How Amendments Work

So I keep hearing/seeing this cRaZy idea that the President or the Supreme Court will erase or repeal the 2nd Amendment (or insert your pet amendment here) so just to dispel this incorrect notion. here's what it takes to pass or repeal a Constitutional Amendment":

Constitutional Amendments can't be "erased" ... they MUST be repealed and that can only happen by Constitutional Amendment ... Amendments can only be started in US Congress or in state legislatures (The States) both requiring a 2/3 majority JUST to get the ball rolling ... then once that hurdle is cleared there's the Ratifying process which again goes to US Congress (House AND Senate) AND To State Legislatures requiring 3/4 vote to ratify by each.

Nowhere in the process does the president or any court have any part in the process

Look folks ... memes can be funny and cute ... and some even informational ... but you're viewing it on the Interwebz - the most revolutionary vehicle to access accurate information in the history of the universe (far surpassing the Dewey Decimal System) ... it takes all of about 90 seconds to search a claim in any meme ... 80% of the time you can get a satisfactory answer - confirming or denying the meme - from the search results summaries alone ... I'm not asking people to retake a civics class ... before sharing untrue memes ... just do a quick search to validate it :) You'll thank me and all your friends will be impressed 

The (potential) Dictator has no clothes ... and he doesn't care

There is no line or rule of decency, protocol, compassion, morals or even law that Trump is not willing to cross and obliterate while doing so. Wholesale change can be made without humiliating everything we hold dear in this country ... I can think of a few such humans in history who ignored the rule of law and the constraints of the country charter/constitution. If Trump had one singe viable and fleshed out policy worth talking about that made sense to Americans, we shouldn't be able to shut him up about it ... but he doesn't talk about ANY policy in ANY detail - only in slogan ... that's NOT a policy ... take the "Wall" for example ... ask the French how that whole "wall" thing worked out ... (Hint: google "Maginot Line")

Instead, from Trump we get the most humiliating, embarrassing sleaze campaign in the history of campaigns - so much so that Hollywood would reject this campaign if it was written as a script

All the scum of the Trump campaign will stick to each and every American for years to come if he were to win ... as it is we're now all tainted by it

And to the Conservative Republicans - start counting the costs - the price tag - of every slogan Trump champions ... you will find that the cost will be higher than anything Bill/Hillary/Obama/Sanders/Carter COMBINED have ever even WISHED for, let alone actually brought before congress for consideration ... He would be the most reckless highest spending liberal spender in history ... who pays for that after he cuts taxes in ways even Reagan and GW Bush would be afraid to even suggest?

All this happens before we even mention how he'll direct government enforcement apparatus's to persecute his political enemies and critics ... the man views the Presidency on par of being a feudal king.

If there was ever a god, we need his help more than ever to protect our great country from this scourge

The "System is Rigged" (Eyeroll)

... I keep hearing/seeing/reading this ... over and over. Of course it's never presented along with evidence to PROVE the "system is rigged".

I think it intellectually lazy to "blame" the failure of their weak ideas to gain popularity/backing/support on a "rigged system" ... no, it's the fact that:

A. Their idea sucks
B. Their argument/presentation is weak, and sucks
C. They're unaware/ignorant to the fact that their idea has been done before - and failed
D. They can't be objectively self critical, much less accept external criticism
E. They're delusional to the point of rejecting the evidence that counters/contradicts their idea


In short - the "system is rigged" response is a delusional fantasy that thinly veils a temper tantrum that actually means "If I don't get my way, I'm taking my toys and going home"

... and then they invoke the ultimate unfalsifiable idea by claiming god/bible "supports" their position/idea.


Ugh! How can anyone have a rational discussion with that?

Orlando

So out comes the avalanche of "prayers" for the dead and wounded at the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.

I suppose it's lost on all those devout and prayerful folk that they are "praying" to the same god that was used for justification for this shooting to begin with. Any way you slice, dice or spin this "event" ... religion and it's positions against homosexuality will be at the root of the reasoning behind the motive for this "event". ALL the Abrahamic religions/Gods require tacit acceptation and approval of homophobia and summary execution of those who engage in homosexual acts.

When we're in non-shooting mode, Christians will consistently trot out Leviticus 20:13

KJV: If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death ; their blood shall be upon them.

Whether they agree with this verse or not - they hold the bible as god's perfect word and command giving cover and approval to those that not only agree with this verse, but to those who would act upon it.

Allah, the Islamic god, and God/Yahweh, the Judeo-Christian God are one and the same god ... we all have heard the horror stories how ISIS throws homosexuals head first off tall buildings or immolates them in small steel cages with gasoline.

And still, all the folks who claim to be horrified by this shooting are praying to THIS god ... I can only imagine god's response:

"They had it coming"

Disgusting! Please reject this myth once and for all so we can all love and embrace ALL of humanity.

Oh, and lest I forget - the gunman was born in New Freaking York! Raised in the US of A ... so he's OUR asshole ... own it.

Gods and Unicorns

So I'm reading a fellow atheist blogger's recent post: Bruce Gerencser's: "Questions from an Evangelical Pastor" ... and deep in this post, he points out that there is a marked difference between the Christian God (any of the 33,000 denominations) and the potential for a deist god - one that most Xian apologists reduce their arguments to defend DESPITE having no awareness that they've effectively jettisoned virtually EVERY word of their beloved bible to make their case. You can't have it both ways ... but something occurred to me and it's a spin on a familiar argument/comparison.

The evidence that points to a Christian God is identical to the evidence that fairy tales  point to Unicorns. Both of these are unquestionably written about in books throughout history. So there's that. But many Christian apologists will point wildly around them and say:

"All of this - everything, beauty, complexity the very fabric of our existence point to the Christian God"

and it struck me ...

that's like saying - "Every existing horse, pony, mule, burro, donkey, zebra and all of their extinct ancestors/fossils point to Unicorns being REAL"

And yet, just like with the Xian God - no evidence that can be ONLY be explained by a hypothesis that requires a god has EVER been found to support the hypothesis ... just like in the whole lineage of the Equidae family, no evidence for a Unicorn-like animal ... or for that matter a "Pegasus"-like animal ever been found (I figured I'd add a Pegasus since Muhammed supposedly flew to heaven on a winged horse).

Winged and Horned Horses are both in books in great detail all throughout history ... yet they are widely accepted as a fiction and the product of the mind of humans ... as it is with gods. There simply is no evidence - real, concrete, physical evidence - direct or indirect that can ONLY be answered by God/Unicorn/Pegasus.

Perhaps Bruce Gerencser is closer to the truth that he thinks - perhaps "Maybe, just maybe, earth is some sort of lab experiment for an unknown advanced alien race. "

And although there is some preliminary evidence to suggest that life exists elsewhere in the cosmos - there has yet to be any clear evidence to suggest that this extraterrestrial life is (by our definition) intelligent, much less space faring capable of terraforming simply for the purpose of conducting and experiment. ... but then these Aliens have been described in great detail in books too ... perhaps we can start a new religion based on them? ... oh ... wait ... isn't that Scientology/Xenu?