Mike's Blog

Happy New Year 2009

Amazing another whole year has gone by.

...and from Wikipedia

C&L's Late Night Music Club - Happy New Year

                   

By bluegal Wednesday Dec 31, 2008 8:00pm    

         

Title: Auld Lang Syne

Artist: unknown

Happy New Year from everyone at C&L.

Your imaginary friend is not real, only those who believe in my imaginary friend are real imaginary friend belivers

There thoughts must be something along the line of "Well the Mormons served their purpose in California and passed Prop 8 so now we can hate them again."  This will be fun to watch. Glen Beck is no lightweight when it comes to bigoted, racist, homophobic, hate speech it will be fun to watch him and Dobson duke it out. Two real leaders of religious, racist, homophobic, right wing hate speech. And each have theirlittle groups of faithful minions.

I came across a new word reading through comments this morning - Talibangical - as a substitute for evangelical in referring to Dobson and his crowd of little minions. I home that meme spreads through the intertubes.

Dobson v Beck: Who Do You Root For Here?

Category: Politics
Posted on: December 28, 2008  9:16 AM, by Ed Brayton

In a battle between James Dobson and Glenn Beck, and between right wing fundamentalists and right wing Mormons, who exactly am I supposed to root for? This post at Pam's House Blend tells the story of how Focus on the Family put up a video promoting Glenn Beck's new book - until some of their followers threw a fit about promoting a book by a Mormon and they took the video down.

The fundies and the Mormons seemed to get along just fine when they were trying to forcibly divorce gay people in California. Now they're at each other's throats. I'm heartbroken by it. Really I am. (link Dispatches from the Culture  Wars)

Dobson Caves to Evangelicals Who Call Glenn Beck a Cultist                         

by: Chino Blanco

Fri Dec 26, 2008 at 06:40:31 AM EST

...
After the success of the Evangelical-Mormon lovefest otherwise known as Prop 8, I was really looking forward to reading what Glenn Beck might write over at James Dobson's place.  Would Glenn use the opportunity to ask Dr. Dobson about that time back in 2004 when Dobson's wife, Shirley, excluded Mormons from the National Day of Prayer?  And would Glenn suggest that maybe, in the afterglow of Prop 8, now was a good time for Dr. Dobson to offer an apology to Mormons for not letting them use the word "Christian" to describe themselves? And would it be an apology as heartfelt as the one that Beck delivered to Dobson on-air in 2007?  And, considering how successful the Mormons were at helping the Evangelicals keep the word "marriage" all to themselves out in California, would Dr. Dobson perhaps finally be moved to graciously begin sharing the "C" word with the Mormons?  I mean, Beck and Dobson are both good "Christians" right? ...(link Pam's House Blend)

Athiest "attacks" don't hold a candle to divine infighting

Category: Society Gone Bananas • Troglodytes at Play
Posted on: December 28, 2008  9:09 AM, by Kevin Beck

This couldn't be any richer, or any more demonstrative of what a phenomenal range of crippled and crazy ideas theology manages to pull into its tired old tent in an age where people pop newly-released, ultra-refined antibiotics as they type away on brand-new laptops containing state-of-the-art microprocessors, squinting at their screens with recently LASIK-improved eyesight as they tap out angry sentences about how scientists are not to be trusted as experts in their fields and a book thousands of years old holds the answers to everything.

I did not know that Glenn Beck was a Mormon, as this introduces an extra "m" to his description I was unaware was necessary. I also do not care. But James Dobson and his charmingly name-challenged troupe of donkeys, Focus on the Family, certainly do. After publishing an interview with Beck concerning his new book on its CitizenLink.com subsidiary, the head donkeys elected to pull the interview after others began braying about Mormonism being nothing more than a cult.

...(link Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge)

War Crimes Trials for BushCo

Well not quite but it's good to be reading about possibilities in Newsweek prior to Bush's departure. It mentions that giving a blanket pardon for any and all war crimes committed (I'm sure it will be phrased a bit differently, but that's basically what chimpy would have to say) might be a tad awkward and could be construed as an admission of guilt. Bush also as the power to pardon himself - that would really be a final fuck you from him and would certainly cement his legacy although not quite the legacy he had in mind.

The Noose Tightens

     Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and other top Bush officials could soon face legal jeopardy                   By Jonathan Tepperman | Newsweek Web Exclusive          

     Dec 19, 2008

The United States, like many countries, has a bad habit of committing wartime excesses and an even worse record of accounting for them afterward. But a remarkable string of recent events suggests that may finally be changing—and that top Bush administration officials could soon face legal jeopardy for prisoner abuse committed under their watch in the war on terror.
...
High-level charges, if they come, would be a first in U.S. history. "Traditionally we've caught some poor bastard down low and not gone up the chain," says Burt Neuborne, a constitutional expert and Supreme Court lawyer at NYU. Prosecutions may well be forestalled if Bush issues a blanket pardon in his final days, as Neuborne and many other experts now expect. (Some see Cheney's recent defiant-sounding admission of his own role in approving waterboarding as an attempt to force Bush's hand.)
...
Constitutionally, Bush could pardon everyone involved in formulating and executing the administration's interrogation techniques without providing specifics or naming names. And the pardon could apply to himself. Such a step, however, would seem like an admission of guilt and thus be politically awkward. Even if Bush takes it, civil suits for monetary damages could still proceed; such cases, though hard to win, are proliferating.
... (link Newsweek via AMERICAblog)

            

         

Let the feats of strength begin!

A Festivus Pole in Illinois

Category: Politics

A high school senior put up a Festivus pole next to a nativity display and the now-infamous FFRF sign at the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois, and it has led, ironically, to grievances being aired.

Funny, but nobody's laughing much about the Festivus pole that popped up under the dome of the Illinois Capitol this week.

Not the people who set up the nearby nativity scene.

"I think it's a mockery," said Dan Zanoza, chairman of the Springfield Nativity Scene Committee.

There's only one way to settle this: let the feats of strength begin!

(link)

Perspective

Forty Years After Earthrise

Category: Space
Posted on: December 23, 2008 12:00 AM, by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum

Forty years ago* on December 24, 1968, Earthrise was captured by astronaut William Anders during Apollo 8--the first manned voyage to the orbit of the Moon. It is a photograph that forever changed the way many humans perceive our place in the universe.

As we celebrate the new year, take a moment to consider our impact on this pale blue dot in the short span of time since then... and just imagine what we may yet accomplish and discover by 2048. (link)

 

click on photo for Wiki link

Follow the link "pale blue dot" above for a video clip and narration from Carl Sagan. The photograph and his thoughts on the "pale blue dot" always provide perspective and purpose.

Voyager I was launched in 1977. Science didn't learn anything from this picture but it was Carl Sagan's hope that maybe human beings could.  As Voyager I was about 4 billion miles from earth (a bit beyond the orbit of Pluto) in 1990 they turned it around at Carl Sagan's suggestion for a picture of our receding planet. It's still traveling and is now in interstellar space traveling at 37,790 mph. Voyager I and II both carry the famous gold record.

I found some basic statistics on world population, in 1970 there were 3.7 billion people on the planet, in 2007 there were 6.6 billion. Many of those now alive were not yet born in 1968. How much real progress has there been for most of those 6.6 billion since 1968?

Reason 100,389,343 why "religion poisons everything"

I love the name Pope BENEDICT. It always sounds like something out of Monty Python. I guess he could have chosen Heinrich, oder Adolph. Or if he were American maybe something along the lines of John Wayne (as in Gacy) (I know, I know it's a saint thing, but it would seem that John Wayne Gacy had at least some of the qualifications to be a saint- oh, raping small children is not one of them, who would have thought?)

Pope Benedict's Christmas Message

Category: Politics
Posted on: December 26, 2008  9:30 AM, by Ed Brayton

This takes some serious chutzpah:

Pope Benedict led the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas at a midnight mass Thursday in which he appealed for an end to child abuse in all its forms...

Benedict, celebrating the fourth Christmas of his pontificate, spoke out against the abuse of minors -- ranging from parents who abandon their children to armed groups that recruit child soldiers...

Benedict said Catholics had to "do everything in our power to put an end to the suffering of these children."

Well gosh, here's an idea Bennie: stop harboring pedophile priests and those who enabled them. Cardinal Law, who was an accomplice after the fact who harbored multiple felons and moved them from church to church so they could abuse more children, holds a number of positions of authority in Rome after being forced to resign from the Boston diocese for helping cover up the crimes of Paul Shanley, Robert Gale and John Geoghan.

You really want to pledge to do everything you can to end child abuse? Turn Law over to the police. Anyone in any other position of authority who did what he did - school administrator, physician, social worker, psychologist, etc - would be in prison for it. But because this man has an ecclesiastical title, he's off the hook. Instead of turning him over to the police, the church made him a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family. That's just plain sick.

(link)

Also some good comments, mostly sarcastic but some that lend some insight into the root of the problem. - All sex is bad and evil - don't ick up my thoughts by having to think about.

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The Pope's got the same problem Cardinal Law's got: While in theory, abstinence is supposed to be a sacrifice for these guys, in practice, the priesthood in general and the hierarchy in particular tends to attract the kind of emotional cripple for whom not having anything ever to do with sex is a plus.

Can't deal with the thought of straight sex, can't deal with the thought of gay sex, can barely deal with the thought of married people doing something as quickly as possible, in the dark, under a blanket, before retiring to separate beds, for the expressed purpose of making a baby.

But in that milieu, this type of enfeeblement probably seems like a call to a religious life.

Cardinal Law's actions were obviously motivated by CYA (no, not the Catholic Youth Organization). However, they were also the actions of an sexual defective who not only wanted the whole icky, icky, icky business to go away as quickly as possible, but felt even having to think about it--a prerequisite for ethical judgment--was an imposition on their oh-so-pure and delicate sensibilities. And he's not alone.

Thus we have ranking clerics--including the Pope and a slew of cardinals--who can't discern the moral nuances between sex done with consenting adults and any other kind, who treat priests who'd used their positions to intimidate sex out of underaged parishioners in the same manner as if they'd had inconvenient affairs with adults because their bishops couldn't be bothered to think about the difference, who confuse homosexuality with pedophilia, who handle anything having to do with sex in the most childish, simplistic, ill-informed manner possible.

Institutions like these aren't going away without a fight--but they are going.

                                                             

                                 Posted by:                                  Molly, NYC  |                                  December 26, 2008 12:48 PM

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Happy Monkey!!

It's finally Happy Monkey (Day)!! The greeting comes from an e-mail that PZ got that wished all of the non-believers a Merry Xmas at the end of his rant in a format that was an attempt to insult but which is pretty funny.

"Until then, happy monkey! (or what ever non Christmas evolution people say)"

Happy Monkey!

Category: Personal
Posted on: December 18, 2008  3:56 PM, by PZ Myers

Perhaps you have been pondering the meaning of the new traditional greeting, Happy Monkey! (important usage note: it is not Merry Monkey, nor is it Happy Monkey Day. It is simply "Happy Monkey", full stop. Trying to change the phrase means you are waging war on the Monkey, and you know how they will respond.) I haven't. I've been bogged down in the end-of-semester grind for the last week, writing tests, giving tests, grading tests, and there has been little room in my brain for deep philosophical thought.

But then, just a few minutes ago, I reached an end. The exams and papers were all marked and graded, and I filled out the forms and submitted them to the registrar. And I had an epiphany. Happy Monkey is not a day, not a greeting card, not just a phrase. Happy Monkey doesn't come from a store. Maybe Happy Monkey…perhaps…means a little bit more. And what happened then…? Well, my small Monkey grew three sizes that day!

Happy Monkey is any moment that you feel the burdens lifted, that you feel a lightening of the mood, that you feel puckish and prankish and like kicking your heels. Happy Monkey can strike any time, any day!

So Happy Monkey, everyone! And may you have many Happy Monkeys in days to come!

(link Pharyngula)

I would have thought that Democrats would have learned or thought about what "vetting" means after they saw what Palin did for McCain

but I guess not. No one on Obama's staff nor Obama clearly knew very much about this nutjob before Obama selected him to the invocation at the inauguration nor did they think it might be important to see that his hateful lying viewpoints could reflect badly on Obama. The more Warren opens his mouth the deeper he digs it. At least McCain tried to throttle Palin and not let people know what she was like. Not that it did any good, she was just a bit too full of her free from witches self.

Rick Warren's Bill Buckingham Moment

Category: Politics
Posted on: December 24, 2008  9:30 AM, by Ed Brayton

Bill Buckingham, you may recall, was the Dover school board member who denied under oath, both in depositions and on the witness standing during the trial, that he had never, ever used the term 'creationist' at any time when discussing his desire to use a supplemental textbook in science classrooms in the Dover schools. Then the courtroom was showed videotape of him telling a reporter that the textbook used was "laced with Darwinism" and that it had to be "balanced with something, like creationism."

Rick Warren is having a similar moment. Rachel Maddow just showed video from the Saddleback church website of a message Warren recorded for his congregation on Sunday night where he denies completely that he has ever compared gay marriages to incest or pedophilia. And here comes his Bill Buckingham moment:

And he's flat out lying, as Buckingham did. He does in fact compare gay marriages quite explicitly to incest and pedophilia and when asked directly if he thinks those relationships are the equivalent of gay relationships he replies, "Oh I do." Game, set, match. (link Dispatches From The Culture Wars)

"...20 or so historic virgin births..."

Good article, especially the comments section

 

The Big Question: What's behind Christmas traditions – and just how traditional are they?

By Andy McSmith

Wednesday, 24 December 2008        

Why are we asking this now?

Tonight you will put up the stockings, Santa Claus will arrive on his sleigh   drawn by reindeer to slide down your chimney in his trademark red suit with   a sack over his shoulder, and tomorrow you will open presents under your   decorated Christmas tree, eat turkey and mince pies, and promise yourself   that next year you won't leave it until the last weekend to write your   Christmas cards, because it is Christmas, and it is traditional. But do you   know how old these "traditions" actually are? Some are ancient,   some are newer than you think.

Why is Christmas Day on 25 December?

The Bible offers no date for the birth of Jesus, which probably was not in the   year 1AD, but a few years earlier, and may or may not have been in December.   The celebration of the birth of Christ on 25 December dates back to the   fifth century, when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of   the Roman Empire.

The date was chosen to coincide with the winter solstice and the Roman   festivals associated with the shortest day of the year, which falls between   22 December and 25 December. This was seen as the day when the Romans   celebrated Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – "the birthday of the   unconquered sun". It was also Jupiter's birthday and, further back, the   birthday of his Greek equivalent, Zeus. In Eastern Europe, the various   Orthodox churches – the Russian, Greek, Armenian, Serbian et al, follow the   old Gregorian calendar, and in which Christmas Day is 7 January There is no   Santa Claus in the Gospels....(link)

Comments

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I wonder how many christians know that of the 20 or so historic virgin births there are five others who were supposed to have also been born on the 25th December:

Tammuz: was born to a virgin, named Mylitta, on December 25.

Horus: Horus was born to a virgin Isis-Meri on December 25 in a cave. Isis bore Horus having impregnated herself with the semen of Osiris after his death.

Attis: Attis was born to the virgin Nana on December 25.

Hercules or Heracles: Heracles was born on December 25 to a virgin.

Mithras: Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother.

As for christmas, we owe our modern christmas to the Germans and the Americans but the origins go back to pre-christan pagan Europe, the fstival of Yule.

                               

Complain about this comment

Posted by flipped                                     | 24.12.08, 12:54 GMT

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Great post title "Virgin male in dress..."

Virgin male in dress chastises gay people for their confused sexuality

Category: Religion
Posted on: December 23, 2008 10:32 AM, by PZ Myers

Yeah, the Pope babbles dicta against people who are different from him, so what else is new?

In comments at the Vatican that are likely to provoke a furious reaction from homosexual groups, Benedict also warned that blurring the distinction between male and female could lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

In his address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, he described behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work" and said that the Roman Catholic Church had a duty to "protect man from the destruction of himself".

It is not "outmoded metaphysics" to urge respect for the "nature of the human being as man and woman," he added. "The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."

Hang on, wait. So Catholics are like trees, and gay people are like chainsaws, or something? And the gays are engaged in clear-cutting church congregations? Homosexuals are out to EXTERMINATE the whole HUMAN RACE?

Wow.

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official described homosexuality as "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound".

Well, yeah. A chainsaw can do some pretty nasty damage.

People take the pope rather seriously, I hear. I don't know why — the man is a kook.

(link)