Skepticum

A recent post I read on King Aardvark’s Kick in the Nuts site made me repeat an expression which I realized could be my trademark when it comes to labeling religion:

To me religion will always be like an abusive partner.

I’ve posted this on many blogs as a comment, but I decided now to post it on my own.

I was an adult when I flirted with religion and got a bad case of what I call the “abusive partner syndrome.” To me that’s what religion will always be, an abusive partner–it told me I was chosen, and then beat on me and told me I fell short, then it told me it loved me, gave me comfort, and as soon as I felt better, it beat on me and told me I fell short. Then it told me I could learn from my mistakes and grow stronger, and I worked hard at it and as soon as I was within reach of my goal it slapped my hand away and once again I fell short.

Using similar metaphors I anonymously sent Aesahaettr my response to a post of his. I was afraid I was going to offend his readers by saying this, but fuck it, this is my blog and my readers so I’m going to say it:

Some love is sick and some love is true. I only want the true kind. Being in love with religion can be like being in love with an abusive partner. You open yourself up for this desired love, but they’ll keep hurting and hurting you while telling you they love you despite the inflicted pain. And they tell you the pain will make you stronger. But you’re not stronger and never free until you break free from wanting that kind of love.

I guess in the end (about 3 years later, not much longer) I stood up, stretched all my five feet and nine inches of female pride, threw some reason into it and realized that if you keep cutting the grass it may look beautiful but it will always be short. Ya’re not gonna stand there, wave your finger at the grass and blame it for being short. But we do that, don’t we? We feed the grass, we patch it, we ban the dog from running in it, and when it starts growing we cut it short.

These days I wish I was six foot tall, but my pituitary gland won’t cooperate. Might be because I needed a lot of hits over the head to wake up. Might be that genetically speaking I didn’t inherit a much taller gene, or I didn’t drink enough growth-hormone tainted milk. Or it might be that at my height I’m the same height as the average American male, so I’m tall enough. Those are the facts I flirt with today.

A Yahoo article today claims that Applebee’s Grilled Steak Caesar Salad® has 1,190 calories and 75 grams of fat.

About.com’s Calorie Count site gives the nutritional evaluation seen in this picture for the Applebee’s salad, with an estimated 1,296 calories.

Calorie King backs up this information.

Whether it’s the steak or the toast this salad is a monster twice the size of a Big Mac.

What did they put in that salad? A whole cow?

Check out an interesting post on "agreeing to disagree" by vjack from Atheist Revolution. His post is in response to a conversation on the same topic by A Load of Bright.

Aug. 29, 2007, Christopher Hitchens discusses the bright and dark side of mother Teresa’s crisis of faith in a Newsweek article.

The following quotes give a heartbreaking peak into Teresa’s struggle of faith which she recorded in her personal letters. But before we get too teary-eyed Hitchens brings us back to reality with a blunt reminder of her fanaticism and compromising situations she involved herself in during the more famous time of her life, which he guesses might be attributed to her struggle to come to terms with her “dark nights of the soul”:

The sacrament of the mass is not to be undergone in a wrong frame of mind, and there are hints here and there that Mother Teresa was afraid she was endangering her soul. She felt that she should not even be thinking such things: “So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them—because of the blasphemy—If there be God—please forgive me—When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven—there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.—I am told God loves me—and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?” That last question in particular must have been an annihilating difficult one to face.

Now, it might seem glib of me to say that this is all rather unsurprising, and that it is the inevitable result of a dogma that asks people to believe impossible things and then makes them feel abject and guilty when their innate reason rebels. (…)

Continue Reading »

Below is an expanded discussion that I started earlier today related to drug law enforcement and a WTF moment I had when I read Obama’s promises to New Orleans.

According to High Times, on Aug. 22, 2007 Obama made a statement that he “would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users, it’s not the best use of our resources.” The video proof can be found on YouTube. However, that statement is misleading. It appears that Obama is for the continuation of the war on drugs and establishment of Drug Enforcement Agencies. During his visit to New Orleans on Aug. 25, 2007 Obama said if elected “he would establish a Drug Enforcement Agency office in New Orleans that would be dedicated to stopping drug gangs across the region” (New York Times, Obama’s Plan to Restore New Orleans). WTF? Prosecuting people who make medical use of marijuana is a poor use of resources, but establishing yet another Drug Enforcement Agency isn’t? As Scott Morgan from Stop the Drug War said, “Well, Barack Obama, you know what else is a poor use of resources? Creating a second DEA office in New Orleans when people still have holes in their roofs and mud in their basements.”

jb1125 responded to my post with the following:

I agree that the long term goal should be legalization, but you can’t just let gang members roam the streets.

Hundreds of people are being killed in New Orleans due to gang violence. These gangs that sell drugs are empowered by the lack of enforcement.

The increase in criminal activity due to the lack of enforcement is a disincentive for people to return and makes it harder to rebuild infrastructure. So, you can’t fix roofs, if gangs steal your equipment. The best way to get rid of the gangs would be to eliminate their source of income by legalizing drugs, but that won’t happen anytime soon, so the best legal way is to increase enforcement.

I would argue that allowing gangs to freely sell drugs is against the interests of people opposed to war on drugs. In order to create real change, there needs to be a political consensus, and if drug dealers, who are killing people, roam the streets , then they can be used as an example of what will happen if you legalize.

My response is too long to put in the comments section, so here it is:

Drug enforcement agencies deal with all drug enforcement not just gang violence, and that, unfortunately includes a majority of petty users who don’t harm anyone but themselves.

Empirically speaking there are no conclusive studies to show drug law enforcement reduces violence. There are two camps to the debate on drugs and violence, those who argue prohibition causes violence and those who argue drugs themselves cause violence. So there are theories on what causes violence but no real proof on what reduces violence.

I personally like to quote Chris Rock, in that people don’t sell crack, but crack sells itself. In order words, I am of the camp that believes drug prohibition causes violence.

I base my theory on a number of peer-reviewed studies that show drug law enforcement is very expensive, cost-ineffective and may lead to an increase in violent crime.

A 2005 study published in Social Science Quaterly concludes that “increases in total per capita drug arrests and arrests for “hard drug” possession are accompanied by higher rates for all crimes except assault. Increased arrests for the manufacture or sale of marijuana are associated with increases in larcenies.”

The Independent Institute also cites a Florida study, “violent crime also increased markedly in response to greater drug law enforcement, as drug dealers displaced by law enforcement invaded the turf of established dealers, and residents of previously untapped markets fell prey to violent criminals. Since 1989, Florida has reduced its drug enforcement efforts, and its property crime rate has fallen.”

A Harvard study published in 2003 in the Journal of Public Economics concludes that, “increased drug incarceration has likely been a small (1–3%) reduction in violent and property crime … it is unlikely that the dramatic increase in drug imprisonment was cost-effective.” Continue Reading »

Chris Rock mentions in one of his famous stand-up shows that insurance should be called “in case shit… .” I just recently discovered another application of this concept–the company I work for distributed Tamiflu, (an antiviral drug) “in case shit…” happens. And when I did some research on Tamiflu I came up with connections between the marker of Tamiflu, Rumsfeld and Bush.

The irony is that “in case shit…” happens a lot when it comes to viruses. But while I have my (free of charge) stash of Tamiflu in case a flu pandemic takes over the world, there are viruses doing damage today that aren’t kept in check and for which there is no “insurance” while the shit is actually hitting the fan.

It might just be me, but it’s ironic that I sit on a stash of Tamiflu just “in case shit…” happens, when we have shit (viruses) happening all around us, and many people not being able to afford life-saving medication. According to cnn.com, “an estimated 80 percent of people living with HIV outside the developed world have no access to health care and life-saving drugs, according to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.”

Thankfully, there are organization such as Aid for AIDS International that have ingenious programs “devoted to housing and redistributing HIV and AIDS medicine.” What that means is that there are people out there who cannot tolerate their drugs or discontinue a drug and are left with a supply. This supply can be donated to Aid for AIDS International who will use legal means to distribute the drugs to people who cannot afford them.

Now, let me make it clear, Tamiflu is not prescribed for HIV treatment. However, if Gilead Sciences can make enough Tamiflu for personal stock-piling “in case shit…” there has to be a way to make enough affordable HIV antiviral medication.

And let me also make it clear that I don’t think there’s anything random about Gilead Sciences making Tamiflu in ma$$ quantities and the fact that Donald Rumsfeld was chairman of the company between 1997 and 2001. Not to mention his owning stock in Gilead, worth somewhere between USD$5 million and USD$25 million. And then should we wonder why in Nov. 2005, W. Bush urged Congress to pass $7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic, of which $1 billion (how many 0s is that?) was dedicated to the purchase, and distribution of Tamiflu?

In case you ever wondered what real characters inspired the dance moves in World of Warcraft (WOW), here’s a video that sheds some light. It sheds light not only on the personas that inspired the dance moves but also on the potential social commentary behind WOW. My favorite is the Napoleon Dynamite dance:

What does a lame-ass excuse sound like?

“What I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up”–suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick said during his public apology, after pleading guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges.

I found a paradoxical statement today in an article discussing the increase in opium production in Afghanistan:

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar drastically reduced opium production in Afghanistan during his last year in power, issuing a religious edict banning the crop and threatening harsh punishments in areas the movement held under its strict control.

In order words, the only way to replace poppy opium is to force introduce another opium. There’s a lot of science behind that, I’m sure…

This ’80s yogurt commercial is a great metaphor for how Americans see their relationship to the world:

Discover Magazine earns two thumbs up for the catchiest news article title of the week–”A Yogurt a Day Keeps the Runs Away."

At work this afternoon I very nonchalantly stated that no tornado will rip through Chicago. Little did I know that I would go home and see a scene that made me think a tornado did rip through the city. Chicago Tribune has quickly put together a collection of photos. And here’s the damage I found at home:

A tree from our yard got torn up and fell on top of a parked car, just inches from my blue Toyota. Image courtesy of Postifthen. Here is another view of the damage

Ben tagged me with The Meme of Four. I think it was more out of vindication than tagging necessity (for me having tagged him a few weeks back).
The rules are pretty simple, you give four responses to each question and then add a new question of your own at the end.

1. Four jobs I’ve had or currently have in my life:
A: Newspaper writer
B: College instructor
C: Marketing professional
D: Master of mischief

2. Four countries I have been to:
A. Bulgaria
B. Austria
C: Serbia
D. Jamaica

3. Four places I’d rather be right now:
A. Negril, Jamaica
B. Bulgaria
C. Coco LaPalm, Jamaica
D. Did I already list Jamaica?

4. Four foods I like to eat:
A. Sushi Continue Reading »

The 2007 Wired NextFest will feature Keepon, the Marek Michalowski and Hideki Kozima’s “small creature-like robot with a soft rubber skin, two cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose.”

We are currently developing and studying dance-oriented nonverbal play with between children and the robot Keepon, built by Hideki Kozima. (…) Keepon is designed to interact with children by communicating attention and emotion. It has four degrees of freedom: attention is directed by turning +/-180° and nodding +/-40°, while emotion is expressed by rocking side-to-side +/-25° and bobbing up to 15mm.

Scientific American reported today that Turkey blocked access to wordpress.com blogs (home of over 1 mil blogs) as a response to wordpress-hosted blogs that allegedly defamed the Turkish millionaire and supporter of creationism, Harun Yahya.

Yahya is also “creator” of the the Atlas of Creation. SciAm shows an image from the Atlas, with a large red cross on top of an evolving primate, and the words FALSE typed next to the cross. Way to build an argument!

Wordpress.com also published the contents of the communication they received from the Turkish government regarding their censorship.

And I’m not sure if the Turkish government were aware of the bad press they were going to get following their “intelligent” move, but here you have it. We’re all talking about what a dumb-ass move it is.