February 2011
29 posts
Anti-Abortion Billboard In SoHo Targets...
to be honest, my problem isn’t even the harshness of xtian judgment-i judge them as harshly, if not more so, but the hypocrisy: it’s a human life, but let’s cut funding for schools in the inner city, WIC, (which help the child directly), and college grants (which might help mom dig her way out of extreme poverty-thus helping both parent and child).
“If you can get people...
Lawrence O'Donnell: Glenn Beck 'Even Crazier Than...
remember: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/fox-news-viewers-are-the-_n_798146.html
i don’t think insulting his viewer’s intelligence is even possible.
Lawrence O'Donnell: Glenn Beck 'Even Crazier Than...
wait, you mean a mormon alcoholic and an overweight mysoginistic wife beating oxocodone addict, both of whom dropped out of college, and both of whom lie consistently and demonstrably, shouldn’t be telling me how horrible I am for having finished college, my belief in evolution, and my atheism?
Paul Ryan: House GOP Will Negotiate With Senate On...
yeah, but the tremendous pressure you refer to is pressure that republicans will fitfully ignore, relying on fox news to lie about it, and democrats will cave in to-assuring us more of the same. i don’t think the repubs care, and they don’t really have to. this problem is the same problem i have with fundies-they ask how is evolution real, and i have to explain science to a bag of...
What's So New About the New Atheism?
you can’t argue with theists. read my response, and then go the masochist’s trough and have a drink—i have—in preparation for the response that my actual argument tearing codygirl’s argument apart is almost surely going to receive. i love theists. they reinforce my generally low opinion of religion.
What's So New About the New Atheism?
i don’t think one has to be a professional philosopher-that was 1 of 2 of my undergrad majors, and the fact is that the beauty of atheism, and philosophy generally is that once you give up the childlike need to believe in santa claus, you’re well on your way to understanding it—i once thought that philo was the province of intellectual supermen(and women), but it...
What's So New About the New Atheism?
see, i used to hold that view, but the fact is that all religions demand, in order to reduce cognitive dissonance they create, for as many as possible to agree with them, and for as many people as possible to adhere to simplistic stereotypes created by the dogma, for what others should be
whether implicitly (such as in much xtianity), or explicitly (such as the islamic belief that all should...
What's So New About the New Atheism?
utter rubbish. you no more represent god-if such a thing exists-than i represent the deposed shah of iran. false answers have never been a substitute for no answer. as far as judging, there is very little to recommend the xtian worldview as a place from which to judge anyone-esp. as xtians promoting their dogma is in large part responsible for much of the worlds ills.
and your...
Patriot Act Extensions Rejected By House In...
no jeff, i didn’t answer the question b/c you’re assuming that it’s perfectly fine to randomly stop people on the street based on some arbitrary notion of what you think a terrorist would look like, either that, or you want to give the police mind reading powers to assist them in finding terrorists.
i refuse to answer the question b/c it presumes guilt. i don’t have to...
Birthers Comprise Majority Of Likely 2012 GOP...
actually, liberals don’t NEED to belittle those who disagree with them-it’s merely very easy to do-there’s a difference. and the fact is that those who believe in santa claus, the tooth fairy, little green men from mars, or that Obama was not born in Hawaii, are not educated, despite perhaps having gone to college. education exposes people to facts, and attempts to inculcate a...
Are Rational Religious People All That Rare?
i quite enjoyed your line of reasoning, and your case is well made. i think that if there were more people like you in religions, the world would probably not be in the state it’s in. i particularly enjoyed your comparison of changing the nature/name of the more liberalized versions of religions to not voting-i find it a compelling point, and well made. And I admire your desire to fight...
Bible Classes: Kentucky Senate Approves Law To...
i wonder why the founders even bothered to include impeachment as punishment for that sort of thing….it’s not like we’re impeaching anyone (except slick willy, that is).
scalia needs to be impeached-women aren’t ‘persons’ under the 14th amendment-odd for a person who prefers to read the constitution strictly, don’t you think? I mean, it...
DNC Blasts Republicans Over CPAC Talking Points...
I think you’re putting it mildly. as it stands, the corporatization of america, coupled with the wholesale lurch to the right of SCOTUS, is perhaps a greater threat not only to women, but to national security as well (and to anyone therefore, who values their privacy, their safety, and the competitiveness of the american marketplace). I agree that this is a fight that all women should...
DOMA Is Unconstitutional
no sir. i am not required to provide any support for the contention that homosexuality does not make a person non-human-you take the right to marry for granted b/c you are human, and you cannot then claim that other humans do not have that right. it is incumbent upon you sir, to explain why it is that homosexuality is a bar to the right to marry-and no, the fact that it is a sin according to...
Can Religion Make Us More Civil?
i would say that anything that hampers knowledge, i.e. the fact that religious training starts at an early age, and makes what orwell called doublethink possible-holding contradictory ideas at once, believing both to be true, and not experiencing cognitive dissonance, hurts the world by keeping us from using our naturally given ability to question, ponder, discover, and etc. of course, one...
Mysticism In Religion: Three Ways to View the...
more to the point-each moment of, as the japanese call it, zanshin, is unique-there can be no understanding that can be communicated in any meaningful sense of the word, all the mechanisms perhaps, but not the feeling-no more than i can ‘feel’ pregnant, though i can perhaps understand what is happening in a woman’s body-claiming ‘mystery’ puts all religions in the...
Mysticism In Religion: Three Ways to View the...
this is not confined to religion: in the japanese martial arts, such as kendo and aikido, which i practice, there is the notion of zanshin-being in the moment, fully physically aware, and if you are fortunate, this moment can become a moment of satori-sudden enlightenment-the problem is, it’s not ‘mystical’-today, neuroscience is homing in on what brain processes occur at...
CPAC & 2012: Can Potential White House Hopefuls...
no, no they aren’t. you have to actually have thoughts, before you can hide them. republicans today have very little of those—and they want their supporters to have even less. ironically, it’s very Brave New World of them.
Allen West CPAC Speech Closes Conservative...
i’m beginning to suspect that the only thing that hasn’t evolved since the constitution was written is the branch of homo sapiens that lives in the bible belt.
Allen West CPAC Speech Closes Conservative...
no…we just tend to view anyone like uncle ruckus as a rather disgustingly transparent ploy by the racists elements in our country (like a great many republicans) to use one black person as a proxy for all other black persons, and thereby attempt to refute accusations of racism. it’s great to have a black friend, but see, i have FRIENDS, only racists have ‘black’ friends...
Exploring the Middle Ground Between Science and...
you’re making the mistake, in challenging anyone to a debate, that there actually is a debate to be had. there is no material support for believing the bible, let alone for being a xtian. there’s just no points of contention. if you want to play at debating, go ahead, but I’m just not a child—platitudes, distortions, and bald faced assertions, coupled with a sprinkling...
Exploring the Middle Ground Between Science and...
with the wholesale cant that ‘news’ organizations are taking (perhaps in the wake of the wikileaks disclosures, though that’s speculation), it doesn’t surprise me that religion, and its apologists, are succeeding in squelching dissent—perhaps this is a bit conspiracy-ish, but I’ve found myself being moderated out of more than a few discussions...
Exploring the Middle Ground Between Science and...
i think you’d be right, except for the fact that you aren’t. see, science’s answers, when they come, are tangible things. gravity? real. planets? real. On the other hand, religion seeks to answer everything with one word: god. and god? not real. heaven? not real. hell? not real.
Moreover, faith, by it’s very definition, is not logical. it just isn’t. I’m sure...
Be Happy or Else: The American Refusal to Deal...
that is a very high horse, ms. acosta. “Life is suffering and everyone, but everyone, gets a bowl and his/her proper portion.”--see, that statement is about as wrong as any other sentence in your ‘article’. People, most certainly do not get their proper portion. and unfortunately, it isn’t modern xtianity that’s at fault—it really is all of it. it always...
Reagan Solicitor General: 'I Am Quite Sure That...
you’re not a retailer, are you? basic rule: if you sell retail, your markup has to be at least 100%, or you won’t even cover your costs. so….$1.20 markup on a product that cost a dollar? Not hardly. own my own business, too, by the way. and again, thanks for the opportunity…that’s MENDEZ, with a ‘Z’ at the end. Oh, and both mom and dad were born here!...
Nebraska Hops On Birther-Bill Bandwagon
but really, who wants to jump over romney? he’s just gonna like it. next thing you know, there are gonna be human pyramids in airport bathrooms all over the country—where is our morality then? tell me that, willow712? what are we gonna do then? i guess you wouldn’t mind a country where we eat every third child, impose abortions on victims of rape and incest, and not pray to...
Jerusalem UFO Spottings Over Islamic Landmark...
it’s not about being ‘mental and emotional wimps’—it’s about being a critical thinker. I’m more than open to the possibility of there being life on other planets. in fact, according to the drake equation, it’s a statistical certainty that life exists elsewhere in the universe. have you ever stopped to think ‘why?’ though? why would they come...
Jerusalem UFO Spottings Over Islamic Landmark...
no, it’s the men in black daggumit! now dial 1-800-hill-b lee, an’ gimme all yer money! jeebus needs yer money fo what to do good works wit’ an’ all. in mississippi we knows it to be troo dat deyse a comin’ fer us all what fer to tayk us all to de spaseplaine inna sky! ain’t gonna be saved if’n yoo don’t contribyoot! agin, da nummer ta call is...
What's Behind The Drive To Redefine Rape In New...
it’s the republican catch and release policy. they want you to keep that baby. whether you can take care of it or not. if not, then they want you to go to jail for it, and when the kid turns to crime for obviously no reason at all, they’ll put it in jail too. like i said before, it’s a win, win for republicans. god i h @ t 3 them.