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What type of atheist are you? 2007-03-15 02:13:55 I found this online quiz with stumbleupon, and this is my result:
You scored as Scientific Atheist.
These guys rule. I’m not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future.
Scientific Atheist
92%
Apathetic Atheist
83%
Militant Atheist
67%
Agnostic
50%
Spiritual Atheist
42%
Angry Atheist
42%
Theist
8%
What kind of atheist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
Hypocrisy (noun): see Newt Gingrich 2007-03-13 03:42:39 hy·poc·ri·sy (noun): a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.
Remember that whole thing with former President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky? And how former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich
was leading the charge against him? Well, it turns out Gingrich was having his own affair at the time.
Yup, he was committing adultery just like Clinton, and at the same time. What a fucking hypocrite. Read more:Hypocrisy
Libby found guilty 2007-03-11 01:46:01 Libby was found guilty on four out of five counts in the CIA leak case. Dick Cheney’s former aid lied to government investigators about what happened in the build-up to the war in Iraq.
In 2003, Ambassador Joseph Wilson revealed that the Bush administration had exaggerated the Iraq threat in his New York Times op-ed entitled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” referring to Iraq’s alleged purchase of Yellowcake from Niger. In retaliation, White House officials leaked the CIA identity of his wife to columnist and overall asshole Robert Novak.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald led an investigation to determine who was involved in this leak, and the investigation has recently found that Libby was involved and deliberately lied about his part in the leak. The grand jury investigation is far from over, and by the end of this we may even see Cheney and Rove being brought up on charges…
Well, I can dream, can’t I? Read more:Libby
Democrats advocate Iraq pullout in ‘08 2007-03-10 23:56:19 The New York Times reports that prominent Democratic leaders are beginning a new legislative push for withdrawal of US troops in Iraq
.
In addition to setting a timetable, this bill prevents Bush from invading Iran without Congressional approval, it sets aside resources for fighting terrorists in Afghanistan, and it provides for a quickening of the pullout if progress isn’t made.
(more…) Read more:Democrats
, lsquo
Kiss Hank’s Ass 2007-03-07 02:30:53 I just watched this video version of the classic Kissing Hank’s Ass story, and I laughed my holy ass off. It’s an elaborate and hilarious satire of religion and theism, with pretty much all the bases covered. It’s worth a watch, and you might even want to pass it on to a few of your Christian friends.
(more…)
Commander of Walter Reed fired 2007-03-03 09:37:54 The commander of Walter
Reed Army Medical Center was finally fired.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard all the controversy surrounding the outpatient treatment of wounded Iraq veterans, and now it looks like the army is finally doing something. It’s not perfect, since the replacement (Kevin C. Kiley) had reportedly known about the conditions as well but neglected to act on it, but overall this whole thing has actually given me a bit of confidence in new defense secretary Robert Gates. Rather than trying to shift the blame and play politics, as Rumsfeld certainly would have done, he’s been honest about it from the start and tried to fix the situation as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
As far as I can remember, this is the first time since Colin Powell that we have seen a Bush-appointee who is actually good at his job. It’s probably a fluke, but who knows? Read more:Commander
, Walter Reed
New poll favors deadline for Iraq pullout 2007-02-28 07:30:06 According to the Washington Post, two in three Americans disagree with the 21,500 troop surge, and 53% say we need to set a deadline for withdrawing US forces from Iraq
. In addition, 67% said they disapproved with the handling of the war, and 64% said that the war in Iraq was not worth fighting. Bush’s approval rating stayed constant in the mid 30s.
With the Senate now turning back the clock in an attempt take away the power given to Bush and the executive branch back in 2002 in order to go to war, and a non-binding resolution opposing the troop surge recently passed by the House of Representatives, things are looking good. People seem to have confidence in the Democratic party, and are slowly starting to realize the corruption and incompetence rampant in the Bush administration. We may have a ways to go before impeachment, but it’s certainly a big improvement.
Christian group attacks Nintendo Wii 2007-02-28 03:00:34 As Kotaku reports, Ethur, a radical Christian
ministry in California, launched a smear campaign aimed at Nintendo
’s new gaming console through it’s anti-pornography website The Porn Talk. The headline is “The Wii
’s Dirty Little Secret.” Apparently this “dirty secret” is that it’s wifi enabled and can surf the Internet.
A more interesting secret, however, is The Porn Talk’s backing. They go pretty far out of their way to hide their ties to Ethur. Even when they do mention it in the “about us” section it’s only refered to as “non-profit organization called Ethur that exists to launch culturally relevant initiatives,” with no mention of it’s religious affiliation. They have a bigger “dirty little secret” than the Wii does. Read more:attacks
, Christian group
It’s illegal to sell domains to terrorists 2007-02-24 21:29:05 Yup, it’s a real bill.
A person is guilty of criminal sale of an internet domain name to a terrorist group when he or she knowingly sells or provides without charge an internet domain name to any organization included on the list of organizations engaged in terrorist activities or who pose a terrorist threat compiled, maintained and updated by the state office of homeland security pursuant to paragraph (t) of subdivision two of section seven hundred nine of the executive law. Criminal sale of an internet domain name to a terrorist group is a class A misdemeanor.
Do they seriously think this will do anything? Besides, what kind of terrorist buys a domain under his or her own name?
The number of ridiculous things being done in the name of stopping terrorism is still increasing. Read more:illegal
Obama “accused” of being Muslim 2007-02-21 08:17:41 Yup. Read that title a few times before you read on to let it sink in.
This has been all over the place, especially Fox News, and it’s completely ridiculous. First and foremost, he isn’t Muslim
. While living in Indonesia, he once attended a school that was mostly Muslim for a few years, in addition to attending a Catholic school for a few years, but it’s not like it was a religious choice; it was his mother’s decision, based on what she thought would get him the best education. He’s obviously Christian. But the worst part of the whole thing is that the right wing media is using this as an attack, that they think if they convince the American people he’s Muslim then he’ll be hated. And, for a good part of the population, they sadly might be right.
(more…) Read more:Obama
, ldquo
, accused
, rdquo
The Power of Nightmares 2007-02-17 20:19:53 I first saw this when it was released for free on the Internet, and it really had an impact on me. I’m posting this here because it’s just as relevant now as it was then, maybe even more so.
Both [the Islamists and Neoconservatives] were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. And both had a very similar explanation for what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today’s nightmare vision of a secret, organized evil that threatens the world. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.
Episode 1 (Baby It’s Cold Outside):
(more…) Read more:Nightmares
Bloggers expose torture 2007-02-08 09:07:34 Egyptian bloggers recently exposed police in Giza torturing bus driver Emad Mohamed Ali Mohamed by publishing a video of it online. The police released the bus driver with no charge 36 hours after the video was taken.
(more…)
I feel sick 2007-01-28 09:28:12 FSTDT is usually good for a few laughs. I went there expecting to waste some time reading other people’s ignorant comments… and I see this:
“Just recently my son Bobby came out to me. I had been worried for awhile. His teachers said most of his grades were slipping and he seemed depressed and withdrawn.
Bobby said he’d been hiding it for awhile because he was afraid I would reject him. I sat him down and told him that I loved him and that God loved him, but that his salvation was in danger if he did not resist his unnatural tempations. I told him how being gay would mean he would live a shorter life, and that if he couldnt change his orientation he could be celibate like most the ex-gays are. He started crying saying something along the lines of “I knew you wouldnt understand! You’re just like everyone else!” before running to his room and slamming the door.
What did I do wrong? I dont want to lose my son, but I fear I already have. I talked i
First openly atheistic congressmen 2007-03-21 00:37:00 It’s official: Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark, D-California, is the first atheistic congressmen. Well, first to admit it.
He made the announcement on March 12 (yeah I’m late, but I’ve been busy).
I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social service
Sponsored By: Inanity No meaning, no sense, just a forum Read more:First
Verizon screws Vonage 2007-03-24 01:32:05 Judge Claude Hilton issued a permanent injunction against Vonage
with the purpose of disallowing their customers to make calls to standard phone lines. The argument is that Vonage is infringing on patents held by Verizon
.
This could have permanent and serious consequences for VoIP, since nearly every VoIP service uses the technology that Verizon claims as their own (ie: VoIP to POTS).
IMO, this whole thing seems baseless. Other companies were using the technology in question before Verizon patented it, and the whole case was just decided by which side had more money to throw at it. It’s just yet another case of a rich corporation crushing innovation in order to retain their relevance in an evolving market.
Sponsored By: Anime Thoughts Yet another anime forum
Two-cow politics 2007-03-28 07:02:01 Variations of this have been floating around teh interwebs, so you’ve probably seen something like this before. I gathered some of my favorites here:
REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?
DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You vote people into office who tax your income from milk sales then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.
FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes the Read more:politics
Seven years for pushing teacher’s aid 2007-03-31 22:43:18 In Paris, Texas, a town once famous for public lynchings, a recent sentencing of a fourteen year old black girl to seven years in prison for pushing a teacher’s aid is making news all over the Internet. The girl had no previous arrest record, and the teacher’s aid wasn’t hurt. Three months earlier, the same judge sentenced a fourteen year old white girl, convicted of arson, to probation.
Shaquanda, the girl, had been targeted by school administrators before, due to her mother’s complaints of racism at the school. In this instance, the teacher’s aid did not let Shaquanda into the building to take her medicine, and according to Shaquanda the teacher’s aid actually pushed her first.
This case fits perfectly with the reputation for systemic racism in the Paris school system. In the past five years, there have been at least a dozen discrimination complaints filed by black parents against the school district.
(more…) Read more:Seven
Bill O’Reilly Loses His Mind 2007-04-07 02:44:00 It’s strange to see Geraldo as the voice of reason in anything, but it seems this time even he thinks O’Reilly
has gone too far in exploiting a fatal drunk driving accident to make a cheap political point about immigration.
(more…)
Iraq’a ties to Al-Qaeda once again discounted 2007-04-06 23:57:00 A recently de-classified Defense Department report says Iraq
i documents and intelligence interrogations of Iraqi leaders now confirm that Iraq wasn’t directly cooperating with al-Qaeda
. This revelation yesterday was the same day that Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and repeatedly claimed that al-Qaeda was operating in Iraq before our invasion.
Yet another report confirming what many of us already knew. There hasn’t been any hard evidence to back up the ties between prewar Iraq and al-Qaeda, yet king Bush has managed to link Iraq and 9/11 in the minds of many Republican voters. Given the recent approval ratings for both Bush and the war, this effect might be wearing off.
Sponsored By: Anime Thoughts Yet another anime forum
Taking a short break 2007-04-13 06:45:24 School stuff to do, less time for blogging. See you in a few weeks! Read more:Taking
McCain and the series of tubes 2007-06-04 01:03:34 Republican John McCain
went to a technology conference a while ago and decided he was against net neutrality. Claiming “When you control the pipe you should be able to profit from your investment” he essentially endorsed the use of censorship by ISPs to prevent customers from accessing competing companies’ services. In case you were wondering, his top financial contributer is AT&T.
Anyway, he also let slip that if elected he would consider appointing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to his cabinet to handle technology-related issues. This might seem promising (it’s a step up from Ted Stevens, that’s to be sure), but Ballmer is a businessman, not a tech guy, and not a very ethical one. Plus, there are his infamous temper tantrums:
Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I’m going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.
(more…) Read more:series
US presence in Iraq to be like in South Korea 2007-06-01 16:24:38 On Wednesday Tony Snow said that President Bush would like to see a lengthy US presence in Iraq
like the one in SouthKorea
to provide stability. The US has had thousands of troops in South Korea
for the last 50 years to guard against an invasion from North Korea.
In Iraq, the “last throws” of the insurgency have been replaced with an all out civil war, and Bush’s campaign promises of “no nation building” were all lies. Mission accomplished.
Summer break! 2007-06-01 02:19:06 Yesterday was the last day of finals at my school. Hurray for summer break! Read more:Summer
Libby gets 2 1/2 years in prison 2007-06-05 14:35:11 Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby
was found guilty on Tuesday in the CIA leak investigation. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined $250,000 for his role. Libby is the highest ranking White House official to be convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair during the Regan administration.
Sponsored By: Inanity No meaning, no sense, just a forum
Lieberman advocates attacking Iran 2007-06-12 13:34:32 The conservatives’ favorite Democrat, now independent, recently went on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and said:
I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq
This goes beyond even the Bush administration’s position on Iran. Lieberman
pisses me off.
Church threatens legal action against Sony 2007-06-10 21:53:30 The Church
of England has threatened legal
action againstSony
Entertainment due to the unauthorized use of the Manchester Cathedral in the PS3 game Resistance: Fall of Man. The bishop of Manchester accused Sony of being irresponsible, noting “It is well known that Manchester has a gun crime problem.”
Free publicity ftw. Sony didn’t even have to include a secret sex scene or over-the-top graphic violence. Though this attention is certainly unintentional (and therefore more hilarious) I bet it boosts the sales of the game in Manchester.
Thomas Paine quotes 2007-06-14 17:53:27 Thomas Paine
was a revolutionary and an intellectual that was influencial in the American revolution. His famous works include Common Sense, which advocated independence of the American colonies, and The Age of Reason, which criticized Christianity and the bible.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
“There is scarcely any part of science, or anything in nature, which those imposters and blasphemers of science, called priests, as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, perverted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and falsehood.”
“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religi Read more:Thomas
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