Recently in pat Category

This is a fluffier book than Bonk or Stiff both grounded in a reality that's going to be a lot harder to nail in a book about research into the afterlife. Amongst other things Roach takes a look at ectoplasm, EVP that's the people that listen to noise and claim to hear things, past lives,attends a class in the UK on how to be a medium. She also looks at the science of testing "psychics" like DuBois and other cold readers that are cynical ,delusional or both ( my bias). That blunt an answer is something this book isn't going to provide for you but it's probably a good thing that she's not attempting to do that. She's a very entertaining writer,her footnotes amusing,and there's real science to follow up on. I just didn't learn as much as her prior works since it's hard to accumulate a body of evidence for life after death when all we have is evidence of bodies.

If you had asked me to write down 3 main criticism's of Bill Maher's movie, Religulous,  that would be  brought  up in negative reviews    number one on my list would be

"Well you're atheism is  just a religion  anyway " 

I get that one often. The need to drag people to their level    is one of the ideas that Bill O Reilly  espouses , you can't justify bad action by pointing out another's bad  to make your point . I didn't say  O' Reilly manages to walk that walk but  it's an ideal, kinda like the Christ myth on which the followers of both = Major Fail.  Most negative reviews  reference this sentiment and here's an example From Glen Whipp at LA.com which neatly encapsulates the form of dementia.

"...thought is absent in "Religulous," as is imagination. The movie is Maher's monument to Maher, as ugly and hateful as anything he decries in the film.

Yep  Bill Maher is the equivalent of crusaders,  suicide bombers and those that rape children.  Sounds like a psychotic* idea. A movie about ideas, EVEN , if you believe it to be a bad movie is not as hateful  as the wanton destruction of sentient beings by blowing up families in a market because  you're invisible friend tells you too? 

I call bullshit because this guy is  as deserving of the phrase "and then there's this asshole"  as anyone claiming to be a critic.

Movies Maher ridiculous in 'Religulous'

 

*the term is also used in a more general sense to refer to mental disorders in which mental functioning is sufficiently impaired as to interfere grossly with the patients capacity to meet the ordinary demands of life.

Half the people  you meet not  only believe in angels but claim to have actually experienced their influence.  Nope this is not from a country that burns witches ( I can't say yet,  maybe  at this time is safer)  or riots because they  believe their football game were cursed but  from the USA #1  in debt since , well let's not confuse a stupid population with the current financial crisis ;), since it was worked out that you can do just about anything here and then pull out an angel to justify your actions.

By now you've guessed that we're not talking about Curtis and his gang but the kind of bright light, flappy flappy harp playing  goody two shoes types that  schlep around carrying messages from the "Almighty"  , whose omni presence  doesn't stretch to a decent two way communication system  with his creation apparently, and  seemingly  are there to give you   a push , a warning  or whatever help you may need to stay out of harms way.   Here's a fun story I like to relate about a marketing manager at a prior company ( a few back) that crashed her car on the way back to the office after lunch.

Her eyes were closed while driving . There wasn't a foreign object in there, not squinting from the sun   or   taken by a sudden bout of narcolepsy but..  they were closed because she was praying.    Guess what ? She felt lucky that she was praying as the accident could have been so much worse OTHERWISE!  55%    Adults , Voters, Drivers, EEP!

Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans - TIME

In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, "I was protected from harm by a guardian angel."

This line from an article, front page, main story , about the Large Hadron Collider annoys me. Firstly Mainly as it has to justify why research is useful to us which is kinda scary. We're reading this new SOLELY as a result of our research and understanding about how most of the 'verse holds together in a tolerably predictable manner. Can they please maybe deal with us all becoming Fannie Mae stock holders? K thx bai.


CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

Skeptics fear it will lead to the Earth's demise

Erin with Teller. ( I love his voice, his writing’s rather good too) I've been a fan of Penn and Teller since being exposed to them in the mid 80's and one of the life goals, as far as I have plans, was to see them perform live. That's another collective 40 years experience up on stage and if they were great in the 80's they are now fucking amazing. During the intervening time I didn't turn out to be an atheist as I always was one, as are all newborns it's only the prevailing culture that tells a three year old that he's a Christian child and sadly he's doomed to burn in hell unless he thanks the zombie jew for his gift of ever lasting life, feeling sick yet?

More insanity from the  reality challenged community.   Not only are they claiming that their brayers* lowered gas prices but that  you can  get over the more advanced cases of death by engine casing embedded in your head by following the right invisible man.  Be sure to pick carefully as it’s really hard to tell the invisible and non existent apart.    Not an original thought but  please  if you hate modern life so much  stop using the medical , physical and all other technology that doesn’t fit in with your two thousand  year old  training manual.   Your children are not harmed by our children living differently from you I wish I could say the inverse was the case.  Yep  you teach your toddlers to claim their  parents are going to be hurt forever because they are bad..  And we’re the evil ones?   More on that soon. Survey: Many believe in divine intervention - CNN.com

Survey: Many believe in divine intervention * 57 percent in survey said God could save a patient even if doctors said it was futile * Researchers: Docs should be prepared to deal with families who expect a miracle

*not a typo.

Seemingly poor manners in public are worth millions. This sad story has the arguably most doable preacher's wife ( Look I tried to put it delicately but the competition isn't that great) of a Texas mega church accused of impoliteness to a flying waitress*. She was fined $3k back in 2006 so we can assume something valid happened but to the point where someone launches multi million dollar claim? For loss of faith? Love to see how you attach a monetary value to that because I'd like to know. I'd like to write the check for that part. $0.00

Witness: Mega-preacher's wife threw tantrum - CNN.com

Her psychiatrist, Shayna Lee, testified that Brown has suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the incident. She also felt disrespected in her role as a leader and as a black woman and had her faith affected, Lee said.

Position of leadership? Black woman? How the hell is she diminished , especially the latter, to the point were a real financial loss occurred? This is just two grown women acting like brats. The christian thing to do would be to smite each others family and just leave it at that:)

Daddy you can let go now.....

At a recent Father-Daughter Purity Ball, the girls ranged from college age to a tiny 4-year-old dressed in purple who climbed into her father's arms to be carried

I wonder if they take a toddler to AA too? These people , these people that define innocence yet take their fucking 4 year old ( is there irony in there folks? ) to events like this. I am nowhere near taking Dobh, or myself , to a fetish ball in the near future but maybe I need to take a play from my 'moral superiors'.

I can only hope that they are trying to create a super sexually fucked up batch of women to compete with the Catholic education / Baptist pastor's daughter that have been highly reviewed by some of my friends.

I used to shop here, used to. Sadly I can't take em seriously anymore. The same bullshit I saw with local atheist groups, e.g Bush's god =bad, Kerry's , Gore, Edwards and now Obama's is fine. Suggests that there's a lack of ethical rigor from a store that seems to be in favour of principle over profit. That Obama has a peace symbol sticker for the O in the name is hilarity itself that an overt theist is a poster child for the reality based community is desperatly sad. Crazy.. is crazy.

Don't Make Me Come Down There sticker
$2.00
Don't Make Me Come Down There sticker. Just a subtle warning from the Almighty, to his so-called followers, lest they continue spreading hatred and division in His name!

New Products for Freethinker science lovers darwinfish holders civil right workers and many others

Apology on the cards as police pup picture sparks warning over offence to Muslims - Scotsman.com News

A POLICE force has apologised over concerns that an advertisement featuring a German shepherd pup could be offensive to the Islamic community. As part of a campaign to publicise its new non-emergency telephone number, Tayside Police used a picture of a black puppy, Rebel, on postcards to be distributed throughout the east coast region.

Now the rest of the story From a local paper.

 

Doesn’t it look like the Police apologized to one man :) One councillor  but  let’s see how that story played over here in the USA , the Freedom center of the world.  Fucking pigs never apologized to me for an baseless allegation but hey  I don’t  hack off people’s heads that offend me in the name of my invisible friend.

 

I just make fun of them online.