I stopped by The Bad Astronomer for his article on “Lights Out in Iceland” and saw his latest blog on the Senate bill which, in effect, authorizes the use of torture and removes the Constitutional demand of habeus corpus. Which means, the Executive branch of the government (bush’s branch) would have the power to detain [...]
READ MORE »Monthly archives for September, 2006
B’Zow! B’Zow! Take that, Stormtrooper!
I hated Wesley Crusher. Man. A few years ago when I found out the actor, Wil Wheaton, was not only a dyed-in-the-wool nerb, but also quite cool, I became a fan (of Wil’s, not Wesley.) He writes books and articles. He plays professional poker. He’s huge into computers. He’s sort of like the “Mirror Mirror” [...]
READ MORE »Why Pray?
So, why pray? Most Christians from the most conservative fundamentalist to the most liberal tend to agree that “prayer works.” That there’s some reality-bending effectiveness to prayer. Is there? I doubt it. Why? Let’s look at the evidence. A recent heavily funded study looked into the effectiveness of intercessory prayer: http://www.stnews.org/News-2754.htm Of the three groups [...]
READ MORE »Deep Thoughts, For bush Supporters
So we’ve reached a point in the Iraq war where more American soldiers have died in Iraq than Americans who died on 9/11. And the punchline is we were lied into Iraq under the pretense that there was a connection to 9/11…and there is none. Why are we doing this again?
READ MORE »What Laws are Natural and Which are Religion?
Over on Debunking Christianity, there’s an interesting article from a former devoted Christian: Debunking Christianity: Should Women Wear Hats in Church? in which he points up one of the many seeds of doubt the Bible itself implanted in him. I like this quote from it: (emphasis mine) It is an open secret of many “Bible [...]
READ MORE »On Neo-Con, Nixon, Dictatorship, and Torture
Well, to start with, here’s some info on scores of experienced military leaders criticising Rumsfield for bungling the war in Iraq and using deception to gain public support for it: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/25/iraq.democrats.ap/index.html And information that since April the administration has known that the Iraq war has created more terrorism threats and has made the West much [...]
READ MORE »The Banana Proves God? Pretty Fruity!
OK, this is just too funny just on its own: YouTube – Kirk Cameron And Bananas Hmm, so the “perfect” design of the banana proves Creationism and disproves naturalistic evolution. So, how does the pointy pineapple fit in this? Or the nearly impossible to open coconut? Or the annoying to eat kiwi fruit? Or have [...]
READ MORE »Voting machines HAVE put U.S. democracy at risk
CNN.com – Dobbs: Voting machines put U.S. democracy at risk – Sep 20, 2006 The problems with electronic voting aren’t necessarily new, yet we’re still not ready for the midterms. During the 2004 presidential election, one voting machine in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb reportedly added nearly 3,900 additional votes to Bush’s total. Officials caught the [...]
READ MORE »Political Corruption Update
Starting at the top, how’s this for disgusting irony? Yesterday bush admonished Syria at the U.N. for advocating torture. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/20/bush.ap/index.html Meanwhile, Canada on the same day officially confirms the U.S. government misled the Canadian government when they requested they hand an innocent Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, over to the CIA who then sent him to…Syria [...]
READ MORE »Theism vs. Naturalism (A Lesson in Logical Fallacies)
Holymoly. Discovered this debate between two young scholars over the existance of theism vs. naturalism. http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=8220615357 (You have to provide your e-mail address to download it and it subscribes you to a newsletter, but you can immediately unsubscribe.) The first speaker is the proponent for naturalism, and he’s a young and passionate kid. Comes off [...]
READ MORE »Jesus Camp — Scarier Than a Horror Movie
Just discovered this documentary yesterday. Scared the -beep- out of me! “Jesus Camp” – http://imdb.com/title/tt0486358/ It follows the events of an evangelical Christian kid’s camp in North Dakota. And in the trailer for the movie, it displays kids being brainwashed in charismatic evangelicalism. I watched it with chills and a deep pit opening in my [...]
READ MORE »Celebration of Carl Sagan, and the Cosmic Search
“We are unimportant to the universe, but by the uniqueness of our existance, we are clearly significant to each other.” (Paraphrased.) This is one of the ideas, concepts that Carl Sagan attempted to teach others. Lived his own life by. The opening essay of the latest podcast of “Point of Inquiry” is a personal description [...]
READ MORE »We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Geneva Convention
CNN.com – GOP split on tribunals likely to dominate Bush briefing – Sep 15, 2006 Ah bush, gotta love his hypocracy. “Uh, uh, we don’t torture! We don’t torture! Never have! But I really really want to. Please let me torture. We gotta torture! Pass this bill so we can torture. Meanwhile, we’ll just continue [...]
READ MORE »Coping Without Prayer
Some time ago I poster: Turning to God, Will It Happen? in which I ponder if in times of extreme anxiety I might revert to the emotional crutch and conditioned response of prayer asking for something. On that subject, “The Agnostic Mom” recently posted an article on the “Institute for Humanist Studies” the article: Agnostic [...]
READ MORE »WIPO Broadcast Treaty is a bad idea — Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It!
The blog for the “Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It” podcast had just posted this entry: WIPO Broadcast Treaty is a bad idea — Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It! This is horrible! This treaty that the US Congress is currently considering agreeing to is found here: http://www.eff.org/IP/WIPO/broadcasting_treaty/ and basically would give the broadcaster of content rights [...]
READ MORE »9/11 Special Comment – Keith Olbermann
This is fantastic: YouTube – 9/11 Special Comment – Keith Olbermann Listening to his commentary, it’s just incredible. I mean, range from angry, anguished, saddened, just, plain emotional and very thought provoking! Keith Olbermann is one of the few of the “mainstream” media with the guts to say it like it is.
READ MORE »Why Not Let People Believe Falsely?
This comic strip has become one of my new favorites! It’s one of the smartest, clever comics I’ve seen. And this one is pretty good: http://xkcd.com/c154.html (reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.) Oh yeah, the “SCIENCE!” t-shirt is great! http://xkcd.com/store/ I so must get it. =)
READ MORE »God’s Love Exempllfied
This edition of Debunking Christianity ( http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2006/09/irreverent-musings-of-harry-mccall-and.html ) has several nuggets of the absurdity if religions’ ideas regarding God’s love and forgiveness. Below is just a few I liked most: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans “Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us” in heaven. (Romans 8:34, [...]
READ MORE »Charged With Making Terrorist Threats?!
Just came upon this article: CNN.com – Couple attacks reporter as camera rolls – Sep 7, 2006 Basically a couple being investigated for real estate fraud flips out and beats up on a news cameraman investigating them. A fight ensues and the poor cameraman gets beaten up pretty bad. Now, the guy being investigated, and [...]
READ MORE »Kindly Do Not Touch
The Box by Lascelles Abercrombie (1910) Once upon a time, in the land of Hush-A-Bye, Around about the wondrous days of yore, They came across a kind of box Bound up with chains and locked with locks And labeled “Kindly do not touch; it’s war.” A decree was issued round about, and all with a [...]
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