Denying Iraq veterans the right to fly their own flag upside down on their own property is a good reason to burn the rag.

An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it — an Iraq war veteran — claims the officers trespassed and stole his property

[...]

In mid-June, Congine, 46, began flying the flag upside down — an accepted way to signal distress — outside the restaurant he wants to open in Crivitz, a village of about 1,000 people some 65 miles north of Green Bay. He said his distress is likely bankruptcy because the village board refused to grant him a liquor license after he spent nearly $200,000 to buy and remodel a downtown building for an Italian supper club.

An Italian restaurant without red wine would just be stupid.

"Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." -- Arundhati Roy, Come September, 2002

An American elected official educated by the Bible claiming the earth is 6,000 years old:



I think the Babylonians started using animals as ceramic glue around 6,000 years ago. She wants the uranium in Arizona so she can get the money from it. Money and the Bible are good.

But Life is fairer than I warrant, and my comrades more gracious than I deserve.

I feel fortunate.

A brief post to say my surgery was a success. I'm out of the hospital after seven days. They really did a great job. I still feel like I got stabbed in the gut, but that's to be expected. Okay, back to opiate induced sleep. I feel stronger after each rest. I have a wonderful nurse. Every leaf looks greener and I'm happy to be alive and around.

All solidarity with the protesters in Iran.

Check out this 18 minute TED talk on the past present and future of surgery. It shows the robot they used in my surgery:

"Catherine Mohr: Surgery, Past, Present, and Robotic Future."

Sigmoid colectomy is today. They'll also be fixing some other stuff, a fistula through my bladder, etc. Its all a series of tubes, donchaknow. We're going to beat this thing or die trying.

I'll try to post when I get out the hospital in a week or so. Maybe I'll have access to the interwebs from the hospital.

There has been no bedside conversion thus far. ;-)

I'll save ya some white meat...

One case I cannot seem to get out of my head. It eclipses other, perhaps more important, thoughts.

Its the case of Pfc Steven Dale Green.

In March 2006, after an afternoon of card playing and drinking, Green and three other soldiers went to the home of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then became the third soldier to rape her before shooting her in the face. Her body was set ablaze. 

On May 21, 2009, a Kentucky jury sentenced former 101st Airborne Division Pfc. Steven Dale Green to life in prison.  Many wanted the death penalty.  Stephen has an honorable discharge from the us army.

---

This is Stephen's statement. One that I doubt any us army recruiter will show to their hopefuls:

GREEN: What I am about to say is completely my own. No one told me what to say. No one wrote this for me. Not my lawyers, not the government, not anybody ...

I am truly sorry for what I did in Iraq and I am sorry for the pain my actions, and the actions of my co-defendants, have caused you and your family. I imagine it is a pain that I cannot fully comprehend or appreciate. I helped to destroy a family and end the lives of four of my fellow human beings, and I wish that I could take it back, but I cannot. And, as inadequate as this apology is, it is all I can give you ...

Before I was in the Army, I never thought I would kill anyone, and even after I was in the Army, but before I went to Iraq, I never thought I would intentionally kill a civilian. When I was in Iraq, something happened to me that I can only explain by saying that I lost my mind. At some point while I was in Iraq, I stopped seeing Iraqi's as good and bad, as men, women, and children. I started seeing them all as one, and evil, and less than human. When that happened, any natural, learned, or religious morality, that normally would have stopped this, was gone.

But I see now that I was wrong ...

Most of all I am sorry for the deceased, but aside from them, I am the most sorry for the boys whose family are gone. I know what we did left a hole in their lives, and scars on their minds, and that there is no making up for that. I only hope for them that they can somehow, and I don't know how, move forward, and have a good future despite the nightmare in their past that I helped create. They have my apologies and my prayers, as meaningless as they must seem ...

... But in the end, whether in one year or fifty, I will die, and when I die I will be in God's hands. In the Kingdom of God where there will be justice, and whatever I deserve, I will get. On the day of judgment, God will repay everyone according to his works, and affliction and distress will come upon every human being who does evil. I know that I have done evil, and I fear that the wrath of the Lord will come upon me on that day. But, I hope that you and your family at least can find some comfort in God's justice.

I see now that war is intrinsically evil, because killing is intrinsically evil. And, I am sorry I ever had anything to do with either.

And, I cannot say this enough times, whether or not you can ever forgive me, and I don't see how you could, I am and will always be sorry for what I did.

I think of this everytime I hear the television tell me we liberated Iraq.

---

This is the young girl he raped and murdered, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi.

David Rovics leaked a rough cut of a song he's writing about the assassination of Dr. Tiller:

Download: "In The Name of God" MP3



( Lyrics )

An Operation Rescue terrorist murdered a doctor this weekend. We've had 36 years of terrorism against a womans right to choose and this has led us to another doctor laying dead. Moderate Christians have reason to fear, as this slaying was done at a church likely as a message to moderates that they're also considered the enemy. We are expected to die quietly, but we shall not.

jblaque offers the excellent suggestion that now is the time to donate some money to pro-choice groups such as NARAL or Medical Students for Choice.

Operation Rescue's website has been off the web since the incident. They hosted a web page calling the slain doctor a murderer and stating he must be stopped. Hopefully the FBI shut it down due to it being evidence in a domestic terrorism incident.

If this had been a black muslim shooting a doctor, oh man. These zealots get off easy cause they're white and worship the popular flavor of deity.

Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, has issued a statement:

"George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder. Those men and women who slaughter the unborn are murderers according to the Law of God. We must continue to expose them in our communities and peacefully protest them at their offices and homes, and yes, even their churches."

Mr. Terry is available for comment at 904-687-9804.

"‘Out of the Closet’ — Black Atheists"

( Article behind cut, clicky clicky )

California has embarrassed itself again, continuing to prove itself to be a backward, repressive, and regressive state. All that money we just denied our ailing economy....what bigoted short sighted stupidity. I'm ashamed to call California my home state. Homophobnia is more like it.

Obama wants to abort rule of law and detain people without trial indefinitely. I'm impressed with Rachel's reporting.

(Download WMA audio file) - 18:06

Dan Savage reads his humorous, touching, and thoughtful essay on losing his mother and the Catholic Church, from This American Life #379 - "Return to the scene of the Crime"

I get a sigmoid colectomy surgery sometime in the next few weeks. (and if I act now, they will throw in a set steak knives.)

I had another diverticular perforation burst, this time into my bladder and it created a fistula connecting my colon and urethra. This is my 2nd diverticulitis incident, so there isn't another option according to the judge.

I just met two of the surgeons today. There are three, one general, one urology specialist, one colon specialist. (I want House!!!) The latest fistula is near this nerve bundle used by my penis. So, there is some concern about that, ahem! They don't want to severe those nerves, else, uh...no more happy happy joy joy feelings in the `ole baby factory. That's the only tricky twist on what is an otherwise a major, but fairly common surgery.

I'm pushing for the laproscopic surgery method, but the traditional method of 15" inch incision may be needed due to the bladder fistula complication. The cool part of it in that case, is the two nipple-belly button-scar smile that I'll be sporting. They are unsure of a colostomy bag.

I feel horrible about the timing. Cheryl has put infinite amount of time, money, stress, sweat, working to pull our wedding together and this simply isn't helping. She didn't mention it herself, but its pissing me off. Not happy about that, but there is little I can do. I owe her big time. She's been very supportive and that's a real blessing.

I'm going to concentrate on getting better as fast as possible or die trying! (Humor)

The faithful are more likely to support torture:



So, being church goers, are they more accustomed to torture? Is it that they worship a torture icon (cross)? Was the poll flawed? Is it because they believe in hell? Is it because they are more likely to follow the leader without question? What's up with this data?

Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu, and even sequestering C02.



http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

A reasonable approach to engaging with such an old life form is to form an alliance with the mushroom for our mutual benefit and survival.

Jesus and the Laughing Deity


Spoken Video:



Song Version: ( download MP3 )

( Lyrics )

A funny and informative lecture on the latest cognitive neuroscience on religious (and all) belief.



Andy Thomson gives his talk titled 'Why We Believe in Gods' at the American Atheist 2009 convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

See also, Richard Dawkins speech.