Hagee, Hitler, Hilarity!

So McCain just rejected the endorsement of Hagee. Nice. A bit late, but still - nice. Of course, McCain spent a LOT of time and energy courting his endorsement, but whatever.

Still, I have to say Hagee was using religious logic at its best.

Here, let's look at the quote, shall we?

"Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun, and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. ... How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.'"

Alrighty.

So here's the thing - taken out of context, we could look and say "GOD WANTED HITLER TO KILL JEWS!". We all know, theists or not, that this is a crappy thing to say. Period.

But that's NOT what he was saying! He was saying something that Jews in Israel have been saying for 60 years now! Of course, it's generally phrased a bit differently - but it's still said. Usually, it goes along the lines of "well, if it wasn't for Hitler it would have been a lot harder to buy a house in this little slice of land surrounded on 3 sides by illiterate assholes who want to kill us because we like bagels and lox".

One of the things that's striking here is that Hagee was speaking out of religious logic. He was following, exactly, the teachings of his religion without tempering them with current-day logic (sorta - bear with me here). I am kind of glad he did, because anyone who looks at the quote who is religious will sort of say to him / herself "well GOLLY, the logic is sound but holy cow that guy is a jerk and what a crappy thing for a god to do!" Maybe things like this, where the really religious leaders of the country put their brand of logic on widespread display, will actually help more people to learn how to reject the cognitive dissonance of dogma.

Doubt it, actually - but it's nice to think about.

87th Skeptic's Circle

The 87th Skeptics Circle has been posted - this edition's title is "dirty limericks". The title alone should be enough reason to read whatever's posted.

VP Ticket and other thoughts:

So, it seems to be pretty much confirmed - Obama v McCain. What's not confirmed is the VP ticket on either side.

It seems to me, having watched a few hours of TV on Sunday and last night, that the GOP is trotting out Huckabee an awful lot lately. Pundits keep asking him about being a VP candidate, and he's sucking up very, very hard. He talks about how he thinks McCain was clearly the best choice (behind himself, of course) and thinks he's the best thing to happen to the country since sliced whatever.

And here's the thing about Huckabee- he's really likeable. I mean, I look at most of his politics and I think "schmuck". I hear about his religious stances in direct opposition to science development and I think "ignorant ape". But then I watch him talk on a show with ease and a genuine smile on his face and think "dude's okay."

Scary. He's nailed the "I'm so likeable" down to a T - and it might just be that he IS that likeable and the person you see is what you get. It wouldn't surprise me that much... but the problem here is that policy-wise (with the exception, imho, of his tax plan) the dude is just about exactly the same as Bush/McCain.

Still, he'd be an excellent VP choice for McCain, politically speaking. He'd definitely bring the evangelical vote back in a strong way... Couple that with the storm brewing (conveniently timed, eh?) over gay marriage, and you have a much more powerful GOP ticket than before.

I believe very strongly that gay marriage cost the election for the Democrats in 2004 (well, that and running one of the least dynamic candidates and campaigns ever). The church flocks showed up in force at the polls in Ohio and other swing states energized largely by the desperation to keep men from marrying other men (because, as we all know, as soon as that happens it'll somehow be the end of marriage or something like that whatever moving on), and while they were there OF COURSE they would vote for Bush. I am very nervous about this fall - while I believe that gay marriage IS an important issue (I believe in giving ANY consenting adults the right to divorce if they want to, and marriage is a step in the right direction), I think that it is a risky proposal.

People get VERY charged up about sex... I don't necessarily get it, personally - I mean, sex is awesome, don't get me wrong. It's great and whatever, but come ON people. How the hell does it affect YOU when Johnny's slurping Jimmy's pole? And what the hell do you care if while doing that, they're getting a tax break? Are you somehow afraid that by allowing them to be called married that you're legitimizing homosexuals? OH GOD NO ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!!

Whoops - where was I? Oh, right. My prediction for VP tickets is as follows:

McCain / Huckabee
Obama / AnyoneNotNamedClinton

I think, very strongly, that Obama will avoid Hillary at ALL costs. I don't think she'll fight that, either. It's likely that once we're past the primary, she's going to be getting a nice talking-to from ThePowersThatBe about the fact that the Clintons no longer hold any real power in the party, and that if she doesn't get on with the program, she'll be dropped entirely from the supporting embrace of the party. (well, maybe it won't be that strong but it'll likely be ugly for the Clinton legacy)

I have a feeling that Obama will go for someone with executive experience, minority appeal, and more of a centrist stance on politics. I can think of a few possibilities, but Bill Richardson seems to stick out in my head. Being of Hispanic descent, he nails one of the major demographics the Democrats are dying to hold onto (and risk alienating by running a black candidate, despite what the PC pollsters / spin artists are saying - there is a rift there). Richardson also calms the people down who talk about experience in an executive capacity - he's got that in droves and would likely be a good influence in moderation to Obama's ticket. He's got that "gravitas" thing everyone was so keen on in 2000, as well.

This is going to be interesting, as far as these races can go. There are a lot of factors at play which historically haven't combined in quite this way before. Questions of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and policy are interacting and blazing some cool trails. I'm pretty much glued to this ride. Should be fun from here out, I think.

In which Green jumps the shark:

Still, I can't help but support this.
Get it? SUPPORT?

I kill me.

Oh, I think I get it now.

In a move which no doubt prevented dozens of people from being offended by a cartoon or 3, a Dutch police force arrested a cartoonist on the suspicion of violating hate speech laws.

Well, I feel safer already.

"We suspect him of insulting people on the basis of their race or belief, and possibly also of inciting hate," she said.

Each is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison under Dutch hate speech laws — or two years for multiple offenses.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Holy cow, people! Why are we so scared of offending people? It's not like we're in 4th grade, where offended people might riot in the streets and kill bystanders....

oh.
Never mind.

The old days...

So.... my stepmother sent out an email today basically extolling the virtues of the good ol' days, right. This is normal - everyone has a relative that does it.

Here's a snippet or two:

"And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkeys lived in trees,
Madonna was a virgin in the Land That Made Me Me."

"And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free,"


Yeah. ah the halcyon days of ignorance, sexism, and institutionalized repression and oppression. how i miss those days... when uppity women could be silenced by a quick operation scrambling their frontal lobes, and priests could molest children undisturbed.... You know, the good ol' days where polio was polio and men were men. When cancers went untreated and schools could beat their kids. When lead paint was tastier and we could get killed simply for kissing someone with a slightly different amount of melanin in their skin....

Yeah, I miss those days.

Trust me, this won't hurt a bit!

So, the question is - do YOU trust the police to tell the truth when obtaining warrants? Personally, I'd say no. Of course, the police would likely disagree with me - but they sure do seem to be the ones who, in Atlanta, shot and killed a 92 year old woman in her own home on a drug search utilizing a warrant which was apparently obtained by committing a lie under oath.

So here you go- just in case you didn't feel kinda... oogy... about it before, read this quote from the article linked above:

But it wasn't just lies to get the warrant to search Kathryn Johnston's home that made Junnier uneasy, he said. He had an inkling something was wrong when he and Officer Jason R. Smith were leading the narcotics team to the front door. He said the northwest Atlanta house differed from the informant's description.

"I said, 'Man, this doesn't look right,' and he said, 'I know,' " Junnier testified. " 'I said what do you want to do.' He said, 'Hit it.'"

A minute later, Johnston was lying on her floor, dying.

FUN!

Of course, these things are isolated incidents,
right? Right?

Gotta love the war on drugs!

(special thanks to this post at Reason mag for getting my attention. For more information on the "isolated incidents", go to their site search box and type in Isolated Incidents. Prepare to be disgusted / horrified.)

New carnival up!

A new "Carnival of the Godless" is up over at State of Protest.

Guess what?

I'M LINKED!
w00t!

Alrighty then, enough geeking out. If you're new here, stick around and do some reading and maybe even subscribe (there's a big button over to your right). I promise I don't suck at this blogging thing... at least, not too much.

Thanks for checking out endcycle!

You know what?

I really hate it when bloggers post a blog like this:

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of posts. I'm really busy and am swamped by all sorts of things. Really, it's bad. There are TPS forms to fill out, documents to proof, programs to write, buckets to fill, poop to deposit, yadda yadda. I'll be back soon with some good posts for you, I promise.

HATE IT.
Still, I'm sorry about the lack of posts. I'm really busy and swamped by all sorts of things. Really, it's bad. I have schoolwork killing me, work breathing down my neck (they want me to submit an IT column for the company newsletter - SURE GUY!), etc etc. I'll be back soon with some good posts for you, I promise.

Seriously, Texas.... wtf?

UPDATED: Please read at the bottom for updates. Thanks to the commenting readers who set me straight.

In a bold move of flat-out idiocy, the Texas Attorney General declared that the people working on needle-exchange programs can be prosecuted and jailed for possession of drug paraphernalia. No kidding.

So, let's see if I get this straight - this guy is allowing prosecution of an outreach program that helps to stem the growth of AIDS and other IV-transmitted diseases in an effort to fight the war on drugs. Right? Right.

Sorta.

See, what's going on here is that the legislature allowed this to happen, and the attorney general is just interpreting the law by its letter. It seems they'll allow it to go all the way to court just to get a better interpretation. They are prosecuting three volunteers from a needle-exchange program just to get through this.

These three citizens are only trying to help people - and they're being made examples of. The prosecution even has the ability to choose NOT to prosecute- and they're prosecuting anyway.

At some point, will someone PLEASE stand up and say something along the lines of "hey guys, could we maybe, you know, stop being complete douchebags about this war on drugs stuff? Maybe we could spend better money, you know, treating this as a medical issue and actually helping addictions instead of blowing our money on the prosecution of, say, people trying to stem the spread of HIV and such. I'm just saying, y'know?"

Of course, we all know that's not happening.

The safety-moms will freak out and kill any politician who even hints at being soft on drugs, because OHMYGOD if the crack is legal my Johnny ain't smart 'nuff to avoid smokin' it!!


Argh.


UPDATE:
First, there's an excellent writeup of the actual details here by someone who knows what they're talking about a bit better than I do. Special thanks to Tracey in the comments for pointing me there, and to Anonymous (also in comments) for further explaining the situation.

Esentially, the prosecutors are being complete jerks. That's what it boils down to.

Ben Stein peeing on people.

For quite a while now, Pharyngula has located itself right up near the top of my "omg favorite blogs ever" list. His work is hilarious at times, dead serious at others, and almost always just exactly and completely right. He also has managed to royally piss off a lot of creationist nutjobs - and that, honestly, makes me happy. Provoking those people - with LOGIC - is ridiculously fun.

That said, I also have to say this:
Ben Stein a moron. He's a useless piece of garbage. Sure, he was funny in one of the best movies of all time, and he did do a wonderful job on "win ben stein's money", but MAN did he go off the deep-end with this movie called "expelled". In interviews, he's been quoted as follows:

When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers, talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed.

Hey, Ben - does this mean that your relatives weren't ever, oh, vaccinated? How about seeing a doctor? What about taking Visine, since you know, its formula was developed using science? OH GOD YOU'RE PUTTING NAZI DROPS IN YOUR EYES OH GOD NO!!

To read more from him, go HERE and read the Friendly Atheists post on "scientists are murderers". Try hard to not cringe. If you want to have even MORE fun, follow the links on that page to find the actual video. Watch it. Cringe a lot.

SO anyway, the reason I love Pharyngula so much is this little quote, from a very recent post on Pharyngula:

When I see those Visine commercials and hear Stein droning about "get the red out," I picture Ben Stein sliding a cold razor across the eyes of a screaming victim, and then urinating in their face to wash the blood away. I can't help it. It's a natural connection to make, obviously.

Yeah, I like that image.