"Atheists' Worst Nightmare"

Here's the famous Ray Comfort/Kirk Cameron video "disproving" evolution with um, a banana. This clip is augmented with commentary, including pics of how bananas have evolved. It's a scream. Enjoy. Oh, and enjoy this wonderful cartoon, too. :)

Bush Loses Brain

The Mark of Rove

The best quote from the article:

Rove "knows he'll continue to be a target, even from afar, since belief in his influence over every Administration decision has become, well, faith-based." Rove said, "I'm a myth. There's the Mark of Rove."

So ... this leaves Shrub and Shooter in charge for the next 16 months.

What do you think is really going on here, folks? Did the RNC demand his blood?

Of particular interest, this story broke at 4:00 AM this morning in the now-Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.

Stupid's forever

Ignorance can be cured, but stupid's forever.

On Notice

You can create your own notice board here.

Reality check

I got a catalog from Mary Maxim Needlework and Crafts, touting Over 400 New Items! plus 21 Pages of Exciting Christmas Crafts! There was a time when this would have set my lil ole heart to pitt-a-patting, but today? Not so much. No, it isn't because I'm now an atheist and therefore the Christmas holiday hasn't the same meaning it once did. I still "do" the holidays. It's just that my interests are changing. No, no - that's not it, either. It's that ... I've had to narrow my interests down to what can actually be accomplished in Real Life. (Oh, and that reminds me of a great cartoon I recently StumbledUpon. This will only be funny if you've spent any time in VR... But I digress.)

I used to have a craft room full of stuff, with hundreds of projects tabbed and indexed in hanging files. I used to have boxes of patterns for clothes and drapes and Christmas projects. I used to have tons of fabric and yarn. I used to spend summers crafting everything from afghans to ornaments, from decoupaged footstools to clocks.

Then, several things happened. One, I started writing, and that took up a lot of my crafting time. Actually, now it's like everything takes up my writing time.

Another thing was a bit of arthritis in my hands, so I had to give up thread crochet - no more lacy bookmarks for friends at Christmas. Then I had to give up all but Q-hook crochet - that's the huge hook that can be held comfortably, but you can only make afghans with it, and after a while, meh.

Here's the thing. I'm getting older. Not old, mind you, because that doesn't happen to us Boomers. No, it doesn't. Stop laughing - it does not happen to us! See, I'm getting older ('course, not as old as Hoss), so I'm more aware of the fact that chances are, I'll never get around to doing those hundreds of craft projects. I didn't come to this realization just now - that was a year ago when we were going to sell Maxwell House and make our alleged move to North Carolina - hah!

It was back then when I realized that instead of packing all those nicely-indexed projects and craft supplies, I should face reality and only keep the things that I (1) enjoy doing the most (and can still do), and (2) that I might actually get around to finishing.

That left ... needlepoint.

And writing.

I and my creative muses will be perfectly happy concentrating on those two things. See, when you're young, you believe you really can do it all because you're not thinking about practical things like time. And maybe some of you overachievers (like my in-laws) out there actually do get it all done. I applaud you as I mutter under my breath.

So, the Mary Maxim catalog goes into the recycling pile, and until the day that I do the same, I'll be here happily writing and needlepointing (hmm, there might even be a way to do those at the same time...)

Hiroshima Day

Please watch this video in honor of Hiroshima Day.

Support Bridges, Not War

Heidi Sheen, left, and Brenda Asmus put down a sign to protest war as President Bush's helicopter flew over head to view the destroyed Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007. The sign reads 'Support Bridges Not War.' (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Just think, Al Gore was talking about the need to save our infrastructure way back in the '90s.

News flash!

Why people have sex: it feels good

copyright: By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Wed Aug 1, 7:35 AM ET

WASHINGTON - After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It's more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.

College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex — they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and "it feels good," according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.

Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: "I was attracted to the person."

Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money [emphasis mine] to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.

"It's refuted a lot of gender stereotypes ... that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love," said University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study's co-author. "That's not what I came up with in my findings."

Forget thinking that men are from Mars and women from Venus, "the more we look, the more we find similarity," said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. Goldstein, who wasn't part of Meston's study, said the Texas research made a lot of sense and adds to growing evidence that the vaunted differences in the genders may only be among people with sexual problems.

Meston and colleague David Buss first questioned 444 men and women — ranging in age from 17 to 52 — to come up with a list of 237 distinct reasons people have sex. They ranged from "It's fun" which men ranked fourth and women ranked eighth to "I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease" which ranked on the bottom by women.

Once they came up with that long list, Meston and Buss asked 1,549 college students taking psychology classes to rank the reasons on a one-to-five scale on how they applied to their experiences.

"None of the gender differences are all that great," Meston said. "Men were more likely to be opportunistic towards having sex, so if sex were there and available they would jump on it, somewhat more so than women. Women were more likely to have sex because they felt they needed to please their partner."

But this is among college students, when Meston conceded "hormones run rampant." She predicted huge differences when older groups of people are studied.

Since her study came out Tuesday, people are coming up with new reasons to have sex.

"Originally, I thought that we exhaustively compiled the list, but now I found that there should be some added," Meston said.

___

Stay tuned for other breaking news as it happens...

Scruffybutt Sez

By popular demand, I've updated my blog!
Scruffybutt's Blog

No End In Sight

NO END IN SIGHT
OPENS TODAY IN SELECT THEATERS

Let those with ears hear...

Insurance industry critics of Michael Moore's Sicko have complained that he used outdated cases from the "bad old days of HMOs" to document the healthcare outrages depicted in his movie. Well, here's a case that comes from today's headlines.

United Healthcare denied hearing aids to a girl who was born without ears. They denied the claims four different times. Then, after the media got involved (and with the publicity surrounding Sicko, no doubt), they've had a change of "heart."

Update: Girl Will Get Special Hearing Aid

Feed your head

glumbert.com - Star Trek follows the White Rabbit

Show and tell

Tomcat's Mom just finished making these quilts - aren't they gorgeous?

The first one is a Baltimore Album quilt. It's pretty much her own design.




The second one is from a pattern, called Compass Rose (also known as Mariner's Compass).



She says they are "hand appliqued, hand quilted and pieced, and the reason quilters drink!"

Lie by Lie

You've got to see this. It's a chronological compilation of events leading up to the Iraqi invasion, lie by lie.

Lie by Lie: The Mother Jones Iraq War Timeline

That's "Captain Candace" to you

James T. Kirk

An impassioned commander with more respect for individuals than for authority, you have a no-holds-barred approach to life and its obstacles.

I don't believe in the no-win scenario.

It's a meme

***
1. We HAVe to post these RUles beFORE we give you the facts.

2. PlAYers start with eight RANdom facts/HAbits about thEMSElves.

3. PEople who are tagGED need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these RUles.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagGED and list their names.

Don’t forget to leave them a COmment telling them they’re tagGED, and to read your blog.
***

Here are eight random facts about me:

1. I like skim milk.

2. In addition to loving handbag porn, I have an earring fetish.

3. Ooh! Speaking of fetishes, I love to - um, nevermind *blush.

4. I have a terrible sense of direction. Hopeless, really.

5. Which is just as well, because I have driving phobias.

6. When I read Lizzy's answers to this meme, I realized that I also have GAD because I "awfulize." Oh man, give me a made-for-TV disaster movie, or a CNN Special on SARS, and I'm there, taking notes.

7. And indexing them. The notes. I'm very organized.

8. Sometimes. That's very puzzling to me. Sometimes I'm organized, other times ... a total slob. Huh. There's probably a named disorder for that, too.

Okay, I tag:

Tomcat
Pooks
Iain
Michelle
Mary
Theresa
John
Dan
Cynthia

What would he think today, I wonder

Robert Heinlein wrote this in 1952.


This I Believe
by Robert A. Heinlein

(author of Stranger in a Strange Land)

"I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.

"Take Father Michael down our road a piece. I'm not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and lovingkindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I'm in trouble, I'll go to him."

"My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee--no prospect of a fee--I believe in Doc.

"I believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town saying, `I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our town is no exception. I've found the same ready charity everywhere. But for the one who says, `To heck with you--I got mine,' there are a hundred, a thousand who will say, `Sure, pal, sit down.'

"I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers I can step up to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, `Climb in Mac--how far you going?'

"I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime yet for every criminal there are 10,000 honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but is a force stronger than crime. I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses and the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.

"I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.

"I believe that almost all politicians are honest . . . there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true we would never have gotten past the 13 colonies.

"I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I believe in--I am proud to belong to--the United States. Despite shortcomings from lynchings to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.

"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes will endure. Will endure longer than his home planet -- will spread out to the stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble essential decency.

"This I believe with all my heart."

--Written by Robert A. Heinlein in 1952, for Edward R Murrow's This I Believe program. Virginia Heinlein chose to read it when she accepted NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal on October 6, 1988, on Mr. Heinlein's behalf (a posthumous award).

Her reading received a standing ovation.

This shouldn't take very long...

This is another great Stumble find!

For the post that accompanies this picture, click this: Science Humor

Happy 4th

Number of Americans who believe Saddam-9/11 tie rises to 41 percent

A new Newsweek poll out this weekend exposed "gaps" in America's knowledge of history and current events.

Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered 'Yes' to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004.

Further, a majority of people couldn't identify Saudia Arabia as the country of origin of most of the 9/11 hijackers, even given the question in multiple choice format. 20% answered Iraq, while 14% believed the hijackers came from Iran.

A majority (52%) believe the US is losing the war against al Qaeda, however Newsweek disagrees. In the magazine's reporting of the poll, they made judgment that the US is in fact not "losing the fight against al-Qaeda or radical Islamic terrorism."

Closer to home, 89% of Americans are unable to name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (John Roberts), though a majority of those polled were able to name Nancy Pelosi as the current Speaker of the House.

A large majority of people said they didn't know or didn't care who the winner of this year's American Idol competition was (or at least weren't willing to admit it).

The full results of the Newsweek poll are available here.

Question

On your homeworld, do you say:

Let's meet for coffee,

or

Let's meet for a coffee.

?

Just wondering. Around here (in Texas) we don't say "a" coffee, but I read this in books and magazines and see it on the Internets, and wonder what part of the country uses this? Or is it unique to Texas to NOT use the "a" ?