Philosophy, politics, and religion from behind the bar.

Harry Manx covers JJ Cale's Tijuana Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues Eric Lindell, Uncle John Eric Lindell, Give it Time Casanova                                                   Sitting on Top of the World Just a couple of guys I got lucky enough to have Suziema bring their CDs home when I'd never heard of them before. Pretty amazing stuff. Well, to me. I hope you like them.

 The entire thread can be found here . We survived Bush. You will survive Obama. How is assuming all Republican voters are evil or ignorant any different than when Republican voters assume all Democrat voters are drug riddled, welfare mooching, baby killers? It's become far too easy and, to a more disturbing trend, socially acceptable to vilify individuals for disagreeing about politics. Alex McDowell Anti-science, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-peace, anti-education, anti-Americans, anti-progress, anti-environnment. Pro-gun, pro-slavery (both outsourcing jobs, and the private prison/slave industry in our own country), pro-theft, pro-racist, pro-propagandist, pro-lying, pro-bullying, pro-theocracy, pro-plutocracy. Hell, I'm forgetting quite a few...Yeah that's no false equivalency you got going there. I didn't even mention a party name. Do you know which one I'm talking about? And further down...: Alex McDowell We survived Bush...

  You're not serious. You will never pass this monstrosity of a law. It defies all justice, all logic, all reason. I know you have a few whacked out people that think you're serious. But seriously...    Words escape me. But I'm grateful there's this blogger who doesn't suffer the same malady. Stonekettle Station puts it all in perspective. Just for you, Arizona. God Damn. Arizona. Goddam. Go to the link. Really. Worth it. "Legalizing discrimination is the entire purpose of SB 1062, it has no other provisions. The law clearly and unambiguously allows businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers based solely on sexual orientation (or suspected orientation), it specifically protects employers who deny equal pay to women based solely on their gender if they believe women are inferior on religious grounds, it allows employers to fire employees based solely on their sexual orientation or lifestyle or religion or lack of religion, and it allows...

Not that NRA. The one for gun nuts. (Not that they aren't). The other NRA. The one that affects over 15 million workers, and by extension, all of us. I've said it before, and I repeat it now. These guys are bad for us. All of us. And here's a piece of why, and how: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-simon/national-restaurant-association-policies_b_4782261.html?utm_hp_ref=restaurants Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Oh) has a thing or two to tell the NRA: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/minimum-wage-raise_n_4775518.html?utm_hp_ref=restaurants Support the Restaurant Opportunities Center United Trailer for the movie Where's My Food?. I have a friend that's in it! Paul Paz, star of stage and screen. And the rubber chicken circuit. And their Facebook page. The ROC points out the many evils of the National Restaurant Association. NRA HATES WORKERS If all of that isn’t enough evil-doing, the NRA’s main agenda is to keep workers down by spreading fear...

  I've heard (or read) a lot on the web from people that want to "take our country back". From the right AND the left. Some want to take to the streets, some want armed insurrection, some want to impeach the president. There are environmentalists, lefties, communists, fascists, religious fundamentalists, libertarians, corporatists, anti-immigrants, pro-immigrants, for and against Sharia law, whatever cause or paranoia floats your boat at any given time.   We have a system that allows, or, in fact, demands that we have a revolution constantly. We vote, we argue, we use our free speech rights. There is no doubt that there are abuses in that system. Citizens United comes to mind. Fox News and talk radio. Pulpits. The Teabag Party. Liars and manipulators with an agenda other than what they claim, and not in the national interest.   We need to point these out in the strongest possible rational and ethical and moral terms.   But to have a violent uprising, or to use...

Quick 10 question quiz to tell if your religious liberties are being threatened. Funny thing. Not only is this NOT a Christian nation, founded on Christian principals, with a Constitution inspired by the word of the Christian god. The funny part? Christianity itself isn't even based on its own god myths. Every last piece of it, robbed from other religions, cultures, and traditions. It all starts in the fourth century with Constantine, through conquest. And has evolved since then. And now we get Tom Delay, ex-con saying this: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/20/tom-delay-people-keep-forgetting-that-god-wrote-the-constitution/ Not that he's the first person to say it. Not by a long shot. Hey, "Hammer"! Please give one single piece of evidence that the Constitution has anything to do with religion, god (or gods), and your Christian bible. Anything? Anything at all? Where in the Bible was voting? A bicameral legislative body? Jury of your peers? We weren't...

May show some promise: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/02/20/god-and-cosmology-debate-with-w-l-craig/ Tune in. Honestly, a little dry and over my head... My eyes glazed over. I'm going to wait for the highlight reel. Even the post debate wrap-up is out of my league. But for the curious, here's Sean Carroll's take on his own performance: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/02/24/post-debate-reflections/

 I don't know why. Her fifteen minutes of fame are just about up. But she offers up this nugget, and I could not resist. She may hang in for awhile. Not relevant, but still crazy as all get out. Watch this space. Obama only won because of white guilt: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michele-bachmann-obama-white-guilt When she ran for president, did she only get votes from fans of John Wayne...um...Gacy? One would think. She falls right off the turnip truck, and lands on her frigging head. Hard . She's not too pleased with American Jews for voting against her End Times fantasy. She knows what's best for the Jews in this country. And that's toeing the line for her GOP. And they just hurt her vision for what Israel stands for... Really: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/04/michele-bachmann-jewsplains-to-u-s-jews-that-they-are-buzzkilling-her-end-times-dream-date/ You would think even she would be smart enough to keep these thoughts to herself. Maybe not...

"Their pastor, Nelson Clark, has said the Schaibles lost their sons because of a “spiritual lack” in their lives and insisted they would not seek medical care even if another child appeared near death." http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/faith-healing-parents-get-prison-sons-death-n33921 "Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner told Herbert and Catherine Schaible on Wednesday that it wasn't 8-month-old Brandon's time to die. He said: "You've killed two of your children... not God, not your church, not religious devotion -- you."" Wrong, Judge Lerner. We have precedence. These people had to get the idea from somewhere. And what's more dangerous to society? These two idiots, or the people that put this idiotic idea in their heads? I'm pretty sure this preacher still holds to his belief, and still preaches it. And some people are going to listen. Why were we able to target Bin Laden who only planned his at...

This is truly amazing. I wonder how much of this was predicted BEFORE the reintroduction of the wolves? And if not, how can we start to believe in "free will"? Another offshoot, I know, but how do we "decide" things other than by pure chance, since we almost never know the consequences? What does this say about game theory? International affairs? Markets? All it does is to reinforce my faith in Prufrock... http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-wolves-change-rivers/

   $10.10 is the best deal employers could possibly ask for. Considering that this comes nowhere near to raising the minimum to what it would be if it kept pace with inflation, much less productivity, and the ratio to CEO pay.   And they won't take it. And the poor will slip deeper into poverty. The wealthy will scream bloody murder at ANY raise. They'll still claim that they're entitled to whatever they've been able to steal. And, eventually, they will have to kill off the whole idea of capitalism, democracy, and society. And the revolution would be their fault. http://realitybyalex.blogspot.com/2013/07/capitalism-will-die-by-its-own-hand.html

     http://progressivepopulist.org/2014/02/15/racist-preacher-calls-mixed-marriages-communism-right-mulatto-children-video/    Let's leave Westboro Baptists out of this. I think we can agree that EVERYONE has a problem with them.    But, I notice a lot of religious types that keep blaming secular/atheist people on the web of painting them in a bad light by showing extreme examples of people that don't follow their faith in the same way they do. It's not up to us to decide which of your medieval fantasies are the "real" ones.    If you have a problem with the way your religion looks because some would choose to follow your holy texts a bit closer to the fundamentals written in the texts it's not our fault for pointing them out. If you think a TV or radio preacher is outrageous and embarrassing your faith, don't tell us. He's your problem. Tell him .   And to my atheist/secular/humanist friends, when you post this sort of t...

Okay. Already been through this. What do we call a "base"? Are the numbers right? Whatever. We have a shitload of troops stationed in a lot of questionable places, protecting who knows what for whatever purpose. We're projecting power and terror in a lot of the world that may or may not want us to. By what right? And at what cost? Not only to our budget, our morale, and the lives we put at risk, but to our history, to our moral justification, to the standards we claim we uphold?

  http://www.examiner.com/article/report-sarah-palin-planning-a-possible-2016-presidential-run   We're going to see a lot of these articles in the next year and a half guessing that Sarah Palin is going to run for this or that office. If she ran for President, that would be a liberal Democratic dream.     I hate to overstate the obvious, but everyone with any bit of sense in their head already knows this:   She is not going to run for anything. She's going to fake a little of this or that and try to keep her name in the news, and dangle the bait for a rabid press and fan base, but she's not going to run for anything. She knows where the money is. And that's all she's doing. As long as someone, somewhere keeps thinking that she might run, she's going to rake in the cash from the yahoos and keep speaking gigs that feed the yahoos who keep feeding her cash and speaking gigs and get the yahoos exited enough to keep feeding her money and speaking gigs to.....

Just #1 with racists. From a thread on facebook's Fox Nation on the cost of Michelle Obama's dress for the State Dinner at the White House honoring the President of France. These were just a few samples of hundreds. Most dealing with the supposed size of  FLOTUS's "backside", and porcine or simian appearance. Oh yeah, lots of comments about her "lack of class". Irony.... Brian Tardivo Monkey in a dress Peter J. D'Arruda Ugly big butted dress... Bryan Miller She dont care , ghetto princess. James Wesley Donahoo Damn!Thats what a pig in a blanket looks like.LOL Todd Young Coulda dug 120 wells in Kenya Judy Talluto Kee Ugly------looks like a buck teeth gorilla. She thinks she cute Marc Frey Doubt she bought it. Borrowed or stolen....ok product placement add. Steven Howe Look at that pig in a blanket Elizabeth Landry Hollier William R. Billotte that would be big fat black ass & that's just one side to left of crack M...