Another of my favorites is American Dad! – which is supposed to be a caricature, but is so close to a Poe it’s almost not funny. And yet, it still is…..
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Genitalia Police Are At It Again: The War On Porn – And Guess Who’s Behind It?
Cross posted @ God is 4 Suckers!
Virtus in media stat.
Pursuant to an ongoing online conversation at Pharyngula, it turns out that some groups have declared a War On Porn. This is no surprise: not since Edwin Meese issued that ridiculous report fatwa in 1986, and guess who was on that allegedly ‘objective’ commission? Why, none other than our old buddy James Dobson, a diehard ‘family values’ fanatic. Guess who else was on it? Why, none other than Rev. Bruce Ritter (and what a surprise! Turns out old Brucie had a Haggard style relationship with a male hooker! What is with these guys anyways?)
And of course, they were able to spin up some evidence via a fellow named Victor Cline. In fact, he released this report, outlining his findings on the matter of porn addiction. However, while his credentials look sound, when someone actually starts pulling out the ‘serial-killer-inspired-by-porn’ credo, my eyebrows narrow with suspicion (because I’ve heard this nonsense before, only it was blamed on evolution).
And sure as shitting, this guy obviously has an agenda to promote:
The Church views sexuality positively-as a sacred gift from God with the primary purposes of reproducing life upon the earth and bonding the husband and wife together in an eternal, affectionate, committed relationship. High standards of personal morality and sexual conduct, including chastity before marriage and fidelity in marriage, are taught as norms for Church members. These standards are perceived as reflecting God's will and counsel for his earthly children.
Not to mention his signature on this little ditty that he signed with NARTH to the APA. Also, he’s a member of the Lighted Candle Society, which claims to be non-religious, but in a newsletter dated May of 2003 quotes “For those whose religious tenants regard the human body as sacred, or in the words of the Apostle Paul, as “...the temple of God, which temple ye are,” any presentation of willful violence against another human being is obscene.” And among the Genitalia Police is one Judith Reisman who is a raging anti-Kinsey anti-porn advocate, who has formulated a most…interesting theory (definition #6):
Reisman says that there are chemicals in the brain, which she has dubbed "erototoxins," that are produced by watching pornography and that have toxic influences on the brain. Reisman lists these "erototoxins" as testosterone, adrenaline, oxytocin, glucose, dopamine, serotonin, and phenylethylamine. While some of these chemicals are related to arousal or orgasm, none are specifically associated with toxicity or the viewing of erotic images.
Anyone surprised that the backbone of the anti-porn movement is religious? No? Me neither.
This perturbs me on multiple levels. Firstly, that this particular crusade is spilling well into the realm of thought control. That a group of people would subject millions of people to their draconian criteria is very much Orwellian by any definition. Also that it would deprive people of the right to choose what they do with their time as well as their bodies – something that never ever works in realtime.
It is no secret to the observant, that this is payback for centuries of tight-fisted religious control of human sex drives. When an inhibition (individually or collectively) is broken, the floodgates open and the instinct is to wallow.
Is the sex worker industry in serious need of reform? Of course it is – but it needs to be regulated, not driven further underground, not relegated to the sewers. These are human beings that are supplying a demand – and while it is image-driven, there are indeed folks out there who cannot make a living outside their good looks. And it’s a 200 million a year industry, so I think the likelihood is slim that those self-perceived guardians of our genitalia are going to have any luck in this endeavor at all, unless they impose a theocracy.
The major problem is sex, and our perception of it. The American culture is still burdened with overtones that vacillate between Puritan, Victorian and Dorian Gray. Sex is many, many things. It is dangerous; it is fun; it is something to be approached with some sanity; it is exceptionally messy; but it is something integral to our fundamental nature, something to be accepted and not stigmatized. An expression of ourselves in our individual glory.
But as long as we have these self-appointed privates-police, there’s always going to be some crazed contingent that fears the power and mystery and majesty of our most primal drive, who are more than willing to substitute the chains of behavior for the clear light of reason, these are the people we must guard against, speak against, shout down and marginalize, otherwise, we will be marching lockstep back into the Dark Ages.
Till the next post then.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Because Humanity Can’t Be Trusted With Its Own Genitalia – On Any Side Of Any Ocean
And no, it’s not enough that we have complete fucknuts in our government trying to re-fund ‘abstinence only’ programs that are proven not to work –and it’s not enough that Indonesia apparently has some serious modernist issues – it seems that the Middle East also has these self-appointed guardians of people’s nether regions as well. Only in this case, they’re actually clamping down on immoral mannequins (did anybody tell these twats that the film Mannequin was fictional?)
Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports.
Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said.
The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years.
"Un-Islamic behaviour" has been targeted since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005.
"Using unusual mannequins exposing body curves and with heads without hijabs [Muslim veils] are prohibited to be used in the shops," police said in a statement carried by Irna.
Correspondents say that in the past such campaigns usually only lasted throughout the summer, but last year's crackdown, including on tight trousers for women, was still continuing in the winter.
Iranians who violate dress codes for the first time are generally cautioned, but repeat offenders can face court action and "guidance classes".
It’s getting harder to believe that we live in the 21st century, that’s a fact.
And again (no surprise), Iran is also cracking down on anything resembling critical thought:
A hard-line deputy of Iran's supreme leader announced steps Sunday to purge Iranian universities of Western influences even as the government faced accusations of "fascism and totalitarianism" leveled by the country's former president.
Hamid Reza Ayatollahi, head of a government body that oversees universities, announced a plan to revise humanities curricula to bring them more in line with Islamic principles.
"Many of the syllabuses taught to students majoring in humanities are not in line with Iranian and Islamic culture and therefore their revision is a must," Ayatollahi said in a statement published by Iranian news agencies.
A committee has been established to "eliminate certain curricula and replace them with Islamic materials," he said.
The effort stemmed from a speech last week by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said that humanities courses result in "disbelief in Islamic and divine teachings" and are mostly based on "materialist philosophical concepts causing misgivings about religious principles."
Critics derided the purge as another in a 30-year series of ill-fated attempts to impose on Iranian society the puritanical values of hard-liners who dominate political life.
"Certain individuals reject liberalism, but their opposition is based on fascism and totalitarianism," former President Mohammad Khatami, a prominent reformist, said in comments published on his website Sunday. "Assailing an aspect of the Western experience by insisting on a more dangerous and worse view is doomed."
And Iran’s policies clearly hit 10 out of 14 points as listed by Umberto Eco’s Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt points 1-6, 8-9, 12 and 13.
So I can say clearly and without prevarication, that Iran is a theocracy, and a fascist theocracy at that.
Tuesday Funny – Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law
Another of my favorites from Adult Swim is Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law. Among the highly hysterical characters, the favorite of most viewers (myself included) is Mentok The Mindtaker. What follows is a montage of his best moments from the show.
Enjoy.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Allegories Gone Wild – Psychoactive Sacraments And The Mushroom Man
Cross posted @ God is 4 Suckers!
”Religion is the dream of the human mind. But even in dreams we do not find ourselves in emptiness or in heaven, but on earth, in the realm of reality; we only see real things in the entrancing splendor of imagination and caprice, instead of in the simple daylight of reality and necessity.” – Frederick Feuerbach, The Essence Of Christianity
As an ex-stoner type, I still find myself fascinated by the constant struggles and efforts to instill an altered state in oneself. Whether it be fractal elves or magnetic helms, humanity has this ‘grass is greener on the other side’ mentality no matter how luscious the metaphorical vegetation may be.
And in my fractured ‘pilgrimage’ of the Internet, I stumbled across this little blossom, and thought to share it with you.
An entheogen ("creates god within," en εν- "in, within," theo θεος- "god, divine," -gen γενος "creates, generates"), in the strictest sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious or shamanic context. Historically, entheogens are derived primarily from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts. With the advent of organic chemistry, there now exist many synthetic substances with similar properties.
More broadly, the term entheogen is used to refer to such substances when used for their religious or spiritual effects, whether or not in a formal religious or traditional structure. This terminology is often chosen to contrast with recreational use of the same substances. These spiritual effects have been demonstrated in peer-reviewed studies, though research remains difficult due to ongoing drug prohibition.
What it means by ‘spiritual effects have been demonstrated’, is that the substances in question have induced altered states.
And there’s some history:
R. Gordon Wasson and Giorgio Samorini have proposed several examples of the cultural use of entheogens athat are found in the archaeological record.[3][4] Evidence for the first use of entheogens may come from Tassili, Algeria, with a cave painting of a mushroom-man, dating to 8000 BP. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BC, confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus.
Interestingly enough, it turns out that psychoactives were prolific in religions throughout all the world, from India to the Americas, and even the ancient Greeks used them in their initiation rites:
The Kykeon that preceded initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries is another entheogen, which was investigated (before the word was coined) by Carl Kerényi, in Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Other entheogens in the Ancient Near East and the Aegean include the poppy, Datura, the unidentified "lotus" eaten by the Lotus-Eaters in the Odyssey and Narkissos.
And of course, our old buds, Judaism and Christianity, partook (albeit the latter denies it strenuously):
According to The Living Torah, cannabis was an ingredient of holy anointing oil mentioned in various sacred Hebrew texts. The herb of interest is most commonly known as kaneh-bosm (Hebrew: קְנֵה-בֹשֶׂם). This is mentioned several times in the Old Testament as a bartering material, incense, and an ingredient in holy anointing oil used by the high priest of the temple. Although Chris Bennett's research in this area focuses on cannabis, he mentions evidence suggesting use of additional visionary plants such as henbane, as well.
Hey, don’t bogart that oil!
The Septuagint translates kaneh-bosm as calamus, and this translation has been propagated unchanged to most later translations of the old testament. However, Polish anthropologist Sula Benet published etymological arguments that the Aramaic word for hemp can be read as kannabos and appears to be a cognate to the modern word 'cannabis', with the root kan meaning reed or hemp and bosm meaning fragrant. Both cannabis and calamus are fragrant, reedlike plants containing psychotropic compounds.
Huh – I always thought cannabis mellowed people out and made them more ‘existential’.
Although philologist John Marco Allegro has suggested that the self-revelation and healing abilities attributed to the figure of Jesus may have been associated with the effects of the plant medicines [from the Aramaic: "to heal"], this evidence is dependent on pre-Septuagint interpretation of Torah and Tenach, and goes firmly against the accepted teachings of the Holy See. However Merkur contends that a minority of Christian hermits and mystics could possibly have used entheogens, in conjunction with fasting, meditation and prayer.
‘Firmly against the teachings of the Holy See’. Yeah, hard not to see that one coming.
Allegro was the only non-Catholic appointed to the position of translating the Dead Sea scrolls. His extrapolations are often the object of scorn due to Allegro's non-mainstream theory of Jesus as a mythological personification of the essence of a "psychoactive sacrament", furthermore they conflict with the position of the Catholic Church in regards to transubstantiation and the teaching involving valid matter, form, and substance—that of bread and wine, which do not contain psychoactive substances. Allegro's book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, relates the development of language to the development of myths, religions and cultic practices in world cultures. Allegro believed he could prove, through etymology, that the roots of Christianity, as of many other religions, lay in fertility cults; and that cult practices, such as ingesting visionary plants (or "psychedelics") to perceive the Mind of God [Avestan: Vohu Mana], persisted into the early Christian era, and to some unspecified extent into the 1200s with reoccurrences in the 1700s and mid 1900s, as he interprets the Plaincourault chapel's fresco to be an accurate depiction of the ritual ingestion of Amanita muscaria as the Eucharist.
Shorter version: it’s way easier to believe in wine=blood and bread=flesh, if you’ve imbibed enough. Allegro’s also a parallelist like myself (though maybe not a myther)
The question of the extent of visionary plant use throughout the history of Christian practice has barely been considered yet by academic or independent scholars. The question of whether visionary plants were used in pre-Theodosius Christianity is distinct from evidence that indicates the extent to which visionary plants were utilized or forgotten in later Christianity, including so-called "heretical" or "quasi-" Christian groups, and the question of other groups such as elites or laity within "orthodox" Catholic practice.
That’s a confusing paragraph. It’s barely been considered, but the evidence is distinct in what way? The accompanying references don’t explain it well enough. I think it’s a fair sociological evaluation (my fancy way of saying ‘guess’) that it’s a strong likelihood that plenty of Christians over the centuries have partaken of some of these items.
And, for a fairly amusing capper:
James Arthur asserts that the little scroll from the angel with writing on it referred to in Ezekiel 2: 8,9,10 and Ezekiel 3: 1,2,3 and Book of Revelation 10: 9,10 was the speckled cap of the Amanita muscaria mushroom.
Chewing on the old magical papyrus, ey, Zeke?
This comes as no surprise: history resounds with the echoes of powerful hallucinations, delusions that have wiped the world clean and scoured the perceived scourges from the public eye.
The question for the future is…can our species, with this knowledge, stop accommodating the crazy, and instead of granting them great power, medicate them instead? (And I don’t mean the self-medication we’ve discussed here.)
One can only hope.
Till the next post, then.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
And The Wages Of Accommodationism Are Prices Too High To Pay…
And people wonder why I have a problem with superstition…
Soothsayers arrested for poisoning children after predicting their death
ATTUR (Salem): The police have arrested a soothsayer couple for poisoning children after predicting their death and seized 250 grams of rat poison from their house in Palaya Udayampatti village.
Six otherwise healthy children, aged between three and seven years, had died since January 2008. The deaths created panic in the village and many villagers moved out and settled elsewhere, dreading the “strange illness.” Medical teams that visited the village found no symptoms of any disease in the community.
Those who remained in the village grew suspicious about soothsayer Perumayee (35), particularly after the death of three-year-old Priyadarshini in April 2009. She had succumbed to severe stomach pain. Just before her death, two other children, Vinodh and Dinesh, both aged seven years, had died of similar symptoms.
The woman soothsayer used to “predict” the deaths of children, all eldest ones in their families, at the village temple. “Whenever she claimed that a boy or a girl in a particular house would die, the same would occur in another six to seven hours,” said a sobbing Mallika, mother of Vinodh.
Their suspicions were further strengthened when Priyadarshini, before dying, told her mother that she was forcefully fed sweet rice by Perumayee and her husband. The girl’s father Subramani and Vinodh’s father Chinnasamy preferred a complaint with Attur police.
The Attur police registered cases under Section 174 Cr.P.C and sent the bodies of Priyadarshini and Vinodh for post-mortem and their viscera to the Forensic Scientific Laboratory at Coimbatore. The reports stated that they “appeared to have died of phorate poisoning, which is a poisonous organo phospherous insecticide.” The report on the death of Dinesh is awaited.
Perumayee and her husband surrendered before the Akkichettipalayam Village Administrative Officer on Friday. They are reported to have confessed that they had poisoned two children as they thought the “sacrifices” would help them gain mystical powers. They have been remanded to judicial custody.
The cause of death of Gokulraj (4), Jayakumar (7) and Suershkumar (2), all on January 20, 2008 could not be ascertained as their parents cremated the bodies without informing the police.
Augustine once said, that you could not judge a philosophy by its abuse. I say, that you can judge it by how the adherents treat their children.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Boosh! – Frisky Dingo
It’s no secret I love Adult Swim – I own DVD’s of Harvey Birdman, Venture Brothers, Robot Chicken and Frisky Dingo. Not a big fan of Squidbillies, and Metalocalypse is relatively funny, but humor is a relative term – what makes me laugh may make you queasy or vice versa. The video is a clip of some of the funniest scenes from season 1 of Frisky Dingo:
And my personal all-time favorite is…
Gets me every time.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Dissing Theism – A Short Look At “What The Fuck?!?!?”
Cross posted @ God Is 4 Suckers!
(Hat tip to Talk Reason)
"If there is a God, he is a malign thug." - Mark Twain
It’s no secret: one of my minor hobbies is dystheism (found under the topic misotheism) which stipulates that it is:
A related concept is dystheism (Greek δύσθεος "ungodly"), the belief that a god is not wholly good, and is possibly evil. Trickster gods found in polytheistic belief systems often have a dystheistic nature. One example is Eshu, a trickster god from Yoruba mythology who deliberately fostered violence between groups of people for his own amusement, saying that "causing strife is my greatest joy."
And I have ranted before on this topic - how some loving omniscient omnipresent deity loves us all enough to festoon the planet with nothing short of living biological anti-personnel mines. I have heard various weird rationalizations for this: I’ve had one fellow tell me these were ‘design trade-offs’, albeit this was never demonstrated. The same fellow told me that the reason for these creatures was to ensure that Man never thinks of himself as, or elevates himself to, God’s position. I was assured that this was ‘sound theology’ (a more blaring oxymoron I have yet to encounter).
And really, some of the examples to be trotted out would be amusing, if they weren’t so obviously brutal.
For instance,
Babirusa hog (Babyrousa babyrussa). This odd-looking Indonesian pig, while not dangerous to humans, is another excellent example of God's sense of humor. The males have brittle tusks that develop from their canine teeth and curve back inwards on their heads; they continue growing throughout and, if not broken off in the course of life, eventually pierce their skull between the eyes.
The bizarre appearance of this creature (endemic to Sulawesi Island) has spawned many legends and superstitions among the populace, such as inspiring the creation of shamanistic masks.
Lends new nuance to the phrase, “in a pig’s eye!”
Sacculina Carcini. This barnacle, possibly the crowning glory of earth's biota, can castrate and quite literally zombify the Green River crab. The female floats in the water, finds a crab, drills a hole in its leg, and injects a small amount of her innards. These cells wander around inside the crustacean and eventually lodge in its belly. Possession tendrils begin to infest the entire creature, forcing it to stop growing. If male, the crab is feminized; the parasitic barnacle's egg sac replaces the original reproductive system.
But the process isn't over yet. The female Sacculina punches numerous holes in the neutered crab's body so that male barnacles can get in and fertilize its eggs. Once that's accomplished, the tendrils take over the crab's nervous system, making it autonomously guard, care for and clean the parasitic egg sac as if it were its own. And once they hatch, a repeat performance is in order.
Wow…innuendo overload on that one.
Mycobacterium leprae. This bacterium, which causes leprosy, has several complex systems designed to defeat the protection offered by the (also designed) immune system. This includes lipid disguises, the ability to hijack a discarded immune system protein to mask itself from white blood cells, suppressing the immune response itself, and other mechanisms.
Aided by these God-given abilities, the germ invades the body and causes permanently disfiguring lesions, sensory loss in the affected areas, and other symptoms. In the latter stages, gangrene can set in, resulting in the death of entire body parts.
And strangely, the bible offers a cure for this – but hasn’t been adopted by modern medicine. Hmmm…wonder why.
And this lovely ‘fisher of men’
Candiru catfish (Vandellia cirrhosa). This is a tiny catfish, often less than one inch long, that lives in the Amazon and Oranoco rivers of South America. Voraciously bloodthirsty, they often crawl up the anus or urethra of unsuspecting human bathers. They deploy specially built spines, located around their head, to draw blood and anchor themselves. Unfortunately, they then tend to swell and get stuck inside. The spines are designed so well that only surgery (usually amputation of the genital area) can get rid of them!
The interplay of systems required for this little fish is similarly amazing. In particular, the spines are a miraculously crafted example of divine ingenuity.
And if you get kissed by this critter, well, it’s definitely not French style:
Kissing Bugs (Triatoma protracta and others). These insects, many of which can be readily identified by a distinctive "X" on their back, have such a fine biting mouthpart that the sleeping victim never even feels it piercing their lip, eyelids or ears to feed! Of course, as Dr. William Dembski has shown, there are "no free lunches"; the pain comes later, and some experience deadly anaphylactic shock from the insect's saliva.
A finely-designed parasite which causes Chagas' disease, an incurable form of African sleeping sickness, is also sometimes transmitted by the bug. If you live in a Central or Southern American country, where some estimates place 25% of the population at risk, you may want to pray that God protects you from His creations.
And of course, the one animal that revolted Darwin himself:
Cicada Killer Wasps (Sphecius speciosus). These critters have an utterly fascinating life cycle. After mating, the female digs a burrow. She excavates several oval chambers at the deep end. She then goes hunting for cicadas, stings them with a powerful paralyzing agent, and drags them back home. She lays eggs next to the cicadas and seals them up in the chamber. Incredibly, the venom only paralyzes, not kills; it preserves the cicadas, keeping them free from decomposition for several days while the larvae feast on their innards. The vital organs are eaten first, and the brain last.
This IG organism requires an impressive mosaic of interdependent designs. Without the incapacitating preservative agent, the cicadas would begin decomposing well before the wasp's larvae hatch; without a sting to inject it with, the agent would be useless; without an instinct to dig the burrow, or drag the frozen cicada back home for that matter, the wasp would have gone extinct long ago; and so on.
I could go on at length: there are hundreds upon thousands of examples. I can dredge up 5 of the most horrific bugs of all time – all inimical to our species. No? My point is sufficiently made?
So in synopsis: I prefer very much that the universe doesn’t care about me. Because I’d rather not have the attention of something that could construct these horrifying nightmarish critters – the only word that sums it up properly, is fiendish.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Always Remember, Never Forget – Black Tuesday Is A Religious Debt
It is now eight years later, since that fateful day, when Muslim extremists struck at our country, and committed an atrocity that will endure in our collective memories, an act of savage genocide struck against innocents, where rivers of people not caught in the blaze poured out of windows in a river of flesh and blood.
It is a horrid lesson: religion is not to be trusted. It gives the foam-flecked fanatics sanctuary, it forgives the bloodied hand, it shields those who would otherwise be treated as mental invalids.
Remember, remember, the 11th of September.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Home Remedies For Leprosy: More Evidence That The Bible Is A Load Of Bollocks
Really, one of the more hilarious moments in that old book of fables:
Leviticus 14:
14:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
14:2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:
14:3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;
14:4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean , and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
14:5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water:
14:6 As for the living bird, he shall take it , and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:
14:7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.
14:8 And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.
14:9 But it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.
14:10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.
14:11 And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
14:12 And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering , and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD:
14:13 And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy:
14:14 And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot:
14:15 And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand:
14:16 And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the LORD:
14:17 And of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering:
14:18 And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD.
14:19 And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering:
14:20 And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
Note that I’ve underlined all the contextual operative sentences, such as ‘he shall be clean’, ‘he who is to be cleansed’, etc. It is very clear, that this wasn’t meant to be the equivalent of taking a shower so as to be acceptable for mixed company. This is obviously a healing ritual of some rigor. The ancient Israelites put much store in sacrifices as well as anointment. Sacrificing a bird and a lamb, as well as anointing the leper, is obviously an occult ritual of some sort.
No doubt this will be reinterpreted. ‘Leprosy wasn’t the same illness back then’ is likely the (sad) excuse, or perhaps some willful misinterpretation of the word ‘cleaning’ and ‘cleansing’. It’s fairly obvious to those of us who have a clue, what this crap was supposed to do. And of course, since it doesn’t work at all, there will no doubt be all kinds of ridiculous rationales trotted out.
Which is no surprise at all.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Allegories Gone Wild – The Absence Proves The Existence of – Whaaa?
Cross posted @ God Is 4 Suckers!
Of all the wild variations of cultism spawned by religion, the ones that tickle me most (in between the bouts of startled laughter) are the creationists, be they Young Earth or Old Earth (at least the latter are somewhat inclined towards evidence).
And the former? Wow, talk about crazy – the upcoming tidbit of teleological rubbish stems from this particular site – try not to let teh crazy overwhelm your senses.
BIBLICAL CREATION - Scientific Proof
MARS REPORT: No Life
Even though many thousands of scientists today do not believe that the theory of evolution has any scientific merit, our nation continues to spend many millions of dollars in searching for extraterrestrial life in deep space and within our solar system. This is because much of the scientific community is still clinging to a theory which has already been shown by the sciences of geology, thermodynamics, chemistry, microbiology and genetics to be as impossible as anything could be considered to be impossible in science. This statement is based on the numerous advances in modern technology which continuously provide evidences which discredit the evolution theory.
‘Thousands of scientists’? Are you kidding me? I raise to the power of Steve! (The illustration being obvious: the number of scientists named Steve alone outnumber the alleged ‘scientists’ who disagree with the science of evolution).
In addition, these same scientific disciplines also verify that the established laws of science prohibit the development of life from non-living chemicals.
Oy, there’s the old abiogenesis canard. This doesn’t disprove evolution at all. In fact, there’s some kind of proof how RNA got started.
It is not what we do not know about evolution, but what we do know about the confirmed laws of science, which falsify evolution.
Uh…hello? Evolution is a confirmed law of science?
During the initial Lunar landing missions, the Apollo astronauts were required to be quarantined until it could be determined that no pathogenic microbes were introduced from the Moon. As it turned out, no extraterrestrial microbes or biologic molecules of any kind were found on the astronauts or within any of the numerous Lunar samples.
Which is a big resounding, so fucking what?
In 1975, two U.S. space probes were launched for the purpose of landing on Mars. The Viking probes were designed to provide images of the terrain and analyze the Martian soil. One of the primary functions of the onboard laboratory was to test for organic molecules or any signs of life such as microbes. The rationale was that "since" life had evolved on Earth, some form of life must have also evolved on Mars. Scientists were hopeful that some evidence of life would be found to bolster the theory of evolution. However, the extremely expensive and sophisticated test apparatus did not detect any evidence to support evolution. Not a trace of a microbe could be found by either of the probes.
Wait – was that the metaphorical rumblings of the foundations of evolution I just felt? Never mind, it was just gas.
VIKING FAILS TO DETECT LIFE
Now using the same reasoning, if evolution had occurred on the Earth, one would expect that at least single-celled forms of life, whether plants, animals, or even viruses would have been detected either by the elaborate Martian experiments or from all the Lunar missions
I tell you what else fails – this, to impress. It’s one effin’ planet, people.
No verified forms of extraterrestrial life have ever been observed.
Radio telescopes have also been used for decades by the SETI project. SETI is the organization - Search For Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. This organization is funded with millions of dollars each year and is managed by NASA. Scientists, including the late Carl Sagan, have been looking for pulsed signals from outer space. These scientists are prepared to accept any basic signal which can be interpreted as coded information as proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life (aliens). No such signals have yet been received, however, this same scientific community refuses to acknowledge the origin of the enormous encyclopedic quantity of complex information which has been found.
Of course, that analogy is seriously broken.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE DNA MOLECULE HAS UNCOVERED THE MOST ORDERED INFORMATION SEQUENCE IN THE UNIVERSE
Of course, the ‘white paper’ blathers on at length about DNA – of course, no mention of pseudogenes, or for that matter, anything that resembles the slightest lick of the tongue of science (ooh!). I’ll skip ahead to some of the funniest ‘statistics’ you’ve likely ever seen.
Bible believing Christians maintain that man was created in God’s image and likeness, therefore it is difficult to understand how this could include a transition from apes. In fact, the clear teaching of the Bible states that man was created fully mature about six thousand years ago. (Genesis 1)
Yes, despite all archeological proof to the contrary, like the Harrapan civilization.
PEOPLE OFTEN ASK HOW THE 6000 YEARS IS DETERMINED.
No one Bible scripture states this and perhaps this is because God knew that man has been known to attempt to explain away any one particular scripture. The 6000 years is determined by adding the total chronological time span of the Biblical patriarchs to the date of established historical events such as the birth of Christ.
Or maybe they made all that shit up.
Some say that the genealogy of the patriarchs contain gaps. They claim that generations might be missing because each descendent listed in Genesis may not have been a son but rather a grandson or great grandson etc. This possibility is irrelevant because the time span between these births is mathematically fixed no matter how many generations may have been missing.
Wait – a resounding WTF? These people can’t even agree on life spans. No proof that anyone can live past 150. Fixed how?
All the time lines of the stated genealogies link together to form an accurate continuous chronology.
Too risible.
Several textual discrepancies have arisen between the Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew Masoretic texts. These only amount to several hundred years therefore, the 6000 years+ recorded history of man stands. There is no rational way to stretch this figure to millions of years!
Christlation: “I don’t want to believe the evidence, ergo, the evidence doesn’t prove it!”
Evolutionists, including those who teach at many Christian colleges, believe that man is simply a higher form of ape who evolved by chance. According to this popular theory, the genus "Homo" has been evolving for about 2,500,000 years.
Well, only if reality is ‘popular’…
Now this hypothesis can be mathematically tested and compared with the account of creation to establish which is more plausible. We need only compare the quantity of physical remains of man found on the planet Earth with the expected numbers which should remain as fossils or unfossilized bones. After all, the evolutionists have assured us that fossils, in general, have been preserved for hundreds of millions of years.
Let the stupidity begin:
The equation for human population growth is:
P= poert
P = present human population
po = initial human population of 2 people
e = natural logarithm base (2.718)
r = annual growth rate
t = time in yearsThe current annual growth rate is 1.7%. However, examination of population figures throughout recorded history, which takes into account plagues and wars, indicate that the average growth rate is closer to .5%. Now let's be extremely conservative and not even consider all the expected remains which would have accumulated from Homo erectus and Homo habilis which supposedly have been reproducing for several million years. We are also going to severely limit the calculation to the expected number of graves which modern man would have left, and then for ONLY 100,000 years instead of the 200,000 years proposed by many evolutionists. Going further, the population growth rate will be reduced to .1%.
Using these extremely conservative numbers in the above equation yields the Earth’s total population of Homo sapiens which would have lived and died : 5.3(10)43
This number is 5 with 43 zeros after it. This population is a whopping incomprehensible astronomical number! Let me boil this down to the expected number of graves (remains/fossils) per acre.
NUMBER OF ACRES ON THE EARTH
3.7(10)10Each acre of ground should contain 1.44(10)33 bodies per acre
If the evolutionary scenario is even remotely true then:
Every time and every where a spade is put in the ground, it should come up filled with modern human bones!
This would be most impressive – if I were a drooling moron, that is. The variables that intersect this are just staggering. Akaline soil that eats away at bone matter, for one. Prevalence of scavengers cracking open the bones for marrow. Erosion. Extreme weather variations pounding away at the remains. Some tribes (the Parsees for one) practice air burials. Cannibalism. Let’s not even calculate SIDS among the ‘noble savages’, the tolls wars take on bodies, burials at sea or drowning (how much you wanna bet corpses don’t settle into the silt like they claim in the movies, huh?), tectonic plate shifts, lava/magma, I mean, all the variables that aren’t factored into this alleged ‘equation’.
PZ Meyers at Pharyngula pharyangulates this fairly easily via this post.
As a matter of fact, no matter how deep the excavation or how many miles you probed the Earth with a test boring--you would come up with human remains. Remember this does not even include the entire genus "Homo" whose remains could not be contained in the entire globe of the Earth even if it were hollow.
(My eyes are rolling up so high, I can see the bottom of my brain!)
BIBLICAL SCENARIO:
We are now in a position to compare this unrealistic situation with the clear teaching of the Bible.
Initial Population after the flood: 8 people
Growth rate : .428%
Time: 4750 years (since the Flood)EXPECTED EARTH’S POPULATION:
5.38(10)9As you can see, this figure agrees with the current population of our planet (see graph). It is clear that the population growth figures are undeniably in accord with the Biblical account of Noah’s flood as opposed to the utter foolishness of evolution theory.
So, to nutshell:
No life on Mars disproves evolution, and so does the fact that we’re not tripping over human bones when we pull weeds. So the planet isn’t a vast graveyard, this proves what? Nothing, except these people don’t seem to be living in the same world as we are.
(Do note, I provide this for us all as a flashcard: because someday, some way, one of us may encounter these ridiculous ‘theories’, and better to be prepared, than to stand there ‘tasered by the devil’ as Lewis Black puts it.)
This has been the Apostate, finding crazy shit on the web so you don’t have to.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Science Fiction Where The Fiction Outweighs The Science – Eureka!
Eureka! is actually a TV show that I enjoy immensely. As the entry states:
Eureka takes place in a high tech community of the same name, located somewhere in Oregon—an address from the pilot indicated Washington, but all details since (state flags, maps, etc.) agree on Oregon—and inhabited entirely by brilliant scientists working on new scientific advancements that frequently go disastrously awry. Town is operated by mysterious private corporation called Global Dynamics, that supposedly is funded by United States government. The town's existence and location are closely guarded secrets.
U.S. Marshal Jack Carter stumbles upon Eureka while transporting a fugitive prisoner (his own rebellious teenage daughter Zoe) back to her mother's home in Los Angeles. When a faulty experiment cripples the sheriff of Eureka, Carter finds himself quickly chosen to fill the vacancy. Despite not being a genius like most members of the town, Jack Carter's ability to connect to others, his simple but effective ideas, and his steadfast dedication to his work repeatedly saves Eureka, and sometimes the entire world, from one would-be disaster after another.
It’s basically a good show – I rather like all the characters (including the exceptionally yummy Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Dr. Allison Blake and Erica Cerra as Deputy Jo Lupo), it’s got some semi-decent plots, and the writing isn’t all bad.
What IS bad, is the alleged ‘science’ writing. For instance, in the episode ‘Invincible’ an agoraphobic scientist becomes mysteriously imbued with supranormal (read superhero-ish) powers – as the explanation-exposition is fleshed out, one of the main scientists cites the ‘we-only-use-ten-percent-of-our brains’ rubbish. In ‘Blink’, an SUV is totaled by a scientist…who as it turns out, had some sort of formula for speeding up the metabolism in order to move faster than the human eye can follow – e.g., somewhere in the vicinity of 588 MPH. Uh, hello? The human body can’t do this sort of craziness – a good likelihood that the individual’s heart would explode long prior, and even if said individual could get up to that speed, the body in question would probably blow out all the joints, eyeballs, eardrums, and other sundry items not designed for that sort of duress. And of course, the tired old impossible canard of time travel. Jack Carter discovers the timeline has been tampered with, and goes back in time to stop it being tampered with – and anybody with the slightest knowledge of quantum physics knows that A. Time travel is impossible, and B. even if someone COULD do this, it would negate itself, becoming something of a quantum Zen koan on Quaaludes.
And, yeah, I get it that it’s a TV show. It’s actually a fun watch. I get it that it’s fiction. I just wish they would put just a teeny tiny bit more effort into researching the ‘science’ part, instead of just using stale formulas. It’s supposed to be about science, after all.
Just sayin’.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Ageism In America
So I was at a Resume Facts seminar about 2 weeks ago (one of those free classes they provide for the taxpayer), and the lady, who’d been a recruiter for many years, stated that a job-seeker should never, NEVER go over the decade line, I.E, “Candidate has 11 years of experience in X industry”. Needless to say, I furrowed my eyebrows at this. A little later in the class, we were discussing cover letters, and I mentioned that my byline reads “I have been in industry X since 1993”. Surprise! I was told not to go over 10 years.
She tossed this shit out in the class – that ageism is a fact, there’s nothing to be done about it, everyone has to work around it.
When I was laid off in February, I signed a waiver stating that I hadn’t been laid off due to my age. It was a first, I tell ya. Since I’m 50, it has gone from invisible to palpable. And I’m not happy.
And I got this crap in my email too:
12 words you can never say in the office
These outdated tech terms really show your age; we’ve put together a list of alternatives. Welcome to the world of cloud computing, the smartphones and the virtual desktop
1. Intranet
Popular in the mid-'90s, the term "intranet" was eclipsed by portal not too long ago, and even that name seems to be waning. [Editor’s Note: This paragraph has been corrected in response to readers’ comments.]
Never used it much, so no big loss
2. Extranet
An "extranet" referred to private network connections based on Internet standards such as IP and HTTP that extended outside an organization, such as between business partners. Extranets often replaced point-to-point electronic data interchange (EDI) connections that used standards such as X12. Today, companies provide suppliers, resellers and other members of their supply chain with access to their VPNs.
Never even heard this word before, so again, no big whoop.
3. Web Surfing
When is the last time you heard someone talk about surfing the Web? You know the term is out of date when your kids don’t know what it means. To teens and tweens, the Internet and the World Wide Web are one and the same thing. So it’s better to use the term "browsing" the Web if you want to be understood. Or you can just say "Google" since everyone uses that term as a verb.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. So we’re doing it because the kids do it?!?!? Vice versa if they’re not? Talk about language snobbery.
4. Push Technology
The debate over the merits of "push" versus "pull" technology came to a head in 1996 with the release of the PointCast Network, a Web service that sent a steady stream of news to subscribers. However, PointCast and other push technology services required too much network bandwidth. Eventually, push technology evolved into RSS feeds, which remain the preferred method for publishing information to subscribers of the Internet. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
Huh. Again didn’t know it, don’t care.
5. Application Service Provider (ASP)
During this decade, the term "Application Service Provider" evolved into "Software-as-a-Service." Both terms refer to a vendor hosting a software application and providing access to it over the Web. Customers buy the software on a subscription basis, rather than having to own and operate it themselves. ASP was a hot term prior to the dot-com bust. Then it was replaced by "SaaS." Now it’s cool to talk about "cloud computing."
Give me an hour to work up a concern.
6. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
Coined by former Apple CEO John Sculley back in 1992 when he unveiled the Apple Newton, the term "personal digital assistant" referred to a handheld computer. PDA was still in use in 1996, when the Palm Pilot was the hottest handheld in corporate America. Today, the preferred generic term for a handheld like a Blackberry or an iPhone is a "smartphone".
Another YGBFKM (You Gotta Be Fucking Kidding Me). Perfectly fine acronym. Oh wait, the teeny-bopper zitface set ain’t using it any more, so it isn’t ‘hip’. Oh, oops, Mr. Outdated Word Nazi, sorry. Didn’t mean to say ‘hip’. I’d use the current word for ‘cool’, but that changes on a fucking hourly basis.
7. Internet Telephony
You need to purge the term "Internet telephony" from your vocabulary and switch to VoIP, for Voice over IP. Even the term VoIP is getting old-fashioned because pretty soon all telephone calls will be routed over the Internet rather than the Public Switched Telephone Network. It’s probably time to stop referring to the PSTN, too, because it is headed for the history books as all voice, data and video traffic is carried on the Internet.
I remember when VoIP first came out, and ‘Internet Telephony’ was pretty much the descriptor phrase, i.e., when somebody asked you what that was.
8. Weblog
A blog is a shortened version of "Weblog," a term that emerged in the late 1990s to describe commentary that an individual publishes online. It spawned many words still in use such as "blogger" and "blogosphere." Nowadays, few people have time to blog so they are "microblogging," which is another word that’s heading out the door as people turn Twitter into a generic term for blasting out 140-character observations or opinions.
Again, Weblog was a descriptor phrase, when inquired about.
9. Thin Client
You have to give Larry Ellison credit for seeing many of the flaws in the client/server computing architecture and for popularizing the term "thin client" to refer to Oracle’s alternative terminal-like approach. In 1993, Ellison was touting thin clients as a way for large organizations to improve network security and manageability. Although thin clients never replaced PCs, the concept is similar to "virtual desktops" that are gaining popularity today as a way of supporting mobile workers.
Really, this word fascism is getting pretty damn ripe pretty damn fast. If the guy interviewing me doesn’t know the historical pre-terminology, likelihood is that he’s been victimized by the Peter Principle.
10. RBOC
In 1984, the U.S. government forced AT&T to split up into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) also known as Baby Bells. Customers bought local service from RBOCs and long-distance service from carriers such as AT&T. Telecom industry mergers over the last 15 years have formed integrated local- and long-distance carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and Qwest. This makes not only the term RBOC obsolete, but also the terms ILEC for Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (i.e., GTE) and CLEC for Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (i.e., MFS).
Uh, HELLO! I took a 2 week training course for AT&T (didn’t make the grade, they practice a form of social Darwinism there that’s survival of the fittest, baby), and they teach you all about this. Why? Because a lot of their customers aren’t upgraded to a centralized company like we are out here on the West Coast.
11. Long-Distance Call
Thanks to flat-rate calling plans available from carriers for at least five years, nobody needs to distinguish between local and long-distance calls anymore. Similarly, you don’t need to distinguish between terrestrial and wireless calls because so many people use only wireless services. Like pay phones, long-distance calls—and their premium prices—are relics of a past without national and unlimited calling plans.
Hey, anyone who can’t figure out what that means, is a moron.
12. World Wide Web
Nobody talks about the "World Wide Web" anymore, or the "Information Superhighway," for that matter. It’s just the Internet. It’s a distinction that Steve Czaban, the popular Fox Sports Radio talk show host, likes to mock when he refers to the "Worldwide Interweb." Nothing dates you more than pulling out one of those old-fashioned ways of referring to the Internet such as "infobahn" or "electronic highway."
These are all valid, colorful terms. Again, flatline braindeath if you can’t puzzle out the meaning in the first few seconds. But hey – we need to pander to the younger mindset, because…because why, exactly? Who runs the country? Not the young folks. Most people in a position of actual power (like politicians) are in their fucking forties. In fact, the majority of famous movie stars are WELL over 30. This worship of the kiddie culture is just…well, it’s just wrong. The Asians have an idea of actual maturity: you’re not past puberty until you’re twenty-five. At the age of 24, I’d have cussed out that idea roundly, but past 30, you think, “Hey, that makes a helluva lotta sense.”
And of course, Santayana’s oft-quoted but lightly applied adage: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” You pick up an A+ Certification book, and it goes on about all KINDS of legacy hardware. That two-week AT&T course went over all sorts of legacy hardware, because people are prone to stick with what works, instead of running out to buy the latest state-of-the-art gadget (at least, us old, smarter geezers, who found out as youths, the more money you spend on gadgets, the poorer you are, especially when they’re outdated in less than six months).
Anyways, that’s something else that grinds my gears.
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