May

15

I first read this a few days ago and attempted to post it to the site from work via my iPod Touch, but it didn’t work out so well. So I’m getting around to it now.

If there were any questions as to what Einstein believed, or rather, didn’t believe, this letter seems to clear it up.

Albert Einstein described belief in God as “childish superstition” and said Jews were not the chosen people, in a letter to be sold in London this week, an auctioneer said Tuesday.

The father of relativity, whose previously known views on religion have been more ambivalent and fuelled much discussion, made the comments in response to a philosopher in 1954.

As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they “have no different quality for me than all other people”.

“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

“No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this,” he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper.

The German-language letter is being sold Thursday by Bloomsbury Auctions in Mayfair after being in a private collection for more than 50 years, said the auction house’s managing director Rupert Powell.

Huffington Post

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May

15

Starbucks is under fire due to their retro-style logo which features a bare breasted woman. The amusing thing about it is, this is a modified version of their original logo which appeared back in 1971, and is in fact less revealing than the original version. Once again, Christians with nothing better to do other than force their narrow-minded sense of morality on others have called for a boycott of Starbucks.

A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee.

The Resistance says the new image “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.”

The group, which claims more than 3,000 members nationwide and has found a place on the fringe advancing various conspiracy theories, is calling for a national boycott of the coffee-selling giant.

Star Tribune

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May

12

This is the remark of some backwater twit in West Virginia named Leonard Simpson concerning Barack Obama and his wife:

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

You can read the full article here. Quite frankly, I hope he doesn’t vote for Obama, because I wouldn’t want an ignorant hillbilly to vote for him. I personally don’t want such uneducated trash voting in this country. If you can’t bother to get simple facts straight like this, you’re too stupid to have any say in the ongoings of this nation.

Not that it should even matter at all if either of these things were true. Nor should they influence any person’s vote if they were.

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May

10

Oliver

May 10, 2008 by Brandon | Leave a Comment

Breed: Domestic Short Hair
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Size: Small

Oliver is a handsome boy who ended up at the shelter because his owner no longer had enough time for him. He is used to living indoors and likes children and dogs. If you’re interested in adopting Oliver, you can visit his page here.

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May

7

Dear Hillary

May 7, 2008 by Brandon | 1 Comment

This blog is pretty much reserved for atheism. And cats. Atheism and cats. But I’m going to make an exception for this because I think it ties into atheism rather well.

Hillary Clinton: It’s over. Drop out.

Just like you told Patraeus, it now comes down to a “willing suspension of disbelief,” or rather, a willful state of ignorance on your part, to continue your campaign. Much like the believer of a god, you continue to believe when you have no reason to and in the face of evidence that tells you that your belief is wrong.

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May

7

Hey everyone. Apologies first for the recent lack of updates. I’ve had a rather rough week in terms of my personal life and just didn’t have it in me to do much. But I’m going to get back into the swing of things here now.

First, I’m sure a lot of you who read PZ’s blog heard about this already:

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas made a toothpick disappear, then reappear in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes, Florida. The Pasco County School District says there were several other performance issues, but none compared to his “wizardry.”

“I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue. You can’t take any more assignments. You need to come in right away.’ I said, ‘Well, Pat, can you explain this to me?’ ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’” Piculas explained.

The assistant superintendent with the district said Piculas had other issues, like not following lesson plans and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.

Piculas said he’s concerned the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.

Now I really don’t know what these other issues are, but it does really appear that this guy lost his job specifically because of his “wizardry,” otherwise I’m sure the school would have countered back by now with details concerning these other problems.

I want to know who reported him. Was it a student’s parent? Or did some other faculty member oversee what was going on?

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May

3

Meet Slim

May 3, 2008 by Brandon | Leave a Comment

If you know me, you know I love cats. And while I love posting cute pictures every Saturday of random cats I find on Google, I think I should really do something a bit more constructive. So last night, after I wiped the tears from my eyes when I saw an adoption ad on TV, I decided that I am going to change Caturday a little and post images of cats who need to be adopted at my local SPCA. I’m well aware that there are only a handful of people who read my blog, and there are fewer still, if any, who live where I do. So I know that you who are reading this probably won’t be able to adopt the cat I post here every Saturday, however, I hope that I can raise awareness of just how many cats there are in shelters that need a home. I’m actually tearing up again as I’m typing this just from the thought of it. It really makes me that sad.

So without further delay, meet Slim.

Breed: Tabby - black
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Size: Extra Large

    Slim is a performer. He loves to walk on the harness and rub everyones legs at our weekly petco adoptions. He’s very affectionate and would make a great cuddle friend for someone.

    If you are interested in adopting Slim, you can do so here. You can also look for other cats to adopt; the local shelter here has over 350 cats who need adopted.

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    May

    1

    A good friend of mine shot me this link to a story regarding the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic university, blocking one of its law students from volunteering at Planned Parenthood.

    I certainly object to what the dean is doing here, for my own personal reasons. I think it’s ignorant, intolerant, and a variety of other things. Unfortunately, he can do it and he has every right to do it. It’s a Catholic school, and while I respect this particular student’s reasons for attending this college, because its law program reflected many of her beliefs, all I can say is that she should have seen it coming. It’s a private college. They can dictate a lot of things to the students based on how they want to run the college, and they obviously want to do it following Catholic doctrine and dogma.

    My advice to her would be to transfer out. Get out as fast as you can. Frankly, I don’t think having a degree from a Catholic college is going to help her in the long run anyway, not in a secular legal system that should be blind to religion.

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    Apr

    30

    Hinduism: The True Story

    April 30, 2008 by Brandon | Leave a Comment

    A little while ago, I wrote a post about the new Mike Myers film The Love Guru and how the film is enraging some Hindus because they think it belittles their faith. I even got a slightly annoyed commenter respond to it.

    Well, you know what? Hinduism is fully deserving of criticism, just like Christianity. It is just as ignorant and stupid as Christianity and it breeds idiots.

    I sound a little angry don’t I? I should be. And everyone else should be too.

    This is the stuff religion does.

    (CNN) — A man, incensed that a 6-year-old girl chose to walk through a path reserved for upper caste villagers, pushed her into burning embers, police in north India said Wednesday. She was seriously burned.

    The girl is a Dalit, or an “untouchable,” according to India’s traditional caste system.

    […]

    Hindus believe there are five main groups of people, four of which sprang from the body of the first man.

    The Brahmin class comes from the mouth. They are the priests and holy men, the most elevated of the castes.

    Next is the Ksatriyas, the kings, warriors and soldiers created from the arms.

    The Vaisyas come from the thighs. They are the merchants and traders of society.

    And the Sudras, or laborers, come from the feet.

    The last group is the Dalits, or the “untouchables.” They’re considered too impure to have come from the primordial being. Untouchables are often forced to work in menial jobs. They drink from separate wells. They use different entry ways, coming and going from buildings.

    […]

    “Dalits are seen to pollute higher caste people if they come in touch with them, hence the ‘untouchables,’” the group says on its Web site. “If a higher caste Hindu is touched by, or even had a Dalit’s shadow fall across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.”

    Luckily, this man was arrested and is being charged with attempted murder, thanks to people trying to change this asinine religious-based social structure and to India’s constitution which outlaws such discrimination.

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    Apr

    28

    I found this story about Iran warning against the importation of Barbie dolls to be amusing. It comes as no surprise that they’d be against Barbie dolls, since they don’t make a Malibu Burka Barbie.

    TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the “destructive” cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys. Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the Western toys was a “danger” that needed to be stopped.

    “The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger,” Najafabadi said in his letter, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.

    Iranian markets have been inundated with smuggled Western toys in recent years partly due to a dramatic rise in purchasing power as a result of increased oil revenues.

    While importing the toys is not necessarily illegal, it is discouraged by a government that made its name on preserving Iran from Western cultural influences.

    In Monday’s letter, Najafabadi said the increasing visibility of Western dolls was raising the alarm among authorities who were considering intervening.

    “The displays of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter … as well as the irregular importation of unsanctioned computer games and movies are all warning bells to the officials in the cultural arena,” the letter said.

    Najafabadi said Iran was the world’s third biggest importer of toys, and these smuggled imports posed a threat to the “identity” of the new generation.

    “Undoubtedly, the personality and identity of the new generation and our children, as a result of unrestricted importation of toys, has been put at risk and caused irreparable damages,” he said.

    Authorities launched a temporary campaign of confiscating Barbie from toy stores in 2002, denouncing the un-Islamic sensibilities of the iconic American doll. The campaign was eventually discontinued.

    That same year, though, Iran introduced a competing doll—the twins Dara and Sara, who promoted traditional values with their modest clothing and pro-family stories but they proved unable to stem the Barbie tide.

    In 1996, the head of a government-backed children’s agency called Barbie a “Trojan horse” sneaking in Western influences such as makeup and revealing clothes.

    Barbie is sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear head scarves in public and men and women are not allowed to swim together.

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    What is Fractal Wrongness?

    The state of being wrong at every conceivable scale of resolution. That is, from a distance, a fractally wrong person's worldview is incorrect; and furthermore, if you zoom in on any small part of that person's worldview, that part is just as wrong as the whole worldview.

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