Time to put down one of the walking dead.
Reading is good for you.
Meet Guillaume de Gentil, the most frustrated scientist in history.
At least 155 people are really into Mary Tyler Moore (NSFW, found via Mendip).
Lowry pwns Trump on Fox, Trump throws tantrum on Twitter, much mockery ensues. But he's still very much in the lead.
Many people find themselves drawn to this lifestyle, but it has its unhealthy side.
Here are ten beautiful bridges -- I find #10 the most beautiful (though they got the name wrong), #8 the most impressive when you consider how long it's stood since it was built.
Witches' Pond in Virginia is shrouded in myth, but has one genuine mystery death to its credit (found via Mendip).
We are the fastest-growing group in the US.
Supporting an anti-bullying campaign is now "anti-Christian hate and oppression", apparently.
A Catholic shrine in France illustrates what a scam religion is.
Here's a bad person and a good one.
Probably best not to resettle any Syrian refugees in this part of South Carolina. It seems to be full of the same religious hatred and potential for conflict that they're fleeing from.
More and more of ISIS's fighters are abandoning the group.
Fox's January stories about Muslim "no go zones" in Britain may finally have gotten it in legal trouble.
Here's a message from 2013 for the anti-Planned-Parenthood nuts.
Sex workers in South Korea march for decriminalization, encouraged by Amnesty International's support.
Christian songs play a growing role in worship -- and they're terrible. But religion's Orwellian use of words (found via Republic of Gilead) is worse.
A teenager in North Carolina is facing felony sex charges for taking nude pictures of himself.
Secular Ethics blog dissects the weirdly-common "what if everyone was gay" argument.
The government-shutdown push was a con game -- against the wingnut base (found via Zandar).
If you're rich and Christian, read this.
Here's more police abuse, this time from Boston. And an ex-cop looks at the James Blake case.
Stop treating the Pope as a liberal hero. He's still evading the one issue any true reformist Pope must address.
Some Tennessee Republicans don't understand the Supreme Court's Constitutional power (found via Republic of Gilead). But wingnuts do tend to miss details that don't fit their delusional world-view. Now they're claiming that questioners who embarrass their candidates are Democratic plants. And no, there's no equivalence between left and right here.
Ben Carson may be a great doctor, but he's scientifically illiterate.
Progressive Eruptions looks at the "Obama is a Muslim" claims.
North Carolina Republicans loot the cities to benefit their rural power base.
Colorado will make about $125 million in tax revenues from legal marijuana this year (found via Earth-Bound Misfit). The stupid feds still don't get it.
Religious fanatics have published a hit list of bloggers they're threatening to kill.
When you bring two million people into a confined urban space to perform emotionally-charged, poorly-organized rituals, you have to expect this kind of thing. With 769 dead, international tensions are rising.
Worst historical revisionism ever.
To save its economy, China needs reforms more radical than the regime contemplates.
Asshole tourists make life miserable for sea turtles. In Florida at least there's some effort to protect them.
It's just awesome when God kills your baby.
Visit the graveyard of extinct species.
The world could shift entirely to renewable energy by 2050 -- and make a profit on doing so.
If you've ever been to Greece, Italy, or Iran, and haven't yet replied to my travel questions, please click here.
[Image at top found via Progressive Eruptions.]
The bridges link is beautiful, but they left out one of Boston's now-iconic bridges, which I think is right up there in beauty, but I'm biased.
ReplyDeleteThe story of the cop in Boston -- OUCH! Bad!
But just this week, as I've been dealing with a very sore, very bad back, a couple of Boston cops saw me dragging a piece of plywood to shove under my mattress (I found it on the sidewalk where it had just been discarded by construction workers in another apartment.) The cops came running over to me grabbed the wood, and walked me to my apartment, brought it inside, lifted the mattress and installed the plywood for me.(Back still nagging me, but there's some small improvement.) Bad cop/Good cops.
On the Pope and the clergy abuse scandal: We in Boston will never forget how Cardinal Bernard Law lied about moving pedophile priests to other parishes so that they could continue abusing children. He was recalled to Rome and placed in a very cushy job, which he recently lost.
The warm light glowing from Khaju Bridge makes for a lovely scene. Helix Bridge struck me as hideous.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Rosa's deconstructions of Catholic superstition. I'm so relieved that I no longer belong to that religion.
Bruce's blog post on Christian worship music was spot-on. He was correct in that a lot of contemporary worship music is meant to manipulate the emotions of worshipers. As for his post on Christians attributing tragedies to God, I've never understood why some people see suffering as spiritually redemptive. Suffering is only a source of misery and trauma.
"Suffering is only a source of misery and trauma."
ReplyDeleteExactly. But I remember from my Catholic upbringing the nuns telling us to "offer it up" so that our time in Purgatory (where the suffering is not as bad a in Hell) would be less if we offered up the suffering we endured on Earth. That was about as nutty as it got, and when I finally opted out of the cult.
Shaw: It's probably true that the majority of cops are good. But given the power they have, we can't really afford any bad ones -- and the entrenched culture in some police departments makes it hard to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they'll find Law another gig once the spotlight is elsewhere. Interesting that it was his throwing a lavish party, not the unresolved molestation issues, that got the Vatican in a snit. They never get their priorities straight.
A lot of religious cults seem to preach that suffering is somehow redemptive or noble. Very convenient for the types of people who get their jollies by inflicting it.
Ahab: The Khaju bridge is in Isfahan, one of the world's architectural treasure-houses. I hope to go there someday.
Gerencser is a valuable resource. Having been a fundamentalist clergyman for decades, he knows everything there is to know about the cult world he escaped.
Thanks for the post on Ben Carson talking about the Big Bang and Evolution. I hadn't come across his beliefs on these subjects before and I hope they will become more widely known before we get too much further into this election cycle.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking to my farewell to Scott Walker. Good riddance to the candidate I most disliked!
ReplyDeleteBlurber: Unfortunately most of the Republican candidates probably share such views. It's pretty much necessary for getting ahead in that party these days.
ReplyDeletePinku: Thanks for the post. It's hard to choose a most-hated Republican, but union-busting certainly puts him right up there.