Culture of the Goth

The title of this entry says it all. Once you know what Goth is, then you understand what is truly going on in the world today. There are several meanings to the term goth, or gothic. Unfortunately all of them apply to the current Zeitgeist. What’s odd is that there are plenty of religionists who would agree with me, but for a wholly different purpose. I’ll start with the first definition of Goth, which would be the Germanic peoples in the middle ages who sacked Rome.

But now, the tables have turned, and the church is the gothic nation. The run rampant over everything in their path. President Bush has shown that he can destroy just about anything truly held dear in this country in the name of the war he ways God told him is right. He is willing to throw away life, liberty, and to hell with our pursuit of happiness if it doesn’t fit the biblical moral interpretation of his own delusional mind. We now are in a dangerous situation in which the head of our country will trample our freedoms and wage war on anyone based on his own private revelation that god told him to wage this war. You would think that god would tell lots of people this revelation if we were supposed to sacrifice our children to ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction and terrorists that weren’t actually there in the first place.

But perhaps, only Bush hears gods voice, and if that’s the case, maybe we should question his sanity! But the gothic United States of God continues to march on trampling everything in its path, and dismissing science, evidence, and reason as so much fairy tale. We find now that the other definition of goth, dark and brooding teenagers cults, fits us quit well now too. Our nation now struggles over such things such as evolution and creation. Ignore the fact that evolution has obliterated creationism/intelligent design with irrefutable evidence, critics continue to use the same arguments against evolution that have been proven false many years over. But still the same ridiculous arguments cloud and fool the minds of Christians and other religionists. Darkness covers them and they think they see clearly. Blinded by 2000 year old ancient texts, they brood along considering themselves the norm and the better for it.

Yet, amongst the dark hording ignorance, light can be seen. The likes of Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins continue to put forth patient, intelligent arguments against religion. Few listen, but if one listens and spreads the word, perhaps some day we can cease climbing back into the pit of ignorance and embracing knowledge, science, and evidence for what they are, instead of embracing faith, belief, and ignorance.

Fundamentlist Heroes: Ken Ham

Ken ham is an Australian Born Evangelical who heads up the group "Answers in Genesis". But Ken did not become a fundamentalist hero until recently. "Answers" was just a silly website that had answers that all Christian fundamentalist believed already. Of course, this site helps to build upon the unscientific claims of creationism and help keep children ignorant and stupid in regards to science. "Answers" essentially gets all its information from the Bible and attempts to back it up with bad science which in most cases, adds up to no science at all. Unfortunately, to the unschooled in science, this seems perfectly credible since they already believe the Bible literally any way. This is one of the biggest problems facing the United States today, willful ignorance of the facts.

"Answers in Genesis" takes us back six-thousands years to the creation of mankind and our earth. Yes, thats thousands not millions. It claims that the Bible is backed scientifically by suggestions that the Grand Canyon (made of granite) was not cut by millions of years of water flowing on, in, and over it, but by the flood. Yes, Noah's flood and perhaps a great volcano eruption like Mount Saint Helen's. Of course, while decades of proven science has show beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was done over millions of years, they present no hard evidence to the contrary, but inject plenty of suggestion and conjecture as their evidence.

However, like I already mentioned, Ken Ham was not worthy of being a fundamentalist hero until recent, when he built the Creation Museum. Thats right, its a walk through history via the eyes of a creationist! It includes theories with no evidence regarding dinosaurs and fossils and other such things that have already been explained and proven decades ago. But they get rehashed and butchered over and over again in this monument to creation ridiculousness. This museum is nothing but an embarrassment to real science as it proposes that the dinosaurs were created and lived side by side with mankind! Of course, they either were wiped out in the flood or died out soon after the boat landed.

Ken makes sure, as do all "creation scientists" to avoid the pit falls of creation by not talking about how you could have 2 of every dinosaur on the boat since there are literally millions of known species of dinosaur. As well as ignoring the rest of the animals that we know for a fact existed, but could not have possibly fit on one boat, especially with the size we are told it was.

Non the less, here stands that pillar of ignorance defiantly in the face of knowledge, science, and indeed, intelligence itself. You can walk in and take a stroll through the halls of the bible masqurading as science. You can pay your 19.95 to get in, you can go home and visit the "Answers in Genesis" site that powers the Creation Museum website, or, you can do something else. You can go south a little ways to Big Bone Lick State Park and visit the "Birthplace of American Vertebrate Paleontology" that has less flair and pizazz than the Creation Museum. You can walk through and see lots of dinosaur bones on display in one room, many discovered by Lewis and Clark. It will tell you of the known age of the earth, thousands of skeletons, and tons of knowledge ready and willing to be absorbed by young minds yearning to know more. In other words, real science, real learning, is just south of the monument to ignorance called the Creation Museum.

Fundamentalist Heroes: James Dobson

James Dobson is so far to the right on family and moral issues that he should be a character in the Onion newspaper. He believes in the indoctrination of children, the suppression of gays rights, and the subordination of women to their husbands. Any time anyone wants equality under the law, and they aren't Christian men, then he is against it. Under his rule, Focus on the Family has fought against equal rights for women, children, and homosexuals, simply because he feels it is against "gods word". What worse is he rallies many Christians against GOOD bills and they don't even know why! He is so damn ignorant, he sends out letters stating that this bill or that takes away religious freedom and that is NEVER the case! If he would shut his yap for ten seconds and read a bill, perhaps he would know what he was protesting against instead of looking like a damn fool to the rest of the world! Here are some quotes from the demented "Dr." Dobson.

Children are not casual guests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built.
James Dobson

No, children should be taught how to think, not what to think. If we teach them that way, they are clones of their parents in so many ways.

My observation is that women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership.
James Dobson

Stupid misogynist! No woman lives to be subservient to their husbands!

One of the problems with sex education... is that it also strips kids - especially girls - of their modesty to have every detail of anatomy, physiology and condom usage made explicit.
James Dobson

Oh yes, better they make a mistake and have sex and get a disease than learn about it before hand and not die young! Education harms girls? Right, I notice he didn't speak of how it harms boys. And I have read the whole letter, it doesn't!

State Universities are breeding grounds, quite literally, for sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV), homosexual behavior, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, alcoholism, and drug abuse.
James Dobson

Again, educating yourself is bad bad bad! These schools, you may learn yo self, but all the sin is just bad bad bad!

"What is needed is a central registry through which violations of religious freedom can be reported. Henceforth, Focus on the Family will serve as the repository of that information, which will later be reported."

Theocracy in the making. Focus on the Family essentially promotes theocratic tyranny with itself at the head.

"One issue concerned the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, which has worried me for years. I devoted a portion of my letter in January 1993, and again in July 1994, to the threat posed by this dangerous document. More than 150 countries around the world have already adopted it within their borders."

This should bother everyone. This law is for giving children rights and freedoms in the world, yet a "family" organization is against it.

"We have tried unsuccessfully, but valiantly, to keep President Clinton from permitting homosexuals in the military and from assigning women to combat situations. We have fought for the unborn child...."

They have fought valiantly to ensure that those not in line with the right wing christian conservative world view are equally discriminated against!

"...the obvious question to ask is, `What can we do to derail this gender feminism juggernaut?' I would make four suggestions which I sincerely hope my readers will implement."

Again with the woman thing. Why do all these fundamentalists have problems with women having equal rights? Why is allowing women to make choices about themselves without the need of a man a bad thing?

Dobson is a stain on humanity and would destroy the "family" with his ludicrous religious harmful dogma he calls psychology. Whats worse, he condones child abuse in certain situations, divorcing your wife if she won't submit, and forcing those not Christian to live apart from the rest as not to contaminate us with their "sin". He is one that believes we should be a country run by the church, the "true church" as he says, and that our constitution should force a strict fundamentalist Christian way of life. He is one of the scary ones, and one of the ones with power. Ignore him at our own peril!

Fundamentalist Heroes: Pat Robertson

Everyone knows about Pat Robertson. He is the founder of the 700 Club and The Christian Coalition. He preaches that natural disasters happen as a result of gods wrath. He warns people that god is going to do crazy things for them, like strike them with a meteor. He also tells people, when he personally feels they have stepped out of line, that they should not call on god when something bad happens, because he won't be there. He has called for assassinations, nuclear devices to be set off at the state department, and blamed terrorism on gays, lesbians, and arbitrators of our civil liberties like the ACLU. Pat Robertson has ludicrously claimed that the Christians are a persecuted minority. Never mind that an atheist is the least likely person to ever get elected into office. Never mind that the majority of America claims to be Christian. Never mind that there is an evangelical president who has appointed evangelical judges, and works with a right wing republican congress, he believes they are the persecuted minority. But what is Pat Robertson really? He is a terrorist, plain and simple. When you speak such hatred against the "arms of Satan" (which is everyone not Christian) and condone violence towards other people, and condone the violent take over of America to for it to be a christian nation, you are a religious terrorist. He is one of the worst, in fact, THE WORST as far as I'm concerned since Falewell died. I tried to narrow his quotes down to just the worst, but they were all bad, so I left it in. Its long, but its horrible and requires no real explanation.

"Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that’s held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings." –Pat Robertson, on the dangers of judicial activism

"Lord, give us righteous judges who will not try to legislate and dominate this society. Take control, Lord! We ask for additional vacancies on the court." –Pat Robertson

What? Well, I guess he got his wish now, the Supreme Court is full of religious nutz!

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history." –Pat Robertson

This man lives on another plane of existence that the rest of us.

"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you, This is not a message of hate -- this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor." –Pat Robertson, on "gay days" at Disneyworld

Awesome, none of that happened. He is an idiot.

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." –Pat Robertson

Yeah, it wasn't about equal rights at all. But then, Christianity itself is misogynistic.

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period." –Pat Robertson

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city. And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there." --Pat Robertson, after the city of Dover, Pennsylvania voted to boot the current school board, which instituted an intelligent design policy that led to a federal trial

Punishment from god for teaching science? Do tell!

"God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine.' ... He was dividing God's land. And I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the E.U., the United Nations, or the United States of America.' God says, 'This land belongs to me. You better leave it alone.'" --Pat Robertson, on why Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke

Again, he touts his evil sadistic god as the killer of someone who didn't do what they were told!

"Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up" –Pat Robertson, on nuking the State Department

Did he just say we need to Nuke the USA? Terrorist scum, I hope there is a hell so you can burn in it!

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." –Pat Robertson, calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

Assassination is a good thing.

"Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out,' and 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping." –Pat Robertson, clarifying his call to assassinate Hugo Chavez

Actually, I meant "taking him out" is a good thing, like to dinner.

"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him." –Pat Robertson

No no no, I said I love the guy, hope he is happy and god blesses him!

"That was never in the Constitution, however much the liberals laugh at me for saying it, they know good and well it was never in the Constitution! Such language only appeared in the constitution of the Communist Soviet Union." –Pat Robertson, on the constitutional separation of church and state

Duh, it was in a letter from Jefferson explaining the first amendment, touting how the First Amendment effectively creates a wall of separation. Course, if he read once in a while, he would know that.

"Well, I totally concur." –Pat Robertson to Jerry Falwell following the Sept. 11 attacks, after Falwell said, "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say: "You helped this happen."

Right, they didn't attack us because "we are on muslim lands" like they said, it was god who helped it happen because of gays and pagans!

We have enough votes to run the country. And when the people say, "We've had enough," we are going to take over.
-- Pat Robertson, speech given to the April, 1980 "Washington for Jesus" rally, quoted from Robert Boston, The Most Dangerous Man in America, p. 29

This is the exact type of language used by radical Islam. Nearly word for word.

If Christian people work together, they can succeed during this decade in winning back control of the institutions that have been taken from them over the past 70 years. Expect confrontations that will be not only unpleasant but at times physically bloody.... This decade will not be for the faint of heart, but the resolute. Institutions will be plunged into wrenching change. We will be living through one of the most tumultuous periods of human history. When it is over, I am convinced God's people will emerge victorious.
-- Pat Robertson, Pat Robertson's Perspective Oct-Nov 1992

Is he talking about a bloody revolution to make this a Christian nation?

We at the Christian Coalition are raising an army who cares. We are training people to be effective -- to be elected to school boards, to city councils, to state legislatures, and to key positions in political parties.... By the end of this decade, if we work and give and organize and train, THE CHRISTIAN COALITION WILL BE THE MOST POWERFUL POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA
-- Pat Robertson, in a fundraising letter, July 4, 1991

Thats funny, because they have religious tax exempt status. Wonder if the IRS has seen this?

Fundamentalist Heroes: Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity is one of the worst kinds of fundamentalist talk show hosts. He claims to be fair and balanced yet he blatantly shows his far right wing colors. He continuously spouts comments that can only be found acceptable by someone as far to the right as he is. He always reports and speaks from a horribly biased view of the world. He has no problems discriminating against others who don't believe as he does. He does not have a problem telling people they are ridiculous or stupid, but then follows with how others shouldn't insult him because its childish. If he could once take his own medicine, I think he would pass out. Maybe one day he will understand that news is supposed to be non-biased and based on fact and provable statements, and he can have a conversation or debate with out belittling his guest or trying to make his co-host look like an idiot.

Can we pray for the re-election of George Bush?
Sean Hannity

Sure you can. But when you ask that question, you can't pretend you have no bias towards the right wing republicans.

Governor, why wouldn't anyone want to say the Pledge of Allegiance, unless they detested their own country or were ignorant of its greatness?
Sean Hannity

Or maybe they don't believe in god. Or maybe they actually believe in the bible which says to take no oaths. Or may be they feel its just a bunch of words and they don't have to prove anything.

Is it that you hate this president or that you hate America?
Sean Hannity

Sometimes people actually disagree with the president, country, and laws. Thats okay, its part of being in democratic america.

It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state.
Sean Hannity

As most fundamentalists, they don't understand our countries history. Jefferson stated this in regards to the first Amendment in a letter stating that this is what the first amendment does. If he read that letter himself, he would have known that.

“There's a lot of massacres going on in the world. As you know, 37,000 Kurds in Turkey, over a million people in Sudan. We have hundreds of thousands in Rwanda and Burundi. I mean, where do we stop?”

This is about the US actually using our troops to stop suffering instead of sending them to die pointlessly in a country like Iraq.

“Soldiers are literally fighting for their lives and you don't have enough respect for them to take your protest somewhere else... You have no respect for those guys that are trying to heal in that hospital... Why don't you take your protest and your free speech rights and stop sticking it in the face of people that are (sic) suffered enough. Why don't you take it elsewhere?”

For some reason, even though our troops fight to preserve our freedom to protest, protesting is disrespectful towards them. Right, nice perspective on freedom Sean!

“This is all the perspective you need!”

Oh yes, the fair and balanced channel is all we need. Full of yourself much?

“So the mayor of New Orleans would have used his own buses had the people had been white?”

Shawn routinely shows his ignorance regarding race relations and the entire Katrina situation.

“I've never seen any medium get more attention than liberal talk radio with absolutely no benefit. There's been more written about liberal talk radio than I've had in my entire career, and I began in 1987.”

Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Dr. Laura, and the entire cast of Fox News. How is it possible that he still believes in this crazy left wing conspiracy, that all media is controlled by the "leftists"? Doesn't he know that the largest media mogul in the world own his radio and tv station?

“Under Clinton, the New York Times called surveillance a necessity. Under the Echelon program, there was eavesdropping surveillance in the Clinton years, under Reagan, even under Carter and under the first President Bush.”

Yes, but they all required warrents, and it always worked. Bush Jr. ensured that the government can spy on us domestically with no reason and with no warrent. Sure, thats exactly the same you pompous prick!

“You're entitled to your opinion. I frankly don't really care what you have to say. It has very little impact on my life.”

Yes we know, only faith in an invisible diety impacts your life. So glad you are willing to open discussion with others, it shows your intelligence level.

“Let me be straight with you - I like George Bush. I think he's a man of principle, a man of faith. I think he's got a backbone of steel and he's a real, genuine, big-time leader ... He's a consequential figure for his time. We don't see it right now.”

Huh? Absolutely nothing in that statement indicates that Bush has done a good job leading the country or that he is a good leader and makes the right decisions. So Seah Hannity really likes Bush for the same reason that the other lemmings do, because he is a man of faith. Of course, not very good faith considering the vast amount of scandals he has been involved in.

“I say these things every day. Liberal critics don't hear me say it.”

No, we hear you, we just wish we didn't.