Religious Fervor Is A Gift That Just Keeps On Giving

And so is Russia. Put the two together, stir, and you’ve got yourself a portal to medieval Muscovy and the blessed times of the oprichniks — albeit with cars and cell phones, this time. Which, as scary as it is to contemplate, may be just what the majority of today’s Russians actually desire.

I apologize to the reader that I can’t find an English-language source to link here, as this development apparently hasn’t yet made its way into the Western media’s field of vision. In any event, as reported by a number of Russian sources, including Argumenty I Fakty (AIF), volunteer bands of Russian Orthodox religious enforcers, organized by the fundamentalist movement “Holy Russ”, have begun patrolling the streets of Moscow.

Add This To The List Of Reasons Why I am An Atheist

I have written previously that in my experience, religion has a special appeal to the worst of humanity and brings out the worst in its followers. No one is more obsessed with sex, more perverse in their sexual thinking than the self-righteous nitwits who cry about the “hook-up culture” and the “homosexual agenda”. (I know a bunch of you are reading this post, and the only thing you are going to take away from it is “nipples to the right of the first paragraph!! somebody call the police, civilization is about to crumble under the onslaught of slutty nakedness!!”) No one is more cruel, more vicious than those who go on and on about God’s infinite mercy. No one swindles so blatantly, so copiously, so cynically as those who do it in the name of their god.

This past weekend, I got into an unexpected argument with a certain couple (who identify as Russian Orthodox), concerning the fate of Pussy Riot, an all-girl Russian punk band that briefly took over the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to deliver a humorous song highlighting the unholy (for lack of a better word) alliance between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Putin regime.

A Few Thoughts On Some Of The Questions Voters Want Presidential Candidates To Answer

The Atlantic asked its readers to suggest questions that the Presidential candidates should be asked during the debates, and then compiled a list of thirty-two most popular ones. Some of those questions were particularly interesting, so I thought I’d jot down some of my own thoughts on these issues.

More Silliness In the Battle Between Street Smarts and Book Smarts

Forbes continues the tradition among conservative, business-oriented publications, of questioning the value of college education with a feel-good piece by David DiSalvo entitled 10 Smart Things I’ve Learned From People Who Never Went to College. What follows the introduction is a list of ten platitudes, my favorite of which is that you shouldn’t allow bullies to intimidate you. (Pro tip: Don’t allow murderers to murder you, either.) What’s puzzling here is that for the life of me, I can’t understand what any of this stuff has to do with having or not having a college education. Colleges teach academic subjects, not matters of common knowledge about one’s daily living; and I doubt the implied strawman, who believes that anything about anything is only to be learned in college or from the college-educated, actually exists. DiSalvo might as well have mentioned how someone without a college education taught him to look both ways before crossing the street. Or opined on how knowing how to make spaghetti is no less important than trigonometry.

On Good Ways And Bad Ways To Get Yourself Properly Martyred

Disclaimer to religious people: This is not actually a set of instructions for how to become a martyr. If that’s what you are, in fact, looking for, boy are you in the wrong place. Or maybe you are in just the right place, if you are actually looking for a manual on how to become a martyr. I don’t know, the bottom line is you may get offended. The author is an atheist, and this is a very irreverent post. Avert your eyes or proceed at your own risk.

Jezebel has posted an interview with Lila Rose, an anti-choice activist and O’Keefe-style “reporter” of the “let’s perform all abortions in the town square” fame.