You may (or may not) have heard that recently SETI had to mothball it’s Allen Telescope Array. Apparently it would cost $2.5 million to keep it operational. That’s a lot of money, especially in these hard economic times, right?
It depends on what’s important to you. I recently saw a bumper sticker that read something to the effect of “we never have enough money for education, but we always seem to have enough money for war”. Think about that. The swath of Republicans we just voted into office (due in no small part to the billions of anonymous dollars filtered through SuperPACs made possible by the Citizen’s United ruling) have been busy slashing funding left and right. They claim we can’t afford these things. Things like health care for all Americans, NPR, PBS, Planned Parenthood, and our educational system. I’m watching my sister facing the possibility of being fired and forced to re-apply for her job as a way of “improving our educational system”. What a crock. Meanwhile, we’re involved in a third war now. We don’t pay our soldiers much, but damn do we buy them some expensive toys.
Microcosmologist has put together a little infographic that shows, quite clearly, where our priorities lie. (there’s more after the picture)
Is this stuff important? Is it worth the money? I defer to the great Carl Sagan.
Please think about donating to SETI, and remember this next time you vote.
The Stupid, It Burns
This made my day
I’m still working on my first science post. It’s hard to do. This stuff is difficult to understand, and even more difficult to put into layman’s terms, especially when you don’t understand it much better than in layman’s terms. Be patient.
Every once in a while I look at the stats for my blog, just to see if anything interesting is going on traffic-wise. Usually there’s not, but today I saw something which made me laugh: the first two results for keyword searches which have led to a page on my blog:
No, Hitler was NOT an Atheist
I think if I hear this one more time, I’m going to scream. I know I’m really beating the dead horse today, but goddammit, people should know better.
FOR THE LAST AND FINAL TIME:
“Gott Mit Uns” translates to “God with us” or “God is on our side” (as it’s used today)
Hitler was a Christian, in fact a Catholic. He has never been
excommunicated from the Catholic church, so he’s still a Catholic today. The Pope is lying when he says Nazis were Atheists. He was there, he was in the Hitler Youth, he should know. He was most likely required to chant the slogan.
It doesn’t take a lot of research to realize that there is an anti-Semitic slant to much of the New Testament. Passion plays (see The Passion of the Christ) were popular in Germany prior to World War II, and they helped the anti-Semitic message of the Nazis, one they validated with scripture! After all, didn’t Judas betray Jesus? Didn’t the Jews shout “Crucify Him!” when Pilate wanted to let him go?
I’m sorry if you are religious and offended by this, but it’s true. It is not correct to blame Nazi atrocities on Atheism, it is very much part of the colorful Christian history.
This is what I mean!
The insanity is never-ending
.
It almost looks like a logical proof, except for the fact that each line of it contains at least one unique fallacy. The mind reels.
I’m sorry, but I don’t even understand whatever stupidity it is they’re trying to say. Is this an abortion thing? What. The. Fuck.
If the lunacy here is not apparent, stop reading my blog. You’re not smart enough.
War
I watched a movie the other night that had some interesting facts. Here’s a breakdown of the percentage of casualties of war that were civilians by war:
World War I: 10%
World War II: 50%
Vietnam: 70%
Iraq: 90%
That’s right. despite 100 years of advancement in military technology, supposedly “frighteningly” accurate weapons, and the goal of “winning the hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people, 90% of all deaths related to the war were civilians. The Iraq war killed many many times the number of Iraqi civilians than the number of American civilians killed on September 11, 2001. Just for reference, Iraq was not involved in 9/11, they did not harbor any 9/11 terrorists, and didn’t even turn out to have the weapons of mass destruction we “were sure” they had.
Now we’re still in a war with Afghanistan. The death toll is not as severe as Iraq’s, but it’s still unconscionably high. It’s entering it’s tenth year, and has officially become America’s longest war. By military estimate, there are less than 100 Al-Queda left in Afghanistan, and less than 25,000 Taliban. For reference, the Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. We are there to find Osama Bin Laden, who apparently fled the country in 2002. He’s not there, very few terrorists are there, the people don’t trust us, and over 97% of the country is still loyal to the Taliban. They don’t want what we’re trying to give them.
We don’t need this war, we were never supposed to be at war with Afghanistan. We were never supposed to be at war with Iraq. We were supposed to catch the bad guy who blew up New York. We failed, he’s gone, and we’re mired in a senseless war. Credit to Obama to finally ending the other senseless war (or did he?), but it’s time to end this one too.
Perhaps it’s time to say “Let’s fight terrorism by not fucking with the middle east anymore so they stop being pissed off at us for killing their civilians wholesale”.
It’s time for peace.
Jerry Falwell was Gay
I’ve realized something lately: there’s a lot of hatred towards homosexuals emanating from organized religion. What usually seems to happen, based on recent events, is that some religious anti-gay crusader gets caught being gay. Seems some anti-gay senator or another was recently caught with a rent-a-boy.
I also remember some anti-gay comics on the same site with the racist tea-party comics. i apologize for the lack of a link, I’m just too damn lazy to look it up. Google “comics with problems”. The dude that wrote it knew an awful lot about homosexual orgies, and he was quite graphic about it. If you spend that much time thinking about gay orgies, you’re gay.
So here it is. If you’re in a religion that teaches homosexuality is wrong, and you happen to be homosexual (sorry, it’s not a choice), you feel drawn towards homosexuality and conclude that it’s some kind of evil seductive force trying to make you “sin”. So you go on a crusade to eradicate this evil from the world. You have to believe that people choose to be homosexual, because if they just simply are, that sort of invalidates your whole religion.
The truth is, we heterosexuals are not drawn to what you call the “gay lifestyle”. I’m just simply not attracted to men. It’s not a “sin” that’s out there tempting me. If I was, I would say so. I would almost certainly be a better dresser too.
In short, if you’re religious, and you hate homosexuals and crusade against the “gay lifestyle”, you’re gay. Just admit it and save a whole lot of people a whole lot of trouble. It’s not exactly a picnic for us heterosexuals who happen to think gay people are just simply gay and should be allowed to be so. I imagine it pretty much sucks for them though.
I mean, really. Jerry Falwell claimed Tinky Winky (of the Teletubbies) was gay and trying to seduce children to the “gay lifestyle”. A) it was a magic bag, not a purse and B) gay people aren’t trying to make other people gay. They really just want to be allowed to be gay themselves. There’s no secret agenda to turn the nation’s children gay. Sorry.
Then he followed up with Spongebob. Apparently his nose looked like a dildo to him. Yeah, I suppose it might, if you’re obsessed with dildos. I’m sorry, but if all you can see there is a dildo and its tempting you to have sex with other men, you’re gay.
Then we get this guy, some district attorney who is harassing a high school class president who is gay because he’s gay. Sorry, but so are you dude. Get over it.
Then I saw another link from a guy claiming all the recent teen suicides over bullying was brought on by themselves. So these kids chose to have a lifestyle that brought on that level of bullying? Right. Dude, you’re gay. Stop making life hell for those poor kids who, unlike you, are at least honest with themselves.
Just remember, next time you see a religious homophobe, he’s gay.
Dear Dumbass Christian F*ckhead
Yes you, dumbass Koran burning preacher. I’m talking to you. Fuck you. Burn Korans, don’t burn Korans, doesn’t matter now, the damage is done. The goddamn President of the United States HIMSELF asked you to back down, but apparently God put it on your heart to act like a moron racist fuckhead redneck fuck up. Interesting God you have there.
Yes, the damage is already done. The bad guys have taken your words and are using them to recruit more bad guys. They’re convincing people a half a world away that America is in a holy war against Islam. Hm, they sound kindof like you, ya know.
So thanks. For the increased danger to our troops abroad (including one of my oldest friends), for the deaths that will occur from the elongation of the Afghanistan conflict (already our longest war EVER), for your superior skills in portraying America as a bunch of dumbass racist bigoted religious extremists to the rest of the world, FUCKIN’ THANKS, DICKHEAD.
If there was ANY doubt in my mind prior to this about the existence of God, you’ve finally convinced me. There couldn’t possibly be a supreme being out there watching over us all who would allow your kind of bullshit to go on in his name. If he did, what a piss poor lame ass excuse for a god.
Or perhaps there is a god and you really do speak for him, which explains why he hasn’t reduced you to a pile of smoldering ash. Worship a narrow minded hateful childish racist bigot of a god? I’ll pass.
I’ll take my chances with Atheism, thanks.
P.S. FUCK YOU DICKHEAD!
God is on our side
People throughout history have said that. Usually as a prelude to war.
- George Bush said it.
- Sarah Palin said it.
- Glenn Beck said it.
- Adolf Hitler said it.
- Osama Bin Laden said it.
- The list goes on…
To those who are sure God is on your side, I quote Abraham Lincoln:
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
“God is on our side” is a justification for atrocities. An easy out for the horrible crimes of war, or worse. A way to turn wars into holy wars, alleviating the need to justify the pain, suffering, and death you’re about to inflict on your fellow human beings.
I’m sick of it.
When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag an carrying a cross.
–Sinclair Lewis
For a long time now, I’ve disagreed with Richard Dawkins on the dangers of religion. Sure, I’ve always known that religious extremism leads to atrocities, but “normal” religion, I’ve always believed, can be a moral compass for those that don’t inherently have one. A guide for being a better person. A rulebook for being decent.
But it never works out that way, does it? Very few of the religious use their beliefs for the betterment of mankind. The main uses of religion in modern times seems to be 1) Condemning others, 2) Justification of irrational actions and 3) an easy explanation for anything, framed in an “us vs. them” manner. From this we get 9/11, the Iraq War, the fight against science (Evolution), the crusades, the inquisition, witch burnings, female mutilation, oppression of women, oppression of minorities, the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy, the burning of a Mosque in Tennessee, Church burnings, lynchings, Fred Phelps, the fight against social justice, child rape, FOR FUCK’S SAKE WHERE DOES IT END?
If this is what religion means then take your God and shove him up your ass, I want no part of it. I would be just fine if I never heard another religious dickhead in my life.
It’s crap. It’s a fairy tale for grown ups, and they believe it. And they fuck up everything for the rest of us in the name of God/Allah/Jehovah/Whatever the fuck else we want to wank ourselves off over.
Religion is dangerous. Richard Dawkins was right all along, and I should’ve listened. I know a little bit about the Christian Bible, and if anybody who calls themselves a Christian actually bothered to read the fucking thing, we might not be so badly off. But no such luck.
Religion is a tool, and it’s being leveraged by scumbags and assholes to fuck up things for the rest of us. Glenn Beck is just the latest in a long line of assholes to fuck up America in the name of God. Is he dangerous? Yes. But so were the rest.
Some religious fuckhead is going to read this and say “He’s just angry at God”. Ya think? No, dickhead, I’m angry at YOU AND ALL THE OTHER DUMBASS RELIGIOUS FUCKNUTS you fucking moron. I can only be angry at God if there fucking IS ONE!!! Tell you what, you pray for God to strike me down. If he doesn’t do it in one week, go shoot yourself. Get yourself some afterlife virgins or some stupid bullshit like that. Leave us heathen bastards alone.
I’m sick of this crap and I’m not putting up with it anymore.
Dear Glenn Beck
Have you no shame, sir?
Another Idiot with a Blog 