The Bellews really blew it.

To say nothing of the Islamic backlash in response to one of the worst videos I’ve probably ever seen, we have yet another example of religion at its worst and most lethal – this time, in the state of Oregon.  Russell and Brandi Bellew have been sentenced to five years probation for, in essence, killing Brandi’s 16-year-old son with their subscription to a ridiculous theology (redundant!).

So, with their son Austin writhing in pain for days and days from a burst appendix — which they claim (and probably still do) that only prayer and the intercession of some zombie-baby-Jesus-who-is-his-own-son-and-father can cure — they looked on with, no doubt, sadness and despair.   Truly, what parent, unless they are completely socio- or psychopathic, could do otherwise?  When Austin finally dies — to no one’s surprise but his idiot parents — his murderers are given a slap on the wrist by a court that apparently seems unwilling to properly punish these parents, lest the free exercise of religion be infringed upon in some way.

What in the fuck is wrong with this picture?

This is, once again, religion getting a free pass.   If anyone else had done what the Bellews did and at the same time did not cite a divine authority, they would’ve been locked up faster than you can say “cognitive dissonance”.  

But you know, I gotta admit — there is a train of thought that gives me some pause here.  Austin was old enough to drive, which means he probably could’ve driven himself to a hospital.   I wonder — did he have his license, or a car or access to one?  If his parents are this religious he was, no doubt, homeschooled.  So, I wonder if he had any friends that he could’ve asked to help him.  Perhaps Austin isn’t a victim at all.  Perhaps he drank the Kool Aid, too, and was as much to blame in his own death as were his parents who spoon-fed him the idiocy that led him to his tragic end.  And I’m guessing that the “I’ll believe anything” gene runs in the family – his father, Brian Sprout, died of sepsis in 2007 after – yep – he refused medical intervention for an infection.

Well, natural selection works in mysterious ways, I guess.

Romney’s video put me to sleep.

Everyone is freaking out about Romney’s video, about what a big scary jerk he is for saying something that, hey, not only needed to be said but has been said repeatedly in the comfort of many living rooms all over this nation.   At least Romney had enough balls to admit to it (even if it was to a roomful of rich elitist cunts).

Are there people who leach off the system?  Yep.  Do those people vote?  Yep.  Who do they generally vote for?  The ones who promise to keep that nipple shoved right in their greedy, entitlement-riddled mouths.   And who, exactly, are those promise keepers?  The ones who espouse big government and who continue to sell the snake-oil-soaked myth that government is there to help people.

I say, anyone who believes that the intention of government, big or small, is to help people are fooling themselves.

Hasn’t the welfare state shown beyond any doubt that it provides absolutely no incentives whatsoever to recoil from that poisoned breast?

Oh, and in case you were wondering – it should also be clear that the intention of government is to grow the government.  Period.  For these pukes in suits, it’s about job security.  Power.  Control.  Self-importance.  They have ideas that they want to propagate through the womb of democracy.   Oh well, good for them.  Penn Jillette said it best: “I don’t know what’s best for everybody.  I don’t even know what’s best for myself!”

I’m sure you’ve heard some equivalent of the following: “If we just elect the right people, everything will be okay.”  What utter self-deluding bullshit!

The irony about the Repugs and their high-and-mighty condemnations of big government is that they themselves are part of the problem.   On the other side of the aisle, the problem with the Republicrats (how quickly people forget that the U. S. of A. is a republic and not a true democracy in any sense of that word) is that they are just as guilty of the high-and-mightiness of which they accuse their Repug counterparts.  They should all be leaving people the fuck alone to screw up their lives any way they see fit.  (The ban in NYC on large sugary drinks comes to mind — more on this in a future post.  Sorry I’m all over the place — I’m just out of practice.)

I actually find Romney’s after-the-fact hemming and hawing to be much more offensive, that he’s not willing to fully own what he said in what was probably one of the most honest moments the man has had in his career.  If you’re a politician running for the highest office in the country, you have to be willing to say to an entire nation what you would say to a roomful of like-minded assholes.  Oh, but wait – politics is all about wearing many faces to many people.  Dishonesty.  That’s precisely why I don’t even participate in the democratic process anymore.

i.e.  I don’t vote.

There has been no candidate worthy of my support.  (The only reason I voted for Obama in 2008 — which, incidentally, was the very last time I voted — is because he wasn’t McCain/Palin.  When the only choice is, most often, the lesser of evils, how can a system like this sustain itself?)  The fact that this man Romney, and Obama, and the many men (and some women) like them, want to assert some authority over me, tell me what I can or cannot do, think, say, and then dare to tell me that it’s all in service to my better interests — that’s reason enough for me to suspect them and to suspend any trust in their leadership skills.

If I wanted to willingly submit to that kind of bullshit, I’d start going to church.

I’ve been silent too long.

Well, faithful readers… I’m back.

It’s been too long.  There is too much bullshit going on that needs to be addressed.  I’ve been remiss in doing my part, as Hitch put it, to destroy the enemies of civilization.

Stay tuned for more vitriol, more reason — and, I hope, more pursuit of truth, wherever that path may lead me.