Good Old Neon

Then go with Nigella Lawson, Giada DeLaurentis ... anyone but that screaming fuckwad.

I’m not familiar with many celebrity chefs, but after checking out your recommendations, well, Gordon Ramsey has found new employment as fish bait.

A paradox, to be sure, but assuming that the god is benevolent and mostly passive, then by acting that way you can ensure a close approximation.

 

That is, by not inserting your own will into a given situation, you are therefore ceding to the will of a greater authority - presumably a good authority. Consider Goofus and Gallant, and the tale of the last orange:

 

Goofus eats the last orange (inserting his will), and does not buy more oranges or let his parents know they're out of oranges (inserting his will by means of laziness).

 

Gallant saves the last orange for Cindy, who's seven and can't cross the street to get more, though he really wants an orange (ceding his will to the greater good). Gallant promptly buys more oranges without being asked (once more ceding his will, as surely the 9 year-old Gallant could find a better way to spend his free time).

 

This, of course, isn't what most people mean when they discuss God's Will (capital G/W), but I think it's possible to live according to the will of your moral authority without having it spelled out for you, and still be humble.

 

Someone who kills in the name of God's Will is of course blatantly inserting himself into a situation where he makes a concious decision that he is directly involved in God's plans. Likewise with someone who bombs an abortion clinic or even spits on a homosexual. There's a huge difference between those acts and spending time at a food shelf.

But much of that sort of behavior, both good and bad, can be observed in chimps (sans all the driving around to pick up more oranges and stuff), and insofar as we know, they neither have, nor need a god to direct their behavior, because much like us, they are a product of evolution, reciprocal altruism, etc.

The bible contains a good deal of wonderful, heartwarming advice, but it also advocates and excuses some indescribably horrible actions, if both the very good and the very bad represent god's will, which will are we to follow? Based on the some of the horrible actions advocated and sanctioned in the bible, stoning adulterers, etc, I think it wouldn't be to far a stretch to assume, that, if written today, abortion and abortion providers would also fall under the it's ok to stone them to death category. Ironically, it is our hardwiring that prevents us from wantonly killing each other, in much the same way violence among pack animals is the exception, and not the norm.

Kate Winslett

Samantha Morton

Julianne Moore

Scarlet Johansson

Chef Gordon Ramsey, cause someone has to cook us some damn breakfast

In most of my limited experience with devout people, they will say we are here to carry out god's will. Few will actually say what that will is, which they think is the application of humility, but many will say something is against god's will - a claim they will reinforce by quoting from ancient, sacred text.

But then how can anyone claim to know god’s will? Claiming to live by his will, in and of itself is claiming to know the mind of god, otherwise, why assume he even has a will – that alone seems presumptuous.

The assholes didn't need religion to make them that way, because god already had.

This is just awesome.

I have no tolerance for intolerant people. The extremists on each side think people who disagree with their world view are wrong/stupid/evil/ignorant/etc. I'd rather talk to a fucking tree than be lectured to by someone who thinks they know all the answers.

Same here, but I’d be willing to wager that when asked questions related to, say, why are we here, Dawkins utters the phrase “I don’t know” many times more often than most devoutly religious folks, and that, I think, is a true sign of humility, rather than someone who pleads humility, but will then go on to claim they know for sure that there is a god, and not only that, they know what he or she, but usually a he, of course, thinks.

That, to me, is arrogance.

All true, GON, but my religious friends aren't in the religious right and aren't comparing Obama to Hitler. They also don't have a problem with gay marriage or stem cell research. They are people that are deserving of respectful discourse, and much of Dawkins and Hitchens comes off as dismissive and patronizing. I don't think they have anything to apologize for, and as I said, I agree with them. But I am not surprised that people find them annoying. And fwiw, my guess is that their chosen method of spreading their message only serves to skew their audience to folks that already agree with them.

I’m not suggesting ALL (or even a majority of) Christians oppose same sex marriage, stem cell research, etc, but I would argue that, with very few exceptions, ONLY Christians, among other religious groups, oppose the aforementioned mentioned examples.

I agree that Dawkins and Hitchens (among others) can come across as condescending and inflexible at times, but to suggest they are as bad, as say, a Pat Robertson, is simply inaccurate.

Ever hear of Communism?

I have, and it’s a tired, bogus, inaccurate comparison. Every time we have this debate, that corpse is dragged out, just as every time we discuss global warming, someone points to mars and blames the sun, even though that equally tired claim has been discredited to death.

When atheists, like the christianists, band together in an attempt to tread upon the basic human rights of fellow citizens based solely on wholly unsubstantiated dogmatic beliefs, when they attempt to introduce bogus scientific principles into our nation’s school’s curriculum, when they oppose the equivalent of stem cell research based purely on dogmatic, unsubstantiated beliefs, when they begin murdering people based on their profession, based purely on more of those same unsubstantiated, dogmatic beliefs, when they actively conspire to make this an “atheist nation”, by purging the political roster of anyone who does not share their view of reality, etc, etc, etc, then, perhaps, we can begin to compare the two.

But until that time, they’re not even in the same ball park, hell, they’re not even playing the same fucking game.

It’s interesting that attacks against Dawkins (Richard Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and, and too a lesser extent, Daniel Dennett, who, you pretty much cannot help but like on account of his resemblance to Santa Claus) usually center not on what he has to say, but how he says it. Given the anti-intellectual, evangelical spell this country has found itself under the influence of, I don’t think Dawkins has anything to apologize for, on the contrary, I find his strident defense of science and reason refreshing. Especially at a time when the religious right is comparing the health care bill to the holocaust, Obama to Hitler, and liberals to communist traitors. I also find it interesting that, outside of the US, Dawkins (et al) is widely respected, and rarely is he criticized for being dogmatic.

I've actually compiled my own list. I assigned points to every nation based on 4 categories. The first one uses a bunch of data such as life expectancy of patients with certain diseases, etc. and accounts for 0.5% of the total score. The second category is a score reflecting what percentage of a nation's healthcare is funded privately and accounts for 50% of the score. Then there's a score based on how many copies of Atlas Shrugged are sold in a nation that makes up 25% of the score. Finally, there's a fudge factor making up 24.5% that scores based on how many medical drama shows are produced in each nation. As it turns out, the U.S. is ranked #1 and everyone else is tied for last place.

It's also based on highly subjective criteria and circular logic.

Perhaps, but before I subscribe to your newsletter, I’d like to see some contradictory information comparable in scope to the full report.

http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/whr00_en.pdf

Is the reality check that I should look for more recent stats than ones from the year 2000?

That is the most recent report of its kind.

Reality check:

This is the ranking of health care systems according to the World Health Organization:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO%27s_ranking_of_health_care_systems

Don't quit your day job, GON.

That’s a true story Jules.

as far as I can tell, it does nothing to help them once they reach adulthood.

That’s not true, my grandfather was given palatial, granite-block-sized chunks of cheese and tubs of butter so large, we’d swim in them on hot summer days, minus the butter (most of the time). Of course, when my grandfather passed, and an autopsy was performed, the doctors observed that his blood looked, smelled and, as one starved intern discovered, tasted just like Cheez Wiz.

At his funeral, after the hors devours were served, it was announced that cheese on the cheese and Ritz cracker combos was “donated” by our dear beloved.

It was pretty incredible.

This reminds me I should make a trip to the bait shop some time soon. Need some nightcrawlers.

20 years from now, you along with the remaining members of your cave dwelling nomadic tribe of Mad Max rejects will spend your remaining days scouring America’s wastelands in search of the planet’s dwindling supply of canned goods, ammo, oil and wheeled transportation (and porn probably still), while also maybe trying your hardest to avoid predation by marauding packs or rogue Palinites and long forgotten celebrity Scientologists (still followed by a rag tag clutch of lamprey-like paparazzi) in search of fresh meat, oil, and human skull trophies (and, one imagines, porn).

How will you survive?

From the Guardian UK:

Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency

Can people admit they were duped by Obama yet?

Should we settle our bet with dollars or Ameros®?

Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, you've posted it about a thousand times.

A similar remark could be made regarding your reply.

Not unless we put a nice English school teacher on trial for naming a teddy bear Jesus.

The word "witch" comes to mind.

As cryptique pointed out, this is probably not the time or the place, but if we were to judge our own country’s actions by the same standards we use to judge others, we’d probably find ourselves near or at the top of the list of countries who engage in or sponsor terrorism.

From Andrew Sullivan:

The Right And The Tinderbox

Unemployment is over 10 percent; economic insecurity is profound; we have been occupying two deeply Muslim countries for eight years with no end in sight; we are grappling with massive debt and an attempt to provide some basic health insurance for the working poor. There are perfectly reasonable and important debates to have about all this - whether this is the time to expand health insurance, whether we should have done it years ago, whether a public option is a good thing, whether Medicare can be cut enough to save enough to make this affordable. But the Republican right has not engaged such a debate in a meaningful way. And yesterday, the House GOP leadership gave their blessing to a raggedy bunch of extreme anti-government fanatics whose rally contained the following elements:

The angry folks at the protest -- which attracted several thousand conservatives -- held up signs with messages of hate: "Get the Red Out of the White House," "Waterboard Congress," "Ken-ya Trust Obama?" One called the president a "Traitor to the U.S. Constitution." Another sign showed pictures of dead bodies at the Dachau concentration camp and compared health care reform to the Holocaust. A different placard depicted Obama as Sambo. Yes, Sambo. Another read, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" -- a reference to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory holding that one evil Jewish family has manipulated events around the globe for decades.

This kind of rhetoric - on the same day that the Fort Hood massacre took place - is gasoline on a fire of atavistic hate. Someone in the GOP leadership needs to call it out - before its logic propels us toward more violence and social division.

This kind of rhetoric is simply unacceptable for a major political party to institutionally embrace in a civil democracy:

Boehner, for one, declared that the health care bill is the "greatest threat to freedom that I have seen." That's some statement ... And at one point during the rally -- call it a Bachmannalia -- when John Ratzenberger, a.k.a Cliff Clavin from "Cheers," claimed that the Democrats were turning the United States into a land of European socialism, the audience shouted, "Nazis, Nazis." No Republican legislator left the stage in protest. Boehner and his fellow GOP leaders should be asked how they feel about mounting a rally that attracted intense hate-mongering.

link - http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/the-right-and-the-tinderbox.html

The US (and its proxies) has spread terror throughout the globe, on countless occasions, on scales both large and small - are we a terrorist organization?

All mass shootings are "terrorism." Terrorism, with a big capital "T," is a label applied to organized attacks from organizations. This man, though he happened to be Muslim and shot up the U.S. military was not, that we know yet, part of an organized extremist group, and thus a Terrorist. Rather, he was a man who happened to be Muslim and happened to have a screw loose and happened to be disgruntled with the U.S. war efforts. If he had been a devout Lutheran objecting to the war on religious grounds, he would not have been a Terrorist.

This.

I have piles of gay friends. I've even let them use my restroom.

It sounds to me like you’re eligible for the Nobel.

I’ll phone the committee.

I am still shocked when people actually thinks it's alright to do or say stuff like that - so shocked that when it happens in person I can barely speak up. At a luncheon we had with clients last year, right before the election, one woman at my table started talking about the evils of homosexuality and how the gays were conspiring to undermine god's plan for all of us. Now, I don't have "GAYWAD" stamped on my forehead, but everyone at the table looked at her, looked at me, and all rummaged through their purses and pockets for their Blackberries until an elderly client of ours smiled and said, "You sure are right; fall is the best season of the year, hands down!" and someone else thankfully chimed in about pumpkin carving.

 

We didn't invite her this year, and she still came back.

Wow, I wish I had the power to totally mess up god’s well laid plans. You know, Speedy, you and your people could ransom the universe’s entire future for like, I don’t know, an infinite supply of just like, the most heavenly bacon.

Ah...fuck. I was referring to the gay couple that got kicked out of some guy's cab because they "embraced" in the back seat (last weekend I think?). It was a joke.

Ah, I deleted my question.