September 2013

September began the drum beat for war with Syria. It seems that Joe Lieberman has never seen a war he wasn’t in favor of. No wonder he and John McCain are such good friends. It seems that I spent the whole month making the argument if we cared about Syria, we should have done something before 100,000 people were killed in the conflict. I also noted that what all the clamoring for war with Syria was about was providing a backdoor into war with Iran.

This month, I also wrote about the atheist religious scholar Robert M. Price, Another Conservative Atheist? I really like him because he knows a lot about the Bible and he’s amusing. But I’ve read him long enough to notice occasional comments that indicate that he’s politically conservative. I talked about it in that article. But then, just two weeks later in his podcast, The Human Bible, he mentioned hypocrisy and gave as an example, people in Congress who didn’t want to have Obamacare apply to them. Well, that was too much! That’s straight out of right-wing radio. The answer is that Obamacare is not supposed to apply to anyone who gets his insurance from his employer. So I was none too happy to hear that. As a result, I commented on the podcast:

I don’t know if it makes any difference. But I think it’s important to push back against this kind of thing. As I’ve argued a lot lately, atheism is linked not only to libertarianism but to conservatism generally. And I’m sure that all the people Price hangs out with agree with his politics. Well, I want him to know that I don’t listen to his podcast for his political opinions. Even if I agreed with them, when it comes to politics, he’s a low information voter. In the last two podcasts, there have been no political commentary. More than anything, I hope he was embarrassed, because what he said showed a shocking level of ignorance.

After 23 years on death row, I was pleased to pass along the information, Debra Milke Released on Bond. The entire case came down to Detective Armando Saldate’s claim that Milke had confessed to him. Milke claimed she did not. The jury believed Saldate. But since then, it has been shown that he has lied repeatedly under oath and that he abused witnesses and twisted their words. On 18 December 2013, the judge in the new trial against Milke allowed Saldate to plead the 5th Amendment. He is rightly afraid that the defense team will tear him apart on cross examination and open him up to charges of perjury and much else. If he doesn’t testify in this case, the judge has said that the prosecution cannot introduced Milke’s supposed confession into evidence. Without that, they really have nothing. I can’t imagine that they won’t drop the case. But who knows. I didn’t think they would go this far.

The second half of the month brought back the debate of who would be the next Fed Chair. Many insiders really wanted Larry Summers. But as I wrote, after many similar articles, Just Nominate Janet Yellen! Eventually Yellen was nominated, but Obama handled the whole thing badly. It went on and on. She was just confirmed by the Senate.

This was also the month the the chicken came to live with me, Fred Henhouse. At the beginning of the month, she just showed up and wouldn’t go away. Also, I couldn’t find any neighbors who would claim her. But I rather liked her, so I bought feed and started taking care of her. Unfortunately, just as I was making plans for a permanent house for her, she was killed by some local animal. It was very sad because I became very fond of her.

The Rich Lack Empathy
Alcoholics Anonymous is Not Like the Washingtonian Movement
Obama Diversity Problem Goes Deep
Pretty Woman Ugly Tweets
GOP Bad Faith Obamacare “Replacement”
Presidential Ideology
Government Policy Led to Inequality
I Was a Middle Class Food Stamp Kid

Enjoy the entire: September 2013 Archive.

October 2013

This was, of course, the month of the government shutdown. The funny thing is that September was filled with articles about how the government shutdown was going to be terrible for the Republicans. And then it was. By the middle of the month, they collapse and learned nothing from the experience. At the same time, the Obamacare website came online and was a disaster. At first, I was an apologist for it. But when the problems became clear, I approached it as a technical issue. There’ll be more about that in November. The main thing is that it was never what the Republicans claimed, “The government can’t do anything!” It was that the proper resources were not given to the project and once they were, the website was fixed. We’re not hearing anymore about it now.

Sad Result When Libertarians Get Practical
Nine Month Democratic Super-Majority Destroyed California Film Industry 7 Years Ago!
Why Democrats Aren’t an Extremist Party
In Which I Am Tested for Personality Disorders
No Contradiction in Genesis Eve Creation
The GOP Problem Is Not Messaging
The End of the Bagel Exception
The Power of False Lessons
What’s With “Democrat Party”?
What I Think of George W Bush
Obamacare Is Not Liberal Policy
Truthful Obama Bumper Sticker
New Democrats and the Rightward March
Libertarianism Incompatible With Atheism

Enjoy the entire: October 2013 Archive.