Sick puppies

Clashes Around Muslim Brotherhood’s Main Headquarters in Cairo (Photo credit: Jonathan Rashad)

I was truly horrified when I read a report today that members of the Muslim Brotherhood were setting puppies alight and using them as gas bombs, during the current protests against the ousting of Egyptian President Morsi. These reports were carried by a number of online news sources, even reasonably reputable one’s.

Not surprisingly, there was an instant outcry from many gullible people who accepted the story without giving it a second thought it seems.

My suspicions about the veracity of these reports were immediately raised because this act is no ordinary thing. It takes a special kind of monster to do something so heinous. After a bit of checking, and when the story disappeared from the source where I had originally read it, I came to the conclusion that there was some mischief afoot.

My skepticism was confirmed by The Guardian’s Egypt correspondent Patrick Kingsley, and reported here in the Huffington Post:

I think it’s really, really unlikely that Muslim Brotherhood protesters could have turned puppies into firebombs during clashes in Tahrir Square. Aside from a couple of brief instances, Brotherhood demonstrators have not been able to enter the square all summer. Most importantly, the logistics of this seem barely feasible. Gathering 20 puppies, transporting them to a protest, dousing them in petrol, and then throwing them at soldiers while being teargassed strikes me as not just impractical, but nigh-on impossible.

Why would anyone spread such vicious lies? I hold no brief for the Muslim Brotherhood, or any Brotherhood for that matter. They’re all mostly crass ideologues. But there’s absolutely no need to slander a person or organization by spreading false rumours or blatant lies about them, especially when they do such a great job of discrediting themselves.

Whoever spread this hoax are really sick puppies.

No Woman, No Drive

Last month I published a post concerning the ridiculous assertion by a Saudi cleric that driving vehicles causes harm to women’s ovaries and pelvis. Women drivers are frowned upon in Saudi Arabia and although there’s no actual law forbidding them from driving, licences are not issued to them.

This weekend, there were reports of at least 14 women from Jeddah, Mecca and the Eastern Province being arrested for participating in a defiance campaign. It’s likely that they’ll be fined, or some could even lose their jobs.

Saudi Arabia features prominently on this BBC News World report, as a country with the least equality between men and women. The map below actually fingers most of the Middle East and large parts of North Africa as the worse places a woman could find herself. And I’m going to refrain from pointing out the correlation between degree of religiosity in these countries and the disdain for women’s rights… Oh crap! I just did!

On a lighter but welcome note, there are still good men in Saudi Arabia, as this YouTube video which has gone viral points out. Comedian Hisham Fageeh and some friends did a send-up of Bob Marley’s No Women, No Cry to illustrate just how absurd this driving ban is.

One can only hope these pathetic clerics relent and allow women to drive soon, among other human rights they’re currently denied.

Rock In Peace: Lou Reed

There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.

Lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the Velvet Underground Lou Reed, passed on at the age of 71 this weekend. Perhaps best remembered for the solo hit Walk On The Wild Side, Reed was an icon of the music industry whose career spanned nearly 50 years.

Apart from Perfect Day, my favorite Lou Reed song is Sweet Jane, although I am partial to the Cowboy Junkies version which Reed himself admits is “the best and most authentic version I have ever heard.”

But anyone who ever had a heart
they wouldn’t turn around and break it
and anyone who ever played a part
They wouldn’t turn around and hate it
Sweet Jane, Sweet Sweet Jane…

 

Pareidolia

Pareidolia. Sounds like an exotic island and a dreaded disease at the same time. But it’s neither!

According to the Skeptic’s Dictionary, Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as clear and distinct. In other words it’s the phenomenon whereby your brain tries to make sense of things by recognizing patterns. Or more simply, “that familiar thing you’re seeing ain’t real.”

However the best way to explain it is by way of example. Here is the photograph of the Face on Mars from the Cydonia region, taken during the Viking missions to the red planet.

But there are many examples with a religious theme, this one being the funniest by far:

And off course the more mundane:

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Finally this one, strictly speaking is not an example of Pareidolia, but a head banging song about it.

So the next time you see something on your toast that looks like a deity or Pope WhatsHisFace, don’t go telling everyone you’ve experienced a miracle. It will only be a miracle if nobody laughs.

Hail the panhandler

It’s been three days, and I can’t get this out of my mind…

On Saturday I went to a liquor outlet to get a case of wine. On my way out, one of the infamous Highveld storms broke loose, pouring down hail which bounced off my car with a sickening sound.

As I was moving along in the traffic, I caught a fleeting glimpse of a panhandler standing at a traffic intersection, straddling two lanes. He was dressed in what looked like patched-up jeans and a clearly ripped t-shirt, holding a small square of cardboard, using it to desperately shield himself from the savage blows being meted out by the hailstones.

It was such a pitiful sight, but I couldn’t do a thing being caught in moving traffic, trying to escape the storm like everyone else. Or… I could have but didn’t.

I remember still thinking about it nearly an hour later, as I was nearing my destination. I wished I could go back to see if he was alright.

And it’s still troubling me three days later. I hope he’s okay…

Ode to Joy

The human specie far too frequently sinks to new lows in our behaviour toward one another, but every so often we manage to put aside our base animosities and differences, to reach new heights.

This is one such occasion…

Ode an die freude or Ode to Joy was composed by German poet Friedrich Schiller in 1785, and set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1824 in his famous Ninth Symphony.

There are probably hundreds of different variations of this classic, but I am partial to a version by Münchner Brahms-Chor, that I play in my car at least once a week.

What a perfect way to start the weekend.

EFF: #ProudlyBroughtToYouByTheANC

Julius Malema, former Reichsmarschall of the ANC Youth League launched his own political party at Marikana this weekend, where he was anointed as Commander In Chief.

The EFF was formed a little earlier, probably as an afterthought in the depths of political hell when Malema fell out with Jacob Zuma and the ANC, after losing most of his ill-gained wealth and the patronage of the deservedly despised President.

And so we have one more party to contest the elections next year. This now brings the grand total of political party’s in South Africa to “blimey! that fucking many?” [230 by this official count]

You might think that having this many political party’s is indicative of a healthy democracy. And you might be dead wrong. It’s not healthy, it’s fucking insane! Democracy has become a useful plaything, a vehicle for the politicians to hitch their self-serving wagons to – it’s just something that sounds nice to mostly ignorant people. And oh boy, do we have ignorant people?

And that is why the EFF is being embraced by so many people; not a lot, but a small fart’s worth. People are emotional and desperate, and unfortunately the EFF’s cringe-worthy offerings resonates well with them.

You see, all the party’s offer different shades of the same things. Yes, they offer, but the reality is they never make good on those offers. Not a single one of them. Oh agreed, they do manage to achieve bits and pieces, but never is any pre-election promise honoured in its entirety.

But the EFF promises something totally different; not good, just different. Actually they’re promising to drag South Africa back to pre-colonial times; to a parallel Dark Ages if you like. And render South Africa a pariah, like Zimbabwe.

Among other distasteful policies, the EFF promises to nationalize key sectors of the economy such as mines, and confiscate privately owned land from Whites without compensation. Their manifesto describes them as a “radical, leftist, anticapitalist and anti-imperialist movement.” That’s so retarded, it’s straight out of a dictator’s manual.

Now that’s some scary shit.

South Africa’s only redemption is that the EFF is unlikely to make a big enough dent in the elections next year, let alone win… for the simple unsavoury fact that the voting fodder will with fair certainty still cling to the devil they know, the ANC.

The great explainer

It may be a little late to pay tribute to Richard Feynman on the anniversary of his passing in February 1988… or little early depending on how you look at it, but a man of such wit, charm and brilliance, is a man for all time.

Feynman, a theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize, made immense contributions to the field of quantum mechanics through his passion for science, but also had an equal passion for living life. I hope these two video clips gives you some idea of the type of man he was.

Non Belief or Unbelief? Does it really matter?

I stumbled across this YouTube video earlier today of Stephen Fry being interviewed on Big Think. The title “The Importance of Unbelief” left me pondering whether there is a difference or distinction between Unbelief and Non Belief, and whether it really matters in the larger scheme of things.

On the surface it appears that any distinction between Unbelief and Non Belief is merely semantic, but the antagonism towards New Age Atheism in recent years made very public by the Internets, seems to indicate that the difference is worth investigating, or acknowledging at the very least.

Now, I’m no philosopher or epistemologist or linguist even, but I have unwittingly placed myself in the centre of this apparent wrangle simply because I have chosen to label myself as an Atheist these many years. It used to be that being an atheist was pretty straightforward, but like with so many other things, the modern world contrives to complicate everything. Where once it was grudgingly accepted that there were shades of grey, it seems there is now shaded shades of grey.

In the quest for answers, I tried to follow this debate Does “Atheism” mean “unbelief or lack of belief in God” or “there is no God” ?, and I confess to being more bewildered than ever.

From what I can gather, Unbelief is closely associated with agnosticism, which is harshly regarded as the fence-sitter position. Non belief on the other hand seems to indicate a positive position which is more assertive and based on either certain knowledge, or rejection of asserted knowledge. I do admit that this I have adopted the latter position, not on the basis of certain knowledge, but on the rejection of positions asserted by those who do claim to have such.

But is the rejection of asserted knowledge enough to formulate a belief? Do I now also have to assume the burden of proof? But proof of what since the whole God concept is not clearly defined?

See, here I was thinking that atheism had simplified my life immeasurably, but actually thinking more deeply has opened up a whole new complication. But I guess such is the bane of introspection.

Does this mean that I will go back to believing because it is much easier? Hell no!

Preparing to come out

Strangely, I didn’t anguish about it. It just seemed like a natural progression.

Recovering Agnostic

It all started with the best of intentions.

First, there were a lot of issues that were flying around my head. My previous beliefs were becoming ever less secure, but I’d been through this before. Most people find their beliefs wax and wane, so this wasn’t anything I was going to bring up out of nowhere to people who I wouldn’t normally be discussing my theological positions with. It was just business as usual.

Then I started to drift away, losing my fear of unbelief and increasingly exploring those areas and imagining a life without religion. It was different, but possibly no more than increased empathy and openness to different arguments. I stayed put in the church, and nothing really changed. Still nothing that was worth specifically mentioning to anyone.

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