Posted on

Dispatches from Dullardia: The War on Christmas (deep sigh)

Sorry, I couldn’t resist responding to a couple of yesterday’s stories.

One is about a sign in Times Square, put up by American Atheists, that shows a picture of Santa above a picture of a statue of a crucified Jesus. The inscription says “Keep the MERRY!” and “Dump the MYTH!” (photo credit: American Atheists)

Holiday message: Atheists dub Jesus a ‘myth’ on Times Square billboard

Good on you, American Atheists! And fie upon the critics:

“This year it’s different,” said Catholic League spokesman Bill Donohue. “This is vile. When you depict Jesus on the cross with a crown of thorns, this is exploitative. We as Christians never harass, intimidate or insult atheists. But they can’t seem to say, ‘We simply disagree with you.’ They have to insult us.”

I have to repeat part of that: Continue reading “Dispatches from Dullardia: The War on Christmas (deep sigh)”

Posted on

Book Of Good Living: Crowd-Sourcing How to Walk

I’m trying an experiment here. Long-time readers may remember a couple of posts a while back about something I call The Book of Good Living.

I see this thing as a part of Beta Culture — a basic resource about living day-to-day. Something like Wikipedia, written and evolved by reader/contributors, and containing a great deal of advice and direction — which everybody is wholly welcome to ignore.

But … you know, a body of objective wisdom about life. Jeez, we get so much hyped and over-hyped shit thrown at us every day, about how we should live, how we should act, what we should wear … it’s like that mass of stuff we might once have learned from our parents and grandparents, or even savvy peers, is drowned in the noise of the crap projected at us through Internet-radio-TV-magazines-billboards-etc. So that EVERYBODY knows how cool it is to get your belly-button pierced, or why you should never give oral sex on the first date (unless it’s true love!), but nobody knows how to safely clean your ear with a Q-Tip. Continue reading “Book Of Good Living: Crowd-Sourcing How to Walk”

Posted on

A Study in Conflict Between Island Cultures (Repost)

It doesn’t get much play in the publicly-available cultural anthropology literature, but there’s an island in the Pacific where an interesting conflict has played out over generations.

The island, which has an untranslatable name – generally rendered in English as  “Ryeezahn” –  is occupied by two tribes, the Kritsi and the Syenz, which have been at war for generations, a war temporarily restrained in an uneasy peace.

The root of the conflict, as visiting anthropologists have documented, is unequal resource distribution brought on by a drastic inequality in living space. The size of the Syenz territory is more than 20 times that of the Kritsi.   Continue reading “A Study in Conflict Between Island Cultures (Repost)”

Posted on

New Site Layout (Plus Brain-Stealing Radiation)

No doubt you’ve noticed the different appearance here, and on Freethought Blogs generally. The Hidden Masters of FTB are upgrading the design, as well as making changes such as a hypnotic opinion generator that will steal your mind and turn you into a willing minion of the World Atheist Conspiracy.

I’m not totally convinced I like the new typeface. Certain other bloggers are tweaking their CSS to render posts in other fonts, and I might do the same after things shake out. Some bugs are being worked out behind the scenes, and I don’t want to fiddle until that all settles down.

Meanwhile, you are getting very sleepy. After today, you will think and do only what I tell you. Continue reading “New Site Layout (Plus Brain-Stealing Radiation)”

Posted on

Offensive on Soooo Many Levels

Read this representative paragraph from an Elevate GF ad:

SPECIAL REPORT: How To Grow 3+ Inches Taller in Just a Matter of Weeks Using This 1 Simple Trick That Celebrities Use.

You may have heard of the enormously popular Elevate GF in the news. It’s a completely organic supplement that celebrities & body builders use around the world that they don’t want you knowing about. But today we are leaking the secret. Elevate GF offers many benefits primarily due to its high anti-oxidant content. It’a all natural HGH hormones make is a “Stud “Building” machine. If you’re skeptical, you’re not alone. When we first learned about this ‘grow taller’ miracle, our fad radar went off right away.

My Inner Editor is disturbed. All the typos — for instance “It’a” and “make is” and the extra quotes in “Stud Building” — are original. This guy is in such a hurry to screw money out of his victims he can’t be bothered to get somebody to proofread his ad copy. Continue reading “Offensive on Soooo Many Levels”

Posted on

Pics from Eschaton 2012

I had my big mongo camera with me at Eschaton 2012, but I kept reminding myself I was there to learn, to speak, to mingle and meet. Which means there were plenty of people I didn’t get pictures of.

To my immense embarrassment, that means I have pics of almost none of the volunteers. Such as Seanna and Evan, who were the public face of the event for me. Seanna extended the invitation, Evan did the travel arrangements. Throughout the event, every time Seanna mentioned Evan and Far Horizons Travel, she repeatedly, comically, reminded us it was “the only atheist-run travel agency in Ottawa.”

But here are a FEW of the speakers and attendees: Continue reading “Pics from Eschaton 2012”

Posted on

Eschaton 2012 Open Thread and Beta Culture Post List

First: Wow. I had a fantastic time at Eschaton 2012 in Ottawa. Gushy thank-yous to the organizers and volunteers, especially Seanna, Evan and Ania. Kevin Smith, President and Chair of Center For Inquiry Canada, you and your entire organization totally rock. All of you give me hope. (Give me a shout for your next event, and I’ll be there before the echoes die away.)

Also, to my FTB co-bloggers PZ, Crommunist, Natalie and Ophelia, it was especially nice to meet you or see you again. Ian, you are absolutely outrageous in all the best ways and it was very cool to spend time with you. PZ, thank you for existing; everything else is gravy. Eugenie Scott, I know I made no impression at all on you in the minute or so we had together, but I was awed to meet you. Larry Moran, ditto, and thank you for your interesting thoughts. Chris DiCarlo and Mrs. DiCarlo (I’m ashamed to say I didn’t catch your name), I really enjoyed talking to you at the museum, and  wish we’d had more time. Lady DiCarlo, you gave me some things to think about, and those are the best kind of conversations. Continue reading “Eschaton 2012 Open Thread and Beta Culture Post List”

Posted on

Tito the Mighty Hunter: Good Dead Things

tito-truck.jpg

Thinking about dogs tonight, so I’m reposting this bit from 2008:

In most dog-related things, I was a fairly indulgent dad. But having my four-leggers roll in dead stuff, or go off into the brush and bring back something rotten, I had a hard time with that.

Tito was especially bad about it.

One summer day we were out along Varmint Creek hiking. I have this thing I sometimes do – I think of it as my super power – I hike and read at the same time. The subconscious Guardian Idiot that resides in all our heads, in my case has terrific peripheral vision, and I’m able to read and navigate along a trail, even rough mountain terrain, at the same time. I never fall down, I never walk into trees, I never even stumble. Continue reading “Tito the Mighty Hunter: Good Dead Things”

Posted on

Dear Mr. President

Oh man, I am so glad you won. Whew! Mitt Romney just scared the hell out of me. And Ryan a heartbeat away from the presidency? No way!

I know you have a lot on your plate right now, but … I’m going to toss one more serving up there.

“ABCD by 2023” is an ambitious scientific research project I’d like to see Americans undertake. Briefly, it’s a 10-year Apollo-style project against four diseases: Alzheimer’s. Birth defects. Cancer. Diabetes.

For the rest of it, I hope you’ll forgive me for presenting it as a presidential speech: Continue reading “Dear Mr. President”

Posted on

Slight Damper on the Obama Victory

One of my old Texas friends sent me an email last night, titled “A Touch of Real Class,” showing 18 pictures of George W. Bush mixing and mugging with uniformed soldiers arriving at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. It ends with “And, tell me once again the name of the person in the White House who bad-mouths this man and his wife.” Jeezus.

(Inside scoop: I picked this photo out of all the others because of the young man’s crooked smile. I fancy it says “Yeah, yeah, I’m smiling on that side because my folks asked me to pose with the former Commander-in-Creep, but on THIS side I’m all ‘Dayyum, this dude makes my skin crawl!’ “) Continue reading “Slight Damper on the Obama Victory”