Thomas Paine

Patience, grasshopper, this is a two-parter.

1) Call me naive, I only learned about mogging today. Here’s a 1 minute intro:

2) Here it is in a Hegsethian context, within the Trumpian context. I like the whole episode but jump into it where it serves comedic effect wrt mogging, leaving 9 minutes to…[Read more]

Trump and Gang aren’t the only ones profiting from MAGA superfans buying his personalized merch.

FullermingJr:

Even so, customers should not be giving out their tracks unless they strike up a friendly conversation with another customer or even an employee and it’s a personal interaction.

If religionists wish to give out literature on a street corner while picking up any litter and allowing free movement of pedestrians or if they want to r…[Read more]

Reg:

Remember Kim Davis in Kentucky? She was an elected county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Courts ordered her to comply. She refused and was briefly jailed for contempt of court.

Can a public official refuse to carry out a legal duty because of personal beliefs? There are two fundamentally different ways to…

[Read more]

Fullermingjr:

Even so, one could tolerate her beliefs and maybe an opportunity may arise where a real dialog could happen.

As I recall from my reading, the gods mentioned in both The Tower of Babel myth and the Icarrus myth were jealous gods who didn’t want Man getting literally uppity. Believers in gods like these can’t possibly have a high…[Read more]

Yes, Fuller, i did say and i do mean that religion is make-believe.

Were it not for indoctrination and the personal stake and emotions of wish thinking then god(s) would be as easy to discard as Santa Clause or fill in the blank. It is childish. It is infantile. But we are human and there you are.

@fullermingjr No religion is rational by the very definition of the word rational – derived from logic and reason etc.

A religion is by definition a faith based construct, for which belief  is required, not reason.

A Venn diagram of Religion and Rationality would barely touch at their potential meeting point.
I suppose Religion could be…[Read more]

@TheEncogitationer

“Well, I don’t believe in learning other languages. I believe God gave men different tongues and divided them at The Tower of Babel and that’s how it’s meant to be.”

How very sad!  The woman’s faith system that said that statement… that thinks humanity should be divided this way has completely missed (a) the point of Babel a…[Read more]

Fullermingjr:

To address your workplace concerns, first, understand, I’m not lumping you in with other religionists, but I’m just recounting what I’ve encountered:

I myself take my breaks and eat my lunch alone and only try to talk shop, not philosophy or religion. Politics sometimes unavoidably comes up at work with talk about health care…[Read more]

I would think the distinction between employee in private v official government position or quasi government is pretty straightforward. Compelling and accommodating trickier.

Modern workplaces bring together people with fundamentally different worldviews, be they religious, secular, scientific or ideological and then ask them to cooperate as if those differences don’t matter. But in reality, they do matter. The trick is deciding when they matter at work and when they don’t.

For me the issue is never “belief vs belie…[Read more]

Fuller be good.

Hi Fuller

Oh i remember. I recall. Not that i forgot at all. The afternoon, the street. Sweet convergence then unknown but put down with a given with the pencil of intent in which true meandering is written.

So i have been mulling Craig the apologist shill piece of human excrement aka a holy mofo and his takes on morality. I…[Read more]

Greetings Reg. It’s been a few years! Do you remember me?

The article you linked on the topic, “Federal workers are having to endure Christian indoctrination in the workplace.” is interesting. As a theist, I strongly oppose the overall ideas, seeming values, and many of the practices of the current MAGA movement and the current US executive and…[Read more]

Reg:

But when the “me” and “you” are are skeptics or blasphemers, or mothers and children not living and toiling in laundries as “us” dictate as “proper,” or a builder wanting to build new housing that might run against the aesthetics of “us”, the “us” can be a real buzz-kill on life.

And while having necessities and amenities within 15 minutes…[Read more]

“It’s a very collective society, not huge on individualism like in the US.”

People tend to think in terms of community, family, and shared identity. There’s more value placed on cooperating and supporting each other. I would say that social norms often lean toward “we” over “me”.

But it is also a liberal society. We do have a small but vocal…[Read more]

Reg:

Why more Americans are now moving to Ireland.

The Americans who can move anywhere else have not just First World Problems but Starfleet Federation Problems. They obviously aren’t impacted by tarrifs or rising fuel prices. The rest of us are stuck here.

🎶One of these things is not like the other. One of these things does not…[Read more]

Reg:

Have a great week and have a good 420 day tomorrow….:-)

Sadly, sizable chunks of Podcast-istan will be either be celebrating 4/20 for a reason other than herbal commestibles or worse they will be lounging in indifference.

Without breaking Godwin’s Law: “You know who else…?”

Reg:

Environment: Opioids and other drugs accumulating in freshwater fish.

Another unintended consequence of the Global “War On (Some) Drugs.”

When substances are made illegal, dealers and users have strong incentive to dispose of the substances if they are about to get caught. And not much incentive to care about how and where the substances…[Read more]

Every dot is a galaxy. The map spans 11 billion years of cosmic history. It also includes 20+ million stars in our own galaxy. By comparing galaxy positions across time, scientists can track how expansion changed. Early DESI data hints that dark energy might not be constant. That’s huge because current physics assumes it is and so the standard m…[Read more]

Thanks Strega! on Friday I went to see several works by William Blake, one of my favorite creative artists. One of his works is “Thou wast Perfect till inquiry was found in Thee” c. 1805. Reference  is “The book of Ezekiel” which depicts Satan in his glorious state, before his fall. The orb and scepter server to emphasize Satan’s power and regal…[Read more]