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Saturday, April 22, 2006
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According to "Samuel," David took a census of the people. This excited the wrath of Jehovah, and as a punishment he allowed David to choose seven years of famine, a flight of three months from pursuing enemies, or three days of pestilence. David, having confidence in God, chose the three days of pestilence; and. thereupon, God, the compassionate, on account of the sin of David, killed seventy thousand innocent men.
Under the same circumstances, what would a devil have done?
--Robert Green Ingersoll, "About the Holy Bible" (1894)
(Via Cynical-C Blog.)
3:55:39 PM 
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Kirk Cameron: The Banana and Creationism  You have to watch this video. I've been converted and I now bow down to the sacred "Chiquita." Make sure you only watch from the 3:30 mark until the 4:36 mark.
The Disgruntled Chemist:
I don't know how I ever doubted that intelligent design was correct! After watching a video involving Kirk Cameron, I now see the error of my ways, and will be tithing 50% of my income to the church every month out of contrition.
(Via Crooks and Liars.)
One of the stupidest things I've ever heard. If the banana was precisely made by god for us to hold in our hands and eat, what, then about the pineapple? Are we not supposed to eat them? And why didn't god make cows with little shelves we could take steaks out of?
3:44:32 PM
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testthis is a test
11:56:44 AM
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Alice Hill revisits the strange world of one of the oddest pieces of software ever.
The thing that personally cracked me up was when you clicked on the door knocker, a doorbell rang.
11:39:26 AM
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Xeni Jardin:
 On 26 April 1986, at 1:23 AM, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. The radiation released was over a hundred times more than that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
At Chernobyl.info, a site dedicated to the longterm consequences of the disaster, there's a list of commemoration activities'planned around the world for April 26, 2006. The site also contains historic details, an extensive index of projects aiding survivors, and interviews with people who lived through the disaster.
A related NPR news item ran today: "Voices of Chernobyl': Survivors' Stories" by Melissa Block featured some incredibly moving personal accounts from survivors who lost friends, family, and all their worldy posessions: Link'to archived audio.
There are plans to install a new, billion-dollar cover over the disaster site to more effectively contain the 200 tons of radioactive fuel still present. The structure will cost about a billion dollars, and is scheduled to be in place by 2009. More info here, and NPR also ran a story on this today with background from Warren Stern of the U.S. State Department: Link.
A "sarcophagus" -- a steel and concrete shell built soon after the disaster to contain the radiation is increasingly unstable. Engineers plan to slide an enormous Quonset hut-shaped cover over a breached reactor to keep more radiation from reaching the atmosphere.
(image: Vladimir Repik/Reuters, 1986. "An aerial view of the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after its explosion.")
(Via Boing Boing.)
11:20:20 AM
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Guest host Dave Iverson talks to musician and producer T-Bone Burnett.
(Via KQED's Forum.)
11:19:06 AM
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Apparently she had some staffers leave because she lied about whether Mitchell Wade (the briber in the Duke Cunningham scandal) had bought her a very expensive ($2,800) dinner at a fancy restaurant. She ended an interview last week when the subject came up, after saying that her campaign had "reimbursed" the restaurant (which makes no sense, since Wade paid the bill). Her spokesman called the reporter and asked that the subject not be published. The following day, her campaign released a statement saying that "I have donated to a local Florida charity $100 which will more than adequately compensate for the cost of my beverage and appetizer."
It turns out that the "local Florida charity" is Global Dominion Impact Ministries, a Charismatic Christian group run by Bishop Lewes and Pastor Sandra Jones. The group's website says:
"Pastor Sandra has an inspiring testimony of her deliverance from being sold to devils as an infant. She also shares her miraculous healing from her breast cancer as well as being raised from the dead."
(Via The Lippard Blog.)
11:17:05 AM
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Lots of facts about a thing there are lots of facts about: beer. Today I gotta go down and pick up some hop rhysomes and get them in; I did so well with them last year. I have some beer in secondary that needs bottling desperately, and I have the ingredients for a Pranqster clone I need to brew. Beer: the solution to, and cause of, all our problems.
10:41:30 AM
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simultaneous hallucination.
REUTERS/Jason Reed
"Heh heh heh, not gonna turn around, he's not really there, he's not really there..."
(Via Dependable Renegade.)
10:06:22 AM
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Short interview with Neil Young about Living With War. Stupid question of the day: "Neil you've gone one song, called 'Let's Impeach the President'. What's this song about?" Neil looks like he's having a hard time not laughing when he answers, "the song pretty much follows the title, with reasons. It's a long song." C|Net's reporting the album will be streamable starting next Friday.
The idiocy of this woman interviewing Neil makes me damned glad I don't watch TV news.
9:50:01 AM
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Tax Gimmickry 101
Paying for tax cuts for the wealthy with . . . more tax cuts for the wealthy!
Washington Post, Monday, April 17, 2006; Page A12
MUCH TO THE chagrin of the White House and the GOP leadership, lawmakers didn't get a new round of tax cuts done in time for tax day today. But when Congress comes back from its recess, it's expected to take up a deal to extend President Bush's capital gains and dividend tax cuts. To make their budget-busting tax policy appear less costly than it is, the lawmakers are resorting to a gimmick that is even more egregious than their usual tactics.
This one would, as usual, hide the cost of tax cuts that primarily benefit upper-income Americans. But it would accomplish that budgetary smoke and mirrors with a new tax provision, involving retirement savings accounts, that also benefits the well-to-do. And, to top things off, this new tax provision, while masking the cost of the tax cuts by bringing in more revenue in the short term, would in the long run worsen the fiscal situation by piling on more debt. No one who's serious about controlling the deficit -- whatever one's position on extending the tax cuts -- could support this dishonest approach.
(For the whole article, go here.)
(Via Vox Verax.)
9:37:05 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 5/2/2006; 10:00:37 AM.
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