Why I am an Atheist

I needed a subject to write a blog post to keep this blog active, and a series of posts by James B rausch on his blog (no link to him, he won't link to me) "inspired" me.

The B rausch series is a fictionalized account (some reality, some fiction, he says) of his methamphetamine (meth) addiction, why and how he got started on it, the "meth life", bottoming out, recovery, finding he-she-it, converting to Mormonism, making several thousand dollars on the internet while in recovery, and discovering paradise in Costa Rica.

While some of the stuff about all that and the help of various social services (shelters and meals, all provided by various non-Mormon religious organizations) in keeping him afloat was fascinating, the stuff about he-she-it speaking to him, prayer, the conversion, etc., was maudlin, almost comical. I read through the series for details on how he made the several thousand dollars. Not much there on that.

He states his series will be removed from his blog or otherwise made inaccessible after 2007 December 25. If you are looking for a religious experience, you are out of luck if you read this post after that date.

But, if you are looking for internet marketing tips, what I gathered from his posts about that is this:

You write something up ("the product") -- but he never said what, even what kind of subject he wrote about -- that people will find valuable. Duh.
Then you put your product as a post on a blog you set up -- i.e., a free Google blog like this.
Then you go find a bunch of forums and post to each about what you have written with a link to your blog post.
I'm not sure of the next step. It could be either or both of these:
On the forums, you mention the product is free but you request a donation of $10, $20, whatever.
That may or may not be permissible. On your blog, as part of your blog post, I would think you definitely would want to include that donation request.
The donation request link goes to a PayPal account you have set up.
(In PayPal, you have to set up payment, by going to "Merchant Services".
Click "Donate" under "Create Buttons". I guess for forum posts you would use the select "Link for e-mails" code. For a blog post, get that and paste it into your blog post while in HTML mode. That's it. You can see how that works on a blog by donating to me, below.)

Anyway, that's it, as far as I can decipher. I have just saved you an hour or more of sometimes fascinating but ultimately unimportant reading.

Back to he-she-it:

Many people claim that he-she-it has spoken to them. They range from various killers (serial killers, mothers drowning their children, founders of religions spaced out from dehydration or "herbs" wandering around in the desert, etc., etc.) to usually harmless people you think are talking on their cell-phones, but who don't have a cell-phone, to people like B rausch that are seemingly quite successful. All that demonstrates to me is that both losers and winners (however you define those) can be wacko.

As I said above, just ONE of the reasons I am an atheist is that he-she-it has not spoken to me, personally. Why should he-she-it speak to me, you may ask. Why shouldn't he-she-it, I ask in return. After all, if there really is a he-she-it, am I not one of he-she-it's flock? Doesn't he-she-it care about ME? Doesn't he-she-it want my worship, obedience, reverence, whatever? What am I, chopped liver?

He-she-it is supposed to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. With those super-powers, you would think it inconsequentially simple for he-she-it to conduct a personal seance with every living person on Earth (and wherever) as frequently and intensively as necessary to make sure that we all "get the Word". Hasn't happened.

What am I missing? Comments are welcome (but note that they are moderated).

BTW, please contribute (donate) to my PayPal account if you think this worthwhile.

Have a happy winter solstice pagan celebration to welcome in the new year.

The Golden Compass - Must See

The Golden Compass movie, starring Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut) and Daniel Craig ("Bond, James Bond") will be one of the next movies that I see.

Yeah, I know it has gotten some lukewarm reviews. But any movie or novel that reminds me of or incorporates vaguely Jules Verne "science", including airships (dirigibles), and that manages to really piss off various Christian wackos (especially Catholics), has GOT to be good.

The Golden Compass is based on the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Update: Saw it. If you missed it in the theaters, rent it.

Jennifer Love Hewitt - Baby's Got Back - Butt That's a Good Thing

Jennifer Love Hewitt can "whisper" to me through those cheeks any time. But seriously, she is gorgeous. NOTHING wrong with that booty.

This generation's elevation of the boyish butt as the ideal is a historical anomaly. The ideal from both aesthetic and reproductive reasons is a slim woman with WOMANLY hips and butt. NOT talking about fat butts. Add a nice rack, such as Jennifer Love Hewitt has, and you have perfection.

The increase in slim-hipped females in the last fifty years is, unfortunately, due to a hormonal imbalance in the mothers of these females, due to pesticide residues and other long-lasting artificial organic chemicals collecting in the fatty tissue of women and men alike.

Now, why this genetic defect (skinny asses) has become an ideal is beyond me. Butt, there are men who like that. Are they closet homosexuals or pedophiles? Or are they just simply as screwed up mentally as the girls who starve themselves to try to attain that false ideal?

Jennifer is an ideal female. Now if she could get some other TV show to star in rather than that lame "Ghost Whisperer" series, all would be right with the world. :-)

Border Fences - Saudi Arabia-Iraq, US-Mexico

A friend sent a link to a story about how Saudi Arabia is building a fence along their border to keep Iraqis out. He wondered why "we" can't do the same to keep the Mexicans out. My answer is:

"We" could do it. But the New World Order puppet-masters don't WANT it. The object of open borders is to create a strife-torn, middle-class-eliminated plantation. Along with merger with Canada and Mexico, to bring down the U.S. and Canada to Mexican levels. North-American Union with a common currency, the "Amero".

You will note that the leaders/rulers in even the most impoverished countries do not suffer lack of food, luxury cars, mansions, toys, servants, and other perquisites. There is no NEED for a prosperous middle class in ANY country.

I do not blame our rulers. I and they see that prosperity for all will ruin the planet even faster. And since, due to right-wing religious wacko fascists and left-wing kumbaya bleeding hearts, there will never be effective population control (unless they can finally engineer genetic plagues), they have to reduce resource use by reducing consumption. And, it may even be too late, as it is, for them.

Finally, I don't give a crap. As you know, I am old. I was lucky to be born in the U.S., but it is living on past glory. Americans are no better or more deserving or special than those in any other country. 95% of Americans are just as stupid, irrational, ignorant, and venal as those in any other country.

Only the details of stupidity and irrationality differ. (Both Islam and Christianity, for example, are slave religions.) It is not from lack of desire that there are no more Christian Crusades and Inquisitions; it's just that you could say that maybe Christians have mellowed a bit, or maybe just become pussified. (Which, for me, living here rather than in wog-land, is a good thing -- but the basic irrationality is the same.)

In any event, the probably genetic disposition to make the wrong en-mass choices, including breeding like f'ing cats, rats, and dogs, without control or thought of consequences, will lead to inevitable collapse. Hard to say under which type of political or religious regime it will happen faster.

F'em all.