The first rule of politics is don’t bring things up that you can be called upon yourself. Keith Olbermann brings this lesson home as only he can. It’s an 11 minute video and well worth the time to view.

Bill Maher really outdoes himself in Religulous, where he roams around the world asking the experts questions about religion. He focuses mostly on religions of the book (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) but hits some of the nuttier off-shoots as well including Mormonism, a Latin fellow named Jesus who claims to be the second coming, and of course, Scientology. Watch out for those Thetans!

While Maher’s viewpoint is clear throughout the work, he manages to ride the line of not being outright offensive to those he interacts with while communicating the point. There is so much content in the work it’s hard to pick a favorite moment, but the Scientology sequence has to be up there. Then again, the interview with the nutty Jew who wants to get rid of Israel is good too, as is the sequence in the roadside chapel for truckers. The interchange with the ex-gay preacher, the Mormons, and the Muslims are enlightening as they are frightening. As one would expect with Maher, there were a number of highly humorous moments. But overall, the piece is serious and without the humor would likely be too depressing to have any appeal at all.

The trip to the Creation Museum is just sad. I commented about this some time ago.

If, as Maher claims, 16% of Americans are non-religious, it is time for a movement to come together, get organized, and start converting the flock to rationalist positions from their parent-facilitated brainwashing of religion. It’s our only hope for long-term survival of the species. I’m beginning to get downright intolerant of the faithful and I certainly resent greatly their intrusion into my life with their translation of their specific mythology.

Arise ye thinking people and take back our country from the delusional fringe!

My daughter wanted to be sure that we shared this with the world, it’s kind of bizarre and cool.

I can’t help but notice, the one question that really needed to be asked in the VEEP debate wasn’t touched: “What makes you qualified and ready to be President?” There was a question that was what would you do if you had to act as President with respect to carrying on their predecessor’s policy, but that’s not the same.

Now, with the Political Action Committees taking over, we’re going to see many more advertisements like the one above. Swiftboat Veterans will look quaint by the time this is over. The next five weeks are going to drag along…

A moving piece of propaganda to be sure, I’m not of the opinion that we’ll ever live in a time without conflict. But even so, I expect the leader of our nation to be able to show restraint, think creatively, and engage in all other options before the use of force. There may be no choice, but my expectation is is that force is the last resort, not the first port of call.

Now, will John McCain nuke Iran? I don’t know. I’d like to think that he’s got a better head on his shoulders than that. But there is an alternative and I’m pretty sure that the alternative will not nuke Iran. Vote. Vote early, vote often. Get your family and friends and neighbors and colleagues to vote. This really matters. We may be able to recover from the last 8 years of mismanagement and deceit, but it’s unclear if we can recover from any further abuse of power, trust, and public funds.

This really matters. THIS. REALLY. MATTERS. VOTE!

HT: Ray