Presi-DUH!-nt Know How Make Go-juice

Anybody see the clip of Bush on The Daily Show two nights ago speaking to the Renewable Fuels Association? Ignoring the irony of an oil baron speaking to an alternative fuels consortium, I almost jumped off the couch screaming at the moron as he smirked and then paused to emphasize that gasoline is a product of oil.

Take a moment to let that sink in....

Bush...pointed out to a panel of energy experts...that gasoline...comes from oil.

Well…DUH!!! Does he think that an association of energy experts needs him to clear up that big mystery for them? Does he think anyone in the world with two brain cells to rub together would need that pointed out?? Instead of a real President proposing plans to fix our energy crisis (better still, a President who, along with his best buds, didn't CAUSE the energy crisis), we get a dundering Pretzeldent who thinks time needs to be spent pointing out to energy experts that gas comes from oil. If he thinks that's pertinent information to share with the Renewable Fuels Association, it's no wonder every one of his oil compaines either went tits up or was taken over. In fact, maybe the reason his companies did so poorly is because he's just now figuring this out!

Seriously. It's getting to be too much. It was funny with Dan Quayle. He was harmless and entertaining. "Potatoe". It was funny. We all had a good laugh and nobody died, no sovereign nations were invaded, nobody tortured and killed, and you didn't need to mortgage the house to buy enough gas to get yourself to and from work. It was good to have Quayle around to laugh at. But Bush…Jesus Christ, there are kindergarteners more intelligent and capable of leading than he is. How did he get to where he is? (It's rhetorical...I know it's because of family connections and not because he's qualified...hell, he's not even qualified to wander around in public unattended). Shouldn't he be one of the people lucky just to have survived the winter, not being able to afford the gas bill? Shouldn't he be stranded somewhere in the middle of the Bible Belt because he couldn't afford to fill up the tank and thought a buck-fiddy could get him home? Is anyone else's spine cringing over the fact that Bush is so stupid, and was so proud of knowing that gas comes from oil, that he was giddy with the pleasure of sharing his knowledge on national television?

Right Wing Hijacks Right Wing??

You know what (also) irritates me? When anyone says that Republicans or neocons or right-wing extremists are hi-jacking Christianity, or using it as a cover to push an extremist agenda. No, this isn't going to be a defense of a "pure and good" Christian ideology, taken advantage of by the Right Wing. Christianity -- except in it's most tempered, benign and, thereby, useless form -- is a right-wing extremist agenda! To wit, does James Dobson want women to be able to choose for themselves to have control over their own health? Does Jerry Falwell want equal rights for homosexuals? Does Pat Robertson want all religious views treated with equal weight and validity? Fuck no. Christianity isn't being used or manipulated, it is what it is: a point of view too often left unchecked to be as dangerous and extreme as it pleases, especially when allowed into government institutions.

And why do we treat religious belief with such kid gloves? Why does an intellectually and morally bankrupt psychotic belief get a pass from the reality-based community so long as it's cloaked in the revered robe of "faith"? What's so sacred about faith, anyway? It's just another way of saying, "I don't know what's real and I'm too lazy/stupid to try to overcome my ignorance so I'm going to make some wild-assed shit up, and, by the way, you can't challenge it because, no matter how ludicrous my explanation of things I don't understand, it's 'holy' ". Of course, I'm glossing over the fact that a lot of the wild-assed shit they made up coincidentally allows for the control and manipulation of the masses. How convenient. In any case, shouldn't right-wing Christians all be in either prison or psych wards for the way they treat women, people of color, non-heterosexuals, and those of differing -- and especially no -- religious belief? Speaking of women and ethnic/sexual minorities, how can any of them belong to a group as degrading to them as Christianity? Why would women support a belief structure that demeans and marginalizes them? Take my dad's sister. Please. (Old joke). No, take her for example. She's a militant feminist Christian. I know, right? That's like being a militant black Klansman.

Because secular humanist philosophies engender as much -- arguably more -- compassionate, moral behavior, I think it's time we stopped allowing Christianity and every other self-righteous, bigoted faith a preferential place in society. In fact, if it was up to me, they'd have no place at all.

What's Good for the Goose...

Gospel of Judas unvieled

Already, some scholars are saying that this Gospel sheds new light on the historical relationship between Jesus and Judas. They find strands of secret Jewish mysticism running through the beliefs expressed by some branches of early Christianity.

But others ("mainstream" Christianity?) say the text is merely one more scripture produced by a marginalized Christian cult of Gnostics, who lived so many years after Jesus' day that they could not possibly produce anything accurate about his life.

As opposed to the authors of the cannonized gospels? Let's see...when did the supposed authors of the books of the New Testament live and write? If memory serves, the earliest of the Big 4 was written around 70 CE (and that's generous) which would be a full generation after Jesus' supposed crucifixion. (Or is it crucifiction!) Yes, not ever having met the guy, they clearly produced an accurate account of Jesus' life.

Well, at least they're finally understanding some of the rationale for a fallible Bible. Now, if they'd only apply their new-found grasp of logic to their own traditions.