And What is Behind Door #2?

The wife and I found out today that our second child is going to be a girl!  We couldn't be happier.  We already had one reason to make a change in our lives for the better, actually about 3 feet and 28 pounds worth of reason, who just happens to be the soon to be older sister of our next girl.  If there is any reason to take care of this planet then it is for them, so that they have a place to live.  We really should be leaving this place better than how we found it. 

The Change is Real

Climate change is happening.  This is undeniable.  What is easy to deny, for some, is that we human beings have had nothing to do with it.  To deny that we humans are not in some way responsible for contributing to the rapid increases that are taking place in all of our varying environments, is irresponsible.  Yet there are those that continue to believe we are not culpable.  Now there is a distinguishing characteristic between someone who continues to question the science and another who questions the reality, they are called skeptics and contrarians.  Skeptics have participated in the science and continue to.  Contrarians choose not look at the science at all, yet still find themselves in a position where they are able to continually contribute to the onslaught of misinformation that negligent corporations feed.  They do this, one, because they are protecting interests that they somehow feel they are invested in or are actually invested in or, two, out of narcissism.  Corporations have a bottom line to maintain, and rarely is what is best for the people or the environment taken into consideration, (see big oil and coal and then follow the money).   The narcissists are contrarian because they do not want to believe that their actions contribute to the problem of negative climate change.  It is hard for people to change for the better and by better I mean doing what is in their best interest.  We often do things that are counter to our best interest, mostly out of comfort for the position that we have found ourselves to be in.  What we must do now, if we are to make a change in our lifetime, or the lifetimes of those who will come before us, is to simply acknowledge that something must be done, for the better, so that this planet can sustain us as a species.  Make no mistake, the Earth is very resilient, it has been here for far longer than we have, but it would be nice if we could be here a bit longer too. 

Ricky Gervais Is Not Just Another Pretty Face...

Ricky Gervais of The Office, the original British version mind you, and HBO's Extras has written a great essay on why he is an atheist.  Poignant and of course, funny.  

Do the cut and paste thing...

http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/best-mind/My_Argument_with_God

Why I Don't Believe

I wrote this for the "newbie" forum on Richard Dawkins.net.  It's a pretty great site and I encourage you all to visit it. 

Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark

by Giantbluerobot on Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:19 am

For me it was really quite simple. First off, I must qualify that I am not the world's smartest man, nor would I venture so far as to say that I can boast the highest I.Q. on the street for which I live. With this in mind I find it very easy to not believe in God, and that it need not be the occupation of those who are considered high minded or uber-intelligent to continually debate why God does not, in fact, exist. For me it first began with the two stories from the bible which are second and third most popular after that of Joshua the King, or Jesus Christ as he is more popularly known, again a qualification, this polling to determine popularity of stories was very unscientific. It began with a question... If Adam and Eve were the first two human beings on this planet they needed a means to populate the planet, how did they do so? To get straight to the point they used incest. And so on and so on, etc. etc. World populated! Okay, great, now that that is out of the way... This is something that many people around the world are seemingly able to operate with or whom choose to not acknowledge. The second part of the question takes me to Noah and his Ark. God, supposedly, being omniscient mind you, chose to allow his gift given free will children, to fall out of his favor, and then drown them. There may have been a warning in there, not too sure, if there had though, you can rest assured that it is chalked up to the gift of free will. But not all of them drowned, he left Noah and his wife and their children and their spouses. So to skip right to it, we now have two instances in the bible, in which God felt it necessary to equip his "children" with incest as a tool to repopulate the planet. Hmm. Some kind of designer. I do not believe in God solely based on this reasoning. I have since thought about it much more and have come up with even more reasons why I think that it is unfortunate that there are those who feel that it is alright to believe and have faith in such stories. For me my struggle isn't on whether God exists or not, but rather, to keep myself from engaging in debate with those that I care about who do believe in God and hammer them on why they choose to do so.

There must first be a God before there can be an atheist.

Why They Will Get Away With it Again!

Isn't it great to be fat, dumb and happy?  Today the government came out and talked about the details of the Bear Stearns bail-out.  To be so stinking rich that you never have to worry about ever losing what you have, this has to be a most comforting feeling.  JPMorgan was indeed very generous when they decided to raise the per share price of the B.S. stocks to 10 bucks, up from the 2 that they had originally partaken of.  So, how would you have spent your part of the 29 billion dollars used to take the sting out of JPMorgan coming in to save the day?  Sadly, I can say that I will more than likely not immediately notice it.  But it has to come from some where, and that will probably be from programs that help those that could really use it.  I wonder if JP is going to guarantee the pensions and retirements of all the folks who had worked to make B.S. function day to day.  I should hope so, what with the 29 billion that they didn't have to pay I should think they could manage something. What are the chances that our dear government will do anything to help those folks.  Why stop at just helping keep the company afloat.  Why does it have to end there? How can anyone argue that it is okay to bail out corporations but it isn't okay to help out those in the middle and lower classes that seek bankruptcy protection?  It couldn't be that the corporations are looked at as being more important than the people from whom they benefit, is it?  By the people for the people.  Remember?  What has to happen for all Americans to understand that this means something.  And that there are factions within our country that are fighting with the mighty dollar to keep this from happening.   Corporations are not people.  Corporations are machines.  People are but the oil that finds itself lodged between the cogs of the gears that corporations use to operate.  Sometimes machines work well, sometime they are just B.S.  And this is how they get away with it.  Our government, which is run by two parties that are increasingly if not already inextricably connected to the corporate machine, has allowed for those with the most to screw up and make those with the least pick up the tab.