What We Choose To Believe

If I project backwards 40 or 50 thousand years, it's not hard to understand how a species capable of rational thought could look at this and make the simplest Type 1 Error by ascribing agency to it.  How do you not when you have no way of knowing otherwise?



Now, as a species capable of rational thought, and knowing what we know, how do we look at this and stop wondering just because we're more comfortable with ignorance and superstition?

You're Not Alone And You're Not To Blame

Matt Dillahunty excerpted from NonProphets Radio:

Haves And Soon-To-Haves

Try not to think about Logan's Run or The Island or Roller Ball or whatever.

Feed A Child

Reaction to this ad has become what I have to consider an almost perfect snapshot of what's wrong with our "conversations" whenever we try to talk about any of the increasing number of Elephants In The Room.





The point is that way too many pets get way better treatment than way too many kids, and maybe we could do some tiny little thing to change that just a tiny bit(?)  Maybe we could just think about it?  Seems pretty simple.  But to hear some of the reaction, you'd think the ad was actually advocating in favor of keeping children as pets - or that black kids are dogs - or that - what exactly!?!

Seriously, when did everybody get so fuckin' stoopid?

Check out the Feed A Child website, or make a contribution of 20 Rand (SA only) by texting "child" to 40014.

You can make a contribution from elsewhere using PayPal.

Today's Eternal Sadness

At the nexus of our twin pathologies involving the worship of both Gun Violence and Celebrity:

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A gunman who killed a rookie officer responding to a report of an armed robbery at a drugstore early Sunday never tried to rob the store and instead lay in wait for police, telling a witness to watch the news because he was "going to be famous," authorities said.

Lawrence Campbell shot Officer Melvin Santiago in the head shortly after he and his partner arrived at the 24-hour Walgreens at around 4 a.m., Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said. Other officers returned fire at Campbell, killing him.

Campbell, 27, of Jersey City, was one of three suspects wanted by police for a prior homicide, Fulop said.

Fulop said Campbell was carrying a knife when he walked into Walgreens and asked for directions to the greeting card aisle. He assaulted an armed security guard at the store and snatched his gun, Fulop said.

So that last bit - there was in fact one of Wayne LaPierre's Good Guys With A Gun on hand at the time, and several other Good Guys With A Gun showed up too.

When do we get hip to some of this shit?

Today's Pix

Rev Fishsticks Speaks

Because - of course - equal rights for LGBT can only mean "two guys havin' sex".

I'm tellin' ya, these theo-cons always zero in on the sex, and who they can punish for it.

hat tip = Mock Paper Scissors

One From d r i f t g l a s s

Among the many things I get from this guy, there's nothing better than his PhotoShop stuff.

Can you think of a better analogical nickname for Rush and Sarah and Sean et al than the term "Nutdriver"?

Fuckin' genius is all that is right there.

Today's Quote

There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone; but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching. And as for a life deliberately devoted to pleasure as an end — why, the greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is met in the doing. There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener, of Widener's Valley, Virginia, which sums up one's duty in life: "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are." --Teddy Roosevelt

Punishment For Being

You may have heard about the obscene behavior of Virginia law enforcement in the case of a 17-year-old sexting his girlfriend:

A Virginia teen is facing two felony charges after he was caught sexting with his girlfriend.

If he's convicted, he could be forced to register as a sex offender and spend time in jail.

Trey Sims, 17, was charged with manufacturing and distributing child pornography in January, while exchanging texts with his then-girlfriend, who was 15 at the time. His iPhone and iPad were seized by police, and he was taken into custody.

And by now, just about everybody's heard of SCOTUS making it more probable that any given employer will be free to create a work environment that feels pretty hostile to any woman looking to take charge of what does or doesn't happen to/with/in her own body.

This kinda shit is happening because the default position in our little Christian-dominated establishment is to punish sexual behavior (ours, not theirs btw).  They have to.  If they don't, then they lose the power to keep us in line.

Adam and Eve "sinned; they were disobedient" - and never mind the metaphorical baloney about trees and fruits and the knowledge of good and evil.  It makes for a pretty good story, but the guys who wrote the book were very much in agreement that it was really all about the sex because the thing they concentrated on - the thing everybody remembers about it - is that god curses all womankind with dreadful pain during childbirth - and how does she get pregnant?  Yeah.  

So they conclude that sex is what Original Sin is all about.  No sex, no sin; so sex must be bad, so sex must be punished.  Except of course that we need you to procreate, so we'll make up some more bullshit and call it "necessary evil" (and don't get me started on the brilliance of that bit of holy entrapment).

So anyway, if sex is OK, then there's no sin, which means there's no Fall of Man, which means there's no need for redemption, which means we don't need a Redeemer, which means we don't need Jesus, which means nobody shows up on Sunday to pay the preacher's mortgage absorb the teachings of holy scripture (which conveniently seem always to fit the GOP Platform), which means Theo-Con Politicians lose elections, which means they can't protect the church's tax-exempt status and to reciprocate the church's largesse by figuring out ways around the law in order to pump more public dollars into church coffers, and on and on and on.

So they have to punish us for sex.  If they don't, their whole thing collapses in on itself.

And also too - why do you think these buttheads rail so loud and so long and so often against Evolution?  Because evolution actually rewards us for sex, which can't be tolerated for all the old reliable reasons.  No Adam and Eve = No Fall = No Jesus = No Church = No Money = No Power.

Saturday Tunage

Things Have Changed --Bob Dylan




Lookin' For The Heart Of Saturday Night --Tom Waits




One For My Baby And More For The Road --Frank Sinatra




Lenny --Stevie Ray Vaughn




I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (cover) --Jimmie Spheeris




You Don't Know Me (cover) --Michael Grimm

Today's Pix and Some Toons

A Blast From The Past

From NBC News way back in 2006:

NEW YORK — In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Researchers emphasized that their work can't address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.

They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.

Critics said the question of God's reaction to prayers simply can't be explored by scientific study.

That was only a little over 8 years ago - can you imagine the reaction of The Right Radicals if somebody tried it again now?

Take a look for yourself sometime. Just google this phrase: prayer study fails.

You're welcome. Enjoy.

hat tip = Atheist Experience

Today's Quote

Religion, n.  a daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to the ignorant the nature of the unknowable.  --Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Something's Wrong With Kansas

...and it seems to have everything to do with a "philosophy of governance" based on a deep and abiding hatred for government.

From the OP/ED page of The Wichita Eagle:

It seemed like a good idea at the time – a two-year budget cycle enabling lawmakers to “budget the first year, do oversight the second year,” as Gov. Sam Brownback put it a year ago. But a lot of unfinished fiscal business will greet Brownback and the 2014 Legislature next week.

In some cases, the state has no choice but to act.

For example, Brownback vetoed the entire 2015 budget for the Kansas Department of Corrections last summer rather than see it take a $10 million cut. In his veto message he said he looked “forward to working with the 2014 Legislature in finding the department sufficient resources to ensure public safety is not imperiled.”

Because statewide property-tax revenue has been lower than expected but K-12 enrollment is up, state funding for public schools is estimated to be $17.8 million less than the 2013 Legislature intended for the current fiscal year and $19.9 million short for 2015, the Lawrence Journal-World reported last month. The Legislature needs to offset the shortfall.

So your state's kinda flat-on-its-ass broke and Moody's downgraded your credit rating, but you guys just go right on believing Oz is out there waiting for you, and all you need is a few more tax cuts to get you up over that rainbow.

It's bullshit, guys - your premise is bullshit.  St Ayn says very clearly that when your premise is false, your conclusion cannot be true.

Less Tax Revenue ≠ More Tax Revenue.

And just as a BTW, this little problem was not unforeseen.  Here's a piece in Christian Science Monitor from more than a year ago:

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) and the GOP-controlled legislature are struggling to accomplish two goals: They want to repeal the state income tax but need to balance a budget that, despite substantial spending cuts, faces a $700 million shortfall.

It is no easy trick. Their solution: new net short-term revenue increases accompanied by a promise to phase out the state’s income tax. This year’s final budget agreement includes both spending cuts and about $300 billion in new sales and income tax revenue that promise to balance the fiscal year 2014 books. But over the next five years, those new revenues will be overwhelmed by a proposed 20 percent cut in individual income tax rates, setting the stage for annual budget crises.

But y'know, it's the teacher's unions and all those other free-loadin' public employees.  That's the real problem.  Those rotten career bureaucrats - it's their fault cuz they don't really do anything (except make it all run as well as can be expected when they're perpetually short-handed, underfunded and generally treated like a squad of scullery maids).  But hey, they just don't understand Supply Side Economics; and that's because they don't wanna understand.  They insist on believing there's something noble and dutiful about serving the public - they're totally in conflict with the New Paradigm so fuck 'em; who needs 'em anyway?

"Conservatives" have been sellin' us this junk for a very long time.