Must Be Nice...

It must be nice to live in a country where the government has the balls to stand up to Christidiots.

It seems that there are at least two of them out there.


Country One--Brazil:

Not only does Brazil host Carnival, which could easily be considered the hedonist's party of all parties, but they also consider the American tradition of conning money out of people in the name of God to be fraud, larceny, and money laundering.

Estevam Hernandes Filho (a.k.a. Apostle Estevam), and Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes (a.k.a. Bishop Sonia), founders of the Evangelical Reborn in Christ Church in Brazil were arrested in Miami on January, 8 for trying to smuggle undeclared money into the United States--they claimed to have $10,000 on them when they arrived, but in fact had over $56,000; $9,000 of which was hidden in Sonia'a Bible (which marks the first time I know of that this particular book was worth the paper it's printed on.)

What makes Brazil stand out in this case is that they want the apostle and bishop extradited from the US to them, on charges of, among other things, fraud, tax evasion, larceny, and money laundering. It seems that church leaders in Brazil can't get away with making millions of dollars in the name of God and then using that money to buy record labels, broadcast companies, and mansions in Florida.

If the Apostle and Bishop had been a little smarter, and done these things here in the United States they wouldn't be having these problems. Hell they could even be neighbors or business partners with other Evangelicals like Pat Robertson who evades taxes, owns broadcast companiesowns broadcast companies, launders money, makes energy shakes, calls for the assassination of foreign leaders, and engages in gold and diamond mining adventures with African Dictators. But, then again having a mansion in Florida could be dangerous, since Robertson has called for there to be earthquakes there.

Country Two--Britain:

Yes folks, Georgie's only substantial ally in his annexation of Iraq, the British Government, actually seems to have grown a spine, and is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6309495.stmstanding up to the Catholic Church over a proposed law that would bar discrimination against gay couples in the adoption process.

The Catholics, of course, want to discriminate as they see fit, and have threatened to close Catholic orphanages before they would give one of their orphans to a loving and caring gay couple. An unconfirmed (and possibly fictitious) source has hinted to me that the loss of unguarded young boys would put quite a damper on the priesthood's morale, and place nuns in a bad position.

As anyone who pays attention here in the US knows, damned near any Christian church can get away with discrimination against anyone for any reason. Hell, they can even blame them (gays) for everything from 9/11 to hurricane Katrina. It must be nice to live with such a deluded mind, or better yet to live in a country that stands up to Christian, Islamic, Jewish, etc. bullshit.

State of the Union Day

Well folks, tonight President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address to Congress. This annual event is one of the few times that the U.S. president is allowed to enter the congressional chambers, and is traditionally a time when he (possibly "she" in the near future) outlines the administration's accomplishments over the previous year, as well as the agenda for the coming year in upbeat and optimistic terms.

The premise for this speech is Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution which says:

"[The President] shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

The first such address was delivered by George Washington on January 8, 1790 in New York City. Thomas Jefferson thought the idea of the address being given in person was too monarchical, so he began the practice of delivering a letter to Congress for them to read, which lasted until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson delivered his address in person. Since then, with few exceptions (including Carter's written address in 1981), the address has been delivered in person in the form of a speech.

The term "State of the Union Address" came to popular use after Franklin Roosevelt's 1935 address. Before then is was called "the President's Annual Message to Congress."







The White House (as is customary) will not give details about the speech tonight other than to say that the President is preparing for the speech (shown here with study materials.)











But, it is generally agreed that he will come off looking something like the image at left, and won't mention that his approval rating has hit an all-time low, or that 2/3 of the American public oppose his new Iraqimization policy.

He also will most likely not mention the 27 American troops killed in Iraq over the weekend. Or the bombs that killed at least 88 Iraqis as the first part of "the surge" arrived in Iraq.

Though not sure of any of the details of Georgie's speech, I am relatively sure that it will embody the message that he has been giving Americans and the rest of the World for some time now. A message which is beautifully illustrated by the picture below.