Virtual Illusions

via AlsoChorizo

Zafkiel? Is that you?

No, but since I’ve been invoked…

So far we’ve been talking about easy targets (Bud, Miller, etc) As a side note when I started homebrewing I bought 2 cases of natty bo and poured it down the sink for the bottles. Didn’t occur to me to drink even one.

As for harder targets I’ve got two well respected beers that I just can’t drink The first is the Sam Adams triple bock. Great looking bottle but neither I nor my roommate could finish it. The other (and I’ll be branded a heretic for this) is Thomas Hardys Ale. Also a beer I couldn’t finish.

Clearly high alcohol beers are not my favorite style, but I can usually drink them and I enjoy the style from certain breweries (Stone old guardian comes immediately to mind).

So what are the harder targets?

Note I can usually drink highly fruit beers I just prefer fruit beers where I can’t identify the fruit by taste alone. I like to be able to taste the flavor but have to work hard to be sure what it is. The less sweet ones are usually preferred as well.

–Zafkiel

Beer

Maybe a perspective you haven’t heard before:

Separation of church and state was not to keep church out of government, but to keep government out of the church.

That is not a new perspective and I half believe it. I do believe that separation of church and state exists to protect the religion from the state, but I also believe it is to protect the state from religion. When the two become intertwined both become corrupt.

Religion when it is good is ones person statement of faith made of ones free will and encompasses what one considers moral. When the that religion is instead pushed or backed by state power religion becomes a vehicle of fear and immorality. It becomes a vehicle of physical and temporal power. When that happens those who seek position within religion don’t do it to do good they do it to seek control. Neither the church nor the state can survive such an environment.

Just as true when the church threatens politicians with ex-communication or eternity in hell if they don’t toe the church line. Or threatens the congregation with the same if they don’t vote for a certain candidate our political process has become corrupted and greatly harmed. Once supernatural threats are held over people they are no longer free to make informed decisions in accord with their conscience. At that point our government becomes unresponsive to the people and essentially a form of dictatorship with power held by the religious institution. Currently the vast completion in the religious space keeps that from happening, but if the state was involved in funneling money and support and state power to a single religious position that would no longer be true.

Also, what are you objections to a loving God that wants to have a relationship with you and hang out in heaven with you for eternity?

You’ve missed the point. I have no objection to such an entity I simply don’t believe it exists. To turn the question around what is your objection to existence of Shiva or the Wiccan Goddess figure? It isn’t that I believe in your god but choose to reject it. I don’t believe in the first place. There is no reason or indication that I’ve found to suggest that the entity exists, and all my research seems to show the whole thing as a man made construct to serve various purposes. Not the least of which is to soften the fear of death.

I realized I was an atheist when I realized that those around me believed in an afterlife. Not as metaphorical statement but in actuality. I was 20 at the time and this was the first time it occurred to me that people actually believed in a literal heaven and hell. Clearly I was not a believer.

–Zafkiel

Philosophy/Religion, Politics

IT AIN’T EASY BEING A MAN . . .

If you put a woman on a pedestal and try to
protect her from the rat race, you’re a male chauvinist.

If you stay home and do the housework, you’re a pansy.

If you work too hard, there is never any time for her.

If you don’t work enough, you’re a good-for-nothing bum.

If she has a boring repetitive job with low pay,
this is exploitation.

If you have a boring repetitive job with low pay,
you should get off your ass and find something better.

If you get a promotion ahead of her, that is favouritism.

If she gets a job ahead of you, it is equal opportunity.

If you mention how nice she looks, it’s sexual harassment.

If you keep quiet, it’s male indifference.

If you cry, you’re a wimp.

If you don’t, you’re an insensitive bastard.

If you thump her, it’s wife bashing.

If she thumps you, it’s self-defence.

If you make a decision without consulting her,
you’re a chauvinist.

If she makes a decision without consulting you,
she’s a liberated woman.

If you ask her to do something she doesn’t enjoy,
that’s domination.

If she asks you, it’s a favour.

If you appreciate the female form and frilly
underwear, you’re a pervert.

If you don’t, you’re a fag.

If you like a woman to shave her legs and keep in
shape, you’re sexist.

If you don’t, you’re unromantic.

If you try to keep yourself in shape, you’re vain.

If you don’t, you’re a slob.

If you buy her flowers, you’re after something.

If you don’t, you’re not thoughtful.

If you are proud of your achievements, you are arrogant.

If you don’t, you’re not ambitious.

If she has a headache, she’s tired.

If you have a headache, you don’t love her anymore.

If you want it too often, you’re oversexed.

If you don’t, there must be someone else.

NO WONDER MEN DIE BEFORE WOMEN!!!!
THEY WANT TO!!!

Gender, Relationship

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”

– George Carlin –

Philosophy/Religion, Politics