God Oil Good For You says God Oil Council

The media is reporting only a few people have done unfortunate things fearing the end of the world but even three would be too many. There may be scores of people who inflicted damage to themselves and others that we know nothing about. It is unfortunate that the mentally ill in particular suffer, and what other way would you describe them, when fear is fostered by every grifter with an internet connection.

PZ Meyers passes on the news that one woman attempted to kill herself and her children, a man committed suicide and another person gave away all their money anticipating the Rapture. NONE of which makes sense even in their strange world view. In accordance to their own wacky rules the mother and the man in Nairobi could have just repented and been saved and the children were innocents so no problem, they would have been removed from the world by a higher power. Their actions display not only illness but a profound lack of faith in their own system.

And why give away money to strangers when you would just leave it all behind for sinful looters anyways? It isn't like the cash you left behind would be used for good purpose in any case. Even if you left it with someone you trust to do good deeds with it, they are going to be left behind and since being irredeemably sinful, they would divert the funds to their own purposes once you were gone.



As of 10 am pacific time the Harold Camping website has not been updated to reflect the world not ending. I am curious as to what form the next installment of the message will take. Undoubtedly the news from all the various God oil salesmen will be full of squirming, convoluted weasel words to explain why God's plan is unknowable and the Rapture did not occur because Jesus is still holding out for a percentage of those WWJD bracelets and send more money or you will face damnation. Who knows? Since Harold is hiding from the faithful and mocking alike it might be a while before we get an update.

You know what? Right now I'm asking Harold to do some good in the world. Shutter your 120 million dollar radio empire, liquidate everything and donate the funds to some charities that actually accomplish something positive and not do something stupid and wasteful like build more prayer buildings or programs that teach abstinence. There are a lot of organizations out there that will actually make people's lives better and make the planet a nicer place to live. All those bucks could really do a lot of great things if sent to the right places. Let good things and not bad jokes be your legacy, Harold.

THE RATURE!

You know, this just means that the only rodents left behind are irredeemably evil!

IZ BEGGIN U

ONE DAY LEFT UNTIL...

THE RATURE!

Are You Rature Ready?

RATPENT, SINNERS!

The Rature is Coming

21 May 2011
Are you ready?

Have a Happy Iron Age Cult of Suffering Day!

Gone too soon and never was

Almost bought this until when leafing through it at the check stand I noticed that fictional people were included.

Torments of the Damned

Burning skies, toxic, sulfurous clouds, the tortured souls of innocent forest creatures forced to consume the scalding contents of hellbound pic-a-nik baskets as Satan gleefully enjoys the spectacle...Yes, they are dead and in hell, amirite?

Devil Kids #105 (June 1981).

NOOOOOOOOO! I'M SAW-REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!

Obvious troll is obvious

So bored...

Christian Woman Stops Robbery With Guilt

This video of a woman in a store talking a guy out of robbing her is hitting the media outlets faster than a psychic on a rich widow. Nearly every news organization and uncountable blogs are leading with the story of Jesus stepping in to save the woman from harm and/or the money from being stolen. Watch this video and note were the would-be robber actually changes his mind. It has little to do with Jesus.

I doubt that stores make the teller or employee reimburse the company in the event of being robbed. I have worked for many companies retail or otherwise and have never heard personally of any place that did. Repayment may be sought after theft by the employee in some cases, from negligence sometimes, but not when forced to give up items of value. I would really like to know the official policy from the company about compensation from employees in the event of robbery.

i asked, but since it is unlikely I will hear back from that company and news organizations will certainly never question her statement of having to pay back the company it appears that what an article in the Miami-Herald calls a "fib" (others call it a lie) and guilt is what stopped the robber and not the invisible hand of the Lord. It appears more the worry that someone reluctant (or unstable and easily coerced) to commit a crime in the first place would cause the victim inconvenience than divine intervention. It is clear that the woman showed no fear, and if her belief enabled to her to calmly dialog and confront a man with a gun, then great. Often not acting like prey is almost all that is needed to avoid being a victim. But that can backfire and is a personal choice, not one that an employee should make for the company and any other persons in the store or the vicinity.

It is quite possible the company will terminate her employment for not cooperating with a robber. Interfering with criminal activity can have serious consequences as some Sprint employees, among others recently discovered. Most companies have strict rules about how to deal with criminal activity and not cooperating can create extreme risk for others. Her unwillingness to follow the orders of the armed man actually extended the length of the robbery and the time he was in the store. Every moment he remained in the store increased the risk for everyone involved. That is why it is better, if not policy, to comply, give the person the goods or funds and let them depart as fast as possible. Fortunately she was not harmed. What is unfortunate is how the news is playing up this event.

Try critical thinking, please, before attributing things to magic.

The algorithm needs tweaking

Sometimes those keywords are not that successful in matching the ad to the content.

Or Google Ads has been programmed with a sense of humor.

Your reward is now

Happy Easter

See what you get when you trust somebody who purports to speak for the Universe? Decades and decades of lies and corruption through every level of the church hierarchy because those in charge are just thieving, grifting users of gullible or desperate people.

I can't help but think that the ROBOT POPE would rather delete its hard drive than overwrite the truth about child-molesting members of the church.

Yeah, "Happy Easter".

Reason for the season? Gimme bunnies, ducks and chocolate.

Fun & Educational!

One of the things about religion that bothers me is how the sheer horror of some of the tales associated with a religious faith are sanitized. The terrible acts of man and deity that purportedly exhibit how awesome the Gods are have often been glossed over, cleaned up and presented in a manner that a relatively reasonable person could accept as not being too awful to turn away from.

This is particularly evident when religion is taught to children who have little to no reference with which to compare how the real world works. Children and unfortunately many adults do not think critically. Critical thinking must be taught in many cases. But it is hard to do so when fear of terrible retribution is the ultimate lesson. Children for the most part believe what they are told. Up to a point they do not have the capability to evaluate and decide what is real and what is fantasy. They trust and accept what their caretakers present to them. They are as apt to believe what they learn in a church as they are in a talking sponge that encourages them to share with others. Ironically, a child is probably able to determine that much of what they observe on television is fiction long before they question their belief in a magical sky fairy who will send them to eternal torment if they disobey their parents.

So when I discovered the Passover Bag of Plagues at my local grocery store it stopped me in my tracks. This "teaching tool" is a perfect example of taking descriptions of horrific events and rendering them bereft of shock so children can accept them without question. A child can not intellectually associate a plague of disease with horrible suffering. They simply accept the tale as fact. So the horrible is made to be cartoonish propaganda. In the modern era cartoon violence is often seen as harmless but there is a big difference between a cartoon and the lessons of religion: Bugs Bunny is not being taught to children as something real.

The Bag of Plagues contains fun toy representations of the fabled Ten Plagues of Egypt for children to play with and help them learn about how much God loves them over everyone else.

Here is a little background for those not familiar with the many iterations of the Bible:

According to the legend, once upon a time God punished a Pharaoh for reneging on a promise to free a bunch of slaves. Now, one would think an all-knowing universal force could avoid causing some collateral damage but that was not how the story goes.

While the Egyptians were supposedly the primary targets, even the innocent ones who did not agree with their government's domestic policy regarding slavery, pretty much everyone was boned in one way or another just because the Pharaoh wanted a year-round work force. The slaves, supposedly the chosen of God, had to have suffered along with the Egyptians. I imagine the rain of frogs put quite a strain on the infrastructure not to mention all the water was rendered non-potable and all the food was eaten by bugs. At one point the slaves even had to resort to painting magical blood spells on their homes to avoid getting whacked by over-eager genocidal angels. That's so crazy you couldn't make that stuff up. Except somebody did.

Take a look at what the bag contains and what each item represents:

I could brainwash kids with this stuff for hours! Sunglasses to simulate a darkness covering the land? How cool the Egyptians would have looked sporting some Oakleys! One of those springy sticky hands covered in disease? Keep that out of the carpet, kids! Of all these symbols of death and suffering the Cattle Plague mask is my favorite.

What could be more fun and educational for a child than pretending to be an innocent cow cursed by God with disease and sentenced to a horrible, lingering death just to spite a politician? Good times!

Cattle Plague sounds like an edgy indie band that exists only to make your parents angry.

The piece of resistance though is the Death of Firstborn 9-piece puzzle.

Heinous.

I get stuff

The fine folks at Fantagraphics and W.W. Norton, via ultra-blogger Bully, have sent me a bunch of books for my collection. I expect that one of these days someone will realize how much my reviews suck and cut me off. But until then much appreciated!

The big prize in these books is The Book of Genesis by Robert Crumb. Like the Wolverton Bible, this title is a must have for those interested in the uncensored words of one of the most pervasive religions of the world. Robert Crumb's gritty art is perfectly suited for the task, conveying people as suffering under harsh conditions and also making them come off as unwashed perverts much of the time.

What becomes even more clear when aided by the art is that one of the underlying themes of the this section of the Bible is slavery. Everyone subservient to both man and deity because that is what the All-Knowing has ordered. The corrupt, criminal and even misguided claim to speak for God or at the least expect the populace to obey them because they maintain that is what God demands usually under threat of a terrible penalty for disobeying. Crumb did not approach this work is his usual familiar style but as straight illustration. Though because of his unique style some of his humor unexpectedly creeps in at places.

This version of The Book of Genesis is one of interpretation, though perhaps a much more honest one than that pushed by the usual suspects. One telling scene that illustrates perfectly the problems with interpretation is when scripture quotes a man is killed because he displeased God the panel depicts him as being murdered by a thief. In reading the "original" text it is conveyed the victim was struck down by some supernatural means and not by the sharp blade of a criminal seeking money. Here is a good review by R. C. Harvey.

The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit. I expected to read this and find it to be a charming steam-punk story. Instead it turned out to be at turns shocking and disturbing but worth the accolades.

Johnny Ryan turns in another interesting work in Prison Pit. Violent and definitely not for kids.

Another treasure is Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box. Cleverly packaged and full of nostalgia for a guy like me. A younger generation probably won't see the appeal beyond the kitschy art but I get a big kick out of it. I have seen all of these films and owned a number of them. One of the things that were readily available in Korea in the 1980s were cheap video cassettes and being stationed there I watched a lot of B-movies. Good times.

Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s is a collection of uncensored strips from indie artists and cartoonists. These are comic history and it would have been a shame for these to have been lost to time like so much of the more mainstream Golden Age work.

West Coast Blues. A French noir thriller that has been adapted to a number of formats over the last few years. This graphic novel is one such adaptation and it works well.

The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. by Dash Shaw. The work is dense and thoughtful and there are plenty of examples of amazing and creative use of color to support the story without overwhelming it.

Last but not least is a great collection of political cartoons by Lawrence Herblock. Herblock is published by the W.W. Norton Company and is no mere prop to be brought out of the closet, dusted off and strategically positioned on a coffee table by hipsters to impress during a cheese-tasting party. Not only does this massive tome document seven decades of opinion by a master of the craft but accompanying the book is a DVD containing over 18,000 cartoons. You could use this book to teach a college course, no kidding.

Take it home, Glen

As expected, I lost several subscribers in the hours after I posted my little opinion of Pat Robertson and his twisted, sick, hate-filled, bigoted and insane Cult of Suffering yesterday. I have no real idea who routinely drops in or when they stop doing so beyond the limited amount of tracking I do for the site, but I usually lose a number of the registered 'Followers' whenever I stray too far from the subject of comic books.

So?

When The Magic Goes Away

In the race to say something stupid about the disaster in Haiti it is Pat Robertson who is once again the clear winner, taking the gold medal. Almost as bad as Pat is his cohort in crime, that woman who sits on the couch next to him on the telecasts and who nods in sage acknowledgment to every insane and ridiculous statement this guy spews. I know it is her job, if not her actual calling, to play hostess but there should be a limit to what a person can stand.

I really can not think of any situation that is made better by adding in religion. It does nothing but allow self-limiting behavior that crushes human potential and deflects responsibility for both the good or ill that people do.

I'd like to think that organized religion is in it's death-throes and that all the attention and exposure is the reflexive actions of a twitching corpse before it finally dies. That is likely hopeful thinking on my part. What I hope is the last gasp of an irrelevant dying giant is probably been going on in some form for thousands of years, much the same as the Woo-Woos seeing signs of the Apocalypse occurring at any moment.

It would be so great though if Pat and the entire disgusting Cult of Suffering he is a part of was rendered irrelevant. Maybe another couple of decades will see some progress. I'd like to think my grandchild will live in a world where superstition is relegated to the fantasy of e-books and the cinema and not serve as an actual human impetus.

Think of how great the world would be if religion was looked back on as being as equally real as the cartoon adventures of Scooby-Doo.

NSFIQ Video (Not Safe For IQ)

Oooh, Burn!