Joel’s Army. I wish that were an MST3K thing

From alternet and a billion blogs over the weekend: Theocratic Sect Prays for Real Armageddon.
I read this kind of thing and think that a good part of the radical fringes, especially in religion, is devoted to exploiting the out of control testosterone of young men. It’s Masculinity as Warrior, Fight fight fight. Hell, Bentley’s idea [...]

Luna Park, Coney Island: 1903

One of my new favorite sites/blogs is Shorpy.com, the “100 Year Old Photo Blog.” It’s a wonderland of old photos, many in high resolution. I’m a major history buff, especially of “small” history — the everyday lives, ordinary people, lives being lived like lives have always been lived.
To get a taste, go look at this [...]

Imagination, Empathy, Compassion.

Where can we possibly, possibly get morals and ethics from, if not from God?
We’ll leave aside discussion about Morality by commandment. It’s too silly to bother with.
We’ll also leave aside Reason.
WHAT?! Yep. I mean, it’s important , don’t get me wrong, especially for ethics. But it’s not what this post is about. We’re digging a [...]

Think positively about this

Livescience takes up the question of Positive Thinking. Does it really work? Can people really combat serious illness with the power of happy thoughts?
Errr, we don’t know. Yes. No. Depends on the situation. The science is complex and the jury is out.
That won’t stop, of course, the big industry of people with suspicious hair making [...]

Fear

I spent a portion of the day — especially the nicely rainy evening in what has been a very rainy week for Tucson — retroblogging, which some of you may know as “writing in a journal.”
I am, I should note, a major moleskine geek. If they could get the internet on a moleskine, I’d die [...]

For those who weren’t keeping track at home…

…Obama only mentioned God in the final sentence of his speech, and in that American Civic Religion Way that politicians do.
Whatever the other knuckleheads in the party are doing at the moment, I still take Obama at his word when it comes to inclusiveness.
His speech was excellent, moving and yet firmly based in reality. I’m [...]

“It’s pronounced ay-gor.”

Sometimes, folks, you just have to shoot fish in a barrel (err, tofu-fish, says the vegan, sheepishly. I mean, not sheepishly, I, aw crap…).
This is why we have Chick Tracts.
You might, as you read this one, be tempted, tempted I say, to think “it must be a joke.” This is someone’s send up of Chick [...]

The cowardice of missionaries

For a long time after my encounter with Evangelical Christianity, I was a bit angry about the whole thing.
Writing about that time gave me a chance to look at it all anew (the last chapter was here. You can use that link to find the earlier portions, too). Have my feelings changed? Am I still [...]

Values Voters

One of the ways in which this election cycle has had of slagging secular and nontheist voters is with the obnoxious term “values voters,” which is very clearly meant to refer to religious voters, ones mostly concerned with various “moral” issues — terrifying things like teenagers having sex, nipples on TV and those horrible, nasty [...]

Be chilled. Actually, no, be fucking angry, red hot angry

Kafirgirl shares a video in comments, and the use of buzz words by the reporter is, frankly, terrifying.
On a related note, PZ Myers has something to say, and a letter to share.
Anti-abortion rhetoric at a Democratic convention? And am I the only one terrified by the idea of “pre-printed” arrest tickets? WTF?
Now, to make you [...]