Okay, I feel like I’m in a time machine and it’s 2002. How we can be in 2007 and we’re still helping the Afghanis fight off the Taliban baffles me, but here you go.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended the handover of 800 High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles and other trucks, and 12,000 heavy and light arms in Kabul.

“This is the first time that we have received such major help for strengthening our army,” Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said after the ceremony.

Karzai described the package as “part of the tip of the iceberg” of the long-term U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.

This should give you some good insight into how long we could be stuck in Iraq. Four and a half years into the war, this was the first time we gave them help to strengthen the army AND they’re using that help to fight off the people we supposedly dismantled way back then? Imagine what people would be saying about Iraq if at this point Saddam still had a small army and it was fighting against us.

Unlike Iraq this appears to still be a bona fide war. Why it’s not really being fought, I don’t know.

I don’t talk about religion too much on here, chiefly because I know it’s a sore spot even for some of my more lefty readers (a few emails my way have exemplified this). That said, a friend showed this to me, a nice list of batshit crazy fundie Christian posts from across the internets. I’m just going to quote two.

First up, a shining example of what I like to call “not understanding what you’re talking about at all”:

just curious if anyone can explain these errors that many people are aware of when it comes to the theory of gravity

…

number 3. on earth we see things that defy “gravity” on a daily basis. birds and airplanes for example. are you going to tell me that the gravity of the sun is strong enough to keep PLUTo in orbit but not an airplane or a little bird??????

Wow. That is absolutely bulletproof logic. I must admit I feel a little foolish now for believing in that heathen “gravity” business. Now some Christian love.

“I honestly don’t care about your rights. If it were up to me, all Atheists would be burnt at the stake and or cast into a river with weights tied to their ankles and or placed before the firing squad, etc etc etc.”

Of course, it goes without saying that not all Christians are like this. However, it’s an undeniable result of their religion. I know it sounds unfair to paint the religion itself with a wide brush based on what could be considered a minority, but the thing is… this is a very vocal sect of the group. And there are millions of them.

Naturally there are posts about defending rapists, insulting medicine, homosexuals, and all sorts of other topics. And sure you could call me unfair for going after a bunch of Christians without mentioning Islamic terrorists or other extremists, but it’s all the same. Put them all in the same bucket, there are people on here defending the murder of atheists and abortion doctors (including murders that actually did happen).

Can you find atheists who want Christians to be rounded up and killed? I doubt it, but I’m sure a few are out there. Atheists who want to abort babies all day long, have gay sex in front of children and murder for no reason? Of course not. But these are the minds that religion has shaped, and they are dangerous. They see those who don’t believe in this light, and they don’t believe in the rights of anyone who disagrees with them.

Laugh at the posts, but don’t consider them harmless little examples of a few loony bins.

This is just plain awesome. Hot off the heels of finding out about Al Franken’s Senate bid, another Al reminds us all why he should have been elected in 2000. Al Gore has been nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work on global warming awareness.

“A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference,” Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press.

…
“Al Gore, like no other, has put climate change on the agenda. Gore uses his position to get politicians to understand,” Brende said.

Stories like this, truthfully, just make me depressed. Because they make me wonder what would have happened if in 2000, Gore had taken the election he won. He probably would have paid attention to Richard Clarke and kept an eye on Al Qaeda and blocked 9/11, no troops in Iraq, but they might have come and gone in Darfur by now.

We’d have a cleaner America because of how hard he’d push for environmental regulations. His “Clear Skies Initiative” might actually result in clearer skies. Ah well, there’s still 2008. Maybe we’ll have our first Nobel Prize winner for a president.

In other news, Exxon has broken their own annual profit record. Le sigh.

UPDATE: An astute reader, namely Zach in the comments, has pointed out that Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson both won the Nobel Prize as sitting presidents, Jimmy Carter as a former. So while Gore wouldn’t be the first time the country was led by a Nobel Prize winner, he’d be the first to be ELECTED as such, as opposed to winning it later. I’ll count that as half-right.