Aug

18

Not In Mah ‘Murica!

August 18, 2010 by Brandon | 2 Comments

I’ve been silent for quite some time, but I can’t let the story about the infamous Ground Zero Mosque go without weighing in on it.

The sheer amount of bigotry coming from the Right regarding this issue is staggering, so much so that it’s overflowing and forcing some cowardly members of the Left to side with the idiot masses. Like Harry Reid, who had the choice of either siding with the stupid in hopes of saving his seat, or standing up for what’s right.

It should come as no surprise that I’m completely in favor of building this mosque, and I find all of the arguments against it to be nothing more than thinly veiled fear-mongering. The very suggestion that we should not allow any religious group to build a place of worship on private property goes against the foundation of this country and everything it supposedly stands for. Of course, those who claim to so rabidly defend the Constitution are ironically the same group of mouth-breathers who are now rabidly doing their best to shred it.

I may hate religion. I may sometimes find the reasons people believe in invisible sky wizards to be silly, like believing in unicorns. Or faeries. Or anything else a 4 year old might think exists. But that doesn’t mean I think they shouldn’t have the right to believe it, or practice it. Our rights aren’t determined by a popular vote. That’s why we have the Constitution.

When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

Guess what? It’s here.



Feb

23

The Devil Went Down To North Carolina

February 23, 2010 by Brandon | 2 Comments

One student in a North Carolina high school is refusing to write an essay on the hypothetical premise of selling your soul to the devil because it “violates her Christian beliefs.” The students in her class were assigned to read “The Devil and Tom Walker,” a classic short story by Washington Irving which explores the same hypothetical idea. Of course, any rational person will tell you that this is a fictional story, and the devil represented within it, too, is fictional.

Still, Tieanna Trough and her parents think it is an inappropriate request. Her mother, who appears in an interview on a video clip on the link above, strikes me as a loudmouth, but I suppose that’s unfair to judge her on that. I will judge her though on her stupid assumption that because we have “removed” God from the classroom, that is, forcing students to pray or creating the appearance that a government funded, public school promotes a specific religion, that we should now remove anything resembling or referencing religion. This is incorrect; as I stated, this is clearly a fictional piece of literature, with fictional characters. One is not meant to believe that the devil portrayed in the story is the literal devil of Christianity, especially when reading it in an academic setting. What now? Should we ban “Paradise Lost”? What about “The Iliad” for its flagrant promotion of the Greek pantheon? Would this student be opposed to an essay which asked the question, “Would you sacrifice your family for fame and fortune?” Or perhaps, “Would you commit murder for a billion dollars?”

These are very valid moral questions which are at the heart of the short story the class was examining, and contrary to popular opinion, morality and religion are not mutually exclusive.

Frankly I think this girl should get pushed back a few grades so she can learn what fiction means, and perhaps what hypothetical means. And to her mommy, if you really think that writing a silly paper like this is going to offend your God so much, then he sounds like a dick.

And you sound fat.



Jun

8

Hold The Bibles, Please

June 8, 2009 by Brandon | Leave a Comment

The Child Evangelism Fellowship, a group which works with underprivileged kids, has been asked to leave a Tusla, Oklahoma housing project recently, causing a bit of a stir. The group apparently has been going to the housing project for the last twenty years, providing activities for children while proselytizing.

I don’t like it. But it seems that they’ll have to be allowed back in. The fact of the matter is, the law says that religious organizations are allowed in to these public housing areas. It’s equal access, it just happens that these guys are the only ones trying to get in. Now we’d have an issue if they are only allowing the Christians in and no one else.

I’m not up on the law, but I’m wondering if they can actually get around it if they aren’t allowing any organizations in. But I doubt it since it’s public housing and is government controlled.

But this just raises the real point; to me, this organization isn’t concerned with providing activities for these kids. They’re concerned with converting them to their evangelical Christianity. If they were interested in just helping the kids, they wouldn’t need to be spending 20 minutes of their hour they have with them preaching to them.

They’re miffed that they are being told they can’t sell their product. I’m sure the housing project wouldn’t have any issue with them just going in and providing activities for the kids without preaching to them, but that’s their goal and that’s all they really want.

But in the end, they’ll unfortunately get what they want. The law is on their side this time.



Jun

1

Say What?

June 1, 2009 by Brandon | 9 Comments

You heard it here first, folks. I’m standing up for the state giving churches money.

Actually, what happened was Detroit gave more than $700,000 to several churches downtown to reimburse them for exterior renovations prior to the city’s hosting of the Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four. Some people had a problem with that. Specifically, American Atheists Inc. and Americans United for Separation of Church and State brought a case against the Detroit Downtown Development Authority, claiming violation of the Establishment Clause.

Problem is, they didn’t violate it. Detroit offered the money for renovations indiscriminately to all building owners in the area.

The case was stupid, and I’m glad that they sided with the city. I have absolutely no problem with this at all; the churches didn’t get money to pocket, they got the money to help beautify the city, which is in my opinion a good, secular cause.

Seriously, American Atheists Inc. and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. What on earth were you guys thinking?



May

21

The gay marriage debate is raging on in New York, and according to a recent poll, the state couldn’t be divided more evenly, with 46% in favor of and 46% against allowing gay marriage. But there’s another poll that’s also a very telling poll, the which takes a look how ethnic groups view the debate. Apparently, African-Americans are the only ethnic group in the state which opposes gay marriage by a significant margin, 57% against and 35% for.

The leaders of African-American churches in the state have gone into attack mode against civil rights protesters for comparing the struggle of gays to that of the African-American civil rights movement.

“We know what we have gone through as an ethnic group. We feel the terminology, the definition itself, has really been hijacked,” he (Reverend William Gillison of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo) said. “Unfortunately, it’s just another ploy to garner more support from people who may not understand what the civil rights struggle was all about.”

Yes. They don’t know what civil rights is about. You know, having the same rights as everyone else. Clearly allowing two people who love each other the same right under law to marry as everyone else is not at all a civil rights issue.

“As an African-American, I don’t have a choice in the colour of my skin. I have a choice in whether I’m abstinent or not,” Badger  (Bishop Michael A. Badger of nearby Bethesda World Harvest International Church) said. “I don’t think you can compare the two.”

Oh, of course! Gay people choose to be gay. It’s all so clear now. They choose to be oppressed and hated. It’s just some life-style choice. And even if it wasn’t, they still make the choice to have sex with each other. And that’s a no-no, because your dusty old book says so, right Badger?

Well, your dusty old book says slavery is just fine, Bishop. Perhaps you’d like to re-institute that, as the Bible is perfectly ok with it, and even details how it’s ok to beat your slaves so long as they don’t die within two days of their beating.

This is insulting to the civil rights movement and what it stands for. It’s insulting to people like Dr. Martin Luther King, who died for the cause of equal rights.

It really disgusts me. Epic fail, you hypocrites.



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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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