Issue 47

News: Answers in Genesis, Part II: Electric Boogaloo.
If you read my previous article, You will know that I criticised AnswersInGenesis for their criticism of Richard Dawkins' Doco The Root of all Evil, which notably seemed to be that the reviewer did not even watch the entire film before reviewing it (and curiously, I actually had viewed it through twice) , and while I have said everything I can about their review of Dawkins' film (except for the fact that I believe he should have done an interview with Kent Hovind, infamous creationist and Chick Collaborator), but I intend to continue with a criticism of the site itself. One major thing of note on the site is a cleverly edited interview with Dawkins from 1997 which, at one point, shows him answering a question about proof of evolution (curiously, one cannot truly prove anything in science, but you can only either show that it is very likely, or disprove something) with 11 seconds of silence [actually him contemplating whether he should kick the interviewer out of his house] and a long rambling speech which has nothing to do with the question at hand. Naturally, this interview was shown to be a hoax by Australian Skeptic magazine (AiG is one of the few YEC groups not based in America). Another thing of note is their strongly anti-abortionist stance, claiming that life begins at conception, while not noting that life begins with the 2 cells before conception, and that Trees, Cows, Ants, and many other things also have life, despite Christians not clamoring for their "right to life", and that Mankind (out of the womb) is the only creature which truly has a right to life because of its use of reason to survive. (Thanks to www.abortionisprolife.com for that fact). Also, they claim that Darwinism is the sole cause of Naziism, Stalinism (the fact that one of Stalin's ministers had publicly renounced Darwinism notwithstanding), and Maoism, while conveniently writing off Christian Violence (ie, The Crusades, Salem Witch Trials, Wars of Religion, Manifest Destiny, the WBC, and The Army of God, etc.) as un-Biblical, not ewven noting the frequent commands by God in the old testament to obliterate entire towns (except probably the virgin women). One more thing is that they actually Condemn such shows as The Munsters, Looney Tunes, and Spongebob Squarepants, and films such as Lilo and Stitch, Sword and the Stone, and Fantasia, as being evolutionist propaganda for reasons known only to them.

Band Name: Injured. From a Mitch hedberg Routine where he's talking about Death metal band names.

Review: The Birdman of Alcatraz. This 1962 film about the life of Robert Stroud shows how a film can still be good despite glaring historical inaccuracies. The film shows a mild-mannered man who managed to rehabilitate himself from his murderous tendancies by becoming an expert of birds and curing several diseases from the (comfort?) of his cell. The historical facts, however, show a man who was an unrepentant killer who was largely locked up for his own good, due to the fact that he was an unrepentant killer, remorseless to the end, even with the public outcry for his release following the film's release.

Film Idea: The real Story of Robert Stroud, the fake version of which was the basis for the film reviewed above.

Quote: I went to see a heavy metal band in New York...called Monster Magnet. Man, they were heavy, boy. The lead singer was wearing no shirt and leather pants, and he had like a "Flying V" guitar. He got up on the monitor, and he said, "How many of you people feel like human beings tonight?" Then he said, "How many of you feel like animals?" And everyone cheered after the animals part. But the thing is, I cheered after the human being part because I did not know that there was a second part to the question. "Yes, I do feel like a human. I do not feel like a tree."
____________Mitch Hedberg.

Link: A site for a fictitious fundementalist church known as Landover

Issue 46

News: Root of all Evil, A rebuttal to an Answers in Genesis article.
For those of you people who don't know, "Answers in Genesis" is a site which seeks to prove that the Bible can be taken literally as fact. Recently, there was an article on the site wherein they review (Critically) a documentary on Religion by Richard Dawkins entitled The Root of all Evil. I doubt that it has been aired in the States, but I know it is on Google Video if you take the time to find and watch it. Anyway, it is mentioned that Dawkins constantly confuses operational science with Origins Science, with the former being tested and the latter not, although it has been tested and, despite everything the fundementalists say, new species have been observed, including several mutations of insects which are completely immune to bug spray. The author also criticized Dawkins for noting that the evidence overwhelmingly supports evidence, claiming that because he noted that the evidence is extremely in favor of Evolution, that he in fact has no evidence, citing his failure to note any evidence of citing points in his favor for it, despite the fact that the show is about the effects on religion on society and not a one-sided debate for Evolution. Then, he goes after churches, first going to Rev. Ted Haggard's church, at one point noting his line "Dr. Goebbels would be proud", which, oddly enough, wasn't spoken in as pejorative of a tone of voice as many of his other statements, and Haggard saying "I don't know anything about the Nuremberg Rallies, but most people think of it as a rock concert." AIG said he came off as a man of warmth and humility, which seemed true for the first thirty seconds of the interview, until Dawkins mentioned that the evidence that the world was created billions of years ago is much larger than evidence for a 6000 year-old earth. He ended the interview with a note which is found in the "Quotes" section.
Later, in the second half of the documentary, Dawkins mentions that there is a secular morality, although curiously enough, it seems as though the reviewer changed the channel during the Archbishop of Canterbury interview (Discussed below), as at the end, he reveals his theory on morality; Altruistic genetic morality. Later, he shows a British school with ACE (Accellerated Christian Curriculum) education, done to sidestep separation of church and state by mixing religion with all subjects, and letting the kids teach themselves. Dawkins interviews the Principal of the School (Adrian Hawkes), who AiG says gave a robust defense of his faith, despite noting that he doesn't know whether God created the world in less than a week, although he came across to me as a slightly drunken version of Paul McCartney, and using his interview to criticize his stance on the Bible itself, including Dawkins quoting several unpleasant sections of the Bible, including one scene where a mob asks to have sex with angels, when the man holding them hands over his virgin daughters. Curiously, the doesn't even mention the interview the true interviewee who prompted this rant; Michael Bray, Friend of Paul Jennings Hill, who was arrested for the murder of an abortionist. And so the review ends long before the film does, with Dawkin's interview with Archbishop Richard Harries of Canterbury, who has a fairly liberal and some would say, radical theology (denying the Virgin Birth, and being for Gay rights), while Dawkins criticizes him for calling himself a Christian at all, despite his theology. As I said before, the film actually ends with Dawkins explaining gene-based morality.

Band Name: "Q" is for Dr. Tran. This name comes from the film which is linked to in the links section.

Review: This week's film reviewed is the movie Toys, which is about how a military man takes over his father's toy company to create toys with built-in weapons. Robin Williams' Character, the Military Man's brother, goes out of his way to make sure that the company makes actual toys. The performances are very funny, whether they be from Robin Williams or LL Cool J. My personal favorite scene is the one wherein the father's funeral, a line expressing the attendee's sorrow is constantly interrupted by canned laughter, which he insisted on having buried in his casket with him.

Idea: Short untitled film about a diary of a fetus whose entries border on disturbing, ending with an abortion and the doctor admonishing the fetus to Shut up.

Quote: The parts that AiG mentioned are in bold, and the ones which I found particularly interesting are in italics.
"But you do understand, that this issue of intellectual arrogance is why people like you have a difficult time with people of faith. I don't communicate an air of superiority over the people because I know so much more. And if you only read the books I read and if you only met the scientists I know, then you would be great like me. Well sir, There could be things that you know well, or there could be things that you don't know well. As you age you'll find yourself right on some things and wrong on some other things, but please, in the process of it, don't be arrogant."
_____Rev. Ted Haggard, The Root of all Evil?

Link: A short film about a young boy who apparently is a huge movie star without even knowing it, named Dr. Tran.
The Blog Which inspired the Movie Idea

Issue 45

THE HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS BE S-Y-WHAT FIRST ANNIVERSARY STATISTICS-TACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Average time between updates: 8 1/9 days.

Topics discussed in the news section by number of times:
Seven Times: People
Six Times: My Life,
Four Times: Political Correctness, Music
Thrice: Science,
Twice: History, Drugs, Abortion, Religious Right, Politics
Once: Sports, PeTA, Books, Immigration, The Bible, Church/State Separation, RPGs, Radio, Bush, Guns, Movies

Movie Ideas by Type:
Films: 24
Plays: 6
Miniseries:5
TV Series: 3
Graphic Novel: 2
Regular Novel: 1

Reviews by Type:
Films: 39
Series: 4
Plays: 4
books: 4
Graphic Novels: 2
Fanfics: 1

Sites by Type: Videos: 10
Wikia: 6
Chick Tracts: 4
Abortion: 3
Comics: 3
Politics: 2
Photos: 2
Rants: 2
Music Sites: 2
EBooks: 1
Blogs: 1
Urban Legends: 1
Shop: 1
My original Site: 1
Fake Gangs: 1
Thesis Reviews: 1
Misc: 1
PeTa: 1
Radio: 1
Pseudoscience: 1
Flying Spaghetti Monster: 1

As a Bonus: 2 Chick Tracts came out today.
Men of Peace- This particular tract focuses on the recent muslim bombing of London, and using that as a backdrop to show all the atrocities committed by Muslims in Allah's Name and painting the Christian God as loving, despite the fact that more atrocities have been committed in the name of the latter.

Who is Allah?- A Black Version of Allah Had No Son.

Issue 44: Special Fourth of July Edition!!!!

News: Stomping a misconception about our founding fathers.
In Honor of Independence Day, I would like to effectively stomp out a misconception propagated by conservatives and outspoken religious folk; All the founding fathers were God-Fearing Christians. This is of course, not true. One person in particular, Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, and "reason for the season", was frequently accused of being an Atheist in his own time. While he wasn't an atheist, per se, he was a deist, which was at the time, the closest thing that was socially acceptable in the 18th Century (Deism saying that there was a creator of the universe, but that that creator ceased to be relavent after creation, and often that Jesus was a great moral teacher, but not the Son of God), and with that in mind, he created a book which he called "The Jefferson Bible", which was essentially a secularized version of the Gospels. Many people, when informed of this, say that he wrote it as an introduction to the Bible to prosceletyze to Indians. I doubt this, because it leaves out what is possibly the most important part and the part most relevant to Christianity; The Resurrection, choosing to end it with Jesus' Burial. Also, he refused to issue official proclamations for official days of prayer, as his predecessors did. Come to think of it, there were several quotations which go on record as being against the Church, including "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.", which came from an 1815 letter to a friend and recently used in an issue of "I Drew This", as well as another, longe quote which is in the quotes section for your reading pleasure.

Band Name of the Day: Gangrenous Hand. This came on yesterday's edition of the Steve Dahl Show. I don't exactly remember the context, but I do remmeber that it was mentioned that Gangrenous Hand would make a good band name.

Film Idea: More of a play Idea about a family who houses two cousins; One a freethinker and one an Evangelist. This is loosely based on Jack T. Chick's A Solution to the Marriage Mess, albeit with an equally strong freethinking cousin as well as the evangelist staying with the family.

Film Review: Captains Courageous. This Film adaption of Rudyard Kipling's novel, which surprisingly, steers away from the frequently Imperialistic themes in many of his works, is the story of a spoiled brat whose life is saved by a group of fishermen who managed to turn the kid into a mature young man, who barely seems to be what he was before. This film manages to become the best film adaption of Kipling I have ever seen.

Quote of the Day: " I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature.....Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion?To make half the world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world."
_______________Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia.

Link of the day: A site to show where you stand on the political Compass. I stand (-2.38, -5.95)