Quotes from Ian Gurvitz

Thanks to an emphasis on abstinence-only sex education, nine of the ten states with the highest rates of teen pregnancy are red states. In Mississippi, the sex education curriculum teaches students that homosexuality is illegal. In

The U.S. has the most prestigious schools in the world. Harvard University was founded in 1636, with the motto veritas: Latin, for truth. Yale University was founded in 1701 with the motto lux et veritas: light and truth. Even the fictional Faber College from Animal House was founded in 1904 under the motto Knowledge is Good. Then there's Liberty University, founded by the late, hardly lamented Jerry Falwell. Their motto: Training Champions for Christ since 1971. Here

At this point, some have argued that if spirituality is essentially a psychological phenomenon, ultimately there's no need for traditional religions, with all their concomitant mythological and homicidal baggage. That may be true, but I don't see how this argument will suddenly, and magically make these traditions disappear. We are where we are, so we might as well deal with the situation as it is. F

Freedom of speech carries the responsibility of thought. And we don't think. For all our gushing about living in a country dedicated to the proposition that everyone is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we don't respect life, we don't understand liberty, and we have a perverted sense of happiness.

Here's the wrong part: we don't live in a capitalistic society. We work in a capitalist system. We live in a democratic society. And just to make sure, I checked what the Preamble to the Constitution had to say about capitalism, as I seemed to remember it being more of a statement of basic human rights than an economic manifesto. Here is what it says about capitalism: nothing.

Martin Luther King said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. The same could be said for the arc of American history. It also bends toward reason, and sanity. But it's a slow, slow bend. And with every movement forward, dumb America has shrieked and howled like a wounded animal. Since

Religion is an outgrowth of the human desire for self-knowledge, and an experience not just of our common humanity but of our unity with all life. It's the search for enhanced consciousness, higher education in human life. Religion isn't something one believes. It's something one does. This

Even on the rare occasion when a civilized discussion of religion occurs, it's usually rooted in a single question: do you believe in God? If the answer is "no," the typically petulant comeback is: "Then what do you believe?" Americans get offended when anyone questions their beliefs without stopping to wonder why it's necessary for a person to have beliefs, over and above actual knowledge and experience. Our

Reagan decried Medicare as the foot in the door for socialized medicine. Medicare and Medicare passed in 1965. Fifty years later, even after the Affordable Care Act passed, and then survived a tsunami of Republican opposition and legal challenges, still no socialized medicine. No socialism. No communism. No jack-booted thugs breaking down the door in the middle of the night to force grandma to sign a DNR. More

Reason vs. belief. Any word, system, or theory should be evaluated solely on the basis of whether it accurately describes the world. The goal is to explain what is the case, not what people wish were the case, think is the case, or believe with all their heart is the case. Belief in the existence of a proposition does not establish its validity. F

Despite the fact that a Supreme Court Justice can be impeached for treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors, apparently being delusional doesn't make the cut. Maybe the problem is that 58% of Americans also believe in the devil. I guess it's tough to recognize insanity when you're living in the asylum. But

The constitutionally protected free speech that entitles every American to express their opinion has devolved into the notion that all opinions carry equal weight, simply because they are deeply held, and passionately expressed. And not just by some morbidly obese high school dropout proudly holding a misspelled sign, but by our elected officials.

Arrogance. We think we've been lovingly placed on this tiny spec of space dust by a benevolent father figure whose got a super special plan for each one of our lives, and afterlives. We also think He loves one particular group more than any other. Of course, which group that is depends on whether you're talking to Jews, Christians, or Muslims. Even

But the problem isn't just a few frighteningly dumb politicians. The problem is they represent a frighteningly dumb electorate. The reason Louis Gohmert is a United States Congressman is that 180,000 Gohmers and Gohmettes in Texas' First District pulled the lever to send his bald-headed goober ass to D.C. Mr. Shitkicker goes to Washington. Apparently, it takes a village full of idiots to elect a village idiot. Sadly

And if it's true that you are what you eat, then we're a herd of overfed slobs who consume mass quantities of fatty, over-salted, high-calorie processed garbage. Then we stare in the mirror, baffled at the sight of our expanding waistlines, thinking this sudden, inexplicable obesity can be cured by a miracle diet, power cleanse, or appearance on a weight loss reality show. America: pockets of intelligence in a large pair of fat pants. And

Just as post-Civil War Reconstruction gave rise to the KKK and John Birch Society, Barack Obama's 2008 victory over Grandpa Munster and his ditzy night nurse kicked off a right wing freak-out. JFK's declaration in his 1960 inaugural address that "the torch has been passed to a new generation" was a beacon of hope for the future. This inaugural torch was picked up by a mob of angry villagers and they rampaged into town shrieking about socialism. The

The Roman Empire collapsed due to war, overexpansion and rampant corruption. The British Empire dissolved due to cultural arrogance and imperialistic hubris. Sadly, as we devolve from Democracy to Idiocracy, America may become the first world power to crumble under the weight of its own stupidity.

Most creatures kill for food. We don't all kill for greed, money, land, jealousy, oil, power, ego, or God. Only man has figured that out. In the last century alone we've slaughtered some 108 million people, and 150 million to 1 billion throughout human history. Yet, we still refer to what we've got going on here as "civilization." And

Even the weekend chat shows seem to be designed for maximum noise and minimum analysis. They get the lefty and the righty on screen, throw the raw meat of the latest controversy in front of them, and watch them rip at each other. It's not a dialogue in the sense of an exchange of ideas intended to arrive at the truth. It's more of a talking points cage match.

When 99% of the world's scientists agree that burning fossil fuels is adversely affecting the planet, and 10,883 out of 10,885 peer-reviewed papers confirm it, and yet a United States Senator steps on to the floor and attempts to rebut the facts by holding up a snowball, we have officially entered The Shithead Zone. But

Don't look for footnotes; there aren't any. No bibliography either. You want to fact check it, be my guest. If I found anything that confirmed my point of view, I included it. And if I discovered articles that contradicted my take on things, I simply followed the time-honored journalistic tradition of Fox News: I distorted them out of all proportion, or completely ignored them.

Ultimately, we get what we ask for. The culture has been dumbed down for our consumption because we consume it. Junk food wouldn't sell if we didn't eat it. Crap movies wouldn't get produced if we didn't pay to see them. Crap TV wouldn't get made if we didn't watch it. We're not only what we eat. We're also what we see and what we buy. Our culture is a reflection of who we are and how we think. We have met the enemy and he is us. Whether

Despite NRA misdirection and outright lies, it's not a slippery slope. The only slippery slope is with those who buy that argument, who slip from the fear of regulation down the rabbit hole of paranoia. We

Ayn Rand was the godmother of laissez faire capitalism, the Virgin Mary of Libertarianism. She died in 1982. She spent her life attempting to turn selfishness into a religion so that people could claim their greed was grounded in the nature of man. Her heinous ideas and crappy books have given politicians philosophical cover to promote their "greed is good" agenda for decades.