Our country’s rapidly heading in the wrong direction:

With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act – H.R. 2679 – provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.

If you still think our country is on the right track, you’re insane.  We are being guided toward despotism via theocratic rule by the mentally handicapped.  This marks the second bill in one week that further degrades our Constitution, places additional limits on the courts, intentionally reduces our liberties and rights, and lobs our society further toward the USA’s antithesis.

I considered not mentioning the Representative Mark Foley thing (the Florida Congressman who got caught with his hand in the pedophile cookie jar) because it’s unfortunate and disturbing, but he immediately did the right thing by resigning.  His hypocrisy was apparent in that he was head of the congressional caucus on missing and exploited children and a staunch Republican who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act to prohibit gays from marrying (among other examples), yet I wasn’t going to play the this-proves-all-Republicans-are-bad card like so many liberals because, well, it doesn’t prove any such thing.  But now we find out it might prove that after all.  It seems GOP leadership knew about his little secret as far back as autumn of 2005 yet did nothing other than tell him he should be careful.  In fact, Speaker Dennis Hastert denied knowing anything until the news broke last week but was forced to admit he’d known since late 2005 when other Republicans spoke up about what was discovered back then.  “Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.”  This is fast becoming a major ordeal for Republicans with all the values nonsense they’ve been spouting and now we learn they’ve been hiding and protecting a pedophile in their midst.  How disgusting.  The whole lot of them should step down for that alone—enabling a child predator, keeping it a secret, and even leaving him in charge of child welfare legislation and activities.

And while we’re talking about this issue, let me make this point clear: Anyone attempting to compare this to Bill Clinton’s Oval Office activities is being naïve or intentionally deceitful or both.  There’s a big difference when it involves two consenting adults as opposed to when it involves an adult and multiple children.  There is absolutely no comparison between the two incidents.

Finally on this topic, I suspect Foley’s actions coupled with those of the Republican leadership who shielded him with full knowledge of his predatory activities will lead the far right—the neoconservative base rabid with religious underpinnings, radical fundamentalism, and a desire to see Christian theocratic rule in America—to utilize this event to start a purge of all gays and gay-supporting individuals and members in the GOP ranks.  I fear this is just the kind of ammunition that, even if it came from one of their own, will be used to excite anti-gay forces seething at what they see as a betrayal of their “values.”  The repercussions of this have only just started to be revealed and quantified.

So Neil Armstrong said it correctly.  For a very long time, many believed he misspoke his famous line when he set foot on the moon.  Essentially, it was believed he dropped an ‘a’ from the sentence.  Computer software has now confirmed the presence of that sneaky little vowel.  He did in fact say: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”  You see, without the ‘a’ before man, the sentence is basically redundant: one small step for man[kind], one giant leap for mankind.  Time to update all those history books.

Carnival of the Godless #50 comes to us all the way from Sweden.  “We’ve got two main sections this time: one on general godless issues and one on creationism, that is, the belief that ancient creation myths are historical truth. Hold on tight to your prayer rugs and joss sticks, folks — here we go.”

Another update on Paula the cat.  She’s eating now.  She’s getting around with some effort.  There are two videos and a photo in that post.  You can see her age in how she moves and looks.  I’m glad to see she’s being taken care of with such mercy and affection so long as she wants to go on living and isn’t unduly suffering.