Merry Christmas to all

And to all a good night. Also, Happy Festivus. May all your grievances be aired!
I'll be off airing my grievances with my family for a few days.
Have a good one!

The closeted religious

As a pagan, I usually spend a lot of my time in the religious closet. It's like the gay closet, but not as fabulous. And one thing that has always bothered me is people claiming to be in that closet when they aren't. Think the crazed right wing evangelicals who scream about how they can't be Christian anymore. Please, talk to me about not being able to practice your religion. I mean it. Then tell me about how you can't even keep your religious tools/books out in the open in your own house in case you have company because if this kid's mom knows what religion you are your kids won't be able to play together anymore.
However, there is a very small sect of Christians who actually are residing in the closet. Ada Calhoun wrote a wonderful piece for Salon about it. The secretly religious when your friends are atheist. I can honestly say I never thought about what that might be like. But it sounds amazingly like the experience all the rest of us have. And in a way those right wing crazies make it bad for them too. They reinforce the concept of Christianity or any other faith being evil making it harder to just say, "Dude, I go to church every Sunday, can you lay off the snide comments about how stupid people who go to church are?"*
I find it sad whenever people can't practice their faith in the open, or feel so uncomfortable about doing so they chose not to. Faith can be a comfort, it can provide answers, and it can create a sense of peace for people. Not all people, but some of us. I also find it sad that one group of marginalized people, like atheists, can in fact create a space where they hold a whole other group of people in the same disregard they are held in.*
I dearly hope that one day this might stop. People point their fingers at religion being the source of so many ills, and man terrible things are done in it's name. But at the same time we also find that the real source of this is the people within the religion. We need to address the people, not the religion. I think sometimes we all lose sight of that in the mass of anger and accusations.

*Obviously, not all atheists are like this. There is a small sect of Dawkins like atheists who to tend toward this, which is why I avoid like the plague anyone who is really really into Dawkins. I get tired of being called stupid. I am hoping that as people become more accepting of atheism that rage will cool. I wonder sometimes if there isn't a source of constant anger that causes a lot of the bitter name-calling over on his end of the spectrum. I know it tends to be the reason why a lot of name calling goes on over here in the pagan community.

Here comes the sun

I'm a day late and a dollar short on this one, but Happy Solstice/Yule to all you guys out there. Hurray for the days getting longer! We could all use a little more light.

People geeks love

It's not a secret I'm a geek. I was thinking of my favorite movies of this decade thus far and found a large number of them are really stereotypical "geek" movies. I mean, Star Trek? Iron Man? 28 Days Later? I tend toward geek. It's smart and funny in a biting kind of way. Kind of bitter, which makes sense since it's humor for people who were picked on.
But, while thinking of some of these movies and shows (and books, can't forget books) and of my post a few days ago I realized that geek stuff has a fair share of really hot people. We have Quinto as Spock and Sylar (does he get extra credit for being two iconic geek characters?) We have Doctors 9 and 10, Eccleston and Tennant. We have Elizabeth Michell from Lost. We have Robert Downey Jr. I'm claiming him for geek women now that he's not only done two Iron Man's but has played Sherlock Holmes. I could go on and on. I did at home, I wrote most of it down and have quite a list.
But I started to wonder, could we sell this massive amount of hotness to other people? Do people realize how many talented people could be counted as "geek". Do that many talented people count themselves as geek? I would love to try to get all this info together into one place, a blog or a book or something. A list of people geeks love and why. I am kind of flighty, but I really love this idea. So maybe in the New Year I'll be starting a place for this, and asking of help. After all, I can't get a list of people geeks love (or people who love to be geeks) without the help of other people. Then it would be a list of people I love and not as interesting.

New Rule for Tea Baggers

So, apparently at your little "Die-In" rally in DC some of you lovely people boo-ed FDR.
New Rule:
If you or someone in your family collects social security you can not boo FDR. You just can't. You ignorant fools.
Man, these people really piss me off.

Oh hai!!

I believe that no one can read the LOLcat Bible too often, as it does spread the word of Ceiling Cat.
It looks like the whole Bible is done now, so go have a read. If nothing else it will make you giggle. And remember, this translation may be more accurate that Conservapedia's translation, since this one does just chop out large chunks that don't suit it.

:edit:
The funniest read? Would be the Song of Solomon. Biblical porn in LOLcat.

God I'm a geek

I am utterly charmed at the fact that Zachary Quinto posts Facebook updates. The fact that I am charmed by this is because I have a massive crush on him and his aggressive eyebrows (seriously, even in Star Trek while rocking the Vulcan manscaping they were aggressive. How does he do that?)
I am a geek.
That is all.

#19

The Duggars had baby 19 last night, born via emergency c-section almost 4 months early. The baby girl is on 1 lb 6 ounces and obviously is in the NICU.
Having had a child in the NICU, I am sending as much good energy and good prayers to her and her child, NICU's are terrible places. They work miracles, but damn, they are awful.
May all the gods keep this child, since her parents are insane and really shouldn't have had 19 kids in the first place.
And may the gods damn the Quiverfull movement that means this will happen more and more often as more and more women have more children then their bodies can handle.
This whole story makes me very sad and very angry.
More info about the birth here.

The stupid, it burns

LGF was evil enough last night to post a link to Conservapedia's article on Black Holes.
Now, just ponder that for a moment folks. Conservapedia, the people slowly rewriting history to match their crazy fundamentalist views and are revising the Bible itself because it is too liberal, talking about a concept that scientists don't completely understand. Really, what could go wrong?
The article itself is a mass of revisions and corrections and arguments. Like a regular scientific discussion except these guys are trying to disprove black holes by explaining that since the Bible doesn't mention them they can't be real.
I am not joking.
If you have a few moments and care to wallow in stupid, have yourself a read. It certainly is interesting.

Sarah covers herself in glory. Or stupid. Same difference

Oh Sarah. Honestly, sweety, you need to go away. And please stop talking about "Climategate". Aside from the fact that is such a stupid name for a non-gate, the idea of someone with the IQ of my kitten talking about it is absurd.
Honey, I'm not a scientist, but I am a thinking human. My brain works a whole 90% of the time (the other 10% of the time it is dazzled by shiny things and David Tennet). I'm not sure you're hits the 50% mark on a regular basis. I have come to this conclusion because I have read what you have said about "Climategate" and then read the emails. Then read about scientific testing because, you know, if I'm going to judge I should know what I'm talking about. And came to the conclusion that this really is a non-deal. You know, not like you. I can't decide if you really believe the insane things you state, or if you're just parroting things, but either way you do need to go home and leave the heavy lifting to people who actually can lift. Or in this case think.
This is hardly the biggest thing that has bugged me about Palin recently, but it is a symptom of the big picture. She feels that she is somehow not only qualified to make comments on things way above her pay grade, but she also seems to feel that she should. That people expect her to. Now don't get me wrong, I expect her to, because she is an idiot and she's really funny when she talks. But I also don't want her convincing people to believe the insane things she believes in.
The best thing that could happen for us would be if the Tea Party Party forms and runs her in 2012 (or 2010, whatever). People would get a long term view of how stump dumb she is and split the GOP, and Bob's your Uncle, Dems win it. Yay!!
I know, it won't be quite that easy, but you get where I'm going. She will be polarizing, and we could make out on top if that happens.

While I was gone...

One of the things I did while I was away from blogging was read other people's blogs. And one of the blogs that I was impressed enough with that I bothered to get a user name for was Little Green Footballs.
Yeah, I know, Charles was Teh Crazy for a while there, but he has recently fled the Right, and is now more moderate than right-leaning. Which cool with me.
But the thing I'm most impressed with is his outrage over the conservative's anti-science agenda. Climate-gate (Christ, what a retarded name), fruit fly research, Palin, he really does spend a lot of time addressing what the Right is saying about science. And for those of us here on the left that is invaluable. So stop by and give him a read if you haven't already.

Merry...:sigh: oh what's the use?

In about a week I'll probably start wishing people a Merry Christmas. I do this because to me Christmas means nothing but getting and giving gifts. It's a nice secular holiday like 4th of July that happens to be celebrated withing the vicinity of a holiday I celebrate. I take the kiddo to see Santa (this year we are doing a Polar Express train ride with kiddies in their jammies and Santa and hot chocolate. Yay!!), set up a tree and decorate the house within an inch of it's life, buy lots of things for lots of people, and mail out roughly a metric ton of cards.
Last year the kiddo, who was 4, was asked by someone if she knew who Jesus was. She gave the person a blank stare, and the person started to explain the whole deal to her, which is when I whisked her away. In a store someone tried to teach my child about Jesus. :sigh:
I'll wish you a Merry Christmas, but for the next month Christians are unbearably pushy and rude. If you say Happy Holidays, which is my prefer ed greeting if I know you aren't Christian, you get yelled at. If you say Merry Christmas then random people try to teach your kid about Jesus. A year later the kiddo knows of Jesus. I told her he was like Buddha, so that ought to piss of anyone who tries to talk to her about him. Heh.
So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays dear readers!! Hope we all make it through it without killing a Christian!! Heh.

I slept with Tiger Woods

Dear media:
You can not underestimate how much I do not care about who Tiger Woods slept with. My interest level with Tiger Woods has always been pretty low, and at the moment you are now treading deep into irritation territory. I am sure there are people out there who care if his wife was taken to the hospital last night, I am not one of them. This should not be your lead story (hint: the huge storm could be your lead story. Just an idea).
Dear media, leave the guy alone. Yeah, he probably cheated with everyone with the proper parts and a pulse. Whatever, I really don't care. I feel kind of sorry for his family who now have this being splashed all over the world.
Dear media, knock it off and get on to real news, hmm?
Love,
Me.

Alice, or watch the purists heads pop off

When you come into my house one of the first things you notice (after you notice the shitloads of books. I collect books, so there are, quite literally, shitloads of them) is the Alice in Wonderland stuff.
I am a very big fan of the Alice books. I wrote papers on the books in college (how the stories themselves changed children's literature from the "good kids all die" model of the Victorain era to a more liberal and fun model, and how the poetry was part of a cutting and funny social commentary that runs through the books. Yeah, I'm a geek, stop staring). I collect editions of the book itself. I have collectables, playing cards, tarot cards, pictures, and all manner of other items Alice related scattered through the house.
So, you might imagine I was excited when I found out they were "re-imaging" the stories on SyFy.
I was.
So far it's a little dark, has many of the same characters, it's set 150 years in the future, and is pretty fun. But somewhere off in the distance I can hear Alice purists (the Alice in Wonderland version of the people who freak right the hell out over the Harry Potter movies being different from the books) screaming. Why? Because Alice should be left alone, it was perfect the way it was, etc.
Honestly, if it gets people interested in the story then awesome! We can always use more people reading. And Alice is a book that carries well into adulthood. It's wonderfully disturbing, which is one of the reasons why I won't read it to the kiddo yet.
Now all this may change by tomorrow after I've seen the second part (after all, Tim Man kind of fell apart at the end, so this one might too), but if it does at least generate some interest in a story I love very much, the more power to SyFy.
And expect a post like this one when Tim Burton's movie comes out next year. But with more fangirl screaming. Because Depp as the Hatter is just too perfect.

Where have I been?

Goodness it's been a while. Sadly I was needed in real life for a while. But I did not forget about my blog.
More posting to come, I promise.