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To God or not to God; A Liberal Interpretation So Doc Collins beat me to the punch with his quote, mine would only be slightly different... "I am a scientist and a believer, and I find no conflict between those world views." Mine would read "I am a liberal and a believer, and I find an truth about enzyte acceptable conflict between those worlds." It is no secret that I have a belief in Christianity, nor is any secret that I have sinned many times, I voted for George as Governor and President, Jeb for Governor, and yes even for Poor George the 1st as president way back when, but hey, God forgives...can you? I found it fascinating to listen to Francis Collins, mapper of the Human Genome as he talked about his faith and his work. "As the director of the Human Genome Project, I have led a consortium of scientists to read out the 3.1 billion letters of the human genome, our own DNA instruction book. As a believer, I see DNA, the information molecule of all living things, as God's language, and the elegance and complexity of our own bodies and the rest of nature as a reflection of God's plan." Dr. Collins went on to juxtaposition his theolgical views with his "logical" views in a way that is rarely seen by men of great scientific wisdom, let alone we lowly liberalites. Make no mistake, I am not here to make converts or save souls, rather I am speaking about expanding one's inner liberal mind, if you will, to accept that "organized religion" and a "religious belief" have very, very little to do with each other. Make no bones about it, the single worst blow for Islaam was Osama bin Laden, and the single worst blow for Christianity has been George W. Bush. George the Extreme. George the drug addict. George the alcoholic. George the party man frat boy. George the arrogant. George the fool. And on the 40th year he arose from the blind and was born again. And he ascended unto the right hand of Dad, and did happily send young men to their deaths in foriegn heathenistic lands, and Dad saw and it was good. A particularly interesting view from Collins' statement was "Actually, I find no conflict here, and neither apparently do the 40 percent of working scientists who claim to be believers. Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things. But why couldn't this be God's plan for creation? True, this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer." Now I know that am block quoting an awful lot here, but I feel it is the only way that a few of my more staunch atheist amigos here will actually get to read this statement from a brilliant, "should be atheist", scientist. It is an excellent use of 2 minutes, so go ahead, indulge and read..but buyer be warned, there are truths ahead that may test the dogma of your atheism. I will close with a quote from G.K. Chesterstom, the British author who famously remarked posted by p_jordan_sr at 4/04/2007 08:45:00 PM 0 comments links to this post Have you ever had a weiner at your feet? I mean a cuddly, warm, well bred all American Hot Dog curled around your sore bunyuns at the end of the day? Well, I have and I do. My trademark insignia on my homepage, and my former icon here, both depict my faithful loverdog Cali as posed above. The most remarkable thing about this young girl is that at any given moment.... she could give less than two shits about our putrid handling of life, liberty, and world affairs. Ain't it great to be canine? I mean imagine...who could care if Iran "Iraqs" the Arab World? Or better yet, who gives a shit if "Sunni Arabia" controls the interests of the "Shiite Republic of What-the-F-Ever"??? Callous as this post may seem, it occurs to me that the United States of America, should quite possibly unite at some point, and the civil wars of antiquated, deposed, subserviant, bass-ackwards, Crusade surving nations might just need to take a back seat to the actual trials and tribulations of the real world here at home. Just a thought or two inspired by my weiner... Subscribe to this feed • Related Posts from Sphere • Add to del.icio.us • Technorati Links posted by p_jordan_sr at 3/30/2007 08:49:00 PM 0 comments links to this post QUESTION: How do you get billions of dollars in Pork? ANSWER: $50,000,000 at a time. A few years ago, $50,000,000 might have turned a few heads, but with today's lottery prize amounts, it might not even pay the taxes on them. Kinda like war statistics, there was a time when the words "four dead" could inspire pop stars of the time to write songs, but now those words simply reveal a bored newscasters revelation of a two day body count of US forces. But I digress. So, as I was perusing through H.R. 1591 on "Thomas", I know, I am really suffering from a social life, right?! No, actually it is my social life that drives to inquire beyond that which is readily given. In 1591's text are a description of all the proposed subjects and amounts of spending. Understand please, at the top of each page of 1591 read the following words "U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007 (Reported in House)", that is as of today, March 22, 2007. What is not written at the top of 1591, or anywhere else in its volumes, are the justifications and/or reasonings to include non-U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability items in an emergency bill titled such. There have been eloquent appraisals of this discrepancy from both sides of the aisle. John Carter (R), Texas, spoke of salmon, trees, shrimp, and housing subsidies in his rant as being important, yet irrelevant to the subject. On Wednesday the 21st, Patrick J. Murphy (D), Pa., put it best when he stood in support, yet with reservations While I applaud the bill for providing for our troops serving bravely in the field, the bill contains $20 billion for programs and projects not related to funding and equipping our troops. Making sure that our men and women in uniform are well equipped is too important for playing politics, and I am extremely disappointed that these extraneous provisions are included in the bill. So there it was, a three line quip about the Capitol Power Plant and $50,000,000. Now as I see it, this is the worst type of pig in the pen, the unhealthiest and fattest cut of pork, the 'salt-pork', if you will. Right there in black and white behind the one-liner that gives $165,000 to the widow of the late Rep. Charles Norwwod, (R) Ga., a part-time government employee since '95 gets an entitlement for his wife in an "emergency war bill"?!?!? But again, I digress, back to power plants. The Capitol Power Plant was built and bought for some 30 odd million early in the last century and has grown as a coal and steam power plant to provide services to the following facilities; • CAPITOL BUILDING An impressive clientel to be sure, and oh, did I mention the bill passed in 2004 that authorized the foriegn privatisation of this Power Plant? Hmmm, slipped my mind I guess. Anyway, the website of the Capitol Architect boasts Fiscal year 2003 marks the first time we are publicly reporting on our financial
And their emergency is what? Related to war how? Possibly just a good juicing up for yet another government sale to Dubai, or whomever the unmentioned foriegn interests are? And we trust who in Congress to keep the vigil? Many questions about more than three little piggies. Technorati Tags: H.R. 1591, Pork Spending, Iraq War Supplemental, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007,Patrick J. Murphy,John Carter Del.icio.us Tags: H.R. 1591, Pork Spending, Iraq War Supplemental, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007,Patrick J. Murphy,John Carter Flickr Tags: H.R. 1591, Pork Spending, Iraq War Supplemental, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007,Patrick J. Murphy,John Carter Furl Tags: H.R. 1591, Pork Spending, Iraq War Supplemental, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007,Patrick J. Murphy,John Carter Subscribe to this feed • Related Posts from Sphere • Add to del.icio.us • Technorati Links posted by p_jordan_sr at 3/23/2007 12:30:00 AM 0 comments links to this post There are two absolute truths in life, I have discovered. Behind every good man is a great woman, and behind every news story is the truth, sometimes way behind. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, (D) Ill., made a startling yet simple statement on the floor today. A statement that is probably going to fade from the forefront due to the media feeding frenzy of mainstream journalists tasting the blood of an impending doom over Attorney General "Gonzo's" expected short tenure. "Today, as we learn more about the Attorney General's failure of leadership, many are eager to debate the future of Attorney General Gonzales and whether he will remain in office. But as we examine how these U.S. Attorneys were fired, we must not lose sight of the real story. What is happening to these ongoing public corruption investigations, from southern California to Nevada to Arizona to New Mexico?" The plot thickens. So what about these "public corruption cases"? Where do we stand with this, and what exactly is Emanuel referring to? Well, I am so glad you asked! In an article headlined, “Bush Removal Ended Guam Investigation,” The Los Angeles times reported that “a U.S. grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.” With at least six prominent federal prosecutors recently removed from office, many of them managing large scale public corruption cases, many are wondering if history is not repeating itself. Oh, and that brings me around to my third absolute truth, history always stutters. ( I know I said two absolute truths at the beginning of this post, but ask anyone you know, things always happen in threes.) So what are these "stutters" actually? Well, Lilly goes on in his piece to describe the most prominent and known infractions as these... "Among those fired were Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney for San Diego, who last year won a conviction against Congressman Duke Cunningham (R-CA) in the biggest bribery conviction in history, and Paul Charlton of Arizona, whose office is investigating charges involving land deals and influence peddling against of Republican Congressman Rick Renzi (R-AZ). Also stepping down is the U.S. Attorney for Nevada, Daniel Bogden, whose office last year won corruption convictions against two Clark County, Nevada Commissioners and may be looking into campaign law violations by at least one member of the state’s Congressional delegation. Next door in New Mexico, David Iglesia is being asked to leave after winning convictions in the past year of two former New Mexico State Treasurers." Are we really still pandering to the defense on issues such as Abramoff and Cuningham? Is this administration in bed with the Mafia in Nevada? State Treasurers from one of the poorest infrastructure States in America? I for one intend to follow this story unfolding way, way far behind the hype. Possibly an even larger hype looms ahead? I think that the esteemed Representative from Illinois puts in all in perspective when closes his statement with these most eloquent and foreboding words "The fired U.S. Attorneys were aggressively investigating public corruption cases and they were fired ostensibly for job performance, which in this White House means you're guilty of doing your job. I don't suppose any of these U.S. Attorneys will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom award. Now that's great Snark! Subscribe to this feed • Related Posts from Sphere • Add to del.icio.us • Technorati Links posted by p_jordan_sr at 3/16/2007 10:03:00 PM 0 comments links to this post Rep. John Carter (R) of Texas, landed a stinger missle directly on target in session today. When discussing the House bill funding emergency war supplemental issues, the Honorable Mr. Carter stated with eloquence $60 million for the California and Oregon salmon fishery disaster of '06; $400 million for timber revenue program in Oregon; $400 million in low-income home energy assistance for State grants; $448 million unrequested funds for State children's health insurance programs, and; a half a billion dollars for wildfire management and suppression. Now, these are valuable projects, but they don't belong in an emergency war supplemental. They appear to be nothing more than an attempt to buy votes at the expense of our soldiers in the war on terror. The supplemental is meant to be an emergency troop funding vehicle and there is no excuse for $20 billion worth of pork in that supplemental. A State fishery program in an emergency war supplement |