Yes, I went to state-run public schools from kindergarten through grad school, but didn't hear the word "atheism" til I was 35. Nor, I should add, were any of my nieces and nephew who attended public schools "indoctrinated into atheism." They are in their late-20s through late-30s now. You know which schools did indoctrinate my two nieces who attended them? The catholic elementary school, the catholic high school, and the catholic college. (Note: we're all some stripe of atheist today. Funny how that worked out.)
I went into school as an atheist... and I learned more about Christianity while I was in public school than I ever did about atheism (it wasn't explicitly taught in a religious context, but we sure did learn a lot of Christian history and culture). I can't recall ever even hearing a teacher utter the word "atheism" in the context of a lesson plan ("godless," a few times, by one particularly snarky history teacher during sections on the Cold War, making fun of US propaganda from the period). Any time I told anyone I was an atheist, the most common reaction was surprise- either surprise at the fact that I was an atheist, or surprise that I'd be so casually vocal about it.
This was a very liberal school district, by the way. I'm pretty sure if "𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚!" were going to be teaching atheism anywhere, we'd have been on the short list for the honor, but... nope. No dice. I didn't encounter atheism as a taught subject until a comparative religion course in college. The same year, oddly, that I ran into a philosophy Prof who told me that he didn't believe atheists existed. Weird comment to make to someone who's just told you they are one, but I'll give him 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 props for not letting his prejudice interfere with his grading- I got an A in that class.
Ok, i’m going to be a bit cynical here, pardonnez moi.
“ “Today, Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism.” I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the AG’s panties-in-a-bunch are expressed completely in the very last word. Had it been a baptist school being the first, nary a peep would have been heard.
See, that's what I'm thinking as well. Evangelicals loathe Catholicism, for the most part.
My brother became "born again" in college, after being raised Catholic. Unfortunately, we went to the same college, which meant 8 hour drives home and back to school together on vacations. He would call me a heathen, because Catholics "worshipped statues" and had a Pope, which was really upsetting to them for some reason.
I think those debates helped me develop my atheism, though I wasn't ready to admit it to myself yet.
Despising the pope is still a thing amongst some of them. Just the other day a local Prot Who Knows He Is Right referred to the pope as a false prophet. I said, Sure is! Just like all the other ones.
See, there's prophets and then there's profits. If we don't profit when the prophet profits, then he's a 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 prophet. But when the prophets make 𝘶𝘴 profits, see, we make 'em 𝘰𝘶𝘳 prophets!
Having been born and raised in the Philly suburbs where most everyone was Catholic or Jewish, it was a bit of a culture shock to move to SW Virginia after college and get my first exposure to evangelicals (rural evangelicals with snakes and speaking in tongues), and their reaction when I would mention being Catholic.
The troubles were primarily economic, enforced politically, but labeled religious primarily for convenience. They were also labeled religious to make it look like it was righteousness instead of economics.
This fundamentalist hatred of Catholics is just plain old fashion American religious bigotry.
Wow! Knock me over with a feather. Oklahoma State AG Drummond is calling the state on its proposal to support what amounts to a Catholic school with public funds?!? Next thing you know, they'll be indicting predator priests for child sexual abuse! To say this is welcome is to understate badly.
As for Ryan Walters and his butt-hurt allegation about atheism as a state "religion," I would remind him that there is a difference between atheism and secularism. I would also remind him that Oklahoma, like the rest of the United States, is a panoply of belief systems, never mind those of us who do not indulge in religious belief. It is government's duty to remain INDEPENDENT of religion, so it can be in the position of treating all people of all faiths and no faith EQUALLY.
I say this while acknowledging that Walters almost certain doesn't want to get that message.
I can't help but think the people pushing for this Catholic charter school would be going out of their tiny little minds at the mere suggestion the state might fund an Islamic school. No private religious school should get one red cent of public money, for any reason. It is not the job of our secular government to backstop religion. Any religion.
You do know who Saint Isidore of Seville was, right? Umm, let's just say that that catholic charter school might have a team named the Constantines, with a witch tied to a stake as a mascot... (Recovering catholic here. I throw up in my mouth a bit when I read that name. Yeah--ewwww.)
I understand that, a school like this, whatever the religion would never be accepted in my country and for good reasons. But he explicitly mentioned only Muslim schools and not other christian denominations.
OT- Federal Judge tells noted domestic abuser and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that no, he can't just pretend he's bankrupt to avoid paying what he owes the people whose lives he wrecked and whose dead children he defamed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLP-mjI4a1s
No, Mr. Jones, you are not bankrupt if you're still raking in tens of millions every year. Pay your bills, you fucking parasite.
Those millions he made BECAUSE he wrecked people's lives, turning their grief and pain into ammunition to use against them and boost his ratings. The man needs to be put down like the dangerous rabid mongrel he is, but I'll settle for having him lose every cent of his ill-gotten gain. Hopefully this will send a message to would-be copycats that there are consequences for such reprehensible acts.
During the '16 campaign, Hillary Clinton should have called Donald Trump out for appearing as a guest on Jones's show and praising him to the hilt. Would it have resulted in a different election outcome? No, almost certainly not, but it would still have been the right thing to do.
Judge needs to liquidate his company and withdraw the business license for it, just like with Trump. It’s the only way you can hit these fuckers where it hurts, seeing as they are lacking in all other human feelings & emotions.
“It is time to end atheism as the state sponsored religion,” Walters said. “Suing and targeting the Catholic Virtual Charter School is religious persecution because of one’s faith, which is the very reason that religious freedom is constitutionally protected.”
Religious persecution is targeting religion for existing, not for refusing to allow a religious institution to force itself on unwilling participants. If this “school” didn’t demand to be considered a public school while not following public school rules and take public funds from actual public schools, no one would care if it was there. No one is rounding up Catholics to force them into camps and the Catholic school isn’t the only religious school not allowed to participate. This is not persecution, but it is a defense against persecution from the Catholic school.
“A warped perversion of history has created a modern day concept that all religious freedom is driven from the classrooms. I will always side for an individual’s right to choose religious freedom in education.”
There is plenty of religious freedom in classrooms. The students in public schools get to be any religion or no religion they choose, they can practice their religious beliefs however the want without the school getting involved. If they choose to attend a religious school they are free to do so, but if it costs them money, they have to pay for it themselves. There are more churches in the ISA than public schools and libraries put together and still the religious demand to be inserted in the schools. Take the hint, the public isn’t interested. There’s plenty of opportunity for the people to learn religion, and I’m gonna say that even in the rural areas, there’s plenty opportunity for Catholic children to attend church, there’s no need for this school to exist.
All religious freedom is not driven from classrooms, classrooms cannot have religious freedom if they are focused on one religion. How would a Protestant child have religious freedom in a Catholic classroom? The case that removed forced prayer from schools was brought out by Jewish parents as well as other religious folks with one or two atheists. How are their religious freedom served when the classroom is Catholic? What is warped is your statement, it was really unclear, but also religious freedom is not what’s being driven out of classrooms. What is being driven out of schools is the institution requiring one religion to be accepted as n the classroom with all others being ignored at best, but attacked in practice. You are either ignorant of the meaning of religious freedom, or willfully lying about what it means, and I’m certain it’s the latter.
And what I understood your statement “ A warped perversion of history has created a modern day concept that all religious freedom is driven from the classrooms.” to mean was that the classrooms teach religious freedom, like it is a drive by educators to support and educate the freedom, but what you meant was driving all religion out of classrooms. By using the term religious freedom when you mean religious dogma, your statement was unclear. Also it is a lie if you want to say there’s no religion mention allowed in schools. As there’s plenty of religion in the curriculum, it’s just not anything that states one religion is the true religion or that it’s inherently correct. Doing so is indoctrination, which is what you are trying to instill in the public schools, and intentionally conflating with religious freedom.
To my knowledge there are no institutions "teaching atheism." Atheism comes from thought and experience. People who go on about religious liberty want to be free to abuse it, in the same way Trump and his minions like to go on about freedom of speech while abusing it. The Constitution is clear, and I doubt that a right-wing SC describing themselves as "originalists" can get around it.
Holy smoke, an elected official in Oklahoma actually displays not only respect for the law but actual common sense!? Maybe I've been wrong all this time. Miracles DO happen!
To take with a bag of salt. The AG doesn't want the wrong schools to ask for the same privilege. The result is important, too bad it seems to be based on racism.
Those who use the Wager tend to not know math nor have an understanding of how statistics works. I entered into an online discussion in the middle of someone proselytizing using Pascal’s Wager. He said he’d rather believe and have a 20% chance of being right than not believe and have a 100% chance in Hell.
I pointed out that there are about 1000 gods and minor deities, so a 20% chance means he’s believing in at least 200 gods. He got very quiet after that.
For me, the thing that makes the wager a non-starter is this:
It's not even a matter of "which god?" It's the fact that the existence of the supernatural has not been established. No supernatural, no gods. Until you can show hard, credible evidence that supernatural beings and realms actually exist, the wager is meaningless and need not be taken seriously.
At least Peter didn't make up endless bs stories about people coming up to him with tears in their eyes thanking him for stuff and telling him how wonderful he is.
It doesn't seem to matter – they'll believe him anyway. Although there is a school of thought that suggests that Trump isn't in fact lying but simply saying whatever suits him at the time without any real regard for truth or falsity. I believe someone has labelled it 'bullshit'. Seems about right. 😁
I could 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 respect a bullshit artist who put some imaginative craft into their routine... but you can hardly even call what Chump does bullshitting, let alone art. He's got the imagination of a falling brick and half as much guile. It's like whatever passes for a brain behind that puddle of sludge pretending to be a face just goes down a checklist of entry-level lies that he bullied a smaller, younger child into writing for him when he was a preschooler, and just never bothered updating because he was too privileged for anyone to ever call him out before he ran for office.
If he weren't such an evil bastard, and if he hadn't already caused so much harm, I could almost pity him. Everything about the man, other than the wake of chaos and death he leaves behind him, is just... 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤. He is, without a shred of a doubt, the single least enviable human on the whole of the Earth. A flattened slug on the underside of a boot has more dignity, and a rabid skunk would make more pleasant company. Were I given a choice of being reincarnated as him, or a dung beetle, I'd rather spend my next life rolling clods of shit around.
OT: A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that we were getting a new TacoBell in the area (about 15 miles away). Last time I drove by they were still under construction. I guess now they are open because, today, I found a TacoBell drink cup in my front yard.
Some friends of ours have a house somewhere in line with a pub and a McDonald's. They are constantly having to remove McDonald's wrappers left there by drunk patrons. And had to have a special brick letterbox constructed.
cdbunch is having trouble with his notifications where Zorgin is concerned. For the past couple of days, your Likes replies to me turn up in my notifications but not here at the articles.
Completely OT. There was an Octoberfest in my town this weekend. It is common when the local paper covers a non-European ethnic festival for the local bigots to comment about how “those people” should assimilate. So whenever the paper has an article about a European festival — Octoberfest or St. Patrick)s Day or some Scottish thing, I put in a whingeing comment about “why can’t these people just become Americans?!?!” Sure enough, I’m being ragged on for not just shutting my trap.
I’m responding by bitching about them cancel culturing me.
Among other failings, the school did not include a Liberty University Police Department report regarding “an alleged rape that was committed by a former Liberty President” in its daily crime log, the Post reported. The findings reportedly did not specify which former president or whether the school investigated. Instead, it focused on whether the report was logged as required by the Clery Act.
Only two former Liberty presidents were alive when the police report was made. One of them, Jerry Falwell Jr., told the Post it was “absolutely” not about him. The other former president, John Borek, reportedly did not respond when the Post tried to ask him about it. Borek is on Liberty’s board of trustees.
Sure we know we're moving, Margie. We're moving at roughly 1,000 mph. You said so yourself. How would we know that speed if we didn't know we were moving?
Who googled the speed of the Earth's rotation for her?
We're surrounded by air. We don't see it. Undersea animals don't see water, since otherwise no one could see anything else. Evolution. Animals that could see the medium were effectively blind and didn't survive to reproduce.
As far as God designing humans, air pipe crosses food pipe.
And with the Jodie Whittaker Doctor, we learn that the Doctor came from another universe and isn't Gallifreyan at all (assuming the Master's telling the truth).
As an aside, the bathtub did not impress me. We remodeled our bathrooms a few years ago and I did the demolition (I’m good at dumb labor). I asked about the tub. The contractor smiled and told me to hit it with a hand sledge. He told me I would be amazed at how easy it was to break up a metal tub. He was right. I had that thing in small pieces in 10 minutes. Made me wonder about the advice to get into your tub during a tornado if you don’t have a basement.
That's funny, I hit a metal bath – I presume cast-iron but I'm not sure – with a sledge, and all I got was a wild boing and a transfer of energy up my arms into my body. Not very pleasant. Maybe we make baths sturdier in NZ.
After season 1 𝘋𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘳, I thought that he should put a tree limb shredder on his boat. Instant chum and let the sharks take care of the rest. Although, explaining to the Coast Guard why he has one bolted to his deck might be a problem.
It did smoke a bit, but you have to look close to see it. Enough that it'd be a hazard if it were tossed in and smashed with a bunch of other potentially flammable materials, anyway.
There will always be some who insist setting off dumpster fires is their gawd-given right, and the whiny garbage collectors who have to risk the fires and the fumes should shut up and deal with it because it's their fault they don't have a better job, or something. And then they'll complain about the traffic jam and the siren noise when the fire department has to come put it out.
Or like taking your soda bottles to the grocery store to get a deposit back. Or do y'all call them pop bottles in your neck of the woods? Yeah, I know, I am dating myself.
Haven't heard pop bottles in a few decades. Don't really hear soda bottle much, mostly just bottle because at least a third of them only ever held (tap) water.
My state sponsored public school completely failed to teach me atheism. I didn't even know what atheism was until well after high school.
Yes, I went to state-run public schools from kindergarten through grad school, but didn't hear the word "atheism" til I was 35. Nor, I should add, were any of my nieces and nephew who attended public schools "indoctrinated into atheism." They are in their late-20s through late-30s now. You know which schools did indoctrinate my two nieces who attended them? The catholic elementary school, the catholic high school, and the catholic college. (Note: we're all some stripe of atheist today. Funny how that worked out.)
I went into school as an atheist... and I learned more about Christianity while I was in public school than I ever did about atheism (it wasn't explicitly taught in a religious context, but we sure did learn a lot of Christian history and culture). I can't recall ever even hearing a teacher utter the word "atheism" in the context of a lesson plan ("godless," a few times, by one particularly snarky history teacher during sections on the Cold War, making fun of US propaganda from the period). Any time I told anyone I was an atheist, the most common reaction was surprise- either surprise at the fact that I was an atheist, or surprise that I'd be so casually vocal about it.
This was a very liberal school district, by the way. I'm pretty sure if "𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚!" were going to be teaching atheism anywhere, we'd have been on the short list for the honor, but... nope. No dice. I didn't encounter atheism as a taught subject until a comparative religion course in college. The same year, oddly, that I ran into a philosophy Prof who told me that he didn't believe atheists existed. Weird comment to make to someone who's just told you they are one, but I'll give him 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 props for not letting his prejudice interfere with his grading- I got an A in that class.
Ok, i’m going to be a bit cynical here, pardonnez moi.
“ “Today, Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism.” I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the AG’s panties-in-a-bunch are expressed completely in the very last word. Had it been a baptist school being the first, nary a peep would have been heard.
But the Scarlet Whore of Babylon*?!?!?!?
*actual quote from TimLaHaye nearly 50 years ago.
See, that's what I'm thinking as well. Evangelicals loathe Catholicism, for the most part.
My brother became "born again" in college, after being raised Catholic. Unfortunately, we went to the same college, which meant 8 hour drives home and back to school together on vacations. He would call me a heathen, because Catholics "worshipped statues" and had a Pope, which was really upsetting to them for some reason.
I think those debates helped me develop my atheism, though I wasn't ready to admit it to myself yet.
You’ll know we are Christians by our love.
Yet when Christians attack other Christians for not being the right sort of Christian, you begin to suspect that none of it is true
Despising the pope is still a thing amongst some of them. Just the other day a local Prot Who Knows He Is Right referred to the pope as a false prophet. I said, Sure is! Just like all the other ones.
See, there's prophets and then there's profits. If we don't profit when the prophet profits, then he's a 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 prophet. But when the prophets make 𝘶𝘴 profits, see, we make 'em 𝘰𝘶𝘳 prophets!
https://www.gocomics.com/cornered/2023/10/16
Having been born and raised in the Philly suburbs where most everyone was Catholic or Jewish, it was a bit of a culture shock to move to SW Virginia after college and get my first exposure to evangelicals (rural evangelicals with snakes and speaking in tongues), and their reaction when I would mention being Catholic.
Sure does make things easier when they get chomped on by their own leopards right at the start.
This is beginning to sound very Northern Irish. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
The troubles were primarily economic, enforced politically, but labeled religious primarily for convenience. They were also labeled religious to make it look like it was righteousness instead of economics.
This fundamentalist hatred of Catholics is just plain old fashion American religious bigotry.
Wow! Knock me over with a feather. Oklahoma State AG Drummond is calling the state on its proposal to support what amounts to a Catholic school with public funds?!? Next thing you know, they'll be indicting predator priests for child sexual abuse! To say this is welcome is to understate badly.
As for Ryan Walters and his butt-hurt allegation about atheism as a state "religion," I would remind him that there is a difference between atheism and secularism. I would also remind him that Oklahoma, like the rest of the United States, is a panoply of belief systems, never mind those of us who do not indulge in religious belief. It is government's duty to remain INDEPENDENT of religion, so it can be in the position of treating all people of all faiths and no faith EQUALLY.
I say this while acknowledging that Walters almost certain doesn't want to get that message.
I can't help but think the people pushing for this Catholic charter school would be going out of their tiny little minds at the mere suggestion the state might fund an Islamic school. No private religious school should get one red cent of public money, for any reason. It is not the job of our secular government to backstop religion. Any religion.
Mohammed Mohammed High School. Has a nice sound to it.
I'm sure that would fly like a cement kite.
Their team name is The Jihad and their mascot is a Car Bomb.
You do know who Saint Isidore of Seville was, right? Umm, let's just say that that catholic charter school might have a team named the Constantines, with a witch tied to a stake as a mascot... (Recovering catholic here. I throw up in my mouth a bit when I read that name. Yeah--ewwww.)
You left a part out. It would be Mohammad, Peace be Upon Him, high school.
Peace be upon him‽‽‽ What about everybody else?
Islam is more the Religion of Pieces (see: child suicide bombers).
Now, now. It's fine for Islam to claim to be the Religion of Peace, after all, graveyards tend to be very peaceful places.
Drummond don't want Muslim schools either.
As he shouldn't.
I understand that, a school like this, whatever the religion would never be accepted in my country and for good reasons. But he explicitly mentioned only Muslim schools and not other christian denominations.
Ditto for congress as far as public money.
OT- Federal Judge tells noted domestic abuser and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that no, he can't just pretend he's bankrupt to avoid paying what he owes the people whose lives he wrecked and whose dead children he defamed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLP-mjI4a1s
No, Mr. Jones, you are not bankrupt if you're still raking in tens of millions every year. Pay your bills, you fucking parasite.
Those millions he made BECAUSE he wrecked people's lives, turning their grief and pain into ammunition to use against them and boost his ratings. The man needs to be put down like the dangerous rabid mongrel he is, but I'll settle for having him lose every cent of his ill-gotten gain. Hopefully this will send a message to would-be copycats that there are consequences for such reprehensible acts.
During the '16 campaign, Hillary Clinton should have called Donald Trump out for appearing as a guest on Jones's show and praising him to the hilt. Would it have resulted in a different election outcome? No, almost certainly not, but it would still have been the right thing to do.
"But, your honor, that's not my money, that's Trump's (or God's or both's) money"
But he is morally bankrupt, though.
Judge needs to liquidate his company and withdraw the business license for it, just like with Trump. It’s the only way you can hit these fuckers where it hurts, seeing as they are lacking in all other human feelings & emotions.
“It is time to end atheism as the state sponsored religion,” Walters said. “Suing and targeting the Catholic Virtual Charter School is religious persecution because of one’s faith, which is the very reason that religious freedom is constitutionally protected.”
Religious persecution is targeting religion for existing, not for refusing to allow a religious institution to force itself on unwilling participants. If this “school” didn’t demand to be considered a public school while not following public school rules and take public funds from actual public schools, no one would care if it was there. No one is rounding up Catholics to force them into camps and the Catholic school isn’t the only religious school not allowed to participate. This is not persecution, but it is a defense against persecution from the Catholic school.
“A warped perversion of history has created a modern day concept that all religious freedom is driven from the classrooms. I will always side for an individual’s right to choose religious freedom in education.”
There is plenty of religious freedom in classrooms. The students in public schools get to be any religion or no religion they choose, they can practice their religious beliefs however the want without the school getting involved. If they choose to attend a religious school they are free to do so, but if it costs them money, they have to pay for it themselves. There are more churches in the ISA than public schools and libraries put together and still the religious demand to be inserted in the schools. Take the hint, the public isn’t interested. There’s plenty of opportunity for the people to learn religion, and I’m gonna say that even in the rural areas, there’s plenty opportunity for Catholic children to attend church, there’s no need for this school to exist.
All religious freedom is not driven from classrooms, classrooms cannot have religious freedom if they are focused on one religion. How would a Protestant child have religious freedom in a Catholic classroom? The case that removed forced prayer from schools was brought out by Jewish parents as well as other religious folks with one or two atheists. How are their religious freedom served when the classroom is Catholic? What is warped is your statement, it was really unclear, but also religious freedom is not what’s being driven out of classrooms. What is being driven out of schools is the institution requiring one religion to be accepted as n the classroom with all others being ignored at best, but attacked in practice. You are either ignorant of the meaning of religious freedom, or willfully lying about what it means, and I’m certain it’s the latter.
And what I understood your statement “ A warped perversion of history has created a modern day concept that all religious freedom is driven from the classrooms.” to mean was that the classrooms teach religious freedom, like it is a drive by educators to support and educate the freedom, but what you meant was driving all religion out of classrooms. By using the term religious freedom when you mean religious dogma, your statement was unclear. Also it is a lie if you want to say there’s no religion mention allowed in schools. As there’s plenty of religion in the curriculum, it’s just not anything that states one religion is the true religion or that it’s inherently correct. Doing so is indoctrination, which is what you are trying to instill in the public schools, and intentionally conflating with religious freedom.
Sorry for the rant folks.
Not a rant.
It must be nice to have an AG that actually knows *and* follows the law.
Instead of an acknowledged criminal who your state legislature refused to remove from office.
To my knowledge there are no institutions "teaching atheism." Atheism comes from thought and experience. People who go on about religious liberty want to be free to abuse it, in the same way Trump and his minions like to go on about freedom of speech while abusing it. The Constitution is clear, and I doubt that a right-wing SC describing themselves as "originalists" can get around it.
You have to realise that in Christian speak, "teaching atheism" = not teaching Christianity.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
All humans are born atheists. It is religion that must be taught.
"Born atheist.
As atheist as the wind blows.
As atheist as the grass grows.
Born atheist to follow your heart."*
*I'm getting word from others that I'm getting a key lyric of the song wrong...
Lions are atheists too, ya know. 😉
They're cats. I'm pretty sure they're autotheists.
https://img.ifunny.co/images/e35b462ce97a5dbc66df42b5c16b2cc19194ee6a1a690de7f536ae8112ddbe25_1.webp
She's ordering around a cat that can open inter-dimensional portals? Sounds like a waste of breath.
The dogs seem to be taking it well.
https://www.zentaur.org/memes/sitting_in_my_seat.jpg
OT: And still not in notifications.
What about tigers and bears (oh my!)?
All God's creatures, great and small, are atheists. Ironic, that.
Have you ever seen an elephant read a bible? And yet, they have empathy.
Don't listen to the heathens.
Oh, they will try. They are exceedingly good at mental gymnastics and contortionism.
Olympic medals count as participation trophies for them.
Holy smoke, an elected official in Oklahoma actually displays not only respect for the law but actual common sense!? Maybe I've been wrong all this time. Miracles DO happen!
To take with a bag of salt. The AG doesn't want the wrong schools to ask for the same privilege. The result is important, too bad it seems to be based on racism.
When I read the story yesterday, I had to keep checking to make sure I hadn't misread the state.
https://www.alternet.org/questioning-faith-is-believing-in-god-really-a-safe-bet/
Interesting article about Pascal's wager. Although it doesn't say anything much we didn't already know.
Pascal never understood that he wasn't betting on a coin flip, but a roulette wheel.
Those who use the Wager tend to not know math nor have an understanding of how statistics works. I entered into an online discussion in the middle of someone proselytizing using Pascal’s Wager. He said he’d rather believe and have a 20% chance of being right than not believe and have a 100% chance in Hell.
I pointed out that there are about 1000 gods and minor deities, so a 20% chance means he’s believing in at least 200 gods. He got very quiet after that.
For me, the thing that makes the wager a non-starter is this:
It's not even a matter of "which god?" It's the fact that the existence of the supernatural has not been established. No supernatural, no gods. Until you can show hard, credible evidence that supernatural beings and realms actually exist, the wager is meaningless and need not be taken seriously.
All I ever say is:
1. You can't make yourself believe. You have to pretend.
2. If God is all knowing, then they would know you were pretending – end of story.
People don't realize that Pascal was talking about his Catholic version of his god and no other.
Joe.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/108096-joe-s-world
Pesci?
Not the Pesci. Joe is the creator of the world those two books are set on. Joe even created God.
OT: " MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS."
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/22/politics/trump-sidney-powell/index.html
I'm sensing a pattern.
Trump denies his past associates more than Peter denied knowing Jesus.
At least Peter didn't make up endless bs stories about people coming up to him with tears in their eyes thanking him for stuff and telling him how wonderful he is.
Those stories are reserved for Jesus.
My right arm for an enemy who's got sense enough to at least tell a better class of lie...
It doesn't seem to matter – they'll believe him anyway. Although there is a school of thought that suggests that Trump isn't in fact lying but simply saying whatever suits him at the time without any real regard for truth or falsity. I believe someone has labelled it 'bullshit'. Seems about right. 😁
I could 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 respect a bullshit artist who put some imaginative craft into their routine... but you can hardly even call what Chump does bullshitting, let alone art. He's got the imagination of a falling brick and half as much guile. It's like whatever passes for a brain behind that puddle of sludge pretending to be a face just goes down a checklist of entry-level lies that he bullied a smaller, younger child into writing for him when he was a preschooler, and just never bothered updating because he was too privileged for anyone to ever call him out before he ran for office.
If he weren't such an evil bastard, and if he hadn't already caused so much harm, I could almost pity him. Everything about the man, other than the wake of chaos and death he leaves behind him, is just... 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤. He is, without a shred of a doubt, the single least enviable human on the whole of the Earth. A flattened slug on the underside of a boot has more dignity, and a rabid skunk would make more pleasant company. Were I given a choice of being reincarnated as him, or a dung beetle, I'd rather spend my next life rolling clods of shit around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl4VD8uvgec
A man who knows his art.
Now Joan, don't hold back; tell us how you really feel. ;)
"Bullshit". - Well, he is a stable genius.
You forgot the follow-up quote from Trump: "Well, okay, she WAS my attorney, but I fired her...like a dog!" *smiles*
'Because she was nasty."
(trump loves calling women he doesn't like 'nasty')
Like Charles Bukowski (when he was alive) criticizing someone for being "a drunken writer who used to work at the Post Office."
OT: A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that we were getting a new TacoBell in the area (about 15 miles away). Last time I drove by they were still under construction. I guess now they are open because, today, I found a TacoBell drink cup in my front yard.
Hey, it could have been worse- at least you got the waste from someone consuming it in your yard, instead of the results of them 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 it.
Some friends of ours have a house somewhere in line with a pub and a McDonald's. They are constantly having to remove McDonald's wrappers left there by drunk patrons. And had to have a special brick letterbox constructed.
it comes with free diarrhea
Diarrhea: The gift that keeps on giving.
But only until... https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/002/030/dysentery-died-of.png
Like Captain Isaac Higgintoot.
Seattle is looking to get a Voodoo Doughnut location on Cap Hill (Capitol Hill) at Pine St. and Minor Ave. Can hardly wait.
Who are the Portland-based Voodoo Doughnut? Check out what they have to offer:
https://www.voodoodoughnut.com/doughnuts/
I gained 5 pounds just scrolling down that menu. And any donut place that offers Cock N' Balls donuts has me as a customer for life.
I don't know what they taste like, but by Christ some of them LOOK ugly.
Think that might be the idea. They ain't Winchell's. 😃
As if 'Old Dirty Bastard' isn't the one you are looking forward to. 😝
one of my favorites is the bacon maple bar
Didn't they claim to invent it?
they very well could be.
Off off-topic:
cdbunch is having trouble with his notifications where Zorgin is concerned. For the past couple of days, your Likes replies to me turn up in my notifications but not here at the articles.
As cd says: The Substack Zone.
Actually, it was the Russians 😋
Wellll, maybe that one, too. 😀
Completely OT. There was an Octoberfest in my town this weekend. It is common when the local paper covers a non-European ethnic festival for the local bigots to comment about how “those people” should assimilate. So whenever the paper has an article about a European festival — Octoberfest or St. Patrick)s Day or some Scottish thing, I put in a whingeing comment about “why can’t these people just become Americans?!?!” Sure enough, I’m being ragged on for not just shutting my trap.
I’m responding by bitching about them cancel culturing me.
Call 'em "woke", that'll plunk their magic twangers.
Yeah, calling them woke "twangers," it will set them off like this:
https://youtu.be/V9AbeALNVkk?t=76
👍
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JUBOdEc1hU8
OT - 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍!!! They are such good "Christians" that they would never have done these things!
𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐋𝐚𝐰𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐅𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬
Among other failings, the school did not include a Liberty University Police Department report regarding “an alleged rape that was committed by a former Liberty President” in its daily crime log, the Post reported. The findings reportedly did not specify which former president or whether the school investigated. Instead, it focused on whether the report was logged as required by the Clery Act.
Only two former Liberty presidents were alive when the police report was made. One of them, Jerry Falwell Jr., told the Post it was “absolutely” not about him. The other former president, John Borek, reportedly did not respond when the Post tried to ask him about it. Borek is on Liberty’s board of trustees.
https://religionunplugged.com/news/2023/10/10/liberty-university-broke-safety-laws-for-years-leaked-government-investigation-finds-report
A more comprehensive article from WaPo:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/10/03/liberty-university-clery-act/
Is anyone surprised? Apart from the naive students who have just started their 1st year.
got a good one for you all today.
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1715871110309265452
Can't grasp the idea that the puddle adjusted to fit the hole, not the hole formed around the puddle.
We are the puddle.
Sure we know we're moving, Margie. We're moving at roughly 1,000 mph. You said so yourself. How would we know that speed if we didn't know we were moving?
Makes me wonder if she knows the Earth is moving around the sun.
Or that the Sun is sometimes closer and sometimes farther away due to Earth's elliptical orbit.
She probably thinks elevators are magic because the world outside changes every time she gets in one.
Who googled the speed of the Earth's rotation for her?
We're surrounded by air. We don't see it. Undersea animals don't see water, since otherwise no one could see anything else. Evolution. Animals that could see the medium were effectively blind and didn't survive to reproduce.
As far as God designing humans, air pipe crosses food pipe.
Can you say "non sequitur", Ms. Traitor-Greene?
She can say it (with some prompting), but she doesn't know what it means. : )
She doesn't understand the gravity of her statement.
She’s just putting in her own spin on it.
gravity is just a theory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiXFq2266cg
WTAF?
Well duh! That's because she's not Gallifreyan.
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8qj2WFQA3rqErSNV3XesMJrsYBEl5MUU?si=3AQ0phQe1wOD2jIO
And with the Jodie Whittaker Doctor, we learn that the Doctor came from another universe and isn't Gallifreyan at all (assuming the Master's telling the truth).
Edited my comment for clarity and to add content.
OT- PSA... don't throw lithium batteries in the trash, kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1j9TUV5coc
I've been watching a lot of these lately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjMB4csUQIY
I love watching stuff like that!
As an aside, the bathtub did not impress me. We remodeled our bathrooms a few years ago and I did the demolition (I’m good at dumb labor). I asked about the tub. The contractor smiled and told me to hit it with a hand sledge. He told me I would be amazed at how easy it was to break up a metal tub. He was right. I had that thing in small pieces in 10 minutes. Made me wonder about the advice to get into your tub during a tornado if you don’t have a basement.
Light armor is better than no armor.
That's funny, I hit a metal bath – I presume cast-iron but I'm not sure – with a sledge, and all I got was a wild boing and a transfer of energy up my arms into my body. Not very pleasant. Maybe we make baths sturdier in NZ.
You sure it wasn't vibranium?
Cast iron is waaaaaay better for cooking, though! I wouldn't give up my iron skillet for any number of steel pans.
Good to know!
That's like "Will It Blend?" cranked up to 11.
Crusher porn.
Rule 34 is true!
After season 1 𝘋𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘦𝘳, I thought that he should put a tree limb shredder on his boat. Instant chum and let the sharks take care of the rest. Although, explaining to the Coast Guard why he has one bolted to his deck might be a problem.
A mini Wages of fear ?
So from now on I̸ ̸a̸m̸ . . . I mean, mafia hitmen are going to have to remove the battery from EVs before disposing of bodies in car crushers!
Does Tony Soprano know about this?
Remember the e-bike battery didn't even smoke that I saw.
It did smoke a bit, but you have to look close to see it. Enough that it'd be a hazard if it were tossed in and smashed with a bunch of other potentially flammable materials, anyway.
You know of course, you won't get Americans to stop until you offer home pickup of the batteries and only some of them then.
There will always be some who insist setting off dumpster fires is their gawd-given right, and the whiny garbage collectors who have to risk the fires and the fumes should shut up and deal with it because it's their fault they don't have a better job, or something. And then they'll complain about the traffic jam and the siren noise when the fire department has to come put it out.
Lit cigarettes out a car window in the middle of fire season (Is there a non-fire season anymore?)
Hey, it's in a steel bucket, it's supposed ta burn as Baby Jesus demanded far-rum-pa-pum-pum!
Or like taking your soda bottles to the grocery store to get a deposit back. Or do y'all call them pop bottles in your neck of the woods? Yeah, I know, I am dating myself.
Haven't heard pop bottles in a few decades. Don't really hear soda bottle much, mostly just bottle because at least a third of them only ever held (tap) water.
True, but they are being blamed for starting fires in NYC.
If one leaves the battery in and the compactor makes the car go boom, it might just effectively torch the corpse.
🤔 Hmmm.
Of course, it's just a thought. I am a neophyte in the ways of organized crime.
So that's your story and you're sticking to it, eh?
*whistles innocently*
Watching all that crushing made me think what a rank amateur THIS guy is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrnFjMgTenQ