Rantings

Rants and complaints

I hear so often that the Media is a solid block of liberals. I don't see it. If they print a story attacking a Republican, the conservatives point out how liberal the piece is. Never mind how accurate or deserved, just that they ran it. If they attack a Democrat, the conservatives seem to complain that it didn't go far enough.
What they are is sensationalist. There are no ratings in reporting that everything went fairly well, today, with no huge casualties or calamities. It always seems to me that they search for topics that are sensitive, like an open wound or sore, then poke it with a stick.
The telling blow, for me, is a certain medicine. It has applications for the treatment of:
It seems to me a liberal organization would mention that as often as possible, and not refer to Mifepristone as 'The Abortion Pill.'

Quotes from another planet:#1


The decline in American pride, patriotism, and piety can be directly attributed to the extensive reading of so-called 'science fiction' by our young people. This poisonous rot about creatures not of God's making, societies of 'aliens' without a good Christian among them, and raw sex between unhuman beings with three heads and God alone knows what sort of reproductive apparatus keeps our young people from realizing the true will of God.


Jerry Falwell, in Reader's Digest, 1985.....The crack monkey.











Have you ever noted the Littering Missionary technique? Where a small comic or tract is left lying around, in the hopes that God and Salvation can sneak up on you? Some of the most notorious are by Jack Chick, a gay-bashing, demonizing, Catholic and Jew Conspiracy theorizing...well, go ahead and look, if you are over 18 and in need of a laugh. Check the one titled 'Dark Dungeons' for a hoot. Never mind the laughable idea that AD&D is a screening program for witches and satanists, I'm amazed that it depicts so many girls and women playing the game, and that everyone at the table is reasonably neat, clean, and well-dressed. Our gamers tended to look like the guys that sleep in the car at a comics convention because the budget forced a choice between shelter or food...and we had to maintain Navy grooming standards.
And the implication that one child in six will be doomed by suicide is interesting math. Of the MILLIONS of game sets sold since 1979, even the most GENEROUS interpretation of game-related deaths only has about 128 cases TOTAL. And many of them are disputed by the parents of the victim, as well.
When the preacher tells them to burn the "occult paraphenalia, like Rock Music" i just have to laugh.
Note that 'Dark Dungeons' is no longer in print. I guess good Christian Outrage at Satanic Roleplay Rites is on the downswing. Or was it the book burning?

Who here is older than radar guns?

I keep seeing references to how bad C14 readings are because of the readings they get from living clams or baseball caps or whatever.

When Radar guns first came out, they were on the news a lot. And when they were taken to court, that made the news, too. I remember one lawyer having a cop test the speed of a rotary telephone in the courthouse, and it was doing 300 mph. When it rang, the number changed drastically, but i can't remember if it was up or down. Anyway, it seemed ridiculous, and they wanted it and every other speeding ticket using radar technology thrown out.

Strangely enough, when the actual experts testified, they said they weren't surprised by the phone result (and many other such odd results), but it didn't matter. They had ample evidence that when [loud]properly used [/loud], the readings were valid. This was proven time and again in the labs before the guns were made, and proven to trooper after trooper before the guns were sold to anyone. The tech works, under the expected conditions for its use, and tickets written off of them are pretty much accepted. (Now, the trick is to know the laws concerning calibration and citizen rights to see the gun and so on. But the tech is no longer subject to trial....)

Maybe if people would actually examine the evidence for C14 and other techniques, rather than just celebrate the loopholes, they would at least not look so asinine in their arguments.....


So, i cruise the internet discussion forums, and this seems a classic, or at least chronic, exchange. The tendency for theists to look at everyone through belief-tinted glasses gets quite annoying. The constant urges to 'Just believe for a week, see what happens?' or the ever popular, 'I'm sorry someone claiming to be a Christian hurt you so long ago. Can you let it go, and come back to God?' Much like being single, and everyone telling me i couldn't ever truly be happy until i was married....notice they didn't keep telling the divorced ones that... Also, a rather arrogant assumption that all atheists really believe, they're just afraid to face their sins and hope that everything is wrong and it'll all go away and call themselves atheists to bolster weak courage. Anyway, a forum exchange, in one act (all spelling original to the posts...sorry): Forum Host:
You got 1 month to live..... And you didn't accept Jesus as your Savior yet.
What would you do with that month of life left?
----------------------
Guest1
Curse the fact that now I'll be reincarnated and I'll have to go through my teen years again.
----------------------
Forum CoHost
Accept Jesus? Jesus chooses you. The Father does not need your permission to be one of his sheep. He will just body-slam you and say I am God, I picked you and you will do as I say. Jesus did not ask Paul if he would like to do anything. He said this is what you will do!
--------------------------------------
Guest2
I cannot imagine (very well) not having accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour.
I suppose I would live out my last month in denial ("I will beat this!") and rationalization ("Nobody knows the truth anyway, so I will just believe what makes me happy".)
I am glad that for me, the situation is not one I could possibly be found in.
--------------------------------------
Guest3
Give all my belongings to those less fortunate than me.
Piece be with you.
--------------------------------------
Forum Host:
Hey if I would be a atheist and I would know I would be dieing in a month you could bet everything you have that I would accept Jesus as my Savior.
--------------------------------------
Forum polytheist:
You are already a theist and accept Jesus. Your fantasy about salvation thru fear has little or no bearing on the actual behavior of actual atheists. The Roman Empire put christians in the lion pit for not caving in to pressure and converting to the state sponsored religion. Christians of today admire their courage. Years later, when the Emperor converted, the Holy Roman Empire put pagans into the same lion pit for the same reason, courage to hold to their beliefs in the face of certain and painful death. Christians of today seem to ignore this classic example of the strength of human faith.
By your logic, anyone within a month of that cage would have converted....in either case.
--------------------------------------
Forum Host:
I have noticed that violins are the fastest things that will sink you into depression.
--------------------------------------






A Quiz:

"What Do You Know About The Separation of State and Church?"

I scored 18 correct out of 21!

18 - 21: Wow! First Amendment Scholar
14 - 17: Congratulations! Better informed than most Americans
10 - 13: Passing Grade
6 - 9: Did you attend a parochial school? Try test again.
0 - 5: Are you sure you are not a member of the Religious Right?



Common Properties of Potentially Destructive and Dangerous Cults:


I found a pamphlet someone left lying around (the familiar Littering Missionary technique), that told me that I should examine my religion and determine if I was in a cult, or an 'established religion' (a term ignoring the fact that some of these 'cults' are hundreds of years old). My personal religion at the time did not score too high as a cult....but the Navy scored 15 out of 19:
#1 would be a YES for the Navy.
#2 yes, esp on a ship at sea
#3 yes
#4 not exactly. But the provisions for appeal while at sea leave a lot to be desired
#5 two out of three, for sure
#6 ever hear the phrase 'your wife wasn't issued in your sea bag'?*
#7 not really, in most cases
#8 not usually, depends on your definition of veneration
#9 Oh, yes
#10 Or, as my dad put it before I enlisted, 'where to s***, how much, what color, and how many pieces of paper to use.....'
#11 Uniforms?
#12 Barracks, bunk roooms, common showers, mess halls....
#13 Yepper boy howdy
#14 Very much a class system, in the Navy. Enlisted punishment is published in the Plan of the Day. For all appearances, criminal officers just get transferred.
#15 Midshipmen cruises, VIP cruises, special tours during ports of call....
#16 No. If nothing else, we move certain criminal youths out of defenseless civilian communities, teach them to handle weapons, and station them in Navy Towns.
#17 Depends on manning levels....
#18 Just try telling them, 'Can't shave off my beard, Chief, The Bible says it's a pagan practice.'
#19 Well, MY recruiter....the bastard.....**


*Many complaints or requests are met with this phrase. They brag on the improvements of family life for those serving. But they still want you to act like your wife/family is an outside interest for off hour pursuit. I tolerated this strange stance for a long time. Then, at one command, they have a machine that makes automatic calls to notify the sailors of emergency meetings. When I missed one, they told me I should have a telephone answering machine.... 'But Chief, there wasn't one in my sea bag....'
**Just before Adrian was born, there was a lot of press about how the Navy was increasing Maternity leave to 6 weeks, to allow Mother and Baby time to heal and share special time (i think the behaviorists refer to it as imprinting), and as an aid since most day care won't take a kid below 6 weeks. Navy Times made it sound like they were bending over backwards to be a help. Then Adrian was born. He ended up spending about a month and a half in the hospital. Noella asked if she could split the materinty leave, take a week or two to heal, then the balance when the kid finally came home. Request made it all the way to BUPERS, who informed us that the 6 weeks was just for the mother, and the baby homecoming had nothing to do with the policy.









The following is a letter is sent to a Christian Movie Review site, concerning the accusations of Harry Potter as a handbook for Satanism and worse: HARRY POTTER IS NOT WICCAN
Subject: Harry Potter
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002
From: Brian

WAY too many people assume that if he casts spells, Harry Potter must be a Wiccan.

At no point in the story is there any discussion of a higher power, neither the Christian God or the Male/Female forces of the Pagan ways. In fact, I've seen Star Trek characters in more chapels than Potter in any Temple...

There are no pentagrams, no explanations of the Rede or the Law of Three. No one is Skyclad (naked), no one has an athame. Even the 'familiars' are bought, sold and handed down, so there's no binding of souls between them and master. There are no ritual sacrifices (except for the unicorn, and that is more of a vampiric attack, the beast isn't sacrificed TO anyone).

Potter's spells are not cast by ritual invocation of any spirit or even by any lengthy incantation. He is born a wizard, and the purpose of the school is to teach him to control his own magical abilities. He points the wand, speaks Latin, and things happen. There isn't even a 'token Muggle' at the school to draw 'mundane' children into the magical world. Anyone saying this is a handbook for Satanism needs to learn what a handbook is, much less actual Satanism.

They celebrate Christmas in the school, which would have been a GREAT opportunity for a Wiccan-conspiracy director to point out the Pagan origins of the holiday we celebrate today (burning the Yule Log to let The Green Man free for the next spring, ). Personally, I would have pointed out that in some countries, it is traditionally a witch that brings the gifts, not a fat elf from a Coke commercial, as it would seem fitting in the general theme of the movie.

But, if people stop concentrating on the peripheral resemblance to what they might understand Wiccan to be, there are a lot of good messages in the movie. His main protection from the Evil One is not a Guardian Demon or any spell, but is based on his mother's love for him. He wins in the end because he is trying to save others, not to profit for himself. Evil Loses. All the time. Even the after-school-special evil of Malfoy and his house, and that's thru the good kids' bravery, intelligence and self-sacrifice. Where does the bible say THOSE are bad things...?













Return to the Big Index

Soapbox index.