One of These Things

I'm sure that you, gentle reader, have been asking yourself, "When will Michael update us about the music he's been listening to?" Well, your wait is over. Here's a small sampler of songs I've been playing frequently recently:

• Tapping the Vein, "Burn."
• Tapping the Vein, "Time."
• Flyleaf,* "Again."
• Third Day,* "Slow Down." I came across this song in a video compilation of the SCCA, Washington DC Region's 2009 solo season. (Incidentally, here's another good autocross video.)

Once again, I will ask you to identify which one is different from the others. This should be easy.

* Why is it I keep finding songs by Christian bands and bands that happen to be Christian? I mean, really. I'm not sure how to explain this trend.

Oy!

Remember the gag* from Airplane! about Jewish athletes?

"Would you like something to read?".

"Do you have anything light?"

"How about this leaflet, 'Famous Jewish Sports Legends?'"

Well, if you enjoyed reading about semitic sports heroes, you may be glad to know that now, finally, you can read about the greatest jewish superheroes of comic-book-land.  

*For the record, as someone with substantial Jewish heritage and more than a little athletic ability, I feel perfectly comfortable with this joke.

Slouching Toward Austin

I'm horrified by the recent vote by the Texas Board of Education to include language in their teaching standards that encourages the teaching of creationism/ID. My "favorite" part of the article I've linked to is the Board Chair's statement that "Someone has to stand up to experts," presumably because experts don't know what they are talking about. I don't think this guy knows what "expert" means.

I'm Selling my Soul on eBay

Up next:  my conscience.

Muzzle Puff! Today You are a Dog.

Today is the second anniversary of Newton's birth. Yep, he's all grown up now. I feel like I should throw him a bark mitzvah: "Newton, today you are a dog. Muzzle puff!"

We've had the fluffy little guy in our home for most of his life, and he's firmly a part of the family. On the rare occasions when I come home, and he's not there, because Alison has taken him for a walk or to play with the neighbors, I find the apartment eerily still. I miss him when I go on trips, too.

Not surprisingly, I don't believe in astrology. However, I was amused to discover, last night, that Newton's Chinese zodiacal sign is the dog. Hah!

Dover

This evening, I watched a fascinating episode of Nova on my local PBS station. The ep was a 2-hour summary of the Dover intelligent-design/creationism case. I encourage you to watch it online.

Nothing Fails Like Prayer

My former overlord, Masta, just brought this piece of news to my attention. Sonny Perdue, the Governor of Georgia, where I lived two states ago and which is currently in a drought, is holding a service at the Capitol building to pray for rain. That's right, not only is he clearly endorsing religion, but he is also using state funds to pay for this shindig. Plus, he seems to expect it to actually work. Holy flurking schnit.

I'm sure George Bush is quite proud.

Touch Them with Your Own Noodly Appendage

Those members of the readership who both (a) are pastafarians---at least Brian---and (b) enjoy Halloween---probably all seven of you---may be interested in this article showing you how to make your own Flying Spaghetti Monster costume.

Movie Review: Jesus Camp

Some time ago, Lisa came by for a visit, and she brought Jesus Camp on DVD. Jesus Camp is a documentary about evangelical Christians raising their children to be the "army of God." This is possibly the scariest movie I've ever seen. The film is peppered with speaking in tongues, prophesies, and prayers for bowling help, all done by ~10-year-old kids.

Overall, I give it 8.0 out of 10, and I encourage anyone interested in freedom of religion to see it.

I'm Converting to Pastafarianism

Somehow, I've only today learned about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the deity at the center of Pastarainism, a parody religion created in 2005 to protest the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools. I'm completely entranced by this belief system. I mean, not only is it just as firmly based on evidence as the traditional major religions, but its adherents can be more holy by talking like pirates. And you won't believe the rewards that await the faithful in the afterlife. RAmen, brother! The sacred text should be on its way to me soon.

Kansas Outlaws Practice of Evolution

At least, according to The Onion. Hah!

Blogin' the Bible

David Plotz, a self-described non-observant Jew and contributor to the online magazine Slate, has decided to find out what is actually in the bible by---get this---reading it. I find his commentary rather interesting. Check it out.

Religion and Sexism

This is just stupid.

Dr. Dino

Speaking of creationists, two of my blogging buddies, BriBreakfast and Evil Monkey, have recently posted about Young-Earth Creationist and criminal, Kent Hovind. So I just have to join in their reindeer games.

Take That, Creationists!

Check it out: evolution caught in the act.

The Fish that Walks

Animals like this "walking" catfish, as well as transitional fossils such as Archaeopteryx and Australopithecus, make me wonder how people can doubt that evolution occurs.

Nothing Fails Like Prayer

A recently published clinical trial has found that praying for post-operative patients does no good whatsoever. Gee, there's a surprise.

Michael is an Idea Stealer

I navigated my way over to the blog today to post a "Yay!" post for the anti-ID ruling and look who stole my idea! Hmph!

Anyway, "Yay!". There, I said it.

Thank goodness people won't have to buy these for their kids now!

Take that, Creationists!

This story is all over the net (and even the non-net media) today, so I won't rehash all the details. Suffice it to say that the judge in the Dover intelligent design/creationism case has ruled that teaching ID in public schools is unconstitutional.

Battlefield Earth

I just noticed that Alison and I somehow wrote consecutive entries with titles that are also the names of John Travolta movies. (Well, except for that question mark. What's a little punctuation between friends?) Weird, eh? I thought I would extend that coincidental trend by mentioning that I recently read the 'Pedia's article on Scientology, the religion founded by science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Man alive, this stuff is crazy! The Xeenu Incident, in particular, is completely ridiculous. Hubbard must have been on some serious dope when he came up with this insanity. More to the point, his followers must have been on some extreme, heavy-duty super-dope when they believed it. I mean, it's not even good science fiction, let alone a reasonable basis for a belief system! It's no wonder most of the details are not reveled to the rank-and-file Scientologists; they only learn about this clap-trap after an extensive and expensive series of courses.

You may ask, "What's Travolta got to do with all this?" Well, he is a Scientologist, as are a number of Hollywood freaks...I mean stars. (Tom Cruise is another well-known example.) Travolta headlined and produced the universally panned Battlefield Earth because of his affinity for Hubbard, who authored book (of the same name) on which the film is based.