Without A Care

 

Rebecca Watson has been acting without any concern for others IMO. She continues to blab any play the drama card in what appears to be a need for attention. When she talks about people making claims that she just needs attention her sarcasm and wit (imaginary) bust out and she dismisses the accusation. Well people always deny any negative claims about them. Along with that usually they will present evidence that those claims are not true. Rebecca is an exception to that. I believe it is for good reason.  I have another blog about her and PZ coming up, in fact I was in the middle of it when this post by here came up. I figured my reply would be good to post here so it stays complete and visible.

Here is a link to her blog post.

This is my reply-

The problem here is NOBODY should be making the fact Ron Lindsay is a white male part of their issue. Any criticism should be blind to gender or race or sexual preference or disability or physical feature. There is a reason that justice is blind. That is what keeps it fair. The criticism should be about his opinion ALONE. You had all better be careful when making assumptions about an entire group. How can anyone not know this already? Are you all so blinded by your cause that you would become what you are fighting? There is no large-scale organized effort to oppress women unless you want to count Republicans I could agree with that.

 

Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to tell you what to think or to shut up but you would do well to try and accept the fact this crap rebecca is trying to sell nothing more than social snake oil.

Has anyone wondered why rebecca has never once tried to cool any of the drama she has started? The only damage control she ever does is when it is going to effect her directly. Otherwise she plays it long and loud. She grabs any little piece and fills it with hot air until its about to pop making it seem like the biggest thing in the room then she goes off into the corner and laughs while she watches people argue over what it is, whether it belongs in the room, and how best to dispose of it. When interest starts to die it is on to the next piece. She never comes in and explains what she did or even just lets people know the best way to remove it. She just plain doesn’t give a fuck about how any of her words effect others, or how many people have been negatively impacted because she thinks its cool to blow shit out of proportion. All she wants is whatever she wants.

It’s neat that you think the world is for your amusement rebecca but life doesn’t get amused and it doesn’t exist for you to use it to play games with people. Your antics are going to bite you on the ass one day. You can easily prove me wrong by offering some suggestions on how to repair some of the damage. Something besides “Do it my way” because obviously that method doesn’t work. I don’t expect you to understand why because it has to do with the feelings of others. As a wrap up let me remind you that life doesn’t care about any single one of you, what color you are, or who you like to fuck. We all get treated with the same consideration by life, none.

Without A Care

Planet PZ Myers

PZ doesn’t think the world revolves around him. He thinks it is all about him

 

PZ has a new post up. You can find it here.

It’s called The Scarlet Crayon of Atheism. Yes, it is as bad as the title, maybe worse. I guess even crayons are too much for PZ to handle. He moves around and trips over himself so much it is hard to know exactly what the hell he is talking about but here it goes.

He says-

I’ve been trying to understand how people — not just people, but self-declared “leaders of the atheist movement” — can claim that atheism is only the lack of belief in any gods, and further, that absence of god-belief entails no other significant consequences. It’s been difficult, because that way of thinking is alien to me; atheism for me is all tangled up in naturalism and scientific thinking, and it’s not just a single, simple cause but has a whole cascade of meaning. But I’m trying, and I think I’m beginning to get it. There is a reasonable way to regard atheism as important while at the same time limiting its import.

As you can see PZ explains he lacks the ability to understand other ways of thinking. At least he is trying to get it.(so he says) He still has a long way to go. First he is going to have to understand that definitions are important.

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist.^{Atheism is contrasted with theism,which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.}

I really am sorry PZ can’t grasp this concept but I really would like him to quit spreading his ignorance around. He has his own definition for atheism, I get that, but the rest of the world has a say in it too and they don’t give a shit that a Biology teacher in Minnesota wants the definition changed according to his wishes.

One of his big problems is he gives too much credit to religion without acknowledging where religion came from. He talks as though god did exist at one time and then atheists came along with evolution in hand and suddenly god just disappeared. Now he wants to fight the residual effects of this god that once influenced mankind.

Man created religion and it represents mankind. PZ claims that religion has been the reason or justification for slavery and why women are thought to be inferior to men. Homosexuality is condemned by religion too so that must be the cause for discrimination. Sure religion has justified those things but there was never a god who created those biases. Mankind did it and will keep on doing it until it stops doing it.

Homophobia existed before Christianity In ancient Greece the practice was thought to be “unnatural”

The Sioux Indians made their women walk 5 steps behind the men. There were clear gender roles and they were not dictated by Christianity or any other religious practice. Even if they had been we would have to go back and think about who created that belief system. It wasn’t god.

Of course there were many who were tolerant of homosexuality just as many are becoming more tolerant now. We do not allow slavery in the USA anymore yet 80% of Americans claim to be religious. Getting rid of religion does not stop bad social practices. PZ is constantly complaining about the misogynist atheist he thinks are running rampant (paranoid much PZ?) doesn’t that give him a clue about the relation between religion and social issues?

PZ says-

Being an atheist means you can no longer learn your moral code by rote and tradition and obedience to authority^*, but have to rely on reason and empathy and greater human goals, and you don’t get to justify actions simply because they “feel” right or good — you have to support them with evidence or recognition that they directly serve a secular purpose

So we now need a “secular purpose” for helping a disabled person get their wheelchair through a door? Is it just me or does PZ’s claim that there must be a secular reason sound strangely like there must be some sort of reward ?What about this- Your moral code must benefit secularism in a testable way? or You must do good because it will please god. To much alike for me. I will continue to help people because they need it and because it makes me feel good.

PZ continues-

Thank you to those who are willing to stand up for atheism simply as a matter of choice and principle, but you should know and be warned that we intend to change the world. We are more dangerous than you can even imagine. And apparently, more dangerous than even some atheists can imagine.

I can agree with that statement. PZ’s way of thinking is dangerous but not in the way he claims it to be. It’s a matter of possessing just enough knowledge of a subject to be dangerous. Social matters are something PZ is not good at. He seems to have a grade school knowledge of the subject. He fails to understand the complexities of social interaction and that is why he gets so much push-back. Add the fact he is an egotistical dick and it magnifies his ability to fail. When PZ jokes about never being wrong….it isnt a joke to him. He really thinks he is above everyone else, smarter, more experienced. PZ is so awesome he can change the definitions of words as he sees fit.

I don’t disagree with the belief that women should be treated as equals. I don’t think anyone has the right to discriminate against other people for the way they were born.

PZ doesn’t scare me nor does his little gang of baby chicken commenters. If you have ever seen PZ post outside of his little blog, he gets his head handed to him on a regular basis. Outside of his echo chamber none of his rhetoric can stand up.That is why he doesn’t debate and refuses to even have a conversation with people that disagree with him. He knows his house is made of wet paper. PZ is a twerp he uses his condescension to cover up his lack of spine. He doesn’t have to make time for you, you don’t have anything of value to say, you don’t get to tell him how to spend his time. All lame excuses. He sits at home nice and safe while he puffs up his chest and beats off on the internet. As soon as someone mentions actually making him back up his big talk he starts cowering and looking for a place to hide.

It finally ends like this-

I have to add that many theists also accept a secular morality — they may like their religion, but they also recognize that you must have a better excuse for community action than “god said so.”

PZ, you should have a better reason for the shit you do than “god doesn’t exist” Religion isn’t the reason for all the social injustice in the world and non-belief isn’t a cure. What we need is less people like you who can’t find a middle ground and only want to impose your thinking on the world whether they like it or not because you know what is good for them better than they do. You don’t.

 

.

 

Planet PZ Myers

Going Postal On Atheists

Time Magazine did a report on a German footwear company that says the packages it sends are taking longer to reach their destination or getting lost completely more often than they should. The company is named Atheist Shoes and uses tape that bears the company name on the packages.

The company did its own test to see if the tape made a difference. While not an official study some of the results were interesting. One package sent to Michigan took 37 days longer to reach its destination than another unmarked package. A package with the ‘atheist’ tape was also more than 10x more likely to be lost.  The company has stopped using the tape and says it’s delivery times have improved.

This could be just a stunt to bring some easy exposure to the show company. Such a story would be noticed mostly by atheists and the company brands itself as for “people who don’t believe in god(s).”

I thought it would be interesting to do my own test and see what came of it. I won’t be able to account for all variables but I think maybe we could see if there are any obvious delays that could call for further research. I’ll be sending envelopes instead of packages and I’ll print something like “ATHEIST INFORMATION” on the envelope.

Anyone who would like to help with this can contact me through  the contact page. I’ll need addresses to send the letters to. Let’s keep em in the US since the company reported no problems with shipping delays in Europe…..figures.

Going Postal On Atheists

PZ Myers Crys Yet Another River

Who says PZ isn’t a social butterfly?

 

 

It ends like this-

It was an incredibly repellent talk that was not improved in the past year, but only made uglier and more grotesque. He ignored all of my previous criticisms, answering them only by yelling louder. I coulda gagged at the end when he piously announced we all ought to be fighting together for the cause of reason…after an hour of caricaturing atheists as ignorant and smug posturing of “scientific skepticism” as the great good virtue.

That is the last paragraph of the latest bitching and moaning session from PZ Myers. I start with it because it does such a good job of painting a picture of PZ. He starts out complaining because the talk wasn’t all fresh and new. Someone might want to mention to PZ he has been  beating the hell out of the creationism horse for some time. When I go to a conference and he is a speaker, that’s when I take lunch or if its at the end of the day I can go watch a homeless guy lecture a trash can instead that way I’m gonna hear more wit and less egotistical banter.

PZ then follows up whimpering because all of his criticisms are ignored and there is yelling. At this point I think it is safe to assume PZ was yelled at by whoever raised him. He has over and over shown a strong dislike for people who speak passionately and he likes to claim they are yelling.  PZ also seems to think that if a person is yelling somehow they lose the ability to make a valid point about whatever they are yelling about. In some cases, like mine, I lost the ability to ever make a point or to even say anything worth consideration because I yelled one time.

PZ ends his crybaby tantrum by saying he is outraged to the point of actually gagging when the speaker suggests people should work together. After all the guy had voiced his opinion about the roles of atheists and skeptics. PZ felt atheists had somehow been slighted and then seemed to be unable to support any cooperation between people as a result of this outrage.

Well PZ has already been at the head of the line on several occasions so he could be one of the first people to reject any attempt to make it possible for atheists/skeptics to work together without any high school antics and childish name-calling. PZ has proven he has no desire to get along with anyone who has disagreed with him on A+ or on his brand of feminism.

After I read the pathetic butt-hurt sniveling post PZ wrote. I watched the video of the talk Jamy Ian Swiss gave PZ was so upset about. I didn’t have a problem with it. I had never heard of Jamy before PZ brought him to my attention. He fits in with many of the other reasonable people I have heard chime in on the complete bullshit going on among some skeptics/atheists. Barbra Drescher, Michael Shermer, DJ Grothe, Steve Novella. They have all kicked the shit out of PZ’s flawed logic directly or indirectly. Jamy can be added to that list now too.

Although Jamy doesn’t mention any specific names he talks about how people who claim skeptics are afraid of religion and do not confront religion due to that fear. Jamy says those people are either stupid or if they are not stupid then they must be liars because there is no truth in the claim. I would agree with this completely. You can not describe the majority of skeptics as afraid of anything. PZ takes the statement by Jamy personally and assumes it is about him. I can’t say PZ is correct that Jamy is talking about him but I can say the description fits, even PZ agrees with that.

The title of PZ’s post is I officially divorce myself from the skeptic movement  We can only hope that this holds up. The problem is PZ has removed himself from the atheist/skeptic movement quite some time ago. It is clear that PZ does not have the best interests of skeptics or atheists in mind. He fights almost any attempt to find a calm. If some parties do manage to act like mature adults and work things out PZ always has to add spin making it look like the people who disagrees with him somehow gave in or realized it was in their own best interest. It’s like he thinks that he and his regular commenters are actually causing some sort of change. The only thing I see changing is the amount of support for PZ and his unfair, biased and just plain willfully stupid behavior.

It is interesting how some have been critical of me because of my blogs about PZ when I am just answering to his lunacy yet they allow him to go along unchecked rambling that he is a scientist while his behavior reflects someone with no clue about how even basic skepticism  works and his scientific expertise is obviously limited to squishy stuff that lives in the ocean. All you have to do is listen to him speak about social issues for 2 minutes to realize he is in way over his head trying to dictate what is/isn’t acceptable.

And another interesting point is how PZ Myers claims to be focused on including everyone in the atheist movement. How can someone claim to want to do that and at the same time do everything possible to uninclude people who don’t agree with him? And I would love foe someone to explain to me this trend towards refusal to work with people who don’t agree with you in any way but then how are you ever going to get the other people of the world to change their behavior? If you can’t be mature enough to work with people you have at least one thing in common with how are you ever going to communicate with people who have nothing in common with you? Is it different? YEA IT IS….IT’S HARDER. duh.

And how can PZ  expect anyone to believe he knows anything about social interaction when he has warned Justin Vacula if he tries to talk at the Women in Secularism Conference PZ is going to run away with his hands over his ears until he sees a mature authority figure and then he is going to report the hell out of Vacula!!! That will teach that son of a bitch to try and have a conversation with another adult! Great job PZ, way to demonstrate how skeptics and atheists can manage to convince the rest of the world be have a better world in mind if only they would listen I mean if only they would run away and report us?? I’m not sure how well that is going to work but what do I know? I’m  no scientist. Is it part of the scientific method to act like a chickenshit  whenever someone who disagrees with you tries to resolve your dispute by talking?  I didn’t go to college so don’t know for sure maybe PZ knows a real scientist we could ask unless he runs away from us too…..

Up next- PZ and Ray Comfort what do they have in common? Let’s count.

PZ Myers Crys Yet Another River

PeterPopoff.info

Peter Popoff is a real piece of work. I was watching his youtube videos and listening to him tell people they could have their cancer cured by using his miracle spring water. I watched as his wife Liz read out testimonials from people claiming to have been helped by Peter Popoff. It made me sick to my stomach. Peter then suggested that disabled children could be cured by his miracle spring water. I have a disabled child and Peter Popoff isn’t good enough, human enough that I would allow him in the same room as my son. For him to claim, to promise, parents that they can heal their children if they support Peter Popoff and have enough faith (and money)  is utterly disgusting  to me.

  So instead of bitching (sorry SJWs ) and crying (sorry babies) I figured i would do something. I did this – http://peterpopoff.info

 It’s just starting and it will grow. Any help with getting this spread around would help prevent the spread of this moronic and selfish behavior. Thanks.

 Here are some past posts about Peter that were written back when he was sending me regular letters. Those have stopped now I can’t figure out why…..

Reapercussions: Peter Popoff- Pops Off At The Mouth

Peter Popoff- God’s LoanShark

Peter Popoff- The Profit

Peter Popoff-The Prophet of Profit

Reapercussions: Peter Popoff Stole My Money!

 

 

 

PeterPopoff.info

Richard Carrier....rejected

  

 

So  Richard Carrier gave a talk at the American Atheist convention in Austin….the fallout continues. It is amazing  the severe meltdown and the cutting of the ties to reality Richard Carrier is going through over the downvotes his presentation has acquired on youtube.  Am I being overly dramatic? Look for yourself  Atheism…Plus What?  The first few comments are enough to see what I’m talking about. If you get to Oolon’s comment you have gone one too far. Don’t bother. Since Oolon is the only person on the planet who is blocked from this blog comment section I won’t trash talk him, there is always twitter for that.

Anyway…..The lengths Richard goes to in order to defend his presentation is embarrassing. It’s like when we were kids and we played cops and robbers. There was always that one kid who never went down when he got shot. You would have your finger right up his nose and yell “BANG! YOU’RE DEAD!” and the kid would reply “You missed!” and then run off with the bank’s money like a criminal zombie with a gunshot wound to the head. Over and over Richard has faced fingers pointed right between his eyes and he just keeps yelling “YOU MISSED ME!”

It’s painful to watch. Richard is perfectly childlike in the way he avoids facing the fact he could, dare I say it? Be mistaken???! At the time of this post his video is at 18,129 total views with 654 upvotes and  4338 downvotes. Richard has been pulling out all the stops though. Actually spending time to ‘answer’ some of the commenters. This has not done him any good, in fact it seems to have brought to the surface some personality traits that Richard may want to focus on if he should ever decide to see a therapist.

There is an excellent reply to Richard Carrier by John Bullock which can be found here

   However, like I said , Richard is having none of it.  After Thunderf00t posts a video explaining some of the problems with Richards presentation the reply to it is  this Is Thunderf00t a Sociopath?

Richard Carrier starts out with the usual character assassination that FTB are now known for and continues to make assumptions through the entire post. Richard Carrier has become just another over dramatic actor in the dispute among skeptics.  Richards attack on Thunderf00t is met with a reply.  If Richard Carrier was really as bright as some people say he is he would shut the hell up and go hide out for a while

   Over and over again Richard has been handed his ass on a platter. Over and over Richard lifts the lid and then slams it back down and starts yelling at his server.

  PZ Myers of course had to put in his $.02 and as usual it is way overvalued, so much so I’m not even going to link it.  PZ Myers is more out of touch than Carrier when it comes to reality and social interaction. PZ also lives in a state that ranks at the bottom third when it comes to diversity so in his bubble of course it’s going to look like minorities are not being included. Maybe he should concentrate on getting his own state to be more welcoming to minorities then he can start bragging about he knows better than anyone else.

  I guess the moral of the story is some people just can’t ever accept they are wrong and PZ Myers is always going to be a dick….Oh and I told you so Richard. Months ago when you first tried to separate the atheists/skeptics with your us vs. them bullshit. Which is EXACTLY what you did so stop telling lies.

 I’ll leave you with one of my latest video replies to the skeptics posers

Richard Carrier....rejected

Get A Clue

 

 

And the game goes on..

Richard Carrier gave a talk at the American Atheist convention on A+.

  When I first heard Richard had given a talk on A+ I wasn’t surprised. I felt a little bad for him cause I knew he had done himself, or his dignity, at least a little bit of harm.  As of this posting the video has 9,682 views with 464 upvotes and 1,373 downvotes. Of course you can’t just by default say that proves much except when you read the comments you can see where the problem is with A+. It’s not so much the idea itself as it is the behaviors of the people who support it that killed it.

Richard says in his blog

Video of my talk at the 2013 American Atheists Convention (their 50th anniversary!) is now online. It is getting downvotes from the haters (even at one point more downs than ups). Please go watch that video (Atheism…Plus What?) and see if you can find anything in it that honestly deserves a downvote. Seriously. And if you don’t, please upvote it. Show the haters they don’t own the movement.

Others reading the comments (I can’t stomach such a task myself) tell me that the downvotes appear to be coming from people who didn’t even watch the video (or didn’t watch it all through). It appears, in fact, that these downvotes are there in an attempt to discourage people from watching the video, rather than representing disagreement with its actual content or quality or value.

Actually there is very little comment coming from people who seem uninformed on the subject. I think maybe the people who are describing the comments to Richard are trying to spare his feelings. That’s nice of them but not helpful. Richard needs a little reality check IMO. Maybe if Richard would actually take 5-7 minutes of his precious time to read the comment section he would get a better idea of why people don’t like his idea. The fact of the matter is there is plenty of information and public opinion available to figure out what the majority of people think about A+ and Richard Carrier’s version of it.

To say Richard Carrier is out of touch would be an understatement . Richard Carrier is more likely to reach out and touch the moon than he is to understand what A+ has done and what it has become.  It has become a non-issue. The A+ forum was a joke. Between the call to run out all them bad atheists and the demands everyone conform to a certain set of behaviors it never stood a chance. Look at the shit we had to go through just to make it so blacks could go to the same schools as whites, or what we are going through now just to allow people who love each other to make a life long commitment to that relationship.  Those are issues that should be very simple to figure out yet we have had to fight to get them accepted and there are still people today who don’t get it , those battles are not won. Some of the things that the A+ forum expected were never going to fly and they didn’t even get off the ground. It became a bunch of victims trying to make victims of others because they  thought boys and girls were two different genders.

There are still some things we need to work on of course. Feminism defined as women having the same rights and privileges as men needs to succeed and I am convinced it will because it makes sense and it benefits everyone.  There will always be some differences in what roles are preferred by each gender in society. As long as no one is being kept out or forced into then we should leave well enough alone. Just because there are more men than women or women than men active in something does not mean we need to take immediate actions and force a  50-50 split on it.

Richard is a busy guy. he has made that point over and over again on his blog. I would suggest that if Richard can not keep up with the facts about the subjects he chooses to speak about in public as if he was an authority on it, then he should leave it to people who have some knowledge of the subject. It is clear Richard does not have a good grasp  A+ and the effect it has had on atheists/skeptics.

Richard tries to provide a defense/explanation of his position by suggesting people listen to an interview he did with Tony Sobrado. You can find the post here.

I left the following comment on that interview-

My opinion after listening to the 15 of available audio is that Mr Carrier is in over his head. As much as he has contributed in other ways to atheism, dealing with social issues is not one of his strengths. Judging from the way he answers comments to his blogs Richard has an ego problem and needs to get over himself. Assuming you already know all the answers is a flawed position to start from and Richard Carrier should be well aware of that fact. If it was all as simple as he makes it out to be then the problem would have been solved way before Richard and the rest of the A+ crowd came along. Suggesting it is productive to avoid interacting with those who do not share your point of view also shows an ignorance of how progress has been made on social issues up to now. When you have something in common with other people you should build from that, not ignore that commonality and instead focus on finding what it is you can use to chastise  those people about.

There has been a considerable amount of pushback against people like PZ Myers, Adam Lee, Stephanie Zvan, and Ophelia Benson (and others)  and it’s not always because they are wrong on their original points. It is because of the way they present those points and the way they automatically condemn anyone who doesn’t agree with them and then when those people try to defend themselves against unfair judgements they are even more evil. Not only do they disagree with the original point, they are actively fighting against it now. How could those people be so evil and feel so much hate for women and minorities??! There isn’t any hate accept for the bias being demonstrated against them by people who claim to be all inclusive. They aren’t being reasonable, and they arent being fair. If you don’t believe me then take a look at the response from commenters to my apology to Stephanie Zvan on her blog.

There was no way I could win. If I didn’t apologize , I was a sexist jerk. When I did apologize it wasn’t worded correctly, or it wasn’t in enough places, or it wasn’t quick enough or my favorite- I just didn’t mean it. When you try to do the right thing and get a load of bullshit back in response to it what do you think is going to happen in the future? I did what I thought needed to be done. I directed my apology to Stephanie because that is who I was talking to. Anyone who has anything to say about it can suck it. It’s really none of their business. I don’t even know if Stephanie has accepted my apology since I can feel my IQ drop as I read through the comments on her blog. She may have addressed it, I don’t expect she would post about it like she did when I wronged her it seldom works like that. Although if I were to hear Adam Lee or PZ Myers even suggest they were maybe a bit unfair about some of the claims they made about myself, or anyone else, I would acknowledge their attempt to correct an injustice. I don’t think you’ll be reading about that anytime soon.

Get A Clue

Atheists and Skeptics and Psychics Oh My!

So I’ve been using this new software….It’s pretty cool.

I have been using it to express my displeasure and/or make observations about some skeptics and atheists who aren’t quit acting in a manner that demonstrates skepticism or represents atheism in a good way….In my opinion of course.

It’s is pretty much all in good fun. As you will see below I am not afraid to laugh at myself. I think it builds character and sometimes checks your ego when/if it is needed. I will admit that my choice of actors was directly effected by the actions of certain people who have misrepresented my motives and/or character in the past. Instead of telling lies or making stuff up the way they do, I instead choose to find the humor and irony in their behaviors and put them on public display.  This might just give anyone who listens to these people cause to pause and consider how much credibility they have, or maybe it will just make them giggle. You can choose to be offended or take it personal if you wish. If you do then maybe you should be taking a good look at yourself first because I’ve noticed those feelings usually come from within. It’s kinda like looking in a fun-house mirror, only the reflection is how you look in real life. Do you blame the person who is holding the mirror for your reflection?

Viddy well,

PZ Myers vs Ophelia Benson by reapsowradio

 

Adam Lee- Contradict Much? by reapsowradio

 

Happy Birthday PZ Myers ya dick by reapsowradio

 

GoogleHangout+ by reapsowradio

 

Stephanie Zvan-Narcissistic by reapsowradio

 

 

Ophelia Benson and the pineapple by reapsowradio

 

PZ Myers and the Fortress of Censorship by reapsowradio

 

PZ Myers wraps it up by reapsowradio

 

To show I’m not just picking on poor old PZ and the gang I’ll post the last video about Chip Coffey. You may know him from Paranormal State or Psychic Kids on A&E. You can also learn about him here

And this is a video parody of a ‘psychic’ named Robbie Thomas. Robbie Thomas claims to be able to find the bodies of children who have been abducted. One time Robbie got so pissed at me in a chat that he told me I would be sorry when I needed his services to help find my disabled son one day. You can learn more about this model of compassion here

 

And last but not least, well yea, least……we have Peter Popoff. James Randi took care of him a long time ago but as usually happens Peter crawled out from under his rock and he is back. You can catch him doing late night infomercials for his ‘miracle spring water’. I did as Peter asked and sent a request. This video gives a run down on how that went. Note: Peter no longer sends me mail.

 

Atheists and Skeptics and Psychics Oh My!

Some 'personal testimony' about PZ Myers

    The following is a guest blog by Skep Tickle. I assume I don’t have to remind you it is one person’s account of events. I will say from my experience Skep Tickle has proven to be accurate and reasonable when posting material on the internet, reliable would be a good description.

 

PZ’s talk in Seattle, “Moving Atheism Beyond Science”, was ~50 minutes, followed by an hour of Q&A then an opportunity to stand in line to talk with him one on one.

Quotes herein are my paraphrasing and/or impression of what he said, unless I specify that I’m giving a direct quote. Obviously this is my “personal testimony” about my experience of the event. About 199 other people attended and the talk was videotaped, so presumably one could track down details from my report to confirm or refute, if desired.

PZ opened claiming that science can’t form the basis of morality, then spent 50% of his talk bashing science for obviously unethical medical experimentation on disenfranchised groups of humans from 40-70 yrs ago, ending with a 1996 Pfizer trial in Africa on children with meningitis, in which he clearly implied that Pfizer’s drug killed 11 children who wouldn’t have died if they’d been given the standard antibiotic therapy. He touched on animal experimentation and how difficult it is to decide where, quote, “the line” is; that led to several of the questions in Q&A and I heard several people interested in continuing that conversation afterwards.

Two comments about the first part of his talk:

1) I think he could have much more effectively illustrated his point by briefly touching on the past atrocities then focusing on modern examples, for example from medical genetics or from reproductive technologies (gender selection, etc) if he wanted to continue the medical theme. The historical litany seemed pointless after just a few minutes.

2) During the Q&A, I pointed out that PZ’s comments about the 1996 Pfizer study had been misleading; the deaths were 6/100 children in the standard therapy group and 5/100 in the Pfizer drug group, so while Pfizer acted illegally and unethically [based on standards in human experimentation], their drug did not kill 11 children. He backed away from his claim by saying (paraphrasing here) “Oh sure, sure. I didn’t say their drug actually killed children.”

The next ~40% was about how there are problems in the world, particularly climate change and overpopulation, and we (atheists/nontheists) have to move beyond science to address these problems. He gave an example of people (as I recall, the emphasis being on “scientists”) enthusing over methane hydrates as a new energy source but missing the point that combustion of this new source of methane would cause more carbon emissions. D’oh!

It’s funny how comments that sound sexist/classist can sneak in, even when the speaker presumably tries to avoid them. In this part of the talk, PZ said (paraphrasing) that “if we give women opportunities, they will…” have fewer children, etc, in the developing world (“opportunities” being economic opportunities like small businesses, and apparently also condoms for birth control). It was probably just the phrasing that he happened to use, but “helping societies increase economic opportunity in ways that have been shown to achieve [insert goals we think are good for them to have]” would have sounded better to me. Besides which, there are lots of past studies that would have helped provide evidence for education and (woman-controlled or inserted-and-left-in) contraception reduce birth rates and improve economic conditions; there may also be such literature about microfinance (I’ve only ever looked superficially at those studies) – IMO it would have been interesting to have more evidence presented in this part of the talk.

In the nearly 2 hrs of talk + Q&A, PZ explicitly mentioned (but didn’t dwell on) the importance of each of these:

• critical thinking and skeptical inquiry;


• recognizing the equality of all people;


• eschewing dogma; and


• not demonizing (or accepting demonization of, I can’t recall) those with whom we disagree

Late in the Q&A, after someone else had brought up The Rift (& PZ semi-joked that his side was right, of course), I stood up & said I understood Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland was planning to mediate finding common ground & asked what PZ’s thinking was about that effort. PZ praised Michael but not this new project, then he (PZ) let loose with a demonizing appraisal of the other side (us, the slyme pit, etc). Paraphrasing here: “They’re people who’ve been banned from our [FtB etc] blogs and are mad about it, and they post the most awful photoshopped pictures of my head on gay porn, and they are horrible people, and they need to go away, and there is no point in trying to talk with them, and I’m going to tell Michael that in person in Ireland.” He made it sound like he was on the side of Truth, Justice, and Righteousness.

About half the audience applauded after this comment from him – presumably people already agreed with him on this and some who knew nothing of the rift and accepted his viewpoint.

Either in Q&A or to someone in the line ahead of me to talk to him afterwards, PZ said that he WANTS to see atheism split into 2 camps, 1 being the, quote, “right-wing, libertarian” people who only want to be atheists and (my interpretation) don’t care about anyone else; and the liberal people who want to work on what he had just spoke about (and, by implication, are the ones who care about people, humanity, the world, & ethical action).

More personal testimony from me, which of course may not reflect what an “impartial observer” might have seen and may not at all reflect PZ’s experience of our conversation: When it was my turn to talk with him in person after Q&A, I told him I’m liberal and I agreed with what he had said about critical thinking and equality and no dogma and no demonization, YET I am one of the people on the other side of the rift, and that’s because I/we do not see those things in his side online. Not surprisingly he did not appear to react positively to this, said that all the people on the other side of the Rift post awful crude things like photoshopping his head onto gay porn. I said I didn’t do that, and many of us don’t, we just see dogma & a lack of skepticism from the other side, and isn’t it interesting that we actually seem to be so close in views (based on that list of things above he’d said during the talk were so important). I interpreted what he said as completely rejecting that possibility.

He wanted to know whether I had spoken out against the photoshops, and I said something like people felt it was important for the ‘pit not to restrict content, and that people who post at his site are vicious (I used a softer word, like “aggressive”) and that he has encouraged them to use their knives (rhetorically). He said something like No they just apply skeptical inquiry to the awful people who show up there. I brought up the porcupine meme & “go die in a fire” and he said the former had stopped completely and the guy who’d written the latter had apologized. He appeared, not surprisingly, to be angry at what I had to say, and didn’t appear to allow as how there might actually be some common ground.

Some 'personal testimony' about PZ Myers

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To make up for lost ad revenue FTB has launched a new product line

    Ever since I became involved in an ongoing dispute with a little gang of  FTB  bloggers, some assorted A+ idiots, and a few skepchicks there has been one thing going on that bothered me more than anything else. I’ve addressed it in private conversations, I’m not guilty of  being a completely inconsiderate prick.  Even though I had relayed my feelings in private I really should have written about it long before this.

Having had internet (and real life) disputes pretty often as a result of my inability to just let some things continue without question, I have developed a thick skin.  Even though some people like to claim I’m on an angry tirade because they are so strongly effected by my words, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes the reply to me is as harsh as the other party can muster.  When it has no effect on me you will often learn exactly what type of character we are dealing with. They take the cheap shots.  Some try the personal attack, accusing me of being a drug addict or I must have a mental illness because I didn’t crumble when dealt the sharpness of their wit (yawn) Or maybe a comment about how I must be abusing my children or girlfriend.  Insults directed towards my “retarded” son.(from the classy people like iesvs on reddit)  Rape threats against my daughter ( no I’m not going on a crusade over this) Suggestions that I might need the help of a psychic in order to find the body of my son one day. The IRA was supposed to be leaving a bomb on my front porch on a couple occasions, not sure what happened there unless it was the same evening Satan was supposed to come over and “fuck my ass real good” You name it and some weak minded idiot has probably said it, threatened it, or wished it upon me.

Then we have the attack preferred by people like PZ Myers.  That would be the ‘friendly attack’ or ‘guilt by association’. It’s not as bad as any of the previous tactics,  it is far worse.  We know how PZ takes a great pride in making his opponent out to be a fuckwit  asshole who offers nothing to the conversation because the only intent they have is to focus everything on them.  PZ would have made the greatest worst dictator if only he had been born  someplace where his type of personality could thrive, like say North Korea.  Would anyone really be that surprised to hear about PZ erecting a statue of himself with a giant squid in one hand as his weapon against the tone trolls who oppose him?  Maybe we would see giant murals of his puffy face looking into the sky in a proud defiance of rational thinking with Anthony K and Caine jacking each other off at his feet.  Well, I could see it.   North Korea got lucky and avoided such a fate, instead PZ pulls his shit on a different scale in a different place.  Instead PZ had a need to take a jab at my friend Al Sefanelli.

In case you don’t know it, Al is a widely respected, outspoken atheist. Though he has never claimed it, Al is a true leader. No he doesn’t  sit at his keyboard and show people how to act like judgmental fools. He never tried to get anyone who would listen to go fuck up the results of another groups internet poll. He never gave a lame title to the regulars who commented on his blog like they were some type of playground gang. Nor has he ever commanded/encouraged  those people to attack an individual with a differing opinion, not even if they had the gall to post something off the topic of the original  post.  Al Stefanelli has proven himself to be a leader by his actions, his words, and the way he applied those words. Then he topped it off with some real-life activism. He never has claimed the leadership role and that is another way he has proven  to be an exceptionally good one. I have long believed if a person is truly skilled,  if they actually can perform at a level above others there is no need for them to point it out, it will be easily observed by others. This is the case with Al.

PZ for whatever reason(s) felt he needed to take a cheap shot at me through Al by posting a video by a shit band with a song title mentioning racism.  Although I have learned this is the type of thing we should expect from PZ, it bothers me that Al was dragged into the argument. Al had even suggested PZ get the benefit of the doubt on ReapSowRadio the week prior. PZ in his infinite wisdom didn’t know that and he isn’t really into showing anyone else any consideration the way Al does.

From that point on Al Stefanelli was subject to the babbling libel and incorrect assumptions that have become a regular practice among some of the North Korean leadership   other FTB bloggers, A+ idiots, and skepchicks.

Al took the bullshit in stride until he was pushed to the point where he had no choice but to defend himself. As usual his response was to the point and scathing. And, as usual , the response from the other side was more libel, some stupid, and a lot of delusion.

The entire time, before and after he had been dragged in,  Al had my back. Not the way we see people like Stephanie Zvan defend the idiotic juvenile antics of people like Greg Laden. Al made sure lies about me were shown to be just that and he defended my character when someone like Ophelia Benson would make claims that she could only have known if she had psychic abilities. It was the only explanation since I have never met her in my life. I suppose she could have been hiding in random shadows, taking notes on my interaction with others for a few years.  I really doubt that is the case since she squawks so much I would have easily heard her early  on should she have made such an attempt.

The guilt by association attempted by PZ and others (adam lee) was unfortunate. I talked to Al about it and told him I was sorry about it and he assured me he never held it against me.  I’ve seen it happen again even to people who I couldn’t say were my close friends but they found themselves linked simply by considering my point of view and encouraging others to make informed opinions.  So far those people have all reacted by refusing to cower when threatened with this intimidation tactic. I would like to  thank them for being an example of something I’ve said in the past and has proven true so far. The Truth Always Wins , And It Only Hurts You If You Deserve It .

 

  Thanks Al, I hope I never make you feel like you made the wrong choice in supporting me  but if I do, I fully expect you to call me on it. You are a true friend and leader. Neither needed to be pointed out but they did deserve to be acknowledged.

-Reap

 

 

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