street art - Long Beach

I'm taking a blog timeout. In the meantime, please enjoy this fine example of stencil art.

And thanks to my buddy RG for this great street art link.

Technorati Tags: street art, graffiti, street photography

How to make America look stupid

Apparently, it is easy. All one needs is a religious theocracy running your community. In time they will pass local ordnances geared around supporting “Christian values”. Before you know it, unmarried couples with children will not be able to live in their own houses unless they are married. Think it isn’t so? Well then, read this British newspaper article about a town in Black Jack Missouri.

The culture wars are real. We are losing.

Technorati Tags: Culture Wars, Fundies, Fundamentalism, Missouri.

Are Atheists evil?

Rabbi Avi Shafran thinks so. In his essay The Indignity of Atheism, he explains that if he must make a choice between an atheist and somebody who believes in a higher authority, he would choose the believer. Really Rabbi? You would choose Osama Bin Laden over Salman Rushdie? Bin Laden would cut your heart out with a rusty spoon – all in the name of his higher authority. In fact, many people who believe in a higher authority commit horrific crimes, act with moral depravity, and murder in the name of their respective religions. History is replete with examples, just look at the history of the Catholic Church for example.

His thesis: "...the notion that there is no higher authority than nature is precisely what enables ... the vast majority of the killers, rapists and thieves who populate the nightly news."

Are these criminals surveyed after they commit their crimes? Do atheists commit crimes at a higher rate than the general population? The answer is no – we atheists are guided by our own sense of morality, and the laws by which our country function. Atheists like me are imprinted with American Christian morality because that is what we grew up with. Once I came to realize there was no God, I did not throw out my moral grounding. I built on it.

If I were stuck on a desert island, who would I want with me? Well, somebody who can cook would be nice, it not a cook, then Rupert from Survivor would be nice - he was so resourceful.

Davis Sweet wrote an intersting response to Rabbi Avi Shafran: Rabbi v. Reality

Technorati Tags: Atheism, Religion,

More geocaching fun

My family went for a geocaching walk in Cerritos Regional Park today. We hit three caches and left one of our own. This hobby is great fun. It gets you out of the house. It offers a bit of a puzzle, and puts your mind to work. I'll be doing this for a long time.

The caches at Cerritos Regional Park are easy to find if you use your goesense. The people who hide these things are quite inventive. I'm getting better at it. My son "blade" is a pro already.

Today we found:
Who Cached JR? (pictured above)
Nothing more than Peelings
Mellow Yellow

Technorati Tags: Geocaching, photography

I've been wrong before

…and it looks like I am again. I recently posted on a friends blog that I thought nobody would give the fictional message of the Da Vinci Code much credience. Yet my news filter is full of stories like one by Harvey Wasserman. Mr. Wesserman asserts that the Code’s fictional message is real. He does so because he wants to believe the “Greatest story ever told” is a lie. His reasoning is murky; he tries to point to his point because Millions of people have waited centuries to hear it. It is very strange.

I saw the movie with my wife and son on Friday. I saw it as accurate depiction of the book. It is a murder mystery/thriller (a slow thriller, but a thriller nonetheless) with religious conspiracy overtones. However, I saw it as complete fiction. When we discussed the movie with my eleven-year-old son, it was clear that he saw it as fiction too. How could anybody see it as fact?


Technorati Tags: Movies, Davinci Code, Popular Culture, Nutballs

Dead and Dreaming Tribute

I picked up Dead and Dreaming yesterday. I really like it. I particularly like the cover of A Long December by Bayside. The rest of the bands are just as good. The set list is interesting. The bands are a bit obscure (at least to me). The CD came out in 2004. I have heard a few tracks since it’s release on a local station, but I have never seen the CD in a store. I happened to see it while shopping at Best Buy yesterday. I think it is a good value at $10. Especially if you like Counting Crows.

Angels Of Silences - Rydia
High Life - The Rocket Summer
Holiday In Spain - Number One Fan
Colorblind - Between The Buried & Me
Walkaways - Boys Night Out
Round Here - Punchline
Einstein On A Beach - Houston Call
Mr. Jones - Hidden In Plain View
A Long December - Bayside
Raining In Baltimore - The Junior Varsity
Rain King - International Language
Children In Bloom - As Tall As Lions

Salvation for sale

One can buy anything at the flea market.

a personal altar,

a Brownie Hawkeye,

a odd relic of a broken life.

It is all so fascinating, so totally friggen fascinating.

Technorati Tags: Pasadena, Photograhy, street photography

Three Heads

Technorati Tags: LA Photobloggers, Street Photography, Pasadena

Ex-pastor indicted on 23 counts

I am going to start tracking the various pastor-turns-criminal stories that pop up in my new filter each week. I’ll start with Lewis J. Lee, the 54 year old pastor (former pastor now) of the Christian Baptist Church in Sherburne New York. Lee has been indicted on 23 class E felonies related to his alleged abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl. She was a former parishioner. He’s a really nice guy.

Technorati Tags: New York, scandal, religion, bad pastors

The End Of Faith

This is a link to a video animation called The End Of Faith, by Sam Harris. this short animation is a satirical look at a Creationist Classroom. The core message - Our children are our future; let us try not to turn them into dangerous idiots.

Technorati Tags: ID, creationism, religion, education, atheism, animation

Nutball Altert: Kevin Barrett

A few days ago a coworker asked my opinion of the documentary Loose Change, a movie that asserts all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories surrounding the events of 9/11. Up until last week, it never occurred to me that rational people could believe that the United States Government orchestrated the horrible events of 9/11. I watched the hour long documentary on my computer. It was a waste of my time. The movie was made by people who want to believe that George Bush is an evil genus bent on world domination. Any possible theory related to the most esoteric details of the terrorist attacks is exploited and mislabled as facts pointing to Government orchestration of the attacks. Frankly – the whole documentary is a bunch of hogwash. I am not going to waste my time trying to refute the obvious logical and factual blunders in the film. There are numerous websites already dedicated to this undemanding topic.

Loose Change led me to Kevin Barrett. Dr. Barrett is another matter altogether. He is the type of nutball who is hell bent on exposing the "truth" of 9/11. His positions are baseless. His point of view twisted. His motives are insane. Barrett is acting as an apologist for Islamic terrorism. Given the gravity of the events surrounding 9/11, Kevin Barrett’s position and actions mark him as a terrorist collaborator. There is nothing noble in his work. He is exposing no truth. He is instead propagating misinformation while attempting to weaken our resolve against an insidious and unseen enemy, the very definition of collaborator. What a nutball.

Just for the record – I understand this post is an ad hominem attack on Kevin Barrett. Read his articles for yourself. His writings are the very definition of leftwing nutball conspiracy theory craziness. He calls himself a journalist and claims a Ph.D. I wonder what he really is?

I normally focus my energy on religion. Yet Barrett’s position reminds me of the blind faith of a Christian or a Muslim. He holds a position based on the faith of his convictions. He knows “we” did it. Logic and reason are subverted to his cause. He is a man of faith. It is faith in the illogical, but it is faith nonetheless. No truth will penetrate his illness.

Other Links:

• Kevin Barrett: Bin Laden tapes are as phony as Sept. 11's connection to Islam
• The Myth of 9/11: Why We Know It's a Lie, and Why Some People Still Believe It?
• Case For WTC Tower Demolition Sealed By Griffin
• The Fairy tale from hell
• Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth

Technorati Tags: Nutball, 9/11, Islam, Conspiracy

Impressive Photo Series

I installed StumbleUpon for Firefox this evening. My first stumble was an outstanding photo series of a Sand storm in Iraq. The scale of the storm is so large that it looks CG. I think it is the real thing. The storm is quite impressive.


Technorati Tags: Photography, Iraq

Stuck

I had the misfortune of being stuck on PCH in Long Beach this afternoon. I was making a quick run down to a local restaurant when I became stuck in traffic. I sat in the same place for 15 minutes while traffic was diverted because of a fatal accident. I tried filling my time by listening to a podcast of Science Friday while shooting a few photos. This is the best shot of the bunch. Parts of Long Beach are almost as ugly as the city of Carson.

Technorati Tags: Long Beach, Photography, Street Photography

Atellite TV

I visited the city of Mojave California earlier in the week. It is full of classic roadside dive motels and other scary places. In addition, for some reason, the city is full of desert rat homeless types. They are everywhere. I saw several homeless people camped in tents among some of the deserted buildings.

I shot this motel on the way out of town. I thought the place was closed, but an octogenarian maid was cleaning one of the rooms with a cart that looked to be 40 years old. I guess it is still open. I think I would rather sleep in my truck.

On another note: This is my 1000th post. This milestone snuck up on me. I can’t believe I’ve pressed the “blog this” button a thousand times.


Technorati Tags: Mojave, photography, motels

Suicide by fasting

Misguided religious beliefs have claimed another hapless religious zealot. Rosaline Gilbert killed herselfby tying to emulate Jesus’ 40 day fast. Only, she had fasted so many times that it had weakened her. She fasted, she prayed, and then she died. It seems well… foolish.

Technorati Tags: nutballs, religion, fasting,