--
James F. Elliott
jamesfelliott.blogspot.com
jamesfelliott@gmail.com
Apr
30
I fucking hate IKEA. And people who buy IKEA kitchen cabinets, install them in their house, sell the house to you, and then fuck off to Virginia. That is all.
Apr
30
A Pew poll finds that church attendance is correlated with willingness to torture.
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
I can't be too smug about it, though: that difference isn't exactly huge, and 42% is a depressingly large number of non-church-goers favoring barbarous behavior. I wouldn't be happy with anything larger than 0%.
Read the comments on this post...
Apr
30
Obama Positioning For Backdoor Gun Control by Chuck BaldwinIs it just me or is that completely homoerotic? ("Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!")HJ
Apr
30
April 2009 - UC Berkeley Graduate Council LecturesNeil Shubin, Associate Dean of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago describes how his diverse fossil findings allow him to...
Apr
30
Play all videos (3)
BBC Documentary about the historical and future influence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection on human behaviour, society and culture. Contributors...
Apr
30
I’ve never read a piece of the work of James Joyce. Not out of some kind of lingering philistinism, nor even a lack of time - which I have in short supply but could always supplement by setting something else aside.
No, the reason I haven’t read James Joyce is the constant sycophantic and (IMHO) often shallow assessments of his work that gush forth from his fans. If I hear another “greatness” spurt out of one of these people, I going to fecking scream.
Seriously, it’s hard to disassociate James Joyce from the antics of his readers. Archetypal (stereotypical?) James Joyce readers really are a notorious bunch and TISM really had their number.
Every time I contemplate getting myself a copies of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, every time I manage to get the imagery of fawning drivel out of my mind, one of them just has to pop up and start talking crap. “Greatness!” “Blah!” “Life changing!” WANK!
If and when I come to read Joyce’s books, I don’t want this cacophony of dimwittery echoing through my skull. I want to engage in a transaction of ideas between Joyce and his reader - in this hypothetical instance being me.
I’ve just had someone (sensibly) point out to me that Joyce was influenced by the 18th century Italian philosopher, Giambattista Vico, who for reasons of epistemology I’m interested in. Vico turned the phrase “verum esse ipsum factum“, that “the true is precisely what is made.”
I don’t share Vico’s Platonism, nor appreciate his reversion to pre-modernism, but his phrase sits well with my empiricism (of which the best, but not an entirely adequate representation of I could find is here*.)
Allegedly (and short of reading Joyce’s books myself, I can’t verify) it wasn’t just Vico’s theory of cyclical history that influenced Joyce, but that there are epistemological influences evident in Joyce’s work as well. Verum esse ipsum factum, if an influence in Joyce’s work, would very well make an unintentional irony out of the claims by Joyce fans of their hero’s “greatness” as if it were some objective, ontological truth.
If it turns out that Joyce wasn’t influenced thus, then the claims of “greatness” as objective, ontological truth aren’t ironic, merely just stupid.
The idea that those that crow appreciative about Joyce the most are the least capable of actually appreciating him does fill me with a rare glimmer of schadenfreude, and I’m half not wanting to read Joyce just to preserve it, lest it turn out my assumptions are wrong. Pretentiousness is so much funnier when ironic.
So what do you reckon? Should I endure the prospect of not being seen as refined? <SARCASM> Aghast! </SARCASM> Should I hold on to that precious little idea that the hardcore Joyce fans aren’t getting it?
Or should I just get on with it, read the books and have my tentative preconceptions obliterated or confirmed?
~ Bruce
* I’m not a logical positivist - there seems ample room in this definition for expansion a la Popper and Hume.
Apr
30
Pat Robertson, on the 700 Club, had this little gem of fear-mongering against the new LGBT-inclusive hate crimes legislature that recently passed in the House:
“Ladies and gentleman, just figure this: You got somebody, he’s really weird, and—and his ‘sexual orientation’ is he likes to uh–have sex with ducks. Is he protected under hate crime? Is he protected if he likes to have sex with little boys? They haven’t made that clear! It’s sexual orientation which he[, our own 700 Club reporter,] said covers, what, thirty different,” he sputters, “pathologies. And what are we going to do about that?”
Here’s what we’re going to do about that: We’re going to protect paedophiles and zoophiles and, well, everybody from discrimination! Raping children and animals and other beings which are incapable of giving or understanding consent is wrong. Let there be no doubt about that. But, as wrong and illegal as it is to fuck a little boy or a dog or–if you can figure out how to do it–a duck, people who commit those acts should not be harassed, unduly, by the public.
We shouldn’t have to continue adding groups to the hate crimes legislature, a crime of hate can happen to anyone, no matter what group they are a part of, and all crimes of hate should be illegal. Let the courts deal with the duck fucker, Mr. Robertson, it’s not your job to take him to the gates of the city and stone him. Nor is it your job to publicly humiliate him, as is your wish with homosexuals, or to spread damaging lies about him, as is your wish with homosexuals, or to raise up an army of pious sheep against him, as is your wish with homosexuals, or, well, you’re starting to see the pattern here, aren’t you.
Notice it’s the Christians, who whine about being oppressed, who are radically anti-hate crimes legislation and the gays and secularists, who the Christians whine are the ones being hateful, who are pushing for hate crimes legislation. What does this tell you?
(via Media Matters)
Posted in Dumbasses, Gay Rights, Religion
Apr
30
“Costello says that Rudd is like a spruiker for furniture that you take home and pay later, one that won’t tell you the interest rate. Costello was worse… more like a spammer for penis enlargement, because he encouraged crass consumerism and people’s self-worth depending on the size of (illusory) assets compared to the next person.”
(Dave Bath, 2009)
Telling it like it is. 
~ Bruce
Apr
30
New Mexico recently sent out to the CDC a couple samples from two individuals suspected of having swine flu.
The kids are already contemplating having some days off of school. I think that would make me feel worse than the flu would.
This from the World Health Organization:
| Influenza A(H1N1) - update 6 30 April 2009 -- The situation continues to evolve rapidly. As of 17:00 GMT, 30 April 2009, 11 countries have officially reported 257 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection. The United States Government has reported 109 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Mexico has reported 97 confirmed human cases of infection, including seven deaths. The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (19), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8). Further information on the situation will be available on the WHO website on a regular basis. WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, in line with guidance from national authorities. There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products. Individuals are advised to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness. |
Apr
30
April 29, 2009 on The Howard Stern Show
Apr
30
The province of Alberta has decided to make education optional. If there's something in the real world that you don't like, such as that you evolved from other apes, or that gay people exist, or perhaps that understanding the motion of bodies requires some of that difficult math stuff, students will be allowed to close their eyes and plug their ears and pretend those uncomfortable complexities don't exist. How sweet! And then they can graduate without ever learning anything new, and go on to be ignorant voters who will no doubt continue the trend of dumbing down everything.
This is a very stupid move by stupid people that will produce more stupid people.
It neglects a fundamental property of education: that in order to learn, you have to be exposed to many new and sometimes difficult ideas. We teach about subjects that no one thinks are good, because you need to know about them to have an informed opinion. The Holocaust was horrible and painful — shall we allow children to avoid exposure to it? Fundamentalist parents may gnash their teeth in fury at the very idea of evolution — but how can they disagree with it rationally, if they don't even know what it is?
Somehow we've acquired this bizarre notion that learning is about being eased along, never stressing ourselves, never facing a challenge. We've mistaken education for an exercise in affirmation. And now Alberta wants to enshrine that idea in their educational system.
Well, at least if the future creates a lot of demand for jobs that require smugly oblivious, incompetent people, industry will know precisely where to go for them.
Read the comments on this post...
Apr
30
I have made a change log for The Coming Out Godless Project.
As you may have noticed, I’ve been slow to blog here as well as work on the final changes for COG. Read my post on what has come up.
Apr
30
Alright, fair cop, I’m obviously a technology hermit, because until this juncture in my life – I had never heard of an iPhone (by Apple).
This is hardly a surprise, since I was probably Telecom New Zealand’s last 025 cell phone-owner.
So when I first came across this intriguing article, I needed to get my bearings by asking around the office “what’s an iPhone?” to be told, by a younger member, “it’s an expensive cell-phone you can play games on and listen to music on”.
For iPhone owners, one of these new games to come out, is ‘Pocket God’.
This is what the touch-screen game ‘Pocket God’ looks like to play, so you getter a better idea of the game itself & what the controversy is all about.
Now before you go thinking the criticism of a game in which you play God, has to have come from theist groups – you’d be wrong.
To date, there hasn’t been a whimper of disquiet at a depiction of indiscriminate ‘Old Testament’ style slaughter, from within N.Z Churches.
No in-fact, its local Pacific Islander groups, that feel the brown-skinned men in hula skirts are ‘inappropriate’ and ‘racist’.
The obvious Easter Island references, seemed to have escaped them completely.
So, moving-on folks.
One can only presume the silence from Churches regarding ‘Pocket God’ mean the games creators were adequately able to re-create their chosen God in all his power & glory?
A realistic depiction of a God, that summarily burns, drowns, squashes his cowering creations in their thousands.
A genocidal God that has as much fun & pleasure dishing-out indiscriminate death, as iPhone owners have, with their harmless game.
Only, as far as believers are concerned, homicidal God(s) do this for real, every second of every day.
To believers in Gods – this is not a game.
This is hardly a surprise, since I was probably Telecom New Zealand’s last 025 cell phone-owner.
So when I first came across this intriguing article, I needed to get my bearings by asking around the office “what’s an iPhone?” to be told, by a younger member, “it’s an expensive cell-phone you can play games on and listen to music on”.
For iPhone owners, one of these new games to come out, is ‘Pocket God’.
This is what the touch-screen game ‘Pocket God’ looks like to play, so you getter a better idea of the game itself & what the controversy is all about.
Now before you go thinking the criticism of a game in which you play God, has to have come from theist groups – you’d be wrong.
To date, there hasn’t been a whimper of disquiet at a depiction of indiscriminate ‘Old Testament’ style slaughter, from within N.Z Churches.
No in-fact, its local Pacific Islander groups, that feel the brown-skinned men in hula skirts are ‘inappropriate’ and ‘racist’.
The obvious Easter Island references, seemed to have escaped them completely.
So, moving-on folks.
One can only presume the silence from Churches regarding ‘Pocket God’ mean the games creators were adequately able to re-create their chosen God in all his power & glory?
A realistic depiction of a God, that summarily burns, drowns, squashes his cowering creations in their thousands.
A genocidal God that has as much fun & pleasure dishing-out indiscriminate death, as iPhone owners have, with their harmless game.
Only, as far as believers are concerned, homicidal God(s) do this for real, every second of every day.
To believers in Gods – this is not a game.
Apr
30
TechFlash confirms what I Twittered about last night:
We’ve been experiencing ongoing problems trying to connect to the Internet using AT&T’s 3G network via our iPhones over the past two days. As it turns out, we’re not alone. iPhone users in Seattle report sporadic service
I had an important call scheduled for 8am today; at 8:10am my interlocutor emailed to say that he’d tried to call twice, but my number was busy. Fortunately the third time was the charm.
AT&T blamed a software upgrade. Sounds familiar….
Apr
30
My heart skipped a beat, I pressed a knuckle to my mouth, my eyelashes fluttered wildly as I tried to hold back my tears as I read this cutting review:
Mr Geoffrey Deene of Fashion Wire Daily, I still think you'd look sodding STUPID if you wore this anywhere:
NOOOOOOoooooooOOOOoooo!!! But I already ordered it for my Spring wardrobe! Whatever shall I dooooooo?
Read the comments on this post...
Apr
30
I know it hurts, it hurts so bad, but I have to ask you again to keep clicking to help me win that iPod Touch from Eric Hovind. It's only a little pain, after a few clicks you'll be numb.
But that reminder also reminds me that I'll be judging a video contest after 1 June — you only have one more month to put together an entry to explain evolution in two minutes or less. Eric Hovind is welcome to enter — a little comedy relief is always nice — but I think his videos are more of an anti-inspiration. Put him to shame with some substance! Look at his shoddy work and resolve to show the world how it is realy done!
Say…wouldn't it be handy if I had an iPod Touch I could fill with the contest entries?
Read the comments on this post...
Apr
30
Campus Atheist Club? Oregon Commentator, OR When the hell did atheists turn into such joiners? Atheist 2: There is no real order in the universe. Quantum mechanics proves that. Atheist 1: Whatever, dudes. I think God is way more dead than you do! Atheist 2: How can “god” “suck”? ... |
Apr
30
AS swine flu began its spread across the globe, first to step up to the pig ignorant podium was Israel’s deputy Health Minister, who wanted its name changed to “Mexican” flu to avoid ruffling Jewish feathers.
Then up stepped imam Amadia Rachid, based in the Italian city of Salerno, who claimed this week that the swine flu virus affirms Islam’s teachings. Said Algerian-born Rachid:
We believe that what is happening shows the truth of our faith. Even Muslims who live in Italy are talking about swine flu at the moment … many believe the disease confirmed the teaching of the Koran
He added:
The Islamic faith doesn’t explain exactly why pigs should be considered unclean animals. But it’s clear that, for most theologians, it is precisely to avoid the spread of disease that Islamic tradition tends to keep men away from pigs.
Shortly after – despite the fact that global health experts insist that the mass slaughter of pigs is entirely unnecessary and a waste of resources – Egypt, one of the few Islamic states which allows pig breeding, began giving the chop to the country’s estimated 300,000 pig population.
According to this report, at one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, scores of angry farmers blocked the street to prevent Health Ministry workers in trucks and bulldozers from coming in to slaughter the animals. Some pelted the vehicles with rocks and shattered their windshields and the workers left without killing any of the animals.
Experts suspect that swine flu, a strange new mix of pig, bird and human flu virus, originated with pigs then jumped to humans and is now spreading through human-to-human contact. Health authorities have said you cannot contract the flu by eating pork.
Even the Catholics are getting in on the act, with some US bishops suggesting ways that priests can alter the celebration of Mass in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.
A letter from Bishop Gregory M Aymond warns parishes in the Diocese of Austin, Texas, not to:
Offer the blood of Christ at Eucharist until more is known about the virus. It seems that having the public drink from the chalice may be an unnecessary risk.
Bishop Aymond further instructed ministers of Communion to always have clean hands when handling and distributing the Eucharist.
Father Michael Dugan, director of the Office of Liturgy for the Diocese of Dallas, reminded parishioners of their obligation to attend Mass on Sunday. If a parishioner is sick, however, Father Dugan recommended that he or she stay home to avoid spreading the illness.
Father Dugan also said that:
Members of our congregations should not be offended at this time if someone chooses not to shake the other person’s hand at the sign of peace. If you are ill, the appropriate response to someone extending a sign of peace might be to bow to them and say, ‘Peace be with you,’ to avoid bodily contact, or one might wave slightly at the other person.
But Catholics, according to Republican Faith Chat, deserve to be struck down by the virus:
Those people [Catholics] have always provoked the Lord with their ‘veneration’ of Mary to the point that she has supplanted Jesus and become the Diana Ross of their religion, with Jesus relegated from THE Supreme to simply a Supreme. The cultists in the country just south [Mexico] claim to see Mary in everything from a stucco wall to an enchilada. They worship mortal ‘saints’ and pray to statues. It was only a matter of time before Jesus became fed up and released the Trinity’s holy wrath on those dog-eaters.
Apr
30
The Huffington Post has been getting a lot of grief around scienceblogs lately, since they've been letting some astounding woo slip through under the guise of medicine and science. Now it is partly explained: their "wellness" editor is Patricia Fitzgerald. Here are her qualifications:
Patricia Fitzgerald is a licensed acupuncturist, certified clinical nutritionist, and a homeopath. She has a Master's Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and a Doctorate in Homeopathic Medicine.
Words fail me. What is a doctorate in homeopathic medicine? A blank piece of paper taped to your wall?
(via Mike the Mad Biologist)
Read the comments on this post...
