1. 85% of Americans Want a Presidential Debate on Science

Comment #180003 by glittergulch on May 14, 2008 at 4:50 am

I can't shake my nervousness about a science debate.

2. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177425 by glittergulch on May 9, 2008 at 4:43 am

Love it. My only complaint is that Richard jumps on the Hitler comparison too easily. He must know about Godwin's Law. In this discussion and in the Haggard interview it takes his perfectly good point and immediately makes it seem overly dramatic (even if it's a perfectly apt comparison.)

Recently conservative talking heads in America have scored points with their idiot listeners by comparing Barack Obama to Hitler ostensibly because of his exciting speaking style, but it's clear that they are trying to create soe sort of weird guilt-by-association in the mind of the public.

I know Richard isn't doing exactly the same thing, but Hitler is such an easy comparison that at this point he's almost useless as a rhetorical device. At this point I think it might be best to stay away from comparing people to Hitler for anything other than creating a fascist nation or killing millions of people. Anything else makes it seem like you might be pulling a Jonah Goldberg, even if you're not.

3. The History Channel might do something right

Comment #176305 by glittergulch on May 7, 2008 at 6:47 am

This sounds great! Can't wait.

4. Dumb and Dumber: A discussion between Ben Stein and Glenn Beck

Comment #175819 by glittergulch on May 6, 2008 at 5:32 am

This interview is worth it just for Beck's "BUT WHERE DID THE ALIENS COME FROM?!?!?!" That is the pinnacle of stupidity... So stupid it's almost genius.

At least Expelled is officially a flop so it doesn't matter now.

5. Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Comment #165141 by glittergulch on April 21, 2008 at 5:48 am

Someone may have already posted this but this version of the review has a feedback form:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/entertainmentcolumn/2008/col20080417.asp

6. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162696 by glittergulch on April 17, 2008 at 9:29 am

How can they not just have the release shut down? The movie CANNOT show with the song in it. It is NOT fair use to use copyrighted material in a commercial release. Simply not. The film needs to be re-edited without the song before release. There's not question about it.

I can't believe how many stupid aspects there are to this story. Just incredible!

7. Victims: Pope Benedict Protects Accused Pedophile Bishops

Comment #162693 by glittergulch on April 17, 2008 at 9:20 am

Steve Zara,
Correct. I think it's far more likely that someone with a taste for kids would choose the one profession that
a) prevents anyone from saying "why aren't you married? Why don't you have a girlfriend?"
b) gives them tons of access to kids without supervision
c) gives them tons of time to self-flagellate and hate themselves in private without the potential embarrassment of seeking actual counseling and therapy for their disorder.

8. Victims: Pope Benedict Protects Accused Pedophile Bishops

Comment #162584 by glittergulch on April 17, 2008 at 5:10 am

NEWSFLASH:


Despite the recent McDonald's abuse scandal, the CEO has announced that its number one priority is to make sure that no customers or employees wash their hands after using the restroom. Any customer or employee found washing their hands upon finishing either urinating or defecating will b dropped in the deep fryer and left there forever.

When asked why this was a priority rather than the abuse scandal, spokespeople said "There is no greater crime in the world today than the crime of hand-washing. Not only does it NOT remove harmful bacteria but in fact it may actually make it worse."

McDonald's has gone as far as to remove the sinks from all of its restaurants, the largest real estate holding portfolio of any corporation. They also demand that all their customers remove the sinks from their home bathrooms as well.

9. Victims: Pope Benedict Protects Accused Pedophile Bishops

Comment #162567 by glittergulch on April 17, 2008 at 4:37 am

NEWSFLASH!!!!!!


In one of the most wide-ranging child abuse scandals in recent memory it has become known that managers and assistant managers in over a thousand local McDonald's restaurants have been using the McPlayroom to sodomize young buys, sometimes repeatedly, sometimes over the course of years with the same boy.

It is believed that thousands of young boys have been raped and forced to perform sexual acts on these managers, whose ages range from 25 to 70.

Parents left their children alone in these McDonald's for hours at a time with the managers, assuming that they were safe in such a wholesome environment. Hidden microphones recorded numerous instances of the managers telling the young boys that if they told anyone what had happened they would be dropped in the deep fryer and left there forever.

Taped phone calls reveal that regional managers told the local managers to make sure that the kids kept quiet and that they themselves were to not talk about the abuse to anyone. In many instances regional managers transferred local managers to other McDonald's restaurants. These managers almost always repeated their actions in the new restaurants.

A closer inspection of the McDonald's corporate charter reveals a clause that binds both the managers and the abused kids to silence on the abuse. This charter has been unchanged for decades but the clause for some reason has remained unreported. The penalty of breaking the clause is eternal torment by deep frying.

We have discovered a letter written personally by the CEO of McDonald's International Corporation and sent to every regional manager stating clearly that they must make sure, at all costs, that the local managers and the affected children remain silent until the statue of limitations for child abuse runs out. The CEO further expanded that the punishment for allowing news of the child abuse to become public would be being fired and then dropped in the fryer.

Reached today by phone, McDonald's CEO had this to say "We will make sure there are no more scandals in the future." When asked if the former statement meant that he would continue to cover-up future instances of abuse, he responded "We just won't hire any more pedophiles. That's all."

Asked if McDonald's would improve its ability to report child abuse to the police in the future, he only responded that "Frankly, with Britney Spears and Gossip Girl on TV I think you've got bigger things to worry about." After making that statment the CEO received a warm hug from the President and flowers from young children.

Public reaction to the news has been split. Burger King customers say they already knew that McDonald's was the devil's restaurant. Non-fast food eaters are outraged. But loyal McDonald's customers reacted without exception by stuffing Chicken McNuggets in their ears and yelling "LALALALALALALALAL I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!!"

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to keeping McDonald's a tax-free corporation and has responded to the scandal by promising to increase its subsidies towards McDonald's and even assist it in improving its operations in other countries, particularly child-rich countries with poor-to-no child protection services.

10. Special Guest: Richard Dawkins

Comment #143531 by glittergulch on March 14, 2008 at 7:29 am

iTunes downloaded two versions of this podcast for me. At first I thought that maybe it was in two parts but in fact the first version is unedited and the second is the version posted here. The unedited version has Richard backing up and asking if the show is live during the Mt. Improbable segment because he thinks he's gotten off track. It's a nice little human moment. Glad he ended up telling the story regardless.

11. Happy Birthday Josh Timonen!

Comment #118911 by glittergulch on January 31, 2008 at 6:45 am

Happy birthday Josh and thanks for all the hard work!

12. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

Comment #117637 by glittergulch on January 29, 2008 at 9:23 am

Farah: Why do you refer to Richard Dawkins as Darwin's Judas?

Day: He only finds Darwin useful insofar as his theory of evolution by natural selection can be used to eliminate the basis for a belief in a Creator God. As Dawkins states in his own words, he's "a passionate anti-Darwinian" with regards to the proper conduct of human affairs. Dawkins thinks humanity should follow Darwin just long enough to cast off Jesus Christ, then ditch Darwin in favor of following Richard Dawkins' opinion on life, the universe and everything. Just like philosophers, you can always count on a scientist to come around eventually to the concept of rule by scientist-king.

13. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116719 by glittergulch on January 27, 2008 at 8:38 am

[quote]Comment #116473 by MelM on January 26, 2008 at 3:11 pm
A nice YouTube video of a young woman escaping religion because of the "multiple faiths" issue is "my coming out story". She's quite a gem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naLQjFNQVAM [/quote]

That girl is great. She should get some sort of tv development deal or something.

14. Minnesota Atheists Interview Richard Dawkins

Comment #114016 by glittergulch on January 21, 2008 at 8:11 am

This show is a mess.

15. Priest who committed suicide for rebirth cremated

Comment #103059 by glittergulch on December 24, 2007 at 9:11 am

Well... ok then.

16. Survey finds most Americans believe Jesus born of virgin

Comment #102553 by glittergulch on December 23, 2007 at 8:04 am

Tom Waits said it, I believe it, that settles it!

"Actually, the question I get asked the most is... and somebody today, just... I mean, out of the clear blue sky, somebody came up to me and said 'Tom, is it possible for a girl to get pregnant without intercourse?' I get that all the time. I mean, I get asked that all the time! Anyway... I said, for the answer to this we're gonna have to go all the way back to the civil war. Apparently a stray bullet... This is the truth! A stray bullet actually pierced the testicle of a Union soldier, and then it went on to lodge itself in the ovaries of an eighteen year old girl who was standing two hundred, maybe three hundred feet from him at the time. They'd never even met! How's that for luck! Anyway, you know, she was very happy of course, cause there was something kind of immaculate about the conception, and she did a lot of interviews and that type of thing, and people flew in, and she was on the cover of a lot of magazines at the time. The baby was healthy. Of course, the soldier was pissed off, wouldn't you be? It's actually a FORM of intercourse, but I don't think it's for everybody. Unless you like action. I like action! This is a little song about eh... I got it right out of the encyclopedia..."

17. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #97042 by glittergulch on December 11, 2007 at 10:26 am

Morris is a troll. He bitches about the Golden Compass and the Tree of Knowledge and anything else Fox News decides has a religious spin. His interviews are aggressive and condescending. He sucks.

18. Riding with Rocinante: 'It's me or the crucifix'

Comment #95144 by glittergulch on December 7, 2007 at 12:41 pm

I love the "atheist" journalist defending the cross in the courtroom: "Hey, I wouldn't complain if I was in Saudi Arabia and I saw some muslim stuff." Yeah, that's what a first world European nation hopes to become: As modern as Saudi Arabia.

19. Sherri Shepherd needs to go away now

Comment #94657 by glittergulch on December 6, 2007 at 7:16 am

Allan W: I was just spoofing her rationale for not knowing if the earth was round or flat. She said she didn't ever think about it but she DID think about how she was going to feed her kid. Because, you know, you can't do both. It was sanctimonious self-congratulatory martyrdom.

20. Highway to hysteria

Comment #94656 by glittergulch on December 6, 2007 at 7:10 am

I think I saw my avatar in there.

That really is crazy. Did he just say he wants to "get churches on fire?"

21. Fox: 'Atheist Outrage' over holiday 'Tree of Knowledge'

Comment #94652 by glittergulch on December 6, 2007 at 6:54 am

HAPPY FESTIVUS! HAHAHAHAH!!!
How did that get squeezed in at the end there? Holy crap. Well, we got the "airing of the grievances." Where are the "feats of strength?"

22. Fox: 'Atheist Outrage' over holiday 'Tree of Knowledge'

Comment #94651 by glittergulch on December 6, 2007 at 6:48 am

Haha, does no one know that a "christmas" tree is a pagan symbol?

23. Sherri Shepherd needs to go away now

Comment #94650 by glittergulch on December 6, 2007 at 6:46 am

She never thought about the greeks coming before the christians. But I'll tell you what she DID think about: How to FEED her CHILD!

24. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #93487 by glittergulch on December 3, 2007 at 8:57 am

Dinesh is retarded. At the two hour mark he makes a statement so dumb I can't even believe it. He points out that we are limited by the information that we take in through our five senses and can't learn anything that doesn't come in through those five senses. So which of his five senses is he using to learn about god?

25. Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission

Comment #91724 by glittergulch on November 29, 2007 at 5:00 am

Jesus is welcoming the money lenders back into the church with open arms!

26. Golden Compass author hits back

Comment #91452 by glittergulch on November 28, 2007 at 10:41 am

Hahah, if you want to read the Catholic League's booklet "unmasking" TGC as atheist propoganda you have to pay $5 - EVEN for a PDF download! So they want everyone to know the horrors TGC but not so badly that they'll offer the booklet as a free download. Beautiful!

27. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #86104 by glittergulch on November 8, 2007 at 6:47 am

I love the pull quote from Eugenie Scott about witnesses dropping like flies. As we know from her speeches she's talking about the pro-ID witnesses withdrawing when the case became a lost cause but with the dramatic music it sounds like Eric Rudolph was assassinating scientists or something. Classic.

Anyway, this is must see TV.

28. The Turning of an Atheist

Comment #85161 by glittergulch on November 5, 2007 at 7:40 am

This article makes me want to cry. How horrible to hijack a man's legacy like that while he's still alive. I remember Dawkins discussing Flew several times before but I didn't realize the extent of his dementia. This is really sad.

29. Tests of faith over 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #83499 by glittergulch on October 30, 2007 at 8:19 am

16. Comment #83328 by mark8 on October 29, 2007 at 5:02 pm
avatarFox news article
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305487,00.html

Haha, holy spoiler alert!

30. Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #82389 by glittergulch on October 26, 2007 at 8:14 am

I can't believe how stupid D'Souza is. He is such a moron. He says more than once "Atheists don't know blah blah blah. They are confused and lack the information. But we KNOW the answers. We have that information." What the hell is he talking about? If "atheists" decided to pick some random answer and "know" it then would they be on equal footing with big smart Dinesh and his pals? I mean, is he saying that ANY answer that you convince yourself of is equally valid?

And how is it a Christian view of the universe that the laws are constant? He talks about miracles in one breath and then claims the constancy of the laws of nature to be a CHRISTIAN concept in the next. He is a very, very stupid man.

31. Fox News Attacks 'Godless' Free Thought Radio

Comment #78385 by glittergulch on October 12, 2007 at 3:56 pm

By the way, Franken did a great interview with Prof Dawkins a couple of years ago on his Air America show:
http://richarddawkins.net/article,76,Interview-at-Al-Franken-Show,Richard-Dawkins---Al-Franken

If that link is too long try this:
http://tinyurl.com/24vdyu

32. Fox News Attacks 'Godless' Free Thought Radio

Comment #78357 by glittergulch on October 12, 2007 at 1:40 pm

ChrisMcL: I was thinking that too, especially since (a) Al is no longer a part of AA and (b) he's running for Senate. Nice!

33. Fox News Attacks 'Godless' Free Thought Radio

Comment #78348 by glittergulch on October 12, 2007 at 1:23 pm

Poor Lauren Green. This is almost too much for her little brain to process.

For those who missed her brilliant take on Kathy Griffin's "suck it, Jesus! This [Emmy} is my God now!" acceptance speech a little while ago, it's here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296683,00.html

To entice you to read it I'll paste one of her big conclusions:

"The freedoms we enjoy in this country to speak freely and to live freely are directly related to that man who died on a cross 2,000 years ago."

Oh boy!

34. 1986 Oxford Union Debate

Comment #77944 by glittergulch on October 11, 2007 at 7:45 am

In case someone needs a fresh link, it's all here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QHKN1ZHU

35. God Talk on 'The View'

Comment #72053 by glittergulch on September 20, 2007 at 8:17 am

Gotta love Joy, though. Watch it just for her expressions.

36. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #69686 by glittergulch on September 12, 2007 at 7:57 am

Guys I'm a strong atheist and all that but if it comes down to it I'm not fucking with Chuck Norris. Sorry.

37. Fruit fly parasite's gene invasion raises questions over evolution

Comment #66784 by glittergulch on August 31, 2007 at 11:50 am

In the Selfish Gene Dr. Dawkins talked about the idea that if two species work together intimately enough in a sort of positive parasite kind of way (i.e. work towards the same goals) they might eventually cease to really be two separate species. I think he pointed out how the internal organs of a complex creature all have their own jobs but work towards a similar end goal.

I read that at the time and thought "that's neat but how the hell could two creatures go from being separate to being one? Well, here's a concrete example. Wow.

38. Anger over 'blasphemous' balls

Comment #66479 by glittergulch on August 30, 2007 at 5:23 am

So how many will die over this gross violation?

39. The vanishing jihad exposés

Comment #63073 by glittergulch on August 13, 2007 at 4:25 am

Does he mean Tora Bora? I didn't know that Bora Bora was a big terrorist hang-out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bora_bora

40. Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Comment #61668 by glittergulch on August 6, 2007 at 8:05 am

Can't believe I haven't watched this until now. What a mess. McGrath's concept of faith is totally incomprehensible. Great job trying to push him on the "god saved the little girl" concept, Dr. Dawkins. The more he said on the topic the less sense he made.

41. The hitch in Hitchens' thinking

Comment #58836 by glittergulch on July 26, 2007 at 11:05 am

What a dumb argument. Does Hedges think that Church of Scientology members are corrupting the true nature of the religion and that Free Zoners have the right idea?

42. Darwin or Design

Comment #57417 by glittergulch on July 19, 2007 at 9:13 am

Aside from the astonishing amount of willful ignorance being espoused by the pro-ID idiots on these recordings, the dummy in chapter 6 has some extremely stupid comments to make about Jackson Pollock. Dammit! Insulting my intelligence AND insulting art all at the same time!

43. Photos of The God Delusion Event in Second Life

Comment #46759 by glittergulch on June 1, 2007 at 12:15 pm

Dr. Dawkins is continuing his virtual tour in other environments:
http://www.supload.us/free/dawky-kong.jpg/view/

44. Atheists: Get off of our country!

Comment #44630 by glittergulch on May 25, 2007 at 5:54 am

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you like your trainwrecks) it's a hoax: http://templewhore.blogspot.com/2007/05/not-all-news-is-bad.html

45. Jerry Falwell Deconverted on Deathbed!

Comment #44626 by glittergulch on May 25, 2007 at 5:47 am

You gotta love Richard: "Well, I heard that he deconverted on his deathbed." He HEARD it! Sometime in the seconds between when he heard Falwell died and the moment he uttered that sentance! If I'd been in that ship library I would have been rolling around on the floor cackling.

How can we go about entering that rumor into the public discourse?

46. Creationist Periodic Table of the Elements

Comment #44623 by glittergulch on May 25, 2007 at 5:43 am

It's important to get both sides of the debate over chemical periodicity.

47. Brazil's Indians Offended by Pope Comments

Comment #41802 by glittergulch on May 17, 2007 at 4:57 am

And yet the pope speaks for god! Hmmm, I'm not sure how I can spin this one to make it fit with church dogma... I got it! God is testing us!

48. A Brief History of Disbelief

Comment #37343 by glittergulch on May 4, 2007 at 6:15 am

Very surprised to see it running in the US. Not at all surprised to find that it's not running today here in Maryland, a firmly blue state. We'll see if it runs later on. But none of our numerous PBS affiliates are listing it.

49. Richard Dawkins in the Time 100

Comment #37341 by glittergulch on May 4, 2007 at 6:10 am

Oh Time. *slowly shakes head in shame*

I see Al Gore on there. I assume James Inhofe wrote his entry.

50. Sam's Flea!

Comment #37337 by glittergulch on May 4, 2007 at 6:05 am

"If there is no God, what could possibly be wrong with theocracies? They provide high entertainment value, and they give everybody involved in them a sense of dignity and high moral purpose. They get to wear ecclesiastical robes, march in impressive processions to burn intransigent people at the stake, believing that they are better than everybody else and that God likes them" (p. 7).

"Christianity is injurious, you say, but I would want to inquire why it is bad to be injurious. What standard do you appeal to here . . . Okay, so I am part of a divisive, injurious and retrograde movement. Is that bad?" (p. 10).