Stormbringer's Thunder

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." — Winston Churchill Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our ...

I was going to give these topics a rest, but something came up. On a previous post, Zach made a comment, and I am excerpting it here. His first sentence is an answer to a question I had asked him. Hope you're not embarrassed, but I want to give you a more complete response than the comments section would allow: My lack of belief in the supernatural is pretty much complete - I have never seen any reason to attribute a supernatural cause to phenomena. I suppose I rule out supernatural explanations because once you let one in, where do you stop? I look at an event I do not understand and go immediately to natural causes. Even if I can't figure it out, I still would assume it had a natural explanation. I'm worried that if someone started attributing causes to supernatural events, they would skip over the whole 'natural cause' thing and go straight for the supernatural, because technically everything is potentially explainable by an omnipotent being, no? ...

"It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity." — Sir Francis Bacon I have to admit that I'm stumped about something. And I do not like writing an article of this nature, where I am responding to something said about me in the comments section of another Weblog. But I feel that I should. There was a comment about me at "Atheist Central", but I am reluctant to name the source. I'm thinking that he (?) may not want to be named outright, here. Well, if he (?) wants to leave a comment and claim it, then fine, I'll acknowledge it. But he will not, since he said (among other hateful things), "Thankfully, my atheistic moralit...

Buona sera. On the surface, it really baffles me that ("new") atheists are making total war with Christians and Theists. Why? What is the real reason (not just some nonsensical excuse you've conjured up so you can pretend that you have a valid cause)? Why put anti-Christian signs on buses, vandalize crosses at public war memorials, stashing 666 copies of  failed DVD " The God who Wasn't There " in churches for Easter, protest the Ten Commandments in public — and protest the Sunday morning meeting of Answers in Genesis ? Anyone watching from the outside will probably say, "What a bunch of jerks. If they're smarter than all the Christians, then why not just go on about their business, confident in their superiority?" Addendum: The follow-up to the protest is here . I have asked several times, without response, why they attack and troll Christians, but not easier targets like Mormons, UFO enthusiasts, New Agers, witches, Satanists, Muslims...

The same thing I've told you about before . They want to settle an estate in the UK, but do not even put my name in the e-mail. The headers indicate "Yahoo" for the mailer, not what is written in the letter. Nothing wrong with Yahoo Mail, but established legal firms do not use free Web mail services. For people who are not regular readers, this is a scam. If you get a letter like this, delete it. What is funny is at the very end, they have the "misuse of this letter may be illegal" tag line, when the entire thing that was sent to me is illegal. Ha!   I put in extra line breaks to make the letter fit: From: Mrs Kathy McGowan AGGS Consultants Service Ltd. This is a confidential message from AGGS Consultants: private consulting firm in London,  United Kingdom. I have been directed to contact you with regards to ongoing investigations involving a  deceased client of Royal Bank of Scotland. The client, who shared the same last name with you,  died intestate so...

Buon giorno. This has been fermenting in my mind for quite a while, and finally got tapped and poured out.  Do you know what a " reserved word " is? Normally, it's computer jargon for, "Don't go there, girlfriend". Ever try to name a file and get a "reserved word" error? You cannot use certain words in your file name because they belong to the computer system or application. I've taken the expression and used it in other ways. F'rinstance, a high school clique starts bandying a word about in their enthusiasm. Normie Nerdley tries to get in on the fun and uses the word along with them. Silence and death stares ensue. He did not earn the right to use that word with them, it was like a reserved word for that clique. The most common example I can think of is the word "nigger". (Yes, I still have free speech and the Politically Correct Police haven't caught up to me, so let me get on with my example. It's not like I'm...

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He's also concerned to prove that there's no valid reason why he should personally not do just what he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously a liberation from a certain political and economic system and a liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom." —Aldous Huxley, in Confessions of a Professed Atheist Another "I told you so!" for me. Several times, I have pointed out to atheists that the cornerstone of their religion is evolution. If there is no Cr...