I spent this past Memorial Day weekend with Linette and Clementine at my parents’ house, which just happens to be about 15 miles from the Creationism Museum I keep posting about here on MM.com. As most of you know, the museum had its grand opening yesterday morning. My plan was to drive up and shoot some footage of the people as they stood in line, waiting to get in for the big ribbon cutting. I wanted to ask them a few questions about evolution, Darwin, dinosaurs and what they thought of people, like me, who 1) don’t share their religious beliefs, and 2) don’t feel as though religion has any place in our public schools.
The plan was to get up early and hit the “Scientists are Witches” museum before driving back home to Michigan. The only problem was, I’d have Linette and Clementine with me, and I wasn’t sure how much they’d appreciate the hour or two detour spent sitting in a parking lot, watching me interview people that might react… un-Jesus-like. So, I debated it for a while and ultimately decided not to go. I felt bad about it, like I’d let all the non-Biblical literalists in the world down, but sometimes I have to put my family before the blog.
I like to think of reasons to hate myself, and the reason yesterday was that I had it within my power to do something in response to this temple of backward Biblical interpretation, and yet chose to do nothing. I thought that no one else would take the initiative. As it turns out, however, I wasn’t the only one with the same idea. I was happy to find out today that there was actually a pretty well attended demonstration. They called it The Rally for Reason, and you can find video of it online. What’s more, someone from the pro-science team even went in with a camera and documented what he saw so that the rest of us wouldn’t have to shell out the close-to-twenty-bucks they’re charging for admission. His tour can be found here.
The next step, I think, should be to bring all these pro-science folks together and start a fundraising campaign for a billboard on the road leading up to the Creationism Museum. I think that a national call for design ideas might turn out some pretty brilliant submissions.
[The image shown here is one of many that you’ll find if you follow the last link.]
Goodbye, you brilliant, brilliant, crazy man.
First Don Knotts and now Charles Nelson Reilly. I hesitate to think who might be next.
I just found it interesting that a magazine calling itself “Real Simple” would run ads for Hummer. I realize that the magazine is targeted toward “upscale” suburban women, and that some of them might fit the H3 profile, and I understand that Hummer must be shelling out a lot of money for the ad placement, but it seems to me that a magazine ostensibly about living in harmony with the world around one’s self might lose a few credibility points when it starts shilling for these colossal “fuck-you-mobiles.”
[This post was brought to by the rest of the civilized world, who wish desperately that we could see ourselves as they see us.]
Cindy Sheehan issued a statement today on her decision to resign as “the face of the American anti-war movement.” Here’s a clip:
…The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most…
And she’s apparently not the only one loosing the faith this Memorial Day.
Yesterday, I walkied by a big bowl of nuts. No one else was eating them, so I assumed that they were off-limits. I would have kept on walking, but I noticed Brazil nuts in the mix, so I doubled back. After scanning the room quickly, I surreptitiously grabbed a handful, tossed them into my mouth and started assessing what I’d gotten with my tongue. I felt a Brazil nut and used my tongue to push it into place, between my molars. I bit down, expecting to enjoy it immensely, and that’s when the excruciating pain started. Apparently there had been a almond positioned vertically just behind my front teeth, and, when I went to crush the Brazil nut between my back teeth, it was forced up through the roof of my mouth. I made my way out of the room, spit out the nuts, and began working with my tongue to dislodge the piece of nut still stuck in my palate. After a few seconds, I’d gotten it out, which would have been a good thing, if not for the fact that the little piece of almond was the only thing holding all the blood in my head in. The next ten minutes was spent choking on a constant flow of blood as I simultaneously tried to stop the flow with my tongue and find an ice cube. That was about 24 hours ago now, and I can’t stop obsessing about the swollen lump behind my front teeth. My tongue must be running over it at least 20 times a minute, each time applying just a little more pressure, and waiting for my mouth to fill up like I’d bitten into a Chewels full of pus.
[For what it’s worth, I now have quite a bit more respect for our Commander-In-Chief for having survived the incident with the pretzel.]
