Politics, Religion, Science, Sex

 and other stuff

 you don't talk about in polite company

         

Political                                                                   
Fall 2010 Update: OK , people are pissed off at the Democrats for not making everything right, right now. Guess what? Unlike the unrealistic world of immediate gratification it takes time to correct serious errors. Bush fucked up the economy with his "trickle-down economics" (didn't the Great Depression put an end to that myth?) and fucked up our  world status--not to mention the unnecessary deaths of our youth-- with his lies about WMD in Iraq; and we're still paying the price.

Now the tea baggers (how many Nazis and KKK are behind them?) and their cowering GOP supplicants are riling up the right-wing to defeat progress. Unfortunately, they might succeed. Not because people are so easily persuaded by right-wing propaganda, but because there are no immediate results on the economic front so they vote for those who promise relief. But they won't deliver anything but more profits for the rich and total neglect for the needy.

Health care reform is a plus. Why can't people see that? Oh, wait, it's the profit heavy insurance companies who can't see it and they have the money to convince everyone else health care isn't in their interest!

 

 The three worst presidents of recent times. Why?

Nixon: Vietnam, Kissinger, Watergate! Need I say more?

Reagan: dumb-as-shit, Iran-Contra fiasco, invaded Grenada, made the rich richer and the poor poorer with "Reaganonmics, " unnecessary military deaths in Lebanon... .

Bush: dumb-as-shit, IRAQ!!!

 

 

  
Support the ACLU! Click above to go to their website.

I don't agree with all their positions but who else is going to make sure this country never slips into a totalitarian religion-run fascist state?

 Support equal rights for ALL Americans!

 

Click on the flag to find out how.

 Support health care for all Americans!

Yea! The good guys won!!!!! but the assholes are trying to undo it!!

 

 

 

Click above for a spoof site!

 

 

Click above for another spoof site!
Science and Religion (see also favorite books--here)

 

 

Click above to go to a website supporting a rational way to view the world.

   The magazine for secular humanism. Free your mind--subscribe!
Another reasonable website. Humanist Society of Santa Barbara

Click to follow the link!

 

 

Click on the banner to go to their website.
Here I am getting Richard Dawkins to sign a copy of the "Greatest Show on Earth" yet another defense of evolution. Does evolution really need that much defending? It's as TRUE as the earth is round.    
Thinkers on politics, sex, science, and religion
Charles Darwin. Great Britain. Changed the way we look at the world and ourselves. We're just like the other animals--a product of evolution. It astounds me that there are still so many people in this country who don't accept that evolution is a FACT in spite of the overwhelming evidence. That this genius wasn't hung and his books burned is, I suppose, a testament to the fact that we are indeed evolving! Karl Marx. Germany. The first social scientist. He's on my list not because he was the "founder" of "Marxism," but because he developed a method by which to critique political society. "Marxism" as a political economy is doomed to failure because Marx didn't account for human nature as it is, as opposed to how he wished it was. But his methodology is able to expose the workings and motivations of capitalist society and for that we should be thankful. Marx also said religion is the opiate of the people--he got that one right! Michael Bakunin. Russia. Anarchist counterpoint to Marx. Criticized Marx for thinking the "worker's state" would wither away. He was right that once in power no one would readily give it up. However, he also was naive in thinking a stateless society could ever exist because he too was ignorant of the power of human nature. He is on my list because he applied the critique of political society to bourgeois AND "communist" society. He just didn't take it far enough. Oh, and he acknowledged the powerful nexus of church and state--humankind's two worst inventions.
Friedrich Nietzsche. Germany. He was critical of bourgeois morality and western religion. Figured out that Christianity, democracy, and socialism were essentially the same thing--playing to the lowest common denominator. Although a bit harsh in focusing on their "levelling" commonalities, this analysis is not really very far off track and offers yet another insight into the human condition that is still relevant. Emma Goldman. U.S.A. Deported to Russia for her anti-war views (WWI), Emma was an anarchist and a feminist who became disillusioned with the Soviet experiment and its conservative views toward women and sexuality. What did she expect? The Bolsheviks were as conservative as the Russian orthodox aristocracy they replaced when it came to women and sexuality. G.W.F. Hegel. Germany. Almost drove me crazy reading this guy in English translation. But you can't understand 19th century European philosophy or politics without understanding Hegel's notion of dialectics. You definitely won't understand Marx without having read Hegel. I see him as the primer for future 19th and 20th century thinking.

Richard Dawkins. Great Britain. Arguably the most influential evolutionary biologist since Darwin. His Selfish Gene elevated Darwin's concept of natural selection to new heights--led to "evolutionary psychology" and the ability to understand human behavior in a new light. The God Delusion was icing on the cake. However, I'm not taken by his "meme" theory--I'm still a materialist!

Click on his picture to go to his website.

 Stephen Hawking. Great Britain. Probably the greatest mind in physics since Einstein (I used to see him rolling round the UCSB campus several years ago!) His The Grand Design pretty much buries the concept of supernatural deities having any role in the creation of the universe!  
     

What do they all have in common? They challenged the status quo: QUESTION AUTHORITY!

Cartoons 
The true reason for religion in human life?

 

In local paper on 9-7-02

I think this guy's onto something!

 

In paper on 9-10-02
In local paper on 2-36-04 The dilemma of capitalism?

There is a middle ground--regulated capitalism!
Illustration of Political Correctness from the internet.
Quotes
YES! Like watching football, sleeping in, removing belly-button lint....

"One of the greatest tragedies in human history was the hijacking of morality by religion."

Arthur C. Clarke

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