Sites we watch

(author unknown)08706386013354618621014340001882829895251089827306899677230902695523751183448098084369072206651700460303709671993874435615931081248694199896150247196222175517131299094653484141042111972117370470198901062743393950382174860672397878204829239610148022814965707269175034992681044161960158512231045006545318081381663266194029072043351050743150491024575943663094756417168363092314124204095616701923563800311068856835984232886908402657396103746883090441513416868863420473035391411386692911465077364601076910100385211112387420001205400661547956197401201172195127955353060959925343784202130843429600492285097200663014690119126869053418000192670191320043577924036081806017295090118051201282147304197773691283821579792845499290439707237660470424485449022000873781411987700260724624074765321909589675899295018821120567345439388780581359440355176955213408263997949880271579152065094486002152501743657837705100158604947991445800404423024136972997790067161426482384794128039600246689764264684357039543188048087528171737474592035590532510482115760033154702157929478886110614070757344089077076194309788058430066125904117333873908759635931735305483017425307015061383559209589856158004082534759434661139540373592158805001722806422537350408086255730976702573310794811519706649441215871664589952411833138923943837409877760835610377057134641313933536606779865839041526748952215365241005220597724541618109460141268934744098090324389951338807061588058482681588877005051700993572255021002283905742729493501157341198554209852103120969700070292152045052140734110857740928065169937938169909573399380638717828018555694477343614641777566638604439248803482112144350913574156935614862893440050682661594799724333715492169206125352127132670152231438580011771886327166280784313736269266443783830123384184782033351990263030064087895205311747355679002570210040264162290231309961160464871248655545502673193750526705294099556569878891394511123338730647447390817455297928632792790004540101598428466411810686636979739677504422052003804196121

Today we welcome Sherri Kruger, editor of Zen Family Habits, as a guest writer on Unclutterer. She also has a personal development site dedicated to sharing simple tips to enjoy life.

Last July, Erin wrote “10 uncluttering things to do every day.” I was proudly doing a few things on her list, but as usual there were a couple I hadn’t considered. This got me thinking about what other things I could do daily to reduce the clutter around our home.

Here are 10 more uncluttering things you can do each day.

1. Reset your home each evening. This doesn’t have to take long, but it’s really effective. Spend 5 or 10 minutes on a quick run-through of your home. Straighten books and knickknacks, return dishes to the kitchen, and hang up jackets. Don’t strive for perfection, this is just a quick pick up.
2. Never leave a room empty handed. Look around you. Are there things that don’t belong? When you leave the room, for whatever reason, be sure to grab a glass and return it to the kitchen, or whatever the case may be.
3. When you’re done with something, put it away. Right away. Clutter arises when we take something out, use it for awhile and neglect to return it to its proper home. Remember the Unclutterer’s gospel, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
4. Hit the laundry basket. Every time. It may seem easier to simply let your clothes fall where they may, but this only creates clutter. Take 30 seconds to hang up your clothes or put them in the laundry basket. Erin recommends getting ready for bed an hour before you plan so you’re not exhausted when handling your clothes.
5. Take out the garbage. Perhaps garbage day occurs only once a week, but emptying the garbage nightly, even if not entirely full, is a great habit start. Over-flowing bins are not attractive.
6. Vacuum everyday. Vacuuming ensures everything is up off the floor. Essentially, you’re doing a nightly reset during the day making it even easier to keep on top of clutter.
7. Clear out your e-mail inbox. Hundreds of e-mail messages in your inbox can be incredibly overwhelming. Take time at the end of each day to clear out your inbox. When you come back in the morning, it’ll be a lot less daunting.
8. Cut out the non-essentials. Re-evaluate the necessity of your involvement in groups, clubs, committees or boards. Limit yourself to participating in things that are important to you and make you happy.
9. Do just one thing each day. Pick a drawer, closet, or shelf that’s driving you nuts. Focus on doing one little thing to move yourself closer to the clutter free state you’re Seeking. Ask yourself: Is this really important? Can I get this again relatively easily?
10. One thing out everyday. Walk through your home with a critical eye. Look for one thing you don’t need, use, or want. Keep a couple of boxes by the garage or front door for temporary storage.

I hope this inspires you to do a little bit every day to keep ahead of the clutter and move toward a calmer and simpler life.

…

Shared by imhavoc
Yes! I know where the Things and I will be on May 7!

awesome trailer enjoy!!!

Yes! I know where the Things and I will be on May 7!

Mark Krikorian is fighting back against Census form race politics and urging you to do the same:

Fully one-quarter of the space on this year’s form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government’s business (despite the New York Times’ assurances to the contrary on today’s editorial page). So until we succeed in building the needed wall of separation between race and state, I have a proposal. Question 9 on the census form asks “What is Person 1’s race?” (and so on, for other members of the household). My initial impulse was simply to misidentify my race so as to throw a monkey wrench into the statistics; I had fun doing this on the personal-information form my college required every semester, where I was a Puerto Rican Muslim one semester, and a Samoan Buddhist the next. But lying in this constitutionally mandated process is wrong. Really — don’t do it.

Instead, we should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — “Some other race” — and writing in “American.” It’s a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, “American” was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties.

So remember: Question 9 — “Some other race” — “American”. Pass it on.

Ditto that!

Scott Johnson at Power Line reminds us of De Crevecoeur’s Letter from an American Farmer:

In Letter III of his Letters From an America Farmer (1782), J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur famously asked: “What then is the American, this new man?” He answered: “He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims.” (More on De Crevecoeur here.)

I’ll add Teddy Roosevelt’s famous passage about hyphenated Americanism:

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all… The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic… There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

Getting a bunch of polymer molecules to fall in line is no easy task -- left to their own devices, the molecules will settle into a chaotic arrangement that is resistant to heat transfer. But the MIT team found that by drawing polyethylene fibers slowly out of a solution they could get the molecules to line up facing the same way, creating a material that will let heat pass in one direction but not the other.

This kind of one-way conductor is ripe for myriad applications in devices where heat must be drawn away from a certain place, such as heat exchangers, computer processors or portable electronics. With a thermal conductivity 300 times greater than conventional polyethylene, the polymer is actually more conductive than about half of all pure metals, meaning it could potentially replace metal conductors in several common devices.

Of course, all that is dependent on scaling the process to create conductive polyethylene at market-feasible prices and quantities, something the team has not yet done. But should they find a way to produce the stuff in bulk, it could quickly jump from lab bench to commercial applications, providing a cheap alternative to certain metals used in heat exchange -- metals that add cost and sometimes an environmental toll to common devices.

[Science Daily]

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post by Stacy Pearsall. I met Stacy when I was teaching in Maui last year and found her story and her photography inspiring. Please allow me to introduce you to Stacy.

Guest Post By: Stacy L. Pearsall

I used to believe that the one thing in life you can count on – is that you can’t count on anything. I joined the U.S. Air Force when I was 17 and figured I would be in the service for most of my life. I enlisted as a still photographer and my primary mission was to cover daily Air Force activities. At the time, the Air Force was consolidating career fields and photography was one of them. In fact, they merged U-2 aircraft (spy plane) film processing with the basic still photographer. I was a product of the newly combined field and didn’t think it would affect me. I was clueless. I ended up in a darkroom for four years straight, processing highly light-sensitive black-and-white Kodak surveillance film.

I had to get out of the darkroom and the only way to do so was to volunteer for a “special duty” assignment. I really wanted to get into a specialty unit called the 1st Combat Camera Squadron (1CTCS), but I didn’t have a strong enough body of work. I started building my portfolio by shooting on the weekends and holidays. I shot with a Nikon N-90 and a medium format Bronica, which the military had on hand. On rare occasions, they would let me shoot the Nikon N90s with the Kodak DCS 400 digital back. Nowadays we’d consider it a clunky dinosaur, but it used to be awesome. As I gained more confidence in my shooting, my portfolio grew stronger. Eventually, the stars aligned and I submitted my resume and portfolio to 1CTCS.

I was accepted to 1CTCS just in time for 9/11. Naturally, when the war in Afghanistan began, photographers from my unit deployed. Knowing my time would come soon; I felt the pressure to train myself on the camera and satellite systems being used by my colleagues. I was in over my head. They were using state-of-the-art transmission systems such as BGAN and shooting with the new digital SLR Nikon D1H. Not only did I struggle with the new technology, I was nowhere near up to par photographically. I trained constantly and shot assignment after assignment on my own time. I openly admit that I spent many nights crying out of pure frustration. I didn’t feel like I was meeting their standards and I also felt isolated. At the time, I couldn’t blame them. After all, I was a woman in a predominantly male outfit and could barely ingest a compact flash card.

For three months straight, I cut out social events and television. I lived and breathed photography. On weekends, I would often go out and shoot a picture story, ingest, caption and transmit. I repeated this process until I was doing it in my sleep. Eventually, I started to demonstrate my capabilities to my superiors and was afforded real assignments all around the world. Within one year, I was placing as a finalist in the annual NPPA Military Photographer of the Year (MPOY) competition.

My photographic momentum continued to accelerate as my career progressed. I traveled to 42 countries including Iraq and Somalia. I traded my Nikon D1H for a D2H, then a D2X and ultimately a D3. I went on to win first place MPOY twice and was considered the quintessential combat photographer of my time. Just as I reached the pinnacle, I was wounded in combat – abruptly ending my military career. After a year-and-a-half of painful rehabilitation, I found myself without purpose. I was medically retired from service in 2008 amidst the dissolving newspaper photography industry. Finding a staff position was impossible. I began competing with unemployed Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalists for freelance assignments that paid next to nothing.

As bills began to pile up, I knew I had to do something drastic. I began by thinking of ways to adapt my skills as a combat photojournalist into the commercial/advertising photography genre. I established a website and blog to showcase my portfolio past and present work. I advance my knowledge in various lighting tools such as Nikon SB900’s and Elinchrom RX’s. Since I spent 12 years in journalism, I didn’t know the first thing about soliciting commercial clients. So, I spent hours reading books on the topic and finally a light bulb went off. I had to exploit my knowledge of military tactics by creating a niche market for myself. I realized by tailoring my photography, I could isolate clients who best suited my style. I had success! I shot my first commercial assignment for a body armor company based in Europe. With that boost of accomplishment, I went on to shoot many more military related assignments.

At the age of 29 and only 6 months after being medically retired from the Air Force, I purchased my own studio in Charleston, S.C. I started teaching various photography classes and workshops and found that my studio, Charleston Center for Photography, gave me a platform to share what I had learned over the course of my photographic journey. Now 30, I continue to keep up with current photographic trends and am shooting photo and video with a Nikon D3s. I have learned how to properly capture audio using the Marantz PMD 660 recorder and even learned to edit using Final Cut Pro. As you can see, I never stop evolving or adapting who I am as a photographer.

Before, I relied on photojournalism as my only source of photographic expression. By doing so, I limited who I was or who I could become as a photographer. By a shear twist of fate, I found a whole new side of photography – and me in the process. The biggest lesson I learned was that success started with me. I had to put in the effort to get back the desired results; I gave it my all. After all of my technical struggles, physical disabilities and employment troubles, I now believe that I can count on something – myself.

Shared by imhavoc
not really surprising.

Women can enjoy a tipple and stay slim, according to a study that shows moderate drinkers gain less weight than teetotallers. not really surprising.

Shared by imhavoc
And to think, I just spent the last two days setting up procmail to forward mail for various people. I had to do this very carefully to keep Gmail from rejecting those forwards.... Oy! timing....

Posted by Emmanuel Pellereau, Software Engineer

My little sister recently setup her Gmail account to retrieve messages from her school address, so she can check all of her email accounts in one place. She no longer has to constantly log in to two email programs, and she likes using Gmail's powerful interface for all her mail.

However, sometimes she knows an email has already been sent to her school address, and she just can't wait for the next scheduled fetch to have it show up in her Gmail inbox. As any big brother would, I tried to solve this issue for her and millions of Gmail users.

Turn on "Refresh POP accounts" from the Labs tab under Settings, and the refresh link at the top of your inbox will not only update your inbox with your new Gmail messages, it will also fetch messages from any other accounts which you have set up.



Try it out, and let us know if you have any feedback. And to think, I just spent the last two days setting up procmail to forward mail for various people. I had to do this very carefully to keep Gmail from rejecting those forwards.... Oy! timing....

“When in doubt, throw it out. When in doubt, keep it.” – David Allen

OK, so what you should really be keeping?  This is a standard records retention list that we got a few years ago from our accounting firm in California. There may be better ones out there, or more specific to your location. It should in no way constitute final judgment for your own accounting and record-keeping. We’ve heard that it is quite a grey area, and can differ from state to state.  It might help with some general guidelines, however.

Type and Retention Period (years)
Accident reports and claims (settled cases)— 7
Accounts payable ledgers and schedules— 7
Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules— 7
Audit reports of accountants— permanently
Bank reconciliation— 1
Capital stock and bond records; ledgers, transfer registers, stubs showing issues, record of interest coupons, options, etc..— permanently
Cash books— permanently
Chart of Accounts— permanently
Checks (canceled but see exception below)— 7
Checks; canceled for important payments, i.e. taxes, purchases of property, special contracts, etc..— permanently
Contracts and leases (expired)— 7
Contracts and leases still in effect— permanently
Correspondence (routine) with customers and vendors— 1
Correspondence (general)— 3
Correspondence (legal and important matters only)— permanently
Deeds, mortgages, and bills of sale— permanently
Depreciation schedule— permanently
Duplicate deposit slips— 1
Employee personnel records (after termination)— 3
Employment applications— 3
Expense analyses and expense distribution schedules— 7
Financial statements (end of yr. other months optional)— permanently
General and private ledgers (and end of yr. trial balances)— permanently
Insurance policies (expired)— 3
Insurance records, current accident reports, claims, policies— permanently
Internal audit reports— 3
Internal reports (misc.)— 3
Inventories of products, materials, and supplies— 7
Invoices to customers— 7
Invoices from vendors— 7
Journals— permanently
Minute books of directors and stockholders— permanently
Notes receivable ledgers and schedules— 7
Option records (expired)— 7
Payroll records and summaries, including payments to pensioners— 7
Petty cash vouchers— 3
Physical inventory tags— 3
Plant cost ledgers— 7
Property appraisals by outside appraisers— permanently
Property records including costs, depreciation reserves, end of year trial balances, depreciation schedules, blueprints and plans— permanently
Purchase orders (except purchasing dept copy)— 1
Purchasing orders (purchasing dept copy)— 7
Receiving sheets— 1
Requisitions— 1
Sales Records— 7
Savings bond registration records of employees— 3
Scrap and salvage records (inventories, sales etc)— 7
Stenographers notebooks— 1
Stock and bond certificates (canceled)— 7
Subsidiary ledgers— 7
Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents reports and other documents relating to determination of income tax liability— permanently
Time books— 7
Trade mark registrations— permanently
Voucher register and schedules— 7
Vouchers for payments to vendors, employees, etc.. (includes allowances and reimbursement of employees, officers, etc.. for travel and entertainment expenses)— permanently

Shared by imhavoc
Claim: An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.

*Status:_True._*

ROFL!

(author unknown)05620558720664870985

Shared by imhavoc
Anybody want to guess what this means? Okay, I'll tell you. This means that THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO to "stop global warming." Apparently, this cycle seems to be BUILT INTO THE SYSTEM -- which is what we already knew, but we (for some unknown reason) keep pretending isn't true.

(author unknown)

A confusing point for many Speedliters is how to start with off-camera flash. Frequently, I am asked, “I have one 430EX. What’s the best way for me to get it off-camera?” The person asking thinks of this as a simple question. After running through several options, the complexity of the question becomes more apparent.

First considerations

Budget – There are $40 solutions and there are $400 solutions. Starting with the expensive solution because it gives you future options is not necessarily the best way to go. Often, a small investment in a basic solution is the best way to start learning off-camera flash. If you spend all your time reading an owner’s manual and debugging why your expensive solution is not working, then you are really not learning off-camera flash. I’m a big proponent of starting with the basics and then stepping forward. The alternative, blindly taking a big leap to start, often means that you miss the mark entirely.

Quantity of Speedlites – If you have one Speedlite and a low budget, then you have a different set of options from a shooter who already has three Speedlites.

Camera – If you have a 7D you have an option not provided with other camera models

Manual or E-TTL – If you are just starting with off-camera flash, I suggest that you work in Manual mode until you get the hang of it. (You can read more insights for novice Speedliters here.) Once you have the hang of Manual, then E-TTL can be a powerful tool. Jumping straight into E-TTL without an understanding of the mechanics of Manual flash can be frustrating because you do not get direct insight from E-TTL into why the camera decided to use a specific power level on the Speedlite. If you jump into E-TTL and into wireless at the same time, then your workflow can get very, very complicated. My suggestion: learn the basics of Manual flash, then jump into either E-TTL or wireless off-camera. Get the hang of that, then begin to work with the other. Wireless E-TTL is a powerful tool — once you’ve worked your way up to it.

Corded or Wireless – Cords are cheaper than wireless solutions. Don’t think that you need to spend hundreds of dollars to have off-camera, E-TTL. As described in this article, I’m a big fan of using an extra-long E-TTL cord. As a pro, I use a 24′ E-TTL cord all the time. I think this type of cord is a fine way for a novice to start. You can shoot your Speedlite in Manual mode through an E-TTL cord. The only time that wireless is essential is when I’m firing an off-camera Speedlite at an event where people are milling around (happy people with drinks in hand are not a good combination with a long off-camera cord).

Sub $30 Off-Camera Solutions for Manual Flash

Sync-cord directly from camera to 580EX II – If you have a 580EX II, you have a Speedlite with a PC socket built right in. You can run a sync cord directly from the PC socket on the side of your camera into the side of the 580EX II. I prefer a sync cord with a Screwlock PC fitting as it provides a more reliable connection. Read this article for more info on Screwlock PC cords and links to sources. (Manual mode only – about $15)

Sync-cord directly from camera PC to any Speedlite – If you don’t have a 580EX II, you still can go from your camera’s PC socket to a Speedlite via a cord that has a flash hotshoe built in to the other end. This Screwlowck PC cord from FlashZebra works great. (Manual mode only – about $25)

Sync cord with camera hotshoe and flash hotshoe – PC-sync cords can be finicky if the fitting on either end gets a bit loose (which is why I always use a Screwlock PC cord). If you want to skip the PC-sync all together, then use a cord that has a camera hotshoe adapter at one end and a flash hotshoe adapter at the other end. Another advantage of this cord, if you have two Speedlites, is that you can fire one Speedlite on-camera at low power for fill flash and the off-camera Speedlite at higher power as a key light. This cord from FlashZebra is a favorite of many. (Manual mode only – about $25)

Optical slave directly into 580EX II – You can also use the PC socket on the 580EX II to hold an optical slave. The trick here is that you must have a Canon-compatible optical slave. The only ones that I know of are the green-based optical slaves made by Sonia. The orange- and yellow-based Sonia slaves will not fire a Canon Speedlite. To plug directly into the 580EX II, you’ll need this slave with a PC male fitting. (Manual mode only – about $16)

Optical slave to any Speedlite – If you use a hotshoe adapter under your Speedlite that has a female PC socket (like this one), then you can fire virtually any Speedlite via an optical slave. Again, it has to be Canon-compatible. The optical slaves from Sonia with green bases are the only ones that I know of that are Canon-compatible. (Manual mode only – about $30)

More to come soon in Part 2

Click here to get new How-To articles delivered from Speedliting directly via email or your web reader.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/video-artificial-photosynthesis-produces-enough-energy-power-house-one-bottle-water

Once again.... I'm *VERY* skeptical.

Shared by imhavoc
"The problem is not in Muslims," he continues. "The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to."

(author unknown)

James Spiegel, author of The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief, answers a few questions about his book. Below are the questions and James' responses.

brian_g asked:
You mention Romans 1, as supporting your thesis. Don't you think that Paul was talking about Paganism with their nature gods as opposed to atheism? "They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles." (Rom. 1:23). This sounds like a description of the paganism in Paul's day rather than atheism.

James Spiegel responds:

Yes, Paul does seem to be referring to paganism and idolatry in v. 23, but that seems to be an illustration of his primary point about the suppression of the truth of God by wickedness  (v. 18) and where this ultimately leads.  The progression seems to be as follows:  people indulge in sin, which creates guilt and a will to refuse to acknowledge God, even to the point of denying what is obvious about God from creation (v. 20).  And the irrational extreme of idolatry (what could be more irrational than worshipping things that humans have made?) simply illustrates how foolish we may become when denying such basic truths.

Luke Nix asked:
With the way that you characterize the process (solely from the intro), it seems that unbelievers' rationality and freedom to choose to believe both lessen as they act more against God. Its almost a continuum that gradually moves from "free will to choose God" to "determined not to choose God (by previous choices, of course)." First, is my characterization anywhere near correct? Second, if it is, what implications (if any) does this have for an apologist in determining who to engage?

 James Spiegel responds:

I do think that all humans have significant moral freedom but that the freedom to choose God (to repent and trust in Him) must be enabled by the Holy Spirit.  This is not just a Calvinist idea but Arminians would affirm something like this as well with their doctrine of prevenient grace.  So this means that the apologist should always recognize that it is God who must change a person’s heart, though he sometimes uses evidences in this process.  And I think you’re correct in noting the continuum of hard-heartedness that is observable in people.  So when it comes to deciding whom to engage with arguments, we do need to exercise discernment.  Some will only be aggravated by arguments, while others are genuinely hungry for them, and a simple presentation of evidence can knock down the final barrier to faith.  But I think most Christians can get a sense of where a person lies on this continuum after a few conversations about God and religion.  Still, it is a good idea to pray for wisdom here.

James J. Barlow asked:
I find the premise of this book very intriguing, and have often wondered about it myself. Recently I have read and heard about research in this area that is starting to turn the tables on what scientists may have wrongly concluded (that belief in God is irrational). How much recent scientific work were you able to include in the research for your book? Thanks.

James Spiegel responds:

I only make passing reference to psychological studies that confirm how behavior impacts belief.  For the most part I develop my account of atheism (what I call the biblical account) based on Scripture, moral psychology, history, and some philosophy of science.  Since my publisher wanted the book to be very concise I wasn’t able to delve into too much detail in each of these areas, but whole volumes could be devoted to each area as they relate to unbelief.  And, in some cases, such books have already been written (see Paul Vitz’s Faith of the Fatherless, Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals and E. Michael Jones’s Degenerate Moderns).

Have more questions for James Spiegel? He has 12 more blogs to go on his BLOG TOUR. Check out his website and blog as well. You can also read the book for yourself.

Be sure to peruse the other books by James Spiegel:
• The Love of Wisdom: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy
• How to Be Good in a World Gone Bad: Living a Life of Christian Virtue
• Gum, Geckos, and God: A Family's Adventure in Space, Time, and Faith
• The Benefits of Providence: A New Look at Divine Sovereignty
• Faith, Film and Philosophy: Big Ideas on the Big Screen
• Hypocrisy: Moral Fraud and Other Vices
• The Beatles and Philosophy
• Bob Dylan and Philosophy
• God Under Fire

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Author James Spiegel's newest book is entitled The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief. His main premise is that unbelief is not simply the product of intellectual objections, but is primarily moral and volitional. This is a brief interview discussing the themes in his book.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here. (23 minutes)

James is on a blog tour at the moment, and will answer a few of your questions. Please submit your questions in the comment section below; three will be chosen for James to answer on the blog tomorrow. GIVEAWAY: For those whose questions are chosen, free books will awarded.

Download the table of contents and introduction of The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief over at James Spiegel's website: themakingofanatheist.com

Enjoy.

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This article seems to strike a rather intolerant note, to me....

Some very scary shit is going down in Texas. Scarier than usual. "Repent Amarillo" is a rabid group of religious nuts—homegrown religious extremists of the conservative Christian variety—and they're not just going after the gays.

At first, the swinger community was mystified by the attention. On the 60-some hours of surveillance footage the Meads have, a swinger can be heard telling a Repent member that the swingers haven’t done anything to bother them.“You’re going to hell, and it bothers me,” Grisham responds. “What bothers me is you’re going to hell.”

Perhaps the most insidious tactic Repent uses is trying to destroy the reputation of the swingers. In Amarillo, people can be ostracized over a whiff of impropriety. On one tape, Grisham directs followers to get the license-plate numbers in the Route 66 parking lot. “A new couple can be here three or four hours,” says Mac. “Whenever they leave, the Repent Amarillo group will call them by first and last name, know where they live, know where they work, just within a very few hours.”

Randall Sammons says he was fired from his job of 13 years in August after his boss learned Sammons was a swinger from another employee, a Repent member. He believes he’s now as good as blacklisted in Amarillo. “I’m screwed at finding a job,” Sammons says. Russell Grisham, David’s 20-year-old son who has a conviction on his record for hacking the computer system at his high school, has posted the names, photos and workplaces of swingers on the Internet, including one man whose wife works for a school district. (“Family-wise, it will kill both of us,” the man says.) In at least two instances, Repent members called swingers’ employers.

Having successfully harassed a local and very discreet group for heterosexual swingers out of existence, Repent Amarillo's "warriors" are now planning to go after...

1. Gay pride events.
2. Earth worship events such as “Earth Day”
3. Pro-abortion events or places such as Planned Parenthood
4. Breast cancer events such as “Race for the Cure” to illuminate the link between abortion and breast cancer.
5. Opening day of public schools to reach out to students.
6. Spring break events.
7. Demonically based concerts.
8. Halloween events.
9. Other events that may arise that the ministry feels called to confront.

They're also going after churches they believe to be insufficiently Christian (Episcopalians, Christian Scientists, Unitarians), palm readers, people who practice witchcraft, and anything and everything that might create a "demonic stronghold" in Amarillo. And they're not just threatening to pray for people: Repent Amarillo's "actions" include prayer, according to Repent Amarillo's website, "but [also] may involve more aggressive use of soldiers and prayer warriors." Check out the group's locked-and-loaded website. (Please note: Repent Amarillo's website "is not designed for non-Christians," or the wrong kinds of Christians, so don't look long lest you defile the group's website with your eyes and turn into a pillar of salt.)

Hello? Moderate and liberal Christians? In Texas and elsewhere? Now might be a good time to speak the fuck up. Maybe you could spit out a few press releases, organize a massive, anti-Phelps-style counter-protest, and come to the defense of the people and churches and artists and businesses being menaced by your co-religionists. This calls for something above and beyond mewling in comments threads on liberal blogs about how "we're not all like that." Don't tell us, tell them.

The very least you can do is to join this Facebook group. More info and links at How To Have Sex In Texas.

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This article seems to strike a rather intolerant note, to me....

For Immediate Release March 1, 2010. Congressman Paul Returns Over $100000 to Treasury. Washington, D.C. - Congressman Ron Paul has continued to run his Congressional office in a frugal manner, and was able to return more than $100000 from his allotted office budget to the Treasury this year, an increase over the $90000 returned last year. “Since my first year in Congress representing the 14th district I have managed my office in a frugal ...

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