Senator Michele Bachmann

This started as a weekend blog. But it got kind of unweekend like so, here we are today.

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

This weekend, I give you the antithesis of being smart and brilliant. This is more of an editorial that simple quotes (sorry about that), but I find these people so despicable, well, I don't know what else to say other than let her speak for herself.

Since Michelle Bachmann dropped out of the race for President (and I'm not a theist, but "Thank God"), I thought a few unhumble words of hers from my favorite past news reports about her was called for. What we should be concerned with here, is that there are actually Americans who support and have similar beliefs with her, that someone who thinks this way can even make it to any position of power in the United States of America. I don't know what happened, but this isn't my America of education, acceptance, and support.

People like this are a backlash against what America is all about. They are American Spirit killers, another product of fundamental religious beliefs which are most functional for holding Humanity back from evolving, advancing to the higher nature we are obviously predisposed to and religion is built mainly to retard. To be clear about where I stand on people like this, I find her views disgusting.

She belongs in some other backward country, maybe a nice homophobic communist country would be best for her and her throwback types. They want to treat American citizens like defectives, people who for all intents and purposes are productive, caring individuals. If communism was the horror of the old days, this type of person is the horror of the present. I fear for us on who may be the horror of the future, if we don't find a way to educate these people into the real world.

I give you, Senator Michele Bachmann:

I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. –Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on the HPV vaccine, Fox News interview, Sept. 12, 2011

Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas." -Rep. Michelle Bachmann, April, 2009

If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." -Michele Bachmann, Jan. 2005

[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said she has even said she is trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that 2,000 years ago.

''I think there is a point where you say enough is enough to government intrusion. …Does the federal government really need to know our phone numbers? [I haven't been a Bachmann supporter but I do think it's really cool she is apparently all for legalizing Cannabis and same-sex marriages, at least according to the above comments.]

And what a bizarre time we're in, when a judge will say to little children that you can't say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.

One. That's the number of new drilling permits under the Obama administration since they came into office." – Comment to a conservative conference in Iowa in March.
THE FACTS: The Obama administration issued more than 200 new drilling permits before the Gulf oil spill alone. Over the past year, since new safety standards were imposed, the administration has issued more than 60 shallow-water drilling permits. Since the deep water moratorium was lifted in October, nine new wells have been approved. - From Huffington Post

The farm is my father-in-law's farm. It's not my husband and my farm. It's my father-in-law's farm. And my husband and I have never gotten a penny of money from the farm. – On "Fox News Sunday."
THE FACTS: In personal financial disclosure reports required annually from members of Congress, Bachmann reported that she holds an interest in a family farm in Independence, Wis., with her share worth between $100,000 and $250,000. - From Huffington Post

This is a very serious matter, because it is our children who are the prize for this community, they are specifically targeting our children. — Senator Michele Bachmann, appearing as guest on radio program “Prophetic Views Behind The News”, hosted by Jan Markell, KKMS 980-AM, March 20, 2004.

If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement. — Senator Michele Bachmann, speaking at EdWatch National Education Conference, November 6, 2004.

Well, let's hope this is the last we hear of her. But I don't have high hopes. Even if she leaves, some other ignorant fool will find their way into the limelight as they have in the past, Palin, Gingrich, Perry, there's always room for more ignorance at the top. I can only hope that at some point, America will find enough education that they stop supporting the sad, pathetic, the closed minded, and the fearful.

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

This is my second attempt at a weekend blog of quotes. My first one, I changed out as Monday's blog because it was about Michelle Bachmann and quickly got pretty negative. I prefer to have a more positive blog for the weekends. But I also like reality. Democracy, it's better than most, but not exactly what we need.

What that is, I have no idea. So in the meantime, it will have to do, as it has had to do since the time of Aristotle and Plato. Thinking, however, never hurts. Here are a few things to consider, the next time you, or someone you knows, think they like someone like Michelle Bachmann, Sarah (I can't finish my term as Governor) Palin, Newt Gingrich, and so on and on and on....

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Winston Churchill.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

Winston Churchill [on this one, think about that law Obama signed off on last New Year's Eve that allows detention of American Citizens (AMERICANS!) for an indefinite period of time.]

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mohandas Gandhi

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy [now think of all those ignorant people (strangely, mostly Republicans) running for the highest office in the history of the world]

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Oscar Wilde

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
Aristotle

Democracy passes into despotism.
Plato
[Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group]

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.
Plato
[Haven't we been seeing that lately? Not tyranny as a dictator, but tyranny as a process of our government. Not bad like in the Soviet Union, or as it has been elsewhere, but we are headed down a path that people should be very concerned with. Kind of downbeat, right? Well then, I will offer you one more positive quote.]

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

And that's what I've been saying all along. But education alone doesn't work, you have to educate yourself with the right education, and the bible, ain't it. Now is the Quaran, or the Book of Mormon, or other such things. Critical thinking alone kills those all off as any kind of rational basis for thought.

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

Happy New Year's!

I don't know why my blog has been so heavy this past week. Maybe because it was the first time I've had Christmas without my kids as they've now grown up and moved out. My son is in Portland, living the life and I'm so happy for him. My daughter, slightly younger, is backpacking through the world, literally, and living the life, as she sees it. And I'm so happy she is enjoying what this world has to offer. Even though she's scaring the hell out of Dad. Maybe it's because I have a couple of weeks off from my intense day job so I can write day and night and kick out at least the end of my novel and a screenplay I have worked on through most this past year. So I've had time to watch in the background, quite a few good movies and documentaries.

But this is the New Year's weekend and a new year is dawning. A chance for a fresh start. Yes, it's arbitrary, but it's a good kind of arbitrary. The Catholics were onto something with their Confession. Confess your sins and transgressions, and move on, to try to be a better person. Reevaluation and reexamination are good, but then you have to go and try to do better.

So, go for it. Make 2012 a far better year than any previous one. Go ahead, give it a shot, what have you got to lose. Make changes for the better, even if they hurt a little. Stop relying on credit if you are. Stop eating wrong, or so much. Understand that if you are overweight, EXERCISE enough on a daily basis, so it doesn't much matter how much you eat. Educate yourself. Read. Watch documentaries, and not just ones that already agree with how you think. Evoke change. Occupy you life, occupy your country. Demand better conditions.

And now, as it is the weekend, and with all that having been said, I offer some positive quotes on a new year.

A very Happy New Year's to you, your loved ones, the citizens of our once and hopefully again, Great Nation and the citizens of the world!

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

"Be at war with your vices; at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." -- Benjamin Franklin

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Hal Borland

People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas. Author Unknown

I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. Anaïs Nin

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. Oscar Wilde

New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time. James Agate

It goes Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day. Is that fair to anyone who's alone? If you didn't get around to killing yourself on Christmas or New Year's, boom, there's Valentine's Day for you. There should be a holiday after Valentine's Day called 'Are you still here?' Laura Kightlinger [I can most definitely relate to this one]

"Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average, which means you've already met your New Year's resolution." Jay Leno

"Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn't it, of a long line of proven criminals?" Ogden Nash

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

Since this is the Christmas weekend, maybe something on that order would be called for. A Merry Christmas eve day to you all!

Christmas makes me happy no matter what time of year it comes around.
 - Bryan White

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
 - George Carlin

There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.
 - Robert Lynd

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
 - Shirley Temple

Merry Christmas, Nearly Everybody!
 - Ogden Nash

The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
 - Jay Leno

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"
 - Dave Barry

Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven."
 - W. C. Fields

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!
 - Charles Dickens

Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.
 - Ralph Sockman

To everyone, I wish you all a very happy and merry Christmas, to you and your loved ones, and especially, to those who are bitter of heart and ignoble of spirit; may a lightness, heavily befall you and bring happiness to you in a way that suffers not those in your realm of influence.

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

Nororius Atheist and advocate of positive Human relations, Christopher Hitchens, died this week. If you knew of him, he was either Satan spawn, or a breath of fresh air to you. I dedicate this weekends quotes to his esteemed self. If you decided to choose someone as a model for how to think, you could do far worse than Hitchens, in my estimation.

Thanks for everything Chris, and well, it's all over now, isn't it. I give you eleven of his quotes that I find interesting or entertaining; because eleven is one louder than ten, isn't it?

"[George W Bush] is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things." – Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC, 2000

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”
from his book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything"

"My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilisation, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either."
Also from, "God Is Not Great"

And yet, I wake up every day to a sensation of pervading disgust and annoyance. I probably ought to carry around some kind of thermometer or other instrument, to keep checking that I am not falling prey to premature curmudgeonhood.
from, "Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays" (2004)

Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.

There are several pleasant little towns like Abbottabad in Pakistan, strung out along the roads that lead toward the mountains from Rawalpindi...The colonial British—like Maj. James Abbott, who gave his name to this one—called them "hill stations," designed for the rest and recreation of commissioned officers. The charming idea, like the location itself, survives among the Pakistani officer corps. If you tell me that you are staying in a rather nice walled compound in Abbottabad, I can tell you in return that you are the honored guest of a military establishment that annually consumes several billion dollars of American aid. It's the sheer blatancy of it that catches the breath.

“Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with.”

"The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals."

Hitchens once branded Mother Teresa “a lying, thieving Albanian dwarf” and said: “She was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God.
“She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction."
We have the same job we always had: to say that there are no final solutions; there is no absolute truth; there is no supreme leader; there is no totalitarian solution that says if you would just give up your freedom of inquiry, if you would just give up, if you would simply abandon your critical faculties, the world of idiotic bliss can be yours. (October 2011 speech at the annual Atheist Alliance of America convention in Houston, as he accepted the Freethinker of the Year Award)

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

After this week and all the talk about the Government of the United States of America living quite a bit less up to its expectations on the topics of Posse Comitatus and other issues less important, but of just as much concern, as regards the direction of our current Administration, that of recent others and whatever is yet to come, I thought that a few quotes on government might be good. We may have the greatest experiment in democracy ever conceived, but as you will see below, that can all be lost in the twinkling of an eye, if the citizenry are not vigilant and outspoken.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.
Thomas Jefferson


All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas Jefferson

I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer, just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals . . . The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Ronald Reagan

It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.
George Washington

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
George Washington

Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe.
George Washington

The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.
George Washington

Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
John Adams

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
John Adams

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
John Adams

Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.
Benjamin Franklin

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.
Benjamin Franklin

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
Benjamin Franklin

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
Albert Einstein

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
George Bernard Shaw

If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Henry David Thoreau

It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.
Elie Wiesel

If we get a government that reflects more of what this country is really about, we can turn the century -- and the economy -- around.
Bella Abzug

To put it in a few words, the true malice of man appears only in the state and in the church, as institutions of gathering together, of recapitulation, of totalization.
Paul Ricoeur

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
Edward R. Murrow