Comments by advocatus_diaboli

1. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200301 by advocatus_diaboli on June 27, 2008 at 9:25 am

If you watch the video of the stoning, you can see police officers standing by and watching a 17 year old girl being pummeled by the crowd. They used stones and their feet to blugeon a teenage girl to death. The police did nothing. The police in any US citiy, ANY CITY, would have intervened to stop this, even if it risked their personal safety.

ah yes, our guiltless police force always so willing to stand up for the lil guy

:edited for link fuck-uppery

2. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200292 by advocatus_diaboli on June 27, 2008 at 9:06 am

So as long as there are murders in the US, we cannot ask that murders not take place elsewhere? That is not very good logic.

and

So once our society is perfect then we can discuss others? Wrong. No one will be perfect, but people can look at grostesque evil and call it just that.

We both know I did not say that. I stated that we should get our violent crime rate more comparable with that of other first world nations, not that we had to be perfect. As it is our crime rate is at a stark contrast with other "developed" nations.

Uhhh this isn't what I asked. I asked you to name even one instance of:

And I showed that your questions had no direct bearing on the statements I have made and are a red herring.

Again, if you can show my statements were false, do so.

In the Middle East it IS the government carrying out these evil acts, with full support from the populace.

What a government, they actually manage to get everyone to agree? Wow.

3. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200280 by advocatus_diaboli on June 27, 2008 at 8:39 am

Al, did I say that they happened in the U.S with the same frequency? Did I say that the crimes were somehow less reprehensible for not happening in the U.S.(though you seem to imply the instances here at home are somehow less important). No, I merely stated that the U.S. has these same acts of inhumanism going on here at home, pointed out our standing in the rest of the first world in terms of violent crime, and pointed to our record at fixing things. If any one of those three things disagree with fact, feel free to point them out. As I said, if we cannot fix trouble at home we have no place to be trying to fix trouble abroad.

4. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200253 by advocatus_diaboli on June 27, 2008 at 7:15 am

And there you have it. A supposed atheist giving voice to opinions so lunatic that the worst snake-handler or creationist would shy away from them.

Coming from a paragon of normallacy such as yourself, I am touched.

Have you not being paying any attention to reality? Haven't you noticed the rampant child-rape in Islamic societies? Or the practice of slavery? Or the total lack of freedom of speech and conscience? Or the total subjugation of women? Or the endemic violence? Or the fearful sloth and inshallah apathy that brings utter stagnation and poverty?

I've seen them happen right here at home, boyo. Poverty, child rape, slavery, lack of freedom of speach, women subjugated, violence, etc. And until the States bring themselves a bit more in average with the rest of the developed world then it is indeed only better by degrees. The U.S. has no place telling other people how to fix problems they cannot themselves fix. Of course I suppose we could fix all of the Mid-East just like we fixed Iraq. With Independence Day coming up maybe you should take a picnic in Iraq wearing a shirting proclaiming your love of freedom. Let me know how it turns out.

edit: Forgot to add link, sorry. click me

5. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200234 by advocatus_diaboli on June 27, 2008 at 6:17 am

So Hindus and Sikhs are not ethnically distinctive?

Afraid not. One of my best friends' mum, for instance is white(hitherto known as a honkey mofo) and she became Sikh in her late thirties. Changed her name, learned Sanskrit, the whole bit.

And I being part honky mofo and with no part from India once considered taking up nir-isvara-vada Hinduism(atheistic Hinduism).

Our goal is the survival of civilization. Helping Muslims break free of the mental prison of Islam is an excellent way of doing that, and a nice bonus, but it is not our primary concern. Our primary concern is to eliminate the Islamic threat to this civilization.

Civilization as it currently stands is much too flawed and broken as it is. Replacing it with Islam would only make it worse by a few degrees. What is needed is a fundamental changing of attitude and outlook within society itself as opposed to some boogey-man to combat. Educate them to reality but it will only be most effective when we have fixed many of the flaws within our own society. Otherwise they are being offered the option of fucked up or slightly less fucked up.

The best way to obtain this is through absolute liberty and the only means of obtaining absolute liberty is anarchy.

6. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #200224 by advocatus_diaboli on June 27, 2008 at 5:43 am

Are you perhaps implying that atheists aren't as good as piranhas because we don't finish our meals?

I hope not. I've had a piranha and the thing would always leave the half of its feeder fish it did not eat floating in the tank for me to remove.

I just thought he was making a point about their not being a market for corrective lenses or cosmetic eye contacts within the piranha community as a scathing social commentary on Laissez-faire economics.

Of course I am the sort that when I see mindless ass belching of the sort DR posts I prefer to think they are making some deep point that I can only vaguely grasp. It is more comforting to me than conceding that human stupidity can obtain depths which I'd never think possible in even the darkest most pessimistic corners of my mind.

7. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199988 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 3:21 pm

They see the world through this lens. Everything is interpreted to fit.

"The eye altering alters all" - William Blake.

8. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199972 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Even if you were able to give an exact description of a lignin molecule I doubt a computer could give you every possible molecule it could become under all possible conditions.

That puts me in mind of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta@home

9. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199960 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 2:40 pm

secularist, you should share whatever it is you're smoking.

On second thought, don't, I'd rather appear to be less of a raving idiot than I already do.

10. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199959 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 2:39 pm

gr8hands, if I can find it I had a link(I think I got it from the Code Project newsletter if anyone receives it and can think of the date)to a list of amusing google ad hacks where people were exploiting the great intelligence that is google's ad system to give amusing results.

Any system that can be so easily exploited should not be the basis of scientific progress. Unless of course we have Yahoo and Ask.com peer review its search entries.

11. Band T-shirt draws charge

Comment #199937 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 2:10 pm

What a joke this is, luckily Bill Potts is on the case, for those who dont know Bill Potts is one of the country's leading criminal defence solicitors or as you Americans would say, lawyer.

What amuses me is that we Americans often refer to soliciting in terms of prostitution. Though I suppose the two occupations are comprable. The only difference is who is fucking who.

12. A War On Science

Comment #199931 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 2:08 pm

Oh dear. I seem to have somehow forgotten that there are many highly sane and rational people on this site who were believers for some time.

I'm certainly not one. Whether I mean highly sane and rational or a believer at one point, I'll leave to you :P

13. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199928 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Perhaps we should also ask how we don't know the these "traits" weren't created by Harry Potter. After getting rid of Voldermort, he must be doing something else a year on?

He becomes an auror and marries Ginny Weasley.

ummm, I probably should not know that...

I have a son by the way so I will blame him.

14. A War On Science

Comment #199922 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 1:57 pm

A very good point. But once you have taken that first step of chucking rational thinking out the window, I am certain the next "hit" comes easier, and the next easier still. Its like a horribly addicting drug but without all the fun.

15. A War On Science

Comment #199909 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 1:42 pm

I am left with a profound question - why does religion lead to apparently sane and rational people, supposedly trained in thinking, using arguments that would be embarrassing even from a small child?

It comforts them. It shouldn't, but it does. We are an animal that looks for a deeper meaning and causation in everything its one of the things that has got us as far as we are. I honestly don't think some people are capable of conceding that there may not be any intended purpose to existance without facing despair.

16. Band T-shirt draws charge

Comment #199904 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 1:37 pm

You know, I do not see how some dork cannot get away with a t-shirt but Vatican newspapers can inform us that the Pope killed and skinned our saviour(probably while making those delicious god cracker's they love). Of course, maybe there is no outcry because he would cut them in two with his light saber.

"The pope, therefore, does not wear Prada, but Christ," L'Osservatore Romano

17. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199896 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 1:19 pm

The site may be, but the referenced recording was real.

More real than Pinochio even.

18. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199894 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 1:17 pm

mordacious, Comfort and Cameron weren't noticed which was part of the point, they actually admit they lied to the attendents of the ritual in their recording. They told them they weren't recording and then went on to bash how weird those silly pagans were.

Between you and I, I cannot stop laughing over Comfort's banana.

http://www.deos-shadow.com/?p=43

Plays parts of the recording from the dynamic duo.

19. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199887 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Ah, Objective Ministries, I knew Paley was familiar from somewhere. I have a fair few friends in the neo-pagan community who were up in arms over something Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron had done. And at that point in time this was the only link I could find containing info on it.

http://objectiveministries.org/antioccult/#druids

20. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199823 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 11:40 am

This sounds like a computer scientist's wet dream.

Quite the opposite! Their reliance upon some god-algorithm that can determine anything and everything undermines the very processes by which useful algorithms are created and in the end they still rely on models. They are basically just suggesting we throw away construction instructions to those models and wing-it.

The data is wholly useless without some means of interpretting it which this article does not show us they intend to do. Their results may lead to further investigation into a specific area and help us bipass some tedious processes, but at the end of the day the scientific method comes home wanting to know where its dinner is and demands a quickie before the news at 10.

21. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199816 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 11:35 am

Another problem is that many of the algorithms involved, even if we pretend they are not themselves based on models, use a fair bit of fuzzy math themselves and only make relative comparison. They sort out enough to ensure that a, b, and c have a certain relation to one another but in complex systems, especially something as diverse as entire ecosystems, I have difficulty believing our dear Ventor is hitting all his targets(suppose I am off to pull up information on him now).

I should clarify that not all genetics algorithm's find only approximates but it has been my experience that the larger the database of items being compared the more approximation is favored to exacts as a better solution(how many people have the same first 4 letters of their surname, same birthdate, and same last four digits to their SS number; for instance)

The next thing this guy will be telling is us that bubble-sort will lead to the singularity.

22. God hates Mars

Comment #199700 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 8:03 am

Oh ye Philistines of chocolate. Here in Brussels there is CHOCOLATE. Several different companies, but all of them produce dizzyingly delicious chocolate. Chocolate that calls your name from the refrigerator. Chocolate that own your very soul. The chocolate that god, if god existed, would eat until he got a rash.
There is a reason that you have to have training and a license to become a "chocolatier".

All the rest of that greasy brown stuff that you are eating is as nothing. Nothing, I tell you.

*shrugs* I've never cared for chocolate.

23. A War On Science

Comment #199693 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 7:50 am

the thought of a higher power isn't weakness

You are right, it is not. It is a crutch.

But a crutch that just happens to compensate for weakness. The weakness can be any number of things from inability to grasp certain concept(which I can understand as we all have different abilities to learn) to simple intellectual laziness. The weakness that is compensated in most fundamentalism, however, is neither of those two but a simple desire to dominate. Religion makes fundies feel all warm and important on the inside, which probably explains why they think they know more than every scientist, philosopher, and man of the cloth in history.

24. PZ Myers - Science and Atheism in the Blogosphere

Comment #199672 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 7:15 am

the arrogance of the atheist comes out in stark clarity...

As opposed to the arrogance of the theist who claim themselves among the most beloved of god, made in the image of god, the chosen of god, defenders of god(which has always confused me, why would an omnipotent beast need defending), the caretakers of all other life on the planet, and the moral police out to determine what everyone else should feel, think or do?

25. God hates Mars

Comment #199648 by advocatus_diaboli on June 26, 2008 at 6:20 am

My guess is that when life is found elsewhere, they'll dust off the old standby. Whatever planet supports the life will be the Land of Nod and any life there(be it intelligent) is the offspring of the line of Cain. Anything unintelligent was obviously sent there to make the place more hospitable to Cain. Any differences must be the Mark of Cain.

We haven't really seen them label a group of people as descendants of Cain since the slave trade and I am sure some of them are aching to break it out.

But that is pure poppycock. Everyone knows all the vampires and werewolves are the line of Cain(and Lilith of course)

26. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199322 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 2:16 pm

Gay marriage is an abomination before god and your two friends will burn forever in the lake of fire.

Hell....

I'm in, congrats from me as well.

27. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #199267 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 12:07 pm

I am usually a wench man, but I can always substitute vowels....

For a Levenshtein distance of one I'll allow it. But if you go more than two you'll get a stern talking to mister.

28. Band T-shirt draws charge

Comment #199259 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 11:56 am

When I was in highschool our school had a no depictions of violence on clothing policy. I was in trouble numerous times for pointing out that a silly sketched cartoon skull they would send me home for wearing was much less violent than the depicitons of a man nailed to a stick they let the Christian students wear day after day.

29. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199209 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 10:25 am

al rawandi,

I am sure you do, and I saw the smiley.

I was answering to Advocatus' rather daft comment (or may be I didn't get its jocularity).

Don't worry about not getting my humor, no one else does. I do hold doors for people(not for any reason relating to their sex). I'm just opposed to aloting special courtesy to someone simply because they may not have a penis or may be old. I try to treat everyone on equal footing. One of my neighbors is an old lady and I help her with lifting a lot of things. Not because she is old or because she is a lady but simply because she could use the help and makes some excellent blueberry cobbler. If she were a balding 23 year old man who didn't look like he'd be 100 pounds soaking wet, I'd still help.

30. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199188 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 9:43 am

Any time a woman stops to let me open the door for her I ask if she's ever voted or ever intends to vote. If she says yes I assume she can handle the door situation by herself. If she says no, I tell her she needs to start and assume she can handle the door situation by herself.

31. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199174 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 9:10 am

Although i don't want to get involved in the crossfire (and i'm not a parent myself) but....

Surely it's the quality of parenting, not the quantity, that makes the real difference for the kids involved?

Just the point I was trying to make and much better worded!

It shouldn't matter if it is one parent or one hundred and one if the parent(s) is there for the children and providing a loving stable happy environment and doing the best by their children that they may.

32. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199166 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 9:02 am

Which may explain a few things.

No, sorry, I have seen too much of the devastation wrought by the sexual revolution to be at all comfortable with running experiments with children's lives. In a traditionalist, patriarchal society maybe, where the father has a strong sense of responsibility towards his children. In the West, it seems to be yet another example of exalting whim over responsibility, and I have seen too much of what can go wrong to trust it.

You are assuming our arrangement is wholly the whim of a sex kick. Were we to go out and boff any old cat that shambled our way, perhaps that'd be so. However I(and many polyamorous arrangements, though admittedly not all) am in a deeply involved and active family arrangement. We are together out of love and respect and not the urges of our crotch. Or are you incapable of separating "love" and "lust" as such?

33. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199154 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 8:47 am

Fanusi - What I wish for al children is to have 2 loving, psychologically well adjusted parents who are devoted to the best interests of their children. A signiture on a legal document is irrelevant

Why start and stop at 2? That seems to be based on the "institution" of marriage as it currently is. I see no problem with 1 as long as they can be there for the child and know of no reason to cap it off at 2. My son has four parents (a daddy, a birth mommy, and 2 love mommies). I may have misread, you could be meaning at least 2, if so my bad. If not it really becomes a defense of the system we have conceded is flawed.

34. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #199084 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 7:10 am

This makes me think of an article I came across in the advocate several years back The article dealt with some sort of awareness tour that was going on and was discussing being expelled from a Mormon University campus. The part of the article that caught my attention was it mentioning the high suicide rate among gay teens in Mormon families. It prompted a bit of study on my part and I was rather disgusted with the results.

35. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199056 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 6:22 am

Does it count if I'm ambidextrous, like money, and constantly argue any rules I'm given?

36. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199051 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 6:08 am

If I may throw a quotation out there on gay marriage:

"If gays want to be unhappy too, let them".

*ducks*

I'm bi and polyamorous so I must realllllly be asking for it.

37. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199048 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 5:57 am

I'm OK with gays marrying I just couldn't understand why they wanted the institution. Now gay couples who have been together 20 or 30 years are getting married. What does that change?

In the U.S. there are 1,049 benefits and rights gained in marriage. This includes everything from changes in taxation to not having to testify against a spouse in criminal cases.

38. Science is not philosophy

Comment #199040 by advocatus_diaboli on June 25, 2008 at 5:39 am

I'm so sick of all the negativity about anything that isn't said by one of the guru's. And the way the guru's are fawned on by some people is somewhat sickening too.

Conceding a philosopher may know a thing or two about philosophy is fawning? How queer.

As for science and philosophy, I think the two go hand in hand. I had to take a few classes in philosophy when doing my computer science undergrad work. I've found it helped my problem solving and reasoning skills much more than any of the work in mathmatics I'd done. As I see it math and science help you examine the world and philosophy helps you make sense of and find utility in the world. Both are needed.

39. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198856 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Call me old fashioned, but I like mine with Sex on the Beach just to make sure it all goes down smooth. something can also be said for a fuzzy navel.

40. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198815 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 2:13 pm

You people really aren't any different from fundamentalists. You are as mysoginistic as the most devout Muslim.

Anyone who does not totally follow your narrow minded way of thinking is a douchbag/idiot/fucktard/moron

Want a hanky?

41. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198806 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 2:02 pm

You do not think it is benefitial to weed out any argument which like religion is dangerous and which like religion abandons what we know for what we'd have it be?

Looking through tera's arguments you will see she defends Zionism with the rabid fervor of the religious and is impervious to any facts which would dispell her delusion. Her view may not have a deity but in all other ways it is a religion.

42. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198794 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 1:46 pm

I'm one of those douchebags. I'm aware of that. Yet I will note that I am not yet guilty of ad hominam. For instance I called tera a douchebag, which s/he is. But I did not state s/he was wrong because s/he is a douchebag. I merely stated s/he is in fact a douchebag which may or may not be related to why s/he is wrong. Though if I were to guess, I'd say there is a definite correlation.

43. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198760 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Reality is not for the squeamish. People hate leaving their comfort zones and religion offers them a stable comfort zone. They don't ever have to worry about changing due to pesky facts, or looking out the window at the beautiful yet uncaring process of nature which has no mind or purpose with which to bless us or snuff us out. It is hard to feel special when you realize you are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, that there is no god to make you better, right your wrongs, or bandage your knee when you come crying.

44. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #198751 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 12:39 pm

I am leaving the message but you don't have to get back to me since you can't

Dear evolins

I push myself and my students a lot but we could not figure out that we came from the worm. Our logic, science and our common sense are always getting in the way. Espcially when we talked about our body parts, blood veins as the high way in our body and their related transporters body cells, we saw that nothing can explain this miracle but Go's creation not the chemical rains which randomly and chance or accidentally(!) built up the DNA. It is like a joke. So Take it easy. Do not involve in the matters like creation that is overwhelmingly over your head/brain?

Class? Is it spelling optional by any chance?

Who is Go's? Sounds a bit Sumerian to me. "and Marduk waged war with Go's in the carcass of Tiamat the fallen"

45. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198739 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Was there any indication he was gay?

You mean aside from spending most of his time with 12 dudes half of which were sailors?

46. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198721 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 11:54 am

How about let's not 'marry off' anyone anymore, please?

I agree and will add to it that we should open up marriage to any arrangement of "consenting adults" to allow for same sex marriage, polygamy, etc.

47. Carlin on Religion

Comment #198708 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 11:30 am

will this keep going
candycorn chicken fetus
I hope for some cheese

48. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198704 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 11:27 am

Christ did so. I'm pretty sure that the Buddha also did.

It is commonly taught in Christianity that Mary was somewhere between 12 and 14 when she conceived Jesus.

The Buddha did not advocate marriage in general but did lay down some general guidelines which does not cover age. It usually depends upon what society adopts Buddhism as to how it views marriage and is not so much a matter of Buddhism itself.

So basically Jesus was popped out of a kid and Buddha was mums the word. Care to try again?

49. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198672 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 11:00 am

"Officer, I swear she didn't tell me she was 1. She looked 2 and a half at the very least."

It is heartening to know that in some areas, at least, progress has been made over the past few thousand years.

So where are all the drunken 16 year-olds at anyway?

50. Carlin on Religion

Comment #198650 by advocatus_diaboli on June 24, 2008 at 10:48 am

in my effort to
give you a haiku to read
I botched it badly

:P

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