Why am I concerned about this?  I don’t actually care that much but haven’t we reached a point yet in our society where people can just quit being so fucking up tight about anatomical depictions of the human body?  Sorry, if your kid is asking what that is hanging between his legs, clearly you’ve failed as a parent and never taught him how to pee.  I’m not a parent but I’m no fool to believe some kid is going to need to be lectured about sex as a result of seeing a naked statue.  What’s to blame for this repression?  Religion.  Remember, the world ends on May 21, 2011.  Nuff said.

There is plenty of stigma attached to being gay, especially up here in the northwoods of Michigan.  At the same time there is a TON of stigma attached to being an atheist even that has become less of an issue over time, remarkably for me since I moved out of the promised land of Western Michigan and Grand Rapids.  For the record, I define an atheist as a person who does not believe in God.  Yes, it’s that simple.  I do not believe there is some supernatural being controlling things from above.  Nor do I believe there is some other supernatural being trying to direct me towards a place called hell by controlling my actions and thoughts.  Those of you know me well, none of this is a shock to you because I started to distance myself from religion years ago.  For those of you reading this that still believe, good for you, that is your prerogative.  Up until now though I’ve always left a little bit of room to believe that there might be a God, with a strong emphasis on the word MIGHT.  I’m not trying to make any sort of special statement through this post, I am simply acknowledging something about me that has been brewing for a good long time and I’ve decided before the years end to make it final because I’ve never really just come out and said it.  I am my own person, completely in charge of my thoughts, actions, and life and I’ll leave it to the words of Ricky Gervais to say the rest for me.  I don’t apologize for my acknowledgement, nor do I have any standing issues with those of you from my past who have tried to convince me of your God.  You don’t have to apologize for pushing me to consider it.  Yes, you failed, but I don’t fault you for it. Click the link at the bottom to read the whole essay.

Why don’t you believe in God? I get that question all the time. I always try to give a sensitive, reasoned answer. This is usually awkward, time consuming and pointless. People who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary. They are happy with their belief. They even say things like “it’s true to me” and “it’s faith.” I still give my logical answer because I feel that not being honest would be patronizing and impolite. It is ironic therefore that “I don’t believe in God because there is absolutely no scientific evidence for his existence and from what I’ve heard the very definition is a logical impossibility in this known universe,” comes across as both patronizing and impolite.

Arrogance is another accusation. Which seems particularly unfair. Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. Science is humble. It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence -­- evidence that is constantly updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come along. It embraces the body of knowledge. It doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If it did, you wouldn’t get a shot of penicillin, you’d pop a leach down your trousers and pray. Whatever you “believe,” this is not as effective as medicine. Again you can say, “It works for me,” but so do placebos. My point being, I’m saying God doesn’t exist. I’m not saying faith doesn’t exist. I know faith exists. I see it all the time. But believing in something doesn’t make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn’t make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.

Why don’t I believe in God? No, no no, why do YOU believe in God? Surely the burden of proof is on the believer. You started all this. If I came up to you and said, “Why don’t you believe I can fly?” You’d say, “Why would I?” I’d reply, “Because it’s a matter of faith.” If I then said, “Prove I can’t fly. Prove I can’t fly see, see, you can’t prove it can you?” You’d probably either walk away, call security or throw me out of the window and shout, ‘’F—ing fly then you lunatic.”

Click here to read the rest.

I likely won’t write again before the new year but I do want to warn you that I am moving this blog to a new hosting service after the first of the year which will cause some down time.  I’ve about had it with my current web host, Go Daddy.  Over the years their servers have become slow and unresponsive.  I don’t like what I’m getting for what I’m paying (which is about $200 a year for hosting).  I’m going to be moving this blog over to DreamHost which is where my newest blog kingfisherchronicles.org is hosted.  Their servers are much faster and they will be more responsive to my blog which is nearly 5 years old at this point (if you count the time I was not writing much).  Much has changed in my life over the past several years and I’m happy to say that this blog has managed to keep up and keep you up to date.  Have a good holiday and I’ll write again in the new year!

It was obvious from the start that the orientationally-challenged activists would attempt to blame [Tyler] Clementi’s death on his roommate. But the surreptitious filming of sexual activity, while an obvious breach of etiquette as well as the law in some states, is neither uncommon nor tantamount to attempting to destroy someone’s life. Nor should the online streaming be considered anything but a joke; American Pie is a comedy, not a horror flick, after all. The problem is not that American university campuses are intolerant of the orientationally challenged, as the subtext of the media coverage suggests, but rather that they are much too tolerant.

It is obvious that Clementi didn’t kill himself simply because his actions were made public; as a musician, no doubt he had been filmed before and some of those films may have even been put online. He killed himself because he could not live with the shame of knowing that everyone would be aware of his submission to what he apparently believed to be evil desires. While giving in to our desire for evil is something that we all do from time to time, it is also true that some desires happen to be more shameful or humiliating than others. For example, a man’s desire for his neighbor’s wife is sinful, but few consider it to be as appalling as his desire for his neighbor’s child.
…
And that is why his suicide poses a problem for the “morality is a human construct” crowd. Despite literal decades of preaching about the morality of homosexuality, despite the pansexual propaganda of the public and private schools, the knowledge that what he was doing was shameful and wrong still managed to penetrate Mr. Clementi’s mind. A normal man being forced to confront his immorality in such a public way might have reacted with anger, irritation, embarrassment, or amusement, but only one who is both psychologically disturbed and appalled by his own actions will destroy himself over it.
FULL PIECE: Gay rights killed Clementi [Vox Popoli]

There is nothing I hate more than writing about the bullshit that is inflicted upon the gay community but I personally think it’s important to write about it.  30 years from now, things will be different.  I’m no fool even if I am gay.  When I log in to my super-fast Internet in 30 years and want to reminisce, I can look back on the shit going on right now and be thankful that the people I care about are on the right side of the issues.

Fallen from Sascha Geddert on Vimeo.

And this is acceptable?

First:  Mississippi Prom Canceled after Lesbian’s Date Request – From USA today and nearly every other national Media outlet in the country.  This is a story about Constance McMillan of a small town in Mississippi that sought to bring her date, another girl, to the prom so she could be uncomfortable at the prom right along with everyone else.  The school board ended up denying her request and also, canceled the prom entirely to avoid having to allow her to bring her date.  Their position was that she was quite allowed to attend, just not with another woman.  With the FULL support of her parents, She and the ACLU sued the school board and yesterday a Federal judge ruled that Constance’s civil rights were violated and the school board acted inappropriately.  During all of this parents organized a “private” prom since the school was no longer going to have one.  Guess what, Constance was not invited.  This story is not over and you’ll hear more about it.

Second: Derrik Martin GOT the OK to bring his boyfriend to his prom in a little town in Georgia, the school board not really even discuss the matter only saying that they had no policy against it.  How did Derrick’s parents react to the news?  They swiftly kicked him out of the house.

There is one thing that I want to focus on here in both of these stories and that is the parents.  EVEN in 2010, parents all over this country continue to forcefully kick their children out of their house because their child had the self-confidence and courage to come out of the closet.  I bet you didn’t know that one of the largest groups of homeless youth’s are GLBT kids.  Throughout my life I have met a number of people who have not spoken to their parents since high school because their parents could not deal with their sexuality.  It really troubles me that this 18 year old senior, who is an honors student and already has a scholarship to a university in the fall now has to prepare for the next phase of his life with no support from his parents.  On the other hand Constance will not have the same issue.  She also is 18, an honors student and headed to collage in the fall with the full support and encouragement from her parents.  It should bother EVERYONE reading this blog when this sort of thing occurs.

I was pretty fortunate.  While I’m sure that my parents had to make adjustments in their thinking when I came out to them and I know that each of them had various concerns, not once did I ever have to deal with any of the coming out process without their support. Coming Out is a big deal, especially for a teenager.  50 years from now it might not be but even today, it still is.  Those of you that are straight will NEVER fully appreciate what it takes and what it means to come out and I say that with all due respect, it is simply not something you will ever experience.   I was 17 or 18 and I had written a lengthy letter through which I came out to my parents.  I spent a good 2 months writing that letter, and re-writing it and during that time I had built my own alliances with my friends in case things went the wrong way once I came up with the courage to give my parents that letter.  I had a place to stay if I had needed it, I had a support group of people outside of my own family if I needed it.  Well, I never needed to utilize any of that because while it did take some getting used to, my sexuality did not define my existence to my parents.  It was not a simple process for any of us but it was not an issue that would end our relationship or traumatize it beyond repair.  I was still their son and especially as a minor, they still understood that they had an obligation to put up with me until I was at least 18 or until I got out of high school.  They of course continued long after that and continue to support me today.  Derrick is never going to have that sort of support from his  parents and he’s at an age when honestly he might need it the most.  I know that was the case for me, I needed my parents more after high school than during it it seems.  His relationship has fundamentally changed because his parents are unable to accept their son for who he is.  It’s sad and it should upset you to know that this STILL occurs in this country in 2010.

So, the next time you are talking amongst your friends and one of them tells you they just kicked their kid out of the house because he was a queer and well Jebus just don’t like them queers you know, think long and hard about will happen to that kid and why your friend suddenly doesn’t love him or her anymore.  It should make you really question that friendship.

“The authors failed to find that racial tolerance arises from humanitarian values, consistent with the idea that religious humanitarianism is largely expressed to in-group members. Only religious agnostics were racially tolerant.”

Here is a link to the PDF of the Study.  Sadly you have to be a subscriber to see the whole thing.

I find this relevant because I consider myself a religious agnostic.  I’m not quite to the point of Atheism, but science has not yet explained zero to me (the point of origin).  Religion just can’t do it because the facts don’t support the theory and I’m not willing to just imagine something as factually wrong as Genesis.  As a general rule, I don’t have an issue with the idea of a God or Gods.  What I have an issue with are humans who believe THEY are God which stems out of ALL organized religion.  I also consider myself to be pretty racially tolerant.  I attribute much of that to my upbringing, which, even though it was not hugely diverse, I was able to take away an understanding of different cultures and races.  As a child I was exposed to people all over the country as I toured with the American Boychoir and I met and stayed with everyone from Black deep south Evangelicals, to Upper New York State Jews with the stereotypical accents.  I’ve sung music from every corner of the globe and not only did I sing it but it was expected that we actually understand where it came from and the language it was to be sung in and the culture it was created in.   I spent 10 years of my life with a second generation Armenian American whose father was deeply rooted in the culture of his upbringing.  I was able to experience a culture that I had not previously been exposed to and I benefited from that exposure.  I think the difference with me is that I’ve not ever limited myself to association with only one type of person or one color of person because beyond that I believe we are all human and all of the same species with the same goals and aspirations.  You are not of a different species because you have dark skin and I don’t.  You are not a different species because you have blond hair and blue eyes and my hair happens to be brown.  You are not a different species because your speak broken English or because you wear a Turban.  I think that Christians tend to forget the commonality of humanity.  They get so wrapped up in shouting their messages that they forget the common  and core message of their faith.  That is precisely what bothers me about organized religion and it is precisely why I refuse to attend a church.  I’m not going to limit my life and my experiences to a congregation of similar thinking and looking individuals just for the sake of a common belief in God.  And I’m certainly not going to associate with individuals who can not accept the idea that skin color is irrelevant to being a human.  The year is 2010 and it is inexcusable for any individual of any race, of any creed, of any origin to antagonize people not like themselves simply because of that fact.

Four Christians on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the recently enacted Hate Crimes Prevention Act, arguing that it seeks to criminalize deeply held religious beliefs that are in opposition to homosexuality.

Read Box Turtle Bulletin’s take on this story here.  Find out exactly the only thing these Christians must want.

This shit get’s old, luckily so are the people espousing this bile.

“What I’m illustrating here is that you’re a blockhead. What I’m illustrating here is that you’re a close-minded bigot who is ill-informed. If you had listened to this program for a modicum of time, you would know it. But instead, you’re a blockhead. Your mind is totally closed. You have tampons in your ears. Nothing is getting through other than the biased crap that you read.”

Quote from Rush Limbaugh, responding to a female caller who did not appreciate Rush’s remarks on the tragedy in Haiti.  And this is the man that is supposedly the leader of the GOP and supposedly a Christian.  Do you wonder why I have such a hard time with religion?  It is the behavior of the few who took away my belief that the church could possibly do something good for the world.  I have no patience for it and no tolerance for their spineless arrogance because not a SINGLE religious political group or individual has demanded that this man shut his fat face.  Silence = agreement.  End of discussion.

By the way folks,  I realize that many of the pictures I post on this blog are offensive to some.  What comes around goes around, when you all decide to stop the hate, the persecution, the idiocy, and the general abuse in the name of your God, I’ll discontinue using your icons as fodder to piss you off.

I managed to finish wrapping all the Christmas gifts tonight.  I hate wrapping gifts.  I did take my time at it this year though so they look a lot better than in years past.  Tomorrow I head out to the parents house for a nice Christmas dinner and some time out at the lake.  We are getting freezing rain tonight, hopefully that will not cause too many problems on the roads tomorrow.  I know the plows won’t be out at any point tomorrow.  They don’t work unless they absolutely have to up here.  That can be a disadvantage of living up here, you pay all kinds of money for services that are lackluster at best.

I hope everyone has had a good holiday season, the decade is nearly over and it has flown by.  There have been lots of changes in my life over the past decade, in particular the last half of the decade.  It’s hard to believe sometimes where I’ve ended up.  I’ve learned though in life not to have have any regrets.  We all have to make choices about the path we want to follow in life.  If we fail to take risks and make changes every now and then, life can become pretty boring.  Who knows where I’ll be in another 1o years, or 20 years.  Planning that far ahead simply doesn’t allow for opportunities.

As we prepare to close out the year, thanks to all of you who continue to read my blog.  This past year this blog has had about 1500 unique visitors.  Of those, 300 of you have been back here more than 5 times  and 30 of you have been here 20 or more times (amazing what analytical software will tell you).  I don’t know who you all are but the things I write about must be interesting enough to keep you coming back.  I appreciate the fact that you are interested.  I hope everyone has a great “Festivus” and I look forward to continuing this blog and writing about lots of random things for years to come.

KALAMAZOO — Theological disagreements over homosexuality are causing a divide within a downtown ministry that serves the poor, homeless and lonely.

Martha’s Table, through which eight churches have provided Sunday afternoon worship and meals for the needy at First Congregational Church, is losing three of the churches because of the issue of homosexuality, even though the ecumenical ministry takes no position on it, said the Rev. Matt Laney, pastor of First Congregational.

You know, having been raised in a fairly liberal church, the one thing I did actually take out of Sunday worship was that we as a society have a responsibility to those less fortunate than us.  That Christ was FIRST about helping the poor, humble and meek for THEY shall inherit the earth.  Granted, my views on the idea of organized religion are fairly well known here on this blog.  I have little patience for the millions of “Christians” in this country who have all but forgotten WHY they are in fact followers of Christ, who would rather make threats and pass judgement on others AS IF they were actually following the example of Jesus Christ.  FUCK YOU and your Church, if you are not feeding the hungry FIRST, YOU ARE NO CHRISTIAN.  Even the drones I went to high school with in the CRC (Christian Reformed Church) understand that basic concept.

It is interesting though that stories like the above make it to national blogs.  They sure don’t do much to help bring people into this state.  The image below is a little over the top but fitting of the post.  You of course know that I won’t apologize for being offensive.  After all, you made the choice to come here and read this.

Mandatory Christmas Carols in Public Schools – to that I say BAH HUMBUG.

The Tea Party movement is still and has always been flawed.  They would have done much better commandeering an existing party…I think the Green party is in need of some help right now.

Alright, that’s the most annoying question I get asked 500 times a day.  My rant tonight really has to do with the level of intelligence I see on a daily basis up here in the northwoods. Granted, I’m not highly educated but I do consider the 3rd grade lessons of speaking in complete sentences something that is important in every day life.  I do consider my adolescent years training of knowing how to read, understand, and communicate effectively through appropriate body language something that EVERY person should be able to do.

Alright, thats about all I want to say on that for tonight.  I don’t like to rant too much about work because I do like my job.  It’s just the people I can’t stand.

Most of you know I read a LOT of blogs on line that pretty much span the spectrum of intelligent political discussion to crude humour.  I ran across a quote that I thought was interesting on one of the more obscure blogs that I read.

“The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive…but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born.”
- Mark Twain

Someone said on NPR the other day that Religion today is more important in the lives of people than at any other point in recent history.  I always have a lot to say about religion, especially science and religion.  It’s nice to know that one of the greatest writers in our history also knew of the asshattery of organized religion.

So now it’s off to bed.  Off on Tuesday, hopefully the weather will get better up here.  This pic cracks me up.

*The survey found 55% say science and religion are often in conflict and 36% say science sometimes conflicts with their own religious beliefs. Among those 36%:

*41% refer specifically to evolution, creationism, Darwinism and debates about the origin of life.

*15% cite differences over the beginning of life, primarily concerns about abortion(12%) but also cloning and birth

More important than the above it appears that the concepts of science and science education and study churn out non-believers at a fairly high rate with 41% of scientists not believing in any sort of supernatural.

While 95% of the public said they believe in God or a higher power, 41% of scientists don’t believe in either. Nearly half of scientists say they’re atheist, agnostic or believe “nothing in particular” but only 17% of the general public is unaffiliated.

As this relates to my own life, I’ve got problems with organized religion in a multitude of ways and it’s not due to any sort of lack of education about religion or the types of religion or about what exactly religious faiths project to believe.  My biggest issue is one of proof.  Most believers will tell you that you don’t need proof of God to know he exists.  I disagree.  Saying you don’t need to prove something that might be obvious is a cop out and it’s riddled with what I hate the most: A failure to think for one’s self.  Science has always played an important role in my life.  Not because nature in general is fascinating but because it was the study of science in school that taught me how to think.  Science taught me to look for answers in places you might not expect to find them, it taught me to think critically about the physical world, where we came from, how we got to where we are now, and how we might proceed in the future.  Science shapes public policy, it defines medicine, without Science, we might all still believe the Earth is at the center of the Universe.

I view religion as a “gimmie”.  Religion promotes a lack of critical thinking that I believe is necessary to survive.  It inhibits greatly a thoughtful understanding of the planet we live on, and it creates a culture that survives based only on assumptions which in my mind is extremely fragile.  It’s easy for me in this blog to point out the fundamental flaw promoted by evangelicals (most of my disagreements with organized religion are from the fruits of the evangelical or hard core believer set) that the Earth is just 6000 years old when solid scientific evidence states it is significantly older.  Certainly not all believers fall into the evangelical trap…there are plenty of people who can indeed marry religion and science and that’s fine.  I prefer knowing the difference between fact and fiction and I don’t care to take life for granted.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

UUUMMM!!! I am sure God defined a relationship to One MAN and One Woman. If anything else was acceptable…. You wouldn’t be putting it to a vote. It’s in the Bible… that a man shall not lie with another man or animal.Only a woman is acceptable. I will not put the exact location of this.I Hope you will find the time and Grace to read the bible and find that any other relationship, other than a man and a woman is not acceptable.  Our God is forgiving and your sin will be noted but forgiven, should you choose to make your wrong right. There is no such thing as “Gay Rights”. It is only Apathy to a sickening delusion.

Praise God…Praise God? I don’t think so, and neither did Sodom and Gomorrah. Why do you think it’s called Sodomy. Fire and Brimstone ring a bell? Maybe the people of America and the governments will accept it, but your “victory” is only for a short while….Have fun while you can and more power to you, but don’t be praising my God for it, you’re welcome to give the glory to Satan!

If you are a white male or female that goes to work and does your job or you own a small business and work your but off all year and you happen to acknowledge your Creator and acknowledge the Word He gave us to understand our reason for being here on earth you have very few rights. If you decide to ignor that God created humans and animals male and female for a given purpose to praise Him and live a ife of thankfulness you have all the perverted laws of this sinful counrty on your side.  Pray for this country and it’s people that we don’t destroy ourselves with our wackiness. Genesis 1: Male and female He created them to populate the earth

It is amazing to me the ignorance that plagues West Michigan in SO many ways.  I’ll be the first to admit that where I am living now is full of backwoods, gun touting, red-neck, bible beaters but in the 5 years that I’ve lived in the Traverse City area, working in a very public place, meeting hundreds and hundreds of people every week doing my job, I have never experienced the same sort of belligerent holier-than-thou attitudes that I experienced routinely while living in Grand Rapids.  The homophobia I experience up here is exalted with deep blushing and whispers…by those knowing that what they are saying in public is unacceptable in polite conversation.  Not so in West Michigan.  These folks, while they have every right to express their opinions, have no problem blasting out lies and bible verses to support their blank and completely uninformed statements.  Sometimes I wish that their God would just smite them for being so dam ignorant!

It’s very likely that this ordinance will end up on the November ballot so once again, they can put MY civil rights up to a popular vote.  Folks, one of these days, someone or some group is going to put YOUR civil rights up to a popular vote so you can feel what it’s like to have to fight for things you should never have to fight for.