Patrick’s Rants

Scott Brown defeated Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in Massachusetts last night. Now we will get meaningful health care legislation. Fundamentalist Christian politicians are exactly what this country needs. Why could we have not had Sarah Palin and John McCain? Christians know that they must provide health care for the poorest of the poor, Jesus says so right in Matthew 25. In fact he goes so far as to say if you don’t, you are going to hell. Matt 25:41

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison and did not minister unto thee?
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did not to me.

So I am happy that conservative Christians will be able to wield their power. By letting one child go hungry or without health care, you are damning yourself to eternal fire and brimstone. It’s right there in Matthew, “that which you do unto the least of these you do unto me”. No less that God himself is watching what you plan to do to the most underprivileged, the least of these. Can you really look that poor, underprivileged and sick child in the eye and tell him he can’t go to the doctor, especially since you know that the eyes of God stare back at you when you do?

The disbelief in giant invisible beings is growing on campus.

On September 11, religious zealots set out to murder innocent men, women and children. Of course I’m not writing about September 11, 2001 now. This was September 11, 1857 and the religious zealots were members of the Mormon church, finishing a siege on a wagon train that started days earlier. “September Dawn”, a portrayal of the Mountain Meadow Massacre is a factual event that shows another unpleasant facet of religion and fanaticism. The Meadow Mountain Massacre is a stain on the Mormon church. This portrayal places the blame at the top, with Brigham Young. Naturally, Young, and the entire LDS church deny that the church had any prior knowledge of the impending death of the wagon train members.

For a more in depth history of the Mormon Church’s murderous spree in Utah, read The Mountain Meadows Massacre

I have a couple of posts that I have forgotten what it was I was going to write. This one is about the weird Scientologists. It’s mostly a collection of links, but man are there some weird stories at the end of this fishing line.
Church Calls Protesters ‘Cyber Terrorists’ (As opposed the the Xenu “real life terrorists”)
‘What Drives Me’: Tom Cruise’s True Mission This is no top gun mission – we’re talking real life.
Hackers Hit Scientology With Online Attack Something I would never condone. Exposure to the light is far worse for Scientology.
Check out the Operation Clambake site for a complete debunking of the bunkful “religion”. Don’t overlook Wikipedia’s Operation Clambake entry or the Slashdot story about the “emeter” being pulled from Ebay.

Dr Rowan Williams says that the UK should adopt some aspects of Muslim law causing a fair amount of fallout. How can it not? To suggest that the same rules that jailed a woman over a teddy bear with some people calling for her death should be adopted as a parallel set of courts and that the belief in invisible beings should rule rational people is irrational. Remember, this law demands that unbelievers be killed. If you want to know where to draw the line, it’s before you allow this to creep in. I mean, you might even get arrested for being in Starbucks with men.

Sharia, according to the BBC.

There is no excuse for the idiotic behavior over the naming of a teddy bear in Sudan. Mohammed bear. This teacher was sentenced to 15 days in jail and (some) protesters were demanded that she be put to death over the name Mohammed. This is not rational thought, it is extreme xenophobia. Perhaps all the children named Mohammed or their parents should be put to death as well? What about all those hispanic kids named Jesús? Or maybe a good old fashioned book burning: King James, the Torah, the Koran. Reasonable and rational people do not get their panties in a wad over the name of a bear, but when it comes to religion, there is no such thing as reasonable or rational.

NPR : Nebraska Senator Sues God

I can’t help it. It’s like a puss filled wound. You know what’s underneath the slightly spongy scab, but there is a morbid fascination with peeling it back, squeezing just a little to see whether it really is as disgusting as you think it is: greenish-yellow fluid with the consistency of really runny oatmeal. That’s how it is for me and Arul Casmael and his cult. I can’t help it really.

As you will recall, he stated on MySpace,

“I used to work a corporate job, but then I got laid off and realised there are more important things in life than pleasing the monster of the system.”

At the time I merely noted that the story isn’t that “simple”, but as I think about it I have to wonder if he really doesn’t want to please the corporate monster.

I mean, he kept his car, his crappy mobile home and all his other corporate products. If you want to stop supporting the corporate monster you have to give up your car, your house, your clothes, move into the woods and go naked. If you keep your house and your car and your clothes and shop in stores you will continue to use gasoline from the corporate monster, electricity from the corporate monster, water from the corporate monster, etc. To truly get away from anything corporate, you must shun everything, buy a couple of goats that your neighbors pay you to bring around for weed removal, ride a horse and live in a tent made from buffalo skins and hemp twine. Hopefully you didn’t shoot the buffalo with a (corporate) manufactured gun. You must get all your energy from plants, you can’t buy a wind generator or solar panels – they are all made by corporations. So good luck with all that….

PS – I just found out that he moved to Phoenix (or at least claims to have posting on a corporately owned server using a computer manufactured by a corporation). It must be so he can get away from all the corporations.

A 48 year old man is dead after attempting to perform an exorcism on his 3 year old granddaughter. When police showed up to the house, they found Ronald Marquez shirtless and holding his granddaughter in a headlock. The girl’s mother was lying naked on the bed covered in blood apparently a willing participant in the exorcism. The mother is not (yet) being charged with child abuse.

News reports showing the neighbors of the dead man all called him a nice guy. Family members called him kind and said that he would do anything for his family – including apparently trying to squeeze the devil out of his granddaughter.

Full story

I (hopefully still) have a regular reader whose story mimics part of the preface,

“Chapter 9 quotes the comedian Julia Sweeney’s tragi-comic story of her parents’ discovery, through reading a newspaper, that she had become an atheist. Not believing in God they could just about take, but an atheist!”

He goes on to describe why we don’t hear so much about atheist groups,

“organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority”.

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