Taxpayer funds given to churches

How much more blatantly can this government disregard the first amendment forbidding the establishment of religion before people take notice? In an absolutely disgusting move FEMA, a tax payer funded organization, has announced it will make direct payments to "faith groups" (ie religions) for their help with hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So, now not only do churches not have to pay taxes on any of their billions of dollars in income they get direct payments from the government in taxpayer money?

If an individual decides to give tithing to a church that's their business. Hell, they can sell everything they own and give it to a church for all I care, but I shouldn't have to. I don't go to a church and I don't believe in them so why should I have to pay to fund them? It was irritating enough knowing that their income was tax free while mine is not, but now I actually get to watch my money get sent to them?

One of the few things that religion has done for the world is charity, but now they're expecting payment for that charity. It doesn't sound very charitable at that point, it sounds like a business.

More evidence that religion actually damages a society

Here's an interesting article out of Britain. The author of this study took measurable indicators of a society's health, such as crime rate, and compared them among industrialized countries. By all indications America is at the bottom of the list. At the same time America is the most devoutly religious of all of the countries studied, also using measurable data. Of course we know that religious people tend to avoid facts and data, favoring faith instead, so this study is probably lost on those that probably need it the most.

Bush would sell his mother for a buck

(Not that I'd mind because she's a bitch too)

I read this article a little while ago, but haven't have had a hard time of getting in the habit of putting stuff here. One of the problems of the current administration is that they are throwing around so much bullshit that you can't even keep it all straight. One major scandal will break and before anyone has enough time to begin paying attention another one breaks that diverts everyone's attention.

Even before 9/11 and the subsequent shredding of the Bill of Rights by the piece of shit that sits in the Oval Office (when he's not busy taking vacations to his "ranch" in Texas), I hated that son of a bitch for what he was doing to the environment. I consider myself a pretty exteme environmentalist and conservationist and realize, with great sadness, that many people won't realize that I was right until it's too late. Granted, we might not reach critial population mass or melt the ice caps in our generation, but some of us actually give a damn about future generations. Even then, we get to deal with depleated fish stock, massive hurricaines, erroding coral reefs, and a host of other problems associated with global warming.

However, even with my relatively informed political view I hadn't realized exactly how much damage Bush and his oil buddies had managed to destroy in five short years until I read this article in Rolling Stone. Seeing a compiled list of his raping of the planet nearly made me sick.

Even a moderate environmentalist, or even someone who occasionally enjoys the outdoors can probably agree that we are in serious trouble. I can only speculate as to why someone would still actually like Bush, but I imagine hunters might like him because of his supposed enforcement of the second amendment, the right to bear arms. Of course, I think it's idiotic to vote for and support a person for one amendment while he subsequently destroys the rest, but that's beside the point. If Bush has his way there will be nowhere left to hunt. If everything is logged and/or has roads built through it for oil drilling the wildlife goes away. It doesn't take a biologist to figure this out, it's pretty common sense.

I also think most people can also agree that it would be nice to be able to take a hike through a national park without seeing drilling wells. Can you imagine taking a drive through Yosemite or Arches and seeing a huge area of land covered in black sludge due to an oil spill? I wish I could just walk away and tell the idiots that they get what they deserve for electing and then reelecting a moron from the oil business who's only interest is making him and his friends money, but it's my planet too god damnit! The southwest desert, one of the most beautiful and peaceful spots in the world is already fucked up enough. Hopefully in the future we can get our rights back and we won't continue our slide into 1930's Germany fascism, but once the environment is gone, it's gone.