You have the right to remain silent so please use it...

So Memorial Day came and went today here in the United States of America.  Many events and ceremonies for our veterans, wreathes were laid at headstones and children waived flags in parades.  Even our Muslim president born in Kenya got in on the action.  He kept the tradition of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C.  There to protest were the loonies from Kansas' one and only Westboro Baptist Church.  They won their case held at the Supreme Court and have every right to protest, but if you believe in any divine power you should see this as a sign.  While the loonies of Westboro were protesting in Washington, D.C. today, another group that has a long history of their own bat-shit crazy antics were counter protesting Westboro.  What group you ask aside from other right minded Americans were counter protesting?  Wait for it...the Ku Klux Klan.  Yes, the white supremacist group that is socially guilty for holding society back from development for over a century even think that these people from Kansas are crazier than they are.  So I say again, if you believe in anything divine, take this as a sign Westboro and stop your unneeded protesting.  Hate organizations don't get much worse than that of the Ku Klux Klan and if they're saying you're wrong, I think it's time you take a long look in the mirror at what you've become.  The money you spend on travel has such a minimal impact on our economy that it would not be missed, that I am for certain.

Leave it to good ol' Texas

Ok, so a local branch of the Veterans Association holds a ceremony on each Memorial Day at the Houston National Cemetery, just like many other communities around the country do.  For the past two years, a preacher has been giving the invocation during the ceremony, explicitly mentioning Jesus Christ.  This year, the VA asked for the prayer in advance and the opening reads as follows; "While respecting people of every faith today, it is in the name of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, that I pray.  Amen."  The VA asked the preacher to remove Jesus Christ from the prayer as it could be disrespectful to other faiths represented in the United States Armed Forces.  Preacher takes case to court and Federal Judge Lynn Hughes ruled in favor of the preacher stating that the government cannot "gag citizens when it says it is in the interest of national security, and it cannot do it in some bureaucrat's notion of cultural homogeneity."  

This is wrong on so many levels.  First, ALL people that served should be respected no matter what their faith is.  It is their sacrifice that allows us to freely speak and debate these issues openly without fear and persecution.  Second, how is a VA Memorial Day Ceremony any different from a high school graduation commencement?  They are both a gathering of citizens representing institutions that receive funds from our federal government and the highest court in the land states that there will not be any religious bias at events such as this.  Third, this is not an issue relating to the freedom of speech, this is freedom of religion.  Yes, both are protected in the First Amendment, but two completely different topics to uphold.

How much money would our country save by avoiding frivolous law suits dealing with religion?  If people were to stop trying to force religion into every aspect of our lives, people would stop being offended and our court systems could do some actual good.  Here in Tennessee, the Gideons had the gall to actually start handing out bibles in a public high school.  The principle allowed it and the administration would not stop it.  Now the ACLU is suing the county.  Hey Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, Conservative Right Wing or whatever you wish to be called; we are not all alike.  We do not hold the same views as you, so stop forcing it on us as we do not force our beliefs on you (Evolution is a fact compared to the story of creation which you have to have faith in to believe).  

I've attached a link to the story for y'all to review.  Have a safe and enjoyable weekend and be sure to thank a vet.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/27/judge-blocks-va-from-barring-jesus-christ-from-memorial-day-prayer/?hpt=T2

Organized Religion is Organized Crime

Let's take a look at what these two seemingly polar opposite groups have in common.

1) The community pays dues. if dues aren't paid, Guido comes for your thumbs
2) Each provide a false sense of security
3) You don't ask questions; both prefer ignorance or a blind eye
4) Both endorse the eradication of any threat to their organization

Every Sunday, ushers in the church pass around collection plates to allow parishioners to give their tidings.  This money is given to the church for them to do as they wish without paying a single penny in taxes to any level of government.  This money pays the salary of the preacher up in the pulpit delivering the "Word of God" making people feel safe and secure in this vast universe, it goes towards charitable organizations that the church endorses, and helps out families in need.  Sounds pretty good, now look at organized crime.  Kingpins in crime organizations look out for their community.  Despite usually having dealings with illegal acts, they provide funds into the community helping families in need.  As we've seen in many of gangster movies, small shop owners pay dues to the ringleaders for security.  Now, if you don't play by the rules in organized religion, you have damnation to answer to, if you don't play by the rules in organized crime, you have henchmen to answer to; either scenario can be psychologically unwelcome.  Both sides collect money, provide false sense of security and give back to the community.

Now, to avoid any unwanted attention, it is best not to ask any questions.  You're not going to stand up during the sermon and ask "If God loves us so much, why did he kill everybody except Noah and his family in a flood?" or "If God created Adam and Eve and they were the first people on Earth in the Garden of Eden, where did the people from the Land of Nod come from?" for the scripture is holy and thou shall not question God's word (disclaimer: the Bible was written, compiled and agreed upon by Man on what stories would be included).  Also, if you see the kingpin's henchmen "taking care of business" on your way home, you're not going to stop and ask "what's going on?" because you don't want the same to happen to you.  Both organizations rely on ignorance, blind faith and a blind eye to thrive.  Both organizations frown upon freethinkers and move hastily to quiet them.  Look at what the Catholic Church did to the great minds of the Scientific Revolution when it was proven that we do not reside in a Geocentric universe by Galileo.  He kept his devout faith to Christ because he knew no better, but the church turned their backs on him excommunicating him from their organization.

Threats of any kind on the basis of their movement is frowned upon greatly.  Look at what the Catholic Church did with the multiple Crusades to the Holy Lands, endorsing the Spanish Inquisition, and the countless centuries of brainwashing their followers into believing that they were the true religion, despite many of their practices came from Ancient Rome where they practiced polytheism.  Thousands of "heretics" lost their lives in the 300 plus year Inquisition under Spanish rule.  Thousands, if not millions, of people died in battle during the crusades.  All of these actions are endorsed in biblical teaching, going to war for God.  With organized crime, if an up and coming leader tries to take over already claimed territory, this is a threat.  Said invader either is "dealt with" by the henchmen or is the dealer that claims the territory and runs the town his way as we saw in "The Godfather part II" and "American Gangster".

I can say that I am happy with what I have in my life with God, and organized crime, being absent.  I have a loving wife, two awesome kids, my own plot of land and a house to call my own.  It was my doing that got me what I have today, there was no divine, or illegal, intervention.  If society as a whole will stop relying solely on "God's will" and take action individually we will be a greater society.

HELP WANTED: Bigots Needed!!!

URGENT: Are you a Bible toting, God fearing, white supremacist, minority hating American?  Do you think that the 1950s was the "Golden Age" of American as portrayed in the movies and classic sit-com television?  If so, we have a job for you.  It is now legal in the state of Tennessee to discriminate.  Governor Bill Haslam signed into law SB632 which makes it illegal for any local government to impose any anti-discrimination laws on individuals.  That's right, local governments cannot tell you that you cannot discriminate anymore.

This post has minimal pay ($0 annually), has no health benefits (TennCare is going bankrupt, may want to have other options), no 401k but you get the self gratification of making your great grand-pappy happy for maintaining the cracker family business, I mean the family cracker business.

No need to apply.  You can start right away.  There are plenty of minorities in the larger cities of Tennessee.  If you're crossing the Mississippi into Tennessee, be sure to start your discrimination in Memphis.  If you can successfully discriminate there and live to tell about it,  you can make it anywhere.

We are an equal opportunity employer, equal opportunity meaning that you are of Anglo decent, fear the wrath and embrace the love of God all at the same time, carry a Bible with you (not the app, the actual book), your great grand-pappy endorsed segregation and you don't pray to the Pope.  If you are of any other decent other than Anglo, please issue complaints to the address below:

Office of Governor Bill Haslam
1st Floor, State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243

If you prefer to voice your complaints, Gov. Haslam can be reached at 615-741-2001

Real Quick...

If you view my profile, you can scan the QR code on there with your smartphone to get the URL to my feed.

Praise Jesus I was Left Behind

So 6:00 PM came and passed on the International Date Line without the pomp and circumstance that was promised, yet again.  Harold Camping predicted the ominous Doomsday, yet again, and to no avail we are still present and accounted for.  So here's my twist on this repeat episode of the Blind Leading the Blind.

First, and probably the most offensive of my conclusions, is that Christianity is a farce.  It is no more legit than the religions of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome yet no more comedic than that of Scientology.  Forcing it's followers into fear to worship an omnipotent supreme God that does not provide a single shred of evidence of existence as a test of faith has blinded pure thought and the impeded the drive for knowledge for 2000 years (6000 years if you take into account the Old Testament).  Faith is an individual want, need and desire that most people rely on to answer the unanswerable.  We cannot definitively answer how everything came to be so people put their faith into the paramount philosophy of the supreme creator.

Second, the end of the world is unavoidable.  Mankind is set on a path of destruction with advancements in weaponry and the decline of society as a whole.  In the United States we have constitutional rights protecting every individual regardless race, religion, creed or gender and yet we have fear based movements preventing mosques being built in communities, we have states passing laws targeting minorities saying they're really trying to control immigration, and states passing hate bills banning homosexuality being taught in public schools.  The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects every citizen of the country from states enforcing laws that would take away any rights granted by the federal law.  Jim Crow has been legally gone for years, but his descendants are coming of age and are rearing their ugly faces in different shapes and forms.  If we allow our states to take away rights away from one group of society, that group of society is having their constitutional rights impeded on by the state.  We cannot stand by idly while this happens.  This is the downfall of society, now to the destruction of the world.  We will get bombarded by something, whether it is a 100 mile large asteroid or thousands upon thousands nuclear explosions, just another self inflicted wound on mankind.

Third, and final, Harold Camping is a con artist and should be held accountable.  He got it wrong, plain and simple, yet he collected handsomely from his followers.  I wonder how many of those that contributed to the Harold Camping initiative will receive compensation or reimbursement.  Camping wrongly predicted the end days in 1994, and yet people still listened to his rants.  Camping argued that he interpreted the Bible to come to the conclusion he did and it was irrefutable.  This further proves that the Bible is not the divine word of God, that it is stories created by man.  If Camping was a true prophet of God and the Bible was the word of God, we would have chaos reigning the streets of our wonderful "Christian Nation", but no.  Thousands of blind followers who put their faith into what this man was selling altered their everyday lives, quit their jobs, gave up their "Earthly possessions" to spread the word of end times.  What will come of these people that cannot get their irreplaceable time back?

My cry to society this morning is to step back.  Look closely at the picture because it is not the "Last Supper" that you are viewing, it is a connect-the-dot a first grader did in a Texas elementary school.  Don't rely solely on faith to make each and every decision in your life.  That feel of a "Holy Presence" is a psychological effect taking place in your brain.  I'm happy to say that I do not reside in a Christian Nation and that was proven tonight.  Secularize this nation.  Keep religion out of my government and allow progress.

Ignorance is Far From Bliss

Today, the Tennessee State Senate passed a bill banning the teaching of homosexuality to students in grades K-8 on the reasoning that "homosexuals don't naturally reproduce" (Sen. Campfield - R Knoxville).  Here is a letter I compiled to my senator after reading the decision.

Esteemed Senator,

I was appalled when I read that my state senate passed legislation banning the education of homosexuality.  This is pure hatred and discrimination.  If we are to ban the teaching of homosexuality on the basis of "natural reproduction" as your colleague Sen. Campfield states is a minuscule loophole.  If we are to keep sexuality of the classroom, both homosexuality and heterosexuality should be banned from elementary and middle school classrooms.  Let us continue to blindfold the children that we are relying to be our future leaders and taking away their education.  Unlike many people in our state and region, I understand that homosexuality is not a choice or a disease; it is a matter of biological chemistry inside one's individual body.  Singling out a single demo-graph with this legislation allows our society to continue to spread it's hatred.  When I look around today, I see religious intolerance against Muslims, societal intolerance against homosexuals from a scared conservative population and ignorance against non-English speaking individuals that reside in our borders (legal or not).  We may no longer recognize Jim Crow but his descendants are coming of age raining hate and intolerance to anything and anybody that is not a white Christian.  The Tea Party movement is truly poisoning progression of our state, country and society.  This legislation, I feel, was a complete waste of state funds.  Sexual reproduction is only mentioned once in the Tennessee State Science Standards in grades K-8 and that is in the 7th grade under hereditary.  In the Health Education Standards, Sexual Transmitted Diseases are mentioned in the standards for 3-5 and 6-8.  If we are to properly educate our future, both sexual preferences, because as we know in State Health Education Standard 7.3 for grades 6-8 abstinence is not always the answer, even though it is the preferred choice of the state.  These children have questions and limiting teachers to not being able to discuss what can and cannot be discussed in the classroom in a controlled environment is a discourteous act to the students as a whole.

Thank you for your time

Michael Dunton

--
The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. - Albert Einstein

Godhatescrazyfolkfromkansas.com

I ventured onto the website of Westboro Baptist Church tonight and they have an actual tracker titled "people whom God has cast into Hell since you loaded this page".  Their URL is www.godhatesfags.com and this is a rather presumptuous notion expressing that they know the exact amount of people damned to burn in Hell, I thought the Bible taught that God was the ultimate judge.  With this I see three scenarios; 1) Westboro Baptist has a court reporter in God's court 2) they operate the gates into Hell or 3) they're just plain wrong.  Let's play connect the dots here; most protestants, if not all, go by the King James Version of the Bible.  King James was King of England from 1603 - 1625.  In 1604 he ordered a committee to weed out any unacceptable books from the Bible, this committee was known as the Hampton Court Conference.  Seven years later in 1611, the final works of this committee was delivered to King James and has since become known as the King James Version of the Bible.  One of the books included in the King James Version of holy scripture is Leviticus.  Leviticus is the book that lays down God's law beyond the Ten Commandments given to Moses in Exodus.  Leviticus is the scripture that these nut jobs from Kansas use in referencing God's disdain towards the homosexual community because in Leviticus 18:22 it says that "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination".  Now, the man that commissioned the new version of the Bible in 1604, King James, was believed to be a homosexual himself.  There were sayings in the day that "Elizabeth was King and now James is Queen" based on his actions in court and the relationships he had with dukes of the realm that historians concluded he had relationships with.  So, I ask you this; if time travel were possible and these radicals from Kansas traveled back to 1625 England, would they have picketed King James funeral procession?  On one hand, he was a homosexual, yet on the other, he reformed the holiest of scriptures that is widely used and misinterpreted everyday.  I would much like to see them picket his funeral only for the reason that they would be overrun by the people of the time, brought into custody, not for the protest but for witchcraft due to the fact of their devilish coloring on their signs and attire, and then imprisoned in the Tower of London.  And we all live happily ever after.  Also, Leviticus 19:27-28 states "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.  Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you:  I am the Lord."  Mr. Phelps, I see no beard on your face and your head is neatly cut.  Do any of your followers have earrings?  I don't think that God would hate fags, good sir, I think he shudders at ignorance more than homosexuals, for he created us in his own image and to think that a God is ignorant is truly frightening.

By the way; 3,910 people were cast to Hell in the time I wrote the blog.

Free and Open Market

I'm going to stray away from my typical religious intolerance theme today but keep the topic here in the United States.  Since 2008, maybe even a bit before that, the United States and other countries have been in a recession, the worst since the Depression of the 1920s and 1930s.  I saw a mind boggling statistic the other day at the end of the documentary "Waiting for Superman".  This statistic stated that the salary of a CEO is 317 times greater than that of a regular employee.  Think about this; according to the US Census, the average household income in the United States for 2009 was $49,777 with married households having the largest average income at $71,830.  Now, if we take just an employee with a salary of $30,000, the average CEO would have a salary of $9.5 million a year.  If you look at the larger picture, not just at Everyday Joe getting screwed, the larger salaries of executives correlates with the globalization of these corporations, also known as outsourcing.  Corporations tell the public that they cannot afford to pay American workers salaries, that is because they are busy padding the pockets of their executives who sit in their ivory towers lighting their cigars with $100 bills.  If just the CEO were to take a pay cut to $3 million a year, that would put $6.5 million back into the company allowing the company to pay for 217 employees with a salary of $30,000 annually (granted it would not be an even trade because some money would need to be used for benefits, still it is a significant amount of employees).  This would stimulate the global economy.  More Americans would be off of unemployment, less tax money would be needed to support welfare along with public health care, there would be fewer foreclosures because people would have income.  Ask yourself, do executives truly deserve the outrageous salaries they are getting?  What is it that they do that warrants such a high pay out?  Is it the fact that they outsource jobs to India, China, Indonesia and other parts of the world saving their stockholders money?  Look at the home front; there will come a point where so many Americans are unemployed due to outsourcing that they will not be able to buy the product your corporation produces, and with the $5 a week salary you pay outsources, they won't be able to purchase your products either.  So, executives, are you looking for short term or long term gain with the strategy you're implementing.  We know you're looking out for #1, but are you looking out for the well being of the American, and global, economy?

I know what I'm about to say is against the free market.  We don't need anymore government bailout funding to stimulate the economy.  If Republicans are looking at cutting spending and wanting to cut spending on public projects such as Medicare, Medicade and unemployment benefits, put the pressure on companies to hire American workers.  I know it is these same people the contributed to your campaigns, but if you truly want to help America with the deficit that it has created, don't just cut the program spending without giving people another option to make up for what is being lost.  Some people have been unemployed for more than 2 years simply because there are very few jobs out there to be had.  States are running out of money providing unemployment benefits.  The true stimulation is job creation and Republicans are against government projects to create jobs, so the only other option is the private sector.  This is your time to step up and do what's right for your country.

Intelligence, or lack there of

Today on a flight departing Memphis, TN heading to Charlotte, NC there were two gentlemen that were removed from the plane because the passengers of the plane did not feel comfortable flying with them.  These two men were highly respected in their religious community that passed the same security screening that all the other passengers had passed.  TSA agents rescreened these two men after taking them off the plane, but the pilot refused to have these two men allowed back onto the plane and would eventually depart Memphis without these two paying customers in the free market we live in.  The first response from the airline was "we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused".  These two men had made all the preparations for their trip heading to Charlotte for a conference of other religious leaders, so this I can imagine was highly inconvenient.  You realize what is sad about this situation?  If these men had refused to leave the plane for additional screening, they would have been detained until proven innocent.  How is this situation any different from the Jim Crow Era of the United States South?  The fearful white community would dictate where any minorities could sit on mass transportation vehicles, often times leaving them to sit on the roofs of trains or the back of the bus, but today, the descendants of those who enforced Jim Crow are now systematically targeting people that follow a religion that they don't understand, and don't care to understand because they believe that their Bible is the truth, they rely on Fox News to fill in the blanks just like a Mad Lib.  Yes, these two men were Muslim.  How would we be reacting as a society if these two men were nuns boarding this plane in their attire?  There's plenty of room underneath their robs to hide explosives.  I propose to you that ANY organized religion is dangerous.  People being led like sheep by their preachers just like their called in the gospel, oblivious to the actual going ons surrounding them.  One day, people are going to express concern over a person in Muslim attire on a plane or a train and this individual is going to do the same thing that Rosa Parks did in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama and refuse to get up.  These two men should sue this airline bankrupt for allowing discrimination to thrive.  The pilot should have his licensed revoked and the passengers should go through ten times the screenings each flight they take.  When will we as a society get beyond this creation of bigotry and prejudice?  These are concepts that humans created to create a superiority complex for the ones in power.  Continuing to allow prejudices and bigotry to thrive is no better than being a Nazi.  Stop drinking the Kool-Aid or you will have a can of whoop-ass opened up on you one day.

To All the Card-Carrying Gay Bashers Out There

If we go based off the traditional story of Creation given to us in Genesis, God created everything; the heavens, Earth, light, dark, animals and humans.  This story gives credit of creation to one supreme being.  Today, almost 1700 years after the Council of Nicaea was held, we have "Christians" being hypocritical of their fellow brethren, particularly to the LGBT community.  Today in Minnesota, State Representative Steve Simon asked "How many gay people must God create before we accept that he wants them around?"  Representative Simon, this is a simple, yet profound question to be asking.  Conservatives argue that homosexuality is an abomination to God, but if God is the ultimate creator of everything here past, present and future, how would this supreme being allow an abomination to go on?  Leviticus, the same book that homophobes use to bash the LGBT community, also states that shellfish are an abomination to God.  Here is the argument that I propose to end this ridiculous debate over gay marriage.  Being that God is the ultimate creator of everything and we must live by his laws, we must ban gay marriage, but we also must ban everything in Leviticus.  We must close establishments in this free market such as Red Lobster, Long John Silvers, Captain D's, Olive Garden and Joe's Crab Shack (not to mention all the small businesses that profit off of the shellfish market along the coasts).  We must boycott "Deadliest Catch" on Discovery Channel and instead watch Ice Road Truckers on History Channel.  Artificial crab meat is too risky, that must be taken off the grocery shelves, for it is spoken in the Bible, it is God's word and God is infallible.  The alternate to this is that God is the creator, as we previously established, but not an ultimate creator.  We have evolved into the complex species that we are today.  I would argue that a homosexual is more complex than a homosexual based on the chemical attraction they have to the same sex because of the hormones, or lack there of, they possess.  Homosexuality is not a choice, it is not a disease.  If you truly live by the Bible, it states that God loves all of his creations.  If we are to follow in his footsteps, we should extend the hand of human kindness to one another, no matter what their sexual preference is.  We are not the ones to place judgment on ourselves when it comes to matters of "Gods' Laws", only the true supreme being is in a place to pass judgment.  I for one do not believe in Hell, but if there is a Hell, I sure would pay to have a seat there to watch the pricks from Westboro Baptist Church get sodomized with their picket signs.

And I think to myself...

I heard a comment on the radio today that I found rather disturbing.  The talk of the day, like yesterday, was the death of Osama bin Laden.  A "Christian" gentleman  called in saying that the Bible teaches revenge here in the South, the Bible Belt.  It took a few moments for that to set in.  The Bible I was taught before I split from the church was that a good Christian turns the other cheek, that is what their lord Jesus taught.  There are parts in the Old Testament that say an eye for an eye and such, but to go against the word of their lord is puzzling.  I can open any book and analyze it to the point to where it says what I want it to.  Granted, bin Laden was not a very popular man in the Judeo-Christian community, but to wish death upon someone is frightening.  I will be the first to admit I felt jubilant when I first heard that he had been killed.  I felt this because of everything my country had endured the past decade with billions being funneled into an unnecessary war in Iraq allowing bin Laden to plan other attacks in Europe to take more innocent lives and recruit countless suicide bombers to ruin the lives of thousands of families throughout the region.  I felt jubilant for that moment in hopes that we could finally start withdrawing more of our dedicated service men and women from foreign territories back home getting them out of harms way.  I felt jubilant because I know thousands of families around the world would feel a piece of closure after what has happened around the world over the past decade and a half.  Despite all jubilation from this weekend I will continue to live my life as I normally do, I will not live in fear of another terrorist attack.  I will live my life as I choose to.  I am not in fear of what may come my way, I do not fear my government and I do not fear any terrorist, no matter what group they may come from.  We are all humans on this rock and until we can get past our petty differences on the ideological concepts of religion and any prejudices that blind us, eventually we will all parish and be reincarnated into dung beetles.  So if you plan do die in the name of Jesus Christ or Mohammad, don't think about the Golden Roads of Heaven with 72 virgins standing along the way, think about the dung beetle.  Lose the hate, embrace your brothers and make this life worth living because this can truly be a wonderful world.