Jewish Dogs

The Koran teaches that Jews are - or are descended from - apes and pigs, as you can read about in this article. This is obviously insane if taken literally - as is often the case in the uneducated, brainwashed Muslim world - and is hateful, bigoted and destructive if taken figuratively - which is often the case in the educated, brainwashed Muslim world.

Let me just state as a disclaimer that obviously not all Muslims feel this way, but I have read a TON of books and articles concerning those who do. To those citizens of the non-brainwashed Muslim world: Thank you for not believing this garbage literally or figuratively, and we'd appreciate your help spreading the message.

It is on this sour note that I offer comedy as consolation. If Jewish apes and pigs need two more mammals for a "minyan," these dogs are ready to "daven."

Click on those links above for a quick Hebrew lesson.

Religious Belief and Practices in the U.S.

USA Today online has a very interesting interactive web page relating to U.S. religious beliefs and practices. You can visit it here.

Agnostic Bar Mitzvah Speech

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This 13-year-old boy demonstrates a lot more wisdom than the millions of people of every creed who express fundamentalist religious beliefs, or absolute certainty in their unsupportable convictions.

Bill O'Reilly Goes Berzerk

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This isn't new by any means, but it's funny nonetheless. Enjoy!

Al Qa'eda in Iraq Bans Women Buying Cucumbers

This story lives at the crossroads between insanity, comedy and cruelty. Some quotes from the article:

"(Al-Qa'eda's rules) include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables."

"They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men."

"Other farcical stipulations include an edict not to buy or sell ice-cream, because it did not exist in the time of the Prophet, while hair salons and shops selling cosmetics have also been bombed."

"They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram."

And on a less comical note:

"I saw them slaughter a nine-year old boy like a sheep because his family didn't pledge allegiance to them."

It's on this last note that we should be reminded why we must kick the crap out of Al Qu'eda wherever it rears its disgusting head.

No Reason...I Just Like This Image

Saudi Girl Executed for Becoming Christian

As if the world needed yet another example of the brutality and inhumanity of Islamist thugs, this story was reported by Israel Today:

A young girl in Saudi Arabia was brutally executed by her Muslim father this week after he learned his daughter had converted to Christianity.

Middle East business news website Zawya.com reported that the man, who is a prominent member of a "virtue committee," first cut out his daughter's tongue and held a one-sided religious debate with her. He then burned his daughter alive.

Observant Muslims hold that their Prophet Mohammed taught that Muslims who convert to any other religion must be killed, often in extremely brutal fashion.

When these scumbags treat their own daughters this way, what do you think they would do to yours?

Presidential Candidates' Space Policy

This blog has yet to endorse Obama or McCain, as both remain ripe for compliment or criticism, depending on what they say and do between now and November. But anything that either does that relates to the themes of this blog - science, religion, skepticism, general oddities - will be brought to your attention.

On that note, your reading assignment for today is Obama's space policy and McCain's space policy.

A disclaimer on the graphic above: This graphic is the weirdest image I could find online related to this topic. It does not, however, provide an endorsement of Obama.

Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

The speed of light - about 670,616,629.4 miles per hour - is the ultimate speed limit of the universe, according to Einstein's theories and the vast quantity of supporting evidence and observation. As a result, this makes all but our most immediate cosmic neighborhood even remotely accessible. As a frame of reference, it takes light 4 years to reach the nearest star (other than the sun), and at the fastest speed currently attained by a manned vehicle, the journey would take about 110,000 years.

But maybe the ultimate speed limit can be "broken." Enjoy this article.

Corpse Kept Upright During 3-Day Wake

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A picture is worth 1000 words. But if you want to read the story, click here.

Woman Covered in Ticks from Head to Toe on Ferry

Think twice before taking your next Italian ferry ride. Once you read this story, you'll probably prefer to swim across the sea.

Guitarist for the 70's Band Queen Publishes Astrophysics Thesis

I couldn't have made this story up, it's so unbelievable...and impressive!

UFOs Are Real! (Claims Astronaut)

This is a story that I actually have mixed feelings about ridiculing, because I greatly wish it to be true. A former NASA astronaut, who walked on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission, claims that the government has been covering up repeated alien contacts for the last six decades.

How a government that could not cover up Watergate or Clinton's sexcapades could hide proof of little green men is not noted in the article.

By the way...BLOGICAL is back after a four month hiatus. This story seemed quite appropriate for its rebirth. Be sure to visit the archives for more interesting and entertaining reading!

Religious Nuts Nail Themselves to Crosses

Allow me to provide some choice quotes from this article:

"A 15-year-old boy has been crucified in the Philipines today in a gory ritual to mark the death of Jesus Christ."

"Dozens of Filipinos, including the boy and an 18-year-old girl, were nailed to crosses and scores more whipped their backs into a bloody pulp as the country's devout Roman Catholics marked Good Friday."

"In the small village of Cutud...men cried out as nails the size of pencils were driven into their hands and feet before they were hoisted up in the scorching heat."

"For hours before the crucifixions lines of men, hooded and half naked, flayed their backs with bamboo whips and paddles tipped with broken glass. Blood splattered over the road."

"The atmosphere was festive, with hawkers selling beer, ice-cream and souvenir whips."

"Some foreigners have previously been crucified including a Belgian nun and a Japanese man, who later allowed footage of his ordeal to be used in a pornographic film."

As entertaining as this spectacle must be, I'd recommend this alternative, safe and proven method for those wishing to celebrate Easter:

Iran's Anti-Gay Jihad

"On July 19, 2005...two teenage boys, Mahmoud Asgari, 14, and Ayaz Marhoni, 16, were hanged in a particularly brutal manner in Iran for the crime of homosexual activity."

This occurred despite the contention by "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who famously declared at Columbia University last year: 'We don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. We don’t have this phenomenon; I don’t know who’s told you we have it.'"

What a deranged son-of-a-bitch.

These quotes come from this article, which discusses Iran's executions of homosexuals in the context of an asylum issue in Britain, which almost exported an Iranian gay man towards the same fate as the boys pictured above.

Yet again, Iran shows itself to be unworthy of membership in the community of nations. That it takes its legal code from the Koran and Hadith should demonstrate - as does jurisprudence in Saudi Arabia and Taliban-era Afghanistan - that any society that institutionalizes Islam in its legal code is at odds with our civilization.

The de-Islamification of these governments - as opposed to its population - is the first and most critical step towards peaceful coexistence. Until that happens - and it will only be successful when undertaken from within by their own populations - these countries should be isolated and detached from the world community. Unfortunately, the power they've been granted by the oil under their soil makes this isolation exceedingly difficult... another argument for investing in alternative energy resources.

Boyfriend Might Be Charged in Toilet Case

An update in the disturbing toilet case.

Hostages' Severed Fingers Sent to U.S. Military in Iraq

"Severed fingers of five Western contractors were sent to the U.S. military in Iraq, giving the men's relatives hope that they are still alive...The men were abducted in two separate incidents that occurred a month and a half apart more than two years ago."

Is there any better example of the inhumanity of whom we're fighting? These are the same animals that brought you the tragic Nick Berg beheading, among others.

Whether or not you believe we should remain in Iraq or not, there should be no doubt that our enemy - there, in Afghanistan and in Islamist jihadist enclaves across the Middle East - is barbaric and incapable of living peacibly with its neighbors. No matter how it is accomplished, our end goal should be nothing short of disempowering and isolating these monsters until they are ready to join the human race. I doubt this will happen in the lifetime of anyone currently alive today.

Woman Sat on Toilet for 2 Years

You've got to read it to believe it.

Arabic Debate About Islam

Below is a debate between Wafa Sultan, the Syrian-born American critic of Islam, and an Egyptian Islamist on an Arabic television program. This is yet another example of the complete and utter disconnect between the "realities" of the Western and Islamic worlds. There are two totally different world histories presented (despite historical evidence) and two totally different perceptions of current world events.

Until Islam is reformed from within, including the elimination of the fantasy world in which many of its inherents live, peace with the West is so unlikely that it is practically impossible.

An Insider's View of Scientology

Below you can hear an interview of Tory Christman, a 30-year member of the Church of Scientology, from the podcast Point of Inquiry. Most interesting is her perspective on the aggressive anti-free speech activities of the church.

One needs only listen to Tom Cruise to get an idea of how nonsensical this oddball church is (not to mention its having been founded by a science fiction author). But to understand the most bizarre aspects of its theology/cosmology, read this article on Xenu, an alien through whom science fiction meets religious cult fact.

Moms Allegedly Brawl at Chuck E. Cheese

From the Associated Press:

NATICK, Mass. (AP) -- A child's birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant was cut short after a fight broke out between two mothers. Natick police said the mom of the 9-year-old birthday boy apparently became enraged because the other woman's son was "hogging" an arcade game.

Sgt. Paul Thompson said Catherine Aliaga, 38, and Tarsha Williams, 33, both of Boston, would be summoned into court to answer charges of simple assault and battery stemming from the scuffle.

Thompson told the MetroWest Daily News that police received a number of 911 calls about the fight Saturday night.

He said what started as a birthday celebration turned into a "birthday melee."

The Great Silence

Today's reading assignment considers the possibility that we might never meet other civilizations in the universe, and that we ourselves might unavoidably be doomed to extinction.

This article provides an interesting counter-argument to my post from December 31, 2007.

Such a sobering thought...

The End of the World is Predicted

This is no story from the Weekly World News. Scientists are predicting that the Earth will spiral into an expanding Sun in 7.6 billion years. But long before this happens, in "a billion years or so you've got an Earth with no atmosphere, no water and a surface temperature of hundreds of degrees, way above the boiling point of water...It will become completely impossible for life of any kind to exist. It's a pretty gloomy forecast."

Unfortunately, the latest prediction for time until there is peace in the Middle East is 7.7 billion years, so all this fighting may prove to be for naught.

On a more serious note, according to physicist Stephen Hawking, "The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe." Let's just hope that in the near future, the level of enthusiasm for space travel returns to that of the days of the space race of the 1960's.

Saudis Arrested for Flirting at Shopping Mall

57 men were arrested this past Thursday in Saudi Arabia for flirting with women outside a shopping mall. Their lawbreaking behavior "included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing." This is one sick society.

Of course, these men have it a lot better than the Saudi woman accused of witchcraft, who faces beheading for her "crimes:"

2001: A Space Odyssey - 40 Years Old and Still a Masterpiece

This year marks the 40th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The film was - and remains -  a landmark science fiction movie (as well as a novel), groundbreaking in its storytelling and special effects.

Those familiar with the movie might enjoy this unique Flash animation called "Kubrick 2001 - The Space Odyssey Explained."

Below you will find the last 22 minutes of the film (split into three videos), which might be the most unique, mind-bending, psychedelic - and for the new viewer, confusing and aggravating - 22 minutes of film in movie history.