olio

"How long do you have to get hit in the head before you start asking who's hitting you in the head?"

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Jesus, Thy Rod Doth Not Comfort Me

What is it with religious people and the human body? Remember nutty old John “Let the Eagle Soar” Ashcroft and his battle with the pointy tits of Justice?

I think Sweet Jesus is a wholly appropriate, thought-provoking Easter theme, but apparently some people strongly disagree:

The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Semler said the calls included death threats over the work of Cavallaro, who was described as disappointed by the cancellation.

An edible Jesus shouldn’t be in any way offensive, because lots of Christians eat him every Sunday. I guess they don’t want to see his holy package. Maybe it’s too big, too small, or too brown—who knows?

Anyway, the exhibit was canceled, but here’s Tom Waits performing "Chocolate Jesus." Enjoy:



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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Perfect Ending to a Perfect Day

Just got home from a long but rewarding day at work, and now I’m listening to Richard Dawkins on NPR’s Fresh Air (89.3 KPCC here in LA). Give it a listen if you can; the topic is…oh, you know what the topic is!

I’ll catch up on my comments while I listen…



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Sunday, March 25, 2007

Sunday Cartoons for the "White and Delightsome"

Enjoy:




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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Theodicy for Theidiots

More pearls of wisdom from John Calvin! Apparently, god is omniscient but not omnipotent:
For God's collection of a Church for himself, from time to time, from the children of Abraham, rather than from the profane nations, was in consideration of his covenant, which, being violated by the multitude, He restricted to a few, to prevent a total failure.
Well, that certainly clears a few things up, doesn’t it?

BTW, my Calvinist commenter is back—anyone want to join the conversation?

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

Questions? Concerns? Call 1-800-TOUGHSHIT

Because I’d never really thought about the concept of predestination before, I wanted to know more about it—but apparently that’s just not humanly possible:
[. . .] let them remember that when they inquire into predestination, they penetrate the inmost recesses of Divine wisdom, where the careless and confident intruder will obtain no satisfaction to his curiosity, but will enter a labyrinth from which he will find no way to depart. For it is unreasonable that man should scrutinize with impunity those things which the Lord has determined to be hidden in himself; and investigate, even from eternity, that sublimity of wisdom which God would have us to adore and not comprehend, to promote our admiration of His glory.
That non-explanation was actually quite helpful to me. I finally understand why so many religious people go all gooey when the ever-petulant George W tells everyone to shut the fuck up. I know, I know—I’m slow on the uptake sometimes, but I get it now: It’s the authoritarianism, stupid!

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Some Thoughts on Calvinism

I received a comment* a few days ago that prompted me to think about Calvinism/predestination. I Googled the man himself and learned some remarkable things, such as
[w]hen we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things have ever been, and perpetually remain, before His eyes, so that to His knowledge nothing in future or past, but all things are present; and present in such a manner, that He does not merely conceive of them from ideas formed in His mind, as things remembered by us appear present to our minds, but really beholds and sees them as if actually placed before Him. And this foreknowledge extends to the whole world, and to all the creatures.
So an omniscient god can see, this very minute, everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen. It seems to me an easy leap to think that everything is predestined, then, not just salvation/damnation. Everything that has happened, is happening, or will happen is meant to happen, all part of what Calvin termed god’s “gratuitous” plan. And in that case, if I may borrow the words of my commenter, “there is nothing I can do about” anything.


And people say atheists have a pessimistic worldview?


*And I was nice in my reply—I didn't say anything about his spelling.

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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Housekeeping

This morning I tried to post the Supersuckers’s cover of Hey Ya! using Project Playlist, but Blogger kept telling me the HTML tag wasn’t closed. I drove myself nuts monkeying around with the code before I finally gave up and did some housework (which is what I should have been doing in the first place). The housework is long finished now, and I’m still dead set on posting that tune. I’ve given up on Project Playlist, though, so I searched good old reliable YouTube and found this cool video:


And speaking of housekeeping, since I switched to the new version of Blogger I've been periodically adding titles/tags to old posts. Apparently this means old posts are republished as new ones, so those of you who read olio via rss feed will be taking a non-voluntary trip down memory lane for the next week or so.


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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Hmm…What Rhymes with Blastula?

Tomorrow is PZ Myers’s 50th birthday. Richard Dawkins has penned a birthday poem, and Pharyngula readers are posting their own poems/greetings in a comments thread. Here’s my effort:

I think that I shall never see another quite like dear PZ.

The man who blogs for you and me will soon turn half a century!

The man who makes the fundies cry when he explains ID’s a lie

by showing them the alterations in nature’s most bizarre creations.

A family man with wife and kids, who intimately studies squids

’cause he prefers cephalopods to any silly man-made gods!


Be honest: It’s a masterpiece, right?


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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

This Post was Supernaturally Translated Via the Magic-Rock-In-Hat Method

It looks as though Mitt Romney is the GOP candidate to watch:

Mitt Romney's friends will tell you that he's as wholesome as they come. He doesn't drink, doesn't smoke -- and he doesn't curse.

Maybe there's an occasional "aw shucks," but that's about it.

The GOP candidate's supporters say he's a devout Mormon who's all about faith, family, and trying to do what's right.

Wow—this Mitt Romney guy sounds shuckin’ awesome! I’d like to help him out by suggesting an equally awesome campaign slogan:


Gott Mit Romney


What do you think? It’s short (and therefore suitable for bumper stickers, buttons, or belt buckles), it’s a play on words (“mit” and “Mitt”—Cute!), and it connotes a "certain something" that I think many Republicans will find very attractive.


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Sunday, March 04, 2007

Out On the Highway, Rollin’ a Wheel-O

Mr. olio and I rode in the LA Bike Tour this morning. Here’s a picture of my super-cool medal:

We had to get up very early and sit in a pre-dawn traffic jam, but it was totally worth it—we had a blast. Afterward we ate a big breakfast and then went back to bed. Good times!


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