Year: 2006
Atheists Diss Dawkins
Posted on November 22, 2006 in Morals & Ethics
Nice defense of the concept of religious and areligious tolerance here.
Fundamentalists reject “tolerance” because they see it as the doorway to evil, one which gives errant visions equal time with God’s unchanging truth. (“That word ‘broad-minded,'” sang the Louvin Brothers, “is spelled S-I-N.”) The Evangelical Atheists explicitly rejecttolerance, too. They argue that those who preach tolerance are creating a friendly climate for extremism. They offer no documentation to support their argument, only the rhetoric of vituperation.
Plates of Fog
Posted on November 22, 2006 in Driving
Foggy nights make familiar roads into undiscovered countries.
Dead Deer Sex
Posted on November 22, 2006 in Strange
When is an animal no longer an animal? This plea didn’t work out.
No Retraction Policy
Posted on November 22, 2006 in Site News
I will not make any retractions about anonymous and unidentifiable parties (e.g. no sex, no name, no location, no country of origin, no age, no affiliation), especially those who set up defamatory web sites and use sock puppets to promote them.
Back to regularly scheduled blogging.
Six Imans Could Have Been None
Posted on November 21, 2006 in Morals & Ethics
The details of the story are not yet in, but six imans were dragged off a US Airways flight. Some claim that it was for praying. Others for standing up just before and during takeoff, which is a safety hazard.
Taking them off in handcuffs feels extreme to me, but the men had unbuckled their seat belts and risen into a place of danger. They could have fallen and done injury to themselves or others.
If this is the case, I do not sympathize.
It seems to me that if there is a God, that it is a patient god, not a timekeeper who docks you salvation for missing a scheduled prayer or arriving a few minutes before or a few minutes after the prescribed time.
Islam makes exceptions for the sick and the young during Ramadan. They can do it for the needs of a plane flight.
O.J. Won’t Get to Do It
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Celebrity Publishing Scoundrels
Everyone is pulling out on OJ
Human Rights for a Gasser?
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Atrocity Justice Occupation of Iraq
Saddam should serve as a living exhibit of the fate of murderous dictators, not as a quickly buried corpse.
The Poisoned Muffins
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Strange
How nice of this woman to let Sandra Day O’Connor know that the muffin she sent her was deadly.
Barbara Joan March, a 61-year-old Connecticut resident, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison for mailing letters “containing either a baked good or a piece of candy laced with rat poison” to the nine justices, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and another bureau official. March’s bizarre scheme is detailed in a government sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court, a copy of which you’ll find below. According to an indictment, a note to O’Connor (which accompanied the spiked treat) stated, “We are going to kill you. This is poisoned.” March placed the names of various acquaintances (former classmates, an ex-roommate, a former co-worker, etc.) on the letters she mailed, in an apparent bid to mask her identity.
Leaf is Leaf, Skin is Skin
Posted on November 20, 2006 in Attitudes Satisfaction
For me, it is very important to keep the separation, to remember that leaf is leaf and skin is skin.
Headlights in Santiago Canyon
Posted on November 19, 2006 in Driving
I saw a pair of headlights about a quarter mile ahead of me. I checked my position: the double yellows were on my left as they should have been.
The Trail of a Brontosaurus
Posted on November 19, 2006 in Blogging
Some people don’t realize that the trails they leave when harassing you on the web make it as easy to track them as a brontosaurus. A mostly quiet battle here, my friends, but as some of you know from my email, one that is starting to fire my resolve. Their threats and their lies are rumbling in the muck. I’ve got a boat.
Thanks to the people from across the continents who have lent me their eyes, heard my grief in however muted form.
