The Marking of thy Beast?

I saw this in my Pop Mechanics ad section. Not sure where to start. So many jokes, so little time.

1. If they added a 9, is this a hidden '666'?

2. I thought my social security number,  my drivers license number, UPC labels, and my bank account were at one time declared the mark of the beast? Maybe BoA truly is a code for Beast of America?

3. Him is 'the' government? Theocracy is working well for Iran, why not here? But its going to be my specific flavor and version of the Christian bible which matters. After all, we all can't be right. Right?

4. Maybe Miami Ink is interested in developing a franchise for this? Maybe our economy can be tattoo based? I hope they need some IT services. It'll probably be outsourced to a place full of infidels, you know - like Utah.

5.  Never under estimate our universe's capacity to make a better moron. You would think we would have evolved a bit. But keep in mind that evolution only requires successful adaptation to a changing environment which allows you to live long enough to reproduce, before dying more successfully than others.

6. If Noah had to gather animals two by two, did the ducks swim? Did they worry about invasive species like fire ants & zebra mussels?

The Screen Door Swings

One should be weary of what they ask for as the screen door of justice, karma, and irony can sometimes swing both ways. Ever since biology, medicine, geology and our basic understanding of the world's progress through time has expanded through natural changes and processes there has been those who feel compelled rebel against this logic and force their own on others. This has gone so far as confusing one of the basic tenants of the United States, the separation of church and state. The founding father were weary of this problem and where it might lead. Even today, these boundaries are over stepped where religious ideology poses a serious risk to the education of many.

The basic idea here is that changes to offspring are naturally occurring and DNA is complex stuff. It has plenty of opportunity to change a bit here or bit there. Therefore, any change which proves to be of a benefit by providing some sort of tactical advantage where that particular offspring gets a chance of surviving long enough to reproduce. This new defect or mutation can be passed on to it's own offspring. If the mutation is in anyway advantageous, it may out compete those without the mutation. This process takes a lot of time and does not happen instantly. It is a gradual process and we will not see sudden changes. This process is called natural selection because nature will select those with an advantage over those without. This process is very well understood and the basis for many other sciences, including medicine.

But now the tables are turned. It is ironic and only fair that that if religion is allowed to pervade the essence of science, why cannot the law of man pervade religion? Especially if the religion institution is flawed. In Texas the idea is to teach that all theories have flaws, so let's inject some religion to offer a competing viewpoint. In Connecticut, St. John's Roman Catholic church was needing a little help with financial self restraint because the former pastor stole more than $1 million dollars. As result, the membrane between the separation of church and state is getting thinner. Thousands of Roman Catholics are crying foul. They fail to understand that once we break the membrane of separation, things or ideas can bring change and sometimes not as you expected. Maybe the next time you hear about someone shrugging off the idea requiring both a religious and scientific idea in the classroom, you might wonder where it could stop. I think it is ironic. The question is, was irony designed into us or did we inherit it? We may not know, but then again, if it cannot be answered science requires it to remain a mystery. In Chemistry, when the periodic table of elements was first written in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev, holes were intentionally left in it as certain elements could had not yet been discovered or created. They were predicted to exist and over time, we filled in that table. That is science.

The GoP is Gone.

I hear a lot of whining about the Republican Party. What happened? Well the Christian Right happened. Those that prefer economics and other sensibilities sent it bye bye. To recover, the GoP must abandon the Fundamentalists which should join their brethren in the countries in the Mid East where stoning is still in fashion. The GoP had succumbed to a hostile take over by these people and any base of so-called Reagan Democrats soon became history. Yes, we the people, in order to form a more perfect union need a thinking person's leader. We got one. If you we believe we have too much government now, it is because of the last 8 years lacked any meaningful governing. In any sector the government is responsible for, we are worse off. That is not opinion, that is a metric and measurable. Science, space, defense, medical, roads, - need I go on? The required response we need is not less or handing more governing over to Monday morning pray groups in the Oval Office as W had, presumably hoping for some divine intervention, but maybe leadership? You see, conservatism requires less government. A non intrusive government. But what is left must function. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so whomever we give it too, they need a little oversight. The often touted belief that because there has not been a terrorist attack is evidence of good governance is bogus logical fallacy and invalid because the lack a attack is not an affirmation of good governance. It simply means we have not have been attacked before 2001 as after. The reason is just because.

Having church and state blended into government the way W. afforded access was just terrible. Remember JFK? The fear with JFK was the Pope would have a direct telephone line to the White House giving the Catholic church a little too much access. JFK understood the constitution and his role. He talked about this point and reassured us. Today, we look at this and collectively shrug like it is normal to allow Evangelicals to advise our leaders. So today, any morality speak from the Christian Right and its influence on our government has to be considered suspect. Even if their hearts were pure, the mere ideology of itself is offensive. Consider that someone who believes we should have limits placed on our behavior because they will affect our future in an after life is poor reasoning and a cop out. The reasoning should be because it is the right thing to do. Threats of eternal damnation? That is why I should behave? That seems possibly empty as the threat of Don't make me turn this car around! What if I do not bite off on this gem offered by a minority religion when compared to the rest of the planet? What about the rest of the galaxy? What you think that is a silly thing to speculate on? What did the Pope think about the poor savages in what we now refer to as Florida? Did all those people go straight to hell before being saved? Post mortem baptisms? The Mormon's do this today and one of these clowns ran for Office of the President of the United States.

Does anyone have a right to push this agenda on me? What if I do not want to squander my life as you would your own because I would believe you get only one chance to not screw up? That is, we should do good things because we should. Not because of fear of punishment. But you see, that is the point of most religions. Control of resources and just plain control. Can you have a soul? A spirit? Maybe - but I'll cross that bridge myself because one is about resource management the other one is not. Man made religion. Perhaps a spirit cannot be made nor unmade. Best to leave it alone. Best to quiz our elected leaders on the finer points of law. Those man made laws.