Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Abortion Is a God Given Right!


I actually wrote most of this as a comment to a recent "Pro-Choice" blog post by KAYLA


I thought I would share it here as well...

If Men Could Get Pregnant - Argument Done!

No doubt about it, if men were having the babies, abortion would not only be legal; It would be a "Religious Rite"!
The male-dominated religions of the world would create special prayers and rituals for the "Holy Sacrament of Abortion"! Priests, Rabbis, Ministers and Muslin Clerics would be performing abortions (for a fee of course) on a daily basis.

And, if women were to dare challenge a man's Sacred and God given right to an Abortion, - Well! isn't there something in the "Holy Book of Hear Say" (a/k/a The Bible) about Stoning Insolent Females? :)

Now please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying I'm in favor of abortion. No, not at all! In fact, the whole idea of it makes me rather uncomfortable; but who am I to say, what a woman can or can't do with her own body?

Or any of us for that matter. I'm not real fond of tattoos either ( Callif ) but it's not like I want them outlawed or something, in fact (I'm loath to admit this) sometimes, on occasion, they can actually look kind of sexy.

 http://callif.blogspot.com/2009/06/161803399.html

Please feel free to comment below or email me direct at eddieoreilly@hotmail.com and your comment will be posted.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Thomas Jefferson Quotes...















I recently received one of those viral e-mails.

This particular e-mail, by using selective quotes, tried to imply that if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would be aligned with contemporary neocons and right-wing fundamentalist christian conservatives. Needless to say, I couldn't help but respond.

So, I thought I would share that response, as a new blog post...

Hi, While I admit to being surprised, I am also pleased that you sent me this e-mail featuring quotes by Thomas Jefferson. A man whose scholarly intellect I have long admired. Even if some of his best ideas may have come from the Magna Carta circa 1215, he and his colleagues showed the wisdom to adopt and embrace them.
Which is not to say that I'm completely on board with all of his thoughts, teachings and philosophies, but I do have a great deal of respect for the man.

I was especially happy to see one of my favorite quotes...

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world." -- Thomas Jefferson

I remember reflecting on the wisdom of that quote when George W. Bush led us into two wars and yet insisted on lowering taxes not once, not twice, but three times. The only President in the history of our Republic to lower taxes while committing us to war. The consequence of which was to spend the entire budget surplus he inherited and turn it into a massive new deficit.
Yet Republicans still claim, with a straight face no less, to be Fiscally Conservative.























The fact is, true health care reform, with a public option, could be paid for a few times over with what we spend on unnecessary wars. The irony of this, of course, escapes them. (much like Bin Laden did)

It seems to me, the choice is clear...

Health Care or Warfare,
The Common Good or The Common Destruction.
Anyway, I digress. (as usual)

So back to Jefferson.

As anyone who has ever read the Jefferson version of the Bible, or "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" as it is formally titled can tell you, Jefferson was a bit of an agnostic, if not an atheist, as well as a pacifist. Jefferson believed Christ to be a peace loving man, and a wise & moral teacher. He saw no evidence however to support the notion, that Jesus was the son of God.
Now, please permit me to share some of my favorite Jefferson quotes.

Thomas Jefferson on war...

"I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Conquest and or war with other nations is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government." -- Thomas Jefferson
"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." -- Thomas Jefferson
"I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The most successful war seldom pays for its losses." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force." -- Thomas Jefferson
"War as an instrument, is entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses." -- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson on poverty and the distribution of wealth...

"Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor." -- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson on God, religion and such...

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, 'if there be one', he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion and question the existence of a God." -- Thomas Jefferson
"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition ,Christianity, one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology.  The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being and his father, and the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."--Thomas Jefferson 
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God." -- Thomas Jefferson
"In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty." -- Thomas Jefferson
"If God is just, I tremble for my country." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced 1 inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and terror all over the earth." -- Thomas Jefferson

"I'm for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one religion over another." -- Thomas Jefferson





Thomas Jefferson on books and reading...




"I cannot live without books." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital." -- Thomas Jefferson
This - as opposed to George W. Bush who once famously said "I don't really like books, I guess that's because I hate reading".

Thomas Jefferson on the censorship of books... (Sarah Palin, please take note)

"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too." -- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson on big corporations...
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." -- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson on hate, intolerance, individual freedoms, homosexuality, and what we now call alternative lifestyles...

"I never will, by any act, word or deed bow to the religious shrine of intolerance." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Taste cannot be controlled by law. We must resist at all costs any attempt to regulate our individual freedoms and to legislate our personal moralities." -- Thomas Jefferson

And, of course, then there's this...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." -- Thomas Jefferson

It's perhaps worth noting , I have installed "Quote of the Day" gadgets on my Google home page.
So that every day I'm greeted with quotes from, among others, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.
I also, as you may have noticed, have installed an "Atheist Quote of The Day" gadget on this blog page.
What fascinates me is how often The quote here is from, among others, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.

Just Thinking...

Please feel free to comment below or email me direct at eddieoreilly@hotmail.com and your comment will be posted.



Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Hate, in The Name of God!

The President speaks to children and says work hard and stay in school.
So this is controversial, what's the next controversy - the golden rule?
Apparently so, for weeks now Pastor Steven L. Anderson of the "Faithful Word Baptist Church", in Phoenix Arizona has been leading his congregation in prayer. Each Sunday they pray for the death of President Obama. As he explained to CNN he doesn't really care how the president dies, it could be of natural causes or however the Lord sees fit. "Read your Bible", he commands "The Lord is a Vengeful God".

A week or so ago Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) told a town hall meeting that the GOP still needs to find a "GREAT WHITE HOPE". ( Seriously, she really said that!)

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," said Jenkins. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington." As examples, Jenkins mentioned Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)


Then of course we have, "The Birthers" a thriving birth obsessed fringe of very "White" mostly Fundamentalist Christian Psychos who still insist that Obama is not an American Citizen. Even though Courts across the land including the Supreme Court of the United States have repeatedly, summarily and unanimously rejected the movement's theory.

There can be no denying it, these people are Hateful Racist Bigots who are desperately seeking a way to get the "Black Man" out of the "White House".

So is it any wonder that when all else fails, they will gather in their White Anglo Christian Church's and pray to a Non-Anglo Semitic Jew Named Jesus, that The President Should Die!!!

And people ask me why I'm not religious.

 - Just Thinking...


Please feel free to comment below or email me direct at eddieoreilly@hotmail.com and your comment will be posted.

Thanks for reading!