This is why we had to have the change we've had in government. America can't go forward in any honest way if the facts are being kept from the American people.
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 1, 11:43 PM ET
[OPEN QUOTE] In February, House Science Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and other congressional leaders asked NASA to guarantee scientific openness. They complained that a public affairs officer changed or filtered information on global warming and the Big Bang.
The officer, George Deutsch, a political appointee, had resigned after being accused of trying to limit reporters' access to James Hansen, a prominent NASA climate scientist, and insisting that a Web designer insert the word "theory" with any mention of the Big Bang.
A report last month in the scientific journal Nature claimed administrators at the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration blocked the release of a report that linked hurricane strength and frequency to global warming. Hansen had said in February that NOAA has tried to prevent researchers working on global climate change from speaking freely about their work.
NOAA has denied the allegations, saying its work is not politically motivated. [CLOSE QUOTE]
GODLESS’S ANN COULTER
(Haggard, skinny and pinch-faced—look at the frown lines between the eyes, the heavy partying bags under the eyes? Way too young for that. Cover either of her eyes, and stare into the single eye glaring back at you. Lot of anger in that face. Wonder what lies in her past, what happened to her to make her so unattractive to herself and, thus, to others. You can see why conservative men find that look attractive. Her face reminds me of the faces of dominatrices.) (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)Twice in the last couple of months, I’ve come across people reading Ann Coulter’s book, Godless. One I can guarantee is several dogs short of a sled team. The other seemed an entirely harmless religious bumbler who was buying a used book from the store where I sell used books to help support the library.
Still, something about the title bothered me. What was it? Why did it get under my skin! Then I realized what it was. Coulter is using that title as a curse, as if there is something wrong, in America, with not believing as she believes. Someone ought to explain to her that, in America, every citizen has the right to believe or unbelieve as he or she pleases. Coulter’s viscious attacks on people who don’t believe as she does prove that she doesn’t understand a basic American premise about freedom of belief in this country. If, according to American law, all people are guaranteed freedom of conscience, then those whose beliefs are different from hers are not unlawful believers, open to contempt, but perfectly legitimate, law-abiding honorable citizens. So what’s wrong with being godless in America? Eh?
Coulter is probably one of those who put their Bible above the Constitution and their religion above their country. So, if moderate American religionists wonder why we of a different belief keep defending ourselves against Xtians like Ann, all they have to do is understand what a danger people like Ann Coulter are to basic American protections and to us. For if they put the Bible above the Constitution and their religion above their citizenship, then, you can see, that they have no respect for the Bill of Rights which they believe is subordinate to their personal belief system as expressed in their book of fairytales. They would, if given half a chance, dispense with Constitutional protections that prevent one religion’s dominating all other religions.
2 comments:
You have written in anger over the years, and I sincerly congratulate you on achieving your political goal, and I wish that it will decrease some of the bitterness in your heart and restore some belief in a system that was never broken.
As a Republican I am surprised the win wasn't larger. We will try to be a loyal opposition, with fair play and faith in the benefits of open debate. I sincerely enjoyed the following website essay and hope you do too.
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000136.html
I do enjoy the things you copy and paste.
I do not know who anonymous is, but I thank him/her for the restrained and civil response to my posts. Look, I know that I could (and did in the past) get behind moderate conservatives. I'm for balanced budgets as long as they aren't balanced on the shoulders of those less fortunate than me. I'm for separation of church and state as moderate Republicans in the past understood it. I'm for limiting power to the powerful, whether they be political or financial powers, but not for limited government while financial power runs roughshod over the rest of us.
There's a balance in all of this, but we can't have balance as long as fundamentalists, who are by definition not for balance and reason, control any one party. Balance calls for some admission that one might be wrong, that there is not only one right way.
I've been wrong plenty in my own life so there's my admission. I recall the days when moderate Republicans abounded. They were called Romney and Rockeller. Where'd all those men go? I could see Dems forging all sorts of compromise positions with men and women like them. The worst thing that has happened to this country and its ability to meet and overcome its problems is the fundamentalist takeover of the Republican Party which has divided our nation in very damaging ways.
Let me be honest. For the first time in six years, I feel as if a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I'm already sleeping better (I mean that literally), and it's not the Republican Party I feared. It's the fundamentalists who control that Party I fear. Just honestly look at history. Whenever any sort of idealistic fundamentalism (Nazism, Communism, any sort of theocracy) gets into power, the average citizen, like me and you, find ourselves in prisons and jails and courthouses if we are in a party or belief system that is at odds with the dominant power. Idealists just aren't very nice when they have power. They're okay when the come up with ideas and when they inspire us to better action, but when they get power, all holy hell breaks out!
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