Schism

Southern Baptists Quit World Alliance

No pithy jokes here, just a completely unshocking turn of events. The Southern Baptists split from the world-wide organization because there were too many liberals in the other Baptist organizations.  ¶ 4:47 PM

 

Will No One Rid Us Of These Meddling Priests?

Josh Marshall has a good post on the Bush-Vatican meeting, and how they seem to want the denial of communion only to apply to Kerry. (Since no one wants those "good Catholics" who support the war and the death penalty and aren't too concerned with the poor to get caught up in this.)  ¶ 1:49 PM

 

Oy

Um, when were we annexed to Israel?

Via Billmon, I read Prof. Froomkin's examination of the "Bybee Memo," which outlined the American case for torturing inmates in Iraq and elsewhere.

The memo also noted, at pp. 30-31, the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision in “Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v. Israel”:, 38 LL.M. 1471 (1999), which discussed even more aggressive measures and found them to be “inhuman and degrading”. The Bybee Memo argues somewhat unpersuasively that this means the Court did not believe them to be torture, a reading it buttressed by noting that Court accepted there might be a necessity defense in some cases. I’m no expert here, but I’m dubious: the Israeli Supreme Court was ruling in a charged and political case, and was very mindful of the potential effect on international public opinion. It had every incentive to avoid the word ‘torture’; as for the necessity defense, the Israeli rule, like the US rule, contemplates permitting some things under domestic law that violate international law. “Necessity” in Israel is seen as touching national survival.

So, um, can anyone tell me... why the hell are we using Israel as a precedent to set American law and procedure? I'm not getting into a debate about the Palestinian issue or anything like that--why are we using any foreign country as a precedent for our own laws? Hell, why not just use China then? I'm sure the administration wouldn't mind going after people in the Chinese style.  ¶ 10:41 AM

 

FOXNews Loves Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11

I think my head just exploded. Go and read the review--Roger Friedman specifically says "But, really, in the end, not seeing "F9/11" would be like allowing your first amendment rights to be abrogated, no matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat."

Wha?  ¶ 9:28 AM

 

All Your Bishops Are Belong To Us!

In a move that can only hurt my head even further, President Bush is trying to get the Vatican to force its bishops to support his presidency; via the NYT:

On his recent trip to Rome, President Bush asked a top Vatican official to push American bishops to speak out more about political issues, including same-sex marriage, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper.

In a column posted Friday evening on the paper's Web site, John L. Allen Jr., its correspondent in Rome and the dean of Vatican journalists, wrote that Mr. Bush had made the request in a June 4 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state. Citing an unnamed Vatican official, Mr. Allen wrote: "Bush said, 'Not all the American bishops are with me' on the cultural issues. The implication was that he hoped the Vatican would nudge them toward more explicit activism."

[snip]

Mr. Bush's campaign is betting heavily on churchgoers in his re-election effort, and how Catholic voters apply their faith to politics is emerging as a focal point of the race. There are an estimated 63 million Catholics in the United States. Bush campaign pollsters have said that in the last election, people who attended church regularly voted disproportionately for Mr. Bush, though Catholics were much more evenly split than Protestants were.

Once a reliably Democratic constituency, Catholics have become divided, with traditionalist Catholics making common cause with conservative evangelical Protestants on social issues like opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. But Mr. Bush is also a born-again Methodist who is likely to face a Roman Catholic opponent, Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts. And the pope and other Catholic officials have repeatedly criticized the Bush administration over the war in Iraq.

Really, this is mind-blowing and medieval. The "explicit activism" is likely the public denial of communion for those politicians--particularly John Kerry--who are pro-choice, pro gay rights, pro stem cell research, etc. But more than that, the idea of trying to get the Pope to force Catholic bishops--and thus the Catholic populace--to support Bush (with the threat of eternal hell implicit for those who do not support Bush) is absolutely astounding.

Look at what Bush says--"Not all the American bishops are with me." Why should they be? The American bishops may be against abortion, but they're also against the war in Iraq and the death penalty.

But in the end, let's see how this plays along side the new "Safe Harbour" initative attached to the latest Jobs Creation Bill.  ¶ 1:50 PM

 

PATRIOT ACT II:
Son of Patriot

In one of the least-anticipated sequals due out this summer, the multi-part passage of the PATRIOT ACT II is set to begin on June 16th (yes, Wednesday), with the closed-door passage of H.R.3179, the "Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act of 2003", first introduced September 25, 2003, but tabled until now due to some controversy. The bill would make it illegal to reveal that you have been under investigation by the FBI, particularly if its your bank accounts (business or personal) which have been under investigation.

Other bills which apparently contain parts of the original PATRIOT II are H.R.3037 the "Antiterrorism Tools Enhancement Act of 2003", H.R.2934 the "Terrorist Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003", and H.R.3040 the "Pretrial Detention and Lifetime Supervision of Terrorists Act of 2003".

Now, I can hear some of you saying, "But Tlachtga, they're terrorists, they don't deserve rights. They're out to kill you." Well, first of all, everyone is "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." etc. That's why we have due process, that's why we have the Bill of Rights. That said, yes, some terrorists do want to kill me. And you. And everyone else who isn't like them. Of course, those terrorists could be Al-Qaeda, and they could be the KKK. Other terrorist groups, such as the IRA, don't really take an interest li'l American me.

What is really worrisom, actually, is the use of the word "terrorist." It gets thrown about quite easily these days, applied to everyone from Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to peace activists to the nation's largest teachers' union. In an over-zealous system, anyone can be designated a terrorist when they express unpopular views--they don't need to actually carry out violent, murderous acts. It's the expression of dissent which earns the title "terrorist." Just think of the Abu Ghraib--some 70-90% of the prisoners were innocent of terrorism, yet were tortured nonetheless. Meanwhile, the questionable new "Matrix" program came up with some 120,000 names who showed a "statistical likelyhood" of being terrorists--sparking a number of arrests in Florida.

And so what happens to those whom the government, right or wrong, has designated "terrorist"? Gitmo? A few well-publicized arrests of activists post-election could easily silence all dissent.

As Burroughs said, "A functioning police state needs no police."  ¶ 11:00 AM

 

Weird

Due to the lack of any news for the Celtic News Update this week, I'm bringing you this weird story I read today about Jared from the Subways commercials visiting troops in Gitmo:

As a touch of home for servicemen and women abroad, he's not Bob Hope, apple pie or The Sopranos, but Fogle came to speak to the boys and girls of the YMCA summer camp Thursday afternoon direct from an appearance at Gitmo, the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"I got to talk to all the troops who are guarding all the bad people," he told the children.

Of course, there's a Subway outlet at Gitmo -- and 103 in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties -- but as sales pitches go, Fogle's 20-minute talk to the children was a very soft sell. He mentioned Subway, but not in every sentence.

No punchline, this is just a weird-ass story.  ¶ 2:45 PM

 

The Sins of Haley Barber

Yes, governor of Mississippi (homestate of Trent Lott, if you'll recall), candidate, racist, and ex-tobacco lobbyist Haley Barber. The goods on his misdeeds can all be found at Sisyphus Shrugged.  ¶ 11:54 AM

 

Berlin Stories?

The always wonderful Father Andrew Greeley has a short op-ed exploring the parallels between the US and Germany in the 1930s. Bush isn't Hitler, he says, but there are parallels between us and then, when one looks at the nationalistic impulses and militarism.

I'm tired of people forgetting that fascism isn't necessarily just genocide. Hell, America already did its genocidal stint, and it wasn't anywhere close to fascism at the time.  ¶ 11:15 AM

 

Zen Arcade

Holy crap, I just found out Bob Mould has a blog! How cool is that?

For those who don't know, Bob Mould was the guitarist and co-writer for seminal (god, that's an overused but all to appropriate word) 1980s "hardcore" band Hüsker Dü out of Minneapolis, later to go on to a critically acclaimed solo career and the semi-successful band Sugar. He's one of my guitar idols, and had one hell of an influence on bands like the Pixis and Nirvana, to name a few. He influenced my own guitar playing more than anyone, and was instrumental in breaking away from hardcore's loud/fast mindset into incorporating pop sensibilities to create these incredible, crystaline songs of real power and beauty.

How cool is that?  ¶ 10:49 AM

 

I'm Glad I Take the Subway

At least, I assume the subway cars are run on something other than just oil. Hm. I'm showing my ignorance here. But at any rate, while the gas station down the block from me has lowered their price for 87 gas from $2.169 to $2.099, reflecting the change in oil prices from $42/barrel to $38/barrel, it's apparent that this won't last:

The IEA has raised its global oil demand forecasts for 2004 by 360,000 barrels per day. This estimate is 2.3 million barrels per day higher than last month’s forecast for the year. The increase in estimate exerted an upward pressure on the oil prices, driving the oil prices above $38 per barrel yesterday. The IEA’s forecast for oil demand has more than doubled since October last year.

Early last week, OPEC had raised its quota in an attempt to bring down the oil prices from its peak of $42 per barrel. However, the IEA estimate of 81.1 million barrels per day depicts that global oil demand growth in 2004 is likely to be higher than was earlier expected. China’s demand for oil has increased significantly, a momentum that is likely to accelerate. Economic growth in India and Brazil are also likely to boost the global demand for oil this year.

In other words, capitalism has brought some good changes to China, to be sure--but unfortunately, it's also brought a huge need to consume oil. And it's questionalble how much oil--cheap oil--is left; even the National Geographic is concerned about it:

Yet as the Enterprise drillers know, slaking the world's oil thirst is harder than it used to be. The old sources can't be counted on anymore. On land the lower 48 states of the U.S. are tapped out, producing less than half the oil they did at their peak in 1970. Production from the North Slope of Alaska and the North Sea of Europe, burgeoning oil regions 20 years ago, is in decline. Unrest in Venezuela and Nigeria threatens the flow of oil. The Middle East remains the mother lode of crude, but war and instability underscore the perils of depending on that region.

If you really want to understand what's happening, you should read up on the Hubbert Peak, and its consequences. The situation is this: no new oil fields have been discovered in years. The U.S. reached its peak production in the 1970s (as Hubbert predicted). Now, there have been advances in technology which have allowed us to extract more oil from old oil fields than in the past; at some point, however, these oil fields will go dry. Since no new fuel source has been found since, this leaves us with, by Hubbert's estimates, maybe 45 more years of fuel, which will get more and more expensive as time goes by.

Now, currently gas is not at its most expensive; that was reached around 1980 or so, when in real dollars, gas was $2.99/gl. We thankfully haven't reached that. However, that was a manufactured shortage, not a natural one. We're likely facing a real one. Look at the sudden reduction in claims of oil reserves by Shell:

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe's second-largest oil company, cut oil and gas reserves for the fourth time, seeking to conclude revisions that led to the ousters of senior executives and the loss of its top credit rating.

Shell will reduce reported reserves by 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent as of 2002, 120 million more than a previous estimate of 4.35 billion barrels, the company said in a conference call. Shell said the latest reduction followed a change in the way it recognized holdings in Canada. The reduction represents a 23 percent drop from initial estimates for 2002.

And they're not the only ones

So what's my point? My point is that yes, people have been predicting it for years. People have been predicting the Second Coming, too. However, I have a feeling that the end of cheap oil will be here long before a seven-headed, ten-horned beast.  ¶ 10:04 AM

 

When Your Church Makes A Mistake,
The GOP Is Here To Help!

Apparently, they'd like to mix religion and politics, without getting those churches worried about losing their tax-exempt status:

Bill Allows Mixing of Religion, Politics

Churches that mistakenly mix religious and political activity would face reduced fines but keep their tax exempt status under a provision in a corporate tax bill the House is to consider this week.

[snip]

Critics fear it would give politicians a pass to flout the rules without putting religious organizations at risk.

The mammoth bill, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, would impose reduced fines against churches and other places of worship that inadvertently allow political activity on their properties more than twice a year. On the third violation, the religious organizations would lose their tax exemption for one year.

Mistakenly mix religion and politics? Oh, there's no mistake here.

Now, not only does this fly in the face of the seperation of church and state (something the GOP has been working hard to destroy), it's shoved into this huge, fairly important bill, ensuring that it is passed, and if not passed because of this rider, then the GOP can blame a lack of jobs on their Democratic opponants, who are too damned weak-willed to speak up and talk about this rancid mixing of religion and politics.

Let's get right down to it. You go to church/synagog/etc. this weekend. The pastor/rabbi/etc. starts to preach about how you should vote for a particular candidate. It's implied that your salvation, or at least your standing in the church/etc., depends on how you vote. Your vote and your soul are intertwined. But the pastor need not stand up and preach from the pulpit. Even passing out literature in the vestabule of the house of worship implies an imperatur on the candidate, and such an imperatur is intimately tied up with the congregant's sense of spiritual wellbeing.

Currently, such a mixing of politcs and religion is illegal, and can cost churches/synagogs/etc. their tax-exempt status--a very big deal to churches. The bill would overturn this, essentially giving churches the chance to campaign--explicitly or implicitly--for a particular candidate. This will, unsurprisingly, work in Bush's favor, while Kerry is still being denied communion from the Bishop of Boston.  ¶ 2:23 PM

 

Theocracy, Texas-Style

Via Atrios, I read this bit on the Texas GOP platform:

Delegates on Friday approved a platform that refers to "the myth of the separation of church and state."

[snip]

A plank in a section titled "Promoting Individual Freedom and Personal Safety" proclaims the United States a "Christian nation."

"The party affirms freedom of religion and rejects efforts of courts and secular activists who seek to remove and deny such a rich heritage from our public lives," says a passage added this year.

The rewritten "Celebrating Traditional Marriage" section now calls for legislation making it a felony for anyone to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple or for a "civil official" to perform a wedding ceremony for such couples.

Also new this year is a section declaring that the Ten Commandments "are the basis of our basic freedoms and the cornerstone of our Western legal tradition."

And so on, found here (registration required).

Now, it seems that our dear brethren down in Texas aren't familiar with the Constitution or subsequent works by the founding fathers; take, for instance, the Treaty of Tripoli:

ARTICLE 11.

As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

No good? Why not try the Constitution on for size:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

If America is a "Christian Nation", what of all the non-Christians living here? If the 10 Commandments (which version?) is the basis of our laws, am I going to go to jail because I don't go to church on Sundays? And what about Leviticus? Are we going to give up shellfish? Is polygamy and divorce OK? How about stoning women who aren't virgins?

I could go on, but I think it's pretty clear that this, while not a new development, is a bad one.  ¶ 3:45 PM

 

Well, It's A Start

Diebold Stops Top Executives From Making Political Donations

Diebold Inc., criticized last year for selling electronic voting machines while its chairman raised money for Republican political candidates, has banned its senior executives from making such donations.

[snip]

Walden W. O'Dell, Diebold's chairman and chief executive officer, was criticized in August 2003 for having a $1,000-a-plate Republican fund-raiser at his suburban Columbus home. In a letter inviting people to attend, O'Dell said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

He has since said he feels badly about the letter and has sworn off politics.

Keep your eyes open. They may not be able to contribute in cash anymore, but that doesn't mean they won't allow the votes to be manipulated.  ¶ 3:43 PM

 

Celtic News Update

This is about all I can do today because my hand is killing me.

• Major excavation to open Viking graves: Lots of neat stuff being found, particularly ship materials.
  

• The Establishment and Demise of the Medieval Nordic Settlements on Greenland: The Role of Natural Climate Change: yep.
  

• £50,000 facelift for kirk's ugly past: Scottish church, supposedly a scene of a massive witch congregation in East Lothain, is getting fixed.
  

• Hollywood plans stir Celtic ghosts: Mel Gibson's making a movie about Boudicca. Erm. We'll see. Well, at least he can't blame her death on the Jews.
  

  ¶ 2:29 PM

 

More On the Christian Exodus

Patriotboy over at The American Street, has discovered some rather disturbing links between the spokesman for Christian Exodus (discussed here) and some neo-Confederate and White Supremacist groups, such as the League of the South, and other failed secessionist groups. Go and check out his links. It's appaling, really, when you get down to it, and necessary to watch.  ¶ 1:57 PM

 

Satanic Panic

There's a pretty decent article about the lie that is Jay's Journal, one of those horrible books by the Go Ask Alice woman. Her "true stories" are more often than not fundie crap.

It's one thing to have a cautionary tale. It's another to lie, distort the journal of a real person, and make money off of it. Plus, if the author really believes in bending spoons, she's a damn nutball on top of being a fundie.  ¶ 1:43 PM