JABbering Stooge

…this would be the only type of “art” that could legally be produced. (Yes, I said “legally.”)

The “artist,” Jon McNaughton, is trying to propagate the notion that America is a “Christian Nation™®©,” and that only by ripping the Constitution to shreds and becoming a theocracy can we “get right with Zombie Jesus, as the Founding Fathers intended.” This is basically the radical Christianist right’s version of Piss Christ, only unlike those on the right, I don’t want it censored, I just want to mock it! (That IS still legal, right?)

Shall we?

What does it say about the sad state of science in America when a British biopic about Charles Darwin can’t get a distributor here because it would upset the willfully ignorant? I mean, talk about censoring ideas in science!

According to Gallup (motto: We oversample Republicans so you don’t have to!), Global Warming Denialism is on the rise:

Here’s what Gallup found: The number of Americans who say the media have exaggerated global warming jumped to a record 41 percent in 2009, up from 35 percent a year ago. The most marked increase came among political independents, whose ranks of doubters swelled from 33 percent to 44 percent. Republican doubters grew from 59 percent to 66 percent, while Democratic skeptics stayed at around 20 percent.

So naturally (like stink on shit), Neal Boortz creams his pants at the news:

Recent Gallup polls found that 41% of Americans believe that the media greatly exaggerates global warming.

Yeah, and 44% of Americans believe that The Flintstones is a documentary.

I kind of feel sorry for Rep. Mike Castle (R — DE). The moderate Republican (an increasingly endangered species) held a town hall meeting in Georgetown, DE, expecting (relatively) sane Republicans. What he got was the seedy underbelly of Duh Base™:

“Socialized Medicine” Will Destroy The Nation “Faster Than The Twin Towers.” Audience member: “I don’t have the answers for how to fix the broken pieces of our health care system, but I know darn well if we let the government bring in socialized medicine, it will destroy this thing faster than the twin towers came down.” [Applause and cheers]

The Cap And Trade “Tax” Will Kill The American Economy. Audience member: “Do you have any idea what that cap and trade tax thing, bill that you passed is going to do to the Suffolk County poultry industry? That’s how chicken houses are heated, with propane. It outputs CO2. I mean, I’m outputting CO2 right now as I speak. Trees need CO2 to make oxygen! You can’t tax that!”

Global Warming Is A Hoax. Audience member: “I’m actually hopeful that this vote that you made was a vote to put you out of office. [Raucous applause and cheers.] … You know, on this energy thing, I showed you, I had in my email to you numerous times there are petitions signed by 31,000 scientists that that know and have facts that CO2 emissions have nothing to do and the greenhouse effect has nothing to do with global warming. It’s all a hoax! [Applause.] First of all, I cannot for the life of me understand how you could have been one of the eight Republican traitors!” [Applause and whoops.]

Global Warming, Like Darwinian Evolution, Is Just A Theory. Audience member: “It’s still a theory, so is Darwin’s theory of evolution! And yet we have the audacity to say global warming is accurate, it’s more than a theory? How about how cold it’s been this spring. Personal data, data shows that since 1998 average temperatures have been cooling!”

The Swine Flu Epidemic Is A Conspiracy To Force AIDS-Infected Vaccines On The American Public. Audience member: “The virus was built and created in Fort Dix, a small bioweapons plant outside of Fort Dix. This was engineered. This thing didn’t just crop up in a cave or a swine farm. This thing was engineered, the virus. Pasteur International, one of the big vaccine companies in Chicago, has been caught sending AIDS-infected vaccines to Africa. Do you think I trust — I don’t trust you with anything. You think I’m going to trust you to put a needle full of dead baby juice and monkey kidneys? Cause that’s what this stuff is grown on, dead babies!”

President Obama Is Not A Citizen Of The United States. Audience member: “Congressman Castle, I want to know. I have a birth certificate here from the United States of America saying I’m an American citizen, with a seal on it. Signed by a doctor, with a hospital administrator’s name, my parents, the date of birth, the time, the date. I want to go back to January 20th and I want to know why are you people ignoring his birth certificate? [Applause and cheers.] He is not an American citizen! He is a citizen of Kenya!” [Applause]

Oy. Here’s the video, if you can stomach it. Note that the Birther “lady” demands a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Also note how everyone in the audience shouts “under God” as loudly as possible.

My name is Rushymandias, king of all media:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Canadian IDiot Denyse O’Loony blames evolution for James von Brunn’s rampage at the Holocaust Museum. Figures. Denyse would blame evolution for a bad hair day.

Tags: BPSDB

(h/t, brendan)

Obama sure has brought out the worst in the wankersphere. We’re not even one year into Obama’s presidency, I’m already starting to run out of ideas for mental health breaks!

South Carolina General Assembly Bill S. 873

• The “mythical” Separation of Church and State applies to everyone, even atheists, so we will pass a law banning all religious thought from school except Christianity.

(h/t, PZ Myers)

“Shorter” concept created by Daniel Davies, perfected by Elton Beard and given a beneficial mutation by the fine folks at Sadly, No!
I am aware of all Internet tradtions.™

…or has the Toledo Blade been reduced to regurgitating Kevin Wirth/Jerry Bergman press releases?

Once again, the GOP lets petty partisan politics get in the way of saving lives:

Rove dismissed Obey’s proposals as “disturbing” and “laden with new spending programs.” He said the congressman was peddling a plan based on “deeply flawed assumptions.”

Like what?

Rove specifically complained that Obey’s proposal included “$462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations.”

This was wrong, the political operative charged, because the health care sector added jobs in 2008.

As bizarre as that criticism may sound — especially now — Rove’s argument was picked up by House and Senate Republicans, who made it an essential message in their attacks on the legislation. Even as Rove and his compatriots argued that a stimulus bill should include initiatives designed to shore-up and maintain any recovery, they consistently, and loudly, objected to spending money to address the potentially devastating economic impact of a major public health emergency.

Let me guess, Karl. No One Could Have Predicted™ that we’d actually need to spend money on preparing for a possible pandemic.

So who can we blame thank for this mess?

Famously, Maine Senator Susan Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: “Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not.”

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate’s version of the stimulus measure.

The Republicans essentially succeeded. The Senate version of the stimulus plan included no money whatsoever for pandemic preparedness. In the conference committee that reconciled the House and Senate plans, Obey and his allies succeeded in securing $50 million for improving information systems at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

But state and local governments, and the emergency services that would necessarily be on the frontlines in any effort to contain a pandemic, got nothing.

Thanks for nothing, Sen. Collins! I’m sensing a pattern here…

Although, to be fair to Sen. Collins, she’s not alone in bearing the blame for this debacle. The co-dependent cowards who call themselves Democrats continue to bend over backwards for the Republicans, bowing and scraping for the slightest bit of approval. And what do they get for their efforts every single time? The Republicans proceed to rip off the proffered arm and savagely sodomize the eunuchs with it!

Memo to the Dems: one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Think about it.

The Columbine Massacre turned 10 today. You know, the school shooting that Tom DeLay rushed to blame on the teaching of evolution, abortion birth control and women who dare to work outside the kitchen. Yeah. That one. The one that established the trend of conservatives blaming every single subsequent school shooting on this or that liberal policy. Expect such trends to continue into the future.