you believe at least superficially, because of the advantages that religiosity confers.  There is little or nothing to be gained from a rational Game Theory perspective, by professing your true atheistic views, by and large, unless you are trying to write a book like Richard Dawkins.  But for every Richard Dawkins, there are a ten thousand people who might think like him, but pretend to be religious anyway, because, for them it confers more advantages.  I would venture to say that many televangelists are actually atheists, but, if they admitted that, they would have to get a real job.  Instead, they can live on easy street, exploiting the gullible.  And is it really such a big deal to pretend to believe something that you know is nonsense.  You know what you actually think.  But it makes believers happy for you to pretend that you are one of them.  All kinds of people pretend to be religious in order to keep peace in the family.  And if you actually admitted your beliefs, all it would do is upset people for no reason.  You would not change any minds by admitting your views.  If there really is no afterlife then atheists still benefit more by pretending to be religious, and enjoying the benefits in this one and only physical world. 

HappyWeen Movement: a call to embrace the positive side of Halloween

I realize that Fall can be a gloomy time of year, with winter just around the corner.  Perhaps that is why many traditional cultures reflected on death and sorrow at this time of year, in events like Samhain (pronounced sow-ween--it's Gaelic), or Dia de los Muertos.  Yet even those festivals were not a time to give in to despair, but rather, a time to find new hope for the living while honoring the memory of those no longer here.

It is with that in mind that I say, I would prefer to emphasize and embrace the happier, more positive side of Halloween, where people do not transform themselves into scary, demonic looking beings, but rather transform into radiant, heroic, better versions of themselves. Halloween can be a time where we shed our limitations and aspire to more, instead of gazing into the pit of impending demise and forsaking hope.  I choose not to live my life with the dread of death circling my head like a bird of carrion.  I choose to be a happy person in general, and even at a dark time of year with winter nipping at our heels, I make my own sunlight.  Therefore, I recommend that people look for ways to be more positive this Halloween and choose not to consume the gloom.  Tell those around you that you would rather celebrate the life and vitality that you still have, precisely because it will not last forever.

Sarah Palin Sponsored Tea Party Nut Steve Lonegan Loses Senate Race to Corey Booker

Sarah Palin tried to jump into the New Jersey senate race recently and told Corey Booker "not to measure the drapes just yet", because she was going to help tea party nutjob Steve Lonegan pull a come from behind victory.  As usual, Sarah's false prophecy has failed to materialize, since Booker beat her pants off last night. Of course, crazy Steve had his own false prophecy that he had a plan to single-handedly defeat Obamacare and that "Obama would fold" in the government shutdown.  How's that working out for you, Steve?

Antichrist Paul Ryan Fails To Save Republicans From Shutdown Fiasco

Yet again we were told that Antichrist Paul Ryan was going to save Republicans by working some kind of deal with Obama that would avoid ignominious defeat for the GOP in their latest budget showdown.   Yet today the GOP, with their tail between their legs, accepted defeat and voted to reopen government, admitting that the whole shutdown had been for nothing.  I guess Paul Ryan is used to defeat at the hands of Obama, however.  Some antichrist he's turning out to be.  One would think that he could have at least worked a little voodoo magic on Obama or something.  I guess he primarily specializes in Voodoo economics though, not voodoo in general.

Mall Seige Continues. I hope Kenyan Army Kicks Somalian Rump

I can't believe that this military seige at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi is still going on.  It is great that some of the hostages have been rescued.
I hope that the Kenyan Army goes back into Somalia and kicks some major a$$ this time.  That is always the deal that should be made with arrogant terrorist extremists.  These Somalian scumbags claims they performed this attack in "revenge" for previous Kenyan military operations.  I would put them on notice that any action you take will be paid back 100 fold. You can't reason with them.  You can only demonstrate to them that they have no monopoly on the use of violence.  They are not the only people who can figure out how to pull a trigger or a grenade pin.  Perhaps next time they will at least know that the consequences of their actions will be disproportionately punitive against themselves and their backers.

Nairobi Mall Terrorists Need To Be Bombed Flat. No Negotiation.

Everyone says, "we don't negotiate with terrorists", when in fact they do.  Everyone tries to negotiate with terrorists, just like the Kenyan government tried to do with this mass-murdering Muslim mob of Somalian scum-bags who attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi.  If they really didn't negotiate then these "standoffs" would be over in 5 minutes.  They would just bomb the godd*mn mall flat and be done with it.  Of course we want to "save the hostages", but the fact is that these people are probably as good as dead anyway.  The odds that they will be successfully freed is remote at best.  We all know that the government won't let the terrorists get away, just as we know that the terrorists won't let their hostages get away.  There comes a point where you just have to write off some of those losses as unavoidable.

NeoCons Say Syria Was a False Flag But 9/11 Wasn't an Inside Job

It's kind of funny that, after 9-11 right-wingers insisted that anybody who claimed that Bush might have "Let It Happen On Purpose" (LIHOP) or that it had some of the trappings of a False Flag, Inside Job, meant to justify a "War on Terror" were *ABSOLUTELY INSANE*.  Yet within hours of Syria's equivalent of 9/11, where thousands of civilians were killed by chemical weapons, these same right wingers were screaming that this was-- wait for it -- a Setup, a False Flag, an Inside Job committed by the rebels against their own people (probably with help by Obama himself) to justify war with Syria.  Of course, the difference was that Bush did use 9/11 to justify a decade long "War on Terror" involving multiple wars, the passing of the Patriot Act, and the NSA surveillance that we are only learning about now.  Obama, on the other hand, resolved the situation without firing a single shot.  So which one seems more likely to have been the real False Flag....?

Obama Gets Syrian Victory Without Firing A Shot

A lot of dumba$$es are doing their mumble-mouth gloating about how "Obama sure screwed up on Syria...blah, blah, blah", but actually Obama got what was after without firing a shot.  Granted, it is unlikely that they will turn over everything they have, but the reality is that airstrikes probably only would have eliminated a small amount of the Syrian stockpile anyway.  As it is, larger quantities will probably be eliminated now, and any that is held back can always be used as a justification for further action later on, on the grounds that they broke the deal.  So it's really undebatable that Obama managed to come out of this otherwise no-win situation. Plus, he made it look like he actually did something in Syria without having to do much.  The actual implementation can be turned over to the UN, now that the Russians won't c*ckblock it.  In the mean time, he lets both sides of the Syrian conflict, neither one of which is friendly to the US, continue to duke it out and kill each other for us.

John McCain is America's Putin

Rage-aholic John McCain wants to write a column in Pravda dissing Putin.  I didn't know they accepted stick figure crayon drawings as columns.  Perhaps he will draw a picture of Sarah Palin watching Putin from her house in Alaska with an itchy trigger finger.  Boy, we really dodged a bullet when McCain/Palin lost by a landslide against Obama.  In many ways Putin and McCain have the same temperament.  Both are known to fly into rages and lash out at their opponents.  Both are tiny little blowhards who think they are far bigger and tougher than they really are.  Can we say Napoleon complex.  More like Napoleon Dynamite, but if the shoe fits.    Seriously though, what the hell is McCain doing writing to Putin.  If anyone should be writing anything it should be an actual world leader like Obama, not a washed up joke like John McCain.

Putin Your Footin Your Mouth. Vlad makes Obama's Plan Sound Good Again.

Perhaps if Vladimir Putin spelled his name Puttin', as in "Puttin' your Foot in your mouth" then he would be appropriately named.  As it stands, Obama's proposed Syrian intervention was pretty unpopular, but leave it to a guy like Putin to change that with his latest missive about how Americans aren't exceptional and should just look the other way when chemical weapons are used to commit genocide.  The man truly puts the *offensive* in "charm offensive".

And have you ever seen someone so self-consciously in love with himself, BTW?  Given is rather marked lack of diplomatic tact, it seems more than a little inappropriate for him to have such a high opinion of himself. Maybe if the guy spend less time staring the in mirror and more time working on his character then we might believe he cared about anything other than himself.

Furthermore, if he truly cares about preventing further chemical weapons genocide then why did he furnish these to Syria in the first place?  Of course he denies this, but he denied that the attack happened in the first place, or that Assad was responsible.  Now, he suddenly has maps of all the Syrian chemical weapons depots and is volunteering to turn them over.  Gee, I wonder how he got such precise information.  Maybe he saved the delivery receipts from when he shipped them to Assad.

I have to re-iterate this, so that people are sure to get it.  The Russians denied that chemical weapons were being used at all.  But it turns out they knew that was a lie.  They knew there were tons of chemical weapons all over the place in Syria.  And they knew exactly where to find them.  How else would they have been able to pledge to turn them over so quickly?  And why truly believes that they will turn over the really good stuff that they probably have in reserve.  They need that for survival, so what are the chances that Assad will give away that last ace up his sleeve?  

Oh, and if the rebels are the ones who are using the chemical weapons it sure is curious that none of Assad's soldiers have been killed by them.  What a lucky coincidence.  Syrian civilians haven't been so lucky.

War Criminal Vladimir Putin Says US Not Exceptional, Shouldn't Attack Syria

A man like Vladimir Putin who conducted brutal and illegal wars in Chechnya and Georgia now wants us to believe that he stands for "international law".  A man who ordered the poisoning of his own former FSB agent with radioactive Polonium 210, and the person who almost certainly supplied chemical weapons to Syria in the first place, now wants us to believe that he cares about these weapons not being used on civilians.  According to Alexander Litvinenko, the man Putin had killed, the Russia Apartment Bombings were orchestrated to bring Putin back to power. Yet, now he tells us that attacking Syria could unleash more terrorism.

But what really isn't believable is that Putin invokes an alleged belief in God, yeah right, and says that's why we are all created equal, in response to "American Exceptionalism".  Of course, Obama didn't say that Americans were created better than anyone else, but that we are different because of the choices we make, like when we intervene to stop genocide in Libya, or chemical genocide in Syria.

Hypocritical Opponents of Syria Strike Complicit In Genocide, Appeasement, and War Crimes

Newt Gingrinch, a man famous for his utter disconnection from reality, has predictably and hypocritically expressed his cowardly opposition to punishing genocidal maniac Bashar Assad, and holding him accountable for his multiple uses of chemical weapons against civilians that have causes thousands of deaths. This is tantamount endorsing his activities and will certain encourage him to redouble his genocidal efforts. Almost as if they were on ASSAD'S PAYROLL, or at least getting CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS, Republicans have almost universally lined up to endorse ASSAD'S war-crimes and thrown in with VLADIMIR PUTIN and IRAN in opposition to Syrian intervention, all because they hate Obama.  They hate Obama so much that they are willing to betray our national interests in order to score a political cheap shot.  It is clearly in the US national interest to knock Syria and their Iran Hezbollah stooges in the dirt.  The fact that Iran and Russia are Syria's biggest allies and are completely opposed to intervention is sufficient proof that the present Syrian regime needs to be toppled.  If Romney were president then they would be whole-throatedly screaming for an full-scale ground invasion.  But Romney got his a$$ kicked in the last election and Republican prostituted their souls to the highest bidder, who appears to be the Syrian despot. Even more ironically and hypocritically, Gingrich has previously been a cheerleader of attacking "islamofascism" where ever it could found, and if Assad and his Iranian Hezbollah buddies aren't Islamofascists then nobody is.

Their aid and comfort to the enemy Assad regime not only sells out our national security, but it stands in stark contrast to their knee jerk endorsement of reckless military adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Man they couldn't get enough of ill-conceived military operations when Bush Jr was in the Whitehouse, and "the evidence was fixed around the policy" to achieve it, as the Downing Street memo famously noted. Now the little cowards are hiding behind Rand Paul's toupee saying lets give peace with a genocidal maniac a chance. As suddenly as they discovered "fiscal responsibility" after a decade long spending and tax-cut for the wealthy bender, they have likewise discovered isolationism and appeasement, despite their recent "kick their a$$ and take their ga$" cowboy foreign policy.  Of course, one of the major differences here is that Syria doesn't have massive oil reserves like Iraq did.  So they don't care to intervene.  It was the same reason that they coddled and appeased Libyan despot Mohamar Qaddafi under the Bush regime as well.  It fell to Obama to depose Qaddafi, and Republicans were so angry at the demise of their cash-cow dictator friend that they initiated the laughable Benghazi Witchhunt that persists to this day.  Recall that Qaddafi threatened genocide against the people of Benghazi, which is why we intervened, despite vehement and vociferous Republican objections.  If Republicans had their way then Benghazi would have just been the site of another major massacre of civilians, rather than the name they give to made up scandal because a few militants succeeded in killing our ambassador in the chaos of post-liberation.

Hopefully, Obama will take military action against Syria anyway, in spite of the small-minded, and utterly incompetent political games of "gotcha" politics that Republicans are attempting to play. Not punishing Assad is equivalent to telling him "keep up the good work" of murdering your countrymen.  If we don't stand against the use of chemical weapons in Syria then we can expect that, soon enough, emboldened Islamists like Assad's Hezbollah allies will attempt to unleash them on US soil.  With the anniversary of September 11th drawing near it is truly disheartening to see a betrayal of that memory on the part of Gingrich and the Teabagger extremists he represents.

Ariel Castro Kills Himself, Doing World a Favor

Ohio kidnapper and sexual predator Ariel Castro, who held three women captive for over a decade in his house, apparently hanged himself in his prison cell.  One person in Castro's family wondered if his victims, would "be glad or angry at Castro's death".  Duh.  Of course they will be happy.  Even the members of his own family all cut their ties with him and planned to never visit him in prison.  How is this situation any different, except that it spares the state and everyone else the burden of taking care of him.  Castro actually did a favor to his victims and the world in general by removing himself from it.  The only thing left to say is...you're welcome.

Idiotic Zombie Survivalism Needs to Die

Selling a moronic idea like Doomsday Prepping has never been easy.  Therefore, fictional surrogates like "zombies" have recently been "brought back from the dead" as a plot device to justify this kind of nonsense on a stealth level.  Thus we get movies like World War Z, where ironically enough, we can't tell if Brad Pitt is the zombie or the human.  

I think that this motif has become popular precisely because it appeals to people who know that they cannot possibly justify their incoherent and irrational fears in the real world.  Therefore, it becomes appealing to political and religious extremists who are increasingly out of touch with reality.  Naturally, religious extremists will not officially endorse the genre, but they can still support it on some level, because they believe in a version of apocalyptic thinking.  They simply adopt a different version of the apocalypse that is decidedly more low-tech and bloody. 

Likewise, the tea party and their assorted kooky, conspiratorial brethren are so out of touch with the real world that they cannot possibly justify their beliefs in the light of day.  But perhaps they can still escape to the fantasy of menace like "zombies" as a surrogate for "communists" or more generally the "liberal bogeyman" par excellence.  Their defeat in recent elections, and their more general loss of control in society seems to motivate them to fantasize about a world simple enough for them to understand and where every problem really can be solved just by pulling a trigger. In that world you really do need guns 24/7 bristling from every orifice.  

Of course this is not the real world.  It's so far from it that, even on a fictional level, this story line needs to be entombed again, perhaps to be resurrected again a few decades later by some other group that feels beseiged by the cruel realities of life.  

Hannah Montana aka Twerking Girl always had a stripper name anyway

Obviously a lot of people are slow on the uptake when it comes to Justin Beaver, I mean Hannah Montana, I mean Miley Gyrus, the hardest twerking girl in show business.  Even when Miley was hiding behind her corporate-crafted "Hannah Montana" brand, some of us weren't fooled by her faux innocence.  We knew that Montana and Dakota were the two most common names for strippers. If Miley were not the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus then she probably would be working in a strip club and her name would be Hannah "the Banana" Montana.  And she would probably have to do more than wear flesh-colored short-shorts to make a living.

Now I will be the first to admit that I found vile Miley's performance a bit disturbing, mainly because of her bizarre reptilian tongue and the silly little devil horn hairdo.  But it was a PERFORMANCE for an equally disturbing, ridiculously bad song by Robin Gaye, I mean Marvin Thicke, I mean Robin Thicke ripping off Marvin Gaye. Not that Marvin Gaye's musical compositions were any great masterpiece of subtlety either. Both men seem to have tapped into the same well-spring nympho-maniacal mediocrity.  

In any event Miley has been burnishing her skank credentials for some time, posing topless here, leaking pictures there, and generally spreading herself around more a tub of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter".  We can only imagine the "hot mess" that will assuredly follow, within the next year or two.  She even has the same manager as Brittany Spears.  I think I've seen this reality TV show before and I'm changing the channel.  

Muslim Terrorist and Traitor Nidal Hassan Gets Well-Deserved Death Sentence

Human piece of excrement Nidal Hassan, a muslim extremist coward, who attacked and killed fellow service members at Fort Hood in 2009, has finally been sentenced to DEATH .  He already sentenced 13 others to death due to his murderous rampage, so it is truly a shame that we can only him once.  However, in true religious extremist fashion, he insists that his execution will bring about "martyrdom".  Perhaps he dies a martyr to the cause of being a treasonous, back-stabbing, nutjob, but I would hope that even many Muslims wouldn't want to be associated with that cause.  I just hope that they will execute him by firing squad, and the sooner, the better.

Pope Frankie Forgets Who He Is. Asks Other "Who Am I...."

Don't get me wrong.  The current Pope Francis is clearly better than the pompous little peacock otherwise known as Pope Benedict XVI.  Pope Frankie is actually embarrassed by all the pageantry and aristocratic silliness of the Papal office.  For example, not many people remember that, before the "Popemobile", the pope was carried on a cushion seat with poles and 12 people acting as human horses.  In that sense Pope Frank may be OK.
But when he tries to spin the church's position on homosexuality by saying, "Who am I to judge..." one is tempted to ask, did Pope Frankie really just forget who he was right now or what?  Either he forgot his name tag at home or he thinks the rest of us are dumb enough to buy this transparent dodge.  Clearly the Catholic Church judges homosexuals, and as his leader is the the Judger-in-Chief.  So don't give us that B.S. line about not judging them, especially when you go on, in the same interview to talk about it being a sin, and how they need to be forgiven for being born to be attracted to the same sex, just like straight people are born to be attracted to the opposite sex.  All the rest of his sideshow of carrying his own luggage and being a man of the people can't distract from 1600 year record of the Church being very judgmental indeed.
Who am I to judge...yeah right and I bet the check's in the mail too and I won't cum in your mouth....

Texas women using $2 miscarriage pill to get around new anti-abortion laws

Anti-abortion theocrats have passed new copycat laws anti-abortion laws in Texas designed to restrict womens' access to abortions.  As critics have pointed out, this will not stop women from seeking to end unwanted pregnancies.  Instead, they will probably use a pill that is available in Mexico and Latin America for about $2 called cytotec or "star pills".  Its technical name is misoprostol, and it's usually used in combination with mifeprestone, which together is commonly known as RU486.  By itself Cytotec is only 30% effective at inducing abortions, but it is cheap and easily available.  More importantly, it can be used to make it look like a miscarriage took place, in which case the woman can go to the emergency room and get taken care of, most likely on the taxpayer's dime.  It's popular in Latin America where abortion is largely illegal due to sharia-style restrictions demanded by the Roman Catholic Church.  However, even the RCC can't put every woman in jail who has a miscarriage.  While insurance will not pay for abortions, even under Obamacare, insurance will pay for "miscarriages".  So all Rick Perry and Co have effectively done is forced women to game the system and potentially created even more expense, and more big government than ever before.

Zimmerman Acquitted! Prayer Fails Again. Trayvon no Angel Either.

The Zimmerman trial was a ridiculous farce from start to finish, but news reports finally say the farce is over and that Zimmerman has been acquitted of all charges, including manslaughter.  Every clear-thinking person could see that he never should have been charged with murder of any kind.  Everyone could see that the influences of the media circus, and racial political agendas were distorting and exaggerating a fairly clear cut case of self-defense.  We all knew it was Zimmerman's voice on the 911 call too.  Even Trayvon Martin's mother knew it, but she refused to admit it, because it would require that she accept the obvious fact that her son was the aggressor, and unfortunately ended up paying for his poor decision with his life.

But this case had an even more absurd element, which was the over-the-top, in-your-face, holier-than-thou religious histrionics of Trayvon Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton, "pleading the blood of Jesus" on the witness stand.  She almost certainly does not recognize how self-righteous and phony she comes across, but delusional true-believers seldom are capable of seeing themselves as the rest of the world does.   The facts, of course, speak for themselves.  All her praying and invoking of Jesus could not convince anyone (including herself) that Trayvon was an "angel" or that Zimmerman acted any differently than anyone else would have if someone jumped you in the middle of the night.

I know that, if anyone tried to jump me in the middle of the night, like Trayvon Martin jumped George Zimmerman, and I had a gun that I would have emptied my magazine into that stupid punk before he could take a second swing.  Most of you all would have done the exact same thing, regardless of your skin color.  Trayvon Martin picked the wrong person to attack, thinking that this person couldn't defend himself.  If course he was a teenager, and teenagers don't always make smart decisions, especially when they are rich, spoiled jocks, and pot heads with a history of such things.  Trayvon is hardly the only teenager pay for his poor decision-making skills with his life.  It happens to teens all the time, who think they are invincible until reality suddenly reminds them that they are not.

Of course, we all hope it wouldn't come to that.  Presumably when Trayvon first jumped out and yelled "what's your problem", Zimmerman should have shouted, "I have a gun and I'll defend myself!", followed by drawing it in rapid order.  That too is perfectly legal according to several retired cops that I know.  It is not "brandishing" a firearm, because you are not making an illegal threat when you draw it in self-defense.  It is possible, that, at that stage, pulling the gun would have prevented further escalation.  But it may not have, because some teens, like Trayvon, from the sound of things, probably still would have acted in a menacing manner, and unfortunately for Trayvon, he lived in Florida, the redneck capital of "stand your ground" laws.  It wasn't because of the skittles.  It wasn't because of his hoodie, and it wasn't because of his skin color.  It was because he believed that he could physically assault someone with impunity.  Most of the time such confrontations don't lead to death, but you have to consider the worst case scenario.  It's the same thing that we tell people about road rage.  You never know if the other person might be crazy, or might be armed.  It's just not worth it to find out.  Your best bet is to get away as quickly as possible, get to a public place, and call 911 yourself.  Of course, that's what an adult would do.  Kids usually don't think that way.  Because they think they are invincible, sometimes right up to that moment where they discover they're not.

Proof that John 9 and other blind/deaf Jesus "miracle" cures were frauds

We have all heard the stories of the gospel claiming that Jesus could cure people who were blind or deaf since birth.  But science has yet again demonstrated that these stories are nonsense.  Here is the problem.  Now that we really can fix the problems that cause many people to be born blind or deaf, as in the case of this article in _Scientific American_ about Project Prakesh, we are confirming that a person who is born blind can't just start "seeing" right away and be as good as new, like the blindness never happened.  That is, just causing the "scales to fall away" from one's eyes, as the Bible frequently depicts the cure for blindness, would not result in  a person with functional vision.  Indeed, research reveals that when we do remove the "scales" (or cataracts in actual fact) from some of these Indian children, and allow them to see for the first time, that they lack the ability to make sense of the shapes and colors all around them.  In other words, they have never learned how to see, and the longer they have gone through life without learning how to recognize shapes and patterns, the more difficulty they will have being able to function, if ever, in a normal way.  They have missed a critical period of brain development and learning, and it is a similar phenomena when it comes to hearing.  Indeed, now that we have cochlear implants, we can let adults hear for the first time, when they have been deaf for their whole lives.  However, cochlear implants are generally not indicated for adults who were born deaf, because again, the outcomes are often not good.  Just as with the congenitally blind whose brains have never learned to make sense of visual patterns, the congentially deaf adult has never had an opportunity to learn how to recognize and make sense out of auditory patterns.  As a consequence, even though the cochlear implants allow these individuals to "hear", they often find it difficult to understand the world around them through sound or even to master normal speaking.  They too have missed a critical period of development.

Now, of course, we can invoke yet more miracles and say that, behind the scenes, without telling anyone, Jesus also magically altered the brains of these individuals so that they could instantly learn how to understand the sights and sounds around them. But if Jesus was just going to magically alter people's brains then he wouldn't have needed to do any preaching in the first place.  He could have just magically altered everyone's brain so that they agreed with him.  No, sorry, it doesn't pass the smell test.

What seems more likely is that Jesus never cured anyone of blindness or deafness, especially those born with the condition, since the gospels seem unaware that these secondary difficulties might develop as the result of restored vision or hearing.