Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Let’s start with tackling a potentially serious problem that’s been bugging me all week. If we have the DNA of Jesus could we recreate an army of identical babies? If we make enough of them, we could all have a personal relationship with our very own Jesus.

Gender differences are evident when it comes to Church support for COVID-19 restrictions. In Oregon the largest outbreak is from a Church that ignored restrictions.

Does it matter if we call them Evangelicals or Christian Nationalists? Just how Christian are they if they continue to accept illegal and secretive bailout bribes from the Trump Administration?

In Britain atheists have the lowest mortality rates from COVID-19. I suspect the main reason for this is that they heed Scientific advice.

More children than ever are being taught the facts about Evolution without the interference of any ridiculous religious beliefs. However some Christian schools are spending millions of taxpayer dollars on attempts to destroy the minds of teenagers. Exploring ‘Other Ways of Knowing’: The new religious threat to Science Education.

Trump’s Bible photo op caused an immediate drop in support.

Franklin Graham recently gave a perfect example of how Christians think that “allowing” one group of citizens to have equal rights is a denial of their rights. It is religious privilege masquerading as religious freedom. Yes, pious Jesus worshipers are the real victims here.

This weeks’ Woo: Homeopathy is such pathetic nonsense.

Climate Crisis: Coronavirus exposed the fragility in our food system.

Happy Summer Solstice! We humans have been celebrating it for a long time.

If I can’t have my own personal baby Jesus then I will settle for an Irish King God!!

36 Alien Civilizations in The Milky Way? The Science behind a ridiculous headline. (see also first “long reads” article below).

It was World Refugee Day last week. Next time you want to buy a gift online make a point of looking here for something different. Juneteenth had its anniversary this week.

Would it matter if we discovered we were living in a computer simulation?

We pause to remember Sarah Hegazi.

“Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime,” Thomas Paine insisted.

Long Reads: My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence. The Confederate Ghost that still whispers to Evangelicals. Forensic genealogy: how police are using family trees to solve cold cases.

What, you can’t get hold of Buffy? Then we better call Ava, the Warrior Nun!

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video: Why I left an Evangelical cult. Zain in Norway and the first time he saw a deer alone on the street. Is Freedom of Speech harmful for college students?

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Have a great week everyone!

As it was World Refugee Day yesterday, I will re-post a poem by Warsan Shire that I first posted 5 years ago:

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.

[Strega]

Thanks, Reg!

[_Robert_]

In Britain atheists have the lowest mortality rates from COVID-19. I suspect the main reason for this is that they heed Scientific advice.

I was in no less than 4 rock bands, averaging about 1 gig per week. Plenty of time for that, being retired. When I learned the virus had reached our area around mid March, I informed band leaders I am quitting effective immediately because I  have mild COPD (I jog everyday to keep pneumonia away). They had no idea what I was talking about. Band practice is typically a 3 hour session in a sealed 10’x10′ room with a huffing drummer and spewing vocalists. Gigs have the band sometimes closely surrounded by heavy breathing drunk bar patrons. Sure, I miss it and they all hate me  but their emotion-based thoughts find no purchase with a rational atheist, LOL.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Yeah, I understand that. I was recently asked by a Christian client (a Zoom call) if I felt I had overreacted to the “whole virus thing” and wondered “now that we have beaten the pandemic” why I was not making more regular site visits yet!!

By “overreacting” he was referring to my face mask and gloves which are mandatory when visiting the business he works for.  Thinking he was being smart he asked if I was a fan of the CSI shows.

Yes, I am all for Common Sense Initiatives.

[Unseen]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Yeah, I understand that. I was recently asked by a Christian client (a Zoom call) if I felt I had overreacted to the “whole virus thing” and wondered “now that we have beaten the pandemic” why I was not making more regular site visits yet!!

I had to remind myself that you’re not here in the United States where we’re still in the so-called First Wave with hot spots cropping up mostly in the so-called “red” (Republican) parts of the country, where many actually believe Trump’s lies.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Just before flights to the US were stopped, I was considering moving to Florida for 3 months as lockdown was already in place in Ireland. I can work remotely from there without my clients even knowing I am away. I have done so in the past but I think I am glad it all got locked down the day before I booked my ticket.  Oklahoma is doing bigly on the testing!! Good to know Mike Pence is in charge.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.’

In 1918 an influenza pandemic hit San Francisco with about 45,000 infections and 3,000 deaths. Doctors at the time recommended that people should wear masks. However, a new movement sprang up called the Anti-Mask League. They saw it as unconstitutional and against the principles of individual freedom. Conspiracy theories about population control and profiteering by the mask manufacturers were rife. Read more here.

I think the reason President Trump did not want to be seen wearing one in public is because it might make him look vulnerable. He should lead by example but then again it is clear that he does not care about anything but his image.

“I had one on before. I wore one in the back area. I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it”.

He said that at the Ford plant in Michigan.

I recently saw a photo of a protest where one sign read “Masks are for criminals”. The sign holder was wearing a t-shirt with the Batman logo on it 🙂

[_Robert_]

Trump does not look like the picture of health either. He might have a very bad time if he gets a whiff of that bug. The British PM almost made the ultimate ‘Brexit’ himself.

In time we shall see if the Trump rally(s) become spreader events. Perhaps then he will get the picture.

[_Robert_]

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Yes, in Arizona you could be ejected from a Target store for not wearing a mask but walk across the road to a Trump gig and cheer your potential executioner all evening.  His rallies ARE super spreader events. He will have to ask Mike Pence to stop the testing or the numbers will keep going up.

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