Imbecile…
From the March 25, 2009 hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. Gather round one and all… Watch Rep. John Shimkus turn into an imbecile right before your eyes ladies and gentlemen!
That just makes me sad… The bible as the infallible word of god? Has he ever really read the fucking thing? I wonder his thoughts on revelation… but I digress; he misses the verse right before he starts quoting, which gives the reasoning for god’s decision… (closest translation I could find was NIV…)
Genesis 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though [a] every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
He’s using Noah’s animal sacrifice to the lord to get the lord to not kill every living thing again, and god agrees. His selective quotation from the passage (cutting out “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart”) makes me think he doesn’t actually believe the story, and therefore just likes the phrases involved with this pointless fable. Also, the statement “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” is one of my main problems with religions, and he reads that without removing it… Why is it, do you suppose, that that is quoted in the context of arguing against global warming… I’ll let you all figure that one out for yourselves… Back to my point about religion though, the blanket comment “you are evil in your heart” comment which comes from religions and cults is an easy way to (once convinced) get a large group of people to follow those few who claim to know how to get back into the “good” territory.
Anyway, just to pass along something that really made me laugh hard. These are quotes read from text taken directly from online christian fundamentalist forums. Enjoy…
Some of this is Poe’s Law in action I think…
Have some more Hitchens… it’s good for ya…
This is the opening statement that Christopher Hitchens gave in a religion vs. Atheism debate with Alister McGrath on October 11, 2007 in two parts. It is illustrated with still images for emphasis…
Sean Hannity… . . . Antisemitic?
She will only give interviews to Fox Newz for the last 3 weeks of the campaign?! If Joe Biden said he would only give interviews to Mr. Olbermann and Ms. Maddow for the last 3 weeks of the campaign, what do you think Hannity or any other windbag on that station would say?
I’m pretty certain that neither Democratic candidate will be going for an interview on Fox News, but their campaign certainly wouldn’t announce a Fox News interview black out… Besides, this isn’t a MSNBC blackout… it’s EVERY OTHER NEWS STATION THAT ISN’T FOX BLACKOUT… sorry, my caps-lock got stuck down there…
New Slogan for McCain/Palin…
It’s got a nice ring to it…
Hopefully everyone has seen this video…
Obama responds to controversy stirred up by McCain campaign…
I agree wholeheartedly… Enough is enough…
Palin has command military experience, you see, because… uhmm…
From yesterday (Sept. 1) Tucker Bounds (of the McCain campaign) on the choice of Palin for VP, and the experience she has…
Dennis Kucinich’s Speech at the DNC…
I’m surprised if anyone can top this from the convention floor…
I do like him when he is less… jumpy… but that was still an excellent speech.
Happy Earth Day!
Wisconsin Senator Gaylord (uproarious laughter) Nelson first proposed a national day to celebrate the earth in September of 1969. The Vietnam War was wrecking Southeast Asia’s jungles, the Cuyahoga river caught fire in Cleveland, and South Carolina’s Savannah River nuclear power plant was melting down. The negative aftereffects of mass consumerism and industrialization that emerged during the end of World War II were spreading across North America like a terrible monstrous weed.
All of those events–and the other events that contributed to America’s first environmental movement–were important factors in increasing American’s awareness of the fragility of our natural environment and the long term consequences of its neglect. All of that stuff is incredibly important, but to me there is one event that stands out beyond all the rest.
The picture above was taken on the 7th of December, 1972. Colloquially called the “blue marble” picture, it is the first picture ever taken of our planet. Although this occurred after the first ”official” Earth Day, I think it was the single most important promoter of environmentalism we saw in the twentieth century.
It has since become the most widely distributed picture in human history. It reminds us that what we have is incredibly special and vibrant, but also susceptible to our carelessness. It’s difficult to frame our perspective in the universe when we have our feet firmly planted on the earth’s soil, but we exist in an incredibly precarious state. If we imperil the planet’s habitability, we have nowhere to turn. We are surrounded by a bleak inhospitable vaccum that would freeze our lungs and immediately suck the life out of us if we stepped into it for only a moment. Thinking of conservation and sustainability with that perspective tends to reorganize one’s priorities.
Imagine what it must have been like to look upon this picture for the first time back in 1972. Take some time today to view the high-res version here.
There’s only one of these. Take care of it, and have a great day.
Who’s Embarrassing Themselves on the Internet Today?
This is weird.
You are a trophy wife. Your husband, who is a major Broadway theater operator and a quarter century older than you, decides to divorce you. Since you signed a pre-nuptial agreement before you got married, you have no means for supporting yourself, and your future looks pretty bleak.
So, how do you make the best of a very bad situation? Post a video of yourself on YouTube, where you tearfully recount all of the abuses you’ve endured, slander your former spouses’ sexual prowess, and then call up his office and start screaming at the person on the other line!
Lama Yo Mama!
This weekend, His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke in Seattle, and I was lucky enough to have Megan drag me along. I use the verb ‘drag’ because I was not initially inspired to attend this appearance when I first heard about it. Like any healthy skeptic, I regard most authority figures with extreme suspicion, especially when they derive their authority from a religious source. But, at the end I felt very differently about this particular devil. He had a lot of really thoughtful things to say, and I appreciated the opportunity to hear them.
The line outside the stadium snaked all the way around the block, which offered great opportunities for people watching. The evangelicals were out in full force with megaphones, signs, and t-shirts, warning all the attendees that Buddhism leads directly to eternal damnation.