Saturday

Voltaire Rebuttal, Episode 1,287,211

Gawsh. It's rare that a person runs across such a smug, self-regarding piece of tripe like the "Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus" YouTube video that caught fire across cyberspace this week. It's adolescent smarm masquerading as wisdom, filled with canards about religion that predate Voltaire but are spoken like they're 21st century revelations. When I first watched it, I just sighed: "Oh man. These worn out arguments again. But worse, the idiocy that is America's middle class is lapping it up like Jews before the tablets."

Fortunately, Tom Hoopes has done the tedious job of responding to the tripe. The video and Hoopes' simple-but-effective rebuttal can be found here.

Thanks, Tom, for taking out the garbage. I'm sure you had better things to do, and more compelling intellectual pursuits to follow, but someone had to do it.

More Apologetics

Not to be outdone in the arena of adolescent smarm, the New York Times published an irresponsible op-ed, For Priests' Wives, A Word of Caution.

Unlike the video, however, this attack piece is harder to dissect and requires more historical depth and analysis. Since Hoopes was busy dealing with the orc, Carl Olsen dispatched this troll.

Ghost Protocol

Marie and I went to Mission Impossible this week. I give it a B-, possibly a C+. It was alright, but overall, I didn't care for it. Marie liked it more.

We both agreed, however, that the Hollywood tough girl has run her course. Hollywood tough guys have been unbelievable for years, but at least they're guys. Hollywood's Platonic-form tough guy reflects a traditionally-manly trait. The tough girl is simply unbelievable, nothing more. It's simply political correctness, the attempt to eliminate gender distinctions, and social engineering, all rolled into two giant breasts and a karate kick. Enough already.

Kill the Fed

Federal Reserve minutes were released this week, and we now know that Bernanke and Co. were wholly deluded as the housing market started to crash. They completely missed the 2008 melt-down. The "Co." includes Geitner. Read about it here.

This system is unbelievable, but the sheople aren't backing the one politician that wants to get rid of the system. Ron Paul has strong numbers, but not strong enough to win the nomination. The mainstream, however, continues to ignore him or snicker at him. Rush Limbaugh joined the chorus of snickers this week, wholly dismissing Ron Paul, but without providing any details or analysis. He simply referred to him as a "liberal" and moved on. I agree with Rush on most things, but at this point, I believe he and I will part ways. I'm sure he'll be crushed.

But in the meantime, I'm kinda enjoying my new status as a liberal. It's a first for me.