Am I Just Getting Old?

This post has nothing to do with religion...

My son was putting some Lego together and had Nick2 on. He wasn't really paying attention, I think it was an episode of Zoey 101 he had already seen.

A commercial for Degrassi came on and I just happened to look up to see a purple vibrator and two girls in a bathroom stall. I used the DVR to rewind it without attracting my son's attention and sure enough it was a vibrator.

Look at about 18 seconds into this video:



WTF?

This is Nick! This isn't HBO and Sex In The City. If there is a market for sex shows for teens can they please use a different channel or at least advertise during late hours?

I'm a pretty open minded parent but if I can't trust a kid's channel to show kid level commercials or shows then what do I do?

DVD Player for Atheists

From "Engrish Funny":

Fake Psychics Give Real Psychics A Bad Name!!!

Those pesky FAKE psychics are scamming Brits out of billions and billions of dollars... (you have to say that in a Carl Sagan voice).

Did the article's author use the term "fake psychic" to mean that there are REAL psychics who are losing business to fake ones?

Or did they just use fake psychic like other redundant terms like "hot water heater" (why would you need to heat it if it is already hot?) and "ATM machine" (automated teller machine machine?)

If you call my 900 number right now I'll tell you the truth about fake psychics. Only $5 to connect and $5 per minute after that. Call now: 1-900-EAT-SHIT.

Why Are So Many Americans Religious?

My earliest memories of school included learning about how the United States was founded. Different groups of people wanted to be able to worship how they pleased without the government getting into their business.

There was a lot of emphasis put on freedom of religion.

Nobody said to us "you should practice a religion" but it was implied. Why would thousands of people risk their lives and their futures for religion if religion wasn't worth it? I understand now that there were many other factors and freedom of religion wasn't in the original Constitution, but added later. Still, religion is embedded in our story.

What you don't hear about in school is how varied the beliefs of the founding fathers were. And fortunately, for all of us, they crafted the constitution in such a way that would keep any one of the religions of the time from being a part of the government.

It frustrates me to hear my own family members either say we are a "Christian Nation" or, even worse, actually wish we were a theocracy! My neighbor's car is covered with anti-religion bumper stickers including one I'd like to send to my relatives: If You Want a Country Rules By Religion Move To Iran!

Given that religious parents pass their religion down to their children, and we learn religion must be important because it was one of the reasons for founding this country, it makes sense that so many Americans are religious. As a co-worker pointed out to me Europe is mostly secular because they've gone through their enlightenment after almost 2000 years of rule by religion. And since many of the religious...um...kooks...left Europe and founded this country I understand why we are the way we are.

Answered Prayers and Cluster Bombs

I'm in a shitty mood.

Part of me wants to sit back and giggle at the thought of God's sick sense of humor. The kooks prayed for rain on Obama a few weeks ago. They wanted rain of biblical proportions. But in order to do that God had to create a hurricane. Alas, Gustav is too late for flooding Obama (and a bit too far away from Colorado, anyway). But at least the RNC convention will be disrupted. So, I should thank those who prayed for rain.

But I can't be THAT happy. I mean, there IS a hurricane tearing up the gulf states at the moment. People will probably get hurt (most likely one of those STUPID news reporters telling me how bad the wind is at the moment). But it looks like people did a good job of getting everyone evacuated from New Orleans. Lessons learned. I flipped over to Fox News just for shits and giggles and they were raving on and on about Bobby The Creationist Jindal. Reminding us that he was a republican and doing a great job. Good for him!

But then I see news like this: Georgia admits to dropping cluster bombs

Should I expect any better of a "friend" of the United States? We used them on Serbia so it makes sense for one of our allies to use them. But the US props this story up like we are back in the cold war and Bad Old Mother Russia is up to its old tricks again. So the only news reports we've seen for the last few weeks have been about bad old Russia attacking a sovereign nation. This is Kosovo in reverse. They are doing to Georgia what we did to Serbia, but they are bad and we were justified? I call bullshit.

And then I see news like this: US Agrees To Afghan Airstrike Probe

Doing a great job of reducing terrorism, eh? More like being pawns in someone's tribal wars. And our actions will do a great job of creating MORE terrorists.

But on the TV the news guy continues to get pummeled by Gustav. CNN has a guy on the ROOF of a hotel reporting on the wind. I wonder if he will show us how strong the gusts are by immitating what a human looks like when blown off a roof?

Damn...my pager just went off. Shitty mood likely to continue.