It seems right after our local fight here in Bloomington for the atheists to have the right to say that they too can be good, even without god, that now the city of New York finds itself in the same situation. And who better to remind the citizens of New York of the horrible atrocity that this represents to those of faith than the big man himself, the truest christian of America, the man who lives by the adage “Easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven” than Sean Hannity?

There’s nothing better than a good gut laugh on a cold day to cheer the soul. And Sean Hannity delivers better on this than any comedian I’ve ever heard. Who else could continue this monotonous culture war as far as he is? With Jeff Hostetler (not the qb, the former indiana rep) no longer available to decry the “War on Christianity”, thank goodness Sean is still around.  It’s funny how those most against the fairness doctrine, and who promote themselves as fair and balanced, throw a hissy fit the day that there’s an atheist ad between the millions of church ads and billboards in NYC. Yes, they certainly lack churches and the right to promote them in NYC.

Salon had a great piece on Michelle Bachmann and the wingnut teabag teaparty group protest over the health bill on Thursday.  I’ll leave the obvious jokes here to others, and point out the main thing that caught me off guard -

“C-list Hollywood celebrities (Jon Voigt, John “Cliff Clavin” Ratzenberger) made their way to the microphone to gleefully bash President Obama, Pelosi and everything about the healthcare legislation”.

I knew Jon Voight has made a habit of going on right wing shows and making a fool of himself, just as much as Ben Stein, Dennis Miller (that’s nothing new at all) and even Coach!? have done.  But now Cliff Clavin is out as a wingnut! Geez. Way to let me down Cliff. You do realize that the Postal Service is the definition of Socialism, right? But I guess it doesn’t matter. After all, you’re not a mail man, you just played one on tv. Next to Sideshow Bob. Stalwart leader of Springfield Republicans and previously elected Mayor.

Well, gay marriage has now lost in all 31 states that it has been popularly voted on, and this is how one gay activist in Maine is responding…

In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit until we know where every single one of these votes lives.”

Gay marriage activists in other states already “know where every single one of these voters lives,” and they publish that information online at sites like Know Thy Neighbor, address and all, presumably so that they can “go neighbor-to-neighbor” and “be aggressive personally,” as one of the founders of the site said.

The website lists people who signed petitions against gay marriage.

(I’m wondering if they’re planning to launch a website exposing people who signed petitions against McCarthyism.)

Their strategy of pissing off the 53% of the electorate who voted against them in order to get in the good graces of that majority will probably work well to win gay marriage in the future, because after the majority of voters who voted against them is demonized, I’m sure they will feel sympathetic to the attackers and want to change their vote.

But seriously, if they do want to win marriage through intimidation, they should probably pass a Card Check provision for state referendums so that they can eliminate the secret ballot, otherwise it will be hard for them to intimidate enough people in private to not vote for it.

On the other hand, if they project positive images of gay couples and show their role in society and try to convince their opponents as to why their wrong, maybe they will actually change their minds, but what has happened after each gay marriage loss is that the activists just ratchet up the same intimidation tactics that lost last time.

Writing my column about President Barack Obama’s first year I was looking for some articles about his stop in Bloomington before the Indiana presidential primary. I stumbled across this YouTube video:

I remember attending that rally. Everyone in Assembly Hall was pretty excited. The person sitting next to me was so excited that, while chanting “yes, we can” over and again, he felt the need to keep touching me. 

The speech was pretty pretty typical for Obama. He claimed that “this election is different” and talked of our generation making its mark. 

That election was important, but in one key aspect it was just like any other. Candidates offered over-the-top rhetoric and played on political myths over substantive policy discussions.

Americans largely indulged them. I am not sure why we always forget how different governing this country is from campaigning to do so. A lot of people certainly put faith in Obama’s ability to be transformative simply because he said he would be.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think our generation is uniquely guilty of getting overhyped about these sorts of things. And I also think Obama has had a good start as President. 

But it is important to acknowledge now, a year after the election, that too much of Obama’s campaign was empty fluff.

The citizens of Maine voted yesterday by 20 percentage points to effectively legalize marijuana. Unfortunately, they also apparently thought that smoking pot was more important than allowing gay people to be able to have the same marriage rights as the rest of the state because they repealed the states already-approved same-sax marriage law.

Thanks, Maine!

An Italian court convicted 23 American intelligence officials of kidnapping in broad daylight a 23 year-old Muslim man that they suspected (incorrectly) of terrorism from the streets of Milan and subsequently sending him to Egyptian authorities (a country known to torture prisoners), where he was then (surprise) tortured.

Unfortunately, this is completely routine behaviour for the CIA, which has been engaging in what is called “extraordinary rendition” (the act of kidnapping terrorism suspects and sending them to secret prisons in countries known to torture prisoners) since at least 2006, probably earlier.

This is all completely illegal under international law. The United Nations Convention Against Torture (of which the US is a signatory) specifically states:

1. No State Party shall expel, return (”refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.

A European Union investigation has estimated that the CIA has performed 1,245 secret flights through its territory to states where suspects will likely face torture. A Swiss investigation has concluded that at least 100 people have been kidnapped while in Europe.

The US should never have started this completely unethical and illegal program. Since it has not been stopped, international courts should follow the example of the Italian court and others that have opened investigations and immediately investigate these actions and prosecute them to the full extent of international law.

news from wisconsin: Glenn Beck not burned alive.