What would Odin do or gimmee yer exact definition of religious freedom.

Couple of links for you to peruse before we get started.

www.libertyspeaks.net/headlines/2013/06/03/lhs-valedictorian-takes-a-bold-stand-for-prayer/

http://therightscoop.com/fantastic-valedictorian-defies-school-district-says-lords-prayer-during-graduation-speech-crowd-roars/

     Now before you get started, Yes I know both articles essentially say the same thing.  Brave Boy defies evil school and stands up for Christianity by reciting the Lord's Prayer.  Oorah and pass the Communion Wine!  If you search the Interwebz, you will literally find hundreds of websites/blogs praising this boy and the courageous stand he took.  Jesus and Christians have been saved from an Ignoble death!  All is Hooplah!

     In all honesty I have absolutely no trouble with what the lad did.  He perceived a wrong and did what he felt was right to correct it or at least draw attention to it.  I will point out here that despite what so many people like to claim, Christian Prayer or any sort of prayer has not been banned in schools anywhere in the US.  Due to the separation of Church and State, Schools (Well non religious type schools anyways) are forbidden from leading prayers and other types of religious functions.  No matter what a lot of people claim, this does not boil down to a War on Christianity.  It is a matter of preventing Publicly funded organizations from forcing one set of religious beliefs on everyone.  Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Pastafarians all are still free to pray whenever they wish.

     Course that is sort of the subject of this rant.  I read all the blogs and comments where people cheer on a young boy who recites a Christian prayer in defiance of the rules and I wonder, what would have been the reaction if it had been a Prayer to Allah?  How about a Prayer from the Torah?  Suppose the Buddhist student had stood up and started doing his meditation chant?  I am betting that the reactions from the vast majority of people would have been a lot different.

     I am recollected of something that occurred not that long ago when several schools began teaching meditation techniques to their students to help them focus and be more productive.  Oh there was such an uproar.  Parents were outraged that a religion (See any religion but Christianity) was being taught in the schools.  Funnily enough, they used the exact same arguments that a lot of Atheists use when talking about keeping religions out of school.  They went on (and on and on and on..) about how it was wrong to teach kids a foreign religion and that this was A Christian Nation. (It is not, just so you know.)  These were basically the same people who argued that Muslim children shouldn't be allowed to pray, but claimed that Christian Children should and that Schools should lead the prayers.

     For a nation founded on the concept of Freedom of Religion, we are a remarkably intolerant nation when it comes to Other Religions.  People seem to believe that Freedom of Religion basically means Freedom to Be Some Sort of Christian.  Reactions have proven that time and time again.  

     So I am honestly curious what would have been the reaction had the Boy stood up and started reading passages from the Koran to defy the "anti-religion" rules.  History, especially recent history seems to indicate that instead of being hailed as a hero, he would have probably been booed off stage and probably been thrown out of school.  You can bet that the majority of internet posts would have been less than kind.  Freedom of Religion and the Separation of Church and State are there for a reason.  Everyone has the right to worship or not worship as they please without the beliefs of others being pressed upon them.  In a very real sense, Freedom Of Religion can also be read as Freedom From Religion.  

End of rant

You morons do grasp the concept of FICTION right?

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-star-trek-promotes-bestiality-childrens-show-superhero-probably-fighting-christians

     Okay folks, even I am completely flabbergasted and bamboozled by this one.  Kevin Swanson, the pastor and right-wing radio broadcaster gone off on a tiff about how Star Trek is now promoting Bestiality because it shows Dear Old Jim Kirk waking up beside not one but two alien women.  The assumption is of course that he did the horizontal Lambada with them the previous night.  He also mentions the upcoming Kids Show Shezow where a young boy becomes a super type person by transforming into a girl type person.  On this "Swanson questioned the superhero’s ability to fight evil when he should be fighting the “evil” of “homosexuality and this transgender thing.  Instead, “he’s probably fighting Christians and trying to be sure that they’re burned at the stake or something.”
     Now folks I haven't seen the new Star Trek movie yet, but I know the Trek Mythos and if there is a species that Kirk hasn't slept with it is only because they probably reproduce by hitting each other with rocks.  So the scene in the movie should not be a shocker.  Next, calling it bestiality is a little silly.  Working on the assumption that the ladies in question are sentient beings then the worst it could possibly be is Interracial (Literally in this case) Sex.  Bestiality involves having sex with animals not intelligent beings.  (Course come to think of it, I have known some people that might qualify as bestiality if someone has sex with them just because they were more than a little dim.)

     Now I have already done a blog on Shezow! but I include the link just in case you missed it.

  http://sometimeass.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html

     Pretty much everything that needs to be said about this nifty new show is said in that blog and I can assure you that the hero/heroine is not out burning Christians at the Stake.  (As a historical aside here, I am pretty sure that no Christians, well besides Joan Of Arc were ever burned at the stake.  Hanged, yes.  Crucified, you betcha, but don't recall any burnings.  Course technically the witches burned in Europe were probably Christians, at least on the side.  Wait saying Crispy side here would be wrong wouldn't it?)  So I will just let you reread the blog and watch the trailer and make up your own minds.

     My mind boggles over the uproar that people love to put out over this stuff.  the insane fear they have that people watching FICTIONAL presentations will suddenly feel the urge to go out and copy it.  Course this is nothing new.  People said the same thing about AD&D and Satanism back in the day.  Come on, folks!  It is fiction.  Its not real!  ITS FAKE!  Shezow will no more make little boys want to get their penises lopped off (OW!) than watching Elmer indiscriminately try to gun down Bugs and Daffy turned me into Mad Gunman.  Star Trek, Star Wars, Honest Politicians are all fictional things which do not exist in the real world.  I grew up watching Billy Batson change from a prepubescent boy into a massively muscled  guy in red tights and I turned out pretty normal...well normalish anyways.

     We as a culture are so deeply terrified of anything that might conceivably threaten our oh so tiny world view that people are always willing to take up arms even when there is no threat.  We will never mature as a race until we grasp the fact that just because something is different than what we are used to doesn't make it a threat.  Leave Trek and Cartoons alone and worry about real threats.  Like the impending Hamstergeddon.  I for one am ready to welcome our Furry Overlords with open arms and lots of carrots.

End of Rant

Sorry, you really aren't that exciting.

     So as I am reading the latest batch of reports on the ongoing "NSA ceases phone records and internet records,"  I was struck by a thought.  (I promptly struck back and a lively tussle ensued.)  Everyone is in a uproar over the fact that the Government may have stolen date on THEIR personal phone and interwebz usage.  Everyone is crying "OH NOSE!  Now the Gubberment will know all my secrets."  Well, you know what my response is to that?  So what?
     Don't get me wrong, IMNSHO what the NSA/Government is doing/has been doing is wrong.  I railed against it when Old W signed the Patriot Act and all its sidecar acts into law.  (May have actually used the words Stalinistic and SS in my descriptions.)  The fact that any government has the power just to randomly cease any information they want because they feel there MIGHT one day be a use for it should scare the crap out of everyone.  We need to get back to the 50s and 60s when they still did that shift, but it was illegal so they didn't caught!  (Insert sarcastic sneer here.)
     Still, after saying that we have to face a valid point of order here.  Okay suppose the Feds do cease all of our phone data and all of our interwebz data.  Poof, they got it all!  Let's be completely honest with ourselves here.  What have they actually got?
     With a few exceptions, every single one of us lead quiet and relatively boring lives.  Millions of people get up in the morning, take a shower, grab some coffee and go to work.  While they are at work, they bullshit with their co workers and try to survive the day.  They might sneak a peek at Farmville once in awhile and they might fudge a few extra minutes on lunch break.  Most of them will send dozens of inane text and email messages to their friends talking about their aching bunions or who dropped who on Freeform Rock Climbing With The Stars.  After 8-10 hours of drudgery, they will return home, eat dinner and maybe watch the latest episode of Flower Boy Next Door on Dramafever.  (Don't laugh, it is highlarious!)  Then they go to bed only to wake up the next day to start all over again.
     That is what the NSA is going to get from its wiretaps, record ceasing and mind reading groups.  (Don't laugh, they are real.  I saw it in the International Questioner!)  No secret plans to assassinate Mickey Mouse.  No evil plans to take over the world.  (Except for that odd little lab out in the middle of nowhere, hmm.)  Just ordinary people leading ordinary lives.  I mean it is not like your Facebook posts are a concern for national security.  What your dog had for supper last night does not threaten the safety of the free world.
     One of the reports I read said that the NSA is building a brand new Billion (Yes folks I said Billion) dollar facility just to hold all of the information.  The data collected so far is in the Petabyte range (For those who don't know, including me, a Petabyte is the next byte up from Terabyte and 1 PB is a quadrillion bytes.  Our Milky Way Galaxy is home to approximately 2 hundred billion stars. If each individual star was a single byte, then we would need 5,000 Milky Way Galaxies to reach 1 PB of data.)  Of course keep in mind this information is unconfirmed, but I use it to illustrate my point. 
     Now imagine being the group of Schmucks who have to sift through every single bit of that data.  I mean even with computers helping you it is a daunting task with seemingly no end.  Unless someone manages to stop all of this, more and more data will just keep pouring in.  Course I guess you could view it as job security. 
     Of course the Law of Averages says, just the majority of people in the world lead quiet unassuming nay even boring lives, then 90% of that data will be quiet, unassuming and BORING information.  If I had that job, I'd probably wind up killing someone.
     So yes, the Federal Government is ceasing information left and right.  We cannot call it illegally ceasing, because their actions conform to the current (and previous) Regime's laws.  Immoral, probably.  Sneaky and underhanded, absolutely.  However, I think we should be just as peeved off about the billions of dollars wasted to find out who spilled coffee on Susie Joe Johnson's coat at work.  How is knowing exactly what color Fluffy's hairball was going to keep our nation save?  Get mad about the Ceasing, but save a little bit of that ire for the Stupidity.

End of Rant

Stop me if you've heard this joke!

One more for the con.

     Okay so a guy walks into a bar drunk off his ass and stumbles up to the Tender.  "Gimmee a drink!"  The Tender is leery of giving an obviously roaring drunk guy a drink, but pours him a beer anyways.
     "That'll be $2.50, Pal."  The Tender watches as the Drunk comically searches through ever pocket in his suit even though it is patently obvious the man has no money.  After five minutes, he picks up the beer.
     "No wait, I ain't got no money but if you promise to give me the drink, I'll show you the greatest magic trick ever!  He takes the drink from the Tender and puts it back on the bar and then covers it with his hat.  "I can drink that beer without ever picking that hat up."
     Now the Tender (who's name happens to be Thomas, in case you were wondering.) has heard this old joke a million times in the past.  He knows the Drunk will pretend to drink the beer then when the Tender pulls the hat away to check, he'll pick up the beer and drink it without ever touching the hat.
     The Drunk obviously sees what the Tender is thinking and shakes his head, almost falling over.  "Nah, Nah it ain't like that old saw.  Tell you what, to prove this is on the up and up you can keep your hand on the hat and watch it as close as you want to make sure I actually drink the beer."
     It is a slow night and the Tender is bored, so he agrees to the bet.  He carefully places his hand over the hat so he can actually feel the glass and leans in as close as he can to peer at it.  While he is concentrating so hard, he doesn't see the Drunk gleefully grab four or five bottles of booze off the bar and run out the door.  The Tender is left with a flat beer and a dirty hat.

I don't get it.

     Now I am sure you are all wondering what prompted the rather silly joke above?  Well, it's all about Misdirection, Expectations and Lies.  Washington over the past few weeks has been even more of a hotbed of M.E.L. than normal which is really saying something.  Besides some choice soundbites (Reboobican Senator suggesting that Sexual Hormones were a driving force behind the Sexual Assaults occurring in the Military and Dear Gods the Military types trying to do the Side Step Dance to explain why more hasn't been done to stop them making the Military sound like the Vatican.) there has been such a Shift Storm of He did this, they did that going on that people should be using poop umbrellas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHkT3RJJBCA

     (As an aside, just in case anyone was wondering what the Side Step Dance was and where it came from, here is the live production of it and it is still funny as hell.)

     So now it is been revealed that the NSA and other government forces have been secretly snapping up the phone records of millions of people and the Internet records of a huge number of foreign individuals.  This of course has been done under the extremely powerful Patriot Act along with a couple of other lesser known artifices.  Matter of fact these actions were so secret that the only reason we know about them is because someone somewhere leaked the information out.

     And of course the big uproar is over how the POTUS who ran (twice) on a platform of openness could do such a thing.  How a man who swore that he would stop the spying and scamming began under Bush could not only continue his actions, but actually increase the activity.  (Huh wait that sounds familiar.  Didn't we have this same blog over Drone Strikes?)  In short, people are asking, "How could the POTUS be such a...such a..such a POLITICIAN!"

     As anyone who reads my works know, I am not an Obama Basher.  I am very happily an equal opportunity insulter.  Give me ammo and I will happily run with it.  (Not while loaded of course, that could hurt.)  However, I find the shock and outrage that so many people seem to have more than a little amusing.  Rule #1:  How can you tell if a Politician is lying?  Answer:  His or Her lips are moving.  

     This idea that people seem to have that someone whose regime is granted incredible powers such as the Patriot Act will never actually use those powers is naive to say the least and down right stupid to say the most.  W started the Drone Strike Program and the Patriot Act and quite gleefully used them.  (Anyone who doesn't want to admit that Bush pulled any number of shady things under the PA can buy this bridge I got in Brooklyn.)  Obama promised to end the Drone Strike Program and do away with wire tappings, search and seizure etc allowed under the PA.  Course when he did this, his lips were moving. (Refer back to Rule #1)  So surprise surprise, a few years down the line, we learn he has increased the number of Drone Strikes and a little further down the line we discover he is riding the PA Pony at even higher speeds than Bush.

I voted Neighhhhhhhhhhh!

     I wonder if people on either side really believe that come the next POTUS election, that whoever (Whomever?  I always get those mixed up) gets into office will do away with the Drone Strikes, Abolish the Patriot Act and Save all the fairies by making it against the law to say "There's no such thing as Fairies?  Rule #2:  No Politician will ever vote to give themselves less power.  If they claim they will, refer back again to Rule #1. 
     Politics, at least in the more modern sense, is not an honest game.  I mean think about it.  People pay millions of dollars to get a job that pays a couple hundred grand.  Sure the bennies are great, but if you can afford to spend millions, I am pretty sure you can afford your own health insurance and retirement.  Why shell out so much money for a position that you might only hold for 4 years?  Simple, because that position gives you insane power and influence.  People happily give you money and presents and even future jobs that could earn you millions a year just on the chance they can get favors from you.  You have at your fingertips access to incredible power.  No one in their right mind (I use that term loosely when speaking of Washington, DC btw) will ever vote to diminish their powers and no one who has access to that power will ever be tempted to just not use it.
     So to make a long story short (Too late!), yes it seems that Obama might possibly, could be just a teensy weensy bit using all those nasty nasty evil mean hobbit...(No wait that's Lord of the Rings)...nasty powers that good old W brought into being.  Anyone who knows the very nature of Politicians should not be the least bit surprised by this.  Although as a final word, I do find the Outrage and Uproar being generated by certain other Politicians amusing since they voted for the PA in the first place.  Methinks that some people on both sides doth protest to much.

End of Rant

Easily the best and most brilliantly produced Troll ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk3I-a3CJdo

     Okay short and sweet on this one, Peeples.  Watch this incredibly highlarious video and be prepared to clean up the mess afterwards.  This is an incredibly well done and (at least on the surface) believable sounding "News Report" that talks about the CIA's covert ownership of Facebook and how Old Zuckerface is one of their prime agents.  Pay special attention to the screen scrolls below the commentators for extra funnies.  When you get to the comments about the Chinese version of FB be prepared to find a change of undies.  Seriously folks, this one deserves an Oscar or Emmy.  Please be sure and watch it.

End of Rant

89% of all Statistics are made up on the spot.

(Okay before we go any further, I want to apologize.  The Blog Title really has no relation to the actual blog, it is just one of my favorite funny quotes and since the blog is about statistics it seemed right.  Anyho, onward!)

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/federal-judge-accused-saying-minorities-predisposed-commit-violent-184459813.html

Now this chart shows that blue lines are dominant.

     As most of you who read my blogs (Hey to all 4 of you!) know, I generally have more issues with the comments at the end of any given article than I do with the article itself.  I tend to be most unkind to the not so clever responses that many people make.  I have even used descriptions that might not have been the kindest.  Words like: Idiots, Morons and Dimbulbs come to mind and some were even worse than that.  Well, I read this article with the misleading headline and then scrolled through the comments section and for once actually found myself agreeing with the spirit if not exactly the wording of many of the comments.

     First a comment or two on the article itself.  First of all the headline is misleading.  At not time do the words "predisposed to commit violent crimes" appear in the quotes attributed to the Judge mentioned in the article.  Secondly I have problems with an article and by extension the lawsuit mentioned based off of hearsay.  "No transcript or recording exists of the speech, according to the Federalist Society."  No transcripts means there is no physical evidence to prove or disprove the accusation and that means it is all based on hearsay."

     Now the Judge does mention that statistically speaking, there are more Minorities on Death Row and that Statistically speaking Minorities commit a much large percentage of Violent Crimes.  She does not state outright in anyway that a Minority is Predisposed.  She pointed out that numbers show a disproportionate amount of Minorities are arrested every single year.

Some Random Numbers (Thanks Wiki)

     "As noted above, scholars acknowledge that some racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans, are disproportionately represented in the arrest and victimization reports which are used to compile crime rate statistics in the United States. The data from 2008 reveals that Black Americans are over-represented in terms of arrests made in virtually all types of crime, with the exceptions of "Driving under the influence" and "Liquor laws". Overall, Black Americans are arrested at 2.6 times the per-capita rate of all other Americans, and this ratio is even higher for murder (6.3 times) and robbery (8.1 times)."

     " The imprisonment rates indicate that about 0.5% of all white males, more than 3.0% of all black males, and 1.2% of all Hispanic males were imprisoned in 2011. Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups."

     So in a purely technical sense, the Judge's comments were correct.  Politically Incorrect, but numerically correct and the Comments at the bottom of the article gleefully point that out.  After all, the Judge was quoting confirmed Data.

     Now I am reminded of an old quote forget who it is by, "You can prove anything with statistics."  The problem with statistics which everyone on any side of any argument love to rattle off is that statistics are only numbers. Basic data and nothing more.  Statistics don't, as a general rule, delve into the actual cause and effects.  It is all well and good to say, "88% of all Watermelon Massacres were done by Farmers in Melon Fields" as proof that all Farmers everywhere regardless of planting style are mad melon manglers  (Say that five times fast!  I dare you!)

     It is very easy to quote statistics that show that Minorities commit more crimes that non-minorities and even find the numbers to back up your quote, but those numbers don't tell us anything about the overreaching causes and background that drive those numbers.  Why is X more likely to do Y?  What are the driving forces behind it.  If you accept the fact that there is no physical reason for one group to be more violent and engage in crimes than another group, then there have to be other forces driving the numbers.  In the end, numbers are only numbers nothing more.

     Huh, think I got a little off my original rant there.  To recap the original rant, Article Bad!  Fibs about what Judge say!  Comments not so dumb as normal!  Ugh!

End of Rant

REALLY? I mean REALLY?

     So a short time ago, Cheerios posted an Ad for their product which (GASP!) shows a very cute little girl and her parents.  It also just so happened the couple was mixed race and so was the child.  Now this being the 21st Century, you wouldn't expect much of a clamor over it.  I mean its not like they were (Double Gasp) Gay or something.  I mean hating on mixed race families has been out of vogue since the 1970s right?  Well apparently not.

 http://news.yahoo.com/cheerios-stands-tv-ad-showing-mixed-race-family-151048989.html

    
     Even though Cheerios says that the positive comments on You Tube outweighed the negative ones by 10-1, the sheer vitriol and racism spewed by the negative posters forced Cheerios to actually shut down the comments section of the site.  They kindly called the comments "Not family friendly" but AdWeek reported that some of the comments made reference to Nazis, “troglodytes” and “racial genocide.”  When I was reading the various articles about the ad, I saw even worse comments under the article.
     So I am forced to ask this very simple question.  REALLY?  I mean REALLY people?  Are people really such a bunch of Undeveloped Morons that something like Interracial Marriage/Families is even still remotely an issue?  Have we really come so short a distance from the 1950s, 60s and 70s that we are still shocked by this?  That is pretty pathetic.
     Racism and Bigotry apparently still creep around in the shadows of America even today long after the Era of King and Parks.  I loved what one reporter said when they described the Internet as the modern KKK Hood where people can post their hate and bigotry anonymously without fear of reprisal or mockery.
     So let me put this as bluntly as possible.  To all the people out where whining about a Mixed Race family being used in a Television ad, Get over it.  If you don't like it, have the balls to post your actual name along with any racist comments you make.  Better yet, don't say anything at all.  Not because you don't have the right to because you do, but because of two reasons.  1.  You look like total idiot in front of millions of readers/viewers.  2.  If your goal is to hurt Cheerios sales because they offended you, then your actions are back firing.  Because of all the haters out there "Screaming" on the internet, Cheerios is getting tons of free air time for the price of one commercial.  General Mills/Cheerio couldn't have bought the kind of publicity they are receiving.  People hear somewhere "OMG, did you see that Cheerios commercial?" and people who don't even eat Cheerios race to the web and watch it.
     I do truly believe that we as a race (That's the human race btw) are slowly moving away from racism and hatred.  I really do believe it.  But it is things like this that prove that we still have a ways to go.

End of Rant