Happy Birthday, Dad!

Yesterday (Friday) was Dad's 74th birthday. He's doing well and we talked the night before. I'm really proud to have him for a father.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Further gustatory delights

There's a website for dark chocolate for those who eschew the Path of Sweetness and Light; who believe that dark chocolate is the True Way to Salvation. You'll find a lot of history and detailed information on dark chocolates you've never heard of, I guarantee. Start by looking at their index of chocolate to see how much there is to live for.

(And, if you've never tried them, the Very Best Chocolates in the World are made by Lily O'Brien, a choclatier in Ireland. My next-door neighbors in Seattle introduced me to them. It may be the fragrant Irish butter, it may be the blend, but Lily O'Brien chocolates are better than any you've ever had before. You can buy them in the US. Try them out and let me know.

Further gustatory delights

Costing the Christian Fascists $$$

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strongly negative opinion of fundamentalists. ANY brand of fundamentalist. In the US, we're cursed with Christian peasants of all stripes, including the fuckwit who's masquerading as the President. Elsewhere, there are Islamic fundamentalists. And, lest we forget, there are Hindu fundamentalists and Jewish fundamentalists, too. I figure, "Screw 'em all!" None of them are interested in my point of view because they all have God (or in this country according to the televangelists, "Gahwud") on their side.

While my distaste for all of them is philosophically equal, it's the Christian brand of idiots I get to see the most of and the ones that I consequently have the most loathing for. The ones we have in this country are a particularly room-temperature bunch, too. Unfortunately, like most mobs of fundamentalists, there are people who are not stupid whipping and driving them for their own ends (which is largely how we ended up with a mentally-defective white-knuckle drunk in office making holy war on the rest of the world while turning this country into another tinpot dictatorship).

Someone recently came up with a method for costing some of these people money directly. And I don't mean just by living a life that pisses them off--always a good idea--but by actually getting them to send you stuff on their nickel. Focus on the Family is a particularly large and toxic bunch of people who are vehement about the horrors of homosexuality and the ee-vills of a secular, liberal life in general. They mulct their flocks for millions of dollars and spend some of their loot on printing and distributing books of their brand of poison so they can do still more damage. (You know: lying to preserve the God of Truth. It's an old Christian tradition.)

Here's the cool part of all of this: You can get them to send you up to $100 of stuff for free. And you can even do this over and over again if you're careful!!

Does this strike you as a Cool Thing? I sure think so: costing Christian fascists money means they don't have it to spend on something that will actually damage people. The Stranger, Seattle's premiere gay newspaper, describes the process step by step in this article. While the article in question is aimed at the idea of gay rights and opposing these bastards who are getting in the way of that, the principles are the same for anyone who doesn't feel like living in a theocracy. Or who just thinks that there is no room for Christian fascists on a planet that has discovered penicillin.

Does this trick work? It sure appears to: I've got $94 (suggested donation price) of stuff coming to me at the moment: a 14-CD set of the Chronicles of Narnia and a set of wooden Xmas ornaments. It was really kinda hard for me to find things I'd even want in the house on their list: the books are all stuff that I think of as Nazi propaganda (I know, I know, it ain't "Nazi" as such, but Christian fascists are Christian fascists, regardless of whether they speak German or 'Murrkan) and I wouldn't want them getting loose in the community where they could poison someone else. But the CDs may be nice, although the taint of them having been done by the "Focus on the Family Radio Theater" may be enough to make me not want to listen to them. And the ornaments will make a good gift for one of several really fundie relatives. But, shucks, you can find the non-toxic stuff (The Chronicles of Narnia in almost any form are always a safe bet) and give them as gifts or sell them on eBay or what-have-you.

And in a little while, you can do this again and get another $100 of stuff from them.

I'll let you know when the package arrives and what I've gotten. Give it a try for yourselves!

Costing the Christian Fascists $$$

Which scotch do you like?

I'm fond of single malt scotch. Actually, let me say that I'm really fond of single malt scotch. So what good fortune it is that other people in this world are, too. The folks at Whisky Classified have come up with a classification system for scotches. It's based on the characteristics for scotches and the brands of scotches that fall into each of those clusters. You can start by trying scotches in the cluster you're fond of, so if you like Laphroaig, you might also like Caol Ila; if you like Bowmore, you might also like Bruichladdich and Isle of Jura, and so on.

Once you've tried a few in one cluster, you can branch out to other classes. There's a chart that shows how the clusters overlap, so you can refine the flavors you're after.

Which scotch do you like?

Amazing quote

I found this quote again in my files. It's a wonderful statement on the value of a country based on Christian morals by a popular pro-theocracy speaker.

The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press--in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years.

Actually, this isn't the exact quote; it had to be translated from the original German.

Here's the bibliographic reference:

Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 871-872.

Amazing quote