News Flash from Fundie State Department: USA is a Product of Pact with Satan!

Well,  Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the US points out the idiocy of the Fundie world view. If it was a pact with the Devil that allowed the Haitian slave revolt victory, then this same demonic bargain permitted old Tom Jefferson to pick up French America for a song. Sounds asinine, I know. But when you consider that New Orleans was the capital of the French territories....

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So you admit it freely, you shameful voo-doo man? Eh?

Ron Popeil: My Hero

I recently finished Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog Saw", essentially a collection of  his New Yorker essays. Very good. Very, very informative.  Gladwell has a way of making you look at things in a whole new light. Although I was already ahead of one game: the genius of Ron Popeil.  You know, the man behind the Ginsu Knive, the Vego-Matic and dozens of other household items he has personally hyped on TV since the Seventies.  The man many people (including myself) considered to be cheap huckster was actually a very successful marketing genius. And an amateur engineer with more than a few patents to his credit.

I already had a couple of Ginsu knives that my wife bought at a yard sale and so I knew that everything he was selling wasn't snake oil (it actually will cut through metal and then cut through bread - over and over again).  But it wasn't until I inherited a Showtime Rotisserie oven from a co-worker's dead mom that I became one of the faithful.  This thing WORKS!

We use it all the time: whole chickens, roasts, sausages, vegetables, fish - you name it.  Everything is cooked perfectly, everything tastes 'real' like it just came off the coals and everything cleans up and stores under the counter. Fantastic.

I got it for free. I would pay $200 bucks for another one tomorrow if this one gave out on me. Whichis not likely. It's built like a tank.

So maybe I'll check out Ron's hair-in-a-can spray next.

Constructively Sustained Illusion

My daughter is afraid to drive. I mean really afraid to drive. So much so that she wants to move into the city, where she can walk or take public transportation (insane!) Well, a lot of people think this is nuts: after all, we HAVE to drive don't we? But I think the problem with my daughter is that she is oh-too-sane. I mean, the idea that two 6 inch lines of yellow paint will keep us safe from the moron on the other side of a twisty road is absolutely NUTS!  Take it from me, trying to maneuver 2 tons of hurtling steel while listening to the radio or talking on the cell phone is not easy to do. Getting out there and sharing the road with those trying to do so is lunacy.

So, far be it from me to convince her that she needs to be more 'reasonable' or more 'realistic'.  And I bet she saves buckets full of money.

A Clear Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Or was. Looks like Sharp Iron's calling it quits. Too bad. Nice to run across a theist who is not afraid to admit he doesn't have all the answers nor afraid to ask tough questions. Worth reading, even the older stuff. I particularly enjoyed this piece:

Drawn to the edge of the abyss

Because for some reason the prospect of falling in is thrilling.