Happy Draw Mohammed Day Everyone!

Spit in the eye of religious stupidity.  Proclaim a mighty “Frack You!” to the people who seriously believe in screwed up shite.  Mark Twain said it best:

“Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them–and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon–laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution–these can lift at a colossal humbug,–push it a little– crowd it a little–weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.”

- “The Chronicle of Young Satan,” Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts

And of course, let us not forget the blasphemy itself – Enjoy!

Err…may 20th, apparently as soon as I get to use coloured text, my mind turns to goo.

Fox News – Misinformation on Tap 24/7

I wonder what colour the sky is in the land of Fox News.  I really do.  The level in inaccuracy and partisan slant censorship present is an obscene injustice against the American people and their right to know what is done in their name.  Certainly we can make fun of our ignorant neighbours down south, but we’re missing the point, we should be ridiculing their fatuous news media for the gross veil of ignorance that twists how Americans see themselves and the world.

The Friday Musical Interlude – Bourne Vivaldi – The Piano Guys

Story behind the song:
There are few “hooks” in the movie-music world that are as grabby as the Bourne Identity Soundtrack riff (starts at 0:29). Like the movie series, its intensity commands attention. We just had to figure out a way to use it. In our usual style, we thought we’d create an “action movie soundtrack” that combined this and a piece of classical music. In the early 1700′s Antonio Vivaldi wrote a concerto for an instrument that was then largely “undiscovered” by the music world — the cello. Among the first cello solo pieces ever written, Vivaldi was gutsy enough to write it for not only one, but TWO solo cellos and string orchestra. With no “action movies” in the 1700′s, this piece was probably the closest you could get to one. It has intense and exciting moments between beautiful lyrical moments. It was this piece, among others, that got Steven (the cello guy) excited about classical music—it was one of the first pieces he played with orchestra.

90% of this tune was written in 3 days. We worked on it day and night because it was so enjoyable to write.

The Family Will Be Growing – The Shadow Knows…

Oh, I’ve just been full of anecdata as of late, but important events are important events.  Intransigentia and I have qualified to adopt a senior Shetland Sheepdog.  Shadow will be joining us on Sunday May 19th.  Let the dog-awesomeness begin.  Find your local humane services or Shares and donate some $$ or food to their cause, they are creating happy unions for people and pets across Alberta.

A poor quality picture is all we have right now, but rest assured gentle readers hi-res justice will be uploaded very soon.

 

Nightmare Canadian Conservative Justice – Let’s Not Recreate the American Failure Up Here

The burning legion of stupid, led by Harper and his Conservative clown government balefully plods on toward making Canada’s prison system a mirror image of the failed system present in the United States.  Do we really need to frack things up Canada-Harper style to get the message that this is a gigantic mistake?

The next election Canadians had better wake up and get this farcical excuse of a governing party out of power.

We Need “Conservative Math” for Social Spending.

    Can you imagine if we had the sort of hand grenade type budgeting for the social services of Canada?  It would be like OH!, nationalized day care??? we thought it was like only 5 billion, but it turned out to be 7 billion, damn I guess that’s just ‘mission creep’.  Or, hey we are not going to rely on wisdom from the dark ages and build more prisons but rather, front-load the services that keep people above water and obeying the law instead.  OH no, oh no no no.!  The only area where we have the flexible budgets and creative accounting seems to be military, and all they seem to do is buy shiny new murder vehicles designed to  kill poor coloured people in far away lands.

Woo! Canada F-Yeah!

Our job, fostering democracy and stability in the Middle East, doesn’t come cheap, or even measurable when it comes to budgeting.

“Defence Minister Peter MacKay is defending the government’s accounting of the costs of Canada’s military mission in Libya, following the release of new figures by the Department of National Defence that lay out the final cost of the deployment.

And the total cost of the operation — a figure that includes everything from jet fuel to pilot salaries, including the salaries of military personnel — comes in at $347 million.

Last October, MacKay told CBC Radio’s The House the Libyan mission had cost taxpayers less than $50 million.

“As of Oct. 13, the figures that I’ve received have us well below that, somewhere under $50 million,” MacKay said.

“And that’s the all-up costs of the equipment that we have in the theatre, the transportation to get there, those that have been carrying out this critical mission.”

Well thanks Peter, you missed it only by about 300 million.  In the war department, that must be what they call a “slight oversight” or an accounting irregularity.

“The director of the military’s strategic joint staff was called on to explain duelling figures at a hastily-assembled news conference at National Defence headquarters on Friday afternoon.

Maj.-Gen. Jon Vance said MacKay did not mislead the public and pointed out senior military leaders referenced the figures publicly during Senate committee hearings.

But he concedes the minister would have known the estimated cost at the time and did not speculate on why MacKay chose to go with the lower figures exclusively.”

What? Conservatives lying to the Canadian public?  I am completely shocked, especially over war spending and democracy promotion.

“Peter’s got problems with his math yet again and this government’s got problems with trying to figure out how to cost things,” said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar. “I suppose he just thinks that if he can lowball it, people won’t be concerned about the costs. But, you know, in the end, the costs add up and it caught up to Mr. MacKay.”

The solution is just to get Mackay into the right portfolio.  With his math skillz we should be able to rejuvenate the social democratic fabric that makes Canada such a fantastic place to live.

The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Jesus Loves the Hell Math Redux

Not too long ago Mystro wrote a persuasive piece about how horrible the ramifications are of being tormented for eternity and the loopy logic involved therein.  Today’s Disservice will revisit that topic, only now in a helpful youtube video format to illustrate the machinations of a loving and just god.

Sometimes the related videos that show up in youtube are useful.  This gem of a video from the call in show The Atheist Experience is almost like a for – dummies guide on how to discuss with Christians the paucity of truth in their sad fairy tale and the immorality of their so called ‘moral teachings’.  Rather than having any actual proof that their delusion of choice is good for society and as a guide for life, the best argument they can offer goes something likes this:  “this is my story and it  makes me feel fuzzy on the inside and that’s good enough for me, truth be damned.”

That kind of insular thinking does not belong in the 21st century.