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Damn You All To Hell…Or Not

Uncle Jubba — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:03:34 +0000

So an interesting discussion came up at the Friendly Atheist today titled Can’t Christians Just Admit Anne Frank is in Hell? In it he discusses yet another article by Rachel Held Evans called Did Anne Frank go to hell?

It’s an interesting question. If you are truly a believer in Christ, and in Christianity on the whole, then your answer must be a resounding YES! And not just for Anne Frank, you must also include the 6 million slaughtered by the Nazi’s in WWII, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Sammy Davis Jr., Howie Mandel, George Burns, The Beastie Boys, the list goes on and on. Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah and do not “accept Him as their Lord and Savior”. Both of those points are the central to all of Christianity. You could go as far, and it wouldn’t be a stretch, to say that without accepting those two points you can’t be a Christian and you can’t be saved. Period.

: Image via Wikipedia

Yet as Hermant points out, and you can verify for yourself in the comments to Ms. Evans’ post, most “Christians” completely sidestep the question. Rather than standing up for what they have been taught, for what they claim they believe in, what they tell me personally when they find out I am an atheist, that yes, because Jews don’t accept JC as their Savior they will all be dining in the fire, they waffle and resort to vague statements about “I can’t say, God decides.”

How disingenuous is that? I, as an atheist, am going to hell because I don’t believe in and worship Christ but if you are a Jew with the exact same belief you get some vague, politically correct, “don’t call me an anti-Semite”, BS response. The fact of the matter is, if you are a Christian, a true Christian, if you believe in the Bible, it’s teachings, then you are, you must be, at least a little anti-Semitic. At least if you class “knowing” all Jews are going to hell as anti-Semitic.

In the end, no matter how you look at it, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, etc., are ALL equally damned in the eyes of Christians. They do not, by definition, “accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior” and do not believe he is, was, or ever will be, the Messiah.

So for everyone who worries about my “eternal soul” and wants me to “let Christ into my heart” I have only one response for you, assuming you are right, then just like the Jews, God decides who gets into heaven and apparently that is NOT based on the basic cornerstone of your religion.

Can’t Christians Just Admit Anne Frank is in Hell? (friendlyatheist.com)
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Rise of the Religious Charlatans (huffingtonpost.com)
“Glenn Beck’s Jewish Problem” and related posts (fair.org)
First impressions of an “independent historian’s” account of Jesus (vridar.wordpress.com)

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An Open Letter To Steve Jobs RE: iPad Naming

Uncle Jubba — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:46:28 +0000

On behalf of Fujitsu (PDF), Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, and Coconut Grove Intimates (now defunct, even the WayBackMachine couldn’t help me) I would like to put forth the following open letter to Steve Jobs and Apple Computers. I shall be as brief as my predecessor.

Change your devices name. Not that big of a deal.

Look familiar to you? It is (except for one word change) exactly the reply Mr. Jobs gave to the developers of iPodRip, now called simply iRip.

I mean come on Steve, it’s “not that big of a deal” right? Oh what? You have already done all of the code which mentions iPad? You already have spent lots of money on marketing with the name iPad? Well I am sure The Little App Factory didn’t do that at all so maybe this is different?

What’s In A Name? Plenty, If It’s iPad (benzinga.com)
Fujitsu Claims Ownership of iPad Trademark (shoppingblog.com)
Japan’s Fujitsu says it made first ‘iPad’ (canada.com)
Others Claim To Hold The Trademark On iPad. Is There An App For That? (techdirt.com)
Fujitsu Threatens Apple Over iPad Name (ubergizmo.com)
iPad Name May Have to Change (lockergnome.com)
Apple faces legal challenge to iPad name (v3.co.uk)

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I’m Doing It Wrong!

Uncle Jubba — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:21:32 +0000

Found an article by Chris Clarke over at Coyote Crossing that explains the “magic recipe” to writing award winning blog posts. It clearly shows that I don’t know what I am doing. Maybe that is the reason for this blog’s abysmal readership. Of course it could also be because I am an outrageous ass who posts only irregularly. Either way I think Mr. Clarke makes an excellent point. There is a formula for good blogging. You can get traffic by peppering links all over the internet, by commenting in blogs with similar (and even not so similar) content, and by whoring yourself for a link exchange (do people still do that?) but the fact of the matter is there is a formula, a recipe if you will, that is almost expected of blog posts anymore.

In short…

I am right. You are wrong. If you don’t believe me you are a Nazi. Jesus. Satan. Charles Darwin. Richard Dawkins. Mickey Mouse. You are still a Nazi and I am right.

Hat tip to PZ Myers.

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Why I am boycotting “The Simpsons” and you should too!

Uncle Jubba — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:51:24 +0000

So I find out today that Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, has lent her voice recording to a robo-call for a scientology event.

Nancy Cartwright Can Eat My Shorts Man!

I can’t for the life of me figure out why she would do such a thing. So she is a Scientologist. Big deal. I can only think of 3 possible scenarios:

She did the recording not knowing how it was going to be used. Ok, fine. I still don’t think she should have even done the recording but lets just pretend she did it with no knowledge. I truly hope this is what happened and someone took advantage of her. I can forgive that. Make it known and I will recind my Doh!
She did know what she was doing and did it without permission of FOX, Matt Groening, et. al. If this is the case then I hope they sue the shit out of her, fire her, then sue her some more. If this is the case I refuse to watch the show again until she is no longer a part of it. The voice of a cartoon is replacable.
She did it with permission from FOX, Matt Groening, et. al. If that is the case then there isn’t much I can hope for. My days of watching are over.

I don’t know that this is all that big of a deal. The show has definately been going down hill for some time. There are moments of past greatness. The voice acting is still top notch. I think it is the writing that has been suffering lately. The movie sucked. So I won’t be all that heartbroken if I am forced to endure the end of my Simpsons watching career. I just wish it was happening on a happier note.

Bart Simpson Is Spreading The Word Of Scientology! (ithinkheblogs.com)
Bart Simpson Used As Scientology Tool (jossip.com)
Bart Simpson Pushes Scientology: ‘Don’t Have A Thetan-Ridden Cow, Man!’ [Scientology] (defamer.com)
Creepy: Bart Simpson robo-calling for Scientology (inquisitr.com)

What to do during Ramadan? DOH! Well, according to the WSJ they have Arabized “The Simpsons”…er…”Al...

The Power of the Vice Presidency

Uncle Jubba — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:05:52 +0000

Having heard part one of this on NPR‘s All Thing Considered and now having listened to it again and the recently found part two I couldn’t help but pass it on.

Part 1

: Image via Wikipedia

Part 2

It really points to something that I think I always knew in the back of my mind but never admitted publicly. Bush was a puppet, for at least half of his presidency. Cheney called the shots. It is clear that at least some of the time Bush was unaware of what was going on until the final moments of certain events taking place.

For Cheney’s part, I think NPR correctly points out that because of his age and his well documented heart issues there were no presidential aspirations beyond Bush’s two terms. He was free of the baggage of political “future” and could “get down to work” doing what he thought necessary.

I do take exception to the fact that the story, and many other people, believe Cheney was doing what he thought was best for the American people. I think Cheney detested the American public. I think they were a “necessary nuisance” needed to get elected but once he was there the public was no longer wanted. He did what he thought was best for himself, for Bush, and for the Executive Office. That derision of the public, the public’s sentiment, and purposeful ignorance of the fact that all branches of government serve the people is, at least to me, made woefully clear by this snippet of an interview (from the NPR story) between Cheney and ABC‘s Martha Raddatz regarding the Iraq war:

Raddatz: “Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.”

Cheney: “So?”

Raddatz: “So you don’t care what the American people think?”

Cheney: “No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”

Image by ClintJCL via Flickr

“So?”… Let that sink in a minute. The public, the ones who elected you, the ones who you are supposed to serve, the ones whom you represent on the world stage don’t like what you are doing and your response is “So?” Not a defense of your reasoning. Not any pacification as to why this is in America’s best interests. Just…well…”So?”

So, while I still have no love for Bush, I do in a way feel sorry for him. He was, in my eye, a monster but a puppet monster at best. Cheney was the brains and the brawn behind that train wreck. Cheney is the one to be blamed for many, if not most, of the early mis-steps, Cheney is the one to be blamed for most of what I, and many other people, hated about the Bush presidency. While the president certainly can’t wash his hands of the mess attributed to him (the buck has to stop somewhere) I think it is unfair to attribute as much of the “Bush Presidency Problems” on him and him alone as we have done. Sometimes #2 turns out to be #1.

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1/4 MAD

Uncle Jubba — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:11:47 +0000

According to the NYT it seems with issue #500 MAD Magazine will be going quarterly. According to editor John Ficarra:

The feedback we’ve gotten from readers is that only every

third issue of Mad is funny, so we decided to just publish those.

I haven’t read much of the magazine lately but I do pop into their website now and again. Spy vs Spy is the best! Where is my youth going?

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Capitalism’s Place In America

Uncle Jubba — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:42:25 +0000

We live in a time where it seems that corporations have more rights, and certainly more social help, than humans do in the United States. While social security, welfare, unemployment benefits, and food stamps do little to actually help the public in need Corporate America is being spoon-fed caviar at the tax payer expense.

I found this quote on twitter from Joe Trippi that I felt summarizes the problems with our approach to, and indeed most likely the cause of, our current economic crisis.

Our founders loved capitalism but believed to their core that capitalism had to serve democracy & not the other way around.

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