Rob Boston on Olbermann
17 January 2009 by StardustI have referenced Americans United’s Rob Boston on many occasions in my posts, and here we get to see who he is and what he has to say about Rick Warren, Obama and the promised “change” in discussion with Keith Olbermann:
Boston points out that Warren has not only voiced his opposition to gays, but also non-believers saying that they are not fit to hold public office.
Boston’s description of Warren is right-on: “Just another Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt.”
It is indeed a real shame that Warren’s voice is one of the first ones the nation will hear at the inauguration. Maybe Obama has planned it so fundies will tune in and listen to his own message, but my experience with fundies tells me they will tune in, listen to Warren, say “Amen” and shut off the television when it’s the “evil baby-killer librul’s” turn to talk.
17 January 2009, on 2:20 pm
Thanks for posting that, Stardust. I remember seeing that; but had already kind of forgotten about it…what with all the continuous “blur” of info shtick happening on a daily basis.
Indeed…thank…ummm…goodness?…rational sanity?…for Keith Olbermann’s “Count Down” and, for the most part, Rachel Maddow’s show for SOME semblance of attention to the concerns of the more “freethinking” audience. Keith, in particular, seems to ‘lean’ more consistently than anyone else in the U.S. broadcast media towards our atheist oriented viewpoints. Other than those two…at least on American TV…there’s not much sign of any real spine when it comes to critical thinking. And that includes almost everything on CNN. Some level of delusional thinking seems to be the habitually accepted “norm”. That aggravating “thank Gawd”, “Gawd forbid”, “Our thoughts and prayers” bullshit abounds…with ALL of them!
Rob Boston’s comment REALLY hits the nail squarely on the head regarding Warren.
This, actually, may be the time for all of us to start actively commending Keith on his Site page; thanking and encouraging him to give more frequent voice to our…and other non-religious viewers’ concerns.
We need…I think y’all will agree…a WHOLE lot more Scientific oriented, Rational, Critical thinking, these days, to deal with the humongous amount of insanity going on in “dis Voild”!
Now, if we could only get that message to register with our soon to be President, Barack Obama.
I voted for him…I’m still somewhat hopeful…BUT…my habitual, innate skepticism is restlessly lurking (and breathing & snarking frantically) in the…
“Windmills of my mind”?]
(What!…cue Don Quixote?…or maybe Sancho Panza?…oh wait…
T. Boone Pickens…that’s it! Did I just channel Hoffy, asking…”Who the fuck is T. Boone Pickens?”)
17 January 2009, on 5:02 pm
I just read an article by Steven Guess at The Guardian about Rick Warren at the inauguration http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/dec/23/barack-obama-religion-rick-warren
No matter how hard Democrats try, they cannot marginalise Warren. He is no Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. He does not blame Katrina on homosexuality or 9/11 on abortion. His beliefs are conservative, to be sure, but they are fundamentally mainstream evangelical beliefs. His books and sermons reach millions, making it political suicide to portray to his followers that he deserves to be cast out from mainstream society. Such a tactic would only build his movement.
(snip)
Warren may be speaking from a podium, but it will be Obama’s podium and platform, built with a campaign that emphasised unity and progress, not traditional family values as code words for anti-gay and anti-choice. When history unfolds, it will not be surprising if it is the Republicans who have more to lose with Warren’s implicit endorsement of Obama’s religious bona fides than anyone on the left.
Steven Guess makes a fairly good argument for Obama’s choice in this article. However, I look at the planet falling apart and how much further people need to progress in their thinking and I just don’t think we have that much time left to allow for this bridge-building, one-painful-step-at-a-time method of getting things done.
Now I’m depressed.
17 January 2009, on 8:19 pm
I’m with you there Lynda, it is kinda depressing, it’s lke all the ecumenical bullshit with old men sitting around ernestly having a talk fest whilst in the real world the people their supposedly uniting are out there killing each other, hand shaking and slaps on the back, it’s all a facade, the moment someone doesn’t agree with them it’s frickin Jihad time, no matter what anyone says pRick War/ren is a right wing fascist Xian, all his placating and being decent is window dressing, it’s just a disguise for a WOLF that lurks underneath, I’m still going with my theory that it’s about Obama’s team trying to keep him at least a little safer from the ultra right by allowing that travesy of decency War/ren to be given some air time……..
17 January 2009, on 8:47 pm
“Maybe Obama has planned it so fundies will tune in and listen to his own message, but my experience with fundies tells me they will tune in, listen to Warren, say “Amen” and shut off the television when it’s the “evil baby-killer librul’s” turn to talk.”
This very calculated move, I calculate, will largely fail. I agree with you Star.
I know everyone says they are sick of division (actually I am) but I don’t know that compromise is really the way to bring about unity–change is. The right change, not Obama’s apparently fatuous promise of “change.” Be an asshole, I say. Bush wasn’t afraid to be divisive. And he did get things done–even if it was for the much worse. While arguably it is easier to get a lot done when you are fucking everything up, I say to hell with the naysayers. Be unpopular and really get shit done. Fix up this mess. Do your research, then act on it.
Compromise is not always the right way to go, particularly when those you are compromising with have shown themselves to be bat-shit crazy. The cardiac surgeon doesn’t ask the housekeeper his opinion regarding a cardiac bypass graft surgery. Meeting crazy and stupid half-way is not good for domestic and foriegn policy. Not everything has to be fair and balanced.
Truth, it would appear, has a liberal bias these days.
Oh yeah, and fuck pRick War/ren
17 January 2009, on 10:00 pm
This is great, here on Sunday morning television BEFORE songs of praise on the ABC we have had The root of all Evil, Richards Doco, bloody excellent, now that’s as good as a bus poster easily, someone at the ABC is on the case, viva viva !!!!!!!!
18 January 2009, on 12:01 am
That fucker Rick Warren is also giving a speech at the Martin Luther King Jr Annual Commemorative Service in Atlanta on Monday. Considering Dr King and his wife Coretta were supporters of civil rights for gays and lesbians the selection of Rick Warren as a speaker for the event seems very odd. If you’re in the Atlanta area and want to join in the organized protest planned for Monday at these services, check out this site http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Atlanta?t=anon
18 January 2009, on 12:05 am
Rumor has it that Barack Obama will personally take part in every abortion performed in America once he assumes the presidency.
18 January 2009, on 12:35 am
Well fuck a duck { but don’t eat it as commanded by Khomeini LOL } pRick is everyones favourite bitch, Lynda if your there can you yell out really LOUD !!!!!! HOFFY THINKS YOUR LIAR and an ENEMY of DECENCY, you can throw in that he’s a piece of shit if you want, tell him I told you to say that too LOL….In case anyones interested we have started a campaign writing to the London transport authority and lodging complaints against the Xian bus sign that says A “fool looks into his heart and sees no God” they have an Email complaints section, everyone here is doing that, as potential tourists we shouldn’t be told we are fools, as well we are doing one to the British government through their Consumers Email complaint site, and yeah Tommykey we were told that here as well, apparently he will also be attending every gay pride rally as well, and pouring huge amounts of funding into transgender surgical units in all the major hospitals……..
18 January 2009, on 12:38 am
Oh yeah and all churche’s will be required to pay tax and submit to independent auditors……………
18 January 2009, on 11:05 am
where does it say anywhere that separation of church and state gives churches the right not to pay taxes? They have property, are part of this nation and should as a public service pay taxes on the buildings that occupy it.
When one considers the activities that happen in churches, not all activities are for religious ends.
Some activities the church gets paid for and therefore is a moneymaking institution.
Another reason to pay taxes.
If anything goes on in the church besides a religious service, it is being used not as a church.
18 January 2009, on 1:47 pm
^ And think of just how PRIME all the Church and other religion’s properties are; some of the all-time best conceivable locations in every friggin’ town of this nation.
The lost amount of property taxes has to be mind-bogglingly staggering!
18 January 2009, on 4:06 pm
Hoffy, I thought I’d look up the definition of “fool” and found this rather interesting definition:
6. One who subverts convention or orthodoxy or varies from social conformity in order to reveal spiritual or moral truth: a holy fool. ( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fool )
Kinda changes the meaning of that bus slogan a wee bit, doesn’t it? I don’t mind being called a fool with this rather flattering definition.
18 January 2009, on 7:50 pm
Hey Lynda that’s a pretty cool definition, I’m sure that the Xian bus signs don’t have that definition in mind, like most of the babble in the buybull it’s another slanderous lie, but hey I’ll take the holy fool tag,lol
19 January 2009, on 2:39 pm
^ And then there’s “THE FOOL” card in the Tarot deck (the 1st card in the Major Arcanna. Actually the “0″ card…representing the start of the “Journey”.)…
which, in my ‘New Age’ days, I always considered it representing each of us on our precarious, totally ignorant, path of our lives. Always, potentially, at the edge of a precipice. The dog, at our heels (see Wikipedia Fool card link below), representing the continual “yapping, biting, & snapping threat” of all things environmental…and, for that matter…genetic.
Of course, I was very much into the concept of Reincarnation (not the Hindu, animal,etc. “Transmigration”); which meant that when we’re born into this so-called “Experiential school of learning” incarnation…NOT our first, by the way…we’re again, born totally ignorant, and subject to the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. (Shake-who?)
Anyway…for much more on that shtick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)
I’m guessing that our dear GifSter friend, Eve, is probably familiar with some of that concept…NO?
19 January 2009, on 2:47 pm
Sorry…that’s not the right link for the Fool image…Here’s (hopefully) the actual link I was intending:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Zero)
19 January 2009, on 2:52 pm
WTF!…It keeps coming up wrong…
Anyway click on “The Fool (tarot card)”; an imbedded link on that page.
SHEESH!
It’s too bad we can’t easily copy/paste images into our comments. I need some study on that topic?