The enemy within (video: Pat Condell at YouTube)

Atheist, writer, and comedian Pat Condell condemns the West’s tolerance for religious fascism. Find all of Pat Condell’s videos at his YouTube channel. Get the bound transcripts in Pat Condell – Godless and Free, at the link.

“When will the GOP stop talking about “American exceptionalism” and stop keeping us from regaining it?”

— David Badash, American writer and editor of The New Civil Rights
Movement, from Now 250 Million People – Except You -
Can Marry Their Same-Sex Partner

— Aaron Belkin, Director of the University of California’s Palm Center,
commenting in a Time article called Why Is the Military
Polling the Troops About Gays?

What we want
San Diego CityBeat
From Bud Black and Tony Young to cruise ships and nudists—our desires for Act II of 2010 … Here’s a list of things we’d like to see happen in the second half of 2010 … 3. We want the Padres to continue to amaze the baseball world and reach the playoffs, and we want Bud Black to be named manager of the year for turning what experts thought was a last place, glorified-triple-A squad into one of the best teams in the Majors.

Also. There’s an extra-special place in my heart of hearts for Numero 11:

We want somebody to discover the image of the Virgin Mary on a rock outside Mission San Diego de Alcala so that millions of believers from around the world will flock to our city, stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and revitalize our economy.

Come. Spend money. Go away. We have enough religious fanatics already.

Anyway, read CityBeat because, in my completely unbiased opinion, it beats the pants off The Reader.

This July Fourth, declare your independence from war
(video: Rethink Afghanistan and Brave New Foundation)

Rethink Afghanistan:

July 4 is a time when Americans celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But when we’re spending hundreds of billions on the Afghanistan War, and when we’re cutting education and unemployment insurance benefits in a dismal economy, it’s clear that the war is killing the American dream.

Let’s get our priorities straight so we can declare independence from bloody, costly wars.

— Barack Obama, 44th and current President of the United States of America, speaking at an LGBT Pride Month reception at the White House
on 22 June 2010

Jon Stewart: “Barack Obama thinks he can be trusted with the power, but he’s being stalked by a strange and twisted creature who wants to take the precious away.”
(video: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)

Sadly, the guy in that sequence of video clips was candidate Obama and not the dude we now call President Obama. It’s slightly astonishing that, these days in the US of A, a comedian is doing the mainstream media’s job for them.

Memo to those arrogant dicks out there who consider themselves to be real journalists: That whole shoe leather thing you all used to laud over the news bloggers and us lowly citizen commenters on and observers of current events is building up on your increasingly ample assets.

(tip: Ed Brayton, Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Legalize Weed and Law-Making Lesbians: Autotune the News #12 Key Of Awesome – The Gregory Brothers (video: ParodyGuyful at YouTube)

(tip: Joe Jervis, Joe.My.God.)

Anti-gay hatred evident in DADT repeal opposition
(video: Countdown with Keith Olbermann)

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and activist and author Dan Savage dissect the disgusting load of dung the Christian reich has pulled out of its collective ass and thrown at gay Americans in their futile attempt to defeat the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

Rep Alan Grayson introduces the War Is Making You Poor Act (video: RepAlanGrayson at YouTube)

Seriously. It’s time to end both wars and quit while we’re behind.

Here’s Grayson’s plan:

Rep. Grayson introduces a bill to cut separate funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and uses the money to eliminate federal income taxes on every American’s first $35,000 of income. Cosponsors of this bill include Ron Paul, Walter Jones, John Conyers, Lynn Woolsey, and Dennis Kucinich.

More from Rep Alan Grayson, writing at The Huffington Post:

Next year’s budget allocates $159,000,000,000 to perpetuate the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s enough money to eliminate federal income taxes for the first $35,000 of every American’s income. Beyond that, leaves over $15 billion to cut the deficit.

And that’s what this bill does. It eliminates separate funding for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminates federal income taxes for everyone’s first $35,000 of income ($70,000 for couples). Plus it pays down the national debt.

There’s more at the link.