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Quebec bans religious teaching in publicly subsidized daycares

Cue the outrage:

Salam Elmenyawi of the Muslim Council of Montreal is prepared to challenge the new policy in court on the grounds it tramples on religious rights.

“What is the problem the Quebec government wants to fix?” Mr. Elmenyawi asked. “Are we going to have to stop teaching some of the moral values, like loving your parents, which are emphasized from a religious point of view?”

Yes, we all have to be taught to love our parents. As a godless heathen, it is all I can do to control my urges to rape, steal, murder, and burn everything to the ground. I guess the concept of laws, along with a common sense of ethics developed through centuries of an evolving social contract, isn’t worth squat when we have the threat of Eternal Damnation (™) to keep us all in line.

According to the holier-than-thou types, religion provides a shining example of how to lead a morally righteous life. This, I guess, despite it being used as a means of war, oppression, terrorism, sexual abuse, and deception by many of its leaders and proponents. Yes, if we truly want to unite the world in peace and brotherhood, religion is obviously the way to go.

Teach your kids how to abandon rational thought and submit to religious authorities at home, Mr. Elmenyawi. On your dime.

Forget about teaching kids “religious” morals. Maybe someone should teach some religiously-minded adults that it’s not okay to beat and kill their own wives, sisters, and daughters. Like this asshole, this asshole, and these “alleged” assholes. But I guess they never picked up any of that deranged thinking from their religious brain-washing factories, did they?

(So-called “honour killings” are not limited to Muslims or any other religious or “caste” group. But they do seem particularly good at it.)

Religion, much like a crazy uncle who can’t keep his pants on in public, belongs at home, not in a publicly funded school or institution. The rest of us are trying to move this little species of ours forward, not back to the ignorant Dark Ages of the mystical sand-cults.

Bon décision, Quebec.

Submitted for your amusement, a few Halloween photos from long ago…

What is it about old photos that makes them so damn creepy?

I can’t figure out why people are still lining up like lemmings to buy Tim Hortons coffee when there is a cheaper, and dare I say better, option available at their local Mickie D’s. A dollar forty-nine gets you a steaming cup of  java in a cup so large that Timmies would call it a bucket. Indeed, Hortons has been gradually shrinking their cup sizes for years (while increasing their prices). It’s getting to the point now that a “small” will soon be served in a shot glass.

Combined with their crappy flash-frozen baked goods and laughable steeped tea (I’m guessing they took flack for charging small, medium, and large prices for tea, despite the fact customers were only getting extra water with their single tea bag), I’m amazed at the line-ups that you still see at the drive-thrus, at least here in the Maritimes where Hortons coffee has a cult-like hold on the populace. Or maybe it’s the fat-laden cream that they are really addicted to.

Give the McDonald’s roast a try. According to taste tests, these “experts” agree that it simply tastes better.

My wife and I were having dinner at a local 50′s style diner when someone flipped a quarter in the jukebox and cued up this old Elvis standard. So the warden threw a party in the county jail, eh? I’m wondering who would have attended such an event. Most jails are secure facilities and are not co-ed. So where would the assumed females have come from?

Can’t see a group of teen girls being brought into a prison for a “sock-hop”; it’d be like chucking chum to sharks. So the image of prisoners innocently cavorting with a group of local girls doesn’t seem realistic. It’s much more likely that everyone in the jail is a guy, which means the song is obviously a tribute to the oldest and most infamous aspect of prison life: anal rape.

Number 47 said to Number 3
You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see
I sure would be delighted with your company
Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me

It’s obvious that Number 47 is attracted to Number 3 and would like to take him somewhere for some quality time. “Quality time” being a raw rectal rooting of the most sordid and lascivious nature. Taken in this context, the term “jailhouse rock” seems to be slang for the act of homosexual love.

I wonder if Elvis ever thought about this as he sang it? It certainly makes it more amusing when you see the baby boomers jiving to it at weddings.

Elvis assumes the "mounting" position

The first time I saw Christopher Hitchens he was on a talk show discussing his book about Mother Teresa, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. He was saying some pretty alarming things, stuff like Teresa was not the saint that everybody believed she was (more about that in a previous post). Of course, never seeing anyone have the balls to say these types of things before, I perked up like a rabbit hearing a twig snap.

Since then I’ve read many of his books and articles and was often entertained (as well as informed) as he made the rounds on The Daily Show, Politically Incorrect, Real Time with Bill Maher, and other talk shows. Hitchens, often swirling a scotch either backstage or right out in the open, was the type of opinionated asshole I love: one who know what he is talking about and who suffers ignorance poorly.

Hitchens is well-known for his atheism and contrarian views. He actually wrote a book called God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, which should be mandatory reading in every high school. But now he has recently been diagnosed with throat cancer, which he has written about here. Needless to say, some of the Christian folk have been wondering aloud, if not stating outright, that his plight might be some sort of punishment for his outspoken criticism of organized religion and the people who adhere to its ancient superstitions.

From biblearchaeology.org:

“It is not our place as Christians to say the specific reasons why Mr. Hitchens has contracted this disease. We only know that God often uses illness as a means to bring people to repentance and faith.”

It might also be the decades of alcoholism and smoking  that led to his cancer (as well as a possible genetic predisposition—Hitchens’ father also died of throat cancer). But hey, I guess no one who led a good decent Christian life ever got a disease or experienced any personal misfortunes. Look out atheists and non-believers (including those who worship the wrong gods). God has a bullet for you, too, if you don’t keep your mouth shut.

This type of thinking is so stupid and crazy it just boggles the mind. If your idea of a “loving” God is a petty, jealous asshole who dispenses horrible suffering on those who merely seek to better understand this world and their place in it—and let’s face it, that’s exactly the type of God you worship—then there is only one thing to say: F–k you and your God. I’d rather be struck dead than suffer the cruel whims of some spoiled brat deity.

I hope Hitchens is able to beat his cancer. If he does, it will be a testament to his personal will and the “miracle” of modern medical treatment, not God doing an “aw shucks, I was just messin’ with ya, man.” Get well soon, Hitch.