Another odd thing is who asked for a chaplain in Germany? That’s not normal procedure. The family and casualty officer take care of those things after the individual is returned to them. In route you would have an honor guard at any stops, but no chaplain. That sounds like a “photo op,” not a procedure.
]]>Maybe the Tillman family members are UUs. Maybe not. UUs are not all cut from the same cloth, and most of them do not proselytize, so it’s hard to tell. “Atheist” is a strange term, a bit like “unleaded” gasoline and “wireless” internet connections, defined by what it isn’t rather than what it is. UUs would welcome an atheist into a congregation because literally all explorations of one’s own spiritual dimensions are encouraged; that may be why some fundamentalist Christians mistakenly lump UUs, atheists, Pagans, Wiccans etc. into the same bin as Satan-worshipers (a Christian construct if there ever was one). There’s not much we can do about that: the misunderstanding appears to be deliberate, and most UUs I know are not into correcting people’s understanding of things religious, however faulty that understanding may be.
If I found myself explaining to a congressional committee how the government had spread lies about a relative of mine, I’d be damned (joke intended) if I’d talk about my particular UU beliefs (no UU can speak for all UUs), or the various generals’ Christian beliefs, or anyone’s religious beliefs, apart from what bears specifically on the question of the lies. Pat Tillman was lied about, and his family lied to, and his nation lied to, in the most heinous way. How that becomes a religious issue is quite beyond me.
]]>Glad you stopped by, Steve. Based on what I have read, the Tillmans sound more like UUs than atheists. They have a belief system, but they don’t want to discuss it, because it is not relevant to the problem of the government lies. If you feel like, I’d like to know what you think.
As to your points, cronyism and the cult of personality are the ruling factors in the Shrubbery’s administration. They are about power and politics. They want the power but they don’t know what to do with it after they have it. They don’t want to regulate anything, because their friends don’t like regulation. They view the Federal budget as an opportunity to steal.
The Shrubbery allowed all of these Christianists into government as a reward to his base. He doesn’t care about governing, only about handing out presents to his friends and supporters.
There is going to be some major weeding required in the Federal government after he’s gone to clean up this mess.
]]>And yet… Bush and his fellow christianists seem to have a similar vision for the entire world. People who actively seek to be raptured as the world collapses around them should be disqualified from all kinds of leadership positions.
Indeed, let me generalize: a fundamental qualification for selection to any leadership post, administrative or military, should be a manifest desire to support the mission of the administrative or military organization in question. E.g., America’s U.N. ambassador should seek to further the success of the U.N. in advancing America’s legitimate positions in the world, no matter how much the extremist neocons may wish to destroy the U.N.; an EPA chief should not deliberately seek to destroy its mission of environmental protection; the Attorney General should direct the Department of Justice in a way that attempts to pursue, well, actual justice. And so on. The mission of the military is the defense of the nation, not the religious salvation of the soldiers, and most certainly not the dying of soldiers, outside of what is absolutely necessary to the defense of the nation. People who think otherwise should be denied leadership positions.
]]>And whomever the Senator/Congressman was retorted, “WELL, YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK INTO THAT, SIR.”
That bigoted cocksucker Kauzlarich is no better than the psychotic sociopathic bullies at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, who “haze,” beat-down, harrass, blackmail, assault, and other wise TORTURE their fellow cadets (or the cadets under their command) who do not convert to their rabid-mouth-breathing-knuckle-dragging, snake-handling psychotic brand of “christianity.” Oh, yeah, they had a “hearing,” they investigated THEMSELVES, but we all know how much that shit accomplishes. Like having Kissinger run the Hague. The bullying and torment of non-christians in Dumbya’s clusterfucked idea of a military (where the cowards and chickenhawks are promoted in a heartbeat, but true patriots like Pat Tillman are degraded, murdered by their fellow soldiers, and the hacks and lackeys and Friends Of Dumbya/Dick get away with murder, thievery, embezzlement, etc., as if they truly are “entitled” to be “above the law.”) is never going to stop until somebody brings this shit out into the daylight for the whole fucking world to see.
I know that Pat Tillman’s family has been tormented for far too long as it is, but I hope that, as they recover from their grief and loss and more than justifiable rage, that they will sue the living FUCK out of every motherfucker in the Pentagon, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and every cocksucking bigoted so-called “christian” who stabbed/shot Pat Tillman in the back to the point that they will ALL be tried, not before our bought-and-sold piglet traitor “Supreme” Court, but in front of the HAGUE, so that the world itself can bring about the justice that our own government is too fucking crooked and cowardly to withstand.
Dick Cheney and Halliburton may not understand truth, justice, or the rule of law over ALL mankind, but they DAMNED WELL UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF GOING BANKRUPT. And after this illegal, immoral, idiotic and FAKE excuse for a fucking WAR, purely for the PROFITS of Dick, Poppy, Rummy, et al, (Powell, too, dammit), Halliburton and their chickenshit cowards hiding in Dubai should be the SECOND round of hangings, right after Dick, Rummy, Colin, Condi, Chili Bean and Dumbya all swing on the gallows on the East Lawn at sunup. Halliburton, Shaw Group, Bechtel, and Blackwater — every single one of those profiteering blood-sucking soulless cocksuckers needs to be investigated right down to their fucking DNA, and have every cent in profit ripped from their scrabbling little talons, to be returned to the taxpayers of this country and the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq that they have robbed, raped, murdered, and betrayed.
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