Monday, May 26, 2008

value of a soul

I was driving back from Montana and saw this billboard. I actually turned around and drove back 3/4 of a mile on a frontage road just to snap the picture.



It teared me up immediately and not in the way these "pro life" bastards wish. Apparently the value of a potential soul is greater than the value of the mother's soul, the father's soul, and everyone else's who would be negatively impacted by the birth of an unexpected, unwanted, accidental pregnancy.

"Pro life" HA! Pro slavery is more like it. I will let George Carlin take it from here.



Thank you George.

The plane leaves in 18 hours. I have to be there in 16. I will be leaving home in 13.

See you in Oz!!!!!! :D

40 comments:

Half rabbit said...

God knew my soul before I was born. He must have liked it too, because he still kills 900 out of every 100,000 live births in Sub-Saharan Africa and takes them back to his magical sky kingdom. All before they turn 28 days old. (it kind of makes you wonder why he wants that many back.) Either that or god doesn't exist or care. In that case why are you posting emotive b******* on billboards and messing kids lives up.

Anyway on a less morbid subject, have you adjusted your biological clock yet?

Fiery said...

The short answer.... I'm awake now, aren't I? lol

The silly answer... biological clock... out of orde... 2 children is more than enough!!! :D

The answer you were looking for...My trans-pacific flightleaves at midnight. I arrive at 8am. It is a 15 hour flight. I'm thinking I'll be too excited to sleep right away but will crash after that then when I get there... tada!!!! It's morning and a whole day ahead.

I should be alright. :)

We here at Atheist Homeschooler want you to get your money's worth. We are a full service blog and believe in not just answering your question, but OVER answering your question. Thanks for blogging with us. Come back again real soon!

lol

Green-Eyed Momster said...

I love George Carlin and you! Happy Day! I hope your plane is free of screaming babies and assholes!! =)

Richard said...

Awesome George Carlin vid.

From an over-answerer!
:-)

T T Eyes said...

Putting up billboards like this is so overbearing for those who dont believe in the skydaddy...does anyone actually complain about these sorts of things being so in their faces? Its such an insult to intelligence...

Richard said...

Re: TTEye's remark.

Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Oprah, Obama, Clinton, McCain, Dubya and Michael Moore are an insult to our intelligence. If some nitwit wants to pay for a billboard promulgating a soul fantasy, great...

They spent a bunch-o-bucks on b_llsh_t. It's even better if no-one is influenced by the billboard! Heh Heh!

T T Eyes said...

Absolutely agree with you Richard, thats all a bunch a crap that shits me as well, but babies and souls ugh! for me that speaks of the worst kind of public indoctrination for the mad masses to slurp into their muddy supernaturally confused thoughts, even if only a few take it on board!

Havent seen many, if any, religious billboards in Australia, however small signs out the front of churches with dribbly slogans are everywhere. Maybe the billboards are a US phenomenum, I know many Aussies who would baulk at this kind of thing on the street, right in their faces. It certainly would be a target for the graffiti artists, there would be a mo on that baby quick as a flash! ;o)

Richard said...

What is a "mo"?

Is it short for "mohawk" -the hairstyle-, or something else?

Green-Eyed Momster said...

Richard, I do believe that a mo is short for mohawk, having had one in the '80's. It could mean something different in Austrailia though.
TTE, I was thinking Devil horns would look nice! =)

T T Eyes said...

Mo is "australian-short" for moustache...haha...forgot about translation problems...although a mohawk would look equally as good on that bubby, and TT I liked the devils horns idea as well :-)

Half rabbit said...

I do believe that a mo is short for mohawk, having had one in the '80's

Any pictures? :)

Half rabbit said...

Offtopic: Thump Thump Eyes, who is the person in you profile photo?

Richard said...

TTEyes,

I think an Adolph mustache would do it!

Don't talk to me right now. I am so mad at freakin' irrationalists, who are ruining my life, that I could go Postal any minute. (If you do not know what that means, go to the link and read the fucking text, you blithering idiot.

God damn it! If only I knew where to shoot! How do you shoot a formless blob of fucking idiocy???

I said, Fuck off, to the whole Goddamned herd!

Green-Eyed Momster said...

Half Rabbit, NO! And is Richard mad at me? Does anyone know? Yikes!

T T Eyes said...

"How do you shoot a formless blob of fucking idiocy???"

Calm down matey, who is this formless blob? and why oh why are you so angry?

I looked up 'going postal' whew things must be bad if you're going there.

Sit down, take a deep breath, have a snifter of brandy, and tell us all about it.

ps an adolf mo would be quite appropriate for that kind of billboard ;|

pss off topic of you going postal Richard, by my reckoning (10am Perth) our dearest Fiery must be swanning it in Melbourne (12midday) right at this moment...WOOO HOOOO hope its all fantastic for her!!!!!!

Richard said...
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T T Eyes said...

Richard old buddy old chap, I did read half of your Jamestown essay over breakfast and found it riveting, to realise that all the religious twat historians had skewed the picture towards their own deluded skydaddy pictures was truly a shock!! But it is a brilliant read which needs time to take it all in. Right after scoffing down my bacon and eggs I had to rush around and do a few final touches to the house for the imminent arrival of Fiery tonite, now I'm at work, in between customers I've been diddling around on here, and never managed to get back to Jamestown, BUT BELIEVE ME I WILL, as soon as I get a moment longer than five minutes between Customers Using New Technology!!!!

I'll have you know I wasnt descended from convicts, my people were nice people, miners actually, well, religious miners actually, well ok probably fuckwits, but they werent convicts OK!! ;-o

Half rabbit said...

I read all of the Jamestown vs Plymouth comment and I haven't posted a reply due to not being able to do justice to the post. I really should read the books you listed in your post before replying, but I'll post my thoughts now anyway.

The rewriting and misinterpretation of history especially due to religious and other ideologies is very upsetting and depressing to me. I have yet to learn much of American issues but I just finished an Australian history unit and that really opened my eyes. The general academic and public perception of history can be so flawed it's amazing and disquieting at the same time. I mean historians and history teachers should know better. Yet a lot if not most let their emotions and views influence their interpretations of the evidence and even flat out ignore some parts. I'm taking a step back from history for a time so I can contemplate why there are so many history wars and so much revisionism. (I know why, but not “Why”)

Would America be different if Plymouth collapsed. Probably. Would it be as good as you describe. Probably not. Yes their would be one less thing for Christians or others to falsely claim, but that wouldn't stop them. Many people will believe what they want to believe despite contradictory evidence, even people who should know better (sorry to repeat myself but it upsets me). If not Plymouth then something else as evidenced about the founding fathers myth.

They're just a buncha blokes like the rest of us aren't they? Buzz off ...ya buncha criminal offspring!

Yes a percentage of us are descended from convicts. Interesting to know but people change and they shouldn't be based on their dna providers. :) The early convict society was actually quite capitalistic due to being left alone to make it's own choices (England's attention was elsewhere) so maybe that's why where now so cool ;) (I jest, please don't kill me :) )

Richard said...

Well, my dear TTEyes,
they're still fukwits ;-)

More seriously, do any of you Aussies here at Fiery's blog know of a Keith Windschuttle?

I'm serious. He's a truly rare mind. In fact he is a factor in the fervor behind my Jamestown comment/essay.

His study of Australian history shows that every academic argument suggesting institutionalized oppression of Aussie Aborigines is utter 'Roo-Poo!

Your Black Boys were really quite good --well mostly-- compared to our Redskins. Plus, as a buncha convicts ;-) you Whities treated them darned well!

"Rabbit Proof Fence", the movie, is a crock o' sh_t but lot's of Liberal-Lefties here in Canada think it's the gospel truth.

Just keep being smart Aussie's and the boneheads will likely die off!

Richard said...

Wait a sec!!

Why are we commenting about Jamestown, here on the "value of a soul" page. Twits, we are.

Oh BTW, TTEyes, I cannot emphasize Keith Windschuttle's "The Killing of History" enough. He is a rare intellectual hero, of the land of Oz!

Also if you want to waste time reading bits and pieces, explore the earlier posts on his blog, here.

Half rabbit said...

Do you have a better link. The one you gave was just a domain squatter and the wayback machine gave nothing. Typing it into google just gave a whole bunch of ak47's. Anyway maybe this site is close enough http://www.sydneyline.com/

Richard said...

I should also improve a sentence lest it be misconstrued as a slight!
"He is a rare intellectual hero, AND he is from the land of Oz!"

As for the link, I must not have pressed the C key, for copy, firmly enough.

Yes, the site I was suggesting was indeed,
http://www.sydneyline.com/

Richard said...

My rant has nothing to do with anyone here, TraceyT. It is from the "with friends like you who needs enemies?" Department,

The two guys working on my website, are now telling me it will take even longer, with no clear end in sight..

I trusted them, especially my best friend's son, Paul, to see that they got their facts straight and made promises that could be kept. I even had a contract, that has now blown by.

I saved this young man from being labeled by our public school system as intellectually 'challenged', by talking his parents into putting him in my private school. I taught him Gr 11 Biology and introduced both him and his parents to Objectivism, which all three appear to properly appreciate, and they expressly thanked me for introducing them.

Paul pursued computer animation at a local college that has the top program in Canada and the N.E. corner of the continent. In his third year a teacher there left the school, and they asked Paul to take over his job, before Paul had even graduated!!

After he graduated he opened his own computer studio, turning down employment offers from Dreamworks and Disney, who have since provided his firm with contract work. He is very good at what he does, and has varying numbers of staff, and lots and lots of contacts.

I was meticulous in explaining what would have to be done, and was assured, and re-assured, they could do it. So what could go wrong? Well the first programmer toyed about with the work, but only created a crude 'front end' that could be shown over a browser, but quit when it was getting the 'back end' data handling portion working.

It took six months to get a replacement who was good enough. Then the completion date promises started coming out quite regularly. But, again & again, they pushed forward the date for its being finished. It just got more and more absurd. The very first timeline was 8 weeks & the next was 6 months, then that blew by. And so they agreed to keep to the original cost agreement ...but they started taking on other work!

I have been promised numerous completion dates in the last year, and, each time, was shown programming evidence that supported those new dates. I adjusted my life accordingly. It also meant NOT having a full time job... so my resources are thinning.

Now, it has reached three years!! No, it was not all their fault, which only makes it harder to complain. There were a number of other failed things: the Bank and credit card companies failed to set up accounts (taking 3 months instead of three weeks), a shopping cart programmer screwed up the tax calculation, Costco confirmed a date and then were off by a week etc..

Still it is now three years, & all they can say is that it was "harder than they expected"

They now have me in a position where so much has been done that it would be even longer to go to some other group, and I could not afford them anyway!! So I am stuck with two guys who do not know what they mean when they make a commitment. And, I'm left with no clear end in sight, wrestling with words to try to get genuine timely action, and completion.

Green-Eyed Momster said...

You and Half Rabbit are the smartest people that I know, computer wise and in other ways. Get with him, I think that you'd make a great team. We don't take those "going Postal" threats lightly in my country. People here are wound too tightly these days. I was just hoping that you wouldn't go through with it. And I wasn't sure If I'd missed something or offended you in some way. Best of Luck and I'm serious about Half Rabbit! Regards!

Half rabbit said...

Traceytreasure, I'd be even worse :)

I saved this young man from being labeled by our public school system as intellectually 'challenged', by talking his parents into putting him in my private school. I taught him Gr 11 Biology and introduced both him and his parents to Objectivism, which all three appear to properly appreciate, and they expressly thanked me for introducing them.

Paul pursued computer animation at a local college that has the top program in Canada and the N.E. corner of the continent. In his third year a teacher there left the school, and they asked Paul to take over his job, before Paul had even graduated!!

After he graduated he opened his own computer studio, turning down employment offers from Dreamworks and Disney, who have since provided his firm with contract work. He is very good at what he does, and has varying numbers of staff, and lots and lots of contacts.


You hired a animation studio to make a website for you, for an e-business site no less? Most studios I know of either work on movies/shorts and/or commercials for their clientele. Is there any chance you can give me the studios website so I may view their demo reel and judge the studios quality?

I hate to repeat an old adage but friends and business do not mix. *sigh* I feel for you, I really do. If you sue for damages you risk losing a best friend and someone you mentored. And on the other hand three years is a especially long time on the Internet and what may have once being a revolutionary idea is now so rampart that there is no market for it any more (that probably doesn't apply to your site but it's valid all the same)

I'd type more, but I have to leave as my weekly shipment is at the library and I have to pick it up.

Fiery said...

TraceyT! Only had one screaming baby and a couple of morose jerks, but other than that it was a fantastic series of flights.

Met a lovely retired couple on the flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne (15+hours) and am planning on possibly spending a bit of a day with them sometime when I head back to Melbourne.

Fiery said...

Richard,
I disagree that "Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Oprah, Obama, Clinton, McCain, Dubya and Michael Moore" are an insult to my intelligence. It's the media and popparazi that have created their larger than life personalities. They, as individuals, do not insult me in any way. I ignore them. Maybe you should do the same.

Fiery said...

(If you do not know what that means, go to the link and read the fucking text, you blithering idiot.)

Richard, I can imagine what your problem is, but coming on my blog and insulting people randomly is not appropriate and I for one do not appreciate it.

Life sucks and YOU have put yourself into an almost impossible position. Now pull yourself together behave!

Fiery said...

Richard unexpectedly began frothing at the mouth and said, "And, what's the big deal about Aussie's anyway? They're just a buncha blokes like the rest of us aren't they? Buzz off ...ya buncha criminal offspring!".

*sigh* Richard. The world is a seriously screwed up place and you have royally pissed up your little corner of it.

You want to know what is so special about Australia? The INDIVIDUALS that I have met from here. Now stop treating people by their gender, their nationality, their cultural heritage and start seeing them as individuals. Geez.

And as for your Jamestown post. WTF Richard???? There are people who write blogs for a year and never get a single comment. If people didn't comment on what you write and you want to know why, try asking instead of insulting them. Maybe they thought it was boring. Maybe they didn't give a shit about the topic. Maybe they didn't have anything to say because it doesn't really matter. And if it DOES matter, maybe you should have made it really clear from the start why it does.

You know... motivation. Peikoff was all about the motivation. He would even tell you he was going to do it. "Hello..*cough* my name is Leonard Peikoff...*cough* I have to motivate you now..."

And then he would tell the audience why what he had to say was important. Might be good on the more obscure topics.

Richard said...
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Richard said...
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Richard said...

SO

Frankly

If there were two nations of people I most admire in all time... nationally

...it's the Americans, the Brits, and the Aussie's,
in that order.

However, if I were to go by the Sense of Life of a people, the Aussies have hung on better than the first two.

Well done, Mate.

Please note, there are three kinds of people: those who can count to two, and those who can't.

Richard said...

No.1

Hey!! I know that the convicts in Oz have
nothing to do with who the Aussie's are today, okay?! Have you forgotten who you're talking to??? That is a rolling-eyes "Grrrr" from me (but it's okay; okay?)

I happen to be one of about 300 people, of the 400 million N. Americans, who knows that today's Aussies are not genetically determined criminals. I also know that they did not attempt to obliterate and brainwash Oz Aboriginals.

We also truly know that is true, in contradiction to 90% of the literature produced by Australian, yes, I said, Australian historians!

So, you see, I was having fun with a tired old joke, ...and using something that tired actually becomes funny in itself! Though, apparently not for everyone.

We still make fun of OZ up here in that 'other' British Colony called "Canada". In Huron (an Iroquoian language of eastern Canada), "Canada", or "Kanata" meant "village".

I hate that...

...yack, "Hil", hack, "lary", puke, "it takes a village", ralph, hurl, "Clin", Technicolor yawn, "ton", dry heave, tossed cookies, unlunch, projectile gut shot.

If you still didn't get my point, go here.

No. 2

Okay, first, please not that when I use "You" it is not personally directed at the reader. It is directed at the jerk who deservees it.

So why, "Sort-a-Bunny", did I go with animation guy? Because his group was active in web site design and used people who had designed websites to handle the non-animation components, into which their animation stuff was often embedded. The fella doing my site has done their site. I hope you are up to date on Flash plugin stuff... course I probly knu ya wuz.

No. 3

I spent at least a half hour explaining to Paul how working with a friend in this context could create problems. He clearly understood. The trouble is, and I have learned this the hard way, at several *simultaneous* levels, that people can understand perfectly and still not understand!!

I now have a metaphor for that.

Has anyone reading this *seen* water-skiing, either in real life or on TV or video? Let's assume you have, but you have never actually done it. (That's important.}

Well, you clearly know how it works, right!! I would certainly know, I've seen it.

I want to double check. Really, you DO know how it works, don't you? It is pretty straight forward...

You float in the water, behind the boat; the boat straightens out the rope and then starts pulling, hard. If you balance right, you end up on your feet, and on the skis. Then you lean and turn behind the boat to cross the wake, etc. No problem, right. It just makes sense.

How straight forward is that? You really DO know how it works, don't you.

Like you, every time I see it on TV or in real life, I totally understood what is going on... TOTALLY.

Well, if you have not actually DONE IT, you are ...
TOTALLY, ABSOLUTELY, CLUELESS

You haven't a blinking-beggar's clue!

In fact, I suggest you even know that you don't know.

But it seems so clear, you think.

But, even as you think that, if you just thought about it a bit more, you would see that you are actually being "intellectually dishonest".

Own up, until you've done it, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO WATERSKI!

You are a lying jerk if you say you do know; and, I do not want you in my life. That sounds supremely harsh, but I am now convinced it is deserved.

The fact is 'you' never really introspected on that kind of dishonesty before? So what are you counting on?

(This is now a big issue for me.)

Until you have sat in the water, life jacket pushing up into your face, tow rope all looped around the water in front of you, water skis buoying up and tipping you over, as you try to stay upright while holding the handle, as the motorboat crew begins to tighten up the line, you know S.F.A . about water skiing.

But wait! That's the easy part. You still have no freaking clue about how hard that rope is going to pull. You have no clue about whether you should sink your ass, or tip your shoulders forward, to get up, right?

If you have not done it, you know SFA about it!

StFU and admit it, first to yourself, and then admit it to me.

Don't be like my friend's son and his programmer. The fact is that "The Road to Hell" is paved with good intentions (and precious little actual knowledge).

Man, I SOOOOO want to say this to Paul and to his Dad, my friend.

As for the idea I have... there are no websites that are coming anywhere near the idea that I have ... hope I have not spoken too soon —— touch wood and all that... and the people I tested it on were VERY pleased with the convenience it provided. Now they are asking why the hell it is not up!

Me too.

And once again, that's the short version.

Sorta-bunny, what is your weekly shipment at the library. I hear a little tune singin' in me head.

Fiery said...

You just might hate me in person, April.

April who?

Fiery said...

Funny how it is MY fault that I took your blatant insults as insulting. It's MY jetlag that is the cause of the breakdown in communication. It's not YOU is it Richard, never YOU? Oh no. Richard is right, the rest of us are wrong, as always, unless we are agreeing with him and then we are only right if we are properly agreeing with him.

Apparently Richard, you lack the ability to use humor in a text based enviornment. Because if that vomit you spewed on this post is supposed to be funny, you need to rethink your sense of humor.

Oh but I am sure, of course, that your sense of humor is 100% philosophically sound in every manner and respect. And it is me who is wrong in not understanding it or seeing that shit as humorous.

The problem is us non-objectivists don't think it is very fucking funny.

And WTF is this "have you forgotten who you are talking to" crap? That is such an annoying patronizing thing to say and you have said it often. You, who so often forget what you wrote or what you discussed and who you are supposed to be directing a comment at.

Oh that's right. You spew some of this shit just to get a rise out of people and then sit back and laugh and point your finger and say "see I got a reaction from you! hahahaha!"

Have I forgotten who I am talking to? Fuck you! No I sure haven't. But maybe you aren't getting the same reactions you once did because it is YOUR behavior that has changed. You come across as a completely different person and you are going to get a completely different response.

Richard said...

First, I apologize to anyone who was upset by what I wrote, and particularly to Fiery.

In my own mind I thought this:
"My rant has nothing to do with anyone here, TraceyT" would hold more meaning for readers than it actually did, and I was working from that context.

I was wrong to rely on it as much as I did. So, the one thing I really meant by it was that, "my rant has nothing to do with anyone here".

I also wrote,
"Okay,
so fine,...
don't read my essay about..."

For about 25 years, anyone who starts off with a line like that is not serious, especially if what follows makes no sense ...it even serves as a warning that something might be awry with what is to come.

I was mistaken on that count too. Again, I apologize to those who were upset by it... TraceyT, you did nothing wrong at all.

Extreme blatancy is usually interpreted as strong sarcasm, with the words meaning quite the opposite of their face value ...especially when someone knows the speaker clearly thinks the opposite.

For example, a lot of people in Canada say the following and actually mean it:
"Americans are short-sighted, money grubbers who haven't a clue about the rest of the World."

Anyone who has read two serious political comments by me, at this blog, would surely know that such a statement by me would be sarcastic. Have I not written to everyone reading this page with enough information for them to know that the above is not what I actually think of Americans? or Aussies, and so forth?

So similarly, why would I think the good people here are actually "blithering idiots"? Have I not taken them seriously in every way, when it matters, by writing very detailed responses to ideas and questions raised by their comments, because I think they deserved thoughtful exchange?

Yes, Fiery, I am indeed fed up 'to the gills' with promises not kept by people putting themselves forth as being trustworthy. They were not claiming to be trustworthy on matters of minor importance, they were claiming to be trustworthy with the two most important things a man has in his outward life. Lot's of people commit suicide over less.

Anyway, in the relevant comments, I expressed myself very badly. Too much of my frustration came out in the language I chose. It was not intended to disrespect anyone here, because that is not how I think of them. It remains that I did convey that disrespect, however unintentionally. No one here deserves that, & I blew it.

I removed the two most offending comments.

Once again, I am sorry.

Harry Nads said...

Richard is still writing novels in the comments, I see. :)

Fiery, long time no see! I hope you are having a great time in Oz.

I am trying to catch up on some blog reading, as things have been very busy here the past year.

Richard said...

Hey Harry Nads,

I wondered what had happened to you. I hope you got lots of things done and feel good about it now.

I just ticked everyone off because I totally screwed up in the way I expressed myself, not to mention making a couple of mistakes that made Fiery, well... fiery!. I hope I can eventually live it down, but expect there will a few jaundiced eyes watching for another abomination.

Fiery said...

Hey Harry! Welcome back!!! Sure was glad to see your name pop up again.

Oz is fantastic. Everything I wanted it to be and more. Protium and Thump are an absolute delight and their little dog Jake is the nicest dog I have ever met, a real sweetheart.

The cat hasn't warmed up to me yet.

:)

Poodles said...

So, THAT's what I get for sleeping... I miss all of the pissing. Damn!

Let me see if I get some of this... Richard called us "blithering idiots". But it wasn't intentional it was in jest.

Meh! I've been called worse. To my face. Of course, I might have started it... :D

Oh but it might be rude to drag some innocent named "April" into this. No fair picking on people who don't comment here. :P