Why Dont You Blog?

I know, I know. Mocking the people who post on Rapture Ready feels like hanging round the special needs kids and laughing at them.

But still. This is the most comically ironic thread that I’ve followed to its source, from the reliably hilarious Fundies Say the Darnedest Things, for - well - a few days at least.

There’s a Rapture Ready thread on the topic Are Skull Shirts Evil?

Evil? Can clothes be intrinsically evil? This could explain several of life’s mysteries.

Why, for instance, do the top buttons on the most expensive blouse I’ve ever owned pop open whenever I’m in a public place? Why does one in every pair of socks disappear in the washing machine. How can labels scratch weals in your skin, despite feeling as soft as toilet paper when you touch them? How can things that looked stunning on a hanger in the store make the wearer look like a dumpier and more taste-challenged version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame?

Realising that evil may indeed live in the hearts of garments can explain so much. I had previously had to rely on the working assumption that some clothes were under an RPG curse. But now, I’ve seen the truth. They are just innately bad. Probably manifestations of lesser demons or something.

However, reading Rapture Ready with attention, it seems that it’s not clothes in general, just clothes with skull motifs, that are evil. Regular member scapegoat says

It’s part of the “Culture of Death” our world is embracing. Homosexuality, abortion, etc….

RDY4HIM says:

…. From what I can tell, it is directly associated with the kids embracing the spirit of death. They obsess over it. Some are actually suicidal, some practice self-injury, but most are extremely depressed. They see death as a way out and look forward to it because they have no hope. These are the kids that I minister to on-line through Facebook.
….. there is a really cool line of clothing out at Mardel’s and maybe other Christian stores called NOTW (Not of this World). The look is very similar to the skulls and crossbones attire but with crosses instead. They have hoodies, t-shirts, shoes, jewelry, you name it. Very cool, and an awesome way for our kids ti witness. My daughter will definitely be getting some for her b-day.

Lucky, lucky girl…. What an awesome b-day that will be. (It’s not as if a cross has anything to do with death or anything.)

Lucky suicidal kids who get ministered to on Facebook, too. (Yet another reason for avoiding facebook like a biblical plague of boils.)

Some posters say it’s just a fashion, even “cute” in pink (Is there anything on earth that some people don’t think is cute in pink?) But most are predictably aghast - satan’s trickery, EMO death cult and all the rest of it.

Culture of Death, indeed. Let me get this straight:

Rapture enthusiasts = people for whom mass human extinction can’t come soon enough. I think that defines a death cult.

These are the members of a death cult, who see some clothes as evil because - wait for it - their decoration represents a death cult.

So they suggest that their fellow Rapture Xians replace death symbol A (skull) with death symbol B (a cross)

I bet that is sooo cuuuute in pink

Popularity: 6% [?]

This video link was just sent to me. It’s an elegant Dawkins speech from a couple of years ago that I hadn’t seen it before. It is on a website called Ted that sponsors conferences called Ted. That’s an acronym, not somebody’s name (although there may be a companion site called Bill.)

Other speakers include Daniel Dennett and Billy Graham. Yes, that was Billy Graham. I haven’t listened to the rest of the discussion yet. I remain unconvinced I can embed the video so I’m going to paste the link first.

The site is sponsored by BMW. Note to BMW. I’m thinking of this link as potentially lucrative product placement. Please enclose my payment for mentioning this in the form of a late model vehicle.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Good programme. (Channel 4, UK. I should hope some socially conscious pirate has put it on You-tube by now. Or you could buy the DVD.) Dawkins and Dennet made a generally superb job of pointing out how the joys of the real natural universe piss all over the imaginary comforts of religion.

It was a difficult to decide which anti-evolutionist - the American woman or the British chemistry teacher - would be my first choice if I ever win a “Free kick the stupidest creationist who’s ever been on tv” competition. In the end, it has to be the British teacher. National pride requires it.

However, the American woman managed to combine a patronising manner with a studied and deliberate social “charm”. She smiled continuously - in what she must have been misinformed was a disarming way. She fixed Dawkins with steady (albeit slightly cross-eyed) eye contact and mouthed utter bullshit about “teaching the controversy.” So, it is with a heavy heart that I have to relegate her to second choice.

I was baffled by the English science teachers who declared themselves a bit scared about teaching evolution. Imagine a group of geography teachers worrying about teaching their subject, in case some student had a parent who was in the Flat Earth society. What’s the difference?

The Archbishop of Canterbury managed to tie himself in knots trying to square complete acceptance of the science with his concept of a god who set up evolution but kept out of it - while, at the same time, claiming to believe in the New Testament miracles. There was an entertaining moment where he more or less admitted his position was a fudge to deal with awkward questions.

Popularity: 6% [?]

To retain the will to live, I’ve bunched up the alphabetical-order challenged members of the Atheist Blogroll all in one final burst of links.

Sorry if your blog is called “Zeebedee’s Journal.” This blog, starting as it does with an unappealing W, feels your pain.

P! PA Nonbelievers parenthetical remarks Persephone’s Box Pharyngula Philippine Atheists Philosophers’ Playground phreedom.us physicshead Pink Prozac Pink Triangle Pinoy Atheist Pinoy Freethinker Pinoy-Korean Atheist Planet Atheism Planet Humanism Plonka’s Blog Podblack Blog Polypyloctomy PONZO Pooflingers Anonymous Post Thought Primordial Blog Principles of Parsimony Prose Justice Protium the Heathen Psychodiva’s Mutterings PURPOSE OF LIFE
QuarkScrew Quintessential Rambling quird

Radical Atheist Ramblings Ramblings of an Atheist Undergrad Random Intelligence Rank Atheism Rarus vir Rational Expression Rational Mom Rational Russian RationalEyes Ravings of an Angry Leftist Re-imagine Ritual Real Virtuality Reality Heroes Reason & Society Reason Makes Sense… Right? Reason TV Reasonable Doubts Recalcitrance Reduce to Common Sense Reeding and Writing RejectMoses.com Religion is Bullshit ! Religion is Man-Made Replace the lies with truth Resurrecting Reason REV. ART’S ATHEIST PIN-UPS! Rev. BigDumbChimp reVAMPed Reverend Mark J. Seydel Richard Carrier Blogs Rideo ergo sum Robert’s Thought’s Rodibidably Ron’s Rants Rupture the Rapture Russell’s Teapot RWANDAN ATHEIST

Sacred Celtic exiled in Bruxelles Saint Gasoline Salad Is Slaughter Salient SAMIZDAT Sans God Sarahnomics Scary Reasoner Scripture For Skeptics SDARI Sean the Blogonaut Secular Humanism with a human face Secular Philosophy Secular Sunday Sermon See For Yourself Seeing Beauty Shared Difference SHUFFL Silly Humans Situation normal Skeptic Journal Skeptic Rant Skeptical Monkey skepticisme Skeptico Skepticology Skepticum Skeptic’s Play Skeptigator So long, and thanks for all the guilt! Societal (R)evolution Something From Nothing Something to Say Son Shines Zee 365 Soup’s Soapbox Southern Atheist Spanish Inquisitor Specter of Reason Spectrum of Beliefs Spewing Truth in the face of Lies Splendid Elles Spoliarium Spread Rationality stacy, interrupted Stardust Musings and Thoughts for the Freethinker Stargazer Staring At Empty Pages State of Protest stereoroid.com Steven Carr’s Blog Strange Land Strappado Stupid Evil Bastard Stupid, Lazy, Fat & Crazy Suburban Panic! Success lies within us all Summer Squirrel Synapostasy Tabula rasa tales of an ordinary girl Tangled Up In Blue Guy Tarpan’s Blog Terahertz - From Physics to Life
Terminal Atheist Thank God I’m An Atheist That is so Queer…

The A Word The Affable Atheist The Amanda Show The Amiable Atheist The Anatomy of a Coming-Out The Angry Atheist The Anonymous Atheist The Anti-Church Zone The Antichristian Phenomenon The Apostate The arrogant atheist The Arrogant Atheist The Atheist Blog The Atheist Blogger The Atheist Camel the atheist chronicles The Atheist Endeavor The Atheist Experience The Atheist Handbook The Atheist Jew The Atheist Mama The Atheist Resistance The Atheist Response The Atheist Rock Band The Atheist Spot The Atheocracy The Atheologist The Bach The Blasphemous The Blog of M’Gath The blue roads of thinking The Calladus Blog The Cat Ranch The Choice is Now The Circus of Doctor Lao The Clever Atheist The Conscious Earth The Coptic Atheist The Crazy Christian Blog The Creationist Monkey The Crooked Gremlins The Daily Awesome The Daily Cat Chase The Daily Taylor The Eloquent Atheist The End of Hereditary Religion The End of Silence The Enlightenment of the Healy The Eternal Gaijin The Eupraxsopher The Extended Penotype The Feminist Francophile The Flying Bagpiper The Flying Trilobite The Frame Problem The Freethought Cafe The Fundy Post The Gay Black Jew The Gaytheist Agenda The God Complex The God Dam the God-jeering ATHEIST The Godless Grief The Good Atheist The GORGON’s Mask The Great Lie Of Islam The Great Realization The Greenbelt

The Happy Humanist The Humanist Life The Humanist Observer The Huntress’ Domain The Inanity that is Life The Incomer The Information Paradox The Inoculated Mind The Invisible Pink Unicorn The Iron Chariot The Irrational Theorist The Jesus Myth The Jewish Atheist The JFC Show The Labour Humanist The Lay Scientist The Libertarian Defender The Life and Opinions of Mcmoogol, Gentleman The Life Of An Atheist The Lippard Blog the LITTLE things The Mary Blog the meme pool The Mutt’s Nuts The Nate and Di Show The Natural Skeptic The Nerd The New Atheist The New Horizon The O Project The One With Aldacron the otherwhirled The Pagan Prattle Online The Panda’s Thumb The Passionate Skeptic The Perplexed Observer The Phytophactor the post-bicameral mind The Primate Diaries The Proud Atheist The Psycho Atheist

The Questionable Authority The Rad Guy Blog The Raving Atheist The Red Ferret The Religion Virus the religious atheist The Renegade Writings The Right Wing Professor’s Blog the Science Ethicist The Science Pundit The Scottish Atheist The Second Mouses Guide to Life The Second Oldest Question The Secular Outpost The Secular-Man Blog (An Oasis of Clear Thinking) The Serenity of Reason The Seven Solitudes The shadows of an open mind The Skepbitch The Skeptic Review the skeptical alchemist The Skeptical Sorcerer The Smug Baldy Speaks The Stubborn Curmudgeon! The Thermal Vent The Thinkers’ Podium The Truth Of Islam The Truth of Rational Thought The Uncredible Hallq The Underground Unbeliever The Uninformed Suburban Housewife The Uninspired Manifesto The Universe According to Tim The Untraditionalist The View from Here The View from the Pond The Water is Poison The Word and The Golden Monkey The World is a Lesson in Perspective The World Wide Rant The Zen Of G

These Twisted Times Thought Room Thought Theater Thoughts and Opinions Tidbits for Atheists Tolerance and Peace toomanytribbles Toxic thought waste site Trifling Ideas Trinity’s Christian Dairy Troffle Trudging the Gentle Path of Happy Destiny True Bible Knowledge Tungtide UberKuh Uncouth.net Ungodly Cynic Unorthodox Atheism Unreasonable Faith Unscrewing The Inscrutable Urikalization - Uri Kalish Variable Veracity Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Velocity Inversion Vetenskap & Förnuft View From Earth Villa Nandes Vincent Geloso: 100% libéralisé

Wanderin’ Weeta WASP Waving Not Drowning Way of the Mind We Are Alone We have a voice Well, that would be telling whatever will bewilder me Where The Rubber Meets The Road Where We Make Our Stand Why Believe? Why Dont You Blog? Why I hate Jesus Wishwords WithoutGods WORKS WITHOUT FAITH Wrong In Their Mind Tanks Yet Another Atheist Blog Yet Another Blog You Call This Culture? You Made Me Say It Young Earth Creationists Anonymous Zatheist Zen of Zero zenbullets ‘Satan Is Real’ Atheist Music Blog

Popularity: 9% [?]

This has got to stop. The end is in sight though. I hope this is the next to last of these lists.

Just to remind you where this information comes from, it’s Mojoey’s Atheist Blogroll. ( Brits. Please note. It’s not the Atheist Bogroll.)

halls of macadamia Happily Godless Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes HASSERS Heathen Queer Heathen.TV Hellbound Alleee hell’s handmaiden Heretic’s Altar Heuristicism Hokum-Balderdash Assay Homo economicus’ Weblog Homologous Legs Honjii’s Harangues Hot Dogs, Pretzels, and Perplexing Questions http://www.skepticaleye.com/ Human Psyche of J.D. Crow Humans: The Other White Meat Humbuggery I Am An Atheist I Never Shut Up I traded my soul for happiness Ian’s Brain Ice Station Tango IDiosyntocracy In Defence Of Reason In the grip of hysteria Incessant Expressions indoctriNATION Infidel boy in Blabber mode INFIDELIS MAXIMUS Infinite monkeys, infinite keyboards Infophilia Inkblot Icon intelligent or silly design ? Interested Interesting INTJ Mom Intrepidon Ionian Enchantment Is it just me? it’s about time izzworld dot org jdc325’s Weblog Jeber’s Jeebus Freaks Jewelisms Jewish Atheist Joe’s Big Blog Judith’s thought-provoking hard-hitting journal Juke of Flow Just a whisper in the wind Just Another Atheist Jyunri Kankei

Nor is it working seamlessly. It’s taking span tags.

K H A L A S ! KafirGirl Kapanalig Sa Wala Kergillian Kieran Bennett Kill The Afterlife King Aardvark le tiers monde leaping rabbit/lapin sauteur Leicester Secularist Les non-sens de Jean Staune Let Go - Forget God Let There Be Light Letras Nocturnas Letters from a broad Liars, Lunatics and What’s Left Liberal Debutante Life & Otherwise Life According to Mike White Life before death Life is an adventure Life Without Faith Life, the Universe and Everything Lifecruiser Living the Scientific Life Living with Missy and other thoughts Logic’s Last Stand LOL god Look at the Bright’s Side Lord of the atheists Love the Nimbu Lubab No More lynn’s daughter, thinking

Madman’s Paradise Masala Skeptic Matt’s Notepad Matt’s Truthonomics Maximum Likelihood Mechanical Crowds mediawatchwatch.org.uk Meet An Atheist Memoirs of a (G)a(y)theist Memoirs of an ex-Christian Mere Skepticism Merit-bound Alley Mickipedia Midwest Atheist Migrations Mike’s Weekly Skeptic Rant mindcore MINISTER OF RANTS Mirth, Musings, & More Misc. Musing Mississippi Atheists Missives from the Frontal Lobe mister jebs blog Modern Agnostic Modern Atheist Moiz Khan - The godless Liberal Mothrust Much ado about nothing My Case Against God My Elemental Muse My Goddless Drama My Life Thinly Disguised as Groove My Long Apostasy My Single Mom Life Mystery of Mysteries

Naastika Nanovirus Natural Reckonings Naturalistic Atheism Neural Gourmet New Humanist Blog New National Reformer News From the Front - Fair and Balanced Nicest Girl and Destroyer of Planets Nick Harding Nihilist Future No Double Standards No Gods Allowed No More Fake Gods No More Hornets No more Mr. Nice Guy! Nobody’s There… NoBS Radio Show NoGodBlog.com Non Credo Deus Non-Prophet North Alabama Rant Not really, Alice. Nothing Is Sacred Null Session Nullifidian Nut Watch Obscene Desserts Odder Stories Of Microbes and Men ohm sweet ohm oldcola olio Oliver Benen On Fire For Reason on the street and in my head One Fewer God onegoodmove Onion Breath Onwards and Forwards Open Parachute Oracle and Atheism Order of St. Nick Our Freedom of Espresso Outchurched Oz Atheist’s Weblog

Still I’m up to O. Once you get past the As, the list goes much faster.

Popularity: 5% [?]

This is getting boring…

Daily Atheist DAILY BBG Daily Rant Dark Christianity Dark Matter, USA Dark Side of Mars darwinian remiix Darwin’s Dagger Day & Nite Daylight Atheism Debunking Christianity Deconverts Deep Thoughts Deeply Blasphemous Deranged Ramblings of an Angry Reptile Keeper Desperately Seeking Ethics and Reason Deutschland Uber Elvis DEVOUT Atheist Godless Grief Diaphanitas Diary of a Teenage Atheist Did a guy named Phil start Philosophy? Dikkii’s Diatribe Dime a dozen Disaffected and it Feels So Good discernible chaos DisComforting Ignorance Disgusted Beyond Belief Disillusioned Words Dispatches from the Culture Wars do not read this blog DoctorE Dorset Humanists blog Doubting Even Thomas DOUBTING FAITH? Dr. Joan Bushwell’s Chimpanzee Refuge Dragged From the Bottom Drunk in Ontario Dubito Ergo Sum Duplicitous Primates Dwindling In Unbelief

Easy to be Entreated eAtheists.com Ecstathy Edward T. Babinski Elaine Vigneault Elliptica EnoNomi EonBlue Ethics Gradient evanescent Everyday Humanist Everything Is Pointless Evolution Evolutionary Middleman EvolutionBlog Evolved and Rational exapologist ExChristian.Net Excursions into the mundane and the revealing… Exercise in Futility Expletive Deleted Explicit Atheist Exsisto Sane Eyebrow Ascendant f think faith in honest doubt Fed Up with Religion Feersum Endjinn Ferret’s Cage Fish Wars on Cars Five Public Opinions Fleeing Nergal, Seeking Stars Flex Your Head Flumadiddle forms most beautiful… Free Infidel Freethought FreeThought by a FreeThinker Freethought Weekly FreThink Friendly Atheist Gary William Murning Online Geoff Arnold Ghosts of Minnesota God Be Gone - Atheist News God is for Suckers! God is Pretend Godless in America Godless on the Wasatch Front Godless Sunday Goosing the Antithesis Gospel of Reason grattans.us Gratuitous Common Sense Greg Hartnett Greg Laden’s Blog Greta Christina’s Blog Grey and White Matter Gynocide

The text that accompanies these list bits (I guess you could call them “posts”) is there to try and persuade Technorati that this blog isn’t just a link farm. (Though it feels like it today.) Not that it seems to care. Despite not getting any credit for atheist blogroll links, in the normal course of events, Technorati gives us link from a fair number of spamblogs.

Linkfarm sites are extra-annoying when they print your posts and attribute them to someone else. This has an upside when the posts are landfill in text format like this one. I am looking forward to seeing:
“Freemeds had an interesting post today on..” followed by sections of the Atheist Blogroll.

I think that’s called social networking.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Still only up to the Cs. Arrgh.

I’m going to rattle on about converting information between sources as an example of why computers appeal to people. (Well, to me.) It’s the mental challenge.

If I was even halfway competent at using a keyboard, I’d just type lots of things. But, I’m a terrible typist.

(In case, that sounds as if I’m any better at handwriting, you’d be dead wrong. I can barely write a legible sentence by hand, since I took up spending my life at computers. I bet that’s true of many people.)

And I get bored by any repetitive task way too easily. So, if I have any task to do, I look for a more interesting way of doing it. Even if it takes MUCH longer. And fails to work.

I bet this is true of most people who read this. (Except, maybe, for the people who get here looking for Arnold Schwarzenegger or pictures of guns, about 10 and 5 every day respectively, in case you wondered.)

Of course, since it’s me and you I’m talking about, we can take it for granted that this is a good thing. “Creative thinking” and so on. (A less charitable person might say “butterfly mind.” ) But, maybe it’s part of why it’s possible to get people to do things for the buzz of working out how to do them, without thinking of the consequences.

Things like using computers and the internet to collect information from a huge variety of sources and putting them together.

cabhara’s zeitgeist Canterbury Atheists Can’t make a difference CaroLINES CASE: The Center for Atheistic Secular Evangelism CHADMAC Speaks Chaos Maniac chedstone.com Chimaera Contemplations Choosing Atheism CHRISTIAN PWNAGE 101 Christianity is Bullshit! ChristopherSisk.com Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Circular Reasoning Cogita Tute - Think For Yourself cognitive dissident Coming Out Godless Compendium of Religious Evil Conclusions worth jumping to Confessions of an Anonymous Coward Cosmic Variance Covert History Creative Century Critical Mass Crowded Head, Cozy Bed Culture for all Cupcakes in Hell

Popularity: 5% [?]

Taking the lead from Barefoot Bum’s post, I’ve tried to paste in the atheist blogroll in bits again. This is slice one. There are hundreds and hundreds of the buggers. Be very afraid, Answers in Genesis. (That’s a link to good HJhop discussion of its latest absurdities)

After various attempts to take the whole list and convert it to csv to strip out the “last posted” bit in the title, I gave up and went for viewing the source code - using the Firefox right click option that lets you choose to see the source of a selection - copying that and pasting it into Wordpress visual view of the “Write post” window. Does it work? If you can see it and click on the links, yes.
(D’oh. HTML view, sorry…)
(((Billy))) The Atheist 1 2 3 Religious Comics 2000 Years of Deception 40 Year Old Atheist An Enlightened Observer A bordo del “Otto Neurath” A Division by Zer0 A geocentric view A Goat Called Nebulous A Hint of Neurosis A Human Mind A Positive view of Atheism A Voice Crying in the Metropolis A Whore in the Temple of Reason

A-Deistic AA Aardvarchaeology AASAUF Abandoning Eden About: Agnosticism / Atheism Aces Full of Links Action Skeptics After Faith Agni Setu Agnostic Atheism Agnostic Universe Blog Aidan Maconachy blog Al-Kafir Akbar! Alexander the Atheist Alex’s Heresies All that is, and all that shall be. Am I mad, or is the world? Amused Muse An Apostate’s Chapel An Atheist Woman’s Point Of View An Enlightened Observer An Insane Existence Anal Iced Bible Anatheist.net And Say We Did And That’s How You Live With A Curse Anders Rasmussen Blog Andrew Clapper on… Angels Depart Angry Astronomer Angry by Choice Answers in Genesis BUSTED! Anti Deity Militia Apple of Doubt Arcis Logos Arizona Atheist Ateistbloggen

Popularity: 4% [?]

Reality TV show producers are getting really desperate for topics. On the face of it, this would seem unlikely, given that reality is infinitely interesting, but to run out of ideas you have to redefine “reality” in a novel way. You have to take the word “reality” to mean “Start from an absurd premise. Gather a few people with moderate to severe psychological problems. Put them under pressure until they break.”

Granted this sounds like the actions you’d expect from a cult. So, it’s appropriate that a new UK Channel 4 “reality” show is called Make me a Christian. A crack team of four types of Christian try to change a comically diverse set of subjects.

Charlie Brooker’s introduction to this series in Saturday’s Guardian said more or less all you ‘d want to know about it.

In true oversimplified TV-conflict tradition, it’s a clash of absurd extremities. The Christians, for instance, consist of an evangelical preacher, a lady vicar, a Catholic priest and - very much heading up the pack - the Reverend George Hargreaves, founder of Operation Christian Vote, and the Christian Party, and the Scottish Christian Party, and the Welsh Christian Party. If it’s Christian and a Party, chances are George is its figurehead. He scatters Christian joy like a muckspreader flings shit: indiscriminately and everywhere.
Said Christians are pitted against a group of volunteers containing the following widely representative social types: a lesbian schoolteacher, a tattooed militant atheist biker, a white Muslim convert, a boozing fannyhound who claims to have slept with over 150 women, and a lapdancing witch. Nice work, C4. I’m sure we can all learn from this. Let battle commence.

The atheist (militant, tattooed, biker, yada, yada) complained about brainwashing. He refused to even go into York Minster, on the grounds that it was built just to keep the peasants down and had nothing to do with the “love” that this programme is supposed to be about. Well, this may have been pretty a statement of fact, but his attitide didn’t exactly endear him the other volunteers. The others hated him for his strident opposition, seemingly becoming more responsive to the evangelical message just to prove that their manners were better.

While the evangelists were cleaning out the suspiciously generic items of decor in the lesbian’s and lapdancer’s homes, the Catholic priest was bringing fresh kitsch to the home of the 17-year-old lapsed catholic father-to-be. A terrifying picture of the Pope, for instance. Some icons. You know the sort of thing. The participant’s girlfriend drew the line at one item of sculpture. “I don’t think that a dead man hanging on a cross is a nice thing to have hanging up in your house.”

When I say that the decor was “suspicious,” I mean this in the sense that the mansions of minor rock stars are suspcious on MTV Cribs. Just as the owners of many Cribs don’t seem to have ever walked through the front door before the start of filming, these people’s homes seem to have been madeover in special “reality” mode. They didn’t seem to have a book or a photograph that didn’t fit into their TV programme persona. You didn’t see the random trash that turns up in real people’s rooms. The witch’s books seemed to have been bought by the yard from the New Age section of Waterstone’s. It looked as if none had ever been opened.

She didn’t really seem like a great reader. For a start, she’s a lapdancer and would-be glamour model who has had her chest and nose cosmetically enhanced and who owns thousands of pounds worth of hideous and expensive shoes. Call me a godawful snob, but there is nothing in that list that you would usually associate with the profile of a deeply philosophical thinker.

She was a great crier, though. She was sobbing at the first suggestion from her selected christianiser that her lifestyle may not be ideal. Well, he put it much more forcefully. He said she was chasing the false idols of materialism and demonic powers and was on a trajectory to hell.

Her achievements to date don’t suggest philiosophical depths, but they do suggest a pretty low level of respect for herself and an excessive willingness to please. So, she seemed to me to be fair game for a conversion.

Her evangelist clearly felt the same. He said “She is a broken lady … but it’s a good place to be to welcome Jesus into your life.”

How transparent is that? The more fucked up the person, the more likely that the Christian can get them to accept Jesus into their lives, yada yada. What was it the biker chap said about brainwashing, again?

The religious converters have been recruited as a spiritual makeover team. The equivalent of those TV presenters who tell receptive morons how overweight they are, how filthy their houses are or how badly they are dressed.

It’s exactly in tune with standard reality tv - a messed-up person is encouraged to fall to bits on camera for the entertainment of the masses. In return they get access to the magic of fame and, if they are really lucky, a couple of years in which they are mildly interesting to the readers of Heat and can earn good money for nothing.

I tried to come up with good arguments for why the existence of a religious makeover show is even more disgusting. But I’m not going to bother. It just somehow seems even more repellent when religion comes into it.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Some sad news today, with a bit of a reflection on the current fear-based legislative ideas that grips the west.

From the BBC:

Sixteen Chinese policemen have been killed in an attack on a border post near Kashgar city in the western region of Xinjiang, state media say.
Two men drove a lorry into a group of jogging policemen before attacking them with explosives and knives, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Without a shadow of a doubt, this is sad news and my condolences to the families of all those involved (on the massive off-chance Chinese people can even read this blog).

It shows that the evil of terrorism is truly a global problem. Oddly, China is on record as having an astoundingly appaling human-rights record. It has laws that would make almost anyone in the “free” west blink twice. It has oppressive laws controling how its citizens can (and can’t) behave, forced ID controls and monitors the activities (on and off-line) of its population.

In short, China has the anti-terrorist powers that most western governments would die for.

Did it prevent this attack? Obviously not. Is there any reason to think that people in China are safer from [terrorists|murders|paedophiles|insert bugbear of choice] than any western nation? Well, no.

If anything, history shows that the more oppressed a population becomes, the greater the “revolutionary” response — oddly the US is both an example of this and the figure-head of the New World Order. Terrorists (revolutionaries) find fertile breeding ground where one segment of society feels it is being treated unjustly and no amount of monitoring, surveillance, torture (etc) will prevent this. The current War on Terror is especially ironic as the “terrorists” hate the west because of our freedoms. In our goal to prevent them turning us into oppressive nations we are becoming an oppressive nation.

Well done us.

Is there a solution? If there is, I don’t have it. In the UK terrorism is outlawed by criminal law. Terrorism is a crime. Can a 100% crime-free utopia exist?

For me, the only reasonable solution is to accept the fact there will always be some level of crime (murder, terrorism, burglary etc) and find a situation where we can minimise its impact without destroying the freedoms we once considered universal and self-evident.

Is that difficult?

Popularity: 16% [?]