It is very hard for me to imagine that Guinness cupcakes could be anything but super yummy. Make me some–I’ll be your friend. While we’re talking about food, I’ve got to say that enough is enough. I consider myself at least something of an epicure, so I believe that there are such things as quality olive oils, that some vinegars… Read more →
Tag: religion
The correct answer is 7 (or “God did it”).
The ass hamsters are at it again, this time in Oklahoma, where House Bill 2211 has just passed the state House of Representatives. If you don’t want to read the Bill, here’s the summary from the Edmond Sun: The bill requires public schools to guarantee students the right to express their religious viewpoints in a public forum, in class, in… Read more →
This stuff is deadly and it is spreading
You are about to hear Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (sallykern@okhouse.gov) speaking when she thought that only 50 highly-targeted people were listening. Every time I start feeling good about humanity, something like this comes along to remind me that we’re basically ten minutes away from hitting each other with sticks. How can people this hateful still manage to exist in… Read more →
Hypocrisy, cynicism, and (of course) religion.
Here’s an example of the difference between someone with an optimistic outlook, and a cynic like me. It’s pretty easy to imagine someone reading this news story: Vatican recants with a statue of Galileo Four hundred years after it put Galileo on trial for heresy the Vatican is to complete its rehabilitation of the great scientist by erecting a statue… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Peter Watts
“But going after the Scientologists in a world full of Christians, Muslims, and Trekkies is like surveying a world ravaged by AIDS and devoting yourself to the eradication of the hangnail.” —Peter Watts Read more →
OK, You have to admit, that’s pretty damn funny
Jerry O’Connell’s message Read more →
Religion Bashing For Thursday
OK, let’s close some tabs. First off, let’s start with our old friend, the head Inquisitioner, Pope Benedict. It appears he’s been a naughty fellow. A BBC documentary has exposed that Pope Benedict XVI, aka Cardinal Ratzinger, played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In 2001, while he was a cardinal,… Read more →
Even More Things I Did Not Know
Science has brought us a permanent, but easily-removable, tattooing ink. Does this change the metatext of tattooing? I mean, the pain is still there, but if the permanence isn’t part of the subtext anymore, what does that mean for the story? Is it to obvious to predict the rise of a serial-tattooing culture, or a rift between the permanents and… Read more →
My Country Embarrasses Me
For years now I’ve been known to laughingly comment on the fact that you hear all these wacko religious groups opposing Harry Potter, but you never hear anything about groups opposing Pullman‘s His Dark Materials–a series that is also marketed as YA, and that sells if not Rowlingesque numbers, at least very impressive numbers. This is an especially amusing discrepancy… Read more →
A Litigious Society (is occasionally a plus)
I believe my thoughts on Fred Phelps and his hateful clan are on record. So, you can probably understand why I’m going to sit on my normal rant about ridiculous jury awards in America, and just enjoy this bit of news: Jury awards father $11M in funeral case By ALEX DOMINGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 31, 6:23 PM ET… Read more →
Quote of the Day: Peter Watts
And the audience was pretty damn appreciative, even if some of them had already heard my comparison of God to an invisible purple hamster who lives up my butt and tells me what to do. (source) Read more →
Bertrand Russell Essays
For your edification tonight, I present three essays by old Bertie, in audio form. A couple of hours of listening that might expand your mind. (It’s not him doing the reading–his voice, which I may share with you later–was not nearly as appealing as this reader’s.) The essays are: What I Believe: This is the big one–Russell outlines what he… Read more →
Miscellany: Your lab fees at work.
For a long time now I’ve been asking to be cremated and buried or scattered, rather than being embalmed and buried whole. This is primarily because I find the whole embalming thing a bit icky and unnatural, and secondarily because as an engineer I realize that the conventional burial model doesn’t scale with geometrically expanding population. However, I think I’ve… Read more →
Apparently I need to move back to Ontario…
… just to slap argue some sense into some people. Look at this: Creationism raised as Ont. election issue TORONTO — Publicly-funded religious schools would be allowed to teach creationism and other theories, says Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory. Speaking to reporters at the a Jewish day school in Thornhill, Ont., on Wednesday, Mr. Tory defended his plan to bring… Read more →
Good Friday, Part 5
Here’s some irony for you: an article about Fred Phelps cheered me up today. If you don’t know who Fred Phelps is, you can do a little Googling. If I were feeling really snarky, I would list some quotes from Phelp’s church to illustrate the beauty and majesty of religion, but I’d feel dirty linking to him, or his charmingly… Read more →
