A Christian MP3 Player?

Have you seen this MP3 player yet?

I'd like to get a hold of one of these puppies and fill it up with Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Iron Maiden and Morbid Angel tunes... and then leave it in a church... with a note that said something like "To the person who finds this, it is your lucky day! Enjoy the music on this special MP3 player!"

It'd be fun to follow the person who finds it and watch their crazy little head explode as they listened to "Satanic" heavy metal on a cross-shaped MP3 player...

200 Children Have Died Due to Faith

Most pediatric research takes place in a medical or scientific setting such as a clinic or lab. But one postdoctoral fellow in forensic pediatrics is more likely to conduct his work in a cemetery. Seth Asser, M.D., studies the deaths of children due to medical neglect on religious grounds.

In the past 15 years, more than 200 children have died in the United States because their parents relied exclusively on faith to heal them. The children died of treatable ailments such as diabetes or dehydration.

“Typical parents cannot relate to this topic because it is so unbelievable,” said Asser. “But freedom of belief doesn’t allow you to throw away a young life.”

Nicely stated. The linked article later states: There are “many laws that allow parents to deprive their children of various kinds of health care on religious grounds,” said Swan. “The religious exemption laws are a rare example of discrimination de jure: laws that deprive one group of children of protections afforded to others.”

Many cases of religiously motivated medical neglect never become public due to cover-ups, lack of investigations and poor record keeping, Asser said. His most recent findings provide bone-chilling evidence that some individuals and groups look outside of medicine for healing illness and disease.

It is long overdue for laws to be changed that explicitly prohibit parents from not seeking medical attention and treatment for their children. I don't care what make-believe sky daddy they believe in and I don't care if they think that medically treating their offspring will anger said sky daddy.

My screed above was awkwardly worded, as Bob so kindly pointed out in the comments, so I'm re-writing it:

It is long overdue for laws to be changed! Specifically, those laws that permit parents to avoid seeking medical attention and treatment for their children in lieu of prayer. I don't care what make-believe sky daddy they believe in and I don't care if they think that medically treating their offspring will anger said sky daddy.

Diebold Still Causing Problems

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has filed a lawsuit against an electronic-voting machine vendor, saying the vendor should pay damages for dropped votes in the state's March primary election.

E-voting machines from Premier Election Solutions, formerly called Diebold Election Systems, dropped hundreds of votes in 11 Ohio counties during the primary election, as the machine's memory cards uploaded to vote-counting servers, Brunner's office said. Officials in Brunner's office later discovered the dropped votes in other counties after voting officials in Butler County discovered about 150 dropped votes, said Jeff Ortega, Brunner's assistant director of communications.

The votes were recovered and included in the final counts but could have easily been overlooked, Ortega said.

A Premier spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for the company's comments on the lawsuit.

More Christian Child Abuse... and Murder!

Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama, just after he had delivered a sermon to a congregation that included his seven other children, officials said.

He faces charges including murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and incest.

Hopkins was denied bail Thursday when he appeared before Mobile County District Judge George Hardesty. The case is set for arraignment next week, Hardesty's clerk said.

The case began Monday, when the daughter, now 19, went to the Mobile Police Department's Child Advocacy Center and reported that she had been sexually abused by Hopkins since she was 11 years old, according to an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant of the preacher's home in Mobile.

The affidavit related the daughter's story as follows:

Her mother, Arletha Hopkins, 36, caught her father abusing her in a bathroom in November 2004. Afterward, her parents argued, and her mother locked her father out of the house. The father came to the daughter's window and asked her to let him in, and she did so.

The next morning, her father asked her to help him hide her mother's body in the freezer in the laundry room of the home.

The girl said she moved out of the home about two weeks ago and was living with a neighbor. She told police that her mother's body was still in the freezer.

When authorities went to the home, no one was there, as Hopkins and the other children were at the church. A body was found in the freezer, the affidavit says.

You just hafta admire those good Christian values, don't ya?

On Why You Cannot Blame the Democrats for Congress

The current GOP Senate minority has set an all-time record: using the filibuster more often than at any time in history. On more than 80 different occasions, they have blocked progress on ending the war, stymied efforts to rebuild our economy, impeded forward movement on health care, or stood in the way on a whole host of other issues.

Even so, Congress took action this week to protect the health of children, strengthening rules for the Consumer Product Safety Commission concerning toy safety and restricting marketplace practices used by the tobacco industry to target children.

Now I won't say I'm the biggest fan of Congress, but you cannot blame the Democrats for everything that has happened in Congress the past two years. Now, if they get a filibuster-proof majority come November, then you can blame the Democrats for what happens in Congress...

Rove in Contempt

The House Judiciary Committee this morning voted in favor of finding former Bush advisor Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for his refusal of a subpoena to testify before the panel. The committee voted along party lines, 20-14.

The White House and Rove's lawyer directed Rove not to testify, arguing that he is immune from testimony as a close advisor to the president whose testimony is sought in connection with his official duties.

Great news... it is about time Congress started to act like a governing body... now maybe it can try to use its power to enforce some badly needed oversight.

McCain Flips a Flop on Taxes - says He Now May Raise Them

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's signal that he may be open to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, is drawing sharp rebukes from conservatives.

McCain's shift has come in stages, catching some Republicans by surprise. Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. "I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table," he said.

He went a step farther Sunday on ABC's "This Week," in response to a question about payroll tax increases.

"There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table," McCain said. "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table."

That comment drew a strong response this week from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain's comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are "shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances."

Indeed, McCain frequently has promised not to raise taxes.

At a July 7 town-hall meeting in Denver, he said voters faced a stark choice between him and Democrat Barack Obama.

"Sen. Obama will raise your taxes," McCain said. "I won't."

In a March 16 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, McCain said he would cut taxes where possible, and not raise them.

"Do you mean none?" Hannity asked.

"None," McCain replied.

That should make it difficult for McSame to attack Obama on taxes as he has been doing, but we all know that Republicans suffer from reality deficit syndrome these days, so I wouldn't be surprised if he still attacks Obama for maybe doing what he may do himself.

As I've said here before, McCain is a train wreck.

Michael Savage is an Asshole

A group of angry parents, activists and autistic children on Sunday called for the firing of talk show host Michael Savage.

Savage recently said on his nationally-syndicated radio show that autistic children are "brats" who haven't "been told to cut the act out." Savage also said most autistic children need to be told to "stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man."

The radio host has not apologized for his statement, and instead said on his Web site that the "national panic" of autism was created by greedy doctors and drug companies.

Autism is a mental disorder that inhibits a person's ability to communicate. The government estimates about 1 in 150 children have some form of autism.

Maybe I'd be better off calling him a dick since his real last name is weiner?