The Pope on Islam

When asked if he thought that Islam was a religion of peace, Pope Benedict XVI said, "I wouldn’t want to label (it),” he said. “Certainly there are elements that favor peace. It also has other elements."

If he thinks that this applies only to Islam, then he's forgotten about Eric Rudolph, the protestors at Matthew Shepard's funeral and a plethora of violence and hate perpetrated by Christians daily in the name of their religion.

Bill Frist puts Bill Frist First

The headline said: Frist Breaks With Bush on Stem-Cell Bill. What it should have said is: Frist Running for President in 2008. This is an obvious attempt to repair some of the damage he did to his medical credibility in the Terry Schiavo case. What an opportunistic, transparent little man he is turning out to be.

Bush's Supreme Court Nomination

Republican cry babies, stop your whining. What's happening now with Roberts's nomination is exactly what's supposed to happen in a two-party system. Would you be doing anything differently if it were a Democratic president making a Supreme Court nomination?

Double Super-Secret Background

For a good laugh check out Mark Fiore's cartoon on CBS News.

Don't fire Karl Rove...

I think that the Left is making a mistake demanding the firing of Rove. I believe that there needs to be an investigation and if anything comes out of it, then a prosecution. Let the facts speak for themselves.

Karl Rove, meet Ken Starr...please.

I never thought that I would be nostalgic for Ken Starr, but I think that we need a bit of his pit-bull style right now. Were Whitewater, Travelgate and Monica more important than leaking secret information?

When will a crime not be a crime?

"If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration," Bush told reporters today.

I predict that there will much parsing of words over what a crime is.

Mr. Dirty Tricks

When you're known for your dirty tricks it's kind of hard to look innocent when one is played. Things do have a way of coming back around and biting you on the butt. I'm just surprised it took so long.

Pig Sperm in Space

Do we really understand all the ramifications of unleashing pig sperm into space? First off, if ETs find and analyze it, it will confirm all their ideas about what kind of being would screw up such a lovely planet.

Friday, July 15, 2005 from Cohutta

Karl Rove really doesn't have to worry about his job. Despite what Bush said about firing anyone on his staff found guilty of leaking information, firing Rove would be like a dummy firing one of his ventriloquists.

Thursday, July 7, 2005 from Cohutta

The world grieves with England and the desire to stop terrorism grows, but it won't be done by hunting down the terrorists as we're told by Bush. Until we find solutions to the problems that cause terrorism we'll constantly be searching for them after the fact.

CHRISTIANITY: A KINDER, GENTLER TERRORISM

My apologies to the Christians who seem to be able to practice their faith without thinking that everybody needs to join them. However, increasingly, I read things written by Christians that state that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus, which effectively says that the 4.6 trillion (over 67%) people in the world who aren’t Christians are going to hell.

Is terrorism too strong a word? I would venture to guess that one could find some Christians willing to fly a plane into the Ka’Bah, but in a much less spectacular, though hardly more subtle way, they’re trying to take over the USA politically. While claiming to be victims they see themselves as the only ones deserving of the blessings of our Constitution.

Publicly, they espouse family values, yet their divorce rate is significantly higher than atheists or agnostics.

They organize to prevent counties from ending their dry status, but it makes me wonder who, with a Christian population of more than 80%, is doing all the drinking?

I see GOD IS MY COPILOT bumper stickers and wonder why the diety’s license hasn’t been pulled.

While opposing abortion , they abhor public assistance. They say they don’t judge but are perfectly willing to censor whatever they find offensive.

I wouldn’t care what they believe in if they would just practice their faith without trying to jam it down everyone’s throat. What makes it even harder to abide is that many of the Christians that I see don’t really follow the teachings of their prophet, the Son of God, only what’s convenient for them.

The Christian faith as practiced by the many in this country has become the Church of the Holy Bulldozer and I continue to say my only prayer: Jesus, protect me from your followers.

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 from Cohutta

As far as I'm concerned, religion has hijacked marriage and, more specifically, gay marriage. Let religion oppose homosexuality and gay marriage. Religions are voluntary institutions that people may be a part of or not. Being a citizen of the country in which you live is quite another thing. Local, state and federal govenrments have the duty to provide all their citiizens with equal opportunites to be a part of the community with all the legal rights afforded to all others. If the church does or does not want to do that , it doesn't have to matter. I, for one. don't give a damn. What I do give a damn about is the superstitious religious that has as their agenda the ability to influence and lay down the laws for secular society. Whether it be Afghanistan, Iraq or the USA, put those folks in a sack, shake up and up and dump them out and they'd all be the same.

A Song for America: The Times They Are A-Changing

A Song for America: The Times They Are A-Changing
Originally uploaded by amiko.

On Independence Day, here is a song for America. It was true then and I hope that it’s still true today.


Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.


The Times They Are A-Changing
by Bob Dylan

I always thought that Bob Dylan sang the definitive version of this, but at the end of the HBO movie, The Josephine Baker Story, Lynn Whitfield sings a version of it that I found extremely moving

Sunday, July 3, 2005 from Cohutta

Can someone please tell me what difference it makes if Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of the students involved in the hostage taking in 1979? We already know that they didn't like us then and they don't like us now. The State Department now says that the student in the picture is not Ahmadinejad. What would or could we do if it were him? He's their president, not ours.

Saturday, July 2, 2005 from Cohutta

Bush is a lot like King Kong, except that whenever he senses that someone's after him politically he climbs the World Trade Center.

Friday, July 1, 2005 from Cohutta

Evil racism is alive and well right here in the USA. Let's focus on that instead of Mexican postage stamps.