Monday, January 30, 2012

The Moon




Some choose to go to the Moon. Some choose to believe that the purpose of government in a representative democracy is to take up the greatest educational, environmental and economic burdens and challenges that we face as a nation, and that rational people contending in the public arena is the best way to thrash out our differing priorities.

And some choose to believe the Earth is 9,000 years old. That any collective action taken on behalf "We The People..." is evil.  That any government beyond sending them Social Security checks and cutting their taxes is evil.  That rationality is elitist. That facts are irrelevant. That any opposition to their disastrous superstitions and paranoia is evil. That compromise is evil.

For the former, there is now no greater cultural imperative than insuring the electoral extinction of the latter.

The safe and orderly demolition of the Right is our generation's Moon shot.

15 comments:

Stephen A said...

Rather than a space race it seems we have a "race between education and catastrophe" to quote H.G. Wells

Habitat Vic said...

Would that the orderly destruction of the conservative Right would be accomplished in a generation. Maybe, if they speed things along by imploding upon themselves by overreach - though that's a dangerous way to go (a chance for fascism, as well as a chance to democracy).

Our founders worried about the power of banks, or the wealthy becoming a new aristocracy. And of corporations. You know, like a multinational company that buys off politicians and can make local government enact favorable tax laws. I've tried to educate Tea Party clowns as to the East India Company and the real causes behind the Boston Tea Party. Truth is irrelevant.

knowdoubt said...

I thought it was 6000 not 9000 yrs., Let's get this right for Pete's Sake. I'm tired of having my beliefs shaken. Could we check the math please or a show of hands?

knowdoubt said...

I thought it was 6000 not 9000 yrs., Let's get this right for Pete's Sake. I'm tired of having my beliefs shaken. Could we check the math please or a show of hands?

StonyPillow said...

"The safe and orderly demolition of the Right is our generation's Moon shot."

This. This is why.

chrome agnomen said...

ship them to newt's moon colony. one caveat: one-way tickets only. well, two caveats: newt has to go on the first flight.

Anonymous said...

6000 is the standard young earth creationist number....arrived at by some monk who added up all the mentioned generations in the bibbble including all those crazy methuselah was 999 years junk...then subtracted from there

lou said...

Basically a struggle between those who understand how this world works and the limits thereof, and those who don't.

Bongo Shaftsbury said...

I read the Bible every day. Nowhere does it say the earth is 6000, 9000, or 13,000 (debunked prophet, Harold Camping)years old. It's ironic that the main thrust of both the Old and New Testament is that justice should prevail, economic and social. Unlike the age of the earth, it states very clearly that religious and political leaders shouldn't be doing the things rightwingers do.
Another irony is that without a benevolent God, leftwingers don't have a prayer of succeeding. We can have a violent revolution (a rightwing solution), or we can blog till our hearts are content, but if everything in the universe is just a random occurrence, then we're really just complaining about our bad luck. If you accept the possibility that there is a supernatural intelligence greater than human intelligence (not that hard to imagine), all things are possible here on Earth as they are in Heaven.

Nangleator said...

chrome agnomen, that would make the moon our B ark? Excellent idea!

Anonymous said...

Yeah bongo....before i can accomplish anything i always have to think about sky daddy and make sure he still loves me....hell i could barely click "post comment" without thinking that if there werent an extremly spiteful and childish god, that only seems to talk to the craziest among us and whoes justice always seems to fall on the already least fortunate of us, i would prob sit in bed all day masturbating and eating fetus dip....because without a god who has exactly zero effect on my life what do i have to be good for or put my time to worthwhile goals?

Bongo Shaftsbury said...

If you're in fact a human, then God, or at God as I understand God, most certainly does have an effect on your life. You're here posting your beliefs to counter mine. You do make a valid point though. Without God, there is no reason to be good. You need only convince other humans that your ginormous ego isn't a threat to their well being. It's certainly possible to be empathetic and pursue worthwhile goals without believing in God. On the other hand, posting snarky comments that mock other people's faith, isn't a worthwhile goal and it shows a lack of empathy.

Word Verification: expoless- adjective describing an anonymous comment that lacks soulfullness, wit, or purpose

jim said...

Without God, there is no reason to be good.

O ye of little reason.

Because it's fun. Because it feels nice. Because I want to make others happy. Because I care about the future. Because that's the way I was brought up.

I can keep listing these all day long - & your God will never come into the picture, not even once.

No, none of them are "forms of God" either, so kindly spare us the cheap semantic parlor tricks.

Your God must really love atheism, because he keeps creating more & more atheists all the time - & yet from the very minute we invented the camera, suddenly he seems to have summarily dropped the whole "miracle" schtick that worked so well for millennia to prove his earthly authority & gain many millions of devout believers to the faith.

What a miraculous coincidence!

Bongo Shaftsbury said...

"yet from the very minute we invented the camera, suddenly he seems to have summarily dropped the whole "miracle" schtick"

You do realize that most of the physical universe is invisible. That doesn't mean it isn't real.

"Over the course of a day spent observing some unstable uranium, scientists in Texas noticed something strange. Uranium is unstable and decays over time in a process called radioactive decay. And when they left it alone, unwatched in the petri dish, the uranium did as it was told. But whenever they tried to watch it, the uranium just sat there not really doing anything, like a pot of water mocking an old spinster from a burning stovetop.
The second day came and the same thing happened...The lab reported their findings to other labs, presumably after putting each other through rigorous psychiatric testing. And somehow, against all reason and logic, it turned out the initial experiment wasn't just everything in Texas being crazy like usual. Everyone else saw the same thing. Certain particles will never decay if you're observing them, which means that you can essentially stop time by paying attention to certain particles."

Getty
"I'm God as long as I don't blink."

"The paradox defies the law of entropy...We know that certain unstable elements decay. We have evidence of it everywhere in nature. But put them under a microscope and they seize up like a dog who refuses to do the trick you taught him when the neighbor's watching. Except radioactive isotopes aren't supposed to be able to notice stuff like the giant eyeball staring at them behind that plate glass window.
So in case you ever feel like we've got the universe figured out, keep in mind that in certain conditions, the universe appears to be actively keeping secrets from us."
Cracked

Sophie said...

Hey, Bongo, go take another hit of whatever it is--
Until the invisible entity shows up to help every single victim of another human's,(s') heinous crimes--particularly the millions dead and disappeared from this earth at the mere whim of some filthy warmongering fascist--or rescues the women and children raped and dismembered every single fucking day on this earth--just shut the F up.
However, I'm happy that you will know where you are going after you are gone.