Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 10: Strategic Level Crackpot Warfare

Episode Date: August 31, 2011

The Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare Vaccine Cleared Again as Autism Culprit Deliberate ignorance GOP: No tax hikes -- except for the poor Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact Michele Bachmann Takes Issue With 'Radical Environmentalists,' Signals Stance On Minimum Wage Nuclear Explosions hit vast USZ military tunnel network

The religious right that I was part of is fundamentally anti-American. They hate this country. They wrap themselves in the flag, but they hate America as it is. The America that embraces gay people is multicultural, is a homogenous society that seeks to incorporate all races and ethnic creeds into its culture. The America they love is the, quote, Christian America that they keep harping back to, that people like Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, et cetera,

all want to take us back to. But it's an America that never existed and certainly doesn't now. And I think that really what people have to begin to understand is that the language of the right, where they've talked about patriotism and the past and so forth, really turned against them would be appropriate,

because it's that basic lack of patriotism that does not like the laws of the country, so tells people to revolt. This flirtation with secessionism that people like Rick Perry and Sarah Palin's husband have played with. These sort of violent overtures saying, you know, we would know what to do with the chairman of the Fed in Texas. We treat him rough kind of stuff. You know, this is the language of people who are unpatriotic, essentially hate their country, want to defund the U.S. government completely. And in the best of all worlds would literally overthrow our system of government. overthrow our system of government.

Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. This is Cognitive Dissonance. Every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome mat. So this is our second week in a row that we are recording as planned. I cannot even believe that this is happening. I don't think anything happens as planned. Rapture! Rapture! The fucking four horsemen are outside right now fucking waiting for me.

Yeah, they're going to be guests on the show. They're very polite. You wouldn't think so. Yeah. Pestilence is, you know, he's a little brusque. I'm not going to, you know, but. Two milestones this time, Tom. It's our 10th show, which for some reason human beings like the number 10.

So it's our 10th show. But also we reached this last week, we reached 10,000 downloads on, uh, uh, out of all the podcasts that we've done. We've reached 10,000 downloads, which is a big milestone for us. And we're happy and, and, and, and we, we hope that people continue to spread the word and, and download the podcast. Absolutely. I mean, I, I really appreciate some of you who've downloaded it six and 7,000 times to you. I mean, really, that's just, I've got a whole bank of computers actually.

Right. To the three actual listeners, thank you for your contributions. I'm like a fucking Russian spam bot, just like downloading my own podcast. But we've got a great show for you today. A lot of unsettling stories that will make your blood boil. So we'll just go ahead and launch right into them. In the name of Jesusesus we speak that um i think the first thing we want to talk about is a subject that we discussed briefly on our last show, and that's the subject of Christian dominionism. I know we touched on it briefly when we were talking about Rick Perry. Maybe not that briefly, but it wasn't that brief it does bear uh repeating here because there was an episode

on npr terry gross has a show i'm sure everybody's heard it uh fresh air she gets basically fucking everybody at some point is on fresh air i'm convinced of this now right um and she does awesome interviews with them she's just a tremendously talented woman she had a interview with a woman who uh had written a book about about Christian dominionism. Christian dominionism is, I think, Cecil, one of the most unsettling concepts to come out of this crackpot religion that I've ever heard of. It's a really fucking terrifying thing. Now, this was, I was tipped off to this by James. James had sent the cognitive dissonance in a private email and said, guys, just so you know, this is happening on Terry Gross today. I listened to it. He's like, trust me, it's it's fucking scary.

I went and listened and he's right. It was really fucking scary. Right. It was really fucking scary. There's just I mean, there's a multitude of things, Tom, that I think we need to touch on when we go through discussing what's happening here. And you would do yourself a favor to listen to this. It's only 39 minutes long. Right. So it's not a big, chunkier time. But if you could just listen, you know, I would suggest anybody who's interested in this, go ahead and listen to this fresh air, this interview. anybody who's interested in this, go ahead and listen to this fresh air, this interview. There's a lot of talking where she repeats herself a lot. But I think that the reason why she's repeating herself is because this shit is really important. And it's a scary concept that, you know, a lot of – in most ways, Tom, does not make any sense at all.

Does it make sense in any way? I can't. I cannot think of any way right off the top of my head that it makes any sense. The specifics I'm thinking of are at the end when she's talking about that harlot. Like, because last time we were fucking on that Fire Goddess episode, we were fucking around talking about Oprah being a harlot, right? And you and I, Tom, we didn't know what that meant. Before I listened to this, I had no idea what that meant. I thought, oh, she's a harlot, right? And you and I, Tom, we didn't know what that meant. Before I listened to this, I had no idea what that meant. I thought, oh, she's a harlot. And well, a harlot to me means, you know, something I think completely different than what it means to these people. And what it

means to these people is in the end times, okay, they actually think that there's a thing called the end times. That's number one. That's number one you have to wrap your fucking hat around, is that they think there's an end times. And during that end times, there is going to be a harlot of Babylon. And what that harlot of Babylon is going to do is she's going to preach tolerance and bringing all cultures and religions together to say, hey, we all kind of believe the same thing. So let's all be friends. And that's a precursor to the Ant-Christ religion that's going to come. And if you don't believe in the anti-Christ religion, after this wonderful period of like seven years of like blissful, everybody's happy, everybody's getting along, there's going to be

this point in time where that goes away and the anti-Christ religion steps in and says, hey, you have to believe this or we'll kill you. And I started thinking to myself, I'm like, when has that ever happened in human history ever, where you've given people these rights, these, you know, you've let people sort of have these rights and then you're like, no, that's like going to the African-Americans now and being like, you know what, we're going to go back to segregation. How well will that fucking fly? You know what I mean?

Be like, hey, well, that's going to be, that's fine. We're just going to go right back into segregation. No worries. Who's going to be – that's fine. We're just going to go right back into segregation. No worries. Who's going to agree to that? Imagine a religion that actually suggests to you – you know what's scary, guys? You know what's really scary is this woman is going to preach tolerance. Tolerance. When the bunny man of tolerance is leering his ugly head like, ooh, and then everyone will get along and they will shaketh their hands and they will welcome themselves to dinner in other homes and they will commune happily and hugs will be given.

Like, really? Yeah. I'm, whoa. I'm so afraid of that. That's your boogeyman? Whoa. I'm so afraid of that. That's your boogeyman? Like, that's your end times prophecy nonsense is, man, I can't wait till that harlot rises up and brings people together for lunch.

They had a sandwich. It was fine. There was provolone. It's smoky. It's good. Like, what the fuck? It doesn't make any sense, man. Oh, man.

You know, this dominionism, they talk about the mountains, right? So the mountains are like this important thing. There's the seven mountains of culture. And I can't help but be reminded of Trivial Pursuit. Like, I think they got confused. I thought these sexes were fucking me. They're like arts and entertainment and I'm like, that's a big pie piece!

That's a big pie piece! Like, you play the genus edition, I like Trivial, like, let's do this! I will fucking tear you up! Oh, man, I thought the fucking sex scenes were fucking great! Yeah, I gotta go through the seven mountains. So they've got these seven mountains of...

It's so stupid. Seven mountains. Right. The seven mountains of culture. They have to save them from demonic influence. And the mountains are arts and entertainment, business, family, government, media, religion, and education. I'll take media for $1,000, Alex. No. It's like, oh, media, religion, and education. I'll take media for $1,000, Alex. No kidding.

It's like, oh, good. It's a pie piece. No whammies, no whammies, no whammies. Stop. So stupid. And they really believe, though, that there's real demons like actual fucking demons you know here's the thing that fucking lit me up when i was listening to this they cannot she she says that one of these pastors is traveling around talking to parishioners and other specifically

in black congregations and saying that the Democratic Party is controlled by demons. And what is that saying? There's a couple of things that it's that it's doing. They cannot argue with the Democratic Party anymore on actual valid issues. Right. You can't come out and argue with them in a in a logical way. Now, all you're doing is resorting to ad hominem. Right.

You're going to these places and saying, well, you can't believe anything the Democrats say because they're demons. That's fucking, that's repulsive, number one. And then number two, fucking rip that fucking tax exempt status right off of them. Right. You're not paying taxes, but you, you're advocating fucking demon fighting. Yeah. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I mean, honestly, like a fucking show on WGN? Are you fucking kidding me?

That shit, listen to me, listen to me for a fucking minute. Demons are made up. This shit is so fucking silly. I know. My kid doesn't believe in ghosts, right? Like, we watch Scooby-Doo a lot. It's his favorite show. At the end of the show, like, he's four, so sometimes he'll get, like, a little scared.

I'm like, buddy, it's always people in masks. And then they pull the mask off at the end of the show, and it's like, he's like, oh, it's just somebody in a mask. So, like, he'll get sometimes a little scared at night, and he'll be like, is there a ghost? And I'll be like, but it wouldn't be a ghost, would it? Be like, it's just somebody in a mask. He's fucking four and he can reason this shit out. Right, right. Right.

This is you. You've got to be kidding me. Demons. Yeah. Real honest to God demons. show where they're talking about a group of people going to like every freemasons lodge across the country and like putting a fucking flag or a cross a steak with a verse from jeremiah you know it's like who cares really and they like do their incantation or what you know pray or whatever it is and like dance around the maypole in front of the fucking Freemason lodge.

I can't even imagine sitting in that lodge and watching a bunch of these fucking insane asylum escapees. In their straight jackets, bouncing into one another. Pounding a stake. Like, what are you guys doing? Be gone devil. Like I'm going to Quiznosnos are you fucking kidding me be gone i'm just getting lunch you guys are fucking insane demons yeah like this is like this is like a religion called from a cheap dean coons horror novel and trivial pursuit

yep what are they doing they're they're feeding on the fears of people. You know what I mean? They want to scare people and they want to convince people that there's some sort of, you know, battle of good versus evil in the world or whatever, you know? And I, look, I can understand that, right? I can understand people thinking, you know, I mean, we've had this conversation, Tom, you and I so many times about how, you know, when you get to be a grownup, you know, the world is kind of fucking boring and there's no, you know, great fucking conquest. There's no, you're not going to be a fucking astromat. You're not going to be a fucking, the president of the United States. You're going to be Joe and you're going to be a fucking service tech and you're going to just, you know, you're going to live out your life and you're not going

to be anybody super important. And it's kind of, it's kind of depressing once you get past a certain point in your life and you realize, well, fuck, I'm not going to be anybody super important. And it's kind of depressing once you get past a certain point in your life and you realize, well, fuck, I'm not going to be anybody really majorly important. But this idea of good versus evil, there's this big group of demons on one side and I'm going to be on the other and I'm going to be fighting. There's a lot of people that can get behind this. And I know this because World of Warcraft has like 300 million subscribers. I was just going to say that. This is fucking live action role play, the religious version.

It is. It totally is. And, you know, after you're done, you can go to the International House of Prayer or IHOP, if you will, and have your Rudy Tootie fresh and Christy. You know, it's nice. It's a very delicious little wafer filled with, you know. It's so fucking funny. I was thinking the exact same thing when they're talking to this fresh air as you're talking about the International House of

Prayer every time. I'm like, that sounds so good. Pancakes. I'll take the boysenberry syrup on my communion wafer. You gotta stack those communion wafers high. But every Tuesday, it's all you can eat communion wafers. So they just keep bringing them.

I want to read directly from the article really quickly. This is the article that we're linking to, which also has the audio. So if you want to hear the audio, it's at the top of this article. But I want to read directly. It says, and she's talking about this apostolic movement. Their issues are anti-abortion, anti-gay rights. But they also have the belief that government should not be involved in social safety nets, that the country is becoming socialist, if not communist. All of what we've come to call Tea Party issues of very small government.

All of what we've come to call Tea Party issues of very small government. In the case of the apostles, they believe this because they believe that a large government that handles the safety net is taking away what is the domain of the church and of Christianity. Now, I want to just say this directly to anybody who thinks this, okay? If you think this is a real thing, that you should abolish all social safety nets, and the reason why is because it's the church's job to take care of people. The church can fucking end poverty right fucking now if they want to. They can do it right now. They don't have to wait until you abolish the social safety net to abolish poverty. They can do it right fucking now.

So don't fucking talk a good game about once it's gone, the church will fucking sweep right in there and take care of everybody. They can take care of everybody right fucking now. If that's your role as a church and you're just upset somebody else is doing your work, do the work faster and better. Do it better right now. I guarantee that if there was no fucking poverty left, the government would be very happy to be like, great, that's a load off my mind, man. I didn't want to do that anyway. Right. But you're not doing it.

You're not at all doing it. You know, because it's too big of a problem for any one group to handle. And you're not doing it. You know, I mean, yeah, Vatican could, you know, sell all of its fucking unbelievable wealth, give it to fucking programs to actually help people. Or these people that make a shit ton of money off tithing, these evangelicals who fucking drive around in Mercedes and shit, fucking give up some of your money.

But the fact is you want to abolish this shit, well, specifically because of taxes, because you want to make sure that you don't pay as much taxes. It's crazy, man. But it's crazy. But, you know, this is coming from I'm going to read something else from the from the same article. They quite literally teach that these mountains have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society, and therefore they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. The apostles teach what's called strategic level spiritual warfare you can't say that without chuckling i can't because it's so fun like i imagine like a missile silo opening up and there's like a big cross-shaped icbm you know like before it blows up like it plants itself and it's like, and then everybody's fucking annihilated.

Because they believe that the reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on earth is because the earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we're accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they're doing that's quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups. They're fucking nuts. And not just that, like, why is this different from, and this is, this is where I get a perspective. Like my wife is a universalist, what they call a universalist, which is, uh, she doesn't believe in hell, right? So she believes

in, she believes in, in, uh, in a God. Uh, she's, she's, I guess a Christian, but at the same time, she's not, she's not somebody who thinks that people go to hell after they die. The thing is she was talking yesterday and she said what these people are more afraid of the devil than they respect sort of God's love. And this is really a fundamental shift, right? Because what is the – the tenets of Christianity are like God loves you. Well, in this it's like Satan fucking hates you and God can't protect you. Right. Like that's – like it's like flipping it completely on its head.

And it's using these terrifying techniques to scare people into believing and to scare people into doing things. And that's – it's the worst way in which to coerce people. I think you hit the nail on the head earlier. I didn't think about it this way. But it is – this is big time LARPing, man. Like, I have to believe that. Like, they want something to do with their fucking life. Right.

That feels bigger. Right. You know, and being Joe the plumber and being, you know, Tom the title insurance guy doesn't cut it. It just doesn't cut it. And I get it because it doesn't fucking cut it. Yeah. But this isn't real.

And they're – I mean, can you imagine if one of these people gained real political power? I mean, governor of Texas is bad enough. Right. That's a big state. I don't know if you guys have noticed. Real big state. Yeah.

Governor. Texas. Yeah, he's fucking – Super noticed. Railbank State. Governor. Texas. Yeah, he's fucking scary. Super scary. Scary as fuck, man. It's like, and this is a guy who's going to be one of the frontrunners for the presidential nomination. Because he's, you know, southern boy from Texas. I'm going to come on up and follow in G-Dub's footsteps.

And you're like, well, there goes the fucking nation. footsteps and you're like well there goes the fucking nation this this sort of thing once you once you subscribe to a worldview so unbelievably skewed is this where like you said where your focus isn't on you know if you're a religious guy i've got to think i've got to think that if you're religious and you've got any sense at all and you look around at the world and you look at all the things that exist in the world and you think that you can attribute all of that all of the whole of human and animal and and and plant and all history all time and you can attribute all of that to one being and and to focus not on that that guy but to focus on like his evil nemesis?

Yeah. I mean, you're fucking doing it wrong. And then plus the idea that you would work to bring about the end times. I know, man. That's the scariest part. How does that make any sense? So God says, your God says, okay, so this is what's going to happen. These various things are going to occur.

So God says – your God says, OK, so this is what's going to happen. These various things are going to occur and then it's the end times and you're like trying to cheat the system by making it happen faster? Yeah. I don't think – I don't think that's what's intended by prophecy. Well – I don't – you know, that's – it's like if a psychic said like, well, you will get hit by a car and you're like, well, I'm going to fucking stand in the street then. Yeah. That's not – that is fucking retarded. Yeah.

And then, and it's self-fulfilling, right? Because they get into this position of high power and then shit. Well, there's something going on in the Middle East. Well, let's invade. Hey, let's drop a bomb. Hey, let's start this fucking end times. Let's get this fucking thing rolling. Why would you want the end times to show up?

I mean, just from a selfish perspective, it's, first of all, it's going to happen anyway according to your religion. Right. And it's going to happen when your God decides. Yeah. Not when you decide. Right. So presumably you don't really have any real control over it. So, and it's going to suck super bad.

That's the end times, right? Why wouldn't you just say like well when that happens that happens and i know i'm good but i don't have any feeling like i want it to happen because you know maybe i've met some people that have been nice folks and and maybe they wouldn't get fucking blondied or raptured or whatever up you know like it's, like it's just silly. It's just silly and selfish and mean. It's so mean. It's so cynical and mean. It's just crazy.

I can't live here if they get in charge. I know, man. It's time to go. It's time to go. Wakefield is not just any researcher. His 1998 study on autism and childhood vaccines literally changed the way many parents think about vaccines. The study was based on just 12 children. That's right, 12

children. But many parents desperate for answers around the world embraced Wakefield's claim that he'd found a link between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella. Celebrity Jenny McCarthy, for instance, a vocal autism activist whose son was diagnosed with the disorder, has helped spread the message using Wakefield's research as ammunition. Without a doubt in my mind, I believe vaccinations triggered Evan's autism. You know, environmental toxins play a role. Viruses play a role. Those are all triggers. But vaccines play the largest role right now. So this is a story that popped up. One of our listeners suggested this on our wall on our

Facebook page. It's another great way to reach us. Vaccines cleared again as autism culprit. This isn't a big surprise. Vaccines have been cleared every time they've been studied. The only study that ever linked autism to the vaccines, the MMR vaccine, was a discredited fraudulent study that's since been pulled from the Lancet and declared not only a bad study, but fraud, out and out fraud. but fraud, out and out fraud. So once again, another panel of scientists found no evidence that autism and vaccines share any link at all. What's amazing to me about this, Cecil, is that people continue to deny the evidence. Of course they do.

Well, you know, the thing that should point them in the right direction here, and specifically, I really respect this article because of this. Third paragraph into this article I'm going to read directly. It says, the panel did conclude, however, that there are risks to getting the chickenpox vaccine that can arise years after vaccination. People who have had the vaccine can develop pneumonia, meningitis, or hepatitis years later if the virus used in the vaccine reawakens because an unrelated health problem, like cancer, has compromised their immune systems. So they're saying right in the article that vaccines are safe. They're not a problem with autism.

However, the chickenpox vaccine can have some problems. And here's some of the problems. Allow me to list them for you. Why, if vaccines were removed from the autism debate, why would they even mention something like that if they were trying to hide something? Why would that even be in the article if you were trying to hide that all vaccines are safe all the time, period. Well, let's look at it from another angle as well. If you were the scientist or group of scientists that came up with the hard, irrefutable evidence that there was a link between autism and vaccines, you would be immediately swarmed with grant money. You'd be immediately swarmed with grant money. You'd be famous. I mean, there's a lot of incentive to come up with this data.

Right. There's a tremendous incentive to come up with this data. But nobody comes up with any real data linking autism and vaccines because there's no fucking link. Right. The motive to find the link is powerful. It is also never going to be found because study after study after study continues to find no link. This is becoming one of the most well-studied potential causes for autism. And the problem is that that's money now that's not going toward

real autism research yeah so every time you waste you know hundreds or tens or millions of dollars however much money you're spending on these things to prove something that's been fucking definitively proven that there's still kids that have fucking autism and we're not getting any closer to finding out what's causing it or how to treat it because that same money that could have gone toward real genuine research, real autism research, is funding panels to look in, is there any connection between this fucking thing we know there's no goddamn connection to? Right. No. Oh, still? Really? Fucking wow. wow there's a shock move on to something

the next random thing like do clowns cause autism like it's just they're just picking something out at random i want to refer back to an email we got tom a letter we got from somebody by the name of carrie and this was um geez about maybe two weeks ago, we got an email and we talked about it on one of our shows. And, uh, and in the email, she says, she talks about vaccines and she says, one of your recurring themes is the idiocy of people who do not get their kids immunized. You are right on this, but probably the group most hurt or endangered by these idiots are the thousands of people who cannot get immunized for medical reasons. And these are people with compromised immune systems.

These folks cannot handle immunizations and are particularly susceptible to communicable diseases like measles. They are also people who are allergic to the ingredients in the shots. All these folks rely on herd immunity. So what she's saying is that all the people that can't, like with a legitimate reason, they can't get the vaccines because they're just not healthy enough. Their body is not healthy enough to take this vaccine and do what it's supposed to do with it. They can't get the vaccine. They rely on everybody else who should get the vaccine to get the fucking vaccine.

They rely on everybody else who should get the vaccine to get the fucking vaccine. And when they don't get the vaccine and they're healthy enough and they're sitting there, they're like, well, my kid's healthy enough. He'll survive the measles. Well, maybe my kid won't. How fucking selfish is that, that somebody is going to go out and make sure that their healthy kid is going to be fine but it kills off a sickly kid? What's that about? Sure. Or the elderly. Right. Or, you know,

even, even if you give, you know, even if you start passing chicken pox around, people talk about chicken pox, like it's no big deal. Well, you know, I had chicken pox and I'm still scarred from chicken pox and chicken pox very badly. My body is scarred from it. I still have multiple scars all over my chest and back from chicken pox. They've faded for the most part, but they fucking like 30 scars from chicken pox. I had a woman in my office who got shingles. She was hospitalized for four fucking days. Four days in a lot of pain. She was in a tremendous amount of pain. It's not, it's not this sort of inconsequential like, Oh oh, it's just chickenpox, tee hee hee. Yeah, I understand where that comes from. Like, well, everybody had chickenpox, and all the people I knew that had chickenpox were just fine.

Well, that's great. But not everybody that has chickenpox is just fine. Thanks for your anecdotal evidence, but I don't give a fuck about that. Right. Exactly. It's like, well, you know, everyone i knew that had pertussis is fine well that's great but fucking not everybody recovers properly and this you know i hear this all the time when people talk about uh the diseases that are being vaccinated against

like well there's you know been only so many fatalities i'm like well great fatalities aren't the only consequence to disease right and to pretend that it is is to is to have a willful fucking ignorance of that disease you know i think as a parent when your kid is sick it's kind of awful like when your kid is sick you're like oh it's really it's like i feel terrible for the kid you know he doesn't it's it's hard on the family to to have a kid that's sick and the sicker the kid, the worse that is. So even if your kid develops something that's not life threatening, but that could be maybe crippling or potentially cause blindness or scar the kid's body or damage their lungs, all of which are real consequences, legitimate consequences to the diseases that we routinely immunize against. I can't tell you how terrified I would be as a parent and how terrified my kid would be

if they were facing blindness. Right. Or lung scarring or damage. Right. You know, those are things I'll fucking avoid. Thank you. Well, and it's all it is is anecdotal, Tom. That's why these you know, you sit and talk. you hear Jenny McCarthy talk, you hear these parents that talk. And when they talk on TV about this stuff and what they'll say, one of the most recurring themes is they'll say, we, you know, I just know my child. And I know when he got that, that shot, he, he changed, you know, I just know my child. And you're like, well, that's, that's not objective data. You know, I just know my child and you're like, well, that's that's not objective data. That is not objective data at all, lady.

That's you. OK, that's you and a guess. And that's all that is. That's not anything that has to do with science, period. And so you should never pretend that your voice is of scientific reason. You should never you should just be saying, in my opinion, my kid got autism by a vaccine shot. That's great. Who cares? Some people have an opinion that they're fucking, you know, they have to wear tinfoil on their head so the

aliens don't read their thoughts too. Okay. I believe those people as much as I believe you. So this, this is fast becoming Cecil, one of my new favorite segments for the show. This is the Conservapedia segment. And I fucking love Conservapedia right now. Conservapedia might be the most unintentionally hilarious thing that I've looked at in a long time. This is Conservapedia's

entry for Deliberate Ignorance. I love that it self-demonstrates. I think it's so clever. It's just really, it's just like sitting there and you're like, how should I? Ah, like you can hear the light bulb like in the fucking cartoons. Also, I want on an unrelated note, light bulbs that all go ting when they light up deliberate ignorance um is the practice of refusing to consider or discuss logic or evidence

disproving ideologically motivated positions a related concept is the fallacy of invisible ignorance examples of deliberate ignorance include now these are unbelievable and there's several, there's many of them, so we're not going to read them all, but I'm going to pick two of them that are my favorite, Cecil. Okay. And I'll pick two as well. So this is an example of deliberate ignorance. Liberals who refuse to acknowledge the many fundamental truths in the Bible and even dismiss out of hand the many examples of biblical scientific foreknowledge, but refuse to read the Bible. I know a lot of fucking atheists that have read more of the Bible than a lot of people that call themselves Christian.

Right. I started reading it last week. I figured for this show, I may as well give it hell. So I just downloaded it onto my Kindle. It's fucking free, by the way. I want to read one, Tom. Liberal cafeteria Christians, I don't even know what that means, refuse to consider Bible verses that contradict their perceived notions of what the Bible should say. And what you want to ask that person who says that to you is be like, so when was your last shrimp cocktail? When did you enjoy your last shrimp cocktail? Where's your tattoo on you?

Which, you know, is also forbidden in Leviticus, you know? I noticed you're wearing a cotton blend today. I see that in your garden, you have planted both tomatoes and celery near each other. Now, if you'd kindly stand to the left, I'm going to stone your children for disobedience now. And then I'm going to feed the parts to bears. Oh, man. Where's your ram? We've got to sacrifice a RAM.

It's like 3.30. Isn't that like RAM sacrifice time? I love it. Oh, this page is fucking awesome. Do you have another one? Yeah. Evolutionists refuse to address the lack of plausible evolutionary path for the whale and the other counter examples to evolution. Oh, man.

Oh, God. And the best part is like this is one of those sites that you can just go fucking link crazy. Oh, I know. Because like everything's blue. It's awesome. Everything. My second favorite is liberals refuse to address how socialism destroys productivity. I love that because if anybody ever does this to you, if anybody ever comes up and says anything is socialist, just ask them to define what socialism is for you.

And you'll find a multitude of things that do not resemble socialism at all. Well, the problem is that they got their definition from fucking conservapedia. It's almost certainly the problem. You know, there's this notion on the web where they call it trolls trolling trolls. That's what they call it. And I can't help but imagine that behind Conservapedia is a group like The Onion that just sit down and be like, OK, what can we fucking write up next? right up next. You know, like, what is it that we control the population with to make them think that this is actually a conservative ideal, but it's really liberals pretending to be ultra crazy conservatives. That's what I think conservapedia really is. It's like all written by Colbert,

right? Like the whole thing. He just sit there laughing his ass off, adjusting his glasses. and they're laughing his ass off, adjusting his glasses. This is great for my show. We also believe, unlike Warren Buffett, that tax cuts are high enough already. Now, the president's friend, Warren Buffett, just came out and said all the billionaires should be paying more money. I have a suggestion. Mr. Buffett, write a big check today.

There's nothing you have to wait for. As a matter of fact, the president has redefined millionaires and billionaires as any company that makes over $200,000 a year. That's his definition of a millionaire billionaire. So perhaps Mr. Buffett would like to give away his entire fortune above $200,000. That's what you want to do. Have at it. Give it to the federal government. But don't ask the rest of us to have our taxes increased because you want to have a soundbite. We want to have real job creation in this country. And that's what we'll stand for as fiscal conservatives. Well, we've got to talk a little bit now about the Tea Party. This article comes from Salon, discusses how the Republican Party and the Tea Party

obviously is the fake grassroots wing of the Tea Party. And there's an interesting article about how they're opposing the extension of a payroll tax cut. It's payroll tax cuts going to expire January 1st. Payroll tax cut gives some amount of tax relief to people who will actually spend the fucking money. Right. Into the economy that they were relieved of the burden of having to pay into the system. Obviously, the GOP and the Tea Party, they're pretty anti-taxes. So it's sort of shocking that they would oppose the extension of a payroll tax cut.

Tax cuts are your thing, taxed enough already party. That's your game. That's what you fucking hang your hat on every day. When you get home, drop the keys in the basket, you got a little tax cut thing. Boom. Hat goes off, hangs right on there. It's just the truth comes out when they start opposing nonsense like this, that what they really want to do is they want to redistribute wealth upward. That's exactly it. Oh my gosh. Is that exactly it? You know, the thing about this that she just want to ask somebody when, especially when, you know, because there's a lot of people

in this country. There's a lot of people who will say that they're conservatives. I'm a conservative. Well, why are you conservative? Well, I believe in conservative social politics, they'll say. And I also believe in conservative fiscal politics. You have to ask those people now when you come to them because what conservative fiscal politics should mean is no more new taxes. New taxes just don't – don't tax anybody. I get a tax cut. The rich get a tax cut. It doesn't matter who it is.

We all get a tax cut and we cut down all the social programs. That's a valid way to look at the world. I think it's incorrect. I think it's doing some things wrong specifically for the economy. You're not willing to cut the things that will really make a difference. All you're willing to cut is superficial stuff. But we've talked about all that in the past. But what you want to ask those people now is, well, where do you stand now?

Because your party is telling you, yeah, you know, that's cool. The people that are really rich that voted for us, they get tax cuts and they keep their tax cuts. But you people, you know, the multitude of people, the more people, the majority of people that voted for us, you guys don't get to keep your tax cuts because we don't, we want to make sure that the payroll taxes increase. And that is, I think the biggest, you know, slap in the face that you can do to your constituents. You could say, you know, we stand for this and then come right out and say, no, we don't stand for this. I mean, Obama has been doing this to us for a while, you know, it's like, well, how does that feel? Because, you know, I think, you know, to be intellectually honest, you've got to be bashing Obama a little bit at this point being like, well, fuck, dude, you've been bending over for a lot of stuff. Where are you guys now? Are you going to be intellectually honest now and say, OK, fuck them, fuck them for doing that? How dare you do that to us? you in office. And another thing that this proves, and I'm going to stop after this, but one of the things that this proves is that money, the money, the big fucking money that you can pay to get your

lobbyists onto Wall Street, that makes the fucking change. Doesn't matter who gets voted in, Tom. It doesn't matter which fucking guy it is, fucking Democrat, Republican, you pick the fucking guy. It doesn't matter who it is. I'm going to get to them with my money. I don't want to make sure they vote how I want once they're in. You fucking populist, vote in whoever you want. You want a Democrat, you want a Republican, it doesn't fucking matter because I'm going to control them because I got the fucking money. Yeah, all day long, as long as you've got a system that's set up the way that our system is set up, it's nearly unavoidable that that's going to occur. I hate to say this. The cynical part of me, which is really like from the jaw down. Most of it.

It's the most of it, really. It's the most of it. It says that the reason that they're going to oppose this is because Americans are stupid and they're going to see their taxes go up January 1st and they're going to blame Obama. And so the game politically is you let the payroll tax expire on Obama's watch because he doesn't have the fucking nuts to protect it. I believe this. And everybody, you know, you open up your fucking paycheck and it's gone. What the fuck? God damn it.

You know, and now you're now a goddamn motherfucker. Raise my fucking taxes. Boom. Nope. It's a magic bullet, man. Nobody's going to remember when it comes election time. And they're going to be playing those commercials that will couch their language very, very carefully and say, on Obama's watch, he raised taxes by 7%. Who do you want in there now?

Yep. Yep. Yep. Obama allowed the payroll tax increase January 1st. And, you know, it'll show like some family like with a pile of bills. And it's like, there's got to be a better way. It's like a fucking Somali pirate like invading their home. Yar, I've come for your taxes.

The Obama let the Somali pirates onto our shores. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. You know, talking about redistributing wealth, I think that this is a redistribution of wealth upward. I really do.

There's no other way to take money away from the middle class, which is the voting bloc, right? That's the thing. How do you vote? Like, I'm really pro my detriment. I'm pro, yeah, I want to vote against me. That's what I'm going to do. But there's there's a great article on Alternet, which was the title of is the founding fathers believed in redistributing wealth. Why do Tea Party heroes like Perry and Bachman vilify it?

You know, and the whole idea is that the redistribution of wealth is it defines how a functioning modern state works, that we take money from the everyone and we move that money around in order to accomplish national goals. And that is necessarily a redistribution of wealth. Every time we defend our borders, every time we pay to have, you know, streets paved or, you know, whatever the tax money goes to to fund public schools. That's that's a redistribution of wealth. If you were not redistributing wealth, then there would be no need for any taxation system and there would be no need for government to work.

Government can't. You can't have a functioning government if you don't take some money from some people and give it to some other people. I agree. And I think that this article hammers, there's an article on alternate, um, that really just hammers this, this point home. And, and you know what they're saying, I want to read directly from the article. And this is exactly what you said earlier, right? The redistribution of wealth, the common response to this kind of blather is to point out the point out that conservatives like Bachman are absolutely in love with policies that redistribute wealth as long as they shift it from the working people upward to the investor class.

And that's so true. You want to ask Bachman who got government funding for their church or whatever, for that fucking pray the gay away stuff that they were doing. You want to ask them, be like, well, why are you taking money from the government? Like, aren't you a person who opposes government help with anything? Like, shouldn't you be a person who, you know, at least tries to live by the standards that you're trying to set for everybody else? Like, what? Why are you special?

And the reason is, is because she's a fucking hypocrite. That's why she's special. And she can get away with fucking blatantly lying to people about her positions because I, because I don't know how, but she does. She's an obviously fucking unhinged, crazy person. If you look her in the eyes, you think there's something going on in there that is not right. There is something in those eyes that makes you think there is, there is like a, there's a snap, a disconnect with reality that other people do not have. She has.

And you look at her and you cannot – I don't know. Who can look at her and think that she has some sort of balanced way of looking at the world? You look at her and you're like, well, you're fucking obviously crazy. But it doesn't matter to these people. These people want her in there. Yeah. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, when you look outside, there's a fucking hurricane of crazy. That's all.

It's just like, whoa, whoa. Eye of the storm. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not honest. You know, it's not honest. And we know it's not honest.

And, you know, the problem is that it sounds so good. Right. You know, they want to read. They want to take your money. I know. Fuck that. I want to keep my money. Well, listen, stupid. You're probably one of the people that they want to give the money to, right? Like, yeah, it's first of all, they don't want to take

your money. You don't have any fucking money. You're like the most of America. The most of America doesn't fucking have any money. The most of America has The most of America doesn't fucking have any money. The most of America has been suffering through a fucking recession for five, six years. So if you're like most of America, you're not the one who's going to have, you know, under a lot of tax redistribution, you know, whatever you want to call it, plans. The idea is to tax people who are quite wealthy a little more. So the people who are not as wealthy do a little better because people who are very wealthy won't fucking notice at all. It's like they're going to wake up and be like, oh, God, I just I wish I could put turn on this.

I'm worried about the electric bill. Fuck. I don't know what to do. I've got only three indoor swimming pools and I can't heat them all. What am I supposed to get options, choices? Damn it. You know, that's not the case. Well, and this brings to mind that quote, there's a quote by Steinbeck, which I really love. He says, socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. And I think that that really sort of says a lot about our country in one sentence, that all these people like that would benefit from these programs that would benefit from this

sort of thing. They're willing to say, no, I don't want it because they their hope is that one day they won't have to pay into it. But it's like – the thing is, is like chances of you actually pulling yourself up by said bootstraps are very, very fucking slim. So you should – what you should do is just be like – realize that you are exploited proletariat and that's – I mean, Jesus, look at the way this is going with the payroll tax increase and the way in which they want to redistribute wealth upwards.

You are fucking exploited proletariat. That's just the fucking facts right there. Lord, the day is at hand. We are in the last days. You are Jehovah God. Talking a little bit about the hurricane of crazy that is Michelle Bachman. She takes issue with what she calls radical environmentalists, which probably means anybody

who goes outside more than three or four. I mean, I don't even know how this person would even define a radical environmentalist. Probably somebody who believes that we have an environment. I don't. Do you have any idea? OK, I don't know what she's saying, but I want to read two pieces of this article really quickly. This is from Huffington Post. And she says the radical environmentalists there. She uses it again, have demanded that we lock up all our energy resources. And I guess what that means is radical environmentalists are people who think

that maybe we shouldn't be drilling offshore because of, you know, I don't know, the Gulf spill, you know, just, you know, little things like that. She added President Bachman would take the key out of the door and unlock it. And Bachman got a similar reception when she promised to eliminate the job killing, and that's in quotes, Environmental Protection Agency, saying that she would close the agency down in a single trip. We would turn out the lights and we'd lock the doors, she said. Let me just tell you,

the Environmental Protection Agency is a pretty important organization because without it there would be no regulation on the fucking environment. So if you want all your rivers to turn into fucking sludge, if you want to fucking pollute every fucking bit of air we have in the United States, if you want to fucking just rip all the regulations from people dumping shit, you know, let's go back to fucking 18 fucking 60s factory life then if we get rid of the fucking Environmental Protection Agency. Right. We'll just roll it all back. Just roll it all. First, as soon as that happens, I'm riding a horse to work. I'm just throwing that out there.

I'm riding a horse to work. I'm putting my kid to work in a fucking factory immediately. Sure. Fucking immediately. And it's going to be the sootiest factory I can find. It could be a soot factory. Just a straight up soot factory. If they just have a factory that produces soot.

And there will be several. Just for the sheer – yeah. I'm going to dump all of my garbage in the prettiest rivers and lakes I can find. I'm going to – and I don't care how far I have to drive because I don't care how far I have to drive. Get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency. People take this woman seriously, Tom. People seriously look at this woman and say, oh, well, that's a good idea. We should get rid of the environmental protection agency.

They don't do anything for me. They're just sucking off the government teat. Man, they do. They're just killing jobs. They do a lot of things for the United States. And then she also talks about how she'd remove like the minimum wage or maybe she'd remove the minimum wage. But what she's really hinting at is saying she wants to get businesses to come back to the United States instead of building outside.

Well, unless you fucking start paying workers in the United States fucking 35 cents an hour, that ain't going to happen. So – Yeah, you're going to get rid of the minimum wage really? So you can just pay people anything? That's a great idea. We'll just have sweatshops, dirty, filthy fucking sweatshops. That's not – who wants to'll just have sweatshops, dirty, filthy fucking sweatshops. That's not.

Who wants to live in that country? I don't know what she does. Hey, I got a job, Paul. I'm making $3 a week. Let me tell you, get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency. Enjoy the end times. That's all I'm saying. Yeah.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. To me, it's pretty simple. A person either believes that God created this process or believes that it was an accident and that it just happened all on its own. Just mention something I want everybody to go to our site and check out. There's a great video. I mean, this is this is, I think, one of the coolest things I've seen on YouTube. Evolutionary scientist says, you know, I can, I can probably show you how evolution works. You know, he's not proving it, but he's showing the idea. He's demonstrating the concept of

evolution with a single straight line. It's really one of the most clever things that I've seen in a very long time in terms of like just trying to understand a concept and break something down and be like, OK, here's how this could potentially work. Here's an analogy that that really will help drive the point home. And I think it's totally worth everybody's time. It's five and a half minutes and you should definitely check it out. It's it's it's worth it all day. People who should see this would include Ron Paul. He definitely should see it. Also, Rick Perry should see this would include Ron Paul he definitely should see it

also Rick Perry should see it I think Michelle Bachman should check it out they should definitely take a look at it you know this Rick Perry thing one of the things that I want to mention with Rick Perry Dawkins recently on this on Faith in the Washington Post

fucking hammered fucking jackhammered to the skull on fucking Governor Perry by by Richard Dawkins, who is a wickedly smart individual. I mean, just, you know, you read my suggestion would be, you know, go take a look at this article. Just read the first paragraph. And it is the meanest thing I think I've ever read. I could not I could not get through it without chuckling. But I want to read again. This is, again, him sort of just attacking

the way we do things in the United States. I just want to read a little tiny snippet. He says, there is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W. Bush or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michelle Bachman or Sarah Palin can be even mentioned as even

remote possibilities. That's fucking brilliant right there. So many other jobs. You know, think about any other really high status type job. Imagine, for example, this is a great example. Cecil, you work for a university. Imagine if you were at your university, if they were looking for a new university president. That person would be credentialed in a way that is impressive to fucking everybody.

that is impressive to fucking everybody. You know, to get a university professor, and not even president, rather, not professor, I mean, we're talking about somebody who is truly an extraordinary individual in so many ways. Somebody who walks in with a CV that when you read it, you feel shrunken. Right, right, right.

By comparison. a cv that when you read it you feel shrunken right right right by comparison why don't we demand the same thing from our president it's crazy i've been saying this for fucking like 12 years now it's like what the person we gotta have in charge should should make us you should dwarf us intellectually if they don't we're doing it wrong they should dwarf us intellectually. If they don't, we're doing it wrong. They should dwarf us with their humanitarian acts. They should dwarf us with their proven ethics. Because let's not pretend these people don't exist. They do.

They exist. They exist in mass, to be perfectly honest. There's 300 and whatever million people in this country. I mean, if your university where you work, Cecil, said we are hiring for a new president of this university, can you imagine how many incredibly extraordinary individuals would apply for that position? And they only would be able to pick the one. Yeah. We don't bring that same level of scrutiny to the presidency. Right. And do I think that somebody like George W. Bush would even have a fucking shot at that?

And the answer is absolutely not. Not even a tiny bit would he have a shot at that. They wouldn't even look at him. They would gloss him over. And this brings up the topic that I get into a lot with a lot of people. And I hear it all the time, right? What this article is – it's the basis of this article is that Rick Perry doesn't have any idea about evolution and an evolutionary biologist is

fucking schooling him on evolution. Okay. So that's the basis of this article. But what does this say? What is, you know, people always bring this up. They say, well, why ask a politician about evolution? What do you care whether a politician believes in evolution? What does it matter whether a politician as somebody who's going to be governing the state cares about evolution? I have two quick points I just want to say. The reason why is because it's a litmus test for other things. It's one of those things that you look at and say it's an indicator of their overall belief structure. And two of the things I want to say is if they don't believe in evolution, chances are they believe in an end times. They believe in that stuff that we were talking about earlier.

That means they don't have any foresight. They don't think about resources as a dwindling thing. They just think as God provided resources. Let's fucking drill. They don't care about the impact of that at all because to them, it doesn't matter. It doesn't, you know, the way in which the world is created through, you know, billions of years and, you know, natural selection and all the things that are in delicate balance in the world, they don't matter to these people. What matters is, you know, quick profits now because it doesn't matter because God wants us to do it. OK?

So that's number one. And number two, it allows these people to then look at things that are genetic and say it's a choice, right? So if you say evolution didn't happen, now suddenly being gay is a choice. So those are two litmus tests I look at. So those are two litmus tests I look at. So when Ron Paul comes out and says, evolution, I'm fucking stupid. OK, well, if you're going to be fucking stupid, then this is an indicator that you're fucking stupid. Exactly.

Exactly. Evolution, that's if you don't believe in that, it's not something to believe in. Believe is something you do when there's no evidence. Like evolution just is. And it's not up to you to believe in. Believe is something you do when there's no evidence. Like, evolution just is. And it's not up to you to believe it. It doesn't change the fact of it. Right? I mean, it's not like a god where if you don't believe in it, it just has no relevance anymore. Evolution continues to be relevant, demonstrable, provable, falsifiable.

Those things don't give a shit about whether you believe in them or not. People come out in public declaring their ignorance as a fucking stamp for the job. Sure. Shameful. Yeah. I mean if you came out like let's say you're talking about the university thing and you came out and you were ignorant of some things, you would be eliminated from the job selection process. You'd just be eliminated from it. Okay.

Well, then you don't have a job anymore. You don't have a chance to get this job anymore. We don't, we're not as rigorous. And I agree with Dawkins. We're not as rigorous as we should be in this country. And there's a lot of people in this country that will vote based on, you know, like we were talking about earlier when they were saying this person is a demonic, so I'm not going to vote for them. That's somebody who's so uneducated that they shouldn't be voting, in my opinion. That's somebody who shouldn't have a voice in our country. You're all dead. Oh, be nice.

Oh, my son doesn't stand a chance. The whole world's gone gay. Oh, my God. What's happening now? We work hard. We play hard. Speaking of people that shouldn't be voting or opening their fucking mouths at all, New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin, I'm sure I'm mispronouncing the guy's name. No, that's fine. And I just, I don't even care. I like Yehuda. I think that's a pretty cool name.

Yehuda in the hizzy! Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's like fucking Yoda. He's like Yoda 11. Gays cause earthquakes, they do. He posted a video on YouTube. That's crazy. That's just crazy.

Claiming that God caused the East Coast earthquake on Tuesday because gay marriage is legal in Washington, D.C. and New York. First of all, that's fucking nonsense. But second of all, weak sauce, God. No kidding. Couldn't stop the legislation. So what did you do? You gave a little fucking rump shake? No, no, no.

He didn't shake his rump. He says, you have shaken your male member. I, too, shall shake the earth, is what he says. And I, too, shall cause no substantial damage or harm. Did God, like, shake his male member on the earth? Because that's a big ass cock then, man. That's a huge cock. You know, a lot of people don't know that's actually rain.

That's not kind of gross. Here's what I want to say to the rabbi though. It's like, okay, in 2008, they in in california um banning gay marriage and in 2009 there was an earthquake okay there's no connection between earthquakes and gay marriage if if you're sending a signal um maybe you could fucking raise the fucking alarm a little sooner after the event please that would be nice day of the event maybe i mean you know since you can control everything right you've got control of all of time and earth and energy in the universe and star i mean like there's nothing which does not fall under your

control but somehow it takes you like weeks and weeks to like get to it what do you you got like it's too too far down on your fucking list of post-it notes? Oh, fucking check for milk, check the archangels, harass, make prank calls to Satan. Oh, earthquake. Ah, fuck. How'd that get at the bottom? Two months ago.

Who put that at the bottom? Peter? I'm gonna fire my personal assistant. It's so hard to find good help in heaven these days. Jesus, have you been on my desk again? I wouldn't believe it even if it were coincidental. But, you know, it would be one thing if they were like, now we're going to discuss gay marriage. And then the earth shakes. Like, whoa, fuck.

Okay, back to gay marriage. Oh, the earth shakes again. Every time we say gay marriage, whoa, the earth keeps shaking. Okay. Yeah to gay marriage. Oh, the earth shakes again. Every time we say gay marriage, whoa, the earth keeps shaking. Okay. All right. Every time we bring it up in session, we have an earthquake. Every time. Ooh.

Yeah. That may be. There's some pause there. Yeah. But, hey, this thing happened. And many weeks later, an inconsequential geological event occurred. Really? Plus, you're doing your fucking Judaism wrong.

Are you saying there's literally hell to pay? You don't have hell. I don't even have it. It's just not a thing you guys have. Maybe he's one of those messianic rabbis they were talking about in the dominionism. Maybe, right. He's crazy, but he's got of those messianic rabbis they were talking about in the Dominionism. Maybe, right. He's crazy. But he's got the fucking crazy beard.

It doesn't preclude him from being a messianic crazy person. It doesn't. He thinks fucking God is shaking his male member at us. I feel the earth move under my feet. I feel the sky tumbling down. I feel my heart start to tremble whenever you're around. In other earthquake news, though, we got a suggestion from Jeff on our site about conspiracy earthquake theories. And he sent us a link to what could be the craziest site I've ever seen in my entire life.

Tom, my favorite part of this article is that when you click on this, like this image, right? So like it's got this like really sort of weird, weirdly shaped, like computer generated drawn piece of the United States. Right. So you look at it and you're like, well, that's a weird look in United States. And you click on it. And when you click on it, it takes you to a page where it is exactly the same size.

So it's just the same pixelated, weird little picture. And you're like, what does somebody make a fucking icon of the United States? Because that's what it looks like. It doesn't even look like a real picture. No, this is a super, super, super strange image. I love that Canada is just shown as water. It's very weird.

It's like Lake Canada. You're just like, I'm going swimming. Look, I know there's a lot of lakes there, but there's some fucking land too. This is a weird site. I was a little uncomfortable even, like, clicking on this. I'm like, oh, I'm going to fucking end up with a Cuban vacation I wasn't expecting. These giant red links, too. I love how long they are, these big, long, like, red, like, underlined areas where this person's like, I am telling you something important.

Please read this. I don't think these are all links, though. Yeah's like, I am telling you something important. Please read this. I don't think these are all links though. Yeah. No, they're not links actually. They're just underlined in red. I thought that they were links, but I was misled. Just to make them harder to read. Yes, I was misled.

And it's a, you know, it's green. I, you know, first off, you know, you want to tell these crazy people, just take one, you know, intro to web design class class because the more red and black and fucking dark colors you use, the harder it is on somebody's eyes and the more chance they're going to come to your site and be like, I'm crazy person and just click and leave. If you had an actual site that looked kind of, instead of like the time cube guy, you had a site that looked more like Google, you'd get more hits. Okay.

It's really just, this is just insanity. But this is, this is talking about like an underground nuke and how that blew up and there was a fucking, I mean, it's just, this is just insanity. But this is this is talking about like an underground nuke and how that blew up. And there was a fucking I mean, it's just this is I can't even summarize what this says. It's so nuts. It's it is. It's all over the place. tunnels throughout the United States, like hundreds and thousands of miles of underground tunnels and nuclear explosions caused by foreign military. And that that's really what the earthquakes were.

And it's just imagine just for a moment, imagine just the craziest thing you can imagine other than dominionism, just the craziest thing. And that's this website. Right. It's awesome, though. And we love this sort of shit. So when you find this sort of nonsense, definitely email it to us. This is somebody who distressingly clearly spent a lot of time on this.

You know, there's other people, Tom, that are talking about the – they're talking about this earthquake in the – you know that fracking, that deep ground fracking stuff? Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. There's people that are saying that the fracking is happening in Pennsylvania or whatever and that caused the earthquake. But what they're forgetting is that there's a fucking fault line down there. You know what I mean? Exactly. You're just like, well, there's already a precedent for earthquakes to happen. So let's just fucking use Occam's razor here.

Let's say what's more fucking likely, that you're digging down 1,000 or so feet or even if it's 1,000 meters, right? You know, you're digging down this deep. How thick is the crust? The crust is, you know what, I think about 20 miles thick or something like that? Yeah, we've never drilled and so we've never penetrated the crust of the earth. Right. So how could it be possible that you're causing earthquakes if you're only going down – even if you're going down a mile, let's say.

You're still not even close to what it would take to move the earth crust to produce that substantial of seismic activity. It doesn't even make any sense. And there's a fucking fault line right there. So it's either fracking or it's a fucking nuclear bomb or there's a fault line right there. You decide. It isn't multiple choice, man. No. You know, Cecil, fuck it, dude.

I'm sorry. You're fucking wrong, dude. No, you know, Cecil, fuck it, dude. I'm sorry. You're fucking wrong, dude. We got to teach the controversy. Present the evidence. Let the kids decide. Revise all the textbooks. Teach the controversy. It's either foreign military setting off nuclear explosions that are fucking otherwise undetected underground to bomb out a bunch of uh secret

tunnels by the united states of zionism that's option one right just so we're all clearly understand that no you spelled zionism option two is that fucking the inconsequential geological results of fracking have caused massive earthquake you know 5.9 that shook shit for miles and miles. My wife felt it in Chicago. Right. Yeah. Option three, of course, is fault lines. Who believes that?

Fault lines. How do they work? So we did get some uh some email we got some very good feedback we're grateful to get it um we got an email from tim tim said uh after listening to the podcast he wants to help us feel good uh tim i want you to help us feel good too it's he's gonna go on and he's gonna be posting a rating on iTunes. He did actually. It's the least he could do. He did.

Fucking right, Tim. It is the least you could do. Get off. I mean, for fuck's sake, 10 episodes, get off your ass. He says this has quickly become his favorite podcast. I feel the same way. This has quickly become my favorite podcast as well. He gets so fucking fed up at the fucking political and religious insanity in this country that he wants to throw a fucking fit.

My friend, you fit right fucking in. Absolutely, he does. This is the guy, though. This is funny because I'm pretty sure he's the same person who rated us on iTunes and he said, although it rivals Deadwood in the use of a certain word beginning with F. Yeah, this is a great letter from Tim. He did say that, you know, he said, you know, come on, guys, get off your ass and get moving on some more podcasts. We're trying, Tim. It's been a little difficult because Tom and I have been trying to figure out the movement for this.

And we do have another podcast that we dedicate time to. So it's difficult for us to make sure that we put time aside each week, but Tom and I are trying to make a concerted effort to do that sort of thing. And then he has a website. It's a blog that both Tom and I took a look at, and Tom, you found a pretty interesting article. It's called Progressive on the Prairie is the name of his blog. Yeah. So we're going to put a link to it on our on our site with the permission of Tim. We wouldn't do so otherwise. I took a look through his blog and I liked his blog quite a lot. It's got a lot of book reviews. I don't approve of reading. So I had a problem with that. I think that's even though I was an English major, I had a real problem with that. I don't, it's a bad call just in general. Um, but he also has a link on there, which I found

very amusing, which was, uh, uh, suggested that the earth, and this was in the BBC science, like alien crazy page, um, that suggests that the earth, uh, may be blown up in a preemptive strike by aliens because of our greenhouse gases or something. I don't know. The rest of it is just nonsense. Anyhow, check out his site. You'll find the link on there. I think it's an amusing link.

It'll get him a click through. His site is actually very well organized. His comments are interesting. It's nothing like our show. Yeah, nothing at all. This is what I'm saying. Nothing at all. Yeah, but it's worth your time.

It's thought out. So – Right. So we got an email from a dumbass – or from dumbass, I should say. Yeah, not a dumbass. He's definitively – we might as well use the definitive article of the dumbass. Right. He's the dumbass.

Yeah. dumbass. Right. He's the dumbass. Yeah. He's got his own show. He's got his own podcast, which we both took a listen to. You can find it at dumbassguide.info. He suggested that we check out a website that we would love.

It's called bibleufo.com. I did check it out. My brain melted. It was... That's because that's what the alien wanted. I wasn't wearing my tinfoil hat when I clicked through. So I strongly recommend some kind of a radiation shield or something. Tinfoil. Tinfoil works.

Yeah, I've got like a lead dentist apron that I wear just in case. I chew on part of it every day. I just take a little piece of it and chew it up. Dumbass has got, you know, his own podcast. So I listened to episode six, and he talks about ancient aliens and that. And one of the things I really like, now this is a different type of podcast than what we do. What it is is it's more of a monologue podcast. It's not like two jackasses who sit around and cackle at each other and say fuck a lot.

It's a lot more thought out than that. But what he does is he really, I mean, he just fucking eviscerates their argument about Ancient Aliens. Just takes it apart in a way that's kind of sad. And if you want a good chuckle, go to his site and just read the comments. Because the comments, I can't imagine getting comments from people that agree with the ancient alien show. And he calmly debates these people. I would be beside myself.

I feel sorry for you, dumbass. I think our explicit stuff keeps people like that away from us because I don't ever want to have to deal with somebody who's going to defend ancient aliens. No, it's insanity's, it's insanity. It's total insanity. But your, your point by point, uh, decimation of ancient aliens is really, it's, it's, it's fun to listen to. It is.

It's fun to listen to. I recommend listening to his show. You can find it on iTunes. That's why I grabbed it. I just searched for dumb ass and, you know, narrowed my search by podcast and found it very readily? He did send us – the first letter he sent us, Tom, was a little critical of us, and he's pointing out a little bit of a flaw about what we had said. He mentions in this email that we're basically saying that teachers should have some sort of leeway in which to spout an opinion in class, and he doesn't think

that that's a good thing. He thinks that this opens the door for creationists to stand up and then proselytize in class because, hey, if you can say evolution is right and creationism is bunk, then this other teacher should be able to stand up and say, hey, creationism isn't bunk and here's why. And I understand your point completely. And I think Tom and I both agree that you shouldn't be able to press creationism in school. But I think that what happened here, at least from what Tom and I could gather in this particular instance when we were talking about last show, this guy was pressured on the issue and said, well, it's just garbage. Like creationism is garbage.

And I think you should be able to say that because when I was in class, when I was in school, there was nobody who had any particular reverence for flat earth theory. Right. Nobody had any particular reverence for spontaneous generation. Or holocaust denial. Yeah, they didn't present that as a logical way in which to look at the universe. And that's how I think you should be presenting evolution. You shouldn't be presenting creationism as a way to look at the way the world was created. You shouldn't be presenting it at all.

So if they look at an obviously false way in which to look at the universe, you should be able to call it false. You know, from what I read, this guy was a European, like an advanced placement European history teacher. And they had a student in his class who kept pressing, like you said, pressing the issue of creationism. And, you know, I don't think we talked about this. Cecil and I did. And I think on balance, I tend to agree with you, dumbass. I think, although it's weird to say it like that i tend to agree that it shouldn't come up of on your own accord right if you're

a teacher you shouldn't be like hey just so everybody knows i think your religious beliefs are uh naive superstitions so fuck you um that would obviously be grossly inappropriate not his place but if somebody opens the door you've the door, you've got to have the ability to respond. You've got to have an ability to say, listen, that subject is not relevant. That has no facts behind that. We need to move on in an intellectually honest way here. The only way we're going to do that is by dismissing your ridiculous claims as ridiculous claims.

Because how else do you address that? I mean, what are you going to do that is by dismissing your ridiculous claims as ridiculous claims because how else do you address that i mean what are you gonna do like you're gonna kick them out of the class and say like you're being disruptive by bringing this nonsense into my classroom you've got to take you've got to have some ability to respond to it i know that dumbass suggests that the teacher stick to the lesson plan. The lesson plan is designed by the teacher. I mean, I went to school to be a high school English teacher, and I ended up not being one, but you develop your own lesson plan. So it's not like a hard and fast thing that you're handed and being like, okay, teach this lesson plan. It's Tuesday, and you're writing your lesson plan for Wednesday if you're a procrastinator like me.

A great email though, dumbass, and we're happy that you're listening. We're happy that you had some criticism, and if you have some in the future, let us know. I mean we're willing to tell you that you're wrong. We also got an email from Luke. Luke likes the show. He sent us an email that gave us sort of a personal story about one of his experiences. It was a very amusing story. I don't want to share it here because it seemed like a personal experience.

So it doesn't seem fair to sort of share it with a general audience. But Luke, we appreciate you sharing your story with us. And we're glad that you're listening. We're glad that you like the show. We also received a voicemail. So one of the fun things about Google Voice is Google, when we get in our email, we get notification that we received a Google Voice voicemail. And it attempts to give us a translation of that. Now, I want to play the actual voicemail here, and then I want to read what Google said he said. So this is the actual voicemail here, and then I want to read what Google said he said.

So this is the actual voicemail. Hi, it's Fyodor Arminikov. I've just started doing a competing podcast along similar lines to yours, and I just had a gripe about one of your episodes that I wanted to read to you in a prepared statement. In episode eight, Hot Sex with a Fire Goddess, you said that Carl Sagan's original Cosmos was boring.

Now, as with a David Lynch film, it's not something you should watch over and over again, and certainly not for the science. However, in my opinion, it's meant to infuse the spirit with a simultaneous sadness for the moment, profound optimism for the future, wonder at the past, desire to inquire into the present. In short, a connectedness to all things human and otherwise.

And I think here's the problem. You need to get stoned first, which may have been it. Anyway, great podcast, guys. Keep it up. I listen to you, not for the science, but for the enjoyment. So, great. Thanks. And here is Google's interpretation of that through their Google Voice translator.

Needs work, guys. Hi, it's for your butt. Also, I just started doing a competing podcast along some or line Steve orders, and I just had a right about what you're up so that I wanted to read you on a prepared statement. And that ability, hot sex with a fire goddess. I love it. Got that right. i know that's awesome man he said the call sake of the regional calls was most boring i know i've a david win film it's not something you should watch over the and i'm certainly not the science however in my opinion it's meant to refuse this pair of with a simultaneous sadness for the moment

found off to the future. Whether the past, as I don't want to present, short connect, this is all things human otherwise. Bye. Oh, and I think you're the problem. You need to get stoned first, which may have been

it anyway. Great talk at, guys. Keep it up. I was reviewing off the sign, so if you can join so, great. Thanks. To address the actual email, though, I do like the line that it says, and I think you're the problem. Google Voice got that right.

Perfectly got that right. He does say he has a competing podcast. You don't have a competing podcast. And I'll tell you why. Podcasts are free. So nobody is going to pay for your podcast or my pod. These are free shows. So if somebody wants to listen to it, they're going to listen to your show or my show. I think your name's Fedor. You read, it was hard to read or show or my show. I think your name's Fedor. You read, it was hard to read or hard to hear. So I think your name's Fedor or Fedor. Just tell us what your podcast name is, dude.

I don't care. Plug in our show. It doesn't matter. It's not a competing podcast. If somebody is listening to our show and you have a similar show, let them know about it. You know, go on our page, on our Cognitive Dissonance and post it on the Facebook. They'll be like, hey, by the way, I got this other show. It's very similar to Cognitive Dissonance.

I don't care that they listen to your show. I want them to listen to other shows. I want you to listen to the Dumbass Guide guys' show. I want you to listen to Fedor's show. But you say that, you know, we kind of got it wrong. And I knew I was going to catch some shit with that Carl Sagan thing, right? Like you can't make fun of Carl Sagan in the skeptic world. And you certainly can't call him boring.

I agree. I think that when these movies first came out and when I saw them the first time, I was intrigued. And I think they are good movies. I do disagree that if you get stoned, you would somehow enjoy them more. I think that's a fucking recipe for a nap, if you ask me. Like I think you figured out a way to beat insomnia if you watch, like, Cosmo stoned.

But it is a good series, and you're right. It does all those things that you mentioned. It is a great series. And you're right. It's not something you can watch over and over again. But I do think they're dated. I'm not lying when I say I think they're dated. I think that we have changed the way in which we look at

film and documentary and those sorts of things. And then we just we just do it in a different way nowadays. It's a totally different thing to watch a documentary made back then and watch something now. It's just a different feel. So I feel like they are dated. And I'm probably going to get shit for that, too. But thanks for the thanks for for the voicemail we're very happy that you sent a voicemail in and we're happy also that you don't listen for the science because there's fucking zero fucking science content in the show

that's not the reason to listen to this show I'm not sure yet what the reason to listen to this show is yeah I don't know that I figured out a reason either but it's not the science, we know what it's not that's for damn sure I want to mention a couple of people on Twitter that have been sort of instrumental in helping us out. Very recently, Freethink Geek and Skeptic Cat, as well as a person by the name of Zev. And if you go on our Twitter site and you look, you can see the at mentions that they do for us.

But people really help us out when they just shoot an at mention and say, hey, these guys have a great podcast or whatever. You know, a lot of people on Twitter, they have 1,500 followers, 1,600 followers. You know, just sending that out to 1,600 people, you know, if you get two or three people that see it and read it and go, oh, my gosh, this is a great podcast, and they start listening, that would really help us out. And it's a great way in which to very easily sort of transmit to a ton of people the podcast. And we really appreciate the help that we're getting from people on Twitter. If you are on Twitter, it's not hard to find people that are skeptical, liberal, and atheist. I am finding that out pretty easily. And I'm slowly accumulating a bunch of people that we're following because these people

exist. So if you, and chances are, if I found you, you have a list of people already that you, that you follow that are very similar, uh, in similar, that have similar thoughts. So go ahead and forward to them too. We have a Twitter account. Ha ha ha. forward to them too. We have a Twitter account?

So as always, Tom, we are going to end the show with this skeptic's creed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno-Babylon bullshit. Couched in scientician, double bubble,

toil and trouble, pseudo-quasi-alternative alternative acupunctuating pressurized stereogram pyramidal free energy healing water downward spiral brain dead pan sales pitch late night info docutainment leo pisces cancer cures detox

reflex foot massage death in towers tarot cards psychic healing crystal crystal balls, Bigfoot, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques, and synagogues, temples, dragons, giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, birthers, witches, wizards,

vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, doublespeak, stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody, evidential, conclusive. Doubt even this.

Thank you for listening to Cognitive Dissonance. If you want to reach us by phone, you can call us at 740-743-6828. That's 740-74-DOUBT. Long distance rates apply. Send us an email at dissonance.podcast at gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at Dissonance underscore pod.