two cult leaders, getting along famously

Why does this photo of McCain's meeting yesterday with Tenzin Gyatso not surprise me? But then, maybe it really should have surprised me:

"I hate the gooks," McCain said in 2000. "I will hate them as long as I live."

[image by Carolyn Kaster from AP; and thanks to Barry for the Eyeteeth citation]

Barack Obama plans to expand Bush's "faith-based" initiative.

That just about does it for me. The flag pin he decided to add to his lapel should have been a warning, but I really found myself distanced from the man after enduring his "adjustments" on fundamental issues like gun control, government surveillance, trade policy, and getting us out of Iraq. Now I'm also supposed to go along with his call for escalating the government's financial support (my taxes included) for the most powerful institutions of superstition, obscurantism, prejudice and hate in the nation.

Haven't we and the world already paid far too much for the mistake of giving religion the free pass it enjoys now (and I'm not referring only to its tax-free status)? If organized religion were capable of benignly and impartially ministering to the welfare of everyone we wouldn't have had to invent government. And if religion could possibly be described as fundamentally caring and nonpartisan, there'd be only one of them out there.

Obama still has four months to continue turning off many of his most enthusiastic supporters. Does he think the big money he will attract by doing so will smell better than the mites coming from those with little to spare? Does he actually believe in the junk positions he's assuming, or does he do it because he has to do in order to get elected? Either way, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any president to move to the left once she or he slithers into the Oval Office. The creditors wouldn't stand for it.

I should pay more attention to what I've already written: We really do have only one political party.

George Carlin was right.

ADDENDUM: This excerpt is from a post by Huffington Post blogger Barry W. Lynn, an ordained minister and Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

The problem with the faith-based initiative is that it's a euphemism. We used to call such things "taxpayer-supported religion." Of course, no one would support it if it were called that. After all, the idea of taxing people to pay for religion is scary. It's what got folks so riled up back in the colonial period. No one wanted to pay taxes to support some other person's religion.

No one wants to pay them today, either. Yet increasingly we are being asked to do so. Eager to appear faith friendly, candidates in both parties are increasingly upping the ante for how much they plan to dole out to religion if elected.

[image from Steve Kemple]