Results Are In: Greed Class Might be Lying

 We needed a scientific study to prove this?

In seven separate studies conducted on the UC Berkeley campus, in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationwide, UC Berkeley researchers consistently found that upper-class participants were more likely to lie and cheat when gambling or negotiating; cut people off when driving, and endorse unethical behavior in the workplace.

Remember that every time you hear anyone say those big bad government regulations are hurting the economy, that what they're really saying is they want the referees off the field so they can cheat. So that brings us to the Quote of the Day:

If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

PJ O'Rourke

This is a Very Brave Young Lady

Previous post is here.

Christians would be better served to follow Jesus instead of the church in respecting religious matters that are different from their own. I tend to think that people who get irate over differing religious views do so because their own justification is rather weak. This young lady sees the ever present promotion of faith within her school as an oppressive thing and a violation of American principles.

The Christian faith cannot rule the United States. It is unconstitutional. Religion and government are supposed to be separate. If we let this slide, what other amendments to the Constitution will be ignored? I leave you to decide what you will or will not do, but just remember that nonbelievers are not what you originally thought we were. We are human beings — just like you...Krystal Myers, Editor Lenoir City High School student newspaper

See also Jack McElroy's piece, "If we shrink from controversy, we might as well not have a First Amendment." Jack also openly admits that his bosses tell him what he can publish in his newspaper.

Last Night

Jay Clark at Market Street in Ladd Landing in Kingston, TN

In Case You Missed It...

Not All Christians Are Like That

The student editor of the Lenoir City High School newspaper has been denied her request to publish an essay entitled, "No Rights, The Life of an Atheist". The Knox News Sentinel article is here. The school's position is beneath contempt. They claim they aren't denying publication on religious grounds but because it would be disruptive. This is like saying they can't allow an anti bigotry essay to be published because they have too many racists there and it would upset them, and yes, I'm comparing a particular brand of self labelled Christianity to bigotry. The  young student readily notes that she isn't worried about what her fellow students think, they don't have any problem with her opinions. It's the teachers and administrators she's worried about.

What are these particular Christians so afraid of? They support allowing government employees to post Christian religious tracts on school property but are afraid of an essay written by a very smart and thoughtful student that espouses no religion? Why not face those fears and be proud of this young person as a product of her education? Is their religion so weak that it must replace the love and tolerance that Jesus called for with hate, fear, and oppression?

Unless she's right in her claims and they really are discriminating against her and the ideas she presents. How weak this particular brand of Christianity must be if it can't tolerate opposing ideas.


Not all Christians are like that.



The ACLU has a very good publication that guides teachers and administrators in what is legal, constitutional, and right when considering actions regarding religious activities at school. 

My Elevator Speech

You might want to read this first. 

My speech is a work in progress and at present uses only a minute and a half of the allotted three minutes:

I propose the creation of a new religion. The ones we have now have and are failing horribly with the grotesque message that heavenly rewards await only those who die with the proper attitude. Rather than serving the Creator of the Universe, this seems to serve the ends and purposes of men and is highly suspect to the thoughtful. For instance, why is it considered blasphemous to burn a copy of, say, the Torah, Quran, or the King James Bible, all of which contain a finite and contradictory body of ill defined so-called truths, and yet at the same time be completely permissible to erase a species from this planet for all eternity?

Every single species contains within it's DNA more information than all the so called religious texts ever thumped by man. Every adherent of any one of those texts will argue that the other texts are false and are not the true works of the Creator (Personally, I find myself in the position of agreeing with all of them in this particular instance), and yet, ignored by these adherents and with which neither they nor anyone else will disagree, is that the Earth and its inhabitants are ALL true works of the Creator. This is unarguable to the sane!

To allow the destruction of any of the Creator's works and purposefully erasing all the messages that would be conveyed to mankind as science teaches us to read in the language of the Universe is the true blasphemy. To claim that the Creator wants this is evil.

The Reagan Lie "Welfare Cadillac" Has Changed But It's Still a Lie

Today's big GOP Boogieman is those able bodied freeloaders who actually dare to draw unemployment just because their factory was closed and the jobs sent to Asia by the likes of Mitt Romney and his cronies. Turns out it's a lie. I have a friend who runs a doctor's office who was telling me about all the freeloaders who come in with no job and insurance who just live off the system. I asked for some names and three were all they could come up with. So out of ten thousand patients we get THREE freeloaders? The Boogieman has more cred. Here are the actual numbers.