jewelisms

jewel March 24th, 2010

Yet another reason to shun religion.  Apparently, the principal at a Lutheran church’s elementary school didn’t think that women were an inferior species, or so it is alleged,  so they voted to fire him.  And of course women weren’t allowed to speak or vote at the hearing, because that would be tragic!  What the hell?!?

I don’t know whether to be horrified that 76 men voted to fire Hartwig or hopeful that 74 voted to not fire him.

But hey – of course they didn’t leave women out entirely:

Women who wanted to ask questions were told to write them on a piece of paper and have a man read them aloud. But some, including Hartwig’s own daughter, said their questions were never read.

Not that it did any good.

“I actually passed three or four questions to a church council member and none of them were read,” said Emily Rae Hartwig. “I guess the way I felt about it, and the way many others felt, was that they were afraid of us (women). A lot of my dad’s supporters are women.”

What I don’t get is why there are even women that are members of that church.  How low does your self esteem have to be to think it’s ok to be thought of as inferior and having no rights?  Seriously.

• in the news , ranting , religion
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jewel March 24th, 2010

I *heart* xkcd.  And, once again, they hit the mark.

• humor , pseudoscience
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jewel March 21st, 2010

I don’t have many heroes, especially still living, but one of my greatest heroes is James Randi. His tireless work in the skeptical community is inspiring and he’s cute and funny, too.

Today, he posted at Swift, that he is gay. I can’t say that it does or doesn’t surprise me. I never thought about it one way or the other, to tell you the truth. I am very happy for him that he finally feels, after 81 years, that he can be open about himself.

Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted.

I’m gay.

From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style. At no time did I choose to adopt any protective coloration, though; my cultivation of an abundant beard was not at all a deception, but part of my costume as a conjuror.

Gradually, the general attitude that I’d perceived around me began to change, and presently I find that there has emerged a distinctly healthy acceptance of different social styles of living — except, of course, in cultures that live in constant and abject fear of divine retribution for infractions found in the various Holy Books… In another two decades, I’m confident that young people will find themselves in a vastly improved atmosphere of acceptance.

His hope for the future of young gay people is encouraging, too.  I hope he is right that in the near future it will simply be no big deal.

Cheers to you, Mr. Randi!

• people
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jewel March 7th, 2010

Since we’ve had so much snow this winter, this handy snow tracking guide from xkcd might just come in handy!

• humor
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jewel February 27th, 2010

There’s a new Symphony of Science video out, so here it is. If you haven’t seen any of the Symphony of Science video’s, they are gorgeous celebrations of science. You should really check them out:

• science
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jewel January 16th, 2010

Honestly, I don’t get it. Here we are, in the 21st century and there are still people talking about pacts with the devil to explain completely natural events!

Here’s Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club talking about the earthquake in Haiti:

The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ “

Seriously?  He believes that?  Aside from the complete and utter heartlessness of his “explanation”, it doesn’t really sound like his god is all that loving or big on forgiveness.  Mr Robertson seems to be light on the compassion as well.  Not that this really surprises me, mind you,  since he and Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on”the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists…” rather than squarely where the blame really was, which was religion and politics.

• in the news , people , ranting , religion
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jewel January 16th, 2010

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

• cats , humor
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jewel January 1st, 2010

Wow, so here we are in 2010 already! Seems like yesterday we were still in the 1990′s watching people freak out about Y2K and yet here we are 10 years later. Still here, still going about our daily lives, still watching people freak out about nothing in particular.

Looking back on 2009, it was pretty quiet for the most part. We didn’t get to travel all that much, which is one of my favorite things ever to do and the year just kind of sped by. It was actually a pretty good year in its quietness and I’m happy to have traveled it.

Some highlights for me include:
Continue Reading »

• personal
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jewel December 24th, 2009

Yeah, I used this graphic last year, but it still makes me laugh.

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday filled with people and things you enjoy and nothing you don’t!

• fun
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jewel December 20th, 2009

Cancun was a lot of fun!  We spent a week completely unplugged. No phone, no email, no weather channel, no news. The rest of the world could have been blown to bits and we wouldn’t have known (well, I’m sure someone would have told us if it had).  Every now and again it really is nice to just let the rest of the world fade away.  Now we’re back to our normal life and I figured I would write about my trip.

Interestingly, nearly every time I mentioned to someone that we were vacationing in Cancun the first thing they asked is “is it safe there?”.  Although Mexico has seen a lot of drug related violence, most of that violence is in the border cities far away from Cancun.  Mexico is a large country with quite the range in safety and violence.   One of my coworkers also vacationed in Cancun a few weeks ago and he said he had been warned against leaving the resort, so they didn’t.  I find that sad, because all the warnings I could find really dealt with other parts of Mexico.  Cancun and it’s surrounding areas really have so much to offer.  To not see any of it really is tragic.  I’ve been to Cancun and the surrounding areas twice now and haven’t felt the slightest bit unsafe.  We haven’t gone exploring completely on our own because neither of us speaks much Spanish.  Tourist Spanish really only goes so far.  So we book tours to places we want to see.  And even when we have had free time to explore the areas we have visited we have not felt unsafe at all.

Ok, on to the fun parts.. Continue Reading »

• travel , vacation
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