exdoctrinate.com

The problem with trusting your perceptions without testing them is outlined nicely by Michael Shermer (yet again) here.

At least we’re able to figure out that our perceptive powers are suspect!  Of course, you could always argue that if we can’t trust our percpetive powers, then how do we know we’re right to not trust our perceptive powers.

…riiiight.  And luckily you came along with your “other ways of knowing” to save the day!!

Or, we could just acknowledge that tested results are the only results worth paying any attention to, and that we gravitate to bad explanations in the face of none (or partial) ones.

Put on a brain condom and get on with it already!  Safety first people! 

This one … ?

…or this one?

I’d hate dogs too.

What a great line! Here’s more YouTube goodness recently discovered…

Anyone who can work the line “all you goddamn dirty catholics can cath-o-lick my balls” in while making fun of the KKK isn’t all bad! Seriously, this kid has loads of talent, and has thankfully returned with a couple hits after disappearing for months. Buy his new EP on iTunes; I hear he’s heading off to college soon.

Finally, Hitch never fails to give reasons to forgive him for being such a right wing fucking prick. His original Vanity Fair article caused some great feedback.

His reply to the last guy is priceless:

Way to prove my point. I tried reading [your] letter in the open air and birds fell dead from the clear blue sky.

When Alessandra Stanley called him on his opinion, Hitch once again proved his retorts are always better.

Actually, Stanley’s article mentions Larry Summers, the President of Harvard who was forced to resign over some speculative remarks he made about innate differences between men and women. I hadn’t heard of this, and was not overly surprised to learn about yet another case of the PC cops getting down and dirty. Steven Pinker to the rescue. But really what I want to say is how comforting a thought it is that such magical thinking is almost for sure in its death throes.

Pat Condell has never let us down! His latest is particularly good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPG3-1gogXU

Sam Harris is also pretty much always spot on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/losing-our-spines-to-save_b_100132.html

My favourite quote:

Muslims appear to be far more concerned about perceived slights to their religion than about the atrocities committed daily in its name. Our accommodation of this psychopathic skewing of priorities has, more and more, taken the form of craven and blinkered acquiescence.

Given this “psychopathic skewing of priorities,” he concludes:

The problem is not, as is often alleged, that governments cannot afford to protect every person who speaks out against Muslim intolerance. The problem is that so few people do speak out. If there were ten thousand Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s, the risk to each would be radically reduced.

This is indeed a problem, is it not? Even if you are Muslim, or even if you are not, how can we tolerate intolerance to criticism? EVER? This is not okay at all. There’s simply no positive outcome from limiting the ability to criticize. Harris says this another way, a better way, by quoting famous Muslim apostate Ibn Warraq:

There is no such right as ‘the right not to be offended’.

Can you imagine if there were?!!

(If there was ever a clear sign that political correctness MUST GO, this is it!)

A few people had recommended the movie Zeitgeist to me, so I watched it. I tried once, and turned it off after ten minutes, but then a few weeks later watched it all the way through, just so I could write this review.

Part I, The Greatest Story Ever Told, debunks the Jesus myth by pointing out its similarities to the many preceding myths (such as Mithra, Horace, etc), and concludes that therefore astrology is true. I mean, isn’t it obvious?! No Jesus = Astrology YES!! The funny part is that they actually use things Jesus “says” (yes, the same Jesus they just finished debunking) as proof for their claims about astrology!

Part II, All the World’s a Stage, claims 9/11 is an inside job, and furthermore, everything the government ever does is some kind of conspiracy. EVERYTHING!

Part III, Don’t Mind the Men Behind the Curtain, tells us that rich people have, throughout history, done things, EVIL things, to stay rich. NO!!!!

For me, all credibility was shot at the beginning. I can’t understand how people got past the opening montage with scenes from the Hubble telescope, war zones and mock ups of evolutionary change — intensified impressively with a rhapsodic score. I felt so ready to believe anything! Yes, YES!!! Andromeda + evolution = war!!!

WhatEV.

The first spoken content occurs at the five minute mark, and goes like so…

The more you begin to investigate, what we think we understand, where
we came from, what we think we’re doing, the more you begin to see
we’ve been lied to.

Um, okaaay… …”what we think we’re doing”? <looks around for someone watching…> How meaningless can you be? And “lied to”!! Of course, it’s always that, isn’t it? Really, viewers can switch off at this point, but let’s continue for a bit of sadomasochistic fun, shall we? They’re going to tell us “where we came from” I think…

We’ve been lied to by every institution. What makes you think for one
minute that the religious institution is the only one that’s never
been touched.

What makes you think I think that? And, oh by the way, that’s a pretty grand assertion to just throw out there at the top of your little show. Care to back that up? “Every” institution? Really? EVERY???

The religious institutions of this world are at the bottom of the
dirt. The religious institutions in this world are put there by the
same people who gave you your government, your corrupt education, who
set up your international banking cartels, because our masters don’t
give a damn about you or your family. All they care about is what
they have always cared about and that’s controlling the whole damn
world.

I love that line: “the bottom of the dirt.” Ha ha ha! Man, this guy needs a writer! But I digress… Elites, “masters,” leaders, whatever you want to call them, have ALWAYS existed since we started organizing ourselves, which, as far as you and I are concerned, is since FOREVER! The fact that leaders emerge is a part of our evolutionary history and interesting to study, but the fact that they “emerge” is exactly the point. It’s a point about ALL OF US, and not an “us/them” question in any way.

Conspiracy theorists don’t get that. Onward…

We have been misled away from the true and divine presence in the
universe that men have called god. I don’t know what god is, but I
know what he isn’t. And unless and until you are prepared to look at
the whole truth, wherever it may go, whoever it may lead to, if you
want to look the other way or if you want to play favourites, then
somewhere along the line you are going to find out you are messing
with divine justice.

Wow. So much in that one! “I don’t know what god is, but I know what he isn’t.” Really? Is god male? Wait. Nevermind. I don’t care…

But I am curious to know how it is you know what god isn’t. Where did you get this knowledge?! Can anyone get knowledge like this there? Teach me oh wise one!

I guess by not playing favorites, you mean not indulging your biases? How is it that you escape yours?

If you’re interested, it turns out that we actually already HAVE a system for looking at the truth, as best we can, and generating our knowledge about things. It’s called science. Now, before you get all pissy about your conspiracy theories about the behemoth science controlling knowledge, consider the following. It’s the only system in the world, whereby anyone can postulate what they think is true, test their ideas, show results, and then present them to the community at large for review. This last piece is the crucial part. It prevents the powerful and the crackpots from overly influencing the discussion (notice, I said “overly”).

Many scientists would give their left nut/ovary to be famous for proving something very new and exciting. Proving ANYthing paranormal qualifies. And even if you prefer to argue against that last point, and think that not one single scientist would ever do such a thing as “break ranks” for the promise of fame and riches (and you would be arguing so for the purposes of your conspiracy theory), fine. Do the science yourself. Postulate, test, report, and submit to review. Easy peasey!

And sorry, what? Divine justice? WHAT? You don’t know what god is, but you do know what he isn’t…. So god … um … ISN’T … um … the LACK of divine justice. Got it! Clever!!! The universe has a justice to it!! Nice!!! I feel better already. (And, that’s the point really, isn’t it Conspiracy Boy?)

The more you educate yourself, the more you understand where things
come from, the more obvious things become, and you begin to see lies
everywhere.

Great, now I see lies everywhere. Thanks a lot!

You have to know the truth, and seek the truth, and the truth will set you free.

This just sounds so familiar. Is it just me?

And hey!!! What about the part about where we came from?!!!! I was waiting for that!

I was talking to a friend the other day about people who are planners, and people who are not.

I think that I used to be under the impression that it is important to plan, and to like it, and to say you liked it.

Then I remembered that the first few big vacations I ever went on, I did a lot of planning and imagining beforehand, and I believed (I think I ever said a few times) the old cliché “planning is half the fun!”

But it occurs to me now that I then went on the actual vacation and had about 300 times as much fun as I had had planning it.  Who are we kidding?!

Just when you think you can run away….

Someone smart and experienced comes along and says EXACTLY what you don’t want need to hear.

This is why I mistrust smart and experienced people so much.

I saw an ad for Dry Grad in the liquor store a while back. This is where parents organize a party for their kids to celebrate graduating from high school, a party with no alcohol to protect their precious little angels from the death and destruction that awaits all who imbibe such evil toxins.

When I graduated, parents had organized transportation to a secret location (to avoid crashers) where we could all party till we puked. It was a blast, and I’ll never forget it! It seemed (and still seems) like a very fitting end to an often dry and boring, sometimes exciting, and frequently disappointing 13-year-long undertaking.

Notice, the reason why parents did this for us was to support us (as good parents should) by providing supervision and safety for what was by and large an extremely necessary release for us all. They recognized the importance and took responsibility.

What’s the reason for dry grad? Even MORE responsible parenting, you say? Not a chance! It’s simply one more lesson added on the 13 years’ worth of lessons the poor bastards are trying to celebrate the END of. Instead of supporting graduates, they are taking the opportunity to TEACH THEM SOME MORE!!!!

I’m sorry, but parents, you are seriously missing the fucking point of a GRAD PARTY!!!

If you want to sit around drinking tea tittering about Johnny’s bright future and his Honor Roll achievements, go right on ahead. But where are the responsible parents who are interested in treating their children like individuals and who care about their safety?

Here’s a new thing: Fill-in-the-blank Poetry

Ed
the fed
is ____

While you’re working that out, here’s a funny story…

A few months after I started a new job at the Department of Fishies and Oceans. My sister, who also works for the federal government here in sunny Canada, had been listening to me rant about the new job, and like a good sister tried to console me. She told me about this guy she had met, and how in conversation, she asked him, “So, what do you think of federal government employees?”

He answered with a question: “Have you seen the movie Sixth Sense?”

“Yeah…” she says, and he replies:

“I see dead people”.

Funny guy!

Reminds me of another funny guy, Will Ferguson, who wrote Why I Hate Canadians (a book that should be taught in high school — well, to Canadians of course; other people already know).  In Chapter 22: Success Without Risk: The Canadian Dream, Ferguson reveals the

Ferguson Formula for Determining the Suitability of Canadian Aspirations:

CD=S-R
(Canadian Dream equals Success without Risk)

The winning career? Associate Professor. It just narrowly beat out civil servant.

My point? Buy Will’s book; it’s funny AND true — like The Bible isn’t.

One more example ought to do it (”it” being “clear the room”):

From Chapter Eleven: America is Sexy

Let’s face it, America is sexy. It is exciting, dangerous, crass, brash and violent.

The problem is not that America is screwing us daily—which they are—but that they never send flowers or call afterwards. They barely remember our name. “See you around, doll. Here,” as they toss us a coin, “buy yourself something nice.” It is intercourse without foreplay, when all we needed was a little respect. (Cue the sobbing, chest-beating litany of “I hate you’s.”)

[ref to both excerpts]

Soo goood!  Anyway, I’m digressing…

About the feds, you are either thinking “duh! what were you thinking?!” or “if it sucks so bad, why don’t you just quit?!”  To which I would answer with “quit which?  the feds or Canada?”

So fine, I’ll fill in the blank with “naive” and go drop some hints about flower shops…