North Korea blusters, and apparently hacks into Sony Corp. and extorts them into holding up a dumb movie that blasphemes the sacred Kim Jon Un. Guess who the conservatives are blaming for, I don’t know, America’s cowardice, or craven Jewish Hollywood, or something — anything but a badly run capitalist institution? Liberals. It’s all about the standard trope, that liberals are the ones caving before the Commie threat.
Roy Edroso responds to that nonsense.
Perhaps you’ve wondered what the difference between atheism and secular humanism might be. That renowned expert on ethical secularism, Rafael Cruz, father of Ted, explains it all in one simple slide.
|
Without hope |
Communism |
The Atlantic has a long exposé of The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side. The leader of a Zen Buddhist group in New York has a long history of sexual harassment and abuse.
Ed Brayton is going to be in Minneapolis for the Sunday solstice event with Minnesota Atheists this weekend, and he gets in on Saturday. If you don’t have tickets to the Winter Solstice dinner (it’s sold out!), you can still join us Saturday night at the Radisson Blu Minneapolis, in the hotel bar at 8 to whenever. I’ll be there, so will Brianne, Stephanie, Jason, and of course, some guy named Ed. Come on by for casual conversation. Maybe Ed will tell us some jokes, too.
That’s this Saturday, the 20th, 8:00pm, at 35 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402. I’ll have my grading done by then, so I might even be coherent and semi-human!
Airline pilots. I was surprised.
Quartz ran an article in which an investigator discovered that pilots were often using prohibited equipment to take photos of the cockpit, the scenery, the view as they were landing, all actions which are prohibited by the airlines. Just as we passengers get told there are certain gadgets we have to shut off or put in airplane mode during phases of the flight, the crew has even more stringent requirements — they’re, for instance, required to maintain a “sterile cockpit” with no electronic distractions at all during take-off and landing.
Michael Egnor has replied to my dismissal of his claims that memories can’t be stored in the brain with a curiously titled post, Understanding Memories: Lovely Metaphors Belong in Songs, Not Science. I was a bit confused, at first…I don’t recall using any song lyrics or poetic metaphors in my post on the subject, but then as I read his post, a light dawned. He’s talking about himself.
You can’t imagine how much I hate the loud, cheesy, obnoxiously sectarian chimes that ring in the cemetary near my house — they’re so loud that we have to close up all the windows in my house all summer long, unless we really want to listen to hymns every 15 minutes. They were briefly shut off for a while last year when someone cut the cables — really, I’m not the only one who hates them — and that ass, Ted Storck, who had them installed and lives nowhere near them had them repaired, and then wrote to accuse me of having done it.
Here’s why it’s a good idea for everyone to understand a little basic statistics.
Stacie Chapman’s heart skipped when she answered the phone at home and her doctor — rather than a nurse — was on the line. More worrisome was the doctor’s gentle tone as she asked, “Where are you?”
On that spring day in 2013, Dr. Jayme Sloan had bad news for Chapman, who was nearly three months pregnant. Her unborn child had tested positive for Edwards syndrome, a genetic condition associated with severe birth defects. If her baby — a boy, the screening test had shown — was born alive, he probably would not live long.
Sloan explained that the test — MaterniT21 PLUS — has a 99 percent detection rate. Though Sloan offered additional testing to confirm the result, a distraught Chapman said she wanted to terminate the pregnancy immediately.
She seems to be the only one willing to take on the big banks and institutionalized cronyism.
As you can see from the photo taken at the clinic, she was devastated by the experience.
