Illinois Mountain Lion

My uncle forwarded these pictures to me saying they were taken in East-Central Illinois

Well I hoped it was true.  It’s not.  But people will forward almost anything.  Some people will, the same people always will it seems.  I received an email saying Obama refused to say the pledge of allegiance or wear an American lapel pin.  The person who sent it and did the right thing by emailing all who received it, telling us it was false, and apologizing.

Sometime soon I think I will send around a fake forward just to see what people will believe.

Obama and Racists

This is sort of funny sort of deep.

Racists for Obama?

Included is this gem:

it’s perfectly possible to hold a negative view of at least one aspect of African-Americans and yet simultaneously prefer Obama, racial feelings are not as cut and dried — not as black and white — as people often say.”

Onion or Real

The Onion is a humor news paper and it does it’s job well.  I read it and am consistently impressed.  I write here and I try to string ideas together coherently, sometimes I do.  I write for Fact Checked, and sometimes I’m funny, never as funny as the Onion, I don’t think.

But sometimes I find an article in a serious newspaper (note I didn’t say real) that feels like it would be at home in the Onion, or I would be proud to have thought of it an put it on Fact Checked.  Politico delivered such a headline just today.

Joe not a licensed plumber

This will only make sense if you watched the last Presidential debate.

In _ _ _ We Trust.

Please permit me to disassociate with the official monetary slogan of he United States. But the line comes to mind. I am currently reading Richard Dawkins‘ “The God Delusion“. In his book, Dawkins states his case claiming the non-existence of God. Which is all well and good, it’s a free country. He and I see eye to eye on one thing which is tangential to the God question, but is nevertheless interesting. That belief in belief is not good.

Let’s unpack all that. Dawkins’ central question is of the existence of God. Some people say people are better off believing in God regardless of his reality, or society is better off because of religious adhearents. And Dawkins and I agree that is not so. In that opinion we are in good company. The Apostle Paul wrote:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Dawkins has his own substantial reasons. The abuses of the Church, the holy wars (historic and current), and suppressive arbitrary moral codes. He claims that no matter how constructive the results would be, that is no reason to believe a lie. That is, of coarse, from the persuasion that all religion of all times is a lie.

So this is where I’m at, I am reading a persuasive book about the non-existence of God. I will have more to say about Dawkins’ writing style, style of persuasion, and subjective assumptions (which is a sin for scientists). The introduction to the book promised that a thinking person would become an atheist by the end of the book.

I hope to write more on this as I feel like it.

Repressive Left

French air-bag convicted of downplaying the Nazis

The person in question is historically wrong, and morally suspect. But that is not the point. When we say thing like, “We have the right to say what we think.” It would sometimes be followed by an example to the contrary of a notorious county (USSR, East Germany, China). But this is France, the cradle of the Enlightenment and the Rights of Man.

Can a people be so concerned about protecting the population from oppressive ideas, like fascism, they become oppressive?

Update: What the hell is going on in France?  French Police ‘made Nazi salutes’ 

The House Loses on the Super Bowl

Gambling Article

From the article:

World Vision, a Christian aid organization, plans to take the T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats that the Patriots, Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers never got to use and send them to poor children in more than 100 developing countries, in what has become a feel-good footnote for losing teams in the past few years.

Or as Rachael Boyer of World Vision said in a news release, “Even though they didn’t win the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots will still be champions in several countries around the world.”

It has been a funny fact to me for years every time those championship hats and t-shirts are on the spot, and I get to point out those items have useless counterparts that turn up in pictures of the third world.

Back Fired!

This story says Hussein wanted the world to believe he had WMDs.  The man knew how to play a joke.  Boy, the egg is on our face.