Guess who? Well, this ought to frost your Wheaties. Let's play a game: I suspect you might have a little trouble guessing the identity of this letter's author, now that I've edited the content enough to mask it and the president to whom he was referring, but let's see how you do. Now, I've got some pretty smart friends on social media. Some of you will guess correctly, I'm sure. Some of the letter's content that would constitute a dead giveaway had to be deleted in order to maintain our aura of mystery. So, I shortened the original content and changed a few words to hopefully keep you in suspense for a couple of minutes, anyway. Without further ado (I don't want anyone thinking too much and guessing before reading the letter), who wrote the following, and about whom? Mr. President, this is a day of solemnity and awe. I rise humbled that we are participating in a process that was mapped out more than 200 years ago by the Founding Fathers and that the words we say today will be looked upon by historians and future Congresses for guidance. That is quite a responsibility.I began this process in the House where it degenerated quickly into bitter acrimony. I would like to say to the Majority Leader and Minority Leader, and to my new colleagues who have wrestled with this case, that I deeply appreciate your fairness and patience and the way this has been handled with such dignity in the Senate.Growing up, our country and its government seemed like a mighty oak — strong, rooted, permanent, and grand.It has shaken me that we stand at the brink of removing a President … [Read more...]
Crushing an atheist’s spirit
[EDITOR'S NOTE: After one last scan of the article, it occurs to me the title needs some explanation. This isn't the actual goal of Mr. Doopy--he's trying to convince the other party in their debate that STL actually has a soul that can be crushed. No one was physically harmed in this battle of wits, if that's what this should be called.] Personally, I've begun to shy away from engaging with liberals or atheists in debate on the Internet because it's a tremendous time-suck, I'm not getting any younger, and my books unfortunately won't write themselves. It's just not a very productive use of my time, in my opinion, because the typical online debate adversary tends to assume several things that are inevitably untrue: these include the supposition opposing arguments cannot be supported by evidence, that arguments believed by consensus must be accepted as true, and that modern religious beliefs are only held by uneducated fools. Most often, this anonymous Internet opponent proves to be immune to all logic and reason, and devoid of any common sense. The effort usually strikes me as a colossal waste of valuable time so gradually, I've removed myself from groups where the trolls lurk, never seeming to have anything better to do than try to annoy me with ridiculous, ill-conceived arguments that usually degenerate into nothing more than childish insults or ad hominem. Nobody is ever going to admit, "You're right. I concede that my argument is inferior to yours."--no matter what transpires in the course of the debate, it has been my experience that the opponent never admits … [Read more...]
Greatest sports songs of all time
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: none of the songs on this list will be specific to a certain team. So there will be no "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia", "Hunker Down Hairy Dawgs", or "Georgia On My Mind" songs on this list just because I personally like them because then the list would get unmanageable and require acknowledgment of songs such as "Sandstorm" which I can't stand. The only omission that was a difficult choice was "Rocky Top" because I love the disturbing lyrics, but for the sake of consistency, it won't be here, either.] It's almost Christmas, which means it's also almost bowl season for college football. I don't want to antagonize the atheists in my audience by their personal religious beliefs (or lack thereof) during the holiday season and politics isn't exactly in the spirit of the holiday, so I've decided to do something a little more fun and different, and that is to make up a list of the best, most appropriate songs that could be during any game in any sport. So without further ado, let's start at the bottom of this short list and work our way up to the top, shall we? The song on this list that lyrically makes the least sense is Gary Glitter's somewhat catchy tune officially known as "Rock n Roll part 2", but usually referred to as the "Hey" song for obvious reasons. All you have to do is shout "Hey!" on the right beat, so it is something of a crowd pleaser. Drinking heavily before or during the game does increase the degree of difficulty in getting the timing down, though. And timing is everything, especially in sports. After all, you don't want your team to … [Read more...]
The problem of evil
A headline at The Drudge Report made an absurd claim: "Mankind's belief in evil 'caused by disease'." The headline of the actual article in the UK Daily Star was slightly more ridiculous--it prefaced the unbelievable claim with "Scientists discover..." Both headlines are nothing more than click-bait; the substance of the article doesn't come remotely close to justifying the claims of that sensational headline. In fact. if you actually bother to read the article found at the Daily Star claiming that "Scientists discover mankind's belief in evil caused by disease" what you, the reader, will discover is that scientists haven't said they have discovered any such thing. The only thing Brock Bastian and his team of researchers from the University of Melbourne have actually said is that there seems to be some sort of correlation between geographic locations where diseases were known to be more common and a cultural belief in the existence of demons and evil spirits. Once you get into the real "substance" of the article, you'll find the bold declarations have been considerably watered down by the use of all sorts of conditional words...the backpedaling begins with the article's subtitle that says "A potentially-massive breakthrough in our understanding of evil may have been found." Well, which is it? Has this amazing breakthrough been found, or hasn't it? You won't know for sure unless you read beyond the headline. The headline itself is nothing more than a hook to lure readers into learning about what amounts to simply a secular version of a false cause fallacy based on a … [Read more...]
(It’s not) The End of the World as We Know It
Remember seeing these guys at Tyrone's for a $1 cover charge? I am being half-serious when I say it might be my fault that the Georgia Bulldogs lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks last Saturday between the hedges in Athens, Georgia so if you really feel the need to vent your anger at somebody, you can direct it at me. By my own estimation, I committed the cardinal sin of any true Dawg fan (and especially an alumnus) of the University of Georgia--I took a game against an SEC opponent for granted. I was so sure that Georgia would easily win the game that I decided to leave for Savannah and listen on the radio instead of watching it at home, as I normally would. Because I'm old enough to remember the pure joy as a child of listening to Larry Munson's famous call of the 80-yard touchdown pass from tight end Richard Appleby to wide receiver Gene Washington on the "end around" pass, the idea of listening to the game "live" and then watching the highlights on replay had some appeal to me. I guess I was feeling a little bit nostalgic. The bottom line is that I had a choice, and in retrospect I chose unwisely. I probably should have stayed home and watched the game, and drove to Savannah later that night. Should have, would have, could have. I should have known better. Because I have played sports myself for much of my life, I've always been a little superstitious about sticking to a routine on Game Day. On the other hand, sometimes you just have to accept that some things are a little more important than who wins or loses a football game and it's important to keep our … [Read more...]
