Christopher Hitchens debates Barry Brummett

I haven’t watched this debate yet, but I really (really) want to.

I’m posting it here now, so that I can return to it when I have time.

About the vid:

Debate between renowned journalist and author Christopher Hitchens and Dr. Barry Brummett (Chair, Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin) on the resolution “Religion has been a positive force in culture,” June 4, 2011. Organized by the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo (http://www.english.uwaterloo.ca/), as part of the Literature, Rhetoric, and Values Conference, 3-5 June 2011.

Moderated by Jian Ghomeshi, an award-winning broadcaster, writer, musician and producer. He is the host and co-creator of the national daily talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and CBC TV (http://www.cbc.ca/q/). Since its inception in 2007, Q has garnered the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada and has become the highest-rated show in its morning time slot in CBC history.

What the funny kids are posting

The funny guy over at Tastefully Offensivemakes me laugh.

Here is a quick collection of recent posts that I thought you would LOVE to pieces.

iPhone text conversation says, “Hey girl it’s melanie from old navy could you take my 4:45-9 shift tonight.” “Yea I’d love to take your hours.” “Yay thanks you’re the best.” “BTW you have the wrong number, you should probably get ready for work.” “What?”

Things I do at costco. SHop for stuff. Eat free samples. Think about how badly I want to climb those giant shelves.

What’s brown and rhymes with snoops? Dr. Dre. 

reblog: Why Are Christians Leaving the Church? Turns Out It’s the Churches’ Fault

Image by alvaroprieto via Flickr

You should check out this post from Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta.

It’s a rundown from a Christian author as to why church attendance among young people is declining.

The book he references is called, “You Lost Me,” by David Kinnaman.

It appears brainwashing isn’t working as well as it used to.

What, with all the sources of information available and all, why would church attendance increase? Common sense should be the culprit for church attendance decline, but we’ll settle for information dissemination.

Anyway, check out the post here.

Here are the six reasons that Hemant posted from the book:

1. The Church is too insular — They tell you everything outside the church is bad and wrong… even though young people know that’s not the case.
2. Church isn’t important, relevant, or interesting to the younger generation.
3. Christians are too anti-science.
4. Christians are sex-negative, wrongly pushing abstinence-only education and avoiding frank discussions about sex.
5. Christianity is too “exclusive” — you’re either one of them or you’re the enemy.
6. Christians are hostile to those who doubt any part of the faith.

Those aren’t all the reasons in the book, but they are the ones that Hemant pulled out.

We all know the real reason why church is in decline … it’s because a little red man, with horns, hooves and a pitchfork has tempted the kids away … with his magical powers.

Isn’t it obvious?

If there were real photos like these, the debate would be over …

Devil behind a woman and text says, “Its time for your period.” 

But damn, this is so true right?

Via IHSTWOTI

 

On the road again

Image via Wikipedia

Tina-beans and yours truly are hitting the road this weekend. We’re driving deep into the Yeshua Fog™ with Talulah to land at my parents’ house in High Point, NC.

This trip is something we’ve been hoping to do for a couple months. So we’re going.

At the time that this blog posts, we will have been on the road for 30 minutes. So be sure to say a little godless prayer for us and all the other drivers … that they and we know how to drive without hitting each other.

In the meantime, it’ll be breakfast as usual.

In case you were wondering, High Point is considered (by some) to be the Furniture Capital of the World. Do you like how I all-capped that?

The image is a large chest-o-drawers that is located downtown. It’s a landmark, and if you get your photo near it, you’ll never be the same again.

You’ll get a lot of chances to see our progress through the week. You’ll be updated with hilarity and photos that you’ve NEVER EVER seen before.

You’ll thank yourself endlessly for following this blog and wonder why there is any other blog you ever considered following.

It’s true.

Believe me.

I speak-a dah truth.

Postscript: Don’t be a stranger today … there are plenty of posts scheduled throughout the day. It’ll be as if my alter-ego has taken over and he’s posting today.

 

Randy Phillips Comes Out To His Mom

Check out the above video of formerly anonymous now openly gay military man Randy Phillips coming out to his small-town conservative mom.

It’s a little hard to watch for a while, but there’s a good few minutes around minute 12 in which mom tells Randy that the bible teaches that god requires men with women, she just can’t figure out where the bible says it (funny how no one can find that verse).

We all know the verses that say homosexuality is bad. But there are verses that promote killing enemy’s babies and raping their women. Should we do that too?

Mom quotes Yeshua Fog 4:18 at one point by saying, “God created Adam and Even, not Adam and Steve.”

This isn’t a must watch, but it’s heart-wrenching if you’re interested.

My dad’s stomach can kick your dad’s stomach’s ass

For the last three weeks, my dad has been traveling in China. He’s working on a job to decorate high-end Chinese villas and homes. I was this close to going with him just to get a chance to shoot in China for a couple weeks.

But Tina and I have been too busy to entertain the thought.

One of his email updates was the above photo. He wrote:

The dish shown are sliced pigs ears. Reminded me of eating these when we were little kids in Holland.  We ate them cooked in Pea soup. I loved these, ate almost all of them.

My dad has a stomach of steel, and it shows. He could probably withstand most bacteria that would kill the rest of us. He rarely gets sick on his Asian travels. Unlike yours truly who spends nights in hospitals after eating a grub or two.

My dad is having a blast, though, and I think he may be honored with some sort of Chinese diplomatic immunity soon. He wrote in the same email:

The Chinese think I am awesome. I think they will make me an honorary Chinese.

Or maybe they think I am crazy … it’s hard to understand them when they speak Chinese.

You may see where my sense of humor comes from.

I’m deliberating over what to do with Tina. She has a special birthday coming up … one of those milestone birthdays. She wants me to take her somewhere nice for her birthday. We’re debating Europe or Asia. Where do you think I should take her?

 

This one is circulating: the irony is thick

I love when the baggers get together and show off how limited their minds’ collective capacity is.

Via

 

For the love of Darth Vader

Just when you thought you’d be able to say, “I’ve seen it all,” here’s the Imperial march played by two floppy disk drives.

Via

Speaking of food: How to peel a head of garlic in 10 seconds

I know, I know. I haven’t posted any food or food related posts in a while.

It angers me, too.

I made a fast and easy Chicken Cordon Bleu (like) recipe the other day that’s definitely going into our quick meal box.

But the above video is a lifesaver for a garlic-oholic like me. Usually, I take a recipe’s recommended garlic amount and double it. I’m pretty sure I should have been Italian.