Cognitive Hazard Zone!

Being a reader of various religious and political blogs, I'm often drawn back to resources like the Logical Fallacies pages on Wikipedia for references to refute the distressingly poor quality of argumentation I encounter.

I've now found a new favorite - 26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong. Which, besides being quite readable and entertaining, has the coolest warning sign ever ;)

[via By the Way]

Photoshopped Children's Books

Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday has some hilarious images of fake children's books. Like this bit of H.P. Lovecraft, illustrated by Richard Scarry!



Certainly not for real children, or the easily offended...

[via boingboing]

But Not the Sinner ?

One of the most common canards of the AAC/ACN and their fellows on the Christian Right is that, when confronted by people of which they disapprove (gays, liberals, uppity women), they really “only hate the sin, not the sinner.”

It's always been my experience that such people use this as a way to “hate” and still feel clean afterwards. Now, the Rev. Br. Tobias Haller has posted a penetrating entry on this topic with Enough of Hate:

It is impossible to “hate the sin” apart from the sinner, as if sin had some reality apart from the desires and actions of fallen human beings, as if you could somehow extract the sin from a person and vent your purifying fury upon it. Such a notion is very far from the Gospel. What is worse, those who begin by “hating the sin” in this abstract way soon will come to hating the sinner in a concrete way, as indeed they must, since the one cannot exist apart from the other. And when those who legislate what is sinful have sufficient power, we have seen what results: the auto da fé was intended to save the souls of those repentant heretics being burned alive.

Amen, Amen, Amen - What I tell you three times is true.

[with thanks to Fr. Jake]

We Gots Cooties

There's a truly excellent summary of the "current unpleasantness" in The Episcopal Church over on the progressive blog Future Majority entitled Cooties! The Future of American Christianity and Politics. Colorful, hilarious, and just nails the whole thing dead-on.

Recommended - not only for "church-y types," but any young (or young at heart) person with more than two neurons to rub together. If this is characteristic of the political stance of the Millennials, then I'm feeling a lot better about the state of things to come.

[via the Rev. Ann Fontaine]

Great Flat-panel Monitor, Great Price

I just got done unpacking and setting up my new NEC 90GX2 19" flat-panel monitor this weekend.

This thing is fantastic. Best display quality of any desktop flat-panel monitor I've ever used. And I'm picky - used to exclusively go with higher-end Sony CRT monitors for my eyes' sake (I have to wear reading glasses for close-in work).

The screen has a glossy finish like some of the more recent notebook computer displays that really helps with brightness and color saturation. Matter of fact, it's probably too bright out-of-the-box. I've also encountered no problems with reflections on the glossy screen, which isn't any worse than many decent CRT monitors, though YMMV. 700:1 contrast ratio and a fast 4 ms pixel response time make it great for gaming and watching DVD movies as well as std computing tasks.

1280x1024 pixel resolution, both analog (VGA) and digital (DVI-D) inputs (both cables included), and a USB 2.0 hub. NEC makes rock-solid equipment, and this was priced like the high-end gear it is just a few months ago ($450+). But the current price on Amazon is less than $220 + free shipping.

You owe it to yourself to have a look at this in your local computer store, but like I said - Amazon seems to have the best price right now. Highly recommended.

Secular Humanist Revisionist

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

--- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814

It's not news that something smells about the IRD-funded organizations like the AAC/ACN and their religious right brethren. The Founding Fathers knew it over 200 years ago.

[via today's cartoon on I Drew This]

Elephants Never Forget

Except, maybe occasionally, when testifying to Congress...

[via goats.com]