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Well at least last night’s dream was a little more coherent than usual. I was in Disney World with a huge group of people, maybe 30? It wasn’t really Disney as I recall it – but hey that’s a dream for you. We went to a very expensive Thai restaurant where they actually brick you into your seat. You know with like bricks and mortar. We all ate our meals, thoroughly enjoyed it but I was so hungry I ate one of my bricks.

Everyone left without paying the bill and the waiter was more than a bit put out. I had to go find everyone and make sure they paid since we were going Dutch in a Thai restaurant. This of course meant me climbing over rocks and into hot pools of water. It was kind of like being Reykjavik with Reykjavik being in say Jamaica, in August. Finally I get everyone to pay their bills and I get back to find mine was well over $100, but as fortune would have it I had a gift card. Did you know a brick in your dream cost $6?? The waiter was so grateful he gave me a bottle of their finest hot sauce.

Fortunately I wasn’t in my dream long enough to find out what happens when you digest a brick.

I work for myself. I have to buy my own independent health insurance and its cost is insane. My insurance, a PPO, and out of pocket expenses cost me more than my monthly mortgage. I am my own group and it sucks. Unfortunately people forget about the small business that just can’t afford it, or barely afford it. We have no other option; we are not protected by the same rules and we can be dropped at a moments notice if they decide they don’t like something.

A close friend of mine has always claimed to be a Libertarian.  I admit I have some Libertarian leanings but overall I’ve discovered as I learn more in life I lean more to the left.  My friend once stated he would “never watch” Jon Stewart because he’s “as bad as any of the left wing liberal media.”   This seems like a somewhat odd statement considering many on the right actually enjoy going on his show because he really does listen, debate and provide a venue where the guest isn’t shouted down like on so many conservative shows.  Even if the discussion continues on past the time the show allows and they edit it down – they always post the entire show online and are sure to tell viewers to see the entire discussion go online to watch.

PZ Myers and the Secular Student Alliance go on a field trip!

I’m careful to put the title in quotes, because it is not a museum in any respectable sense of the word. I knew this ahead of time; I had no expectation of any kind of credible presentation in this place, but what impressed me most is how far it failed to meet even my low hopes. They clearly want to ape a real museum, but they can’t — their mission is the antithesis of open inquiry.

more

I am not sure where I found this originally, it’s been in my queue for a while.

1.   Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers
2.   Honk If Your Religious Beliefs Make You An Asshole
3.   Intelligent Design Makes My Monkey Cry
4.   Too Stupid to Understand Science? Try Religion.
5.   *There’s A REASON Why Atheists Don’t Fly Planes Into Buildings
6.   “Worship Me or I Will Torture You Forever. Have a Nice Day.”¬ God.
7.   *God Doesn’t Kill People. People Who Believe in God Kill People.
8.   If There is No God, Then What Makes the Next Kleenex Pop Up?
9.   He’s Dead. It’s Been 2,000 years. He’s Not Coming Back. Get OVER It Already!
10.   *All religion is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry. Edgar Allen Poe.
11.   Viva La Evolución!
12.   Actually, If You Look It Up, The Winter Solstice Is The Reason For The Season
13.   I Wouldn’t Trust Your God Even If He Did Exist
14.   Cheeses Is Lard. Argue With THAT If You Can.
15.   *People Who Don’t Want Their Beliefs Laughed at Shouldn’t Have Such Funny Beliefs
16.   Jesus is Coming? Don’t Swallow That.
17.   Threatening Children With Hell Is FUN!
18.   GOD – APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD!
19.   Jesus Told Me Republicans SUCK
20.   *God + Whacky Tobacky = Platypus
21.   God Doesn’t Exist. So, I Guess That Means No One Loves You.
22.   When the Rapture Comes, We’ll Get Our Country Back!
23.   Q. How Do We Know the Holy Ghost Was Catholic?
A. He Used the Rhythm Method Instead of a Condom.
24.   You Say “Heretic” Like It Was a BAD Thing
25.   I Love Christians. They Taste Like Chicken.
26.   *Science: It Works, Bitches.
27.   “Intelligent Design” Helping Stupid People Feel Smart Since 1987
28.   I Found God Between The Sheets
29.   I Gave Up Superstitious Mumbo Jumbo For Lent
30.   My Flying Monkey Can Beat Up Your Guardian Angel
31.   Every Time You Play With Yourself, God Kills a Kitten
32.   *If God Wanted People to Believe in Him, Then Why Did He Invent Logic?
33.   Praying Is Politically Correct Schizophrenia
34.   *ALL Americans Are African Americans
35.   *I Forget – Which Day Did God Make All The Fossils?
36.   I Was An Atheist Until The Hindus Convinced Me That I Was God
37.   The Spanish Inquisition: The Original Faith-based Initiative
38.   *If we were made in his image, then why aren’t humans invisible too?
39.   *JESUS SAVES….You From Thinking For Yourself
40.   *How Can You Disbelieve in Evolution If You Can’t Even Define It?
41.   *Q. How Can You Tell That Your God is Man-made? A. If He Hates All the Same People You Do.
42.   Every Time You See a Rainbow, God is Having Gay Sex
43.   I Went to Public School in Kansas and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt and a Poor Understanding of the Scientific Method.
44.   WWJD = We Won. Jesus Died.
45.   The Family That Prays Together is Brainwashing the Children
46.   Oh, Look, Honey Another Pro-lifer For War
47.   *Another Godless Atheist for Peace and World Harmony
48.   God is Unavailable Right Now. Can I Help You?
49.   When Lip Service to Some Mysterious Deity Permits Bestiality on Wednesday and Absolution on Sundays, Cash Me Out. Frank Sinatra.
50.   No Gods. No Mullets.

Chris at Cynical-C Blog was asked if he goes to any atheist meetings.

To answer your question I had to think long and hard to find out how bored I would have to be before I went to an atheist meeting. I think perhaps if my wife was out of town, my friends all died, my cat had really bad diarrhea while all the electricity went out leaving my tv and computer useless and if Amazon had come into my house and removed all the books in my personal library because of some copyright problem (leaving a refund in my Amazon account of course) and if all my musical instruments were broken along with the disappearance of every writing instrument and paper product and the closing of all music clubs, comedy clubs, cafes and if my telescope was useless due to all the stars in the sky suddenly going black I may be bored enough to go to an atheist meeting. Provided that it was close to my house. Although, after all that it may be wiser to go to a Seventh Day Adventist meeting.

I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet — which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration — and post on dustybits.com about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.