Zimbabwe is Not Part of Humanity Now? When Did That Happen?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Meanwhile, back in Bizarro World...

No Fair!

I call foul! Not fair! Out of bounds! Hard cheese! Can't tag the butcher!

I just get done making fun of Pat Robertson and he waits until I am off line, then he goes and says something stupid so I can't blog about it until everyone else has. He did it on purpose I tell you. Bad form.

At least he gives me the opportunity to laugh at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. You see Pat thinks that since Hugo is so convinced that the U.S. wants to assassinate him, (you take out one insane fool who is in control of oil and now every insane fool who is in control of oil is having delusions of persecution, not to mention delusions of grandeur - sheesh!) the U.S. should just do it and get it over with. He feels it would be cheaper than a war between Venezuela and America, which he seems to believe will be inevitable. Why does Pat believe that America will inevitably invade Venezuela? Why, because Hugo told him they would and Pat seems to think Hugo is a credible source (Pat needs to wear a mask when he mixes up that diet shake powder).

Now as hard as Hugo is trying to become Fidel Castro's new cabana boy by championing the doctrine of Che and El Presidente's worker's paradise to anyone who will listen, it might be seen as just a touch insane for a man who makes his living off of his public image as Pat does to call for the assassination of a leader who, while lacking any democratic tendencies, is filling an elected mandate. Granted Pat's public image is only important among his fans and customers and since they are... well, Pat Robertson fans, it might be a calculated risk. But surely, even many of Pat's overweight, aging, vitamin-gobbling religious shut-ins must have a threshold where they can't believe everything he says. Right? Right?

Ok - For Justice Sunday III - Judicial Armageddon I foresee Hugo Chavez and Pat "The Doctor" Robertson in a ladder match.

Faith Based Happy Meals.

Pat Robertson has almost earned my respect (funny - as I typed that I felt my bowels vibrate at an unusual frequency). Reverend P. R. has put his tax exempt status in jeopardy in order to share the "age-defying" properties of his diet shake with the world. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. He has given away the recipe for free before but he seems to feel that General Nutrition Corp. can make it in bulk so cheaply that overweight people who are afraid of aging will pay for the stuff. This sounds like slightly less of a long-shot then obtaining eternal life by listening to anything Pat spoons out. Speaking of spooning out, part of the shake's recipe includes "ingredients such as safflower oil, protein powder and vinegar." This is pretty strong evidence, if any more were needed, that televangelists have absolutely no taste.

It is a good thing that Reverend P. R. has a law degree called a juris doctor so he can call himself Dr. Robertson. It must be quite useful now that he is marketing "anti-aging" diet drinks. Though, to be honest, he does have some experience in the medical field. He created a multilevel marketing firm called Kalo-Vita which sold "nutritional supplements, cosmetics, a weight-management program" and such. If he keeps this up he will be a godless atheistic scientist before he knows it. Or at least a godless atheistic pseudo-scientist - but hey, baby steps.

If Dr. P. R. is able to keep his tax exempt status he might think about starting a chain of drive-through restaurants with a 700 club theme. You could pick up your Age-Defying Diet Shake with some Faith Fries and an extra large ham and baloney sandwich called a Born Again Bunwich. He could give out free toys to the kids; action figures like John the Baptist with detachable head or a pop-up Lazareth figurine.

I am going to hell aren't I? Oh well. Pat is older than me so he can save me a seat.

I wonder if the Pope will counter with a chain of Catholic Cafe's. Starbucks of Bethlehem - no, that would get them sued (even more than usual). I have it! Virgin Mocha. They could have coffee served out of weeping Madonna statues and they could sell special buns which when you slice into them have the images of saints drawn in with cinnamon.

As long as I am going to hell on an ever steeper log-ride how about the following faith-based corporate ventures:

Jihadi Travel and Tourism. Where you can go anywhere you want for free as long as you are willing to blow up once you get there.

Southern Baptist Southern BBQ Our sauces are sinful but we practice full immersion on all wings and ribs.

Buddhist Bakeries If you don't think our dharma donuts are holy we will give you your money back! (Not necessarily in your current lifetime.)

Hindu Hardware With dozens of sales staff and thousands of gods we are sure to have what you are looking for (even if you can't find it and some of our sales gurus keep leading you down the wrong aisle over and over again).

Jehovah's Witness' Watchtower Watch Repair Because when the world ends you do not want to be running late.

You Want Me to Put What, Where?

The more Prince Charles speaks out about issues that concern him, the more I worry about his mind. Not that I care much about him but he is in a position to spread a lot of insanity if he really lets loose with a Martian invasion theory or something.

All I am going to say about this blog post is that if, Zeus forbid, I ever get cancer and someone tells me to get coffee pumped into my back porch, I am going to kick his or her ass and if I only have six months to live I am going to spend three of them kicking that person's ass. (Man that would almost make it worth having the cancer.) I mean the waste of coffee alone should justify taking revenge on behalf of Juan Valdez.

Buonas díaz!

Persona Non Grata (Ratzinger Loves Latin)

If Pope Benedict the 1*10^84th is going to invoke diplomatic immunity to avoid civil liability for conspiring to aid and abet the commission of heinous criminal acts, should he not be immediately declared persona non grata? Since diplomats and dignitaries are expected to obey the laws of the nations they work in or visit but they are not subject to liability under the principle of diplomatic immunity, the only resort a nation has is to declare those who do not obey their laws as persona non grata. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty but since His Hokiness is preventing himself from being subjected to the forum which is designed to evaluate such proof, he seems to be abusing the principle of diplomatic immunity and must be barred from travel in the United States. (BTW, if it were not for the presumption that this diplomatic immunity applies to Papa' would the prosecutors in the appropriate jurisdictions not be expected to at least investigate his role as a co-conspirator?)

Just a thought. I mean if you can't keep someone out of the country for running interference for child molesters then what other low-life types are you going to have to let in?


Rev. Sun Myung Moon
"Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah, the Savior and True Parent of Humanity"

P.S. (The above picture is included only for decoration and has nothing to do with the last sentence of this post. He he he.)

DARK MAN! (Or Was It DARKMAN!?)

If you have never seen the movie Dark Man the following post will make no sense. God knows (agnostic/atheistic and hypothetically speaking of course) that I could only watch the first hour or so of it and it made no sense to me. As an expert in finding meaning where none is present, that is saying something.

It started out being kind of interesting. It was being broadcast on the Space (the imagination station) channel so I was waiting for something weird to happen. It opened (after some symmetrical smoke effects) with a bunch of gangsters muscling in on another bunch of gangsters and this was after the first group had been searched. But one of the first group had a fake leg (of course this meant they had to do that old joke about being engaged to a girl with a wooden leg but having to break it off - a joke that was funny back in the Sumerian period) but guess what? The fake leg was an automatic weapon! Okay, that was almost clever. Certainly demonstrating forethought and creative thinking on the part of the first gang right? Just wait.

So the scene switches and we find that there is some scientist guy (one of the few times Hollywood has portrayed a scientist who is not trying to create a monster or take over the world or just bumbling along into catastrophe) and his lab assistant (the Hollywood script machine had called for some diversity and since the last visible minority was a gangster, the lab assistant was predictably Asian - guess who is going to die soon) were trying to stabilize "liquid skin" so that replacement noses could be printed out from a Xerox machine. It seems that the cells/witches' brew they were using was only stable in the dark. Hence if anyone needs to use this stuff they will no doubt be christened "Dark Man".

Anyway...

The gangster types attack the lab for reasons which can be explained but are of no interest. They kill the Asian lab assistant (he offers up one or two karate moves which prove to Hollywood that he is Asian and prove to the world that he is no Jackie Chan) and then they burned, mutilated and exploded scientist guy, leaving his girlfriend a widow (figure that one out if you can). Part of this was carried out by shooting up the lab with that fake leg again. Yes, it was not some clever tactic - they always use this guy's leg while he hops around doing nothing. But the burned mutilated and exploded corps of science guy lands in the river and guess what? He survives.

He is taken to the hospital where everyone assumes he is homeless because he was found washed up on the homeless side of town (brilliant inductive reasoning). They cut the nerve that carries pain to the brain (which contrary to what I would have thought, runs exclusively through the outer neck) and because he can no longer feel pain, his brain is "starved for input" which means his emotions are amplified and his adrenalin surges (Man I can not believe I am wasting all this money on university when Hollywood could have taught me biology).

Now because of the adrenalin he is kept strapped down to a wheel and constantly rotated. The straps I can understand but why he needs to be constantly spun like the second hand of a clock is something that is beyond me. Maybe it is just fun to spin burned-up homeless guys on big wheels. I have never tried it so I can't say.

At this point the doctor tells her students that she personally would put this guy on "a 9 on the buzzard scale."

Um, OKAY... I guess the buzzard scale is something they wait till med school to teach.

Now I know it is always popular for Hollywood script writers to make either scientists or doctors look positively inhuman but really - was this hack of a screen writer traumatized by a rectal thermometer when he was a lad or something?

So anyway science guy escapes (predictably) and starts up his research again in some old abandoned refinery (his old lab being too exploded to get any real science done). He is there working on his liquid skin when the starts bawling because the gangsters "took my hands". The thing is that they did not! They are right in front of him. He is screaming right at them! Sure he is a burned-up, mutilated and exploded ball of goo but there is no need to make stuff up. "Your hands are right there you suck!" I screamed to myself. This is the point where I knew it was time to turn off the TV and forget about Dark Man or Dim Man as I would call him.

Let's just pretend the movie ended there and move on with our lives.

Two Minor Points.

The television media and left-wing academia have criticized the war in Iraq by saying the following.

1) The war was fought over weapons of mass destruction. No weapons of mass destruction were found so Saddam Hussein was wronged.

2) The 9/11 commission found no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida so Iraq has never had anything to do with the war on terror.

What they don't mention is that for something to count as a weapon of mass destruction it must be ready for use. The 500 tons of uranium, (NYT abstract - no registration for the abstract but the article requires a purchase) some or it enriched, which would have been enough to make 120 some nuclear bombs that was found is somehow always left out of the discussion since it was not technically a WMD when the invasion began.

Also, what is only now coming out is that the 9/11 commission had somewhat selective memory when it comes to what they actually knew (and when). It seems they may have been trying to discredit the Czech intelligence claim that the leader of the 9/11 assault met with an Iraqi official in the spring of the year 2001 in Prague which lead to the Iraqi ambassador being declared persona non grata.

Oh well. Maybe the media's claims that civil war has broken out in Iraq or that the terrorists have driven American forces into the ocean or that Iraq has been reduced to scorched bedrock will turn out to be true. Lots of people believe them after all, so it must be true.

Completely off topic - Is Brian Williams on NBC news any relation to Tokyo Rose? Just wondering.

Update: Brian Williams IS Tokyo Rose! No just kidding. But it seems that the 9/11 commission left out a little more info about Baathist involvement in the attacks.

Morality Soap.

Now that Senator Hilary Clinton and the left-wingers are selling out liberty to try to out moralize the Republicans by waging war on porno and violent video games (some big name consulting firm told them that being Republican is the next big trend this year) there will be lots of people making hay out of this murder trial. Grand Theft Auto made the defendant kill three cops it seems.

Now the jury took just about an hour (enough time to stop laughing at his defense and not so quick that they look prejudiced) to see through this nonsense but you can be sure that politicians, activist groups and PTA demagogues will buy into his lawyer's load of horse feathers and place an order for more. Violent crime has been going down consistently (or going up if you wish to look at it that way) during the same time that video games have gotten more popular and more violent. But I have mentioned this before. Lets move on.

A new transportation bill has been signed. The $286.5 billion allocation will include $24 billion for lawmaker directed "special projects" and $6 billion to provide epinephrine pens to taxpayers who are allergic to pork. Everyone says they hate pork barreling but history shows that the backlash against politicians who clobber voters with their own money will consist of three people per county. I also suspect that the new transportation infrastructure will be just cosmetic enough that it will need to be redone (by the same contractors) in five years as opposed to the roads of the Roman empire which are still being used to this day.

I don't much care about baseball but I know what I hate. Kenny Rogers was let off the hook early. It seems attacking someone simply because you feel that they are in your face at about a distance of 50 feet is just fine. Let's not make a fuss about it. Now this pansy with roid rage is not what really disgusts me. He is welcome to revel in the millions of dollars from, and the adoration of, people who what to make all sports fans look like drooling troglodyte. He is welcome to be a role model for kids who are already stupid enough to worship this half-baked head case. What I find sickening is the few apologists (used sarcastically - Apologetics involves actually making a case not just saying "Come on!! Leave him alone!!") for this piece of human compost. I have seen posts about this issue which claim Rogers is being treated like an axe-murderer. If a couple of weeks suspension is how they treat axe-murderers in Texas I have been grossly mislead about that state's judicial system.

There are people out there who think they can get away with perjury to congress simply because stupid people love them. They are probably right. As long as they say it with an indignant self righteousness they can sell it to the rubes. Take the morality high ground before the politico types do; that's the way they do it. Even when they are caught red veined they can claim they are too stupid to know what steroid effects are like. The President of the country will believe him because it is just the word of some stupid scientists with their egghead tests verses a baseball star.

What do all these things have in common? They all lead me, through inductive reasoning to conclude the following.

Morality makes lousy soap. It makes everyone who uses it to impress the world come off smelling bad but then the packaging is pretty and strong enough to stand on. The morality soap box makes you tall enough to be seen and since most people can smell jack-all it usually works like a charm.

Well I think I have voided my cynicism reservoir. I hope I didn't get any on you.

Warning! Mature Subject Matter! (Or as mature as it gets around here.)

I would like it known at the outset of this post that I have not been browsing the Internet looking for information on bestiality. No, seriously I have not. Not even on behalf of a "friend". It just seems that the issue is landing on my screen without my consent so I thought I would address it.

(Ok, that was absolutely not how I had intended that last sentence to sound.)

Some time ago I noticed a brief article called The secret is out (scroll down the page) in New Scientist about bestiality. It was kind of unnerving knowing that it is far more common than most people think but hey, there are far more troubling things in the world which occur far more often.

Then, not long after that, I was Googling away on combinations of words like "civilization", "future" , "technology", "science", "religion", "trends", "swordfish" etc., when I came upon a somewhat interestingly titled article on the changing nature of civilization. Strangely enough it was a pop-up window (even though Firefox is quite good at preventing them) but I read it anyway. It was nothing I could not have come up with myself really but it was short enough to hold part of my attention until I had scrolled down to the bottom where the author of the site's gag was manifest. There at the bottom were placed 5 or 6 pictures of some attractive young woman (late 20s or so) getting some action from what I think was a black Labrador. (Doggie style of course, what do you expect? And no, I did not bookmark the site so if that is what floats your boat you will need to find it yourself.) While intellectually I was offended I actually found myself laughing my ass off for four reasons:

1) The woman bore a passing resemblance to someone I once knew.

2) They were some of the few pornographic pictures (as distinct from videos) I have seen where the female star actually looked like she was glad to be there; having fun and not just trying to just look polite while waiting for a bus. Most porno smiles I have seen make the actresses look like store manikins which have been left too close to the furnace. The irony that it requires a male of a different species to elicit such a response is something you just have to laugh about to stay sane.

3) The dog had an expression which seemed to say "Hey you Internet twerps! Even I can get more tale than you."

4) I knew that somewhere out there was some kid who combined a mediocre and plagiarized essay with some bestiality shots, then probably got his little friends to Google bomb the site so that they could chuckle incessantly about how shocked everyone will be when they get to the end of the article. Ah, to be young again and find delight in the asinine.

And now another article about the subject. Apparently the state of Washington is awash with animal lovers of entirely the wrong kind as far as the state's Republican senator Pam Roach is concerned. One guy even died at the... um, hands of a horse (gender and sexual position not specified).

He was in flagrante delicto with a horse, leading to injuries so grievous that the man succumbed.

...leaving one hell of an interesting obituary no doubt.

Bestiality is not some new fangled Internet thing. Just as all cultures have some taboos about incest (though they vary greatly in the details) many cultures address the issue of critter dating. Humans do not make up rules against things that never happen. An example I noticed some time back is from the sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini where he spells out under what conditions bestiality is permissible. They seem strangely permissive given the Iranian government's phobia of female skin and plain old heterosexuality not to mention homosexuality.

A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on.
However he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not
sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to
the next door village should be fine.
From Khomeini's book, "Tahrirolvasyleh", fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom,
Iran, 1990

"If one commits the act of sodomy with a cow, a ewe, or a camel, their urine and their excrement become impure, and even their milk may no longer be consumed. The animal must then be killed and as quickly as possible and burned."
The little green book, Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini, Political, Phylosophica, Social and Religious with a special introduction by Clive Irving, ISBN number 0-553-14032-9, page 47

Never buy meat from out-of-towners!

Many people would say: "Look! Children can not legally consent to sex so neither can animals. Even if, say, a dog is taking advantage of an opportunity presented to him it is bad mojo and should be outlawed. No sexual contact between humans and animals (period!)." So here is the problem with that (colon!):

Many people belong to kennel clubs and horse racing clubs (even some Republicans). Even where natural insemination is used, you need to know whether the male you are lining up is fertile before the female is in estrus which requires a sample (ahem) and since males who have been celibate for some time show misleading cytological signs of infertility (malformed sperm that have passed their "best before" date) you need to "get the goods" at least a couple of times over the course of a few days.

Also cytology courses use a variety of cell samples in university lab work. I myself have examined dog spermatozoa in a lab course which were obtained by one of the local vets. They don't have some magic teleporter either, she used old fashioned wrist work.

So you need to craft your bestiality laws in a more nuanced manner to avoid impacting the medical or veterinarian fields but since bestiality seems to be such a common activity among humans (relatively speaking - nothing like that ever happened in my family) there will no doubt be those who say:

"If human/animal sexual contact is not harmful to the animals in a professional context like dog breeding, how can the state be certain that it is harmful for my dog to mount me if he so chooses? - AH... I mean my hypothetical friend!" (And if some candle light and Berry White music influences his decision is that a crime?)

At this point the fundamentalists would chime in and say that they told us so. Without the cold hard certainty of God's unalterable word there can be no morality. Logic just does not cut it they will exclaim (you know they will!). To respond, I would ask if they ever wear clothing that is made of two different materials (which is forbidden) or if any of them have the stones to kill someone in their town for being an adulterer or if they have ever stoned one of their kids to death for disobedience.

Just because reasoning is not easy does not mean it is impossible. Maybe we as a society should enforce applicable animal cruelty laws and use old fashioned ridicule, social ostracize and voluntary psychotherapy where cruelty laws do not apply until we decide whether this is really a problem that can and should have laws crafted to deal with.

Then again, maybe certain forms of bestiality are not immoral and I am just an old fashioned fuddy duddy. Call me kooky but I can't help thinking that there are enough lonely people out there without them having to compete with four legged free-loaders.

Different Ideas for the Sake of the Children.

There seems to be a movement afoot to provide public school children with a diversity of ideas and world views. Bush has recently endorsed this attitude with regards to Creationism and Intelligent Design theory hypothesis world view. Now even some of those who support Intelligent Design have said that it is not polished enough to teach in schools yet.

(Having not had any research, published works or evidence, the fellows of the Discovery Institute have been busy putting the finishing touches on the idea by making up undefined and unmeasurable terminology and making easily rebutted and completely irrelevant attacks on the theory of evolution - see The Panda's Thumb for ongoing amusement on this front including some Discovery Institute rebuttals and counter rebuttals in the comments.)

What is worse for the Discovery Institute is that not only did the President not even comment on Intelligent Design... whatever, he supported teaching creationism which the I.D. crowd have long tried to distance themselves from because the courts have ruled that creationism and "creation science" and "creation auto shop" (I made that last one up) are sectarian religious doctrine and should be taught somewhere other than public schools. It makes sense though that Bush would side with the creationists (who have far more bums on their side of the aisle than the I.D. folk have on theirs) since creationists don't hold much respect for the I.D. movement (Hey! Creationists and scientists have something in common - other than common descent)

So in honor of Bush's desire for a diversity of world views being taught and since creationism is a dead dove as far as the separation of church and state are concerned and since Intelligent Design has no theory to actually teach, Bobby Henderson has provided the first candidate for the multi world view education system.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster.



Ok, this whole post was an excuse to post that picture on my blog.

Miss Piggy Owes Monsanto Royalties

I don't know who I trust less, the Greenpeace "every gene is bad mojo" organization or the Monsanto "we have patented eating so cough up some dough" corporation. I have always had a problem with patenting genes that you only discovered. If nature has been using something for ages it constitutes prior work in my mind. Putting a Phillips screw in a car should not allow the manufacturer of Phillips screws to patent cars, especially if they did not invent the Phillips screw to begin with. So why should putting a mouse gene in a pig allow you to patent the pig. (God help me I just linked to Greenpeace. I am officially a left-wing moonbat*.)

All you would need to do is have one Monsanto pig get into your population and you would be violating Monsanto's rights. This means pig farmers will need to do DNA tests on every pig they buy and every sample of hog spunk they get for inseminations. Thank you Monsanto.

There is a simple solution to this. Ban the patenting of naturally occurring DNA. Some say this would hold back bio research but I doubt it. The agriculture industry wants to have the best, cheapest and safest products so they have an interest in pursuing this research whereas Monsanto and co. only have an interest in creating and selling technology and charging ongoing royalties. Monsanto is 1% innovation 99% litigation.

*Incidentally, Wikipedia is debating on whether moonbat should remain included as an entry (moonbat is often but not exclusively used for left-wing types) while wingnut (most commonly but not exclusively used for right-wing types) is not contested. If you were to combine the genes of a moonbat and a wingnut would you get a moonnut or a wingbat?

Scary

Scary, squinty, dry skinned Jesus statue awes Hoboken. Film at eleven.

http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/07/more-visions.html

Peeking Dick.

If this scanning method works out it will be a valuable scientific and technological tool but it raises issues of reasonable search and seizure. It relies on passive radiation so they are technically just gathering information that is present in the environment. It means that the cops can see search crowds of people for weapons (lawful or otherwise) drugs or explosives without their knowledge. As is being pursued with other search techniques that can see under clothing, there will no doubt be advancements where the flesh form is replaced on the display with a generic computer graphic, free of naughty bits and fat bulges. But I can not help wonder how this might be abused. If large amounts of cash and a small (legal sized) jack knife were seen on someone could the cops stop you to check the size of your knife while asking some casual questions about why you are carrying so much cash? Could crooked cops look for tourists with money belts and phone the description to a mugger on the next block? What if an ambitious cop or prosecutor finds out that one of the male judges in town was wearing women's underwear when they were stopped at a sobriety checkpoint. (Those under-wire bras would probably stand out.) It might mean that more convictions started going his way.

People say that if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to hide but not only is that not true (everyone has something to hide, even if it is not illegal) it ignores an important point: What if someone who could effect your life has something to hide? A contract could go to your company's competitor, a law that negatively effects you could be passed, your taxes could end up in even stranger places than they already do. Other people's privacy is important to you whether you know it or not.

Perhaps I am paranoid. I am sure that the positive uses will vastly out number the potential harm but it goes to show that most discussions about new powers to police forces take place after the potential for misuse is realized, not before. This technology would be undetectable so even if the cops needed warrants to use it, how would we be able to tell if they were using it surreptitiously? Police are already using infrared cameras to detect houses with abnormally warm roofs to locate marijuana grow-ops. If this new passive scanning can see through windows and curtains as easily as it can see through clothing and luggage, they might conduct house to house searches without warrant or informing you and claim an anonymous tip when they hit on something criminal.

They might just find out about that wild extramarital sex you have been having. (Don't try to deny it. No one has any secrets anymore.) Even when you are replaced by generic computer graphics it would be pretty easy to figure out what you were doing when the sex scenes from GTA San Andreas show up on their scanner screen.

"Hot Coffee" indeed. I really need to get that game before it is pulled from the shelves.

New York Tithing

Do you live in New York city?

If answered yes to any of the preceding questions you might as well join the medical fraud scam Church of Scientology. You are, after all supporting them with your tax dollars so you might as well get the brainwashing that you are entitled to.

You might as well vote for City Councilwoman and Manhattan borough-president candidate Margarita Lopez too because a healthy chunk of that tax money comes back to her campaign fund. Why would you want to support a candidate that you were not going to vote for?

The tax money goes to "detoxification" programs for firefighters (brainwashing, exercise and sauna time) and amounts to about $630, 000 of tax payer "donations". Another wonderful faith-based program.

Local 'politicians' (Notice how there are no derogatory names for politicians? I guess it would be redundant) are not the only ones who are enamored with the program which the firefighters' union and the medical community dismiss.

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Charles Rangel have both come out in favor of it and Reps. Vito Fossella and Carolyn McCarthy have requested $1.5 million in federal dollars for the New York programs.

Atheists are in the wrong line of work.

But I really should not criticize the involuntary donation of tax dollars to a valueless program to take advantage of traumatized rescue workers in the hope of gaining converts or the fact that it seems to be quite a profitable arrangement for certain politico-types. After all it might reflect poorly on my intellect.

"This is a program that should be funded," Lopez said, adding, "Who are the stupid people who are criticizing it?"

Who do we think we are after all?