Baron Dave Romm
Misplaced Faith
By Baron Dave Romm
Faith can be a wonderous thing. Faith carries you through hard times and lifts you ruding good times. Faith can build temples, schools, governments. Faith can bring you closer to G-d. And faith can convince you to kill doctors and fly airplanes into buildings. Faith inspires individuals to pull together to create civilization. Misplaced faith inspires Inquisitions and Jihads.
This past election -- in some ways, this past century -- has been an effort by people who think they believe in G-d haranguing those of us who disagree with their particular interpretation of the world. I know many of these people. They think the Rapture is coming any day now and they (not us) will ascend into heaven and they don't care what happens afterward. They are, for the most part, good people. Evangelicals are kind, caring, intelligent people who love their children and try to live by Scripture and if they thought G-d told them to they would kill doctors and fly airplanes into buildings.
They wonder why we don't "get it". I shall try to explain, but I don't think they'll understand. I'll use the royal "we" and generically call them "you", which is more than a little generalization but this is a short essay. Insert qualification as necessary.
We're laughing at you.
We are not laughing at your religion or how you practice your faith. We are laughing at the stupid things you cling to in the name of your faith.
Evolution. This is an issue on which you are quite simply wrong. Dead wrong. The Bible is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it. If you wish to look at the issue in religious terms, think of Evolution as the implementation details of G-d's plan. If you want to see G-d, look in a microscope or a telescope. Your politically correctness is a matter of misplaced faith. You insist on teaching relgion when the Supreme Being can be found in the teachings of science. Just like the Taliban. Just like the Inquisition.
I don't expect you to change your mind because your sphincter won't let you. This issue has been drummed into your brain, over and over, and you can't even contemplate being wrong. It leads you to lie. There are no reputable scientists who disagree about Evolution, though you claim otherwise. There is and will continue to be a healthy debate about precisely how it works and how it worked in the past. You are foolish to the point of irrelevant in claiming that this debate somehow proves a different system is true. You are wrong.
We will go further. Humans have vast expanses of "junk" DNA. Other species are more complete. In other words, G-d isn't done with the human race yet. The Rapture (or the equivalent) won't be for you, it will be for our great-great-etc grandkids. The sin of pride has brought you down.
To deny Evolution is to deny G-d. By insisting on lies, you are a danger to those of us who want to greater understand the world as created. Your soul is corrupt, please don't corrupt the souls of truth-seekers.
Global Warming. How this came to be one of the mainstays of political correctness I don't know. Perhaps it's that you think that the world is perfect and ready for G-d to grab you, sling you a harp and have you sit in the bosom of Abraham. Well, you're wrong.
As with any good science, the precise mechanism and predictions of global warming are still being debated and refined. Virtually everyone in the field agrees that humans have affected the enviromnent, and usually for the worse. You keep claiming some person over here or this old report contradicts these findings, but that just makes you look like you didn't pass High School Chemistry... or High School Reading Comprehension.
First rule of camping: Don't crap where you sleep. Yet that's precisely what you're doing. You're very bad shepherds of creation. You are dangerous, and people are dying because of you. We need to address this issue, and we need to address this issue now. We don't need sermons, we need to clean up the world G-d gave us.
If your interpretation of earthly things like Evolution and Global warming is so off the mark, how can your interpretation of the Bible be valid? Your view of reality bears so little relation to the world that you can be listed as clinically insane. I'm not going to provide links because you go out of your way not to believe. Do your own research, and look at all the evidence. You won't, alas, and that makes you ignorable or worse.
We can and should have political discussions. But we cannot discuss politics with people who misplace faith in the Creator with faith in politicians.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here, you can order Shockwave Radio Theater CDs, and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio here (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air, and I'm continuing to collect extra-weird stuff.
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Reader Recommended Reading
Sex Education
Reader Comment
correction
Hey Marty-
Who is doing the proof reading there?
Its ROGER Ebert not Robert!
Crap, everyone knows that!
Later,
RC
Thanks, RC - gonna have to get on my proofreader!
Oh, wait, there is no proofreader.
There are regular contributors, like Tim of TBH, Baron Dave, Michael Dare, JD, Purple Gene, Corey!!, and Phillip. And there's me.
I average 360 pages a year, and even though I'm fairly anal retentive, on occasion, something will slip through.
The archived page has been corrected.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Beautiful sunny day.
American Cinematheque Honor
Steve Martin
Too much praise can turn Steve Martin into a wild and insincere guy. The star of "The Jerk" and "Bringing Down the House" accepted the American Cinematheque career achievement honor with mock cynicism.
The former "Saturday Night Live" star played aloof during the Friday ceremony, with friends in the audience that included Robin Williams, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Martin Short, Dana Delany, Eugene Levy, "Dead Men Don't Where Plaid" filmmaker Carl Reiner and "Parenthood" director Ron Howard.
Rick Nicita, chairman of the organization's board, said they chose to honor Martin because he is a "Renaissance man" who has excelled not only as an actor and comedian but as a playwright, novelist, art collector - even banjo player.
A telecast of the evening was set for broadcast Jan. 23 on the cable channel AMC.
Steve Martin
Opening in Little Rock
Clinton Library
Noteworthy events during the city's weeklong celebration of the opening of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center:
-Monday: Political satirist Al Franken headlines fund-raiser for Arkansas Repertory Theater.
-Tuesday: Clinton helps swear in 40 volunteers to the City Year Little Rock program and speaks to Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.
White House Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier lectures at Cox Creative Center.
Reception honors 100 "unsung heroes," Clinton's black supporters. Invited guests include Whoopi Goldberg, Cicely Tyson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Quincy Jones.
Aretha Franklin concert.
-Wednesday: Former astronaut and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn opens exhibit "Space and the Presidency."
-Thursday: Clinton and dignitaries attend Clinton Presidential Center dedication ceremony.
-Friday: Clinton Presidential Center opens to the public.
Clinton Library
Clinton Presidential Center
British Stars Re-Record
Band Aid 20
Some of Britain's biggest pop stars gathered Sunday to record a new version of the hugely successful 1984 fund-raising hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which will be rereleased this year to benefit victims of violence in Sudan.
Coldplay's Chris Martin, Jamelia, Ms. Dynamite, Will Young and members of the bands Busted, the Darkness and Sugababes were all part of the project, called Band Aid 20.
Paul McCartney, U2's Bono, Dido and Robbie Williams also participated in the new version, making their contributions ahead of time.
Geldof and Ure organized this year's effort, which will benefit those suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan. The song is due out Nov. 29.
Band Aid 20
Has Fun With Michigan Audience
Bill Cosby
Entertainer Bill Cosby poked fun at Michigan's Upper Peninsula in a performance at Northern Michigan University. "Why are you people up here?" Cosby asked the crowd of more than 6,800 people Friday night at the Berry Events Center. "Didn't you know there was nothing up here when you came to visit the campus?
"I called my wife before the show, and she asked what it was like up here, and I said, 'I don't know where I'm at.' It's an eight-hour drive from downtown."
Marquette, with a population of about 20,000, is the Upper Peninsula's largest city. Cosby's routine included jokes about college life, relationships, and parents and children.
Bill Cosby
Radio Station Owner Said to Admit Theft
WBIX-AM
The owner of a Boston business news radio station sent a tape to federal securities regulators in which he admitted buying the station with millions of dollars he stole from client deposits with his investment management business, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges.
After sending the tape by delivery service, Bradford C. Bleidt attempted suicide late Wednesday or early Thursday, a spokesman for station WBIX-AM told The Associated Press. Bleidt, 50, remained in critical condition Sunday at a Boston hospital, WBIX spokesman George Regan said.
The suicide attempt came after Bleidt attended a Wednesday evening party to celebrate the station's new 24-hour format and new ownership. That deal for WBIX was expected to close this month.
A SEC civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Friday says a tape delivered earlier that day contained a confession from Bleidt, who also runs a Boston-based financial planning firm called Allocation Plus Asset Management Company Inc.
WBIX-AM
Wedding News
Star Jones
Star Jones, co-host of ABC's "The View," married banker Al Reynolds in a star-studded Park Avenue bash.
Notables ranging from Spike Lee to Sen. Hillary Clinton packed into St. Bartholomew's Church Saturday to watch Jones, 42, who wore a a designer strapless wedding dress with a 27-foot train, exchange vows with Reynolds.
With songstress Patti LaBelle performing, and a bridal party including Natalie Cole, Vivica A. Fox and Holly Robinson Peete, the storybook wedding lasted until 8 p.m. before moving to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for an equally celebrity-heavy reception.
Star Jones
Found Off Cyprus?
Atlantis
A U.S. researcher claims he has found the lost civilisation of Atlantis in the watery deep off Cyprus -- adding his theory to a mystery which has baffled explorers for centuries.
Robert Sarmast said on Sunday a Mediterranean basin was flooded in a deluge around 9,000 BC which submerged a rectangular land mass he believes was Atlantis, lying 1.5 km beneath sea level between Cyprus and Syria.
Deep water sonar scanning had indicated man-made structures on a submerged hill, including a 3-kilometre-long wall, a walled hill summit and deep trenches, he said. But further explorations were needed, he added.
Atlantis
In Memory
Harry Lampert
Harry Lampert, the illustrator who created the DC Comics superhero The Flash and later became known for his instructional books on bridge, died Saturday. He was 88.
He began drawing professionally at 16, inking cartoons at Fleischer Studios in New York for characters such as Popeye, Betty Boop and KoKo the Clown.
Six years later, Lampert created the DC Comics original Flash Comics No. 1 in 1940, collaborating with writer Gardner Fox. The first edition featuring the physics-defying superhero has become a classic among comic book collectors.
Lampert received a steady stream of fan mail and requests for his early Flash drawings. But his favourite illustrations were gag cartoons, which appeared in publications including Time, Esquire, The New York Times, Saturday Evening Post and Saturday Review.
Lampert spent much of his life as a cartoonist, and he taught at the New York School of Visual Arts. He also started an advertising agency in New York, which won several awards, including The Golden Lion at Cannes.
After retiring in Florida, Lampert was known as an avid bridge player. He became president of the American Bridge Teachers Association, and wrote several books on the subject including The Fun Way to Serious Bridge, largely considered a bible of the game.
Lampert is survived by his wife Adele, daughter Karen and two grandsons.
Harry Lampert
