It's that time of year.

It's Memorial Day Weekend. Rather than honoring veterans, it's clearly time for I'm Way More Americaner Than Y'all Are

For the record: No, this is NOT one nation under the magic sky fairy, and no, I will not repost, retweet or forward any sentiments saying that it is. If that disqualifies me from being "a real American" in your eyes, then fuck you. And fyi, the "under god" bit is 100% incompatible with the VERY NEXT WORD, indivisible. The word "god" divides us by its very nature. Also, fuck you again.

I suck at this.

Damn, I suck at keeping up posting on here, don't I? I guess I just haven't had much to say, and I'm still going through tons of crap offline.

Anyway, I'm on here today, because of little Camden Pierce Hughes. This kid was 6 years old. His mother suffocated him in New Hampshire, drove to Maine and dumped the body, and was eventually arrested at a rest area in Massachusetts. Back in Texas, where they lived, the mother's ex-boyfriend had this to say (You know where this is going already, don't you?):

’’I’m the only daddy [Camden] has ever had,’’ Miller said. ’’Her and I and [Camden] had a very strong faith in Christ. That’s why I know he’s in a better place, and I’m glad he’s there.’’

Say what????!!!! "I’m glad he’s there." ??? WTF, Chuck? How can anyone say something like that? He's glad the kid is dead?  Glad??? Seriously??? And whoop-dee-frickin-doo if Mommy had a "very strong faith in Christ." It didn't stop her from murdering her little boy, now did it? I don't even.... Unreal.

Anyway, the story is here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/05/state_police_qu.html

Long time, no see

Wow, I haven't had anything to really write about in over a month! I hadn't realized it had been that long. I've mostly been busy with the house stuff (cleaning, repair, refinancing, new insurance, blah, blah, blah, endless mess). Plus I've had a lot going on as far as working on the bath & body company, and doing some 3d work. all at once. I hate busy, but there you go.

Anyway, I was wondering about something just now. Did you ever notice, that religious people often charge atheists with  providing "something to replace religion" in people's lives? Why is that? Really? I can't even count the number of times that I've heard statements like "well, if you're going to take away people's religion, then you have to give them something to replace it." Why do I have to do that? For one thing, I'm not "taking" anyone's religion, any more than I would be "taking" someone's imaginary six foot rabbit away by saying I can't see it. If they suddenly realize "holy crap, it's not there!" does that mean I took it? And do I have to go to Toys R Us to get the a stuffed bunny now? Wait, Harvey was alive! Does that mean I need to replace him with a pet rabbit, then? Oh, boy.

Seriously. If CBS tells Charlie Sheen to go to rehab, and he comes out drug free, does that mean CBS is responsible for finding him a replacement for his drugs?

It's not like I even understand completely what they're "losing" by not having church. Church, to me, is sitting in uncomfortable seats in a huge room full of expensive windows, and listening to cherry-picked stories with questionable moral value. It also entails getting up early on Sunday (Saturday for SDAs), buying clothes that I would never wear to anything other than church, and way too many strangers touching me.  What would I give them to replace that? How about staying home in your pajamas, sitting in bed or a comfy chair, and watching old episodes of "Aesop and Son" from The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show? Seems like a huge improvement to me.

Thought of the Day

When vampires drink blood, we call it a horror movie. When humans drink blood, we call it church.

What they don't get

Do places even have the slightest clue that "a portion of all purchases goes to Christian charities" is not a universally good thing? I was just doing some online clothes shopping. I clicked a link, and the site's main page had a big announcement in their rotating banner saying that very thing. I didn't even bother to look at the clothes. Buh-bye. Frankly, I would prefer that any charity money coming from me would go to actually helping people, rather than handing out Bibles or communion wafers.

Do they think Muslims and Jews want to be supporting their Christian charities? Really?

This is embarrassing

This afternoon I was over at www.stopsylvia.com reading about Sylvia Browne, psychic fraud. My mom used to love Sylvia, and thought she was the end-all-be-all psychic. This was back in the 1990s, after I had realized there were no gods, but before I'd given up completely on the paranormal. In fact, at the time, I was kind of into that John Edward show. He was (is?) better at it than she is, btw. At least he sounds sincere and doesn't come across as an asshole. So maybe I should just say that he's not mean like she is. But anyway.

So I was at that site, and I was reading all the accounts of e-mails, video transcripts, and failed predictions. And I decided that it would take me a lot less time to just go watch them on YouTube. You know what? I got to this one (yes, I also watched parts 1-3) and I couldn't watch any longer. This is just embarrassing to watch. It made me feel like I was watching a con man swindle an elderly person out of her/his life savings.

YouTube - Montel's final show with Sylvia Browne (Part 4)

I left as comment, which is awaiting moderation and in all likelihood will never be posted. But here it is:

That was embarrassing. I'm more psychic than she is. "Oh, yes. He's around you." "Yes, They're together." "Oh, it's terrible when we lose a child." Give me a break.

That pretty much sums up what Sylvia told this grieving mother. Her twelve year old son, Daniel, had been hit by a car. Daniel's mother asked if he was around her, if he was ok, and if he needed to tell her anything. Now seriously, what is Sylvia going to say to that? No, he's not?? Of course she's going to say he's ok, he's with God, blah, blah. Then Daniel's mother asked about her sister. Sylvia told her to be more specific. So she said that her sister had died, and that she had adored Daniel. Again, what else is Sylvia going to say? She agreed that, yes, her sister had loved Daniel, and that they were together. Oh, and we're all going to be together one day. But it takes so long my sweet Lord, right? She totally sounded like that George Harrison song. (No offense to George, who was completely awesome and underrated.) The rest of Sylvia's crap was her talking about how terrible it is to lose a child. Well no shit, Sherlock. And then Montel, who was at least trying to be helpful, gave her some talk-show-host pseudo therapy about how she needs to try and move on so she doesn't get sucked into depression (too late). And Sylvia started telling her how how grief is selfish, because the dead person is in happy lala god land, but we want them with us. FFS. What part of any of that is the least bit psychic?

But at least this woman seemed comforted. If you watch some of the other videos of her on YouTube, they're not so comforting. I really hurt for the woman whose boyfriend died and was never found. Old "psychic" Sylvia tells her, oh, he's in water. It's like that girl missing in Aruba. The guy was FDNY and died in the WTC on 9/11. Then there were the parents whose teenage daughter died. They wanted to know how she died. Sylvia said she was shot. No, the girl dropped dead in her bedroom, but the autopsy didn't find any cause. Or the girl who was abducted from hr front yard. Sylvia said she had been, I kid you not, sold into white slavery in Japan. They found the girl's body eventually. She was already dead when Sylvia gave her prediction, and she had never left Texas. That was a disgusting one. She also told Shawn Hornbeck's parents that he was dead, and gave directions to his body. Well gee, that kid was finally rescued after years, and he is still alive. What if she said that to police in a missing persons case and they stopped looking?

Oh, and apparently if you speak out against Sylvia loudly enough, she'll try to dig up dirt on you. So yeah. Whatever. Try it, honey. Maybe I should really piss her off and milk the publicity so I can afford a car. LOL.

The Point of Prayer?

A recent issue of Reader's Digest has a feature story (book excerpt?) about General Hugh Shelton who fell in his yard, and was initially told he would never walk again or even move his arms. Not far into the story, he gets all feel goody about how he prayed that if God would just give him a chance, something to work with, then he would give his all. And since it appears that he did indeed walk again, the implication is that his god answered his prayers. I'm sure that's what most people who read that story will take away from it. But what I'm taking away is that in that case, it means that his god hated Chris Reeve. Because let's face it. The whole world of movie-watching, Christian praying people prayed for Chris Reeve.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really glad that General Shelton managed to walk again. But I would totally have thrown him under the bus to see Superman get out of the wheelchair. In fact, that would have been a nice miracle for a god who wants people to believe and to worship him. The followers pray, and the insanely famous paraplegic gets up and walks. That would be a pretty conclusive miracle, especially if he'd sent some priest/pastor/minister or whatever as a miracle-conduit.  But no. What happens to Chris Reeve? He fights like hell for ten years, and then just dies. And within months, his non-smoker wife dies of lung cancer, orphaning their son. This is not showing me any evidence of a god who gave a crap that all those people were praying for him and his family.

Now is the time that apologists would get all "oh, well, it wasn't in God's plan." Oh, ok. So even though the whole world was asking, their god won't change his plan. Except for the General, whose initial diagnosis in the emergency room was likely from a doctor who wanted to prepare him for a worst case scenario. The rest of the doctors seem to have been less certain, because no one else ever said that to him, AFAICT. So this guy had a huge challenge, and he might well have spent the rest of his life in that chair. But it wasn't any kind of miracle that he healed and regained mobility. It was an experimental procedure, some great doctors and therapists at Walter Reed, and a whole lot of hard work on his part. Anyway, if this god won't change his plans no matter how many people ask, then what is the point in praying? It must have been his plan for the General to walk again, right? In fact, what was the point of him even trying hard? If it was part of his god's plan that he should walk again, couldn't he have just sat there watching TV and it would have happened anyway? For that matter, what is the point of anything if some god is just up there planning everything? And how the hell is that supposed to mesh with this "free will" thing he's supposed to have going on? Because if I can change the plan, shouldn't the god be able to change it? And if I can't, where's my free will?

Anyway, it seems to me that if the whole world can't pray Chris Reeve out of the chair, or even keep him alive long enough for technology to get him out, then one desperate Dear God letter isn't going to do anything. Furthermore, if the dude that created the universe really gave a crap about either of them, wouldn't he have kept Chris on the horse, and kept Gen. Shelton on the ladder in the tree? Or is that beyond him? I just... the more I think about it, the less sense religion makes.