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Monday, August 30, 2010

No Athiests in fox holes...

Someone recently mentioned the old axiom that there are no atheists in foxholes. So we decided to research that statement and find out. The answer may surprise you, but not only are there plenty of atheists in foxholes, some people who went into those foxholes believing in god came out non-believers. For example Shy David's grandfather was a Calvinistic Methodist when he entered the war and when he returned he forbade his family practicing any religion at home, (those were different times folks) his exact quote was "Either God is a bastard, or God isn't there at all." Many of the returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are atheists, or at least agnostic. And just to prove the point the Freedom from religion foundation recently (1999)erected an Atheists in Foxholes monument in Lake Hypatia Alabama, It is dedicated to the many atheists who gave their lives in defense of their country. The organization has more that 16000 members who fight religious intrusion on the constitutional right to freedom of religion. Or freedom from religion in this case. We at The Crazy would like to point out that we have no problem with any true religion practicing in this country, but when a religion begins to attempt to control our government we are offended. For example in 1954 during the communist scare a Chaplain from Chicago began putting the words "under god" in the pledge of allegiance, claiming that if Lincoln can use those words in the Gettysburg address that we can use it in the pledge of allegiance, (one problem with this idea is that President Lincoln's hand written copy of the speech does not contain the words "under god" although many believed he did say them on the podium.) Sadly the pledge of allegiance still contains the words. Although a student in Florida refused to say the pledge recently and was removed from the classroom, (illegally we might add) and had to go to court to be reinstated. In 2005 the House attempted to pass a bill which would make it illegal to attempt to change the pledge of allegiance, (which would have violated the 1st and 14th amendments to the constitution) but fortunately the Senate did not vote on it which killed the bill. But we ramble, the point to all of this is that yes there are atheists in foxholes, but unfortunately there seem to be no atheists in government, which is a shame. Just making a point, ciao for now.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

More craziness from the far right.

We at The Crazy are decidedly liberal, not just liberal, but dyed in the wool, left leaning, (yes the term is dyed in the wool, not died in the wool) freedom loving, what you do in your own home is your business liberals. Recently we've been reading in the news that our President may be a Muslim, even though he was sworn in on a bible, not the Koran as many right wing idiots state. And we agree that if he were a Muslim and lied to get into office that would be wrong, but he didn't. His religious affiliations have been open and honest from the start. He has stated simply that he attended the Trinity United Church of Christ but has since resigned. No doubt due to the Reverend Wright controversy. Which makes him unaffiliated. Much the same as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Johnson,Ulysses Grant, and Rutherford Hayes.
12 of our presidents have been Episcopalian, (the largest percentage) followed by Presbyterian, (8 of these), 4 Unitarians, 4 Methodists (Although George W. Bush listed himself first as an Episcopalian he later converted to Unitarianism.) 3 Disciples of Christ (Ronald Reagan was among these, and also listed himself as a Presbyterian.) 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Quakers, 1 Roman Catholic and a partridge in a pear tree. (Sorry couldn't resist) The Quakers by the way were Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon which sort of explains a little something now doesn't it. There were four Baptists, (Clinton being one of them) and one Congregationalist, (Calvin Coolidge) whatever that is. Sadly, there is no Atheist on the list. (Although some thought Lincoln was at the time.) So what is our point, only this, if a man was running for President, who fully believed in our constitution, (as Obama obviously does) and was also an honest and forthright man of the people, and was a Muslim or (god help us) an Atheist, we at The Crazy would vote for him. Religious affiliation should not even be part of the election process, but sadly it is. As long as a persons faith does not interfere with his ability to obey the laws of our country and doesn't contradict the principles of our Constitution we at The Crazy don't care what his religion or lack of religion is, we would vote for him. By the way the Roman Catholic was Kennedy if your interested. Oh and if all the 'he' we have been talking about were 'she' we would vote for her too. That's about it from the left leaning loons at The Crazy. Have a good week. Ciao for now.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Something else that is immortal besides Henrietta Lacks.

In our frantic effort to fight the forces of boredom and sleeplessness that overtakes us often here at the crazy, (brought about today by a wrong number phone call at 5:30 AM this morning.) we spent another couple of hours trying to find something interesting to write about on todays blog, and just when we were about to give up we stumbled upon this little tidbit. It seems there is a creature living on this planet that is immortal. No, we are not kidding. It's called the turritopsis nuetricula, and it's actually a species of jellyfish found in the worlds oceans. It was originally found in the Caribbean but has spread worldwide due to it's peculiar habit of reverting back to it's polyp state (it's first stage of life)every so often. This amazing sea creature will keep returning to it's early stage of life over and over again. The samples kept in labs have done so 100% of the time. So this little sea creature is born, mates, (making hundreds of children in each mating) and then reverts back to it's childhood to start all over again. If not for natural predators that devour it, turritopsis nuetricula would have long ago taken over the oceans. We at the crazy find this fascinating, but would like to point out that if we had the opportunity to revert back to our teenage years again we would pass. Although the mating part would be cool. Ciao for now.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Celestial show tonight...

If you are lucky enough to have clear skies after about 11:00 P.M. tonight, you'll get to see some of nature doing what she does best, the Perseid Meteor shower will be coming soon to a sky near you. The shower is debris from the passage of the Swift-Tuttle comet, (which last passed this way in 1992.)so look to the skies tonight and tomorrow morning and you may see up to 60 meteors an hour burning up in our atmosphere. For best viewing look to the northeast after midnight tonight. Also remember that this shower is actually passing by our planet from about July 23rd through August 22nd, so if you don't see it tonight or tomorrow you may get to view at least some of it later in the month. The debris from Swift-Tuttle will be traveling about 37 miles per second and will burn up in the atmosphere leaving beautiful trails of light and if a large enough piece comes down making an exploding type noise. The chances of a piece of the Perseid being large enough to make it to earth (and becoming a meteorite) are slim, but one or two may make it. The shuttle astronauts have a 1 in 300 chance of being hit by earth based space debris, but the Perseid only alters that by less than 15%. (After all compared to the vastness of space astronauts are very very small, imagine putting an ant in a football field and throwing 1000 rocks into the field, the chances of an astronaut getting hit by one of these meteors is less likely than the chance of one of your rocks hitting the ant.) So fellow travelers, enjoy one of natures best shows, it comes around once a year, and there are no curtain calls. Ciao for now.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Freedom of what religion?

We were recently asked how we felt about the plans to build a mosque near the ground zero site in New York City. First of all we should point out that the plan is to build a Muslim Civic Center with an area for daily prayer. So it isn't exactly a mosque. The arguments against building it are mostly from the extreme right, they feel that building a mosque so close to ground zero would be insulting to those who died there.
We couldn't disagree more, the assholes who flew the planes into the Twin Towers were not true Muslims, the crime they committed is forbidden by the Quran, in Chapter 17:34, when a Muslim is in a foreign country he is bound by the laws of that country, those guys are not getting their 72 virgins in heaven folks. So not building the Mosque due to the builders being Muslim would be much the same as not building a church near the Olympic Village in Altanta where Eric Rudolph (a self professed Christian) planted a bomb that killed one and injured 150 in 1996. Some people of course state that the Quran requires Muslims to kill infidels. Something mainstream Muslims would simply not do. It should be pointed out that Dueteronomy chapter 13 advocates destroying any city found to be worshiping other gods. It advocates not only killing the people of the city, utterly destroying it, but also says you should kill the livestock, (poor cows never worshiped anybody.)
and take all the plunder from the city and burn it in the center of town. The point is this. Our founding fathers made it clear that the government of the United States can not and should not dictate to religion in this country. Any religion. So lets show the world exactly how much we cherish our freedom and let the Muslim community build the Mosque in New York. It won't change any of the extremist Muslims mind about America, but it will prove to the rest of the world how we feel about our freedoms. Thats about it, sorry to pontificate, ciao for now.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Solar Tsunami...

Anyone who has read the news for the last couple of days knows that there was a Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun early this week, and if you know that you also know that we will get a decent chance to view the Aurora Borealis tonight. (Also last night and the night before.) Tonight will most probably be the last chance for a while unless the sun decides to fire another salvo at us. The Coronal Ejections were directed right at the Earth and took about two and half days to get here. (They obviously don't travel at the speed of light as it takes about 8 minutes for the light from the sun to reach earth.) There were two coronal events which caused the geomagnetic storm to be ejected towards earth, in reading the blogs about this we were surprised to learn that many people are frightened (some to the point of prayer) but we have to point out that these were hardly the worst solar flares in recent history. In 2003 a solar flare destroyed two satellites and cut power to about 20.000 customers in Sweden. (This flare is much weaker than that one was.) So if you are worried about getting killed by this event don't be, if you are worried about possible power outages or cell phone disruption it's possible, but not likely. There is a chance you will not see any northern lights if you venture outside and look north, but it is worth the effort to try. So for a couple hours after sunset tonight, (and before moonrise for the best chance to view) You might want to head up to someplace high and dark and look to the north. The sun is waking up after an 11 year sleep folks, and we can expect it to stretch and yawn a little. It's just possible that over the next ten years or so we may get to see some of the wildest Aurora's in our lifetimes. Oh and for those of you who are still worried, remember that the Astronauts aboard the international space station who have a shielded room in which to hide in the event of a particularly strong solar flare, have not done so as the Solar Flare is not at levels harmful to biological life. (But don't be surprised if your compass spins a bit.) Just another interesting day on planet earth. Ciao for now.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Fox news caught lying again...

Going to get a little political here, allow us a moment to rant about lies in the news. For example Fox news in a number of recent stories has stated that President Obama has refused foreign help in cleaning up the gulf oil disaster, Specifically statements have been made by Greta Van Sustern, Sarah Palin, and during an interview with Republican Representative Charles Djou from Hawaii he stated "It’s important that we take help from whomever and wherever they’re willing to offer it. … So why are we not waiving the Jones Act to allow international help to come in? … Why we’re not waiving it here … is baffling." Now let me tell you why this is a lie, currently there are Vessels from 13 countries helping to clean up the Gulf oil debacle. All of them working without the waiving of the Jones act. Why? Because the Gulf Disaster is in international waters, the Jones act only applies to United States Territorial Waters, therefore we do not need to waive the Jones Act to clean up the spill. Another example of the extreme right attempting to undermine or belittle the Obama Presidency. The number of vessels currently cleaning up the oil inside U.S. Territorial waters is huge. They are the local fisherman who's livelihood has been threatened by the spill. B.P. Oil is paying them to clean up the spill. There is no doubt that the oil spill will cause some businesses to fail. There is no doubt that the spill will require years of effort to fix. And B.P. is far from perfect in their handling of the spill. But when the extreme right says that the Obama administration is not doing everything it can to help clean up the spill, they are lying. Another example of Fox news extremist views. We hope you will pardon our foray into political theater, we now resume our regularly scheduled inanity. Ciao for now.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

We were wrong... but not entirely.

We recently did a blog entry about the Safe-link cell phone that the government is giving to people in need. And we reported that the users would get 200 free minutes with the phone. We regret to say we were in error, users of the phone will receive 71 minutes a month on the phone (in the state of Michigan, other states will give 68 minutes) Still a good thing for people too poor to afford one, especially for emergencies. That being said there is one thing in the news we thought we would mention, the Chevy Volt coming off the assembly line. The car will probably not cause any boom in the sales of electric cars (actually it's a hybrid of sorts) the batteries in the car will allow it to travel only 40 miles on the first charge, but after that the gas engine recharges the battery as you drive, it will go hundreds of miles while using very little gas, and not requiring you to plug it in for a recharge. And at a price of $41.000 it will be beyond the range of most of the people who would use it. That being said, kudos to the Chevy company for attempting this. It won't be long before the prices of these types of cars starts to come down, and any technology that gets us off the oil teat is a good one. Perhaps someday we at the Crazy will be able to afford to drive an electric or hybrid vehicle, (Perhaps a second or third hand car) but right now it is most definitely out of our price range. Well that's about it, a boring little news story to add a little blandness to your Sunday. Ciao for now.