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Christians vs. Reality (Spoiler: reality is winning)

Posted by Shoogle on March 28, 2020
Posted in: Holy Shit! (Religion). Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

With the terrorizing spread of COVID-19, brave Christians all over America have decided to show just how defiant and unafraid they are. A virus? We can’t even see it! How can it hurt us? Jesus will protect us! And that’s why you have crap memes like this flooding social media:

Because, naturally, Christians feel compelled to scream to the world just how deep and strong their belief is, at every available opportunity. They just won’t shut up about it. Is something bad happening in the world? You can bet there’s a bunch of very vocal Christians somewhere on the internet telling anyone and everyone that Jesus will protect them, they have no fear, bring it on because God is watching over them. Well aren’t you the special chosen ones! Nobody asked how devout you are, and nobody but you actually cares.

And now that this Coronavirus has been wreaking havoc across the globe, Christians have a whole new stage where they can do their song and dance of defiance for everyone to see. Defiance against what? Oh, all sorts of things: common sense, rationality, the safety of others, proven science, self-preservation, and hard evidence, just to name a few.

Here are some stellar examples of Christians being spectacularly irresponsible, courtesy of The Friendly Atheist, which has been tracking this stuff since the outbreak:

This was posted to someone’s Facebook and was later hidden from view, but I saved a copy knowing it wouldn’t be around long…

Krishnamurti once said, “The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.” I think we can also say it’s an indication of doubt, and in a crisis it can serve as a weird sort of defense mechanism. I think they know that the virus doesn’t give one flipping shit about their beliefs — in fact, it’s directly challenging the power of their belief because their prayers obviously aren’t working:

That 2nd one is a doozy. He made a big deal out of his scorn for what those know-nothing experts are telling us, and he apparently said “As long as I walk in the light of that law of the Spirit of life, no germ will attach itself to me” on Facebook. He also indicated the media was over-hyping the problem, and that it’s just a way for people to attack Trump, and other predictable stuff. Then he took his entire family to mingle with the crowds in New Orleans, hoping to save some of them from sin (sigh). Well, now he’s gone. Maybe it was what Jesus wanted.

Christians apply magical thinking to everyday life, which is basically how religion works, but it’s especially convenient in a crisis like this. If a devout Christian doesn’t get the virus, he’ll undoubtedly hail this as proof of Jesus’ protection. If he does get the virus and lives, that’s proof of Jesus’ protection and he passed a test of his faith. If he gets the virus and dies, fellow Christians will just say it was part of God’s plan. See? With blind faith, any shitty event is a win!

I fully realize that this is why religion exists: to give some hope and meaning to our existence in this world that doesn’t care if we live or die. But that doesn’t mean you have to be an idiot with your behavior. If you believe in a god, then you have to believe that he/she/it also gave you the ability to reason, which helps you survive. What these people are doing is letting their religious programming shut off that built-in reason and common sense. They willfully ignore all the information given to them, letting religion override their survival instinct, and then they end up getting sick. They basically think the Bible should overrule what experts say about anything, hoping they’ll be rewarded in Heaven, and I think it’s going to get a lot more of them killed before this is all over. It’s not very pro-life, is it?

Should we feel sorry for these people? I feel they should be given care when they get themselves sick, but I don’t feel much pity for them and their conscious choice to be ignorant and reckless with their health and the safety of others.

A Nazi-themed party in a German restaurant? Heil-arious!

Posted by Shoogle on March 22, 2014
Posted in: General Blatherings. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

pauladeennazi

If only she had been the caterer…

These WWII reenactment people see absolutely nothing wrong with having a Nazi dinner party and apparently have all kinds of justifications for why it’s harmless and even necessary.  Yeah, sure…whatever helps you sleep at night.  My biggest question is:  why in the world would ANY German restaurant host an event like this?  Seriously.

Fancy Midwestern Restaurant Hosts Nazi-Themed Dinner Party

When you head out to Minneapolis’ premier German restaurant, Gasthof zur Gemütlichkeit, you expect brats and bier and kraut. You might not expect the Third Reich.  But then, Christmas is a time for special celebrations.

City Pages got an anonymous tip last week in the form of a photo that appeared to show a Nazi hootenanny at the convivial Teutonic eatery.  This week, they heard from a reader who was at the Sieg Heil hoedown—and there’s a perfectly good explanation!

“All of the German [re-enactment] groups in Minnesota have a Christmas party because we don’t typically have events going on in the winter,” Boorom says. “It’s just like any club that has a party. Because they dress up like Germans from World War II, it’s cool to go to a German restaurant, eat German food, and drink German beer.”

From Birthers to Flat-Earthers: Conservatards Continue their De-Evolutuion

Posted by Shoogle on March 31, 2012
Posted in: Holy Shit! (Religion), Idiots & Assholes (Politics). Tagged: , , . 4 Comments

A recent study shows that conservatives have increasingly lost faith in science since the 70’s.  Ha!  No shit, right?  But how can you “lose faith” in science when it doesn’t even require faith in order to see it in action?  Science simply is, whether you believe in it or not, and it evolves along with our understanding of how the universe works.

And that’s the beauty of science.  We’re all trying to make sense of ourselves and this world we’re in — some choose to believe in myths and mystical tales of invisible beings who created the world and control everything in it, and others would rather find answers through testing and experimentation, facts and evidence.

If it weren’t for science, we’d all think the world rides through space on the back of a giant turtle or something.  I’m not kidding — these science deniers would trap our civilization’s intellectual progress in the stone age if they could get away with it.  Fucking morons.

Believe in whatever otherworldly beings you want, but don’t deny testable, verifiable evidence when it’s presented to you.  I’m not just talking about global warming — I mean anything that may threaten your mystical “explanations” of how things work.

A study released Thursday in the American Sociological Review concludes that trust in science among conservatives and frequent churchgoers has declined precipitously since 1974, when a national survey first asked people how much confidence they had in the scientific community. At that time, conservatives had the highest level of trust in scientists.

Confidence in scientists has declined the most among the most educated conservatives, the peer-reviewed research paper found, concluding: “These results are quite profound because they imply that conservative discontent with science was not attributable to the uneducated but to rising distrust among educated conservatives.”

via McClatchy

Sheriff Arpaio: America’s defense against fake birth certificate fakers

Posted by Shoogle on March 1, 2012
Posted in: Cultural Wasteland, Idiots & Assholes (Politics). Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

Arizona’s batshit-crazy sheriff, a megalomaniacal  master of racial, political, and sexist asshattery, is still suckling desperately at the withered teats of the “OMG OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS LIKE FAKE AND STUFF OMG!” cow.  Jesus effing Christ on a cracker — somebody commit this asshole to an institution before he hurts himself!

America’s self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling and revelations that his department didn’t adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.

Rather than seek cover, though, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is seeking to grab the spotlight in the same unorthodox fashion that has helped boost his career as a nationally known lawman.

Arpaio on Thursday unveiled preliminary results of an investigation, conducted by members of his volunteer cold-case posse, into the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, a controversy that has been widely debunked but which remains alive in the eyes of some conservatives.

And, of course, the right wing loooooves him.  They can’t get enough of him…that’s why they keep electing him sheriff in Arizona so he can continue his rampaging abuse of power and wastes of tax money like these “special projects.”

GOP presidential candidates have courted him for his endorsement throughout the primary season. At last week’s GOP presidential debate in Arizona, Arpaio won loud cheers. During a question about Arizona’s border woes, Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said the government ought to give local police agencies the chance to enforce immigration law as Arpaio has.

via azcentral.com

To a moron in Boise, “Portlandia” is a “minstrel show”

Posted by Shoogle on January 22, 2012
Posted in: General Blatherings. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Wow. This guy rrreeeaaaallllyyy needs to pull that corn cob out of his ass and get a sense of humor.  I never feel that this show encourages us to hate the stereotypes they poke fun of…they’re just taking it to a new level of absurdity.  Does he also think the hundreds of mindless sitcoms about fat, stupid husbands with smart, hot wives are also “minstrel shows?”

Oh, not to mention that comparing hipster humor to racism is beyond idiotic.  What a tool this guy is.

The sketch-comedy series from SNL alum Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, former guitarist for Sleater-Kinney, chronicles the misadventures of artistic oddballs and the uber-politically correct as they play adult hide and seek, go dumpster diving and “put a bird on it.” Sketches feature characters like angry bikers and ultra-sensitive couples as they insist on ordering only local food from menus.

The problem is that much of the humor functions with a structure similar to racist jokes, in which viewers are encouraged to despise the characters. But unlike the sorts of characters written for SNL, Portlandia’s are not based off personal quirks like attaching the suffix “idge” to everything but off of cultural stereotypes. These sketches are the white subcultural equivalent of a minstrel show, that while perhaps intended as a charming homage to oddballs, has in fact drummed up a sentiment best summarized as “it’s about damned time someone put those weirdos in their place.”

via Boise Weekly

The Rapture: Take 2

Posted by Shoogle on October 20, 2011
Posted in: Holy Shit! (Religion). Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Here we go again.  Not being content with being proven OH SO FUCKING EMBARRASSINGLY WRONG last May 21 when his Rapture prediction went completely limp, this crazy old coot is back once again saying the new Rapture is…tomorrow.  (If you’re reading this, you weren’t taken up to Heaven.  Sorry.  And congratulations.)

Have you noticed a slight crispness in the atmosphere recently? A chilling edge to the breeze, a dry clarity to the air, a new rattle in the trees? It’s fall, right? No! It’s actually the looming apocalypse, which comes tomorrow, according to professional rapture-predictor Harold Camping.

Well, “probably” comes tomorrow. Camping, who could not possibly look any more like you expect him to, predicted that the world would end on May 21—and launched a media blitz announcing the date—only to find, as you have likely noticed, that the world kept on turning. Undaunted, the host of Family Radio, now residing in a nursing home, announced that, actually, October 21 is the Rapture.

via Gawker

Heterosexual? Suffering under the iron fist of The Gay? Time to get your own parade!

Posted by Shoogle on August 14, 2011
Posted in: Heterosexually Challenged. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Holy shit.  Is Brazil about to have a Straight Pride Day?  They’ve got to be fucking kidding.  And check out the below quote from the idiot trying to get this thing put into law, he sounds like a real piece of work.  “A protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys”, eh?  Oh!  Do you mean, as Gawker points out, the 250+ people killed in Brazil last year for being gay?  This fucktard is right up there with the ones who like to wear “Proud to be straight!” t-shirts and then wonder why people start heckling them.  They simply don’t get it.

I’d like to see some large city pass this law here in America, as it would be vastly entertaining to see their lame-o parade slinking down the street:  a sea of popped-collar douchebags with their skanky girlfriends, stuffy old farts who have never even met a gay person, repressed whitebread families carrying Bibles and signs quoting scripture, and a few high profile anti-gay politicians who picked up young boys on Craigslist only the night before.  Yep, sounds like a perfect hetero parade to me!

Sao Paulo’s mayor is reviewing the legislation, but hasn’t signed it into law. If passed, Heterosexual Pride Day will take place on a Sunday each December. The man behind the bill, Carlos Apolinario, told the AP that he doesn’t hate anyone, he just wants this day to be held as “a protest against the privileges the gay community enjoys,” of which there are many. Just ask the 260 gays who were murdered in Brazil last year for being gay.

“I have no trouble coexisting with gays as long as their behavior is normal,” Apolinario added.

via Gawker

Michele Bachmann: just another idiot “end-timer”

Posted by Shoogle on July 19, 2011
Posted in: Heterosexually Challenged, Holy Shit! (Religion). Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Not only does this bitch want to see all gays roasting in ovens, she’s one of those batshit-crazy Christians who thinks Jesus is in his car and driving over here this very minute.  Surprising?  Hardly.

You know what?  We’ve been in the “last days” for centuries now.  And it really means nothing, folks…not a goddamned thing.  Stop making fools of yourselves and wasting your lives expecting the world to end tomorrow.  It’s getting embarrassing.  (Though I must admit it’s often entertaining…)

As GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann R-MN surges in the polls, more information is coming to light about her past that reveal the depths of her political and religious extremism. The Bachmanns’ counseling clinic practices discredited and damaging ex-gay therapy to “cure” homosexuality.

Slate’s Dave Weigel has reported an audio recording of Bachmann praying for the notoriously anti-gay ministry You Can Run But You Can’t Hide, run by the radical preacher Bradlee Dean. Bachmann offered the prayer in 2006 though the recording was uploaded in 2008. In it, Bachmann predicts, “We are in the last days,” and says, “The harvest is at hand” — a Biblical allusion to the Rapture when some believe God will take saved Christians from the earth and leave the non-believers to face several years of torment and tribulation before the second coming of Christ

via ThinkProgress

Natural selection in action

Posted by Shoogle on July 4, 2011
Posted in: General Blatherings. Tagged: . Leave a comment

You know, maybe these people who say that mandatory helmet laws are “infringin’ on mah freedums” should be allowed to take the same chances that this guy did.  Just make ’em sign a waiver saying the rest of society won’t have to pay for the cleanup and medical bills.  You know, just in case being a helmetless idiot doesn’t actually kill them.

Morons like this are always there to entertain us!

Philip A. Contos, 55, of 45 East St., Parish, was not wearing a helmet while driving a 1983 Harley Davidson motorcycle south on Route 11 in Onondaga with a large group of other motorcyclists, troopers said.

About 1:30 p.m., troopers said, Contos hit his brakes, the motorcycle fishtailed and went out of control and Contos went over the handlebars.

Contos was taken to Upstate University Hospital where he was pronounced dead, troopers said.

Evidence at the scene and information from the attending physician indicate Contos would have survived if he had been wearing a Department of Transportation approved helmet, troopers said.

The protest in which Contos was riding was organized by American Bikers Aimed Towards Education, Trooper Jack Keller said.

via syracuse.com

Trader Joe’s: Battleground of the Rich and Hungry

Posted by Shoogle on June 18, 2011
Posted in: Cultural Wasteland, General Blatherings. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

What an embarrassment.  Fighting over a packet of frozen phad Thai at a fancy Trader Joe’s?  Stuff like this makes me wonder if our species is really meant to make it past the next 50 years or so.  Get some goddamn dignity, people, if you have any hope of keeping the human race from being squashed under the weight of our collective assholery!

A Manhattan judge yesterday took only 15 minutes to acquit opera singer Marcella Caprario of all charges in a wacky, diva-on-doctor slapdown over a frozen vegan pad-Thai dinner at a crowded Upper West Side Trader Joes.

The verdict, by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge ShawnDya Simpson, means prosecutors failed to prove the mezzo soprano intended to cause injury when she slapped family practitioner and TV talking head Dr. Catherine London in the face during an argument in the frozen-food aisle in January.

The frosty fracas — so New York-kooky that it was covered in both local and national media after The Post broke the story exclusively — was sparked when the doctors 13-year-old son got between Caprarios husband and the store-brand frozen vegan pad-Thai dinners, Caprarios favorite.

via NYPOST.com