Author: Greg Saunders

From the Skeptic’s Dictionary entry on “trepanation” :

Trepanation is the process of cutting a hole in the skull. According to John Verano, a professor of anthropology at Tulane University, trepanation is the oldest surgical practice and is still performed ceremonially by some African tribes. A trepanned skull found in France was dated at about 5,000 BCE. About 1,000 trepanned skulls from Peru and Bolivia date from 500 BCE to the 16th century.

Bart Huges (b. 1934), a medical school graduate who has never practiced medicine except for a bit of self-surgery, believes that trepanation is the way to higher consciousness. He says that he wanted to be a psychiatrist but failed the obstetrics exam and so never went into practice. In 1965, after years of experimentation with LSD, cannabis, and other drugs, Dr. Huges realized that the way to enlightenment was by boring a hole in his skull. He used an electric drill, a scalpel, and a hypodermic needle (to administer a local anesthetic). The operation took him 45 minutes. How does it feel to be enlightened? “I feel like I did when I was 14,” says Huges.
. . .
In the past, trepanation was used either to relieve pressure on the brain caused by disease or trauma, or to release evil spirits. The former is still an accepted medical procedure. The latter has died out in those parts of the world where scientific understanding has replaced belief in invading demons.

I bring this up as a roundabout way of saying that I’d rather drill a hole in my head that write another damn post about the corruption of George W. Bush…but I’m a political blogger and writing about this crap is my lot in life, so I’d better get used to writing the same post over and over until 2008.

Can there be any doubt that George Bush as one of the most corrupt and dishonest political figures in our nation’s history? He’s a man whose arrogance and incompetence have led to a string of scandals that combine the worst aspects of Teapot Dome, the Pentagon Papers, Tammany Hall, the Whiskey Ring, Watergate, and more. Misleading the public about the Iraq war, the use of torture as an interrogation tactic, spying on American citizens, looking the other way while war profiteers raid our treasury, diverting war funds without Congressional approval, blah, blah, blah. You’ve seen variations of this lists everywhere, yet corruption has become so normal at this point that the Bush’s latest misdeed, selectively and secretly “declassifying” a national intelligence estimate to provide to a single Administration-friendly reporter (aka. “leaking”), feels like more of the same. Just this morning the President admitted to another impeachable offense, yet it’s hard to muster the energy to write about this without outrage overload kicking in.

With the ever-growing mountain of evidence showing George Bush’s serial betrayal of the public’s trust, is is any wonder that the President’s best defenses are to parse the letter of the law in a way we used to call “Clintonian”, insist that everything’s on the level because his lawyers said it’s okay (that didn’t work for Enron either), or to shrug aside his lawbreaking as mere technicalities that are justifiable because the President’s only concern is to “keep the American people safe”. The only people who believe this crap now are full-fledged members of the Bush personality cult. It doesn’t matter what the President says or does because he’s the kinda guy you’d wanna grab a beer with. If my drinking buddy says it’s okay, I believe him. Or as they say in Jonestown “Have you tried the Kool-Aid? It’s delicious!”

Needless to say, this probably isn’t going to get any better. The lack of oversight in Congress will leave as big a stain on the Legislative branch as Bush Jr. is leaving on the Executive. Again and again we’ve sat there dumbfounded as the GOP (and for a brief period in 2001-2002, Democratic) Senate and House have, in the words of Firedoglake, rubber-stamped everything the President has asked for. At a certain point, you’d think a sense of professional pride would have kicked in among our 535 representatives in Washington that would compel them to defend, if not the interests of the American people, the interests in their own branch of government enough to have them uphold their constitutional duty to act as a check on executive power, but I guess the quid pro quo that came with a veto-less presidency is enough to buy their silence with an endless supply of government handouts. I know it’s fashionable to decry the death of “real” conservatism, but that simple complaint overlooks the fact that honor, responsibility, and honesty were all collateral damage in this war between moneyed interests and the American people.

The obvious question, though, is “What the hell do we do now?” The obvious answer is to “throw the bums out”, but replacing the corrupt Republicans with well-trained Democratic lapdogs didn’t work out so well last time. Since our two-party system makes the “lesser of two evils” vote our most attractive option, I’m willing to take the gamble again, but I’m still hoping that the opposition party steps up to the plate and offers a compelling alternative to our current partisan malaise. I’m not impressed with the occasional poll-driven barnburner speech that contradicts the political jockeying that’s happening behind the scenes, nor am I impressed with the press releases released under a politician’s byline that are turned into blog posts or fundraising emails. As a passionate member of the Democratic base, I’m begging you guys to stop kissing my ass. I’ve got a finely-tuned bullshit detector and I can smell you coming from a mile away. If you want to earn my respect, try taking a principled stand on something. The American people are begging for a politician with the guts to say “I don’t care if it’s popular, this is the right thing to do and I’d rather go down in flames on principle than sell my soul for job security”, but you guys are too busy listening to consultants and looking at poll numbers to see the forest for the trees.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get some anesthetic, a scalpel, and a power drill. Let me know when it’s election day.

I’m sure you’re as sick as reading the DeLay/Jesus posts as I am of writing them, but this bit from an interview he gave to Time yesterday is too good to pass up :

TIME: Your smiling mug shot—what made you think of that and what do you think the consequence of that has been?

DeLay: Oh, I don’t know. I said a little prayer. First of all, you only get one take. It’s a very humiliating thing, to be booked. And I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture. And my prayer was basically: “Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.”

I guess Photoshopping DeLay’s mugshot onto Jesus was even more fitting than I thought, though if I really wanted to “let people see Christ through [him]”, I should have adjusted the opacity on the layer with his face.

Just to make things perfectly obvious (and since people rarely click on all the links), here’s the Bible verse that I linked to in my previous post with the words “the people most likely to pat themselves on the back for being Christians “ :

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

DeLay’s a hypocrite, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

I’ve written a few times about the arrogant, anti-worker subtext of the “jobs Americans won’t do” lie, but I never thought a Republican would be dumb enough to come out and say it. Cue the Republican party’s biggest panderer :

Sen. John McCain threatened on Tuesday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his statements on organized labor and the
Iraq war.

“If you like, I will leave,” McCain told the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.
. . .
Later, the senator outlined his position on the Senate immigration debate, saying tougher border enforcement must be accompanied by guest-worker provisions that give illegal immigrants a legal path toward citizenship.

Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing. “Pay a decent wage!” one audience member shouted.

“I’ve heard that statement before,” McCain said before threatening to leave.
. . .
But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain’s job offer.

“I’ll take it!” one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. “You can’t do it, my friends.”

Some in the crowd said they didn’t appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

“I was impressed with his comedy routine and ability to tap dance without music. But I was impressed with nothing else about him,” said John Wasniewski of Milwaukee. “He’s supposed to be Mr. Straight Talk?”

True, sounds a lot more like Mr. Condescending Asshole, but he’s always sounded like that to me so what do I know?

Jesus Christ! Tom DeLay’s friend is a loony :

There are those who would say Tom DeLay lost his job as House majority leader because he was indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges of money laundering and conspiracy, or because of his extensive ties to lawbreaking lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But they would be wrong.

In fact, the Texas Republican fell from power because he is a Christian.

That, at least, is the view of Rick Scarborough, convener of a conference this week called “The War on Christians.”

“I believe the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ,” Scarborough said, introducing DeLay yesterday. When DeLay finished, the host reminded the politician: “God always does his best work right after a crucifixion.”

Or to put things visually, here’s what DeLay’s followers think of him :

This guy trivializes the sacrifice of his own god by comparing them with Tom DeLay’s self-induced political troubles, and we’re the ones who are supposed to be anti-Christian?? Jesus deserves better than to be fronted by assholes like Tom DeLay. And just to prove (like I should have to) that I don’t blame Christians or Christianity for the self-righteous bloviating of egomaniacs, here’s one (of many) of my favorite bits from the Bible :

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'”

Despite being an atheist, I look forward to a day when the people most likely to pat themselves on the back for being Christians start paying attention to the things Jesus had to say.

UPDATE : I got an email from Jonathan Schwarz reminding me of this earlier bit of DeLay-as-Jesus absurdity :

As we leave First Baptist, I ask DeLay about the many citizens who would be quite uncomfortable with the idea that he would mold the government in the belief that his religion – fundamentalist Christianity – had the only answers to society’s problems.

DeLay looks me squarely in the eye and shakes his head sadly. “When faced with the truth, the truth hurts. It is human nature not to face that . . . People hate the messenger. That’s why they killed Christ.”

You’d think comparing yourself to Jesus would be considered blasphemous, but based on some of the responses this post has received blasphemy only seems to be a problem when it’s done by a liberal. If you’re offended by the photo (which I totally understand), why would you be more offended by a tongue-in-cheek visualization of a sacrilegious metaphor than the serious statements that inspired it? Save your rage for the politicians who would belittle the suffering of Jesus by comparing his slow, bloody death with the political and legal fallout that has stemmed from their own corruption.

Only cowards like the GOP leadership would have the temerity to hide behind the Bible when forced to atone for their own crimes. Samuel Johnson was wrong. DeLay and his allies have shown us that religion is the real last refuge of a scoundrel. If you care about your faith more than your political party, I’d recommend taking Jesus back from the scumbags who have hijacked him for partisan purposes. You deserve better.

Has anyone bothered to point out that the righteous rage on the right over the flying of the Mexican flag by some attendees at the pro-immigration protests is coming from the same people who defended the confederate flag as a source of “southern pride” (as opposed to the rallying symbol for slave-owners and their defenders)? They were for taking pride in regional/ethnic differences before they were against it. Seems like a racist double-standard to me, but pretty consistent if you stop taking conservatives at their word.