"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises." -Thomas Jefferson, 1808"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises." -Thomas Jefferson, 1808
Taking a quick break from serious posts for a minute (I do need to catch up on my “Atheist Meme of the Days”), and thought I’d post a few iPhone pics I’d taken of some crazy stuff I’ve seen in stores.
This one I call “The Nutcrackers of Dr. Moreau”
And here I have captioned: “I dance on the heads of my vanquished foes!”
This last one is a legitimate, serious, non-gag cat toy:
What is it, you may ask? Why, it’s a baby seal with it’s own wooden club. PETA would probably have a kaniption, but I think it’s hilarious! Moreso for it’s lack of intentional humor or irony.
Addendum: If it’s not too late, Facebook people: the original post is http://www.celticbear.com/weblog/2009/08/19/some-grey-bloke-jesus-and-me/ with the video that FB strips.
My apologies in advance: I think I’m going to be posting a few (hopefully not too long) blogs in succession to try to make up for the fact that I can’t blog from work any more, and school work (and the desire to not be on a computer after a day of work) after coming home have been preventing me from blogging like I used to.
BoingBoing has been following the issue of a new surge of British “fear everything” posters:
BoingBoing tends to have a lot of pretty funny people commenting in their site. I was just reading that Unreasonable Faith site I mentioned a post ago, and got a real chuckle out of his post: Irrefutable proof that Baal exists!, but then read the first comment left on it, and would have spewed soda through my nose should I have been drinking any. It’s the “delivery” that makes it real comedy.
The entire Salon article is filled with sad and hilarious humor (really, “surreal absurdity” is just the best phrase for it), but the snippet provided is enough to make you shake your head in both disgust and glee (this kind of cognitive dissonance must have a Newspeak term for it. That’d be doubleplusgood!)
Some good stuff is found in the comment, though. Like this ROTFL quip from commentor #2:
I mean, if the pilot is allowed to bring a knife onboard, he might somehow get control of the plane!
On a serious note is this astute observation from #23:
OK, here’s the problem, years ago the corporations… I mean uh… people who run this country decided that they should fund education just enough to turn out people who can blindly regurgitate simple sets of knowledge and can perform tasks without questioning them. In other words, with complete absence of free thought. Now we are beholden to this army of idiots to run our lives. This is the end, people. Time to jump ship.
And because I’m a huge Philip K. Dick fan, I have to repeat this comment from commentor #12:
Whenever I hear stories like this, I’m always reminded of this line from the first chapter of VALIS by Philip K. Dick:
“[Fat] heard in her rational tone the harp of nihilism, the twang of the void. He was not dealing with a person; he had a reflex-arc thing at the other end of the phone line.”
the pilot couldn’t even get the TSA robot to share a bit of humanity in observing the absurdity of the situation – “It’s not a dumb rule.”
Well, quite a few heady posts there lately–but, well, guess that’s what happens when one’s Constitution is torn up before your eyes. Lemme tell you something I found humorous today:
I was getting ready for work and flipping channels I found one showing the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” (A new one is in the works, staring Keanu Reeves…and you know what? I actually think he could pull it off.) Klaatu (who’s a human looking alien, by the way, if you don’t know) has been analyzed by military doctors, and two of them are discussing how Klaatu 78 but looks 38, all dejectedly. One complains that he feels like a “3rd rate witch doctor” (do witch doctors have rates?) Another doctor comes in mystified that a bullet wound in his arm has healed completely after a day of being treated with a salve Klaatu provided. He mutters that he’s going to get it analyzed, and wonders if he should just give up medicine. Then the other two doctors light up inside the office.
I’m thinking any doctor, anybody engaged in the sciences, when faced with such amazing discovery, if they mutter and grumble “oh dear, how advanced this is, woe is me for being primitive,” have no right being a scientist. Or human for that matter. When faced with amazing discovery and mystery, a truly inquisitive and skeptical and science minded person should revel in the opportunity to investigate and learn and experience! Shame on fictional grumbling doctors!
It was amusing to see the doctors smoking, and in their office foyer. Ah, a simpler age. Reminded me of Dr. Cottle from the new Battlestar Galactica.
Be sure to follow the link to the source site to see an even better sample of Pulp Fiction as written by Shakespeare. I was literally in pain from giggling reading it.
Richard Dawkins is just the coolest!
(Author of such books as The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion.)
Here is a video (22 min long) of his talk at TED a couple of years ago where he discusses just how fantastically weird the universe is, because of the way our brains have evolved to apprehend our universe in a way that assists our survival:
Next is a very short clip (1min20sec) of his response to someone who asks Pascal’s Wager:
Finally, an also brief (2min25sec) clip of astronomer and educator Neil deGrasse Tyson admonishing Dawkins (and rightly so) for perhaps alienating people he could be helping bring to rational thought and science, due to his caustic nature:
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