Religulous: Excellent film! I highly recommend it!

Bob and I saw this last night and Bill Maher nails it on so many lelvels. This is definitely one movie I will be buying when it comes out on DVD!

He's "run the good race" and now the good-bye... its about time! (Rev. Gov. Huckabee)

Rev. Gov. Huckabee:

• So long
• farewell
• auf wiedersehen
• goodbye

(A nice British rendering)

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My feelings on the matter are best expressed by the great Doxology

This is known to some as "All people who on earth do dwell" or "The old 100th."
This particular setting is by the great Ralph Vaughn Williams who was actually rather a-religious. None the less, I think it stands as one of the finest works of sacred music ever, and one of my happiest memories from my time at the Seminary was getting to be in a choir which sang this piece.

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A touching almost sensual Russian version

A site and podcast for ya'll & youse guys, "Reasonable Doubts- Your skeptical guide to religion"

The blog/site is doubtreligion.blogspot.com and I highly commend it.

I came across this on a great site to which I go often, archive.org It has a collection of all sorts of media (print, video, audio, photographic) which is freely available and freely usable, usually under the "creative commons license." Were I to go into the details and history of the "open source software / shared knowledge" movement, I'd put the makers of sominex out of business and crash PaN's page stats, but suffice to say, if you're a free thinking libertarian, classical Jeffersonian Liberal type, you ought to know about this, and you will love it. The most famous outgrowth of this is the operating system LINUX, which totally blows Windows away in security, functionality, quality of code, etc.

This is Episode 4 on the separation of church & state (maybe this'll explain us yanks to ya Val... or maybe you should just drink a black and tan and give up, *grin*) which is described thusly by the authors/bloggers:

Join us for a discussion with Eddie Tabash current chair of the national legal committee of Americans United for separation of Church and State as well as the Council for Secular Humanism's First Amendment Task Force. In addition to his better known role as an official campaign speaker and debater for numerous presidential candidates (including Bill Clinton & Jimmy Carter) Tabash is also a professional counter-apologist having debated such world famous Christian philosophers as: Peter van Inwagen, Greg Bahnsen, William Lane Craig and Richard Swinburne on the existence of God. In an extended interview, Tabash discusses a wide-range of topics: from disarming the arguments of Christian philosophers to the "unholy alliance" between the religious right and the postmodern academic left. The show concludes with a disturbing glimpse at the difference just one Supreme Court justice could make for American secularists...and the very real possibility that we may be on the verge of a theocratic America.

Click the play button below to listen, or go to the blog page for this episode.

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Interestingly they talk of Barna's research... when I was of the Borg, Barna was the great oracle.

More flatus- For whom would Jesus vote ? / A website ya'll'd probably like- www.rightwingwatch.org

The flatus (on Jesus' voting preferences) from http://christiannewswire.com/news/779825576.html ...

SOUTHFIELD, Michigan, Feb. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- In preparation for key upcoming elections, William H. Carney has written a unique preparation guide, How Would Jesus Vote?, published by Creation House, a division of Strang Communications.

Carney starts off by asking a simple question: "If Jesus were a United States citizen, having all the legal rights and responsibilities of voting, according to what standards would he vote?" Carney delicately weaves through ten tumultuous topics, including taxes, same sex marriage, and war and national defense.

What comes through loud and clear in these 61 pages is Carney's passion to help readers not be swayed "by the economy, the media, the current popular opinion, or what is seemingly correct." In discussing each topic, he encourages readers to "not sit outside the political arena." To that end, he arms them with wonderful insight with biblical backing to reveal the truth of how Jesus would vote on each topic.

Concerning abortion, he notes, "It is clearly Satan's agenda manifested in the earth." Cleary, that can be said of any of the topics, particularly prayer in the schools. He writes on that topic: "The major issue with our school system is the government-forced removal of God from our schools. If you add that to the government-endorsed introduction of the 'religion' call Humanism … then you can see why evils like teen pregnancy and violence have increased greatly in our school."

Taking How Would Jesus Vote? to the polls will arm readers with the ability to vote correctly on each issue and turn the tide on humanistic agendas.

For more information on "How Would Jesus Vote?, including book orders, contact HWJV, LLC at 734.345-4281 or visit http://www.hwjv.net.

I found out about this via www.rightwingwatch.org

My response can best be expressed by this cartoon I made for my multiply blog, and is now one of the "required reading" items for people wanting to join the "whygod" seminar and support group my wife and I cohost there.

Be still my heaving stomach- A memo to Ms. Clinton, Rev. Huckabee, and all other preachers and politicians

I tried very hard to find a video clip of this... the words and setting and blatent mixing of church and state are bad enough, but her phony affected delivery of these lines was just stunning in its audacity!

At a historic African American church in Harlem she said

“Faith without works is dead - But works without faith is just too hard.”

To read more about this, go to this AP story, from which I also linked the picture.

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A bit of historical background for the next phase of this rant. You've heard the Press referred to as the 4th Estate, and might have wondered what the other three were? The Wiki Article on the 4th Estate describes the situation aptly and succintly:

Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made this observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estate General'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred clergy. The Second Estate, three hundred nobles. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.'"

Therefor, I would put forth this modest proposal... to be adopted unilaterally and universally because I say so, I'm right, and I'm royally sick of politicians preaching and preachers politicking!

Let it be resolved that effective immediately, Monday January 21st at 12:32 AM Greenwich Mean Time in the year 2008 AD and forever henceforth that...

1. The first estate (clergy) shall lie about God
2. The second estate (nobles... extended to government officials and elected officials) shall lie about government
3. The third estate (commoners- ie, us) shall lie about our weight, age, and sexual practices and other matters personal and really no business of anyone else anyway
   
4. The forth estate (the press) shall lie about everything.

OK, can we keep that straight now

people? Sheesh!