The root of Republican insanity

On his excellent blog, Ed Brayton quotes Conor Friedersdorf, whom he describes as "one of the smartest conservatives (real conservative, not just an anti-liberal)". Here is Friedersdorf's quote. I'll have something to add at the end:

“Republicans can pretty much say whatever they want, no matter what the bizarre logic and no matter what connection it has to what they were saying five minutes ago, and Fox News will totally accept it and blast it for hours or days,” Jonathan Bernstein observes. “The result? Republicans have become incredibly lazy. After all, why bother constructing a coherent argument if you don’t need one.”

It’s true. In order to get good press from the conservative media, Republican politicians need not craft a brilliant political strategy or impress with policy substance or excel at persuading the public that conservative ideas are the way forward. They need only find themselves in conflict with President Obama and Democrats…

Watch Sean Hannity. Listen to Rush Limbaugh. With few exceptions, the focus is winning whatever fight happens to be dominating the current news cycle. Each one is treated as if it is as maximally significant as any other, and that is no coincidence. If you’re driven by partisan tribalism more than ideology, if getting in rhetorical digs at liberals thrills you more than persuading adversaries or achieving policy victories, it makes sense that you would fight substantively inconsequential battles with no more or less vigor than any other…

The amount of conservative hackery broadcast and published every day remains staggering. In private, that fact is widely acknowledged even among movement conservative pundits, who can hardly deny something so glaringly obvious. But I have long been in a tiny minority of observers who regard conservative media as something that must be reformed if the right is to recover. How can an ideological movement succeed if its leaders and its rank and file daily rely on bad information from sources that constantly peddle fiction as fact?

Undeniably true. But I think we must take this a step further back and ask, "What allows Republicans to accept 'glaringly obvious' lies?" There is only one answer: religion. Once you allow a pernicious, "glaringly obvious" lie such as "god is real" into your life, you're lost. This fault is what allows Republicans to believe in nonsense. They opened the floodgates by believing in gods, and anything rushed in (including Rush Limbaugh!). It would be funny if the consequences weren't so tragic for our country.

GOP wingnuts adopt the pope's words

As readers of this blog surely know, the popeyguy emeritus, when he was pope, referred to gays as "intrinsically disordered". Surprise, surprise. American wingnuts have taken up the phrase. We are officially "disordered".

Good to know. But then, there is no real distinction between the Vatican and the GOP. They are one.

The wisdom of Jan Brewer

Arizona's GOP governor on climate change:

Everybody has an opinion on it, you know, and I probably don’t believe that it’s man made. I believe that, you know, that weather and certain elements are controlled maybe by different things.

I wonder if there are any neurons in a GOP brain. (Hat tip AmericaBlog.)

Timmy Dolan and the GOP

Get ready to vomit.

Dolan recently told a radio program that he is "happy" Ryan is on the GOP ticket and called him a "great public servant."

"We go way back, Congressman Paul Ryan and I," Dolan said. "I came to know and admire him immensely. And I would consider him a friend. He and his wife Janna and their three kids have been guests in my house; I've been a guest at their house. They're remarkably upright, refreshing people."

Cosmos in synch with GOP

As if to highlight the latest ugly turn by the GOP, there will be a giant coat hanger in the sky this week.

Some evening this week, if you turn your binoculars east-southeast and look  midway up from the horizon to the region of the sky roughly halfway between the bright stars Vega and Altair you will discover Brocchi's Cluster in the rather dim and nondescript constellation of Vulpecula, the Little Fox. (Snip.) Those who have seen it have described it as a rather curious grouping of about a dozen tiny stars looking very much like an inverted coat hanger.

Hallelujah! The end of abortion is nigh! The sky (which is controlled by Jeebus) tells us so. Or is this a sign from some other god, telling us that we must keep abortion on the books lest women resort to hangers to end their pregnancies?

Signs are notoriously difficult to interpret. Hopefully, Pat Robertson or Bill Donohue will step in to tell us what this means. Or perhaps dog will visit me and give me a hint. I'll get back to you immediately if he does.

Can you believe this?

NEW YORK (AP) — Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan will give the benediction at the Republican National Convention on the night Mitt Romney accepts the presidential nomination.

Unbelievable. What a cheap church this pope is running. Cardinals for hire. Amazing. But at least we know what Timmy Dolan's been doing: shilling for the GOP. What a slimy character he is. Kids, get ready for "Jeebus for Romney" season. It should be lots of fun.

(Do you think the popey guy will do an ad for Romney? And if he does, will he wear the red shoes? I think he will. Definitely.)

The GOP throws the election

Only a day after Todd Akin made his insane comments about rape, the GOP has approved "a federal ban on abortion with no exception for rape and incest survivors".

What else is there to say? The GOP just lost the election. To think of all the money that was spent on this doomed Romney campaign! And for what? A platform that guarantees they will lose the election? This turn of events is shocking in so many ways. They truly don't see women as autonomous human beings -- and are happy to admit it!

The GOP will never come back from this.

Climate change? Meh.

Apparently climate change isn't our biggest worry. Here's an excerpt from the linked article:

“The destruction of agricultural, water, and ecosystem resources – these things are well known in the scientific community,” Ehrlich said. “But if you followed the debates among the seven dwarfs running for the Republican nomination for President, no single serious problem here was even mentioned in those debates. That is why we need dramatic social change. The scientific community knows what sorts of things we ought to be doing to solve these problems, but we aren’t doing any of them.”

We. Are. Doomed.

GOP plans to establish theocracy in US

Taliban & GOP: no difference.

They really, really want a theocracy. It's shocking, it's stupid and it's so un-American that you can't believe it, but the 2012 Texas Republican Party platform literally states:

We pledge our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and toward dispelling the myth of separation of church and state.

They want a king to run our country, and not just any king, but a prince of the church. In other words, they want a mullah to run the country. Sure, it'll be a Christian Taliban version of a mullah, but it's still the same. They want the iron hand of Jesus Christ to run our country. No more sluts, no more fags, no more brown people. It's really that bad, folks.

And while I'm at it, what's all this about Egypt having an "Islamic democracy"? This term is an oxymoron. Religion is authoritarian; democracy is the opposite. This concept implodes on inspection.

But that's just what the Texas GOP wants. Funny, eh? And you know how you're always reading about the Taliban poisoning school children? There won't be none of that learnin' stuff over there in Afghanistan. No, uh-uh. All they're allowed to read is the Bible Koran. Well, check out another part of the 2012 Texas Republican Party platform:

(W)e support reducing taxpayer funding to all levels of education institutions.

They are the Taliban in every way but one: X-out Allah; insert Jeebus. Done. Welcome to the new US of A.

Popey guy spouts more nonsense

Vatican (oops) GOP panel.

You learn something new every day. Here's the lede for a popey guy story in the Times:

Vatican City (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI has called on infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, saying such methods are a form of arrogance.

Are you roaring with laughter yet? Arrogance? This, from the prime agent of human arrogance. They really have no sense of irony. The story goes on:

Benedict spoke Saturday at the end of a 3-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility. Reiterating Vatican teaching, he called marriage the only permissible place to conceive children.

Two things here are funny. First, the very fact that the all-male vatican loons held a conference on infertility. It's just like the recent Republican panel on contraceptives: a bunch of pinhead men focusing on matters that concern women. It's rich.

The other thing is this idea of referring to marriage as "the only permissible place" to conceive children. Now, I had no idea marriage was a place. I really didn't. Now everything makes perfect sense! They don't want gays to marry and have children in this place that is marriage. On account of, you know, it'll get crowded there. I really, really didn't know that marriage was like a city or a country club. Silly me. I thought it was a simple, straightforward arrangement between two like-minded people.

Thank dog we have the popey guy to clear stuff like this up for us. Thanks, popey guy!

Catholic bishops ooze with filth

God: "The bishops are intrinsically evil."

You already know the story about Obama, contraception and the evil Catholic bishops. Here's something from today's NY Times:

The bishops said the plan offered insufficient protection for their institutions: “In the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer’s plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns."

"PS, we rape children."

Okay, I added the last part but it belongs there, no? How can these oozing sores of catholicism pretend to speak about morality? They lost that right long ago. But at least some Catholic organizations see what's really going on. Here's another quote from the article:

James Salt, executive director of Catholics United, a liberal advocacy group that is organizing support for the Obama administration, said, “The bishops’ blanket opposition appears to serve the interests of a political agenda, not the needs of the American people.”

That's the truth: Roman Catholicism = GOP = NOM = filth. Wake up and see the church for what it is. It's a boil on the face of humanity and it needs to be excised.

It was a dark and stormy night

Click to embiggen a bit.

Carmine, our in-house artist at the Worlds Blog, took this photo yesterday as he was driving in New York City. Ominous. And it's totally weird when clouds have a sharp line at their edge. It shouldn't be allowed, I tell you! It's unnatural!

Perhaps if a nice, solid GOP president comes along, s/he'll pass a law that makes future clouds conform to the soft, rounded expectations of good Christian families. Or maybe s/he'll get God himself to fix this problem. I'm sure our new GOP president will focus from day one on all sorts of important issues, just like this one. Can't wait.

What will god say to them?

God.

Evil wingnuts never stop talking about their strong belief in god. As they slash "entitlements" and try to ensure that old people are thrown out of their homes, penniless and uninsured, they simultaneously see themselves as "good, church-going people."

I wonder if these dirtbags ever think about the conversation that will allegedly take place when they meet this god fellow up in heaven -- you know, right outside those pearly gates. I doubt they do.

But if some have indeed thought this through, I would love to know if they believe god will say, "Ah, I see you made sure poor children couldn't get insurance! And you wouldn't let 1/10 of the human population marry! Excellent!"

Seriously, these people are downright evil. They are 90-600 pounds of excrement dressed up as a human being. Is it possible that these mean, ignorant dolts expect the "god of love" to approve of their hateful lives? Or have they never considered what "judgement day" will be like? Maybe they think god just checks to see if you have an AFA membership card, and opens the gates if you do.

Yes, indeed, you ignorant filth. God is definitely going to look at you and say, "You're just the sort we want in Heaven." Seriously, it boggles the mind.

PS: Is that the greatest image of god ever? It was drawn by our artist-in-residence: cousin Carmine. I adore it. (And hey, I hear that's exactly what you're supposed to do. Woot! I'm in synch.)

Uh-oh. Maybe the old fools will never die.

I read an article today at Science Daily. Here's the link. It's about extending life by playing around with the metabolism of mitochondria. They've only accomplished this with worms so far but already they're talking about applying the discovery to people. It looks like we may actually be able to extend our lives at some point.

Now, I could see this as good news but I didn't. I don't know about you but I spend my time these days waiting for the current crop of Republicans, Tea Partiers, braindead Supreme Court "justices", and religious-right lunatics like the Pope to die. The marvelous thing -- the only thing we can hang on to -- is that so many of them are old. How long could they last? It's a delicious thought.

But what if they could live forever? What if we'll never be rid of them? That's the frightening thought this story brought to mind for me.

You know that if there's a way to cheat death it will be the Christian Taliban GOP that claws for it most fiercely. Folks like this say they look forward to a heavenly reunion with jesus when they die, but from what I've seen of them, they're way more afraid of death than the rest of us. They will push all opposition aside and rip through living flesh to snag a cure for aging.

Let's hope it doesn't come along too soon -- and I'm 63 as I say this. I'd be happy to miss out on this treatment and die soon if it meant that they would, too. See, I'm an atheist so I don't fear death. A bargain like this would work for me.

I suggest we save life extension for a more deserving generation, like the people who are kids right now.