I am not perfect, nor is anyone else.

In the past few months, I have paid my rent a bit late twice and had my check bounce twice. So this month, I knew for a fact that I was going to actually see my landlord on the first of the month and there is plenty of money in my account. Well gee whiz...

In fact, my landlord is my GF's father and I saw him in the context of him dropping her off after her brother's birthday party. So I had the check written and handed it to him. If nothing else, I should get points for the act of contrition.

Of course the real world is never simple enough to actually make sense.

My landlord used my rent check as a book mark. Then he returned it to the library.

I tend to think that my bank has probably heard everything by now. Heck but every time I use an ATM, I stand informed of the fact that they have existed for 168 years and have enjoyed zero bailouts. Yah, that is important to the economy in general but fails as far as humor goes.

Even so, this one made the guy on the phone remark that this is one that has never happened before.

You may remember "Rapture Right " a Christian parody group that has pranked RRS users (at my request) on several occasions.  Sadly one of the two brothers that make up "Rapture Right" had a tragedy strike his daughter recently.  His life hasn't been the same since.  His daughter Ella is currently in a coma which she slipped into after having a cancerous tumor removed from her brain.  If you are able to help financially please consider sending a few dollars to help out.  A full story is available at: http://www.hope4ella.com 

I've also posted a portion of the story at: http://www.atheistvolunteers.org/node/47 

DONATING VIA THE CHIP IN BELOW WILL SEND MONEY STRAIGHT TO THE STEWART FAMILY AND WILL KEEP TRACK OF DONATIONS MADE BY ATHEISTS:

In a recent article from Seed, David Weisman debunks the idea of a unified mind, and in so doing also debunks the idea of a unified soul.

I was struck by the following quote in which he expresses regret at the lack of a word for capturing the idea that the mind is entirely physical:

Well David, I have good news for you! There is such a word! And it inspired my second "The Word is:" post:

The word is: Physicalism

OK, you obviously need this broken down into simple steps.

Step 1: Your genes define who you are biologically. Sex is hereditary. If your parents did not have it then neither will you.

Step 2: Your genes do not define who you are sociologically. The idea that there are gay genes is a political idea. It is born not of any fact but rather from those who have the specific agenda that gay is identical to black or Asian or whatever. Because of this theory, if one is gay, then one deserves to have rights which are at least as powerful as those who can't think of a reason why they should have more rights than others.

Step 3: Your genes tell you that having orgasms is a good idea. Past that, the idea that there are genes for liking men's butt holes makes about as much sense as there being genes for liking blow jobs and genes for compulsive beating off.

Step 4: There is no such thing as “gay”. There is such a thing as normal human sexual expression. Some people like some things. Other people like other things. Still other people think that something else is hot.

I have been asked to speak at a church.

No, seriously, they are going to give me time to make a presentation on rationality.

Well, truth be known, this is a Unitarian church. Back when I was Anglican, we used to make jokes about the Unitarians.

Anyway, I have an informal invite and now I can make this happen if I take the time to develop a plan for what I am going to do. The only thing is that this was kind of dropped on me yesterday, so I don't have much apart from my general leanings ready. If I am going to do this, it should be rather more developed.

The one idea that I have that comes to mind would be to bring a pint of bourbon with me and do a Hitch' on them. Apart from that, I really don't know where this is going.

 I have a new advertiser.  For the next few weeks an image ad is on some pages of the website on the right hand side for a t-shirt company.  It's controversial, so I thought I'd give people a chance to lash out or comment in general.  What do you think of the ad?  What do you think of the shirts?  Would you buy one?  What would you think of someone who was wearing one?  What are your thoughts?

Here it is:

Stainedtees

Their latest schlockwave update removed my flashblock plugin.

Be sure and share your thoughts on this.

I'm still trying to figure that out, you dirty double liar...

Catholic Church Excommunicates A Nun Who Approved An Abortion

I found this one on the news tonight. Apparently, they are even further out of control that I suspected.

Summarizing from a few articles on the case, what happened is that a nun who served for many years on the ethics board of a catholic hospital ended up in a position where she had to decide whether to allow an abortion to happen or not.

Specifically, the case at hand is that of a 27 year old woman and mother of four previous children who was 11 weeks pregnant and had a serious medical condition that would have killed her if she had not had an abortion. OK, let's consider this seriously:

A theist believes he or she (hereafter referred to in plurality) is special. That god(s) watch over them. The funny thing is that this would work only if they believe god is special. So with theism you get a bunch of people making up a special fictional being so they can think they are special themselves. Displaced ego ftw...