Bible-thumping MAGA

Oh, the humanity!

Message to Iran

In today's NY Times:

To the Editor:

Re “Israel Strikes Iran, but Scope of Attack Appears Limited”:

If Israel has to send drones into Iran again, it should drop leaflets saying, in Persian, English and Hebrew:

“Israel stands with the people of Iran! Overthrow your authoritarian government, stop funding Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Houthi terrorism, and rejoin the community of nations as our partners in peace.”

Stephen A. Silver

San Francisco

After pointless Repug delay, aid for Ukraine

Kevin Drum:

The Ukraine vote was 311-112, and that was the closest of the four. All of this was massively popular and bipartisan, but it still took months just to get a vote.

And yet—the bills did eventually pass. It's appalling that it took so long thanks to a small band of malcontents, but they did pass. 

Somehow, in our usual chaotic, backhanded, slapdash way, the United States once again has managed to do something big. This keeps happening despite everything. 

We keep saying that the country is ungovernable these days, but in the end, usually after thrashing around for an embarrassingly long time, we govern.

So what's the point? As best as I can tell, the end result is this: (a) we get as much done as we ever have, but (b) a lot more people get pissed off about it. 

I don't even know if this is a conscious strategy, but it's what the Republican Party has been all about ever since Newt Gingrich took over....

Daniel Dennett

From Daniel Dennett's obituary in today's NY Times:

An outspoken atheist, he at times seemed to denigrate religion. “There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion,” he said in a 2013 interview with The New York Times.

According to Mr. Dennett, the human mind is no more than a brain operating as a series of algorithmic functions, akin to a computer. To believe otherwise is “profoundly naïve and anti-scientific,” he told The Times...

Rob's comment:

"Seemed"? That's pseudo-objectivity, since Dennett made it clear he was an atheist. Maybe you can be an atheist without "denigrating religion," but how much intellectual respect should religion get from atheists? None, actually.