Debate: Hitchens Boteach

You'll never guess who wins.


Shorter version of the debate:

Boteach: The Jews are special and God gave us moral laws, but the Jews are not special and those moral laws are inherent within us. Hitches is depressing because evolution is depressing, which Stephen J. Gould didn't believe in, and you shouldn't either because its false and simply replacing God with time; but I believe it!

Hitchens: *POW*

Random Stuff: I can do anything better than you.

My shows are coming back...

Ah... no more writers strike.

Daily Show + the funny... I can't wait.

Bill Maher is crazy.

Bill Maher on his latest show went deep into his toxin/super-immune system crap and just went too far. I know he's on the board of PETA and this idea that toxins are what makes everybody sick is quite common in New Age circles. The idea that germs aren't what make you sick is about as impressive as the idea that Iraq might not be a bad idea if it works. He's a voice of reason when it comes to atheism, but why not subject those beliefs to a bit of science on this bad boy?

Chlorine is bad for you, it's a poison and I won't drink bleach. So any amount is bad for you? No. Smaller amounts are bad for bacteria in the water supply and insure that we get clean disease free water.

It's akin to the idea that cancer drugs are bad. A lot of them are toxic, really toxic. But, cancer is going to kill you if you don't take those drugs and so far this is our best solution.

Admittedly, we should all cut down heavily on our intake of meat. We should cut down on our intake of sugar. We should exercise more. This will strengthen us, keep us young, and keep us healthy... it won't make us into germ immune supermen.

Just saying, Bill Maher is crazy.

Darwin Day Tomorrow... Bow before your God!

(via Skepchick)

199th Darwin Day is tomorrow (actually it would just be Darwin's 199th birthday and hardly similar, also 199th Lincoln's birthday too). Remember, desecration of the Bible is Mandatory. Drinking the blood of Christian babies is canceled (due to increase awareness via Saint Dawkins we were going to drink the blood of "children of Christian parents" but then a lot of atheists are children of Christian parents and that kind of weirded people out, the suggestion of drinking wine and just saying it was blood was blasted on the grounds that "nobody could be that stupid").

Hallowed are the Ori.
Read the book of Origin!

Poe's Law, can you tell?

So real or not?

Dear God...

Dear God Letters via Goosing the Antithesis.

CotG #84

Latest Carnival of the Godless is up. I'm mentioned.

Gay Distaster Shield

It has long been offered that the obvious and clearly divine powers of gays could be harnessed for good. For example, at the same time gays were making it rain in the UK gays were causing a drought in the Southern States in the US. Clearly there's a sort of disaster buildup as far as homosexuals go. We should then, when such things occur, pay to move the gays from one region temporarily to another region. This way we can mitigate the disasters. Just as the gays protected the French Quarter of NOLA from being damaged they could protect other people from disaster. I know there might be some troubles here and there, and depending on how exactly gays have this disaster ability it might be too dangerous to keep them in certain areas. Therefore I recommend we spend a lot of money making some tropical island into a gay paradise along with a bunker. So when natural disasters come they can just scamper into the bunker and be absolutely safe. And then when it's gone go back to sipping their drinks on the beach and puttering on their fiber internet connection. I think the government should get right on this.

Though, I'm not gay, I want the best for people and if that means harnessing the superpowers of others so be it. I can cross my eyes and turn to pictures into one and use that to solve those, "what's different where puzzles." If that would save people, I would use it. Also, I think we might want to send a few fundamentalist preachers to this island (and not the ones who'd like it) because similar to the old saying about the people needed to hurt you: "an enemy to insult you, and a friend to tell you." We might need the preachers there in order to bring this "divine wrath". It might take fiddling with some of the variables as to what exactly cues this "divine wrath" and how quantifiable and controllable it may be. But, that's why we do these experiments.

There is *still* no God.

Just thought my blog was getting to random trivial stuff filled and politics. This is God Snot after all: Ssnot (it's like swounds meaning God's-wounds)! And I figured I would make this public announcement there is still no God.

The Bible is still stupid and still evil. Atheists still say brilliant things. Creationism is still hogwash. People are still not healed by deities. Prayer still does not work. Wrong is still wrong. Earthquakes still happen, still cause suffering, and still have nothing to do with free will. And kissing asses doesn't get you prizes.

California: Home district voting totals.

The people (how very distant they seem) in my family actually live an Even district. So it would take a lot to force a 3-1 split. And, frankly, it happened. 3-1 in favor of Clinton. Arg. Clinton took my district at a 2.025 to 1 margin. That .025 there means a difference of two delegates (One from Obama, One for Clinton).

Update: Wait, those were older numbers. Late breaking votes for Obama according to raw vote totals: 1.84 to 1. Means a two/two split. The 33.7% of the Obama supporters in this area succeeded. With 100% of votes in. What a difference between 63.2/31.2 and 62.1/33.7!

Woo... go 43rd congressional district.

THE FIGHTING 43rd!

Update: Never Mind. The math is more arcane than that. 62.1/(62.1+33.7)>.62! Hillary actually does snag 3-1 rather than 2-2.

Boo... go fuck yourself 43rd congressional district.

THE FRIGGING 43rd!

Predictions: Large Hadron Collider

On par with my other predictions, I will make this one: The Large Hadron Collider will confirm the existence of the Higgs Boson, will confirm Technicolor (Higgs is not truly an elementary particle but is made up of other particles), and the LHC will have anti-time effects causing the creation of our universe.

God Punishes Tennessee et al. for voting for Huckabee.

Union University was nearly destroyed. Science gave people ample warning as to the potential destruction and thus the fatalities were down from what they would have been.

However, is it any wonder that the exact states who voted for Huckabee were the worst hit? Clearly, Huckabee is slated for the presidency and is the Anti-Christ. God is trying to stop this. As it says in the Bible, the Devil will quote scripture. Huckabee quotes scripture. The only people ineligible to be the anti-Christ are those people who don't know the Bible, or as they are called... run of the mill Christians.

Something to think about.

;)

Stoopid California.

I blame my Sister and Mother. (for Hillary winning California) Give em the right to vote and they vote wrong. My mother apparently was "waiting 8 years" to vote for her [Hillary]. My sister was the victim of terrorism. Anybody who supports Obama is clearly "pulling a fast one" (too scared to risk it). My brother didn't vote based on his previous 2 hour wait in 2006. It took me literally three minutes to go in and go out. Done.

The younger generation has been doing a lot of heavy lifting politically and Hillary does well? Well, Obama did well too. But, still, old people would happily allow a party without a backbone to waffle-around and suck. Young people got Howard Dean in and shifted up the party to win back both houses and most likely this Presidential election. I want my dream-speaking candidate! Good speeches and strong actions. But, you backboneless freaks want your small margins and small wins. Obama for president would be either in 60s or the 40s and far more likely the former in a general election. However, some people in the party want Hillary's 52% win. I want Obama to crush the election with 60+% and sweep in a good number of Senate seats and a dozen house seats to pad the lead.

Yes, dumbass, Hillary can win. Obama can WIN.

My Super Tuesday Prediction...

My prediction for Super Tuesday Obama +80 on delegate count.

--

Work then voting...

Off to work (at a real job not a campaign) then vote for Barack Obama, I'd recommend the latter. The former is making me get up at 6 in the bleeding morning.

Resymbolizing the theft of America's soul.

So the New Presidential Coins which are to feature the faces of all the dead presidents (which I think is just shenanigans to get Reagan on a coin) well, they put In God We Trust rather than on the coin itself on the side of the coin. Well no longer! The Christian right through Sen. Brownback managed to put the phrase from the side of the coin (where nobody looks) to the front where everybody tends to be. The Right was kind of pissed that it was moved.

"The first four coins, honoring George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, were issued in 2007."

"Officials at the Mint say the dies for the 2008 coins, which honor James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, have already been produced, so the change will not be visible until the 2009 series is produced."

So about the time the Christian right started to exert influence on the fairly secular government we're going to start having "In God We Trust" put onto those coins where we couldn't unnoticeable remove them with a small amount of grinding.

I thought that "In God We Trust" was suppose to be added due to ceremonial deism or respect for history or something like that. It certainly isn't an active claim to support a religious viewpoint through government machinery which would be a direct and clear violation of the Establishment Clause.

Jesus Loves the Little Zygotes

As read on the 2 Feb 2008 edition of the Non-Prophets radio show, from Dial-an-Atheist Ohio by Frank Zindler. Transcribed by some guy.

Jesus loves the little zygotes
all the zygotes of the world.
Jesus loves them until they're born
then abandons them forlorn.
Jesus loves the little zygotes 'til they're born.

Jesus loves the little children
all the children of the world.
Jesus gives them heart defects
measles, mumps, and ringwormed necks.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus lets their parents beat them,
bruise their bodies black and blue.
Jesus gives them birth defects,
scurvy, ticks, and palette clefts.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus gives the children cancer.
Earaches, lice, and scabies too.
Bowel obstructions, altered lips,
blighted brains and twisted hips.
Extra chromosomes to help them when they pray.

Hallelujah.

Jesus gives the children acne.
AIDS and leprosy galore.
Germs and worms of every kind.
Things to make the children blind.
But he cannot give them smallpox anymore.

Scientists and unbelievers
wiped the pox right off the earth.
Jesus still gives gifts to kids,
broken nose and burnt eyelids.
But he cannot give them smallpox anymore.

God Delusion Index

Sorry I would have stole this for Pharyngula earlier, but I didn't pay much attention to it until the Non-Prophets mentioned it.

Pope is still a tool: "some science shatters human dignity"

He said this included total respect for the human being as a person "from conception until natural death," and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse.

Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity," he said.

"When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure 'biological material,' how can one deny that they are being treated not as 'someone' but as 'something,"' he said.

In other words science doesn't treat clumps of undifferentiated cells like human beings? What a tool. Lemme guess why that is. An undifferentiated clump of cells is not a human being. -- I'm guessing that's the key.

With the new breakthroughs dedifferentiating skin cells into full cells via four (now three) different viruses to reintroduce a couple genes we know that every cell in your body could be a human being as well. All the DNA is there, and it's possible to reset the cells and grow some new humans out of them. Frankly, by the popes logic, scratching my ass is worse than the holocaust.