I’m with Harry here

Harry Reid reportedly slipped out of PC for awhile. According to Michelle Malkin,

”The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate apologized on Saturday for comments he made about Barack Obama’s race during the 2008 presidential bid and are quoted in a yet-to-be-released book about the campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Obama is the nation’s first African-American president.”

Now which part of Reid’s comments were false? Light skinned? Of course. Negro dialect? Perhaps Reid should have said “Black smack” or some other reference to ghetto-speak. But it's obvious what he meant, and he did not mean genetic language skills. Perhaps "Negro" is now a forbidden term?

Such PC traps are set for unsuspecting novices. It’s amazing that Reid allowed his own foot into such a trap.

Welcome SMRTies!

The weareSMRT blog (SMRT = Skeptical Minds and Rational Thinkers) has referenced this blog, atheism-analyzed as a bad example of something or other, possibly conspiracy theories. I welcome all SMRTies (if this name is annoying, what should I call you?) and I hope you all will stick around for discussions of whatever pleases you. Please read ahead.

The comment linking here was to a post that connects certain issues together into a single category: conspiracy theories. This is a tendency of block-thinking groups that proclaim “skepticism” for themselves, while also condemning any skepticism outside of their own accepted laundry list, as illegitimate. This is done via denigration by association – the False or Guilt By Association Fallacy – rather than to take on the issues one at a time and evaluate them based on the evidence pro vs. con.

The presupposition underlying the charge of conspiracy theory is that such questions are illegitimate, and therefore should not be addressed, much less answered. Further, the askers of such questions are presumed to be illiterate obstructionists trying to impede a current philosophy or policy, with no evidence even possible for proof of their reckless charges. This is true in some cases, so by lumping difficult or annoying issues in with illegitimate issues, they can be dispensed with, without the pain of proof or disproof. And of course there are conspiracy theories that cannot be proved or disproved, such as the moon-landing denial. Other conspiracy theories are blatantly false such as holocaust-denial. These are without merit, and indeed do not rise to the value of being pursued.

So charging conspiracy theory against a question automatically is expected to de-legitimize and neutralize it without having to actually deal with the intricacies of the evidence and rational evaluation of the evidence.

Is asking for Obama’s birth certificate a conspiracy theory? Is it asking a question that cannot be answered? Is it asking a question that should not be asked or answered? Clearly, No and No.

For example, the term “birther” is the denigration used for those who want to see Obama’s birth certificate, a prerequisite for his holding the office of President of the United States, under the U. S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 1. The information is available, it just needs to be released; it is valuable, because it either validates or invalidates a presidency. True skeptics would be interested in the evidence pro and con, for allowing release of that document, because if the document indicates that the Constitutional requirements are not met, then everything Obama does during his illegal seating will be nullified in the future.

Here is the evidence as is currently available:

a) There was, for a brief time, an internet posting of the Hawaii document that points to the existence of a “live birth” declaration, which is not the same as a “birth certification” and which can be applied to foreign birth as well as domestic.

b) There was, for a brief time, a forged document that was presented as the birth document itself; this was a poor job of photoshopping the name, “Barack Hussein Obama” onto a form – but the spaces between the letters and the name contained a backgound that was different from the background of the form: a clear forgery.

c) There was, for a time, another forgery in the form of a birth document from Kenya. There remains no birth document that has been presented in support of Obama’s claim to the presidency under the U. S. Constitution.

Wishing to see this document is unfairly labeled by some dogmatists – not necessarily SMRTies - as first, anti-Obama; second, as racist; third as un-American; and fourth as illegitimate conspiracy theory. This series of Ad Hominem labels ignores both minority group members who want to see the document, and Obama well-wishers who want his agenda to succeed and not be subject to revocation on grounds of fraudulent occupation of the office.

Now, assuming that all this is unconvincing to the SMRTies, then there must be some other evidence regarding the concealment of Obama’s birth documents that is not revealed in the above evidence yet is available to SMRTies, and if so, I certainly hope that the SMRTies will reveal the evidence that has convinced them to congeal into such a dogmatic position of ignoring and/or delegitimizing the subject.

I look forward to discussing this and anything else of interest to the SMRT skeptics.

Contact Me

I am adding an email account. You may contact me offline:

ascent[dot]from[dot]materialism{AT}gmail[dot]com

Quote of the Day 1-8-10

In Massachussetts, Democrat Coakley just might lose the Senate race to Republican Brown. Some pundits are speculating that Dems secretly want Brown to win so that ObamaCare can be euthanized without them having to vote against it.

Andrew Solovay writes:

"And could there be a more fitting memorial to Ted Kennedy, than to have his successor be the one who drives Obamacare off a bridge?"

As the Democrats unilaterally increased the national debt by $2,000,000,000,000, keep these graphics in mind (via instapundit):

From NROonline, jan 5:




From Heritage Foundation:



These are not all of the entitlements, to be sure. All the government employees, federal, state and local, will be receiving fat pensions and cush health care plans after their early retirements. And it doesn't even show the results of the government seizure of 1/6 of the economy under ObamaCare.

Grab yourself a government job right away, they are in a hiring frenzy right now, and that will increase with the dozens of new federal bureaucracies being created at this very moment behind congressional closed doors.

The only way to avoid eventually being overcome by these problems (which even hyper-inflation cannot cure) is to drastically expand the economy while reducing government size. Government size reduction is highly unlikely, based on history. So expansion of the economy is the only way out. An expanded economy would produce more private sector employees, and thus more tax revenue. But that means encouraging corporate and small business growth.

But who is being punished the most by the current Leftist congress? Corporations and free markets are particularly despised by the Left. And small business is always lumped in with the hated "wealthy class" and max-taxed while being regulated into extinction. Stimulus billions are poured into non-producing, fat cat fractional reserve banks, federal corporations like Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, and failed corporations that have no customers and which are run by parasitic, flourishing unions, like GM. Cash is taken from producers, to be swallowed by non-producers, keeping them on life-support.

So it's not at all like a slippery slope at the moment. It's more like off the cliff, and under the acceleration of the gravity of economic certainty.

It should be clear by now that the Left cares not one whit about the economy. They have pursued two things only: social agendas involving governmental power grabs, and increasing debt to cover their agendas.

The next power grab will be to entitle illegal aliens, both to health care and to vote. Amnesty is a hot topic and is now on a front burner. This will serve to increase entitlements while providing Leftist votes.

This will be an interesting year. Perhaps 2011 will be a year of change... this time for the better.

Avatar: Were You Expecting A Plot?

The blockbuster, third of a billion dollar production, AVATAR, is being taken to task for its blatantly Left-wing, anti-white, anti-human, anti-just-about-everything except for its blatant Rousseauean pantheist stance. It was, in fact, shallow to the point of regressing plots to the cowboys-and-Indians genre of the 1930’s, except with the Indians/earth spirit as the holy and sacred and the cowboys as thoroughly, irredeemably evil.

Defenders say, well, the public loved it. And it actually is the only movie that we have paid a theater to view in over a year (or more). The reason of course was not for the plot which was never the selling point, it was for the massively spectacular graphics, all done in 3D. In spite of the silly, empty plot, I will probably watch the movie again when it gets to the dollar rental stage (assuming that the 3D will work via TV). I will be happy to view it by skipping to the scenes of waterfalls, phosphorescent nights, floating mountains, and so on – with the sound off.

But as far as the plot line, pfaagh. Still, I recommend seeing it in a theater, sit as close as you are comfortable, dead center. Just remain scrupulously clear about the narrative being sold.

Quotes of the Year 2009

John Taylor collected this set of quotes from 2009.

40) But it is really not easy to make fun of the Obamas, because they’re really — they’re kind of really perfect, aren’t they?" -- Joy Behar

39) Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time! -- Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's MTV Video Music Awards speech

38) The governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail. -- Spokesman for Mark Sanford

37) ...the total mindless, morally bankrupt, knee-jerk, fascistic hatred — without which Michelle Malkin would just be a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it. -- Keith Olbermann

36) I know it wasn't rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don't believe it was rape-rape. -- Whoopi Goldberg on Roman Polanski's rape of a 13 year-old girl

35) Surrounded by middle-aged white guys -- a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men's club -- Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy! -- Maureen Dowd

34) Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?' The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you. -- Joe Biden

33) The American public...just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act. The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is. -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu on the public's lack of concern over greenhouse gasses

32) And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. -- DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano comment about a terrorist attack stopped by passengers

31) think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American. -- Jimmy Carter

30) If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district. -- John Murtha

29) I write a lot of songs that could be interpreted as big patriotic songs, but in reality they're questioning the direction the country is going. After every song in Boston, 20,000 people were going, 'USA, USA.' I thought, man. I almost asked them to stop, stop doing that. I don't like it. I don't like hearing that chant. -- John Cougar Mellencamp

28) Do you remember tea baggers? It was just so much easier when we could just call them racists. I just don't know why we can't call them racists, or functionally retarded adults. The functionally retarded adults, the racists - with their cries of, ‘I want my country back. You know what they're really saying is, ‘I want my white guy back.' They apparently had no problem at all for the last eight years of habeas corpus being suspended, the Constitution being [expletive] on, illegal surveillance, lied to on a war or two, two stolen elections - yes, the John Kerry one was stolen too. That's not tin-foil hat time. That's just..." -- Janeane Garofalo

27) Frankly, if there is repression in Cuba we didn’t see it. -- Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)

26) How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al-Qaida. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al-Qaida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy? -- Chris Matthews

25) But I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking. -- Barack Obama

24) Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. -- Attorney General Eric Holder

23) You can't call yourself a black man and vote against the healthcare bill. -- Jesse Jackson

22) So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement. But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases. And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet. -- Paul Krugman

21) The climate right now is that Republicans use everything they can to undermine and delegitimize this president. And it‘s actually un-American. It‘s traitorous, in my opinion. Do you want to give aid and comfort to our enemies? Continue to treat this president like he wasn‘t elected and he doesn‘t know what he‘s doing! He knows what he did. He knows what he‘s doing. I‘m proud of him. I believe that he has the stalwart, resolute nature to get this done. -- Joan Walsh

20) The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: “You vote for revenue and your career is over.” I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair. -- California’s Speaker of the Assembly, Karen Bass

19) Fox News and their Republican collaborators are the enemy of America. They're the enemy of anybody who cares about health care, the enemy of anybody who cares about educating their children, the enemy of anybody who wants energy independence or anything good for this country. And certainly the enemy of peace, there's no doubt about that. -- Alan Grayson

18) I could have turned everything into a crime scene, like OJ, cutting everybody's throat. You live half a mile from the 20,000-square-foot home you can't go to anymore, you're driving through downtown Clearwater and see a 19-year-old boy driving your Escalade, and you know that a 19-year-old boy is sleeping in your bed, with your wife...I totally understand OJ. I get it. -- Hulk Hogan

17) Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, ‘We are above that now. We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial. We stand for something.’ I mean, in a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world. He’s sort of God. He’s going to bring all different sides together. -- Evan Thomas, Newsweek

16) You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with Yaphet Kotto as the bad guy, Mr. Big? In the end they jam a big CO2 pellet in his face and he blew up. I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is looking more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet. But we’ll be there to watch. I think he’s Mr. Big, I think Yaphet Kotto. Are you watching, Rush? -- Chris Matthews

15) The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. . . . What I think we know — separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in their country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that’s just a fact. — President Obama on Gates’ arrest.

14) I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine. -- Pete Stark, to a constituent

13) The real internal terrorists are the Republicans, I mean, isn't that clear? Rush Limbaugh is a bigger threat to this country than Osama bin Laden. He's a bigger threat than anybody that the CIA can invent. He's a bigger threat than any terrorist that ever leveled its sights against the United States, Limbaugh is, so why isn't he arrested and sentenced for treason?... -- Mike Malloy

12) If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick. -- Alan Grayson

11) The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead! They’d rather make money off your dead corpse! They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her. -- Ed Schultz

10) Them Jews aren't going to let (Obama) talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office. ...They will not let him to talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is. -- Jeremiah Wright

9) We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don't know, as always, could fill a Metrodome.

Still, ignorance doesn't preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it. -- Melissa Lafsky

8) Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. -- Thomas Friedman

7) Look what happened with regard to our invasion into Afghanistan, how we apparently intentionally let bin Laden get away. That was done by the previous administration because they knew very well that if they would capture al Qaeda, there would be no justification for an invasion in Iraq. There’s no question that the leader of the military operations of the U.S. called back our military, called them back from going after the head of al Qaeda. -- Congressman Maurice Hinchey

6) From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death. -- CBS Sports commentator David Feherty

5) The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. Because it's going to take a grassroots, bottom-up pressure, because these politicians prize their office, prize the praise of the media and the Europeans. Only -- it's an absurd situation. Again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary. -- Michael Scheuer

4) (Rush Limbaugh) just wants the country to fail. To me that's treason. He's not saying anything different than what Osama Bin Laden is saying. You might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight. ... Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? -- Wanda Sykes

3) really don't give a f*ck (about Polanski's rape of a 13 year old). Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she's been taken advantage of?"-- Gore Vidal

2) The recent shootings at Ft. Hood and the resignation of top Foreign Service officer Matthew Hoh demonstrate how even our military officers are opposed to US strategy in Afghanistan. -- Code Pink

1) I have a good news to report; Glen Beck appears closer to suicide - I'm hoping that he does it on camera; suicide is rampant in his family, and given his alcoholism and his tendencies towards self-destruction, I am only hoping that when Glen Beck does put a gun to his head and pulls the trigger, that it will be on television, because somebody will capture it on YouTube and it will be the most popular video for months. -- Mike Malloy