One of our favorite dogs we'd fostered over the years was a tiny beagle named Freckles. She was cute as a button and had an adorable personality. When Freckles got excited she would dance on our tile floor, nails clicking like tiny castanets. Freckles radiated heat better than an electric blanket when she slept on our bed every night. The two biggest challenges of acting as her foster parents were keeping Freckles calm while she recovered from treatment for heart worms, and letting her go when the time came for Freckles to be adopted into her perfect forever home. Years passed in a blur. Our own little island of misfits eventually grew into a permanent six-pack of large dogs that all lived inside our relatively small house, and we were forced to take an extended hiatus from fostering. Eventually a couple of our oldest pack members crossed the rainbow bridge. Without warning, our sweet Husky Sasha suffered a fatal heart attack, and beloved Wyatt the Wonderdog succumbed to lymphoma, and eventually, sadly, we found ourselves with only two remaining pack members. We didn't immediately return to fostering because we'd moved since our days volunteering with the Humane Society of Forsyth County, and we were no longer actively associated with any rescue organizations, Then one day I noticed an email in my inbox with a desperate message in the subject line: "Urgent! Beagle stuck..." That was all I could read without clicking on the link. Stuck where? Beagles are scent hounds, which means they will often detect and track a specific smell for miles. For this reason, … [Read more...]
An obligation to Al Gore
Chicken Little According to Nathan Rott at NPR, we all owe Al Gore an apology because there has been severe flooding in Arkansas, and of course that must mean catastrophic climate change is true. After all, our intrepid reporter conducted a scientific poll of nearly two dozen people in Oklahoma and Arkansas (that's twenty-four, for those of you living in Alabama, Tennessee, or Rio Linda) and all of them said they agreed the climate is changing, so that makes it unanimous, right? The general gist of the story by Mr. Rott at NPR is that Al Gore has always been right, and anyone who doubted him about the reality of the threat from CO2 to our planet should be ashamed of themselves, and owes Mr. Gore an apology. Fat chance. There's a snowball's chance in hell Mr. Gore would ever get an apology from me for my past criticisms. His ego has surely been stroked by honorary doctorates, an onstage appearance at the Oscars, and even a little slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet none of his most dire predictions have come true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXinJIvpPOo There's a problem when a "journalist" tries to reshape facts to fit a certain narrative--other facts must be omitted. In his article, Mr. Rott tried to use emotional reactions and cherrypicked anecdotes instead of facts and statistics as the foundation for his argument. Why has it recently flooded in Arkansas? Could the floods have anything to do with record late snowfall this past spring? No one can look at images of destruction from floods, earthquakes, tornados, or other natural disasters and … [Read more...]
Putrid politics
Candace Owens (Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images) I tend to think of myself as an American, not a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. I don't give either political party anything except my vote, and even then I never vote for the political party. I have always voted for the candidate and his or her platform, not the donkey or the elephant. That was then; this is now. The cesspool known as Washington, D. C. has become so putrid that the stench permeates all the way down here to the outskirts of Atlanta. Smells just like a septic tank. So without further ado, here are my top seven reasons why I won't be voting for any candidate in 2020 with a "D" behind their name, not even for garbage collector: Number 7: Representative Rashida Tlaib was reported as saying that thinking about the Holocaust gave her a “calming feeling.” Just think about that. Six million men, women, and children were murdered only because they were Jews. Rather than apologizing for any confusion her words might have caused, Tlaib accused her critics of being anti-Muslim and claimed her words had been taken out of context. Tlaib is also famous for shouting “We’re going to impeach the mother******!” in reference to President Trump at a public event held in her honor. Frankly, she's an embarrassment to Congress, or she would be if Democrats ever experienced any emotions resembling pride or shame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlkOLEQqo7Y Number 6: Jerry Nadler demonstrates remarkably poor table manners while accusing Attorney General William Barr of committing perjury in his … [Read more...]
Historical Sodom and Gomorrah
For the past decade or so, I've wasted numerous hours of my life engaged in ultimately futile conversations about theology on social media. It seems that I have some sort of natural talent for annoying people at both ends of the spectrum. The outspoken atheists and anti-theists on the internet don't appreciate my confidence and use of logic, reason, and scientific evidence to support my argument in favor of a supernatural creator God. There are also some theists who believe the Bible is literally flawless, or inerrant, and don't like some of the articles I've written expressing my opinions (and research) on that subject. The cliche says you can't please all of the people all of the time, but sometimes it seems like I can't please anybody, anytime. So maybe it's a good thing that pleasing other people isn't a very high priority for me. Frankly, I care a lot more about truth than I'm worried about whether or not you like my writing. No offense meant, but the truth matters more than your feelings. If you like my writing, great. If not, please find something else to read. Different strokes for different folks. My feelings won't be hurt. Quid est veritas? What is truth? To this day, that remains one of the best questions ever asked. Theists who would argue the Bible is inerrant (mistake-free) should think about how they might respond when a knowledgeable atheist points out that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 provide two different accounts of creation, or could argue that the story of Abraham and Isaac found in Genesis 22 indicates that at times, God appears to be cruel … [Read more...]
