Five Before Chaos

I was AWOL the last few days, as some of you might have noticed. I was in the Catskills, a place I used to go all the time when I was younger, and I’m glad to say, it hasn’t changed much. While there, I climbed (for probably the 5th time) Overlook Mtn., just outside of Woodstock (and mentioned in the liner notes of The Band’s seminal “Music from Big Pink” album). On top of Overlook lies the ruins of a massive luxury hotel that burned down in the 1920’s. I’ll have some pics for you shortly. I also explored Hudson River State Hospital, a 160+ acre abandoned mental hospital, with buildings from back in the 1800’s when asylums truly were horrible places. Photos and movie will be coming shortly, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, while I play catch-up at home, have a quick linkdump, the refuge of the lazy blogger.

Paul Waldman’s got a great one: Can Obama Stop the War on Science?

In England or Germany or Sweden, a candidate for high office who proclaimed that he didn’t believe in evolution would risk being laughed out of the race. Yet when Brownback was asked after that debate whether his views put him outside the mainstream, he replied, “Not in America.” And he was right.

Susan Jacoby calls bullshit on those Christians who love to continually piss and moan that they’re constantly being victimized (which, in reality, means they get mad when people get tired of their proselytizing nonsense and call ‘em on it).

Lastly, in The Cult of Individualism and the Desolation of the Earth, Dave Pollard examines what really needs to be done to save the planet, something I’ve believed for a long time, and which really plagues American culture in particular:

I think we can be altruistic and collectivist and part-of-all-life-on-Earth while still being “nobody but ourselves”. But because we confuse the need to struggle against the loss of our individuality due to cultural indoctrination (a good struggle), with the need to struggle against all government and all collective and cooperative and collaborative work (a bad struggle), we get it exactly backwards: Instead of becoming ‘nobody-but-ourselves’ we become ‘ourselves apart from everybody’.

I should have the movie up by the end of the week, so check back soon.

I think I posted the same headline last year. A Pew Research survey just came out, and VT and NH are the least religious states in the country, with less than four in ten saying “religion is important in their lives.” Not surprisingly, Mississippi is the most religious state… God has blessed them by being one of the poorest, least educated states, too. Go figure.

Thanks to the always-brilliant Pharyngula:

I saw this in the Argus yesterday and then in more detail over at Pharyngula. It’s probably the first news story in a fortnight that pissed me off and didn’t involve that sleazebag Hillary Clinton. Some parents in Wisconsin are being charged with second degree manslaughter, because they let their daughter die in a diabetic coma. Her death was easily preventable. Here’s the stupid, outrageous part:

Even as her 11-year-old daughter lay dying on a mattress on the floor of the family dining room on Easter Sunday, Leilani Neumann never wavered in her belief in the power of prayer.

“We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her,” Neumann said, according to a police report. “My husband, Dale, was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor, and I said the Lord’s going to heal her and we continued to pray.”

Prayer didn’t save Madeline Kara Neumann, who died of untreated diabetes March 23.

And now, the law is poised to come down hard on the girl’s parents, Leilani and Dale Neumann, who were both charged with second-degree reckless homicide Monday by Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad.

If convicted, the parents face maximum sentences of 25 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Good. They should rot in jail for this one, and should set an example. Get a load of this:

According to the police report, made available with the charging documents, Dale Neumann said “throughout the interview that he and his family do not need any traditional medical intervention nor do they ‘believe’ in it.”

The document also states: “Neumann said his family never gets sick and if they would, prayer and God would heal them.”

Neumann and his wife are idiots. They don’t “believe” in traditional medical intervention which saves thousands and thousands of lives every day, instead putting the life of their daughter in the hands of the Sky Fairy. They also said that thy thought her symptoms had to do with puberty. Because you know, things like this just typically happen in puberty, no different than zits:

Meanwhile, Leilani Neumann told police that by Saturday, “Kara was laying on the couch. Her legs looked skinny and blue. I didn’t realize how skinny she was. We took her to my bed where I got her warm. I thought it was a spiritual attack. We stayed by her side nonstop and we prayed.

A “spiritual attack”? They have three other kids that they haven’t killed yet, who thankfully have been taken away. Good thing, because there was no “teaching moment” to be had here:

Dale Neumann told investigators that “given the same set of circumstances with another child, he would not waiver in his faith and confidence in the healing power of prayer,” according to the interview statement.

So he’d do it again, and he would not waver in his confidence, even though it didn’t even come close to working the first time and his daughter is dead. Unbelievable. Let’s hope that in addition to jail time, they get some serious deprogramming, too.

UPDATE: Shawn Peters has a look at the legal aspects of this case here (it’s not as open-and-shut as you might think).

Well, folks this is a hard post for me to write, in that it’s my final one. Yes, you’ve heard right. Blogging doesn’t really do it for me anymore, and between the Clinton fatigue and Michael Colby running for governor, I really can’t go on. I know, I’ve accomplished a bit here, and at the very least, entertained some of you. But there’s something else going on here, that isn’t so easy to explain.

This is gonna be hard for you believe, but I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. Yes, it’s true. I know, it’s the atheists that fall hardest. As I go back and read my atheistic rantings and such, I’ve increasingly seen the rantings of a hollow ideology, bereft of any wonder or awe. I’ve been blindsided by science and such, and lately I feel that some force has been telling me I need to change my ways. The fact that things can be irrefutably proven, such as evolution and such, are really just articles of faith, aren’t they? Seriously, what are ‘facts’ and ‘proof’ and ‘evidence’? Aren’t those really just subjective terms anyways? Doesn’t the voice in my head that grows ever louder prove something? I just know it’s true. It’s all the evidence I need. Besides, I’ve often found that I know my Bible better than a lot of so-called “Christians” do, so why not put that knowledge to good use?

I’ve questioned myself constantly over this… I mean, it’s pretty batshit insane to believe most of this Godstuff, but it sure feels so good. I just hope the Lord can forgive me for all of the nasty things I’ve said about Him and all his glory, for doubting all the miracles. For calling Easter “Zombie Jesus Day”, or for saying that that bastard baby Jesus owes me some money. I am shocked and appalled that I said those things, and it was painful to just write them here, but perhaps that’s my penance.

It came to me the other night, as I was shitfaced drunk and high as a kite, when my judgement was a bit clearer than usual. I felt this presence deep inside of me… not in like there was something in my ass or anything…it was deeper than that, even. As I came to accept what I was feeling, I was wondering if I had perhaps fallen and hit my head or something, but a cursory examination of my scalp showed there was no injury to be seen. I really felt it was the Lord telling me that something had to change. His warm goodness embraced me with a love even stronger than my dog has for me, if you can believe that. That’s pretty intense.

So no more blogging for me… I feel that FBC is tainted, and will keep me from doing the Lord’s true calling. I can’t really spread his message when there’s posts of me illustrating the various ways his followers are deluded fools (in hindsight, undoubtedly Satan’s influence over me) or the mountains of historical and scientific evidence that make the case for no God. Solid cases as they were, I just don’t believe them anymore. I JUST KNOW. It’s such a burden to release, that constant “thinking” and “analyzing” and “fact-checking” and such. I won’t trouble myself with that anymore… it’s apparent that that’s not what the Lord wants.

So that’s the start of it. Jump below the fold for a few more shocking revelations. Hard as they may be for me, I feel that I owe it to you, my readers, for sticking it out with me for so long. I can’t expect that you’ll follow me as I walk down my new path with the Lord, but nevertheless, I feel I need to say a few more things.

Continue reading

JD Ryan over at GMD has a rather interesting post about Hillary’s faith and the rather unsavory characters she associates with on a regular basis because of that faith. Brownback, anyone?

Yeah, I know… Just didn’t feel like crossposting today.

Ok, we really know the Republican base is the pinnacle of diversity, serving a broad array of American interests: the corporatists, theocrats, the filthy rich, warmongers and of course, the racists are still able to take comfort in calling the GOP its home. And of course, many conservatives have what is known as an authoritarian personality, a characteristic of which is compartmentalized thinking and the ensuing double standards that go with the territory.  Just look at the MoveOn/Rush fiasco. When the left does it, it’s a call for outrage and righteouls indignation, when the right does it it’s “hype created by the media” or “taken out of context”. For more clarity on this, take a few minutes and read this chapter from Bob Altemeyer’s “The Authoritarians” about rightwing authoritarians (RWA’s).

The latest? Nutty Senator and Presidential Hopeless Tom “Bomb Mecca” Tancredo just couldn’t bring himself to vote in support of a resolution recognizing the commencement of Ramadan, which passed by a whopping 376 votes. Tancredo’s rationale?

“This resolution is an example of the degree to which political correctness has captured the political and media elite in this country. I am not opposed to commending any religion for their faith. The problem is that any attempt to do so for Jews or Christians is immediately condemned as ‘breaching’ the non-existent line between Church and State by the same elite,” Tancredo says in his statement.

Ok, nice pander to the Christanists there, nothing to be surprised about. But then, there’s that consistency problem. Tancredo recently voted for a resolution “celebrating Christmas.” So much for consistency. Actually, it’s more like this in Tancredospeak:

gov’t passing fluffy resolutions supporting Christianity = good

gov’t passing fluffy resolutions supporting those sand eatin’ camel humpers = bad

Now, I bring this up not to point out the sheer stupidity and inappropriateness of our secular legislative body passing any meaningless resolutions involving religion. Seriously, what’s the point and does it change anything?  It’s more just yet another example of how cons “think”. Now go read the Altemeyer, they’ll be a quiz, and I grade mercilessly.