The Ottermanempire.com » pat

Bring out yer dead. Mary Roach tries to Spook us!

Haltse — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:39:36 +0000

This is a fluffier book than Bonk or Stiff both grounded in a reality that’s going to be a lot harder to nail in a book about research into the afterlife.

Amongst other things Roach takes a look at ectoplasm, EVP that’s the people that listen to noise and claim to hear things, past lives,attends a class in the UK on how to be a medium. She also looks at the science of testing “psychics” like DuBois and other cold readers that are cynical ,delusional or both ( my bias). That blunt an answer is something this book isn’t going to provide for you but it’s probably a good thing that she’s not attempting to do that.

She’s a very entertaining writer,her footnotes amusing,and there’s real science to follow up on. I just didn’t learn as much as her prior works since it’s hard to accumulate a body of evidence for life after death when all we have is evidence of bodies.

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‘Religulous’ and the expected Spanish Inquisition

Haltse — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:52:21 +0000

If you had asked me to write down 3 main criticism’s of Bill Maher’s movie, Religulous, that would be brought up in negative reviews number one on my list would be

“Well you’re atheism is just a religion anyway “

I get that one often. The need to drag people to their level is one of the ideas that Bill O Reilly espouses , you can’t justify bad action by pointing out another’s bad to make your point . I didn’t say O’ Reilly manages to walk that walk but it’s an ideal, kinda like the Christ myth on which the followers of both = Major Fail. Most negative reviews reference this sentiment and here’s an example From Glen Whipp at LA.com which neatly encapsulates the form of dementia.

“…thought is absent in “Religulous,” as is imagination. The movie is Maher’s monument to Maher, as ugly and hateful as anything he decries in the film.

Yep Bill Maher is the equivalent of crusaders, suicide bombers and those that rape children. Sounds like a psychotic* idea. A movie about ideas, EVEN , if you believe it to be a bad movie is not as hateful as the wanton destruction of sentient beings by blowing up families in a market because you’re invisible friend tells you too?

I call bullshit because this guy is as deserving of the phrase “and then there’s this asshole” as anyone claiming to be a critic.

Movies Maher ridiculous in ‘Religulous’

*the term is also used in a more general sense to refer to mental disorders in which mental functioning is sufficiently impaired as to interfere grossly with the patients capacity to meet the ordinary demands of life.

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Must have only be physical harm that angels protect against because that’s a lot of nutty people.

Haltse — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:55:13 +0000

Half the people you meet not only believe in angels but claim to have actually experienced their influence. Nope this is not from a country that burns witches ( I can’t say yet, maybe at this time is safer) or riots because they believe their football game were cursed but from the USA #1 in debt since , well let’s not confuse a stupid population with the current financial crisis , since it was worked out that you can do just about anything here and then pull out an angel to justify your actions.

By now you’ve guessed that we’re not talking about Curtis and his gang but the kind of bright light, flappy flappy harp playing goody two shoes types that schlep around carrying messages from the “Almighty” , whose omni presence doesn’t stretch to a decent two way communication system with his creation apparently, and seemingly are there to give you a push , a warning or whatever help you may need to stay out of harms way. Here’s a fun story I like to relate about a marketing manager at a prior company ( a few back) that crashed her car on the way back to the office after lunch.

Her eyes were closed while driving . There wasn’t a foreign object in there, not squinting from the sun or taken by a sudden bout of narcolepsy but.. they were closed because she was praying. Guess what ? She felt lucky that she was praying as the accident could have been so much worse OTHERWISE! 55% Adults , Voters, Drivers, EEP!

Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans – TIME

In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, “I was protected from harm by a guardian angel.”

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CNN needs to get it’s head out of it’s ass humans being stupid is not news. re Large Hadron Collider

Haltse — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:52:11 +0000

This line from an article, front page, main story , about the Large Hadron Collider annoys me. Firstly Mainly as it has to justify why research is useful to us which is kinda scary. We’re reading this new SOLELY as a result of our research and understanding about how most of the ‘verse holds together in a tolerably predictable manner. Can they please maybe deal with us all becoming Fannie Mae stock holders? K thx bai.

CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

Skeptics fear it will lead to the Earth’s demise

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Penn and Teller. by looking for what you are missing , you may find that your missing even more.

Haltse — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:19:34 +0000

Erin with Teller. ( I love his voice, his writing’s rather good too)

I’ve been a fan of Penn and Teller since being exposed to them in the mid 80′s and one of the life goals, as far as I have plans, was to see them perform live. That’s another collective 40 years experience up on stage and if they were great in the 80′s they are now fucking amazing. During the intervening time I didn’t turn out to be an atheist as I always was one, as are all newborns it’s only the prevailing culture that tells a three year old that he’s a Christian child and sadly he’s doomed to burn in hell unless he thanks the zombie jew for his gift of ever lasting life, feeling sick yet?

There’s enough material on who Penn and Teller what they believe in and their reputation as the bad boys of magic when most of the mainstream ,magically speaking, were just bad. Note I said mainstream since there are amazing entertainers such as Jamy Ian Swiss, Jerry Sadowitz and Tom Mullica ( Well he makes me laugh)

I kinda have to mention the Pendragons as the other act I’d love to see live and not just because she’s hot. She’s hot and they’re talented.

That’s not telling you much about P an T though but I wanted to let you know I am predisposed to magic as an art form and non belief as a science.

The show is 80 minutes long and costs about $1 a minute , that may sound high but think about how long it takes to swallow a $5 beer, not that high now is it?

What you get is not just entertainment but some amazingly open lessons on just how fallible we are when we’re paying attention to that which others wish us to look at. Their usage of a video camera in one piece had an audience member focusing on the close up magic for the big screen while they are missing the large changes going on around them all while they pull a meta magical moment by pulling the same trick on the audience. That’s a big lesson people think they can spot the obvious but study after study has shown that a preoccupied brain misses the elephant, or bear, in the room. It’s hilarious until you take it out side of the theater and realize that it’s our default view. Just try to see the person in front of you when looking through a 2000 year old lens.

Secondly, and still on the topic of invisible friends, the attack on psychics ( as Penn says fake psychic is a redundant term) in a manner that’s far more humane than I have been able to come up with. E.g. the believer isn’t stupid, just that they made a mistake in choosing to believe an evil human. I don’t think that works, works for people with the belief but isn’t that a regressive statement to the point were the person starting the religion is the only evil one out there:)

They still have some pg13 moments, include art ( Fire eating is , well not a trick it’s exactly as described) and the bullet trick , the way they do it, continues to amaze.

I love seeing the transparent cup and balls and Teller’s pet red ball which I am failing to recall the name of, regardless, it’s a thing of beauty. Toss in the flag burning , or is it, the live music and their willingness to sign and meet with the audience afterward this was for once, a nice birthday outing. That they expose themselves to idiots like me that try not to go cotton mouth / blurt or ask silly questions plus sign my metal bill of rights is too classy for word. Actually my question is a good one but likely not a fair one to ask and will be the subject of another post.

Bought Penn’s book, Sock, so look out for a review on that.

Sock
by Penn Jillette

Exhibit John 3:16 on why democracy needs its life support pulled prior to letting this lot decide what’s real.

Haltse — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:22:00 +0000

More insanity from the reality challenged community. Not only are they claiming that their brayers* lowered gas prices but that you can get over the more advanced cases of death by engine casing embedded in your head by following the right invisible man. Be sure to pick carefully as it’s really hard to tell the invisible and non existent apart. Not an original thought but please if you hate modern life so much stop using the medical , physical and all other technology that doesn’t fit in with your two thousand year old training manual. Your children are not harmed by our children living differently from you I wish I could say the inverse was the case. Yep you teach your toddlers to claim their parents are going to be hurt forever because they are bad.. And we’re the evil ones? More on that soon.

Survey: Many believe in divine intervention – CNN.com

Survey: Many believe in divine intervention

* 57 percent in survey said God could save a patient even if doctors said it was futile

* Researchers: Docs should be prepared to deal with families who expect a miracle

*not a typo.

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It’s so hard to pick a side when both should lose.

Haltse — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:49:15 +0000

Seemingly poor manners in public are worth millions. This sad story has the arguably most doable preacher’s wife ( Look I tried to put it delicately but the competition isn’t that great) of a Texas mega church accused of impoliteness to a flying waitress*. She was fined $3k back in 2006 so we can assume something valid happened but to the point where someone launches multi million dollar claim? For loss of faith? Love to see how you attach a monetary value to that because I’d like to know. I’d like to write the check for that part. $0.00

Witness: Mega-preacher’s wife threw tantrum – CNN.com

Her psychiatrist, Shayna Lee, testified that Brown has suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the incident. She also felt disrespected in her role as a leader and as a black woman and had her faith affected, Lee said.

Position of leadership? Black woman? How the hell is she diminished , especially the latter, to the point were a real financial loss occurred? This is just two grown women acting like brats. The christian thing to do would be to smite each others family and just leave it at that:)

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Taking your four year old to a purity ball? Why bother you’re more fucked up then Freud at this stage

Haltse — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:56:35 +0000

Daddy you can let go now…..

At a recent Father-Daughter Purity Ball, the girls ranged from college
age to a tiny 4-year-old dressed in purple who climbed into her
father’s arms to be carried

I wonder if they take a toddler to AA too? These people , these people that define innocence yet take their fucking 4 year old ( is there irony in there folks? ) to events like this. I am nowhere near taking Dobh, or myself , to a fetish ball in the near future but maybe I need to take a play from my ‘moral superiors’.

I can only hope that they are trying to create a super sexually fucked up batch of women to compete with the Catholic education / Baptist pastor’s daughter that have been highly reviewed by some of my friends.

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Nearly everything I found objectionable in the “atheist” movement has a store

Haltse — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:21:17 +0000

I used to shop here, used to. Sadly I can’t take em seriously anymore. The same bullshit I saw with local atheist groups, e.g Bush’s god =bad, Kerry’s , Gore, Edwards and now Obama’s is fine. Suggests that there’s a lack of ethical rigor from a store that seems to be in favour of principle over profit. That Obama has a peace symbol sticker for the O in the name is hilarity itself that an overt theist is a poster child for the reality based community is desperatly sad. Crazy.. is crazy.

Don’t Make Me Come Down There sticker
$2.00

Don’t Make Me Come Down There sticker. Just a subtle warning from the
Almighty, to his so-called followers, lest they continue spreading
hatred and division in His name!

New Products for Freethinker science lovers darwinfish holders civil right workers and many others

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Faux upset. Seemingly one idiot is all it takes to create a furore. Fox news and the cute little puppy dog.

Haltse — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Apology on the cards as police pup picture sparks warning over offence to Muslims – Scotsman.com News

A POLICE force has apologised over concerns that an advertisement featuring a German shepherd pup could be offensive to the Islamic community. As part of a campaign to publicise its new non-emergency telephone number, Tayside Police used a picture of a black puppy, Rebel, on postcards to be distributed throughout the east coast region.

Now the rest of the story From a local paper.

Doesn’t it look like the Police apologized to one man One councillor but let’s see how that story played over here in the USA , the Freedom center of the world. Fucking pigs never apologized to me for an baseless allegation but hey I don’t hack off people’s heads that offend me in the name of my invisible friend.

I just make fun of them online.

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My invisible friend can beat up your invisible friend

Haltse — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:01:00 +0000

I love it when the followers of love and peace get into a fight.Looks like the old case of “it doesn’t matter what’s written as long as I get to interpret it for you” Same goes for constitutions as it does from fairy tails..

Evangelist accuses Obama of ‘distorting’ Bible – CNN.com

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No it’s not that difficult to fathom. People believe strange shit that they kill for here too.

Haltse — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:16:07 +0000

And in the question of the day.

How does one tell that which invisible apart? I’m confused. The obvious answer is ignorant stupid people but hey the shaman has a prettier way of saying it.

“These are vendettas. It is not that people really bewitched somebody,”
he says, adding he believes that witch hunts are really about people
expressing hatred and coming up with an excuse to hurt someone.

What this illustrates? That Sam Harris is mainly right in his book,”The end of faith”. Religion is a framework within which the true nutballs are given license by their society to believe/ behave in manner that wouldn’t arise without an invisible friend to redirect your actions against. Without the casual believers it’s hard to imagine the fanatics would have the moral framework in which to operate and seen for the criminals they really are.While many found that Harris’ conclusion re a form of personal spirituality / mysticism to be a replacement for organized religion was not bleak enough ( yeah some atheists demand rigidly defined areas of rational thought ) yet this one case points to a better way forward. What’s better billion believing in 1 “gawd” or a billion gods believing that they are Elvis?

Deadly hunt for ‘witches’ haunts Kenya villagers – CNN.com

- It may be difficult for Western cultures to fathom, but in Western Kenya, beliefs in ghosts and witches are very real. And sometimes they have deadly consequences.

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God awful reasoning . The real tyranny is democracy but let’s just pretend otherwise

Haltse — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:56:53 +0000

Tyranny of the atheist minority

Imagine that – only 1.6 percent atheists, yet their beliefs are becoming the law of the land. A minority forcing its will on the majority – isn’t this the classic definition of tyranny?

Well apart from obvious that all the believers aren’t believing in the same god it makes for oh say interesting discussion to claim that since under 1% of people are of the Hindu faith , the other 99% are not, in fact they could be atheists in relation to the Hindu pantheon. So any faith that doesn’t have numerical supremacy loses .You just have to love large democracies.

I despair at this “we’re under attack” mentality. USA has the highest adherence amongst the developed world yet. So is he saying that 1.5% of non believers are more capable of getting shit down and modifying society to their will than the faithful? Maybe less time spent listening to how flawed and evil we are allows for some practical improvements to be made?

I’m tired of the atavistic call to all the founders, or most of them or just the ones we really like in the US pantheon are god happy ergo country = god happy and a Christian nation. They were also male so can I apply the same principle here to who gets to say what happens?

He also uses a loose definition of tyranny which can be, in this last century at least, the masses going along with the plan. Lastly I could give a flying spaghetti monster about your inner mental life till it affects mine. I can’t get my head around how we’d know if your praying without such a public display being required so this stopping you thinking is not something you can lay at the feet of the non theist.

You stopped thinking by yourself when you adopted a millienia old creed that is as relevant to life in the 21st C as Paris Hilton is to string theory.

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Expelled the movie. The funniest hypocrites on the block.

Haltse — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:59:48 +0000

I’m not going to spoil this one. Suffice to say that reality beats fiction any day. Sadly Adams is no longer around to make this stuff up but the residents of the B ark are quite happy to fill in.

You never know in some far out universe , on some very lucky day you may win against the forces of idiocy.

Pharyngula: EXPELLED!

I’m still laughing though. You don’t know how hilarious this is. Not only is it the extreme hypocrisy of being expelled from their Expelled movie, but there’s another layer of amusement. Deep, belly laugh funny. Yeah, I’d be rolling around on the floor right now, if I weren’t so dang dignified.

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It’s nearly 2008. For the Catholic church that means 8 minute past 8 in the 15C

Haltse — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:47:55 +0000

His poopiness the hole has decided to take on the forces of darkness and evil. Excellent! Not only will he be doing good and valuable work but he’s doing so in an environmentally sound manner.

After all he won’t have to travel too far to get started.

A phrase comes to mind about a fox guarding the chickens but I’m sure that’s unfair and suggests that people that have been proven in court to expose children to known abuse and that allowed those accused sanctuary would not be the best people to root out evil. And why? because G_d tells them to. I am glad that I don’t need a book to tell me that abusing children is wrong but for those that need help I suppose a large hat, a dress and a ratlike countenance ( ad Popium attack) is just the kind of motivation needed.

Pope’s exorcist squads will wage war on Satan | the Daily Mail

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of “Godlessness.”

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Believer bitter over ‘prosperity’ preachings – The book of "nut" Job :)

Haltse — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:38:44 +0000

I really don’t get this level of mental illness being seen as normal. Let’s get this straight. You have ever lasting life, you never die yet that’s not enough? Jesus -, no really. The only thing funnier is the State that runs the lottery is investigating those preying on the less fortunate’s desperation.

Only the blessings didn’t come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn’t strong enough.
“I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them,” she said. “I’m angry and bitter about it.

Believer bitter over ‘prosperity’ preachings – CNN.com

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another funny one where the majority pull out their need to be persecuted.

Haltse — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:04:46 +0000

It’s odd the kids came out as atheists until some one tells them they are full of sin and will likely go to hell for just being born. Yet I’m not seeing those protests.

Is ‘Golden Compass’ ‘selling atheism to kids’? – CNN.com

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Grin and bear it. Is there really any prophet in being this stupid?

Haltse — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:21:01 +0000

You’ve probably heard the one about the teacher and the bear? Class names a bear by voting on it ( told you democracy was trouble) class picks Mohammed and the crowd goes wild.

In the USA teacher’s go to jail for sleeping with their students, executed for killing their students( come on someone had to) and in Sudan the public will tear you limb for limb for naming an inanimate object if given a chance. They are quite kosher ( irony intended) with teaching their kids the glories of blowing up the infidels in pursuit of a better life.. (er which country is that again? oh nearly all of them damn) Yep it’s amazing how in this day in age people with invisible friends just seem to see more clearly than the rest of us and can see the societal threat from an inanimate object never mind that couldn’t happen here ( again)

From a post on the subject http://freestudents.blogspot.com/

Laugh as much as you want as the lunacy of the Islamists just remember
that fundamentalist Christians in America are barely any more sane. You
can still get arrested in the theopublican states of Texas and Georgia
for selling a dildo. Apparently the only legitimate use for dildos in
the Bible Belt is holding public office.

Sudan protesters: Execute teacher – CNN.com

The agency reports that some chanted: “No tolerance: Execution,” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”

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It’s time for the morning after pill to be made more fun. Cereal killing takes on a new meaning. (

Haltse — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:13:05 +0000

Was wondering if a breakfast infused with hormones from the morning after pill would be a nice seller?

Some good marketing could come from this.

Unpreggo my eggo?

For sheer synergy though Cheerios seems to have the edge.

Oh I never talk about abortion.So why the hell not put out a couple of lines. If you really believe that this is child killing and you’re doing nothing about it,you’re probably worse than the disease you are trying to cure

Sorry bumper stickers don’t count here,their only use in contraception is as an impromtu chastity belt / brazillan wax but I digress. The point.

If you truly believe that this ,per your advertisments, is the legalized murder of innocents and you’re not spending all your waking hours to preventing it you may wish to consider just what you really believe because seemingly spending time on picketing products that don’t fawn over your saviour’s ego takes a back seat to the real time murder of innocents. And your the “good guys?”

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You just lost a 2.9 millions for your anti homosexual agenda how gay is that?

Haltse — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:14:52 +0000

While I would have preferred a more violent d’enouement against this poster child for religion but it’s still kinda funny.

: Kansas church liable in Marine funeral protest | U.S. | Reuters

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – A jury on Wednesday ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $2.9 million in compensatory damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine after church members cheered his death at his funeral.

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CNN goes Woo woo nuts. Seemingly there’s no news in the realty market but reality, that escapes them too.

Haltse — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 07:27:40 +0000

Another day of entertaining the (m)asses. The more “woo woo” a society gets in removing rational thought the closer it is to destruction.

”Legitimate ghost hunters”

What’s next? Honest politicians?

Does your house have ghosts? – CNN.com

Check qualifications

Once you’ve found an investigator you’re comfortable with, ask him how long he’s been involved in paranormal research, and about his past investigations — especially those involving private residences. If he claims to be some sort of “doctor,” ask what kind of doctor he is. Find out if he’s affiliated with a research group or a national organization, such as the American Ghost Society. Being affiliated with a group with a good reputation can help you make a better decision about allowing him into your home. You can also call the organization and request additional information….After all, anyone can launch a Web site, but the quality of the material on it speaks volumes about who’s behind it.

Yep CNN anyone can have a website.

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I was so sure it was a typo .. Decrees seemed to more historically accurate..

Haltse — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 03:44:20 +0000

This is news? Isn’t the Pope meant to be against violence and the headline is about as revelatory as say nurses care for people. Crap that’s a bad example since most nurses that I’ve encountered have been hiding behind their choice of paying the rent as somehow being morally superior to others but that’s a massive post not at all brought on by Erin’s recent trauma trip and the staff’s propensity to ignore any info provided, follow up on any action they said they would on the first request and kept her in the dark nearly all the time re her options. Anyway a man in a dress thinks there’s a problem with intolerance then proceeds to state that in effect theirs is the true religion is amusing.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Pope decries ‘religious’ violence

Pope Benedict XVI has urged world religious leaders not to allow God’s name to be used to justify violence.

“Religions must never become vehicles for hatred,” the Pope told the leaders attending a peace summit in Naples.

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Religion and heat don’t go together too well- hey Hitch what ruins everything?

Haltse — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:36:49 +0000

Can we just get it over with? Hearing voices in your head and acting on them without your book would be psychotic, that’s a pretty slim volume for us to hang the rest of reality on. I’m really curious as to why the mother’s not been charged it has to be one hell of a story… Nuts is nuts but the longer we give these defects a framework were they think their delusions are normal the worse it’ll be for all in the end.

Man dies after exorcism attempt on 3-year-old

Police reportedly found Ronald Marquez, 48, of Phoenix, shirtless and choking his granddaughter early Saturday as her 19-year-old mother, naked and bloody, looked on. The bloodied girl was gasping and screaming as her mother chanted and held a religious picture of some kind, police said.

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