Feeling: Happy

Part of being a professor is having your students evaluate your teaching abilities at the end of the semester. Part of being a female professor is having the students evaluate your wardrobe at the end of the semester.

Daniel Dennett's lecture on how transparency is killing the church.

Another Christian family kills their children, and then themselves, because they fear the impending apocalypse.

SciShow explains the five most important molecules in your body and why we have baby teeth.

Why are humans so resistant to possible loss, even when the odds are in our favor?

Aron Ra explains why theism is irrational.

Feeling: Happy

With Mike Huckabee's pig slaughtering metaphor and Sarah Palin's inanity, the Republican race isn't shaping up very well.

The LAPD don't like the idea of having citizens know where they are, so they wrote to Google encouraging them to ban the app Waze. Of course, Waze doesn't track cops, it only tracks things like car accidents that had police on the scene, something that every driver should be aware of.

If a holy book insults the religion of others, that's cool, but a person does it, it should be a crime.

Considering the current xenophobia in the USA, it's probably best that Jesus not return.

Tell a bunch of gamers that women are poorly depicted in their games, and this is the response you can expect, but it's all about accountability in journalism.

In 1995, Namco was awarded a patent for playing games at a loading screen, even though this had already been done a decade earlier on the Commodore 64, meaning there was prior art, meaning the patent should never have been granted in the first place. Just another example the failure of the US patent office ruining what might have been.

Is all really fair in love and war? Not according to the law!

Mississippi bans its public school educators from teaching sexual education. Because of this, those teachers who feel they have a duty to teach teenagers about useful life-saving skills like putting on a condom have to come up with very creative ways to get around Mississippi's sex-ed ban. One teacher shows how to put on a sock before any shoe-related activity.

Richard Dawkins reads some of his fan mail.

Feeling: Happy

I can still watch this screen saver for two hours straight.

With all those politicians acknowledging fictional characters like Jesus or a god, it's nice to see one honoring a scientist for an actual accomplishment.

The God's Not Dead team is bringing us another 2-hour laugh-fest!

What happens when an immovable object is hit by an unstoppable force? Well, from a philosophical stand point, this can't happen, because, by definition, if you have an "unstoppable" force, it couldn't exist in the same universe where it hits an immovable object, but what about a physics standpoint?

Phil Plait gives us an introduction to astronomy.

Dan Barker's wonderful lecture on Leaving Christianity.

Any time I hear someone say how much they're against same-sex marriage, I think of this.

Feeling: Happy

Over the weekend, I beat Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Bonk's Adventure, both for Game Boy. Kirby 2 was vastly superior to the first, but Bonk's Adventure was just an shorter and easier version of the TG-16 game.

Today, I visited the oral surgeon to assess my oral mucocele, and the receptionist, whom I remember as being quite standoffish from the last time, tried to be polite. It was one of those, "have a nice day," while giving a fake smile that returned to a look of indifference even before she finished the sentence. I presume she remains employed because she's good at her job, but I much prefer people who just simply don't care over people who feign sincerity.

The Church of England has finally consecrated a female priest. For the first time ever, a woman will be wearing their dress!

It's not so great when the drones visit your home, is it Mr. President?

Jehovah's Witnesses have finally figured it out, higher education will lead their children away from their religion. Well, yes, knowledge does tend to expose lies and reveal the truth!

Bart Ehrman was on the Diane Rehm show talking about who changed the bible and why.

It's pretty common for a non-scientist Christian to claim that science suggests there is a god, which is why I love it when an actual scientist takes the time to rebut their ignorance and tell them exactly why they're wrong.

Who is really persecuted in the USA, the religious, or the non-religious?

Republicans in Oklahoma are doing everything they can to prepare for the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage that will prevent states from banning same-sex marriage. Rep. Todd Russ, who doubles as a Pentecostal minister, is trying to ban secular weddings entirely, making it so that only religious people can give a certificate of marriage, and minister's wife, Rep. Sally Kern, who believes that homosexuality is a bigger threat to the nation than terrorists, wants to allow parents to physically and emotionally abuse their children to stop them from being gay.

Feeling: Happy

Skeptics In the Pub tonight! Awesome!

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is poorly worded especially as it applies to products you own which are encrypted with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Example? You can't legally tinker with your own car's software.

Matt Dillahunty talks about debating with Christians.

Mike Huckabee knows that the US government is a theocracy... a secular theocracy controlled by atheists, and it must be stopped by electing more religious people into power! Of course, currently, every single top-level position in the entire US government is a religious person, but I guess that doesn't count.

Donald Prothero gives a lecture about how we know evolution happened.

According to a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 1-in-4 Americans believe God directly affects the outcomes of sporting events.

Anita Sarkeesian explains how dangerous it is to be a female gamer in a male-dominated culture.

Where does fat go when you burn it?

Feeling: Happy

Last night I played the Game Boy game, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan" and beat it on my very first try. I never knew it would be so easy to boost my total game count with Game Boy games; I should have been doing this earlier!

The US Senate finally agrees that climate change is real, even the majority of Republicans agreed, but only so that they can approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline and cause more climate change.

It's a little late, but here are some of the scientific breakthroughs of 2014!

$25,000. That's the amount of taxpayer dollars the Orlando police department spent to hire Christian-only pastors so they could preach to citizens. There are enough churches in Florida without needing to make the taxpayers foot the bill for more.

Humans are the dominate cause of the sixth great extinction, but that isn't bad news for all species. And also, why are we ticklish?

Should we mock religion? You can see an answer by listing all the scientific facts first described in the bible.

Feeling: Happy

It only took me 75 tries, but I finally beat the end level in Super Mario Land 2!

Looks like France isn't going to take the insults of Fox News lying down. In an effort to make them responsible for their ignorance, Paris is trying to sue them for the comments of terrorist "expert" Steven Emerson who explained that parts of Paris were "totally Muslim" and that there were "no-go areas" where police and non-Muslims feared to enter. The host interviewing Emerson has already apologized for their "serious factual error that [they] wrongly let stand unchallenged and uncorrected."

Mental Floss teaches all about the strange things that have happened on movie sets.

A UK judge recently told an atheist father that, if he wants to continue to see his children after he and his wife divorced, he must take them to Catholic mass. The father will have to take his children to a Catholic mass until they are 18, regardless of whether they decide to convert to Protestant, Muslim, atheist, or anything else. Interestingly, this Catholic mandate wasn't demanded by his ex-wife who rarely attends mass herself, but by Judge James Orrell, who is a Roman Catholic, and uses his position of authority to force his religion on others.

Hemant Mehta talks about debating as an atheist.

Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman was on All Things Considered.

Honest Trailers trashes Kingdom Hearts.

A nice history of the open-world genre in videogames.

Feeling: Happy

France is really becoming annoyed at all the lies coming out of Fox News.

Comedian Bill Burr talks about why he left religion.

Aron Ra explains how the natural world is predictable.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation gives an award to Sean Carroll.

A panel on whether rational thinking can be taught.

More science info from SciShow.

Feeling: Happy

Played some Magic on Saturday and enjoyed my new decks thoroughly. Also beat Super Mario Land on Game Boy; it was disappointingly easy. Almost beat Super Mario Land 2, if not for the painfully difficult last level. I also picked up some boxes from Jackie to prepare for the move. Feeling better after the cold, it was surprisingly mild.

The whole Occupy Wall Street didn't seem to do very much. Come 2016, the 1% are expected to control a full half of the planet's resources.

Vsauce asks, is cereal soup?

An interesting, but depressing comic about climate change.

Tennessee Christian, Marsha Hudson, is very upset that the LED tail-lights on the buses at her child's school are shaped like a star... or as she says, a Satanic Pentagram! Hudson demands the tail-lights be replaced because, as she says, "If you can't put a cross on there, you cannot put a pentagram on it!" I kind of wonder what she puts atop her Christmas tree.

The artist behind Simon's Cat visits the vet.

Another Catholic Archdioceses files for bankruptcy protection from all those lawsuits about them covering up all their child-raping priests.

Christian pastor Donald Courtney Biggs didn't just use a hidden camera to film women undressing, and have illicit text-conversations with 14-year-old girls, but now he might also face burglary charges for trying to break into his old church to steal hard drives containing more evidence against him.

Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson recently suggested that Americans need to learn about patriotism and national zeal by learning from ISIS.

It's actually possible to inject code into Super Mario World.

Feeling: Blah

Christian publisher, Tyndale House, is recalling their hugely popular book, "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven," because the boy in question, who was in a horrible car accident that put him in a coma and left him paralyzed, admitted to making up the whole story to get attention. He now says, "I did not die. I did not go to Heaven." In addition, the parents of the child are very upset that, despite the popularity of the book, they have received practically no compensation from the publisher. This story is the perfect rebuttal when believers ask, "but why would a child lie about that?"

Imagine if Bowser could shoot at Mario with actual guns?

These Christian men regret their abortions, or, less misogynistic, they regret the fact that they allowed the women they impregnated have abortions. If only their parents had used their power of their minds to alter their genetics to take away their evil thoughts!

SciShow teaches us how radiometric dating works and a naturally occurring nuclear reactor.

The conclusion of DarkMatter2525's Samson story.

The Friendly Atheist talks about what will happen when atheists are no longer in the minority, and what not to say to a grieving atheist.

Feeling: Blah

Who is the latest despicable slimeball to be added to the list of people defending the Paris terrorists? Why it's none other than Pope Francis! When asked what he thought about insulting the religion of others, Francis said, "You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others." It shouldn't shock anyone to learn that the head of a religion thinks it should be made illegal to insult religions, but his dismissive attitude toward murder is shameful! No amount of insult or mockery ever justifies the cowardly murder of unarmed civilians!

The three cops who were videotapped stomping on and kicking the face of a handcuffed man lying prone on the ground were just cleared of all charges.

A wonderful documentary on the corruption and lack of ethics at Fox News.

Florida public schools really wanted to distribute bibles to children until a Satanist group said, great idea, let's join you and distribute our friendly coloring books! Suddenly, the schools didn't want to distribute bibles after all!

Evolution is a science because it makes and can test predictions.

In an effort to prevent his school from having a Gay-Straight Alliance club, Superintendent Lynn Weathersby (AKA homophobic bigot) instituted a mandatory policy where no student could join unless they got their parent's permission, hoping the students would be too intimidated to ask, and the club would fail. No other clubs require a consent form. The administrators also hoped that they could get the club removed because they believe it violates their schools ban on the teaching of sexual education. Where is this school, you ask? Mississippi!

Women aren't impressed with vintage bras.

New Hope Ministries, a Christian church in Colorado was all set to perform the funeral of Vanessa Collier. The casket was in place, the flowers were on display, and the woman's friends and family had arrived. But just 15 minutes before the funeral was scheduled to being, the Christians canceled the funeral and kicked everyone out. Why? They discovered that Collier was a lesbian.

What if the Earth were hollow?

And that's why you don't challenge Gaston to a push-up contest.

Feeling: Blah

Feeling a bit better, but not 100%. I still can't take a deep breath without wanting to cough, but at least my throat doesn't feel like it's on fire anymore.

This pastor is proud that he led a disobedient child to Jesus. His method? Punching the child in the chest as hard as he could.

Another child is dead from a disease we could have wiped out decades ago.

SciShow reminds us that dogs can see color and why we use specific animals in the lab.

The Republican majority US Senate is going to vote to see if climate change is real. I presume it will go something like this.

The physics behind Link's hookshot.

Once again, all the women have been eliminated from the front page of a Jewish newspaper.

The USA isn't the only country filled with religious conmen trying to bilk money out of the innocent and naive.

Showing just peaceful and open-minded they are, Muslims in Saudi Arabia are giving Raif Badawi 1,000 lashes and 15 years in prison for the horrible crime of questioning Islamic values.

A mathematical explanation for why, if you want to stay dry, it's better to run in the rain rather than walk.

What happens when you ask little boys to slap little girls?

Feeling: Sick

Took yesterday off to try and fight this cold. Seems to be working as it's not that bad. My three-day weekend was mostly spent sleeping, lying on the couch, and watching YouTube. Not at all productive, but I'm sure the sleep and warmth did my immune system good.

Emily and I closed on our house today. We're now living the American Dream: 30 years of debt!

Well, the country's in for a world of hurt. Republican Ted Cruz has been appointed head of the Space, Science, and Competitiveness subcommittee (even the name is ridiculous!), and Republican Marco Rubio has been made head of the subcommittee of Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard (again, what the hell does the atmosphere and the Coast Guard have to do with each other?). Both of these men are put in charge of science groups, and both of them are science deniers. In particular, they're in charge of the scientists who study global climate change and both of them deny that climate change is happening. You can bet neither is much of a fan of evolution, the big bang, or abiogenesis either.

Universities in Missouri with Christian presidents would really love to ban all their gay students from campus, but right now there is this pesky law in the way making it illegal for colleges to discriminate against their students based on their sexuality. Enter Christian hero, Republican Elijah Haahr. He's trying really hard to give all Missouri colleges the right to expel any student doesn't adhere to the school's religious beliefs.

Windows 7 has already finished regular support and entered into it's five years of extended support (i.e., bug fixes only). Good luck trying to get people on to Windows 8!

After Muslims terrorists murdered 12 people at their magazine office, the comedy newspaper Charlie Hebdo refuses to be terrorized by Islam and publishes another magazine with Muhammad on the cover.

The Republican Iowa House of Representatives is using a new gavel with a quote from the Book of Exodus, one of the most blood-thirsty and horrible books ever written. The only books I know that are more vile and horrific are... the other books in the bible.

Feeling: Sick

All last week and all this week, the three co-workers with which I share an office wing have been coughing and sneezing. They're all pretty much over their colds, so, naturally, I'm now getting sick. Thanks guys! I was doing so well too, I haven't been sick since last February!

If you think you're good at Tetris, you've probably never seen this guy play.

Proving that little has changed in Russia since the cold war, the country is now banning transgender people from driving. Not to be outdone, Texas Republicans are trying to withhold the pay of any state employee with enough compassion to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. Same-sex marriage isn't even legal in Texas, but they're doing this preemptively because they know that the US Supreme Court will most likely, this year, rule that states cannot ban same-sex marriage.

Another totally-not-dishonest Christian author buys thousands of copies of his own book to get on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Despite religious apologists saying that people who make fun of religion deserve to be executed, philosopher Stephen Law explains the real reasons why professional authors and artists mock religion; it's not just to get a cheap laugh.

Muslims, Christians, and Jews aren't the only people who are willing to murder, bully, and cheat to get their own way, even those peace-loving Buddhists will throw you in jail if you do something sacrilegious like put headphones on a painting of the Buddha.

Feeling: Happy

The French manhunt continues as the Muslim terrorists who murdered 12 newspaper employees for drawing Muhammad remain at large. And despite the murders, Charlie Hebdo is planning on still meeting this week's publishing deadline with over ten-times the normal print. Commenting on the terrorists, Fox "News" was very dismayed that the murderers were wearing masks because you couldn't tell if they had the skin tone of a terrorist! Meanwhile, to show just how effective terrorism is, the New York Daily News, the Telegraph, CNN, and the New York Times all censored themselves for fear of being attacked by religious zealots. Catholic spokesperson, and all-around horrible troll, Bill Donohue pointed out that the 12 murder victims should have expected to be killed because they made fun of people. Apparently, in Donohue's warped mind, it's okay to murder people for writing jokes about something you like.

For the past five weeks I've had a blocked salivary gland creating an oral mucocele in my lip. Rather than secrete saliva into my mouth correctly, the gland secretes it under the dermis, creating a fluid-filled blister. Every day or so, I have to cut the blister open and drain it. It doesn't really hurt that much, it's more annoying than anything. I have an appointment with an oral surgeon scheduled, and I can't wait to have it fixed!

American veteran Steven Hewett won a war without firing a single shot. For years the Veteran's Memorial in King, North Carolina flew a Christian flag next to a soldier kneeling in prayer over a cross. As a soldier who took an oath to uphold the US Constitution which bans displays like this, Hewett fought for the removal of these preferred religious symbols. After several years, and over half-a-million dollars of tax-payer money wasted, the city has finally agreed to remove the religious symbols, although the city officials are not at all happy that they have to abide by the Constitution.

Anti-vaxers are adoring the Amish and claim that they live wonderfully healthy lives because they don't vaccinate their children or eat GMO crops. Of course, the Amish often do vaccinate their children, as there is nothing in their strict religious rules that prevents them from doing so, and they often get very sick due to their unsanitary working conditions and suffer from various genetic disorders due to their inbreeding.

Betty Bowers talks about the best things that happened in 2014.

In 2007, officer James Daniel Worley was fired from the police department for using the police's internet access for sexual activities and trying to solicit sex from a 911 dispatch officer. There are few employment options available for such a person, one of which was Powell Valley Church in Oregon. There, Worley worked as a pastor until just recently when he was arrested and charged with over 30 crimes including raping two children.

Feeling: Happy

In 2011, in an effort to prove that Islam is a religion of peace, French Muslims firebombed the offices of the newspaper Charlie Hedbo. Well, now in 2015, in an effort to show that they've turned over a new leaf, French Muslim gunmen attacked the offices again and murdered at least 12 workers.

Republican Scott DeLano believes that atheists shouldn't be allowed to hold public office because the Christian majority doesn't want them to. Funny, I don't seem to remember anything in the US Constitution which agrees with his sentiment that whatever the majority of people want shall be forced upon the minority, but "Who cares about minorities" seems to be the mantra of the Republican Party these days.

Ryan Anderson, a fellow at the Christian hate-group Heritage Foundation is very worried about what will happen when the US Supreme Court rules on same-sex marriage in 2015. He's concerned about how vindictive the LGBT community is going to be, and if they will respect Conservative Christians afterward. Ironic, isn't it? Here we have a monstrous group that has been calling homosexuals less-than-human for the past few centuries, and now they're worried that they won't be respected by them in the future.

Feeling: Happy

Devout Roman Catholic Bob McDonnell, a possible Republican presidential hopeful, was convicted of multiple corruption charges, and one his pals in corruption will not receive the kickbacks for his sham vitamin supplement business. Two birds with one stone!

2014's record-breaking science superlatives.

Allan Edwards is the pastor of a Christian church and a homosexual, but since he believes the bible says sex with men is wrong, Edwards has married a woman and they are expecting their first child. To Edwards, it is better to deny who you are and bring a wife and child into that denial than it is to go against your traditions. How sad.

Mental Floss lists 13 things that are making the world better for women and 31 facts about holiday songs.

Score one more for the underdogs! The fight over Michigan's giant Christian cross on tax-payer land, which city officials claimed wasn't a promotion of a particular religion because it's sometimes dressed up for secular functions, is over. Why? Because an atheist group took them to task, asking to use the cross to promote secular functions like LGBT events, women's reproduction rallies, and atheist parties. Rather than see their totally-not-religious cross covered with rainbow flags and pro-choice banners, the city decided to change the cross permanently into a ship anchor and be done with it.

Wanna feel small and insignificant? Watch this video.

After a federal judge ruled that Florida can't ban same-sex marriage, several counties are ceasing all marriage certificate notarization. A few of them actually had the conviction to admit that they would rather nobody get married than see loving homosexuals get married, but many of them made up bullshit excuses because, not only are they bigots, but they're also liars.

What you can learn from the atrophied minds of Creationists.

Despite a federal law banning it, many states still don't allowed atheists to hold public office.

Feeling: Happy

Had a fun video game night with Rachel, Adam, Ben, and Larry on Saturday and got to show off my mad Bomberman and PC-fixing skills.

Police Chief William McCollom of Peachtree City Georgia accidentally shot his wife in her sleep while they were both in bed. If you're wondering how this could have possibly happened, it's because the Chief of Police sleeps with a loaded gun under his pillow.

Seriously, Ocarina of Time is over-rated.

It's been awhile since I plugged it, but the ole' Videogame Music Preservation Foundation has gained several new editors recently who are doing great work.

When I put my wallet in my back-right pocket, I forget it's even there, but when I switch it to my left pocket, it feels like I'm sitting on a hunk of jagged steel. My butt is weird.

Feeling: Happy

Sorry Florida, your bigotry will not prevent you from allowing a loving couple from getting married.

Scientists have been keeping track of the temperature on Earth for hundreds of years now, and despite the imbeciles at Fox "News" claiming climate change doesn't exist, 2014 is the hottest year ever recorded.

The USA has a long history of racial bigotry including state laws that prevented white people from marrying people who had even as little as 1/16th black ancestry. Of course, with the advent of genetic testing, we've found that every human alive today has African ancestors, and many of us have very recent African or indigenous American ancestors due to all the couples who don't care about race, and the years and years of systematic rape in our nation's past.

Who is the worst villain in all of fiction and non-fiction, if you read along with this site, you won't be surprised by the answer?

Justin Sheiber gives an response to those think they have explained an answer by saying goddidit!

Common misconceptions about your house.

What the bible really says about homosexuality.

Feeling: Happy

Gonna have some close friends over for the new year and have a gay old time!

Starting to get annoyed with the loan company's bend-over-and-try-to-relax approach to my financial history.

Sarcastic state mottos.

There were a lot of unexpected tech stories in 2014.

Fox "News" tries to be cool by telling people to use a hashtag on Twitter, as expected, it backfires.

Another late holiday video: the origin of holiday traditions

Aron Ra talks about the various theories around abiogenesis.

Why Atoms bond with each other.

Why it's harder to drive a car backward.

Person on speaker at drive-through: Would you like to up-size your order for 75 cents?
Me: Negative.
Confused person: Um, please answer "yes" or "no."
Me sheepishly: No.

Feeling: Happy

There were some amazing pictures taken in 2014 in outer space.

United and Orbitz are suing Aktarer Zaman for using their web site to get cheaper plane tickets. Isn't that the point of their web sites? According to United and Orbitz... no.

Dance next to the police? Expect to be thrown to the ground.

Egypt has banned the showing of the film Exodus because they say it isn't historically accurate. I completely agree with them. It's not historically accurate, because the Exodus never happened.

A little late for Christmas, but the Angry Videogame Nerd did the 12 days of shitsmas.

Roy Zimmerman sing a lovely Christma-Hanu-Rama-Ka-Dona-Kwanzaa song and a fun Bob Dylan inspired Christmas Is Pain.

I will totally watch Rachel Bloom in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Eric Idle sings Fuck Christmas live!

Feeling: Happy

Quake on an oscilloscope?

Christians get pissed off at Neil deGrasse Tyson for reminding them not everyone celebrates Christmas, that Isaac Newton was born on December 25th, and that Christmas is a commercial holiday.

The terrible science in their Christian "science" video isn't the most insulting aspect. Apparently, the TRUTH group doesn't understand that dressing a white man up as a minority race with ridiculous clothing, painted skin, and terrible accents is incredibly racist.

While Muslims will continue to claim that Islam is a peace-loving religion, and that it's only a few bad eggs that make it look bad, this is sadly not true. Take the situation for the two Saudi Arabian women who were arrested for driving while female. It has gone from bad to worse as they are no longer just being tried as rule-breakers, but as terrorists. Also, Mauritania continues to execute people for the crime of insulting Islam. This isn't a few bad eggs, but the rules for entire nations worth of people. If the vast majority of Muslims in Saudi Arabia wanted women to be allowed to drive, a few extremists wouldn't stop them for passing reform. If the vast majority of Mauritanian Muslims were tolerant religious criticism, the country wouldn't have laws executing anyone who spoke out against Islam. It is not a few bad eggs, it is rampant deeply ingrained bigotry.

Some of the more compassionate students from the Hamilton Wenham Regional school district in Massachusetts would prefer not to have their graduation ceremony held at a venue that discriminates against homosexuals.

2014 sure had some messed up nature discoveries.

A year ago, Christian pastor Ryan Bell decided he would try a social experiment in the same vein as those who tried to live for a year according to the bible. Only, Bell tried living a year as an atheist. He did this not just to learn more about atheism, but also to see what kind of discrimination atheists faced. Well, his Christian employers were happy to oblige, and fired him a couple days after he made the announcement. Well, it's been a year now, and after reading a lot of books critical of theology Bell has come to a conclusion. He has decided that atheism is the preferred choice. The irony is, now, rather than working for some self indulgent Christian school, Bell now works at a Humanist homeless shelter!

A recent Pew poll shows that over half of American's don't understand the point of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as it pertains to displays of religion by the government.

Josh Duggar has been trying to show how much he cares about homosexuals and transgendered people by removing anti-discrimination laws that protect them. In these attempts, Duggar was quoted saying that homosexuals live, "sad lonely," lives and that their sexuality is a, "cruel joke played on them by the Devil," and that they don't deserve, "love and respect." Josh's mother, Michelle Duggar, compares transgendered people to sexual predators. The family is the star of the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, and TLC will continue to air his bigotry because they're a lot more interested in making money than ridding the world of hate.

Feeling: Happy

Christmas was nice. Spent Eve at Emily's parents, and Day at my sister's. Had great food that I didn't need to pay for or make, it's a Christmas miracle!

Where are the most radioactive places on Earth?

It won't go anywhere, but it's nice to see someone accuse the Bush administration for their war crimes.

For a religion that teaches, "turn the other cheek," Christians are awfully violent.

North Carolina's bill to force women to hear a long description of a fetus before being allowed to get an abortion has been struck down.

Wandering the galaxy.

Want several reasons to abandon your Twitter account? You can get countless rape threats and death threats, and Twitter will do nothing to stop them.

Being caught swindling people out of millions only strengthens the appeal of a televangelist.

Susan Hemeryck, a 54-year-old Tea Party activist sporting a "Catholic Warrior" T-shirt, was arrested in Florida after vandalizing a Satanic display at the Florida State Capitol.

Yet another Christian pastor was arrested for molesting boys left in his care.

Don't you hate it when your lake explodes?

The NSA's internal documents show that it's probably been violating US privacy laws unchecked for the past 12 years.

Feeling: Happy

In order to allow same-sex couples the right to "marriage," the UK allowed them to have civil unions. However, one couple doesn't think that civil unions should be just for same-sex couples, and would like to be recognized as a couple by the government without having to go through all that silly religious stuff of the UK. Their only demand is that they be treated equally under the law.

Argentina rules that Orangutans are non-human people, and therefore cannot be held by zoos. I wonder what they'll say about dolphins?

Memebase reveals their top videogame music of 2014, and here is a retrospective on the videogames of 2014.

Christian pastor Gaylard Williams has been speaking out about the evils of homosexuals for years now, so it isn't any surprise that he was recently arrested for sexually assaulting young men.

The movie trailer that should have been made for The Notebook.

Feeling: Happy

Have to arrive at 7:00 AM to work each morning this week to cover for people who are on vacation. Thankfully, this week is two days shorter. And happy belated solstice to everyone!

2014 had been a pretty impressive year or science, but there were some let-downs as well.

Of the various religious groups in American, the only one where the majority is against torture was the non-religious.

During Sakeena Majeed's 60-day jail sentence, the corrections officers in charge forced her to attend church, which in itself is illegal, but as Majeed is a Muslim, it means that, not only was the jail forcing the woman to attend church, but they were also trying to convert her away from her religion to their own! As you can expect, there is now a lawsuit against the jail.

14-year-old Lizzie Lowe committed suicide due to the growing fear that her devout Christian parents would hate her after learning that she was a lesbian. Sadly, when her parents learned about it, they explained they would have loved her and accepted her regardless. This is why it's so important to make sure your friends and family all know that you will love them no matter what!

According to a study by the British Medical Journal, over half of the medical advice made by Dr. Oz doesn't have any evidence to support it, and a fair amount of it has evidence to show that it's flat out wrong!

Bud Williams, member of the city council at Springfield, MA, attended a Jewish Hanukkah festival and reminded all the Jews in attendance that, "Jesus is the reason for the season." As expected, they didn't really care much for his words. Williams, being totally oblivious to the views of Jews, later explained, "I thought I was being positive," and, "I thought it added something to the service."

The Vatican has lost billions or dollars and millions of worshipers in their attempt to squelch their long history of protecting child-rapists among their ranks, and now we learn that same will probably happen for Zen Buddhists.

A demonstration is being held by people wearing "I CAN BREATHE" shirts. However, rather than look like a counter-protest, it looks more like people bragging that they're still alive and don't have to worry about being choked to death by the police because they're privileged white men. Also, Comic Sans.

Feeling: Happy

A&E reaches a new low with an upcoming show where a Christian preacher named Kevin Brown hires prostitutes and films them as they enter his hotel room to find that they aren't there to have sex, but to be preached at in hopes that they'll quit their job and become a Christian. Brown thinks he's doing good by getting the women to stop having sex for money because he thinks it's both evil and dangerous. Of course, it's not even the slightest bit evil, and the only reason it's any more dangerous than any other service industry, is because people like Brown have made it illegal, thus preventing the workers from being allowed to prosecute their assailants.

And that's how you make a human!

The Church of England takes a step into the 19th century and ordains its first female bishop.

There has been some pretty cool stuff on YouTube recently. Here's a mashup, and here's another.

Bill Nye explains evolution with emoji.

The story of Samson continues, and it's just as believable as before.

What causes air turbulence?

The story behind the cryptography of the Enigma machine and how it was cracked.

Feeling: Happy

New York wisely passes a bill banning fracking.

Republican Rick Brattin is trying to make a law that would require women to get written and legally notarized consent from a man before she can get an abortion.

An Arizona school board decided to remove a page from their honors biology textbook because it said that contraception can help prevent pregnancy. They finally decided to keep the page, not because the school board thinks it's important for people to know about sex, but because it would just be a lot of work to remove it.

Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights (they have one?) is claiming that the Muslim group ISIS has recently executed over 150 women for refusing to adhere to the group's brutal marriage regulations.

Remember the zany 90s?

Can an atheist celebrate Christmas? Oh course, nearly everything about it is a secular holiday anyway.

Grrr! I hate dumb videogames!

Joe Nickell talks about the importance of investigating paranormal claims rather than debunking them.

Someone created a voxel version of Wolfenstein 3D!

Back in 2011, this story was seen in the news. Police were called to the home of Chad Chadwick on a domestic dispute after he got into a fight with his wife and a friend admitted he may do something violent. After hours of refusing to let the police in, the police called in the local SWAT team claiming there were hostages involved. They smashed down Chadwick's door, detonated stun grenades, shot him at close range with a non-lethal bullet, tased him in the back of the head, tackled him to the ground, and severely beat him. As it turned out, Chadwick did not have hostages, and in fact, hadn't done anything illegal at all. However, the District Attorney John Healy needed something to justify the destruction of Chadwick's house and his permanent hearing loss, so they prosecuted him on charges of attacking the SWAT team. Three years of court proceedings, and thousands of dollars later, Chadwick was cleared of all charges but, DA Healy says he still thinks Chadwick is a criminal.

Feeling: Happy

There is a Satan, and he created the Comic Papyrus font.

Michigan Reverend Timothy Kane was found guilty of stealing about $131,000 from charity funds, but the judge went easy on him, undoubtedly because he was a priest, and only gave him one year in jail. Meanwhile, possession of a mere 50 grams of cocaine (about half a cup) means you will be fined up to $250,000 and sentenced up to 20 years in prison.

Republicans couldn't find a single black woman to agree to be part of their ad campaign, so they had to resort to stock photos, and boy did they pick a popular one!

The majority of Americans, including Bush, Cheney, and even Obama, endorse the use of torture, claiming that it has been very helpful in apprehending other terrorists. However, when the same questions was asked to the nation's counter-terrorist officials, they all said that not a single terrorist was ever caught based to the cries of any American torture victim, and the only thing the torture caused was more torture and false confessions that wasted time, money, and lives.

Want to live dangerously? Work with some of these terrifying chemicals!

Hair.

Elizabeth Warren says the right things.

How your computer stores volatile memory.

Feeling: Happy

Home owners agreed to add a radon mitigation system, so the house buying continues! Filled out the paper work for the loan today.

A federal court agrees that several weeks of video-recording a person's house without a warrant is a violation of their 4th amendment rights. Duh!

Sarah had an abortion and she wasn't scarred for life, she was relieved and happy.

Michigan's State Capitol will showcase a Satanic display this holiday season!

Behold the power of God! And then read the comments.

In an effort to show that nobody is born gay, Christian hate-group PFOX put up a billboard with identical twin brothers; one is gay, the other is not. Despite a sample size of one, the Christian hate-group uses this as proof that nobody is born gay, because if it were part of our genetics, both twins would be gay. Then the male model from the billboard recognized his photo and pointed out that, not only is he not a twin (the Christians used two different photos of the same man), he's also a homosexual! Oops! The reality is that identical twins are twice as likely to share the same sexuality compared to fraternal twins, indicating that there is indeed a genetic component to a person's sexuality.

A simple cartoon which explains vaccinations.

Feeling: Happy

Home inspection was pretty good except for unusually high radon levels in the basement. We'll see what the owners want to do about it. Hopefully, we won't have to shut it all down.

Teens of today try to play the original Mega Man... and get destroyed.

CIA agent Matthew Zirbel was not allowed to view classified documents due to CIA file which says he has a "lack of honesty, judgment, and maturity," but those minor faults didn't stop the CIA from putting him in charge of one of their torture centers. There, Zirbel was responsible for at least one man's death after he had him chained to a cement floor in a freezing room with little clothing. As to be expected, the man froze to death and the CIA tried to cover it up. In the end, the CIA director of the time exonerated Zirbel of all charges, and Zirbel is now living in the states as a freeman and as a millionaire.

Things haven't changed much since 1876.

The Australian diocese admits that the forced-celibacy of priests probably contributed to the child-raping scandal, but they still won't get rid of it.

Ohio governor John Kasich put together a tax-payer-funded $10 million mentoring program that would help disadvantaged youths. But he's a Republican, so even though there wasn't anything sinister on the face of his program, you just know it would turn out evil somehow. Sure enough, right after the program became official, Kasich changed it so that anyone who would benefit from the program must now be partnered with a religious institution, or they won't receive public money! Just like missionaries who want to "help" the destitute, you first have to go to church and pledge your eternal devotion to their god before they'll help you.

Father Bernard McGarty wrote a wonderful editorial about how winter would be dull and dismal with all the wonderful Christmas festivities that Christians perform in order to honor their god, completely ignorant to the fact that nearly every Christmas festivity (decorated trees, gift giving, holly, mistletoe, wreathes, caroling, etc.) are derived from Pagan rituals. Never the less, McGarty's editorial was published, and plenty of equally ignorant Christians cheered him on. But today, Christians have a reason to distance themselves from McGarty after he was fined for trying to solicit sex from his physical therapist.

Ever since 1996, Congress awards $50 million to any state whose public school lies to their children about sexual education (also known as abstinence only), in addition to teaching them real sexual education. Despite the fact that states that teach abstinence only have the highest levels of unwanted teen pregnancies, the highest level or repeated unwanted teen pregnancies, and the highest level of teens with STIs, Republicans want to award an additional $15 million to states that eliminate their sexual education program entirely, and just tell children to stop having sex.

Feeling: Happy

Going to the home inspection of my probable house this afternoon. If everything goes well, I'll be a home-owner in a week!

Congratulations to the women who made a difference in 2014.

America, the beautiful...ly corrupt and desolate.

Baltimore, Maryland police assaulted and tased a woman for recording them (which is perfectly legal), and then tried to cover it up by accusing her of trying to run over a police officer and arresting her. Once in their custody, the police took her phone and deleted the video of them attacking her. Unfortunately for the police, the video was backed up online. Naturally, the police dropped their phony charges and hoped that the victim would just forget about the abuse, but victim is filing a lawsuit. And this is not the first time Baltimore police have tried destroying evidence against them.

Atheists can't be elected to public office because it's the job of governors to protect God-given rights! Checkmate atheists!

Feeling: Happy

Why is it that even if you convince people that vaccines are safe and effective, they're less likely to get them? Well, it's not just vaccines. We do this for all sorts of things.

Well, it took several years, but Kentucky finally realized that an "amusement" park called the Ark Encounter would be nothing more than a religious indoctrination center and pulled the plug on their $18 million in tax breaks.

Is the Earth flat? Well, no, but it's easy to think about it in such a way.

Police officers in Pitman, New Jersey were unable to catch the arsonists who tried to burn down a billboard because it read, "Keep Saturn in Saturnalia." And now, billboard owner, Clear Channel, refuses to put up any new billboards with similar messages for fear of damage to their signs, which I understand, but I wonder if they would have the same attitude of banning all religious messages if a church-themed billboard were vandalized? I also wonder if the police would try a little harder to catch arsonists destroying church signs? This, unfortunately, seems to be part of a worldwide trend of discrimination against non-believers. The USA is relatively accepting of rational-minded thinkers, but there are a growing number of countries where being an atheist is a death sentence.

The truth is, truth serums don't work.

Simon's Cat loves the nip.

Oprah and Ellen get into an epic rap battle.

Feeling: Happy

Nearly every expert on torture would say that torturing people is a bad way of obtaining information. It's rarely reliable because people will say anything to get you to stop, regardless of whether they know anything. And yet, somehow, American leaders from both sides of the political spectrum, Barack Obama and Dick Cheney, can't bring themselves to say torture should be banned.

Simon's Cat doesn't like scary Santa toys.

An ex-police officer talks about the systematic racism and unaccountability in the police force.

Our dogs really listen, and puffer fish really puff. Also, zero G and zero gravity are different!

If you ever want to learn how to lie with graphs, you should just study those made by climate change deniers.

Jack the Ripper meets Hannibal Lecter in Epic Rap Battles of History.

Aron Ra discusses the nature of science.

A love song, that accurately depicts science.

Feeling: Happy

Finally beat Borderlands. Rather anti-climatic ending. 145 games down, ten million to go.

Turns out, trying to convince a country's government to execute people based on who they have sex with will get you tried for crimes against humanity.

Off-duty police strangle a man with down syndrome to death because he didn't want to leave a movie theater. No charges.

Italian law grants all women access to abortion within 90 days of becoming pregnant, but the Vatican is using its political muscle to put Catholics into as many obstetrician and gynecologist positions as possible where they have legal right to refuse to perform the abortions. This is the same type of law that Michigan Republicans are trying to pass, and in Italy, we see the results. Women are forced to give birth to children so malformed that they die almost immediately after the painful process, just like Jesus intended.

The joys of being a white male gamer.

This probably won't revolutionize education.

Feeling: Happy

Talked down the seller $10,000 on the house, and the contracts are being signed. Now we need to get an inspection, assessment, and then, move on in!

After making threats against Muslims, this Christian terrorist finally made good on them and murdered a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy.

In an effort to make Michigan more like Springfield, Republicans decide that burning tires would be a good source of renewable energy.

Reverse racism you say? I don't think you understand the depth of it.

Ever since 1961, it's been illegal to deny a person a governmental job if they are an atheist. This was a federal ruling, so no state can restrict an atheist from office, even those that still have laws in place that bar atheists from government. Why are these laws still in place? Because the states -still- try to enforce them!

Republican Alabama mayor Bill Baker thinks the FFRF plan "backfired" when the city had to remove a parade's preference of religion and instead, the local citizens took it up, demonstrating that he doesn't understand the point of the first amendment to the US Constitution or what the FFRF wanted to do. The whole point was to not let the government decide which religion the citizens should be celebrating, but letting them decide for themselves.

Surly Amy shows how you can turn years of systematic online harassment and death threats into art.

Feeling: Happy

Michigan Republicans want you to know that, if your religion requires you to be a bigoted asshole to homosexuals, atheists, and women, then by golly, you'll have governmental protection to be a bigoted asshole to homosexuals, atheists, and women! Yes, Republicans Jase Bolger and Rick Snyder want to remove the legal protections against discrimination in Michigan, but only if you're religious! Being racist or prejudice for secular reasons would still be illegal. As if that weren't enough, Michigan is on track to begin the same drug testing of welfare recipients program that failed the Republicans in Florida.

NPR has a wonderful article about the self-proclaimed "Food Babe" Vani Hari and her crusade to get food companies to stop using ingredients she thinks are dangerous, but science says are perfectly healthy. Hari has no scientific background which is pretty obvious by the claims she makes confusing the innocuous ingredients in food with harmful ingredients with similar sounding names. The article quotes several doctors and scientists who all point out her ignorance and failures, but Hari is undaunted by their education and wisdom, and prefers the money she makes from her speaking gigs and product promotions. Once again, America prefers the advice of an ignorant celebrity over an entire generation of scientists.

There is a new hashtag going around the Internet called #CrimingWhileWhite. It showcases anecdotes of police officers being incredibly lenient to criminals who are white.

Todd Starnes of Fox News isn't a journalist. He isn't even a reporter. He's a reactionary.

It's a little late, but here are some Thanksgiving food facts, and it's a little early, but here are some holiday life hacks.

Not every videogame character makes it into the final game, and why not learn more about the Zelda series?

How to cope with your religious doubts.

The Elf On the Shelf really gets around.

Feeling: Happy

It's not just the Catholics who systematically protect child rapists. Jehovah's Witnesses do it too.

Rick Santorum says the first amendment to the US Constitution is a Communist ideal.

WOMBATS!

Are you worried about whether you'll get into heaven or not? Well, you can stop worrying, you won't.

Motor proteins do the grunt work in your cells and why do spicy things taste hot and minty things taste cool?

A choose your own adventure version of Freaks and Geeks played by two actors from the show.

What you need to know about Smash Bros. if you want to become a professional player.

Feeling: Happy

Put down an offer on a house last night! It's a low bid, but it'll at least show them we're interested.

Want to put a Christian church in a strip mall? The City Council of Kennesaw, Georgia unanimously votes yes! An Islamic mosque? No way! A strip mall is no place for a house of worship! And by the way, this has nothing to do with the fact that you're Muslims and we're not catering to the protesters outside holding signs calling to Ban Islam!

A group of conservative Christians calling themselves the Citizens for Objective Public Education tried to sue the Kansas State school board for teaching science in school. Their claim was, teaching science promotes atheism, which is not a religion, and therefore violates the US Constitution's ban on government promoting religion. Despite that iron-clad reasoning, a judge threw out the lawsuit.

New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo put Eric Garner in a choke hold after Garner refused to be cuffed by the officer. Onlookers recorded the incident on camera and watched as Garner gasped that he couldn't breathe. Pantaleo continued his firm choke hold for so long that Garner suffocated to death. Naturally, a grand jury has decided that no charges will be brought against officer Pantaleo because apparently death by strangulation is the expected response to unwillingness to be handcuffed.

Which came first, the rain, or the rainforest?

Feeling: Happy

It's a bit scary to think that the same people who don't care if their beliefs are an accurate representation of reality, are the ones who demand that their beliefs be taught in public schools!

Police claim that Darrien Hunt was threatening them with a sword just before they shot him in the back six times, but surveillance video that was recently released shows a 22-year-old black man running away from cops who drew their guns on him as he was walking the street dressed as a samurai from a cartoon, minding his own business, carrying a replica sword with a dull edge. Of course, that's not nearly as bad as Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a 7-year-old Michigan girl who was shot and killed when Joseph Weekley fired his sub-machine gun while he was blinded from the flash grenade his SWAT team detonated in the little girl's home. All charges to Weekley were dropped even though his fellow officers say he made multiple mistakes during the raid.

So, it worked, right?

In order to prove that online harassment isn't a problem, assholes double their efforts of online harassment.

The Canadian government allow students to be placed in ultra-orthodox religious schools rather than secular schools, which can be problematic for the country when students who graduate knowing absolutely nothing about the real world realize just how woefully inept they are and sue the government for letting them grow up with a useless education. I disagree that the blame should be on the government since the parents were the ones who demanded their child get a useless education, but it does make you question, at what level is it child abuse to prevent a student from getting a useful education?

Because Arlington Heights, Illinois doesn't want to remain secular, atheist displays are going up on public land!

A lot of what you know about history is wrong.

What would make 50 Shades of Grey good? If it starred Ellen DeGeneres.

Aron Ra explains how we know the things that we know.

Feeling: Happy

The ultra-Christian family's Kama Sutra.

A collection of last words from innocent people shot by the police!

Despite so many Hindus believing that vegetarianism is the ideal diet, they just finished up the largest animal sacrifice festival in the world, about half a million baby animals were slaughtered in the Gadhimai festival honoring Gadhimai, the goddess of power.

So what's the deal with asparagus making your pee smell funny?

Why is law enforcement so lax when it comes to the crime of online death threats?

Republicans continue to become more wealthy even as same-sex marriage becomes the norm and religious adherence reaches an all-time low. The religious right continues to be used for political and commercial ventures.

Feeling: Happy

A homophobic principal at St. George Catholic School in Ottawa refused to let her students do a report on the importance of gay rights, so the students performed a simple silent protest which gained more traction than the report ever would.

Christian organization LifeWay Research performed a randomized poll of 3,000 American Christians and found that none of them can agree on even the most basic aspects of Christian doctrine.

Many backers of Israel point out that they are a civilized democratic beacon in an otherwise dark Middle East, but then they pull a stunt like this showing just how bigoted religion can make a person.

After Florida police admit that they are incompetent at their jobs and need the prayers of citizens to stop crime (because it's worked so well at stopping crime in the past), the American Humanist Association (AHA) sent them a letter explaining that, as a publicly funded institution, it is illegal for the police department to make religious requests of citizens, something of which the police should have been fully aware. The police responded stating that, not only are they not violating the US Constitution by asking for taxpayers to pray to end crime, but they will continue to waste taxpayer money sending out their useless letters, they will hold a prayer vigil on public land at the taxpayer's expense, and that they hold Christian prayers in their city council. By believing that they are above the law and admitting to all of these Constitutional violations, the AHA is now suing the police to prevent them from doing it any more. They will most likely win and the police will have to pay for it using taxpayer's money. But at least then, they will start using the rest of the taxpayer's money on, you know, actually fighting crime.

We're looking to have another pretty cold winter, which is leading many people to doubt global climate change. But as SciShow explains, there is a big difference between weather and climate, and even with the polar vortex of last year, it was still one of the hottest years on record!

Here's a children's musical number explaining how bills get passed in American politics.

Cats love to watch you poop.

Why is it rivers never seem to run straight?

Epic Rap Battles of History pits Zeus against Thor in Lego form!

Feeling: Happy

Want to experience vertigo?

Cherokee County, Texas recently erected a Nativity scene on its courthouse lawn, which made the local Humanist group request a display of their own. As a public office, the courthouse isn't allowed to show preference to a particular religion, so either they have to allow every group, or none of them. Well, as expected, Commissioner Katherine Pinotti denied the Humanist's request saying, "Perhaps you should consider choosing another time of the year to demonstrate your secular support instead of attempting to infiltrate the Christmas holiday with a singular purpose to destroy and denegrate [sic] the beliefs of others." Obviously, the irony is lost on Pinotti who doesn't realize that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, a date the church probably picked because it coincided with the dates of several pre-existing winter holidays like Sol Invictus, Yule, and Saturnalia.

Despite what a chain of supermarkets says, the Christian god isn't powerful enough to stop wars.

SciShow teaches us about dust mites and how animals can be used to make new antibiotics.

What happens when you put a light bulb in a bath of hydrofluoric acid?

Birds don't hibernate underwater and even though there are almost twice as many male embryos than female, by the time they reach maturity, half of those males will have died.

When gaming companies actually change their games due to rumors about their games.

Animals have evolved into many different colors, even bright blue, but oddly enough, none of the blue is actually blue!

Feeling: Happy

Doctors speak out about abortion saying performing the procedure is the most difficult it has been since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Each year in Colorado the governor tells all the citizens to pray using a quote from a Christian bible. Naturally, this has pissed off all the atheists and non-Christian religious people in the state so they banded together with with the FFRF to demand the state cease, pointing out the Colorado's constitution reads, "no preference shall be 'given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.'." The Colorado supreme court ruled that, no, praying is not a particular mode of worship and using a quote from a Christian bible is not denominational. Now that's logic!

But there was also a victory for rational thought! The president of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green, was promoting a grade-school curriculum which says the bible is a factually true textbook and trying to make it mandatory in Oklahoma public schools. The schools have since seen the light of reason.

The Atheist Debates series covers appeals to faith.

Want to land yourself in an early grave? Use weight loss supplements.

Bart Ehrman gives a talk about how Jesus became God. Part 1 and Part 2.

Celebrity impressions while stuck in traffic.

NPR's new educational program begins, 50 Great Teachers, starting with Socrates.

The making of An Honest Liar, an upcoming documentary about the life of James Randi.

A Michigan court ruled that the state only has to -fund- public education, it doesn't have to actually educate people.

Very few Christians have actually read the bible, but that doesn't stop them from defending it. Thanks to Trent for the idea.

Feeling: Happy

Fox News warns us that our tax dollars might end up going to feeding staving children and giving them an education to make them productive members of society! The horror! It's pretty clear that their fear isn't that it'll cost money, but that their money will go to helping people with skin darker than their own.

Ohio is one step closer to banning abortion. Republicans, who are totally known for their hatred of government that interferes with the private lives of citizens, have passed a bill controlling the private lives if citizens making it illegal to have an abortion, even if you ever raped by your own father, after a heart beat is detected, as if that were an important milestone in development.

In Egypt, a doctor killed a 12-year-old girl while he was trying to cut of her genitals. The result of the tribunal? The doctor is free from all negligence. Thanks Islam!

Texas schools history textbooks now claim that Moses was a founding father of the USA, and that the US Constitution which grants the freedom of religion to everyone was inspired by the Old Testament, which clearly states that anyone who doesn't believe in the Jewish god must be executed.

I'm not much of a fan of organized sports as I find they promote ignorance and bigotry, however, as someone who spends a great deal of time playing videogames, I don't begrudge those who enjoy them. But it makes it harder for me to approve of them when I see just how stupid athletes and sports channels can be. Curt Schilling, a retired professional baseball player, and now talking head for ESPN, recently said that evolution can't be true because nobody can show him a transitional fossil between amphibians and mosquitoes (which, if found, would actually disprove evolution, but Schilling is too ignorant to know this). Well, an ESPN writer, Keith Law, got into a Twitter debate pointing out just how ignorant Schilling is on the subject, and ESPN's approach was, rather than backing Law for being demonstrably correct and chiding Schilling's stupidity. ESPN has suspended Law from Twitter while Schilling continues to spout nonsense and even making rather violent suggestions about Ferguson, MO!

Jessica Fitzwater was recently elected to the city council of Frederick County, Maryland, and says she won't be taking her oath of office on a bible because she isn't upholding the bible. Instead, she suggests placing her hand on the city charter or state constitution. Well done Fitzwater!

The US military has the solution for soldiers who are contemplating suicide... convert them to Christianity!

A couple of Fox News blabber mouths complained that Obama isn't religious enough, and then a couple days later when Obama gave his talk filled with quotes from the bible to promote immigration reform, they berated him for quoting from the bible.

Feeling: Happy

It's not enough that churches are tax-exempt regardless of whether they help anyone, now they're calling for complete immunity from all legal statutes.

A child asks fundamentalist if they believe the bible is literal truth. The answer goes like this: "Yes, I believe it all literally." "But you said that Hell isn't forever." "Correct." "But the bible says Hell is forever." "No it doesn't." "Yes, it does." "Well, I don't believe that that part is meant to be taken literally."

I would watch this live-action Daria movie.

Learning about the reality of evolution by studying it in HIV, part 1 and part 2.

Want to take part in a scientific breakthrough? Thanks to distributed computing, you can!

Bart Ehrman's wonderful Misquoting Jesus lecture.

That's one smart mop.

I don't have wanderlust, I have WONDERLUST.

Don't Hug Me. I'm Scared... PART 3!

Feeling: Happy

Continuing in their tradition of being completely against science, the Republican party just passed a bill forbidding third-party scientists from advising the EPA in their areas of expertise, and wants to replace them with non-expert corporate scientists. The Republican goal is to prevent a politically unaffiliated climatologist who just published a paper on climate change from consulting the EPA on their paper, while allowing a geologist working for Exxon to do so. Taking a cue from their success in eradicating teen-pregnancy in the Southern states, they've learned that if you prevent people from having access to the truth, the problem magically disappears!

When a man just doesn't understand rape.

Welcome to your new police state where traffic cops have more firepower than the military of most countries, and they're taught that crime is a black and white issue that needs more aggression and more violence.

Dr. Luke Galen gives a lecture on the roots of morality. Spoiler alert, it doesn't come from religion.

Global terrorism is on the rise, and the majority of it is coming from Islamic states.

Christian Evangelist Donnie Swaggart, son of Jimmy Swaggart claims that homosexuals are just like ISIS and they want to execute Christians. Ironically, it is Swaggart's holy book that calls for the execution of homosexuals, not the other way around.

My state Capitol wants to erect a Nativity Scene, and if they do, you can be damned sure I'm going to demand an atheist display!

A three step guide to leaving Islam. Part 1, part 2, and part 3.

SciShow teaches us about bats and snakes.

Feeling: Happy

Watched Interstellar last night with Emily, Wallee, and Allan. It wasn't very good. Rather than fill me with a sense of wonder for the universe, it tried to say that love crossed the boundaries of the fifth dimension. Gag. Want to really get a science boner? Take a look at these pictures that show the scale of the universe.

A grim, but accurate example of the modern gaming industry.

There are still several states in this country where a parent can let their child die out of neglect, and as long as they claim religious reason, they immune to prosecution.

SciShow news.

Benedict Cumberbatch does some rapid-fire impressions.

Science continues to get closer at explaining the origin of life.

Did You Know Gaming covers the Mega Man series, again and the PlayStation 2.

Much like global warming, humankind's lack of self-control is leading us into another crisis with antibiotics.

Oprah can't afford to pay for her entertainers during her "The Life You Want" tour where tickets sales alone are expected to bring in around $4 million. Much like the Wal-Mart family, Oprah has learned that you don't become a billionaire by paying your employees.

Feeling: Happy

Played some back-alley bridge last night with Emily, Wallee, and Jason. Good times, even if I came in third.

If you enjoy podcasts about atheism, you'll probably love the Friendly Atheist Podcast.

The US Air Force decided to soften its language on proselytizing. They used to say, don't use your position of authority to force your religion on your subordinates because it causes nothing but problems. Now it reads, you can use your position of authority to force your religion on your subordinates, but just be sneaky about it. I can only hope that the few atheist officers take advantage of this situation.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley would rather parrot a false quote of George Washington than do five seconds of Googling.

Warren Cole Smith published an article called 10 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Evangelicals which is so hilarious I had to list all ten items with my critiques:

1. Evangelicals share a common belief - Like all forms of Christianity, they most certainly do not. Put any two Christians, even of the exact same denomination, in a room to talk about religion together, and before long, they will start disagreeing.
2. Jerry Falwell wasn’t the first evangelical - I can understand why you'd want to distance yourself from such a lunatic.
3. Not everyone who calls himself an evangelical is an evangelical - Wasn't your first point that you all believe that same thing? This is just the No True Scotsman fallacy.
4. Most evangelicals do not go to suburban megachurches - That's fine, but there are still over 1,300 churches across America that each take in more profit than a small country while paying no taxes.
5. Evangelicals are generous - Yes, if you define "generous" as giving to a Christian church, Christian hospital, or Christian food bank. If you bully someone to profess a belief in your god before helping them, you're not giving, you're advertising.
6. Evangelicals love LGBTQIA people - In the same way an abusive husband "loves" his wife so much he has to hit her. If your "unconditional" love has a condition of them changing their sexual identity, you don't love them.
7. Evangelicals love the arts - Provided the art conforms with our ultra-Conservative pious view of morality. Do you love the art of Andres Serrano?
8. Evangelicals are pro-science - And by "science," we mean Jesus riding dinosaurs on a 6,000-year-old Earth.
9. Evangelicals value quality education for all - Provided that education doesn't include evolution, the big bang theory, sex ed, archeology, anthropology, radioactive decay, or the psychology of religion.
10. Evangelicals are diverse and tolerant - We don't care what race you are, we'll vote for laws that prevent you from making decisions about your body!

Christians really are this deluded. They vote against the freedoms of other people while claiming to be extremely tolerant, they deny entire scientific subjects where the experts are all in agreement and claim they are pro-science, they disown homosexuals and claim to love them. I'm no longer surprised by any of their statements, but I am fascinated by just how much cognitive dissonance a human brain can endure.

Ferguseon, MO, has another reason to be in the news after officer Jaris Hayden arrested a pregnant woman and raped her.

Feeling: Happy

I've been playing a lot of Pay Day 2, which is a pretty fun game, but a little buggy for my tastes.

Being an activist woman on the Internet means the police and FBI will never lift a finger to stop people from sending you rape and death threats. Sites like Twitter and YouTube aren't any help either and rarely do anything when their users threaten to murder women.

Nobody has the right to die until God is done toying with them first!

The Islamist group ISIS continues to kidnap and enslave girls, now as many as 5,000 to 7,000.

SciShow answers more of the world's top questions.

The Friendly Atheist talks about why faith is dangerous.

Feeling: Happy

The Dan Barker lecture last night was a lot of fun. I bought two of his books and thoroughly enjoyed his talk. During Q&A, one apologist tried to stump him with a poor refutation of the problem of evil, "If you were all-powerful, and your children were evil, would you make them stop existing?" but Barker handled nicely, "I would prevent their evil actions, not obliterate children." Afterwards, we had drinks and dinner where I sat next to a political science major and a neurology major. The talks were wonderful!

Christian youth pastor Deric Peacock will be enjoying prison for awhile after exposing himself to what he thought was a 12-year-old girl whom he intended to have sex with, but in reality he was exposing himself to the police. The judge gave the man extra time because he was a pastor, which I don't agree with.

The Ghostbusters meet the Mythbusters in Epic Rap Battles of History.

Daniel Loxton gives a very uplifting talk about the Skeptic movement.

The ever-amazing Kristen Schaal explains the GOP's plan to woo women voters.

How El Al Airlines in-flight safety video should go down.

Mr. Deity gives a scathing talk about Mormonism.

Feeling: Happy

I'm going to see a talk by ex-preacher Dan Barker tonight! Yay!

Tony Ryan is a terrible person and deserves all the Internet shame he receives.

If you're going to make your kid hand out religious tracts to everyone of his classmates, you should probably first make sure that not -everything- in the tract is factually wrong. Luckily, for the kid's sake, he's too young to know how much his parents embarrassed him.

Yet another Christian minister, this time one in Grand Rapids, MI, was convicted of raping a child under the age of 13. John Balyo was arrested at a Christian music festival, and police said they also found several articles of missing children and child obituaries on the man's computer!

SciShow gives us tips on how to stop the spread of Ebola and explains why dogs pant.

Want to understand what sexual consent is? Ask a sex worker. And speaking of sex workers, Sasha Grey reads creepy texts.

John Oliver talks about the corruption inherent in state lotteries.

Turkish children have had their textbooks slightly altered in order to make their parent's gods happy. Rather than see diagrams of their own anatomy, they will now see pictures of cute fuzzy animals!

This is what life is like when you have to work with cats.

Feeling: Happy

Dr. Oz does an Ask Me Anything on Twitter, and the result is just as you'd expect.

The parents of 12-year-old Syble Rossiter have been convicted on manslaughter after they allowed their daughter to die from diabetic ketoacidosis, which is completely treatable if you aren't someone who thinks God hates medicine.

Richard Carrier gives a lecture on his book about the mythology of Jesus and why he thinks the character never existed.

It's probably not the best to try to use bible quotes to get out of a prison sentence after raping two women you met on Christian Mingle.

Want a depressing belly-laugh laugh? Watch this video that was only supposed to be distributed to non-believers after the Rapture! These people are C-R-A-Z-Y!

SciShow teaches you how to supercool water and Veritasium explains how the pyramids were built.

John Oliver exposes the corruption with the US government and ALEC.

David Prothero looks at the mind of a science denier.

How can Microsoft be so adept at screwing up a simple interface? The mouse settings used to include a simple checkbox which would swap the two primary buttons on the mouse for left-handed users. However, in the latest "upgrade", Microsoft redesigned the mouse settings page with a whole bunch of moving graphics that dance all over the screen and hyper links and colors, and oh yeah, they removed the checkbox to swap the buttons for left-handed users. Instead, you have to click on a picture of mouse, then click on each button, and assign them to a new command. The new commands include the ability to change each button to a different button on the mouse, make each click a double-click, run a macro, or even disable the button entirely. I understand the desire to add more customizability in software, because I usually complain that there isn't enough. And to some extent, I appreciate that Microsoft has given me the ability to completely adjust how a mouse functions, because I plan on disabling the buttons of people with really expensive mice to make them think their mouse is broken so they'll give it to me. Anyway, in adding all this customizablity, Microsoft assumed that their would be more people who want to make their right mouse button perform a double-click, or change their left mouse button to a middle scroll down than their are left-handed people, i.e., several billion people. Way to screw up again Microsoft!

Feeling: Happy

We don't see colors as they are, but how our brain makes us see them.

An infographic of common misconceptions.

Sometimes Obama does stuff I like, like endorsing Net neutrality.

Now that the Republicans control congress, we can see all sorts of wonderful things happening. Like the woman who was arrested for falling down the stairs (she was pregnant, and the police thought she was trying to have an abortion). Or the woman who was imprisoned for over a year after having a miscarriage until a medical examiner cleared her of wrong-doing. Or the woman who was forced by a judge to have a cesarean even after being told it might kill her; it did. Republicans call themselves pro-life, but the only life they care about is fetal life and persistent vegetative life.

An interesting lecture about how everyone (else) is a hypocrite.

Nice Sticky Buddy.

Teddy bears inside out is nightmare fuel.

How simple is it to plan a wedding? Just 10 easy steps!

There are a lot of flaws in this video, but it does cover 30 important milestones in gaming history.

PZ Myers does an interview for an Arabic audience.

Oklahoma just elected senator James Lankford who wants to solve the country's debt by praying more and adopting a biblical worldview. Of course, God told him to run for senator, so how can you argue with that?

Feeling: Happy

Who is more likely to rob you blind, a burglar or the police?

Aron Ra gives a lecture about Satanism and the evolution of the Lucifer character in history.

Adam Savage from Mythbusters talks about feminism.

Muslims in Iran are trying to make it illegal to own or play with dogs, a crime punishable by 74 lashes.

Steve Santagati is a horrible person, and an embarrassment to men everywhere.

The real purpose of Home Depot.

Seaborgium is pretty rad.

Brevard County, Florida wants it's citizens to know that everyone is equal, but Christians are more equal than atheists.

While the video doesn't address any of the benefits of it, it does a great job with pointing out the flaws in the Electoral College.

A quick explanation of antimatter.

Dem's some big crystals.

Feeling: Happy

Did some more house hunting today. Found two really nice ones right down the street from one another! Time to flip a coin.

Michigan re-elected Rick Snyder for governor, and his first order of business? Prevent an entire group of people who love each other from getting married! Even Oklahoma allows same sex marriage. Even ARIZONA! Way to drop the ball Michigan!

Stay classy South Carolina.

Muslims living in the UK just can't help chopping off their children's genitalia.

Two more secular victories! The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors in California will not display an "In God We Trust" plaque in their chambers, and after 20 years, the Jesus fish on the Desert Storm memorial in Bonne County Missouri will be covered up. Now we just need to address the plans of the Magnolia State Heritage Campaign which is trying to make Christianity the official religion of Mississippi. Ingrates.

Gravity at work in a vacuum chamber is amazing.

How to get electricity from falling water, with the explanation video.

Trying to explain entropy is hard.

What if The Legend of Zelda was actually about Zelda?

Feeling: Happy

Alaska's new Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski agrees that global warming exists, but she blames it on an Icelandic volcano that put more carbon in the atmosphere than 10 years worth of European traffic. Princeton professor Michael Oppenheimer corrects her by saying it's quite the opposite. In fact, the emissions of 1 year of European cars releases more carbon than 10 years worth of all of the European volcanoes combined!

Gordon Klingenschmitt is a despicable excuse for a human. In addition to thinking he can expel the demons that cause homosexuality, that homosexuals are like terrorists who want to behead Christians, and that the USA should adopt the bible for foreign and domestic laws (execute homosexuals, execute women for pre-marital sex, execute children for leaving Christianity, etc.). Yet, despite the foul and ignorant remarks this schmuck makes, he was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in a land slide victory. Colorado, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

What happens when a Christian apologist tries to answer a simple question from an 8th grader? Six minutes of nonsensical babbling.

Learn yourself some psychological terms and why not to eat desiccants.

Enjoy Halloween bible style!

Are you guilty of talking while female?

Victim blaming in cases of sexual assault doesn't just tell denigrate women, it also empowers sexual offenders. Stop doing it.

Beware of the spooky Simon's Cat!

Disney villains all have scars.

Feeling: Happy

I'm disappointed in many of my fellow Michiganders today, but not my local crew. While the majority of Michigan re-elected a governor who proudly nullifies the voting rights of anyone in a poor district, people in Genesee County voted predominately Left and helped get decent people in office.

Eric from Let's Get!! has made a wonderful review from my Simon's Quest: Redacted translation hack. So proud!

Brittany Maynard made headlines when she announced she was going to kill herself before her terminal brain cancer did it for her. She was seen as a champion by many assisted suicide advocates for having the courage to take control of her own life while her brain still worked well enough to do so. As expected, many Christians chimed in with their own version of Christian Love.

Another church has been caught handing out a list of specific candidates to vote for for yesterday's election. If this were done by any non-profit organization, the IRS would shut them down in a heart beat, but because it's a church, the IRS doesn't care.

When they discovered that their honors biology textbook contained a page explaining how various birth control methods can be used to prevent pregnancy, the school board members of Gilbert Public Schools in Arizona did the right thing, they torn the page out of the book so their students couldn't learn about condoms.

SciShow's "World's Most Asked Questions" segment continues with what is energy? And what is the meaning of life?

Minute Physics explains why the sky is blue and the sun is yellow, and how the depiction of rainbows you're used to seeing are wrong.

Feeling: Happy

Since today is voting day, let CGP Grey give you a taste of just how easy the whole process is.

The state of Oregon now affords the same rights and privileges to Secular Humanists as they do to any other religion. I'm kind of ambivalent on this tactic. On one hand, Humanism is not a religion, so it hurts to see it grouped with all that hocus pocus, but on the other hand, preferential treatment of religions isn't going away any time soon in this country, so the more non-religious organizations that are seen as "religions" by the state helps water-down all of the others.

John Oliver explores how the US government deals with hired translators during war time.

Catholics aren't the only religious group that houses child-rapists, you can find the same problem among Hasidic Jews.

What happens when you stretch out the number pi for an entire mile?

The Christian Post recently printed an article about how there is a war on religion. Oh no, if it's anything like the war on Christmas, we're done for! For examples of this "war" the author explains how many people disagree with the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby ruling, that secularists try to prevent Christians from discriminating against homosexuals, and that people compare Christian fundamentalists to Muslim fundamentalists. War is indeed hell, but then, so is dealing with Christians with an over-inflated persecution complex. This is what happens when villains see themselves as heroes.

OK Go still can't disappoint with their latest music video.

RetroAhoy gives a nostalgic review of Half-Life.

Finally moved my old posts to the respective months in the Old News page.

Feeling: Happy

I went to three more parties over the weekend. Damn, I'm popular! And exhausted. I also made a Halloween-themed music quiz which was well received. Emily and I also looked at four different houses over the weekend. Three were in tree-less subdivisions which I detested, one had a beautiful tree-filled yard, but had a flooded basement and arsenic in the water. So far, I'm not that thrilled about any of them. I also learned the importance of taking a full pack of gum out of your jeans before throwing them in the dryer.

Judith Hawkins officially gets the boot after she turned her Tallahassee, FL court house into her own personal religious ministry.

Christians usually freak out about Harry Potter, but the truth is, Harry Potter is much better than the bible.

Creationists tried to do a big workshop and public debate at MSU, but none of the science staff even bothered with them, and fewer than 100 people even bothered to show up, many were just there to watch them fail.

As expected, someone vandalized the Graveyard of Lost Gods.

Eric Hovind doesn't seem to understand that his god really isn't that different from Santa Claus.

If football players were atheists, who would they thank after winning the big game?

What if female gamers acted like male gamers?

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!