I do not speak for Occupy Portland, or for any other occupation. I speak only for myself.

It is often said that the kind of mass protest movements like the one that is currently spreading throughout the United States do not actually bring about any change. Apparently the Arab Spring… Read full post »

The secular case against same-sex marriage was written by Ian Robinson on April 29, 2011(http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11950).

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) reposted a portion of the article on it's blog today, May 4, 2011 (http://www.nomblog.com/8127/).… Read full post »

(from 08/29/2010)

The story of Adam and Eve as told in the Old Testament book of Genesis is mythical, which in and of itself is not at all problematic.  It is also extremely immoral, which clearly does pose much more of a problem than does the fact that it is a… Read full post »

This certainly won't be good for the cause of promoting an understanding of atheism among a public that historically has vilified it.  I find it extremely interesting (and evidence of our cultural bias against atheism and in favor of religion, any religion, at all costs) that the title of the&nb… Read full post »

340 years after it was published in Pensées (Blaise Pascal's major philosophical contribution treating human suffering and faith in God), Pascal's Wager continues to be an oft cited argument, at least on the part of the average believer, for belief in a supreme creator being and a cosmolo… Read full post »

For the last week we have heard little other than the idea that the recent Republican victory in Massachusetts has national repercussions.  We are told that that election it is evidence that Americans do not want health care reform and that Americans are opposed to the "agenda" of Obama and cong… Read full post »

A measure to create a special task force or "deficit panel" was voted down by the U.S. Senate today.  The measure needed 60 votes to pass and only received 53.

The purpose of the panel would have been to come up with a plan of tax cuts and spending cuts aimed… Read full post »

I like government spending.  I think it is important, vital to our economy and our society's functioning.  Without government spending we wouldn't have roads to drive on to get us to work so that we have money to buy food, clothing, housing, and gas to drive back to work on the… Read full post »

Are they idiots?  Oh wait, dumb question.  The answer to that is obvious.

The Supreme Court, in all its conservative wisdom, has just given corporations the freedom to spend as much money as they want on political campaigns.  They can give as much money as they want to any candidate. &… Read full post »

I know.  I already said my piece about the election in Massachusetts.  I already put forth my opinion of the lesson to be learned.  I stand by my assertion that American voters are dumb.  However, believe it or not, I am capable of thoughts that run deeper than polemics for the… Read full post »

Democrats have lost their supermajority in the Senate.  Oh no, big deal.  Tell me, has having 60 seats in the Senate really made things better?  Has the Democratic or liberal agenda been moved through the Congress in general, or the Senate specifically, more quickly and smoothly as a r… Read full post »

Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh are at it again.

Rush is up to his same old antics. He is a racist bigot who is out for ratings. As such, he makes comments such as the one made recently in which he says that… Read full post »

I find it more than a bit ironic that Republican leaders and conservatives in general are so vocally concerned with the citizens of Iran and their right to protest without retaliation and repression from the Islamic Republic.  

Certainly, the right to peaceably assemble. or even the ri… Read full post »

Many conservatives make a big deal about tort reform.  They think that people should be strictly limited in their ability to sue businesses, corporations, doctors, hospitals and the like for their illegal, unethical, and harmful practices.

I think that we can all agree that people suing for mill… Read full post »

Where do conservative Americans get this idea that free-market capitalism is some sort of right that must be protected by the government? That as such government intervention in the economy is wrong or unconstitutional? That socialism is bad or unconstitutional?  

In response to a comment about… Read full post »

Why is it bad to spend $1 - 1.6 trillion over the next 10 years to make our healthcare system more efficient and to ensure that all U.S. citizens have adequate healthcare?

Let's drop all the rhetoric about universal healthcare, nationalized healthcare, a government take over of healthcare, socialism,… Read full post »

Does this story ever end?  

The latest chapter in the Catholic priest molestation story is currently unfolding as a former Catholic school student from Huntington Beach Parish in Huntington Beach, CA, is suing on the claim that he was molested by two priests at the same time.

Very little needs… Read full post »

It is being reported that as a budget saving measure, Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing to do away with hard copies of textbooks in favor of digital textbooks in California classrooms.

There are things I like about this idea.  Digital textbooks do not use paper and do not use polluting fossil… Read full post »

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has effectively upheld the "don't ask, don't tell" policy by turning down a legal challenge to that policy.  

In even more alarming news, after a campaign in which he promised to overturn the policy, Obama's administration put out a statement saying, "don't ask, d… Read full post »

Hilary Clinton and the Obama Administration are considering putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism as a result of that country's recent nuclear bomb test.  Am I the only one who finds this idea problematic?

Since when does a nation possessing and testing their own nu… Read full post »

Scott Roeder is currently being held on charges of aggravated assault and first-degree murder for the shooting Dr. George Tiller.  These charges are an insult and a shame and provide evidence of a general bias in modern America's government, a bias in favor of conservative political movements su… Read full post »

As a part of one of the many plans to butcher the state budget and gut social programs as a means of balancing the state's budget (because the people of California want services, but are unwilling to foot the bill to pay for them), a grave injustice is about to be… Read full post »

All these past  five or six months that I have been calling Dick Cheney and Friends really bad names for their unequivocal and unapologetic defense of the torture of human beings, I had no idea that the problem of terrorism was so large and so close to home.  I was wrong.

In… Read full post »

I never thought I would see the day when Dick Cheney and I agree on something!  In fact, if I hadn't seen for myself, I probably still would not believe it.

The Associated Press is reporting that Dick Cheney, in a speech before The National Press Club today, came out in… Read full post »