Owner: Hell's Handmaiden URL:http://www.hells-handmaiden.com Join Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:02:09 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Politics, philosophy, religion, science... and their collisions with the real world. Site statistics:Click here
Human Rights and Matthew Shepard 2007-05-22 10:42:33 The Human Rights
Campaign has asked me, via email, to “Take Action: Tell your Senators: Pass the Matthew
Shepard Act”.
Well, I can’t do that. The Matthew Shepard Act is a law against thought, not behavior. Sen. Gordon Smith apparently disagrees– “This act is about the prosecution of crime, not prohibition of speech”– and I am sure that many are with him on that, but the position just makes no sense. From the summary of the act:
Authorizes the Attorney General to provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution of any crime that… is motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim or is a violation of the state, local, or tribal hate crime laws.
H.R.1592
What this means in no uncertain terms is that prosecution of a crime is at least partially dependent upon th Read more:Human Rights
There are abortion arguments 2007-05-28 11:08:07 There are arguments
against abortion
.
And then there is this.
Intellectuals these days often argue that a woman has a right to choose. Our holy spirit says if she knew what was really going on beneath all surface appearances, a woman would not have a question of choice.
Abortion or Birth? Who Believes There is a Choice?
And the anti-intectuals argue what? “Oh look at the cute baby! Such a cutie. Yes you are.”
Some literary examples?
“Izzum’s ickle heart a-beatin’ so floppity! Um’s own mumsy make ums all right, um’s p’eshus Flopit!” — Booth Tarkington ./a>
“A Peke, the ickle angel pet, wiv his gweat big soulful eyes and his ickle black nosie — oh so ducky-duck!” — George Orwell.
By the way, I really love when people use ‘intellectual’ as a pejorative. The implication is what? That you have no respect for the intellect? For education? For intelligence? For reason?
Goddamn I love America!! 2007-05-27 18:51:50 If this site isn’t satire…
He would give you the Wet off his back I tells ya….he is one of the “good ones”…
Read more:America
O’Leary asks another dumb question 2007-05-27 16:06:11 Denyse O’Leary
, “Toronto-based journalist, grandmother, Roman Catholic Christian”, and I add, “comedian, pinball wizard, rising ID star, big fish in Dembski’s very dirty pool” has raised another non-issue. Specifically, she asks:
Would genome mapper Francis Crick be permitted to suggest that intelligent aliens seeded the universe today?
Would Crick be allowed to suggest such a thing?
Well, of course he would. He could suggest anything he wants. He could suggest it then; he could suggest it now.
The problem isn’t in suggesting it. Scientists suggest all kinds of bizarre things. No one censors suggestion, though it is standard creationist rhetoric to suggest that good wholesome creationist science is quashed by the bad scientific cabal. Nonsense.
The problem ID faces isn’t in suggesting that there might be some kind of intelligent agency at work. Haven’t the ID theorists been suggesting that for decades now? And the creationists bef
An American Terrorist 2007-05-27 15:42:02
Uhl waited until he was offline, however, to reveal his plot to kill the family of itinerant Calvinist provocateur Fred Phelps…
Max Blumenthal
Probably a godless atheist freak.
He was arrested soon after and charged with manufacturing explosives.
Max Blumenthal
How come he don’t have no A-Rab name? And why don’t he wear no funny clothes?
But there is a crucial difference between Uhl and Cho…
Max Blumenthal
I knew it. Here comes the part about Islam! Its just like ‘em.
… Uhl was an a devout evangelical Christian…
Max Blumenthal
Uh-oh…
…. who advocated religious violence in the name of American
nationalism…. Uhl implores Christians to die on the battlefield for “Uncle Sam” … quoting several Biblical passages and reminding his readers that the “gift of God” is eternal life.
Max Blumenthal
Wait… reminds me of… oh, who is that guy… the one with the turban…
Uhl’s imploration so Read more:Terrorist
Soldiers and Moral Duty 2007-05-27 14:18:20 Nuremberg settled, legally, the issue of the responsibility that rests on soldiers. Following orders does not mean that criminal activity is excused. Just a Girl in short shorts, though, suggests that “the left” does often take such a view. Speaking of Rosie O’Donnell, she writes:
Rosie was trying to make a false distinction, which is often made by the left. She wants us to believe the politicians are the criminals and the troops just following orders. The problem is if an order is criminal the solider who carries it out is also a criminal. The military has a legal and moral duty not to follow illegal orders.
The point is to make a version of the “attack the administration, attack the troops” argument. Its a limited version. To her credit she writes that “You can think, like me, that the war was incredibly stupid, its execution has been incompetent, and it has resulted in a horrifying, unnecessary waste of life.” However, Just a Girl does thin Read more:Soldiers
, Moral
Picking another fight 2007-05-26 12:06:33 And when Iran reacts it will somehow be their fault. It will somehow be Iran who provoked us. The US will be innocent and Bush will be the ‘defender’ not the attacker. Please.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions.
The Blotter
Hat-tip: Dyre Portents: Bush Authorizes Ops Vs Iran. Read more:Picking
, fight
The War on the Global Ummah 2007-05-25 12:13:28 I’ve recently been told by the blogger Pommygranate that strictly speaking the war on terror is:
… a war on the revival of the idea of the global Ummah started by Hasan al-Banna in the 1940s following the fall of the Turkish Caliphate.
Interesting… so…
This is a religious war then? This is a war over ideology, not over criminal behavior? Funny, I thought we were not fighting over religion. Silly me.
Second, Islam is not the only religion with branches dreaming of global dominance. Christianity comes to mind. In fact, Christianity already has a self-proclaimed global head– the Pope. This Pope once had very long military arms and still has tremendous political clout worldwide. Numerous Protestant groups are also equally fervent fantasists about a Christian world. Since it is about ideology, lets go after them too.
Third, fighting an organization like al-Banna’s Muslim Brotherhood with military power is foolish– like fighting the Mafia with tan Read more:Global
Red States and Gay States 2007-05-31 13:37:05 It appears that despite my efforts, a number of US States
still feel compelled, with the President, to deny some of their citizens equal rights under the law.
Apparently the governments of these states believe that marriage equals one man plus one woman, that gay marriage would be the end of marriage, that it undercuts the very fabric of society, resulting, certainly, in the collapse of western civilization if not in the end of civilization as a whole.
Certainly the lawmakers in these states believe that they are saving the children from the gay rapists– and other gay troublemakers– who’ve used Hollywood to sell their agenda to the unsuspecting public and who’ve infiltrated the mental health fields in order to maliciously and covertly remove their sickness from the list of officially recognized illnesses.
Keep on truckin’, Red States. Show the world what ‘civil rights’ and ‘human dignity’ really mean.
Heard about this guy yet? 2007-05-31 07:48:30 The Questionable Authority’s headline is apt,Thou Shalt Not Be Bloody Stupid: His story has been all over the news lately - he’s the idiot with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) who took two intercontinental flights after being diagnosed with the disease because he didn’t want to mess up his long-planned wedding in Greece, or honeymoon in Rome. Read more:Heard
Radiometric dates don’t match, oh my! 2007-05-30 11:37:17 It is very common for creationists to complain that various radiometric dating methods– radio-carbon, potassium-argon, etc– don’t give the same dates
. Thus, the misguided argument goes, radiometric dates can’t be trusted and let’s just scrap ‘em all.
I found, buried in a comment to an old post, possible the best response I’ve ever made to that objection.
Have you ever worked in a lab? Or been in a classroom where students did a lot of lab work?
I ask because you seem not to realize how these things work. Let's take the example I mentioned earlier about determining how fast cars go on the freeway. We have several different methods of addressing this question. One, we can place sensors on the road at a given distance, take some measurments and use various statistical means to determine speeds. Two, we can have police officers stand on the side of the road at use radar guns to take readings for us. Three, we can call people randomly and ask ho
Guns, guns, and more guns 2007-05-30 11:01:05 Shoot a few, knock "em down, cost you half a buck now– The Guess Who.
An article– well worth reading– in the New Yorker closes with “There is no reason that any private citizen in a democracy should own a handgun. At some point, that simple truth will register. Until it does, phones will ring for dead children, and parents will be told not to ask why.”
An article in the World Net Daily opens with “While it is an article of faith among gun-control proponents that government restrictions on firearms reduces violence and crime, two new U.S. studies could find no evidence to support such a conclusion. … The National Academy of Sciences issued a 328-page report based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, a survey of 80 different gun-control laws and some of its own independent study. In short, the panel could find no link between restrictions on gun ownership and lower rates of crime, firearms violence or even accidents w
Several New Carnivals are Up 2007-05-30 08:32:38 Marketing Whore presents the latest Carnival of the Capitalists.
A favorite, the Carnival of the Decline of Democracy has edition 2.11.
The latest black sabbath Carnival of the Godless– always rich and creamy– is up at Letters from a Broad.
And a new carnival, a pro and con creationist– oh, damn, sorry ;)– Intelligent Design carnival called Carnival of Design of Oops kicks off at Global Conservative. Read more:Carnivals
We Hold These Truths 2007-05-29 11:30:58 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
Sound familiar?
Hmmm… maybe not. If I hadn’t already given it away, I’d wager that half the people in the nation couldn’t identify the source of that quote. But I’d probably lose that bet for being too optimistic. No matter. The citizenry in general, and especially the neocon faction, has given up the ideals embodied therein anyway.
But I like the document. Idealogically, it is the founding stone of the Nation, not to dismiss the Constitution. The Constitution is the blueprint for the machinery of government, but the Declaration is the nation&r
Philosopher vs. Fundamentalist 2007-05-29 09:03:18 There is a very good post titled, The Philosopher
vs. the Biblical Fundamentalist
(Round Two), over at The Space of Reasons. Interested in Jesus? The Trinity? Prophecy? Have a read.
It is when you get a party 2007-06-03 18:47:22 I went down to the Denver People’s Fair this afternoon. I had a bit of a revelation– no, more of a re-affirmation– walking through the “political activist” section. Something dawned on me. It is the same something that dawns on me every time I think about maybe joining some political organization or another.
A little earlier today I posted a quote from Cindy Sheehan that echoes, it seems, much the same sentiment. I’ll post a little bit of it again.
I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on.
Good Riddance Attenti
Pro-Life! 2007-06-03 17:28:15 Well… except when it isn’t “them”, but you: “And you’re still a murderer.”
Marching as to Religious War 2007-06-03 12:16:54 Responding to Senator Edwards’ comments that the war on terror is a “bumper sticker slogan”, Tancredo declares a different kind of war.
“If Senator Edwards is saying that the war on terror doesn’t exist, I would agree”, Congressman Tancredo said. “Terror is a tactic used by the enemy with which we are at war. The enemy is radical Islam, and if he does not believe that, then he is delusional. America can’t afford a president that is an ostrich, with his head in the sand on this issue.”
Tancredo Rips Edwards Comments on the War on Terror as “Bumper Sticker” Slogan Refers to Edwards as an “ostrich, with his head in the sand”
It is interesting to me how more and more people are coming to realize that the “war on terror” rhetoric is junk. Terrorism is more like criminal activity than like war. It consequently needs to be fought like any other criminal activity– with the police and the courts, not with tanks and
Cindy Sheehan at CommonDreams 2007-06-03 08:53:52 Ah, yes. We are all so clique-ish aren’t we.
However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”
I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we a Read more:Cindy
, Sheehan
, Cindy Sheehan
Are we living in an alternate universe? 2007-06-03 08:48:33 An amusing rant at Citizen Against Lies!: “Bush is screaming like a Nazi about his power. His stormtrooper minions are trying to start more wars, even though the one they’re in is a horrendous disaster. And, a right-wing leader sobs drunkenly and uncontrolably on the floor of Congress, babbling about supporting the troops by keeping them in a war zone. This has to be some type of cosmic joke.” Read more:alternate
The Blogpower Awards 2007-06-03 06:44:25 The Blogpower Awards
are in the nominations stage over at, not surprisingly, Blogpower. “All thoughts, issues, queries etc” can be posted in the comments to this post.
Loyal readers might be interested in the Best North American Blog or Column category, especially the part that reads “To nominate, e-mail jameshighamatmaildotcom”.
Loyal readers might also be interested in the Best Fisker and Best Political Blog or Column categories, especially the part that reads “To nominate, e-mail jameshighamatmaildotcom”.
Also perhaps of interest are the Best Blogpower Blog or Column, the Best Blog Name, the Most Articulate Wordsmith, the Most Under-rated Blog or Column, and the Best Post of All Time categories, but that is by no means an exhaustive list.
There is also, for example, the Best Little Blogger [i.e. under 100 uniques a day], for which I do not qualify, and the Most Over-rated Blog or Column, for which I hope I don’t qualify.
But still, this
The jerk on the plane 2007-06-02 10:58:28 The @ssh@l@ who took his TB on a world tour now resides in a hospital room in Colorado. He’s feeling apologetic.
“I don’t expect for people to ever forgive me. I just hope that they understand that I truly never meant to put them in harm,” he said, his voice cracking.
Quarantined TB patient: ‘I hope they forgive me’
That’s nice, but I doubt TB cares much.
I’m not going to spend much time on Andrew Speaker, Civilian Bunghole of the Week, but I do want to note that…
Speaker, his new wife and her 8-year-old daughter were already in Europe when the CDC contacted him and told him to turn himself in immediately at a clinic there and not take another commercial flight.
Quarantined TB patient: ‘I hope they forgive me’
… the jerk exposed his wife and her 8-year-old daughter. No doubt he’ll be a fine husband and father.
No, I’m not going to dwell on Andrew. I’m going to use him to make a point that is
The June This Is Not My Country Carnival 2007-06-01 09:52:44
This June 1, 2007 edition of the carnival kicks off with a quote sure to annoy some of my readers and possibly some of this carnival’s authors.
From letter from democrats.org:
“Today Cindy Sheehan “retired” from the anti-war movement after leading the fight for two years with every piece of her heart and soul.
Cindy wrote: “Good-bye America… you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now.”
…
Cindy lost heart after a few dozen “Bush Democrats” voted with virtually every Republican to keep Bush’s criminal.
Unfortunately, Sheenan’s comment echoes the sentiment that founded this carnival. This is not my country. This is not the country I love– meaning, this is not the country I grew up loving. It is not what I thought it was, perhaps it was never what I thought it was. It is not wha Read more:Country
, Carnival
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