Month: January 2010

Haiti – Answering the Call

Jason Thibeault2 Comments

Written by Jodi

To all the people out there saying ‘I didn’t care before, why should I care now?’ …

Fuck You.

There has been a call put out for help and support and I see nothing wrong with answering that call. You’re right that half the people donating probably never even knew Haiti existed, let alone knew of the kinds of living conditions that are ‘normal’ there. And you’re also right that even more people who are donating are probably doing so to be ‘fashionable’, jumping on the bandwagon because everyone else is. But you know what? Who cares?? The point is that the aid gets to Haiti.

And yes, OF COURSE we should have all been paying attention before this all happened. We should all be paying attention to every country that has poor living conditions and trying to help them all in whatever way we can. We should we should we should. But we didn’t. We don’t. It sucks, it’s stupid, and we should really try harder to care and give aid on a regular basis instead of only when there is a massive disaster. But there’s nothing we can do to change what happened now, so why not give? Really, why the fuck not?

If everyone, everywhere that didn’t care about Haiti before, or didn’t know they existed held back and said ‘Well sorry, I don’t really feel morally correct because I should have been helping you before this all happened.’ they wouldn’t be getting ANY relief aid right now. If there was a massive, wide scale natural disaster on YOUR doorstep, and your government told you there wasn’t enough resources to go around would you not appreciate the help of other countries? I really don’t think it would matter to you at that point that they were oblivious to your existence before, would it?

So just give something already. For instance, at Mercy Corps or Doctors Without Borders.

If you don’t want to think about it, if you want to just stop watching, stop reading and go back to your normal life fine. No one is going to think badly of you, but quit trying to make the rest of us feel bad about giving to a disaster relief fund.

</end rant>

Haiti – Answering the Call
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I KNEW those things were evil!

Jason Thibeault1 Comment

Evidently children playing Pokémon games, trading Pokémon cards and watching Pokémon cartoons aren’t merely being entertained by mass-market pap that exploits obsessive-compulsive “collect ’em all” tendencies in children — they’re actually training themselves to harness demonic powers in real life.

It’s no wonder I’ve disliked the whole Pokémon phenomenon since it made its way across the Pacific to North America — not because they’re evil, but because I have a vested interest in reality staying the way it is, because supernatural phenomena, if they really exist, would put my worldview on its ear. (Not to mention that if something exists, then it is real, thus part of reality, thus natural.) Despite no supernatural phenomena having ever manifested in the entire history of the universe (e.g., every phenomenon has a natural explanation), the people that believe in deities are often the same people that believe in psychics, witchcraft, magic, astrology, and all manner of woo. Reality is reality, and I like it that way.

Do you have any idea what kind of twisted world view you must have, to be so wholly incapable of distinguishing the fictional world of Pokémon from reality? I mean, he even accuses children of having the same problem! The irony is palpable.

Hat tip to Everything Is Terrible.

(Whaai? Whaai??)

I KNEW those things were evil!

Robertson and Limbaugh are fucking monsters

Jason Thibeault6 Comments

You tell ’em Keith. Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh can go to hell, on the off chance that one exists.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In the meantime, if you would like to help Haiti’s victims, and simultaneously not help opportunistic fucksticks proselytize to the beleaguered in that country, give generously to Doctors Without Borders. They’ll help the victims, without first extracting a forced conversion to any religion.

Support Doctors Without Borders in Haiti

Robertson and Limbaugh are fucking monsters

Help DuWayne with his homework

Jason Thibeault

You know you want to answer his question…

What do you think of, when someone mentions the word “culture?” How does “culture” differ from “society?” What is/are your culture/s?

[…]

I am asking these questions because I am hoping to use the responses as part of the foundation for one of my papers this semester. If you could help me out, I would really appreciate it. I would ask that those who have a background in anthropology or sociology refrain from responding in comments – I am not looking for professional definitions. What I am looking for is purely layperson responses.

It’s a great question. And he’s specifically looking for laypeople, so I am eminently qualified — and so are most of you! Answer him here. Or here. CLICK DAMMIT.

Help DuWayne with his homework

Connecting the dots

Jason Thibeault, ,

Connecting the dots between the anti-AGW crowd and the anti-science/pro-smoking crowd is easy. Convincing people that the conspiracy ISN’T in trying to convince people to buy your book or accept AGW dogmatically, but rather in spreading FUD about science, is apparently hard.

Humans are ill-equipped to handle long-term crises, and we naturally tend to blame the messenger or, alternately, accuse them of having something to gain for it. Meanwhile, the people who ARE gaining something off of sticking with the “tried and true” methods (which happen to be slowly killing us, just like the tobacco companies were back in the day / still are now), are succeeding at the framing battle merely by spreading doubt about the science itself — which is unequivocally pointing at anthropogenic causes for global warming.

Don’t get me wrong. In the case of smoking, it’s a personal decision to risk lung cancer for a few moments of head-spin from nicotine. Except where it’s not — where second-hand smoke is a risk to others, and governments throughout Canada are rightly banning smoking in public places. In this case, companies are making a bundle off of oil (and the governmental oil subsidies), at the expense of the entire globe’s biosphere. We all benefit from stopping this madness, this slow genocide. Not only would getting off of fossil fuels dampen the frequency of resource-wars like the ones in the Middle East presently, but we’d have cleaner air and fewer wild swings in our weather patterns to boot.

And on the flip side, the argument is reduced to, “what if it’s a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?”

Hat tip to Atheist Media and DeSmogBlog’s Peter Sinclair.

Connecting the dots

My favorite musical composition

Jason Thibeault

Monday’s going to be a very busy day, what with dealing with the user migration that I would have started last night (update on that as soon as I have something to post about — I’m writing this at 8:30pm Sunday night, so I haven’t even pulled the trigger on the scripts yet!). Because of this fact, I’m scheduling this post to share possibly my favorite piece of music of all time. You probably know it, in fact. It’s a shame I can’t find any way to include this at the wedding, and it’s also a shame it really doesn’t suit the occasion, it being as sorrowful and poignant as it is.

Enjoy!

My favorite musical composition

WTF

Jason Thibeault,

Sarah Palin has taken a job with America’s answer to Pravda, FOX “News”.

The network confirmed that Ms. Palin would appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multiyear deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ms. Palin will not have her own regular program, one person with knowledge of the deal said, though she will host a series that will run on the network from time to time.

Because FOX just didn’t have enough journalistic integrity. Seriously. What the fuck?

WTF

Boobie Wednesday good, Facebook bra meme bad.

Jason Thibeault, 9 Comments

I have to be up front about two potentially unpopular facts before I begin. One: I fully support the Boobie Wednesday movement. Two: I’m male — like, a human being of the pipe-swinging variety. In order to temper this second fact, to keep it from prejudicing you against my thesis, as soon as I’m done my first draft I’m handing the post over to my beloved Jodi to do with whatever she will.

Continue reading “Boobie Wednesday good, Facebook bra meme bad.” →

Boobie Wednesday good, Facebook bra meme bad.

NonStampCollector’s special report on evolution

Jason Thibeault

This is absolutely identical to every conversation I’ve ever had with a creationist on the subject of evolution — it’s seriously like they’ve dug through my chat logs or e-mails or something. (The more likely reason, of course, is that creationists’ arguments are unchanging and eternal.)

The burden is always on the evolution-supporter to not only understand the religion of the person making ridiculous claims, but also to discredit the same ignorant claims about what evolution supposedly posits to begin with. Why can’t creationists learn about the theory of evolution first, then try to debunk what it ACTUALLY implies about the natural biological processes that led to the diversification of life on Earth?

Kirk and Ray. Gee. I wonder who he means by that.

NonStampCollector’s special report on evolution