The Daily Show on Scientology

Scientology - Beck, Tom Cruise & space aliens. I see the connection now. yes - it is all so clear.

hat tip to RG for this fine video link.

Technorati Tags: Scientology, cults, video

Portman To Bare All

It seems that Natalie Portman will appear nude in the new film Goya’s Ghost. I’ve always been a huge Goya fan, he wrote music right? No he was a photographer – oops I mean painter. I’ve always been a huge fan, huge. I’ll have to see this film the moment it comes out just to stay in touch with his art. I’m an artist too – well I take pictures anyway.

Yep, I’m a Goya fan, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I hope my wife does not read my blog.

Mod Tude

What can I say - this guy's attitude was larger than size of his bike.

Technorati Tags: Photography, China, PRC

Chinese graffiti

The only graffiti I see in China is a quickly scribbled telephone number. They tend to be in desolate places. Most streets have clean up crews of about three people per mile who clean the streets, sidewalks, and shrubbery. My guess is that these street crews are death on graffiti.

I’ve been told this is and advertisement for a travel service. I have my doubts. I think it is more likely to be the Chinese equivalent of “for a good time call”.

Technorati Tags: Graffiti, Photography, China, PRC

Larry Darby disavows atheism

...and all I can say is thank god.

Larry Darby's rants his way through an unintelligent, racist, bigoted, and totally bizarre explanation for why he is disavowing atheism. In case you’ve forgotten who Larry Darby is, please read Good Atheists and Bad Atheists where I make a point of declaring Larry Darby an official ex-libertarian and now ex-atheist nutball. If I could have kicked him out of the atheist club, I would have done so a long time ago. (I am still trying to find somebody who will let me join!)

Sample Rant:

Contrary to expectation, many atheist member organizations or many groups that allegedly represent free thinkers were quick to jump on the Judeo-Marxist bandwagon and dissociate themselves from me, simultaneously demonstrating hypocrisy or rejection of principles of freedom of religion and freedom of speech or freedom to criticize the religion of Judaism. To put it another way, those groups hold that it is OK to criticize Christianity but not Judaism or its influences on American society. The Atheist Law Center held no such sacred cows or taboos… (it gets much worse).

The good news is that Larry Darby appears to be a Christian:

I agree with moral precepts put forth by Jesus of Nazareth and I am Christian in a sense that Jesus of Nazareth would approve.

Larry Darby might just be the most nutball of the nutballs I have profiled over the years. I will have to watch this one very closely. He might just be the clock tower breed of nutball. You never really know.

Blue night in Shanghai

I awoke at 2:00 AM this morning to see Shanghai transformed into a city of blue. I snapped this picture to record the image, it is close to what I saw. I think the blue came from a combination of the water vapor in the air, internal room lights, external flood lights, and some fogging of my window, all combined and reflecting on my window. the blue gradually shifted to black as the morning broke.

Technorati Tags: Photography, China, PRC, Shanghai

Gate 69A

I am in China this week. This is my "happy to be in another friggen airport" picture. The flight to China is 15 hours. I got up at 6:00 am to make a 10:30 from LA to SF, then a 2:30 to China. I got to my hotel in Shanghai at about 10:00 PM. with no sleep on the plane, it made for a long day.

The PRC blocks direct access to my blog, so I have to cheat to post when I am here. I have to ask, why would and atheist country block an atheist blog? It must be my sense of humor and affinity for free market economics.

btw - when I get around to tagging this it will be tagged as "how to make a picture without getting arrested". Apparently, the authorities don't like it when a big fellow like me stares into his camera for 5 minutes while making a picture. They actually asked me to show them what I was shooting. When I said I was shooting the 60s era lighting fixtures they asked me to show them my camera. I pulled out the mini disk and said “digital”, thinking that they were trying to cop my images (why – I really don’t know). They wanted to see my shots. I slowly scrolled through 10 shots of the same thing - It made for an interesting five minutes. One of the security types asked – why do you shoot this crap? It’s a compulsion buddy – a compulsion.

Why do I attract attention?

Technorati Tags: LA Photobloggers, Photography, LAX, Travel

Chinese Subway

I had the pleasure of eating my first subway ham and cheese sub in Waigaochao China today. It was nothing like what we get in the states. For starters, it was served wet with a “hot sauce” that was neither hot nor a sauce. It was more like red flavored mayonnaise. The meat was thin sliced and skimpy as was the cheese. The sub was smaller than normal and significantly lighter too. If I had to guess, I would say it is about 20% smaller than a normal 6 inch sub, call it a light 5 incher. Despite its shortcomings - in the land of questionable meats & eats – it was damn good eating.

I would have taken a picture – but it did not last long enough to pose.

Anne Frank diary burned by skinheads

Via LGF, German Neo-Nazis crash a gala to burn Anne Frank diary. I am speachless.

The neo-Nazis descended on a field in the village of Pretzien, Saxony, where local people were re-enacting a pagan rite celebrating midsummer

They also burned an American flag. I am not sure I understand why, maybe they did not hear about the Congressional debate of a few weeks ago. Burning the flag apparently offends conservative Republicans.


Technorati Tags: Nazis, News

Happy Birthday Brad

My friend Pastor Brad turned 43 today. Happy Birthday Brad!

Had a Dat – Dr. Israel

I picked up the new Sublime DVD "Look At All The Love We Found – A Live Tribute to Sublime" a few days ago at the new Tower Records store in Buena Park. The DVD package has a bonus CD containing 9 live tracks recorded during the concert. Dr. Israel performs a kick ass version of Had A Dat. This one song is worth the price of the whole DVD ($19.95).

The DVD is great – my wife is also a Sublime fan, it was funny to hear her ask “who is that” every time a new band took the stage. Fishbone, Blackalicious, The Ziggens, Los Lobos, Long Beach Shortbus, and Bargain Music to name a few – they all rocked. This DVD is a great addition to my concert collection, and to my Sublime collection.

Speaking of my concert collection, my son and I watched Stevie Ray Vaughan play Texas Flood today on his Live in Austin DVD. We’ve been playing Guitar Hero together and can’t seem to get past the medium level on Texas Flood. After watching SRV play, we have a much better understanding of what it will take. He was a god, we are air guitar mortals.


Technorati Tags: Music, Sublime, SRV, Guitar Hero

Internal Detail - DSC

This picture was taken in the Discover Science Center in Santa Ana. It is a life sized pin wall portrait of some little rug rat. This was a pain to shoot, hand held, low light, with lots of distractions.

An attendant stood to the side. He must have the worst job at the museum. He pushes the pins back in after the kids push them out. Over and over and over again. He must really need the cash.

Technorati Tags: Photography

External detail - DSC

I took my camera on a family trip to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. The building was the most interesting aspect of the trip for me. I loved the colors and the texture. Inside - Oh my god there were a million little kids - is fun for the kiddies. We did the new Dino Quest attraction. It was fun in a not-designed-for-adults-to-have-fun kind of way. My son loved it.

Technorati Tags: photography

Have you been fogaled?

Pastor Kevin Sorensen at Random Thoughts from a Clutter Mind posts about the not so Christian antics of Pastor Brad Fogal and his family on NBC's Treasure Hunters. It seems that the Fogals have publicly screwed two other teams, accepted help without reciprocating, and agreed as a family that lying is OK as long as they pray for forgiveness later. Sorensen points out that we should not judge all pastors by the example pastor Brad and his overachieving family demonstrates. I agree - I know a different Pastor Brad quite well; he is not at all like the Fogals.

Sorensen observes - It seems that this family, the Fogals, have back-stabbed, cheated, lied and been caught on camera as saying, “It’s okay to fib a little; we’ll ask for forgiveness later.” The other contestants are now asking one another if they’ve been “fogal-ed” by the Fogal family.

Sorensen goes on to ask the question – why would a pastor even do this?

B-Side at TVgasm has a different take on the Fogals:

Luckily, there was one bright spot in last night's show: the continuing villainy of the Fogal Family. They're shaping up to be the second coming of The Weaver family, and while it will be hard to top Linda, Rolly, Rachel, and Rebecca, this pastor and his clan sure will give them a run for the money. Now, if only we could care about the rest of the show as much.

B-side sees the Fogals as pure evil entertainment. I am not so sure he is very far off the mark. The show seems to be playing up the dark side of the Fogals. I wonder how much of it is editing and how much is the real thing.

Cheese Says observes that the Fogals seem have a lot of faith but are not good people. He asks, should the faithful stand by the Fogals or call them to account?

…but to be dirty after you have been helped out is just plain disgusting. Then afterwards saying a prayer to help you deal with your guilt, I wish the producers would have done a little fun editing with this and after the Fogal’s prayed, there was a little voice from above that said NO to their prayers. That would have been classic.

I've always felt you can gauge the true character of a person by how they respond to stress. I have been in several intensely stressful situations over the years. Like a few years ago when a key business system failed and a friend and I were left trying to save the business for another friend who could live up to his responsibility. Ten days of intense stress and the worst that happened between us was a lighthearted competition to determine who could smoke the most cigarettes and drink the most coffee. What about our other friend then - well, if you cannot trust him, how can he be a friend?

There is an old joke about me that says I only trust people after I’ve got drunk with them. This is not true of course. The real story is that I only trust people after I’ve had a chance to test their mettle under stress. I would never trust the Fogals.

Stephen Winzenburg who writes TV’s Greatest has some insider gossip – perhaps the Fogals are getting the shaft.

Producers love to set up caricatures of people but this was particularly shocking. While the other teams worried about working with each other, the Fogals seemed to be the ones with the most "game strategy," namely the most willing to cheat and lie. What a disappointment for Christian characters.

Nah. The show captured Pastor Brad admitting he would lie to win. You make your own bed...

The Fogals go at it in episode three tonight. My prediction is that they will face the wrath of the other teams and lose. That is not to say that the Wild Hanlons don't deserve a quick death too. They are idiots of the highest order. The Wild Hanlons may take the fall tonight instead of the Fogals, but the Fogals deserve to lose.

The best catch phrase of the show so far "Fogal me once and it is my fault, Fogal me twice.."

One last comment on the show - it blows, but at least you get to solve puzzles.

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Religion, Reality TV, Treasure Hunters, Fogals

Talk To Action | Generation Joshua

Talk to Action has an interesting post on Christian Religious Supremacy and the youth group Generation Joshua.

Unlike other efforts which seem to be more about general cultural or religious indoctrination, this effort is explicitly political. Given our constitutional commitment to religious freedom and political pluralism, one would think such direct agitations for Christian nationalism would be more cleverly hidden...

I also found a link to Walter Shurden's Flaming Torch Speech via Dr. Bruce Prescott at Mainstream Baptist. Shurden recognizes the threat that Generation Joshua poses to our religious and democratic liberties. Mixing Church and State, the primary aim of Generation Joshua and the Religious Right, is counter to core Christian values, and counter to American values.

Let me be clear at the outset. I am not suggesting that we are on the lip of any kind of political totalitarianism in this country. I don't believe that.

I am suggesting, however, that there are "American Christians" for whom the adjective is more important than the noun.

I am suggesting that some Christian churches in our country have been transformed into political temples and some pastors have embraced the moniker of "patriot pastors."

I am suggesting that devoted theocrats have an eye on the machinery of national and state governments, and that they make no apology for it.

And I am suggesting that a skewed reading of our nation's history is sending forth armies of buck privates scurrying to wreck Jefferson's wall. ...

Generation Joshua is dangerious - This organization much be watched.

Technorati Tags: Generation Joshua, Dominionism, Christianity, Religion