Farewell, Paul Newman

Congratulations, Paul. You lived an amazing, exciting life and entertained the hell out of us while you did it. Then you stepped out of your well known roles as a race car driver and actor and created products and a company that resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars going to charity.

And you made it to 83. Well done. We should accomplish half as much with our lives. Thanks for everything.

– – –

I’m sure a lot of people will be remembering Paul by watching his movies this weekend. The Hustler and The Color of Money should be watched together, one right after the other. Buch Cassidy is fun, but pretty slow in comparison to today’s movies. (The same goes for The Hustler, but it’s worth it, not only for Newman, but to see what an amazing actor Jackie Gleason could be.) You can’t go wrong with Cool Hand Luke. All fine movies, but I my favorite of his, based on how many times I’ve watched it over and over, is Nobody’s Fool. Paul, Jessica Tandy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith, along with a snowblower that is practically a character, make for an amazing flick.

Sarah Palin Scares Me

A few years back the game “Would You Rather…” was inexplicably popular. “Would you rather have needles shoved in your eyes, or eat a dead rat that was rotting in a ditch?” The goal was to come up with the most disgusting selections possible. It was stupid, gross and pointless and I refused to play.

Now we have an official version: “Would you rather have a socialist president Sarah Palin Action Figurebacked by a socialist congress, or a right wing president in bad health with a far far far right wing fundamentalist vice president eagerly waiting in the wings?”

The vast majority of the problems in the US were directly caused by our government, including the current banking mess. Neither candidate is aware of this. Both propose more government to solve all our government created problems. It’s like a drunk saying “I know what will fix things, more Jack Daniels!”

Obama loves big government. He believes that every problem can be solved by government intervention. With a democratic congress behind him we can look forward to a lot more government, which equates to a lot less freedom. Currently the government pays half of the county’s medical bills. He doesn’t think that’s enough. He wants socialized medicine for virtually everyone. We can look forward to heath care that will eventually deteriorate to the level found in VA hospitals.

But as frightening as that may be, the possible alternative, a Palin presidency, is enough to make the bravest of us quiver like a poodle taking a dump.

She in incapable of learning. She still supports abstinence only sex education even though her daughter is living proof that the approach is useless. She looks at her daughters growing belly every day and says “Yep, we need to stick with this program.” If her daughter had been raped, she’d want the government to force her to bear the rapists child.

Fifteen seconds on Google informs us that the universe is 13.73 billion years old, +/- 2%. Sarah believes it’s six thousand. She believes that 1.4 million species of creatures all lived within walking distance of Noah’s house. And she wants that nonsense taught in public schools.

She believes politicians should be able to censor libraries. While she never followed through and banned books, the fact that the thought would even occur to her is chilling.

She believes that God wants everything she wants. She wants a pipeline, so God wants a pipeline. She supports the war in Iraq, and not surprisingly, she knows it’s God’s Will. This is especially scary coming from an end-of-the world fundamentalist. If she wants to attack a country, or even drop a nuke, she’ll do it knowing it is God’s Will. It’s unlikely she’ll be able to trigger the biblical Armageddon, but that might not stop her from trying. It’s God’s Will, after all.

So, “Would you rather have a socialist president backed by a socialist congress, or an unhealthy right wing president with a far far far right wing fundamentalist vice president eagerly waiting in the wings?” The choices are horrible, frightening and retarded, and I don’t want to play.

Introducing – The Smartenizer

Introducing The Smartenizer, a bi-weekly newsletter that will make you a bit smarter with every issue.

Each issue of The Smartenizer will inform, educate, and smartenize you on a different subject. It will help you tweak, tune and optimize your bullshit meter. It will point to resources you can use for further smartenization. And it will do it with a unique style that makes it fun and entertaining.

Sign up for your free subscription here. Don’t delay, do it right now, before you find yourself surrounded by people who are suddenly smarter than you.

Large Hadron Collider Paranoia

The end of the world has been delayed for two weeks while repairs are made on the LHC. 

Paranoia over it creating a black hole that will destroy the universe are ridiculous.  The most it would do is destroy the solar system.  Hey, it’s been fun. 

India’s media has been broadcasting all kinds of paranoid predictions.  Thousands of people there are praying for god to save them, because that always works so well. 

One teenage girl was so upset that she killed herself, causing a slight but measurable increase in the country’s average IQ.

You shouldn’t waste any time at all worrying about this, but if you’d like some reassurance, you can watch the LHC live web cam here, and monitor the situation. 

Something You’ll Never Need

As an enthusiastic amateur chef I’m always looking for new food items and kitchen gadgets. Especially gadgets. Some gadgets are handy, some are just fun, and quite a few of them are useless.

Recently I found the most useless kitchen gadget ever. Dean & Deluca, purveyors of high priced and overpriced goods, is selling an Olive Oil Taster. It brings out the fullest flavor and aroma, you see, and holds one perfect taste. And it’s only $67. You can buy a lot of olive oil for that, especially the brands I buy.

What, you were going to taste it with a spoon? Heathen!

Atheists Are Comming For Your Children – The Podcast

The latest episode of The Quick Hitts Podcast is now available.  It’s titled “Atheists Are Coming For Your Children, but it’s not just a simple rehash of this post.  In fact, it contradicts it.  In the conclusion of that post I said fundies would be powerless to stop us from converting their children.  But after giving it some thought I realized there are some things they can do to make their kids less susceptible to the influence of us Evil Atheists.  I explain them in this episode.  Not that I expect any of them to listen.

Feel free to use the comments section of this post to heap praise or derision on the show.

Ask the Atheists

I recently signed up as a writer for Ask The Atheists, a place for theists and non-theists to discuss the issue like grownups.  Rather than use my moniker “Hittman,” I decided to use you real name to give my replies the appearance of credibility. 

Most of the answers given by most of the writers are serious.  But there are exceptions.