Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio mega church pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it. Reverend Rod Parsley, praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a “strong, true, consistent conservative.”

Let’s not forget the now “rebuffed” by McCain, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, Zionist, evangelical pastor John Hagee, an anti-Semitic Holocaust apologist, who was invited to AIPAC, and was given a raucous ovation. Through his new lobbying organization, Christians United for Israel, Hagee is emerging as the most influential leader of the Christian Zionist movement, which has bolstered the Israeli right with the grassroots muscle of the evangelical right. At the same time Hagee blames the Jews for the Holocaust by rebelling against God and that the Holocaust was God’s way of forcing Jews to move to Israel where, Hagee predicts according to his interpretation of Biblical scripture, they will be mostly killed in the apocalyptic Mideast conflict. Here are some quotes from this “man of God”:

On Jews:

“It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day.”

“How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for his chosen people to credit idols with bringing blessings he had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come.”

On gays:

“All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are – were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Hagee is virulently anti-Catholic as well. He has suggested that the pope is the anti-Christ, and that Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitism was the result of being educated at a Catholic school. Hagee likes calling the Catholic Church “The Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” the “anti-Christ,” and a “false cult system.”

Great moral leadership here…

The very first of the American Bill of Rights begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ” The Supreme Court of the United States has long interpreted the first amendment of the constitution to mean that the government cannot use its enormous resources, power, and influence to favor one religion over others. In this doctrine, the State and the Church must remain independent. This is the principle of “The Separation of Church and State.” So what is this great and all-encompassing insistence that our political candidates reflect their belief in God and why are these people associating with petty, sometimes self-proclaimed religious freaks?

The almost de rigueur visits to Jerry Falwell’s den, or the endorsements by Pat Robertson and other mega church businessmen make the accusations leveled towards Barack Obama for the words of Jeremiah Wright pale in comparison. Yes, businessmen – as is it very hard to envision these people as men of God, but rather men of money and sometimes hate, making mush of their followers’ brains, filling them with THEIR twisted interpretations of what THEY say God would actually think and do. Personally, we find it offensive that such distasteful persons would even be considered to be Christian. How about some head-to-head comparisons with Pope John Paul II? Actually that would dignify these “faith businessmen” too much, but don’t you think that these hate mongers would be totally and thoroughly outclassed if a meaningful comparison were ever made?

Whatever remaining faith we have had as far as the supposed intelligence of the American people has pretty much dissipated after the shameful 2004 presidential election. Here’s the cover of the British Daily Mirror, showing Bush’s photo and the following headline underneath: “How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” As far as we can see, not much has changed since 2004. For some strange and totally unexplained reason John McCain is even with Barack Obama in the polls. What are you people thinking? Are you thinking at all? Are you really as dumb as it appears? We sincerely hope not, but do not hold out much hope, as it appears that the American people are perfectly happy to remain as slaves to the corporate-dominated government, to work like the proverbial rats, mostly for the benefit of the large corporate entities – who have become even richer since the start of the so-called “war on terror” – are perfectly happy to see their country looted of trillions of dollars, to see our young men and women slaughtered and maimed, while slaughtering and maiming other young men and women, to see our now destroyed prestige and honor being further devalued by our rulers.

Is this what America is all about? Not in our minds.

For the first time in decades we have a presidential candidate, who is actually worth the trouble to elect and his standing in the polls is even with John McCain? Wake up America! Read. Learn, stop watching the TV sitcoms and get out of your hole. Stand up for the American ideals, those that made us the beacon of liberty for so many over the course of our history and which have been thrown into the gutter by those, who have hijacked our government.

I don’t know how you feel about the advertising foldouts in magazines, but they drive me bananas. You know, those ads, printed on double-sized paper, which open, or maybe I should say spill outwards from one, or even both covers of a magazine?

Personally, I always make a point of tearing those annoying halves of the covers out, before reading them and throwing them in the garbage. Advertisers, take note: Some of us consider such foldouts to be so annoying that we will not grace them by even briefly looking at them, which means of course that you have wasted your money for nothing and that in addition you probably pissed off thousands of readers and potential customers.

The foldouts, or centerfolds inside magazines – made ever so popular decades ago by Playboy magazine – are not nearly as annoying as the foldout covers, particularly if they offer something to rest one’s eyes on, besides a car, a watch, designer clothes, or perfume.

Slightly less annoying are the little, but numerous subscription inserts, found in almost any magazine that you are likely to lay your hands on.  It is understandable that the publishers want to provide us with an “easy” way of subscribing, but these things – before they get removed and thrown in the trash – tend to drop all over the house, the car, the subway, in short: in order to make an average magazine fit to be read, we have to remove all of the troublesome foldout covers, the subscription slips and preferably the first 20, to 30 pages, as this is often how many pages of ads one has to wade through, before even reaching the table of contents. It almost seems like soon there will not be any content – just frigging ads!

More annoying things: Don’t you hate when trying to enter, or exit a subway, or a city bus, that the operator takes his, or her sweet time to open the doors, while everyone just stands there, stewing in their own sauce? How about telemarketing calls? When and if you pick up the phone, nobody answers for the longest time? The poor, underpaid slob must be computer-dialing several calls at once and simply cannot readily respond to you – one of the many objects of his call.

Isn’t it maddening when you give a cashier the money and despite the fact that cash registers show exactly how much change to return to the customers, some of these mentally deficient persons have huge difficulties in counting out let’s say $5.62?

From the same department: College ball players, who sue the college for giving them a diploma and not teaching them to read and write…Yes, this is a true story. Why aren’t these morons suing their elementary schools, their middle schools, or high schools? After all, most of us have learned to read and write in the first few weeks, or at the most months of first grade education.

How about when the genocidal, treasonous and most definitely unpatriotic neocons, or our fearless leader, for that matter call people, who are without even the slightest doubt a lot more patriotic, decent, smarter and who have the real interests of their country – instead of a foreign one – at heart, unpatriotic? Doesn’t that just make your blood boil?

Despite China’s abominable human rights record, including the occupation of Tibet, it is truly heartrending to watch the unfolding after-earthquake human drama. The thousands of dead; school children buried under tons of rubble and the millions of desperate, soaken-wet and in many cases, grieving survivors.

Seeing parents, watching their children’s bodies being removed from under collapsed buildings is something all of us wish would never happen again.

Along with the thousands of separate small and huge tragedies, the incredibly dedicated and under the difficult circumstances seemingly fairly well organized rescue efforts restore our faith in humanity. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao – who is of course very much a Communist Party insider – has been personally directing the rescue efforts from Dujiangyan, further restoring our faith in humanity.

All in all, a hugely tragic disaster, but there is no question that both the Chinese people and the government are doing everything in their power to help those in need.

At the same time, the Burmese junta has done extremely little to help the victims of the cyclone Nargis. The International Red Cross estimates that the number of victims in this latest of Burma’s disasters could exceed 100,000.

Nearly two weeks after the cyclone devastated the southern part of the country and with thousands of bodies littering the whole area and millions of destitute people, scrounging for food, shelter, medical attention and clean water, the Burmese generals have allowed but two U.S. relief planes to land and according to reports, the military has been looting the relief supplies. In fact, disturbing allegations have even been made that the military is hoarding high-quality international food aid and handing out rotting rice instead.

There have been calls to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from the incredible fiasco in Iraq and actually invade Burma, to liberate its people from Senior General Than Shwe and his cronies. Unlike the Iraqis, the Burmese would welcome the U.S. invasion with open arms and for the first time in decades, we would actually be using our military power for something useful, besides following the criminal neocon dictates. How about it Mr. Bush?

It is not really surprising that in the land of polyester clothes, NASCAR, lite beer, Chevy and Ford SUV’s, class rings are also the rage…at least among a certain segment of our population.

Personally, despite having advanced degrees from fairly prestigious universities, I would like to emphasize that I do not own a single so-called class ring and frankly, have no intention of ever getting one, as I would not even consider wearing something as ugly and completely tasteless on my hand. I suppose that wearing a big chunk of metal on one’s finger could be practical as a legal version of the brass knuckles, but otherwise?

Even more jarring is the practice of wearing pinkie rings. The first time I saw a dainty, little ring on a huge and fat “pinky” of an oversized and overweight goon almost made me gag. This creep was obviously trying to project a “tough guy” persona. What then – I wondered – made him put on such an obviously gay-looking accessory on his fat finger?

The sanctimonious displays of the U.S. flag lapel pins are also no less vulgar and primitive. Why is it that these symbols are only displayed by those, who have damaged the U.S. the most? Patriots? Give me a break!

No matter how tasteless, the pinky rings mercifully are usually small and not nearly as obtrusive as the rings, which almost seem to scream that they are part of the “I belong” category, meaning High School, College, college sports, professional sports, and so forth and so on. How do you handle an overabundance of such rings, unless of course you want to display them in some sort of a case, or a frame? How do you decide whether you should wear your Podunk High School ring, or (name your state here) college one, or a varsity college football, baseball, basketball, whatever ring? These are mind-boggling decisions for someone, who has a hard time matching his shirt, tie and jacket correctly, or who doesn’t have the faintest idea, which table utensil to use to gobble up an appetizer, or who doesn’t know that you are supposed to remove that stupid baseball cap when you are indoors and particularly if you are sitting at a dining table.

The saying “there’s no accounting for taste” truly applies to these ring-wearing knuckle draggers. I realize that the class ring tradition has started at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point at the beginning of the 19^th century. That’s all fine and dandy. Let the west pointers carry on THEIR tradition, but why does every one else have to imitate them? Who cares whether you have graduated from the South Craphouse High School in such and such a year? Maybe you are the first in 17 generations of your family, who managed to get a high school diploma, but believe you me, NOBODY else cares about it. Get it?

It is no secret that the United States is swarming with a huge number of gas-guzzling vehicles. From the country, to the cities, to the suburbs, it appears that about half the vehicles are the ever-present SUVs, or pickup trucks. Don’t let the manufacturer’s claims, or the notoriously inaccurate EPA mileage estimates fool you. A huge percentage of these monsters guzzle fuel at a much higher rate than advertised. Few of these tremendously inefficient, badly designed and lousy-driving behemoths get more than 15 mpg and often considerably less.

At the same time, the darling of the eco-conscious and considered by some as a badge of honor, the wedge-shaped Toyota Prius Hybrid turns out not to be the mileage champion after all.

The Prius is more than a piece of clever technology. It symbolizes something bigger – a responsible attitude and a healthier way of living. Toyota has sold more than a million Priuses so far and it has attracted a worldwide following led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and much of the rest of Hollywood.

It is classified by the United States government as the “most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S.” and this seal of official approval is reflected in a special status that the Prius and other hybrids enjoy over conventionally powered cars.

The label of “most fuel-efficient car sold in the US” might be partly true, but have we forgotten the real pioneer in the field of hybrids, the much less popular Honda Insight? In reality, the Insight is good for 61 miles per gallon in the city and 66 on the highway, making it the most fuel-efficient car sold in the U.S. at the present time.

Although, the hybrid technology has never appealed to me that much – however efficient, interesting and advanced it might be – maybe because of its not very robust and very complicated technology and also because the vehicles fitted with hybrid drive trains are usually not very exciting in their own right. It is basically a gas/electric setup, usually fitted into a low-end car.

As most people outside the U.S. have known for years, manual transmissions are not only considerably more efficient mileage-wise, but also a much better, more fun and very much more efficient way of channeling the engine’s power to the drive wheels. What’s even more efficient, durable and fun to drive, is the modern turbo diesel engine. The new crop of diesels not only provide amazing low-end torque – which makes it feel like the vehicle has twice the power, than it actually has – but they emit considerably fewer greenhouse gases, making them at least part of the solution towards combating global warming.

In addition, a recent test has shown that a full-sized car, in this case the excellent BMW 520d (the “d” stands for diesel) has actually proven to have better overall mileage than the Toyota Prius. Surprised? We are not, as we have had the opportunity to drive a number of the modern European turbo diesels in the past few years and can personally attest to their excellent performance, drivability and most certainly low fuel consumption. Wouldn’t you rather drive a really nice, comfortable, high performance machine, like the BMW, instead of a smallish, cramped, slow and not particularly exciting Prius, especially if the former provided better mileage? This must be the no brainer of all time, I suppose.

An even better solution would of course be a diesel hybrid, with a good, five, or six speed manual transmission.

In any case, it appears that finally this fall some really nice diesel vehicles from BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Audi will finally be available in the U.S. We for one, plan to be some of the first in line for one of those babies. Hopefully, they will catch on with most Americans, unlike the lame diesel models made available in the 1980’s in some GM vehicles and the terrible Rabbits, which were assembled somewhere in Pennsylvania, I believe. All that remains now is to wean the American public from those terrible trucks and from the automatic transmissions as well. Let’s not forget weaning them from watching American Idol, Fox News and all the other truly stupid, so-called “reality shows” and watch the now diminished IQs starting to climb up again from the gutter.