Antonin Scalia: Innocuous 'Devil' Babble- Or Is The Man An Idiot?

Antonin Scalia: Now seeing the Devil everywhere and wondering why no one else does. Maybe it's time for him to pack it in.

Recall back in 2011 when Rick Santorum had the "Devil" on the brain?  Well now it's Antonin Scalia, who as a Supreme Court Justice ought to embody the pinnacle of rationalism but appears to have gone loopy with his recent pronouncements on the existence of the Devil. In his own words, from an October 6 remark:

"In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He's making pigs run off cliffs, he's possessing people and what not. And that doesn't happen much anymore. He used to be all over the New Testament...What happened to him? He got wilier!"

Bill Maher's take on this idiocy on his REAL TIME show last night was exactly correct:

"I don't care why someone acts like a fool, only that when they do we keep them away from decision making. It would be one thing if Mr. Scalia sold pizza for a living. But this is a man we go to to interpret our laws. It's like smelling a gas leak and calling an exorcist.  Antonin Scalia helped put George Bush in the White House and he believes the Devil went down to Georgia. He gets to decide when life begins and he thinks evil is a person."

Maher went on to aptly point out the problem in believing in the Devil, is that you then see the world divided into two camps, one of 'good', the other of 'evil' and will then be inclined to see the "Evil One" on the side of 'them' (the others, who don't share your views). It then is merely one step more to see compromising with your  opponents as compromising with evil. Then, Voila! You have the Tea Party.

Let's return to Scalia. He refers to the "Devil" but which one is it? Historically in ancient scriptures,  numerous named prime entities have assumed that role, e.g. Gaap (left) and Focalor, in the graphic. They were part of the Satanic hierarchy drawn up in the Middle Ages.

Or possibly, Scalia means the "chief Devil" - but even he has a name, 'Lucifer'  - and a recent depiction is shown. Note that we can be reasonably certain this is THE Boss Devil because of the serious look on his visage- very much resembling how we'd expect Dick Cheney to appear in a fire and brimstone environment.


 One problem is that no one is quite sure if he truly controls all the demonic hordes (there is disagreement on whether he has influence on Chinese or Indian entities).  After all, the Chinese and Hindus have their own castes of Devil-Demons with their own chronology and names.

Scalia wonders what happened to this Devil, but as Maher pointed out, it could be he merely became redundant after primitive humans grew out of their intellectual infancy and science replaced superstition. So we now know, for example, that the bubonic plague isn't a result of the Devil,  e.g. casting a spell on followers, but because rats infected with fleas carrying the plague bacteria, pass them on to humans - who get the disease after being bitten. Yersinias pestis then multiplies in the blood stream  - no Devil needed.

Never mind, some minds remain in the primitive infant state and appear to need "the Devil" to explain occurrences in the real world. But, like Maher, I prefer these people remain outside those positions wherein their decisions could affect millions.

In any case, any grown man who subscribes in this century to the notion that entities such as those shown here are real, and "wily" - tricking us all to disbelieve them- must be a congenital idiot. Sorry, but that's the way it is. NO serious person of any intellectual heft or insight can possibly believe in actual demons, or a Devil. And further, any decision such an infantile twit delivers, must be called into question.

Still, we can (possibly) help Scalia to comprehend why the Devil is no longer  evident in the world or discussed, especially as a reality by serious people. First clue, it isn't because he's "wily". As Lauran Paine has noted (‘The Hierarchy of Hell’, Barnes & Noble, 1972, p. 140), the erosion of Church power almost exactly paralleled the demise of the long –enduring “orders and hierarchies” of Hell. In other words, as a supernatural agent or cause, the Devil isn't needed to account for events in the real world - including terrorist attacks, wars, or what have you. The "evil" exists instead within the brain, and is endemic in an evolving world.

The brain, the cosmos and world are still in a process of evolution, and that de facto incomplete process allows for what we call evil and hence human  misjudgments and mistakes. The brain itself is saddled with the leftovers of its reptilian- primitive hominid past and this division continues to govern its dynamics.  It was the philosopher N.M Wildiers who first observed:

Whatever is yet to be completed is of necessity imperfect, defective,  unfinished. Evil is thus structurally part and parcel of a world in evolution. An evolving world and a perfect world – these are mutually contradictory ideas.

In other words, evil is inevitable in an imperfect  and incomplete world governed by evolution.  If we know and have data to support we inhabit an evolving world, as well as universe then it is irrational to expect it not to display evil.  No personalization of evil or "Devil" is required.

Will this change Scalia's mind? Doubtful, because in his Manichean view of the world it's less useful to adopt an objective and rational explanation for evil than one which divides humans into "evil ones" and "good guys."

Another Noonan Gasbag Moment!

Peggy Noonan (Declarations, 'Obama Above the Fray for Now', WSJ, p. A13 today) is incensed because American women are starting to catch on to Rick Santorum and the fact the GOP is waging war against them. While other conservo columnists (i.e. Kathleen Parker) have correctly pointed out that the GOP "lost it" by proposing a Virginia law that amounted to rape (an intra-vaginal ultra sound) Noonan doesn't get it at all. But what's new? Noonan has always had her pet GOP-advancing agenda, never mind how many millions of women will be irreparably hurt by it!

According to Noonan in her column, poor Rick Santorum is "trapped in a web laid by the administration's claim that the furor over the Obamacare mandate isn't about religious freedom and abortion drugs it's about crazy people trying to take away your contraceptives"

Well, duh! But in fact, Noonan cartoons the problem as is her modus operandi. The issue isn't that government officials will actually come in and seize contraceptives as if in some drug bust (though to hear and see Santorum's past statements that's still feasible) but that all contraceptive drugs...the pills. ..will simply be allowed to rise to astronomical price levels, via drug "tiers". It's done all the time, and one reason so many in Medicare's Part D prescription drug program, for example, end up in the 'donut hole". Case in point, my aciphex which has just been put up to tier one and now costs $460 for 90- pills, when three years ago they cost $50 for 30 pills. Do the math! That's $1.66 a pill to $5.11.

Now, consider that the Reeps needn't physically barge in and "take away" a woman's pills, merely make them so damned expensive (via negotiating with drug companies to put them in higher cost tiers) that they become unaffordable. Or worse, a liability - say if a woman believes she can only take them every other day. As for condoms and diaphragms, no surprise that some reeps once joked about lowering QA manufacturing standards to make it more probable that "the damned things will tear when least expected".

Then what? Well, one arrives at the GOOPer's fondest wish: accidental parenthood! Never mind they don't want to pay for child care or medical care after the kid is born! (That would require taxes!)

Thus, Noonan's next claim that:

"This is as big a lie as you can tell in politics, and a deeply mischievous one"

is simply bollocks. It definitely isn't a lie because Noonan doesn't want to believe it, or hear it, nor does it "only muddy the waters and adds a new layer of meaningless alarm"

Because make no mistake, American women have every right to be alarmed! The Virginia fiasco law of mandating a putative medical device to rape them in order to be allowed to have an abortion in that state, ought to have sounded five alarm bells. If it didn't, then American women are comatose - and that refers specifically to the younger ones in the 18-22 age category, who made a large difference in the 2008 elections and need to turn out again. Even if that means standing for hours in a state motor vehicle office to get a proper photo ID card.

American women simply cannot allow themselves to be lulled into false complacency by the likes of Peggy Noonan, then wake up when it's too late to discover Rick Santorum or Mitch Romney or Newtie Gingrich (via Executive order) has taken away all their physical and sexual autonomy - rendering them Gooper chattel. Or to put it another way: "Always subject to being barefoot and pregnant".

How far can these despicable cretins go? How far can they and an accessory church that used to help Nazis escape to South America go in attacking the women of this nation? I recall a conversation with German friends, former Wehrmacht soldiers, in May of 1985 who recounted horrific tales of what Hitler did under his "Reich laws". One of the first things was to make birth control a felonious crime in the Nazi dictatorship. The reason? To use any form of birth control was to defy the need for the Aryan state to provide members of the Master Race, and also to provide new soldiers for the Wehrmacht. Those women caught practicing it for any reason....were dispatched to the camps: Chelmno, Treblinka, Buchenwald. Often placed under the supervision of brutal female S.S. guards until they either perished of disease, torture, malnutrition, or in the gas chambers.

Now, I am not saying any Goop that gets in will go that far. However, if his party grabs all branches of the government it's not beyond the realm of possibility to believe any of them will be seriously emboldened to exercise even more extreme actions than rhetoric hitherto. What I am saying is we already know this party features extremists who've made their hatred and distrust of women abundantly clear. They couch and conceal that hatred in the language of "religious liberty" and freedom, but the subtext is pure hate ....no different from what the Catholic Inquisitors met out to hundreds of thousands of women ...ripped and shredded over their torture racks and open pits.

My question then is, why give them ANY chance to wreak havoc on any woman, of any age? Why even remotely entertain the possibility of a new "Inquistion" directed at inflicting pain, shame and humiliation on those who are already up against it?

Rick Santorum: Now Trafficking in Demonology!

Bottom: The Demon "brothers" Gaap (left) and Focalor, who were part of the Hierarchy of Demons drawn up by Catholics in the Middle Ages. Perhaps Santorum knows a few things about these entities?

We already knew basically that Rick Santorum was a screwball, e.g.

http://branespace.blogspot.com/2012/02/pantheon-of-puke-nightmares-1-rick.html

But now as word comes in that he's referencing "Satan" in his sanctimonious moral tirades, it can be concluded the guy is desperate or really gone off the cliff. Why the need to introduce a fictitious character of supernatural origins when the women of child -bearing age in this country are already under assault from flesh and blood demons - namely the Reepos! Fortunately, American women are only now waking up to what these fiends have in store for their bodies and their autonomy!

As reported in the latest Utne Reader ('Aborted Rights', March-April, p. 11) while the Choice proponents have mostly slept, anti-abortionists have "succeeded in passing 52 new restrictions in 24 states" - the primary ones associated with mandating that all women considering having an abortion first have an ultra-sound - during which a physician-obstetrician lectures her on the "new life" visible (never mind it is essentially a parasite that can't exist independently) and which adds $500 to the cost of the abortion.

As smart women's rights critics have pointed out, this is meant to do nothing more than intimidate and shame women in a bold faced effort to deter them from the procedure. Is it being mandated out of moral rectitude? No, but rather out of immoral piggery.

Indeed, Repukes in the VA legislature had put up an ultrasound law mandating that every woman who wanted an abortion first submit to an intra-vaginal ultrasound! One Reepo slimeball, quoted last night on "Ed' Show" (MSNBC) by an NOW activist, actually had the nerve to defend the proposed law by asserting: "Well, they already've had something in there already so what's the big deal with having something else?"

Fortunately, women in the state caught wind of the pig's remarks and the suggested law and let loose holy hell forcing the governor to back away See more at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-22/virginia-governor-mcdonnell-abortion-ultrasound/53213156/1

But make no mistake, these are Santorum's ideological "blood brothers"! If this SOB gets in you can be sure that not only will such horrendous and invasive procedures be invoked as a way to bully and terrorize women, but also other threats will surface if they even try to use birth control. After all, according to Rick, birth control is Satan's friend! It enables and allows immoral sexual conduct without any consequences, like having babies! Correction, Rick: It allows autonomously chosen sexual conduct without having to worry about needing abortions later ....because one can't afford the fiscal, emotional and other costs of accidental fertilization.

But no, to Santorum and his Catholic and other knuckle-dragger cronies it's mainly about "Satan"- eliciting the question: Do we really, REALLY want any guy whose brain is steeped in the Dark Ages anywhere near the "football" bearing the nuclear response codes? I don't think so!

In his book, ‘The History of the Devil’, Dr. Paul Carus observes that “demoniality, or Devil-worship, is the first page in the evolution of religion" . Carus opines that before the most primitive religions can erect a positive gestalt they must first define what it is they're against, to get the most bang for the buck. To get people into the fold first, then maybe notch it down later. Thus, demoniality or "Satan worship" is the first base for all primitive, psychotic belief systems.

Why are Satan-Hell-believing religions Satanist? As Lauran Paine has noted (‘The Hierarchy of Hell’, Barnes & Noble, 1972, p. 140), the erosion of Church power almost exactly paralleled the demise of the long –enduring “orders and hierarchies” of Hell. These had been put together by clerics and Church authorities from the time of Aquinas and made use of dozens of Satanic entities including: Asmodeus, Belial, Asiel, Gaap, Raum, Sitri, Focalor and dozens of others – each presiding over an order or level of Hell. (Two of these denizens, Focalor and Gaap- are depicted in the lower graphic - and who knows, maybe Santorum is channeling these fiends of the netherworld to formulate future tirades!)

Thus, a full Satanic belief system with its ordered hierarchies was so entrenched by the 14 th century, when The Malleus Maleficarum was written, that indeed – one was regarded as a heretic or atheist if one didn’t accept it! Hence, the belief in Hell and its denizens amounts to Satanism.

Hence, if one resurrects it now, even as part of a political campaign he must by definition be a Satanist.

Note again, that the generic standard Catholic belief (ibid.) was that “there was God and there was Satan”, the latter had dominion over the Earth and the former over everything else. Given Catholicism's Manichean roots, it thus made perfect sense why this religion would most often associate the "flesh" with demoniality and with females in particular. It was most often the females who endured the most vicious tortures by the Inquisitors which always included assault on their sex organs by dozens of different implements - pliers, pincers, blades..rods...often heated in an open pit first.

One historically aware of these offenses against the fairer sex (as open described in Henry Lea's book on "The Inquisition") would therefore quickly see the analogy to the "intra-vaginal" ultra sound Virginia's GOOP demons had proposed to use on women wanting abortions. The mindset of forcible submission that characterized the Catholic Inquisitors, is on full parallel display with the VA lawmakers, as well as Santorum and anyone else who even approves of non-invasive ultra-sounds. Because, see, the end objective is the same: to shame and humiliate women.

Hopefully, the gradual awakening of American women to the mounting threats against them by these latter day Satanist- Inquisitional, hypocritical moralizers, will produce a bounty at election time that will translate to an even bigger landslide for Barack Obama!

Santorum Has No Clue About REAL Christianity (1)

Yet more evidence has come to the fore that Reep candidate Rick Santorum is totally out of his depth, and apart from that ....would be a disaster on a national political "Richter scale" of at least '10' if people were stupid enough to catapult him into the Oval office. (Recall how his main PAC funder Foster Freeze, opined that in his day "women practiced birth control by squeezing a Bayer aspirin between their legs". Why any intelligent woman of full consciousness would vote for his little whelp, Rick Santorum, is beyond me when it's clear his numero uno policy would be to keep all females under 40 barefoot and pregnant.


But I digress.

This blog concerns Santorum's recent attacks on Barack Obama to the effect the President is "not a real Christian" and that he adheres to a "false theology". Or has he expatiated, "a phony theology ...not one based on the Bible".

Which brings up an interesting question: Is there a self-consistent theology expressed in the Bible? By which I mean, if a biblical literalist read its assorted words - without interpretation (which implies one can't take it literally) they would reflect the same moral orders, choices, behaviors?

A good way to begin is to examine different quotations concerning major Christian beliefs, or what are deemed so, and to ascertain if there are contradictions. If these occur, then one could argue there is no self-consistent theology which rest on uniform beliefs.

Examples with pertinent question given followed by the citations for 'yes' and 'no' answers:

1)Are unsaved sinners eternally tormented?

Yes: Isa 33:14; Mt 13:40-42, 25:41,46; Mk 9:43-48; Jude 6-7; Re 14:10-11

NO: Eze 18:4; Mt 7:13, 10:28; Lu 13:3,5; John 3:15-16; Ac 3:23; 1Co 15:18; 2Th 2:10; Heb 10:39; 2Pe 3:7,9


2) Will everyone get saved?

Yes: John 12:32; Ro 5:18, 11:32; 1Co 15:22; Col 1:20; 1Ti 2:4,6; 1Jo 2:2

NO: Mt 7:13-14; Lu 13:23-24


3) Is one who believes in God's son, but who has never repented, saved?

Yes: John 3:15-16,36, 6:40,47, 11:25; Ac 16:31; Ro 10:9; 1Jo 5:12

NO: Lu 13:3,5

4) Is one who is very moral and charitable, but who has never repented, saved?

YES: Mt 19:16-17, 25:34-40,46; Mk 10:17-21; Lu 10:25-37, 18:18-22; John 5:28-29, 8:51; Ro 2:5-7,10; Jas 2:24

NO: Luke 13:3,5

5) Is one who is very moral and charitable, but who does not believe in God’s son, saved?

YES: Mt 19:16-17, 25:34-40,46; Mk 10:17-21; Lu 10:25-37, 18:18-22; John 5:28-29, 8:51; Ro 2:5-7,10; Jas 2:24

NO: Mk 16:16; John 3:18,36, 8:21-25, 14:6; Ac 4:10-12; 1Jo 5:12

Even from this small subset or sample one can see wide divergence in belief, emanating from the so-called revealed sources, and hence in theology. Hence, one can argue Santorum doesn't know what he's talking about.

But let's even go him one better. In 2 KINGS 2:23-24, we see that:

2:23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

depicted in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFlrg22GjM8

Where we see that because 42 children "mocked" a prophet he called the divine wrath down on them leading to their being torn to shreds by she bears!

Is THIS the Biblical theology to which Santorum subscribes? So, if 42 kids mocked him and called him names he'd call down his god's wrath on them....to deliver some horrific revenge?

Or, would he concede that the fable told in Kings is not to be taken literally, and hence not its theology either? Which means then, that "biblical theology" is nowhere near as cut and dried as he supposes when he lashes out at Obama!

More to come!

The Pantheon of 'Puke Nightmares: (1) Rick Santorum

Okay, in this blog and continuing on monthly, I will look at each top Repuke candidate for his party's nomination in the effort to convince thinking Americans that if any one of these Bozos gets elected president of this country, we are all down the chute, or as Bajans put it "for the high jump".

Given Rick Santorum now seems to be the chattering class' darling of the moment, and also we can't be certain just how long he will remain there, I will start with him. After all, he also seems to be latest darling of the Tea Party crowd.

Now, question: what would you get if you crossed the genes of former long time (Laugh -In) comic and sometime 60's presidential contender Pat Paulsen and the fiery evangelical preacher, Pat Robertson? C'mon, no longish guessing!

The answer is: Rick Santorum!

But there's nothing comical about this character. And to firmly establish that framework, let me quote the words of Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes, when she appeared on Bill Maher's Real Time last Friday night:

"If Mitt Romney would take America back to the 19th century, Rick Santorum would take it back to the 13th!"

Ah yes, the 13th century, just as the Inquisition was getting revved up and atheists, as well as heretics like the Albigensians were getting their intestines pulled out and force fed to them for their disbelief (or altered peceptions of belief), while women were impaled through their pudenda on monstrously long (~ 8½') spikes for trying to abort births or ....practicing then primitive forms of what they took to be contraception. And we won't even detail what the Inquisitors did to those females pegged as lesbians or prostitutes! There are limits to what the human stomach can tolerate in respect of the extremes of torture description !

Ah yes, the era to which Santorum would return us all if he could! Or, if a large enough segment of the electorate is stupid enough to allow it - either by directly voting for him in a possible national election or not voting at all out of some pique with Obama.

Yeppers, it's true that Santorum is a Catholic, but make no mistake this guy is no Jack Kennedy! I knew Jack Kennedy at the time he actually lived (especially when he came to Miami in October, 1963 and gave speeches) and knew from Kennedy's speeches he was absolutely committed to total separation of church and State. Nor would he have accepted the hysteria all around us now that the Catholic Bishops' demand that they not be subject to the birth control mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act based on "religious freedom". No it isn't, because no one is denying them the right to practice their religion any damned place they want - only informing them that if they have PUBLIC institutions operating in the public space they can't deny those health benefits to their (secular)employees which other hospitals, schools, universities etc. must provide. I other words, one cannot have two separate federal standards. If they don't like it, then cease operations in the public square. We will somehow make do without you, especially since your tax exemptions can now be withdrawn!

But see, Santorum easily plays to this hysteria because he also believes that a bunch of fucked up old celibate men in robes, the descendants of the miscreants that theatened Galileo with their tortures (for his theory of the Sun-centered solar system) are teaching wisdom and truth. (Of course, they later had to admit that Galileo was right! They also retracted their condemnation....400 years later!) But those of us who are dedicated members of the Reality community see it instead in terms of this letter - paraphrased from today's Denver Post (referring to the Catholic Bishops):

"Why, in a world with limited resources and a population exceeding 7 billion regard as immoral any form of contraception...and why should we listen to what a group of old men- with a mediocre track record on reality -says when it comes to women's health care?"

Bingo! But make no mistake that Santorum is listening, and doubtless believes that he can parlay this conflict between the administration and the Bishops into a GOOPer nomination and maybe even the presidency.

Hell, Santorum himself has always inveighed against abortions, saying they ought not be allowed under any circumstances, and further -- if he had his way they'd be outlawed, even in cases of rape or incest. Well, if he gets in welcome back to the dire world (pre -1972) of back alley butchery with coat hangers, strychnine, and ghastly drug potions to try to "evict" the fetus. Think not? Well, the first thing he will do as soon any of the "liberal" justices depart, is appoint hard core zealots that think like he does. Think the wussy dems will stop that? Don't hold your breath, not when they didn't stop Alito or Roberts when any numskull knew their pro-corporate positions and that they'd lead one day to a 'Citizens United' decision!

With this irrational moral position, you can believe Rick Santorum will sign any deal with the Bishops to outlaw all forms of contraception as well, if it isn't the method of Ogino-Kaus (rhythm method). Even if he can't outlaw them, he'll do all in his power to halt all federal funding, including going after Planned Parenthood via any ruse he can. As for Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, that's one of the first casualties of a Santorum presidency - so millions of his fellow Catholics will then be left out of affordable insurance coverage or ANY coverage, if they have any pre-existing conditions! As for contraceptives, women will likely have to try and get them in Canada or via domestic black markets. You can bet your sweet bippy they no longer will be widely available - look for Santorum's henchmen to even have condoms banned in drug stores!

Do people really want to live under a Santorum Theocracy, with the Catholic Bishops advising him on his every move? And meanwhile, forget all the bullshit about his caring for the working or middle class. The first thing he would do after his pseudo-morality moves is cooperate with a possible Repuke House and Senate to gut Medicare and Social Security.

And hey, if poor oldsters then need help or assistance? He will dispatch them to Catholic charities to beg.

Make no mistake that Santorum would be a nightmare. He will make the Borgias look like the Smothers Brothers.