Stupid Status

Focus On The Family, an evangelical non-profit group founded by James Dobson, created a new website this Christmas season – StandForChristmas.com.

In an odd contortion of the usual Christmas spirit, the new website is promoting shopping experiences as an integral part of the holiday.  From the StandForChristmas website:

Thus, we set out to assist you, the consumer. 

In recent years, Focus on the Family has evaluated the advertising of major retailers and assigned ratings based on their level of "Christmas-friendliness." We provided these ratings in an annual shopping guide.

Strangely, this consumers-for-Christ attitude is intended to combat the "secularization of Christmas".  I'm not sure how encouraging people to disobey God helps – aren't Christians supposed to give away (or, wait, maybe sell) all possessions?  Buying a Wii at a Christmas-friendly store isn't going to get you into heaven...

To top it all off, the site claims "[f]or millenia, CHRIST has been the reason for the season."  It's true – for the last two millenia.  Looks like they forgot about the years before Christianity and the religions that started these very Chrisitian traditions. 

Looks like those pious prats are pagans after all!

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Mr. Ratzinger (some call him the Pope) continues the Catholic Church's official ban on condoms, claiming that "[the use of condoms] increases the problem."  In fact, he's bold enough to fly to sub-Saharan Africa, the world's hardest-hit region suffering from AIDS and HIV, and publicly uphold the ban.

Evidently, Mr. Ratzinger doesn't read any research that deals with AIDS/HIV prevention and sex education.  Or he's too stupid to understand it.  Or he thinks that abstinence is more important than living.  Or he's actually trying to increase the number of infected.  I can't think of any other reasons.

Even some Catholics think it's stupid.  Why won't this man listen to reason?  If god gave him another commandment etched in stone, it would be nice of him to show it to the rest of us.

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There's a chain email going around claiming that "taxpayer money is being redistributed to welfare recipients for free cell phones."

I had a former employee call me earlier today inquiring about a job, and at the end of the conversation he gave me his phone number. I asked the former employee if this was a new cell phone number and he told me yes this was his "Obama phone."

I asked him what an "Obama phone" was and he went on to say that welfare recipients are now eligible to receive (1) a FREE new phone and (2) approx 70 minutes of FREE minutes every month. I was a little skeptical so I Googled it and low and behold he was telling the truth. TAX PAYER MONEY IS BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO WELFARE RECIPIENTS FOR FREE CELL PHONES.. This program was started earlier this year. Enough is enough, the ship is sinking and it’s sinking fast. The very foundations that this country was built on are being shaken. The age-old concepts of God, family, and hard work have flown out the window and are being replaced with "Hope and Change" and "Change we can believe in." You can click on the link below to read more about the "Obama phone"…just have a barf bag ready. https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/home.aspx Google: Safelink Wireless

As it turns out (big surprise), you shouldn't believe everything you read in chain emails.  I'm looking at those of you who keep propagating this falsity, like the Facebook user who posted this message:

So apparently cell phones are no longer a luxury but a necessity and our tax dollars are now being used to provide free cell phones plus 70 min. of talk time a month to anyone receiving food stamps, federal public housing assistance, or medicaid! Including free rollover minutes, call waiting, and voicemail. (just see... link below!) I mean seriously?!! And we wonder why the government is going broke . . . where are the handouts for broke law students?

If you spent just two minutes of your time to check the validity of these claims, you'd find out that this chain email is completely false!  As FactCheck.org puts it:

Low income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade.  But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it.

Now, I'll admit, the SafeLink website makes a somewhat misleading claim that it is "government supported."  As it turns out, the government does support the program, but not financially.  The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) was created as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act to administer the Universal Service Fund (USF), which provides financial backing for companies like SafeLink.  Telecom companies are the only contributors to this fund.

To summarize, this program is 1) not financed with taxes, 2) not created by Obama, and 3) not replacing your God or family in any way.  You are despicable if you knowingly pass on false information, and you are stupid if you believe this chain email without validating its claims.

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I'd like to follow up on my previous post concerning ignorant bigots who loosely throw around Nazi references comparing healthcare reform and economic stimulus programs to Hitler.

Here's the original status message:

history lesson... Remember the person who helped banks, car manufactures, and healthcare? I do his name was Hitler and the world hated him let's not repeat history (don't take this the wrong way I don't compare Barack to Hitler I just don't think that it is something we want to do as a country) good luck Barack I hope your approval rate increase from the current 51% and you help the U.S. & a majority of it's citizens

Here's a thought:  Genocide is wrong because of the suffering it creates, not because any one person did it.  The Holocaust is an atrocity because it was genocide, not because Hitler did it.  If anyone else had caused it, the Holocaust would still be evil!

But if you're not willing to accept that, then you should be bound by your own logic:  anything that Hitler did or supported is evil.  I'm sorry to break it to you, but that includes religion – Christianity in particular.

Some quotes from Hitler himself proving his faith in religion (and, according to your logic, proving that religion is evil):

I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.

- Adolf Hitler, to General Gerhard Engel, 1941

I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 2

We are a people of different faiths, but we are one. Which faith conquers the other is not the question; rather, the question is whether Christianity stands or falls.... We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity... in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Passau, 27 October 1928, Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

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Stupid tweet:

Our 2nd Amendment rights are not just constitutional but God-given: Read more at http://ow.ly/iLiw #guns #2nd #tcot Please RT!

The linked article is titled "Did Jesus Advise Carrying A Weapon?".  It's priceless.  The author claims that Luke 22:36 should be interpreted as Jesus giving permission to carry weapons for self defense.  Never mind the following interpretation that claims Jesus wanted the apostles to forcefully resist any untimely attempts to assassinate him – Jesus was very particular about his assassination.

Isn't it odd that the author has completely ignored other passages, like Matthew 5:38-40, that advocate non-violence in no uncertain terms?  This is the same god that will convict you of thought crimes.  What would he do to you for taking violent action?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, really.  The Christian god is well-documented as wanting his followers to murder a lot of people.  I suppose the author above is just more comfortable with Biblical contradictions and murder than I am.

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Glenn Beck is at it again.  This time he's targeting schools that have implemented a new "Meatless Mondays" program to serve vegetarian meals one day each week.  It turns out that there are significant health and environmental benefits to limiting meat intake, like reduced risk of heart disease, water conservation, and reduced dependence on fossil fuels.

In typical fashion, Beck mocks this attempt to curb climate change and improve America's health.  He doesn't give any research that contradicts these ideas, and he certainly doesn't mention the research that supports it.  Instead, he spends most of the time proclaiming that he'll never give up meat.  

He points out, as if it's all the evidence he needs, that many supporters of Meatless Mondays are not vegetarian.  Big deal, Glenn – the point is to reduce meat consumption, not eliminate it entirely!  No one is going to take your steak from you!  Stop creating controversies and conspiracy theories out of nothing!

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Stupid tweet:

Like Evolution, Global Warming speaks as a religion but seeks to be heard as a science

What a moron.  Comparing evidence-based concepts like evolution and climate change to faith-based (read: no evidence) cult groups is preposterous.  

First, those concepts don't "speak" for themselves – scientists and researchers speak for them.  Secondly, those scientists and researchers use something called the scientific method to gather measurable evidence that can be evaluated with reason.  You'll recognize the scientific method as having brought you such comforts as vaccines, airplanes, and a multitude of medical advancements to keep you healthy, not to mention the incredible collection of technology on which you typed your stupid tweet.

The evidence for evolution and climate change is well-documented.  Either you're ignoring it, or you're too dumb to understand it.

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Found this on tangle.com today:

Tangle.com (formerly GodTube) describes itself in this way:

Tangle.com is an online community for Christians that enables its users to connect with other Christians, share the Gospel, and grow in their relationships - ALL for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Looks like that member should read ALL of his Bible, not just some parts.  I think he forgot about the passage that forbids tattoos (Leviticus 19:28).

And why does a Christian social networking site need so many advertisements?  And isn't it a bit scary that they have people spying on everything that's posted on the site?

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A bumper sticker I saw recently:  You Can't Be Both Catholic & Pro-Abortion.

But you can be Catholic and:

• homophobic (Leviticus 20:13),
• pro-slavery (Exodus 21:2-11),
• sexist (1 Timothy 2:9-15), and
• comfortable with contradictions.

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