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The Ashes of a Cowboy

I’m sitting here waiting for the USPS. My Dad’s ashes are coming in the mail today.

I was sort of happy-excited about it all morning, but now I’m thinking “Oh, crap. Here comes a solid reminder that I’ll never be able to hear his warm voice again, or have him invite me in for a slash of apricot brandy.”

That welcoming, wise – and yes, sometimes damned annoying – presence is gone from my life. He won’t BE THERE for me. Ever again.

In case you’ve wondered, after my trip to California that you all donated to make possible, the whole thing is still going on in my life. Continue reading “The Ashes of a Cowboy”

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The Brassican Heresy

Warning: The following post is long, and may contain insults to French people. And Christians. And probably frogs.

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I’d like to propose to you a daring hypothesis.

You may be surprised by it. You may be stunned. You might even be shocked. Because this is such a daring idea, some of you reading this right now may actually be horrified. There’s even the possibility – distant, but real, so I have to warn you – that one or more people about to read the following hypothesis will suffer deep psychological damage and end up under permanent psychiatric care, or possibly even comatose.

I don’t really want to just spring it on you suddenly. This is something so new, so different, so deeply significant, that I feel very strongly that it should have its own screen. It’s just not something I feel okay with plopping down in a sea of insignificant words, as if it were one common grain of sand on a vast beach.

This is something so special it demands treatment you’d immediately consider … unusual.

So. If you think you’re ready for it, brace yourself and look below the break. Here it comes: Continue reading “The Brassican Heresy”

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Israeli Women: Accomplished … and Unclean

Generally, I’ve kept my mouth shut about Israel. Honestly, I haven’t taken the time to really delve into the country’s history, or its politics. My hands-off-ness grows out of that – I know I’m not well-enough informed to hold strong opinions about it all. I’m sure there are some larger issues I don’t understand.

Still, there have been news stories over the years that have sometimes made it difficult for me to feel friendly toward the country.

Mostly, I like the joke I heard years ago, that the world would be better off if we’d given the Jews a homeland in New Jersey rather than the middle East. Continue reading “Israeli Women: Accomplished … and Unclean”

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The Angry Atheist Podcast, With Special Guest: Me

Today Daniel Fincke of Camels With Hammers introduced me to Reap Paden, of ReapSowRadio and The Angry Atheist. With about 15 minutes advanced notice, I was suddenly on the air being interviewed.

If you listen past my uhs and y’knows, we have a fairly wide-ranging and — I think — interesting discussion. Reap’s a good interviewer, and someone I’m glad I’ve met at last. I enjoyed the experience so much, it felt like we talked for only about 15 minutes.

Worth a listen:

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Answering John Loftus: Is There an Atheist Community?

John Loftus, of Debunking Christianity, writes:

I want to briefly make the case that there is no atheist community. There are only atheist communities. There is likewise no atheist movement. There is only an atheist momentum. Atheists do not even share the same goals.

It’s a sound point, and I agree with several of his arguments, at least in the sense I believe he’s aiming. But it isn’t the only point, I don’t think. It will take me a bit to explain why: Continue reading “Answering John Loftus: Is There an Atheist Community?”

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… When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands

A Facebook friend posted a link to this Slate article Free Willy: Should prison inmates have the right to masturbate?

I clicked over to it because it sounded funny. Not only did it turn out to be interesting, it touches on (you see what I did there?) a real point of human rights.

While you might think of masturbation as a sort of last refuge for the incarcerated—a truly inalienable freedom, given the happy proximity of the sex organs—that is not the case. In fact, a number of state prisons regard jerking off as a rule infraction.

The fight against the practice apparently has a long history: Continue reading “… When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands”