People braver than I

Over at Jason's place, he's currently taking on somewhat of a debate with a self-described professional astrologist named Jamie Funk, who, along with his girlfriend Marina, is doing a decidedly poor job of arguing his position against Jason, Stephanie Z, and a few other regular readers of Lousy Canuck.

It's a little confusing to follow, since Jason is attempting to cross-post between his site and the Funk site, since it seems Mr. Funk is doing some editing of Jason's posts, claiming that Jason is playing cut-and-paste on multiple threads on the Funk site.

Jason and his group have my support, since astrology is so obviously ridiculous that I don't think I'd have the patience to deal with the peddlers of such trash. The one thing that I'm realizing is that anti-science is the same, whether it be astrology, creationism, anti-vaccination, or anything else; it takes a lot of work and research to counter the claims of denialists, yet the supernaturalists get to make up any damned explanation they feel like out of thin air to defend their point of view. That said, it could be interesting to watch, should any true discussion evolve out of it.

I've asked the wife to make me popcorn while I dispense a couple of wheat ales from the kegerator. Fun!

EDIT: I've taken a(n admittedly quick) browse of the Funk website, and it seems to be the standard tripe that you'd expect from your run-of-the-mill astrologer/prophet: general and vague predictions of future events (seriously, I didn't see a single mention of a specific event - it's all vague "love could happen" or "violence could be possible" bullshit), coupled with a LOT of "in-depth" analysis of past events, and how the Funk version of astrology "correctly predicted" said events. It's disturbing that people can fall for such obvious fakery, and it almost makes me angry that a comfortable living can be made off of making shit up and dressing it up as reality.

That said, I entered the Funk contest for a free reading. I'd be fascinated to see what kind of predictions they'd make for me. I'll wager that if I was able to wrangle some concrete insights or predictions about my life from them (and I doubt they'd be foolish enough to do so - they do claim to be "professionals") that they wouldn't even be successful to 50%.

Edit 2: Edited to note that Marina is Jamie's girlfriend, not his wife.

143rd Birthday

Today marks the 143rd year since confederation brought together four British North American provinces into a single country known as Canada. Happy Birthday!

iPhone 4 destruction!

This blog seems to thus far be not much more than a bunch of links to some superlative videos. I pledge to start putting some real content up, but, until then, accept this video as my personal opinion of the value of most Apple products!

Piracy and the internet

In "celebration" of the latest copyright protection law recently introduced the the Canadian Conservative government, here's on of my favorite clips from The IT Crowd:

Douchebag culture explained!

I'm getting a little old and out of touch with "youth" culture these days, so it's awfully nice that Garfunkel and Oates put together a guide explaining how to be a perfect douchebag.



Entertaining and informative!

My past returns to haunt me

I'm totally stealing this from Jason, who totally stole it from Everything Is Terrible, who snagged it from the Christian variety show Fire By Nite that I used to watch in youth group back in the early 90's. I don't remember this specific skit (which, I believe, is a mashup of a recurring skit from a bunch of episodes), but I can't imagine there was any way I could have found it enjoyable without first receiving a frontal lobotomy. Oh wait, I was trapped in the depths of religion at the time... Speaking of brain damage, about the only thing I can remember from Fire By Nite was the "Satanism Unmasked" two-part episode that delved into the evils of Satanism, metal music, and Dungeons & Dragons. Those episodes even had interviews with teen murderer Sean Sellers, who unsuccessfully attempted to use his conversion to evangelical Christianity to avoid the death penalty for murdering his parents.

At any rate, enjoy! Just remember, once you've watched it, you can't UN-WATCH it!

Oil, water, and politics

Okay, quick and dirty on the BP disaster: BP outsourced to another company to set up and monitor the Deepwater Horizon, and this company was basically criminally negligent on safety regulations. BP then lied to regulators about its ability to prevent and recover from an accident as far down as the Deepwater Horizon well. Then, after an explosion destroyed the well and oil began spewing directly into the Gulf of Mexico, BP lied about how much oil was being released by the broken well, and spent more on trying to control how they were being portrayed in the media than they spent on trying to plug the leak.

In response to the disaster, the Obama government in the USA announced that they would place a moratorium on water drilling for the time being. The only reason they were willing to take this action is because of the huge public disgust with BP has made the Republicans hesitant to demonize the Democrats, and we all know how terrified the Democrats are that the GOP might say something mean about them!

So, how is that moratorium working out? Infuriatingly, not so well. Officials are still approving offshore drilling projects! And the best part? If those projects wind up being denied after the fact by the government, then the oil companies receive awards from the government for the value of the bid, plus interest!

Here's a tip to the Democrats: if Americans had wanted the Republicans in power, they would have friggin' voted for them! So stop acting like them!

(H/t to the Galloping Beaver.)