Awkward Halloween Moments

Reposted from ReverendFun.com

Read More

When Pat Robertson Is the Moderate Among Conservatives

It would be no exaggeration to claim that the Republican Party is full of extremist ideologues. One clear example would be the fact that there have been times when people like former President-of-the-National-Rifle-Association-you'll-only-take-my-gun-from-my-cold-dead-hands-Charles-Heston have been the voice of reason among conservatives.

But just to prove how bat-shit insane the GOP is becoming, the person now urging them to tone down the crazy is none other than Pat "gays cause hurricanes" Robertson...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The 180 Club... love it :)

Read More

Science - What's It Up To?

Science claims to be looking for cures for diseases, save the planet from the multiple dangers that threaten it, and to want to solve and understand the mysteries of the universe, but Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, sat down with a conservative conspiracy theorist bimbo to try to uncover what science is really up to... and discovers instead that you can't underestimate how bat-shit-insane and idiotic you can be when you let your retarded ideology determine the shit that comes out of your mouth...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Wow... and I thought Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann were idiots...

Read More

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

"Our conceptions of human nature affect every aspect of our lives, from the way we raise our children to the political movements we embrace. Yet, just as science is bringing us into a golden age of understanding human nature, many people are hostile to the idea. They fear that a biological understanding of the mind will be used to justify inequality, subvert social change, dissolve personal responsibility and strip life of meaning and purpose.

In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker (bestselling author of The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Stuff of Thought, and The Better Angels of Our Nature) explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings.

He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature by embracing three linked dogmatic myths: The Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), The Noble Savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and The Ghost in the Machine (each of us has an immaterial soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to discredit the scientists who are now challenging them.

Pinker tries to inject calm and rationality into these debates by showing that equality, progress, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from scientific discoveries about human nature. He disarms even the most menacing threats with clear thinking, common sense, and pertinent facts from science and history.

Despite its popularity among intellectuals during much of the twentieth century, he argues, the doctrine of the Blank Slate may have done more harm than good. It denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces hard-headed analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of government, violence, parenting, and the arts."

Don't you feel just a little bit smarter now? :)

Read More

Michael Winslow - Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin

In the animal kingdom, there is no sound imitator quite like the lyre bird. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you've got to check this out.

But if there is anyone who might be able to outperform the lyre bird, it would have to be Michael Winslow (Sgt. Larvell Jones from Police Academy, in case you don't remember).

In the following clip, which starts as some ordinary beatboxing, Winslow manages to invoke the spirit of some of the most radical electric guitar you have ever heard, and he's just getting started...

I never realized just how talented this dude is... I always assumed that the sound effects in Police Academy were exactly that, just sound effects. I stand humbly corrected.

Read More

Herman Cain's Nine Nine Nein Nein Plan

I don't know why it is that (with the possible exception of John Huntsman) virtually every Republican candidate does better with their base whenever they make irresponsible, racist, bigoted and divisive remarks, or when they dismiss the value of education, critical thinking and/or scientific research.

In Herman Cain's bizarro pizza world, difficult and complex economic, social and political problems ought to be solved by appealing to solutions based on empty soundbites (after all, the man is proud of his disdain for reading, erudition and having complex thoughts), and whenever that doesn't work, he thinks we ought to just fry a couple of Mexicans...

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

If he were to build that fence, I wouldn't be surprised if he made sure the signs were written in English...

But why stop with Mexicans when you can discriminate against Americans too?

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Read More

The Impossibility of Motion - Achilles and the Tortoise

There are many things most of us just take for granted as obvious or just plain common sense, and therefore as not worth wasting our time on. Philosophers, however, nit-picking bunch that we are, are insatiably curious, and in our search for some coherent grand theory of everything, usually mange to find trouble instead, of the conceptual kind, although there is also a respectable history of weird philosophers' deaths, which you may find interesting.

When you question what others take as self-evident, you may come to realize that what we take to be real may be anything but. If you can spare 60 seconds, the following animation demonstrates one of Zeno's famous paradoxes of motion proposed to support his mentor Parmenides' thesis that "all is one" and that change is impossible.

According to this paradox,if you think that it is possible for something to move from point A to point B, you've got to be kidding... and you haven't actually "thought" anything...

And for a more comprehensive introduction to, and analysis of, Zeno's paradoxes, check out the article on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Read More

Think God Out of Existence

Based on the video excerpt from Bad Boy Bubby below (a movie I've never actually seen myself), it looks as though movie director Rolf de Heer has been reading some interesting combination of Democritian, Epicurian and Lucretian atomic materialism and hedonism mixed in with some 20th century existentialist philosophy and informed by the philosophical problem of evil to produce a thought-provoking call to arms for atheism...

Or maybe I'm reading too much into this scene...

Of course, if you think there is no God, it doesn't make a lot of sense to be angry at it...

Anyway, here's the script:

"You see, no one's going to help you Bubby, because there isn't anybody out there to do it. No one. We're all just complicated arrangements of atoms and subatomic particles - we don't live. But our atoms do move about in such a way as to give us identity and consciousness. We don't die; our atoms just rearrange themselves. There is no God. There can be no God; it's ridiculous to think in terms of a superior being. An inferior being, maybe, because we, we who don't even exist, we arrange our lives with more order and harmony than God ever arranged the earth. We measure; we plot; we create wonderful new things. We are the architects of our own existence. What a lunatic concept to bow down before a God who slaughters millions of innocent children, slowly and agonizingly starves them to death, beats them, tortures them, rejects them. What folly to even think that we should not insult such a God, damn him, think him out of existence. It is our duty to think God out of existence. It is our duty to insult him. Fuck you, God! Strike me down if you dare, you tyrant, you non-existent fraud! It is the duty of all human beings to think God out of existence. Then we have a future. Because then - and only then - do we take full responsibility for who we are. And that's what you must do, Bubby: think God out of existence; take responsibility for who you are."

Read More

Jae Rhim Lee - My Mushroom Burial Suit

Death is not exactly one of the most pleasant topics of discussion, but it is an inescapable and universal aspect of life that we cannot avoid indefinitely. In the West, we tend to think that the appropriate thing to do with the bodies of the dead is to either cremate them or bury them in a coffin that's virtually hermetically sealed. Herodotus tells us that the Callatians used to make a meal out of their dead begetters.

Of the three choices, and despite its apparent gruesomeness, I think the Callatians have the best argument in their favor (assuming their relatives did not die of disease). Cremation is not environmentally friendly (to say the least, since it requires massive amounts of fuel to burn, and ends up releasing all the nasty chemicals that have accumulated in your body over the years into the air that the rest of us have to breathe), and burying the dead in sealed coffins guarantees that our bodies will benefit a bunch of maggots that will not themselves contribute to further the cycle of life (since they're also stuck inside the stupid box), and that's no way to live... err... die... end... whatever...

I personally favor donating one's body for organ transplants, or to science for research. Jae Rhim Lee thinks that if you want to do your part to be environmentally friendly, even after you die, you might be interested in her mushroom burial suit, which contains toxic-gobbling mushrooms and other interesting goodies.

Oh, and did I forget to mention you'd go out making a fashion statement? :)

Read More

George Carlin - Pro-Life, Abortion & the Sanctity of Life

In my cursory and anecdotal study of human nature, I've noticed that those most loud and sure about their own opinions tend to love to vilify the views of others instead of fairly assessing and evaluating alternative points of view. Aristotle once said that it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain various points of view on the same subject without necessarily accepting them, and I tend to think he was right about that.

Needless to say, many of these self-righteous and close-minded ideologues love to preach and to pontificate, and they tend to never wonder whether keeping an open mind and being critically curious might not be a better alternative to having made up one's mind before having sufficient evidence to draw a conclusion one way or the other.

And because these folks rarely question whether their strongly-held views are consistent with each other, people like comedian George Carlin (doing the modern comedic equivalent of Socrates' job as a gadfly) get to put them on the spot and make an awesome mockery of the incoherence and inconsistency of their views, as he does on this skit about abortion, animal rights, religion, and the sanctity of life... You've been warned :)

One could lead a few lectures on Nietzsche's hermeneutic circle; Hobbes' psychological egoism, contractarianism and his theory of rights; Peter Singer's views on abortion, utilitarianism, animal rights, and much more just off these 12 minutes... Thanks, George Carlin!

For more on our inevitably biased point of view, check out Douglas Adams meditate on where the concept of God comes from.

And remember, chickens are decent people, so please be kinder to them and other animals.

Read More

Farm to Fridge - The Truth Behind Meat Production

We all like to think we're good people, but sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between an accurate description of ourselves and wishful thinking. When you think of yourself as a good person, you're probably thinking that the fact that you've never killed anyone ought to count in your favor... except that there is a very good chance that you are a direct contributor to a system in which innocent beings are treated under cruel and debilitating conditions before they are slaughtered in ways that you would not wish upon your worst enemy. And the justification for these barbaric practices? It's not a question of survival, it's just a question of taste.

I'm not one to stand for cheap appeals to emotion instead of good reasoning. Feelings are unreliable guides to philosophical and empirical questions, and unless you have a decent understanding of when they're reliable and when they're not, feelings have no chance of standing as the criteria of moral judgments. That being said, and as David Hume argued in his ethical theory, reason cannot aspire to have the same motivating impact as sentiments do, so when reasons will not do by themselves what's necessary for us to behave in more ethical and humane ways, maybe it's time to accompany them with some visceral reality.

The following clip illustrates some of the ways in which countless animals are treated by our factory-farming practices (and be warned: there is some seriously disturbing imagery). Terms like cruel and unusual do not apply here, since the usual is the problem.

If you don't have the will-power to become a vegetarian or vegan overnight (and count me in that camp), maybe you can take some gradual steps to lessen your unethical footprint: eat less meat than you do now, consume free-range instead of factory-farmed meat, buy locally grown organic food, etc. This doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing either/or kind of situation. There's always room for ethical improvement, and every little bit counts.

And before you start rationalizing your own meat-eating behavior in the kind of disingenuous ways that Jean-Paul Sartre referred to as bad-faith, just read this classic piece by philosopher Peter Singer carefully first, be honest with yourself, and then we'll talk...

And for more fascinating and important readings, check out the Animal Rights Library.

Read More

Morbid Curiosity Leading Many Voters to Support Palin

I know she's not running now... my hopes for a 2012 Palin/Bachmann dream team ticket have now been ruined, but I wouldn't be surprised if we somehow managed to vote her in just out of a morbid sense of curiosity to see just how bad things could actually get if this bimbo were in office.

The Onion reports that, in fact, this is exactly what the American electorate would probably do:

Read More

iSad

Sad news for the world of technology and design. Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple, has passed away at age 56. He's credited with having revolutionized multiple industries multiple times, and with inspiring an entire generation of innovators and designers to let their creativity take them to new frontiers.

I've personally never made the switch over to Apple products (can't afford those cool expensive gadgets on my meager adjunct salary), other than the ipod, but I seriously can't imagine my life without it. Over the years, through podcasts, audio-books and iTunes U, it's become an extension of my mind and body that goes with me everywhere I go, keeps me educated and prevents me from going insane. Thanks, Steve Jobs.

Read More

Sarah Palin & Michelle Bachmann - Fillin' In

Well, after recently claiming that being the President of the United States would only diminish her need for absolute power, it should come as no surprise to anyone that mavericky grizzly momma bear from bizarro world, Sarah Palin, has announced she will not be seeking the presidential nomination for the Republican Party. One-toothed tea-baggers must be heartbroken :)

In any case, the following hilarious animations shows us what a Palin-Bachmann ticket might have looked like:

De-regulatin' :)

Read More

The Kalam Cosmological Argument 2.0

Religious apologists are like magicians: they trick you into believing they're accomplished something philosophically profound and real (like 'proving' that some stone-age God exists), and then they pull a rabbit out of their magical hat (telling you exactly what that God does and doesn't want you to do, what kind of sexual activities it's okay for you to engage on, who you have to discriminate against, etc.). Jesus and Mo capture this lunacy hilariously:

Read More

Geoffrey Warnock on Kant

Imagine if the conceptual basis of just about every single belief you ever had, not just as a layman but as a professional and conscientious intellectual, were suddenly shattered by the writings of a single man? That's exactly what happened to Immanuel Kant when he read the work of David Hume.

To his credit, and despite the tremendous existential angst he must have experienced as a result of reading the skeptical arguments proposed by the Scotsman, Kant recognized that Hume had to be taken seriously, and subsequently spent the rest of his mature career trying to overcome the problems posed by Hume. Whether or to what extent Kant succeeded in refuting Hume is still a matter of debate, but no one can deny that in his attempt, Kant would become the one of the most important and influential philosophers of all time, perhaps second only to Aristotle.

Here to discuss the history, importance, breadth and influence of this German thinker are philosophers Bryan Magee and Geoffrey Warnock:

And for more on these fascinating discussions, check out the Bryan Magee tag.

Read More

Sarah Palin: Being President Would Diminish My Power

I don't know too much about what Sarah Palin was like before she became known outside of Alaska, but I do know that she's become one of the biggest attention whores of our time, all while curiously decrying how the 'lame-stream media' is always trying to silence her. This, by the way, is the very same media that follows her around constantly, tries to interview her every time a fly drops, and pays her obscene amounts of cash so that she can spew her incoherent nonsense all over the American airwaves.

So, it should come as no surprise that as soon as Republicans start wondering about possible new candidates (because they realize the current ones all suck), Sarah Palin needs to bring the spotlight back to herself, in literally less than a minute! But that's not enough: her twisted self-victimization mentality actually has her convinced that being President of the United Freaking States would just be another way that others would use to shut her up. Poor baby...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Holy shit! She's out there trying to get people to THINK??????

And she thinks she is a maverick and a rogue. I wonder what she thinks those words mean...

Read More