Month: August 2008

McCain's creationist running mate

Michael Koppelman, , 1 Comment

The Minnesota Independent has a fairly damning summary of Sarah Palin. The worst part is she seems to favor teaching creationism along side evolution:

The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor’s race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state’s public classrooms.

Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night’s televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, ‘Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.’

She later clarified to say “…she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state’s required curriculum.”

She’s pro-life, pro-drilling-in-ANWR and she “invokes God in every decision she makes”.

I’m glad McCain chose a woman and I’m not going to condemn her myself until I learn more. But so far it does not look good.

McCain's creationist running mate

President 2.0

Michael Koppelman, Leave a comment

I think this is a great ticket. Obama got where he is because he is smart and well-spoken. Biden is where he is because he rose to prominence in the Senate. I’ve heard people joke about how this should be the Biden-Obama ticket. That would be fine too.

When I think about what the most important criteria is, for me, when it comes to choosing a presidential candidate, it’s intelligence and honesty. I want to know the person is really smart and has really good judgement and will be honest with the American people. I will forgive almost any failure if I think this is true. It’s why I think Jimmy Carter was a great president, for example. I will accept failure if it is honest failure. I think Clinton was a great president for the same reasons: he as really smart and he wasn’t afraid to be honest with us. I still recall a debate where he answered a question by a doctor and he said “I’m gonna raise your taxes.” He did not try to hide that and his honesty was refreshing. (As an aside, Slick Willy was not necessarily honest in all regards and I do not give him a free pass for that, per se.) I even liked John McCain in those times that he was boldly honest. I’m seeing less and less of that McCain.

So Obama, to me, has the two most important qualities. He’s really smart and he’s not just blowing smoke up our asses. We’ll have a good-faith problem solver at the helm. That alone is a major, huge, gigantic, colossal, phenomenally large difference compared to Bush. In the intelligence/honesty department I think McCain is also an improvement over Bush. He is nowhere near as smart as Obama, though, plus he’s old, which slows down the processor a bit. He’s also been caught famously lying, like in regards to the rebel flag issue. He came clean, which I respected, but he lied about it in the first place.

Biden is really a great man. He is a liability politically because of his long voting record and the fact that he is an East Coast Liberal. We’ll be hearing all sorts of horror stories about what Biden has voted for (and against). But he is a solid guy with a solid reputation in the Senate and I love that he is boldly outspoken.

So Obama is better than McCain and way, way better than Bush and Biden is way, way better than Cheney. We have a chance to significantly upgrade our executive branch. President 2.0. Let’s do it!

President 2.0

Abortion is not murder

Michael Koppelman26 Comments

Murder is the unlawful killing of a person. Fertilized eggs are not people. Thus abortion is not murder. Q.E.D.

I don’t understand at all why people believe so strongly that abortion is murder. At conception we are talking about a single celled organism. How can such a thing have civil rights? I think religion leads people to this weird view: they think God must stuff a soul in there at the moment of conception.

Let me be clear: I hold human life to be “sacred”, in a secular sense. I think personhood is the very pinnacle of our civil rights. I think we should guard human life very carefully and make certain people are not unlawfully denied the right to life, from which all other rights follow.

That is why I can’t understand people who feel so strongly for human life that they use it as their sole criterion when electing a President and yet they ignore Darfur and Iraq, not to mention good ol’ poverty, which have taken the lives of millions of people.

If you think human life is sacred, why the fuck are you so willing to kill people?

Abortion is not murder

True Christians

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

From an interesting article at People for the American Way (via The Minnesota Independent)

“Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden sends a clear message, true Christians need not apply in the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. “Instead of picking a true Christian, Obama, a fake evangelical, has selected Biden, a fake Catholic.”

The CADC proclaims its mission is to “advance religious liberty for Christians by protecting Christians from defamation, discrimination, and bigotry from any and all sources,” but that apparently doesn’t apply to those it considers “fake” Christians such as Obama and Biden. It might seem odd that an organization founded to protect Christians from defamation would among the most frequently and vocally defaming Obama’s faith, but only if you don’t understand that Cass’s mission is reserved solely for those he deems “true Christians” who have proven their faith via “actions and [holding] the beliefs personified by all of us who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Savior: the need to be re-born in Christ and the affirmation of historic Christianity, having a demonstrable and proven record of support for traditional Christian morality.”

It’s hilarious that an organization with the words “Christian Anti-Defamation” in their name would defame the Christian faith of Obama and Biden.

I’m an atheist but I’ve read the New Testament several times, back when I was a Catholic, and these “true Christians” seem to me like the people who Jesus would rightly reject as hypocrites.

Beware of people who tell you what God wants. They are always delusional or liars.

True Christians

Dear Clinton supporters: get over it!

Michael Koppelman, 1 Comment

Lord knows WTF the problem is with supporters of Hillary Clinton. Your candidate dropped out of the race! Obama was never disrespectful to Clinton. Get over yourselves.

“Touchy, touchy, feely, feely,” said Rick Stafford, a superdelegate and a leader of Clinton’s Minnesota campaign, of the purpose of the late-night meeting. “People need to express their feelings one more time.”…Still, hundreds of Clinton supporters want to voice their support one more time for their candidate, and there are emotionally compelling events that will almost ensure she’ll get substantial first-ballot support

Via MinnPost.

Dear Clinton supporters: get over it!

Who cares if McCain is richer than God?

Michael Koppelman, , 3 Comments

I do. I care because the rat-bastard Republicans are trying to make Obama look like an elitist. McCain could buy Obama 100 times over. McCain doesn’t know how many houses he has! If the rat-bastard Republicans want to stop this utter inane nonsense about how Obama is an elitist, we can just let this issue drop. Otherwise McCain should expect a lot of questions about his extreme fucking wealth.

Republicans are the fucking kings of double-standards. They gave Kerry shit for being out of touch with common people because of his wealth. But does that apply to McCain? Of course not!

Who cares if McCain is richer than God?

Obama and Iraq

Michael Koppelman, , 8 Comments

Iraq is a mess. If things improve and Iraqis get their country under control and implement peaceful, representative, secular government no one will be happier than me. I have never had the goal of watching Bush and his administration fail. Even if Iraq does improve and stabilize, it will not in any way excuse Bush of the major mistakes and the major unnecessary loss of life in Iraq.

What’s funny, though, is that Bush sent the bull in the China shop and now people are hard as hell on Obama, as if he should alone have all the answers and make all the right predictions about Iraq. It’s obvious to everyone, McCain included, I think, that it is time to get out of Iraq. Obama has suggested a policy of a reasoned withdrawal. This is a view that many, many people share. I believe the Iraqis themselves are suggesting it. Said the Obama camp:

“It is hard to understand how Sen. McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

If Obama is elected President he will be inheriting Bush’s mess and it may not go 100% smoothly. Given how unsmoothly it has gone so far, and how tolerant the Right has been with it, I’m sure they will be very supportive and tolerant of Obama’s efforts.

Yeah right.

Obama and Iraq

Coleman's hatchet job on Franken

Michael KoppelmanLeave a comment

Coleman is running the same ad over and over with some angry old lady Democrat saying that Franken is a bad, bad man because he said off color things in his career as a comedian.

I have no respect for Coleman. But, c’mon, man, is that the best you’ve got? There is not a single mention of an issue nor a single mention of a quality or position of Coleman in the ad. It’s just a half-ass hatchet job of Franken based on something we all know — he was a comedy writer and satirist. Then Coleman says “I approve this message” at the end. What a hack.

The Franken ad I see playing over and over talks about things Franken has done and never mentions Coleman. In fact, he has a Republican from Texas endorsing him.

Franken will be 100 times the Senator that Coleman has been. I think we actually have an opportunity to have a Wellstone-like Senator in Franken and I support him completely.

Coleman's hatchet job on Franken

The real lesson of the Westboro Baptist Church

Michael Koppelman2 Comments

Here’s the deal — almost every thinking person thinks the Westboro Baptist Church is completely full of shit. They are evil, intolerant little fucks who put words into God’s mouth and act as if they have the complete and utter backing of the most supreme being in the universe, even as they spread hate and intolerance throughout the nation.

The problem is — they are no different from any other religious sect. ALL OF THEM make assumptions about what God wants and what God likes and doesn’t like. I don’t believe that any of you know what God wants. I don’t believe that any of you have some direct line of communication to God and I don’t believe that an ancient, tortured text like the Bible includes the true word of God in any way, shape or form.

So religion is arbitrary. It’s made up.

Now if you take as your initial premise that there is a God and that he did create and does interact with us pitiful humans, things get complicated. If you pull this initial premise out of your ass, it changes how you think about this stuff. You are assuming there is truth and you need to find those things which support it. You pick and choose from the Bible and make your own cafeteria-style faith based on your intuitions. It’s still just as arbitrary as the Westboro Baptist Church.

People accuse atheists of being moral relativists, but really it is religious people who invent a confused and contradictory morality out of thin air. This is why we have extremist Islam, fag-hating Christians and cults like the Mormons who have sex with minors and systematically abuse women.

Yes, many religious people are good people and many religious organization do good things in the world. But it’s all based on a house of cards and a fictional God and we are right to reject it.

The real lesson of the Westboro Baptist Church

Stillwater's embarrassing representative

Michael Koppelman, , 12 Comments

Rep. Michele Bachmann is just not very smart. She’s also an evil See You Next Tuesday but this post is about the former, her utter lack of intelligence.

The Minnesota Independent is reporting that Bachmann slams Democrats for not passing a bill for a tax credit for solar and wind energy. The funny part — she voted against it! The other funny part, such a bill did pass!

Please, Stillwater, MN, get rid of this embarrassing, retarded and evil woman and elect someone sensible to represent you.

Stillwater's embarrassing representative