Do NOT Vote for McCain!

If you respect the establishment clause of the first amendment of our constitution, do NOT vote for this man. It is inconceivable that in today’s enlightened society, someone who is supposedly educated, could have such foolish notions about hocus pocus mysticism. The framers of the constitution purposely left religion out of the document because they knew that previous forms of government had been based on religion and caused many people to suffer at the hands of proselytizers with the law on their side.




So please, end this rampant evangelistic attitude that has permeated into our government and do NOT re-elect the cronies of the Bush administration.

The Magic is Gone... Once the molecules are unraveled, god goes obsolete

What mystery is left in the world for the credulous to point to and say, “There be God!”? It would seem only the “miracle” of life remains. Science has laid waste to the divine watchmaker in virtually every other aspect of nature. During the days in which the books of Moses were penned, humanity needed gods to hold up the sky and keep the sun and moon going around. Centuries later comes this guy named Johannes Kepler who uses simple observation and deduction to begin working out the properties of the universe. The man didn’t realize it at the time (and might not approve if he had) but that was the moment when the gaps for gods began to shrink

And even life (whether YECs want to believe it or not) is not so mysterious as it was a mere two centuries ago. We now know a great deal about how life changes, how it explored and developed, and how it still seeks and always, always hopes for new beginnings. This new shrinking of the gaps was kicked off by (as if I needed to say) Charles Robert Darwin. Like Mr. Kepler or Isaac Newton our great benefactor didn’t have a perfect explanation burst full-blown from his mind. He observed and deduced a simple truth, that you don’t need a designer to mold life; life will mold itself once it gets going. So there we come to the crux. The origins of life are the last bastion of those who need to explain something by appealing to gods, but it seems that gap is closing up as well:

“Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA. Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.
In the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is expected to "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding. And while the first synthetic chromosome is a plagiarized version of a natural one, others that code for life forms that have never existed before are already under construction.”

The entire article can be read here. Of course, it isn’t really a satisfying genesis story. We created a molecule that will hijack the machinery of a cell by copying a natural molecule from a living cell.

Ahh, but friends just wait! This is just the first step toward the goal any inquisitive mind must persue. I invite you to peruse the next step. Again, this isn’t real genesis, but it is one more tool that will eventually seal this gap forever. And then folks, belief in gods really will be optional.

One Smart Student

High school student Mathew LaClair of New Jersey had the education and common knowledge enough to tell that some of his text book was politically charged and just plain wrong. He brought it to the attention of The Center For Inquiry and they proceeded to critique the textbook and provide a press release to the Associated Press.

There have been many news articles on this story since then, but I’m not sure if very many readers have taken the time to actually read the CFI critique. It is quite lengthy, but covers errors and omissions in the text book to include topics such as global warming, prayer in schools, same sex marriage, and other astonishingly inaccurate and misleading viewpoints. All of which offer no citations or outside references to uphold the conservative bias of the text book.

CFI To The RESCUE – fortunately we have the non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote logic and reasoning over political slants or religious agendas. They used to be called CSICOP, ‘The Center for Scientific Inquiry of Claims Of the Paranormal’, and are the publisher of ‘The Skeptical Inquiry’ magazine which has monthly periodicals debunking myths and hoaxes on a continual basis. It is very fortunate that there are people willing to take intelligent action to battle the misconceptions that so deviously get into the mainstream. The publishers of the textbook have defended their 10th edition stating that it is not intended to be a science textbook, as quoted in this article.

My personal wish is that everyone be more like this young Mathew LaClair, and boldly question anything that seems, ‘just plain wrong.’

Goofy Stuff from the NKJV

Joshua 6:25 "And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Isreal to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."
So this verse literally says that this woman is alive in the middle east even as you read this. She's like 4000 years old. Still creeping around, banging all comers to make a living, and no one has even bothered to look for her. Wouldn't this be every YECs wet dream to actually find Rahab bumbling around the Gaza Strip? Imagine being able to prop this prehistoric prostitute up in front of all those doubting atheist scientists and saying "Told ya so!"
Too bad though, cause they aren't even looking for her as far as I know.

Uncovering Ignorance

In a recent article on CNN it is stated that …Educated people have the notion that evangelicals are "barefoot people of Tobacco Road who, I don't know, sleep with their sisters or something.”

The article explains that not all evangelicals are fundamentalists, and that most ‘evangelical scientists’ believe in evolution guided by god. They are trying to shun the popular belief that christian evangelicals are uneducated, inbred, and socially retarded. They want to legitimize their place in the scientific mainstream, however, it is difficult for science to give credit to anyone who blindly believes in some magical genie in the sky that guides your day-to-day endeavors.

Scientific method starts without presupposition about any observation, and through repeatable experimentation, and much scrutiny from the scientific community, come to understand the nature of our surroundings. This is not true of one who places faith in spirits, afterlife, holy ghosts, resurrections, wild doomsday predictions, and untold myths explaining natural phenomena. Even the contradictory term ‘evangelical scientist’ painfully exposes the ignorance of a futile attempt to legitimize a flawed world view.

There are studies being done to determine the intelligence of evangelicals. How funny that the studies are being done by ‘Evangelical Sociologists’. Don’t be tempted for even one minute to think that religion and science can mix. Religion has long been used as a way to explain things away to anyone with an inquisitive mind, thereby quashing any chance at the progression of the species. This touches on the very heart of why religion is dangerous.

When then governor of Texas, George W. Bush proclaimed a new Texas holiday called Jesus Day, he ignorantly violated the establishment clause of The Constitution, and the people in Texas loved it. How can he even visit Jerusalem after crap like that? He even used his appeal to the evangelicals for political leverage to win the whitehouse, and we let him.

The evangelicals, fundamentals, young earthers, and the like had better be finding some hard evidence supporting their position, or I’m afraid they will never be published in any of the respected scientific journals. ‘An acceptance of science does not negate a belief in god’, but continued belief in god without any proof negates your credibility. Think About It.

Ohh no! Now the Baptists are at it!

Yep, seems it's a slippery slope when church leaders give the go ahead on child rape. This man of the cloth, aged 52 years, stalked a 13 year old girl in much the same way as the stars of MSNBC's 'To Catch a Predator' series. I guess we've all come to expect this from Catholic priests, but Baptists? Hmm, maybe we should have seen it coming in retrospect, that bug up the ass they had over sexy dancing was probably an indicator.

Goofy Stuff from the NKJV

Genesis 28:12 "Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."

This is the bit about Jacob, after he pretends to be his brother Esau to deceive his father. He's having a dream and god is talking to him through the dream promising all good things.
I have two thoughts on this:
First, why didn't god have the foresight to install elevators, or escalators at least, for all those angels? I mean, think about it, there they are climbing this ladder day in and day out back and forth for all time? That doesn't seem very benevolent.
Second, obviously, in this scene heaven is like a penthouse floor for earth. You've got angels running back and forth between the two (like catering in a high rise hotel), and god is standing at the top talking down this stair to Jacob, right?
Do you think god gets pissed at us for all those times our communication satellites have crashed through one of the windows of the heavenly palace? I mean, think about it, maybe that's why we've been getting such colossal "acts of god" lately. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes may very well be god's way of telling us to stop launching military spy-cams and global weather trackers into his breakfast nook.

Loads of Depth

If time is a dimension like length, width, and depth how is it that you can have loads of time or be out of time, but you can't have loads of length or be out of depth?

I Did Not Choose

One of the co-authors of this blog and I had a conversation one day about the definitions of the words, “atheist” and “agnostic”. Up until that conversation, I had always felt that claiming to be agnostic was the innocent way of saying, “I just don’t know whether there is a god or not.” And that being an atheist was a more militant way of stating you are opposed to god. However, after examining the definitions of the two words, I felt differently.
Agnostic means ‘the absence of knowledge’, so I was correct in stating that, “I just don’t know…”, and I still claim that. Atheist means ‘the absence of belief’, which by definition, we all are until we make a conscious decision to ‘believe’ in something. I learned that you can combine the words to come up with four possible scenarios. 1. An agnostic atheist would be one who doesn’t believe in god, and doesn’t have enough evidence to say there IS NO god. 2. A gnostic atheist is someone that doesn’t believe in god and knows there IS NO god. 3. An agnostic theist would be someone that believes in god, but is willing to admit that there is not enough evidence to say for sure. Finally, in my opinion, the worst and scariest of all: 4. The Gnostic theist believes in a god and knows it to be true.
I differ from the gnostic atheist because, although I am a non-believer, I don’t think that you can prove that a god does NOT exist. You can’t prove a negative. Read: Carl Sagan’s ‘Dragon in my Garage’. It is more my intention to find evidence that will support the existence of a supreme being. Sadly no compelling evidence has been brought forth. Remember, I am talking about empirical, repeatable, peer reviewed evidence, not some coincidence or testimonial. I want to believe, but I don’t want to place my faith in falsehoods. Until such evidence, we must start with the assumption that god does not exist.
I am really getting fed up with the accusations from Christians saying that, “Atheists hate god” or “They only love their lust.” Those statements are hateful and show their ignorance of the definitions of the words as well. They seem to think that I chose atheism over god, when in fact, I haven’t made any choice at all. I am still waiting on the evidence to come in.
Evidence – Yes, evidence. I cannot take that leap of faith and ‘decide’ to believe in a god, or anything for that matter, without any proof. What if some stranger told you that the only way to salvation is to eat snails on whole-wheat? That would be lunacy. The world is full of hundreds of major religions and untold numbers of off-the-wall sects and cults. Each one claims to be the correct religion, and the only way to seek eternal life. Even if I were concerned with living forever, I would have a very difficult time choosing.
I did not choose to be an atheist; it’s just what I am by definition.

New Feature Yall! "Goofy Stuff from the NKJV"

Okay, so i'll try and keep up with this one. It's my new weekly post on stuff that's in the New King James Version of the bible that no one talks about because it's an iron age fairy-tale detail that doesn't translate well to modern culture.

Genesis 3:21 “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”

Presumably so that we’d have the opportunity to develop battery operated thermal underwear, Kevlar body armor and 5.56mm, air cooled, gas operated, hand carried, shoulder fired assault rifles capable of operating in either single-shot or three-round-burst modes for ourselves. Yeah… thx O lowrd. Any possibility of maybe getting like a suede back-pack to complete the ensemble?

Old Irritations Linger and Fester

I’m not unlike many of you who get various jokes, pictures, chain letters and what-not in emails on a daily basis. Today, someone on the long list of email buddies decided to send me this video. Turns out it’s an old email that has been going around for a while and just won’t die. Below is the email text, then the video is embedded below that for your enjoyment. After watching the painfully bad country song, please read my comments to the email buddy list.

This song was never released BUT PLEASE HEAR IT !!!!
> It's beautiful!
> > > Pump up the volume!!! Read this first and then 'play' the attachedsong
> & slide show.. The song you are about to listen to is from a Las Vegas
> Diamond Rio concert. They received an immediate resounding standing
> ovation, and continue to do so every time they perform it! Everyonewho
> loves America should be thrilled to hear this song! Although DiamondRio
> has never before done a statement song, they felt compelled to record
> 'In God We Still Trust.' But guess what? Sadly, major radio stations
> wouldn't play it because it was considered 'politically incorrect'.
> Consequently, the song was never released to the public. So America ,see
> what you think. If this offering speaks to your heart and you feel to
> share it with friends and loved ones, please do.
>
>>





Friends,

Over 200 years ago, our forefathers had the foresight and intelligence to exclude religion from the formation of a new government. They knew that to endorse any religious establishment would require choosing one religion, and not everyone would agree on the same one. The addition of the words ‘In God We Trust’ to our money happened almost 100 years after the country was founded and it wasn’t added to paper money until 1955. Source

The ‘Under God’ statement in our pledge of allegiance wasn’t added until 1954 after pressure from lobbyists warning that our pledge was too much like ‘those godless communists’. Source The following was written long before that:

"Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind....
The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this even an era in their history.
Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses..." 1788 John Adams – (emphasis added by me)

The lyrics of that song say ‘there are some who want to push Him out’. In reality there are some that wouldn’t mind going back to the original intent of the framers of the constitution. There ARE those who want to force their religious beliefs on others and that’s what I take issue with here. We don’t all want to be evangelical Baptists, it’s obvious by the number and diversity of churches in any given small town in America. Some of us don’t wish to be affiliated with any establishment of religion.

When the topic of separation of church and state comes up, I’m usually the unpopular one at the party. So I didn’t send this comment to everyone on the list, just you of the inner circle haha! But if you feel like forwarding this on, I don’t mind. I just don’t want to force my views on people I barely know.

Regards,

Rusko

EXPELLED MOVIE FLUNKS THE TEST.

[From NCSE , 15 April 2008 . The ID movie is scheduled to open 18 April, including many theaters in Oklahoma. To see the controversy of a film clip in the movie that is plagiarized from Harvard films see postings on ERV and this posting on Panda’s Thumb .]

Oakland, California, April 15, 2008 -- Millions of dollars have been spent promoting Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed to fundamentalist church groups, but that money would have been better spent on fact checkers. www.ExpelledExposed.com, a website launched this week by the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), reveals the truth behind the creationist movie's misrepresentations.

"Creationists have been making the same arguments for decades," says Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education. "They've gotten better at marketing these claims, but they're no more valid now than during the Scopes trial of the 1920s. Creationists have been predicting the death of evolution for over a century, yet it is constantly affirmed by evidence from fields Darwin could never have imagined." Given the damning assessment at www.ExpelledExposed.com, Scott adds, "Perhaps the filmmakers should have spent more time hitting the books, instead of beating up on hardworking scientists."

Throughout the movie, Ben Stein claims that "Big Science" represses intelligent design to advance an atheistic agenda, but Peter Hess, from NCSE's Faith Outreach Project, doesn't buy it. "There are many successful evolutionary biologists who are also people of faith," he observes, "and a host of people of faith who regard intelligent design as a misconceived and harmful rejection of science. In attempting to pit Christianity against science, Expelled misrepresents both."

"We reviewed public records and reports on the intelligent design promoters who were supposedly discriminated against, and we discovered that the claims that they lost their jobs over intelligent design are unsupported," explains Josh Rosenau, a biologist at NCSE. "That said, professors who aren't making advances in their field, editors who disregard their journal's established practices, and lecturers who repeat creationist falsehoods shouldn't be surprised if they have trouble holding jobs. These people weren't expelled; they flunked out."

http://www.expelledexposed.com/ contains information about the "martyrs" from Expelled, and also of real scientists who successfully challenged established science. "The difference," NCSE researcher Carrie Sager observes, "is that real scientists back their challenges with experimental results. Results are what changed minds, forced textbook revisions, and earned Nobel Prizes."

More insidious are the movie's attempts to link evolution to the Holocaust. Susan Spath, a historian of science at NCSE, comments: "The implication that Darwin led to Nazism and the Holocaust is an irresponsible misrepresentation of a terrible history. Hitler abused many things, including science, and Expelled is wrong to shift blame off his shoulders and onto evolution." www.ExpelledExposed.com quotes the Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman, who described similar claims in a previous creationist movie as "an outrageous and shoddy attempt ... to trivialize the horrors of the Holocaust."

The National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools. The NCSE maintains its archive of source material on the history of creationism at its Oakland, California, headquarters. On the web at http://www.ncseweb.org/. http://www.expelledexposed.com/ is a resource for journalists, teachers, and curious moviegoers who want the full story behind Expelled.

For this press release on NCSE's website . For ExpelledExposed.com .

I got jokes...

Q. Why does Laura Bush always have sex on top?

A. Because George can only fuck up.

Ha! I love it.

It's A Toss Up...

I'm somewhat conflicted on this one. Apparently some jackasses made a movie about what a bad president Hilly would be and they want to start airing it wherever their mutant rat-fucking cronies can distribute it to.

First amendment rights or unfair tampering with the electorate? Does the fact that the general public is too stupid to investigate anything themselves and will buy anything wrapped in shiny paper matter?

From the SCOTUSBlog:

Court appeal set on promos of campaign film
Citizens United, a Washington-based conservative advocacy group, is moving to appeal to the Supreme Court ? and seeking expedited review ? in a case testing its right to run promotional ads for a 90-minute film critical of?New York Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The organization formally filed a?notice of appeal?Wednesday in U.S. District Court, and plans to file its actual appeal in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.? James Bopp, Jr., Citizen United?s counsel, said he will also file a motion asking the Court to expedite the case in hopes of having it heard and decided during the current Court Term.
A special three-judge U.S. District Court refused on Tuesday to clear the way for unrestricted airing of the film itself and three ads that promote the film, titled ?Hillary: The Movie.?? This is the way the District Court described the production: ?The Movie is susceptible of no other interpretation than to inform the electorate that Senator Clinton is unfit for office, that the United States would be a dangerous place in a President Hillary Clinton world, and that viewers should vote against her.?
With that content, the District Court said, the film is a form of ?electioneering communication? that a 2002 federal campaign finance law forbids being aired on radio and TV in the period before a primary or general election of federal candidates, including those running for president, if the broadcast is paid for by corporation funds including funds of a non-profit corporation.
?Citizens United has already released the film as part of a campaign to?put the film in theaters, on TV-on-demand broadcasts, and in stores as DVDs. It has also prepared three ads to promote the film, to be aired prior to?state caucuses and primaries, before the Democratic national convention and before the general election in November, if Sen. Clinton becomes the Democratic?nominee.? It has not yet run any of the three ads because of legal uncertainty.
In a lawsuit filed in District Court in mid-December, Citizens United contended that it is unconstitutional to treat the film?s TV showings and its ads as the type of broadcasts covered by the 2002 law.? The Federal Election Commission told the District Court as the lawsuit unfolded that the ads may be aired as planned because they come within an exception the FEC has fashioned in a new rule.
Even though it is free to run the ads, Citizen United?s lawsuit asserted that it is unconstitutional to require the organization to disclose the names and addresses of anyone who contributed $1,000 or more to pay for such an ad,?and?to require a disclaimer as to who is responsible for the content of the ads.? Those provisions apply, the FEC has said, even if the ads themselves are not banned.
The District Court concluded that Citizens United had not made a sufficient showing that it would be harmed by?the requirements laid down for the three ads.? Thus, the Court refused to issue a preliminary injunction to bar enforcement of the?disclosure and disclaimer requirements for the ads while the lawsuit proceeds through the Court toward a final ruling. It is that refusal that will form the core of the appeal to the Supreme Court.? While the District Court also refused to bar the enforcement of the ?electioneering communications? ban against the movie itself, that will not be at issue in the currently planned appeal.
Citizens United has posted the contents of the three ads at www.hillarythemovie.com.

I Thought They Had Vitamin C And Stuff...

Last week the Supreme Court placed a case on their April docket regarding the claim that some consumers were duped by Philip Morris into believing that Lights were A-Ok to smoke. Next up: Me vs. Flintstone Vitamins. I thought they'd revert society back into peaceful hunter gatherers who cohabitate with multi-functional dino-buddies. Honestly, Philip Morris is only helping out the whole natural selection part of Evolution at this point. C'mon, people. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those self righteous non-smoking ass pirates who wrinkles my nose whenever someone lights a cigarette within 50 feet of me. No no, my friends. I am an ex smoker. A reformed smoker. In recovery, as some of you schmuck 12 steppers would put it. Yes, I may have the lungs of a non-smoker, but I believe I have the metaphorical heart of a two pack a day-er. And as such, I despise all the pricks riding on this new fangled wave of health nuts pushing through legislation outlawing people from borrowing matches in public and whatnot. But still... even when I was smoking, (heavily, I might add) I never once considered my blissful habit as healthy or even neutral. So for anyone out there still in the dark as to whether or not light ciggies are good or bad for you: mail me a money order (no personal checks) for 25 dollars and I'll send you a carton of my brand new, all natural, organic cigarettes which will help you to lose weight and increase your IQ while simultaneously increasing the size of your penis or breasts. They're called Darwins. Smoke up, Johnny!

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Huck's a Schmuck - Part II

Again from Salon War Room:

Mike Huckabee's mission from God
1/17/08 7:36 AM
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has clarified what he meant when he said that "what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards."
In an interview with Fox News -- Crooks and Liars has the video -- Huckabee says an amendment banning abortion and another banning same-sex marriage "are the two areas I'm talking about. I'm not suggesting that we rewrite the Constitution to reflect tithing or Sunday school attendance."
Fair enough, but why not?
If it is, as Huckabee said the other day, "easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God," what's the basis for stopping at abortion or same-sex marriage or even at tithing or Sunday school? Why not push for an amendment outlawing homosexuality entirely? On the other hand, maybe God would be interested in passing the Equal Rights Amendment. How about an amendment banning the death penalty? Or maybe an omnibus amendment outlawing preemptive war, the touching of pigskins and the getting of haircuts?
Who should be the arbiter of "God's standards"? How do we decide which of those "standards" can be ignored and which are important enough that we "need" to address them by amending the Constitution? And how would Mike Huckabee feel about having someone else -- say, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich -- making those decisions for him?

Huck's a Schmuck

From Salon's War Room:

Huckabee digs a little deeper
1/17/08 12:51 PM
The beginning of the end for Sen. Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican who lost his reelection bid in 2006, may have come in April 2003, when he famously suggested that there's a slippery slope between homosexuality and bestiality.
So what do we have here?
In an interview with Beliefnet, Mike Huckabee tries again to dig himself out of his "amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards" hole by ... suggesting there's a slippery slope between homosexuality and bestiality.
Asked whether it wouldn't be a "dangerous undertaking" to try to bring the Constitution into conformity with the Bible -- particularly "given the variety of biblical interpretations" -- Huckabee said: "Well, I don't think that's a radical view to say we're going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we're going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal. Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again. I think the radical position is to make a change in what's been historic."
Huckabee said that "the genius" of the Constitution is that it was built to be changed. On the other hand, he said, the Bible "was not created to be amended and altered with each passing culture."
"The Bible was not written to be amended. The Constitution was," Huckabee said. "Without amendments to the Constitution, women couldn't vote, African-Americans wouldn't be considered people. We have had to historically go back and to clarify, because there've been injustices made because the Constitution wasn't as clear as it needed to be, and that's the point."
What Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, doesn't say: As historian Mark Newman writes, many Southern Baptists once "defended segregation in the sincere belief that it formed part of God's plan for the human race," and sometimes "cited biblical verses" in support of racial separation.

E-Dork

For the record, I am the geekiest jackass this blog has ever seen. I'm posting this from my mobile device. That's right, ''mobile device,'' not cell phone. I'm also a pretentious geek! So anyway, I saw Barrack Obama on the hard hitting Tyra Banks show the other day. No, I didn't tune in. It was on while I was at the bank so quit fucking judging me, damnit. Just before the show went to commercial break, Tyra and Barrack went over to a basketball court that was set up in the fuckin studio to play a game of pickup. Is that pandering or what?!? I'm impressed. If I see him on Montel next week with a bucket of fried chicken and some grape drink he'll have my vote locked up.

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Get Off Our Country!

Here’s a pretty good story about a lady who wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper expressing strong opinion that atheists should ‘get off of our country’.

Later, after a backlash of letters from all over the country, the lady claims her original letter was a hoax for her own amusement.

http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/030907/oped_0309ope001.shtml <-- Newspaper’s recant (Loved it!)

Local Church Supports Evolution

TEACHERS’ WORKSHOP ON EVOLUTION AT OU BIOLOGICAL STATION, 28 -30 SEPTEMBER 2007.

Middle and high school science teachers from across Oklahoma participated in the second week-end workshop on teaching evolution at the OU Biological Station. The workshop was organized by OESE and sponsored by the OU Biological Station.
Topics included: ‘Why Intelligent Design is Not Science But is Religion and Politics,’ ‘On the Nature of Science and the Logic of Testing,’ ‘Evolution as Fact and Theory: The Power of an Evolutionary Perspective,’ ‘Evolution Education: An NSF Chautauqua Course,’ ‘What DNA Tells Us About Evolution,’ ‘Group Discussions on Evolution Teaching with Examples of Exercises for Classroom Use,’ ’Macroevolution: The Fossil Record and Developmental Biology,’ ‘Internet Resources for Teaching Evolution,’ ‘Use of the Evolution Dialogues in Religious Communities,’ ‘Teaching Evolution in Oklahoma Public School Classrooms.’
Scholarships for the entire cost of the event were provided to students by a grant from the DELTA Foundation and a contribution from All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa.

Finally, the Host arrives!

Ohh, I just had to share this, in revenge for the $25k+ grilled cheese sandwich. It seems the Lord has finally chosen to reveal himself... perhaps a sign of the Rapture?

Posts from the Plowed Side

Okay, so we all bought the hype and convicted some elite kids based on a pack of lies. But hey, it is still America after all, and that does ultimately mean that many of us can still afford justice. I applaud these stalwart upper crust heroes and I'm truly grateful that the system finally caught up and exonerated them (yes, truly I am, I wish these guys all the best, really). Still, *come here to the side with me* still... guys. You rented strippers for your Ivy League Preppy Self-Love Club. Maybe in the future you won't be so surprised if someone you hire looks at you and thinks, "Paycheck." Just a thought.

Bush Is Just Playing Us

A fiery and passionate special comment from Olbermann about Bush's lies regarding troop withdrawal and much more. Video

Our handsomist politicians are on it...

Ok, what's the scariest news you can imagine? Go on, think about it a sec there's no need to answer right away. Another large terrorist attack you say? An out-break of some super flu in your home town? How about someone accidentally equipping a B-52 with six live nuclear warheads and flying it across these United States? Yeah, that's right. It's no longer a hypothetical situation. The Air Force flew six armed nukes across America for three hours last week. And guess what else? Our wonderful Pres. Wakkadoo is taking charge of the situation. The guy who describes the current situation in the Middle East as a confrontation between good and evil and claims belief in xtian Armageddon is going to go handle this little oppsy. I am not reassured.

Rational Atheism

In this month's Scientific American magazine, to which I am a subscriber, there is an article called Rational Athiesm: An open letter to Messrs. Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens by Micheal Shermer, who is the publisher of Skeptic magazine and http://www.skeptic.com/.

I was very glad to see that it was available on their website because I really had to agree with what Mr. Shermer was getting at and I wanted to share it with some of my more militant atheist friends. The article starts off with:

Since the turn of the millennium, a new militancy has arisen among religious skeptics in response to three threats to science and freedom: (1) attacks against evolution education and stem cell research; (2) breaks in the barrier separating church and state leading to political preferences for some faiths over others; and (3) fundamentalist terrorism here and abroad.

And later he explains:

...we should be cautious about irrational exuberance. I suggest that we raise our consciousness one tier higher for the following reasons.

1. Anti-something movements by themselves will fail.

2. Positive assertions are necessary.

3. Rational is as rational does.

4. The golden rule is symmetrical.

5. Promote freedom of belief and disbelief.

Of course the letter goes into more detail on each of the above points, but he concludes by saying:

Rational atheism values the truths of science and the power of reason, but the principle of freedom stands above both science and religion.

I think as atheists we have an automatic bad public opinion. As responsible people we should all strive to display the ability to live happy productive lives without the need for a supernatural spiritual being, to show people as Dawkins is quoted, "...to be an atheist is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one. You can be an atheist who is happy, balanced, moral and intellectually fulfilled."

Amen, Brother!

Free Press

Hello everyone. Thank you DNPWWO for inviting me to be a contributing author on this blog. Coincidentally, the topic of this post parallels the topic of the last post I made to my personal blog almost exactly one year ago - George Bush and his failing war.
A colleague of mine recently sent me an article that he had presented to the local newspaper as well as The Washington Post. His article was turned down by both papers. I feel his article was turned down because he makes a comparison of Bush to Hitler. No matter how ‘FREE’ the press is, they still have to appeal to the majority of their readers. Just because the majority agree doesn’t make it right.
So for my friend’s sake I have copied it in its entirety here as part of my first post to this blog.

Bush and Hitler
Stan Simpson

The Greeks taught us that character is destiny. That is, if one knew one’s enemy’s or friend’s nature, it becomes fairly obvious what his future will hold. Roughly speaking, I think this assessment of the human predicament is accurate.
George Bush is a good case in point. In many ways, his personality is analogous to Adolf Hitler. Both Hitler and Bush demonstrate a nature which functions around only few core ideas. These ideas are sacrosanct, and Hitler would not, and Bush will not, brook any opposition to them. Both Hitler and Bush were impervious to any persuasion to change their course because the current military situation demanded it. The fatal flaw in this kind of defective posture is the person ceases to be able to deal with reality and becomes delusional. I think it can be cogently argued that Germany lost the war because of nine strategic decisions of Adolf Hitler; likewise it can be demonstrated America lost Iraq because of Bush’s strategic blunders.
To begin with, this benighted Administration’s raison d’etre for the invasion was based on a false premise: we had to occupy Iraq in order to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction. When it became obvious there were no WMD’s, the Administration promptly switched horses and announced we were there for a regime change. Having accomplished this, and having found Saddam Hussein, we then proclaimed we now had to stay to stabilize our newly installed satrap regime until they were vigorous enough to stand on their own two feet without our help. In short, America now had a crown colony complete with a governor-general with a pith helmet and swagger stick. And we were in for the long haul, despite lies from the Administration we were there only temporarily. We immediately began to build the largest and most expensive embassy on this planet, coupled with huge and enormously expensive air bases, which only a fool would believe were being built for a “temporary” stay.
One does not have to be an Einstein to figure out that oilman Bush---ever loyal to the oil cartel that put him in power---is there to secure Iraq’s oil for American oil companies.
And so, we can expect Bush, like Hitler before him, to scream “stay the course” to the last minute of the Bush administration. It is foolish to think Bush can do otherwise. He is not psychologically capable of admitting he can make even one major mistake. Like Hitler in April, 1945, when the Russians were only six blocks away from his Berlin Bunker, Hitler yells to his bedraggled staff that he is not going to retreat one inch. Madness, sheer madness!
Americans must realize their current leaders no longer believe in democratic principles.
The real reason General Pace was fired was because of what he said on two past occasions. One, the National Press Club, February 17, 2006. “It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral”. And Two, “They will be held accountable for the decisions they make. So they should in fact not obey the illegal and immoral orders to use weapons of mass destruction’” as stated in an interview with Wolf Blitzer in 2003.
Let us hope the commanders, now in place, will remember they swore to defend the constitution of the United States and not George Bush. September should be a very interesting month.

Stan Simpson is a humanist and a former Major in the USAF. His main duties were as a navigator on a combat crew.

A Pox on ABC News!

ABC News: A Public School With Mandatory Arabic

Protest Greets the Opening of a Muslim School in New York

The biggest school system in the United States began the new school year today by opening its doors to controversy, as New York City introduced the first public Arabic school in the nation. It was, to put it mildly, an unusual first day of school for the 60 students at the Khalil Gibran International Academy, where students arrived to see press and police outside the new school, as those who
oppose the school fear it will spread radical Islam.

"When I came down the corner and saw the mobile police unit and the news cameras swirling around, then I was very nervous," said Susan O'Grady, a parent of a student at the school.

What's your opinion about a Muslim-based public school? Share your thoughts in the right column of this page.

Supporters say Brooklyn's new sixth through 12th grade school should not be controversial. Students will follow the same curriculum that every other school in the city uses, except that classes in Arabic language and culture will be mandatory.

Ok... This post is not about Muslim School. This post is not about religion. This post is not about the public outcry. This post is about ABC News' SENSATIONALISM of this story. Read the underlined portions. The headlines says MUSLIM SCHOOLS. The story, for those of us who read, says ARABIC. What's the difference? Nothing to those who don't read. However, this kind of story fuels ignorance that already runs rampant.

Don't get me wrong, Muslims are stupid- as stupid or perhaps, in some ways, more stupid than Christians. But stories and sensationalism like this are like tossing twinkies between two quarreling fat kids. Ha! Childhood obesity.

The Red Fear

Mattel announces third Chinese toy recall | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toymaker Mattel Inc on Tuesday announced a third recall of Chinese-made toys, saying it would take back more than 800,000 units globally that contain impermissible" levels of lead.


Anyone else think this may be some sort of subversive preemptive germ warfare? I don't, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's on a Republican's platform in 2008. "A vote for Schmuckface is a vote AGAINST chinky toys!"

A Less Fashionable Death Row

Looks matter at high-profile trials like Spector's - CNN.com

(CNN) -- "Jurymen seldom convict a person they like, or acquit one that they dislike." -- Clarence Darrow

A moussed, tousled brown hairstyle is murder trial defendant Phil Spector's latest look.

Since April, the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector has been playing out in Los Angeles, California, oddly contrasting gruesome CSI details with the defendant's daily fashion emergency.

Jurors finally will go behind closed doors for deliberations at the end of the week.

Their impressions of Spector's over-the-top fashion statements and nebbish-like demeanor could weigh as heavily, legal analysts say, as any of the conflicting expert testimony about ballistics, blood spatter and other forensic evidence....

So, I wonder why anyone could be against death penalty in light of cases such as this. Anyone who doesn't wear Versace should be convicted of something, right?

When things that should be a joke turn out to be serious...

P.Z. over at Pharyngula turned up this tragedy. This is what three Presidential Candidates take seriously?
Seriously?
My favorite panel you ask? Seven rows down, the one on the right. It says, "God created man, animals, and plants - in the same week! They were created, not evolved."
And its got the little picture there, with the lion... and the peacock... and the zebra... and the stegosaurus... Wait, what was that last one? Yeah, that's right. A stegosaurus. With the peacock. All historical irony aside, what seems most funny about this creationist propaganda is that it actually depicts a scene that could potentially disprove Darwinian Evolution. If you did find the fossils of a modern lion in the same strata as the fossils of a stegosaurus, you'd put the Darwinist camp into a panic.
Any creationists in the room? *hunker down y'all* You know they did find those fossils? Yeah! And we're all conspiring to keep it from the creationists, so keep this under your hat!
Seriously, we've found hundreds of thousands of fossilized bits of ancient life. We've never discovered a single one that disputed Darwinian Evolution. Why are we still arguing about this?