February 2012
52 posts
“We’re helping him, as we should. We’ve gotten pretty good at this over the...”
– David Koch admitting he bought Wisconsin governor Scott Walker
If you can stomach it, I highly recommend reading the rest of David Koch’s extremely arrogant interview, where he talks about how he wants to be known as the guy who “cured cancer.”
(via mohandasgandhi)
“I’m fascinated by [America’s income inequality] because a lot of the people who...”
– David Simon on unregulated capitalism (via thesoapboxschtick)
Curious about the political leanings of your... →
And while you’re at it, find yourself on the political spectrum!
Top 10 Catholic Teachings Rick Santorum Rejects →
The unjustness of the war in Iraq
Universal health care
Opposition to the death penalty
Increase in the minimum wage
Welfare for needy families
The rights of workers to organize
The withdrawl of Israel from Palestine
The unethical nature of the Arizona immigration law
That illegal immigrants not be treated as criminals
The rejection of Bush’s idea of a “preventive war.”
Interviewer: You do not accept the existence of a god, a divine prime mover?
Ayn Rand: No.
Interviewer: Now the reason you don't is because you can't prove that such an entity or being or energy exists.
Ayn Rand: I can't nor can anyone else. There is no proof.
Interviewer: There is no proof so therefore you've concluded that there isn't one?
Ayn Rand: That's right.
Interviewer: You can't prove there isn't.
Ayn Rand: You are never called upon to prove a negative. That's a law of logic.
Interviewer: You have to be impressed with the universe. When you see order in the universe, this wasn't an accident, Ms. Rand.
Ayn Rand: Oh now you've got to give me a few minutes. [laughter] What do you think would happen in a disorderly universe? What is the concept of order? What does it have to do with the things which exist? Do they clash with each other? If there were contradictions they wouldn't exist. There is no such thing as a disorderly universe. Our whole concept of order comes from observing reality and reality has to be orderly because it's the standard of what exists.
Interviewer: Right.
Ayn Rand: So contradictions cannot exist.
Interviewer: OK.
Ayn Rand: The real issue as far as man is concerned, is that when you accept such an important issue as the creation of the universe on faith you are destroying your confidence and the validity of your own mind. It has to be either reason or faith. I am against god for the reason that I don't want to destroy reason. I don't...
Interviewer: Give us a chance, alright? We appreciate your zeal but if you continue that it's going to make it difficult for the other people absorb all this, what's going on here, OK?
Ayn Rand: How can I be against god? I'm against those who conceived that idea.
Interviewer: Tell us why. Tell us why.
Ayn Rand: Because then it gives man permission to function irrationally, to accept something above and outside the power of their reason and superior to reason. You said it, I think unintentionally. You said "so I can't wait to die and find out." That, I'm serious, is one of the results of acting on faith. You can't wait to get out of this life.
Interviewer: And what's wrong with that?
Ayn Rand: Because this life is wonderful, as you said. Because if you look at the the universe, it's wonderful and you have to use your life to the best of your understanding. If you go by emotions, not reason, it means you're going against reality. Something exists, something is right and you say no, I don't like it because I want to believe something else.
Interviewer: I see.
Ayn Rand: You, in effect, go by emotions, by your whims, not by reason.
Interviewer: I just want to get this in before the break. You're an atheist?
Ayn Rand: Yes. [noise] [laughter] I could do the same to you, you know. [laughter] [applause] So you're the host I won't say it, but, in other circumstances I would say I don't agree with religion. I approve of your right to it, but...
Interviewer: You don't approve of religion because?
Ayn Rand: Because it's mystical. Because it's based on faith, not on reason and facts.
Interviewer: So? So for you but not for others, OK. What do you care? Somebody wants to worship a Christmas tree or a telephone pole, that's their business.
Ayn Rand: I respect that legally. I said that everyone has the right to believe anything they want but I don't have to approve. If they are serious, I would say... [noise] [laughter] You know? But I would never pass any laws to stop them.
Interviewer: You've got to allow that you're not smart enough to know whether or not there's a god.
Ayn Rand: Yes. I am and everybody here is.
Interviewer: Is what?
Ayn Rand: Smart enough. It doesn't take much intelligence. Do you know why?
Interviewer: Why?
Ayn Rand: Because you are not called upon, I cannot be called upon to know a negative or to prove a negative. If there is a god and you prove it, that's fine. But you don't tell me you can't know that there isn't. I would say yes I know there isn't because I have been given no evidence.
Interviewer: I think atheists are as arrogant as many of the so-called Christians or relgionists that you defy. I'm saying...
Ayn Rand: Arrogant in what way?
Interviewer: In that you are here with your certainty saying there is no god and anybody who believes there is is... It's almost a suggestion that you believe that you are foolish if you believe there is and I think that's a little arrogant and condescending.
Ayn Rand: No. The arrogance and foolishness... I would have to tell the truth. I think it's a bad sign psychologically. It is a sign of a psychological weakness, a man who is afraid to stand on his own mind and has no responsibility. Because it is the absence of proof that brings on false thinkers. Every argument for the existence of god is incomplete, improper and has been refuted and people go on and on because they want to believe. Well, I regard it as evil to place your emotions, your desire above the evidence of what your mind knows.
Interviewer: OK.
Ayn Rand: But that's what you're doing with the idea of god, speaking philosophically.
Interviewer: True.
Ayn Rand: You say you need someone to explain the order but now you have to explain that. You have to take what exists as a fact and start with what exists and see how much you can learn about it.
But it is not right. It is not proper to man to take anything on faith. Religion is a matter of faith. You accept a religion emotionally or because you were born to it. You have not chosen it rationally.
Interviewer: I tend to think of this whole thing as ongoing, that there is an eternity and that we are going to be part of that eternity, that we aren't just corpses in graves when we die.
Ayn Rand: But we aren't corpses in graves, we are not dead. Don't you understand that when this life is finished, you're not there to say oh how terrible that I'm a corpse? No.
Interviewer: Well this is true.
Ayn Rand: It's finished. And what I've always thought was a sentence from some Greek philosopher, I don't unfortunately remember who it was, but I read it at 16 and it has affected me all my life. I will not die. It's the world that will end. [silence] …
(source www.stumbleupon.com/su/1mf74n/public.youtranscript.com/zs/882.html)
Less than half of British self-identified...
The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science released a survey this week indicating historically low levels of religiosity among the British public, and an aversion to religion in the public sphere. More after the jump.
Following Baroness Warsi’s column earlier this week, this survey contradicts the government’s apparent belief that Christianity deserves privilege in British...
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No Women on Congress' Birth Control Panel →
keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:
Is there anything else that needs to be said about that fucked up farce and waste of tax-payer money that happened today in DC?
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“Some people think that you can’t let same-sex couples get married without...”
– California attorney and semi-professional cynic Bill Smith on today’s Ninth Circuit decision regarding Proposition 8. Read the full decision here. (via cognitivedissonance)
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“We’re glad to have him back. I think people deserve a second chance, you know....”
– Ken Ehrlich, Grammys Exec Producer, on Chris Brown performing tonight. Read that quote again. He says they needed a while to kind of get over the fact that they were the victim of what happened. HE SAYS THE GRAMMYS WERE THE VICTIM OF CHRIS BROWN’S ABUSE OF RIHANNA. Read more WTF insights here....
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10 ways to Critique Television or Film from a...
totalqueerity:
10 ways to critique television from a Feminist/Queer perspective
Does anyone else ever watch movies/TV shows and think: Crikey this would be so much better if it related to me more as a woman, rather than what I am supposed to be as a woman. Well I do, so I was thinking about how to watch television from an analytical and aware perspective. I put together this list:
Please note,...
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Only in America
revolutionaryatheist:
via kaystreet.wordpress.com
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“The Ontario Police Project P held that photos of naked women tied up, bruised,...”
– Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth (via girlthatread)
Ah, yes. Though much less intense, reminds me of the criticisms of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Not a fan of that movie by any means, but it did bother me that people were so bothered by the shots of the penis, even though women are often shown mostly...
Tibetans set themselves alight in protests →
Lad's mag reader advised to 'cut his ex's face' →
Prop 8 ruled unconstitutional by 9th Circuit Court... →
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5 Wars America Must End For Peace And Freedom To... →
fucknobigbrother:
I’ve gotten to the point where I cringe whenever I hear the word ‘war’. Even when it’s used to seemingly combat something noble sounding such as the war on poverty or the war on hunger. It’s become apparent that all wars cause damage no matter if it’s a figurative war or an actual war. It’s also obvious that when a war is declared on a social problem, the State is announcing a...
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Government 'may sanction nerve-agent use on... →
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“If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or...”
– Deuteronomy 13:7-11
One of the most horrific passages in the Bible. If this was written in any other type of book (philosophical, political, etc.) we would all say it was immoral. But with religion, one can get away with worshiping a text that commands you to kill.
(via prettayprettaygood)
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Rep. John Boehner explains the 2012 GOP
cognitivedissonance:
In December 2010, Rep. John Boehner sat down with Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes to discuss his new speakership and the future of the GOP. Then Stahl asked about compromise. The following exchange occurred:
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: We have to govern, that’s what we were elected to do.
LESLEY STAHL: But governing means compromising.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: It means...
One Town's War on Gay Teens →
This is genuinely horrifying, people. Closest I’ve come to tears in a long while.
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