Republican "Value Voters": Belief in Evolution Disqualifies Presidential Candidates!

I got busy and was going to skip blogging today, but this is too much. It seems that anyone who believes in evolution is unqualified to run for President of the United States!

At the "Value Voters Summit" this weekend in Washington, D.C., Bryan Fischer of

The Tea Party Recession: Why Faith is Slowing Recovery

How can people lead the country when they are taught from youth to believe things that can't possibly be true? Does religion's insistence on faith over reason make a politician irrational and irresponsible?

According to a Baylor University Religion Survey released last fall, that's exactly what it does. The "Tea Party's Recession" that we're now facing may be an example of this phenomenon. Conservative Christian politicians' reliance on faith over evidence seems to be a direct impediment to their ability to accept plain facts. Their beliefs are based on their ideology, even when the facts are clear.

According to sociologist

Why a Christian Nation would be a Disaster

There's a great article over at AlterNet.org:

Conservatives Want America to be a "Christian Nation" -- Here's What That Would Actually Look Like

I urge everyone to read it. In a nutshell, true Christian values, as defined in the Bible, would mean:

• A King
• Only theocratic law
• No democracy, no voting
• Slavery
• No women's rights
• Homosexuals would be killed
• Enemies would be utterly vanquished without mercy

... and much, much more. Check it out.

Egyptian Christian/Muslim Conflict was Inevitable

What happens when parents of fighting children just tell them to shut up and behave rather than helping them work out their differences? The first time the parents leave the kids alone, the kids get into a fist fight. Instead of teaching them how to solve problems before they boil over, the parents put a lid on the pot so that the anger boils over and explodes.

What happens when a brutal dictatorship suppresses all dissent and prevents ethnic and religious groups from working out their differences, and then is overthrown by those same groups in a revolution? They attack each other (AP photo story) ... with deadly results.

My first (and still strong) reaction to the stories coming out of Egypt was, "This is why we need to get rid of religion!" How can anyone look at bloody rioters carrying crosses and throwing stones and not be

A Courageous Conservative: Listen to Scientists on Global Warming

Bob Inglis, a respected conservative columnist over at Business Week magazine, is calling out the Republican party for ignoring the massive scientific consensus on global warming:

"Normally, the country can count on conservatives to deal in facts. We base policies on science, not sentiment, we insist on people being accountable for their actions, and we maintain that markets, not mandates, are the path to prosperity.

When it comes to energy and climate, these are not normal times. ... Courage fails us when it comes to energy and climate. Fearing our economic circumstances, we've decided to channel the fear rather than to confront it."

These are strong and courageous words coming from a true conservative.

Inglis goes on to advocate one of the best free-market principles ever invented: charge the total cradle-to-grave cost of energy products. Don't just charge

"Ministerial Exception" - A Solution to Legalized Discrimination

The Christian Science Monitor has cast its vote on whether churches are allowed to discriminate on the basis of faith. Their answer, not surprisingly, is "yes":

"On Wednesday, the Supreme Court hears the case of a Christian schoolteacher fired in a dispute over a disability and church doctrine. The justices should be careful about allowing government to judge a faith's teachings when it is charged with discrimination."

(The fourth-grade teacher was fired because she took a disability leave, was asked to resign, and then filed a discrimination lawsuit rather that using the employer's Christ-based dispute-resolution process.)

The Monitor goes on to explain that some religions are so bizarre

Right-Wingers Threaten to Beat Health Teacher over "Bless You!" Ban

A health teacher wants his kids to stop saying "Bless you!" after someone sneezes. He reminds the kids that we actually learned about germs and stuff a century or two ago. A sneeze, it turns out, isn't your body's attempt to expel demons! To drive the point home, teacher Steve Cuckovich is deducting points from a student's score when the student says "Bless you!" in response to a sneeze.

Cuckovich sounds like a great teacher to me, one with a sense of humor and a way to drive a point home to the students. Maybe a bit idealistic, but his heart is in the right place. But the reader comments at the end article ... well ... I'm speechless. This has to go into the "quoted without comment" category. It speaks for itself.

redwhiteandblueuniverse: "Steve Cuckovich, Mind your own business and stop acting as though you have any authority ... Try pushing your personal beliefs on my child and I will beat your ass. Period, end of story."

rogers1756: "Amen. This teacher needs to be slapped off his mock pedestal of intellectual superiority. This is what the progressives would have if they had their way ... Typical Hillary fascist mind control ..."