So two seemingly unrelated events are happening today that actually are strangely about the same thing.
And that thing is Close Mindedness.
The inevitable backlash against the HBO documentary "Going Clear" is now in full swing with Scientology's cannon fodder throwing themselves over the barricades armed only with a Church website and no independent thoughts.
Their sole intention? To do the Church's bidding and discredit the film along with the author of the book on which it is based.
These are people not open to reason. People whose minds could not be more closed if they lived all their lives in a locksmith's basement.
And it's sad. Sad to hear people who cannot break out from the mental straitjacket they willingly took unto themselves when they allowed the Church to get their financial hooks in them.
They act just like the victims of any con. They can't believe they are being duped. And you can't persuade them otherwise. And the kicker? Having a financial stake in their own progression through "The Hierarchy", which binds them even closer to the cult and their not-really-benevolent Masters.
Classic mind fuckery.
And then there is the Canadian town of Chilliwack BC that is banning Richard Dawkins "The Magic of Reality", a book that might teach children about actual real world stuff - but they are still allowing the Bible because that is "suitable educational material".
Yes, in 2015, the cold and frozen North is still awash in cold and frozen minds.
Minds just as closed as any cultists.
All we can do is hope that reason will thaw the mental ice, breaking the bonds that hold some people in backward and dangerous thinking.
And I use the term "thinking" it the loosest possible way imaginable.
Monday, March 30, 2015
There's a Religious Bubble
If you ask people if they believe Washington politicians are living in a bubble in our Nation's Capital, you will receive a variety of replies, "Sure" and "Absolutely" and "They know nothing about real Americans" and "They are completely out of touch".
You know how it goes.
Now, I'm sure the argument of political insularity can be made, but I'm more inclined to think that the coziness of Washington and the lure of being close to the actual Seats of Power may have more to do with the perception of the Washington Bubble than it's actual reality.
After all, they do have to get out of DC occasionally, if only to get re-elected so they can come back to bask in K-Street's alluring glow.
No. I want to address a different bubble. And perhaps a more insidious one.
Amongst the ever fragmenting media landscape in which live, any politician can find a friendly outlet to announce his new "exciting legislation".
And for GOP types those outlets are programs like James Dobson's "Family Talk" and Bryan Fischer's gig on AFA radio and wherever there is a microphone with Tony Perkins from the FRC behind it.
These programs are actually Big Religious Bubbles where pols of varying intellectual stripes from Governor Mike Pence to Senator Rand Paul to Senator Ted Cruz to Representative Michele Bachmann of the United States House of Representatives of the United States to former Partial Governor Sarah Palin can get on the air and utter their complete BS without any push back.
"Death panels in Obamacare" - Of course there are.
"Our Religious Freedoms are under attack" - Yes! We have to do something about that.
"Reparative Therapy works" - You are so right Mrs Bachmann!
"Climate Change is a myth and any Federal regulations are insidious intrusions into States' Rights". And on and on and on.
And if there are callers on these shows.....they are all sycophantic ass-kissers whose sole purpose is to reinforce to the politicians that their Groundbreaking Proposals are....Groundbreaking and REALLY REALLY NECESSARY.
Oh yes. They are so necessary. And thank you Governor/Senator/Dog Catcher for bringing up this important problem. After all at the end of the day, it's "All About The Children".
And eventually all this sycophancy and all this self-congratulatory back slapping with no-one uttering a single probing question, yields us RFRA laws.
Laws that are unnecessary and very very divisive.
So actually, though I do think politicians get out of the Washington Bubble, what we have to ensure is they don't just step into the Religious Bubble when they do.
You know how it goes.
Now, I'm sure the argument of political insularity can be made, but I'm more inclined to think that the coziness of Washington and the lure of being close to the actual Seats of Power may have more to do with the perception of the Washington Bubble than it's actual reality.
After all, they do have to get out of DC occasionally, if only to get re-elected so they can come back to bask in K-Street's alluring glow.
No. I want to address a different bubble. And perhaps a more insidious one.
Amongst the ever fragmenting media landscape in which live, any politician can find a friendly outlet to announce his new "exciting legislation".
And for GOP types those outlets are programs like James Dobson's "Family Talk" and Bryan Fischer's gig on AFA radio and wherever there is a microphone with Tony Perkins from the FRC behind it.
These programs are actually Big Religious Bubbles where pols of varying intellectual stripes from Governor Mike Pence to Senator Rand Paul to Senator Ted Cruz to Representative Michele Bachmann of the United States House of Representatives of the United States to former Partial Governor Sarah Palin can get on the air and utter their complete BS without any push back.
"Death panels in Obamacare" - Of course there are.
"Our Religious Freedoms are under attack" - Yes! We have to do something about that.
"Reparative Therapy works" - You are so right Mrs Bachmann!
"Climate Change is a myth and any Federal regulations are insidious intrusions into States' Rights". And on and on and on.
And if there are callers on these shows.....they are all sycophantic ass-kissers whose sole purpose is to reinforce to the politicians that their Groundbreaking Proposals are....Groundbreaking and REALLY REALLY NECESSARY.
Oh yes. They are so necessary. And thank you Governor/Senator/Dog Catcher for bringing up this important problem. After all at the end of the day, it's "All About The Children".
And eventually all this sycophancy and all this self-congratulatory back slapping with no-one uttering a single probing question, yields us RFRA laws.
Laws that are unnecessary and very very divisive.
So actually, though I do think politicians get out of the Washington Bubble, what we have to ensure is they don't just step into the Religious Bubble when they do.
Friday, March 20, 2015
What is a Troll?
An inquest just took place in the UK city of Leicester concerning the suicide of a woman who was confronted by a Sky News reporter for a story about Internet trolls.
As this story is being reported by the BBC, it should be raising serious concerns.
The woman was seemingly obsessed with the Madeleine McCann abduction case and had tweeted over 400 times on the subject between November 2013 and September 2014.
Now to me that does not sound a lot. Many people become drawn into the latest "Case Of The Century" and want to comment on it. Or be part of it. Or let the world know that they really, really, really know what happened.
These are sad people for the most part. And some like Nancy Grace get paid a shitload of money to pick at the carcass of the collective human misery such cases produce. And do it night after night after night. And why is Nancy special and this lady not? Because of a towering insight? Because of having the biggest microphone? Because she CARES so much more than regular folks? Of course not. Nancy is just so very special because she thinks she is.
So this woman in the UK made 400 posts over almost an entire year. And she didn't actually send them specifically to any members of the McCann family who eschew a social media presence. So where is the harm? Where is there any modicum of wrongdoing? How did the Sky News reporter track her down to confront her over her trolling? Did he find her by journalistic sleuthing? By serious gumshoe work?
No her name was on a list.
The reporter, let's call him Mr.B, told the inquest he and a cameraman confronted the woman after Sky News obtained a dossier of alleged Twitter trolls handed to police.
So the cops gave him the list? Why would they do that? Is that even legal? Was it their list? If it was, why are they keeping lists of people who aren't committing any fucking crimes?
If the list came to the cops via some Internet busybodying "watchdog group", we need to know who they are so that in the future, we can stop them from making and passing on such lists to any law enforcement agency. They are the 21st century equivalent of meddling old people with nothing better to do than report their utterly groundless suspicions about shit they know nothing about to the authorities.
This woman took her LIFE because she was on that list. And the people who compiled it should be named and ashamed. And the police officers who gave it to the reporter should be ashamed.
And the reporter should be ashamed.
But like Nancy Grace when she hounded that poor Vietnamese woman to suicide, he isn't.
And the real tragedy is, no-one is.
And if anyone can explain this sentence from the BBC report, you are a better person than I :-
"Coroner Catherine Mason concluded she had killed herself and called for sales of helium to be regulated."
As this story is being reported by the BBC, it should be raising serious concerns.
The woman was seemingly obsessed with the Madeleine McCann abduction case and had tweeted over 400 times on the subject between November 2013 and September 2014.
Now to me that does not sound a lot. Many people become drawn into the latest "Case Of The Century" and want to comment on it. Or be part of it. Or let the world know that they really, really, really know what happened.
These are sad people for the most part. And some like Nancy Grace get paid a shitload of money to pick at the carcass of the collective human misery such cases produce. And do it night after night after night. And why is Nancy special and this lady not? Because of a towering insight? Because of having the biggest microphone? Because she CARES so much more than regular folks? Of course not. Nancy is just so very special because she thinks she is.
So this woman in the UK made 400 posts over almost an entire year. And she didn't actually send them specifically to any members of the McCann family who eschew a social media presence. So where is the harm? Where is there any modicum of wrongdoing? How did the Sky News reporter track her down to confront her over her trolling? Did he find her by journalistic sleuthing? By serious gumshoe work?
No her name was on a list.
The reporter, let's call him Mr.B, told the inquest he and a cameraman confronted the woman after Sky News obtained a dossier of alleged Twitter trolls handed to police.
So the cops gave him the list? Why would they do that? Is that even legal? Was it their list? If it was, why are they keeping lists of people who aren't committing any fucking crimes?
If the list came to the cops via some Internet busybodying "watchdog group", we need to know who they are so that in the future, we can stop them from making and passing on such lists to any law enforcement agency. They are the 21st century equivalent of meddling old people with nothing better to do than report their utterly groundless suspicions about shit they know nothing about to the authorities.
This woman took her LIFE because she was on that list. And the people who compiled it should be named and ashamed. And the police officers who gave it to the reporter should be ashamed.
And the reporter should be ashamed.
But like Nancy Grace when she hounded that poor Vietnamese woman to suicide, he isn't.
And the real tragedy is, no-one is.
And if anyone can explain this sentence from the BBC report, you are a better person than I :-
"Coroner Catherine Mason concluded she had killed herself and called for sales of helium to be regulated."
Friday, March 13, 2015
Janet Strikes Gold AGAIN!
Yes. Sorry I used the dreaded D-word. But sometimes you just can't get away from the fuckheads that abide there. Sorry.
I'm not sure why the program was on a full month after Darwin Day, maybe it was a rebroadcast. More likely Janet doesn't know what a "calendar" is.
But "Doctor" West was there to talk Darwin and absolute fucking nonsense. And he did not disappoint.
Now I hear you ask, what does "Doctor" West know about biology? Is he one of those turncoat scientists who falsely get their degrees and then renounce all the science they were taught and to go to Seattle and write shit about their discipline?
No. He's not one of those. Not a scientist. But a feces producing writer he surely is.
He's the author of "Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science, Darwin’s Conservatives: The Misguided Quest".
And what understanding of science does he bring to his book writin' endeavors?
Precisely none.
Because as Wikipedia says: "West received an undergraduate degree in Communications (Editorial Journalism) from the University of Washington in 1986. From 1986-1989, he served as Managing Editor of Public Research, Syndicated, which distributed essays on public affairs to more than 700 daily and weekly newspapers. He received his Ph.D. in Government from The Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University) in 1992".
And academically that's all he's got. No Science. No Insight. No Freaking Idea.
So well done Janet, once again you went above and beyond your usual crass idiocy to find a man who knew nothing about what he was talking about. And you put him on the radio for an hour, fed him softball questions and had him take some phone calls from soft brained callers.
Because I always want an hour of a pontificating idiot from the Discovery Institute with no qualifications in science telling me what's true when I turn on my radio.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
2015 - Movie List: Sequels, Reboots and Pointless Remakes
Sorry we are already in March so hopefully you have avoided the first four titles listed.
Here is my annual list of movies to avoid if you can for 2015. Yes, I do realize that the Hunger Games and Star Wars may be impossible to avoid, but I do think all the rest are very worthy of your inattention this year.
The titles are listed by proposed chronological release dates ( Jan to Dec )
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death
Taken 3
Hot Tub Time Machine 2
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Divergent Series: Insurgent
Furious 7
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Mad Max: Fury Road
Pitch Perfect 2
Poltergeist
Insidious: Chapter 3
Jurassic World
The Transporter Legacy
Ted 2
Magic Mike XXL
Terminator: Genisys
Minions
Mission: Impossible 5
The Fantastic Four
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Sinister 2
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend
Hitman: Agent 47
The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials
Hotel Transylvania 2
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Alvin and the Chipmunks 4
Point Break
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Damn! This list of crap gets longer every year. And like every year, I implore you to not see these movies to try and make the producers and the studios give us something ORIGINAL.
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