Ignorance perpetuates itself

Wikiquote quote of the day:

Ignorance perpetuates itself just as knowledge does. Men write false documents, they preach false doctrine, and those beliefs survive to inspire wickedness in later generations. ... Conversely, some men write and teach about the truth, only to be declared heretic by the wicked.
In such cases evil has the advantage, for it will do anything to suppress truth, but the good man limits what he will do to suppress falsehood.

One might almost make a rule of it: "Whoever declares another heretic is himself a devil. Whoever places a relic or artifact above justice, kindness, mercy, or truth is himself a devil and the thing elevated is a work of evil magic."
--Sheri S. Tepper
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper>

Wisdom from the "Velvet President"

Speaking on Iran:

"What is possible and what I would repeatedly warn against is the policy of
compromise and the notion that if we don't provoke evil, it will just go away by
itself," Havel said. "On the contrary, that would just make it stronger."

--Vaclav Havel

The rest here.

You are no Jedi

Buying a cup of coffee in Newark; there's a beggar next to me.

Beggar: would you buy me a soda, please?
Me: No!
Beggar: but I'm not a beggar though!
Me: whatever.
Beggar: I'm not! (Huffs away)
Coffee guy: effing beggars!

This is an Ex-Groundhog

So we have one - maybe two - groundhog(s) living on our property. We can't determine the exact number because, let's face it, groundhogs are fungible and we've never seen more than one at a time. Instead of shooting it, or calling animal control, my wife named him/them "Gilbert". My kid asks about Gilbert and points to "Gilbert's house" in the corner of the yard.

Yesterday, Gilbert appeared to be taking the dirt nap in the middle of our suburban street, most likely hit by a car or a stealth bomber or something. My kid said "Gilbert needs a band-aid". Sorry son, Gilbert's way past band-aids now.

This morning, Gilbert was gone. I'm fairly certain he wasn't the promised messiah of groundhogs, who just sprung up from his death like the Narnia Jesus-lion. And since animal control/the roads department wasn't available to clean him up last night, I'm wondering if the turkey vultures "cleaned him up" during the course of the night. Do they work that fast? Does anyone know?

In any case he's gone. Nature is cruel. Hopefully there was only one, and if there were two the other one will be freaked out enough to leave.

In Pace Requiescat, Gilbert.

Religion is just Grand - part 4

You know what we need more of in America? Religion. All good things flow from religion, and faith in the almighty. Without it we wouldn’t have Jesus salt, beheadings, honor killings, boy-shagging, gay-bashing, or ignorance – in short, we wouldn’t have most of the horrible, evil, and oppressive elements of the human condition. And without evil, how can we be good? Got that? Amen.

Here’s a another great example from Africa again, through BBC News:

Stoning victim 'begged for mercy' (article here)

A young woman recently stoned to death in Somalia first pleaded for her life,
a witness has told the BBC.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me," she said, according to the man who wanted to remain anonymous. A few minutes later, more than 50 men threw stones.
Human rights group Amnesty International says the victim was a 13-year-old girl who had been raped. (emphasis mine)

Religion is just Grand - part 3

You know what we need more of in America? Religion. All good things flow from religion, and faith in the almighty. Without it we wouldn’t have Jesus salt, beheadings, honor killings, boy-shagging, gay-bashing, or ignorance – in short, we wouldn’t have most of the horrible, evil, and oppressive elements of the human condition. And without evil, how can we be good? Got that? Amen.

Here’s a another great example from across the pond (the UK) through the BBC:


Irish church knew abuse 'endemic' (article here)

An inquiry into child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland has found
church leaders knew that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys'
institutions.

Ritual beatings

The report said that girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' paedophiles from arrest amid a "culture of self-serving secrecy".
It also found that government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation. The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.

Religion is just Grand - part 2

You know what we need more of in America? Religion. All good things flow from religion, and faith in the almighty. Without it we wouldn’t have Jesus salt, beheadings, honor killings, boy-shagging, gay-bashing, or ignorance – in short, we wouldn’t have most of the horrible, evil, and oppressive elements of the human condition. And without evil, how can we be good? Got that? Amen.

Here’s a great example from right here in the USA through the Newsweek:

Parents' Rights, Judges' Rules (article here)

Last week, Daniel Hauser sat quietly in a Minneapolis courtroom while adults
debated how to combat the Hodgkin's lymphoma that has invaded his body. Doctors
wanted the 13-year-old boy to undergo chemotherapy and radiation. His parents
were resisting: their religion advocated natural and homeopathic methods. The
judge ruled on Friday that Hauser's family must select an oncologist and that he
must receive chest X-rays to determine the extent of his cancer, the results of
which would help determine a new medical plan of action. By Tuesday, the boy and
his mother were missing, having skipped the scheduled chest X-ray appointment; a
warrant has been issued for the mother's arrest. (emphasis mine)