151. Religion in [Australian] schools to go God-free

Comment #302489 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 5:47 am

Anyone notice that the girls never need to be reprimanded in Anvil's class?

Are there any girls in Anvil's class???

152. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #302347 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 12:27 am

3060. Comment #302300 by Dianelos Georgoudis

Frankly, wooter's dialogues make more sense.

153. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300011 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 7:05 pm

2594. Comment #300007 by decius

You got it.

154. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300005 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:53 pm

Food for thought:
Watching Big Brother
The world is sleepwalking into a surveillance society. A European court ruling offers a timely wake-up call.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7223/full/456675b.html

155. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300003 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:48 pm

Brian, a friend of mine thinks that she was placed on the list because she wrote emails to the current occupant of the White House criticizing his environmental policies. The emails were not threatening and did not call him names. She could fly, but she had to check in at the airport and could not check in online. She legally changed her name and they have not yet caught on, so she is not on the list with her new name.

156. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300001 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Have a good weekend, Goldy, even if you don't get any sleep!

157. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300000 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:43 pm

2584. Comment #299994 by Brian English

Only god knows.

158. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299993 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Goldy, read the No Fly article. Many Anglos are on the list.

159. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299992 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:12 pm

Eshto,

You may be interested in this story on NPR this week.

Court Weighs 'Extraordinary Rendition' Case

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98046319&ft=1&f=1001

160. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299990 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:10 pm

Goldy,

We also have the lovely No Fly List:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List

161. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299986 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:06 pm

Goldy,

After 9/11, the US government initiated security checks called "name checks". These checks delay all sorts of applications resulting in oftentimes substantial delays in family unification, visas, grants of asylum, permanent resident status and naturalization.

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/nationalnamecheck.htm

Edit: It's not just arabic names that can be a problem. However, it seems that my clients named Mohammed have a much higher chance of being delayed.

162. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299982 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:56 pm

Moral turpitude is one of the banes of my clients' existence. If anyone, even a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) is convicted of more than one crime involving moral turpitude (even if they are very old), that person is ineligible for bond if placed in deportation proceedings and is subject to mandatory detention. This law causes an incredible amount of suffering.

Maybe Dianelos can explain why god permits it.

163. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299981 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Ok one more article about foreign scholars being denied entry:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2007/09/23/foreign-scholars-being-denied-entry-us/

decius,

Some interesting info on US citizens traveling to Cuba:

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/print-narrative.cfm?destID=3173&catID=3173020059

I think Cuba does not stamp passports, just in case, but I don’t know of anyone who was actually denied entry to the US.

164. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299976 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:42 pm

Goldy,

I advise my clients never to travel to the US via Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Portland or Seattle. Always go through NY or Philly.

Edit: I also tell them that they must always tell the truth and to NEVER joke with CBP officers.

165. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299975 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Amy Winehouse was denied a visa to enter the US for the Grammy Awards based on her abuse of drugs.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/07/winehouse.grammys/index.html

The Nixon Administration also tried to have John Lennon deported for drug use resulting in one of the most famous immigration cases of the past few decades.

http://www.wildesweinberg.com/content.asp?id=44

http://www.drbilllong.com/CurrentEventsXIV/Lennon.html

Sebastian Horsley was also denied entry to the US based on his past conduct involving drug abuse, etc. as recorded in his memoirs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/books/20memoi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

166. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299966 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:26 pm

Laurie, paranoia is a mild word for it.

Another insane aspect of our immigration law is that visitor visa applicants from most countries that are not in the visa waiver program, will be denied a visitor visa if they actually have friends and family to visit in the US! There is a legal presumption that anyone who is coming to the US is coming to stay permanently and the burden is on the visa applicant to overcome this presumption of immigrant intent. If you have friends and family here, you must be coming to stay so: denied.

The embassy will often not tell the person why the visa was denied; the passport is just handed back with a stamp close to the back page that says "Application Received" which is code for denied.

167. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299963 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:18 pm

Just goes to show that sometimes google is NOT your friend.

168. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299959 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:10 pm

2553. Comment #299955 by Hellene

Congratulations, Hellene, on a job well done! It's OK to be high on your kids' accomplishments!

169. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299958 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:08 pm

2549. Comment #299950 by Eshto

Also, whether the drug is illegal or not is not relevant. You can be inadmissible to the US for alcohol addiction/abuse adn to Canada for a DUI

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86936.pdf

http://curranberger.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=89.

You can also be inadmissible to Canada for a DUI.

http://www.globalair.com/discussions/legal_services/article~/msgID=204

170. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299951 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 4:48 pm

2549. Comment #299950 by Eshto

If you are a US citizen, you cannot be deported (unless you committed fraud during the immigration process and the government rescinds the grant of citizenship.) But if you are not a citizen, you may be deportable for certain conduct or you may be inadmissible to the US.

171. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299945 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 4:34 pm

My friends, given what I do for a living, it is incumbent upon me to warn you that certain posts and past conduct may be a problem should you ever desire to visit the US.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/04/23/Feldmar/

172. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299630 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 5:05 am

Sorry folks, no theists permitted at the Dublin meet. If we invited DG, then we would spend our time talking about the nature of his god. Fairy tales are for children and our meeting is for grown-ups.

Our purpose in Dublin is to socialize with other atheists and to discuss issues of concern to atheists and to cause Guinness to have to pay overtime to its workers.

The Fairy Queen has issued her edict, no dissent permitted or off with your heads.

Oops, I am mixing up my Queens, but you get the picture.

173. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #297797 by Titania on December 5, 2008 at 9:19 pm

Friday Funny

Be sure to click on the red button at the bottom right of the cartoon.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1356#comic

174. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #297620 by Titania on December 5, 2008 at 9:21 am

1400. Comment #297616 by al-rawandi

Hey Al, I love my kindle. I just tried to order one for my daughter for Xmas and they are out of stock. Bummer.

175. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #297409 by Titania on December 5, 2008 at 2:13 am

1186. Comment #297374 by Steve Zara

Steve,

The first two weddings my son attended as a child were gay weddings. At one I was the officiant who conducted the ceremony.

Both of my children are grown now and they do see gay relationships as normal.

For DP:

If gays cannot call their unions marriages like the rest of society, then their unions will never be considered normal. If there are different terms for or designation of a status, then there is no true equality because the only reason for the different designation can be to highlight that the minority group (who will always be outvoted) is not considered to be normal or is not truly accepted by the other group to be the same. If they were, there would be no reason to use a different designation. It is really quite that simple.

For centuries, women were not permitted to be attorneys. They might have had the same legal education, passed the bar exam and for all practical purposes have been practicing attorneys, but women could not legally call themselves or be called lawyer or attorney. It is not until women fought for and were given the right to be designated and credentialed as attorneys that they really were considered to be attorneys rather than uppity women. I guarantee that the women who fought for the right to become attorneys would not have considered themselves to be equal if they were given all the rights and privileges of attorneys but had to be called something else like wolawyer or wattorney.

The fact that gays have to settle for a different label for their unions just to get the same rights and privileges as heterosexuals means that their unions are not really considered to be normal or equal. As someone already brought up in one of the several thousand posts on this topic, how do you explain to children the difference between a civil union and a marriage? The only way to do it is to explain the only difference between the couples: sexual preference based on gender. How then do you explain why there are two different terms if they are truly equal?

176. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #297207 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Mitchell,

No credit for the praise?

177. Children of God?

Comment #297194 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 5:11 pm

128. Comment #297183 by righton

She was born in 1985.

178. Children of God?

Comment #297180 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 4:06 pm

This is purely anecdotal, but when I was pregnant with my daughter, she reacted very strongly by kicking me whenever piano music was played. My husband and I were at a George Winston concert when I was about 7 months pregnant with her. Suddenly about thirty seconds after he started playing, she started kicking me and moving around more than she ever had. She continued this throughout his entire performance.

My husband played the piano frequently and wrote a very special song for her while I was pregnant. (He finally recorded it for me for Christmas a few years ago.)

When she was four, she would sit down at the piano and pick out the notes for all her favorite songs. My husband had pointed out middle c for her and a couple of notes and she did the rest herself. What could I do but sign her up for piano lessons?

I also read to her when she was in the womb. I don’t think she understood language when she was born and I am sure my voice sounded different to her after birth, but I think the mental stimulation and attention made a difference. It may be that the rhythm of reading has some sort of stimulation effect on the brains of babies and perhaps even in the development of language. She began talking in complete sentences at a very early age. I think her love of reading and music and affinity for the piano, not to mention her gift of gab, may have been instilled in the womb!

I would be interested in any studies anyone knows of about these phenomena.

179. Win Ben Stein's Mind

Comment #297177 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 3:47 pm

60. Comment #297167 by Quetzalcoatl

Quetz,

I am so sorry for my temporary insanity. I take it back. You are again my God and you write better than Ebert (well almost).

180. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #297166 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 2:50 pm

Oystein,

Email for you.

Decius,

I will try to respond to your email later this evening.

181. Win Ben Stein's Mind

Comment #297165 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 2:48 pm

Ebert is my new God!

Edit: Sorry Quetz.

182. Atheists want God out of Ky. homeland security

Comment #297090 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 11:04 am

148. Comment #297086 by DarwinsPitbull

Ed-words
Many people do NOT find gay jokes funny, nor
jokes demeaning blacks or women.

Many of those people also have sticks up their butts so thats probably why they don't find those kind of jokes funny.

She is where she is only because she is Keith Obermann's nephew.

183. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296852 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 5:36 am

For DarwinsPitbull before I go to work:

88 times infinity plus one.

DP, I gave you a chance to win one of the items on the list for jgirolamo, but you haven't responded. I guess you just can't top Dianelos. Too bad.

184. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296837 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 5:16 am

835. Comment #296826 by Diacanu

Got it and responded.

185. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296832 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 5:03 am

781. Comment #296748 by Laurie Fraser

Now I have to read Mackie.

Do I get a pint in Dublin if I do?

186. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296828 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 5:00 am

769. Comment #296734 by bendigeidfran

him. Don't call him a him/her.

187. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296823 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 4:56 am

740. Comment #296692 by Wosret

and none of you flatter me enough.

188. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296814 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 4:47 am

714. Comment #296661 by Brian English
Brian,

The battle between Bernstein and almost everyone else has been fruitful. There has been at least one post, maybe more, from someone whose mind has been changed.

Hint: It's not about Bernstein for Steve. Steve knows a lost cause when he sees one.

189. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296807 by Titania on December 4, 2008 at 4:38 am

692. Comment #296637 by Bernstein

Ummmmm, and no one saw fit to object on my behalf to the word "charlatan," the use of which has been verboten ? Gee thanks.

190. 'Prop 8 - The Musical'

Comment #296541 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 7:38 pm

30. Comment #296361 by Steve Zara

Steve,

What a beautiful wedding. (Wiping tear from my eye. I always cry at weddings.)

The cake was nifty. Is Jon into computers as well?

191. 'Prop 8 - The Musical'

Comment #296538 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 7:35 pm

20. Comment #296330 by Cartomancer

Sorry, Carto, I think I saw that wedding in Modern Bride last week. ;)

Seriously, it sounds like it will be a beautiful wedding and, of course, you have to invite us all. I don't know if I will agree to wear a sheet, though.

192. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #296523 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 7:11 pm

SHHH Brian, don't tell anyone about the gay conspiracy.....

193. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296488 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 5:10 pm

608. Comment #296485 by Steve Zara

Steve,

We have a saying here in the South that I think applies to Bernstein:

A hit dog barks.

194. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #296352 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 1:22 pm

1988. Comment #296323 by Steve Zara

Steve,

I am not a scientist, but I cannot stand it when people misconstrue science for their own ideological purposes, when they deliberately misrepresent what science has found and what scientists say about the unanswered questions. He can talk philosophy until he is blue in the face, but it is all bunk because it is not grounded in the actual science.

I may not understand everything MPhil says, but at least he grounds what he says in the actual science and does not try to misconstrue the science or what scientists say to fit to his preconceived notions. (I can’t wait to read his thesis.)

Dianelos has said a lot of unsupported stuff that so many people have called him on and have proven him wrong, but what he said about QM (and I think evolution as well) just exposes his ignorance of the actual science, whatever you think of his circular "philosophical" arguments.

I wish he would stop going around in circles and to tell us in plain English the evidence that his god created the universe, which cannot include anything about the problems of naturalism. I would like him to tell us how he knows the god he believes in is “perfect” and what “perfect” means. It would be nice of him to tell us how god interacts in the universe and what existed before the Big Bang and where god came from. (Of course, he has already demonstrated that he does not know the meaning of the simple word how in a scientific context.) I would like him to explain the problem of evil FOR HIS PERFECT GOD and how people with damaged or abnormal brains do not destroy his ridiculous postulations about consciousness not being a product of evolution and the brain.

And lastly if he would be so kind as to show us a physicist who has evidence that QM means there is a god who is the ultimate observer.

I don’t think Dianelos has mentioned what he thinks about abiogenesis. (I may have missed it.) But he should read up on the subject. He should also read Donald Prothero’s book:

Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters

http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-What-Fossils-Say-Matters/dp/0231139624/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228338920&sr=1-1 .

195. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #296319 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Reposted link:

Oystein also found this argument which has more of a philosophy bent:

http://www.strongatheism.net/library/atheology/argument_from_quantum_physics/

196. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #296316 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 12:42 pm

1984. Comment #296313 by decius

decius, you know I am THE Queen of eternal optimism!

197. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #296315 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Dianelos, your contention that QM must mean the universe was brought into existence or is maintained in its existence by a supernatural observer is a misunderstanding of what the problems of QM are. You appear to be conflating Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle with the misleadingly termed “Observer Effect.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

Edit: Removed link and will repost below to fix.

198. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #296311 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 12:32 pm

Dianelos,

To back up Oystein’s post (1979. Comment #296245), physicists who really understand QM like Sean M. Carroll (Senior Research Associate, California Institute of Technology, Physics Department) do not believe in god. Sean started out to be a priest, I think, and then became interested in physics, and now is an atheist.

http://preposterousuniverse.com/

Why (Almost All) Cosmologists are Atheists (2003)
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/sean_carroll/cosmologists.html

Here is a link to his blog Cosmic Variance http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/ .

Sean’s Cosmic Primer http://preposterousuniverse.com/writings/cosmologyprimer/

He also thinks we may be able to discover evidence of “time” or “something” before the Big Bang and that our universe may have popped into existence due to a quantum fluctuation in another universe. I heard him speak at the Skeptic Society’s Origins conference in October and it was the first time I was able to understand that it may not be possible for there to be “nothing.” Even in what we perceive to be “nothing, “ there are quantum fluctuations. So the universe (including what may lie beyond “our” universe that may be able to spawn universes such as ours) may be eternal and non-nothing may be the default position. There is no need to postulate a supreme being and so far, no evidence for one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7440217.stm

199. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #296297 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Oystein ROCKS!

You will have to wait until I get home tonight to my Dinkum Dictionary before I can translate that into Aussie.

200. The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

Comment #296171 by Titania on December 3, 2008 at 7:56 am

Quetz,

Give me a break, I just barely signed up just so I can see the Princesses Goldy!

I'm not brave enough to put my picture up.