Liberal baloney

OK, this is the kind of thing that just pisses me off: the tendency for some liberals to go off all loopy and credulous. The perfect example is on Salon right now—an article that goes on at ridiculous length about the judgments of a physiognomist, a ditz who derives McCain’s economic policy from the shape of his nostrils, and Obama’s idealism from the breadth of his forehead. This is insane, and irritating, and stupid.

The one thing I dread with a Democratic victory is the ascendancy of navel-gazing crystal-healing New Age loons, without a shred of critical thinking.

I wonder who Marty Chalfie is voting for?

Seed and Scientists and Engineers for America are teaming up to promote a youtube challenge — they are collecting videos of scientists stating who they are voting for in the coming election. The first one up is Marty Chalfie, winner of the Nobel in Chemistry this year. Guess who he thinks should be president?

I suspect that the scientific establishment will be showing a profound liberal bias this year, largely because the scientific establishment tends to be pro-reality.

You don’t have to be a Nobelist — if you’re a scientist, record a youtube video of yourself, tag it with “aVoteForScience”, and you too can contribute.

Obama is…Hindu?

Wait until the wingnuts get this: Hindus are presenting Obama with a monkey-god idol.

The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms. An hour-long prayer meeting to sanctify the idol was earlier organised at Sankat Mochan Dham and by Congress leader Brijmohan Bhama, Balmiki Samaj and the temple’s priests. “Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him,” said Bhama.

And in other news, we have a lovely brass statue of the Buddha at our house, which I guess makes me a Buddhist, and we also have a stuffed cobra, which makes us Satanists. And we have a Bible or two, and a copy of the Koran, and somewhere I have a copy of some very pretty and colorful book the Hare Krishnas handed to me in an airport once. Since I also own a complete set of DVDs for both Buffy and Firefly, I must also be a devout Whedonist. I guess Obama and I have a plurality of gods to go up against the blinkered and benighted monotheists, then.

Whoa. Hitchens endorses Obama!

On politics, Hitchens and I rarely agree…but this time he and I are singing in harmony. Obama is not a perfect candidate by any means, but McCain/Palin are a national disgrace, and there’s only one way rational people can vote.

It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.

Throw all the rascals out, but be prepared to have to work hard to prod the Democrats into doing anything constructive with a majority.

Those crazy Brits

This is just the craziest thing I ever heard. Politics where you can actually have politicians who don’t believe in god, and where you can talk about removing the privileged status of religion from the legislative body, and where all the major political parties have organized representation by freethinkers? Yeah, and they also have gumdrop trees and rivers of chocolate and beer volcanoes, too, I bet. Where is this magical place? Middle Earth, maybe? Nah, it’s called England — which I could be persuaded is also a mythical fantasy land.

There is a great tradition of free thought in the Conservative Party. Many leading Conservative thinkers have not required religious belief or superstition to define their lives or their political views.

The creation of the Conservative Humanist Association means that all three major UK political Parties now have associations aligned with the British Humanist Association. We hope that all UK political parties will now recognise that the majority of our people want a more secular political system.

There is an opportunity for Conservatives – with our focus on individual freedom and choice – to create a real dynamic for change in our civil society.

Can you imagine a statement like that from either of our major American political parties?

How low will he sink?

I’m hanging out in the airport in Springfield, Missouri, and of course CNN is blaring on all the televisions. As is typical, it’s just one news story repeated and rehashed and gnawed over endlessly, but what is surprising is what the story is: John McCain is running a filthy, dirty, racist, hate-mongering campaign. Revere has a fine post pointing out the McCain Doctrine: all’s fair if it gets him elected.

Heck, you ought to read all of Revere’s posts in the Annals of McCain-Palin. And once you’ve felt enough disgust at this man, lighten it up with the latest Freethinker Sunday Sermonette, which this time around is an excellent example of satire.

Hannity pwned

This is truly a thing of beauty: Sean Hannity, after using the tawdry guilt-by-association gimmick against Barack Obama, gets the same thing done to him. Watch the man squirm in frustration!

Bonus! The clip is presented by Keith Olbermann!

Double bonus! It’s got Rachel Maddow commenting on it!

Super duper triple bonus! John Cleese sent in a poem about Hannity!

Ode to Sean Hannity
by John Cleese

Aping urbanity
Oozing with vanity
Plump as a manatee
Faking humanity
Journalistic calamity
Intellectual inanity
Fox Noise insanity
You’re a profanity
Hannity

Time for a group liberal smirk and swoon, everyone.

What are we, lepers?

Elizabeth Dole is continuing her campaign in North Carolina of smearing her opponent, Kay Hagan, for simply associating with atheists. We atheists are the “most vile, radical liberals in America,” out to wage war on Christmas and stock boy scout troops with homosexuals, and we actively support political candidates who are atheists. I know … how dare we.

I have a personal reason to be offended, however. The Dole ads cite endorsements by two atheists, FriendlyAtheist.com and DaylightAtheism.org. Now hang on…what’s so scary about the Friendly atheist? And Daylight Atheism sounds positively pleasant. Couldn’t they find one mean, cruel, truly frightening atheist to give a testimonial, like maybe one with an obscure and somewhat intimidatingly intellectual name?

Yeah, I’m feeling left out.

I will say anyway that if you live in North Carolina and you have an opportunity to vote for the open-minded and thoughtful Kay Hagan and against the Rovian slimebeast named Elizabeth Dole, please do so. If she’s got the endorsement of the Friendly Atheist and Daylight Atheism and even Pharyngula, you know she’s on the side of goodness and light.