Spit Up And Slap My Ass Raw

A revelation from a member of my other blog: The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan. The grossest food I've seen since I got this.

Christian Charity, Religious Freedom, And Atheists In Foxholes

Atheists in the military sue the Pentagon over several disturbing incidents. I guess they're fighting for other people's religious freedom, so long as other people aren't godless heathens.

Right-wing Christians love to say they are the persecuted ones, and they love to say they're just trying to publicly testify their beliefs and show their faith. But in action, fundie Christians are just insecure tribal bullies with extremely fragile faith, so fragile they need their mysticism institutionalized to feel secure.

Let's hope a fair judge strikes down this form of socialized evangelism.

Clyde, you'd better find someone who can crochet, and fast....

Pattern 4-pack - Cephalopods and Corals

Description
4 undersea crochet patterns in pdf format, all designed for a G hook and worsted weight yarn, written out in plain English, and emailed to you within 24 hours of your payment!

Separately, the patterns would cost $14 - but by purchasing together, you can save $3. As always, I will be happy to answer all your questions you might have while making the patterns over email or Etsy conversation.

Please note, the patterns are all designed to be worked in one set of loops only (the "back" ones, or the ones toward the outside of the work as it progresses in the spiral). See descriptions for the separate items below.

You'll Dance To Anything...

I know what will be featured on VH1's "I Love The Aughts" in 3 years. France's new dance craze: Tecktonik. It's like older kinds of dancing, only stupider.

So how long before late-night television is filled with "lose over 80 pounds in 3 days with a new weight loss revolution: tecktonik!" It looks so fun, it's hardly like exercise at all! And it comes with a diet book!

France should stick to food and booze. And aircraft carriers. Dancing should not look like an anime kung fu battle with your inner demons. That's what psychopharmaceuticals and Pernod are for.

Just stay with it.

glumbert - The Atheist Delusion

Pandas' Thumbs Evolved...

...and so does Panda's Thumb the blog. Check out their new shiny website, where intelligent designers admonish the hoax of intelligent design.

Get It Right Or Else

The Only Thing To Watch In The Morning:

Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. Today he wore a tie (he usually doesn't): it was crimson and white. He chastised his co-hosts for their lack of Bama pride (they were confused). He was at the game Saturday and declared it one of the greatest events in history. When his cohosts voiced skepticism, he showed footage of the game.

You won't get that on Fox and F[r]iends.

Almost more than I could bear.

Saban let the defense know what he expected
after they'd let Arkansas back in it.

The stadium was a loud as any Alabama game I've ever seen (except maybe the last National Championship). I sat with Billy R. (and traveled with Mendez & Mandy) and we were like children of the Depression, even up by 21, and we waited for hard times to come. Four years of disappointment made us uneasy, and seemingly with good reason after they took the lead late. On the last drive we just kept waiting for the disaster. When we pulled it off and won, the hole the last coach made in my stomach was finally gone for good. We won't be perfect, but we won't be the sort of team we've been for most of the last 10 years; We'll be a team that knows what it takes to win.
AL.com, T-News, Polls

The Bolivarian Revolution Has Won Me Over

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan officials claimed a world record Saturday for the world's largest pot of soup, a giant cauldron of stew prepared by President Hugo Chavez's government.

The hulking stainless steel cooking pot, set up outdoors in downtown Caracas, contained about 15,000 litres of "sancocho" stew, Food Minister Rafael Oropeza said. That would dwarf the current record-holder listed on the Guinness World Records website, a pot of 5,350 litres of spicy soup prepared in Durango, Mexico, in July.

Oropeza called it "Bolivarian stew" - a play on the name of Chavez's socialist movement, named in honour of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar. He said it was enough to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people.

Workers stood on raised platforms stirring the soup with poles, and then dished out servings to a crowd at a state-run market.

It contained 3,000 kilograms of chicken, 2,000 kilograms of beef, plus tonnes of legumes and vegetables.

Addressing reporters next to the pot, Oropeza said the government is solving supply problems that have made it difficult for Venezuelans to find staples like milk and eggs in recent months. He said the state-run market had ample reserves of all products.

With price controls in place, rising demand has outstripped domestic production of some foods, prompting an increase in imports. Oropeza said the only product that remains in short supply is milk, a situation he blamed on a "world problem" of unusual cold snaps and dry spells hurting milk production.

As for the soup, he introduced a representative of Guinness World Records who he said was on hand to certify the record.

The 20,490-litre pot was about three-quarters full.

"We didn't add more for security reasons," Oropeza said. "There's plenty for second helpings."

Official Hitchens

buildupthatwall.com points to this, rumored on this blog earlier.

Call Up The Bunde! We Need A Bonfire!

Republics are meant to not please everybody, but to accommodate everybody peacefully. Apparently, Birmingham's public school systems aren't teaching that. And the offended are not amused by reason. What is the reasonable justification for this book's being present on a public library's shelves?

"It's a cautionary tale for teenagers that oral sex is sex," Smith told The Tuscaloosa News. "You serve a wide range of people in a library, and you have to have something for all of them."

You want a place where your particular beliefs are not offended publicly, try a religious dictatorship. Last time I checked, the world has them in spades. Otherwise, live with it. All of us atheists live with constant threats of eternal, immortal, unfathomable torture; and we endure multiple fallacious and erroneous charges that our position is not scientific, offers no hope, has been completely rebutted by Christianity's apologetics, and results in evil. You think that's less offensive than your kid learning that blow jobs are a sexual act? Up yours! You don't see atheists asking that the bible be taken off the shelves of libraries for condoning slavery, misogyny, and genocide.

When will these people grow up? Haven't they become the same tyrannical absurdities of the 90's left who wanted Huckleberry Finn banned because it used the word "nigger?" Jesus take the wheel if the kid checks out this book.

There Go The Dinosaurs

Ankara On High Alert As Mega-Terror Attack is Foiled

A citizen’s report to security authorities of a suspicious Mercedes Vito van parked in a multi-story car parking in the heart of the capital helped foil a mega terror attack in Turkey, on the anniversary of 9/11.

The car park, that is located in a busy district near school grounds, hospitals and many businesses was isolated, and all surrounding buildings were evacuated before the 700 lb. explosive was destroyed by security forces that employed every precaution.

The first evaluation by bomb experts was that this was a “mini atomic bomb”, of the same kind used in 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British Bank in Istanbul by Islamist Turks affiliated with Al Qaeda, that had killed over 60 people.

There is a massive search going on in Ankara to hunt down the three suspects that were recorded by the parking cameras as they were leaving the vehicle.

It is reported that authorities had been receiving warnings for a major terror attack in Turkey. High ranking military officials had in their recent speeches also warned about the possibility for such attacks in major Turkish cities.

Source: Hurriyet, Turkey, September 11, 2007

News about our dear, dear friend, Mr. Putin....

Russia stunned by Vladimir Putin's choice

President Vladimir Putin has plunged the political future of Russia into confusion by sacking his government and appointing a virtually unknown bureaucrat as prime minister.
...
The unexpected appointment raises the prospect that a bureaucrat whose name and face are almost totally unknown to the Russian public could emerge as president of the world’s largest country when Mr Putin steps down next year.

Read it all at The Telegraph.

Vladimir Putin keeps his friends in high places

The appointment of Viktor Zubkov as Russia's new prime minister has intensified speculation that Vladimir Putin harbours ambitions of remaining in office beyond next year's presidential election.

Although Mr Zubkov, 65, an economist, is a member of the so-called St Petersburg set, the cabal of former KGB officers and Putin loyalists that has seized control of key levers of power at the Kremlin, no one in Russia - not even those who have heard of him - regards him as a serious contender for the presidency.

Read it all at The Telegraph.

Via ¡No Pasarán!:

Politicus: America's misplaced hopes on Russia

WASHINGTON: Suppose the Russians, as Iran's monopoly supplier of nuclear wherewithal, decided they could live with a few atomic weapons in the hands of the mullahs.

Suppose the Russians, flush with money and superpower fantasies, believed that weakening and humiliating the United States was well worth the instability that might come with Moscow's refusal to help block Iran's drive toward nuclear arms.

Where's the downside? From Vladimir Putin's point of view, it's win-win.

With Russia's obstructive tactics encouraging Iran to plunge ahead, he may figure the Americans will eventually strike Iranian nuclear installations. The Yanks would harvest opprobrium in much of the world.

Still, if their strike does eradicate the Iranian nuclear program, that's fine, too. Russia's oil and gas prices are sure to shoot up. Russia becomes Iran's key reconstruction contractor, and sets out a rare claim to international righteousness.

Read it all at the International Herald Tribune.