The Daily Bluster

I have never liked celebrating my birthday. Birthdays only remind me that I am one year closer to dying. Last December 28 was my birthday, and were it not for two old friends who actually made the trouble of going to my house to greet me personally, I would probably spend my birthday just like I did the year before (and the year before that): playing a video game. As it was, the three of us drank and talked about old times.   I’m glad they came; I actually enjoyed my birthday this year, which surprised me.  I suspect I am turning into a grouchy old fart, though. And I find I am content to be a grouchy old fart. What the hell, I am disappointed and disillusioned with the world—and the world is disappointed and disillusioned with me. Might as well live with that , and accept my grouchy old fart persona, even if I am not as old as this old fart: This is probably my last post for 2011. Frankly, I didn’t think this blog would go past this year, given...

So, in this season of hope, peace and good will, Catholic League president Bill Donahue has launched a campaign—“Adopt An Atheist,” is what it’s called. Behold : Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area, letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along. If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.”   What he is doing is just perpetrating the bigotry that religious nuts like him have towards people who happen to not share his set of beliefs.  Religion could be dangerous, as it is; combine i...

I know I am blogging about an incident that happened several months ago (June in fact), about a topic that is well past its shelf life, but see, I just read about it. And this one really irked me, and affected me enough it made me want to go visit my Shrieking Tree , i. e., this blog, to   rant and bluster, albeit in a somewhat wussy manner. Here’s what happened (as Inspector Monk used to say): A woman was invited to speak at a skeptics ’ conference held in a hotel in Dublin. Later, as she was in the elevator going up to her hotel room after the conference, a male attendee followed her to the elevator and invited her to his room for coffee. She rejected the offer, and that was that.  They both went their separate ways. Should have invited my right hand instead The woman then posted a video that mentioned her apparently creepy and harrowing experience. After the video got posted, things in the skeptics’ and atheists’ blogosphere got interesting, which, as you m...