Blank Stare

There are moments when terror truly rises to confront us. Being in a small dingy on the open ocean during a hurricane. While performing a space walk, your ship explodes; thus, leaving one all alone-drifting in space, and of course being talked to by Jebus lovers. These noxious bastards have that vacant kind of stare that dope fiends have. The empty, blank stare confronting one when these cohorts of doom come by causes all truth seekers to shiver. What is worse is the fact that they believe they have the right, no, the commandment from Jebus himself to talk to others. However, what they don't realize is the fact that they aren't talking to others. They are talking at others. Thus, no real conversation can occur. They are safe from enlightenment and truth. All they have to do is keep...talking...and drown out the voices that may cause dissonance, a murmur in the pattern. So, they yammer on to one another about the same damn thing every time they get together. You have all heard them repeat the same fucking mindless drone phrases over and over. I mean, here I am trying to enjoy my pancakes and I haven't even been awake for a full 2hrs and these assholes come by. Makes me want to fling gas on them and watch them burn. If I did that, then maybe... just maybe the noise they make would finally have some truth in it.

Just doing my part (from 2010-07-26)

I finally broke down and decided to actually cook a real dinner last night. Pork chops, sauerkraut and homemade macaroni and cheese. None of these things I had so I was off to the store.

Going in and out of the store, I had the thrill of shooing away a  panhandler making his pitch for something for some kid or kids somewhere. Not sure what it really was because he was still rattling of his programmed dialog with an exceptionally mush-mouthed dialect as I walked away. I loaded the car and dropped of the cart.

Then came the second panhandler.

It was a woman who, thankfully, kept her pitch short: single mom, unemployed, can I wash the windows on your car?

"No, thank you." "So there's nothing you can spare?"

I understand that part. I don't need my windows cleaned but perhaps there is still hope for some charity.

"No. I'm sorry." I walk on.

"God bless you, anyway."

Anyway?

What fucking gall. Perhaps, lady, your suffering is God's wondrous plan and his hand moved to stay mine from offering charity. That can only lead me to conclude that he wants you to suffer and, if he's feeling charitable himself, die in misery. Who am I to stop that?

I do give to charities but not to any that help humans. Humans can help and better themselves. They just have to want to do something about it. I guess it's easier to wait for a handout than actually make something of your predicament. Sheep, set for life.

 

A thought about stem cells

There is no rational reason to prohibit stem cell research. It is good for mankind and expanding human knowledge, which never is bad.

That's why "people of faith" are against it.

I was motivated by the recent federal circuit judge ruling that blocked federal funding for stem cell research. It has now been reversed but I am sure that an appeal is already working its way into the system. Ignorant savages people of faith may be, they are benefiting from the science and knowledge gained from medical research. Only the nutjobs who are completely against all man-made medical treatment are doing it right...and dying out as a result. Good on them. Keep it up.

 

I am happy to announce that I have an answer to all of this. It came to me on the toilet one morning.

If you are opposed to stem cell research, you may not use non-natural medical techniques when you ail. Deal with your plight. It's what The Farfalla would want.

You also may not utilize fertility treatments. Obviously, The Farfalla does not want your filth to breed. Since you will not propagate, you might as well off yourself now since that is the sole purpose of your empty, non-contributing life. I recommend hanging with a hemp rope. They are very durable.

 

You may use fertility treatments, however, under one of two conditions:

Option One: the female who is stupid enough to have this mindset can have only one ovum at a time harvested. Most source material for stem cells come from fertility services where many ova are harvested and fertilized a time. Just take one at a time and implant it. If it does not work, you pay full pop again and again in both cash and pain. It's what The Farfalla would want.

Option Two: You may not use fertility treatment for yourself but you may have implanted all of the remaining ova from a single donor. You essentially adopt the remaining ova from one donor and will have one implanted every year until the cache is depleted. You may not have state or government subsistence to support your brood. Either you and your family can support them or not. You may not put them up for adoption and with luck, many will starve to death. That will be your fault.

Actually, there is a third option: keep your filthy sewer shut and your superstitious crap to your self. You don't like stem cell research, don't benefit from it. Those who do, will.

Despite two thousand years of oppression, humanity has clawed its way out of the filth despite Xianity's constant badgering and we are better for it. Now we, or some of us, stand upright instead of living in a state of constant genuflex. Humanity will evolve and become better. For some inexplicable reason, we will drag these anachronistic fools with us. Maybe it's the Xian thing to do.

We need some Conquistadors

A couple of weekends ago, I saw a banner for a Mayan exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum. I made a note to myself to go and see this as I enjoy Mesoamerican antiquities. I've even visited some of the better known places in Mexico. Fascinating stuff, and a pity. It chaps my ass to think of how much we lost to the plague of European conquerors. While the Maya still exist today, they are a pale shadow of their former selves, crushed into assimilation by an arrogant, ignorant, and unworthy master. I even wish they Maya had had some unknown disease that could have killed of those Catholic bastards, or at least let them live long enough to take it back to Europe to decimate their population. <Ecstatic shudders>

That made me think: we need some new conquistadores, and the more I thought about this while I was driving, the more I loved it. Why I loved it had to do with all the sickening piety gushing out of the worthless evangelicals that re a genuine plague to our country. They are extremists. They are zealots. Those people need be destroyed with prejudice.

Here's the scenario:

One day, out the blue and without warning, aliens arrive. They seem benign but they possess a power that goes beyond our comprehension to a diety-like level. In very short time and without warning, rhyme or reason, they become malign and: butcher half of the population and all of the clerical people; destroy the religious and some non-religious cultural texts; make us learn a single, new language; make us worship alien god(s) that have no meaning; put us to work as slaves harvesting our natural resources; give us a disease that kills off a quarter of the remaining population; then leave us to flounder like a dying fish on a beach. If we are lucky, they will destroy our planet when they sail on to other shores.

My pleasure at this situation is derived from the anguish of the pious, crying to their sky pasta daddy, and the silence of the response. With so much of the culture destroyed and poorly remembered, enhanced by a death penalty for anyone practicing the old ways, how can one not love the irony dealt to these pasta lovers-an irony lost on their ignorance.

Suffer, bastards.

Taberchuckle time!

Since I've moved, Taberchuckles are a luxury, so I was pleased that this came about recently but displeased that it was at the expense of expedient driving. Shivering in antici......pation, I slowed the car as the sign came unto view:

Don't let your praying knees get lazy.

Taberchuckles are a hit-and-miss and this one is a miss. There's nothing to drive me apoplectic but it is still funny. Active subservience is better than lazy subservience. Passive subservience is just wrong; you might as well be an animal.

So far as I know, Catholics (east and west) and orthodox satanists are the main groups who kneel when praying. It's part of the ritual but I suspect they will tell you that it really doesn't matter. They probably do the majority of their personal praying standing up, sitting down, and even on the toilet.

My guess is that the message is just a subtle reminder to "remember the subservience and keep at it." Want The Noodly One to give you a minute? On your knees. Want Timmy to have perfect attendance at piano lessons? On your knees. Have something petty and selfish you want to ask the sky daddy? On your knees. Kneeling makes you small in many ways but they all make you the size of a child, handily reinforcing your place when dealing with your sky daddy.

Like the Taberchuckle itself, this one was kind of weak but I'm just dusting off the cobwebs.

Free Speech and religion

Who would dare support anti-defamation of religion? 1) It's subjective. 2) Laughing at retards is fun!

After all, at one point, especially with religion, any discussion about a new faith was dangerous. You could be killed for it. Hypocrites. Their take is defamation is intolerance. I say anti-defamation is intolerance.

It's the same side of the same coin.

Source: Pharyngula

Pat Condell: Wake up, America

Bravo.

Pat Condell: The arrogance of clergy

Back from the summer vacation season and on fire!

...And Misery for All

Link: http://tinyurl.com/yf9gs5u

An amusing trial is going to occur in California early next year. In it, the constitutionality of the state's recent Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, will be assessed. Unfortunately for the backers of the porposition, they are in Judge Vaughn Walker's court. There was today a preliminary hearing with the attorneys, as highlighted in the link at the top. Judge Walker indicated that he was not amused by the position of the group and would take the opportunity in court to examine some of the rhetoric often spouted in the defense for such a ban.

I laughed several times reading this article, mostly at the simple questioning offered that garnered highly-polished I-don't-knows from Charles Cooper, attorney for the backers. After the hearing, the Mr. Cooper said that he would be ready with material to support his case.

Allow me to help you, the people who support this ban: you won't and never will for one simple reason: your position is wholly indefensible from a legal standpoint. The only thing you can say if that this is your belief or opinion. It will save a lot of time if you simply come out and say that it is the faith of your clients. Then the case can be thrown out for being patently stupid, bigoted, and faith-based.

One of Judge Walker's questions was regarding how same-sex marriage causes harm to mixed-sex marriages. Again, Mr. Cooper did not know. There is no harm to mixed-sex marriage except for that which is caused and perceived by the individual. After all, if same-sex marriage is allowed...where will it end? Mixed-species? Mixed-matter-states? Whom does it harm? No one. You may not like it, but that does not make it wrong or bad.

What business is it of yours, anyway? You do not want the government involved in an issue like this because, inevitably, it will decree something that you do not like. Then what? You gave them the power and now you are the victim. I would offer the same advise to you then as I do now: suck it up, jackass.

But marriage is a sacred institution. Bullshit. Humans were forming community-acknowledged pair bonds long before some asshole priest/shaman/witchdoctor decided to create a lucrative line of work for himself—and a few bucks—by pretending to solicit blessings from the Sky Daddy over the union. Humans form pair bonds. Even alligators form pair bonds, and they are hundreds of millions of years old—or 5000 in young-Earth years. That's all you need. Probably, after a few centuries of study, you might find that pair bond couples have greater success because of the nature of the pair bond. Maybe not much more, but its more.

Do pair bonded couples marry? Of course, and that's fine because at no time will I say that anyone cannot marry if they want. Marriage is not a sacred institution, unless you really want those blessings on the union. What are the typical blessings: children (have more sex, use the rhythm method, have sex every day - works for atheists and everyone else), a prosperous home (work harder or at least do work that rewards you in other ways beside money - works for atheists and everyone else); love and respect (don't be an asshole, plus love and respect your partner - works for atheists and everyone else). Hmm. I'm not seeing anything special here. Sounds more like magic and talismans and spells and potions are needed - you know, pagan stuff. Of course, if blessings are not part of the equation then make an appointment with your local Justice of the Peace.

I'm curious about these supposed blessings on the union: do you have to be a member of the cult to receive them or does the Sky Daddy dole them out to anyone? What about a couple who are not married, who have several healthy children, whose lives are rich, and who love each other to the end of their days? Did Sky Daddy secretly bless them? What if they are Buddhist? Atheist? Deist? Zoroastrian? Pastafarian? Stop me when this starts to sound really silly. Too late.

I'm sure that the big item that will be presented is the harm to children of same-sex parents. They are the same arguments used to prevent same-sex couples from adoption. Harm? What harm? Again, the only harm is that which is perceived by these bigots. They're not raising them like I do my children! Thank The Great Noodle! Maybe they won't be bigots.

Children of gay (from here the term "gay" shall encompass the full gamut of GLBT) couples may be brought up with different values than yours. Values are an individual's own pursuit. So what? Who is to say that such an upbringing is bad? The bigot? That person is biased. The same-sex couple? They're biased, too. Why don't you ask the kids once they are adults? Track them. Collect data. Analyze it. Collect more data. Compare those results with the first. Have other people conduct the same experiment with a different population and compare those results. Then, and only then, can you make a pronouncement about harm or benefit.

Aw, crap. That's the scientific method and this is a religious matter.

In any case, it's none of your fucking business any more than it is the government's. Those people are individuals. They have the freedom to change their own minds, express their own opinions, form new opinions and pursue their lives however they want. Just like you. The latitude you enjoy is available to everyone. It's starting to sound like you are opposed to people having values different from yours. Values are not part of a package deal when you reach adulthood. You build them over time. They change as a person experiences life. A person with fixed values is unable to grow.

Marriage is the cornerstone of the family. You might be on to something there...um, nope, that's bullshit, too. Maybe to you, marriage is required to have a proper family but have you looked at that position from outside your little bubble? How pathetic is that? You have to have this artificial construct imposed onto your life in order to be a good parent—I do not say couple because marriage is about children, you know, the traditional reason? You really believe that unless you are married, you will be a horrible parent and unable to love your spouse? Does that not sound incredibly wrong?

Marriage is about commitment. Again, I ask, are you completely unable to do this without the construct of marriage? Have you ever interacted with any of the other seven billion people on the face of the earth in your life? You have?!?! Were you civil to them? Were you polite? You weren't standing in front of a mirror, were you? So how is that any different from the way you would treat your domestic or life partner? If you are a civilized human, the answer is none. Incidentally, commitment to whom? Your spouse or your Sky Daddy? Who or what is more important? That sounds more like a three-way, and not the kind of three-way I was wanting.

Are you worried that those kids will not be brought up in a household of religious faith? Guess what, gays have faith, even if you think your faith ignores them. It is faith, after all. It is what you make of it.

Are you worried that the children of same-sex couples will become gay? There is no proof of that. If you want proof, I already told you how to measure that. It should only take a few hundred years to have a good data sample so that you can postulate a theory. It will never be any more than a theory because it involved humans, and humans are infinitely complex. Well, some are. To further clarify, so long as there is one variant, it remains a theory, never a law.

Whatever the results of the case, frankly, I do not care because, as the comedian is so fond of saying: everyone deserves the same opportunity to be miserable. If Judge Walker cock-punches these crackpots (please!), it will not matter to them because they will wrap themselves in their faith and know that they were right. That's fine. That's faith: a psychological mechanism to tell yourself that everything will be okay, despite the situation.

For my final swing of the bat, I have to ask: is this really that important? Is this more important than poverty? Is this more important that hunger? Is this more important than education? Is this more important than life where basic human dignity is oppressed? Stupid question, I know. Without suffering and ignorance, you cannot have faith.

I can only shake my head in incredulity. For the record, I don't think that marriage is completely bad, just unnecessary for civilized humans. If it helps some people behave themselves and/or be happy, more power to them? When the marriage fails, that okay, too. They're only human.

Since it's on topic: An opinion piece

De theocracy natura

The blogs that keep tabs on the religious nut jobs have plenty of quotes from their mouthings off that make it clear, though not always explicit, that these bozos would like nothing more than to live in an American theocracy. I have some thoughts on that.

There are few true theocracies in the world because they require one hundred percent commitment from the populace. Most of them, to obtain that amazing support, require such control and capitulation of the will and individuality of the populace that the very thought of it gives a rational, free individual a WTF moment.

Perhaps these evangelical lunatics should consider this: evangelicalism exists because it does not like the way the mainstream version of the cult works. Their crap is derived from Protestantism, which exists because they did not like the rules of Catholicism. Even evangelicalism has splinter groups who interpret things different from the other dangerous cults. So here is the question: whose rules are law? What about people who do not agree? Do they form a subcult? Are they afforded the same privileges? Of course not. One thing that religions is completely against is options. So that should tell them, if their rules are so awesome, why is it that some people do not like them?

It happened before and it will happen again: one person will be to differ with the ideals of the mainline faith and cause it to splinter. Will that be treated as a civil war? Considering how rabid some people in this country are about their faith, armed conflict is inevitable.

To offset this, they ruling cult will probably opt for a least-common-demoninator for of the rules. Keep it simple enough that everyone is happy. The problem with that, is that no religion works that way.

For a contemporary perspective, look at the goings-on in Iran. That is an example of an extreme cult running a theocracy and what happens when some people don't have their head up their ass. Eventually it will happen. There is no way that a system can maintain that kind of tension. Humans adapt and change. Humans that do not are dead anyway.