Jesus or James Bond?

During the christmas season who is selling more tickets? Well in it's third week 007 made $15 million at the box office this past weekend, and in its opening weekend Jesus, the star of Nativity, only managed to take in $8 million nationwide. More in this article. Better call in Mel Gibstein (sorry Gibson) to throw in some blood and gore to get the take up a bit in time for christmas!

No science like christian Science!

It's that most wonderful time of the year again. And time for me to point you towards some reading material online which shows the true meaning of the season.

The Christian Science Monitor provides a voice of reason in the article To truly honor Christmas, end its status as an official holiday.

A nice break from all the phony War on christmas crap you see everywhere. You do realize of course that here in the US we are actually stuck in a war these days that's worth complaining about. If you hadn't noticed the real war that is going on, I encourage you to make vacation plans to spend December 25th in Baghdad this year.

My new favorite site

To my fellow Atheists who haven't found Richard Dawkins new site yet, what are you waiting for?



Lots of video and audio to listen to there and essays to read by the great one. Don't miss it. And since Dawkins is currently on his book tour, look at his schedule and don't miss him if he is in your area. I plan to see his lecture in Portland next week.

Keep the unfaith!

Who figured She preferred instant?

Well how else could you get all that work done in seven days?

Sorry my hiatus from this site continues. I'm in no mood to be funny while I'm having to deal with the inept govt these days.

Sweetheart, I'd rather you marry a muslim

For everybody who thought homophobia and racism were the big ills of our society, check out this survey from the University of Minnesota. It turns out us Atheists are the most hated group in the country! Sorry Gays and Blacks, we're number one!

Now of course, it's a lot easier for us to blend in without getting noticed, and I have never been rejected for a bank loan because of my beliefs, so I am not one to play the victim. I just find it hilarious that parents would rather have their daughter marry a Gay guy than an Atheist.

Well I have no daughter yet, so it will be a while before she is of marrying age. However, I admitedly have some prejudices myself and have already decided she will be forbidden from marrying anybody who does that YMCA dance in public.

The warm and fuzzy religion

My self imposed break has been cut short by those nutty Thai buddhists! Yes practitioners of the same religion endorsed by all those influencial liberal folks like Allen Ginsberg, Goldie Hawn, Oliver Stone, Brad Pitt, and that loveable Richard Gere are in the news. As it turns out, islam, christianity and judaism aren't the only religions that teach violence is the way to solve problems. If you dare to smash up a statue at a Bangkok shrine don't try to use mental illness as an excuse, your days are numbered! (Yes it's just two guys, but I lived in Thailand for almost a year and I don't think it's a stretch to say that many of their fellow countrymen view them as heroes right about now)

Pictured above is a photo I took of the statue in question when I was in Bangkok last summer. The shrine was erected on the request of an astrologer and is supposed to give those who visit it good luck. Now that it has been damaged astrologers are forecasting bad luck for the country. (Hmm, not sure how much worse your luck could get than to have a tsunami smash into your country, and the statue's good luck field was supposedly operating just fine in December 2004)

But who am I to argue with good luck. Since I visited the Erawan shrine, I got a good job and got engaged to the greatest woman in the world. So what else could possibly be responsible? It might have something to do with the fact that I'm a great guy, but that is just as unprovable.

In front of the Erawan shrine are plenty of lottery ticket sellers. If somebody really seriously wanted to establish proof that there is some magic in the air around the place they would compare the percent of tickets that are winners sold right outside the shrine with those sold at some other location. This semi-scientific study would be rather easy to do and if the good luck claim is correct it would now be proven (well further studies would have to be done to impress me of course) and the visitors to Erawan would quadruple overnight.

I'm sure the operators of the tourist trap are in no hurry to prove anything. They are happy to leave everything wide open and rely on anecdotal evidence to bring in the bucks. This year my car was hit by a Thai woman here in Seattle, I don't think it has much to do with my visit to the shrine, but perhaps she was paying it forward for this post.

I like to think I respect different cultures but there are so many things about Thai culture that I have absolutely no respect for at all and today I just don't feel like giving them the benefit of the doubt. I respect Thais as individuals of course and hopefully my friends from the Land of Smiles will forgive me for this, but sorry you all need to go cold turkey on astrology and buddhism and flip your brains into the on position.

The only comments we have heard from leaders in Thailand following this disgusting murder is the governor of Bangkok saying he will be sure to beef up security around the city's shrines. Uless I hear a quote from the PM or the King pretty damn quick about how killing this man was an "untolerable act" you won't be getting any more of my tourist dollars anytime soon.

Oh Ricky you're so fine

Normally there is a 20-year waiting period from the time I am first aware of somebody until the time they are eligible to get into the skepticklish hall of fame. But the newest member is a person who probably a year ago, I didn't even know his name.

The gentleman in question has already been a household name for several years in the UK and with the hipper people around the world because he created the show The Office. Apparently, in my household I just recently got around to watching the show as well as his other recent hysterical TV effort: Extras. Both available on DVD from Amazon if you follow the links.

Of course I am talking about Ricky Gervais. To my fellow Statesiders who don't know who he is, there is no room for any more excuses. He will soon be on an episode of The Simpsons, and boy will you feel embarassed if your kids know Ricky before you do! Not only is he a comic genius, he is a big supporter of science and reason and is always outspoken about his skepticism and Atheism.

He recently began hosting a podcast which quickly went into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most downloaded show ever in that new medium. The show basically consists of Gervais and his partner Stephen Merchant reacting to the completely ridiculous theories of their friend Karl Pilkington. Listening to Karl it quickly becomes obvious that the USA has not completely cornered the market on stupidity.

The first dozen shows were free to download and should still be available on iTunes or at Guardian Unlimited, he now has decided to make a bit of coin and is charging one quid per episode. It does seem a bit steep, but I imagine the routine with Karl will get old after a while so he is cashing in while he can. However, even with a popular spokesperson like Gervais, I still think we have quite a wait before critical thinking becomes hipper than the alternative

Muslims don't watch South Park?

What is all this fuss about a few editorial cartoons in some small Danish newspaper? A few years ago there was an animated representation of Muhammad on an episode of the South Park cartoon. That popular show was shown internationally, so why no uproar?

Perhaps they were ignored because on South Park there has always been equal-opportunity bashing when it comes to religion. So you have two choices, either be PC and leave everybody's imaginary friends alone, or the other option is to disrespect them all equally. I vote for the latter.

No posts for a few weeks as I am returning to the Philippines for a quick vacation. If you missed the photos of my trip there last summer, check those out while I'm away. I will post new ones when I get back.

Happy Darwin Day

If you have been putting off learning about biology, or just like everybody feel their are a few holes in your knowledge and would like to learn more, today is your lucky day. Churches across the country will be hosting Evolution Sunday today.

Yes the same institution that used to kill folks who argued that the Earth wasn't flat want to educate you from the altar about evolution. How PC of those progressive churches to recognise that acceptance of evolution is compatible with religion. However I doubt they will be telling you the whole story. If you actually bother to learn about both fields, science and religion, you will find that they are far from compatible.

Progressive churches are like TGIF restaurants. They aren't fast food nor are they a true sit-down dining place. They are basically a fast food restaurant where you order from a waiter and have to pay twice as much. If you want fast food go to a fast food restaurant! Progressive churches do justice to neither religion or science. Today in honor of Darwin Day make the bold choice to pick one or the other. I won't tell you which is fast food and which is fine dining, but as this article shows. Atheism is cheaper.

Get Well Randi

James Randi is recovering in the hospital now following bypass surgery. He had a heart attack last week and it is good to know he is now in stable condition. There is information on his site about where to send cards and donations. He has been a hero for me since I was a kid, lets hope he has at least a few more decades in him to influence another generation.

You can catch more flies with Shermer than vinegar

Because you demanded it, I have found another radio interview with Michael Shermer for you that is available online. Again you can listen to a few hours with him on the Coast 2 Coast AM radio show, this time from just a few weeks ago. This MP3 doesn't have all that surplus stuff like the last one and is more compact at 29mb. This Shermer guy is just plain nice and can win over anybody. Not one of these rude skeptics like some people I know. If only all skeptics could be so sweet!

Dawkins Diary

What happens to somebody after they take up two hours of prime time national TV time in the UK railing about the evils of religion? Read or listen to Richard Dawkin's diary to find out. You can also find an essay for The Independent by Dawkins reprinted on this side of the pond in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Fallout from his recent documentary The Root of all Evil can be read at The Socialist Party, Spiked, The Herald of Scotland, The Tablet, and The Socialist Worker.

Also if you haven't been listening to Penn Jillette's radio show, there is now a spot online where you can download the episodes as MP3s for your iPod. James Randi was on his show last wednesday while he was in Las Vegas for The Amazing Meeting. Not exactly sure of the legalities of this particular site, so if you are a stickler for playing by the rules, Penn also has podcasts and links to radio streams at his site. After all, us skeptics more than anybody should do the right thing, we wouldn't want to get a bad name.

PS - If you want to piss off muslims, read and laugh at these cartoons.

The new home of Skepticklish

To make everything consistent with the title of this page, I have now changed the URL of the site as you can see above. Please update your links and bookmarks accordingly. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. To make it up to you, I will point you towards a dynamite two-hour interview with Michael Shermer (The inaugural member of the Skepticklish Hall of Fame) from an overnight AM radio show back in October 2004. You can download the 71mb MP3 of the program here. You can skip the first 40 minutes or the program or so until Shermer shows up. He was also on the show last week which you can still listen to here, I haven't had a chance yet. There are lots of other good Shermer multimedia files at this site as well.

Shermer does a lot of media, but normally they give him about 10 seconds at the end of a show to debunk an hour of BS from the featured "psychic" guest. On this show the host, even though he disagrees with Shermer, gives him the time he needs to explain the complicated issues involved. This show should be required listening for everybody on the planet. Enjoy, and I promise I won't change my URL address again . . . well at least not until I am re-encarnated.

The downfall of democracy

It is certainly true that we do in Britain have ignorant fools. The difference is that in Britain they don't get political power.

Richard Dawkins

It is days like this that I really wonder if democracy is the great thing everybody makes it out to be. We already know about the joke of a president we ended up with here in the USA, but I doubt even he would say anything as idiotic and racist as the Mayor of New Orleans did today. Idiotic because of the complete lack of any logic that would inspire a statement like this, and racist because it is aimed at Black people and Mayor Ray Nagin is inferring that as a group they are stupid enough to swallow that crap and will change their behavior en masse because of it. He picked MLK day as the perfect time to reveal his prejudices. If you seek a rationale-thinking leader looks like you will have to move to Chile where they just voted in an Atheist for president.

It is of course no surprise that politicians spout a bunch of BS to appease the voters but here we might have a first, a mayor who is not only blaming the victims, but saying the problems in his city are completely out of his hands and the responsibility of a supernatural being. Since we can't vote for god the mayor is now off the hook. The other message for today is, if you must be a Black gang member, do that up North, away from any hurricane or earthquake zones and you should be ok.

Psychic Detectives uncover Daleks

Why is it, that not one TV psychic was able to predict that the BBC show Doctor Who would be coming to US airwaves this spring? They must have been too busy scamming grieving families as usual. For that matter, how come they didn't prognosticate that I would be writing yet another post ridiculing them today?

Photo Source - The outstanding Dalek Plungers 101 blog

As a life-long Doctor Who fan I will be the first to admit we are a strange breed. We are however not as strange as The Sun would like their readers to believe based on this article. They scoured the Gallifrey Outpost forums to manufacture some news about Whovians wanting to hire psychics based on a few tongue-and-cheek comments. The comments refer to the fact that fans will try anything to find the missing episodes of the show from the 1960s.

I have never told anybody this, but I happen to know exactly where the missing tapes are. They are buried out in the desert 100 miles west of Phoenix. Look for the saguaro cactus shaped like the TARDIS and start digging.

Prime Time Dawkins + Sylvia exposed

Those of you in the UK will need to check out the Channel 4 program Can you Believe it? It will be presented by Richard Dawkins in all his glory on two subsequent Monday nights at 8pm. More articles about it in the Sunday Herald and the Belfast Telegraph. No joke here, just sad it's not airing here, please tape the show for me if you can ok?

Also, kudos goes out to FOX News of all people! They must have at least one skeptic on staff. They called out Sylvia Browne on one of her worthless predictions about the trapped miners. Keep up the good work, maybe Montel will ask her about this next time she is on the show. Well you can only expect one miracle a year, and we now already have one for 2006.

Warning: Atheist on the air!

The Penn Jillette radio show premiered today. Only a half hour because of technical difficulties but you can download and listen to the humble beginnings of the program here if you missed it or aren't in one of his markets. The outspoken Penn has no previous radio experince but has already done an outstanding first program. (Tons of experience and an associates degree in radio never helped me put on a good show) Let's hope it's the first show of a long run.