One of last night's tornadoes in Texas ended up destroying the Valley Missionary Baptist Church in Haltom City. This poses a dilemma for any Baptist wishing to think logically. There are two sets of Baptist beliefs in conflict here.

1. The Baptist church is God's church, and Baptists are the correct kind of Christians.


2. The God of Christianity is an all-wise, all-loving, and all powerful being that controls the paths of tornadoes just as he controls everything else. This God loves the Baptist church and thinks that Baptists worship him correctly.

Of course, this is hardly the first time that severe weather has destroyed a church, mosque, temple, etc., but it is amazing that religionists never really clue in on the obvious problem that such destruction poses to their beliefs. Instead, they focus on emotional appeals to rebuild their churches, which may feel good to them, but do not address the fundamental weakness in faiths they hold as very important to their lives.

The absence of such discussion in the corporate media is an example of the overwhelming pro-religious bias found there. Obvious and logical thinking like this is generally taboo.

The corporate media and Democratic functionaries dismiss Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign, and his poll numbers tend to be low. But, Kucinich's showing in their presidential preference poll, which followed their virtual Town Hall on Iraq, tells an interesting story.

Sen. Barack Obama 28%
Sen. John Edwards 25%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich 17%
Gov. Bill Richardson 12%
Sen. Hillary Clinton 11%
Sen. Joe Biden 6%
Sen. Chris Dodd 1%

MoveOn members have some qualities that make them different than general Democratic Primary voters.

• They are very well-informed on the issues.


• They are following the 2008 presidential campaign already, though most people are avoiding thinking about it until next year, an attitude that I can certainly sympathize with.


• They are even more likely to oppose the war, though the rest of Democratic voters have been moving in that direction.

Despite his money disadvantage and every effort by corporate media outlets to belittle or ignore him, Kucinich's honest, direct, and well-considered position to immediately withdraw from Iraq has tremendous appeal for rational people. As Kucinich's other positions gain attention, he will gain more support.

Kucinich has a chance to win. The only way for Democrats to beat him will be to co-opt his positions. Either way, liberal values are in a much better position than they would be if Kucinich had not decided to run.

Much well-deserved attention has been given to the role of political corruption in starting the war in Iraq. The role of big oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, and a host of contractors and arms dealers in getting us in Iraq and keeping us there gets plenty of discussion online, if not in the corporate media.

However, the religious roots of this war often are ignored. The pretext of the war, as absurd as it was, involved the farcical notion that Al Qaeda and the Iraqi Baath Party were in collusion, even though they were mortal enemies. The 911 attacks certainly never have been a valid reason for the Iraq conflict, but they created an enormous amount of anger in the US that could easily be exploited.

Yet, the most significant religious origins for US war fever have had more to do with Christian extremism than anything else. The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a plane flying over rural Pennsylvania caused a reaction that tapped into long felt fundamentalist Christian desires to subjugate, torture, and kill Muslims. A war that has lasted longer than WWII has yet to satisfy these hungers.

From the bizarely named “American Jihad” blog:

KILL!

KILL!!

KILL THE MUSLIMS!!!

View the works of these MURDEROUS MUSLIM BASTARS at: http://terrorwebs.blogspot.com/ then surf on over to http://michaelsavage.com/ and watch a few BEHEADING VIDEOS!

* MUSLIMS ARE PRIMITIVE SAVAGES
* MUSLIMS ARE PERVERTS AND QUEERS
* MUSLIMS ARE CRAWLING WITH VD AND AIDS
* MUSLIMS ARE DUMB AND IGNORANT
* MUSLIMS ARE DRUG DEALERS AND WHORES
* MUSLIMS ARE THIEVES AND KILLERS
* MUSLIMS ARE CHILD MOLDESTERS AND RAPISTS
* MUSLIMS ARE SATANIC SATYRS!
* MUSLIMS ARE EVIL TERRORISTS!!!

It would be easy to dismiss this as the rantings of a lone extremist, but it would be inaccurate. If you follow uncensored and anonymous Internet forums, you will find far too many postings expressing the same point of view. It also is interesting to note the homophobia of the poster, which is identical to that of militant Islamists.

The underlying problem here is that religion poisons politics and policy discussions, though not always by such extreme degrees. People who depend on absolutist religious ideologies always will be threatened by people who do not share those beliefs and by those who live their lives in ways that fail to conform to those absolutist religious beliefs.

Thomas Jefferson's Wall of Separation between church and state makes more sense with each passing day. If we cannot stop people from believing in religious ideologies, we can create cultural and legal boundaries that protect society as a whole from many of the consequences of such thinking.

• Churches that engage in political activity should have their tax-exempt statuses removed. The IRS needs to start following the law in this area.


• Courts need to do a much better job in enforcing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, rather than crafting dishonest exemptions in it to appease religious majorities.


• A cultural taboo needs to be put in place about bringing religion into politics.

A blog posting by Britain's former Ambassador to the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, raises some serious questions about the map presented by Tony Blair's government in their dispute with Iran.

But there are two colossal problems.

A) The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government. Only Iraq and Iran can agree their bilateral boundary, and they never have done this in the Gulf, only inside the Shatt because there it is the land border too. This published boundary is a fake with no legal force.

B) Accepting the British coordinates for the position of both HMS Cornwall and the incident, both were closer to Iranian land than Iraqi land. Go on, print out the map and measure it. Which underlines the point that the British produced border is not a reliable one.

If Murray is right, then it makes one wonder if this whole thing was created by the Bush/Blair alliance to provoke a war with Iran. Bush and Blair have no credibility and neither does the militant, fundamentalist regime in Iran.

If we see a Bush/Blair attack on Iran, we will know that those unfortunate British soldiers were ordered into Iranian waters. One can only hope that this does not happen.

We have seen the furor created by Bill Donohue, leader of the “Catholic League,” a homophobic, misogynist, racist, and Catholic-supremacist hate group which poses as a civil rights organization. Their latest jihad is over the chocolate depiction of the founder of Christianity in chocolate.

Although the artist meant it as an homage and chocolate is a much more pleasant substance than the paint which is usually used to depict Joshua Bar-David (“Christ's” real name), that hasn't kept Christian nutjobs from going ape over this.

One item in today's New York Daily News article shows how nutty Christian militants can be.

"I don't want to disclose the location because of people, some people who are fanatics," (the artist) said, adding that he's received threats.

It is amazing that people could get so worked up over a trivial event involving something as silly as religion. No wonder most of the world's wars are being fought entirely or largely over religion.

The only reaction sane people would have to this scupture would be a mixture of amuzement and hunger, not anger and hysteria.

The efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to prolong the Iraq War at least until September 2008 are a terrible betrayal of the movement against the war in Iraq and our troops. Her efforts to use Karl Rove style spin to portray this as an effort to stop the war show how far she will go to mislead Democrats and her overwhelmingly anti-war constituents.

Pelosi has all the power needed to block a vote on the supplemental appropriations bills the Bush regime is using to fund this illegal and unAmerican war. She refuses to use that power because she would rather side with Big Oil, Halliburton, and other corporations making money off of the war.

I remember living in the Bay Area when she was first elected. She was recruited by the Waxman-Berman political machine which was desperate to keep an openly gay man from being elected to Congress from San Francisco. Pelosi even resorted to gay baiting Britt during the campaign, attacking Britt as "gay socialist."

And, that homophobia carries through to today. Despite “representing” one of the most heavily queer districts in the country, Pelosi has done nothing on lgbt issues since the November elections. Instead, she avoids the subject all together.

And, one should not forget the racist comments she made about Hugo Chavez when he merely mocked the unelected tyrant currently occupying the White House. This shows how desperate Pelosi can be to cater to Bush. Then again, what should one expect from someone who refused to do anything about the thefts of the 2000 and 2004 elections.

She continued the pandering to Bush in her capacity as Speaker with her infamous proclamation that impeachment of Bush and Cheney is “off the table,” even though a majority of San Francisco voters expressed their support for impeachment in a 2006 ballot initiative.

Now, Pelosi has something terrible in common with Bush and Cheney. They don't just have the blood of our troops on their hands; they are bathing in it.

Push polling is a common, though dirty political tactic. Generally, callers will pretend to be running an opinion poll, but the questions will be slanted as to try to shape the opinions and voting behavior of the people receiving the phone calls, not to gather data.

I just received something that is a new wrinkle (at least to me) on this tactic: a push poll via USPS mail. It had the amusing title of “Republican Party Census Document.”

The start of the accompanying letter was a hoot.

Dear Fellow Republican,

You are among a select group of Republicans who have been chosen to take part in the official 2007 CENSUS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

Enclosed is your new 2007 GOP CENSUS DOCUMENT, which was assigned and prepared especially for you as a representative of all Republicans in your voting district.

Of course, I am not a Republican and have given them no reason to think I am or to have my address. Even more hilarious is that they are calling the mailing a “census document,” an apparent attempt to intimidate the gullible into filling out the survey.

The questions being used inspired some chuckles as well. Here are some examples of the loaded questions the Republican National Committee was using.

Should we do everything we can do stop Democrats from repealing critical border and port security legislation?

This is especially cute, given that Republicans have fought against port security legislation with absolute fanaticism. More examples follow:

Should President [sic] Bush's successful income and capital gains tax cuts be made permanent?

Should Republicans in Congress oppose the new wasteful government spending programs proposed by the Democrats and their leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?

Should we continue working for serious tort reform to protect individuals and small businesses from predatory lawsuits?

Do you support President [sic] Bush's initiative to allow private religious and charitable groups to do more to help those in need?

These kind of questions just make the GOP look idiotic to well-informed people, but they could significantly influence people who do not follow the news or who get fake news from Faux News, Rush Limbaugh, the New York Post, etc.

However, there was one sincere part of the mailing, the part where they were begging for money.

From WakeUpWalMart.com

One of the greatest dangers we face in America is a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists being shipped through an American port. But, did you know, we only inspect about 5% of the cargo containers coming into America.

That is why the U.S. House of Representatives passed a 9/11 bill to strengthen America's port security by scanning 100% of the cargo containers being shipped into the U.S. from abroad.

But, yesterday, Wal-Mart's special interest lobbyists defeated the 100% scanning portion of the 9/11 bill in the U.S. Senate.

Why?

Because, even though 1 Wal-Mart container arrives at a U.S. port every 45 seconds, Wal-Mart fears that inspecting 100% of these containers might slow down its imports from countries like China which could hurt Wal-Mart's profits.

Are Wal-Mart's profits really worth the cost of leaving America vulnerable to another terrorist attack?

Please write your U.S. Senator today and tell him/her to put America's security first and support 100% scanning of all cargo containers as passed by the U.S. House.

More Info

This is yet another reason not to shop at Wal-Mart.

It also is a good reason why Hillary Clinton needs to apologize for having been on Wal-Mart's Board of Directors for six years.

Clinton's lack of regret for her involvement with Wal-Mart is one of many reasons why this Mo is supporting Dennis Kucinich

Note: This blog is usually about politics, media, and cultural issues, but I needed to get this off of my chest.

Walking on a sidewalk in a crowded city is much different than in suburbia where you usually have the sidewalk to yourself. Yet, some people are totally clueless about this distinction.

Most of these things should be obvious, but some people just don’t get them. So, here goes.

1) If you are walking slowly, walk at the side of the sidewalk. Slow walkers often will place themselves so that they block as much of the sidewalk as possible. That is comparable to taking up two lanes on an expressway.

2) If you are walking with people, try to walk single-file. Definitely, do not walk with more than two people in a row, no matter how interesting you think your conversations are. Remember, there are lots of other people using the sidewalk to commute.

3) Whenever possible, walk on the right side of the sidewalk. That way, you do not end up getting in other people’s way, and they don’t get in your way (if they are smart enough to do this).

4) A cell phone (or IPod etc.) is no excuse for walking in manner that gets in the way of others. You are not entitled to walk in the middle of the sidewalk, stop suddenly, or do other stupid things because you are distracted. If you can’t handle walking with a cell phone, don’t.

5) It is not cool, tough or any other positive thing to deliberately walk in someone else’s way to make them move. If you do that, you are just an idiot.

6) Do not walk your bike on the sidewalk, and certainly don’t ride it on the sidewalk.

7) Do not lock and leave your bike on a busy sidewalk. It is in the way.

8) If you are walking with your dog, never tie the dog to parking meter (or other thing with a poll) and then leave. This is awful for several reasons. It is cruel to the frightened animal. The dog is in the way of pedestrians. The dog poses a danger to pedestrians. (Remember, it is terrified and alone and won’t behave the way it does when you are around.) Pedestrians also pose a danger to the dog.

9) Don’t break through lines of people waiting for buses to jaywalk. Go around the lines, and then jaywalk.

NARAL has released a report that grades states on the right-to-choose on abortion. Not shockingly, Texas received an F. One particular quote from the report is especially disturbing.

93 percent of Texas counties have no abortion provider.

Other facts about Texas and abortion rights.

• Texas' Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General all oppose the right to choose on abortion.


• The Texas state House and Senate both have anti-choice majorities.


• Texas has a 24 mandatory delay for women after they contact doctors for abortions.


• Texas law requires that abortions be provided by physicians, even though trained midwives, nurse practitioners, physician assistants are perfectly cable of performing abortions safely.


• Texas discriminates against low-income women by refusing to provide abortion coverage with regular medical coverage for the poor.


• Texas law requires parental consent and notice (except with permission of a judge) for teenage girls, despite the fact that many fundamentalist Christians will emotionally and physically abuse daughters who want abortions and many anti-choice judges are dishonest.


• Texas regulates abortion providers more heavily than other medical providers.


• Texas mandates that women seeking abortions be given highly biased information (propaganda) about abortion and Texas law.

The last point is appalling because the mandates discuss the risks of abortions, but not the higher risks of full-term pregnancies. Planned Parenthood points out:

Overall, the risk of death from childbirth is 11 times greater than the risk of death from abortion up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. After 20 weeks, the risk of death from abortion is about the same as the risk of death from childbirth.

If Texas law mandated the kind of accurate, balanced information Planned Parenthood provides, no one would object. However, the Christian Right has gotten Texas to mandate attempting to deceive women on the relative risks of abortion and pregnancy in order to try to intimidate women who want abortions. This is dishonest and morally wrong.

A larger problem is that restrictions on abortion are often presented and covered individually and not in any depth. On first glance, abortion restrictions sometimes seem reasonable, but the details always prove otherwise. Of course, these restrictions do not function in isolation. They are part of a coordinated campaign by the Christian Taliban to make abortion bureaucratically difficult or even practically impossible. When they are combined with the campaigns of intimidation against abortion providers and their landlords by militant, Christian fundamentalists along with outright acts of terrorism, it is hardly surprising that the overwhelming majority of Texas counties have no abortion services.

Learn about your state and other states by going to NARAL's full report. The “State Profiles” are particularly interesting, but there is national and other information as well.

United for Peace and Justice has a listing of protests planned for the fourth anniversary of the Bush regime's terrible war in Iraq.

Look for Events in Your Area