Idiots

Before...

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Guze Jibo Daikannon

On the final leg of our trip last week (Fukuoka to Miyazaki), we passed through Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture. We were tired and didn't really have any time for sight-seeing because we had to pick up the dog when we got back to Miyazaki. My wife was driving and I was basically zoning out in the back seat when something caught my eye and got me to yelling for my wife to stop the car, now! This is what I saw:

My wife muttered a kind of "oh yeah... I forgot about that," in Japanese (she'd briefly lived in Kurume a long time ago) and, as I mentioned, we didn't have time for a real visit, but I did jump out of the car long enough to get these pics.

I later found out that the statue in the above pics is, at 62 meters, among the tallest in the world. It's of a type of Buddhist artwork generally known as Kannon (personifying compassion), and more specifically Jibo Kannon ("compassionate mother"). Apparently Kannon is generally considered male among Buddhists in India, Tibet and Southeast Asia, but feminized forms became somewhat common in China and Japan from the 11th-12th centuries. In Japan, the feminine form makes Kannon more compatible with Shinto, in which reverence for the female element has a long history.

There's also an interesting side note to this. The image of the "compassionate mother" and her baby also has a long tradition in Christian iconography. In Japan, during the Tokugawa (Edo) Period (1603-1868), there was a ban on/persecution of Christianity. During this period hidden Christians began disguising statues of the Virgin Mary as Kannon. These became known as Maria Kannon. [There's more info at the links. Dig in!]

Anyway, the next time I go to Costco in Fukuoka, I'll try to make a side-trip and see if I can get some better pictures of this statue. After all, there's more to life than just buying stuff...

Human Rocket

I was looking to post something off the newest Devo album, because I find it so infectious and fun to listen to. Came across this rather dark fan vid for "Human Rocket."

Jarring juxtaposition of music and images, although I can see now the lyrics fit beautifully. If you're bothered by the apparent anti-Muslim images at the beginning, don't worry, there's "balance" [/mad cackle]. There's even an upside down Canadian flag! Yeah! How cool is that?



It's my birthday in about 5 minutes. Thank you Satan!

Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey Pokey
And you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.
--The Hokey Pokey

You remember "The Hokey Pokey," right? It was a fun, goofy song you sang when you were a little kid. Watch a few seconds below if you need to refresh your memory. Seriously, a few seconds will be all you need...



Now check out the following video (VIA Bifurcated Rivets). You really need to watch at least 3 or 4 minutes of this. (In fact, I recommend watching the whole thing, appalling though it is)...



Here's what the person who uploaded that video to YouTube (sbails39) had to say about what you just experienced:

Perhaps the saddest, lowest, most incomprehensible moment in the history of Christianity. It is difficult to understand how any form of Christianity, at any point in the history of humanity, under any circumstance possible, could degrade into this foolishness.
To see any form of content so divorced from the extreme emotionalism is horrifying. It's the Hokey Pokey, and they treat it like magic.
And the way that dude sings the song... it's the Hokey Pokey dude. Come on.

Amen to that, Brother.

More and more these days I find myself somewhat tongue-tied when it comes to talking about some of the fucked up things going on in the world. Really, I don't even know where to begin. The above video is just one example among a countless number of things that are so wrong in so many ways and on so many levels that my mind recoils at the thought of even attempting any sort of coherently expressed argument about why this shit is fucked up.

In my mind I hear a forlorn voice sputtering something like: "But, but, this is no different than the kind of stuff that goes on a rock concerts and shit!" "Indeed," I hear myself reply. "But is that the kind of comparison you really want to make? Is that where you really want to go with this? If so, then let me tell you very plainly right now. You're doing it wrong."

Of course religion is only one fucked up thing in the world, and Christianity is only one religion. They're all wrong. Just so you know...

Enough!

But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That's a question I can't answer. For the hundredth time I repeat, there are numbers of questions, but I've only taken the children, because in their case what I mean is so unanswerably clear. Listen! If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? It's beyond all comprehension why they should suffer, and why they should pay for the harmony. Why should they, too, furnish material to enrich the soil for the harmony of the future? I understand solidarity in sin among men. I understand solidarity in retribution, too; but there can be no such solidarity with children.

If just one of the seemingly endless parade of Catholic pedophile-rapist apologists would shut up for five fucking seconds about the so-called damage recent events are causing to the "Universal Church," and say something, anything, about the untold thousands of children abused and raped for fuck knows how many years under the knowing "auspices" of the Church, I might not be clacking away angrily at my keyboard right now.

Well, I've had enough, and frankly I don't give a shit about the Catholic Church, and I don't give a shit if anyone reading this is offended.

Connecticut bishops fight sex abuse bill:

A bill in Connecticut's legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state's Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.

Under current Connecticut law, sexual abuse victims have 30 years past their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit. The proposed change to the law would rescind that statute of limitations.

The proposed change to the law would put "all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk," says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut's three Roman Catholic bishops.

Here, and in many other examples, the message is clear: the institution of the Church is more important than the rights of those who have been abused, and more important in fact than actually bringing criminals to justice. (It's almost a variation of "too big to fail." How long before we see a Catholic Church IPO?)

The Church would have us believe, somewhat fantastically, that it is the victim in all of this reporting and talking about pedophile rapist priests and its own attempts to shut everybody up about it. According to Ross Douthat (wingnut and Catholic apologist of The New York Times; that link and the following one via Christopher Hitchens), in 2002 (then) Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said the following:

I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign ... to discredit the church.

Much more recently, Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa ("the Pope's personal preacher"), in a sermon attended by the Pope, compared accusations against the Church to the "collective violence" suffered by Jews throughout history.

Again and again and fucking again--no mention of the only people in all of this who can honestly claim to have done some actual suffering: the thousands of children who were raped by Catholic priests. For Christ's sake, this is stupidity bordering on evil.

It seems to me that if the price for preserving the integrity of the "Universal Church" is the silencing of its victims (and they surely are its victims), then maybe its not worth preserving. Tear it the fuck down.

Cilice Season

I guess by now we've all read about how Pope John Paul II liked to give himself a few lashes with a belt every now and then. To each his own, I say. (I'm a hair shirt kinda guy myself.)

I can't understand why there isn't a band named The Flagellants.

This seems pretty obvious:

Questions

Last week I had a brief post about Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis/The Creation Museum) coming to Japan to spread the creationist/ID gospel.

By a strange coincidence...

The other night I went to the convenience store with my daughter to pick up some ice cream. On the way back she surprised me a bit by suddenly asking me how come there are no dinosaurs any more. After a bit of discussion on the topic, she then turned to the matter of "monkeys" and humans (she's only six so, like a lot of grown-up people, she's still a bit fuzzy on the monkey/ape distinction). "Did people come from monkeys?" she asked. "How?" She seemed satisfied with my very brief and very basic version of natural selection/evolution, but it's clear to me that I'm going to have to brush up a bit, and fast!

I'm absolutely thrilled to hear her ask these kinds of questions. I let her know it, too. (I think she gets a kick out of asking me stuff, as well.)

--------------------

Returning to Mr. Ham, this week we find him "Reporting from Japan." Here's the first thing he writes:

As I looked out of my hotel room in Tokyo on Friday morning, I thought of the 13 million people or so who live in Tokyo—and the 130 million who live in all of Japan—most of whom do not know the Lord.

Caught up in Shintoism and Buddhism, Japan has probably only 0.1 percent Christians.

The guy has just traveled halfway around the world to Tokyo (Tokyo!), and he can't even step out of his own blinkered worldview long enough to wonder just how it is that the Japanese have managed to do so much with nary a thought of Jay-sus. What a fucking hick.

In fact Ham has nothing of substance to say about Japan at all, and shows not even the slightest interest in the Japanese as Japanese. To him they are only pagans or potential Christians, nothing more or less. (I'd express in more detail how contemptible I find this idiot to be, but I've already sworn once, and I'm trying to cut down.)

At the end of Ham's "report," he informs us that:

Making such presentations is very tiring for the translator and the presenter. I have to summarize the concepts but keep the talk flowing logically. The translator then has to put it in sentences that make sense—and it is a difficult job when I use terms that are a little out of the ordinary for such meetings (e.g., natural selection, genetics, mutations, etc.).

Read that again, friends, and tell me if it doesn't sound like a bunch of gibberish. Granted, it's no doubt difficult to give a clear presentation through a translator. But, how on earth could terms such as "natural selection, genetics, mutations, etc." be viewed as "a little out of the ordinary" in a discussion ostensibly trying to disprove "natural selection, genetics, mutations, etc."? What kind of double-talk is this?

Or (again!), does Ham somehow think the concepts themselves are beyond the ken of the Japanese, that they don't even have the vocabulary to discuss them? Pathetic. That's all I have to say about that.

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My little girl knows the English names of all the planets, and can recite them in order. She understands what a planet is, and that the earth is a planet, so the idea of something big hitting the earth and messing things up, while maybe a little scary, doesn't seem impossible to her. She knows that the stars are suns, only very far away. She knows that Japan is a country, and that there are other countries, some far away. She's seen a couple of them herself, with her own eyes! She knows that in Canada people speak differently and often do things differently than people in Japan.

At six years old she's already an infinitely more interesting person than an idiot like Ken Ham.

Please Show ID at the Door

This oughta be good. Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis (the ID/creationist group behind the Creation Museum), is coming to Japan!

From AiG's website:

At the end of this week, I will be flying to Japan to speak six times Friday and Saturday. This visit is under the auspices of AiG’s Worldwide division and is for the purpose of taping and producing videos of our lectures in the Japanese language [...]
Each year we try to visit one country for the express purpose of having a number of our basic presentations translated into the native language of that country [...]
Please pray for these lectures in Japan [..].

Mr. Ham even has a spiffy PowerPoint presentation all ready and set to go. Here's a sample slide:


[Hat tip: J-Walk helpfully points out that "he left out CON, CRAZY, and COO-COO."]

While the Japanese will no doubt be impressed by the effort Mr. Ham put into making his PowerPoint slides, if he really wants to win them over, I think a cute-looking mascot would probably go a lot further.

I found this comment (from the article) amusing:

In a few days, I will try to send some photographs (assuming good Internet access) and reports on the conference.

"Assuming good internet access"? Mr. Ham, the entire developed world has better internet access than you do. You do know that Japan is a developed country, right? Or, wait, are you coming over to show us the wonders of your modern civilization and its "science" and religion? Gambatte, Mr. Ham.

Oh, and while you're here, don't forget to check out Christ's Tomb!

Qiblat

On the ceiling of my hotel room:


I've always understood the idea, of course. Now I know the word for it.

Connect the Dots

The body of a Canadian soldier who was killed in Afghanistan on Monday has begun its journey home.

Tearful soldiers carried the casket of Trooper Karine Blais onto a waiting plane at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday during a solemn ramp ceremony honouring a woman described as "full of energy" and "friendly to everyone."

Blais, 21, was killed Monday when the armoured vehicle she was in hit a roadside bomb north of the city of Kandahar.

[...] Blais, who had only been in Afghanistan for two weeks, was the second female Canadian soldier to be killed in the war-torn country. Her death comes nearly three years after Capt. Nicola Goddard was killed in a grenade attack west of Kandahar.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, a few hundred Afghan women who had gathered to protest a new law that basically legalizes rape were pelted with stones.

Afghan women protesting against a new law that severely undermines women's rights were pelted with stones in the country's capital Wednesday, say reports.

About 300 mostly young women gathered in Kabul to show their opposition to a recently passed law that forbids women from refusing to have sex with their husbands and requires them to get a male relative's permission to leave the house.

The demonstration was organized by women's rights activists in Afghanistan. Critics of the law say it effectively legalizes rape within marriage and is a return to Taliban-style rule.

[...] "You are a dog. You are not a Shiite woman," one man shouted to a young woman in a headscarf holding aloft a banner that said, "We don't want Taliban law."

"You are a dog"... Picture this scene in your mind. A "man" is throwing rocks at a woman and calling her a "dog". Can any sane person in the entire world imagine a context in which this kind of behavior might be justified? I imagine a scumbag like this crying and screaming and pulling his hair out like a spoiled little sissy over a cartoon depicting his god in an unfavorable light. Then I imagine him beating or stoning or killing his wife, or his sister, or his daughter, for this or that or some other imagined offense. If there is anything more "offensive" in the world than "men" like this, it escapes me.

Sinning--It's What We Do!

I mean really, if you don't have a hangover on Sunday morning, then what kind of pitiful existence are you participating in? I wake up most Sunday mornings with a massive hangover and a mission, a mission to sin. Why, just this morning I stole the image below from the website of a friend. I don't feel bad about it at all! In fact, I'm reveling in my sinful wickedness! Mbwahahahahahah!!!!!


Go forth and sin, losers!

Massive Fail

It's not nice to make fun during a time of war, but I couldn't ignore this:


I'm getting that atheistic, swollen-headed feeling...

The Funniest (and Truest) Thing I've Read Today

On the (ahem) alleged holy sanctity of the sacred sanctified holy sexual union sanctified by the holiest of holies in the sacred sanctity of holy matrimony:

Look, I like sex too, but I don’t have to light votive candles and blast the Gregorian Chant No. 5 to get in the mood. Not every coupling of sex organs is a sacred duty, or some solemn ritual conducted on a stone altar beneath a full moon in a torch-lit grove, while surrounded by a ring of chanting druids. Sometimes it’s just for kicks. Even when you’re married.

--Scott, World O' Crap

Amen to that, Brother. The "ring of chanting druids" part sounds like a kick, though...

Satan's Soldiers *

Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, a Muslim cleric in the U.K., informs us that "[...] according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases."

This might actually seem like a pretty reasonable proposition to many (at least when their 5-year-olds aren't in the same room). Munajid doesn't stop while he's ahead, though. He claims that "the mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him," and that "both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed."

Ponder this for a minute: both household mice and their cartoon counterparts...

Later in the article Sheikh Munajid really muddies the waters, calling the Beijing Olympics the "bikini Olympics," and claiming that "nothing [makes] Satan happier than seeing female athletes dressed in skimpy outfits."

Satan, at least, sounds like he's got his priorities straight...

[* Damn, I love a snappy post title!]

Wrong

From The Guardian's website, a silly person speaks:

Creationism and intelligent design should be taught in school science lessons, according to a leading expert in science education.

The Rev Prof Michael Reiss, director of education at the Royal Society, said that excluding alternatives to scientific explanations for the origin of life and the universe from science lessons was counterproductive and would alienate some children from science altogether.

If I've got this straight, the good Reverend Professor is saying that science teachers should teach non-scientific things in science class to kids who don't believe in science.

He said that around one in 10 children comes from a family with creationist beliefs. "My experience after having tried to teach biology for 20 years is if one simply gives the impression that such children are wrong, then they are not likely to learn much about the science," he said.

Finally, an explanation for why I suck at math. If only my teachers had accepted some of my wild guesses wrong answers I could be doing calculus today!

From the Ministry of Silly Walks

Where to begin with this piece of dreck from The Guardian's website that attempts to smear atheists while promoting... something. This is probably all you need to read:

[...] I don't have a spiritual bone in my body; but what I am, is religious. I believe, literally, in the God of the Old Testament, whom I understand as the Lord of the Jews and the Protestants. I'm a Christian Zionist, as well as a Christian feminist and a Christian socialist. But over the past two decades, almost without me knowing it, the Christian part has become the most important.

Whatever.

Dinosaurs Revisited

I've briefly discussed this sort of thing in an older post. According to Vince Fenech, Evangelist pastor and director of a "Creationist institution" in Malta, dinosaurs helped build the pyramids.

Clearly there's no point debating with these people, but I can't wait for Spielberg or someone to do a remake of The Ten Commandments, complete with dinosaurs chasing the Hebrews into the Red Sea as it parts. What a fucking scene that would be!

Priceless

From craigslist:

Have you ever thought about what will happen to your pets after Jesus comes back to claim the souls of the saved during the Rapture and deliver them to heaven to enjoy ever lasting life? The bible clearly teaches that only those that have accepted Jesus as their savior will enter heaven (John 14:6, Romans 3:23), and we all know that pets do not have the cognitive ability to do this, so what will happen to your beloved pets? Surely without you there, they would be stuck inside your empty house, starving to death with no one to feed them, let them out to potty, or clean their litter box. This is probably not what you envision for your pets after you are gone. This is where I come in.

I am here to offer you pet care service for after the rapture. As an atheist, I will surely still be here on this earth post rapture and would love to look after your pets for a small fee and make sure they are still well taken care of after you and your family have been raptured. You will be able to look down on them from heaven and see them being well cared for by me and living happy, healthy lives. Do not let my atheism scare you! I am a moral and loving pet owner and would never do harm to any animal.

For a small deposit of only $50, you can be assured that your pets will be well cared for from the time that you are raptured until the end of their natural life. They will get adequate amounts of food, water, and shelter as well as plenty of exercise and socialization as I would imagine there will be a lot of pets that will be abandoned by Jesus the pet hater that will need to be cared for. [My emphases.]

Fun Facts: Bananas

According to the most recent statistics I could find (from 2000), India is the world's leading producer of bananas (11 million metric tonnes in 2000).

While statistics relating to banana production in Canada are shrouded in mystery, in 1998 Canada was the 9th ranked banana importer in the world, buying 149 million dollars (US) of foreign-produced bananas. That works out to about 5 bucks (US) worth of bananas per capita.

Big deal, you might be thinking, but ponder this: I personally used to spend about $100 a year on bananas, which can only mean that there were about 19 people every year who ate no bananas. Nineteen Canadians denied the proof of God's existence, "the atheist's nightmare," the simple banana:



I had no idea I was so close to God... Or was I really...?

Dick to the Dawk to the PhD.!

This is the funniest, coolest thing I've seen in a while. Watch it! Share it!



[H/T: Brendan]