Two Straight Years of Record Warmth in Antarctica (This is called evidence)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100510/sc_livescience/southpolehaswarmestyearonrecord

Scientists have reported two straight years of record warmth in Antarctica from the South Pole Research Station. That's right, people live at the South Pole year round doing research to expand the knowledge of all mankind.

Now I understand that correlation does not equal causation. But in this case, correlation can be used to support hypotheses.

Of course I will tell everybody to keep an "open mind" about the other side of climate change. The other side that pretends the evidence and scientific consensus does not exist for climate change. You know, blatant ignorance.

Republican Mantra: Drill Baby Drill!!!!

Remember Sarah Palin? Michael Steele? Drill baby drill, there is no danger in off-shore drilling!

Now thanks to BP and lackluster regulations on preventative measures on dysfunctional equipment, we have one of the biggest human environmental disasters in history on our hands. Where is Palin now on drill baby drill?

Oh and by the way. Do you think BP is calling on Christopher Horner for a solution to this problem? Nope. The nations top engineers and scientists are being called on to fix this problem. Please keep the republicans out.

2010 Progressive Metal Lineup

2010 is looking like an impressive year in progressive metal. Let's look.

Already Out
Freedom Call - Legend of the Shadowking: Some very nice moments on this power metal release. Vastly better than their last release.
Excalion - High Time: Have yet to listen. Hopefully more consistent than Waterlines.

Coming Up!!
Anathema: We're Here Because We're Here - May 31st
Angra: TBA - Mid 2010
Circus Maximus: TBA - 2010
Dreamscape: Everlight - 2010
Kamelot: TBA - First half 2010
Pagan's Mind: TBA - Early Summer 2010
Vanden Plas: The Seraphic Clockwork - June 22nd
Vanishing Point: TBA - 2010

The better of 2010 seems to be in store for us. This should be a solid year.

UW-Oshkosh College Republicans are Deluded and Love Propaganda.

On April 27, 2010 the UW-Oshkosh College Republicans are having Christopher Horner in to talk about global warming. This came to my attention when invited to a Facebook event. The description read “The College Republicans at UW-Oshkosh have confirmed that environment and global warming expert Christopher Horner will be speaking on campus on April 27th.” He wrote best-selling book called “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming.” Sounds pretty compelling, doesn’t it? Not when you actually do some fact checking, something both the College Republicans and Christopher Horner are inept at.

Horner’s book kicks it all off with, “The Left’s last best chance to gain a stranglehold on our political system and economy. For decades, environmentalism has been the Left’s best excuse for increasing government control over our actions in ways both large and small.” The book then parades in poor arguments, rhetoric, chock full of cherry picking, quote mining and boldfaced lies (or pure stupidity).



The event claims Horner is an expert on climate change. Wrong. Horner is an attorney and a fellow at CEI, a pseudo-science think tank known for quote mining real scientific publications. Yes, an attorney with zero scientific qualifications and zero hours of any sort of scientific research under his belt is being called an expert. The College Republicans would rather invite an attorney with no scientific credentials rather than a Ph.D. chemist, physicist or climate scientist doing real research. Pretty typical. 



I’ll just point out one of the more hilarious mistakes by Horner in the book. He makes the claim that 34 percent of CFCs found in nature are naturally occurring. Horner does not have the capacity to do a simple Google search on what CFCs are. CFCs are carbon-halogen compounds that were mass-produced artificially by humans starting back in the 1930s. These compounds were responsible for the huge ozone hole in the atmosphere above Antarctica. This unbelievable claim would earn anyone a retroactive F in any chemistry class. A real expert indeed.

This brings me to another great point. That ozone hole in Antarctica – found by chemists, climate scientists and physicists not attorneys, eventually led to the regulation and phase out of human synthesized CFCs because of the science done by real scientists. Dang those liberalist, Marxist, leftist agenda-pushers and their science! NASA also has found the evidence for climate change to be so compelling that they are actively developing satellites for the monitor and study of greenhouse gas emissions. Those uneducated scientists over at NASA should get their hands on Horner’s book. I mean, what would NASA scientists know about this stuff?

But really, people. When there needs to be cancer research, new technological advances, engineering solutions and climate input, regulations, and research, you do not reach out to the Republicans, Democrats or anybody political. You go to the scientists. The scientists that have come to a consensus that the evidence for climate change is overwhelming. If the evidence for climate change points in a different direction, the scientists will report it, much like how cold fusion, Nebraska man and other scientific inaccuracies that were wrong were filtered out.



The College Republicans are really doing their part to epitomize the stereotype of a typical right-wing group parading anti-scientific agendas and propaganda around. Here is the bottom line. Let the scientists do the science. Remember folks, even a simple Google search on carbon-halogen compounds can be the difference between having the correct facts and looking like a total jack-ass

My Beer Brats Recipe

I will now reveal my special beer brats recipe. After a successful batch this weekend I want to share it!

Prerequisites:
Charcoal Grill (I don't like gas, but if you must, gas)
Bratwurst - The normal kind, do not get the beer brat flavored ones
Buttered Brat Buns - You have to do the buttering yourself
3 or 4 Quality Wisconsin Beers - Miller Lite, Leines Original is fine. PBR or Milwaukee's Best is OK I guess.
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
One Chopped Onion
Half Stick of Butter
1 can of 7up/Sprite
Pepper
Ketchup and Brown Mustard

Grilling Bratology
1. Light the charcoal. Preferably without lighter fluid. Grill chimneys are excellent
2. Throw the bratwurst on. If you are unsure of how to cook bratwurst, this class is not for you. But grill them until they are nice and firm. Use your fingers to test the firmness.
3. Get those puppies off of there and get ready to throw them in the beer juice!

Beer Bubblage!
1. When you are about 5 minutes out from the brats being completed, get a decent sized pot and put it on the stove.
2. Throw in 3 or 4 beers, 1 can of white soda, one chopped onion, one stick of butter, Lawry's seasoning salt (be generous), and pepper!
3. Bring this mixture to a simmer. Do not boil!!!!!! DO NOT!!!!
4. When the brats are done and the mixture is simmering, dump the brats into the mixture.
5. While the brats are simmering, you can butter up some brat buns. Yum yum.
6. Simmer them for roughly 20 minutes. Make sure you stir them around occasionally.
7. When 20 minutes is up, bring the pot with the brats in them and serve right out of the pot. It keeps the brats that aren't being eaten warm and juicy.

Place the bratwurst in the buttered brat bun and top it with ketchup and spicy brown mustard. Do not use yellow mustard. Ever. You can also take some of the onions from the beer mix and put it on your brat along with a dabble of the beer mix. MMMMMM. Eat as many as you want!

These brats go very well with some cold beer, potato chips, and a campfire. Can't finish your brats? Have leftovers? Save the rest in the fridge overnight and dip them in your egg yolks the next morning. It tastes great!

So there you go. Have fun.

Why Don't I Celebrate Easter?

If you wanted to forgive someone and had the power to do it, how would you do it? Think about that for a moment before you continue.



Here are two choices for you. Which of them is most similar to your forgiveness act?
A) Simply forgive them genuinely face-to-face
B) Forgive them, but in addition require a bloody human sacrifice to sanctify it.

That last part (B) seems kind of disgusting doesn't it? If you celebrate Easter in church, that is exactly what you are worshiping.

I don't celebrate human sacrifices as penance as a prerequisite for forgiveness. It is immoral. I cannot accept this even if it were 100% true and I won't worship it. There have been many trials on me to rationalize this act of sacrifice and none of them are enough to make human sacrifice acceptable to me. Human sacrifice, planned, is always immoral.

Morality, YOUR Choice

I've thought a lot about morality and how humans implemented it. Recently a YouTuber named AronRa did an excellent presentation on morality and how morality did not need religion or gods to come about. Here is part 1. You can find the rest of the parts after 1.

Evolution of Morality

My take on morality:
How morality has come about is an interesting subject. Humans solely possess the ability to define morals and practice them.

Many people would 100% be convinced that a god of some sort has given us these rules. But like many skeptics, I would disagree. We individually or socially decide what is right and what is wrong outside of Biblical mandate. I think this simple personal choice is proof enough that morals are not divinely mandated, but a personal, ethical choice. I will try to demonstrate below how we have overcome Biblical laws and moral codes.

In the Bible, there are several mandated rules that I would consider immoral. These include rules on slavery (Leviticus 25:44-46), the murdering of adulterers (Leviticus 20:10), the murdering of insubordinate children (Exodus 21:15) and the murdering of homosexuals (Leviticus 20:13). Now remember, the Bible is what contextualizes the character Yahweh, the giving of the 10 commandments and Yahweh's law, and the actions and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The text is canonical and should be treated as such, otherwise you're making it up.

Now, humans have figured out by themselves without "divine inspiration" that these Biblical teachings are immoral. We have demonstrated that we decide what is right and what is wrong. The above immoral mandates from the Lord (a very shortlist of them) have been outlawed in just about all first-world secular countries. Could Yahweh not see this coming? Did he not have the foresight or the knowledge that slavery or murder is always wrong? I suggest no, people who made up the whole thing had no idea that murder was wrong.

Now here is the big kicker: Christians demonstrate that morality is personally chosen all the time rather than a divine mandate. Most Christians would rationalize these horrible Old Testament writings by saying: "well that is Old Testament stuff. I don't buy that stuff." That is absolute demonstration that God is not deciding morals, but YOU are the one deciding what is right and wrong. So why consult the Bible at all?

But Bill, wait on a second here, what about the good things Jesus said?

What about the New Testament? What about the rules Jesus gave us that we still follow? Well barring the evidence that many individuals before Jesus already had suggested that we should treat others as we should be treated, what about the other moral things Jesus said to do as a good Christian? Jesus says the following things in the New Testament:

Sell all your possessions and follow him and abandon your wife and children and you will be rewarded?

I'm pretty sure any decent Christian would agree these are not moral codes.

When the good things are being picked out, but the awful things are being ignored, is this really an authority on the matter? Do you really need the Bible to obey the golden rule of "be good for goodness sakes?" or "treat others as you wish to be treated?" Nah, you can do it.

Think for yourself.