about 1 week ago - 9 comments
…with the goal of improving them. This is the result:
Don’t know about you, but I think his version of the Decalogue is a vast improvement over the original(s).
about 1 week ago - 5 comments
I know, I know: Big surprise! Right?
The California Highway Patrol pulled over Senator Roy Ashburn at 2:00 a.m. Wednesday after an officer noticed a black Chevy Tahoe swerving at 13th and L Streets.
Ashburn, a father of four, is a Republican Senator representing parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino Counties with a history of opposing More >
about 1 week ago - 20 comments
It looks like it’s Detroit’s turn for a round of atheist bus ads according to this article in The Oakland Press News:
The ads are to begin a month-long run Thursday on more than a dozen Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) buses. They show the words “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone” superimposed More >
about 2 weeks ago - 44 comments
I’m probably going to get myself in trouble with this one. There are people of a conservative persuasion in my circle of friends and extended family and most of them have learned not to send me email forwards of any kind because I have a bad habit of hitting Reply To All when I don’t More >
about 2 weeks ago - 13 comments
Here’s something you don’t see every day. An email about the coming apocalypse that combines Christian end-times-nonsense with a government/alien (as in UFOs) conspiracy.
To whom it will concern,
A man and a woman are about to witness to, and reveal, some very shocking information that will have a profound and quite disturbing effect upon the populace. More >
about 2 weeks ago - 5 comments
Roger Ebert is dying and showing us how to live. Found at Pharyngula on February 19: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
My favorite excerpt:
I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about More >
about 3 weeks ago - 3 comments
Here’s a bit a news to brighten your day: The latest Pew Forum on Religion & Public life study finds that religious belief is on the decline among the younger population:
One in four American millennials — which it defined as those who were born after 1980 and came of age around the millennium — More >
about 3 weeks ago - 2 comments
And they brought back video of what they found. As you might expect, it makes for painful viewing. Check it:
From the official synopsis:
After criticism of the convention’s cost, for-profit status, and payment to Palin, multiple national Tea Party organizations withdrew their participation.
But the event went on.
And so did the paranoid, conspiratorial assertions–that President Obama was More >
about 4 weeks ago - 7 comments
Explaining the differences between Jews, Christians, and Muslims can be tricky, but fortunately someone going by the name RandomFerret has a simple explanation for the easily confused. It’s short. Concise. And nails it right on the head. Check it:
Thanks to RockLifter for sending that along via Twitter.
about 4 weeks ago - 2 comments
The Daily Show’s John Oliver travels to Hawaii to cover the RNC’s winter meeting. Republicans manage to reveal their hypocrisy without a hint of having a clue that they’re doing so:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
RNC Meeting in Hawaii
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor
Health Care Crisis
It’s amazing how they can stand there More >
about 2 years ago
that is pretty much what i thought when i heard about this on the local news. it won’t change my mind as i decided long ago to vote for breshear.
and if anyone is wondering why the phrase “KY Gov. Ernie Fletcher” rings a little bell in their head, he was almost shot down by F-16’s on his way to D.C. for ronald reagan’s funeral when the transponder on his plane failed.
l8r
about 2 years ago
We (meaning those of us who have no real love of the Dubya wannabe)were understandably dismayed upon hearing that the “Shoot First and Ask Questions Later” rule had been over-ruled. But with any luck we’ll have the fucker gone by tomorrow evening.
about 2 years ago
I trust that the TC order is the last fistful of wet straw that this theocratic b@$+@rd takes to the bottom with him. Hopefully the people of Kentucky will see through this pathetic gesture and leave a large, red, stinging screen door print on this @#$%^&‘s @$$ today. Best of luck to you and your state, parkay and Bastich.
about 2 years ago
Good luck Parkay and Bastich. It sucks to have to put up with that bullshit.
about 2 years ago
after putting on my paranoia hat and thinking about this a little more, ernie’s executive order may have more to do with the next governors race than this one.
if breshear reverses ernie’s executive order, he will be attacked for removing the ten commandments from the capitol.
if breshear waits until legal action is brought against the state and then removes the display, he will be attacked for caving in to the aclu as well as removing the ten commandments from the capitol.
breshear’s only other recourse would be to fight the legal battle, pissing away lots of money in a action that is bound to fail.
i wouldn’t count on that. we keep re-electing mitch mcconnell and jim bunning to the us senate. we even send democrats to the house of representatives who vote for bush’s policies like the military commissions act.
about 2 years ago
Ever the optimist, arn’cha’, parkay?
I’m from a so-called Blue State and we repeatedly send complete mouth-breathers to the statehouse, I’m sorry to report.
I wouldn’t worry too much about 2012, though—the Religious Right will still be licking its wounds. I highly doubt that we’ve seen the end of the Haggard-Foley-Vitter-Allen-Prevett-Craig scandals. Loud professions of faith are, I think, well on their way to becoming synonymous with hypocrisy and hidden vices in the public mind.
I’m just sorry that the ORU scandal—with all the juicy “Mrs. Roberts-on” details—didn’t get more traction a month ago. That would have been more or less the coup-de-grace for this uptick in Dominionist ambitions.
about 2 years ago
IIRC Fletcher had a judge rule that as long as the other documents were in place the TC display was appropriate. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is he’s just playing a last second grab for votes. Thanks cubiclegrrl and Webs for the well wishes.
Now, off to the vote and then to the job.
about 2 years ago
I’ve seen the Magna Carta- I’d be surprised if it’s left the British Museum. I’m assuming these are copies
COurse he could try and get clever, and put the Koran in, maybe something fromotehr philosophies too- dilute the Christianity, claim it’s a historical exhibition for education. If he gets tacit approval from the ACLU, all his opponents can do is complain that he isn’t promoting Christianity. “But that would be against the law- are you asking me to break the law?”
about 2 years ago
Though it may be an event we are not able to prevent, change can only happen through work on the ground. I think we’re doing the right thing to fight organised religion on SEB, because i don’t want to see arbitary power given to arbitary rules, that’s oppresive without any benefit in real terms
about 2 years ago
just because you’re paranoid it doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
l8r
about 2 years ago
not likely, we are talking about kentucky here. the mainstream democrats are quite conservative and christian around these parts.
about 2 years ago
Actually, there are a number of copies: The English Barons made bad ol’ King John sign a few of ‘em—just in case His Majesty might, say, “accidentally” lose one, y’understand… Plus his son and grandson were required to sign fresh copies when they took their turns on the throne. One from King Eddy Longshanks’s era (remember the evil old king in “Braveheart”?) is on display at the Library of Congress. It’s in phenomenally good shape, for all that it was written some 500 years before the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Worth seeing, at least to a history nerd like myself…
about 2 years ago
when leaving his polling location today, reporters asked beshear what he planned to do about ernie’s executive order. beshear indicated that he would take whatever action was required by the court system.
about 2 years ago
Going to work – Nerve grating
Dealing with people who don’t remember it’s election day and they can’t buy alcohol till the polls close – Irritating
Hearing a local newsie call the Gubernatorial election a spanking – Priceless!!!
about 2 years ago
Bastich: Please tell me you’re kidding about the alcohol thing… In any case, congratulations! Long live the reality-based revolution.
about 2 years ago
I kid you not, ma’am. Here is the actual law from KRS Title X Chapter 119….
119.215 Providing another with intoxicants on election day.
Any person who sells, loans, gives or furnishes intoxicating liquor to any person in this
state on the day of any regular or primary election, under circumstances not constituting a
violation of KRS 242.100, 244.290 or 244.480, shall be fined not less than twenty-five
dollars ($25) nor more than fifty dollars ($50) for each offense.
History: Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 130, sec. 82.
If I had a dime for every time I told someone (in some cases more than once) that they couldn’t buy I’d take all of you with me to someplace much warmer for the winter.
about 2 years ago
Wow. I’m just freaked. And I thought that Minnesota was puritanical for not allowing anyone except the bars to sell booze on Sunday… Yikes.
about 2 years ago
Hmm, I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind that law. Then again I’m not sure I would be able to comprehend the reasoning behind many state laws.
about 2 years ago
cubiclegrrl- yes, there is something special about original documents, isn’t there? Here in Vienna, if you have a good enough reason, you can go to the Nationalbibliothek and be handed, say, a fourteenth-century manuscript of Minnelieder. For me as a medieval musician, it’s an amazing feeling to hold a piece of music written seven hundred years ago, and sing it (softly, of course: you’re in a library after all…)
about 2 years ago
Here’s a mind warper for you then, here in Kentucky the Peace Officer Oath of Office makes you promise you’ve never been in or helped with a duel! Before anyone calls bullshit I worked in a county lock-up for a year as a Deputy and had to take that very oath.
Yes, I cracked up in case anyone is wondering.
about 2 years ago
i have two guesses on that matter.
1) closing the bars increases the likelyhood of citizens going to the polls to vote.
2) alcohol could be used as payment for vote buying.
i tend to believe that #2 is the more likely reason.
fyi, here in lexington, it is illegal to have an ice cream cone in your back pocket. it sounds stupid but it is a very old law. apparently, horses like ice cream and you can get a horse to follow you to someplace where you can steal it in private.
not being involved in a duel with deadly weapons is also a big part of the oath taken by the governor elect when he/she is sworn into office.
about 2 years ago
Except no bars are being closed. They just can’t sell, furnish, or loan alcohol.
So could money, tobacco, and many other things. But banning alcohol on a voting day isn’t going to stop much. I bet the only thing it does is increase sales of alcohol before and after that day.
It’s interesting to hear about the silly things states have. Thanks parkay.
Which is where most of the stupid laws come from. Some person many years back thought it would be a good idea to legislate x, where x is something that pisses them off. It gets written into law and over time loses its purpose.
about 2 years ago
Which is the whole point of a bar, to sell alcohol. No sales equals no reason to be open. No argument from me that it’s stupid but it is the law for now and that’s what we have to go by.
about 2 years ago
That is soooo uber-cool. And I’m envious. I’m not a musician by any stretch, but I can certainly understand the sentiment. Just seeing a score edited in Beethoven’s own hand at the British Library was one heck of a charge—and that manuscript was maybe 200 years old. Among many other similar happy moments there—that stuff’s like candy for me. I envy your proximity to such treasures.
about 2 years ago
Many of the bars where I’m from would likely still be open if they couldn’t sell alcohol. Many would still make money from food and non-alcohol drink sales. One bar in particular has the best wings in town. I have only sat and got a drink from it one time, but have ordered many wings.
Also, a lot of the bars in this area have illegal gambling with the poker machines. You put in money, and if you win the bar pays out. The bar owner splits the revenue of the machine with the gaming company that puts the machine in the bar. These poker machines alone would likely be reason enough to keep the bar open.
about 2 years ago
surely you only ever hire booze anyway!
I won’t boats about my behind the scenes tour of the British Museum “Oh that 1000 year old sword I got to handle”…
about 2 years ago
I’m pretty sure Parkay is on the right path with the theory that the law banning alcohol sales while polls are open is to prevent vote buying with booze.
I can’t cite a source off top of my head, but I’m sure I’ve read something in American history where votes were bought with free beer or other alcohol.