Evangelicals Who Refuse To Shelter In Place Now An Existential Threat To The Rest Of Us

"Go, Rodney!  Get 'em all sick from my favorite virus!"

UPDATE: Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced on Monday that pastor Rodney Howard-Browne has been arrested for holding large services despite a "safer-at-home" order that's currently in place in the county.



"That's nuts, that's crazy!  It's not only dumb but unbiblical and doesn't make sense. God gave you a brain,  and expects you to use the intelligence that you are given.".   -   Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, replying to Cynthia McFadden's question  (NBC News, March 25) about evangelicals who feel no need to self-isolate because "God will protect us!"

Watching the ABC News Sunday night - at a time when we face tens of thousands of American deaths from COVID-19, we were appalled at how dimwit Evangelical mutts, errrr...preachers, held congregants in their churches to try to defy the oncoming bug.   These imbeciles are convinced that they can gather in their rat warren churches with impunity in this time of the COVID plague and their deity will protect them.   Don't believe it, because any deity worth its salt would still expect its human followers to have an IQ above the level of a lowly slug.  Thank goodness the authorities see it that way too.

Florida officials have arrested Rodney Howard-Browne-  the pastor of a megachurch-  after being  accused of holding two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violating a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Jail records show Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities on Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives. He was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order. Bail was set at $500, according to the records, and he was released after posting bond.

Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said his command staff met leaders of the River at Tampa Bay church about the danger they were putting themselves – and their congregation – in by not maintaining appropriate social distancing, but Howard-Browne held the services. The sheriff’s office also placed a digital sign on the road near the church driveway that said “practice social distancing”.

Sheriff Chronister went on to say:

“Shame on this pastor, their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our job. That’s not what we wanted to do during a declared state of emergency. We are hopeful that this will be a wake-up call."

However, Howard-Browne’s law firm, Liberty Counsel, criticized Tampa's authorities, saying in a statement: 

“Not only did the church comply with the administrative order regarding six-foot distancing, it went above and beyond any other business to ensure the health and safety of the people.  Contrary to Sheriff Chronister’s allegation that Pastor Howard-Browne was ‘reckless', the actions of Hillsborough County and the Hernando County Sheriff are discriminatory against religion and church gatherings.”

Again revealing these scofflaw Evangelical goofballs are definitely in the low IQ realm, given science shows the only thing that words is quarantine, as in self confinement.  But maybe these dolts really do believe Jesus will step in to save their sorry butts from the virus.  Or maybe they really are Trump's loyal pet dogs who follow his lead, devil take the hindmost:



Howard-Browne is not alone in refusing to curtail in-person worship services despite public health orders designed to stop the virus from spreading. Churches in Ohio, Kentucky and Louisiana have continued to invite worshippers in recent days because at least half a dozen states offer some degree of exemption for faith in their orders to shutter non-essential activity during the pandemic. 

The Tampa church said it "sanitized the building", and the ruddy faced redneck said on Twitter the church was an "essential business".  This, of course, is a pile of horse manure because no church - or religion - can be considered an "essential business". Especially if it dabbles at all in spreading supernatural bunkum and fake promises of an "eternal" life.   Even my now deceased youngest brother, "Pastor Mike" (of the online 'Living Water Church'), admitted in his last months he went way overboard and admitted my points regarding textual analysis were spot on, See also:

A Brief History Of Early Christianity

Especially the Yale lectures on the historical Jesus contained therein. 

The cornpone yahoo  also attacked the media for “religious bigotry and hate”. In the statement released on Monday afternoon, Liberty Counsel said the church enforced the six-foot distance rule between family groups, made sure staff wore gloves and gave every person who entered hand sanitizer, among other things.  Well, not good enough, because we already know similar precautions were applied by a choir and the COVID-19 still decimated them, e.g.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwign_XZ7cPoAhXEZc0KHdkHD80QxfQBMAF6BAgKEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fworld-nation%2Fstory%2F2020-03-29%2Fcoronavirus-choir-outbreak&usg=AOvVaw2TNNcK_fGHK-tCdjogd8DH

The county and governor’s orders required gatherings, including those held by faith-based groups, to be fewer than 10 people to limit the spread of Covid-19. A livestream of Sunday’s three-and-a-half-hour service showed scores of congregants. In a Facebook post, Howard-Browne said coronavirus “is blown totally way out of proportion”.

On March 18th, the church called its ministry an essential service, "just like police and firefighters", and said it would keep its doors open.  But police and firefighters perform actual physical services, the former in stopping criminals, e.g. from robbing stores,  and the latter in putting out fires in homes and apartment buildings. These are actual, visible manifestations that disclose an essential nature, unlike a self-proclaimed "messenger" of the deity practicing mumbo jumbo. Especially a mumbo jumbo sure to get his sorry flock sick, many severely - possibly choking on their own fluids to catch a breath of air.

In a Facebook video Sunday, Howard-Browne said: “It looks like we’re going to have to go to court over this because the church is encroached from every side.”

Actually, Sparky, reason and the protection of the public (from certified imbeciles  like you) is encroaching from every side. Deal with it.

Update:   As we learned the latest unemployment claims today (6.64 million), it is mind boggling that 13 of the 50 states have still not mandated COVID-19 shutdowns, which means the more dire consequences will ensue- and the economy will remain in a "medically induced" coma.   That also portends weeks more of jobless claims piling up - by one estimate reaching 47m by the time it's all over. 

 Not making it better are the congenital morons like Florida Gubernator Ron Desantis who - while he did order a shutdown - immediately gave a dispensation to churches, church services. This is madness and as critics have pointed out, merely defeats the whole purpose of a statewide shutdown as it leaves multiple doors open to the virus. Hence, millions more potential infections in a state in which 1 in 5 are over 65, hence vulnerable to the most severe infections. That means Florida's 7,000 plus number  will spike upwards of 10,000 by next week and perhaps to 20,000 by the week after- with deaths to match.  You can blame this pandering fool when that happens and also when the state's hospitals are overwhelmed.  Has Desantis made sure to order ample body bags?  He will need them.

See also:

A quarter of those who contract the coronavirus may not show it

And:

Coronavirus | Religious Right

Evangelical Christianity Is Now, Literally, an Existential Threat to America 

Excerpt:

"These defiantly oblivious Trumpian schmucks are, without a doubt, American society's greatest threats of today. Covid-19 is "not a concern" to us, says the Tabernacle Church's "pastor" as he sends forth his flock of more than 500 potentially contagious fatalities. 


"The virus, we believe, is politically motivated," he added dumbfoundingly, in that this virus, if politically motivated, can't kill? Then again, who the hell could know what this moron is thinking, except this: "We hold our religious rights dear, and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says" — omitting that those someones are epidemiologists and infectious disease experts, who are motivated less by their perfectly logical disdain of Trump than by their professional interest in saving lives."

And:

Bill Berkowitz

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Coronavirus | Religious Right

Evangelical Preachers Endanger Congregations By Defying Common Sense and Holding Services

Radical Right Terrorists Need To Be Monitored and Brought to Trial!

Depiction of Obama by a Right Wing Extremist, formerly known as ‘Pastor Mike’

The former Homeland Security analyst who appeared on the Ed Schulz show this past Monday put it bluntly on noting the reason for his expulsion was for following up leads on Right Wing extremists. Evidently, DHS backed off from its scrutiny three years ago after Tea Party Repukes in Congress began barking they were being picked on and singled out! Huh! These nuts crawled out of the wood work after Obama’s 2008 election and then again - more recently- after his re-election.


As the Southern Policy Law Intelligence Report (Issue 149, Spring 2013) has shown, Right wing extremism is now exploding across the nation, and they have documented over 1,007 hate groups – mainly concentrated in Dixie, aka the old Confederacy. The home of the traitor Jefferson Davis, and fellow slave owning miscreants.


As I read the SPLC report, and heard the testimony from the former DHS analyst, I then wondered why the hell the federal government had focused so many resources on the Occupy movement, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/12/national-security-state-spied-on-occupy.html

David Lindorff documented : http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1494
that the FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies “began a campaign of monitoring, spying and disrupting the Occupy Movement at least two months before the first occupation actions began in late September 2011.”

He explained:

“As early as August, while acknowledging that the incipient Occupy Movement was “peaceful” in nature, federal, state and local officials from the FBI, the DHS and the many Fusion Centers and Joint Terrorism Task Force centers around the country were meeting with local financial institutions and their private security organizations to plot out a strategy for countering the Occupy Movement’s campaign.”


In a similar vein, one of Lindorff’s PCJ -obtained documents reveals a perp -instigator (name conveniently blanked out in the released document) who actually proposed to assassinate leaders of the Occupy Movement in Houston with “suppressed” sniper rifles. As the released PCJ document puts it:


"One identified ------ as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protesters in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified ----- had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. ---- planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest group and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership by suppressed sniper rifles.”


And the Right Wing Weenies are pissing and moaning and getting their diapers all wet? But Occupy was largely innocuous while the Right has now veered into full tilt anarchism, and whacked out conspiracy to justify the formation of thousands of Bushmaster .223 toting Militia groups. (See, e.g. ‘White Hot- For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear’, SPLC Intelligence Report, p. 36) See also the online story at: http://www.splcenter.org/home/2012/spring/white-hot


The SPLC IR observes (‘Conspiracies and Terror’, p. 42) these whackos still subscribe to “the completely baseless claim that ‘Agenda 21’, a United Nations sustainability plan is…part of a plan to impose socialism on America”.  Another 'Stormfront' moron quoted in the 'White hot'  SPLC piece blustered: “It is sad to see how many White women are going against their interest and it isn’t just our American mudsharks either. I cannot tell you how many European chicks are paired up with coloreds. It is a very disturbing trend actually.”

Errrrrr.....maybe those White women just know and value higher I.Q.s when they see them!


Thus fired up, these nuts have stockpiled high powered weapons and bought out high capacity magazines. Meanwhile, Right wing extremists have actually struck out in murderous rage, including a demented military whacko who killed 6 people at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, local officials in Georgia had to arrest ten active-duty military who allegedly planned to take over the Army’s Ft. Stewart. What gives with these former military right -wing whackjobs?


Meanwhile, the DHS, FBI et al waste time monitoring the innocent, idealistic (albeit yes, Left-leaning)  kids of Occupy Wall Street. But then as Oliver Stone has noted ('The Untold History Of the United States’ ) the feds have been singularly after the U.S. Left since the 1940s-50s,  finding every ruse or excuse under the frickin’ Sun to break up its organizations , and scatter them to the four winds! The disrupted organizations include: Labor, the Civil Rights movement, the Anti-war movement of the 1960s, the Black Panthers and others.

Much of this commenced under the Hoover- instigated FBI program known as COINTELPRO which featured assets being planted in various organizations with the sole purpose to disrupt them


But WHY do that when the REAL Terrorists and Murderers are all on the RIGHT?  Is it because the Federal agencies are themselves infiltrated with Right wing 'law -and -order' (their law) reactionaries -Nazi sympathizers? Are they left over from the Bush Jr. administration? It may be well that we need to know! Schulz's guest didn't venture an answer or speculate, but why else have the feds backed off so wholeheartedly from investigating, pursuing, and prosecuting the Right?

As blogger Bob Burnett has noted, over the last five years,  the Republican Party has veered to the far right and, in the process, been taken over by anarchists and Tea Party extremists who do not believe in centralized government.  University of California linguistics professor George Lakoff put it bluntly,

"[ultra conservatives] believe that Democracy gives them the liberty to seek their own self-interests by exercising personal responsibility, without having responsibility for anyone else or anyone else having responsibility for them."


These Tea Pea Republican anarchists reject the founders' morality, the sentiments that produced the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. These ultra conservatives don't believe in the common good or the notion that Americans have a moral responsibility to care for each other. (Which they deride as “touchy feely”) But they do venerate the second amendment to the Constitution, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms."

As a consequence, as Burnett writes, America is an armed camp, There are 89 guns for every 100 civilians... That amounts to roughly 270 million guns owned nationwide, far and away the highest gun ownership rate in the world." But the guns are unevenly distributed. About 35 percent of Americans personally own a gun. "Around 80 percent of gun owners are men. On average they own 7.9 guns each." (According to Burnett.)

Republican anarchists tend to live in Red states, where weapons are concentrated. There's a disturbing relationship between gun prevalence, resistance to gun control, and anti-government rhetoric. Wherever there's a high percentage of gun ownership there is also pro-second-amendment rhetoric and inflammatory talk suggesting the federal government threatens individual freedom. In January, gun-rights advocate, Kurt Hofmann, wrote an article "Government prepares for war with the people, and mass media approves,"   in which he deplored a "forcible citizen disarmament campaign," and predicted the current wave of gun control legislation ultimately intends to seize the weapons of "patriots."


Meanwhile, the most odious aspect of the Right’s terrorists is when they mix fundamentalist religious bullshit with their innate victim mentality. One quoted in the SPLC Intelligence Report (p. 37) for example, bellyached after Obama’s re-election:

“We have truly fallen under God’s judgment. You will never see another white man occupy the White House again!”

Awwww…..Boohoooo…and BWAAAHAHAHAAA…... Ever consider it was the majority of voter's judgment, dickhead? That they didn't want the likes of a White Plutocrat Slavemaster in the White House? (And, btw, just 'cause it's called a "White House" doesn't mean a white man gets to occupy it!)  Sounds almost as pathetic as the former Pastor Mike bawling because he’d "been removed from Facebook". He claimed “bias” in free speech rights while “Libos” and “libtards” got to spread their hate and all he did was try to exercise his free speech rights under the 1st amendment. Right? In a pig's eye!

What Mikey boy proposed was radically different and distinct with his vile “Christian National Registry of Atheists” – which treated atheists like sex offenders! In one fell swoop he not only shit on 22 million Americans but signed his own fate by drawing their mass heat when they uncovered his brazenly posted Facebook page with his Nazi-based plan (Which he admits he copied from Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ e.g. in orchestrating a registry for Jews. "Just for information purposes".)


In the wake of that furore,  Mike’s FB page deserved to be shut down! (If for no other reason than to prevent a 'denial of service' suit against Facebook!) However, what he fails to mention at all is that HE himself chose to shut down his 'Pastor Mike’s Blog'! He did it because he couldn’t stand up to the heat he himself engendered. He learned he could start fires but couldn't put them out....unless he punked out and ran away. But he will never admit that, preferring to focus on his Facebook page.


Fortunately for him, he can now exercise all the free speech he wants on his new (but much less read, by barely 20 people) blog, where he sows as much hate or more – such as depicted in the image shown. Half the time he spends attacking ‘Obummer’ (despite finally being able to eat out thanks to the disability benefits he could never get under Bush) and the other half  wails about “Libos” taking away his precious rights – though his lot are far more disrespectful of free speech rights and constitutional provisions. (It’s also hilarious he continues to deride me as a “draft dodger in JFK’s Draft Dodging Peace Corps” – when in fact I’d already taken my draft board exam in March, 1965 (designated as IY, or only eligible for service in case of declared war or national emergency) nearly 6 years before entering Peace Corps!  But it shows how little he knows, even on family matters. And this from a guy who mainly spent the ‘Nam years doing KP duty in the Marine Corps, from the info I’ve been given!)


But what can you expect from a guy who’s had his brains bruised senseless “after more than 1,000 bat and bottle fights”?  My main worry? His increasing bombastic posts, freighted with belligerence and over the top hostility, steers him toward the reactionary Right crazies documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Perhaps a small ‘hummingbird’ drone dispatched to monitor his activities might prove most useful, and avert possible future nastiness.  Maybe the DHS needs to wake up and put him and his misguided ilk on its radar instead of perennially picking on Lefties!

Stiffers for Christ: Using Bible Quotes for Tips? Unbelievable!

The piece (‘What Would Jesus Tip?’) in the Sunday Denver Post had my head spinning! Fundies (mainly) using scriptural quotes as restaurant tips! They sign restaurant tip spaces with bollocks like: ‘Isaiah 41:10’ which reference turns up: “Fear not, for I am with you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you!”


Jeebus! Pity the poor waitress stiffed like that! I mean, will she be able to make her rent or electric bill with a quote from Isaiah? Look, I’m not a big fan of American tipping culture since I believe it lets greedy employers off the hook for paying decent wages. Be that as it may, I still provide a respectable 15% tip whenever wife and I eat out, and 18% if the service is commendable, 20% if excellent. In all my years of tipping I only "semi-stiffed" a waiter once (even then giving him a very generous 10%) and this was after three times failing to deliver what I asked for. Three strikes and you’re out!

But these Jesus freaks are at a whole other level of stiffing. In fact it’s so bad and they give their kind such a bad name that wait staff around the country have begun to refer to them with the sobriquet of “Stiffers for Christ”. So many service workers are aware of the trend that they try to beg off Sunday brunches when most of these holy rollers show up, just after Sunday services.

A notable incident in Missouri last month was actually made public by a waitress at an Applebee’s. (Alas she was fired for doing so!) In this case, a “Pastor” Alois Bell – as reported in the Post piece- crossed out the 18% automatic tip and scribbled in:

“I give God 10%. Why do you get 18%?”


Uhhhh….well, for starters, because she is real and serving you real food you just gobbled up, while God is….where? In heaven?

Anyway, waitress Chelsea Welch posted a photo of the stiffer’s bill on Reddit, and the story went viral. Once the restaurant picked it up on the radar, she was fired.


But that’s only one instance, there are many many more. Indeed, the ‘Daily Finance Website’ has noted that “the idea that Christians are poor tippers has apparently been whispered in service circles for a long time”.

Even the Christians themselves admit it! Writing for Lutheran Magazine, one minister put it thusly:

“As a matter of fact, we’re pretty cheap! What makes this worse is that we paint ‘cheap’ with a religious sounding veneer and call it ‘being a good steward’. Nothing like hiding behind the Bible to camouflage your stinginess! “


This is also very difficult to comprehend. I mean don’t these bible thumpers recall Christ saying “Whatever you do for these the least of my brethren, that you do unto me?” Well, don’t wait staff with a tip minimum wage of $2.13 an hour qualify? They surely don’t earn as much as some of the fundie pastors I’ve seen around the Springs driving in their Bentleys and Mercedes, to and from their Mega-churches!

It seems the bible beaters only trot out their quotes when it’s convenient to do so.

The author of the Post piece observes: “It’s equally classless to leave gospel tracts and quotes instead of tips.”

He then cites several cases including one incident where the pastor (Pastor Mike?) left a fake $10 bill with a scripture quote and the addendum: ‘Some things are better than money’.

Oh really? And what if your waitress is a single mom with three kids to feed, and working two jobs. What if the proper tip for your $49.95 steak dinner might have just enabled her to purchase a slightly more suitable meal for them? Now, what is she going to do with your foolish $10- fake bill?

Worse, by leaving such tracts or fake tips with nonsense verbiage, the Xtian stiffer is devaluing the person that just labored over serving them their fare. Baptist Pastor Dan Readle, quoted in the piece, acknowledges that such a no count cheapskate is effectively saying with the slight:

“You are not a person, but just a notch on my belt of evangelistic pride”

Hmmmm….so very close to certain “pastors” who put notches on their blogs showing friends, family and others in flaming “Hells”, with their own scriptures warning time is running out….tick…tick….

But in fact, the time is running out for them and their foolish, self-righteous creeds. Recent polls and surveys disclose more and more young people, especially, abandoning traditional religions and churches to pursue their own spiritual paths. They want no part of the blatant hypocrisy. And by all standards, any church which preaches helping one’s brother (or “saving” him) but whose members stiff service workers, is certainly a bastion of hypocrisy.

As the author notes: “Waiting tables is tough enough without getting an unwanted dose of piousness, especially in place of a gratuity”.

Imagine then that hypothetical mom with 3 kids, waiting tables all day long including many with picky kids, and overly demanding diners. Then, at the end, she waits on one large table of 10-12 churchgoers. After catering to their every whim for over an hour she finally gets left the bill, and a paper napkin beneath it with these inked in words:

“Therefore I say unto you, be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?” - P.S. Aren't these words worth all the tips in the world?


Would YOU want to be “saved” by any of these sanctimonious fools? Or, would you dismiss them as cruel ignoramuses and pursue your own spiritual path?

I know what I’d do!

Pastor Mike Challenges Me to be Honest and He Will “Leave me alone”

(Latest image from Pastor Mike's blog -purportedly of me)


It’s really interesting that in his latest blog post, my fundamentalist brother, "Pastor" Mike (well, formerly, he doesn’t call himself that any longer – maybe because he knows that it was bogus) rants off on me nearly eighteen times by referring to me as a ”hateful coward sissy punk Satan- following maggot”. Evidently, he had some strong objections to my posts on Tim Tebow and Tim's canceling out of giving a speech at a Dallas hate church.   But, some of those adjectives used by Mikey boy bear alarming similarity to psychological projection. This is given the fact it was HE who high tailed it off his hate blog (“Pastor Mike’s blog") some two years ago after he viciously advocated an “atheist registry - similar to a sex offender registry".

I mean, holy fuck and a half, the 'google-sphere' is still laden with hundreds of pages on this hateful little prick, e.g. http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/08/atheist_national_registry_prop.php and  http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/28/pastor-mike-has-a-plan/

And what he tried to pull two years ago (though he still refers to it as a "little joke" and calls atheists, others out for having 'thin hides') and who now has the fucking nerve to challenge me with a bunch of asinine questions to try and prove HE was never a hater! Some of his questions are:

1.Can you reference in any of my blog posts where I have stated that I "hate" a specific person or group (as opposed to their doctrines)? If so, please provide where.


2. You oftentimes put me in the same proverbial boat with the likes of Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church (as well as the Landover Baptist Church and their ilk), but...have I not publically written on this blog that they are NOT true Christians, and denounced them here publically for the true racists, anti-Semites, and bigots they really are?

3. If you are honest, and answer "yes" to question 2, then why do you still defame me by implying that I condone their doctrines?


"Defame" him? The little prick has defamed himself!  Looks to me like his fading memory needs jogging! But, without putting up any more of his bullshit -  anyone with the sense to google “Pastor Mike Stahl” will see his record of hate comes before him, and stands as self-incriminating testimony on his previous blog. (Maybe now he’s reformed somewhat, but don’t bet on it with images such as I have shown in prior blogs, e.g. http://www.brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/11/can-we-treat-obama-derangement-syndrome.html and http://www.brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/11/treating-advanced-fundagelical-psychosis.html

Can anyone seriously tell me this shit isn't hate?

Now HE wants ME to 'fess up to him and come clean? What is he, fuckin’ nuts? I believe so, like all extremist fundie assholes. (But since he calls me a 'relativist', yeah I will admit that some fundies are bigger assholes and extremists than others.) The funniest part is his ending where he insists he will still go to visit the hate -monger in Dallas, Robert Jeffress, viz.


"Oh, btw, I still may head to the 'Big D' and pay a visit to Pastor Jeffress' Church. Get a few pics of him and me, and then come to see you - so get one of them spare bedrooms ready for me and old 'Reb, okay. I'm sure they have a few good (KJV) bible-based evangelical Churches in your neck of the woods, huh?"


Well, I wouldn't advise it, sonny. We also have more hard core atheists per square mile than your whole pahokey town has Xtians. Oh....and some of them are still pissed off about that atheist registry proposal of yours!

And look here, ‘bro’ – assuming that’s even still applicable, because by your previous antics I somehow doubt it, I have nothing to prove in terms of honesty vis-à-vis you. I have called you out and attacked you as I’ve seen fit for your nasty, extreme beliefs – which YES – you have held and evidently still do! But maybe your memory is failing and you can’t recall them. In that case, I suggest you google yourself in your prior incarnation as “Pastor Mike” and see WTF OTHER people have said about you and previous blog, not just ME!

Do you have the balls to do that? Fuck no! So who is the ‘”hateful coward sissy punk Satan- following maggot” now, you fucking little ingrate. (Yeppers, I still remember the loan I gave you when you were down and out last year, your car was broken down and you had no groceries in the house)

Do I give a shit if you keep at me with insults and hell-insert images on your new “Straight talk” blog or not? Fuck NO! I welcome the material as more fodder to lay into your sorry Rebel “naturalized Mississippi” ass! As I said before – if this was 150 years ago, one or both of us would be dead by now, me likely fighting for a Wisconsin regiment and you for your beloved Mississippi. Be thankful that at least now our civil war is based on words, not bayonets, fucker.

Tim Tebow Making HUGE Mistake Going to Dallas' HATE Church

 Hateful fundies are all in a dither, and as one loon wrote on his blog "packing bags to go see and hear Tim Tebow in Dallas in April."   Yeah, right! Just don't let the HATE entrance door bang you in the balls on the way in, Sparky!

As reported in The Denver Post this morning ('Tebow Must Audible Out of This Play', p. 1B) Tebow plans to make an appearance April 28 at the First Baptist Church of Dr. Robert Jeffress.

The Post writer is dismayed by Timmy's obnoxious choice of venue, and cites the words of Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports:

'Tim Tebow is about to make the biggest mistake of his life. Tebow has agreed to speak at a hateful Baptist preacher's church, an EVANGELICAL CRETIN named Robert Jeffress, who does the work of the lord sort of like Westboro Baptist in Topeka, Kan., does the work of the lord."

Doyel goes on to note that while Jeffress isn't quite as bad as Prime Hater Fred Phelps of Westboro (i.e. picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers with signs of "HELL BOUND!")  he is still pretty bad.  He believes, like another "pastor" we all know who ran a rancid hate blog until he was chased off by death threats, that:

- AIDS is an exclusively 'gay disease' so provides a basis for the military to exclude any homosexual,

-Jews, homosexuals, and Catholics are all going to "Hell"  - some (e.g. Jews and homosexuals) faster than others.

- The Catholic Church is a "Satanic cult"

- Islam is a religion that "promotes pedophilia"

Now where have we seen all this bollocks before? Hmmmm.....let me think. I think the primary clue is a a blog that once bore the giveaway initials "P. M".  A blog (and linked Facebook page) that once idiotically proposed all atheists be placed on lists "similar to sex offenders" so people that are godly would know where the "Satan loving" reside.  Of course, once the atheist web got hold of that, they beseiged his sorry ass and within 2 nanoseconds he high-tailed and shut his blog down.

Anyway, I understand this same doofus plans to travel to Big D to see Tebow, and likely hobnob with Jeffress. Well, what can I say? I guess cretins of a feather flock together! 

Meanwhile, the D. Post author of the original column remarks:

"I simply can't imagine Tebow knowing the stuff that Jeffress has said and Tebow saying, 'Yep, that's where I want to go!'"

The author adds:

"It simply doesn't make sense he would risk all he's done just to make one speech."

Yeah, but see, in many ways money can do a lot to wreck supposed principles! Even for a fundie!

But perhaps the most salient words are the ones that ended the piece:

"After a season on the sidelines, Timmy, the ball's in your hands! Better not fumble this one!"

Indeed!

A Brother Turns Away from the GOP. Has He Seen the Light? Maybe!

Will wonders never cease? It appears, according to a recent blog post, my most conservative, most 'redneck' (he was actually born in Milwaukee - but he proclaims redneck devotion), most diehard GOOpr bro has now turned away from the 'pukes party and declared his independence. Extracts follow from his recent blog post: "No longer Republican- Giving up my 'Republicanship'!"

"Although I have been a registered Republican since 1980, that will soon change when I register as an INDEPENDENT! I will also no longer support ANY political party, but will support the individual.

I have also been doing research on the latest "fiscal cliff" deal, and must say, that I am pissed more at the Republicans than the Dems as far as who wanted to cut what. As a Vietnam era veteran who has served this country honorably in both the U.S. Marine Corps (1971-1973) and in the U.S. Army (1975-1976), and have been fighting the VA for over two years for service-connected disabilities (PLURAL), I am just now getting positive action in the form of my SC disabilities being approved. I first and foremost give ALL THE GLORY TO GOD! Without HIS help - nothing is possible!


I also have two other brothers who served honorably in the Navy and Air Force during Vietnam and who also know what its like to fight the VA for earned benefits! Hence, (and I also believe I speak for my siblings, as well as millons of other veterans), when I say that I am adamantly opposed to any "cuts" whatsoever - in any way, matter, shape, or form - when it comes to veterans benefits!


I also must give Obummer credit for stating in the recent "fiscal cliff" negotiations what he told members of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), that veterans benefits will "NOT be affected by defense cuts: 'your veterans benefits are exempt from sequestration. they are EXEMPT!'" That seems to be one promise that I must concede that he kept, and I have to "thank" him for that.

Contrast that to dumbass Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) proposal in January of 2011, when she unveiled a plan to cut $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing the Veterans Affairs Department’s health care spending and cuts veterans’ disability benefits.


The Air Force Times reports her plan would slice $4.5 billion from the VA, including reducing 150,000 veterans’ disability compensation and the amount they receive in Social Security Disability Income.

Disabled American Veterans Washington Headquarters Executive Director David Gorman said Bachmann’s plan is “[s]uch an ill-advised proposal [it] is nothing short of heartless.” “It is unconscionable that while our nation is at war someone would even think of forcing our wounded warriors to sacrifice even more than they already have,” Gorman said. “Their injuries and disabilities were the result of their service to the nation, and our nation must not shirk its responsibilities toward them. How do you tell a veteran who has lost a limb that he or she has not sacrificed enough? Yet Rep. Bachmann wants to do just that.”

Of course, after she was getting blasted by just about every vets group and organization you can think of, Bachmann recanted on cutting VA benefits. But one has to wonder why in the world would she have even thought of balancing the budget on the backs of disabled vets. There is plenty of government waste and most of it starts in congress. Am I wrong here?

I find it mind-boggling that Republicans were actually taken by surprise by the fact that Obama won’t go along with cutting benefits for disabled veterans. Let that sink in for a minute. Republicans fully expected this president, the Democratic Party, and the American people to support a benefits cut for disabled veterans?!

I also agree that the chained CPI is bad policy, what Republicans are proposing is nothing less than an unpatriotic attack on the benefits that have been earned by disabled veterans. The fact that Republicans would even propose such a cut speaks volumes about how much they really value the sacrifice made by those who served their country. Also, as was reported by Disabled Veterans.org:

"Republican Paul Ryan and the House of Representatives are looking to end VA healthcare benefits for disabled veterans – that’s for over 1.3 million veterans who are Priority 7 & 8. These veterans are the least disabled veterans using the system, usually with disability ratings of 0 percent or no service-connected disability."

According to the Congressional Budget Office “Option 35,” the cuts would leave 130,000 veterans with no healthcare alternative. This means veterans with conditions not recognized by the VA, like certain diseases from Agent Orange exposure, would have to pay for healthcare out of pocket if they had not other service connected disability."


It continued:  "Don’t believe the headlines. These cuts are just an attempt to split the oyster shell in half to steal the pearl. Once 1.3 million bodies get cut out of the VA system, politicians will have an easier time justifying further cuts to VA programs.  Suddenly, the comprehensive health care you once received will be reduced to occasional physicals and virtual appointments via computer. Count on it."

I am also opposed to any cuts in regard to Social Security, Social Security Disability, Medicare and Medicaid. What we need to do is put a stop to the illegal immigrants and others who abuse and fradulently obtain these benefits! But we need not throw the baby out with the bath water. Many doctors are refusing to accept Medicare/ Medicaid patients here in Florida, as they are not getting properly compensated - and IF they do - its at a loss, and they're lucky to get even a paltry payment from 'Uncle Sam' withing 6-months or longer!

For the past year or so, my primary care physician and cardiologist has had a sign in his office that reads: "NOTICE: THIS OFFICE NO LONGER ACCEPTS MEDICARE OR MEDICAID." As he once told me, "Why should I give a $1800.00 stress test and only get reimbursed $20 from the government?"

As for military cuts, I'm not completely opposed to all of them, either. Frankly, I would shut down all military bases currently located in countries that don't want us there to begin with. We can start in the commie, Socialist, Muslum Satan-led ones. Shut down Gitmo and let Raul Castro have all the terrorists that are there now, and tell 'em, "Adios, we're outta here!" If they try to enter the US , SHOOT 'EM ON THE SPOT!! Problem solved! We can then take half the $$ we save and use it for veterans benefits and the other half to pay down our debt. See...it ain't rocket science, my friends. 

 Now, also in the recent fiscal cliff agreement reached by Obummer and Congress I do agree with:

- making permanent most of the Bush era tax cuts

- keeping the earned income and child care tax credits

- raising taxes on the wealthy (though, I would have preferred it start at those earning $250,000 a year or more).


I also agree with what the Daily Kos reported:


"On the plus side, the agreement abandoned the plan for “chained CPI,” a new measure of inflation that would have reduced future cost-of-living increases for Social Security, veterans' benefits and other critical benefits. There were no additional spending cuts. The family tax credit programs — including the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit — were protected, and improvements made to those credits were extended for five years. Emergency unemployment insurance benefits were extended for laid-off workers who would have faced a significant immediate threat if we went over the cliff." .

So, I am no longer a Republican, but an INDEPENDENT. I will now support individual(s) as opposed to a political party!"

 

He goes on to object to the payroll tax being increased back to 6.2% - but of course, if he's really a defender of Social Security he ought to see this is a GOOD thing, since it's the payroll tax that supports Social Security. Take that away (and the two year reduction already reduced S.S. coffers by over $170b as many piled into the system via disability claims leading to more payouts than money received in 2010) and you are looking at future budgetary allocations of monies to recipients which can vary year to year. Imagine the REEPO House voting on how much a senior will receive each year, like they just did with the Sandy victims - allowing only $9.7b in aid when they need $60b?

But given his overall positions (even admiting to reading Daily Kos - one of the top liberal blogs) maybe, just maybe, there is hope for the guy yet. Perhaps the next step will be ditching his obnoxious fundamentalism. I mean, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is the "reconstruction" of a sibling back to relative normality!

Bullying of Atheist Kids: A 'Breeding Ground' for New "Pastors"?

An eight-year old non-religious kid bullied into thinking "Satan" will pop out of a mirror and take her to hell? This is the kind of crap mutant right wing religious kids are now pushing on their peers if they don't hop on the God bandwagon. THEIRS!

After the story was sent to me by my sensible, non-religious brother, I had to read it over twice for clarity. I had to be sure there actually existed a school at which right wing bible -punching, brainwashed kids were actually trying to intimidate their non-religious schoolmates (who the bullying creeps dismissed as "atheists"). It made me again wonder why these twits couldn't just live and let live. Do they really believe casting hell threats against any unbeliever is going to make the person suddenly stop in his or her tracks and go for the nearest bible? What are these idiots drinking?

Yet it now seems to be starting as early as 2nd and 3rd grade. In the case referenced, the child under psychic attack said: “Susie told me because I didn’t believe in god, the devil was coming to take my soul.”

“Susie” was a fellow eight-year-old student at the beseiged daughter’s Catholic school. and attended church every Sunday with her family—the same church that many of her classmates go to. As the mother of the psychically -attacked girl described what was going on, and the effects on her child:  "She wouldn’t enter a bathroom without a friend or parent and began wetting the bed at night for fear of our extensive collection of bathroom mirrors pulling her into almighty hell at 2 a.m."


The mom went on:

"Sure enough, the religious eight-year-old was still pressuring my daughter to consider her morality, spirituality and reason for living daily in the school bathroom".

When the mom complained to the principal of the school, she wasn't taken very seriously. Bullying, after all,  was getting punched in the stomach in a dark place behind the school, not a little girl being taunted for not believing she was going to have life eternal.

But in fact the mom was spot on correct in her instincts, and the principal nun a bit retarded in her conscious recognition of the warp and woof of bullying. Because make no mistake, to a vulnerable person or kid, psychological attacks are every bit as potent and destructive as physical ones, maybe moreso. 

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, every day “an estimated 160,000 students in the U.S. refuse to go to school because they dread the physical as well as the verbal aggression of their peers. Many more attend school in a chronic state of anxiety and depression.”

Verbal aggression and threats are often worse because they leave no identifiable marks - as a punch in the face would. So teachers, administrators are likely to treat it lightly. But the damage is there.

I originally encountered the extent of such damage ca. 1972-73 while a Peace Corps volunteer, visiting the Psychiatric Hospital in Barbados, at Black Rock. I was astounded to see so many young people, teens in the hospital - many being on a regular "diet" of largactyl as well as ECT. These were young people from 15-19 years of age. When I talked to the head of the hospital, Dr. Patricia Bannister, she told me most of the young people were there as results of "psychotic episodes" instilled by evidently "well-meaning" preachers and pastors, who went overboard with the fire and brimstone message. Most of the teens, sensitive and highly strung, took the messages to heart and began to search for "demons" that might drag them to hell when least expected. One insane pastor, at the Berean Bible church, actually attempted to reinforce the message with the added quip:  "Tick, tick, tock!....That's the sound of your life ticking away and your soul headed for the eternal fires!"

The nutso message so upset one girl ("Petra") that she lost it and began hallucinations similar to those reported by the 8-year old, being harassed by her nutty Xtianoid classmate.

Dr. Bannister informed me that this case, as well as another, were two of the saddest she'd encountered and estimated at least a year for each on anti-psychotics as well as three times a week electro-convulsive therapy.

Do the god and hell mongers have any guilt for such outrages? Of course not! They are convinced they're doing "God's holy will" to try to save the "damned" - at least in their mind. Bullied and brainwashed themselves into mental insensibility, they've no choice but to try it on others. (And if it works often enough, look out for the wretch to aspire to some later "pastorhood"- even if only self-proclaimed.)  Those of us who are tough minded just toss it back at them and ridicule their idiocy as well as the contradiction manifest in their faith and actions. However, the more tender-minded among us ....the more sensitive...often take the threats to heart and untold psychological damage is the result.

In relation to the little 8-year old bullied at her Catholic school, Courtney Campbell, a Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, says he encountered the same case with his own children who were told at a very early age by some of their “friends” that they were “going to hell.” Though there were no physical beatings, the “psychic bullying” may have been worse.

According to Campbell:

“There is a phenomenon of religious-bullying at an early age, though in my own view/experience with raising my kids, it’s less of an issue than lookism [obese kids], size [‘big’ bullies], or gender, or clothes, or any of a number of things that kids do to manifest power over others,”

He points out that in most conservative/evangelical/fundamentalist Christian traditions, kids are taught at a very early age in their Sunday schools or summer bible camps that there’s only one path to happiness and salvation. That teaching, absorbed at a young age, is on its own rather threatening to the child. (As well as to adults who stumble upon it, and embrace this bollocks as a reaction to their own "sin slides" in drunkenness, gambling whatever. So hyper -religion and bible punching, salvation mongering materializes as kind of a reaction formation.)

Campbell adds:

“When the child goes to school, and encounters for the first time other kids who don’t believe the same thing, whether it’s no belief or a different belief system, that can rock a kid’s world,”

Indeed! And an adult bible maniac's as well! They cannot believe or understand how....with the "fires so hot" ...there can exist other beings, sentient beings, who dismiss it all as poppycock for the feeble-minded. Their only possible reaction, because they are terrified these others might deep down be correct, is to ramp up their own hellish threats to try to intimidate whoever the target is. But they are too dumb to see it is their emotional and angry yelping that always does them in and discloses their beliefs as the province of psychopaths. So, why would any sensible or rational person jump on the bandwagon? Because of going to "hell"? That's a joke since when you're dead, you're dead. (At the very least, even if some type of consciousness is available, it's not localized, e.g. http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/07/has-stuart-hameroff-explicated-way-out.html)

Meanwhile, Rachel Wagner, Associate Professor for the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College and author of Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality, says we are overlooking a major player of the religious bullying model—video games. Thus, the "shoot  them bad guys" template is adopted if only unconsciously.

While Wagner admits it’s very important to remember that all world religions also have “deep and abiding practices urging compassion, understanding, tolerance, and social justice,” in today’s media-soaked society, feeling the need to retreat into a simpler world where people can be reduced to camps can be terribly tempting. Hence, it's simpler to brand all "unbelievers" as "Hell bound" and arrange the world into sheep and goats. But this is a retarded perspective which never bears much productive fruit in the long run, and again, the hell-pushers and would-be pastors and "saviors" never get it that it's their behavior that pushes most people away. Their brash, aggressive shtick is a turn-off and no one who's the least bit grounded mentally wants to hear it.

Meanwhile,  Stacy Pershall, author of Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl, says that growing up in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in an athletics-focused, Christian bible belt, she was used to being surrounded by “Jesus talk.”

Perhall goes on to add:

“Although it still makes my heart pound a little to stand in front of a crowd and admit that I don’t believe in god (as I recently did at Catholic University in D.C.), somebody needs to do it. I get to be the adult who says to kids, ‘I’m an atheist, I have morals, I have friends, I’m happy, and I care about how you feel.’ That’s a wonderful, powerful thing. I get to tell bullied kids who might be considering suicide that they’re not alone, and that they have kindred spirits. It’s what the Flying Spaghetti Monster put me on Earth to do.”

That's a sentiment with which I could not agree more and a powerful reply! It sends a message to the would-be tormentor and religious psychological bully that you regard his beliefs and his central "god" with about the same gravitas as a totally dreamed up confection....especially since s/he can't show any singular proof for any claims anyway! (Citing biblical quotes doesn't count since that invokes the logical no-no of appeal to authority...or presumed authority.)

Bravo! To 'Anonymous' Hacker Collective for Shutting Down the Westboro Haters

If there's one thing more revolting than a child-killing psycho it's a filthy, disgusting, fundy hell -mongering type that pickets an innocent child's funeral with Hell threats! But these vermin, namely the Westboro (KS) Baptist freaks have been at it even longer than "Pastor" Mike. They have picketed troops' funerals with their disgusting Hell signs until the families of the troops themselves came together to cordon off the sites with their own - preventing "pastor" Fred Phelps and his Kansas detritus from fouling the grounds.

News has now come through that Anonymous- a dedicated hacker collective - has shut down the Westboro Baptist website (Godhatesfags.com) with a denial of service attack (DDOS). This was after the hate group/"church" announced its plans to picket victims of Sandy Hook’s funerals. Evidently they are suspicious that one or more of these little kids (one a devout Jew) are "hell bound" as well as the teachers killed. Where do these demented jackals come from and where do they get these insane ideas? How can any sane human remotely contemplate an eternal hellfire fate for a kid brutally murdered while merely in a 1st grade class?

It beggars the imagination, but then in my own family I've witnessed what screwed up religiosity and whacked out literal translations of bibles can do to a brain. I've seen first hand how the mind virus of biblical bunkum can send a brain careening toward phantasms, overt hell mongering and even burning dozens of people (figuratively) using moving blog imagery with flames. This is sick, though granted, not quite as sick as picketing the funerals of innocent kids murdered by a whacko.  But fortunately, 'Anonymous' got word of it and exacted its own brand of rough justice. As Salon’s Natasha Lennard wrote on Sunday:
"Hacker collective Anonymous was swift to respond, releasing private information of Westboro members including email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses. This video, decrying the church for spreading “seeds of hatred,” was also released. It warns, “We will destroy you. We are coming.”

By all tokens of reason and common sense, Phelps and his miscreants ought to be far more worried over Anonymous than their fantasy Hell myths. Meanwhile, according to a report at salon.com today, an Anonymous source has said it intends to keep the website offline throughout the day, with plans to take it over completely and deface it. The message reported was: "We will continuously DDOS until they are forced to put their inbred church tithes to use to pay for bandwidth."

Meanwhile, a popular Anonymous Twitter account went one further: “The message is simple: Dont fuck with little kids. Especially their funerals.”  Ouch!  Although ordinarily I am not ok with vigilantism of any kind, I do think exceptions can be made when free speech is taken too far, such as abusing families at their kids funerals. In that case, all I can say is "Go for it!". The fuckers deserve as much or more as any other hell monger, including the bitch I wrote about that threatened my friend (who has only months to live) with "hell" if he didn't repent before he died.

As I've said before, "free speech" is only free up to a point. One ought not be free to spew hatred at any one's funeral, I don't care what religious umbrella you try to use. I don't care if you put "pastor" before your name.

The thing that always amazes about these hell -mongering,  holier than thou nitwits, is how they never ever place the mirror in front of themselves and take a good look. If they did, they'd see that by threatening hell at child funerals they're no better than the butcher that killed those kids in the first place. Maybe worse, because they hide their hate behind a false god. That's just my opinion, and readers are free to take it for what it's worth.

Mail Call Brane - Readers Seeking Answers!

(Note all the following questions were received in 'comment' format but with the askee requesting no special comment space rather the question(s) collated into one blog ....this one!)

Q. President Obama in response to a question yesterday at his news conference stated that one can't be sure if superstorms such as Sandy are really caused by climate change. What is the take of the climate science community on this? - Roger B., Minneapolis, MN

A. This is a tricky question, and Obama can be forgiven for dodging it in a way at his press conference, because let's face it: most of the press corps possesses the attention span of gnats.

The truth is that one aspect of climate change does show a causal relation to the genesis of Superstorm Sandy. That is the phenomenon known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and its geographical distribution at particular times of the year. The NAO embodies the atmospheric pressure over a particular region (in this case it was the U.S. northeast) and it can be either 'positive' or 'negative'. In the case of the latter, which was what we observed preparatory to Sandy's arrival, the jet stream displayed a pronounced southward dip. In a positive display the jet stream would have more straddled the higher latitudes (e.g. 45N) and not bent so far south.

Now, here's the kicker: research by Charles Greene at Cornell University and other climate scientists has shown that as more Arctic sea ice melts   e.g. in the summer because of global warming (as I noted before, see my blog of  Sept. 21) then the NAO is more likely to be negative, i.e. jet stream sloping way south. This condition then set the stage for a superstorm in two stages: 1) the warm Atlantic water off the eastern U.S. coast fed energy into the system, and 2) the encounter with the cold air ensconced in the southerly jet stream added the energy equivalent of 5 single megaton nuclear bombs to the system and dramatically expanded its reach - incepting the massive destruction we beheld.

We can predict then, that if northerly moving hurricanes become a more common feature, as does a continued negative NAO, then we will see more superstorms like Sandy. The east coast and its cities will then have to decide whether or not it will spend the money, as the UK has, to construct a massive system of dykes etc. to ward off the storm waters, waves. If not, we better have no more wars, because we're going to need all that money for constant rebuilding!

Q. Reading about your brother ('Fighting Cancer, Fighting Your Brother') I can't believe you had to put up with all his crap while you were recovering from prostate cancer! What gives with the dude? Is he 52 cards short of a full deck or just ornery or what? - Mitch C., Stanford, CA

A. Well, what would you think of a guy that once circulated an idea to put all atheists in the country on a "national registry" like sex offenders?  Granted, he had to be saved from himself (he received over 400 death threats via email from outraged atheists across the world) but all that meant is that he shut down the 'Pastor Mike' blog and started a new one ('Straight Talk with Mister Mike'). The bottom line is I don't know what his main problem is, but as I said in blogs from a few years ago, I suspect IF he has mental issues they arise from believing an insane fundamentalist brand of religion. His 'god' - if you can call it that, is totally batshit insane, since it has no problems allowing a son to be killed for mouthing off against parents - as per Deuteronomy 21;18-21, or adulterers (say like Petraeus and Broadwell) to be stoned to death by Deut. 22:22 or chldren to have wild bears set loose on them if they mock "prophets". (By 2 Kings 2: 23-24). Oh, his god also approves of genocide when it means "cleansing the earth" - as in Gen. with the slaughter of the Canaanites.

As I've said many times before, tell me the concept of god in which you believe, and thence the morality you uphold,  and I will forecast your odds of going nuts. Indeed, I can tell how much of a nut you already are. If you accept or believe in batshit crazy gods you will be a batshit crazy person, and likely end up in a straight jacket on thorazine, if not in some other horrendous end.

Q. I read your blogs on prostate cancer with great interest. My husband, age 43,  recently had a biopsy and it came back with four cores at Gleason 3+4. He's in a dilemma as to the treatment but as in your case, the urologist said watchful waiting wasn't an option. He dreads all the post-operative issues to do with surgery including difficulty with sexual relations, but isn't sure about radiation either, and doesn't want to face the prospect of having the cancer come back after having done the radiation. Any ideas, suggestions?  - Marilyn F., New Orleans, LA

A. In the end the choice of treatment is a highly personal one. Apart from the information already given in the blogs, I can only suggest he obtain the two books cited as well: 'The Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers' and John C. Mulhall's  'Saving Your Sex Life: A Guide for Men with Prostate Cancer". (Note: Dr. Mulhall is the Director of the Sexual & Reproductive Medicine Urology Service based at the Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center.) Mulhall's focus is also highly on the issue of "penile rehabilitation" : http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/10/penile-rehabilitiation-what-most-docs.html .

The aversion to post-op problems following surgery is understandable. Incontinence and erection problems are often mentioned (but the solutions to these were given in the blog link, based on Mulhall's book) but the acute or short term problems are also turn-offs for many men: including risk of infections, having a catheter inserted in the bladder for possibly as long as 3 weeks, coping with the pain, constipation arising from use of pain meds, and risk of rectal injury during bowel movements because the rectal wall becomes much thinner following surgery - after removal of the prostate which originally adjoined the rectum. All this is detailed in the UCSF Patient Guide for Radical Prostatectomy which also includes sections dealing with sexual recuperation, other treatments -meds for incontinence, etc.

I chose the high dose rate brachytherapy because: 1) I didn't wish to be laid up weeks with post-op difficulties or catheters, or bowel problems, 2) I didn't want to be possibly faced with months or years of incontinence limiting my travels, freedom, and 3) I didn't want to go to extraordinary lengths for "penile rehabilitation" including having to have an implant operation, or reduced to continually using Viagra, vacuum pumps or injections. But again, each man has to make his own choices!

Q. I found your blog on solar oblateness fascinating, and wondered if you would be so kind as to provide the oblateness formula for the planets from Earth outwards.to Neptune. Thanks! - Mick, Trenton, NJ

A. The oblateness formula depends on the planet's equatorial diameter, a and its polar diameter, b. Then:

f = (a - b)/ a

The values are as follows for Earth outwards to Neptune:

Earth: 1/ 298.257

Mars:  1/ 154.409

Jupiter: 0.06487

Saturn: 0.09796

Uranus:  0.02293

Neptune:  0.0171


Q. If your Aug. 22 blog on 'the biggest spy center on Earth' is to be believed, Gen. Petraeus had much to worry about churning out all those emails. Should he have known about this spook kingdom and how they can scoop up emails, tweets on a whim? Or was he just dumb? - Andy K.,  Tucson, AZ

A. I don't believe the general was 'dumb' but perhaps in the heat of his affair his brain cells didn't process that anything committed to cyberspace or that gets infused into the 'cloud' - is there for years for any spook to grab, save and see. In the blog you referenced, I specifically mentioned (from the cited WIRED piece, 'The Black Box'):

"The mammoth Bluffdale Center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial because of the data that the center will handle: financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, confidential personal communications, legal documents and anything else initially heavily encrypted."

I also added:  "Everyone's a target, everybody with communications is a target."


So, it boggles the mind that Gen. Petraeus could have been that careless. Also, virtually anyone that spends any time on the net has to be aware that the FBI's "Carnivore" program - for ferreting out emails- is still in play. Also, the 4th amendment protections against extraordinary searches have essentially vanished since the critical provisions of the Patriot Act (mainly to do with wiretapping without the need for warrants) have been extended twice (by Democrats and Repubs - at least it's one thing they can agree on.)

My advice to anyone is that if you don't want the spooks to be amassing all your (saved) Facebook pages, blogs or tweets, then the best step is not to post them. If you don't care, it's no biggie. Btw, for those who want to learn more about the national security state we've erected (to keep us "safe") since 9/11 be sure to get hold of James Bamford's book: The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.