Dear Mr. Watchman On the Wall

Thank you for the nice pamphlets on how bad I've been in this life and how giving money to your organization will get me past that skeleton with the scythe and up the shining escalator in the clouds. It's nice to see that you have added first class mail as a method of delivery in addition to hanging around in public toilets and leaving them on the urinals. I would be interested to know who gave you my name and address so I could thank them personally, but since there's no return address on the envelope I guess that won't be forthcoming. I am also gratified to see that you've added a new pamphlet to your arsenal. It's the one that shows Al Gore looking like Don Corleone and says that all scientists are atheists who pray to the Moon goddess Ixchel and Gaia, the Earth goddess also known as Mother Nature). That's some pretty nifty mental gymnastics, don't you think? Atheists who pray to a goddess? In addition to Al Gore, scientists, the moon goddess and planet earth, you also attack Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Catholics, college professors, homosexuals, hippies, and unions. That's a pretty good coalition promoting this global warming hoax. I wonder why it isn't getting more traction? Oh and I looked up your organization and found that it's considered a hate group focussed with an anti gay focus. Hey, I also saw the picture of Mr. Scotty. I admit that I don't have very good gay-dar and all, but come on... Really? Now, I guess what with attacking nearly every demographic except right wing white men you were so busy that you missed my pamphlet on evolution. Did you forget to put it in the envelope? I was looking forward to reading the latest creationist blather but you, Mr. Watchman on the Wall, let me down. I was looking forward to the derisive cartoons putting down people who read peer reviewed journals and stuff like that. I need one more rundown of the Piltdown man hoax and how that shoots down 200 years of scientific inquiry, and how brontosauruses just wouldn't fit on the Ark. Would it surprise you to learn that by the time the Devil's twin brother, Charles Darwin came on the scene, evolution was pretty well accepted in scientific circles. Darwin didn't invent it. Even the term "natural selection" predates Darwin. What Darwin did was collate all the evidence and quantify how evolution occurs through the process of the filters we call natural selection. It's brain dead obvious with the tiniest bit of rational evaluation, and that's why it's tough for folks like you, Mr. Watchman. So I would like to return the favor of your pamphlet gifts, even though I'm sad they were incomplete, by connecting you with a ton of new material for future tracts, The Skeptic Society. No, it's not an atheist group, though a fair number of them are, a fair number of them are Christians, Catholics, Jews, and whatever. If you scroll down the page at the link you'll see a review of the history of Evolution that might give you some new ideas on groups to hate. I'm actually pretty happy that you say I'm not going to your heaven when I die. I can't imagine spending eternity trying to have conversations with you and your friends. We would just make each other uncomfortable, so have fun without me. Oh, and "Happy Holidays" to you and yours! Love ya, Steve eSkeptic

Things That Make Me Happy

 A soccer match between Muslim imams and Catholic priests has helped raise funds for a new kindergarten in Bosnia.

Sweet potato pie

Whipped cream

Smoked turkey

The boys are home for Thanksgiving.

Smurfette has Left Building...I'm Sad Now

My best biker bud Ray and I were getting into a groove about the Smurfs. We both had little kids at the time, it was the 80's and it was relevant. I asked him if he had ever noticed that there was only one chick Smurf with all those dude Smurfs running around. He said, "Yeah...I think they must have to have a gang Smurf ever niht."

Smurfette has gone to that great blue place in the sky...

Michelle Bachman Is On the Intelligence Committee? Really?

This is a joke, right?

Today's Sunday Sermon Will be Presented by Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan

An excerpt from Darrow's examination of Bryan in the Scopes Monkey trial:

Q--What do you think?
A--I do not think about things I don't think about.
Q--Do you think about things you do think about?
A--Well, sometimes. 

 Reminds me of most political conversations with conservatives. The transcript is here. It is worth reading.

When You Do Something Idiotic On a National Stage Could You At least Not Tell Them You're From Roane County?

One of our local Tea Party spokesmen Ron Harwell appears to have a problem with majority rule Democracy in America. Unhappy with the majority's choice for President, Harwell wants Tennessee to secede from the Union. At this point less than 0.5% of Tennesseans have signed a secession petition. To put that in perspective as a percentage of population 21% of men have some form of mental illness, 1% have borderline personality disorder. The secession petition in Texas has gotten the highest number of signers but they account for only 0.3% of the population.

 Sociopaths account for around 1.2 to 1.6% of the population. I mention that specifically for a reason...

The National Institute of Mental Health lists the following symptoms for Sociopathy:

 Facet 1
Interpersonal Glibness/superficial charm
 Grandiose sense of self-worth
 Pathological lying
 Cunning/manipulative

 Facet 2
Affective Lack of remorse or guilt
 Emotionally shallow
 Callous/lack of empathy
 Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

 Facet 3
Lifestyle Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
 Parasitic lifestyle
 Lack of realistic, long-term goals
 Impulsiveness Irresponsibility

 Facet 4
 Antisocial Poor behavioral controls
 Early behavioral problems
Juvenile delinquency
 Revocation of conditional release
 Criminal versatility.

Statistically, there are approximately 75,000 sociopaths in the state of Tennessee. The number of Tennesseans who have signed a petition for secession would equal only one third of the number of sociopaths. So we have a Tea Party spokesman living on the automotive job pension, which President Obama saved, wanting to leave this great Nation because he got out voted. His organization meets in the highly socialistic Community Center which is funded by the taxes he wants to abolish. Now it appears that even the sociopaths would be out voting him two to one against secession.

 The University of Memphis Student newspaper has an article on Mr. Harwell's secession petition.

Steve

From Our "God, I Wish I Could Write Like That" Dept...Juanita Rips Gohmert a New One

Just when you thought there was a limit to insanity, Louie Gohmert starts waving a rake around in the air to dove hunt. And just when you thought that Newt Gingrich commenting on the Petraeous affair was lower than a snake’s navel in a wagon rut, Gohmert meets Gingrich, resulting in that colossal light show brought by the strange chemical reaction of Axe Body Spray and little balls on brains falling on the floor.

The Rest

The Republican Strategy Is Coded Racism...And Has Been For 30 Years

Thank You Jimmy Carter IV...
Background in case you didn't already know that Jimmy IV was the person who got the Romney 47% video.

Bigot Buzz Kill: 70% of Obama Voters Are White

Election post mortems are somewhat dry to the people who hated word problems in math. I'll try to skip the set up and go straight to the cheat sheet.

 There are still roughly 7 million votes that have yet to be counted in this Presidential election. Yeah, I said 7 million. Mitt Romney got fewer white votes than John McCain. Vote suppression appears to have worked in that 5 million votes fewer were cast in this election than in 2008. It appears that more white votes were suppressed than black or hispanic. Digest THAT ALEC people.

 The election was decided not so much with an increase in minority voters going for Obama so much as white voters not being all that strong for Romney. The percentage of white votes that Romney got is not the point, it's the total number of white votes that Romney got. The point is that 6 million whites did not go vote in this election. That number is three times the Obama advantage in minority votes.

 Bottom line: The election was decided by white voters who maybe didn't like Barack Obama but couldn't bring themselves to vote for the standard bearer of the Republican Party.

Real Clear Politics on the racial makeup of the electorate.

Yep!

Letter To Republican Strategists

Thanks Juanita!

Supporting Farmers Doesn't Mean What WE Think It Means

It's time for a new Teddy Roosevelt. We need to bust monopolies from top to bottom, from banking conglomerates to hog farmers... I said hog farmers!

 Imagine, say, a suburb served by a handful of fast-food chains plus a supermarket or Walmart or two. Profits from residents' food dollars go to distant shareholders; what's left behind are essentially low-skill, low-wage clerical jobs and mountains of generally low-quality, health-ruining food.

Pictures with circles and arrows and something on the back of each one explaining what each one means.

Is there something we're missing in the GOP's war on public education?

"The Tea Party Has Done Its Job"

The tea party has done its job, and for all practical purposes its hard-nosed, no-compromise ideology now controls the Republican Party in a way that neither the Birchers nor the Clinton conspiracy theorists ever did. It's no longer a wing of the Republican Party, it is the Republican Party.

We've seen that graphically demonstrated right here in Roane County, where the Tea Party nut jobs now run the Republican party. More

Quote of the Week...Contrary to What You've Been Told

Do conservatives ever stop and think about all the flat out lies they've been told? Do they ever do any self examination on why they are so gullible and ready to believe this crap? Do they ever get angry at being lied to? Do they ever turn away from people and news sources who have fed them feebly transparent propaganda and slanted dews stories?

It's about as likely as them actually moving to Australia if Obama is reelected.

Ohio really did go to President Obama last night. And he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. And he really is legitimately president of the United States, again. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to oversample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.
And climate change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes. And evolution is a thing. And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us. And nobody is taking away anyone’s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually. And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And the moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And UN election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as Communism...Rachel Maddow

But then the same folks who brought you all those lies are out with the Armageddon video to scare their constituents into continuing to give them money. They've given up on the pretense and gone straight to the Nazi propaganda theme...It's almost comical.

Quote of the Day: "Obama Won Because America Wants Him"

In one of the worst economic situations ever faced by a sitting President, Barack Obama won in a landslide. He won because he has the better ideas, and the GOP has none. He won because America does not like liars, and even the money, and the economy, could not climb that mountain. He won because America wants him for President.

From a piece called :

Let's Squash This Ridiculous "Reach Out To Republicans" Nonsense!

Thank You Clay Bennett

The Times Free Press

 In case it wasn't clear, I voted for Bronco Bama.

Romney and Bain Capital

Best Campaign Song Ever

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/05/1155859/-Chuck-Todd-just-blew-my-mind

Romney v Romney...ow can Anybody Actually Think This Guy Can Be Trusted?

Obama...A Successful Conservative President

The quote of the day comes from letters to the Editor in PA...

So far the only consistent principle Mitt Romney has held is a refusal to show his tax returns to a public he's asking to hire him to control their tax policy... In the end, Republican support for Romney seems to be less about any principled positions he holds (if any,) and more about their hatred of our current President. Ironic, when you consider the fact that in a lot of ways he's been a more successful President on conservative causes (lowering middle class taxes, being fiscally responsible, being strong on national defense, passing a Healthcare bill originally conceived by conservative Republicans) than any recent Republican President.

Two letters to the Editor