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like it? click it!
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the title's got nothing to do with the image. i just am.
©2010 helen sotiriadis
Do you dislike the state but are not sure if you’re an Anarchist? Do you want to see what your pro-free market, limited state option makes you? Then the following flowchart is just for you. (Click the image for the full version)
H/t: Reddit. No idea what the original source is
Insightful? Funny? Informative? Convincing? Helpful?
Other similar posts you might also enjoy: An Anarchist FAQ on your e-reader | Free Markets are libertarian but libertarianism is not the Free Markets | Why are you a Market Anarchist?
WHAT on earth is the BBC playing at?
Carrying on as if all of Britain is currently waiting in eager anticipation for Pope Ratzinger to hit our shores, it ploughs on with programmes which steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the fact that a great many Brits are dead set against this visit, are appalled by revelations of global clerical child abuse, and deeply resent that fact that millions in taxpayers’ dosh is to be squandered on this ghastly old drag queen.
This morning at 11am, for example, Radio 4 will broadcast “God’s Ambassador“:
Francis Campbell, our man in Rome
This is how it trails the programme, which focuses on the role of Francis Campbell:
He was the first Catholic to be appointed to the role of Ambassador to the Holy See since the Reformation and he’s been our man in the Vatican since 2005. Not bad for a man born into farming stock in a tiny Northern Irish village on the border with Ireland.
It goes on:
The Holy See might be one of the smallest British Embassies, but Francis is quick to point out the international scope of his team. In this two part series, Ruth Mcdonald follows the work of the tiny team in Rome, as they prepare for the Pope’s visit to the UK – the first STATE visit by the head of the Catholic Church to this country.
Francis is a charming, friendly and honest man, whose own memories of the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979 means he knows just what a papal visit can mean to the Catholic minority in the UK. He himself started training for the priesthood – although his interest in politics won out, and he dropped out of seminary. But a strong faith is behind his enthusiasm and drive for this papal visit – enthusiasm that doesn’t flag even though the media focus on the visit has so far been on cost and clerical abuse.
Ruth travels between London, Rome and Birmingham, following Francis and the team in Whitehall and the Vatican.
Because the BBC is so good at so much of what it does, this sort of toadying, uncritical coverage, which will no doubt neatly sidestep the fact that the Holy See is a BOGUS entity, puts a bloody great dent in its reputation for objective reporting, and makes programmes like these all the more infuriating.
This is what Andrew Copson, of the BHA said in April regarding the Holy See:
As a citizen of Europe and the leader of a religion with many UK adherents, the Pope is, of course free to visit the UK. But the Holy See is a fake state, which uses its international influence for religious ends, and to allow the Pope to visit us as a head of state is ludicrous.
And last month, Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, anticipated that this “State” visit would be used by the Catholic Church as an opportunity to further demand its “rights” to practise discrimination.
No church has such ‘rights’ in Britain, nor should it have, and the Pope should respect that. If he comes to our country and rails against the equality laws he so despises, it will be seen by many as an impertinence and an insult to the state of which he is supposed to be an honoured guest.
The only reason this massive cost is being bankrolled by the taxpayer is that this is, nominally at least, a state visit by a head of state. The protocol of such visits is for the visitor not to engage in the politics of the host country.
So, not only do we have to pay for what is largely a religious visit, but the thanks we are likely to get for our largesse is critical interference in our domestic affairs – and there will not even be an opportunity for a Right of Reply. As usual for the Vatican it is ‘heads they win tails we lose’.
We appeal to the Pope to stick to religion while he is here and keep his unpleasant political opinions, which even many Catholics find hard to stomach, to himself.
Atheism Is Not RealityAtheism is not a reality, it is just a matter of convenience. When you have a spirit of inquiry, or in search of truth, atheism falls apart. With a spirit of inquiry, you cannot deny something which you have not disproved. An atheist denies God without first disproving it. In order to disprove God, you must have enormous knowledge. And when you have enormous knowledge, you cannot disprove it! (laughter!)For one to say that something does not exist, one should know about the whole universe. So you can never be one hundred percent atheist. An atheist is only a believer who is sleeping!
What is it about Elsa Lancaster and The Bride of Frankenstein? She's the "it" girl of the 20th century, and here's a whole gallery of Bride images. I have a favorite, for some reason.
Totally awesome.
I sort of met Dr. Rachael Dunlop, Brian Dunning, Pamela Gay, Fraser Cain, an assload of Skepchicks. George Hrab was playing "I Am the Walrus" when we left. Oh! I held Little Nommington! (And here I thought the whole time that the walrus was Paul.) I took a picture, but I can't find my damned camera cable, which sort of defeats the purpose of getting a not-junky camera, does it not?
I could have stayed longer, honestly. I'm looking forward to the Con, however.
Here's wombat combat:
HJ
Let's do commercials for the 100th entry in the thread of agony!
(Current totals: 10,935 entries with 1,110,958 comments.)
Read the comments on this post...Here's a swami with his magic breathing advice for coping with throat cancer. How these guys can dispense bogus medical advice and not get lynched by angry cancer patients is a mystery.
At least he looks really goofy when he curls his tongue and breathes. Now if only there were some yogic enchantment that could do something about his creepy squink eye…
Read the comments on this post...Roy Peter Clark wrote a book about language which was savaged viciously on Language Log — in other words, the poor guy was publicly ridiculed and his work rudely trashed. He couldn't possibly have learned anything from that, could he? He has a guest post now in which he describes his reaction.
In brief, the criticism, some of it harsh and uninformed, helped me straighten out some crooked thinking about language, a process that resulted in the recent publication by Little, Brown of my book "The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English." On August 22, Ammon Shea gave the book high marks in the New York Times Book Review, calling it "very much a manual for the 21st century."
I write this on Language Log not to tell you that my success has proved some of your commentary off the mark. Quite the contrary, I have often said now to friends and colleagues that had I not been roughed up by the Language Loggers, I could not have developed the muscle tone to write the book.
Hmm. Who would have thought that maybe the response to criticism was dependent on the attitude of the recipient? Oh, gosh. Me.
Read the comments on this post...The Institute for Creation Research had been trying to get approval from the state of Texas to offer graduate degrees in science education — they failed. Now they have actually publicly admitted defeat, which is gratifying to see.
So we won't be seeing a wave of teachers with master's degrees in science ed and absolutely no science training emerging from the state. Instead, though, they'll be offering this:
Replacing it, apparently, is the ICR's School of Biblical Apologetics, which offers a Master of Christian Education degree; Creation Research is one of four minors. The ICR explains, "Due to the nature of ICR's School of Biblical Apologetics — a predominantly religious education school — it is exempt from licensing by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Likewise, ICR's School of Biblical Apologetics is legally exempt from being required to be accredited by any secular or ecumenical or other type of accrediting association."
This isn't a problem. Their lunacy will be clearly and accurately labeled, and that's all we should care about.
Read the comments on this post...Pat Condell has been releasing some less-than-stellar videos about his opposition to the (close to) Ground Zero Mosque (and community center). At least, I haven’t been a fan of them.
But until I saw this excellent video by The Amazing Atheist, I hadn’t seen a response to him that I liked quite so much…
Note to self: Always walk toward the camera when going on a rant. It is *so* much more effective than just standing there.
This week South Canterbury Finance was placed into receivership and the taxpayer came to the rescue of its mum & pop investors (read: National Party stalwarts)
Despite what has been portrayed by vested-interest groups, mostly south of the Rakaia River, there was and is no conspiracy here in the form of neo-fascist Serious Fraud Office interrogating Hubbard and his wife like a scene from ‘The Deer Hunter.’
No evil, malicious government at work trying to destroy the reputation of an elderly and much revered ‘God fearing’ businessman.
SCF and the intertwined companies lent money to people who couldn’t pay back the interest & who were sitting on depreciating assets many of which now have values less than the loans taken, some near worthless - all at a time when the world economies were in a tail-spin.
Another ‘nail in the coffin’ were the investors who, prudently as it turns-out, pulled their money-out on maturity date rather than re-investing it. Thus the day to day operating cash needed to operate, dried-up.
This scenario in South Canterbury Finance is little different than the demise of other finance companies we have seen lately.
If you lend investors money to a 2nd hand car yard, a pub, a land developer or a dairy conversion group in Waimate etc and the recipients can’t pay back the loan – then make these bad choices time after time - the end result is the same. The bad investments drag- down the good and it all turns pear-shaped.
In the case of South Canterbury finance they made around $600 million of bad calls.
Cries that the fatal-demise of this South Canterbury institution would seriously harm the local Canterbury economy ring-hollow when we (its new default share-holders) learnt about the scope of its bad debts, much of which evaporated in the metro-sexual haunts of Auckland’s viaduct, Marlborough Vineyards, Luxury Apartments in Queenstown, a Resort in Fiji and even the ubiquitous Dave Henderson got his mitts on SCF’s investors loot.
$700 to $800 million went into what NBR termed ‘non viable building projects.’
It was those who made the bad-calls to loan other-peoples life-savings, money to these defaulting parties who are at fault and not the SFO, evil public servants in Wellington.
To quote SCF’s Chief Executive Sandy Maier “South Canterbury’s failure is a result of its own actions and activities and poor decisions historically.”
The fact that one director of a failed finance company lead a more frugal existence, went to church on Sunday, donates to SPCA etc and his failed contemporaries were hedonistic flash Aucklanders driving Mercs means nothing to me as a tax-payer. The end result of their respective business’s is the same – blood on the ground and the tax-payer left holding the can without getting any say.
Why New Zealanders should feel any sympathy for the Directors of SCF versus say Hanover Finance is beyond me?
In-fact Hanover’s melt-down didn’t bleed every New Zealander to the tune of $400 each, just it’s share-holders - which is the way it should be in a capitalist economy.
For the record I never invested in any of these defunct finance companies – yet there is not only people wanting me to pay for other peoples bad choices - on top of that, there is also an element who want me to cry crocodile tears at the way Mr & Mrs Hubbard have been treated as well!
Well Fuck You!
Fuck the socialist National Party!
As a country we can’t pay for teachers wage rises but we can find a billion-plus for investors chasing high returns in what turned-out to be a portfolio with high risk investments.
If you are comfortable investing in speculative ventures like resorts in that coup ridden basket-case Fiji, fly-by-night glitzy pubs, ‘boom & bust’ agricultural enterprises like vineyards – be prepared to lose your shirt.
By-in-large the ungrateful National voting investors in SCF weren’t happy with the conservative returns offered by Trading Banks or the volatility of the share-market. The investors of SCF were happy taking the high-returns but squealed like pigs to gutless politicians when their money disappeared down the tubes.
For those misguided souls that still worship the cult of Hubbard here’s a message - why-not dip-into your own pockets & the moment you can re-invest in South Canterbury Finance & Aorangi Securities again – do so- if this is as you suggest a matter of principal and such a vital asset worth saving?
After-all the best thing his supporters and fellow parishioners can do to show solidarity with Hubbard and his fellow directors is, the moment statutory management is lifted, to place your money in South Canterbury Finance, Aorangi Securities etc (or for that matter one of the hundreds of companies Hubbard is a director in – there’s a couple of hundred from all accounts)
So if you truly back Allan Hubbard forget posting empty platitudes on Facebook sites and instead have the fortitude to take your own money out of your own bank account and not mine.
Forget the holiday on The Gold Coast, sell the boat, caravan, house, pets, send the kids up chimneys etc & the give all your worldly wealth to that honest & benevolent financial genius Allan Hubbard and his ably qualified & proven team at SCF to prudently invest on your behalf.
Say finish off that resort in Fiji that is languishing.
Dave Henderson certainly could do with your $'s currently.
Personally I wouldn’t lend SCF or Aorangi etc a brass rarzoo and I don’t mind saying so.
Last and by no means-least, I also think its high-time some of these privileged self-interested investors who have been bailed-out should take time away from sending the Hubbards condolences cards and say “Thank-You.” to suckers like me.
Despite what has been portrayed by vested-interest groups, mostly south of the Rakaia River, there was and is no conspiracy here in the form of neo-fascist Serious Fraud Office interrogating Hubbard and his wife like a scene from ‘The Deer Hunter.’
No evil, malicious government at work trying to destroy the reputation of an elderly and much revered ‘God fearing’ businessman.
SCF and the intertwined companies lent money to people who couldn’t pay back the interest & who were sitting on depreciating assets many of which now have values less than the loans taken, some near worthless - all at a time when the world economies were in a tail-spin.
Another ‘nail in the coffin’ were the investors who, prudently as it turns-out, pulled their money-out on maturity date rather than re-investing it. Thus the day to day operating cash needed to operate, dried-up.
This scenario in South Canterbury Finance is little different than the demise of other finance companies we have seen lately.
If you lend investors money to a 2nd hand car yard, a pub, a land developer or a dairy conversion group in Waimate etc and the recipients can’t pay back the loan – then make these bad choices time after time - the end result is the same. The bad investments drag- down the good and it all turns pear-shaped.
In the case of South Canterbury finance they made around $600 million of bad calls.
Cries that the fatal-demise of this South Canterbury institution would seriously harm the local Canterbury economy ring-hollow when we (its new default share-holders) learnt about the scope of its bad debts, much of which evaporated in the metro-sexual haunts of Auckland’s viaduct, Marlborough Vineyards, Luxury Apartments in Queenstown, a Resort in Fiji and even the ubiquitous Dave Henderson got his mitts on SCF’s investors loot.
$700 to $800 million went into what NBR termed ‘non viable building projects.’
It was those who made the bad-calls to loan other-peoples life-savings, money to these defaulting parties who are at fault and not the SFO, evil public servants in Wellington.
To quote SCF’s Chief Executive Sandy Maier “South Canterbury’s failure is a result of its own actions and activities and poor decisions historically.”
The fact that one director of a failed finance company lead a more frugal existence, went to church on Sunday, donates to SPCA etc and his failed contemporaries were hedonistic flash Aucklanders driving Mercs means nothing to me as a tax-payer. The end result of their respective business’s is the same – blood on the ground and the tax-payer left holding the can without getting any say.
Why New Zealanders should feel any sympathy for the Directors of SCF versus say Hanover Finance is beyond me?
In-fact Hanover’s melt-down didn’t bleed every New Zealander to the tune of $400 each, just it’s share-holders - which is the way it should be in a capitalist economy.
For the record I never invested in any of these defunct finance companies – yet there is not only people wanting me to pay for other peoples bad choices - on top of that, there is also an element who want me to cry crocodile tears at the way Mr & Mrs Hubbard have been treated as well!
Well Fuck You!
Fuck the socialist National Party!
As a country we can’t pay for teachers wage rises but we can find a billion-plus for investors chasing high returns in what turned-out to be a portfolio with high risk investments.
If you are comfortable investing in speculative ventures like resorts in that coup ridden basket-case Fiji, fly-by-night glitzy pubs, ‘boom & bust’ agricultural enterprises like vineyards – be prepared to lose your shirt.
By-in-large the ungrateful National voting investors in SCF weren’t happy with the conservative returns offered by Trading Banks or the volatility of the share-market. The investors of SCF were happy taking the high-returns but squealed like pigs to gutless politicians when their money disappeared down the tubes.
For those misguided souls that still worship the cult of Hubbard here’s a message - why-not dip-into your own pockets & the moment you can re-invest in South Canterbury Finance & Aorangi Securities again – do so- if this is as you suggest a matter of principal and such a vital asset worth saving?
After-all the best thing his supporters and fellow parishioners can do to show solidarity with Hubbard and his fellow directors is, the moment statutory management is lifted, to place your money in South Canterbury Finance, Aorangi Securities etc (or for that matter one of the hundreds of companies Hubbard is a director in – there’s a couple of hundred from all accounts)
So if you truly back Allan Hubbard forget posting empty platitudes on Facebook sites and instead have the fortitude to take your own money out of your own bank account and not mine.
Forget the holiday on The Gold Coast, sell the boat, caravan, house, pets, send the kids up chimneys etc & the give all your worldly wealth to that honest & benevolent financial genius Allan Hubbard and his ably qualified & proven team at SCF to prudently invest on your behalf.
Say finish off that resort in Fiji that is languishing.
Dave Henderson certainly could do with your $'s currently.
Personally I wouldn’t lend SCF or Aorangi etc a brass rarzoo and I don’t mind saying so.
Last and by no means-least, I also think its high-time some of these privileged self-interested investors who have been bailed-out should take time away from sending the Hubbards condolences cards and say “Thank-You.” to suckers like me.
So, this is probably the saddest song ever recorded, but it’s one of my favourite songs of all time.
Possibly Related Posts
The BHA has submitted written evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sports Committee on the Scottish Palliative Care Bill. The Bill aims to place a specific statutory duty upon Scottish Ministers to provide palliative care (treatment which aims to control symptoms relating to a life-limiting condition which cannot be cured) and requires that the Ministers report annually to Parliament on a range of indicators relating to palliative care. The current situation means that Ministers have a duty of care in certain circumstances but palliative care is not specifically mentioned in legislation.
Pepper Harow, Campaigns Officer, stated, ‘The BHA’s submission to the committee focuses on our concerns about certain aspects of the Bill. For example, the duty involves reporting on the ‘spiritual’ care which is offered to patients, yet there is no definition of this term. The risk is that this will be read as ‘religious’ and the needs of non-religious patients will be overlooked.
‘We are also concerned that any discussion of end of life care involves people being given full information and choices about their treatment and that the need for a holistic approach to the issue, which may include discussion about treatments which hasten death, is not ignored.’
Pepper Harow, Campaigns Officer, stated, ‘The BHA’s submission to the committee focuses on our concerns about certain aspects of the Bill. For example, the duty involves reporting on the ‘spiritual’ care which is offered to patients, yet there is no definition of this term. The risk is that this will be read as ‘religious’ and the needs of non-religious patients will be overlooked.
‘We are also concerned that any discussion of end of life care involves people being given full information and choices about their treatment and that the need for a holistic approach to the issue, which may include discussion about treatments which hasten death, is not ignored.’
A Tea Party U.S. Senate candidate stands accused of sex with a minor girl he met at church. Eric W. Deaton has some explaining to do.
the Ohio Constitution Party candidate for U.S. Senate who was indicted on Tuesday for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor -- met the victim at a church where he was an elder, a police official told TPMMuckraker.
Deaton claims its a political ploy. He can kiss away any hope of office. Wait, no, he never had hope.
I don’t make this stuff up.
Technorati Tags: Tea Party,Pedophiles
August Berkshire is the president of Minnesota Atheists. He’s written some very popular pieces on this site, including “34 Unconvincing Arguments for God,” and he’ll be speaking at the Project 42 Freethought conference in Fargo, North Dakota on September 18th.
August’s latest piece explains The Seven Cs of Atheism (PDF):
Conservative
Atheism is a conservative position. We accept statements only so far as there is reason and/or evidence to back them up. Anything else is speculation. We make no leaps of faith. If there should some day be a compelling reason or piece of evidence for a god, then we would acknowledge it and change our views.
Clarity
An atheist possesses clarity in his or her thinking processes. We are able to identify those things for which we have evidence and separate them from other things that are merely wishful thinking.
Consistent
An atheist is also consistent. We apply our skepticism equally to all supernatural claims. We do not say, “All prophets, saviors, or gods are false -– except ours.” We make no exceptions or special pleadings.
Contradiction-free
Another benefit of atheism is that it is contradiction-free. We don’t have to try to reconcile an all-loving, all-seeing, all-powerful god with the existence of evil. We don’t have to define love exactly the opposite of how we normally define it in order to make it applicable to a god. We don’t have to claim that a poor supernatural designer is intelligent.
Courage
An atheist possesses courage. It is natural for people to have a healthy survival instinct. However, some people have such a fear of death that they feel compelled to believe in an afterlife to alleviate those fears. It takes intellectual and emotional courage to abandon belief in an afterlife because there is no evidence for it (and compelling evidence against it). It also takes intellectual and emotional courage to abandon one’s belief in a cosmic, supernatural “protector” and realize that, as far as we know, we are alone in our universe and must therefore help each other as best we can.
Consequences
There are certain consequences that naturally follow from being an atheist. Since there are no gods to help us, we must rely on ourselves and each other. Since there is no afterlife, it becomes more important to improve life on Earth.
Conclusion
One of the arguments of Pascal’s Wager is that a person loses nothing by believing in a god. This is not true. Accepting Pascal’s Wager means saying that we are willing to abandon reason and evidence as our guides to living, and instead make a leap of faith to… where?
It’s true that by converting (or deconverting) from theism to atheism a person will lose his or her sense of divine specialness, cosmic meaning in life, and any hope of an afterlife. But you can’t lose what you never really had.
The reality of atheism far outweighs the dream of religion. There is an excitement and beauty to perceiving the world as it really is, and not as an illusion.
Would you change, remove, or add to anything on this list?
Pastor Kevin Pushia helped kill a disabled man for his life insurance money. He faces life in prison for his roll in the murder.
Prosecutor Robin Wherley said Pushia confessed to taking out multiple life insurance policies in Wallace’s name, then paying a hit man $50,000 to kill him.
That money had come from the treasury of a small East Baltimore church where Pushia was a pastor.
What next? According to his defense attorney, Pushia made some poor choices, now he’s trying to face the future.
“His plea was an effort to purge himself, emotionally and spiritually.”
He’s lucky. Murder for hire can put you on death row. But who want to execute a pastor? I bet the DA is happy.
Technorati Tags: Clergy Misconduct,Murder
I’m surprised somebody has not tried this or worse before. Westboro Baptists pour acid in the open wounds of the grieving. It just a matter of time until they piss the wrong person off.
A 62-year-old man has been arrested after he allegedly tried to fire pepper spray at members of the radical Westboro Baptist Church as they protested the funeral of a U.S. Marine.
The incident took place at around 10 a.m. Saturday in Omaha, Neb., where some 20 followers of the extremist Kansas sect -- who believe the deaths of American soldiers are divine retribution for the country's tolerance of homosexuality -- were staging a demonstration a block away from the funeral of Staff Sgt. Michael Bock. The 26-year-old Marine was killed in combat in Afghanistan's Helmand Province on Aug. 13.
Read the full story here.
Technorati Tags: Westboro Baptists
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