Just a whisper in the wind

Tim Minchin

2010-07-20T22:31:00.001+01:00

Government responds to petition against 'homophobic' Pope's visit

2010-07-15T16:57:00.002+01:00

The British government is, of course, ignoring all the important points of a petition.

Speaking to PinkNews.co.uk, Mr Tatchell complained that Downing Street had agreed to keep the petition open until October but had "unilaterally declared it closed on June 6th".

He added: "The government's response ignores all of the issues raised in the petition apart from the cost of the visit.

"It has nothing to say about concerns expressed on women's reproductive rights, gay equality and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV.

"In particular, it ignores the Pope's collusion with anti-Semitism by his rehabilitation of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson and his plan to make a saint of Hitler's Pope Pius XII.

"Amazingly, there is not a word in the government's response about the child sex abuse scandal and the Pope's role in its cover up."

Wonderful, right?

Here's a link to the 'Protest The Pope' official website, which I have joined.

I intend to take part in the protests if I can afford to get to them. If not, I shall have to make do with a big sign in one of my front windows.

Mel Gibson and his fans

2010-07-13T15:50:00.004+01:00

Brilliant, another man who think's it's the victim's fault if she gets raped. This man is an asshole. We got a good idea of that with his last drunken rant, this just confirms it. Little wonder his agent has dropped him.
- Me

@whisperelmwood I'm sure he's not so stupid. He's saying he run to advise her (in his most momentarily frustrated frame of mind) if she attracted the wrong kind of attention and gets raped.

Teasing men is simply cruel. Doing it in front of your man is to disregard him. What redeeming qualities do you really need to defend in this woman? (Comment removed by moderators, but turned up in my email anyway)

@whisperelmwood you're a fool. You sound like a woman. (Comment removed by moderators, but turned up in my email anyway)

@whisperelmwood foolish words.

----

Yes, I am a woman. This has what baring on this? Other than perhaps my understanding how it feels to be treated like shit by an arrogant, racist and sexist man?

Mel Gibson is indeed stupid. He is racist, sexist, bigoted, arrogant and an asshole. He is not telling his ex-girlfriend any such thing as 'advice', he is purely, outright ranting his head off at her in the most disgusting way.

It is clear from his ranting that he does indeed think that if a woman dresses provocatively, she deserves it if she get's raped. That is disgusting, despicable. And no, no it is not her fault, EVER, if a woman get's raped. Dressing 'provocatively' or 'sexily' in no way should allow any man to touch her without her permission - if a woman wants to dress like that, fine, she's allowed and should not have to be scared of some asshole forcing himself on her because of it.

Dressing like that is in no way 'teasing' men and is in no way 'cruel'. If a man can't keep it in his pants, that is HIS problem, NOT hers.

Grow the fuck up.

Regards,
A woman pissed off at Mel Gibson's fans' attempt's to excuse his sexism and racism.

Comment Moderation

2010-07-08T23:28:00.001+01:00

Sorry guys, I have to put moderation on for a bit, I've been getting nothing but porn-links in the comments section the past couple weeks. As soon as it's settled down, and they've pissed off to bug someone else, I'll take it off again.

Evolution Song

2010-07-08T00:37:00.000+01:00

Speaks for itself.

Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani

2010-07-06T12:59:00.003+01:00

Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani is a forty-three year old mother of two children, 16 & 20 year old respectively. Both Sakine's children and her lawyer tried everything they could to stop the stoning sentence, as a result of committing adultery. However, her stoning is finalized by the Iran's court. Sakine is in Tabriz prison awaiting her imminent stoning sentence.

I'm sure you've all heard about this by now, but here's the petition that is an attempt to repeal her sentence:

Stop Stoning [of] Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani

This is a vile and despicable act, being enforced by a medieval patriarchy on a helpless woman for a jumped up charge. Sign the petition, if you can do no more.

There is also a 'protest' taking place on the 11th of this month:

July 11: International Day Against Stoning

Stoning is execution by torture, an act of sheer barbarism and a hideous crime against humanity. Stoning is practised by Islamic governments and groups imposing the Islamic Sharia law. Hundreds of women and men have been killed, or are awaiting death, in this gruesome way.

Such savagery and barbarism must not be tolerated. Stopping stoning must be a priority for all humanitarian organizations and individuals throughout the world. We must put an end to this barbaric act once and for all.

Offical Stop Stoning Now website.

To show your condemnation against stoning and support for Sakine, during the week of 5-11 July, take stones to your city centres, universities, media outlets, workplaces… and put them in a public place, with a message in support of Sakine and against stoning and executions.

'Virginity Spot Test'

2010-07-05T20:29:00.002+01:00

Oh now what the hell is this?

Convicted Rapists Go Free After Acupuncturist's Absurd "Virginity Test"

In Vietnam, acupuncturist Pham Thi Hong has announced the existence of a virginity spot, a small red spot that she alleges male virgins have on the back of their ears, which disappear after engaging in sexual intercourse with a woman. Her outrageous claims and vehement insistence that three men convicted of gang rape were innocent because they possessed a virginity spot led Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to reopen the case. The men convicted of gang rape were then released.

What. The. Fuck.

Right. Let's just hand over the judicial system of every fuckin' country to the Woomiesters! Them and their utterly wondrous wooey powers will SAVE US ALL.

Because NO-ONE is going to try and use these stupid fucks and their stupid fucking woo to fuck with the system at all, are they?

Ass holes. Stupid fucking, stuck up their own asses, assholes.

Muslim's attack lecturer

2010-07-05T19:39:00.002+01:00

Alleging blasphemy, fanatics hack [off] lecturer's hand

In a truly surprising turn of events - I joke - a Lecturer accused of blasphemy has had his hand lopped off in an attack by Fundie Muslim's.

In a horrific instance of Talibanism, Muslim fanatics in Kerala on Sunday chopped off the right hand of a college lecturer, accusing him of setting a question paper with a derogatory reference to the Prophet.

Lecturer T J Joseph was returning home from church with his mother and sister around 8.30 am in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district when he was accosted by the attackers. "We had just got into our car when a van pulled up in front. Around eight people armed with swords and knives emerged and pulled out Joseph after smashing the windscreen.
They then chopped off his right hand and stabbed him in the left thigh," said Joseph's sister, Mary Stella, a nun.

Such a wonderful and adult way to react to someone making an alleged derogatory comment about ones diety!

And they wonder why people are so pissed off with them. Assholes.

Homeopathy; a load of piss

2010-07-05T19:34:00.001+01:00

And oldy, but a goody.

Paradolia

2010-07-05T16:57:00.003+01:00

Or Pariedolia, whichever spelling you prefer.

Daily Mail has today preinted any article showcasing some examples of Jesus appearing in random stains and objects! So much fun!

Face of Jesus seen from the heavens by internet fan using Google Earth

My own paradolia has given me these reults for each image:

The fields: Hitler (rather effemenite, but still Hitler!)

Pipe stain: The face of David

Iron: Darwin

Bottle: Disney version of Zeus

Marmite lid: John Lennon

Frying pan: This is the only one that looks like the westernised version (albiet a little longer/horsier in the face) of Jesus - though I'm also seeing Mona Lisa!

What do you guys see in these images?

The bastards are suing Quackwatch

2010-07-05T00:49:00.002+01:00

Doctor's Data, a laboratory that caters to chelation therapists and other offbeat practitioners, has sued [Quackwatch's Stephen Barrett, M.D.]

On June 18th, Doctor's Data filed suit against me, the National Council Against Health Fraud, Inc., Quackwatch, Inc., and Consumer Health Digest, accusing us of restraint of trade; trademark dilution; business libel; tortious interference with existing and potential business relationships; fraud or intentional misrepresetation; and violating federal and state laws against deceptive trade practices. (On June 29th, Consumer Health Digest was dropped as a defendant.) The complaint asks for more than $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The suit objects to seven articles on my Web sites:

How the Urine Toxic Metals Test Is Used to Defraud Patients
CARE Clinics, Doctor's Data, Sued for Fraud
Be Wary of CARE Clinics and the Center for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (CASD)
Three brief articles in Consumer Health Digest:
Slate article blasts the urine toxic metals test
Shady clinic and lab under legal assault
"Autism specialists" sued

Laboratories Doing Nonstandard Laboratory Tests

Quackwatch is a great site, one I frequent regularly, and this is frustrating as hell both for Dr. Barrett and for his fellows and followers. As Pharyngula has stated, it's going to be an interesting thing to watch, but also a bit ironic, because it's just going to make the fact that Doctor's Data are a fraud far more widely known.

There's a link to help with the legal funding (badly needed I should think) so if you can spare some money and are inclined to do so, go make a donation: Donate to Quackwatch

London Gay Pride

2010-07-04T16:08:00.004+01:00

photograph from Guardian

I hope everyone who managed to attend the London Pride 40th anniversay event yesterday enjoyed themselves!

One of these days, I intend to attend one myself - just gotta get the time, the money to get there and the perfect outfit XD

London Pride Offical Site

Thousands march with Pride across London

'Million' take part in London's Pride celebrations

In pictures: London's Pride 2010 celebrations

The annual London Gay Pride parade

Pride 2010: From section 28 to Home Office float, Tories come out in force

Young muslim actress attacked by family

2010-07-04T15:42:00.004+01:00

In something of a shocker - alright, I'm lying - a young female Muslim actress has been attacked by her father and brother. It is surmised as a result of her dating a Hindu man.

Afshan Azad's Family Tries To KILL Her: 'Harry Potter' Star's Brother & Father Attack

It seem's her brother actually managed to harm her, as he is being charged with ABH (Actual Bodily Harm), while her father is being charged with threatening to kill her.

I do wonder if this would have been reported on at all, if the girl wasn't from the Harry Potter films. I hope she recovers well, though and doesn't let this shameful act get her down.

[Edit]

Here is a further article on the attack:

Dad charged over threat to kill Harry Potter star.

She was allegedly attacked at her home in Longsight, Manchester, on May 21 this year.

Now her father Abdul Azad, 54, and brother, Ashraf Azad, 28, both of Beresford Road, Longsight, have appeared in court.

Abdul is accused of threatening to kill his daughter and Ashraf of threatening to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against his sister.

Both men appeared at Manchester magistrates court and the case was adjourned until later this month for committal proceedings to crown court.

And another, which mentions that her father and brother are both out on bail, until their next court appearance on the 12th.

Afshan Azad Harry Potter Star Attacked by her Family

The two appeared on a Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, and have been released on bail. They are due back in court on July 12.

I find myself hoping she is being adequately looked after while those two are free.

'Freedom of Worship'

2010-07-04T14:56:00.004+01:00

This man is SO FAR up his own ass, I don't know where to start.

"For those with ears to hear in Gaston Hall that day, the promotion of the so-called LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/ transgendered) agenda had just been declared a human rights priority of the United States, in the same sentence in which the secretary of state had offered an anorexic description of religious freedom that even the Saudis could accept."

pberiault

And a comment on the video caught my eye:

This is not about equality because homosexuals already have that. It is about trying to get attention and have others be force to say what they are doing is okay. We don't have to do this. Why would we? What they do is dangerous even to themselves. Homosexuality is linked to sexual abuse of minors, more so than any other activity. So it is not discrimination to say that homosexual practices are a negative to our society.

My response is pending approval:

The LGBT community does NOT have equal rights yet. I can't believe you are also linking homosexuality to pedophilia! That is such an erroneous claim, with zero evidence to back it up! Yes it IS discrimination to claim LGBT is a negative to our society, it is discrimination and bigotry and pure hate speech based on nothing but homophobia from the religious masses.

YouTube's comment boxes have severely limited text availability these days, you can barely talk to someone on that forum, let alone argue with them. I wonder if my commet will even get through the moderation.

[Edit]

Another comment that caught my eye:

No, it's not that simple. Part of the so-called "gay agenda," for example, is to use our public schools to try to convince children that homosexuality is normal and acceptable: this is not equal treatment, it's propaganda. Further, the "gay agenda" in my state, WA, includes SPECIAL rights for gays that NO OTHER group gets: the right to "express" characteristics of your minority status without fear of discrimination at work or in housing. That is not equal at all.

pudgenet

And my reply, currently pending approval:

Homosexuality IS normal and IS acceptable. These 'gay agenda' things you complain about would not be needed in a truly equal world, LGBT people would be able to express themselves without fear of reprisal - which they currently do, hence the need for these rights being put in place, they are there to protect them from the types of homophobics that react violently or in discriminatory ways! You're right that it's not equal, but not in the way you obviously assume.

Belgian Police investigate witness death threats

2010-07-04T14:32:00.003+01:00

And isn't this just the icing on the damn cake?

Belgian child sex abuse police probe death threats.

Police investigating claims of child abuse by Belgian clergy have told the BBC they are probing death threats against witnesses and magistrates...

...Jean Marc Meillure, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office, confirmed that an investigation was under way.

"There are some threats against certain people around the case, and the prosecutors office is investigating that," he told the BBC.

He said the threats had been made against people who gave the authorities information or made a complaint, or against some magistrates.

I wish the authorities over here and in Ireland would be as stringent as the Belgian Police. It looks to me like they've got them running scared over the whole thing, if they're now also having to investigate bloody death threats to the people involved.

UK and US authorities? Take a cue from the Belgian authorities and do the bloody job right.

Buffy vs Edward

2010-07-02T00:26:00.005+01:00

In this re-imagined narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy's eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed - in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.

I read the first book in the Twilight saga - it didn't take long, I wanted to get it over with asap - and found it to be one of the worst written, Mary-Sue, Self-Insert pieces of shite I've ever read. And that was quite apart from the apalling gender stereotyping!

Not only is Bella the girliest girl of all girls that ever there were, she is also the stereotypical 'damsel in distress' and plays it up to staggering hieghts at all times. She's also (as far as I can tell, unintentionally on the part of Meyer) callous, selfish, bratty and arrogant. And for some reason, she's also the heart-throb of the new school she starts at, despite the fact that she dumps every suitor on the way-side the moment she realises Edward is 'cool'.

And, as if Meyer was fishing for some character flaw (that was intended, rather than accidental, and an apparent attempt to make Bella three-dimensional), she's also the clumsiest character I've ever read. Oh - and to top off the vampire 'romance', she's also so scared of blood, she faints at the mere thought of the sight of a pin-prick amount.

Edward is no better. He's downright creepy. He's 107 years old, for goodness sake! 107 and apparently lusting after a seventeen year old! So lusting after her, in fact, that he spends his nights - apparently vampires in Meyer's world don't sleep - watching her sleep. He's big and burly and oh so dreamy (blech) - I mean emotional, when he's not being terribly victorian and reserved. He's also possessive, aggressive and downright condescending.

What the hell, Meyer, were you thinking when you decided the vampires in your world glitter, by the way?

I tried to read the second book and literally gave up after about three pages. Bella had gone from bratty, self-absorbed, damsel-in-distress to suicidal, (I'm turning eighteen! I'm getting old! I'll look older than Edward! PLEASE BITE ME!) bratty, self-absorbed damsel-in-distress. Ugh.

This video just makes me insanely happy.

[Edit - an explanation of the video can be found here: WIMN's Voices ]

Children's Drawings

2010-06-30T21:10:00.002+01:00

I found this post today: Children's Drawings Brought To Life and me being the person that I am, I first marvelled at the ingenuity behind translating these children's images into semi-real life, and then went on to marvel at the drawings themselves.

These images are clearly drawn by east-asian - I'm guessing Japanese - children, but if you look at them, they look exactly the same as any image drawn by any child in the 1st world nations. I say the first world, but I have my suspiscions that the style and content of these images would change only superficially between the various nations of our world.

I'm left contemplating if the drawings mark a means of identifying psychological development of the children - is it a universal thing, for instance? Is it dependant on age and gender? Does the wealth of the nation they are brought up in play any part?

I'm pretty damn sure these questions - and more - have been researched, so I think I'm going to go have a look and see what I can find.

Vatican-sex abuse - further news

2010-06-30T14:46:00.002+01:00

I blogged about this same case previously, but I was scouting and found another article on the subject.

Supreme Court rejects Vatican appeal in sex abuse case

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to consider whether the Vatican has legal immunity over the sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States, allowing a lawsuit filed in 2002 to go forward.

This article goes a little more in depth and even highlights the point that the Vatican now has no claims of immunity on the subject. Which is as it should be. I find it deplorable that they have to take the 'employer' route to even get this to court in the first place - but if this is a loop-hole that works, then I hope they exploit it to the fullest.

Jesus and the 'personal relationship'

2010-06-30T14:37:00.002+01:00

Came across this blogpost: You Do Not Have a Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ over at Atheist Revolution blogs.

It is unlikely that Jesus ever existed as a historical person as described in the Christian bible. But even if there was compelling evidence to support the historicity of Jesus, he would have died over 2,000 years ago.
There is only one way an individual can meaningfully be said to have a personal relationship with a deceased person.
The "personal relationship" you have is fundamentally a relationship you have with yourself.

It's a good read, and while short and to the point, it covers some of the bases admirably well. You should pop on over and give it a read.

Homeopathy again

2010-06-30T14:01:00.002+01:00

I always get myself into these discussions. From a comment thread on FaceBook.

ARGH! They're talking about Homeopathy on The Wright Stuff, and 2 of them are defending it, saying it's helped them or people they know! IT'S FUCKING WATER.
A.K

Homeopathy might not work it's self but the human brain is an amazing thing. If people believe it will work then it might just work for them not because of their 'magic water' but because of their brain is telling them it is. The placebo effect has been scientifically proven in studies to aid patient recovery. I think of it like religion; they can believe whatever they want if it helps them so long as it doesn't hurt anyone and they don't try and make me believe it too. :p
K.O

K - the problem with Homeopathy is that it doesn't JUST play on placebo - it's not that simple. Homeopaths have a bad habit of getting their patients into woolly thinking, getting them round to stopping taking real medication, stopping seeing real doctors and so on. And further, they prey on the gullible, the desperate and the hypochondriachs, taking as much money from these people as they can while feeding them on false hope and magic.

Placebo and Nocebo effects are of course well documented and constantly being studied - but using that as an excuse to say 'oh well, homeopathy doesn't cause harm, so why not let them keep at it?' is a patently absurd way to think. Even not taking into account the individual concerns, there is the sheer cost of homeopathy - which is one of the main reasons I'm so happy they are being kicked out of the NHS, the amount of money spent on this sham could have been better spent elsewhere, and hopefully now will be!

http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html
Me

If they're using it alone then yes, it's pretty stupid but then that's natural selection in action. What's the problem? The world could do with less idiots if you ask me. I don't see any problem with letting someone do whatever they want with a bit of water if they're taking their proper medication at the same time. I didn't realise it was offered on the NHS but then again they offer a lot of other forms of alternative medicines now, I think I even saw a flyer offering aromatherapy in the doctors the other week.
K.O

'Natural selection in action'? Seriously? Desperate people shouldn't be kicked the wayside like that, with such a callous non-thought. Most of the people in the link are CHILDREN, being harmed and or dieing because their parents are the woo-miesters, making conscious choices to stop giving their children the medication they need.

It is not as simple as 'idiots' either - there are plenty of perfectly intelligent people who have simply been blinded by the pseudoscience, their illnesses, their desperation or simply not had the chance to read the real research on the matter.

To just ignore them with 'natural selection' comments is - for wont of a better term - abhorent. Getting Homeopathy off the NHS, getting it removed from acreditted listings, getting the word actually out there that homeopathy is a load of shite, is what needs to be done. Not ignore it and leave the gullible and ignorant to suffer, because, hell, why should we care? It's natural selection, right?

Yes, there are a lot of CAM on the NHS, but this step of getting rid of Homeopathy is hopefulyl the first step in getting the rest removed. Chiropracty is also being examined - and hopefully that will be next.
Me

US republican senate nominee rules out abortion even for rape and incest.

2010-06-30T12:27:00.004+01:00

Sharron Angle made some comments on the Bill Manders show.

I confess myself not in the least bit surprised by this news. Though it does disgust me - and make me pity you guys across the pond for having to put up with this sort of shit.

Here's a transcript:

Manders: I, too, am pro life but I'm also pro choice, do you understand what I mean when I say that.
Angle: I'm pro responsible choice. There is choice to abstain, choice to do contraception. There are all kind of good choices.

Manders: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

Angle: Not in my book.
Manders: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

Angle: You know, I'm a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

The audio can be found here, on the HuffPost article: 'God has a plan'

This is truly disgusting - I've blogged about this sort of thing before, so I'm sure anyone who's read my previous comments will know how I feel about just such a subject.

Hopefully her truly hard-line tendencies will cause her great problems in furthering her career, but after watching US Politics, I have my doubts.

Did Jesus actually die on a cross? Do I care?

2010-06-30T12:08:00.004+01:00

Little Evidence Jesus Died on a Cross, Says Scholar

The crucifix is the defining symbol of Christianity, a constant reminder to the faithful of the sacrifice and suffering endured by Jesus Christ for humanity. But an extensive study of ancient texts by a Swedish pastor and academic has revealed that Jesus may not have died on a cross, but instead been put to death on another gruesome execution device.

Well, this Pastor, Gunnar Samuelsson, has his doubts. He's taken three or so years of his life, studied as many texts as he could get his hands on, from about 800BC to the end of the second century AD and he has his suspicions that Jesus died in some other cruel way.

"If you search for ancient texts that specifically mention the act of crucifixion [as we understand it today]" he says, "you will end up with only two or three examples."

Not of course that it makes any difference to anyone how this supposed god-man died -

(I'm sure someone named Jesus, who was a great philosopher/teacher of his times, or even someone named Jesus who tried to start a new sect of the religion he was brought up under, did actually die - but so what? That is not proof that he actually was a 'son of god', it's simply proof that he was careless and got himself killed for his troubles.)

- at least not to me or I'm sure my fellow atheists, but it has apparently caused a bit of an uproar in theistic circles. Unsurprisingly, really.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Samuelsson's thesis has caused something of an unheavenly row. While fellow theologians have complimented his highly detailed research, many critics in the blogosphere have claimed that he wants to undermine Christianity.

While I find this article an interesting read, I find it neither adds nor subtracts anything from the issue as a whole. Discussing how, where or when a man named Jesus died is - at least to me - patently ridiculous if the central issue of whether or not that man actually was the 'Son of God' has yet to be proven.

Basically, what's the point? There is no evidence that this Jesus was anything other than an ordinary man, and there is no evidence that what is described in the Bible is anything more than pretty stories (and horrific stories) and an awful lot of badly written prose.

Until they get their fingers out and actually come up with some real evidence to prove their deity actually exists, I see little point in talking about the minutea of the religion.

Relocate Religious Books month!

2010-06-29T20:06:00.002+01:00

If you didn't already know, Relocate Religious Books month starts on July 1st!

Here's the link to the FaceBook event: Relocate Religious Books month and a little blurb from them about it:

Visit your local library and move as many Bibles, Korans, Books of Mormon, etc., to the Fiction section or to the Mythology section as you can!

I intend to do this whenever I visit a local bookshop or library (despite the fact that I tend to buy my books, rather than borrow them!)

Court lets Vatican-sex abuse lawsuit move forward

2010-06-29T19:56:00.003+01:00

It's nice to see that some people are actually taking this seriously:

'A lawsuit against the Vatican that had been dismissed as a publicity stunt moved forward when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Holy See.'

It certainly sounds to me like the Vatican knew what was going on with the particular abuse in question, as they simply moved the abuser around, from Armagh in Ireland to Chicago and then on again to Portland, each move precipitated by reports of abuse.

Hopefully this case will get to go the whole hog, even if the man who committed the crime is dead, the Vatican needs to stand up and admit it was in the wrong to simply move this man around so he could continue to abuse children.

Well now...

2010-06-29T18:40:00.003+01:00

It certainly has been a long time since I last actually posted in this blog, but a little incentive was really all I needed.

I've missed blogging about all the Catholic/Pedophilia business, so I may make a couple posts about that.

I think I've missed a lot of thigns in the news actually - so keep an eye open for some more posts on various subjects in the headlines.

And I have a small project of sorts that I wanted to do, so I'll start posting that as well soon.

I suppose this post is really just to tell y'all that I shall begin posting again on a semi-regular basis from now on XD

Sorry I've been away!

Draw Mohammed Day

2010-05-20T11:59:00.002+01:00

For the first annual Draw Mohammed Day.

Westboro Baptist Church posters?

2009-10-05T20:58:00.000+01:00

I asked the below question a couple days ago on this new site I frequent.

So. At work today, I found a bunch of hand copied versions of the Westboro's 'God hates fags' and 'Dyke Liberty' and 'Thank God for dead soldiers' posters. Copied by a kid of 16 and posted around for anyone to see.

Spotting them, I was offended and disturbed. So I left a note for the person in charge, letting them know that these poster were there, where they had been copied from, and that I found them offensive. I was disturbed by the fact that this kid obviously had access to the godhatesfags website, a website I find to be abhorrant - and in fact, apparently liked it enough to emulate it.

Of course - I admit that I don't know precisely why these posters had been copied. It could all be innocent - for example, they could have been copying them out for a project about hate groups or fundamentalism. But I err on the side of caution - I don't think the kid should go unchallenbged about this.

How does this make you feel? That a 16 year old kid has seen these posters and (possibly) liked them enough to copy them and hang them around? Would you have told the person in charge about it? Or ignored it? Do you think I did the right thing?

Returning to work today, I was pleased to be told that the kid in question had been spoken to. Turn's out they covered the Westboro's in a Religious Studies class last week, and the kid had thought the posters amusing.

It was described to me as 'one of those things' teenagers get up to. But the kid had been talked to and reminded that the posters are not something one should be emulating. (Apparently they had been told in class that anything to do with the Westboro's should be kept in class.)

Now - I'm still a little shocked by the kids actions. Yes, it turns out it was simply a bit of 'fun' on the kids part, related to an RS class. But the fact the kid finds it 'fun' is what is shocking to me. 16 years old is young, certainly, but old enough to realise that things like the posters the Westboro's churn out are hateful, derogatory, just plain nasty and hurtful.

I despair. But I hope the kid has learnt the lesson.

Either way, it's a better end to the little episode than I had worried about.

Westboro Baptist Children

2009-10-05T20:32:00.000+01:00

That's just a depressing video to watch. The way that family treats it's children is tantamount to - no, it IS child abuse. I often find myself wondering why nothing has been done about it.

Glenn Beck's Vitriol

2009-10-05T12:26:00.001+01:00

Glenn Beck - a flashback to 2001

Scary, scary man. And he's still, even now, allowed to soapbox on Fox.

Sunday Angel

2009-10-04T19:37:00.002+01:00

So numberless were those bad Angels,
Hovering on wing, under the cope of Hell

Milton, Paradise Lost, Plate 4 by Gustave Doré.

For your amusement!

2009-10-01T17:14:00.000+01:00

Love this. It's so terrible XD And yes, it's a piss-take.

Something to swear at ; Faux News caught red-handed

2009-09-30T12:51:00.001+01:00

Orly Taitz Part 02

2009-09-29T21:50:00.004+01:00

Judge to Orly Taitz: Why Shouldn't I Fine You $10k?

Orly Taitz

2009-09-29T21:42:00.001+01:00

So... need anything else to convince you she's a nut?

Gloria's parents finally sentenced.

2009-09-29T12:11:00.005+01:00

Parents jailed over baby's death

I blogged about baby Gloria, who died of treatable, though serious eczema in 2002, a couple months ago. Now, finally, her parents have been sentenced.

Her father, a Homeopath, was jailed for 6 years, yet still faces further trial (for allegedly threatening his lawyers). Her mother was jailed for four years.

They were both convicted of 'most serious case of manslaughter by criminal negligence', after the court was told Gloria died in screaming pain, from serious health problems that could have been prevented, and indeed, they had neglected to take her to hospital a number of times, despite appointments being booked.

It was noted that both parents were well educated and would have known their baby was in pain and very unwell. It was also noted that Gloria's parents lingered due to 'jet-lag', rather than immediately taking their daughter to hospital after returning from India.

---

What these people did to their daughter was disgusting. The poor baby was constantly screaming and crying, her skin broken and weeping, she was wasting away and in constant, constant pain. Yet, instead of taking the baby to hospital and getting her the treatment that would have saved her life, they repeatedly missed appointments, refused treatment and 'treated' her with homeopathic remedies instead.

These people should not be allowed to have further offspring and they should not be allowed anywhere near any child ever again. Ten and four years just doesn't seem enough for what they did.

Maybe now, some people will realise that homeopathy is a load of balls. When used instead of life-saving treatment, it leads to this.

Offensive and bigotted? You Has It.

2009-09-28T13:53:00.003+01:00

Atheists... do you feel sad when a loved one dies... heck, do you even attend to their funeral if that loved one was religious? Do you go to weddings? How do you get married, like I know you can get married, but I mean like is there some speaker/"priest"?

1) Do you feel sad when a loved one passes away? Will you miss that person... would you ever want to see that person again? (If not, then I think you're too full of logic?) 2) Would you attend t... 1) Do you feel sad when a loved one passes away? Will you miss that person... would you ever want to see that person again? (If not, then I think you're too full of logic?)

2) Would you attend to a loved one's funeral... if they were religious and they passed away? Would you cry at their funeral... thinking you will absolutely NEVER see them again. Ever. Or do you not love that person truly enough that you'd wish to see them or that you'd be depressed or sad about their death for a while or long time...?

3) Do you go to religious weddings (like friends' or a relative's?)?? I know you can, but I can just imagine what you'd be thinking when the priest is saying "We are here in the Presence Of God"... probably "There is no God..."... hmm?

4) How do you get married... I know anyone has the right to get married, but how does the speaker/"priest" talk? What does he/she say to make you hold your groom/bride's hand and to make you say "I Do/I will"?

5) If there truly is no God (according to your standard "belief"), no judgement, no reincarnation, nothing spiritual... wouldn't that give a seriously and really SUICIDAL person MORE "hopeful" reason to just kill himself/herself and never live again (in anyway: afterlife, etc.)...

Because I think that the "Suicide = hell" kinda scares others but sometimes it doesn't stop a suicidal person... but this question is like 1) somewhat... so answer! I don't care how much you say there is no God at all, my faith stands still and I am not asking these questions to disrespect you, I just want to know and kind of get you thinking about them.

Sometimes, this new site I've been palying on recently comes up with some humdingers, it really does. I'm sure this person didn't realise quite how horrifically ignorant, offensive and bigotted they were being when they wrote this.. but bloody hell...

After being told by half a dozen atheists within thirty minutes that it was offensive, she'd since closed the topic.

Sunday Angel - a day late

2009-09-28T13:17:00.009+01:00

Sorry - a bit busy yesterday, totally forgot to do this XD

For your enjoyment, I thought I'd share something from my area. This is Bath abbey, in Somerset, a building I have visited frequently since I was about eleven. On the right, you can just see the Roman Baths and the Pump Rooms.

Where are the angel's, you ask? Well, right here:

Yupp. They're climbing up and down the 'ladders' on either side of the abbey.

This rather extensive and detailed carving represents 'Jacob's Ladder' from the Book of Genesis (28:11–19).

Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to the place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it [or "beside him"] and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it." And he was afraid, and said, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

I've always rather loved the carvings on Bath abbey - which is why I'm sharing. If you ever get the chance to visit Bath, make sure you take some time to view the Abbey. Inside and out, it is a gorgeous representation of religious architecture and design.

Something confuse and amuse...

2009-09-23T15:31:00.003+01:00

In response to this (rather ignorant) question:

How do you explain how people came into existence? Or better yet....what caused the universe to be formed?

luda_belle13 said:

i believe everything sciencetific is a conspirecy!
with the technology we have how do we know its real?
i know, i know, the space shuttle landing and evryhting was so long ago, tech. is so much more advanced now, but how do we know that the gov't. not hiding something from us? maybe its been around for thousands of years and now they're finally sharing it with us?! noone knows. each generation eventually dies off so theres no actual proof.
with the bible, thats the only proof we have of god, jesus and even those years and centuries. . . they say that there was dinosaurs but why doesnt the bible tell us about them?... it was supposedly B.C. . . so it'd be before god right?. . . so how'd he create us? . . . what did.
i think that the way we came to be is just something everyone shouldnt worry about. just something to leave to the actual creator.
if your a christian. jew, catholic, atheist, scientologist... believe what you want. i think we will all find out some day. =]

And despite reading it several times, I'm still not sure what this comment is actually about...

Cosmic Ordering App

2009-09-21T15:44:00.002+01:00

image from DailyMail

Noel.. Noel.. I used to respect you. I used to rather like you. Admittedly, I was rather young, but still, I really did. (I hated Blobby, though, you can keep that great big pink.. thing.)

Obviously, this 'Cosmic Ordering' thing of his is nothing new to me, I first encountered it when he showcased some random doodles on his hands in his game-show 'Deal Or No-Deal' (loada crap, avoid it like the plague). The thing's started off this craze of attention - and in my cynicism, I feel the thing was more of a stunt to gain more viewers and screentime.

Here's what the cosmic Ordering website says about it:

Cosmic Ordering harnesses the power of positive thinking and the creative energy of our thoughts to manifest whatever we desire. There are no limits, you can ask for anything, a new love or a new house, money or wealth, health or healing... whatever you desire can be yours. The only demand is that you be positive, be open and be at ease, requesting your cosmic order without worry or attachment to the outcome.

Cosmic Ordering is the process of identifying something you want or need in your life and then simply placing the order with the cosmos by asking for it. Visualize what it is you want, lightly holding that request in your mind without worry or attachment to the outcome, and then releasing it to the the cosmos. The cosmic ordering service should then be left to fulfil your order in its own creative way. There are many theories about how it works, but the general consensus is that at some level we are all connected, our thoughts are creative and energetic and can communicate through the cosmic connections. Whether it is our own creative thoughts, or some other power that finally manifests our desires is a question for each individual and one of the wonderful mysteries of life. The important thing however is that it works. How often have you thought about someone you haven't been in contact with for a while and then shortly afterwards they contact you? Our thoughts are powerful and creative. Cosmic ordering is about harnessing that positive energy and using it to help realize our dreams.

Yeeaaaahhhh. This is rather reminding me of something else.. I think I wrote at least one blog post about it sometime earlier this year...

AH HAH! I found it.

There was this post I wrote on something similar, and then here's what I was actually thinking of:

The Universal Law Of Attraction

And:

The Secret

Eeyupp - there you go. It's all basically the same thing.

Anyway, what this post was supposed to be about, is that new App Noel's gone and created. Well, obviously Noel didn't actually create it, but he's put his name to it and is probably making a mint off've it. As these things go.

I'm a bit - ok, a lot - of a skeptic, but this thing just strikes me as a really obvious way to con money out of people. Especially considering the official Cosmic Ordering website has a FREE version of this available online.

Unfortunately this is only one of many weird religious/spiritual apps.

NHM & Loch Ness

2009-09-21T15:03:00.002+01:00

I laughed. Oh, how I laughed.

Natural History Museum takes punt on discovery of Loch Ness monster in extraordinary money deal with bookmaker

And it gets worse. Honestly.

The Natural History Museum will put the Loch Ness Monster on display in a deal negotiated with bookmaker William Hill.

The London museum secured rights to showcase Nessie's remains in return for verifying her existence according to documents from its archive.

In a deal struck in 1987, the bookmaker paid the museum a yearly stipend of £1,000 to guarantee that its experts would provide 'positive identification' should Nessie be found. The agreement also covered the Yeti.

See? SEE?

Oh, please keep going, go on.. more!

Mr Sharpe has confirmed William Hill continues to pay the retainer, which will have netted the institution at least £22,000 and counting.

Mr Sharpe said: 'We have maintained our relationship with the Natural History Museum and are delighted to do so.

'As we rely on the Met Office to rule on white Christmases, we are dependent on the museum to tell us whether any carcass that may emerge from the loch is a haddock, or a previously unknown creature from the deep.'

Oh, this is brilliant. You couldn't make this crap up.

A previous letter sent to museum staff in 1959 warned against taking part in monster hunts in case it 'damaged the institution's reputation'.

The letter read: 'The trustees wish it to be known that they do not approve of the spending of official time or leave on the so-called Loch Ness phenomenon.

'If, as a result of the activities of members of staff, the museum is involved in undesirable publicity, they will be gravely displeased.'

'Gravely displeased' - I like that. I really, really like that.

A spokeswoman for the museum claimed: 'I have spoken to some senior figures in the museum and they know nothing about a deal with William Hill.'

I am in no way surprised. What type of museum would admit to this sort of thing? Oh, right..

OHLORD this amuses me.

A designer I can admire

2009-09-21T14:47:00.003+01:00

Meet Fashion Designer Mr. Fast. Look at him. Memorise his face. This man is a designer I can admire (though not exactly for his designs...)

Mr. Fast actually went against the grain and used 'plus size' models in his show at London Fashion week!

He did actually mix them in with his 'size zero' models, but bloody hell, he actually used almost-normal sized girls for his catwalk show. I am amazed. This is like, the start of an era. Where people begin to realise that, actually, women don't all come one-size-fits-all-stick-insects!

It's something that has annoyed me for years - I'm on the curvy side myself, and almost all the women I have ever known have been exactly the same. The majority of the female population of the first world countries have big hips, rolly tummies, thick thighs, big bums and big boobs. That fashion designers still create outfits specifically for the stick-then, twig-like clothes-horses they call models, has been a mystery to me all through my teens and twenties.

So, seeing this step towards recognising that humans come in all shapes and sizes is rather nice. I hope they keep it up.

I mean, LOOK at the fabulous curves on these women. They have boobs, they have hips, they have bums and thighs. They look healthy and bright and comfortable - which is not something I ever get from the zero-size models, who, to me at least, all look ill - like, one step away from starving to death or something.

Keep it up Mr. Fast. You get this normal-sized woman's approval.

Discussing morals; Part 2

2009-09-21T11:47:00.001+01:00

First off, atheism is a religion, even if you do deny it.

Secondly just your royal high and mightyness saying my "anecdotal evidence" is discount does not phase me in the slightest.

Understand, I don't wish you any evil .. .. .. but honestly, anyone who
-- refuses to see the extant evidence of Intelligent Design, and
-- pretends there is no being higher than themself, and
-- that these short seventy to one hundred years make sense in light of eternity, and
-- insists the only meaning of one's existence is what they can accumulate, and what people will remember about them for a few years,
.. .. .. well, I don't understand why they even seek to live; I can't see that they have any purpose for existing. So, I just don't give any more credence to what they say, than their shallow hearts give me.

sorry

I'm shaking my head here. His post is depressing - and also off-topic. But never mind.

I ranted;

Atheism is not a religion. It has no holy days, there is no worship, there is nothing to worship, there are no commandments or laws, there are no leaders, no silly outfits or stupid hats, there are no set ways to BE an atheist - I could go on. Atheism is, as I say, very simply the lack of belief in a god/s/diety/higher being/power.

'Atheism can be either the rejection of theism, or the position that deities do not exist. In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities.'

It may not phase you, being told that your evidnece is nothing but anecdotal, that's fine, but you have to concede the point that it would be laughed out of the discussion by most people.

You 'don't wish me evil...but'? That sounds like you do. Ah well.

'Extant evidence for ID'? I don't 'refuse' to see it at all, because I can't refuse to see something that doesn't exist. There simply is NO evidence for ID. Everything ID proponents put forth is nothing more than bunkum. Seriously. 15 year old science students can debunk the 'evidence' for ID.

'Pretends there's no higher power'? Again, I can't pretend something doesn't exist, if it actually doesn't. There is no evidence to convince me that your god (which one is it by the way? From your comments, I'm guessing the biblegod?) is real - and most evidence given can be used to 'prove' ANY god you happen to choose, not just yours.

'Makes sense in light of eternity'? Pardon? I happen to believe that this is it. My life, seventy to a hundred years of it, is all there is. So I live it like that's all there is. I stop to admire the world around me, I take great joy in it. Just this morning, on my way home from work, I stopped and spent five minutes watching a Wolf Spider build its web. It was fascinating and glorious. I simply do not understand those people who think they will live on after death - what is the point in doing anything in this short period in a mortal body, if once dead, you can go on and do anything, go anywhere, know anything? Why not just let yourself die now and get to the next life as soon as possible?

'What they can accumulate / remembered for a few years'? I don't know where you're getting your opinions on how atheists live and think, but it's a load of crap. I don't care for material gains or accumulation of wealth - these things are helpful, but they are not the be-all-end-all of my life. My personal reason for living is to continue my bloodline and educate the next generations in my chosen speciality - I love to teach, I love to see my students learning and enjoying my subject, and if only one student in my life continues on in my subect, takes it to the next level, I will be happy, fulfilled. I will feel my life has been worth it.

Obviously, you have a very closed heart and mind. Your post is depressing, in it's lack of understanding and sheer close-mindedness. I do not accept your apology, because I do not beleive it to be sincere. Open your eyes and actually learn about the people around you, instead of pre-emptively forming an opinion and going through life ignoring anything and everything that contradicts it.

Discussing morals.

2009-09-20T23:43:00.004+01:00

Please excuse my typos, I was rather tired while taking part in this discussion.

It all started with this:

When did practicing morals become a bad thing?
In today's society, it seems that morality has been thrown out the window (in my honest opinion.) Now I know we are not all perfect, but it just seems to me that out of being politically correct, under the guise of having an "open mind." So many things that many of us were raised with an entirely different set of morals, which was not accepting of what was deemed bad behavior. When did that stop being the case?

I responded with:

On the one hand, I agree that things are not going well at the moment - but it has little to with religion (as a lot of your responders have so far stated) - it is more to do with upbringing. Here in the UK, I am daily confronted with parents who refuse to take responsibility for their children, who do not set good examples or who simply just do not care. This results in generations who do not recognise authority, have emotional-development problems and so on.

On the other hand, morality is a fluid meme. Thing's we consider wrong now, have in the past been considered perfectly normal - and the same goes in reverse. For example, Pederasty - the ancient Greeks found it perfectly normal for an adolescent boy to apprentice to an older man and often they would share bodies. (Though it's all a bit more complicated than that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... )

I find that those who prefer to foist responsibilities onto their chosen god/s are some of the least moral people around, as if, to them, they can do no wrong so long as they follow the letter of the law as written by their god/s. but of course, in a lot of instances, this is simply stupid.

As I said, morals themselves are fluid and always changing (mostly due to new circumstances and the group consensus) so I doubt they're actually being 'thrown out the window'. They're simply evolving and changing - though the very basics of morality (protection of self, family and 'tribe') will likely never change.

And the OPs response:

Well, I respect what you've said but I do disagree because as I've stated, those who were raised in the same era that I was know what I mean. We were raised with values that were accepted and reinforced by the community at large. Everyone knew what was expected and what was right and wrong and there was no "fluid" to it. I've discovered from a lot of answers on this poll so far that I'm too set in my ways to abandon the values I was raised with just to be on the side of political correctness. Thank you for participating in the poll.

I also responded to this response:

-- Right and Wrong
-- Good and Evil
-- Moral Obligation

These are concepts that have been mentally outlawed by those who identify themselves as Liberal/Progressive.

The reason is because these terms, spoken aloud, bring about thoughts of Courtesy, Self Control, Responsibility, Accountability,

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. and GOD.

Uh.... no.

Which probably wasn't the best way to start, but, well, that was my first reaction... but he responded, and it's turned into a bit of a discussion. Seriously, bear with me on the whole 'I'm knackered' thing.

You can claim "no," but you have a long way to go to convince anyone.

You see? Those who do not base their ethics on Concrete Moral Values can convince themselves that anything at all is morally acceptable.

I clinched an "A" in a College Ethics class with that position, under an Atheist Attorney Professor.

I am specifically disagreeing with this: 'The reason is because these terms, spoken aloud, bring about thoughts of Cou[r]tesy, Self Control, Responsibility, Accountability, and GOD.'

To put it bluntly, I disagree with your 'these terms are mentally outlawed' premise. Where is your proof that 'right, wrong, good, evil and moral obligation' have been 'mentally outlawed'? Also, where is your proof that they were specifally 'mentally outlawed' because of the specific reason you gave?

I am an atheist, as you may have guessed, and I have no problem with any of the so-called 'outlawed concepts'. I have absolutely no problem accepting my responsibilities and obligations as a member of the human race, and niether do any of my atheist aquaintances, friends and family. So your premise is proven false at the first step.

I certainly don't automatically think 'God' when I hear those concepts mentioned, by the way, and I seriously doubt many people do at all.

I and most, if not all, atheists, secular humanists and so on, DO have concrete morals and values - they just have nothing to do with the dictates handed down by various religions. I'm happy for you that you got that 'A', but it adds nothing to the conversation, except a jumped up feeling of superiority and authority on your part.

Okay, I corrected the typo.

My proof that 'right and wrong, good and evil, and moral obligation' have been 'mentally outlawed' is in the fact that so many Liberal/Progressives HIT THE CEILING when you bring them up, viciously attack, demean, denegrate .. .. .. and the vast majority of Liberal/Progressives are declared Atheists. They react in that manner because they take it as an attack on their religion.

The problem comes when your Ethics are self-defined. As I asssert, "Those who do not base their ethics on Concrete Moral Values can convince themselves that anything at all is morally acceptable."

Something being "acceptable" and/or "popular" in a society does not make it good or right. It simply means (if that which is made acceptable and/or popular is abberant) that society is corrupt.

First off, atheism is not a religion. (Why do I constantly find myself having to explain this to people?) Atheism is nothing more than a lack of belief in a god/s/deity/higher power. That's it. There is nothing religious about it, because the very definition of being atheist is that you don't have a religion.

Secondly, that's not proof, it's annecdotal evidence, and as such it counts for very little. Also, just because a percentage of people you have spoken to have reacted in a certain way, does not mean every single member of that group will do so. (For example, I have met some truly despicable christians - should I now tarnish all christians with the same brush?)

However, I didn't talk about 'society' and 'popular'. I spoke about people, without the aid of religion, having concrete values.

There are certain morals that are, when you get right down to it, biological. The need to protect ones offspring and immediate family, for example, which translates into the wider 'tribe'* - thus, through this need to protect ones offspring, family and 'tribe', we all have the concrete view that killing each other is 'wrong', that rape, theft, violence towards one another is all 'wrong'. It's obviously a bit more complicated than that, but these things are - for want of a better term - 'built in'.

Of course, there are those amongst us who override these 'built in' morals, and do commit despicable acts towards other members of their 'tribe' and even immediate familes.

But yes, some morals - the less 'built in' and more simply 'I dislike this' or 'to keep control of you, this is outlawed' type - do change. For example, (as I mentioned in another comment further up the page) the way people view Pedarasty has changed a great deal since Ancient Greek times. Back then, it was perfectly normal, if not encouraged, that an adolescent boy would apprentice to an older man and often share his body with him.

These days, not only is homosexulaity itself frowned on by a large percentage of the world, the very idea of a young boy entering into a relationship with an older man is viewed as morally wrong for a number of reasons (not least of which, is the age issue.) I personally have no problem with it, so long as the 'boy' is old enough and mature enough to understand what he is doing. But there are plenty out there who do not even agree with that.

Another example is the way women are treated now. It wasn't so long ago that women were frowned upon as morally corrupt for expressing an interest in sex, or who were condemned if pregnant out of wedlock.

In some places, of course, these ways of thinking are still true (in the middle east and certain countries in Africa, for example) and even now, there are women who remember (and will live the rest of their lives with the memories hanging over them) of being sent away and locked up, having their babies taken forcibly away from them and so on, because those in power believed it morally wrong for them to have gotten pregnant - not caring, of course, about whether it was an consensual-accident, or if it was rape that lead to the pregnancy.

The simple act of having sex out of wedlock is what, for the most part, lead to these women leading miserable lives. Now, of course, we see the way those women were treated, for the morally bankrupt and certainly wrong and even evil thing it was. And this was within the last one-hundred years!

*By tribe, I mean both the immediate tribe, that of the family and friends, as well as the wider tribe of race or nation or religious group, and also the whole human race. There are many permutations of this.

P.S. please excuse my typos, it's rather late where I am, and I'm rather tired.

Of course, this may not make any sense at all, or be terribly wrong in palces, and if so, I take full responsibility, because I've been doing Math homework all day, which means my brain is basically in overload and probably about to blow up, or something. So, if I got anything wrong? Point it out, and I'll probably throw a hissy fit and then edit.

Anyway, I'll likely update with his response at some point. Maybe tomorrow, when my head isn't spinning and trying to eat the light anymore.

Sunday Angel

2009-09-20T11:47:00.003+01:00

Beato Angelico, 'The Annunciation', circa 1438-45, San Marco Museum, Florence

Amazing standing broom!

2009-09-19T14:16:00.003+01:00

You know what? This amuses me. This amuses me a lot. They actually did a report on a well balanced broom. It amuses me even more that the store owner reckons that 'a little holy spirit' is behind it.

Is there nothing in this world that cannot be explained by 'little holy spirit['s]'?

When you watch this, be warned that your IQ may drop a little in a self defense.

Seriously?

2009-09-19T12:08:00.003+01:00

'Blox' by candydirect.com

Did no-one point out the problem with these things?

Seriously, people, do we want our kids thinking lego blocks are candy?

Derren Brown and The Lottery

2009-09-14T19:15:00.002+01:00

I'm still unsure of how he did it. I saw the wednesday clip live, and then watched his 'explanation' on Saturday.

I didn't believe a word of the 'pure math' explanation; Automatic writing? Using the Mean Average? My arse.

The 'Insider' explanation held a little more water with me, but still seemed a bit far fetched.

The 'Split Screen' idea that has been doing the rounds on the net seems, at least to me, to be the most plausible. Though a little dissapointing, considering this is Derren Brown we're talking about. Someone I highly admire, for his understanding of human psychology and abilities of manipulation.

Here's the link that explains the 'Split Screen' theory, if you want to read it.

I'll be watching the rest of the series with a critical eye, though the next episode looks to be thoroughly interesting.

As if the Catho's weren't bad enough...

2009-09-14T17:15:00.003+01:00

Child molester to become ordained minister

Mark Hourigan, convicted child molester (sexually abusing an 11 year old boy) is going to be ordained as a Minister in Kentucky.

Wonderful.

Hourigan has served his time and he has agreed not to have any contact with children as a condition of his probation, but his probation is over - and though he will be forever on the books as a sex-offender, he is no longer barred from contact with children.

In fact, as a minister, I should think he'll be in frequent contact with the children of his flock. Maybe I'm biased, maybe I'm prejudaced, but I have a feeling it won't be too long before Hourigan is back in custody again, even if 'god [HAS] touched his heart'.

Child Brides

2009-09-14T15:29:00.003+01:00

Obviously, this is something I've known about and ranted about before (and often, respectively) but after logging on to the news this morning, I was confronted with not one, but two reports concerning the barbaric act.

The first was found in the Daily Mail (shut up, I read it for the laughs and rant opportunities) and told of the 12 year old girl who died trying to give birth to her still-born child, after three days of labour and horrendous blood loss. I had a look around, and found it confirmed by various other news reports.

Fawziya Abdullah Youssef - who was married at eleven, to a 24 year old Saudi Arabian man - died of severe blood loss in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province in Yemen, and her story is only being told because of a serendipitous discovery of her situation by Ahmed al-Quraishi, Chairman of the Siyaj human rights organization.

Fawziya is only one of many such cases in Yemen, the poorest of the Arab countries, where there is no law to protect such girls from what is essentially government sanctioned pedophilia. Due to a lack of education, strict tribal customs and a surplus of the very poor, girls like Youseff are often forced or even sold into marriage (her parents receiving hefty dowries.)

Yemen's Government actually attempted to raise the age of marriage to 17 earlier this year, but apparently it was deemed 'un-Islamic' and sent back for review. I don't hold much hope for that actually ever making it past the review stage.

The second story was found in Reason Weekly, and concerned yet another child bride, this time 10 years old and in Saudi Arabia.

The little girl, who is nothing more than a babe herself, has been forced, by her father, to return to her 80 year old husband, after spending ten days hiding at her aunt's house, following her marriage to the man.

Apparently, the man had previously been engaged to her older sister, but when her sister decided to end the engagement to continue her education, their father offered him the younger girl.

“I was allowed to have a look at her according to Shariah and found her acceptable”

Like a piece of meat, perhaps?

And people have the gall to tell us that Islam respects women? That it is a peace loving religion and all that other rot that gets said about it by fundamental and even moderate Muslims?

If that were so, we wouldn't constantly be hearing reports about child brides, suicide bombings, random acts of downright cruelty and terrorism. I find myself wondering why we, as a country, still deal with places like Saudi Arabia, when they allow things like this to happen.

Oh, but of course, it'll be all about Politics and oil. Our government can go blithely ahead, ignoring the truly shitty lives these women and girls are leading, the crap that countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey get away with, because these are petty issues, beneath their notice.

It makes me sick to my stomach, whenever I hear of these reports.

Sunday Angel

2009-09-13T13:08:00.003+01:00

From the cover of Nezami Ganjavi's 'The Quintet' - a collection of persian poetry.

As we all know, Islam is essentially descended from Christianity and Judaism - and as is to be expected, Islam developed it's own host of angels. I think this is an illustration of the four archangels (if I am wrong, please get in touch and I'll edit this) Jibril (Gabriel), Mikal (Micheal), Izra'il (angel of Death) and Israfil (angel of Last Judgement).

'The Greatest Show On Earth'

2009-09-13T00:49:00.002+01:00

I've got my hands on a copy (stolen off my mother, she had to leave it behind when she went on holiday, the thing's too heavy for her hand-luggage!) and I am now reading it.

I'll give y'all my verdict when I'm done. (But so far? I'm enjoying it XD)

Islamic Search Enginge?

2009-09-07T17:05:00.002+01:00

Yupp, you read that right - 'Islamic Search Engine'. After seven months of development, the ImHalal service has been released for Islamic browsers.

Islamic search engine ImHalal filters out potentially sinful material.

This report, from the Times Online, was sent to me by an amused friend, and I thought I'd share. And rant a little.

It's certainly amusing, in that these people are so concerened about what the internet provides, that they had to create their own search engine for it. But it's also - in my opinion - ignorant, dangerous and down-right hateful. For example, this paragraph from the article:

The filter works by examining the user’s search terms and the websites that come up, trawling for a “danger list” of words that may indicate forbidden fruit. On the site, sex-related terms such as “gay”, “lesbian” or simply “sexy” merit a haram level of three. But “beer” and “pork” only merit one point, while “drugs” earns two.

I gave it a go. Type in 'homosexual' or 'gay rights' and you get the 3 point haram level and a warning:

Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again.

I even tried 'lingerie' and 'sexual health' and got the 2 point Haram warning:

Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 2 out of 3. This means that the results fetched by ImHalal.com could be haram!

I suppose on the upside, it does allow one to search for 'abortion' and 'feminism' without any warnings (though I wonder for how much longer this will be the case, as there is a 'feedback' system, for users to send in terms to be filtered out - 'Bikini' has already been sent in). This doesn't, however, make up for the blatant discrimination against homosexuality and even heterosexual sexual health issues.

This search engine is basically advocating censorship of basic, everyday issues and trying to hide that fact behind claims of moderates avoiding the internet over worries about what their children may come in contact with:

Mr Sardeha said: “Before we started this, we got the feeling that a lot of people in the Middle East, a lot of Muslims, really avoided the internet and prevented their children from accessing the internet because they were afraid their children might come into contact with sexually explicit material.”

There are ways of preventing your children from accessing such worrying material - it's not hard. Though it may not be perfect, you can do it without limiting search engines with discriminatory and censorious 'haram' level filters.

Obviously, people can go elsewhere, use other search engines - but that this thing exists is bad enough. Limiting the availability of information in this way can cause harm. People restricted to an engine that explicitly describes 'homosexual', 'gay', 'lesbian' and so on, as 'haram' and will not open any page containing the words, limits the exposure to such that normalises and help to create acceptance of a significant portion of the population of this planet.

In short, I don't like it.

James Randi

2009-09-07T16:23:00.004+01:00

I just found out that he's currently dealing with cancer, with something like a 50/50 chance of another 5 years with us.

The guy's a bit of an inspiration to me, and certainly important to most, if not all, skeptic/freethinking/atheist's around the world. He'll be sorely missed, but he's not gone yet.

If nothing else, Randi's a fighter - he's 81 and has been doing live shows for years, giving his talk on Critical Thinking, Skepticism and Debunking - and he's undergoing chemotherapy, so I doubt he'll be taking that step into the long sleep anytime soon.

There seems to be a little worry over what will happen to the JREF and TAM when he's gone - but I don't think they should worry so much. He may be the face of both, but his legacy will keep them going, especially considering there are so many people now involved, with ever more joining and contributing all the time. Phil Plait has already taken over as the new President at JREF and TAM has many supporters and famous faces (not least of whom are Penn and Teller!) so I doubt it will founder with Randi gone.

But as I said, he's not gone yet, and probably won't be for a few more years to come - so, from my tiny little corner of the blogosphere, I wish him well and hope his chemo isn't too taxing. He's a great mind and a great personality and will continue to inspire us free thinkers, skeptics and atheists for years to come.

Sunday Angel

2009-09-06T14:21:00.004+01:00

I've decided to give myself a kick up the butt and start properly blogging again.

So, taking a leaf out of various blogger's books (most prominantly, Pharyngula) I've decided to share an image, and maybe talk about it a bit, every Sunday.

As an Artist, I've gone with, well, art (who'da thunk it, right?) and as an atheist, I decided 'Angel's' were an appropriate and artistically interesting subject to run with.

(I know, a godless heathen appreciates art depicting mythical ceatures! I'm sure you'll get over it.)

So! I'm starting this off with an image by William Blake, which, hopefully, will show you that I won't be sticking with the typical, disneyfied images of angels that do the rounds among the religious and woo-fans alike.

William Blake
The Angel of Revelation
Pen and watercolour,
393 x 262 mm
c.1805
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1914, 14.81.1

Revelation 10:1-7

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down." Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets."

A gorgeous start, right? And not your typical rendition of an Angel, either - something that I rather like about Blake's work, he didn't use the cliche, effeminate, robed creatures that are so oft' used to depict scenes from the Bible.

This image works perfectly as an illustration of the text, with a very litteral interpretation of the moment Saint John was 'gifted' with a 'Divine vision' - the quoted text above - and later recorded.

While I may not believe any of this really happened, or in anything divine, I can definitely appreciate good art and interesting imagery. It has to be said, holy writings have inspired some fantastic works, some of which I hope to share with you on Sundays from now on.

Enjoy!

Maine and Prop 1

2009-08-25T18:26:00.002+01:00

Seriously, if you've not read Greta Christina's blog about this yet, do so.

Same Sex Marriage, And Why you Care Passionately About Maine

She's right, of course. If you lot across the pond get your asses in gear, you can keep this going, and keep it going until the rest of the States get it into their thick skulls that homosexuals are people as well, and that they deserve exactly the same human rights as heterosexual people.

Here, have a couple of links - the first one can be found on Geta's page of course, but open them now as you open her Blog.

Protect Maine Equality

Queer's United

Sorry!

2009-08-24T12:42:00.002+01:00

I do apologise, I've been distracted elsewhere, and haven't updated in a while! ^^

As a consolation, have a link to my art blog, which I just updated with a bunch of new art yesterday:

Bag's Art Blog

I do plan to make a few posts in the near future, so bear with me ^^

Birthers, Truthers and Highlighters now?

2009-08-22T23:11:00.002+01:00

For those of you who haven't seen this yet (I found it on Pharyngula).

For my part, I'd just like to say that as a Brit who has had to use the NHS a couple times, these fucking American anti-'nhs'-style-health-reform arseholes need to grow up and look at exactly what it is that they are fighting against.

I really, truly admire the way you lot compare Obama to the Nazi's. It truly sounds like you know exactly what you're talking about. And not like you're in fact stuck so far up your own arses that I'm surprised you're not barfing your own shit. Really.

For fuck's sake people, the NHS may not be as perfect as it needs to be, but that's mainly due to lack of funding and incentive for new staff. In the most important way, it's brilliant. I am quite happy to thank the staff who have treated me or my loved ones in the past.

Get over it people, and find some real cause to get up in arms over.

Aliens in paintings?

2009-07-26T15:21:00.004+01:00

Shots taken from:
MADONNA COL BAMBINO E SAN GIOVANNINO
(Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John)

Right - this image was 'created' by an atheist fellow on a site I frequent, with the following attached blurb:

It amazes me that people who strongly believe in religion seem to laugh at the idea of aliens visiting earth.
ME: Here's a painting of the virgin mary and wait, what's that. Seems that the artist thought it was important because of how detailed it is and the guy looking up at it. Looks very machine like, kind of like a space ship.

Fundie: Aw no, it's really uh...uh..satan, yeah. It's satan trying to lead us away from Jesus.

Me: But why is it in a painting.

Fundie: Uh....uh....(insert several bible verses here).

Me: That doesn't prove anything. Tell me, why would someone paint some flying ship in the sky in a virgin mary painting

Fundie:.....you're going to hell! (runs off.

My response, in an attempt to show that it's open to interpretation:

so there's no chance that it was a comet then? painted by someone who had heard of, yet not actually seen one? just like the strange statues of dolphins that look nothing like dolphins, because they were crafted by artists who had had them described to them, but never actually seen one

I'm all for alien life, the universe is too old and too big NOT to have more sentient life out there, but visiting us? sometimes, a UFO really is just an unidentified flying object, y'know - and sometimes it's a ufo to one person, but has been identified by someone else.

and his reply:

I'm quite sure that if it were a comet, and that person heard a discription of it. It would not look like a mechanical object sitting in the sky with lots of flashing lights on it.

I linked him to an article about these paintings:

Scratch that idea then, and go with the iconography of the age, perhaps?

Art And UFOs

He responds:

that's very interesting. It only leaves one question, why would they make some machine like object in the sky rather then an angel or people on clouds like the other paintings pictured there.

My response to this silly question:

It doesn't look like a machine-like-object to me - probably because I'm not looking for a machine-like-object. This phenomenon is called 'confirmation bias' - you are seeing what you want to see. When I look at this painting, I see a glowing cloud, and nothing more.

Plenty of paintings of the Nativity have versions of this in them, either a cloud on it's own, or a cloud with an angel, or an angel on it's own, ocasionally there is a light-radiating tear in the sky, with or without an angel - the reason being that they were simply symbols, not an actual representation of the true thing (all based on a verse in St Luke's Gospel, where he tells of an angel coming down and telling some shepherds that christ has been born.)

As is obvious to anyone who has researched the subject, even in passing, this is a common symbolic icon used in hundreds of paintings of the Nativity, and not a painting of some machine-like-object that some claim is a 'UFO' - it has been identified, it is well known.

Add to this the fact that it is obvious these artists had damn good eyes for detail - if they were painting something they had seen, and it was a machine-like-object, why would they paint it as a blobby looking cloud, in exactly the same composition and style as all the other symbolic icons used in contemporary Nativity paintings?

I despaire, I really do. I know there are all types of atheists, just as there are all types of everyone else - but really, do they have to go so far out of their way to make themselve's look stupid?

It bothers me, it really does. It probably shouldn't...

Anyway - how on earth does that shiny blob look like a 'mechanical object'? Is he seeing something I can't? It looks more like a glowing rock and is obviously meant to be a cloud.

He obviously hasn't done his bloody research - the thing is a symbolic representation of a fucking angel telling some shepherds the good news.

The same damn thing is seen in almost all of the Nativity paintings, some with the angel on show, some with only the cloud, some with both, some with a glow, some with rays - like this one. Almost all of them also have the shepherd looking up, shieling his eyes, and again, almost all of them also have a dog with said shephered, also looking at the cloud.

It's got slightly different forms in all of them, but it's always the same damn thing.

But does this guy care? No. Because he's an idiot.

If he's going to start using old paintings to shore up his rather silly beliefs about aliens, he really aught to do his homework first.

Edit: Added my response to his 'question'.

Awesome? They HAS it

2009-07-26T01:50:00.001+01:00

Simulated pets?

2009-07-25T14:36:00.003+01:00

Click on the 'tanks' to release food c.c

So much procrastinating fun o.o

Edit: Forgot to add the link so you guys could get some XD They have hamsters and penguins and tree frogs and so on XD

http://abowman.com/google-modules/

'God told me to do it'

2009-07-25T14:08:00.003+01:00

More accusers set to testify against evangelist

Once again, some indescribably fucked up bastard is using the 'god told me to' defense.

The woman said she was a third-generation Alamo follower into adulthood — until the Arkansas-based pastor took an 8-year-old as his latest bride. At one point, the woman said, she objected when Alamo graphically described how he fondled the girl as she held a stuffed animal.

"He told me to shut up and that I shouldn't question what `the Lord told me to do,'" the woman said.

Yes, because it's the perfect fucking defense for raping and abusing underage girls, forcing them to marry him in sham weddings and basically keeping iron-fisted control of a hoard of brain-washed followers.

In her earlier testimony, the woman said she felt forced to become one of Alamo's brides at age 15. Alamo said the Lord had told him to take her as his wife, and that she feared she and her family would be shunned if she did not submit, she testified.

"We didn't have anywhere to go," said the woman, whose parents and grandparents were also Alamo followers.

Unspeakable bastard. The part I am disliking, is that he's only going to get ten years for this, if he's found guilty!

Forcing fifteen year olds to marry him, taking them to his bed and sexually abusing girls as young, if not younger than, eight? And he's only getting ten years?

Granted, he's getting a $250,000 fine per count, but what the fuck? Ten years? That's it?

'The Greatest Show On Earth'

2009-07-19T15:13:00.003+01:00

Want.

I've got most of his other books. This will not only add to my collection, but looks like it will be a truly fascinating read. I look forward to its publication.

Warning - When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple

2009-07-13T12:42:00.000+01:00

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

By Jenny Joseph

Homeopathic A&E

2009-07-03T23:40:00.001+01:00

Found this via Pharyngula XD

So true, so very very true XD

Her Name Was Neda

2009-06-23T13:12:00.002+01:00

Woo in my area - Crop Circles spell our doom!

2009-06-18T19:01:00.003+01:00

This is pretty much just down the road from where I live, and it's the wooest of woo (well, almost).

'Crop Circle Experts' (now isn't that a funny thing to say?) are claiming that this image is portending the doom of the world, in December 2012.

How exactly they got that from a picture of a Pheonix, I seriously don't know.

Phoenix crop circle may predict end of the world

Crop circle experts believe the latest pattern to be discovered, a phoenix rising from the flames in Wiltshire, may give a warning about the end of the world.

Crop circle enthusiast Karen Alexander, from Gosport, Hants, said: "The phoenix is a mythical creature which symbolises rebirth and a new era in many cultures across the world.

"Within the crop circle community many believe the designs are constantly referring to December 21 and its aftermath.

"This could be interpreted as the human race or earth rising again after a monumental event.

"The patterns are becoming more intricate with every find and it is exciting to think how they are going to evolve by the time we get to 2012."

Seriously, I want to meet the artists/pranksters that are behind this latest fad, so I can thank them for causing even more amusement for me come December 21st 2012.

It's going to be so much fun, sitting back, watching the woosters panic over nothing.

Iranian Protests

2009-06-18T16:21:00.000+01:00

Don't you just love it when the people get up and make a stand against corruption?

Protestors defy Iranian efforts to cloak unrest

(Might have to join to see that artical)

I'm also loving the way the people are sending word to the rest of the world, despite the media clamp-down by Ahmeddinnerjacket's people. I know the other guy probably isn't as progressive as we'd all like, but he sounds a lot better than the current bloke.

Book burning - Milwaukee style!

2009-06-15T10:55:00.002+01:00

Milwaukee Group Seeks Fiery Alternative to Materials Challenge

A Christian group with predominantly eldery members, has declared that their local library shouldn't be allowed to stock 'Baby Be-Bop' by celebrated author Francesca Lia Block.

The group is basically attempting to have the book declared obscene and to have it taken off the shelves, stating that it may incite violence and

“put one’s life in possible jeopardy, adults and children alike.”

This I have to see.

Ah hah - found it on Amazon.

Here's the summary:

Baby Be-Bop is Dirk's story. It begins way back before he met Duck. And even before he was Weetzie's best friend. It's about a time when Dirk was much younger. He didn't have the cool hair, or the cool car. He wasn't into pogo-ing through the mosh-pit at gigs. And he didn't have a slinkster dog loping along at his side. But he did have a secret. A secret he'd forced deep down inside himself. It was the truth about the real Dirk, something he'd always known but was afraid to share with the world. Baby Be-Bop is the story of Dirk before he told the world he was gay. And what happened after. Francesca Lia Block steps back in time to Dirk's childhood in this closing volume in the Dangerous Angels series. It's the story of Dirk's coming out, of his family's struggle to accept his sexuality, and of Dirk finally finding happiness with Weetzie and her crew. Compassionate, understanding, sometimes surreal, but always completely honest, this is a tale every teen should read.

It's about gay teens! No wonder they want it removed! Can't have their own children learning about homosexuality, and that it's not actually a perversion incited by Satan. Oh no.

*rolls her eyes*

2012?

2009-06-14T20:23:00.001+01:00

An interesting little article on the 2012 thing.

Personally, I think it's a load of baloney and will be sitting back to watch the fun when 2012 wheels round.

2012: A Y2K for the New Age

Multiple births and 'souls'

2009-06-14T15:56:00.002+01:00

This will probably be a strange post, and probably broaches a sensitive topic, so bare with me.

Recently, in a forum I frequent, a regular theistic-troll decided to celebrate over the murder of Dr. Tiller; this led to a lot of argument between the resident atheists and the troll about abortion, the right to choice and the anti-abortionists double-think and hypocrisy when it comes to bombing clinics and shooting or otherwise harming doctors.

The troll managed to piss off most of the forum, with his insane ramblings and incoherent assertions. After a while, the resident Catholic got involved and riled everyone up even further with her propaganda, quote-mining and misrepresentation of the facts.

But she said something that has often confused the hell out of me; something that I’ve heard a lot of anti-abortionists claim.

‘The soul is infused into the new human upon conception.’

Aside from the fact that this isn’t actually what the Bible says (the soul is infused at the first breath after birth) it’s also rather weird and leads to a lot of confusion and questions.

Firstly; multiple births – twins, triplets, quadruplets and quintuplets.

As we should all know by now, maternal /identical (monozygotic) twins and triplets result from the single fertilised egg splitting, within 8 days after fertilisation, in half to form twins and in thirds to form triplets. Monozygotic Quadruplets and Quintuplets are rare, but they do happen – about 1 in every 15 million pregnancies. Monozygotic sextuplets are so far undocumented.

If these theists are right, and the ‘soul’ is infused at the moment of conception/fertilisation, then I have a few questions.

Do these monozygotic siblings share one soul between them? Does the single soul, infused at conception, split, as the zygote splits, leaving a partial soul per embryo? Or does god step in, upon the zygote split, and give an extra soul to each of the embryos? Or does god put the required amount of souls into that first fertilised egg, so there are enough souls to go around, once splitting occurs?

Theists apparently know enough to say that a soul is infused at conception, but not enough to know how it happens, where it happens, or whether twins, triplets, quads and quints share a single soul or have one each.

Secondly; Siamese or conjoined twins.

We’re still with the monozygotic twins here, so it has a lot of the same questions.
Siamese twins occur later in the pregnancy than identical twins – often, the split that ends in twins occurs later than the first week and is partial, rather than complete. There are many different types of conjoined twins and two theories about how they happen.

The first is that the zygote splits only partially, but the resulting embryos continue to grow, until there are two foetuses, conjoined in some manner. The second is that the zygote splits completely, but stem cells of one or both twins, recognising the twin’s cells as their own, reattach and merge, thus growing conjoined in some manner.

Again, leading on from the first point, I have some questions.

Do Siamese twins share one soul? When they are later separated by surgery, does the soul split as well? Or do they have two souls in what is, essentially, one body? With the latter theory, where the Siamese twin is formed of already separate twins, re-merging – did they have one soul that split and then it reattaches? Or did they have two souls that are now in the one body? Again, when they are separated later in life, do they end up with half a soul each, or one each?

If the soul really is infused at the moment of conception, then these are valid questions that I have yet to have answered by any theist.

Thirdly; Chimera individuals.

Chimera individuals are rare, but they do happen – David Bowie is an example. Chimerism is interesting in that these individuals can come about from two separate zygotes – known as Tetragametic chimerism, OR the same zygote that has split, and then reformed into one embryo – known as Mosaicism.

Now, with Tetragametic chimerism, two separate eggs are fertilised at the same time and begin to develop individually. However, at around the Blastocyst stage, the two individual clumps of cells fuse into one. Basically, two non-identical twins fuse together. Because of this, the individual can be male, female or hermaphroditic - baring the genitals of both twins. Unless the resultant child is hermaphroditic, there is little clue to the chimerism – often the only signs are slightly different eye colours or different hair growth patterns on each side of the body. The only foolproof way to tell is through DNA, as the chimera will have two sets of DNA – parts of the body with one, and parts with the other.

Mosaicism is much the same as Tetragametic chimerism; but as I understand it, certain cell groups in the body will have a distinctly different genotype to the rest, rather than the individual being a true chimera.

My questions for the theists are thus:

Does the Chimera individual have two souls? Does the Mosaicism individual have one soul, which was torn in half and then put back together? Or does the individual have two souls? Does god step in and take away the extra soul, when the twins fuse?
This soul business is rather complicated.

Fourthly – and perhaps finally; Parasitic twins, vanishing twins and miscarriages.

Parasitic twins are considered to be between vanishing twins and conjoined twins – in their case, the zygote follows the route of a conjoined twin zygote, but one twin is underdeveloped. At some point in the gestation period, the parasitic twin stops developing at all and is vestigial. The dominant twin ends up with an underdeveloped, vestigial body attached to its own – the parasitic twin is often either only partially formed, or wholly dependent on the dominant twin for life.

Some examples noted by the press, are those where the parasitic twin is Fetus in Fetu – actually growing inside the body of its sibling. This happens at a rate of 1 in every 500,000 live births.

Vanishing twins occur far more often than most assume – something like 1 in 8 pregnancies are thought to be multiple, but one twin dies in utero and is either reabsorbed or expelled. In rare cases, the dead twin is ‘flattened’ by the growing live twin, this is known as fetus papyraceus and can cause complications during birth. If the twin dies in the second or third trimester, there can be complications due to the demise of the fetus or haemorrhaging. It is hypothesised that left-handed individuals may be the surviving twin of mirror-image twinning, where one twin has ‘vanished’ early in the gestation period.

Miscarriages, or spontaneous abortions, are hard to pin down to an exact number, as many take place long before the woman knows she is pregnant, or at home, but it is estimated that around 25% of all pregnancies end in early miscarriage, or by the sixth week, and 8% occur after the sixth week. The older the mother, the higher the percentage.

So, I have even more questions.

A parasitic twin and fetus in fetu has no nervous system or brain, living solely off the body of its host – do they share a soul? Or does the dominant twin have the soul, and the parasite not have one at all? Do they both have souls, in one body? What is the point of something with no brain having a soul? Does god step in and give a new soul to the twin lacking one after the zygote splits? Does god step in and take away the extra soul when the dominant twin envelopes the parasitic?

Does god know ahead of time which of the twins is going to ‘vanish’? If so, does god step in and give the extra soul to the new zygote after the split, even though one of them is going to ‘vanish’ anyway? Or does god put two souls into the fertilised egg and then takes one away after the split into twins? Or does the ‘vanishing’ twin still have a soul when it ‘vanishes’? When the twin is absorbed by the mother – does she now have two souls? Or did god remove the soul before absorption?

What is the point of a bunch of cells or an embryo having a soul, if it is going to be miscarried before the six-week mark? Does god know ahead of time, that the embryo will be miscarried? If so, does god not infuse the egg with a soul? Or does god infuse the egg and then simply sit back and watch as it is miscarried?

There’s probably far more questions that could be asked (even ignoring the whole ‘HOW does god infuse the fertilised egg with a soul?’ And ‘what IS a soul?’ type questions) but I hope this gives an idea of where I’m coming from. Theists can claim that the soul is infused into the fertilised egg as often and loudly as they want, but until they actually think about what they are claiming, no-one is going to pay any attention to them. I certainly won’t.

All I got back from the Catholic in the forum after posing some of these questions to her was a flippant ‘of course twins have souls! I don’t get why you even have to ask!’ Which, of course, didn’t address my actual questions in the slightest. Not that I’m the least bit surprised.

If any theist actually wants to take on these questions, please, feel free to answer them. Keep in mind, though, that they result from being told, by a theist, that the soul enters the fertilised egg upon the moment of conception.

Her words, not mine.

If you have a different idea of when the soul becomes part of the fetus, again, feel free to explain it to me. Actual evidence would be very much appreciated.

Fox Education

2009-06-12T16:45:00.001+01:00

*facepalm*

Hammer Dance

2009-06-08T22:25:00.001+01:00

Just to cheer myself up a bit, enjoy this amusing video:

Justice comes too late for Gloria

2009-06-06T17:02:00.002+01:00

Parents guilty of manslaughter over daughter's eczema death

By the time she died, she was the weight of an average three-month-old, her body was covered with angry blotches and her once black hair had turned completely white.

Gloria Thomas was nine months old when she died of septicemia in her left eye. She had spent five months in agony, as her severe eczema was left almost entirely untreated. Her parents, Thomas and Manju Sam, refused or quickly stopped all conventional treatments and relied entirely on Homeopathic remedies to 'cure' their child.

Any improvements in her condition after homeopathic treatment were short-lived, and the rest of the time she was irritable and in pain, crying whenever she was moved and taking refuge only on her mother's breast.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the little girls skin was so bad, that it cracked and tore when her nappies were changed. She was so ill, so malnourished, that she reminded one doctor of a third world child, rather than the daughter of a successful 'Homeopathic doctor' that she actually was. The infection in her eye was actually melting her cornea.

Doctor after doctor told the jury that by the time they saw Gloria in those last few days her skin condition was unlike any they had seen before.

In the only bit of good news in the entire situation, both her parents are going down for Manslaughter due to Gross Criminal Negligence.

The pathologist who did the autopsy, Ella Sugo, said she had sought advice from experts outside Australia because she had never seen a child so malnourished and her condition was at a level more commonly observed in third world countries.

However, in a stroke of arrogance and disregard for the evidence of his own daughter's death, Thomas Sam has actually stated:

"Conventional medicine would have prolonged her life ... with more misery. It's not going to cure her and that's what I strongly believe."

I find myself disgusted at this man. His wife, at least, cried and mourned her daughter while in court, but this man was impassive and then stated that Homeopathy would have cured her.

How? How could he say that, after witnessing his daughter die? After being told by a dermatologist that he could have cleared her skin up in 24 hours if he had been allowed to use conventional medicine?

I am shocked at the arrogance, the conceit, the sheer unwillingness to accept that his actions killed his own daughter.

I am also still waiting for someone within homeopathy to explain to me why all the homeopathic remedies given to this child, by her Homeopathic Father, Uncle and various other Homeopaths, ALL FAILED and then KILLED her.

Come on. Explain it to me. It should be simple enough for you, considering you guys apparently have all the answers. What, exactly, did they do wrong? Did all those Homeopaths use the wrong remedies?

There's got to be some explanation you can all get behind, right? You normally have one or two, whenever your magic water fails miserably.

Go on.

Explain it to me.

No Chaplain here

2009-06-06T15:18:00.002+01:00

Loving this article at the NSS:

Lancashire mayor opts for non-religious ceremonial

Nice going. Would like to see far more like this.

Also - I've been outta the loop for a bit, what have I missed? Anything interesting?

Oh, and I want to get de-baptised XD

What should Jenny do?

2009-05-21T14:17:00.003+01:00

Pharyngula pointed out a section of Oprah/Harpo's site that is asking for submissions - ideas for Jenny McCarthy's talk-show.

Here's the request: (note the bad grammar)

You've seen it all over the news...Jenny McCarthy, one of America's funniest and coolest moms and Harpo is giving her, her own show.

Here is where YOU come in.

What would you like to see featured on Jenny's show? What would you like for her to talk about? What are you and your friends buzzing about?

Any topics you'd like for her to tackle? Are there any questions that you have -- that you would love for her to answer?

If so -- we definitely want to hear from you!

Write to us and tell us exactly what you'd like to see Jenny do.

Here's my suggestion:

Firstly, I would like to point out that this sentence: 'You've seen it all over the news...Jenny McCarthy, one of America's funniest and coolest moms and Harpo is giving her, her own show.' makes absolutely no grammatical sense. For such a large, well known, world-wide corporation, this is indefensible.

Secondly, I don't think Jenny McCarthy should have a program in the first place. However, if you are insisting that she does, here are a few ideas for her:

1. She should talk to real scientists and doctors, learning as much as she can about the scientific and medical practice. Hopefully, this will either A; help her to understand something she has so far shown she does not and B; shut her up – thence preventing her from spouting her un-scientific views about vaccination.

2. Invite families of children who have died or become seriously ill, because of a lack of herd immunity in their areas, on to her show, so she can tell them exactly why she thinks vaccines are dangerous. Maybe she’ll have her eyes opened.

3. Invite families of autistic children and adults on to her show – those who have autism despite not being vaccinated and those who are autistic and over the age of forty. According to McCarthy, there are no autistics over forty, because the vaccines are what started autism. Let’s prove her wrong, definitively.

Oprah, Harpo, do not give this woman TV time. She has no idea what she is talking about, little to no understanding of the issues she talks about and she is contributing to a much larger problem. Instead, find someone more worthy – someone with an interesting life, someone who knows the ins-and-outs of reality, someone who will not convince millions of credulous viewers that vaccinating their children is a bad idea. Because, really, she’s on TV – she can’t be wrong, can she?

Catholicism and abuse

2009-05-21T10:58:00.003+01:00

So the report on Catholicism and the child abuse endemic within it's churches and 'care homes' has been released.

It's shameful, disgusting even, what has been found. And I'm not in the least bit surprised. I've read some of the survivor books and hear about individual abuses in the news all the time.

What has surprised me, is this quote:

"I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."

That, from the Archbishop of Westminster.

You know what I get from that? More unwillingness to face up to the crimes. He is basically ignoring the victims, ignoring the crimes and pretending that the clergy did nothing so much as, I don't know, occasionally shout at a child.

I mean, come on. This is more of that Catholic bullshit. For years this church has been ignoring victims, ignoring the crimes, ignoring the fact that if not punished, the perpetrators will keep doing it.

We all know that, basically, the church has simply been moving pedophile and abusive priests around, in an attempt to cover up the problem, rather than deal with it.

And here we have a perfect example of the mindset that leads to that action.

'Oh, they weren't so bad, they're courageous to face up to it' - bollocks. Big, fat, hairy, wrinkly bollocks.

No. The victims are courageous for coming forward. The perpetrators are cowards, despicable, disgusting cowards.

What makes the victims that more courageous, is the fact that this is not a criminal enquiry. Many, if not most, of the perpetrators sued for anonymity in this investigation and no charges will be brought against individuals.

The Christian Brothers delayed the investigation for more than a year with a lawsuit that successfully defended their members' right to anonymity in all references in the report, even in cases in which individual Christian Brothers had been convicted of sexual and physical attacks on children.

"I'm very angry, very bitter, and feel cheated and deceived. I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result. It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there is no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."

The thousands of survivors said they had no safe way to tell their stories until the investigation began because much of Irish Catholic society regarded them as liars.

The investigators are now calling on the Vatican to make a similar investigation into other areas under the Catholic rule - as well as to do a full investigation into the Irish Catholic Religiouis orders.

I have little hope that the Vatican will do anything. They haven't done anything other than move pedophiles and abusers around, in an attempt to hide from the reality of their situation, for decades.

However, maybe now they'll stop doing that and actually take real action when abusers are discovered.

I'm also left wondering, on a side note, how the Catholic people are reacting. They've just had it confirmed, on a very large scale, that their own kind can act in truly horrific ways - not just their own kind, but members of the actual clergy, ordained and most of them supposedly celibate. Surely they must be wondering how their 'good God' could let this happen?

---

But when questioned, the Christian Brothers indicated they would continue to protect the identities of rank-and-file brothers accused of abuse — men who were never reported to police, and instead were allowed to change jobs and keep harming children.

The Christian Brothers' leader in Ireland, Brother Kevin Mullan, said the organization had been right to keep names of even the most well-documented abusers out of Wednesday's report because "perhaps we had doubts about some of the allegations."

Yahoo! News

What a load of crap - literally.

2009-05-17T15:57:00.002+01:00

Really, why, WHY does Jenny McCarthy think people want to read about her bowl movements (or apparent lack thereof)? It's incredibly uninteresting reading, except as something to take the ever-lasting piss out of.

She not only writes about her own bowl-movements, but she also writes about those of her child. I mean, really - what is the attraction?

From the comment box, it looks like she does have a few readers who appear to enjoy her idiotic sorority style ramblings, but bloody hell.

Oprah, why did you do it? Why did you give this extraordinarily inane woman blog-space? I mean, I know you're a bit of a woo-loving kook, but Jenny McCarthy? Really? It's bad enough that you allow her to spout her ignorant opinions on Vaccines and Autism, but you're now giving her free reign to talk about her own and her sons shitting habits?

I swear, it's only a matter of time before she starts talking about her boyfriend (Jim Carey's) shitting habits as well, and I seriously don't want to think about that - I mean, this IS (as Orac pointed out) the guy made famous for having a talking ass in Ace Ventura.

(And before anyone asks, I spotted other people talking about it and out of curiosity, went to see if her blog really is as bad as all that - and seriously, it really is.)

'Beyond Chance' with Melissa Etheridge

2009-05-17T15:07:00.001+01:00

I was up annoyingly early in the morning on Thursday (six ish) due to a resurgence of what my mom and I are beginning to think may be a peptic ulcer..

So, I spent most of the day on the couch, feeling sorry for myself, napping and watching atrocious day-time TV. And I really do mean atrocious.

Seriously, what is it with American TV? I caught at least four episodes of 'America's Dumbest Criminals' - with their really rather shite re-enactments of real crimes (complete with bad dialogue) and fake reporters/news-anchors. I swear, by the end of the first episode, I wanted to strangle the female reporter. The 'crimes' were amusing though, giving me a good giggle now and then.

I also caught an episode of 'Crossing Over, with John Edward' - I've already blogged about that charlatan, and this episode was more of the same utter shite; unsuspecting gullible audience and using people's real grief to make money. Bastard.

However, what I'm going to write about is the episode of 'Beyond Chance' that I caught.

This program very nearly takes the proverbial cake. It's so stereotypically credulous, American Daytime TV pap. It really is. I'm pretty sure the program was laid to rest in 2002, so these episodes are re-runs, but still.

I could just about put up with it, if after every story, there wasn't stupid fake 'candid camera' shots of Etheridge laughing or dancing or simply talking as if she doesn't know the camera is on her. And they filter those shots! They not only make it look like a home-cam-corder caught those shots, (with shaky recording as if they're sneaking up on her) but they also make it all soft and gooey, with misty lighting effects that are obviously added in post-production. Ugh.

Anyway, there were six stories all together, each one of them touted as 'Beyond Chance!' and 'Miraculous!' and each one of them was introduced with a little spiel from Etheridge, in honeyed tones of concern and 'isn't this amazing!' that, after only thirty seconds or so, really got on my nerves (by the third story, I really wanted to mute Etheridge's introductions.)

Unlucky Numbers

The first story, was titled 'Unlucky Numbers' (I'll get back to that) and apparently took place in Oregon in April of 1994. (At this point, you begin to realise I took notes - yes, I am that person.)

Basically, four youths attacked a store - viciously beating to death one of the two female clerks and attempting to beat to death the second. She escaped when the youths were distracted by a customer coming into the store - the youths grabbed a few things and then ran (I would think, scaring the shit out of the new customer.)

The surviving victim (I didn't catch her name) managed to give a complete description of all four of her attackers to the police, despite being so badly beaten that they nearly scalped her.

Her recall of the four attackers was described as 'remarkable' and 'rare' and I swear, the cop they interviewed looked like he wanted to call it 'miraculous', but luckily it didn't go that far.

However, despite her excellent recall, and the four excellent artists impressions, the case went dead (apparently).

Until, four months later, the store decided to do a check of what was stolen and found that a roll of 200 Lottery tickets had been taken. 44 of them were registered as winning tickets. The cops then decided to check all the stores in town for the 44 winning tickets.

As luck would have it, all 44 had been handed in to one store, and again, as luck would have it, the clerk at the time was new and she had the man handing them in sign them all as proof and then kept them!

The cops got a hold of these tickets and through good old fashioned policing, found all four of the attackers. One is on Death Row, and the other three are serving life sentences.

This was all explained as a wonderful 'Twist Of Fate' by Etheridge.

Now - my problems:

1. Why is it called 'Unlucky Numbers', when quite clearly, they were all very lucky numbers, proving both beneficial to the attackers (winning them money) and the victims (by giving the cops a way to find them)? Shouldn't it have been 'Lucky Numbers'?

2. Was, as Etheridge told us, the case really at a dead end? They had the attackers descriptions and fingerprints all over the place. As the Cops actually said themselves, the leader of the gang was already in the system - it would simply have been a matter of time before his face was recognised by someone, either by the public or the system itself.

3. Did the victim's recall really merit being described as 'remarkable'? It is my understanding that the victim not only had quite some time watching the youths walk around the store before it all happened, but it's well known that a victim either recalls everything, or nothing.

4. What the hell of all this was 'beyond chance'? Ok, so, one of the attackers was stupid enough to take the winning tickets to a store in the same town where he committed the crime. So what? Ok, so, he was stupid enough to sign the damn things. So what? Ok, so, the new clerk kept them - so what? It's called a 'coincidence'.

I feel like I'm going to be mentioning the Law Of Very Large Numbers more than once in this blog >>

Call From The Mountain.

So this bloke, an experienced climber/hiker, sets off to climb Torris Peak (I think that's how it's spelt) back in July 2000.

About halfway up, he encounters a block in his chosen path and decides to take a short-cut round it. It's snowy, he slips, he has a fun ride down the mountain-side for about 300 feet, until he manages to catch himself by digging the heel of one boot into the mountain.

He's got a broken arm and a fractured back - and I think a broken leg - as well as many cuts, bruises, scrapes and probably a few broken ribs. Any movement sets the rocks under him sliding again - so he's stuck and he's off the track he told people he would be on.

He tries his whistle. Nothing. He starts to give up - then he digs into his pack for some water and discovers he'd packed his mobile phone before leaving!

So he calls 911 and 'miraculously' there's enough signal and battery for him to not only get through, but to also stay on the phone for the next three hours, while a search-and-rescue team look for him.

They find him, he survives and even managed to make it for an interview on Beyond Chance where he explained 'I don't understand how it worked, I don't understand why it worked!' The dispatcher he spent three hours talking to also chimed in with 'Cell phones just don't work up there - at all!'

My problems:

1. What the hell is 'miraculous' about this? People have accidents on mountains all the time, some survive, some don't. Why is this guys story any more or less 'miraculous' than anyone elses?

2. I'm guessing the 'beyond chance' bit was the absent-minded packing of the phone and it's working on the mountainside. Again, some people take their phones, some people don't - and evidently, mobile phones DO work on that mountain, because his did. Where was the investigation into how close he was to the nearest signal-tower? What's the betting he was a lot closer to one, after falling 300 feet down the mountain, than he thought he was?

3. He didn't understand how or why it worked? What? It's a phone, he was obviously close enough to a signal tower for it to pick up enough signal. He obviously had enough battery on the thing for it to work for long enough. What is so hard to understand here?

Again, I'm forced to make mention of the Law Of Very Large Numbers. He may have survived, but there's plenty others who didn't and don't. But of course, they and their coincidences don't make it on to TV.

Desperate Measures

Bob and Samantha Greybill, from Pennsylvania, are driving their four kids to church. She's three months pregnant with baby number five (can anyone say 'Quiverfull'?). The minivan crashes. All are fine, except Samantha, who has a broken leg.

She's sent home, but three days later, she's taken back to hospital with breathing problems. She's suffering from ARDS (fat particles released into the bloodstream are lodging in her lungs). She's put into an artificial coma.

Beyond Chance interviews everyone, and all of them go on and on about trying to find a 'miracle' to save her - even her bloody doctor, Dr. Cooney is quoted as saying 'I was looking for a miracle!'

They decide (after Bob apparently went through much soul searching)to go ahead with an experimental procedure, that has some risks involved to the baby, because they've never tried it on a pregnant woman before.

They introduce Nitrous Oxide to her blood. It works, everyone's happy, though understandably worried about the baby. Six months later, their daughter is born hale and hearty. The procedure is now common-place and even used on babies.

My problems.

1. Again, where the hell is the factor that makes this 'beyond chance!' She was ill, they tried a risky procedure on her, it worked. SO WHAT? Stuff like this happens every day, all over the world. It's how we end up with common-place procedures - someone, somewhere has to be the first person it's used on. She was that first person. This does not make her and her child's survival 'beyond chance!'

2. Miraculous? Sorry - but where was the praise for the doctors, nurses and scientists who came up with the procedure, treated her and so on? There was none, there was simply talk about God and miracles.

Again - Law Of Very Large Numbers is in play. There are so many thousands of vehicle crashes every year in the US. Someone, somewhere, was going to get that rare ARDS problem, the population of America is certainly large enough - it just happened that she was the one who did.

A Slight Risk

If that title doesn't give you what you need to figure this one out, I don't know what will.

Anyway, Erica Sanchez drives the I40 pretty much every day on her way home from work. This time, one of her tires blows and she ends up pinned under a Semi (a truck pulling two trailers, rather than just one). The base of the rear trailer shears the roof off her car - she survives by ducking it just in time.

The Semi driver does what he aught and simply keeps driving, slowing down until he can pull over, instead of stopping suddenly and jack-knifing.

She climbs out of the ruined car with nary a scratch. The reason she survived? She's only 4ft 11" tall. When she ducked, she was so small nothing touched her.

The cops who responded to the accident described it as 'Remarkable'.

I don't really have much to complain about with this one:

1. Again, the population of the US is so large, and the numbers of crashes that happen every day, and the percentage of the population that is short and a driver, once again makes it really bloody easy to knock off the 'beyond chance!' crap. It's bound to happen at some point, to someone.

2. 'A Slight Chance'? Can someone shoot the writers, please?

Again, Law Of Very Large Numbers comes into play.

Free As A Bird

This one is one of those annoyingly sickly sweet stories.

A woman, Lisa, in North Carolina is pissed off with her ex-husbands Cockateil, Tookie. It makes a lot of noise, it plays Hudini with it's cage, it swears, mimicks and dances. One mid-winter day, she gets so pissed off with it, after it escaped and tore her house to bits, that she simply opened the door and let it fly away.

Nice of her really, considering it's not really equiped to survive any winter weather, let alone snow and ice.

She realised how cruel that was, gets a torch and tries to find him and bring him back. No such luck, he's gone.

Five years later, when she's no longer so bitter and angry, she's working as a teacher and meets a shy young girl named Crystal, who doesn't talk much, doesn't engage with people and is generally all around introverted.

Lisa tried everything to get Crystal to open up, but nothing worked until she started asking her about her favorite pet.

Crystal's favorite pet turns out to be a Cockateil named Pretty Boy. He makes a lot of noise, plays Hudini with his cage, swears, mimicks and dances. After some careful prompting, it turns out that Pretty Boy and Tookie are one and the same!

Five years ealier, in the next town over, Crystal's family had found Tookie walking up their ice-covered drive-way, freezing and near death. They took him in and Crystal adopted him.

My problems:

1. Jeebus, that particular story was so sickly, gooey sweet, I felt like reading some Edgar Allen Poe after watching it >>

2. So, the moral here is 'animal cruelty can still have a happy ending'? Seriously, what type of person releases a tiny warm-weather bird into the freezing North Carolina winter? I don't care how pissed off the woman was - if she was that annoyed with the creature, she should have sold him off.

3. Apparently Lisa followed up her cruelty by '[praying] that he would find a home, that he would be safe'. So, you basically give the thing a death sentence, and then pray to god that, actually, you didn't mean it really?

4. Unwanted birds (and other pets) are released into the wild all the time, and, unwanted pets are found in the wild, adopted and given better homes all the time. It's not exactly surprising that Tookie did manage to find a new home - it happens, there's nothing 'beyond chance!' about it.

5. Ok, so he happened to be adopted by a girl in Lisa's future class. That's a little more remarkable, but it's still only a coincidence, given the amount of pets released and consequently adopted in the US.

6. Apparently talking about Pretty Boy helped crystal out of her introversion. Again, so what? Kids like Crystal will have something that brings them out of it - her's happened to be the bird she adopted.

Again, I'm left with pointing out the Law. Seriously, getting sick of pointing that out now.

Phoenix Heart

Finally, the last one! And seriously, this one's a stinker.

Lyle D. Baade, from Phoenix, Arizona, old dude in his sixties, gets a heart transplant. His replacement heart came from a 16 year old shooting victim.

(Can you tell where this one's going?)

He's living in a retirement village with his wife. They go to a meeting with other residents. They start to leave a little early.

As they leave, an ex-member of the village (who left due to debt problems) stops them in the doorway, carrying a gun - he tells them to go back to the meeting. They comply. As they do so, Lyle tells the interviewer that he thought 'He's got a gun! Then I knew we were gonna die!'

However, as the guy walks in the doorway, Lyle yells 'He's got a gun!' sending the other members scurrying.

Suddenly, as the bloke starts to take aim, Lyle 'hears a voice'!

'You can get there, before he can turn the barrel on you!' he hears in his head. He explains to the interviewer - 'That meant I had to move immediately!'

So he did. He rugby tackled the gun man. He says 'It was like someone picked me up and threw me!' Another resident exclaims in interview 'It was not Lyle Baade!'

Lyel speculates that he has a 16 year old 'Guardian Angel'.

Melissa Etheridge commented, as a voice over, 'Could there be a connection between the voice and the sixteen year old heart?'

After he rugby-tackled the guy, the rest of the members at the meeting rushed in and they all basically pinned the guy to the floor. It turned out later, that the man had not only brought the gun he was carrying, but he also had a van full of weaponry parked outside.

My problems:

1. Gag me now. There is no such thing as a connection between donated body parts and personality changes or 'voices'. Operations, traumatic events, drugs, placebo effect/confirmation bias (as in, they heard about the personality of the person who 'donated') and so on, all account for anything slightly different in a personality afterwards - and personalities are subjective anyway. The 'voices' thing though, that's worrying and more suggestive of a mental problem. Or, in this case? Lyel's own bloody conscience. Duh.

2. 'Thrown across the room'? Yeah, that'll be an adrenaline rush. You're protecting friends and family - it happens.

3. 'Guardian Angel' - just goes to show exactly how credulous this guy is.

Seriously, the whole personality change thing after organ transplants is so stupid and has been debunked so many times. I find it absolutely ridiculous to find it on this show.. well, actually, I don't, it's perfect fodder for something titled 'Beyond Chance' - but you know what I mean.

To top the whole program off, Melissa then gave this little statement:

When there are no simple answers to the mysteries of life, we look for explanations that are often beyond our imagination, beyond reason, beyond chance.

Seriously? Maybe credulous people do, but I find myself looking for the rational, real-world explanations.

'Beyond imagination'? I'm sorry, but the human race has a huge capacity for imagination, it's one of those things that's helped us to get where we are today. Without imagination, we would never have made our way out of the forests onto the plains, and then off the plains and out to the rest of the world - being able to imagine a 'better life' over the horizon, for example. There is very little that is 'beyond' the human imagination.

'Beyond reason'? Again, no. Only those gullible, credulous types think there are things in any of these stories that can't be 'reasoned' in a proper, factual, intelligent and real-world fashion.

'Beyond chance'? Really. No. Not a single one of these stories was 'beyond chance', not even in the slightest possible fashion. As I stated for most of them, the Law Of Very Large Numbers pretty much dumps each and every one of them, exactly where they belong, on the rubbish heap. These things were not 'beyond chance' - they were all statistically possible and statistically probable - they all would have had to happen somewhere, at some point, and very likely, most of them are one of a vast collection of highly similar stories.

This program, 'Beyond Chance', really is fit only for a bloody rubbish tip. It does nothing other than fuel the stupid imaginings of the credulous, fostering belief in things that are niether real, nor healthy - and in some cases, even hurts the cause of real medical knowledge.

I wouldn't suggest watching any more of it - if only to avoid the ridiculous fake-candid-camera shots of Etheridge acting like an idiot.

Eurovision 2009!

2009-05-16T23:42:00.000+01:00

WELL!

Norway won this year, but bloody hell, UK came in FIFTH! I'm amazed!

I'm going to see if I can find youtube vids of the songs...

Here's Norway:

Here's UK:

And here's Armenia, one of my faves:

I LOVE those outfits c.c But really, I loved this song - no bloody idea what the hell they're singing about most of the time, but neh, I liked it XD

Anyway - Well done Norway - and BLOODY HELL, WELL DONE UK!

However, can someone PLEASE explain the blue thing and the face-painted dwarves in Albania's song??

Seriously - wtf?

HEADDESK OF EPICNESS

2009-05-11T21:55:00.004+01:00

That 19 year old kids response to my last message:

you talk alot but i'll only give you five simple questions to answer

1. how come were perfectly away from the sun.

2 how come we can create large buildings.

3. how come monkeys don't have jobs like real humans do

4. can monkies get married

5.can a horse breed an elephant?

HEADDESK/FACEPALM/DOUBLEFACEPALM

Analysis of the Ten Commandments

2009-05-10T21:20:00.002+01:00

I found this today, quite by accident, and spent a happy hour (ish) reading all the posts. Very enjoyable - I recomend you read it ^^

1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

2. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them….”

3. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

4. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

5. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

6. “Thou shalt not kill.”

7 - 10. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s."

Blog posts by Atheist Under Ur Bed and they're the kind of posts I want my (still, unbelievably) Christian friends to read and think about.

'Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives'

2009-05-10T21:04:00.002+01:00

'Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives'

Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."

He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that "nobody puts even a fraction of blame" on women, the newspaper said.

Al-Razine "also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country," it added.

Because spending money and talking back are absolutely fucking BRILLIANT reasons to beat your wife, oh yes.

Yet another reason to avoid Islamic countries. I don't care how nice their tourist business is, or what lovely things they have to offer me - until they start treating women equally, I refuse to go there.

'Say you weren't raped in jail and we'll let you live'

2009-05-10T20:31:00.002+01:00

I can't find this same version of events being reported in other papers, so maybe Daily Mail is being inflamatory again, but if it's true, I'm more than a little bit disgusted.

'Say you weren't raped in jail and we'll let you live', pregnant British woman told in Laos prison

I left a comment, after seeing the amount of comments suggesting she be left to her fate. Which is, actually, the firing squad (though not while pregnant - I hate to think what they'll do with the child once she has it - will it be given to a local orphanage? Or will it be sent to her family in the UK? Or will she keep it with her? What?)

What the hell, people? The top six comments on the main list are telling this woman to serve her time. Do they even know what her sentence IS? Death by firing squad!

If she had done this in a country where ALL she would face is a prison term, then fine, I would be behind it 100% - but this woman faces death by being shot!

And telling her the only way to be sent home is to say she wasn't raped? I'm sorry - she's been in there for ten months, the pregnancy obviously occured as a result of being in there. If it WASN'T rape, then fine. If it WAS, she shouldn't be forced to lie about it, to save her life!

This situation is despicable, however you look at it.

Footage of 'Baby Preacher'

2009-05-10T19:20:00.003+01:00

This is actually creepy, chilling and a little upsetting. Obviously, he's simply parroting what he's seen and heard the preachers in his parents church do, but it's saddening to watch - especially with the cries of Jesus! and praying you can hear in the background.

Found via James Tracy's Blog.

Continued conversations with Christians

2009-05-10T17:22:00.003+01:00

19 year old Kid:

if god'snot real then you can do what ever you want nobody can tell you what to do because we changed from animals and animals kill otther animals

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature

that's how we tell them of jesus

if you don't like the bible don't read the newspaper watch the news hear about who's the next president going outside etc you said that the bible is disgusting and i said what's disgusting in the world

Really? They are born in sin, so they carry Original Sin. If theyve not been baptised/christened, then according to that tract, they got to hell. There is absolutely no way you can get around this unless you admit that it is stupid.

im going to send you a video about this

19 year old Kid:

ok im going to tell you why dead babies going to heaven because compared to adults they have choices and unlike babies they can't walk to or even feed themselves and how can babies have choices if they can't think salvation is a reality

Hannah:

‘if god'snot real then you can do what ever you want nobody can tell you what to do because we changed from animals and animals kill otther animals’

No. No and no. No. No, no, no, no and double no. This is an old, old, old and tired argument and has been refuted and debunked and shown to be incredibly stupid by so many people...

As I explained in my last post to you – morals and ethics are subjective and driven by society. We cannot act as we please, because society will punish us. We cannot act in such a way as to harm others, because it is morally wrong – and it is morally wrong, because it harms the herd.

Animals in the wild will expel any member of the herd/group that acts in any way to harm the herd/group. Wolves, for instance, will chase off and even hunt down any member of the pack that is acting in a socially unacceptable way – for instance, attacking the pups of the dominant pair, stealing and hording food and so on. The same happens in lion prides, chimpanzee families and so on. Morals are not only found in humanity.

Animals don’t have the capacity to believe in any god, and the bible doesn’t say anything about god giving animals morals – so where do their morals come from? That’s right – it’s as I told you in my previous post – we evolved them, they evolved them. Morals are evolved.

Also – the bible simply reflects ten thousand or so years of evolved morals. Did people before the bible act differently? Were they constantly sinning, because they didn’t have the bible’s rules to abide by? No. In fact, some places were better than the Christians the bible and Jesus helped to create. And of course, some were worse.

Humanity is humanity – we are all both good and bad.

If you stopped believing in your god, would you go and rape someone? Murder someone? Steal? Would you start ‘sinning’, simply because you suddenly stopped believing that your god is real? That there is no-one looking over your shoulder, preparing to send you to hell for doing it?

As I have said, I and my atheist friends, acquaintances and family are all living good, happy, moral lives. We are doing this without a god. We are doing this without the bible, or any other holy book’s, laws.

On the other side of the coin, there are plenty of religious people who ARE raping, murdering and stealing. There are plenty of religious people who are living dishonest, moralistically empty lives. There are religious people who are racist, bigoted, prejudiced, homophobic – downright HORRIBLE people. And you CANNOT claim they are not ‘true believers’ – because they are. They believe with all the conviction that you do, they believe with all the faith and trust and knowledge that you do.

But it doesn’t stop them being horrible people.

The rates of religion and atheism, represented in the US prisons should be in favour of atheism, if your claim that religion (and your god in particular) makes people good. But it isn’t. Atheists make up as little as 1 percent (in actuality, 0.21% of the prison population is atheist!) That is disproportionately small, compared to the 8 – 16% of atheists in the US society as a whole. Christians, in contrast, make up 83% of the US prison population!

The most atheistic countries in the world, are also the ones with the lowest crime rates. Of the G-8 member countries, Japan (the least religious country) has the lowest crime rate and America (the most religious country) has the highest crime rate! In fact, Louisiana – the state with the highest levels of church attendance – is the state with the highest murder rates, TWICE the national average for the rest of America.

So, it looks a lot to me, like believing in god does NOT make you a good person (and likewise, that god didn’t give these people their morals, or me, mine, or you, yours.)

Oh, and finally, I’d like to say something about the bible and it’s ‘laws’.

They were stolen, almost verbatim, from older, non-Christian, religions. Egypt’s Osirian Requirements and Babylon’s Hammurabi’s Law are the most notable.

They pre-date Moses by at least a couple hundred years and have almost exactly the same laws, with almost exactly the same wording – oh, and Hammurabi also climbed a mountain and received his laws from the god Shamash in a way incredibly similar to Moses (who, as I said, did his climbing and receiving a couple hundred years later).

Anyway – next.

‘if you don't like the bible don't read the newspaper watch the news hear about who's the next president going outside etc’

‘you said that the bible is disgusting and i said what's disgusting in the world’

I had to break that part up, in an attempt to understand it. Truly, your typing skills and coherency skills are lacking.

Sooo... Newspapers, the News and President Obama (who is actually your CURRENT President, not the ‘next’ President, by the way) and ‘going outside’ are disgusting? I’m not sure I understand you. Let me think on this for a few.

‘if you don't like the bible, don't read the newspaper’
‘if you don't like the bible, don’t watch the news’
‘if you don't like the bible, don’t hear about who’s the next president’
‘if you don't like the bible, don’t going outside’

Nope... still doesn’t make sense.

What has liking or disliking the bible got to do with any of these things?

Next.

‘im going to send you a video about this’

Ok, so you can’t explain it to me yourself? Ah – looks like you’ve tried in your follow-up PM.

Next.

‘ok im going to tell you why dead babies going to heaven’

I’ve had to break this up again, because, seriously, your typing and coherency is appalling.

‘ because compared to adults they have choices and unlike babies they can't walk to or even feed themselves’

What? No, really, what? I’m going to TRY to make sense of this.

‘Adults have choices’ ‘Babies can’t even walk or feed themselves’

Ok, is THAT what you meant?

Either way, this did not answer my question about original sin. According to that Chick Tract, and the bible, and pretty much all versions of Christianity, original sin is passed from parents to children. The babies are born in sin and if they die before being christened/baptised/whatever, they go to hell for original sin.

‘and how can babies have choices if they can't think salvation is a reality’

This one baffles me. Did you mean:

‘How can babies have choices, if they can’t think salvation is a reality?’

Or

‘How can babies have choices, if they can’t think? Salvation is a reality.’

Grammar is a wonderful thing. I would suggest learning it and maybe giving it a go.

Anyway, neither of those statements had anything to do with my original question, so I’ll leave them.

Also – you STILL haven’t answered me on the mentally ill, disabled and never-heard-of-Jesus people. What about them? Do THEY all go to hell? Why or why not? According to that Chick Tract, they would. And you sent me that Tract – so I’m guessing either you agree with it, or you didn’t actually apply any critical thinking to it – or you didn’t understand it.

Next.

H

If nothing else, these conversations give me a chance to put my own thoughts on the subject in order - even if it is all futile in the end.

Anthems For Atheists: Godless and Free!

2009-05-10T12:58:00.000+01:00

Rather taken with this one XD

Glem Beck Vs A.C.O.R.N

2009-05-09T16:37:00.001+01:00

Seriously. What the fuck? He wouldn't get away with that shit on UK TV. Seriously. How the hell does he get away with this?

'Shut his mic off!' ????

Glen Beck is an asshole.

Venomfangx is gone???

2009-05-08T00:25:00.005+01:00

I've just heard - Venomfangx (Creationist, Young-Earther, all around complete and utter berk) has closed his Youtube account and shut down his website!

So far jordanowen42 and gogreen18 and amazingatheist have all Vlogged about his apparent departure.

He claims he has left the internet, due to 'death threats' from 'muslims' - though he gives no proof of this.

There are mixed reactions so far - nobody knows quite whether he's telling the truth (though he has an extensive track record of lying) or if he's lying to protect his dignity (some are even postulating that his parents shut him down, amusingly enough!).

I'm not entirely sure whether to believe it yet. He's got that track record, you see, of lying and show-boating and so on. So, I'll wait and see whether he comes back - especially considering he recently set up his 'ministry'.

Here's the Vlogs so far.

EDIT:

Don't know if this is actually Venom of not, but it's certainly all his videos - or a goodly proportion of them at any rate.

Venomfangx1

Either he's created himself a new account (he's done it before) or someone has mirrored his account. I'm sure we'll know in time.

Patricia Putt - Randi challenge results in

2009-05-07T17:22:00.005+01:00

A 'Psychic Medium' named Patricia Putt (or 'Ankhara' when she's working, from the looks of her website) took up the Million Dollar challenge at the JREF.

The results are now in for the preliminary round. She had to pen psychic readings for a number of volunteers, and five or more of those volunteers had to recognise their own reading from the collection for her to pass.

None of them did. She failed the Preliminary round and has to go home.

I'm not in the least bit surprised - but apparently she's taking it will and only blames her own powers for failing.

Find info here.

And her own website here.

A 'Bad Psychic' review of her.

A BBC Inside Out report.

Digital Journal; Science OpEd piece on the test.

The JREF Forum catalogue of the test procedure and events.

Letters to our daughters...

2009-05-06T22:00:00.002+01:00

Letters To Our Daughters Project

A collection of letters by women in science, to the younger generations of women who want to embark on a career in science, or are just starting out.

Here are the letters so far from Dr. Barbara Goodman and Dr. Pascale Lane. Their letters, while intended for fellow scientifically inclined women, strike me as relatable to other paths.

I read them with pleasure and look forward to reading more.

One Law For All Petition

2009-05-06T14:18:00.003+01:00

One Law For All Petition

* We call on the UK government to recognise that Sharia and all religious laws are arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular. Citizenship and human rights are non-negotiable.

* We demand an end to all Sharia courts and religious tribunals on the basis that they work against and not for equality and human rights.

* We demand that the law be amended so that all religious tribunals are banned from operating within and outside of the legal system.

Sharia law is unfair and unjust in civil matters

Proponents argue that the implementation of Sharia is justified when limited to
civil matters, such as child custody, divorce and inheritance. In fact, it is civil
matters that are one of the main cornerstones of the subjugation of and discrimination against women and children.

Under Sharia law a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man’s; a woman’s marriage contract is between her male guardian and her husband. A man can have four wives and divorce his wife by simple repudiation, whereas a woman must give reasons, some of which are extremely difficult to prove.

Child custody reverts to the father at a preset age, even if the father is abusive; women who remarry lose custody of their children; and sons are entitled to inherit twice the share of daughters.

The voluntary nature of Sharia courts is a sham

Proponents argue that those who choose to make use of Sharia courts and
tribunals do so voluntarily and that according to the Arbitration Act parties are
free to agree upon how their disputes are resolved.

In reality, many of those dealt with by Sharia courts are from the most marginalised segments of society with little or no knowledge of their rights under British law. Many, particularly women, are pressured into going to these courts and abiding by their decisions.

More importantly, those who fail to make use of Sharia law or seek to opt out
will be made to feel guilty and can be treated as apostates and outcasts. Even if completely voluntary, which is untrue, the discriminatory nature of the courts would be sufficient reason to bring an end to their use and implementation.

Full information (PDF) lefleat here.

Response to a Chick Tract

2009-05-06T11:47:00.008+01:00

A kid (I say 'kid' - he's 19) I was discussing Christianity with a while ago, sent me a completely random out-of-the-blue PM yesterday, containing one single line of text.

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0100/0100_01.asp

Yes, that's right - it's the link to a Chick Tract!

Specifically the one titled 'The Choice'.

Here's some excerpts:

And my response:

I really hate Chick-tracts, not just because they're terrible, but they're so badly drawn. As an artist, they offend me on that artistic level.

As an atheist, they offend me, because the 'atheist' in them is always ugly, or belittled, or stupid, or miserable - or basically, a stupid caricature of something that doesn't exist.

None of the atheists I know, and I know MANY, are stupid, or ugly, or belittled or miserable. We are happy, intelligent, fulfilled and beautiful people, who manage to be all this, without the need for any outside force.

As for this tract itself? What a load of hogwash.

What about the babies? A two year old child dies. They are developing a personality and an understanding of right and wrong. They are killed or die of an illness. WHERE DO THEY GO? According to that tract, they go to hell!

A two year old child has no idea of any god or gods, they are far to young to understand such things. So where is the good and loving in this act?

What about the tribes-people who live in the middle of the asian forests? They've never heard of any christian god, or jesus - in fact, they've never met any humans other than their own people. Yet this tract says THEY will go to hell, as well. For simply having not heard of Jesus? Where is the good and loving in this act?

What about the mentally ill and the mentally disabled? These people are far less likely to be able to understand what a god is, let alone be able to worship him or 'repent' of sins. Yet, once again, this tract says THEY TOO will go to hell - for not being able to understand! Where is the good and loving in this?

And so we come to the ordinary atheist. Atheists use the brains they were born with, they live blameless lives, they protect their own families and those of strangers, they give to charities, they further human knowledge, they look after animals, they fight for human rights, they right wrongs. Yet, for the simple choice of using their brains, and ASKING FOR EVIDENCE that they NEVER GET, they too will go to hell? Where is the good and loving in this act?

Lastly, I would like to point out that that tract is WRONG. There is NO CHOICE.

Lets put it in simple terms:

Father: You can paint your room any colour you like!
Son: Yay! Can I paint it blue?
Father: No - it has to be orange. But you can paint it any colour you like.
Son: But.. so can I paint it blue?
Father: You can paint it blue, if you don't mind being tortured for doing so. Paint it orange.
Son: But you said I can paint it any colour I like!
Father: Of course you can! But it has to be orange. Any other colour and I will have to torture you. I don't want to torture you, but I will have to.
Son:...but that's not a choice!
Father: Sure it is. Paint it orange - or - paint it another colour and be tortured! That's a choice!
Son: ... no it isn't.

Do you see my point? THIS IS NOT A CHOICE. You don't want to be tortured, but you have NO OTHER OPTION. A choice would have more than those two options. This is coercion, NOT choice.

Your god is despicable.

Oh. And trying to threaten an atheist with hell, is like, I dunno - threatening YOURSELF with the Muslim hell.

You don't believe in the Muslim hell, do you? So you don't worry about it - there's been no evidence to make you believe in it, so you don't believe in it, and you don't worry about it - do you?

It's exactly the same with atheists - we just go one hell further. There's been no evidence to convince us that YOUR hell exists, so we don't believe in it and we don't worry about it.

Have a good day.

H

P.S. - Would you still like me to answer your previous post? I will if you want, I was about halfway through finding all the quotes, when I got sick of reading how disgusting your bible is.

I paraphrased that Father/Son story from somewhere, but for the life of me, I simply can't remember where. Does anyone know?

Also, I adore the way education (and by association, of course, critical thinking), is of the devil and thus evil. I also love the way the 'young people/atheists' are represented by what appear to be punks, or bikers - as if the only young people who are atheists are those who outwardly eschew convention.

Oh - and that picture of what I'm guessing is some sort of gorilla, or chimp, some primate of some sort at any rate (his art really is just that crap) - is supposed to be a dig at evolution? Very clever of Chick, really.

Jenny McCarthy and Oprah

2009-05-05T13:01:00.002+01:00

Yupp. That bane of childrens health, Jenny McCarthy, has signed on with Oprah.

Following in the heels of Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray, McCarthy has signed a deal with Harpo Productions to develop multi-platform projects, including a syndicated talk show and a blog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Via seattlepi

This woman has already helped increase the histeria over vaccinations - this show looks set to propogate that fear even further.

A wonderful example of woo thought

2009-05-05T12:45:00.002+01:00

From an Anti-Vaxxer no less:

# mike yadon Says:
May 4th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

I cannot believe you people have lost all respect for common sense. These vaccinations have dangerous ingredients. These ingredients at toxic levels are being injected. There are never any long term studies done on any of this. Our children are being used as guinea pigs.

You folks think you can just scare people with boogey man diseases and claims of antivaxxers being murderers. How dare you assault common sense with that rubbish? Go get a lick of common sense and you’ll come to the same conclusion i have.

The chance of contracting one of these diseases is slim. So minutely slim, really pretty much none. A. Because the majority of the diseases are fake. Aids is fake. Polio is fake. Swine flu is fake. It’s all fake. Basically Germ theory is a fraud. B. The human body is so much more miraculous than the drug companies would have you believe. You can heal most anything via diet modification, herbs&spices appropriately chosen, and lots of fresh water.

So, if there is a group of us out here who have woken up to the power of the human mind and the human body and chose to go a different route than those of you that chose to intervene and play god with your shots and needles.

so be it. i chose my way. you chose yours. i guess there’s no sense in arguing further with you folks.

Via Bad Astronomy

My bold.

This man scares me. That there are people out there, who actually think like this - I know it, of course, but to have it so blatantly demonstrated!

Makes me wonder what happens when someone he loves contracts something disgusting and deadly. Will he continue with his 'germ theory is a fraud' stance? Will he treat them homeopathically? Or whatever other woo he follows?

Scary thought - scary man.

10 things more likely to cure you than Homeopathy

2009-05-04T15:09:00.003+01:00

1. Private island
2. Gas mask
3. Real medicine
4. Aliens
5. Mace
6. Jesus (note: only if you’re in a Stephen King novel)
7. Superman
8. Your own immune system

Via Skepchick

Which just about says it all, really.

As we all know, Homeopathy is nothing more than magic water that's been shaken about a bit and dripped on sugar pills. So I hope I'm not the only one finding it annoying that Homeopaths are trying to claim they have cures and treatments for this new flu.

It is important for those more at risk to seek professional help from their homeopath, GP or health practitioner now. Constitutional treatment is the best way for anyone to strengthen the immune system and Helios would recommend consulting a homoeopath.

Via Helios Homeopathy

Homeopathic Remedies

Considering that the Swine Flu virus produces symptoms similar to the human influenza virus, the following homeopathy medicines may prove useful in cases of swine influenza:

#Gelsemium. [Gels]
#Baptisia.
#Eupatorium perfoliatum.
#Sabadilla. [Sabad]
#Arsenicum. [Ars]
#Arsenicum iodide.

etc

Via Hpathy

Homeopathy was successful in treating the flu epidemic of 1918 and can provide answers to questions about the 2009 Swine Flu. Homeopathy can provide quick and inexpensive relief for symptoms of the flu.

Via NaturalNews

My recommended homeopathic formula for this type of flu is as follows.

1- The treatment would start with a single dose of Pyrogenium-200 for all cases and in long cases once every week.

2- Ten drops of Baptisia-6 should be mixed in 3 ounces of plain water. Two teaspoonfuls from this water to be given every hour till four doses are complete, later every 2 hours until the fever is below 100 degree F.

Once the patient starts to show better comprehension and seems mentally alert the frequency of dose may be reduced to every 4 to 6 hours. Antiboitics to be avoided untill absolutly required.

Via HomeoGuide

Dr. Jacob Mirman of Homeopathic Medical Clinic says the homeopathic clinic is offering a flu kit that's growing in demand, reported at KSTP TV. "That's a hundred bucks from Washington homeopathic pharmacy. They are right now inundated with requests, so they say it's one or two weeks to get it," he said.

"The virus does not become resistant to homeopathy because we don't treat the virus. We treat the vital force, the immune system, so then it takes care of the virus, whatever it is," explained Mirman.

Via HealthNewsTrack

It's also been speculated that the reason the flu is so bad in Mexico, is that people rely too heavily on alternative treatments:

But one important factor may be the eclectic approach to health care in Mexico, where large numbers of people self-prescribe antibiotics, take only homeopathic medicine, or seek out mysterious vitamin injections. For many, only when all else fails do they go to a doctor, who may or may not be well prepared.

Via NYTonline

I'm sure there's more if you look. These people are vultures. They know, just as well as the skeptics do, that there is no evidence for their claims - yet they still peddle this crap - mostly to the vulnerable, gullible and desperate, and mostly to the poor (though, don't forget the high percentage of middle-class, moderately wealthy folk who get in on it because they think it's 'spiritual' etc).

I'm getting sick of seeing all of this. Just like the baby in my previous post, people die because they take this snake-oil instead of seeking real medical care.

Homeopathy: What's the harm?

2009-05-04T12:10:00.003+01:00

Disgusting.

Now, I expect the various Homeopathy supporters to crawl out of the woodwork and attempt to explain to me why the Homeopathic solutions this child was being treated with didn't work, and why she died.

Go on. Give me your apologetics. Explain to me why this 9 month old baby died in agonising pain, of something that is treatable by real medicine?

I'd like to hear what reasons and excuses you think can explain this.

Was he giving her the wrong solutions, perhaps? Was he giving her too much? Too little? Was her father simply the wrong Homeopath for the job?

Or is it, perhaps, that magic water is nothing more than snake-oil?

Bill Maher on Swine-Flu

2009-05-04T11:06:00.002+01:00

If you get it and you don't believe in evolution, you have to pray it away!

Too true.

We all wonder how they don't get it. Even Ray Comfort's cartoonist - Ray Gunther - actually said:

The spread of the so-called 'swine flu' demonstrates yet again how useless and sometimes deadly a mutation can be.

Of course, completely missing the damn point that this mutation is actually incredibly beneficial to the virus! DUH.

It really is a simple refusal to accept reality. So I'm with Bill on this - if you don't believe in evolution, you shouldn't get the benefits of it.

Fuck off and pray you'll get better - you believe that's how it works, right?

Vs Anti-Vaxxers in Australia

2009-05-03T16:49:00.003+01:00

I think the 'debate' was too short, and no-one took the Anti-Vaxxers on as stridently as they aught to have, but it was good nonetheless.

Via 'The Skeptics Book of Pooh Pooh'.

Some Flood/Mudslide, somewhere, sometime...

2009-05-01T22:15:00.002+01:00

Premonition of possible Flooding and Mudslides

Written by faithfulangel Tuesday, 28 April 2009 04:26

Last night I had a premonition of ground sliding..usually from experience of previous premonitions usually most times a warning of floods and mudslides about to occur. I can't say where as I didn't get a location, it was a land where the soil was rich and fertile. That's all I had in the premonition.

Whisper:

I would be interested if you could say, specifically, where and when - as anyone can make this kind of prediction. Mudslides and floods are fairly common and happen all over the world, all the time.

I have the distinct feeling my comment will not get through the censors.

Someone needs to tell these people, and the people like him/her, that coincidences are actually really bloody common. They should also look up on the Law Of Truly Large Numbers.

Melanie Phillips and her amazing ability to completely missunderstand anything, strikes again!

2009-05-01T21:54:00.003+01:00

Melanie Phillips (best known to myself for writing her Opinion articles in the Daily Mail) wrote a wonderful article on Creationism, Intelligent Design and her inability to realise that they are one and the same.

Here's a sample:

In an item on the growing popularity of Intelligent Design, John Humphrys interviewed Professor Ken Miller of Brown University in the US who spoke on the subject last evening at the Faraday Institute, Cambridge. Humphrys suggested that Intelligent Design might be considered a kind of middle ground between Darwinism and Creationism. Miller agreed but went further, saying that Intelligent Design was

nothing more than an attempt to repackage good old-fashioned Creationism and make it more palatable.

But this is totally untrue. Miller referred to a landmark US court case in 2005, Kitzmiller v Dover Area School District, which did indeed uphold the argument that Intelligent Design was a form of Creationism in its ruling that teaching Intelligent Design violated the constitutional ban against teaching religion in public schools. But the court was simply wrong, doubtless because it had heard muddled testimony from the likes of Prof Miller.

The woman is masterful in her lack of research, subject knowledge and even apparent inability to understand what has been quite simply spelled out to her.

I'm also thoroughly amused by her decree that the Court Ruling 'was simply wrong'! The statement makes it abundantly clear that she didn't read up on the case - you know, something one is wont to do, when one is writing about this particular subject - and thus has made her own conclusions apparently based on her own biases.

Wonderful bit of journalism, there!

I left a reply:

Whisper
April 30th, 2009 10:09pm

Seriously, Melanie, if you plan to write in the public forum about these subjects, at least make some pretense at having researched the topic. ID is and always has been, a trumped up attempt to make Creationism 'scientific'.

It's one of many, many comments that are attempting to set the woman straight. Though there are a few amusing Creationist comments, too - well worth the read, if only for those.