Medical Marijuana

Years ago, Colorado was one of fourteen states that had voted to legalize medical marijuana. The problem was that the federal government still said it was illegal, leaving it in a legal limbo. With Obama’s recent comment about letting state laws stand, there’s been a kind of gold rush. I don’t know [...]

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Bill Donohue is condemning who?

This is an old story, but I just heard about it. Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a press release back in 2006, condemning Jessica Delfino for her sacrilegious musical comedy. As far as I can tell, she’s a relatively obscure New York comic, but Bill likes to complain. From the press [...]

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Pollution in China

China is well known for having bad pollution. Smog, heavy metals in drinking water, sewage dumped into rivers, bad worker safety – it seems that, in their zeal for industrial development, the environment gets ignored. Some recent pictures show just how bad some of the industrial areas are.
Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and [...]

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Quote of the Day

“Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be [...]

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The Poor Give More

According to a recent article, poor people give a larger percentage of their income to charity than middle-class or upper-class people:

While it’s nice to know that even the poor are generous (although, they probably shouldn’t be giving away that money), I don’t feel particularly good about the fact that many of them are giving to [...]

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Swine Flu

The Swine Flu stuff seems rather scary. According to reports, it’s killed quite a few people between the ages of 25 and 45 – which is pretty unusual for the flu, though it’s the pattern we saw in the 1918 flu epidemic. And the ratio of known flu-cases (2,000+ in Mexico) to mortality [...]

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“Atheism is a religion; belief there is nothing…”

I saw this quote on the internet today: “Atheism is a religion; belief there is nothing. Agnosticism is honest; we know far less than we claim.”
I have to admit – it raised a whole bunch of troubling questions. For example, if atheism is a religion because it is a belief in the non-existence of [...]

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Podcasts?

I listen to quite a few podcasts during my workday. So, here’s a question for everyone out there: do you have any podcasts that you like and would recommend? Here’s a list of podcasts I’ve been listening to lately and would recommend:
Luke from commonsenseatheism.com has a podcast: “Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot”. [...]

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Perpetual Motion Machine Puzzle

I stumbled on this last night: it’s an interesting little two-minute video of a guy putting together a machine that “produces electricity” from magnets. Obviously, something isn’t quite right about it – if it works the way he says it works, then we could produce free electricity. And we know that isn’t possible. [...]

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Igor Panarin: Predicting the Future of the US

Here’s an interesting (and dumb) claim – made by a Russian Political Science professor:
Russian Analyst Predicts Decline and Breakup of USA
A leading Russian political analyst [Igor Panarin] has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.
…
He predicted [...]

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