Carlton's Brain

Criss Angel is awesome and Republican genuflection Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

So, clip from the new show “Phenomenon”: clip. Just ridiculous guy, and look how that asshole Uri Geller gives him respect (I’d call him a fraud, but I don’t want to be sued like James Randi). Really getting tired of all this supernatural “psychic” mumbo-jumbo that’s been getting more and more respect on TV.

That’s why I love what Criss Angel did! Absolutely awesome! I was really worried when I found out he was going to be on this show, with that litigious bastard, Uri Geller (just see Wikipedia). However, clearly, he is adding the skeptic view on this show, and that’s great!

Really need more skepticism in the mainstream. People need to use reason instead of just believing all this supernatural junk.

Also, Mindfreak is awesome and Criss Angel is a crazy good illustionist/”mentalist” (whatever you want to call it) that does *not* purport to have any supernatural powers, but just amazing talent (with a lot of hard work) at sleight of hand, misdirection and trickery. That, combined with his skepticism and apparent desire to attack supernaturalism really makes him seem like a modern Houdini.

On a completely separate note, the latest Freethought Radio podcast from the FFRF had excerpts from a recent event that had all Republican presidential hopefuls genuflecting at a big baptist (I think) church. All of them talked about gods and being a “Christian nation” (which is just a huge lie) and “family values” and such. It almost brought me to angry tears hearing the thunderous applause after Rudy’s and Huckabee’s religious-filled speeches.

These are people who have called the Constitution “quaint” and deprecated and advocate the use of torture on war criminals (which has been shown to offer no reliable data, of course, but that’s really beside the point). These are the same hypocrites that cry fowl when someone wants to remove a bit of undeveloped tissue called a fetus, yet send hundreds to their death row and countless others over to die in a fruitless war where they literally hand out Christian propaganda, only making the situation worse.

Of course, the Democrats are not without their religious ideologues. They aren’t much better, many not saying anything one way or the other on issues like abortion, just tiptoeing around the issue like a coward, begging for votes by just saying whatever they think the crowd wants to hear. And they let the Religious Wrong (they are not right nor Right, really) just keep on doing on the bullshit that they’re doing. It’s obscene!

Ron Paul was the only one to denounce federal involvement in religion and a respect for separation of church and state, at least on a federal level: he’s not against states having rights to make decisions on abortion and all — while certainly better than the federal government unconstitutionally making decisions on it, I still think any government should not be allowed to say what citizens do privately. Notably, he also has opposed the war in Iraq since before it began and was and is against the “PATRIOT” Act (which couldn’t be a worse misnomer).

I really like most of Ron Paul’s ideas, but I worry about his religious background on issues like abortion. Religion really should have no place in politics, as JFK says in this great speech. Really gave me a lot of respect for this man that I don’t really know much about. How could it happen that in 1960 we had a president with such very different ideas (like respecting the Constitution) and now have Bush and Rudy and gang?

I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and as much as I despise liberalism/socialism and their ilk, I can’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, it’s better than theocracy, which is what the large percentage of many so-called “right-wing” politicians, the “neo-cons” and such are pushing for. And it’s really scary when they talk about “Islamo-fascists” and atheists in the same vain and use phrases like “War on Religion” while denouncing people like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris. We should not forget what they are doing right now to the “Islamo-fascists” in Gauntanamo Bay and their other “War on Drugs” and “War on Terrorism”.

I really wish that the “conservatives” were conservative and kept the government free of religion as the Constitution clearly outlines. But I can’t help but think that the liberals will, indirectly, make it worse too, by further empowering the government so that when the theocratics finally do get to power they have a stranglehold on our Freedom. Then were just a couple of “PATRIOT” acts away from imprisoning atheists.