A brief story and a nutritious cookie recipe...

Some of you are already aware I've been dieting and eating an entirely different batch of foods in the last 3 months.  I'm eating foods that are high in protein, low in fat, and have a higher level of complex carbs vs. simple carbs.  I've been hesitant to blog about this as it obviously has nothing to do with my typical area of expertise, but I want this blog to cover some other areas of my life, and I plan to post recipes and diet/bodybuilding related things from time to time.  One of the new items in my diet is protein powder supplements.  I've tried a few different brands to see which flavor I like the most...

I bought the two huge jugs, Muscle Milk light and Evopro only after sampling them, I found them to be the most tasty so far.  The folks on facebook mentioned ON Standard but I was looking for lactose free, so keep that in mind if you get the urge to recommend your favorite powder.

 Thanks to David Silverman for bringing this to my attention, I'm united with him on a boycott of Tom Cruise movies and now The Simpsons. Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson) is promoting Scientology.

On Thursday nights Daily Show Jon Stewart fell into the funniest impression I've ever seen him pull off, an attack or parody if you will of the ridiculous Glenn Beck...

Religion creates another atrocity, god is great, eh?  Listen Muslims and Christians... stop the fighting.  You're both wrong, it's time to act like rational grown-ups and throw off your archaic belief system, you are destroying civilization, and will continue to do so until we're gone.  Abandon your superstitous nonsense, and evolve already!  Ask yourself, what solid proof do you have to believe in your God.  If what you have is a holy book, remind yourself that hundreds of holy books exist for hundreds of gods, and you don't believe in any of them, so obviously a holy book is not sufficient proof.  Throw off your superstitious nonsense, and embrace things you know exist like humans for example.  Make no mistake, today millions of folks around the world who have no belief in a god are sad for the people who were affected by this needless loss of life, just as we've been sad about all the other atrocities committed in the name of religion throughout the ages.  Our thoughts are with the billions who have been negatively affected by religion since the dawn of time, and always are.  In fact my life is dedicated to ensuring these sorts of things don't continue to happen, you can start by breaking the cycle... throw religion off today!  

Today is the day, on the Don Imus show Bill Maher referred to himself as an atheist very explicitly for the first time that I am aware of.  

Here is his page on Celebrity Atheists with the update: http://www.celebatheists.com/wiki/Bill_Maher

NOVEMBER 2009 ON IMUS - MAHER REFERS TO HIMSELF AS AN ATHEIST

November 1, 2009 on Imus, Bill Maher finally accepts that the term atheism describes him best when relating to Richard Dawkins and his atheism lacking absolute certainty:

I feel the need to highlight the recent trials and tribulations of Sunsara Taylor with the Ethical Society of Chicago as she is a friend of mine, and this issue is of obvious importance to her.  Sunsara has given me the fuel to give brief mention to a past issue I feel that the Ethical Society of Philadelphia helped hinder the advancement of non-believer unity in Philadelphia.  If you can believe it Sunsara is even more of a rabble rouser than I am, while she staged a scene, I quietly backed away and just pretended it never happened.  Today I speak up, because of Sunsara.

About two years ago a group was formed called PhillyCor, I'm close with quite a few people involved in the forming of the group.  The group was formed to connect local freethought and humanist groups, and RRS is based out of Philadelphia. Being that we had the largest global presence of any of the groups in Philadelphia it made sense for us to be involved, and we would've embraced the role.  We would've adapted to fit within the groups model, we would've helped raise money, and most importantly spread the word on a much larger scale than the group was capable of.  In fact this is the first time I ever link to the group, because when the opportunity arose for RRS to be in the group, the Ethical Society essentially stated it's us or them.  

Lori Stephens author of Alpha Omega recently asked me if I wouldn't mind sharing her book with the users of the Rational Response Squad website.  As always purchases made on this site via Amazon, help support this site.

We've restored the content on both the old Way of the Master watchdog site, and Ask The Atheist.  

I'm currently looking for people that are writing articles, have written articles, or are willing to write articles exposing Kirk Cameron, Ray Comfort, Todd Friehl and any of the other loons that work with the Way of the Master organization.  That site had been taken down quite some time ago, and is now available here: Way of the Master Watchdog

The OLD Ask The Atheist site is now in archive format only attached to our site as a subdomain: http://asktheatheist.rationalresponders.com 

You can log in to both of the above sites to post a comment with your RRS login and password.  

Check tonights World Series for a live performance of my current favorite song...

Over the last few weeks just about the only song I listen to when in the car is the new Jay-Z song Empire State of Mind from the Blueprint 3 Album. I do love New York, think it's a great city, and really love both the vibe and message of the song.  Songs that inspire are my thing.  Not to mention that I think Alicia Keys is one of the five most musically talented women alive, and honestly the overwhelming reason I like the song is because of her chorus, and this live performance...

My son just had his current grades sent home, and he's doing amazing as always.  He's got straight A's with the exception of one B.  The B is in science.  When I heard the grades, I smiled, told him how proud I was, and how he was doing great.  But then I told him how it's a bit ironic that science was my favorite subject, it's my best subject, and if he were to excel in one specific course I'd love it if it were science. 

As I was sitting there contemplating how I could convey to him how science is used in essentially everything we do, and in almost every action we make, he says "I don't think I'm gonna use science when I grow up."  Aside from my heart sinking, I realized his lack of fundamental understanding as to how science is applied and it's common use.   So I spent the last 30 minutes giving him fun examples of how he constantly uses science.  For example he presses the power button on a computer to turn it on, rather than tap the sides of the computer with a stick.  When he plays his Lord of the Rings game he uses weapons on certain enemies he deems appropriate based on past experiences.  He doesn't use weapons that he has knowledge will fail and expect a positive result.  We went through a ton of fun examples on practical usage of science, and he gets it, but I'd like to build some interest as opposed to just "getting it."