I think this is a fair example of how many see the religious. This is from Stuart Schwartz's article Bill Maher to God: Stand Aside for ObamaCare:

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The way Bill Maher sees it, resistance to ObamaCare is all God's fault. Why? Because so many people believe in this "schmuck" who lives in the clouds...and this belief, in turn, intensifies opposition to ObamaCare.

This leftist social critic, anti-Christian crusader, and HBO comedy show host warned God at the end of last week to back off, to allow smart people like himself and Barack Obama and the New York Times editorial board to push the God-fearing "ignoramuses" aside this week and take control of the nation's health care.

Without a doubt there are some very whacked religious people out there. That's true of any aspect of society. But what comes into play once again in the generalization that Maher makes about why many oppose the socialization of America is the standard leftist rule: Find a 1% truth and blow it up and expand it into what is supposedly the entire truth. I dare say it's a quite superstitious way of thinking. No doubt if you look hard enough you'll find someone who opposes this socialist takeover of America because "God says so." But most people who oppose ObamaCare do so because they are satisfied with the health care they have now, understand how badly socialized medicine is when others have tried it, and value the very American (and I dare say God-given) right of freedom of choice itself.

Whatever God may think about ObamaCare, it's interesting to note that those who want to play god themselves are usually the first to go on the attack against religion. There is an elitist arrogance at the core of such an attack. Jonah Goldberg recently had a few wise words regarding this brand of ivory tower elitist:

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The “elite” the restorationists dislike is better understood as a “new class” (to borrow a phrase from the late Irving Kristol). The legendary economist Joseph Schumpeter predicted in 1942 that capitalism couldn’t survive because capitalist prosperity would feed a new intellectual caste that would declare war on the bourgeois values and institutions that generate prosperity in the first place. When you hear that conservatives are anti-elitist, you should think they’re really anti–new class. Conservatives see this new class of managers, meddlers, planners, and scolds as a kind of would-be secular aristocracy empowered to declare war on traditional arrangements and make other decisions “for your own good.”

Arrogance, conceit, delusion, self-righteousness....they come together into things other than just religious observance. I think Bill Maher, David Brooks, Obama, and quite a few beltway Republicans simply see themselves as better. In the long history of earth, we have usually been ruled by our supposed betters, whether chieftains, kings, priests, or whatever. It's surely deep into our human nature to believe that some people, by right or birth, are indeed better. While I do appreciate skill, knowledge, and expertise, that's quite a different thing than having a superstitious belief that somehow people are intrinsically different in invisible ways that somehow makes them a superior class of person. Einstein was a particularly smart person, but he wasn't a special class of people.

And yet people such as Obama, Pelosi, Reid, David Brooks, Bill Maher, and many others readily show their own belief that they are superior if only by the way they assume that anyone who doesn't think as they do is inferior. That's a dead giveaway to the government-class elitist, the type who continually tries to convince us that the "smart" people should be administering the entire state and that old-fashioned things such as the Constitution and representative democracy just are no longer up to the job and that we should therefore leave it all up to the "experts." And that is the very dividing line and issue we are facing today, especially regarding this attempted government take-over of health care which would move the administration of such a thing to unelected panels and supposed experts, far beyond our control.

This idea that if you simply put something into the hands of supposed experts that the problem is then solved is, I dare say, a quite superstitious belief, and one continually disproved by actual experience when government tries to run anything. But the idea that elitist, Harvard-trained "experts" know better than us religious, God-believing rubes is the dogma this new class of government priests and hangers-on is trying hard to sell us. If we don't kneel at their altar and acknowledge their superior vision for society, then we're just retards. Nice work if you can get it.

I think as Goldberg smartly points out, Americans have no problem with acknowledging expertise, or even high culture. But it is an American idea that ever person puts his or her pants on one leg at a time. I still think that John Adams remains a remarkable example of American-style egalitarianism. One day Adams might have been sitting in Congress or in the White House. The next he might be at home clearing brush on his farm in Braintree. And it wasn't a photo-op for him. It's how he lived and thought. No man was inherently better, at least in regards to intrinsic rights or potential. That is a foundational principle of America, and it's one that has to be ridiculed by those who wish to place themselves over us by right. Very often they end up ridiculing both the people and America itself.

Wherever there is power, there will be the Barack Obamas and useful-idiot hangers-on such as Bill Maher trying to convince everyone else (and probably themselves as well) that they really are better people while at the same time denigrating those who don't live in the same ivory tower. Obama's condescension shows often in comments such as his belief that in the heartland that we are bitter people who cling to guns and religion. Look for the calling card of the elitist. It's not hard to find. Their mark always and forever is found in condescension.

Another thing idiots such a Maher forget to notice is the astounding number of quite liberal religious people who actually are amenable to Karl Marx and the socialization of America. It's a shame, but there is a large contingent of them out there. His argument isn't a good one either coming or going. Opposition to ObamaCare, and thus the socialization of America, has little to do with God and much more to do with people desiring fidelity to our Constitution and founding principles, which are desires shared by both believers and non-believers alike (but by few socialists, Marxists, and so-called Progressives). But Maher sure is desperate to identify himself with the "smarter" people. If Maher really does believe that people oppose the Marxist-socialist take-over of American because of their belief in God then who is engaged more in magical thinking?

The dirty little secret about ivory tower elitists is that their knowledge is often worth next to nothing. The "Wal-Mart shopper who resurfaces driveways" is, by and large, smarter than arrogant elitists such as Maher and Obama if only, as Reagan noted, they do not "know so much that isn't so." A Harvard education and reading Alinksy's "Rules for Radicals" will tend to do that to a person. And all the many things that the Maher types think they know (and that can very reasonably and clearly be shown not to be so, such as the voodoo of economic "stimulus") are little more than dogma. Atheist, heal thyself.

This kind of arrogance and delusion is at the root cause of our current problems. It's not god that is the problem, at least in America. And if you look at just the plain meanness of people such as Maher, you realize that they are very unhappy and hollow people, whatever the faults of some of the extremists religious loons who are indeed out there. In fact, Maher seems to be the poster child for a current odd phenomenon. He actually (much like Chris Matthews) used to be a fairly reasonable guy. But some process or conversion happens to these people and they become very angry, arrogant, and bitter people. Maybe that's caused by too much clinging to Marx and Alinsky. Could be.

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Radical changes made to the above after I did a draft for FB.

I think while you've said a lot of great stuff, it still misses the point. Religion is a personal freedom. It's an exercise of personal power and authority. And that extends to views of god that INCLUDE Maher's or atheists'.

So why is it that elitist views of how the universe works so severely threaten those of believers? Duh. It's no more than they are flat-out rejections of other traditions. But Freedom and liberty allows that.

And the Constitution allows Maher to express his views. That they are distasteful and irritating to whoever, including me, is irrelevant. What I LIKE about them, is that they are very self-actualizing. The eye opener about Maher is that he's cleverly used God to enhance what? HIS OWN PERSONAL POWER. By simply rejecting Christianity, by making that simple choice of will, how is it that he gains so many magic powers in the culture? All by saying pretty much screw you, screw God, I'm smarter. My belief system doesn't include what you believe. I'm going to tell your God to fuck off, and make mine something else.

As much as Maher has become a fucktard. That PROCESS, is actually very liberating and powerful. And is at the core of my kind of secular humanist views. You see, it's OK for him to not be humble. It's OK for him to reject your religion, or mine, or baby Jesus'. All he has to do, is believe his own. And if it's a "his shit doesn't stink" elitist religion, well, he's free to believe it. He's free to be God, anti-God, Judge, Jury, and Executioner for his own life.

Yes, his knowledge is consistently worth next to nothing to YOU. But I'd argue you can learn from ANYBODY.

What probably bears examining is why people are threatened by views like Maher's, by Hitchens' (and keep in mind, it's only with the greatest effort that I put those two atheists in the same rhetorical grouping.)

We've had this discussion before. Where you say things like it's not enough to just tear down religion, I say it is. I say it's not up to you or anyone to "replace it with something else" without becoming the same kind of tyrant that anyone who forces belief on people becomes.

If you want fair, it's FAIR to tear down Maher and Hitchens the same way they tear down Christianity. You are free to reject their belief system and supply your own. You can stick up for the grand old Christian tradition or invent your own. Whatever suits you.

That tearing down process is what's liberating. Because it allows us to find the bullshit in everything. It allows us to highlight the TRUTHS in a given doctrine, without swallowing the whole dogma.

For Maher, he's a smart enough guy that he sees the hypocrisy and lies of holier-than-thou Christians on the Right. He's able to easily poke holes in their belief system, because I'm sorry, much of what they believe, literally, is fairly easy to mock. And HAVING the freedom to believe, is not the same as having protection from people mocking your belief. THAT'S the true arrogance.

And when it comes to Maher, that's where he falls too. His dogma, which everyone has to swallow if they want to believe like him, in fact extends into a fairly typical LEFTIST religious belief. And includes Marxism and global warming religion components.

He drinks just as much kool aid as most of the people he jabs fun at, just a different flavor.

But why he, like Hitchens, is worth occasionally listening to, is that he gains quite a bit of power by debunking and highlighting the sheer STUPIDITY and IGNORANCE of some belief on his opponents' side. It's not hard to point out the truth that a lot of people believe in silly crap. Welcome to earth.

And yet he does too. Where Hitchens wipes the floor with Maher is that Hitchens endeavors to live a life governed by reason and facts. He certainly makes mistakes. But he uses withering logic where Maher uses Rickles-style insult comedy.

And there too, why do we laugh at Rickles? Which is pretty much cruel, racist/sexist, find everyone's stereotype and weakness and stick a knife in it? Because there is the slight ring of true.

The better question, is why have we STOPPED laughing at MAHER? There is a conversion, I agree with you, and he's undergone it. He's moved left. Politically far left. And so when he tries to savage people with blinders, it's less funny, because his own are just as blinding. And he's just as much of a hypocrite.
Turns out he believes in equally retarded crap.

The thalo belief system, is to simply NOT BELIEVE IN GARBAGE. Be totally as skeptical as you can. Even if that extends to religion. Especially if it does. And don't be afraid to apply the works/doesn't work strategy to any belief system. Chances are, if you think some kool aid religious culty shit sounds wrong, it is. If it can be used in a con against you, if you are easily exploited or manipulated or made gullible by it... watch out.

It's important to become and stay FREE. Intellectually, emotionally, creatively free. It's important to be rational and logical. And when you have to express emotions, go ahead and do it freely... but remember that's the way con-men can get to you. You have to stay on top of them. Understand that that's the way in for people who want to subjugate and control you.

It's way harder to control people with the facts and logic. Those things speak for themselves.

At the same time, it's important to rail against elitism, but not against the logic, rational skepticism, and intellectual processes that actually free you and cause you to become self-determining.

These processes may not give guys like Maher or Hitchens any HUMILITY (though probably more in the case of the latter)... but that's moot. But it's worth noting what it does give them. Maher uses his rational mind to expertly mock the religious. And he uncovers the failings of the religious-minded.

But what he doesn't do, is point that developed sense of debunkery at his own tribe, or himself.

And where he's just another fucktard, is that we see he does it for power and control, to win arguments and foist his views... even squelch. And so that's what puts him in the camp of the freedom-hating evil control freak Marxists.

He's freed himself from the bondage of what he perceives as stupid shit the other guy believes in... while not getting it yet that HE believes in just as much stupid shit, and it's unconstitutional and unamerican to boot. It stands in the way of freedom for his countrymen.

A true American tries to maximize freedom for everyone in a nation of laws. The only time we take away freedom from anyone is when individuals cross the line and break those laws, living by violence, theft, criminal deception, etc. A guy like him tries to maximize freedom for himself and his cronies, while taking it away from others, because HE deems them not worthy of it. And that's elitist nonsense. That begins to cross the line of criminal deception. And I could probably argue that there is a point where the lying and power-grabbing is felonious. And where it's so egregious that it amounts to an opt-out of the American system and American society. If you are all about stepping on people's necks and shutting them up, or taking their civil rights and freedom away, it's the patriots in this country who are duty bound to stop you. Duty bound to show you the error of your ways, and stop you from being an impediment to liberty. And we don't even have to squelch you to do it.

Maher can smirk and say the founders were just fallible white guys, and Obama is smarter than baby Jesus... but the fact is, the founders articulated Freedom and a government by the People in a way that shoots down everything Maher stands for. It's no surprise he has to adopt the smugness of a prince. Our system of government is not required to respect his authoritah. He's not better than the least of his worst-case gun toting baby Jesus believing rednecks.

Just an aside, the one thing Brett Baier didn't do in his interview with Obama was dismiss him the way Obama dismissed Republicans during the "health care summit" by saying oh, that's just talking points.

That's all Obama did. Stonewall Baier with talking points. A simple strategy, give long-winded talking point answers in order to avoid answering hard questions.

I heard part of that interview in bits and pieces on the air today. Baier has balls. He actually asked relevant questions. And I'd want him to do the same thing with Bush, McCain, Jesus, Mother Theresa, or God. That's a journalist's (wait for it).....job.

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As much as Maher has become a fucktard. That PROCESS, is actually very liberating and powerful. And is at the core of my kind of secular humanist views. You see, it's OK for him to not be humble. It's OK for him to reject your religion, or mine, or baby Jesus'. All he has to do, is believe his own. And if it's a "his shit doesn't stink" elitist religion, well, he's free to believe it. He's free to be God, anti-God, Judge, Jury, and Executioner for his own life.

He is free to do all that. But Maher and his cohorts are self-actualizing us into that libby-soft fascist tyranny that Brother Jonah speaks so eloquently of. My job is not to shut him up but to show how he is wrong, what his motives are, and the elements of his con.

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But I'd argue you can learn from ANYBODY.

I totally agree. I learn more from the responses I have to come up with (and the research I have to do) when someone say "Brad, you're so full of shit." Back slaps are nice, but not very instructive.

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What probably bears examining is why people are threatened by views like Maher's, by Hitchens' (and keep in mind, it's only with the greatest effort that I put those two atheists in the same rhetorical grouping.)

Oh, certainly if one is of a deep (or even somewhat superficial) religious faith, hearing pointed, antagonistic, and even hysterical contrary views can be disconcerting. Religious faith (or political faith, for that matter) is about holding together in your head a particular conception of reality that requires, at heart, common agreement because there is otherwise no hard evidence for one's specific views. That's the threat, I would think. I'm not threatened myself, per se, other than I have to work hard to point out where someone's ideas I think are wrong and why. And when dealing with much of this stuff, any moron can jump up and say "What a retard...you believe in a sky god" even if I'm talking about some very admittedly fuzzy and non-scientific subjects. But that's just the nature of the beast. But I suppose even trolls can be useful because they will launch me into yet another long essay and thought bubble.

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We've had this discussion before. Where you say things like it's not enough to just tear down religion, I say it is. I say it's not up to you or anyone to "replace it with something else" without becoming the same kind of tyrant that anyone who forces belief on people becomes.

I would say that it is a main sport of the left (and, in fact, of all would-be revolutionaries) to take a sledgehammer to what is so that they can replace it with their vaunted visions. First destroy, and then re-assemble. That's the pattern of leftist revolutionaries and I wouldn't doubt that it's a technique (because it is a powerful one) that all have used, whatever their political leanings or purposes. Of course, in good old fashioned sword-and-cannon societies or ages, you needn't bother with the small talk and internal subversion so much. Just gather an army, promise them booty, and have at it. There's no need to subvert or talk anyone to death if you can just cut their throats. So from leftist types in modern democratic societies, we get lots and lots and lots and lots of propaganda. And no matter how dishonest it is, and sometimes no matter how utterly squelching their own rules and laws are, they get to (of course) claim free speech, which is their right. That's the game we're playing. And that game has consequence. It's worthy remember the run-in Brother Steyn had with Canadian thought police because of simply a review of a book that the PC police deemed a bad thing. Without sustained backlashes, we're fast approach Orwellgeddon.

Religion is just one aspect of society under attack. And like I said, I don't have any problem with criticisms of anything in society. But I think its rational to point out that some do so for purposes other than just armchair quarterbacking or just as a two-bit expression of free opinion. There is also the propaganda aspect to deal with. Speech may be free, but there are different types of speech with different intents, even if all are protected. It is the intent of the left to trash not just religion but corporations, any form of energy not endorse by Cardinal Gore, capitalism, the Constitution, the rule of law, and free speech itself. It's always been my contention that we keep one crafty eye on those engaged in free speech and to understand that some are using it to undermine the very institutions that allow for it in the first place. My answer has been to answer back bluntly and plainly with the truth or the best opinion I can muster. And my answer has also been to never make the assumption that one point of view is "squelched" merely because it thinks (because of its own zealous of exalted vision of itself) it need not have to share space with anyone else or adhere to the same constraints that everyone else has to.

Bash away at religion. What's left guides us to what is true. But do note that religion, family, free speech, the rule of law (as opposed to the rule of unelected bureaucrats and the rule of activists judges), and limited government itself are impediments to those who would make us serfs. If I defend religion in general terms, it's not necessarily because I believe it, or am even wishing to defend the first amendment, but because I know the end game of the enemies of freedom. I know their methods. Some get into the nitty-gritty of ObamaCare, and that is all well and good. But it is useless, perhaps even counterproductive and dangerous, if one doesn't understand Obama's motives and his end game. To just debate the minute details is to become one of Obama's bitches. Rush, thank god, has this guy nailed. He isn't rope-a-doped by him and neither is Brother Beck.

People such as Hitchens are an interesting case. He has openly been a socialist himself, although apparently says he no longer is one. But whatever the case may be, he's been a useful idiot in the cause of statism. Like a child on the playground who picks up the unspoken rules of the game just by being on the playground and watching, Hitchens seems to have picked up the rules of the leftist game just by being in and around rotgut leftism. He bashes religion with a vigor that suggests he doesn't just have metaphysical disagreements but that he's become an unwilling useful idiot for the left. Either that or a priest kicked his puppy when he was a boy.

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That tearing down process is what's liberating. Because it allows us to find the bullshit in everything. It allows us to highlight the TRUTHS in a given doctrine, without swallowing the whole dogma.

One of the core things to keep in mind is that society itself is not Kevlar. It is not bullet-proof. In theoretical terms it's a lovely thought to think that we can tear down anything and everything and always be the better for it. But that's not actually how freedom works. Our way of life in America is a very careful and conscious construction. In a lot of the fine-grained stuff of life, such as in our personal life and choices, by all means, go for it. State your opinion. Let it lose. Paint your house lime green and bark at the moon. But unless one eye is always on the fact that our laws, principles, and founding ideals and institutions are what safeguard our ability to do this in the first place, we could carelessly kick out the leg of our stool if we are not careful and have our free society come crashing down.

But generally this stuff appears to be happening incrementally in our country, so it's not kicking out stool legs as much as it is just a slow erosion. But it works the same thing. We're at the stage now where the people who work for the government, or get free stuff from the government, are in large enough numbers to put the viability of the system into question. They can just keep voting themselves ever more stuff. This has a logical limit, of course. We could therefore become another Argentina. Consider the global warming idea of a "tipping" point. Even if we don't dismiss that as just another manufactured argument for climate fraud, with Social Security and Medicare slated to be going bankrupt in our lifetimes, and with these idiot Democrats trying to pass yet another massive entitlement that will bury us in even more debt, I think a good case can be made for a tipping point. And the reason there aren't more people shouting "The Cuntlosies are coming, the Cuntlosies are coming!" from their rooftops is because we've incrementally become quite used to a more and more intrusive government. I mean, unless I get Alzheimer's tomorrow, I'll never forget Brother Steyn's story about government officials going through people's refrigerators in England to see what people are eating. In America, we're the guys who threw the tea in the Harbor. That kind of stuff is unthinkable here. And yet it *is* a thought that is becoming more and more thinkable. We are getting worn down in a bureaucratic death of a thousand cuts, none of them tax cuts unfortunately.

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The better question, is why have we STOPPED laughing at MAHER?

I think because he's gone from a smarmy, biased, and funny conversationalist critic to just an angry man. He's become part of the genus cuntlosium sapien.

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A guy like him tries to maximize freedom for himself and his cronies, while taking it away from others, because HE deems them not worthy of it. And that's elitist nonsense.

That's a good description of the elitist class. It's also, of course, a part of human nature. There was a good quote by Adam Smith in that John Stossel book I'm reading. Stossel mentioned how few people there are nowadays defending the free market...including businesses. And it probably always has been so. Much of the reason health care costs have risen is because of the collusion of business and government. It may be ironic that business always tends to want to use government to squelch competition even though it was the free market that accounted for their success in the first place, but that is the human motive. And the quote by Smith lets on that is probably always has been a trait of humans to try to gain unfair advantage: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

That wasn't Karl Marx talking but the renowned, and perhaps biggest, proponent of free markets, Adam Smith. But that's the reality. Maher, Obama, Cuntlosi, and their ilk are nothing but old-style gangsters. In the case of Maher he's just a useful idiot. He is wielding no legal power like Obama and Cuntlosi. But they are peas in a pod. They are not merely in error, which is no great sin. They have abandoned even the pretense of reason and have become like mad dogs foaming at the mouth, consumed by their ideology to the point of incoherence. Yes, that's right, mad cunt disease.

I think you're right about being consumed by ideology. As you know, I'm fond of Trekkie/LOTR analogies, and it's a lot like people being consumed by those fantasies. When I look at Maher, what I see is not a competent, powerful firebrand comic... but a lost little prick, who got conned. Consumed by the Obama hope and change rhetoric, the false utopian vision, the WISH that human beings can be perfected.

And sadly, he stopped being funny. And started being just another smug ideologue. He's like the chicks on the view, like MSNBC, foot soldiers for the left. In the mean streets of my yute, we used to call this showing your ass. Which is revealing your personal weaknesses to the world. You cease to be respected, and you turn into something easy to heap scorn on.

That's what happens when you lose skepticism. You can't play tough dick anymore. It's like a guy who makes his living debunking spiritualists, suddenly believing you can truly talk to the dead. All it tells you, is that they really WANT to believe in that crap. But they weren't strong enough for the truth.

That's where I stand with religion. As I always say, I'll defend the RIGHT to freedom of religion to my dying day. And I mean that's whether you're a Christian, muslim, or Jedi. I don't care. And I fully admit, I'd LOVE to believe in God. Especially one who takes care of me, alters the laws of physics and nature on my behalf, and wants to have a personal relationship with me. I'd also love to believe in UFOs. The problem with that stuff is, there's absolutely no proof of it. What we have is a mere statistical probability that there are things in the universe that we are unlikely to fully understand without much more intellectual effort. That's actually good enough for me.

I'm just not willing to say our unalienable rights come from THAT, unless what you're doing is speaking metaphorically. And to me, it's not the crime of the century to understand that God is a metaphor. The same way Zeus and Jupiter is. The same way Lucifer and Satan is. The same way Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi is. The only thing they have in common is that their stories were written by human beings. And their existence is pondered and debated by human beings.

Losing touch with those realities is not a crime. I am able to respect many people who have beliefs that show me they are nothing but wounded children or wussies.

I may hate cuntlosi, but her mad cunt disease is a result of something pitiable. She's become drunk on the power she's attained, through fooling people into thinking she gives a shit about them. She starts believing she really CAN parent other adults, that she is somehow superior to them, and that's both ridiculous and dangerous. It's sort of equivalent to waking up one morning and thinking you're Queen Victoria. Believing you have the mandate of heaven and everything you do is right.

That's why she's stark raving mad.

EVERYONE should have been clued in when she lays the didactic tone on us. She talks to us like a 3rd grade teacher. She talks ABOUT us like we're not listening. And she's starting to say things that are so utterly out there, and say them in a way that she must honestly believe we're swallowing her line of shit... that it's actually alarming.

Let me bring this philosophical discussion back to my comfort zone for a second: You guys all know I'm on the cusp of getting a new Mac. It's a big, important purchase. I have to kind of TRUST Apple is going to do a reasonable job and provide me a good product. But I won't know from reading what THEY write about it. And I won't know from the stupid blogs from the Mac Faithful, because they WANT to believe too much.

I want to believe too, but whose review are you gonna trust? A 13 year old Mac Stormtrooper, or a pro user and guy with a decade of Mac CRITICISM under his belt?

When I get my hands on Snow Leopard, and the new pro hardware. I won't have lost my mind. If I gush, it'll be because the hardware and software is gush worthy. Because it works. You know I won't take a leap of faith and just blindly believe. I don't get charmed by the tricks and cons. I cut through that crap and try to see the hardware and software for what it really is, what it really does. If it does the job, we're good. If the happy horseshit is running cover for weakness, I'll determine it.

Because I haven't lost my skepticism. I wish I had MORE. I wish I had the financial means to weigh completely changing my computer platform and switching over all my computer licenses from Mac to PC. The only thing that keeps me a Mac person is the SLIGHT adherence to the original AHIGs that the Mac interface affords. To me that's like the tenuous grip American government has on the Constitution. Ideas so good, that even when they get perverted, they're better than the alternative.

And that's where we need to be with politics and religion. I may LIKE people who are true believers, I may like them a lot. I love my mother, whose as misguided an Obamanite as I've seen... she wants to believe in the pretty picture of rainbow unicorn "the government will take care of me" world. Why? Because as she's getting older, she really is starting to fear for her security. That social security check and medicaid stands between her and a sort of miserable dependent life. Only it's really just trading one kind of dependence for another.

She also has me. But she resists the idea that a free and self-determining son might be a better bet than a big bloated federal government when it comes to meeting her needs in old age.

And there you have it again. Loss of skepticism. Or misplaced skepticism. Trusting government because it's big and powerful, forgetting that it's a stone's throw from being Oppressive.

Beck FINALLY used the word "Oppression" either tonight or last night. And that's what we're dealing with. The two words that characterize the current political climate are Tyranny and Oppression. The founders warned us about this.

It's not the time to lose our skepticism.

You've given me much to think about. But for now I have only one word...

Cuntlosi. Ha, ha ha ha ha.

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As you know, I'm fond of Trekkie/LOTR analogies, and it's a lot like people being consumed by those fantasies.

One of the Buddhist shticks is that consciousness itself is an illusion. We're getting down to first principles here, so a lot of this isn't going to seem relevant to day-to-day experience, but neither is quantum physics or Einstein's theory of relativity, and yet they are real.

I would say that if you look at that human animal, a very large portion of our juicy chess club brains is dedicated to fantasy. You could broaden that definition of "fantasy" and call it human affectations, culture, ideology, beliefs, superstitions, etc. But it's hard to imagine that a lion, for instance, is consumed by all that much more than the hunt, sex, sleeping, and killing hyenas when they can get their paws on them. But if you contrast humans with any others species in the world, we look like the dress-up species. We're consumed with ideas and playing with ideas (often whether we are aware that we are explicitly doing so or not). Make-believe is a huge industry if you include movies, TV, theatre, books, and even most of our political and social notions. It's all just made-up for the most part because we like the resulting feelings and thoughts produced by our ideas and beliefs. It's like we live in a world that is our very own traveling Star-Trekian holodeck, and it's common that we will kill, imprison, or otherwise impugn those who believe something quite different from us. That shows that our beliefs are often more than just an idle game. This is serious stuff, at least to us. That is the human story. There are wonderful aspects to this sort of creativity but also Wicker-Man aspects.

To live the life of a human is to not live first and foremost with reason but with the affectations of culture and the airy, immaterial, gossamer-like insubstantial beliefs that we have — insubstantial in terms of hardened objective reality, but certainly not at all insubstantial in regards to the way we act, live, love, and survive. What are "mere" airy beliefs might make one a king or president, no matter how fanciful those beliefs are as long as there is (for whatever reason) a ready market for them. Reason? Oh, she is a poor stepsister in the human species. She is vital in terms of our technical prowess and survival skills but often she is subservient to our passions and delusions.

Brother Nicholson was right when he said in "A Few Good Men": You can't handle the truth. People don't necessarily want truth. I wasn't around when Brother Socrates was doing his shtick, so I don't know what kinds of things he was teaching. But he's at least a symbol that people don't necessarily want the truth. The truth is usually an orphan while grand fantasies enjoy a large following. Why this should be so is not really what I'm talking about at the moment. But it does seem to be.

So if we're going to enjoy our fantasy, why the heck not choose to be a Trekkie, an artist, a performer, or even a writer? That's harmless enough. None of these people, for the most part, suppose that they are not just playing. But it gets dangerous in regards to people in power where the domain is control of public finances, law, and institutions and these people do not recognize to the extent that they are engaged in fantasy. And it is possible (because it has happened time and again) that a sort of mass hypnosis or hysteria can sweep over a people as they get lost in the same fantasy. And very often these fantasies are destructive ones. Not always, but quite often. So although reason will never be center stage in human societies as a whole, it is the injection of reason that is from time to time absolutely vital. But doing so will spoil many people's quite pleasing delusions and they won't like that. Have the hemlock standing by.

Cuntlosi. Ha, ha ha ha ha.

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Trusting government because it's big and powerful, forgetting that it's a stone's throw from being Oppressive.

That's exactly correct. And there's no doubt that people will tend to look after their own very narrow self-interest first. And for red-blooded Americans that *used* to mean protecting freedom because what was good for freedom was good for us. We had a conception of ourselves as self-actualizers, not lumps of flesh waiting around for Cuntlosi to take care of us

But institutional memories are relatively short. We forget the tyranny we were rebelling against when we formed this country the way we did. We forget the Franklin warning of "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither." And that's where we are today, this close to throwing in the towel on independence. My veins are sometimes in a constant state of extension. My neck looks like a highway atlas or topographic map of a major concourse of rivers. This stuff is not trivial, it's dead serious. It's not partisanship coming unhinged, it's an eyes-wide-open acknowledgment of how sheep-like and compliant we Americas have become. I love your mother, god bless her, but it wasn't very long ago that a man or woman would have done without food rather than take handouts from the government. But now we've gone 180 degrees in the opposite direction and many are putting up hissy fits if some new "right" someone has thought of isn't immediately provided for "free" by "the rich." Jesus, that's just loony and as un-American as you can get. That's the true treason of this country.

By the way, Mother Nelson sits in front of TV and absorbs what she sees and is as programmable as the rest. No matter how many times I set her straight, there seems to be this straight line to the female belief system. If they see it on TV, it must be true. Eyeroll.

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This is serious stuff, at least to us. That is the human story. There are wonderful aspects to this sort of creativity but also Wicker-Man aspects.

Which is why secular humanism has to be anchored in freedom, reason, and skepticism. Once you take the plunge into any ONE ideology, you risk summary judgement on the others. OK, found it, baby jesus is the truth and the light, let's kill everyone else.

The fact is, baby jesus is simply MORE POPULAR in our culture. It's had time to grow and develop and lose some of its teeth, but it's still make-believe. And while that's OK, if you lose your skepticism and embrace it like a zealot instead of an American, what you can get is the same kind of shit that tore apart the old country time and time again.

Or wait, not just the old country. It happened on New World soil. Take the Salem Witch Trials. Good, honorable, believing Christians in Massachusetts, started believing little girls had magic powers. And what did they do? BELIEVED the hoaxsters, and started executing innocent people.

When you lose skepticism, you get that. You get the Nazis. You get totalitarian governments. You get the cheering throngs today when Obama spoke at George Mason. They roared when they should have Booed.

I mean, shit. Go ahead and read this drivel.

I doubt anyone would have cheered if Obama symbolically wiped his ass with the US Constitution, but what he's doing amounts to the same thing. Go ahead and cheer, retards. This is the biggest loss of FREEDOM that you're ever going to experience in your lifetime, unless fucking ALIENS come down here, invade, and start herding us into slaughterhouses to kill and EAT us.

I'm on the wrong end of the insurance companies (preexisting conditions, lost my coverage) and even I wouldn't touch this bill with a ten foot pole. Because it doesn't solve the problems. Let me repeat that. It. Doesn't. Solve. The. Problems. We are going to be left with a super-expensive government program that Reagan would have rolled his eyes at and said, what is this shit? I thought the Soviet Union collapsed!... and then it's not going to work, but is still going to leave us at the mercy of the IRS and the federal government in dozens and dozens of ways. We're literally going to be slaves to the revenuers and everything they say is in the "best interests of our health and the system."

If anyone thinks the government can make us healthy, they're wrong. All the government can do is deny you care if you're not. It's the same shit that the insurance companies do, it's just going to be more subtle and evil. Where the insurance companies simply raise your premiums, the government will make it harder for you to get CARE. Same difference. Either way, you are not getting a free ride.

When I worked in a deli, one of our favorite running gags was, when a customer came in and said, "make me a sandwich"... we'd say "OK, poof! You're a sandwich."

It's like that with government controlled health insurance. You're going to buy this shit and you'll get a card that SAYS you're insured, you've got "healthcare"... but it won't mean quality of care. It's going to mean less and less coverage, and crappier and crappier coverage, as the unsustainable system slowly strangles itself. So yeah you can say poof! I'm insured. But it won't mean squat.

Because you won't be getting what you pay for. The money you pay in, is going to be robbed, and never get BACK to you. It's a classic con. All the loopholes and technicalities that you rail about now from insurance companies, are going to be worse coming from the government, as soon as they realize they can't afford to make good on their promises. What you'll be getting for your money is lip service. A promise that "poof! You're insured." Without any true benefits to that. Only heartache. And the sob stories like that little black kid who lost his mom they trotted out, will come hard and fast, believe you me.

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This stuff is not trivial, it's dead serious. It's not partisanship coming unhinged, it's an eyes-wide-open acknowledgment of how sheep-like and compliant we Americas have become. I love your mother, god bless her, but it wasn't very long ago that a man or woman would have done without food rather than take handouts from the government. But now we've gone 180 degrees in the opposite direction and many are putting up hissy fits if some new "right" someone has thought of isn't immediately provided for "free" by "the rich." Jesus, that's just loony and as un-American as you can get. That's the true treason of this country.

Exactamundo. I remind my mom of that all the time. Her own mother and father were like that. But even they collected their social security checks and grew to depend on them as they got older and feebler. I have a hard time holding them to task for that. Because that's what those checks should be for. Had my grandparents assembled a huge fortune, different story. They probably would have returned that money.

And me, I have no health insurance, and I need it. I'll be less a drain on the system if I can get that preventative care, see a doctor regularly, all that. Right now, I literally can't afford to go. Because I have no insurance, I have to pay for every visit out of pocket, I have to clear up old bills before subsequent visits, and I don't get any discounts on a couple of expensive medications I need. I'm cancer or a heart attack from total insolvency. And yet, even I know when this health care plan is evil and tyrannical. I swear, I'd rather be free and sick.

It's time to play the official
Thalo.net Word Scrambler Game

There's nothing particular tricky here. It's all standard thalo.net stuff. The first one to post the correct answers gets a brand new Prius.

1) nsiotucl
2) meebasrtatir
3) raplresetct
4) soahtm swlleo
5) lmkrae’rhwsonsgeattmri.ocm
6) szeurt aptre
7) La ogre
8) lprao rabe

LOL!

1) cuntlosi
2) masterbaiter
3) crapsettler
4) thomas sowell
5) markle'sworstnightmare.com
6) zuster petra
7) al gore
8) polar bear

I want one that accelerates uncontrollably.

Well done, thalo! Your brand new Prius is on the way. It may not stop when it gets there. But it's on the way.

Today I feel as if I'm on a vigil for freedom, waiting to see if the technocrats in DC will smother us in more nanny state. This is serious stuff. There is no free lunch, never has been, never will be. All the king's horses and all the king's men can line up to tell us how we will be getting new stuff for free — stuff that is supposedly vitally needed and that we never had before — but behind the scenes will be enormous costs. Government meddling in the private sector always produces mayhem and always produces huge costs.

Let's remember, there is rampant unemployment right now precisely because of big, intrusive, stupid, and will-nilly government action and policies. We didn't learn the lesson of FDR and the Great Depression, a depression that should have been just a severe recession ending years earlier like it did in the rest of the world. But FDR's Big Government policies lengthened the financial downturn and deepened it. We're seeing the exact same thing now because of Obama's ill-advised backward economic policies. His policies are an assault on the free market which is the very engine of our prosperity. Oh, some may believe that government has a big pile of money sitting around that it merely needs to "redistribute," or that "the rich" can act as a bottomless money pit for the endless "good deeds" of bureaucrats, but that's not the way it works and that's not the reality. Wealth has to be created, and that happens in the free market. And when you punish wealth creation, you don't just hurt "the rich." You hurt everyone.

It's funny how we haven't caught onto the scam of Big Government. It promises so much, and delivers so little. But if you take ten dollars from someone behind his back (in various things such as payroll taxes, inflation, etc.) and then send him a dime back with "Yours truly, from Uncle Sam" written on it, he'll think he's made out. He'll think he's ahead. That's why I have such unreserved contempt sometimes for my fellow Americans. Many are buying snakeoil and are entirely thrilled about it. Little do they know that when they fall for the scam, they take the rest of us with them. If it were just themselves getting hurt, I'd say they got what was coming to them. But it's all of us who suffer when the snakeoil salesmen successfully sell the scam of Big Government.

Yeah, it sucks to be without health insurance, which I am at the moment because of the high cost. But let's remember who to thank for this: government. If we had real competition in the health insurance market, if we had tort reform, if we had things such as health saving accounts, if we had so many of the things that Sarah Palin calls "common sense free market solutions," you or I could likely afford the high-deductible bare bones plan that might cost $150 a month. The scam of the statists is to actually cause a crisis and then swoop in while we are distracted and motivated by fear and uncertainty and offer the state, not the free market, as the solution. It's a bitch. But that's the scam. As Rahm Emmanuel said, one should "never waste a crisis."

But the fact is, schmucks like you or me (the ones not pulling down $200,000 a year) are likely to make out....in the short term, anyway. We're not "the rich" or one of those "evil corporations" (although I do, in fact, own a small business which is a corporation). We're the little-guy "victim" class who are the ones who will not be immediately fleeced, although in the background we will be paying higher prices for everything. Remember, there is no free lunch. The cost of "free" has to go somewhere, including the hidden tax of inflation which comes from running up such huge deficits and having to borrow so much money. The scam of the Democrats is that the costs just get shifted to areas that are not as immediately noticable.

The price for our possible short-term gains, such as those gains are, will be the very corruption and potential downfall of our civilization. You've seen the numbers. These entitlements and this kind of spending is just not sustainable. We all see the numbers on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and this proposed insane new entitlement of "free" health care, and yet it rumbles along with a 50-50 chance of passing this weekend. But even before this health care bill, we were in deep trouble because of the massive unfunded liabilities and huge deficits. And to propose that state-run health care will actually decrease deficits is one of the most blatantly dishonest lies that have been told since Nixon said "I am not a crook." But still, many seem gleeful to be getting that free dime, unconcerned or unaware of the true costs of that "free" dime.

And if the Democrats' extremely ill-advised health takeover bill passes, and when (not if) the quality and quantity of health care decreased, it is certain that (just as Mark Steyn says about Europe where they are awash in socialized medicine...when they can get it) that the politicians will say that the problem is they need even more money. Think I'm crazy? Well, we see the same thing happening in state-run public eduction. It continues to degrade, the systemic problems are ignored, and all the politicians and useful idiotic activists say that it simply needs more money. More money. Always more money.

When will the average American wake up and realize the free market, while not perfect, is the very thing that has produced our abundant way of life? But we're fast running out of time for people to come to that realization.

Just listened to the President Speak to the Democratic-Socialists in the House of Representatives.

In short President Hussien is a fucking retard. He is not acting as the President of the United States. He is acting like a politician on the campaign trail making outlandish statements that can not be supported with facts or truth. Basically what was being said by President Hussein this afternoon was Lie Lie Lie. Lie Lie Lie. Then more Lie Lie Lies. One contradiction after another after another after another. There is not a single ounce of truth in any of this debate coming from the Hussein White House and the Democratic-Socialists party.

They keep saying it is not going to add to the deficit by putting 30 million people into the health care system. The only way that is possible is if they raise the premiums on existing health care insurance to pay for it. Something they claim they are fighting against the greedy insurance companies from doing. Massive tax increases which will start immediately without this new health care destruction system actually starting until after 2014.

Health Care destruction is on the precipice.

Liberty...2010.

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Today I feel as if I'm on a vigil for freedom

Holy crap, me too. This is some scary shit.

For a minute, let's think like politicians. In fact, let's think like the Lord Voldemort of politicians... pretend you're a blue dog dem, who is being wooed and cajoled by the president, cuntlosi, etc. You're playing an end game, getting all these shady deals cut on your behalf, because the stakes are so high.

If this thing goes to vote (which it should, or else we CRY TYRANNY with the slaughter rule)... that means there's the possibility that there could be ONE Democrat who could, potentially, sink the whole bill. Think about that. One guy or gal, who can be responsible for killing it, if they throw cuntlosi and Obama under the bus. Like they'd do to him or her in a heartbeat if they don't play good soldier.

That's going to make that congressman, or woman, a friggin' HERO. Even if it's 2 or 3 or 4... they're all going to be launched into political super-stardom.

What we have going for us, in this whole thing, is human nature. Any one of these guys becomes a turncoat, and they get political clout beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. The incentive of standing by the Obama administration may be a few shady deals or bribes... but BETRYAYING it has a much bigger payoff. Because most of the American People will be on your side.

It's true, most of the American People, other than the few poor minorities who will directly benefit from this welfare program, don't want government controlled healthcare. And I don't care how many lies the President tells, that's what we're talking about.

This is high political drama. And politicians are snakes by definition. Promising a yes vote, and setting up cuntlosi (whose approval rating is off the charts low)... I mean come on, it's ripe for a sensational last minute reprieve for freedom.

Imagine the red faced president who thought he could count on so-and-so's yes vote, and having that person flip flop in the last minute. Even today, Fox has been talking to idiots who've flip-flopped back and forth two or three times. I'm telling you, there is the potential for a bloodbath here. Trust me. These guys will eat their own young at this point.

They're OBVIOUSLY jockeying for the sweet position of being the ONE vote that makes or breaks the whole thing. This vote is a politician's wet dream. It's got our FULL attention.

All it's gonna take is one weasel to say, you know what? If I go back on my word to cuntlosi, I could friggin' run for president in 2012 and win, as the guy who singlehandedly brought down Obamacare.

I would love, and I mean LOVE to be sitting with cuntlosi when and if some of the votes she was counting on, begin to flip-flop for this reason. Just to see her botoxed face try to stretch further and express that "WHAT THE--?" look with all those paralyzed facial muscles trying desperately to twitch. Oh my god, it would be priceless.

One of the fallacies is that this is going to help poor minorities. There is already Medicaid that does just that. This health care destruction bill benefits nobody. And I mean nobody. It is going to collapse the system. What happens when all the good doctors and nurses flee the system when they are overwhelmed by "free" health care recipients. This is the whole reason why none of this kicks in until 2014 to put it past the next Presidential election in 2012.

It certainly is going to be interesting the next 24 hours. It really is political high drama. The United States as we have known it is on the verge of changing into something the founders never intended. The founders declared independence and fought a revolution to create a new Nation in response to exactly how President Hussein and the Democratic-Socialists party is running things right now.

Total insanity.

I just read over at NRO that the Marxist Party has dropped the "deem" rule. Actually, I like the deem rule. I can "deem" all kinds of stuff myself. I deem I have a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, a new Porsche, and a couple blond chicks from Sweden on each arm. "Deem" is the same as "magic." I like that. It could save Steve Jobs a lot of money. He could "deem" that the iPad is the best product ever made and charge $600.00 for it. Oh...wait...I think he's already got that "deem" stuff down. At one point he "deemed" that OS X was really a Mac. It's gotten better, that's for sure, but in the early days they had to "deem" everything. And re-deem. And keep on deeming.

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Like they'd do to him or her in a heartbeat if they don't play good soldier.

That's going to make that congressman, or woman, a friggin' HERO

Yes, they really ought to think that way now. But most of them have convinced themselves (just like Cuntlosi...I love your characterization of her earlier as the delusion savior) that they are helping people. But they lack an ounce of integrity. Not an ounce. It really doesn't take much to realize that, one, the bill doesn't contain many, if any, of the kinds of ideas that will actually reduce costs; two, this is an entitlement and no entitlement has ever saved anybody any money; and, three, as many before me have said, whatever provisions that are in this bill that ostensibly look like "reform," that's all smoke and mirrors. The real goal is single payer, which means no insurance companies and the government is the complete and total provider. Obama has said as much. Sorry, but anyone who believes differently is a rube and useful idiot. If that hurts, I'm sorry, but the stakes are high.

But, yeah, because these Democunts have little on their mind but power and publicity (have you seen some of those supposed fence-sitter putzes soaking up the publicity when you know damn well they've already made up their minds?) ...as I was saying, because these Democunts have little on their mind but power and publicity, you would certainly think the opportunity would be ripe for playing the savior and stab this bill in the back at the last moment like you said. Still, I think we're talking about people who are committed leftists and/or are just not smart enough to know the harm they are proposing with this socialist health care take-over.

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The incentive of standing by the Obama administration may be a few shady deals or bribes... but BETRYAYING it has a much bigger payoff.

Because these Democrats are slimeballs and have not an ounce of integrity, you would certainly think it's ripe for that. Again, what tends to outweigh that is the extent to which these guys are radical ideologues. Or maybe they're just afraid of Cuntlosi.

I'll send you a check for 10 bucks (in lieu of the Prius) if there is even one Democrat turncoat who plays the savior by scuttling Cuntlosi's health care bill. It would be worth it. It would be worth a hundred, but thanks to these Keynesian bastards who wish to trash the free market because they don't believe in it, I'm not exactly flush with money at the moment.

The irony in all this is that it's supposedly the pro-life Democrats who are holding up Cuntlosi and ObamaCare. The irony (at least to me) is that if Cuntlosi took out the provisions to pay for abortions (and let's assume no one else would switch their vote because of this), the fact is that socialized medicine is like aborting tens of thousand of people per year because the quality and quantity of health care will suffer. There are a lot of meaningless statistics floating around, but in order to save money, they have to cut back what is covered whenever you have socialized medicine. The death from various diseases such as breast cancer is HUGE in Europe compared to the U.S.

This is all wacked. There is very little moral clarity at the moment. If we unleashed the free market and got government out of regulating health care except for the most minimal things, you'd set that free market loose again to continue the progress in medicine. We know this works. It brought us exactly to where we are now, the world's best medical care. The scam — again — is that government intrusion into this free market has been the main harm. And yet these same people then turn around and say government should take total control. I can't express just how ORWELLIAN this is. It's a total clusterfuck. Total. And if people want to compare body counts, any body count is going to be greater when the government runs things. Period.

I'm about fit to be tied. When this cunt is finally thrown out of office and this health bill scuttled, I'm going to throw a party.

Right, I know there is already Medicaid. But this type of thing is designed to drive a wedge between poor minorities without health care, and everyone with it. It's not REALLY going to help them, but since by definition it is another welfare entitlement program, it's going to benefit people who don't work for a living, but who live off the government's teat. And that means voters for the left. It's smarmy, but that's what the left has been doing since FDR, so it's nothing new.

I filled out my census form today, and it struck me how RACIST the thing is. Really all our government wants to know about us is what race we are? Really? Does that matter? Considering the state of the economy, I honestly wonder why racial data is more important than, say, employment data.

Apparently so, because those irritating fucking hip-hop Census ads are decidedly directed at african americans. Why?

And when you look at the form, what "race" comes first and makes you think it's the most important? Right. Hispanic. It's obvious where the left considers its power-base to be.

Beck is right. Immigration reform is next. Hispanic people come from places like Mexico, South America, and Spain, who know all about government control. They're way more likely to fall all over themselves for the soft tyranny of the American political system.