Scientology A-Go-Go

Will posting an entry about Scientology, and Scientologists such as John Travolta, Priscilla and Lisa-Marie Presley, Tom Cruise, Kirstie Allie, and Tom's Seed-Manure Katie Holmes going to cause my blog hits to go way, way up like I read in J-Walk? We'll see.

Scientology is super double-plus good! E-Meters, auditing, Xenu and body thetans!

Jessica Simpson!

The Simpsons!

LSJUMB Rocks!

First, listen to Yes' "Roundabout" found on Ubuweb (scroll down to February 10 for the download). It's the best marching band song I've ever heard.

Next, read this entry from Crud Crud (the 11/17 entry) all about the band. It's a great story, and there are at least three comments by actual band members.

A scatter band is different from a marching band in that it spells out words or makes shapes, instead of marching in formation. In the Stanford Band's case, that meant doing a tribute to the recently kidnapped, Cal student Patty Hearst at the Big Game against Cal (UC Berkeley) by making a formation of a hamburger bun which was missing a patty.

The Atheist Church

Read this entry from

This Blog Will Change Your Life
My year-long adventure following the daily instructions presented in This Book Will Change Your Life by Benrik Limited as closely as possible without getting arrested or dying...

Spend some time in church today. Even the irreligious amongst us can appreciate the sanctuary that church provides, away from the hyperkinetic madness of modern life.

I went to the movies. I get a tremendous sense of peace, introspection, and clarity while watching a great movie

As of right now, I can't think of a gathering place that is better than that. Is church supposed to be about peace and clarity, though? It should be. It's hard to not just assume that church is supposed to be a place of peace and meditation, where one can find clarity of thought so one can evaluate one's life and actions.

That's what it should be, but I think not.

How could it be? The Church doesn't want your mind cleared. The church doesn't want you to personally evaluate, through clarity of thought, your own actions. The church (christianity, islam, mostly) wants you to give up any idea of reason or judgement. Even in a movie theatre, you have to use your own judgement. Although it could be as close to church as you can get. If you're talking about a mediocre, yet entertaining movie. A really good movie? You have to use your judgement throughout. /........


What the fuck?

While I was writing this, Francois sounded concerned in the other room. "Don't take too long," he said, "this thought won't stay in my head forever."

Ok, I thought. I continues typing.

He comes in the room, a wild light in his eyes.

"TOO LONG!" he said. "TOO LONG!"

He stares at the screen. I stop typing and look at him. "But I'm, I..."

"YOU STEAL THOUGHT TOO MUCH!"

He grabbed my wrist and took the keyboard out of my hands, and began typing.

"SIGH," he said.

"You have a problem," I said.

"SHUT UP! Mumble mumble...mumble....okay, I'll fix it later." And he went on his merry way.

So much for all that stuff about ego and self being an illusion. When he was done, he said, "It's still not as good as it was in my head."

I hope Jungian analysts don't read this. Field day. But then again, I felt it was important to tell you about this experience, and I should be going out right now. Oh well.

What did he type?

"Traditional modelizations of morality and moral development are heavily constrained by the closed-ended approach of absolutism brought about by religious thought, and because of this priviledge a result-based approach - the what. But this is heavily incompatible..."

This I Believe: Penn

From Penn Jillette on NPR:

Morning Edition, November 21, 2005

· I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond Atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The Atheism part is easy.

But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

New Atheist Blog?

No, J-Walk is not an atheist blog, but it's the Best Blog on the Internet.

However, he has been posting more and more atheistic content, and the comments are steaming hot! The Christian and other fans are not sure what's going on. I think that since the blog is so well-received and popular, this is a great time for him to be linking to blogs like Unscrewing the Inscrutible.

Here's hoping that it doesn't backfire, and he continues his great work.

Question of the Day #1

Are some ghosts retarded?

Poor, Battered, Victimized Atheists

I read this post as a response to What it Feels Like To Be An Atheist: (UTI)

Mary: aaaahh - the comfort of victimhood. Seems to be the basis of our society for the last 40 years or so, doesn't it? No longer do we seek identity as a member of a "winners" group; now we want to be belong to the "losers" group, the victims, the abused, the damaged.

Here's a question for you abused, battered atheists: How many times in the last week were you personally approached by someone trying to convert you to religion? How many tracts did you receive in the mail, how many religious threats or offers in your e-mail, how many times did you have nothing on TV to watch except religious programming? How many people knocked on your door this week with the idea of converting you? How many teachers talked to your children about religion this week? Were the grocery stores closed on Sundays? Did your boss deny you a promotion because you don't attend his church? Have you even had a coworker blathering religion in your ear this week?

I have to agree, that people love to seek identity as part of a victimized group, and it stinks.
What better group of victims to identify with than Christianity?
What better victim to worship than Jesus?

It seems that atheists are to keep their mouths shut until we experience a requisite amount of oppression on a weekly basis. Although I dare say that most, if not all of us have an answer for Mary here.

It sure as hell doesn't take a lot of secularism until Christians are ready to whine and complain about being oppressed. I'm referring to my last post, of course. Chrstians: how many satanist teachers talked to your children this week? How many devil-worshippers tried to sacrifice you this week? How many times this week did devil worshippers make you swear on the Satanic bible? Did you have a hard time finding Jesus starring on tv for all the Satnic Networks out there? How many Satanic presidents proclaimed a National Day of Baby Eating?

If you only had one Satanist eat your baby, and if there is only one multi-billion-dollar Satanic satellite network, and if there is only one Satanist President, and there are only four or five Satanic National Holidays a year, and 55 percent of all the people in your country believe that The Prince of Darkness pooped the universe out of his Diabolical Anus, you have no right to complain. You damned whiners. The Devil-Worshippers only want to peacefully practice their religion by controlling the government and hopefully soon, bringing about the end of the world by an apocalyptic war whereby only those with the Mark of The Beast will escape the Flaming Meat Grinder. Why can't you live and let live, you pansies?

I got read, so here's more of my golden (wink) words:

Click on my name for a post on my blog about this topic, and a bonus post below about the Jingle Bullies--no, not meanie atheists who are stealing Christmas from poor Christians, but Christians who feel they own December and use the phrase "Merry Christmas" as a weapon. It seems December is a time for Christians to whine, complain about being oppressed and exploited, and to arrogantly "pity" those who do not believe in their space monsters.

How much of this religious arrogance are we going to allow and encourage? Christians do not own and did not originate everything good and beautiful about Christmas. They don't even own, and they did not originate mangers, Shepherds, big giant stars, virgin births, and ESPECIALLY Santa Claus. Now is the time to tell them no. We celebrate the bounty and the joy of life, and the world, not death and a false promise of bloody wars to come.

By Hellbound Alleee. Comment posted 15-Nov-2005 @08:10pm:

Also, if anyone wants to get angry about something called "The Commercialization of Christmas," they need go no further than a Christian bookstore, filled with angel figurines, Santa praying at the manger ornaments, Jesus-as-Rockstar stickers, Novelty bibles, Christian vegetables, light-up Marys, Jesuses and saints, and all manner of special deluxe lucky charms and fetishes--and special incantations--I mean "prayers" engraved and personalized.

Jingle Bullies

The Holidays are coming. Watch out for the Christmas Mafia.

There are fourteen billion religious holidays that are celebrated between, well, Thanksgiving and Easter. Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice, New Year's, Ramadan, Eid al-Adha, Mardi Gras, and so on. But many Christians feel that if any of these are recognized, they are being oppressed.

Christmas, a secular holiday since the beginning of holidays, is the biggest Christian excuse for bitching since Daniel in the lion's den. The phrase "Merry Christmas" this year will be used like a weapon by these folks.

"Merry Christmas, you hellbound secularist, you who wants to take away my own personal chunk of the calendar! Please notice that I proudly say 'Christmas,' daring you hippies to try and oppress me! Go on, try it! Jesus told me being a Christian was hard, and I am ready to impress him with my ability to take such onslaughts."

Walmart started to wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Walmart (as Christian as a giant warehouse store can get) is actually there to make money. Foreign concept, I suppose. Walmart knows that there are people that spend money that do not celebrate Christmas. The Jingle Bullies have announced that "Walmart is Canceling Christmas!" That's the biggest overreacton since Mink Stole's breakdown in Desperate Living:

Hello? What number are you calling? You've dialed the wrong number! Sorry? What good is sorry? How can you possibly repay the last few seconds you have stolen from my life? I HATE YOU ! Your husband, your children, ALL YOUR RELATIVES !!!

Santa is crying in his grave. Why do you want to make Santa cry?

Einstein's God

Galaxia: a revolutionary socialist "band."

Galaxia

My name is Steve Wallis, a revolutionary socialist mainly living in Manchester, England, but also a member of the Scottish Socialist Party in Glasgow.
I had been planning to set up a socialist band, which I hope will play a leading role in the world socialist revolution, for a couple of years or so, because it is possible to influence people greatly through music and I have acquired sufficiently strong singing abilities through karaoke to convince myself that I would be capable of singing in a band.
...
I put out a call far and wide on the internet for anybody who wanted to participate in Galaxia, either as a full band member or as a guest participant in one or more of our songs, to turn up to a recording studio (the Cutting Rooms, Abraham Moss Centre, City College, Manchester) on Thursday the 30th of June 2005. This was an extremely unorthodox way of getting a band together, and unsurprisingly nobody turned up.
...
I was locked up as a political prisoner on the 1st of July, preventing me from putting the tracks on this website until after the G8 summit. I did something even more useful when I escaped – putting improved lyrics for Do They Know It’s G8 Time? on discussion groups, correcting the odd minor mistake and clarifying certain things. An explanation for those improvements, plus the later changes I made when performing the song at the Earth First! Gathering, is provided here.

(Downloads can be found here.)

Email from a listener

I got this email from our listener, David Pearson:

I also want to point out a major biblical error Alison made explaining that crazy story in the book of Judges 19:22-30. (Easy numbers to remember for the silent film fan!)

That is the story where this out-of-town Levite and his girlfriend are visiting this old guy, when a bunch of Benjamites surround the house, and demand to fuck the Levite. The wussy old guy and the Levite bravely offer both the old guy's virgin daughter and the Levite's girlfriend to the mob, so the Levite avoids getting fucked. The mob then spends the night raping and beating up the girlfriend, while the Levite spends a refreshing night in bed. At dawn the mob finally lets her go, and she staggers back to the house, passing out at the front door.

Some time later, the Levite drags his sorry butt out of bed, finds the girlfriend, and says to get up because it's time to go. She doesn't respond, so he plops her on a mule and takes her home.

Now, this is were Alleee gets it wrong. She says this point, the girl is dead. Actually, the Bible does not say that. I looked it up in several translations, and not one of them says she is dead -- only that she didn't answer the Levite shortly after passing out following being raped and beaten up all night. I think it is more logical -- if that can be used in
connection with the Bible -- that the girl is simply out cold.

Then, after going home, the girl is still alive while the Levite is chopping her into the twelve sections, ala Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Considering how the Levite has treated his girlfriend in the story, I find this ending completely believable.

So you guys watch it about smoothing over these colorful Bible stories.

:-)

Why Alleee is not a Right-Winger

Speaking of the "Why Liberals are Wrong" show...

I just wanted to make some things clear, as far as my values go. I know that a lot of people associate "anti-liberal" with a lot of sinister, terrible things. That's because people like to make assumptions. It's easier.

I am against sexism, and racism. I am pro-sex. Homosexuality is not a moral issue. It's reality. I am for technological progress. I am for capitalism and free-trade. I am against almost all religion. I am against tribalism and the tyranny of culture against the individual.

Which makes me a creep, I guess. I do think what I do is important. I think it's a nice thing to do to push people in the direction of taking control and responsibility for their lives. It's a good thing for people to live their livges as honestly as possible, and I know that not having beliefs is a huge step in doing so.

I know that the show causes some people, many of whom are new and maybe who haven't heard many of our other shows, to remove my banner. Thst's cool. I don't want to force people to support what they (think) they shouldn't. That's because force goes against my values.

Thanks