Modest and Understated Around the Internets

August 2

Item: The League of Pissed off Voters is meeting this week at the University of Pittsburgh from August 4th to August 7th. You can check out the agenda here.

Item: Chuck PENNacchio will also be at Drinking Liberally this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Item: And here's sort of the short version of what happened in Ohio. I wish we had an opposition party that would challenge and question all of the shenanigans.

Item: Over at the Mirror Universe comments section our corporate theocratic pal and defender of Wal (We Love Chinese Slave Labor) Mart Ales Rarus doesn't like being named as a proud member of the League of Evil Bloggers (forthcoming). I suppose you can synopsize his statements as "waaahhh"...., "waaaa" and, of course, "wah". Tho lately with his pro Walmart posts (Written by a corporate shill apparently and not somebody who actually works those crappy, deadend jobs on the floor. I kinda wonder if he wasn't paid for that. That's the kind of propaganda Walmart's been pushing lately.) and his insistence that the Catholic Church get more involved in telling adult couples how they can't use artificial contraception, advice which sensible adults should ignore...well, sounds kind of evil to me. I have a different point of view about Walmart as you can imagine. I think they hire people who don't have the courage or the intellectual chops to unionize. I do have to admit though, there is a friendly paternalism at Walmart, sort of what occasionally well-treated slaves must have gone through. I might also note that someone who doesn't question the Catholic Hierarchy and their many idiotic policies would probably not question the friendly people who own Walmart. (Ales Rarus is a former Walmart employee.) It's just like Machiavelli said: He always liked religion because it kept the sheep in line. I agree. What's the difference between a good catholic and a good Wal Mart employee? Probably not much. It will be so much better in the Next Life...on The Island. (A film I recommend by the way...)

How are Walmart's slave labor practices consistent with Christian principles? He must have missed that liberation theology class...

And he wonders why I don't like debating him...I mean, what's the point? I'm sorry, but if you must believe in Santa Claus afterlives where you can have all the Ice Cream you want--to quote Chris Walken in "The Prophecy"--there's something not rigorous about your thinking process.

I did suggest that he read up on more enlightened dogmas, such as the good 'ol humanist manifesto and a really cool religion: The Universal Unitarians. I like what they're about and I might need a wedding and/or funeral (more likely) some day. They take atheists...now that's a cool church.