Be Alert … because the world needs more lerts

I somehow got onto a right-wing Christian mailing list. Without fail, EVERY email they send me is both amusing and disturbing. That they’re so wrong, but so earnest, is funny. That they’re enticing others to be so wrong and earnest, that’s disturbing.

The latest was an Action Alert! from the stick-up-the-backside “American Family Association”:

“Pepsi Produces Another TV Ad Promoting the Gay Lifestyle”

Yes, the “gay lifestyle.” The lifestyle that people choose, and then recruit others into, so they can all be evil and debauched together, and get people to hate them. All done deliberately, you understand, and in opposition to good traditional American Christian values.

And yes, Pepsi is saying “Be Gay!! Everybody drink Pepsi and engage in homosexual activity!! Don’t be like all those heterosexuals who drink Coke!” What better publicity campaign could you get?

I had to respond to the part that said “Sign the Boycott Pepsi Pledge.”

Continue reading “Be Alert … because the world needs more lerts”

Why Not Be Nice?

[ Argh. My newer version of WordPress has controls for placing an image, but they DON’T SEEM TO WORK. Until I figure them out, we’ll have to live with the non-existence of text wrap. I say again: Argh. ]

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Comment-volleying on a blog with one of those people I refer to as a “nice Christian” – the people who project kindness and understanding as their motivation, all the while ripping your metaphorical guts out (“There’s no such thing as atheism! It just doesn’t make SENSE!”) – I stepped away from the subject of the debate for a moment, for the benefit of the other rationalist commenters, and addressed the interaction itself.

Continue reading “Why Not Be Nice?”

Happy 200th Birthday!

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Our Dear Mr. Darwin would be a very spry (I’m sure) 200 years old this Feb. 12.

The man did so much for us. Aside from the claims of the idiots on the godder side of history, people of reason don’t worship him. But we do give a boatload of credit to a guy who worked so tirelessly, throughout his life, to understand and explain this most beautiful and fruitful idea: that all living things are interrelated. Man, how cool is that?

Here’s a painting of him done by premier natural history illustrator Carl Buell.

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Lest we forget: This is also the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. And bravo for that, too!

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PS: The above image is COPYRIGHTED. If you snake it from my site, after my friend Mr. Buell was so kind as to allow me to post it, I’ll hunt you down and feed you to the invertebrates. AFTER I superglue hungry ferrets to your knees.

If you want a copy of the painting — which is fully life-sized — for your own Darwin Day celebratory use, contact Carl Buell directly at Carl [at] olduvaigeorge [dot] com.

At least one college I know of is printing out the full portrait and mounting it on a cutout backing so that students can pose with it for pictures.