Friday, November 30, 2012

If I were Crafty

Food for thought,

If I ever took up making stained glass, I'd be sorely tempted to do something like this:

St. Optimus of Prime



Perhaps it's for the best I'm not terribly handcraft inclined.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Sandy, Gays and Snookie

If God is so determined to show his anger about homosexuals, why hasn't San Francisco been completely leveled by an Earthquake? Why has Massachusetts, where gay marriage has been legal for quite some time, gotten off so lightly in terms of storm damage? Why has the state's hub of gay culture, Provincetown been spared all but minor damage? If Sandy is divine judgement for homosexuality, then God has miserable aim to the point of senility. To blame Sandy on gays is, based on the actual damage, to accuse God of being incompetent and incapable of expressing his will. The more I look into the nature of the damage actually done, it really IS more reasonable to conclude God sent Sandy to keep Jersey Shore off the air. Then again, based on the condition of New York City, it might be true that God HATES Donald Trump. Both interpretations are, due to the damage done, more valid than blaming gays.

The cheetah with his haul


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The Femitheist

Allow me to introduce you to the single most evil, vile and hate filled monster I've ever spoken to. I do not say this lightly. My Freshman year roommate sincerely advocated raping women who didn't "put out." I am an old friend of the Cornswalled family. I've had coworkers who openly discussed how they wished Hitler had finished the job, and kicked their racism up a notch when they found out I was dating a Jewish woman. I know people who honestly believe Haiti deserved the be devastated for allegedly "selling the country to the Devil" 200 years ago.

All of these people pale in comparison to The Femitheist. I know, she may be a troll, but she presents herself as a deeply damaged woman who is sincere in her beliefs. If she's not acting mad to get attention, then I think it's only a matter of time before she kills someone. I'm not sure which is more horrifying, the scope of what she desires, or the fact that she claims that what she intends isn't REALLY violence or evil, because she thinks it's for the greater good, and because she doesn't consider her intended victims to be fully human.

Krista Heflin, The Femitheist, wants to castrate or murder all men, murder all women who object, and execute everyone who is developmentally disabled. But don't take my word for it, check out how The Femitheist introduces herself to the SGU Forum.

Her current youtube channel:  F.C. Season 1

Her current blog: The New Era of Feminism

This is her second incarnation. I first heard of her a few months back when she had a different blog. Her youtube videos kept getting pulled because she was advocating the murder of a few Billion people. Even Youtube has limits. Before her brief disappearance, she posted a picture of her infant daughter with the word "Bitch" scrawled across the child's forehead. At one point the rumor started that she fatally shot herself.

I exchanged a number of e-mails and PMs with her during her peak. It was surreal to have a civil conversation with someone about how they wanted me dead. Around the time she deleted her old blog, she was claiming to have been physically assaulted and that child services had been called to investigate her. If the rumors circulating about her are to be believed, she was her high school valedictorian, got pregnant in high school and may or may not be pursuing a degree in education. The circumstance of her daughter's conception may shed quite a bit of light on her current misandry. The concept of this woman teaching children of any age for a living is, frankly, terrifying, even if she is a troll.

Here are some choice quotes from the deleted blog

Her old blog is, sadly, not in the Wayback Machine.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Rep. Joe Walsh New Contender for Coveted 'Most Ignorant Republican' Prize

Rep. Joe Walsh: Abortion never necessary to save women's lives

"With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance," Walsh said. "There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing."

I'm sure the research minded folks inclined to read my blog can find ample scientifically backed examples and statistics on maternal mortality to correct him on this tiny error. One of the comments on the article "More Junk Science: GOP Congressman Says Abortion Is Never Necessary To Save A Woman’s Life" provides an excellent starter list. The Wikipedia article on Maternal Death is also an excellent resource.

Rep Walsh even makes it easy to get in touch with him, as behooves a member of Congress. As an upstanding Christian man, I'm sure he'll appreciate respectful correction.

http://walsh.house.gov/contact-joe/
432 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3711
Fax: (202) 225-7830
Hours: Monday-Friday
9:00AM-5:00PM Eastern time

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Dale Nierode is a Shoddy Apologist



They say there's nothing new under the sun, and "Why Evolution is Not True - The Puzzle of Life Finally Comes Together" by Dale Nierode seems determined to do its best to apply that adage to Creationism. Instead of an honest attempt at examining the real data, the book ignores anything that contradicts it's fundamental premise. Even the abstract contains outright misinformation, insisting, for example, that no transitional fossils have been found. This nonsense ignores the well documented evolution of whales, the pre-human transitional fossils and all the others that have been uncovered. One is left wondering if Dale Nierode is deliberately lying, or merely an incompetent, lazy researcher.

The book is an embarrassment to Creationists and Apologetic writing. If I were conspiracy minded, I'd accuse Nierode of being a deep cover humanist out to mock and ridicule Creationism by depicting Biblical literalists as developmentally disabled idiots incapable of cracking open a book.

If you want a well written, thoughtful, insightful, well researched book supporting Creationism, this volume is the exact opposite of what you're seeking. If you want to get a Creationist to seriously consider Evolution as a feasible explanation for the variety of living creatures on Earth, give them this book, as it sets up a chain of shoddy arguments and straw men that are unsportingly easy to knock down. Follow up by giving them a copy of Why Evolution Is True to show them what happens when a competent writer does actual research.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

home grown hops


home grown hops
Originally uploaded by flakingnapstich

My wife and son harvested some of my hops. Sadly I noticed aphids all over them this morning. There's also some mold on the leaves. I laid them out on a screen before taking Caleb to school this morning. Hopefully they'll dry out and the aphids will leave.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The finished beef jerky


The finished beef jerky
Originally uploaded by flakingnapstich

The thing that amazed me most about the process was how incredibly easy it was. Buy some thin sliced beef, marinate it overnight, put it on skewers and dry it in the over for a few hours.

I started with an Oven Beef Jerky recipe I found online. I made a few adjustments. I added a bit of smoked paprika to the marinade. I was out of Worcestershire sauce so I substituted six tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. I figured an acid would be a better substitute than more soy sauce.

The end result was too spicy, as I'd dredged the jerky slices in cracked black pepper before drying them, and I used too much pepper. This was not a major issue, as all I had to do was rub off some of the excess pepper to dial the spice level back down. Next time I'll still add some cracked black pepper, but I'll use far less, more of a spotting than a full dredge.

The bag currently sits in the fridge, offering a quick and easy bite for hungry people. I do not expect it to last much longer. Next, I need to look into what's involved in making it shelf stable enough to ship to a friend overseas, if it isn't already.

Caleb's Concert


Caleb's Concert
Originally uploaded by flakingnapstich

Making Beef Jerky


Making Beef Jerky
Originally uploaded by flakingnapstich

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Listed specifications for Dinner Dash are a bald faced lie

I have an older iPod Touch running iOS 3.1.3. The listed specifications for "Dinner Dash" CLAIM Dinner Dash runs on 3.1 or later. If you download and run the game it tells you it needs a newer version of iOS to run the app. Apparently the listed specifications refer to an older version of the game. As a result I could download it on my iPod, but could't play it. I'm glad I was only lied to by the free version. You can guarantee I'll never buy anything from PlayFirst Inc. I'm annoyed that a free game lies about the supported devices. I'd be really ticked off it I'd paid money for something that didn't actually run because it lied about the supported platforms.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

John Rocker Calls for the Nanny State to Protect his Feelings

WND blogger John Rocker has a rather totalitarian view of "Freedom of Speech."

"Technically, as our Founding Fathers intended, we are all given the undeniable right to voice our thoughts and opinions freely without fear of scorn and/or ridicule derived from non-agreement. I supposedly have the same right to express myself as you do. In a perfect world, my rights should be no different from yours. I’m quite certain that given the current stage of the world’s social climate, however, anyone ascribing to the ridiculous notion that our world is perfect is kidding himself. Our “perfect” world was replaced many moons ago by the defective reality in which we are all forced to reside – and one of the most blatant areas to view the erosion of perfection is seen in the lack of ability many in this great country have to speak freely without fear of chastisement."

Emphasis mine.

Think about this for a second. John Rocker believes that he should have the right to say whatever he wants and be protected from ridicule by the law of the land. He wants his critics to have no freedom of speech of their own, yet he wants the freedom to criticize others. Not only that, but he apparently thinks that this is the way things used to be.

If the first amendment guaranteed protection from ridicule, as Rocker claims, then it would be the OPPOSITE of freedom of speech. It would be censorship, the banning of opposing views altogether. Under Rocker's ignorant, uniformed, fantasy land version of the first amendment, Rush Limbaugh would be jailed for criticizing Obama. I would be jailed for criticizing Rocker. Pat Robertson would be jailed for attacking Planned Parenthood. The cast of Saturday Night Live would be jailed for shredding Sarah Palin.

Is that really the kind of world Rocker  wants to live in, a place where the people in power can legally silence anyone they think is ridiculing them? That's a Communist ideal bucko, and this happens to be America.

I recommend checking out the excellent Popehat take on John Rocker's profound ignorance.

Let's Snuggle!

Let's Snuggle!

Friday, July 13, 2012

2012 Olympics run by thin-skinned children

Boing-boing reports that the London Olympic committee says you're only allowed to link to their site if you have nice things to say. Sure enough, it's true. The Linking Policy on their Terms of Use page puts a comical set of limitations on linking to them.
"a. Links to the Site. You may create your own link to the Site, provided that your link is in a text-only format. You may not use any link to the Site as a method of creating an unauthorised association between an organisation, business, goods or services and London 2012, and agree that no such link shall portray us or any other official London 2012 organisations (or our or their activities, products or services) in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise objectionable manner.
The Boing-Boing article proceeds to link to www.london2012.com with a variety of derogatory terms. If you follow any of the links, you don't get the London 2012 web site, but a few horizontal bars and the word "



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Baiting a Racist on the MBTA

This happened a week or three ago, but I never got around to writing it down.

I was riding the train to work in the morning. It was crowded, with people packed close. Among the fresh surge of new commuters cramming on at Wollaston was a man with a very expensive suit. His hair was slicked back with so much grease he could have wrung it out to lube a car. He also had what may have been the single worst spray-on tan in history. The man was so orange cast members of Jersey Shore would tell him to lay off the fake tans. Willy Wonka would mistake him for one of his employees, and then comment "Wait, no, that's a traffic cone." Orange Man also had a tablet, which was proudly displaying a white supremacist web site.

At first I thought nothing of it. People read strange things on the "T" and he might have been a lawyer doing research on a civil rights case for all I knew.

Then I noticed the death-glare he was giving an African-American woman a couple feet away, facing the other direction. The look on his face reminded me of a quote from Babylon 5, where one alien commented that another species hated his so much that their hate could form a white hot-ball and incinerate his home world. That's the look Orange Man was giving the African-American woman, a death glare that could set a planet ablaze.

I wasn't the only one who noticed it. A brunette woman somewhere in her early 30's looked him over. She whipped out her smartphone and positioned herself so he could see the screen. She was smirking as she looked at whatever it was she was reading. Soon Orange Man noticed too, and he glared at her phone, slowly turning an inhuman purple under the orange. It wasn't a shade I ever thought I'd see on a human face. He looked like some sort of monstrous alien that had died and succumbed decay. I wondered if his head was about to explode.

He stormed out at the next stop, pushing his way past several people. As he jostled past the woman with the smart phone I got a glimpse of what had been on her screen. It was a blond woman with pale skin, her mouth stretched wide around a dark, tube-shaped object. I wanted to laugh, to give her a high-five, but the African-American woman who had been the subject of the death-glare was oblivious to what had happened, and I decided it was best to let the matter drop.

I noticed Orange Man standing on the platform as we left. I wondered if he was lost, or just waiting for the next train.

I've repeated this account to a few friends, and one of them asked me if it was possible the woman with the smartphone had been looking at pictures of herself. I doubt it, in part because of the hair color change, but I can't be sure. Besides, it was only a glimpse, and a good portion of the blond's face was obscured by what was in her mouth.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Thank you Jenny Lawson

I was having a really crappy morning. My son was cranky, I was running late, the MBTA CLOSED the parking garage I normally use and the next nearest one was inaccessible. I had to go home, drop off the car and restart my commute using the bus for the portion I often drive. By the time I found myself on the train I was looking at being a good two hours late to work. Then I read about a pet sloth and a child finding a kangaroo in her living room. And suddenly all was well with the world.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Bleach Enemas to Treat Autism

Jim Humble and his MMS nutjobs are at it again.

The Awful Inhumanity of Using Bleach Enemas to Treat Autistic Children

Quote
You read that correctly. Bleach enemas to cure autism. The protocols the members of this trio recommend for the MMS treatment are just… traumatizing even to read. One calls for a "treatment" every two hours for 72 hours, "every possible weekend." Humble writes of overcoming the "nausea barrier" to up the dosage. Evidently, a "therapy" that induces nausea and vomiting and fever and diarrhea is a "good" thing. And if you make up a "baby bottle" of it, that makes it seem even more innocuous—or insidious, depending on your perspective.

Any child who is subjected to this abusive and torturous treatment would find it more than insidious. Orac quotes a parent who writes about her non-speaking autistic teen that the boy can't tell her how he feels as she doses him with the bleach solution. He vomits and has diarrhea "all day"; she writes that he generally has a "sensitive" gut. Another mother set up a blog to describe trying MMS on both her autistic son and herself, a sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis. It's heartbreaking but also enraging to read her posts as they reveal more than she seems to see: Her son develops a sudden extreme fear of the bathtub, and she can't seem to understand why, even though six days earlier, she wrote that they were about to try an "MMS bath" (i.e., a bleach solution bath) on him. Then suddenly, the blog ends with, "I cannot continue this blog. Sorry."

The full article can be found here: Dangerous Interventions: MMS and Autism

You can read a primer on MMS here: Bleaching away what ails you

Here is a petition asking the FDA to ban bleach enemas for autistic children.

This article has some information on a clinic that actually does this: You Can’t Bleach Autism Out of a Child

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Open Letter to the moron who banned Five Wives Vodka

An petty, small minded control freak has banned the sale of Five wives Vodka in the state of Idaho. Reports vary as to the reason. Some claim it's because the label might offend Mormons. Howard Wasserstein, The Juice Bag who banned it, has since claimed that the use of women from a risque vaudeville act were the reason for the ban. This raises questions about his familiarity with the use of sex in liquor sales. Does he do his job with his head in a bucket, or is it merely so far up his rear he can taste his own Brylcreem? The Utah distillery has hired a lawyer to challenge the prudish ban. This is the offending label:

This was my letter to the blithering idiot who banned the Vodka.

to: howard.wasserstein@liquor.idaho.gov
date: Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 1:42 PM
subject: Five Wives Vodka


Mr. Wasserstein,

I want to thank you for banning Five Wives Vodka in Idaho. Were you not such a petty, small minded, control freak, I'd have never heard of it. I had to do some digging but I found some and gave it a try. Your claim that it's not good enough to sit on the shelf beside Absolute is complete rubbish, showing you are not only a prude but incompetent when it comes do discerning the relative quality of different vodkas.

I am particularly amused by your claim that the label would be offensive to the majority of the population because the source of the image on the label is an obscure Vaudeville act. How many people would have recognized the label in the first place, in order to BE offended?

You are a first class ass, but your rank incompetence and terror of the opposite sex have introduced me to a very fine Vodka. For that, I thank you.

Matthew Miller

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Black Salve

You'd think with all these miracle cures resulting from black salve someone would have published case studies in a peer reviewed journal. "Big pharma is suppressing the evidence" is the cry of quacks who want to avoid having to provide scientific evidence of their claims. If you really believe it works, get the ball rolling on FDA approval. Start with having a few doctors publish case studies. That's cheap, easy and gets the attention of the people who fund independent pilot studies.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Mississippi lawmaker: Coat hanger abortions might come back. 'But hey, you have to have moral values'

Mississippi lawmaker: Coat hanger abortions might come back. 'But hey, you have to have moral values' at least for certain, twisted and bizarre versions of "morals." Mississippi State Representative Bubba Carpenter makes sense if you look at things from his point of view. The women resorting to coat hanger abortions as a result of these laws will be mostly poor minorities, scarcely human in his eyes. Even when it's a white woman dying from a botched abortion, it doesn't matter, because in his eyes, they're murderesses anyway. Dying as a result of a botched abortion is God punishing them for murdering a child. In this politician's eyes, the rape victim bleeding out in a motel room because she, in desperation, turned to a med-school drop-out for help, is getting exactly what she deserves. So what if the kid was the result of rape? It was probably her fault anyway, right? It's amazing how much conservative "logic" makes sense when you assume the man speaking is a closeted homosexual who has sublimated his lust for other men into a boiling, cancerous, vile, vindictive hatred of women.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Cornerstonepayday.com Revisited

Back in September of 2011, I wrote an article entitled Payday Loan Scam Site cornerstonepayday.com. In that post I took a look at the "security" behind the spam advertized site cornerstonepayday.com. I decided to revisit the site after a spam comment was posted to my blog post.

There were many issues with cornerstonepayday.com:

  1. Annoying popups trying to prevent you from leaving the site.
  2. Rip-off fee structure.
  3. No security or encryption protecting your name, address, social security number and bank details.
  4. Spam based marketing strategy
  5. The stolen SSL certificate being used ion the site
  6. The hard coded submission from making it impossible to submit your data securely even if you wanted to.
  7. False claims on the site of using encryption to protect your data.

The site has made two major changes since the original article. The annoying popups trying to prevent you from leaving are gone and their fee structure is no longer as readily accessible. That's it. The major security problems remain.

cornerstonepayday.com's facebook page links to needcashpaydaynow.com, which has a slightly different design, but still has NO encryption, despite having the logos of several security vendors on the site. This site is a bit worse, as you get an error message when you try to load the site using HTTPS instead of HTTP. It doesn't even have a stolen security certificate for you to use in submitting your social security number.

needcashpaydaynow.com has links to a few other sites:
  • holidaypayday.com
  • speedypayday.ca
  • eloanadvance.co.uk
These sties at least load over SSL, which is small comfort given the company they keep.

To be blunt, you'd have to be a complete idiot to trust any of these sites with your information. They're probably con artists looking to steal your identity. Even if they aren't con artists, they're incompetent when it comes to rudimentary data security. You'll probably have your identity stolen if you give them your information.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Karl Giberson, Deception in the name of Chirst

As a Christian, I find it deeply offensive when people lie about atheists and agnostics. Flat out lying about the nature of non-theism does nothing but help believers shore up a false pride and undeserved smugness. Condescending garbage like that spewed by Giberson only serves to alienate the very people he pretends to be ministering to. Giberson's gibbering serves only to harm the body of Christ.

On a side note, I live in Quincy, MA, and have been looking at the local churches. I want to thank Giberson for making it clear I don't have to waste my time on St. Chrysostom's Church. I have no interest in a church that will deliberately lie to me about what others believe in order to encourage the less educated members to circle the wagons. My wife is Jewish, and if St. Chrysostom's Church is as liberal in it's definition of "facts" as Giberson then I really don't want to spend my Sunday mornings being told that the blood libel is real and I married a Christ Killer.

I recommend checking out the excellent article "Uncle Karl says atheists are ignorant of religion" for a breakdown of some of the nonsense and absurdity Giberson spews as if it were based in reality.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Inspired by George Takei, Send Stacey Campfield some hay

Inspired by George Takei's "Fireside Chat" video, it's time for a "mail this item" campaign for these jokers. They might get the hint if they each receive a few thousand identical packages / letters in the mail.

Let's start with mailing hay to Senator Stacey Campfield.

http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/members/s7.html

District address:
2011 Flagler
Knoxville, TN 37912

Nashville Address:
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 4 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243

Phone (615) 741-1766

sen.stacey.campfield@capitol.tn.gov

In the package / envelope include a piece of paper with the URL for Takei's video http://vimeo.com/38068014 and some hay. If you can't find any hay, include a picture of hay, a scarecrow or a straw man.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Racist Jackasses vs a Dead Woman

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull is in a spot of trouble for circulating a racist joke that accused a married woman of engaging in drunken bestiality because she happened to be married to a black man.
The subject line of the email, which Cebull sent from his official courthouse email address on Feb. 20 at 3:42 p.m., reads: "A MOM'S MEMORY."

The forwarded text reads as follow:

"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

"A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?'" the email joke reads. "His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"

I decided to check out OpenBook to hunt up anyone passing around the same joke, not to report on it as the news outlets are doing, but because they apparently think it's funny. I searched for the phrase "From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"

I was pleasantly surprised that I only got a handful of hits.



The last one illustrated the fact that minority groups have their share of racists who don't think much of .mixed race children.

Former HRN foster bunny Holly lounges during romp time

Former HRN foster bunny Holly lounges during romp time at her forever home.