Mysogynist Asshat Douche-Baggary is Screwing the Atheist Community

Jen McCreight has withdrawn from writing her blog any longer, I haz a sad. :-(

To the rest of the community, namely the hecklers and Idiots.

WTF PEOPLE YOU CALL YOURSELVES ATHEISTS AND SKEPTICS???

Seriously what the fuck is wrong with you people? I thought when all this first broke out the most of the people were like me when I first dicovered I was a sexist, in denial. But after about 6 months I realized that NO these are the same idiots who keep posting the same vitriolic bullshit, month after month. They aren't learning or trying to see it from the opposite side, and instead maintain attack after attack. Yet, the have the nerve to call themselves Skeptics and Atheists???

Well they aren't.
A skeptic, a TRUE Skeptic looks at the situation from BOTH sides of the argument. Even if their bias at first leads to denial, a true skeptic will reason out the issue logically, and arrive at a reasoned decision. However many of these fuckers keep on going...

About two years ago my partner, came home from class an introduced me to some articles on objectification of women, after reading them I immediately said, "yeah, well that's not me". WRONG, I was dead wrong, I started looking around at what I do and say, how I look around at women in general. I was appalled. But I had to make the realization and then adjustments myself. I had always thought I was supportive of feminism, but never realize that I had pretty much kept it at arms length as it were.

But now we have douche-bags, who dare call themselves Skeptics, who are instead maintaining the status qo and attacking repeatedly over and over these beautiful women who are just trying to open our eyes and help us out of the misogyny we live under.

Here is a clue for you idiot guys and gals.

Just because you grew up with it in everyday society
THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT NORMAL!!!

 Slavery, was an everyday part of society, Women not having a vote was an everyday part of society, Thinking less of other races because their skin wasn't white was an everyday part of society, The earth being the center of the solar system was and everyday part of society.


EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE THINGS WERE WRONG!!!!

So are you for maintaining these bullshit attacks for a year and a half.

When Atheism + came out I was like hell no we don't need to divide ourselves further, we need to find a middle ground and fix it. Well guess what, Atheism Plus didnt divide us, YOU Asshats did. I signed up and registered with the A+ forums today. You Mysogynist can have your little corner and grow the fuck up when reality slaps you in the face.

Astrology and Tarot Card Con-artistry

So earlier today I was on Facebook (yeah still using it) and I notice a friend of mine (Joel) in a debate, of sorts, with a friend of his (I will call her Jen) who subsequently de-friended him over the argument. Jen had made a post, which I wish I had screen captured, about how she was wanting to offer a friend referral discounted of 50% to do Astrology and Numerology reading for them. Now, I usually don't get involved in these sorts of "threads" that show up in my feed, as I did not know her except through his Facebook link. You know the one that is in the upper right that says Joel has posted a comment...

Anyway it peaked my interest as his comment was stating something along the lines of:

"You realize the astrology/numerology has 0 lines of evidence for actually working. "

Again, I am paraphrasing as the post has been hidden and Joel was de-friended so I lost access. Anyway, something I haven't mentioned AT ALL, to anyone - as I am sort of embarrassed by it, is that I used to be a reader. That is to say, I used to ascribe to Astrology readings and charts as well as Tarot readings. Yeah, that's right, I was one of those guys. Now, I never charged money, though people were ready and willing to pay, I always felt it was not right to charge for these things; however, I knew many others that would charge for the readings.

So back to this debate: I see her attack Joel telling him to leave her post as it was meant for friends, yet here I see it and I am not her friend; therefore, she posted it openly to drum up business, a logical conclusion. So I had to post being as at one time I used to be a reader. I stated that:

As someone who used to do readings, I know for a fact these things are fake. That people will take from these reading things that only support what they believe in and support their ideas, and in many cases, they will blatantly reinterpret the readings to fit the results they want.

First and foremost, I know from the numerous readings I did throughout those years that they are vague, and I mean seriously vague. You can lay out a card and read it multiple ways and while you are interpreting it you get out of it what ever you want to. The person reading, will tell you that the meaning of the card is dependent on the surrounding cards and the nature of the question asked, or the reason for the reading in the first place. But truthfully, it is dependent on the reader and the person being read, ESPECIALLY if there is money involved.

There was this one reading I did for a friend of mine. She was seriously upset about a boyfriend, and how he was treating her. As I read the cards for her, she kept seeing positive results EVEN when the cards were in negative positions. I would read them as interpreted but she would say, "...maybe it is in reference to this situation or that situation." But ultimately she personally interpreted the reading in a positive direction and felt that things were going to be fine. Two months later they broke up and it was a BAD breakup. He assaulted her, went to jail, and she went into hiding for a little while. Then on top of that she blamed ME for her staying in the relationship. That was also the last reading I ever did...

I use to watch friends as they did readings for money and learned how they interpreted the cards. Understand, that as your reading the cards you're watching the person and how they are reacting to what your "interpreting" from the cards. The more favorable the reaction, the better they felt about the reading in general, the more likely they would pay for it. I also watched how they would twist and changed by "guiding" the subject into the interpretation, they would ask feeler questions.

See, when you're doing a reading your are NOT supposed to know the question as a reader, but ultimately the subject gives away the answer while doing the reading. The reader pulls it out of them through two things, interpretation, and feeler questions.

First, interpretation:
While reading the cards, they know you don't know the question, so you as the reader are having to try to "work for the interpretation" meaning, you lay out a card, and say:

"In this spot, this card represents your past influence, in respect to the question. "

What happens then is you have to "read" your subject to see if the card you are "interpreting" is applicable and fits. When you initially mention what the different meanings of the card are- in its orientation - the subject gives facial cues and ticks that lets you know you are or are not on the right path. As you read each card you get a sense of where it is heading. Once you get a good feel for that you go to the second part, "feeler questions".

Second, the feeler questions:
Feeler questions are sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant, but always used. Let's go back to the example I had about the card as a past influence: After you lay the card out and you have a sense of where it is going, you then imply it as a statement, for example:

"This card represents past influence TO THE QUESTION"

This sets the stage. You have already tied it to the question, to the past, now you use what the card can represent. Remember I said these things are vague? Well, this is how it works for the reader: Lets say you lay down a card that represents "struggle", and in that you can place statements and questions like this,

This card CAN represent struggle
(Subject perks up)
The seriousness based on the other cards is high. Like a big fight you had recently? (watch for reaction)
(Subject nods. eyes widen, hand moves to chest)

OK, you have just established that they had a recent altercation and it was personal. How big or influential it was depends on other body cues, for example: how big or small the person opens their eyes, if they hold their breath, the hand moves to their chest, a small vocal noise is made, etc. All of these reactions and more are cues that tell the "reader" the path they are on.

It is all based on conning your subject into giving you the answers you need to give them the reading they want. Plain and simple. It works JUST the same for bad news too - you give them bad news but you read from them and their reactions, the level of news they will accept.

This is accepted buy the subject as I mentioned before because it reinforces their beliefs and ideas. This very same reinforcement and reinterpretation happens in religion and in 'spirituality' circles. If you know where and what to look for you can see it in every "true believer".

Come From a Position of the Informed, NOT Ignorance, PLEASE

I am so tired of correcting people on my blogs or facebook, hell, really anywhere in the internet where they make their statements and, to some degree appear, completely ignorant of what they hell they are talking about.

For instance, I posted a link to an article today on facebook, about Ron Paul making a statement he "will ban funding for planned parenthood". Upon posting the link and making my statement about Planned Parenthood being a LOT more than just abortions. One of my Libertarian friends makes the statement:

• "Show me where in the constitution this is authorized spending, its unconstitutional just as all these other programs AND our undeclared illegal wars."

Really? I mean because, this just shows how ignorant these types are. Not Libertarians in general, though I am sure they have their fair share, just people like my friend who made the statement in the first place. Now you may be asking, why is this ignorant? Quite simply because he is claiming with this statement, like he KNOWS, or has access to some fount of knowledge, that this law (and apparently many others) are unconstitutional. Which if he knew anything about constitutional law he would know there are means and guidelines which have to be followed in order to make laws.

I am by NO MEANS a constitutional Law expert, but it isn't hard to research some things and I know a few things to from my required Political science class in college for instance. Like, for instance, if you have a law, that you question as constitutional, what recourse do you have? It's this amazing thing called the Judicial Branch of the American government, guaranteed us by the CONSTITUTION. WHOA AMAZING REALLY WE HAVE THAT? That's right you just take it to court Like atheists are doing here!!! Which of course in the case of Planned Parenthood it has been taken to court several times. Which also means that it is very much constitutionally legal to be funding it.

Now, I am sure he THINKS he is right, and has a source (maybe more) showing his argument is valid. But here is the next question, how much critical analysis has he applied to his source to validate that it is a good source and not some biased tripe just waiting to be cited as legitimate. I am willing to bet, not much.

To many people in our country, didn't pay attention in school, to know how to critically analyze anything. Many don't really even know what critical analysis or critical thinking is. Most just think that if the cited site looks good and makes sense, or just supports their argument in a smart sounding way, well that's enough. Well that's just stupendously STUPID on their parts.

Now, I am not saying that you shouldn't air your Opinion, hell that's garanteed by the constitution. No what I am saying is that you should really, before making yourself look ignorant, research your position carefully THEN state your Opinion. And be ready to call down the idiots who argue their point as fact of knowledge, because your going to have to.