...oh, and...

...there's little else to be said about this, other than that the man is absolutely right.

That would be me over there...

...in that poorly taken digital image. Or, at least, a reasonable facsimile of me. Whatever. Just so no one thinks I am somehow "hiding" from them. The glasses are actually welded on.

For RipStrike the Germanator:



...not, of course, a picture of me (although possibly less grotesque). What can I say? I thought it was funny. Fangs to The Onion and their hilarious, free archives.

An xtian nation?

I do so enjoy it when the Monotheistic Gestapo start harping and shrieking about how the United States is an xtian country founded upon xtian ideals and biblical law. One would think none of them has ever cracked open any book other than their precious bibles--although, frighteningly, I suppose that is quite possible.

"Whenever we read the obscene stories [of the Bible], the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the Word of God."

-Thomas Paine, who was a truly radical thinker in his time, and whose words carry much weight and wisdom today. Here's a good place to start reading up on him.

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

-Thomas Jefferson, and that day cannot come soon enough, old man. Bet he didn't think we'd still be dealing with the hysterical, superstitious bleatings of the "true believers" two hundred and thirty years later.

"The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy."

-George Washington. 'Nuff Said.

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity."

-Benjamin Franklin, who admittedly spent most of his life straddling the fence on religion, but what can you say? He was, first and foremost, a diplomat.

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

-James Madison. The addition of a couple hundred more years has produced only more of the same, along with a wholly modern "victim complex" on behalf of believers.

"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."

-from the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, signed by then-President John Adams.

Many thanks to the indomitable Betty Bowers for bringing these gems to my attention.

***

Shitlist:

The Pope, for sticking his silk-stockinged foot in his toothless maw, and by extension, each and every Muslim who registered their displeasure with being labeled savages by...well, acting like savages. Brilliant.

Never let it be said that I hate xtians alone--I firmly believe in the abolishment of all religions.