The Tuesday Link Rodeo Officical Graphic

Welcome one and all to Tuesday Link Rodeo! This is where I, link to what I feel is the most interesting blog posts written today.

In this post from Reason Magazine’s Hit and Run, we find that Britian has established special Sharia courts to settle cases between Muslims. The Reason piece is largely comentarty about this blog post at the GW Patriot blog. While because there is established Religion in the UK, this is not illegal, it is incredibly dumb to create separate court systems for people of various religions.

From Orac at Scienceblogs‘ Respectful Insolence we have a story about a scientific study. This study answers that age old scientific mystery that has plagued scientists since Newton’s day… Oh wait this study is about what turns people on more, the sound of an economy car or a supercar. I just hope that this wasn’t paid for by the tax payers of some country…

The next and final link is to The Agitator’s Radley Balko. This post calls out two of the main things that get on my nerves (updated to make coherent) 1. the idea that the federal government through the current crop of incompetents running for the Office of President of the United States are running for the job of your personal savior (Thats Mr. Dobbs‘ job) and the only hope for this country is them. 2. The federal government will make everything better.

To make any people that are upset about there only being three stories happy, here are some videos of Jethro Tull performing.

These videos are a record of a more inocent age when one didn’t have to spit out pointless meaningless dribble like the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana (WARNING: these links play bubblegum pop automatically, and are only included for those that like me are over the age of 14 and thus who don’t know what the hell a Jonas brother is. (Well, I guess if one assumes that preteen girls have parents, this statement would probably be wrong.)) to be popular musically. (Can you imagine an album like Aqualung making number 7 on the charts today? (Or even getting published by a major label)

Live blogging!!!
This is going to be the first day in which I will watch the coverage of the Republican Convention. Although I do support the Republican party because it is somewhat of the lesser of two evils, because it at least gives lip service to being anti tax, and anti government spending, I severely dislike both major American political parties. I mean look at both parties over the last few years. The Democrats are slowly mirroring the Republicans on foreign policy and national security policy. The Republicans are moving towards the democrats on spending, just as fast. The result will eventually be two nearly identical parties, that they might as well merge.

And now, my almost nearly live bloging:

Meg Whitman: (former Ebay CEO)

Speech mostly about stuff I care about. Lower taxes, simplify tax code, lower government spending. Typical Republican stuff but how serious is McCain about this? Remember, this is from the party of Star Wars, the 600 Ship navy, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Carly Fiorina: (Former CEO of Hewlett Packard)

Former CEO night continues, but this is a general mixed speech. Continues themes of lower taxes, and simpler tax code. While this speech was just a sampler, with no meat given to any one issue, there were two main themes, one was that Fiorina had met John McCain, (Would anyone endorse a politician that they didn’t meet?) and the other was the support our troops / McCain is a national hero stuff that one has come to expect from the Republicans.

(UPDATE: In an MSNBC interview Fiorina repeated her claims that attacks on Palin’s competency are sexist)

Mit Romney:

First off, this was the big nationalistic speech, which was interrupted by shouts of USA! USA! twice. but first I have a correction for Romney, it is conservative to rule in favor of Guantanamo detainees (As in conserving that the constitution applies to everybody the US has jurisdiction over). Romney made a few good points like receiving welfare limiting a person’s initiative, but come on who is going to believe that Mit Romney isn’t part of the Eastern Establishment. (Update) “Providence of the Almighty” opens the door to other religions…

Huckabee:

More nationalism and support our troops / veterens. Huckabee is a very good speaker In my opinion, and better than Romney’s cardboard cutout performance. I was surpirsed that Huckabee didn’t go into religious subjects more. In a sane country, the story about the desks would have no place in a national election. Decent speech, continues the low taxes thing. Huckabee made a point about the difference between Republicans and Democrats, in that Democrats believe that the government is the only one that could help people, and that Republicans beleive that people can help themselves. A very decent speech overall, and in my mind indicates that Huckabee isn’t done looking for national office.
Rudy Giuliani:
Decent speech, very aggressive thought he’d try to add more 9/11 to it…

Sarah Palin:

This speech didn’t strike me as anything out of the ordinary. It was still very good, and covered a wide range of material. She continued to drive home the same attack points that the other speakers set up, providing a sense of consistancy. One thing that I did feel was odd, was that her youngest child was passed between people during the speech. The child started with the oldest daughter, than as far as I can tell went to Cindy McCain (I think), and than to Palin (there may have been an intermediate stop).

Overall:

I think the Republicans are doing more to start the general election season going than the Democrats did at their convention. The Republicans have a multi line, multi level attack narrative drawn out that they are already selling, while the best the Democrats seemed to offer was that McCain was four more years of the same. The Democrats have to fight as dirty as the Republicans if they want to win. The Republicans made a good showing, and were able to even keep their culture war stuff toned down. I was however disappointed at the lack of celebration after the actual nomination. All they had was some projected confetti…

Hello and Welcome to this weeks edition of the Tuesday Link Rodeo!

The first link today goes to the general at Jesus’ General, as is one of his letters to far right wing lunatics. This one is goes to a pro life Republican congressional candidate who paid for his girlfriend’s abortion.

Our next link goes to this blog post about George Carlin by Ed Brayton of Dispatches From the Culture Wars. Via PZ Meyers, comes this video of George Carlin doing one of his routines. This video is great.

Our last article for the day is this post at reason magazine’s blog hit and run, about an article that claims that airlines need to be re-regulated. Now, for anyone who knows anything about the history of the airline industry knows that this would be a disaster, unless your idea of fun is one air carrier having a monopoly on international travel, and other such things. (Of course, regulation also breeds creative ways to avoid it, this is way Southwest Airlines, and the airline from which it acquired its business model from (PSA) were both intrastate carriers, and were thus regulated by their local states) I should so bring up the IATA, which had its own crazy rules (The IATA’s price fixing attempts as decreased)

No, this post is not about the more visible aspects of the Religious Right’s attempts to control women’s access to abortion and birth control (Anti contraceptive activity among the Religious Right is really starting to increase) but rather about one of the Religious Right’s more insidious attempts at undermining the rights of women everywhere. A major problem for much of the religious right, especially the Protestant Right is the emergence of feminism. The empowerment of women has meant that the Protestant Right’s dream of imposing their 1950s television show style world on the rest of us has gotten harder, due to women being able to do what they want. The solution? Bringing back the “Biblical Family”. To remove the code words talk, this means that they want to restore families to being under the complete control of the man, with the wife doing all of the dirty work, and the children being seen and not heard. (Or paraded out to do tricks for the neighbors) The Protestant Right quote one of the Epistles of Paul, Ephesians 5, to justify one mens domination over women. Unlike some of the odd Biblical quotes that the Protestant Right twists to justify some of their practices this quote is clear:

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

(I am a man and this still creeps me out. I would never want to be completely in control of another human beings life like that)

The solution that the Protestant Right has developed to bring about Biblical Families is to go after the children. They are doing this by developing outposts of the nineteenth century in the twenty first century. One of the ways that they accomplished this is to create subcultures such as the Quiverfull movement. Other solutions include Vision Forum (a Protestant Right toy company / ministry) and their catalogs of gender specific toys, and books, and the ever popular Purity Balls.

Probably the most well known part of this campaign is the quiverfull movement. The Quiverfull movement bases itself on this biblical passage: (psalm 127 verses 3-5)

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

To condense this, the quiverfull movement is about having as many children as a couple can have. The purpose of this is to out breed the liberal enemy, and to indoctrinate their children into the Protestant Right world view. Part of being quiverfull involves the women submitting to the man as a source of authority. Homeschooling is also a big part of the quiverfull movement. This is part of the Protestant Right’s belief that public schools are indoctrination centers. I find the quiverfull movement disgusting because it uses the woman as little more than a uterus.

Vision Forum offers both toys and books. Among the items offered for boys, is the sling shot, or this crossbow, are among other highly militaristic toys. Books by G. A. Henty glorifying the British empire at its imperial height round out this orgasm of militarism. What better way to teach your quiverfull of boys to fight the terrorists in the eternal (till the oil runs out) occupation of Iraq, and the even more eternal “War on Terror”. (Vision Forum is trying to pass 19th century boys adventure stories off as literature, and or history) For the girls, there is always the beautiful girlhood tea set, (at least this is likely to inspire one to colonize the rest of the world) or as far as books, the adventures of Elsie Dinsmore. (Vision Forum really has a nineteenth century fetish, and seems to think that everything was better then. They really need to watch some Masterpiece Theater…) In addition to the Elsie Dinnsmore Vision Forum also offers a 1850s guide to being a lady, how to be a lady, a book about raising daughters who only know how to do housework, and a book on “biblical femininity”.

Another way the Religious Right tries to keep girls away from feminism, is through purity balls. These parties, generally described as creepy are best described in this video by Bill Maher. The purpose of the ball is for the daughter to pledge her virginity into her father’s care, so it can be given to her husband. This is of course similar to how a women used to move from being her father’s responsibility to her husband’s on her wedding. This makes the women little more than property and is sickening.

For this weeks Friday Special feature I am going to feature the black hole of insanity that is Jack Chick. For those that don’t know, Jack Chick is a writer / illustrator of especially odious Christian Right Propaganda. (This is odious by standards of Christian Right propaganda) Much of the material is anti-Catholic, and anti-Islam (This means that it is bigoted against roughly 1/3 of the worlds population)

This link (WARNING: LINK TO A CHICK TRACT PROCEED WITH CAUTION) leads to a tract about the Catholic belief system. The main claim made by this tract is that Catholics are not Christians. This is of course absurd, but is a favorite of the American Protestant Right (Mostly of Baptists) (Protestant Right Leaders quickly forget about this when they need the Catholic’s numbers for one of their events. This tract claims that much of the Catholic belief system (the Eucharist, Penance, etc) come from the Babylonian and Egyptian religion. This tract also brings out a canard of nineteenth century American political discourse the good old fashioned Catholics have to be loyal to the Vatican over the US.

Our next target is also anti Catholic, and this one is nuttier. (From what I have seen, by Jack Chick standards, the last one is innocuous. This tract accuses the Jesuits of being an international conspiracy to eliminate the textus recptus (a version of the New Testament based on several incomplete Greek manuscripts, and the version of the New Testament used in most Protestant bibles.) Someone should introduce Chick to the Illuminati, I bet he’d he believe that Adam Weishaupt killed George Washington and assumed his identity. The tract then accuses the Jesuits of assinating the people who had translated the King James version.

Chick and his cohorts are belivers of the King James Version Only Movement. This movement is best summed up by this quote that I found on Fundies Say the Darnedest things:

I believe that the Authorized King James Bible of 1611 is the perfect, pure and inspired word of God. (Psalm 12:6-7). I believe that there was inspiration from God involved with the translation of the King James Version. (2 Timothy 3:16) Anything in the King James Version that may seem like it disagrees with the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts corrects the Greek and Hebrew. I do not believe in finding out the meanings of Greek or Hebrew words. The King James Bible is perfect in English, and to try to correct it with the Greek is adding our own private interpretations to Scripture.

Now, that quote is not associated with the Chick organization in any way, but, that shows the mindset that we are dealing with here. I don’t get King James Only people, or the people who believe that there was an unbroken line of Baptists / non demoninational Christians going back to the first century. I can see them making a claim that they are worshiping in the way that they think is most like the way that the original Christians worshiped, but to claim an unbroken line of succession is absurd.

The leadership of the Democratic party is moving to bring the “compromise” FISA ammendment to the full house for a vote. Call or email your congress person telling them that you don’t want this to happen. For the more ambitious / rich, you can support an anti immunity ad buy. (conservative blogger links to ACT BLUE film at 11)

Find contact info for your congress person here, or have the ACLU send a message for you here.

While I doubt that any public outcry  will stop the passage of this law, at least we can try.
more information and coverage of this outrage is here, here, and here.

While I despise almost all of what the modern Republican Party stands for, (Authoritarianism, Crony Capitalism, big government, and rule by fear and moral panic), and its near total domination by the Christian religious right, I still hate the Republicans slightly less than the Democrats. This means that I will choke back my disgust, put a big smile on face and campaign for McCain. While I think that the Republican party is also doomed to collapse, this collapse is quite visible and anyone with the brains of a five year old can see it coming, and people like me get to watch in wide eyed helpless horror as the party  implodes. (if the Republicans lose big this year (as in both the White House and a loss of a large number of house and senate seats) look for the party to get more extreme and to pander even more to the religious right)

In my opinion, there are three main groups that make up todays Democratic party. The first group is the  traditional Democrats, who are people like Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. These Democrats are generally center right, and while they pretend to support such causes as freedom and the restoration of the Constitution, they are willing to sell these values down the river for a little (even nonexistent) political gain. (Or to enrich their own pockets) These Democrats tend to pass most of the blame for these sellouts on the next branch of the Democratic party, the Blue Dog Democrats. The Blue Dog Democrats are Democrats that support most of the Republicans positions (The traditional  Democrats support about 60% of the Republican positions) except for generally economic ones, in which they prefer the economic policies of the traditional Democrats.  (Which are just a smidgen to the left of the Republicans) The third branch of the Democratic party is the far left. The far left, after years of being ignored under such banners as the Green Party, or the YIPPIES has finally decided to bid to take some control of the Democratic Party. The Far Left generally believes in socialism, radical environmentalism, and Taxes. (lots and lots of Taxes) The far left is even so far to the left that it bends around to the right and  supports such Religious right causes such as alcohol prohibition. (Of course, for different reasons, instead of doing it for Jeebus, the far left support prohibition because they feel that people can’t resist the evil corporate siren song of advertising, and <dailykos> OMG, the corporations want to enslave us all </dailykos>) The far left provides Obama’s core and most vocal supporters. (The people who many media figures have called cult like) While, the far left is anti capitalist, they are the only political group that still seems to believe in the constitution, and that feels the war in Iraq is a disaster, so they are not that bad. (Because their most radical policies are less likely to win support than the most radical policies of the radical wing of the Republican party, they are probably less dangerous, but thats just hair splitting)

This brings you to the problem facing the Democratic party. They are strongly reliant on groups that have been either switched parties recently (and could switch back under the right influence), or are likely to not support their policies (The Blue Dogs) and a group that has both declared war on another wing of the party, and who the Traditional Democrats feel is making them look too radical. (and thus causing them to compensate by moving right) (The Far Left) The extreme fringes of the Far Left is already starting to move away from Obama, for instance here is Naomi Klein whose propaganda I had the distinct displeasure of being exposed to during an English Class (fifty minutes of the video version of no logo really puts a dent in one’s sanity)  complaining about Obama having a economist from the University of Chicago on his staff. (and even Obama’s association with the University of Chicago itself)
Another thing that the Far Left Wing seems to be attacking Obama on is the fact that his foreign policy proclamations are becoming more militant (to avoid claims by the Republicans that he is weak on terror,  and on Israel. (He has gone as far as to suggest giving the Israelis complete control of Jerusalem) (Unlike most people, I feel that Obama and McCain are equally likely to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and to invade Iran) This bodes very badly for the Democrats, as the Far Left could easily break away and support a third party, thus splitting the Democrats.

Despite the current Democratic majority in the House, most of the democrats added in 2006 are Blue Dogs. The Blue Dogs are also a bad thing for the party, as they are likely to participate in Republican Propaganda on issues such as national security, and social issues. This causes the Blue Dogs to come under attack from the far left, who strategy to gain more control of the party appears to be to challenge the Blue Dogs in primaries. This leads to internal party anger, and has the potential to either weaken the incumbent, or if the incumbent loses, the potential for the incumbent to pull a Lieberman.

In my opinion, this and the problems facing the Republican party, and the increasing amount of Americans who identify with the religious right will make the next twenty to thirty years a chaotic time in American politics, featuring plenty of Discord, Disharmony, and Disaster.

(Updated with tags and more detail)

I have decided to bring my Friday special feature back from hiatus. Today, instead of pointing out an odious or ridiculous statement, I am featuring a good speech, the recent resignation speech of Mr. David Davis, former shadow home secretary. (As an American, I am baffled by the idea of a shadow cabinet, but when in Rome…) Mr. Davis, and many members of the British Conservative Party unsuccessfully (The bill passed by nine votes, because of included pork (Don’t know if this is a British term as well…) resisted Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister, and his Labour Party in a vote over whether the Government of the UK could hold terrorism suspects for 42 days with out charging them. (I suppose that this is better than the forever claimed by the Bush administration) Mr. Davis also mentioned the proliferation of databases and security cameras in the UK. Unlike the American Republican Party (The rough American equivalent of the Conservatives) the UK Conservatives, and Mr Davis especially seem to feel that it is important to conserve the liberties of their constituents. (I think that it would make an interesting study about the factors that made the British Labour Party (the more liberal party) become the adovocates of a national security state in the UK, while the center-right Republican Party took on this role in the US) Mr. Davis, who is running for the seat that he resigned from (On a platform of restoring liberties) will be opposed by a Rupert Murdoch henchman.

coverage by the BBC

The first link of the day goes to a post made yesterday by Dave Neiwert to his blog Orcinus about the effects of a large immigration raid on a Iowa town. Other posts mainly about immigration by Neiwert (and his biography) are here, on firedoglake. To make up for the old news, here is a more recent Neiwert post on immigration.

Continuing our firedoglake theme here is an update on the Haggee story. It seems that Joe “Holy Joe” Lieberman is still sticking by Hagee, and will headline Hagee’s convention in July.

According to talk left, Obama has been claiming that one of his relatives were involved in the liberation of Auschwitz.  As everyone of course knows, Auschwitz was liberated by none other than the Soviet Union. while it appears that Obama did have a relative that was involved in the liberation of a concentration camp it just wasn’t Auschwitz. (Unless, Obama had a relative that volunteered for the Soviet Army) This will probably be the big story on the “liberal” media and right wing blogs for the next several days. CNN is covering it here.
I am going to close with this incredible example of Homeland Security grants gone amok. It seems that a Colorado casino shuttle has managed to get $382,000 for Eris knows what. Jesus’ General has more details here.

McCain rejects Hagee’s endorsement, thus rendering this post obsolete.

When the news came out about the now infamous remarks made by Jeremiah Wright, the story was everywhere. It was big news. Now, when you look at the extremely antisemitic comments made by John Hagee involving Hitler being sent to drive the Jewish people to Israel, and there is almost no media backlash. Despite about 17 news stories showing up on this Hagee scandal on google news, including this article for Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008, this story has remained low key. One part of this is of course because of course the media’s love affair with John McCain. Another part of this is there are many Americans who would be scared by a FNORD black man saying things like FNORD “god damn America”. Of course, Hagee also has widespread support from mainstream politicians, while Wright was completely abandoned by Obama the closest thing to mainstream support Wright had. Another reason that the Hagee Hitler remarks probably won’t make any kind of impact is that the Democrats really don’t have the strong attack machine that the Republicans have. While the Republicans have the apparatus in place to easily spread Wright’s words around, (and other even less important stories such as Obama’s failure at bowling, and his failure to wear a flag pin) the Democrats have not created, or more likely decided not to use such an apparatus.