Owner: Bad Thinking URL:http://www.badthinking.com/ Join Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 16:13:58 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A skeptical view on things. Site statistics:Click here
Claiming my blog 2007-06-09 15:19:39 Technorati Profile
Trying the Technorati thing again...
Cursed! Cursed I tell you! (If you read Harry Potter) 2007-06-09 14:34:43 More on the Sariya Allan story (her name is apparently spelled 'Allan' and not 'Allen'):
Sariya Allan, 47, was disciplined by her employers after she told a seven-year-old girl pupil "I don't do witchcraft in any form" and said she would be "cursed" by hearing the J K Rowling novel.
...
"The Holy Bible gives express instruction against some of the practices contained in the book, and I therefore objected to the child reading this book to me.
"I was put in the position that listening to the child reading this book would compromise my religious beliefs."
Miss Allan, from Stockwell, who described herself as a "committed Pentecostal Christian", has also claimed the school stopped her from holding early morning prayer meetings in a classroom.
And what does the school say about all this?
Ben Oduje, counsel for the school, said: "This incident with the HarryPotter
book says an awful lot about the claimant's attitude towards the school. Her suspension was due to her obstructive conduct
Space aliens will rape my daughter if I don't shoot people 2007-06-09 14:16:39 Allison Lamont Norman is currently on trial for having killed two people
during a shooting rampage that began on the morning of April 7, 2005. Four other people were injured, including a woman who was left paralyzed. So why did Mr. Norman do it?
According to his defense team, Norman was insane at the time of the shootings. They said Norman claimed space aliens would have raped his 5-year-old daughter if he did not shoot the people.
More examples of this kind of insanity can be found here.
Source: Hallie Jackson, "Norman Trial to Resume Monday," WBOC-TV 16, June 7, 2007 Read more:Space
God's herb 2007-06-09 14:00:22 Isn't it wonderful how each new natural remedy to come along is always a cure for just about everything you can imagine (including, probably, diseases not yet discovered)? No matter what medical ailment you might have, there's always some earnest, friendly, concerned person - with no medical education or training (and he just wants to help you) - ready to offer you the miracle cure that will cause all your problems to vanish, just like that, if only you give him your money first. This time, it's a mushroom:
According to the 1996 Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine: A Complete Family Guide to Complementary Therapies, the shiny, kidney-shaped mushrooms with reddish-brown caps were rare and expensive until the 1980s, when, the book says, Japan's Shigeaki Mori developed a new means of cultivating them, making them more widely available and affordable. Today they grow in moist, temperate forest areas of Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, typically attaching themselves to o
Several animals were found beheaded as sacrifices 2007-06-09 13:26:50
Alerted by neighbours complaining about noise, police yesterday stormed a house in Coral Gables, Florida. Inside they found a bunch of beheaded
animals, killed by some guy named Jesus Suarez. Now what could possibly cause Mr. Suarez to do something like this? Is he a deranged psychopath, a blood-soaked butcher, laughing madly while torturing innocent, small, furry animals to death for his own pleasure and amusement? Is he evil, insane, mad? Alas, no. Mr. Suarez is a religious man...
Several animals were found beheaded as sacrifices in a Santeria ritual. Police stormed in without a warrant because they felt animals could be in imminent danger. However, there is nothing they can do because the participants in this Afro-Cuban religion are protected by a Supreme Court ruling that allows them to do this.
A Santeria temple in Hialeah took their legal battles to the Supreme Court after authorities tried to shut them down two decades ago in Hialeah. In particular they tried to stop them from
And back online again 2007-06-09 12:48:05 Back from the dead, finally! The site's been down all day and there's been a lot of name server problems, apparently, but now everything should be working.
I hope. Read more:online
"This summer will be like a sword that will crack your skulls open" 2007-06-08 14:01:12 The MEMRI blog has translated a brainless rant from Abu Yahya Al-Libi, who is apparently some bullyboy commander of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. It's from a video posted (on June 6) on Islamist websites after the recent death of über-thug Mullah Dadullah (a most happy event). Here's part of the vile drivel:
"Oh Worshippers of the Cross and your apostate lackeys, I hereby declare that this summer will be like a sword that will crack your skulls open; your centers will be blown up and your limbs will be scattered [in every direction]. The soldiers of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan have [already] made the necessary preparations... The martyrdom-seeking graduates of Mullah Dadullah's jihad academy are racing to be the first [to take part in] the season of victory and to take revenge on the [forces] of treason and apostasy.
"Oh Islamic nation and bearers of the banner of monotheism, such were your commanders – [men] of few words and many deeds, who defended the faith and [its]
"We desire so passionately to die in Allah's way" 2007-06-08 13:46:27 A video CD and a written statement was delivered to the office of a local news agency in Srinagar today, in which a member of the al Qaeda franchise in India is throwing a tantrum:
A masked person shown in the compact disc claimed to be Abu Abrahim Al Asim who read the statement on behalf of Abu Abdul Rehman Al Ansari, chief of the Al-Qaeda in India.
Quoting verses from the Holy Quran, the speaker said, 'America was trying to equip India with sophisticated arms and nuclear capability and Allah had already warned the Muslims against this unholy nexus among the infidels against the Muslims.
'America, Israel and other western nations in collaboration with India were trying to divide Kashmir to gain hegemony in the region and set up military bases in this region. We declare Jihad against India. Jammu and Kashmir shall be the gateway for such a Jihad.'
The speaker saluted holy warriors who he claimed had taken the Muslims out of the depths of deprivation and depression by waging Allah's
66% of Americans are creationists 2007-06-08 13:04:02 Here are USA TODAY/Gallup Poll results on the state of evolution in the U.S. It makes for ghastly reading: 28% says that evolution is definitely false, 16% that it's probably false, and only 18%/35% that evolution is definitely/probably true. And it gets worse: nothing less than 39% says that creationism is 'definitely true,' and 27% says that it's probably true. This means that an unbelievable 66% (!!!) of Americans
are creationists (although only 44% thinks that evolution is false), if this poll is to be believed. Polls, of course, are unreliable, but it's no comfort.
Stupidity is so depressing.
Source: "USA TODAY/Gallup Poll results," USA TODAY, June 7, 2007
Steampunk keyboard and monitor 2007-06-08 12:47:21 Need a steampunk keyboard
and monitor (and who doesn't)? Then Jake von Slatt of the Steampunk Workshop has just the thing for you, as can be seen here on this picture I stole. You have to admire someone who takes the time to build something like this, although I have to admit that I would personally like to see an even more 'steampunky' look on these contraptions, even if it's just for show. You can never have too many gears and too much clockwork! More info at Boing Boing, Wired, and STREETtech.com.
Something's wrong 2007-06-12 13:44:03 Page suddenly looks like shit in Explorer, I have absolutely no idea why...
How I love these fucking browsers.
Update: Ok, problem solved. Nothing defeats my mighty brain!
The Arcanum 2007-06-12 11:33:32 I actually haven't read The Arcanum (so many books to read, so little time), so I really need to check it out. Hopefully it gets made into a movie, and hopefully they get the right director to do it:
A dash of "The Alienist," "The List of Seven" and "Hellboy" collide in Thomas Wheeler's 2004 debut novel The Arcanum. Miramax seized the property for development five years prior to the book's publishing and now it has been gobbled up by Gold Circle Films who rescued "Arcanum" out of turnaround. The company is now looking for directors to steer this period tale, adapted by Wheeler, onto the big screen.
Set in 1919, the story finds Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, voodoo priestess Marie Laveau and H.P. Lovecraft (who make up the titular secret society) working together in New York City to save lost angels and the world from a serial killer and some demons. Aleister Crowley also pops up in this horror-adventure mix.
Ah, good old Lovecraft, if only you could have known how famous you
China, the land of superstitious officials 2007-06-12 10:40:01 Had there been one good thing to come out of China
's authoritarian regime (aside from curbing the extreme overpopulation), it would have been the stamping out of superstition. Then, at least, from a long-term perspective, future generations would have benefited from the suffering in the present. But superstition has not been stamped out, unfortunately, and is in fact thriving:
More than half of China's local officials
believe in fortune telling and other superstitions banned among Communist Party members, media said on Tuesday.
According to a survey of officials at township level, more than 52 percent believed in reading faces and stars, predicting dreams and "qiu qian" -- casting lots at a temple to tell their fortune, the Democracy and Law newspaper said
...
One senior official moved his ancestor's tombs thousands of miles to the foot of the famed Tian Shan mountain in the north-western region of Xinjiang in an attempt to improve his career prospects, Chinese media reported last m
A disease is caused due to the presence of impure blood clots in the body 2007-06-12 07:32:21 Here we have an example of quackery of the very worst kind, from Srinagar in India:
He is no doctor if one goes by his qualifications alone and yet hundreds of people flock to him every Friday to get cured.
Abdul Kadir, interestingly, has never even been to primary school. But from a toothache to arthritis, Kadir claims he can cure anything with the help of his creepy, sticky and crawling friends -- leeches.
Every Friday, patients come to Kadir, who sits outside the gates of the Hazratbal shrine in downtown Srinagar with water-filled jars that contain hungry leeches ready to suck blood.
Kadir places three leeches on the affected part of the patient's body and they begin to suck blood. After the leeches are removed, the patient is left bleeding but there are no complaints.
Instead, they thank Kadir, pay him his fees and make an appointment for another session.
"Leech therapy is not new. It is an ancient and most reliable therapy with no side effects and the Muslim holy book of Al-Hadit Read more:disease
British army officer harassed by Muslim women in hospital 2007-06-12 07:26:47 No place is off bounds, it seems. Here's the story in the conservative Daily Mail in Britain:
A British
Army officer
has been abused by Asian women while on a hospital
visit to troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Company Sergeant Major Neil Powell was surrounded and heckled by three young women in the unprovoked verbal attack at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.
This happened right in the middle of Britain.
The women, in traditional Asian dress, ranted about the presence of British troops in Muslim
countries.
The incident took place in a public area of the hospital used by both civilians and military personnel.
In recent months the standard of treatment for soldiers at Selly Oak has been widely criticised. Military personnel have called for greater protection and privacy away from civilian patients and visitors.
And the reactions?
But the Labour MP for Selly Oak, Lynne Jones, refused to back calls for more secure facilities for troops.
She said: "The soldiers seem to want a little
Ambulance senator resigns 2007-06-12 07:08:56 Update on this story, and goodbye to the idiot:
An Italian senator who faked illness to get an ambulance to rush him through heavy traffic to a TV appointment resigned on Monday after a roasting in the media.
...
In a resignation letter to the head of the Senate, the senator, a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, praised the ambulance team for the "speed and efficiency of the service".
Source: "Senator quits over ambulance-abuse scandal," Reuters, June 11, 2007
Bridge built by blind contractor collapsed 2007-06-12 07:05:40 If you let a blind contractor build a bridge, whom do you blame?
A Chinese court has jailed two officials after they let a blind contractor build a bridge which collapsed during construction and injured 12 people, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
Source: "Two jailed after bridge built by blind man collapses," Reuters, June 11, 2007
Mysterious signal on Titan hints at ocean beneath the frozen surface 2007-06-12 07:02:40 It's an old dream that could still turn out to be true:
The tentative detection of low frequency radio waves on Saturn's icy moon, Titan, could signal
an underground ocean of liquid water, a new study says. If so, it would be good news for the possibility of life beneath the surface
of this bizarre world.
Source: David Shiga, "Mysterious signal hints at subsurface ocean on Titan," NewScientist.com, June 11, 2007
Hilali ousted as Mufti of Australia 2007-06-12 05:42:49 Australia's Muslims have a new Grand Muckety-Muck, the previous one having been voted out, presumably because of all his 'outspoken' statements. The new one is 80 and has recently had a stroke. He's also a 'respected moderate,' of course.
MELBOURNE'S Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam is the new Mufti
of Australia, replacing the controversial Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali yesterday as nominal representative of Australia's Muslims.
The decision is a reversal for Australia's most outspoken imam, who has been at the centre of emotional public debates, particularly after he compared scantily clad women to uncovered meat in a sermon late last year.
He has also stirred anger for attacking the 55-year sentence given to a Lebanese gang rapist as racist, saying Muslims were better Australians than "Anglo-Saxons" because they didn't come "in chains", and urging Muslims to stand by Iran.
A meeting of a committee of the new Australian National Imams' Council in Melbourne yesterday appointed the re Read more:Australia
A lesson in dowsing 2007-06-12 05:21:30 Here's a guy who thinks he's a 'dowser.' And he has a scientific background, too! There must be some pretty big holes in that background if he doesn't know that the perceived effects of 'dowsing' is all due to involuntary muscle movements. There's nothing else to it, certainly nothing mystical. But what about the people with the 'uncanny' ability to find water, I hear no one asking. If you walk around waving your rods about all the time, you will develop a certain kind of experience (coupled with a basic knowledge of where water is usually to be found), based on where you happened to find water before. Again, there is nothing mystical about it.
The L-shaped metal divining rods held lightly in each of Jack Lingafelter's hands gravitated into a crisscross as he stepped over the hose irrigating his yard.
"It's black magic," Lingafelter said with a twinkle is his eye.
Divining rods in the hands of a Stanford grad and retired metallurgical engineer seem an unlikely coupling, but Read more:lesson
"This is Islam's victory, Allah's victory, and we pray to Allah for brining us this victory" 2007-06-16 03:07:13 Here are some details from Thursday, when the Palestinian civil war was still raging:
Hamas gunmen on Thursday afternoon captured the second of four major Fatah command centers in Gaza City, planting the group's green flag on the roof of the intelligence services building.
...
Hamas members held a prayer in the compound, which they referred to as the "heresy compound." Hamas also changed the name of the neighborhood where the building is located from "Tel al-Hawa" to "Tel al-Islam
."
Hamas' media outlets threatened to reach Fatah and the PA's official radio and telelvision stations, and provided the names of senior Fatah officials they planned to execute. "We will reach you," Hamas members told the Fatah leaders.
...
"This is the first step in the establishment of the Islamic state," a Hamas member told Ynet from inside the Preventive Security Service building. "This is Islam's victory, Allah's victory, and we pray to Allah for brining us this victory."
Hamas officials announced th
One of the most dangerous and ambitious terrorist cells ever to operate in this country 2007-06-16 02:57:07 That country is the UK, where seven al-Qaeda terrorists have now been jailed for a total of 136 years. The plot was to blow up U.S. financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange, and stage a series of attacks in Britain:
Prosecutors said the men were part of a group headed by senior al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot and described as "one of the most dangerous
and ambitious terrorist cells
ever to operate in this country."
Barot is currently serving a life jail term after admitting last year he had planned bomb attacks in Britain and the United States.
Six of the men, Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, Junade Feroze, Zia Ul Haq, Abdul Aziz Jalil, Nadeem Tarmohamed and Omar Abdur Rehman pleaded guilty to conspiring with Barot to cause explosions between 2001 and 2004.
The seventh, Qaisar Shaffi, was found guilty on Wednesday.
Barot, a Muslim convert, was considered by some U.S. officials to be either al Qaeda's cell leader in Europe or at least the head of bin Laden's organization i
Suicide bombers kill five children 2007-06-16 02:45:29 And the Taliban are blowing up children:
Suicide
bombers attacked foreign troops in central and southern Afghanistan on Friday, killing five child bystanders and wounding at least two soldiers, local police and a provincial government official said.
Separately, a U.S.-coalition soldier was killed in combat in eastern Paktika province on Friday, the U.S. military said. In both south and east Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents are waging an insurgency against the Afghan government and its foreign allies.
In the first suicide attack, a bomber rammed his car into a convoy of international troops in Tirin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, killing five children playing nearby, a provincial government official said.
Source: "Afghan suicide attack on foreign troops leaves '5 children' dead," Reuters, CNN.com, June 15, 2007
Creationist: I will blow evolution out of the water 2007-06-16 02:28:15 Oh no, it's all over for evolution now:
World-renowned creationist John Mackay, a research geologist, said he plans to blow the ''evolution theory'' out of the water
with a presentation at Camden Civic Centre on Tuesday, June 26.
Mr Mackay said he once believed that the earth could be billions of years old, but ''evidence'' in rocks does not support that theory. He believes it is less than 10,000 years old.
''Fossils support the biblical record from Genesis to Goliath as being the real history of the world,'' Mr Mackay said.
The former science teacher is also the international director of Creation Research, a faith ministry which proclaims Jesus Christ as creator and saviour.
Source: "Creation vs evolution," Camden Advertiser, June 26 (that was the date given), 2007
Emir of Jemaah Islamiyah arrested by Detachment 88 2007-06-16 02:21:11 Police has announced that the leader of JemaahIslamiyah
has been arrested
in Indonesia, following on the earlier arrest of Abu Dujana:
The leader of the Southeast Asia terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah
was seized last weekend during raids by Indonesia’s antiterrorism force, the police said at a news conference on Friday.
The leader, Zarkasih, who uses only one name, was caught in central Java shortly after a raid on June 9 that turned up Abu Dujana, a deputy who leads the military arm of Jemaah Islamiyah.
...
“He is the emir of Jemaah Islamiyah,” Col. Petrus Golose of the national police force, a member of the antiterrorism team, said of Mr. Zarkasih in an interview. “He controls everyone; everyone important reports to him.”
Mr. Zarkasih and Abu Dujana were arrested in central Java by the elite Detachment 88, some members of which have received training in the United States and Australia. The two men are still being interrogated near Yogyakarta.
...
Duri
A dazzling howl against religion 2007-06-16 02:09:38 "Hitchens can still intellectually get it up," says Johann Hari in his review of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. The review, unlike God, is great and so is the book. Read both of them. Read more:against
"Me, I'm with God and a bag of flour" 2007-06-15 11:28:57 Today's Gaza update presents a picture that is downright cheerful. Crowds looting Fatah strongholds down to the last flowerpot, triumphant extremists bragging and crowing in the streets, and even a joking fanatic. And they only threw one guy off a rooftop, so that's very considerate of them, I think:
At Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' captured seaside office in Gaza City, a gunman sat down at the Fatah leader's desk, picked up the phone and pretended to be calling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Hello, Rice?" the gunman said. "Here we are in Abu Mazen's office. Say hello to Abu Mazen for me." Other gunmen rifled through Abbas' belongings in a bedroom behind the office, lifting up a mattress and searching through drawers.
Somebody call Comedy Central, we have a new find here.
"Today everybody is with Hamas because Hamas won the battle. If Fatah had won the battle they'd be with Fatah. We are a hungry people, we are with whoever gives us a bag of flour and a food coupon
Pregnant mother of eight planned suicide bomb attack 2007-06-15 07:10:46 Where else but in Palestine? Here is another beautiful story from Arutz Sheva (not, perhaps, the most unbiased of sources as far as reporting on the Palestinians go, but still):
Two women from Gaza - a pregnant mother
of eight, and her niece, a mother of four - planned a joint two-pronged suicide attack
in Tel Aviv and Netanya. They have been arrested.
The General Security Service (GSS) has released for publication that the two women were arrested 24 days ago as they left Gaza for the double attack. Precise intelligence information led to the thwarting of the planned mass murders.
The GSS says that the two women "took advantage of Israel's humanitarian policies, receiving a fraudulent medical permit to enter Israel."
One of the women, Fatma Hassan Zeck, 39, is the mother of eight children and is pregnant with her ninth. She worked in the Islamic Jihad employment office for women in Gaza, and was in regular contact with terrorist elements. She served as a coordinator between the Islami
"Dogs beholden to their Israeli masters" 2007-06-15 07:06:18 I overlooked this one from two days ago. It's more love from Hamas:
A Hamas spokesman said that a decision had been taken to kill all of Fatah’s leading officials, who he referred to as “dogs beholden to their Israeli
masters.”
Hamas has distributed a list of at least 30 Fatah officials it seeks to have killed for complicity, they say, in a US-backed plan to topple Hamas. The first name is senior Fatah terrorist Mohammed Dahlan, who holds the position of National Security Adviser in the Fatah-Hamas PA unity government. He has been hiding out in Egypt for the past two months. Many of the other Fatah men on the list have fled Gaza.
Source: Ezra HaLevi, "Hamas Publishes Fatah Hit-List, Confiscates US-Supplied Weapons," Arutz Sheva, June 13, 2007
"Something I never doubted - God - I have huge doubts about now" 2007-06-15 07:00:01 Who would have thought Jonathan Edwards (the athlete) would ever come to his senses...? I mean, this is the guy who once refused to compete in an Olympic trial on a Sunday. But now he's off God, hopefully for good:
Just four months ago the former athlete - whose father is a vicar - quit as a presenter of the BBC’s Songs Of Praise, saying he no longer believed in God.
The 41-year-old Olympic champion admitted he still struggled over his loss of faith and even occasionally went to church with his wife Alison, a committed Christian.
Former God addicts often experience difficult withdrawal symptoms.
Edwards, who once refused to compete in an Olympic trial on a Sunday, said: "I don’t claim to fully understand what I am feeling other than to acknowledge that something I never doubted - God - I have huge doubts about now.
"This is a hugely complex and deeply personal issue. I am sure there are a lot of things people think but will never say to me. I am who I am, regardless of whe
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