I'd Do That For a Dollar

The Meaning of xmas

The artist of this comic will donate $1 for every 500 views it receives to Doctors Without Borders.

The Stupid - It Burns!

When listening to the religious right rant about those horrible muslims, you can't help but hear the fear and loathing in their voices.  Unfortunately, that fear and loathing is mixed in with blatant stupidity, making it even more dangerous.

Recently, Newt Gingrich made statement that goes way beyond stupidity - so beyond stupidity to reach the levels of incomprehension.  Kowtowing to his religious right overlords/dupes, he cried out in fear for the future of this country:

"I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9," Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church here. "I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American."

Did you catch that?  A "secular atheist country...dominated by Islamists."  How in the world could a country be "atheist" while "dominated by Islamists"???  As offensive as Newt may thing secularism, Islam, or atheism may be, just as "ethics" and "Newt" are diametrically opposed secular/atheism and Islam are diametrically opposed.

But then, it should not be a shocker that Newt gets so confused about simple concepts.  After all, he was the one who:

• Led a charge against Speaker of the House Jim Wright when Speaker Wright made that illegal book deal, then made a book deal that fed him a $4.5 million advance from Rupert Murdoch.
• Led the impeachment charge against President Clinton, screeching about Clinton's affairs, all while fucking at least the SECOND woman who was not his wife.
• Claimed that President Obama was wrong to NOT go into Libya to create a no-fly zone, until Obama DID go into Libya to create a no-fly zone, at which time Newt stated emphatically that Obama was wrong to go into Libya to create a no-fly zone.

god and Japan

This gentleman says it better than I could.

Maybe I Am Wrong?

All this time I had believed there was no god... but then I saw this proof...

god is a Steelers fan?

As a Bills fan, though, at most it proves the existence of the devil (as classically dressed is it may be).

Bowie FTW

God:  "Go forth and multiply"

Bowie:  "Wham bam thank you ma'am"

Youtube....


When I was in college I worked in the student union (along with being a Teaching Assistant).  If I worked the reception desk, rec room, or candy/magazine store I was supposed to put a quick note in the log book to let folks know what was happening.  Starting many years before my time, the log books had pretty much become collections of doodles/poetry/stream-of-consciousness entries..  Generally, I was a good boy and just entered what I was supposed to.  The entry above with the two quotes almost got me fired...

B.I.B.L.E (heh heh)

(Courtesy of F*** Yeah, Denial Bible!)

PZ Myers Responds to Religious Whackos

I've been reading Pharyngula for a while now - it's been on my recommended list ever since I started one.  PZ Myers can be brusque to the point of seeming rude - but he is not.  He just does not tolerate fools, and lets those fools know that they are, indeed, fools.

Case in point - today's response to a "question" from some religious whacko.

I can only hope that, one day, I will be half as skilled at responding to fools.

What WON'T These People Believe?

 
"Invest with us - we believe in the same god you do - your money is safe with us..."

So, the market is dropping, folks are scared of losing their nest eggs, and predators see an opportunity.  These scammers market a scheme to those scared people, wrap it in religion, and sucker them in big time.  Original article here.

I think Chuck (comment #5 in the first link) said it best:  "God guaranteed the investment. I suggest they take it up with him in person."

Of course, these people believe that a bearded white haired being created the universe...

Portal

I've played video games since the time of Pong.  To say that has been a few years would be an understatement.  As many games as I have played, though, until recently the number of games I have played to the very end could be counted on the hands of somebody wearing mittens... and that's not counting thumbs.... or groups of fingers....  I believe the number I am looking for is Zero.

And then I played Portal.  Portal is a rather neat game where the player is given a gun that opens (are you ready for this?) portals - you go in one, and pop out the other.  The neat part is that momentum is preserved, so if you jump down 20 feet into a portal on the floor, and you have the other portal on a wall, you come shooting out.  Or, as is described in the game - "speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out."  I think I stuck with Portal because of the puzzle-solving part of the game.  The object is not to kill many beasts (as fun as that can be in some games), but to figure out how to go from point A to point Z.

Imagine my surprise when, at the completion of the game, I was serenaded by the AI I'd been fighting.

Portal "Still Alive"   (or if you prefer your songs sung by lovely skilled geek actresses)

So what do I find in my RSS feed today?  A parody of Still Alive called Still a Lie (page down once).  Here's a slightly better version...

Enjoy this brief musical interlude!

Welcome (I think)

Courtesy of PZ Myers and Pharyngula...

One of the first things a parent does to a child in a "good christian family" is to baptize the kid.  The underpinnings of that act are amazing...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/the_warped_weird_world_of_chri.php

Can You Hear Me... Now

I grew up with lots of older brothers and sisters.  One of the side benefits of older siblings, besides the fact that I always knew my babysitters, was that I was exposed to a lot of older music.  For somebody who grew up in the middle of the disco era in the 70's, exposure to good music (aka - golden oldies and classic rock) was a good thing.  Although I can appreciate some BeeGees and "I Will Survive", all I can say about polyester, coke, and mirror balls is that they assisted in the creation of some truly awful music.

So as I am sitting here playing poker online, I am listening to some concept albums (not all are oldies - Green Day's "American Idiot" fits in very nicely with some Pink Floyd, Beatles, and The Who).  The Who's "Tommy" is playing, and I hear a song that has always bugged the crap out of me.  That song is "Christmas."  I like the music, but some of the words have bothered me since my pre-teen days.  ("Tommy" per Wikipedia)

"Christmas" has Tommy's "family" singing about the wonders of xmas and how excited children get about it.  But then they start singing about the poor kid who cannot be "saved" since he is unaware of his surroundings and everything around him, including the fact that "Tommy doesn't know what day it is... He doesn't know who jesus was or what praying is... How can he be saved, from the eternal grave?"

The pre-teen in me thought that was tremendously unfair to the poor kid.  I mean, he's never had a chance, he cannot even conceive of a god, and he will be damned for it?  That was totally unfair!

Now, though, that song takes on a different meaning to me - and still bugs the crap out of me.  Here is a group of adults who have gotten together purportedly to enjoy a holiday with each other and all their kids, and rather than doing whatever they can to make this poor kid's holiday as enjoyable as possible, they obsess about the impossibility of brainwashing this kid into worshiping some imaginary being.  During the adults' cries about their tribulations of "saving" a kid who can't even hear them, they effectively accept as fact the kid is sub-human ("Only if he's cured will his spirit future level ever heighten.").  Sadly, that pretty much reflects fundamentalists view of the world...

I suppose I should not obsess myself about this.  After all, the Tommy character does ultimately get to experience the classic religious experiences:
 - In "Do You Think It's Alright" and "Fiddle About", Tommy gets to live the Catholic Alter Boy experience, as Uncle Ernie "fiddles about" with him ("down with the bedclothes, up with your nightshirt.... fiddle about, fiddle about... You won't shout as I fiddle about...")
 - In "Cousin Kevin" he gets to experience an all powerful being who abuses and plays with him for sport.  Tommy's cousin Kevin is a sadistic, twisted torturer who plays with weaker beings for fun, abusing as he sees fit.  If that is not a godlike character straight out of the old testament, I don't know what is.
 - Tommy even gets to experience the delusion of knowing all the answers, and twisting other people into doing what he says just because he thinks that it what is needed to reach spiritual fulfillment.  Tommy tells his followers "If you want to follow me, you've got to play pinball.  Put in your earplugs, put on your eye shades, you know where to put the cork."   He even has his pederast Uncle Ernie act as a spiritual guide for the unsuspecting minions...

All is not lost though, as in the end there is a happy ending:  He is forsaken by his follows, who have wizened up to the fallacy of Tommy's religion.

"god's plans" - Children of Rape, and Sharon Angle

Sharon Angle, currently running for Senate in Nevada, has this to say to women, including young teens, who are pregnant due to being raped or from incest (I swear I am not making this up):  No abortion - your rape/incest and your pregnancy are all part of god's plan... if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. 

She has also implied, though later denied that implication, that armed revolution might be the next step if the right does not win this election.

So, Ms. Angle seriously believes that "(g)od has been in this from the beginning", and that her god's plan to improve this country is to have her elected U.S. Senator from Nevada.

I mean, the plans of Old Man Smithers and the other Scooby Doo villains make more sense than the "plan" above.

For more Angle craziness, check out http://www.sharronsundergroundbunker.com/.

Lobsters - With Butter and in Comics.... It's All good

Gone to Pot

Ten... Number Ten... Number Ten...

I recently read a post online about a survey done to determine how many Britons knew the ten commandments.  For some reason, that just struck me as one of those "who the hell cares?" situations.  What effect on society does the knowledge (or lack thereof) of those things have?  So, I just had to put in my two cents' worth...

{original blog link}

"I have to confess – I couldn’t tell you all 10 commandments either. Granted, I also am unable to tell you the major tenets of Islam, or Buddhism, Taoism, or even Satanism (if they exist).

But, quite frankly, I am fine with that. If somebody wishes to memorize the tenets of their religion, then by all means they should try to do so. And if they are successful, more power to them!

However, to decry that only a small portion of the people around you can’t recite YOUR religion’s tenets is simply ridiculous. I mean, it would be like worrying that the average person cannot tell you the syntax rules for .NET, or can’t explain the detailed rules of soccer (as handy as those might be now that the World Cup is in progress), or can’t count to 100 in Hindi. Those folks who wish to know those things should learn them. But to proclaim that a societal problem exists because the folks around you can’t count to 100 in Hindi is as much of a waste as declaring a societal problem exists because they don’t know a list of ten things specific to one particular sect."

Tree Lobsters - Some are Smarter than You'd Think

Or, as Frank Zappa once said, "Let go of my pickle."

I once posted one of these comics on a Facebook account.  A catholic gentleman I've known for years, whom I both like and respect, felt the need to respond:  "I've always been partial to Marmaduke, myself." 

Remember What Wil Wheaton Says...

Now these are 10 commandments I can live with...

Kite-making 101

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1905

"The West Wing" and Religion

A short while ago I was watching The West Wing while getting ready for work.  I like The West Wing - it is one of the few shows I have all the DVDs to.  One of this morning's episodes (Bravo shows two episodes most weekday mornings) was one of my favorites.  I did not realize that it was the pilot, but based on that one show, it is easy to see how it got picked up.

The show centered on a gaff made by Josh Lyman on a Sunday morning show, in which he stated "you're god is too busy being indicted for tax fraud" to an evangelical, and the political fallout from "insulting millions of christians."  At one point, to coddle the outraged evangelicals, the White House staff holds a meeting with some of the evangelical leaders.  After Josh apologizes (sincerely, it seemed) things get heated, leading to the following exchange:

John Van Dyke (one of the evangelical leaders): The First Commandment says Honor thy father.
Toby Ziegler: No it doesn't
Josh Lyman: Toby...
Toby Ziegler: It doesn't.
Josh Lyman: Listen...
Toby Ziegler: No if I'm going to make you sit through this preposterous exercise, we're going to get the names of the damn commandments right.
Mary Marsh: Okay. Here we go.
Toby Ziegler: Honor thy father is the Third Commandment.
John Van Dyke: Then what's the First Commandment?
President Josiah Bartlet: I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other god before me. Boy, those were the days, huh?

The President then goes off on the evangelicals for not speaking out against radicals, one of whom had just sent his granddaughter a Raggedy Ann doll with a knife in its throat.

During the entire show, respect was shown for people's belief systems, but little respect was granted to those who wished to abuse the power of their religion, or force it on to others.  This was true for any faith - if you want to watch a scene with anger, check out the episode where CJ announces that a girl's school in the Middle East was allowed to burn with children in it because radical muslims refused blocked access due to the school's unholy teachings.

The President Bartlet character was a catholic with very deep faith, but his religious beliefs were never forced on anybody else.  They guided his actions, but never predetermined them.  All of his actions and decisions were based on reality, not a book.  The show even handled his crisis of faith when Mrs. Landingham died well.

"The West Wing", the product of that damned liberal commie atheist Hollywood elite, showed religion and faith in better light than anything Pat Robertson could possibly dream of.

Separation of Church and State - Not Just a Good Idea, It's the Law

In addition to the christianists pushing for the merger of their god and our Constitution, we have dozens of lawmakers presenting the National Day of Prayer as Constitutional, even though a Federal judge just ruled otherwise.  Paliban Daily posts this entry from the Secular Coalition for America discussing the issue.

"Separation of Church and State" is Beneficial To All

A couple of weeks ago Sarah Palin, failed/abandoned half-Governor of Alaska, started spewing nonsense about this country being a christian country and that the founders wanted their flavor of god to be the basis of all we did.
(Please see: Palin rejects notion that God is separate from the state, Palin denies church-state separation, acknowledges Prayer Warriors affiliation, Sarah Palin Says We’re a Christian Nation — She’s Wrong, and Palin & the Religious Right: A Trojan Horse in the GOP)  


She's even prompted other christianists to add their two cents worth, including Chuck Norris.  After all - who should we listen to concerning the American government than a B-list actor who makes hyper-patriotic movies based somewhere JUUUUUSSTTT a bit outside of reality, a TV series that spends quite a bit of time on Indian affairs concerning Indians that are no longer in Texas, and certainly nowhere near Dallas, and is most recognized now for touting his exercise machine...


Anyways - Palin and her ilk are again doing the combined declaration of "cry for us for we christians are oppressed" and "this is a christian nation and god watches over us".  Any inkling of "Separation of Church and State" is met with "quit oppressing the 70-80% of us god-fearing christians", followed by playing loose with facts concerning the founding fathers' beliefs.  Read "Yeah, What She Said" and "...and What He Said, Too" for some thoughts on the founding father's beliefs...


The christianists have been kind of getting their way lately.  They are 2-1 in recent judicial rulings, with their only loss being a Federal justice ruling that a portion of the law that set up the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. Christianists did win two cases - one in which the words "under god" in the Pledge of Allegiance was declared "patriotic, not religious", and the other declaring that a cross is not a religious symbol.  Talk about activist judges!  Declaring "god" is not religious, and the cross is not a religious symbol!


So the christianists are getting what they want - official recognition and interpretation of the bible as it pertains to the United States.  Based on those rulings and interpretations, I may need to change some habits I've built up over the years.  You see, I had a good friend in high school that was a good catholic, and he took offense to my exclamations of "god damn (it)".  Since that time, I have tried to refrain from using that phrase as it is unnecessarily offensive.  But a Federal court has ruled that god is not a religious term - so I think I will feel less self-conscious about using the phrase "god damn (it)" - how can it be offensive to religious people if "god" is not a religious term?  I might even create some art using bodily fluids and a cross.  Again - no offense should be taken due to the cross not being a christian symbol...