Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 11: Oh Oh It's Magic!

Episode Date: September 6, 2011

What do atheists do in a crisis; National Atheist Registry; Bachmann on hurricanes and earthquakes; Texas budget crisis; gay republicans; Gitmo; Terrorism costs a lot; how to argue; vaccines and hatred; dawkins teaches evolution to the very small; magic.

I'm Raymond Massey and I have a special message for senior citizens. Today's doctors, drugs and medical devices truly work medical miracles for young and old alike. But there are some as phony as a three dollar bill. Like this Xerad applicator, for example, which is claimed to cure arthritis with Z-rays. There are no Z-rays. This fake device claimed to cure cancer with tape-rays. There are no Z-rays. This fake device claimed to cure cancer with tape recorders music. The practitioner who used it was as big a phony as his device. A doorbell doctor sold his food supplement to treat 42 diseases. It has nothing of value

that's not contained in the food you buy at your supermarket. Investigate before you invest in health services or products. Help stamp out quackery. This has been a public service announcement from the Food and Drug Administration in cooperation with this station. 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 welcome back everybody for our 11th

episode if this isn't a welcome back if this is a welcome without the back portion we do appreciate new listeners so we're glad if there's anybody out there who uh has had the misfortune of being strapped down and subjected to this show. Hopefully when you're not incarcerated any longer, you can listen of your own accord. When they let you out of Guantanamo. Yeah, it doesn't strike me as likely with prolonged detention. No kidding. But we've got some great stories.

And by great, I mean, to go over with everybody. We're going to go ahead and launch right in. Is your God sending a hurricane this way? No! So could your God stop the hurricane from coming? No! He's not all powerful then. That's not why you believe in an afterlife.

That's not why you believe you have a spiritual life. I don't believe in a spiritual life so that someone could stop hurricanes. I asked you if you think God could stop the hurricane from coming. But God didn't create the hurricane from coming. So why would he stop it? He could have stopped it. Hold on, hold on. This is what all powerful means.

No, he could not. Wait, wait, wait. This is a story that showed up on Fox Business. This is a video. We'll play some clips from it. You'll be able to find this on our webpage. The title of it is What Do Atheists Do in a Crisis?

I love that that's even a question. What do atheists do in a crisis? I don't know. What do they do on a Wednesday? What do they do on the toilet? Right. They fucking wake up and they're like, fuck, crisis. And they deal with a crisis. Right. Suddenly we're ill-equipped to deal with a crisis.

Like, it doesn't even make any sense. What about the atheists? They don't have anyone to pray to. Well, fucking the praying didn't work anyway. Yeah, no kidding. They just still have the crisis to deal with. Right. Pray the zombies away.

They're like cranking a few more times on their solar-powered hand-cranked flashlight. That's what they're doing. At least they got two fucking hands free. Yeah, no kidding, right? Yeah. This is a video. I think everybody should check this out. Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists,

fucking Boo Earns, is on Fox Business. And I got to say, Cecil, he's kind of a dick. You know, okay, first off, Silverman, I know you're a big fan of the show, so we're going to talk to you directly. Here's the thing, Silverman. First off, grow the goatee back because you look ridiculous without a goatee. I mean you don't even have – you know, all intellectuals have goatees.

I don't know if you knew this, Silverman. It's also how you can recognize that we're satanic, right? Right, absolutely. He's got that little devil beard. It's perfect, right? So, but also, you know, so one, grow the goatee back. Two, stop being a jackass. Really, you're not fucking helping, dude, okay? When you

tell the guy, and you know, be a bigger jackass at this point. At one point, one of these dipshits, because none of these people on Fox News know how to argue at all. And they put fucking words in his mouth that he didn't actually say. All the time. Which I think is great. And he calls him on it, which, OK, great.

Good for you. You think quick on your feet. But one of the things that you're doing that is incorrect is you're saying that praying is wasting time and they shouldn't be praying. They should be thinking like atheists. They should be trying to, you know, I understand the kind of underlying argument you're trying to get at. But who gives a fuck if somebody is praying? I understand if they're going to stop fucking boarding up their house and pray instead of doing that or pray, you know, waste some time praying, but a lot of people are not just fucking sitting there throwing down their prayer mat, looking fucking toward, you know, Mecca and praying while there's something big that is going to be happening. Maybe they're praying to themselves. Who cares what they're

doing? What I would say, what I would say, if I were Silverman, I would say to these people, look, you want to pray great, but if you're done doing the work you need to do at home, instead of spending your time praying, go help your neighbor because that's maybe what Christ would do. Yeah, there's definitely a way to get his argument across without being as aggressively argumentative. And I don't think the argumentative way that he presents his stance is useful at all. I also have a problem with anybody being the president. I understand American Atheist is an organization whatever but

Atheist it's like how can we have a group that doesn't make any sense it's like let's all get together and not believe in unicorns together and who's in charge of not believing in unicorns today I don't know I mean who's the fucking

comptroller of I don't believe in leprechauns? I don't know. We don't like, there's no need for that. Who's the sergeant at arms? I need to know this. And I, you know, and I know that that sounds perhaps a little off center because, you know, we have said in this show that it's nice to have a place, so to speak, for atheists to, to, to exist and to, uh, uh, speak their mind and what have you. But sort of a formal organization with a president and what have you, it does, I think, reinforce this idea that the religious have that don't understand what non-belief is, that atheism is a sort of a separate religion and, you know, separate organizational body. So I think formally organizing and having spokespeople, so to speak, is kind of a bad idea. How do you have a spokesperson for people that don't believe?

You know, you can have yutzes like you and I who just yammer on a show, but I don't pretend to speak for anyone else. I don't pretend to be a representative. A president of any organization is, you know, sort of a representative of that organization. Beyond that, I think he does a poor job here. I agree with you, Cecil. What he really needs to have said and what his point is that gets lost in the argumentative back and forth that he should not have engaged in is, look, atheists do the practical things that are necessary to prepare for natural disasters. That's what we'd encourage everybody to do. Whether you pray or not, I don't, I'll be honest, I don't know any atheist who care

if somebody also is praying. Right. Fucking walk and talk at the same time. You know, I can, I can help you board up your windows and be thinking in my mind, oh God, I hope a hurricane doesn't hit. Dear God, please don't let this hurricane hit. Sure. Those things, they're not mutually exclusive.

And I think that when you present this idea that prayer is somehow mutually exclusive to preparation, which is like at Olympic kind of how he plays off in this video clip. That's an asinine assumption. And they put words in his mouth, but they kind of call him on it, too. When you're getting called out by Fox. Yeah. These people are not thinkers. And one of the things that happens is he starts arguing about, like, God's validity and how could you believe in a God that does this to you?

It's like, don't even fucking don't even go there, dude. Don't even go to that point where you're trying to argue the logic of God with somebody like that, because guess what? They don't care about logic. They don't care about it. They have a belief structure that has been either indoctrinated in them or they've, they've found this belief structure and they're clinging onto it in some way. They don't give a fuck whether you say, well, how could you love a God who would send a

hurricane to you? They have a fucking answer to that. Don't even bring that up. Don't even – you're debasing yourself by – what is that line? You're rolling around in the mud with them. You know what I mean? It's like don't fucking roll around in the mud with them. Don't even fucking give them the opportunity.

They'll be like, you know, if they even start to bring that up, be like, well, I don't think there's a God anyway. So why argue about it? Why do I have to argue about whether or not what your fucking made up creature is about? I don't care. This should have been a very simple, straightforward way for him to get on the show and say, hey, you know, but when they confront him and say, but, you know, don't you think there's a life outside yourself?

Like, no, I don't care if you think that, but I don't think that. And so I don't prepare in a way that suggests a life outside of myself. And so I'm buying candles and that's what I'm doing. I encourage you to do the same thing. And if your position is that your standpoint regarding religion stems from a place of rationality and reason, you need to always be seen as reasonable. Right. And when you are seen as unreasonable or reactionary, you're going to lose every single time because the ad hominem attacks are just too easy at that point.

Absolutely. And he's, he's never going to come across as somebody who knows what he's talking about if he's, because all the people that are believers that are watching him and he's like, how could God send a hurricane to kill a bunch of people? You know, how could you love that God? They're all just like, oh, he's so naive. Yeah. Right.

He doesn't understand. That's the first thing you're going to say is like's like, oh, look at how naive he is. Gosh, these atheists are just so naive. Don't even fucking – don't even address that question. Don't even bring that shit up because you're just going to lose, dude. You're just going to lose because they are not arguing on the same level that you are. Just drop that shit. Right.

And you're making assumptions about – you could be sitting there with an evangelical, a Catholic, and a Methodist. Right, right. And they're all going to have different opinions on how their God works, right? Because it's all pick and choose. But you start making assumptions and formulating arguments based on your presupposition, you're failing, man. And exactly. That's exactly it, Tom.

Because at one point he's like, well, then he's not omniscient or he's not omnipresent. It's like, who gives a fuck? Well, he's not even fucking there. So who cares what he is or what they think he is? Let's just stop trying to address that he's even there. I do believe that atheists are parasites in the sense they're benefiting from everything that religious culture was built in America, but they're doing nothing to add energy into the system.

I think that the real answer to atheism, the real answer to the cataclysmic epidemic of disbelief in the country is for people to show the enhancing of life and how the quality of life goes up when faith is a part of a life. And that becomes its best advert. This is a story sent in to us by one of our listeners. Meva sent this story to us. Florida pastor doesn't get why atheists aren't registered like sex offenders. This guy's fucking awesome. Awesomely crazy.

Oh, man. Michael Stahl, otherwise known as Pastor Mike. I love that his church is an online church. That's not a church, man. That's just being online. That's not a church. He suggests that atheists all be registered by the state so that basically Christians and what have you can know who the atheists are and either witness to them or, if that doesn't work, boycott their businesses. Awesome.

That's fucking awesome. You know what I do? You know, here's why they need to put them as I agree with this guy. Here's why. Because they need to make sure that everybody knows that I'm an atheist so nobody brings their kids around me. Because any believer child that comes around me, I just hold them down and scream God is not real to them all the time. God is not real. God is not real.

God is not real. Like the first thing I do is I make sure they know there's no Santa Claus. I make sure they know there's no Easter Bunny. I don't care what age they are. I just tell them. Like, we're damaging. Like, we're somehow damaging. This is a guy who obviously has no idea about atheists, period, right?

And he's just trying to be inflammatory and trying to—what he's trying to do is get people to go to his church and, you know, comment on his blog or whatever, up his hit count, so his fucking Google AdSense can pay off. That's exactly what it is, right? This is a funny idea. I do have a tattoo that says, I'm an atheist. I shatter dreams. It's because it's what I do. I just like to hurt people emotionally because that's you know, I get a kick out of that.

I love this. I would love how the registry would work because, like, you know, if you're a sex offender or whatever, you would have to go door to door and like tell everybody that you're creepy. So I think that would be great. Like to knock on the door, be like, hi, I'm an atheist. Won't affect you at all. And I'll mow my lawn. So nice to fucking meet you. Like nobody would give a shit, right?

They just – that was fucking weird. Guy just showed up and said what he didn't believe in and then – I don't know. At least you'd hope nobody would care. But there are people out there that would care. They would be like, you're a what? Like I recently at my work, we were having a conversation around – and there's a young man who's working as an intern in our – he's a high school student and he's working as an intern in our office. And we're having cake like every fucking week somebody has a birthday and they have fucking cake or whatever. We're all standing around just pretending to have a conversation conversation with really awkward conversation with people. And you're talking back and forth.

And somebody says, somebody mentions, because one of the guys here is a reverend. And he mentions that I'm an atheist, like sort of, you know, in passing, we're going back and forth. And he makes a comment about something. And he's like, oh, but you won't do that because you're an atheist. And this kid spins around, looks at me, and his eyes get as big as saucers. Just like, like he was, he was taken aback that I was an atheist. And I could just tell.

I could tell that kid has treated me differently so far. He won't be alone in the same room with me. He, like, moves to the other side of the hall when I'm coming down. And, you know, he has no idea who I am really because I've never really interacted with him. But I could tell he totally treats me differently now. And it's because people just don't understand. They're just like, oh, well, he's an atheist. He's obviously evil because they've been taught to believe that.

And it's like, well, you know, I don't think I'm an evil person. I certainly wouldn't do anything to harm another person, you know, which I could – which I can't say about a lot of Christians, right? So I think, you know, in a lot of ways I am more moral, but people don't understand that because there's just this stigma attached to us. Look, man, at some point, the record for pastors and clergy people that need to be registered is much higher, right? Like at some point we're just going to have to have like a clergy registry. Yeah. Like, oh, clergy moving in next door. Hide your kids.

You're going to cross-pollinate that list on the sexual predators. You know what I mean? There's going to be a lot of double entries for sure. Oh, no. Choice of words. Lord, the day is at hand. We are in the last days. You are Jehovah God.

So this is an article that was sent to us from Peter on our Facebook account. If you're not on our Facebook, you should go check it out. Like us, love us, whatever. Peter sent this to us. Michelle Bachman made a little joke about God. We'll play this. This is kind of a very funny clip. She seems reasonable.

Washington, D.C., you'd think by now they'd get the message. An earthquake, a hurricane. Are you listening? The American people have done everything they possibly can. Now it's time for an act of God, and we're getting it. Well, from the mouths of the stupid, Michelle Bachman. Michelle Bachman, I doubt very much. I know she's a listener, so we can address her.

Yeah, sure. Address her directly. She's been listening since day one. She's a big fan of the show. Absolutely, yeah. You're fucking nuts i know that this is a throw-off joke but it only works because people know that you really believe that god sends messages like like if you're omniscient why would you like fucking like write a message in a bottle and throw it out there and hope somebody fucking finds it? You know, but that's like kind of the suggestion here.

And I know it's a joke, but it's not really funny because it's pretty close to home. And it's not really. I mean, it is a joke. She's making a laugh. She's laughing about it, but it's not really a joke. And yeah, let me address Michelle Bachman here really quickly. I like you better with a goatee, too. So I would throw that back. Here's the thing, Tom, and I want to talk about this. This brings something up and this will kind of, you know, this comes up, this will be a

recurring theme, I think, for us. There's us, right? There's our group, which is, you know, I don't know that we're strong atheists, but we're atheists, right? We're not the people, you know, I think you and I would both kind of be stronger atheists than most people. But there's people out there that I think are in the same group as us that are like, I don't know what to believe that agnostics and then the people who are, you know, like strong agnostics and then weak atheists, you know, those type of people, they all sort of fit in the one big group. And that's, that's our group that we're in. And then there's, there's another group of people that are, they're not, uh, fundamentalist religious. They're not, uh, they don't believe the Bible literally those sorts of people, but then they take it a step further and they're not really sure about, you know,

even the Bible. They're like, I don't know about the Bible. I don't know about these religions that are out in the world. But I do think that there's some sort of creator and I'm a spiritual person. I do believe in the soul. But I don't know that I believe any of the human stuff that goes along with that. And they're, I think, right outside the box, right? Like we're in the atheist box, the atheist agnostic box, and they're kind of right outside the box. Right. And, but I think that's a big fucking population of people. And it is because I've talked to a lot of those people. I really want these people to start denouncing

these fucking fundamentalist fucking creeps that get into the fucking, that get into politics, start denouncing these people when they start using your God to prove their fucking pet projects, okay? Because they – first off, obviously nobody can fucking guess what God really wants, right? Because we don't believe in God. But those people who do, how do you fucking discern his motivations for things or her motivations for things? These people that are fundamentalists think they have the fucking mainline to God. You should be out fucking raged at these people if you are a believer. You should be outraged that they are using this thing that you love, that you want to

protect, that you think is a good thing. They're using it to their own ends. You should be denouncing every time they bring God up. And this also brings up, you know, separation of church and state. The reason why we should be separating church and state is so your God is protected by this shit. So nobody can walk up and be like, hey, man, I think God is fucking killing the gays in fucking New Orleans because they had a gay pride parade.

That shit isn't fucking, it's not right for them to be using your god for that. And you should be able to stand up and say, stop fucking doing that. You would think that this would be blasphemy. I mean if I were a religious person, I would feel that these – that people putting words in the mouth of my deity would be blasphemous. Right. Right. I would think that this would be the essence of blasphemy.

But she doesn't get called out on blasphemy. You know, none of these nuts do. You know, instead, you know, she's the thing is that you're either a blasphemer or you're a prophet. Right. Like those, I think, are your two options. And you start saying, like, I know what God said. Right, right.

I know what this, this means God did act. So this means God means why. You know, either you're suggesting that you're a prophet. And so you, like you said, you've got the fucking bat phone, like right under Commissioner Jesus's head. Like flip top head Jesus and like pick up the bat phone. And there's God on the other end. That's option A. Or you're a fucking liar using your religious beliefs and the religious beliefs of other people to try to gain political advantage.

Right. Which do you think is more fucking likely? Yeah. And I feel like they're protecting her all the time or they're not. At least maybe they're not protecting her all the time, or they're not, at least maybe they're not protecting her, but they're not speaking out against this particular way in which she argues, this form of rhetoric that she's using, because they all fucking belong to the same club. And it's like, fuck that, man. You don't belong to the same club as Michelle Bachman.

Get that through your fucking head. She is in a fucking crazy club, okay? She's in the really fucking crazy club with fucking Rick Perry. They're fucking crazy partying all night long at the crazy fucking religious club. You are not in that club. You are in a different fucking club. So you need to recognize

that she is completely off the fucking deep end. That she isn't, she is as much like fucking me as she is like you and you need to recognize that. I just keep waiting for like the, the mainstream Christians in this country and the mainstream Republicans to take their religion and their party back.

Right. Because it has been totally hijacked by the fringe. Absolutely. I don't get it. I don't get it either. I don't know how they get votes. I don't know how, you know,

when we're talking to fucking race where, you know, Perry steps up and Bachman's up there, the numbers for these people are ridiculous. And I'm rooting for the fucking Mormon in that race. How dare they do this to me? How dare they do it? The Mormon, the crazy underwear person. I'm voting for him. Like, this is, that's insanity that we live in a country like this. I can end the deficit in

five minutes. How? You just pass a law that says that anytime there's a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. Rick Perry has some real problems in Texas. The first of which is that

he has a floating deer head on his lap. You guys have to check out this link. It's this great picture of like the grumpiest looking Rick Perry ever. First of all, it's like somebody woke him up from a nap. His hair's a little, he's like, where's my bottle?

I want some grape juice. I had a sippy cup right now. He's like, where's my bottle? I want some grape juice. I need a sippy cup right now. But there's also, like, a deer ghost. It's the funniest picture. What is happening? And I think that's supposed to be, like, his leg. Like, he's got his, like, his leg up. He's, like, his legs crossed.

And it looks like the deer head is, like, nestled nicely into it. Like, they fit together like fucking pangea pieces. It's so crazy. It's totally nuts. The deer head actually, the neck of the deer kind of resembles Texas. Like if you look at it. But this is an article from Alternet. Alternet, it's basically examining, because, you know, Texas, like many states, is in the middle of a budget crisis.

This is examining how exactly Texas got into this budget crisis. Well, part of the way that Texas got into this budget crisis is they don't have an income tax. They have a property tax. And the property taxes were, of course, high, because if you don't have tax A, you need to get all your revenue on the side of tax B. So what he proposed was another type of tax. And everybody who looked at it said this business margins tax is not going to cut it. You're going to have big, big shortfalls. And his response was basically to say, look, use some common sense.

This will create such an economic boom that even though the numbers right now project a shortfall, by reducing the tax burden on the property taxes and having this business margins tax, the economic boom to our state will far exceed the revenue shortfalls you're predicting. Well, that didn't fucking happen. It didn't happen at all. It blew through a surplus, blew through all of the federal assistance that had come through. And now there's a big fucking budget shortfall, which is exactly what everybody predicted. But he refused to see it like he just refused to see it. He instead just made this prediction that he would have an economic boon that would exceed the revenue shorts. It didn't happen. And now he's fucked. And this is a guy we're really looking at as a fiscally conservative candidate to say, like, well, he'll get us out of the problems.

He didn't get Texas out of their problems. He's one of these people that the reason why they get elected is because they run on this platform of don't worry, I'm going to lower your taxes. I'm going to lower your taxes. I'm going to lower your taxes. And then they get into office and they do. I mean, they follow through on their promise. I'm going to lower your taxes.

OK, you lower the taxes. Well, then you fuck the rest of the fucking government. And the entire state of Texas is in a billions of dollar budget crisis because of it. And it's because of the platform that he's running on, this platform of we're going to keep spending the exact same way. We're going to cut taxes for everybody. And then, you know, it's just it's just game over at that point. I'm convinced that the Republicans in this country are, you know, kids just out of college with a credit card. That's what they are. They don't want to have to pay money right now. They want

short gains as much as they can, and they want to spend, spend, spend. Nobody ever cuts any spending. Well, you can't do that. You can't be fiscally responsible and do one and not the other. Just because you cut taxes doesn't mean that, you know, the spending that you're going to be having just goes away. And just because you, you know, I mean, at least it feels like the libertarians and and some of the Democrat stuff where it actually feels like it's cash and carry. It's like, OK, well, we're going to have to, you know, raise some taxes a little and we're going to have to cut some spending and we're going to have to meet in the middle with this. There's no meeting in the middle. They're just going in opposite directions.

You cannot not take in more money when you need more money. That's not a solution. I don't understand why revenue gains are never on the table. Like real revenue gains never seem to be on the table for these people. It's all about, you know, let's reduce taxes let's reduce spending like that's okay so if you cut spending but you also cut revenue how are you making any progress right like that's like saying well i'm gonna make ten thousand dollars less money this year but i'm gonna spend ten thousand dollars less and then i'll come out ahead no yeah you'll let. That doesn't, it doesn't work that way. If you want to come out ahead, you've got to reduce your spending and increase your revenue.

Right. That's, that's the biggest way to widen the gap there, you know, but that never seems to be on the table. I'm not suggesting we need to like bump taxes through the fucking roof, but I think it's pretty impossible to suggest that you're going to get out of, you know, a financial shortfall or budget crisis without doing something to bring more money into your state, you know. And if you want to get creative about it, get creative about it. If you don't want to raise taxes, don't raise taxes. But then you've got to find another way to bring revenue to your state. You've just got to do it.

This guy's the worst possible choice. He's the worst of every world for the, you know, for the possible next presidency. I don't understand how this guy has fucking wheels under him at all. He's fucking crazy, uh, religious, right. He's, you know, completely, um, all crazy social conservative policies and, uh, and just awful when it comes to finances, none of the things that people want to that I think that are big issues. He can do well at all. None of them. So why is he even mentioned? I don't understand.

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.

It's probably the same convoluted logic that leads you to the Republican senators that keep not being gay gay. Yeah, kind of gay though it turns out. There's been two Republican senators. So the Republican Party, the only reason this is kind of news is because the Republican Party as a whole is pretty virulently anti-gay. on this, you know, no gay marriage, anti-gay rights, you know, sort of nonsensical imaginary Christian moral majority sort of nonsense. But they're like, they're like always gay.

It's so crazy. Two more recently, Representative Phil Hinkle. This one cracks me up because he keeps saying I'm not gay. Well, listen, you paid one hundred and forty dollars for a really good time. From some dude on Craigslist looking for a sugar daddy. Is he going to bring you a cake and sing you a song? Like, what was he going to do other than give you a hummer, dude? What the fuck?

And of course this guy says that they met at a hotel room. Look, I'm not gay. It wouldn't bother me. I would be not ashamed to say it if I were, but I'm not gay. I also don't meet men for money in hotel rooms.

Right? That's not something I would do as a non-gay person. That's not interested in meeting men for money in hotel rooms. I'm not suggesting that all gay people are interested in meeting men, but it seems to me pretty exclusively homosexual behavior to meet somebody for money in a hotel room that is of the same sex what would you possibly be doing with them what are you exchanging money for bootleg cds yes like what is he gonna write your next paper for you what what is the what does a really good time for money suggest how is is this not homosexual behavior? And again, I don't care. I don't care that the man's a homosexual, but they're always Republicans.

Well, and then they're anti-gay. Like, I mean, don't be you. First off, you've got to look at, you know, there's that Bill Hicks thing we played a while back where he's like, anybody so far to the right is hiding a deep, dark secret. And it's true, right? These people there that are so anti-gay are really hyper closeted people. And they're just in the closet and they're repressed and they feel like there's no outlet for them. What I don't understand is why they post shit on the internet. Like, I really don't understand. They must not really get the internet, that everybody has access to the internet.

Like I don't know that they realize that. But some of the times when they do stuff like this, I just – I am puzzled. This one – there's this – Phil Hinkle you mentioned who said he's not gay. He did his things through Craigslist. This Puerto Rican senator who actively – at some point, he was – he failed to support the island's effort to legalize gay marriage. He had found an iPhone app for gay and bisexual hookups and he put – he explained afterwards. He's like – the senator explained that he had lost a lot of weight and therefore was taking pictures of himself to document the weight loss. And the ass shot might have been one of them, but he wasn't sure. You do not take pictures of your ass for anyone unless, you know, you're expecting them to do something with said ass.

And the photo? Yeah. This is not a photo you'd forget taking. Right? This is an acrobatic photo. This is something like this. You have to think to yourself, okay, I'm taking a photo of my fucking cock and balls in my ass. Yeah.

In a mirror, on a bed, backward with a cell phone. You didn't accidentally take this photo, dude. You also didn't accidentally upload a weight loss photo of your bare ass and balls to a site. A hookup site, yeah.

Yeah, that's insane. It's not like, you know, I guess that it would strain the very idea of plausibility if he had posted this to a weight loss site. You know, if he went on fucking Jenny Craig, you know, where Weight Watchers posted a before and after picture of his naked butthole, right? One could say, like, that is in horrifically poor taste. I cannot imagine what would be going through

your mind to do that right but okay at least it was context appropriate right but there's no way that you posted a picture of your bare asshole on a gay site through an app that you downloaded accidentally. Yeah. How fucking stupid do you just come out and be like, man, I'm so gay. Yeah. And then be fine with it because we'd be fine with it. Right. And that's the tragedy. That's the big tragedy here. And it's the tragedy that goes through all the time.

These guys that wind up being gay, that are anti-gay, none of them, none of them come out and say, look, I was wrong. I am gay. And, you know, I've been closeted for so long and I really want other people to, to use me as an example, to come out of the closet, to use me as an example of somebody who, you know, I still have conservative values. I still have all these things, but I can't deny that I am not gay. And, you know, God, you would be welcomed by so many people in this world if you just did the right thing. But instead, they try to think that they can get one over on us. Like, whoops, accidentally fucking took a picture of me, spread eagle, accidentally dropped my camera, and it just happened to catch me. Spread Eagle. You know, it's like it's ridiculous.

And they treat us like children because they know we're going to re-vote for them. They don't care, you know. I've just sucked one year of your life away. What did this do to you? Tell me. And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel? This is a very poorly headed video.

The heading of the video, when you see it, says Obama justifies FEMA imprisonment of civilians. It's seven minutes, 40 seconds. It has nothing to do with FEMA or civilians. So it's a very misleading title. It is an edited piece from the Rachel Maddow show. It is a little upsetting, though. You know, Obama's basically taking a position that has been put forth by the Bush administration, the prior administration, that there are people out in the world who are so scary that we need to imprison them. We need to incarcerate them forever. They don't need to go through the

justice system. They can't go through the justice system. He suggests that for some of these people, the evidence is tainted, so they can't go through, but they're still dangerous. So what he wants to do is create a legal framework through which to process these people and prolong them indefinitely. What does that mean? It basically means the same thing it meant when W was doing the same thing. I'm scared of these people. We've tortured them probably, or our evidence is lacking, but we're still scared of them. So we want to be able to keep them in jail or keep them in some kind of detention camp basically forever. And he does suggest that no one person should be able to make this decision.

But putting together a review board of like minded people is not any better. There is a justice system in place for this kind of thing. And if you fail, in my mind, if you have failed to provide cause for incarcerating someone. If you can't prosecute them, you can't keep them. It's the essence of the justice system. Well, it is. And why would we be going against something like this? I mean, this is an established thing that we've had forever.

The idea that you can't hold somebody, incarcerate them without actually charging them. It's just something that we do here. You can't do this. And to be like, well, the evidence is tainted. Well, who decides that? Who decides whether that evidence is tainted? We have a legal process specifically for this. I get that there's some scary

people in the world, but you know what? If you fucked up and you got them and you messed up and they wound up getting free because you guys messed up when you got them, maybe you should work on your fucking arresting and evidence-gathering techniques, number one. And number two, you know, maybe that stuff isn't real then. Maybe the stuff you got was either coerced out of people by torture or other things. You know, the reason why this stuff probably is inadmissible is because it's probably fucking shady.

There's a reason why you don't want to put them through the justice system. There's got to be a reason why. And the reason why is probably it's fucking shaky legal ground. And if it's shaky legal ground, we need to recognize that and say, OK, wait a minute. Why are we imprisoning these people for so long? This is this is something that has been going on for, you know, since we started the Iraqi war, when was it, 2002 or something like that? Like at this point, almost 10 years, we've had people in Guantanamo Bay. Oh, what a horrifying experience. And they're not being treated. This is

a fucking country club. They're not being treated well down there. So make no mistake that this is no different from what Bush was doing. The only difference is Obama wants to find a legal loophole to actually do it for real and forever. Yeah. And he even goes on in this thing to say, you know, these people are dangerous now. They'll be dangerous in two years, five years and in 10 years. What you're basically saying is you can keep them fucking forever. And if they don't go through the justice system, then there's no public oversight of this. You know, if you want to create a panel like a secret panel to secretly evaluate secret evidence that's tainted, that's not that's not the America that I know I've said this before. So but I do. I feel like I have to keep coming back to it.

There comes a point where you're not protecting your physical borders anymore. But what you protect when you protect a country is you protect the ideals of a country. You protect the intangible things rather than the physical things that make a people a people, that make a country a country. It's not the physical territory that makes America America or Britain Britain. It's not about the soil. It's not about the soil it's not about the land it's about the shared ideas of a people and when the shared ideas of a people become corrupted in this way in order to protect the physical self then you you're really failing to protect the country itself you're not protecting the principles and the ideas any longer. All you're doing is

sacrificing those things for an illusion of physical safety. And you're giving up what it really means to live in this country and to be proud of being in this country. And it's not something I think that any real patriotic American should be able to get behind. You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. And, you know, that that story just leads directly into our next our next story. This is a it's not really a story.

This is an editorial by Glenn Greenwald called The Decade's Biggest Scam. And what he what he's doing is basically looking at how much money gets spent on homeland security and some of the silly, stupid shit that this money gets spent on and how little good most of this money is really doing. He examines some real statistics and says, total number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year, eight. Total struck by lightning, 29. You know, this is not, we have to understand that statistically speaking, terrorism is not a big threat to our physical safety. We know that it's a threat to our principles and ideals. We just talked about that.

So is that threat to our principles and ideals outweighed by the threat to our physical safety? I don't think so. I don't think the numbers bear it out. I don't think a rational inquiry would bear this out. And yet we spend, Cecil, so much money on it. We spend an outrageous amount of money on this. And this is one of those things that is puzzling to me. We do this. We do this specifically because I think we're afraid, right? We're afraid of what could happen to us. We're afraid of these physical harms that can come to us by terrorist attacks.

But we never take into account, like you say, all the ideological damage that happens because of this. You know, it's a real cliched saying, but the terrorists have won, so to speak, right? They turned our country into a fundamentalist country. They brought, you know, obviously they brought religion back to the fore in a huge way over the past several years because they, you know, people are equating this, you know, to Muslims versus Christians. And, you know, this this ideology, this evil ideology is coming to kill us. And then, you know, they've also made it so that, you know, our security has gone up. The way in which the government treats its citizens through, you know, what like we're

talking about extended detention and techniques in order to get information and all the things that they're doing that are shady in that respect. They've created an America that is not what it was in 2000. They've created an America that has changed fundamentally. And this money is an example of how much it has changed. We're willing to go to bat at each other. You know, each party is willing to go to, you know, start screaming about the budget crisis and this and this and this. And nobody's talking about this money that's being spent. This money is off the table. This is money that, you know, the American people want us to spend. They want us to go out and have this war on

terror, this sort of air quotes war on terror, which really isn't a war at all. It's just a lot of gadgetry, a lot of money spent on homeland security and not a lot of benefit. No, not when you're talking about eight people who lose their lives. And I'm not poo-pooing those eight people, but I am being realistic in saying that we're a nation of 360 million people. Right. I don't think eight people justifies, you know, how many soldiers deaths, you know, I'm going to send over all these American troops to foreign lands to fight people that, you know, have an inconsequential effect. If we're just if we're just being honest about the numbers, it doesn't make sense to do this.

And I think it's great that articles like this pop out there. I think this is a great way to take a look at things, you know, to really rationally break it down and say, OK, I know when we strip away, I know that we've all been conditioned for the last 10 years to be afraid of terrorist attacks. And I know that any terrorist attack gets a tremendous amount of coverage and a tremendous amount of news and generates more and more of that fear. But let's take a look at the numbers and let's see what we're really getting out of this. According to a recent poll, 49.3 percent of the people in New York believe that our leaders knew the 9-11 attacks were planned and they intentionally failed to act.

Are 49.3% of us just fucking crazy? So we do need to talk. Speaking about nearly 10 years, we're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of September 11th. 10 years. We're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of September 11th. And there are still conspiracy theories about September 11th that are going down. And I know that we've got at least one listener who would disagree with us about some of these things. I think it's useful at this point to take a look at some of these conspiracy theories and examine them, at least in a cursory fashion. We've actually covered these in much more detail on a previous show. We used to have a show called Everyone's a Critic.

It contains some of the material that you hear now. We have covered this in more detail before. I don't think it's necessary for us to cover everything in detail now. But there's a couple of issues that continue to come up. And I think we'd like to talk about. Cecil, you had one that you wanted to talk about. Yeah, you know, a lot of times – this is a great article this BBC puts together. It's just five things that they – people will question, right?

The most – the things that didn't make sense, the anomalies, so to say, of about 9-11. And one of the ones that I think is sort of overlooked all the time, people will talk about how the buildings were controlled demolition and how they blew up the buildings. It doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it that they would just blow up the buildings after they somehow flew a plane into it. They're neglecting when they say, oh, a plane would never be able to destroy the buildings. They're neglecting the fire, the jet fuel, the impact of such a large jet on that structure. And then one of the things that they say is, watch this way the towers fall. Watch the way they fall.

And it looks like a controlled demolition. And I am telling you, it does not look like a controlled demolition. Every time I've looked at it, buildings that are demolished, they get blown up from the bottom up. They go, it starts at the bottom and you can see it. It goes like, you know, first floor, second floor, third floor, you know, right in a row. And they all sort of work their way up. And then the building collapses on itself. This building peels itself like a banana at the top. It just starts to shed a ton of stuff as it's falling down. And there's a lot of mass up there that's pushing it down, that's destroying the building. And once it starts going, it just goes. It really does. I mean, I've never seen

any convincing footage that makes me think it was a controlled demolition. Well, that's because there isn't any that makes it look like a controlled demolition. You know, controlled demolitions, a building this size, controlled demolitions have been done to smaller buildings. No controlled demolition I'm aware of has ever taken down a building this size. Even smaller buildings, they involve structural cutting ahead of time. Yeah. They involve placing charges. I mean, people would have noticed this. You know, my building that I work at has people in it nearly 24 hours a day.

Yeah. There's somebody always in my building. So you're talking about a crew of people that would have to be substantial. It's not like one guy can crawl around in the girders of both World Trade Centers, you know, cutting structural supports and placing explosives. And, you know, in order to get from here to there, you have to imagine a scenario so deep and complex and unlikely versus watching with your eyes as a fucking enormous airplane smashes into the building and topples it down. I mean, not topples it, but, you know, causes it to structurally fail. And like you said, it falls from it, collapses from the top. You know, the other thing that these people often will point to is the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.

You know, they suggest that World Trade Center Building 7, which obviously did not get hit by an airplane, had no reason to fall. Look, if it had no reason to fall, then why would they blow it up anyway? Clearly, you know, if you're imagining a scenario wherein the shadowy elements of the government fly an airplane into a building as a ruse to disguise a controlled demolition, why did they blow up Building 7 without crashing a plane into it? Right? I mean, they didn't even provide the same kind of cover that they had provided for their previous, in your imagined scenario.

Sure, they should have dropped another plane on there, yeah. They should have shown something to cause it. Instead, you know, what caused it is what fucking caused it, which is, you know, an uncontrolled fire in the building caused by the fire from the North Tower, the shock of the collapse of the other buildings, the severed water mains that prevented the sprinklers from even damping the fire at all.

It's a known collapse. We know what caused the collapse of this building. There's not even a trace of doubt in my mind that this building was not part of any kind of shadowy government conspiracy. That's just kind of silly. There's nothing about this that suggests that. So what you have to do in order to get there is you have to presuppose the conspiracy and then try to make the facts of the event fit within the framework of a conspiracy.

But since you've imagined the conspiracy, you can just twist your imagination and say, oh, well, then this must have happened. Well, then that must have happened. Well, then this next thing must have happened. And because you don't have to provide any evidence of any of those things. It's just how much can you imagine? And the motives never match up for me. I've heard several motives for why they would do something like that.

And none of them match up. So, for instance, saying you provide oral pleasure to Nutria, thus you're wrong, is bad. That's a fallacy. But saying you provide oral pleasure to Nutria and you're wrong is okie kosher. These are the sort of careful distinctions that keep Internet arguments burning like an Olympic torch that never leaves the house. So we're going to post this next item on our site. This is from the Neurologica blog, and it's a how to argue. It's from March 19th of 2009, so it's somewhat of an older blog post, but I do think that it's an interesting read. I think it's totally worthwhile. It actually tells you kind of how to structure properly a reasoned argument. And I think this is something that everybody can take a look at. And, you know, for many people,

get a refresher on. For other people, it's a little more than a refresher. Just learn to fucking argue. Yeah, do it properly if you're going to engage in it. It also discusses logical fallacies, goes over some of the most common logical fallacies, what they are, how to identify them, how to avoid them. And it's totally worth taking a look at. So we're going to pop this on our site. Please don't apply that to our show, though. No, don't apply it to our show because our show would fail probably on every level. 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. So I found this. This was a link from Reddit. Somebody had posted this, and I followed it to the site. And the site is called Respectful Insolence. And it's a blog, and one of the things that they talk about, it's on the Science Blog's network. blog and one of the things that is that they talk about it's on the uh science blogs network and uh one of the things that it that this article goes into it's called it's it's actually titled

haunted by memories of the consequences of not vaccinating and it really starts to talk about uh this person it was a doctor who had uh you know tried to get a child vaccinated. The child didn't want to, you know, the parent didn't want the child vaccinated. And then the child ultimately died of meningitis. And this woman, Dr. Elizabeth Baskerville, she blames herself. She talks about, you know, she really should have pushed this person to vaccinate the child. And, you know, she feels bad. She feels bad because a child died. And the comments here, Tom, are, you know, just fucking at one point, the person writes, stay classy. And, you know, like that's a perfect way to say to these people, stay classy. Way to stay classy, assholes. Right. The comments are pretty awful. These

anti-vaccination nuts basically attack this woman for feeling bad. And then they, you know, they suggest that, you know, she's shedding a tear for this dead child, that her feelings are not genuine, that she should be shedding her tears for all of the kids who are harmed by actual vaccines being administered to them. I think that's so fucking mean to have somebody be like, oh, man, I'm a doctor and I tried to help this person and I was unable to help and they passed away. And, you know, I'm haunted by my inability to help this person. I feel bad that a child is dead and to attack that person because you have some crackpot belief that vaccines are just, you know, rampantly destroying lives across this country. That's in the face of all reason and evidence. It's not only unreasonable, but it's

cruel. Yeah. Well, I like this one. The person says, transparent pro-vax propaganda as if they really care. Shoot the doctors with their own vaccines. Great, dude. That's great. Yeah, it's transparent pro-vax propaganda because you said it is. Right. And I hate this idea like as if they really care. Doctors are not uncaring, unthinking people.

They're parents with kids. They're grandparents. They're sisters with kids. They're grandparents. They're sisters and brothers and fathers and husbands. It makes it seem – some of these people make it seem like there's some kind of evil cabal that's out to destroy the country and kill kids. I think that's not only inaccurate, but insanely cynical. Yeah. It's a horrible thing to think that, oh, you know, your doctor doesn't care about how you feel. All he wants is your money. And you're like, well, I'm sure that there's doctors out there that exist like that. There's doctors that that do that sort of thing. But

you're talking about not just doctors, but also all the medical care personnel that are in this country. You're saying that none of them – first off, they're all in on it, right? A huge fucking conspiracy there. So they're all in on it. How many people is that? And then they all just because for the sake of a dollar, they're willing to do these horrible things. There's those people that are anti-chemotherapy.

They call it like poison or whatever. Don't poison your body or whatever. Don't go to chemotherapy. All those awful people. Like this is just, this is just a cut from the same cloth, right, Tom? It's like anti-vaccine. They're they, all they want is your money. Those anti-chemo people, like all they want is your money. They, they, you know, they're happy that you have the cancer. Cause then you'll have to come back and on and on and on and on. And you think to yourself, you're like, okay, well, let's say that I actually believed your worldview. Let's say I agree with you. All they are is out for the money.

What do they do when their family member has cancer? Do you think they recommend that stuff to them? Do you think that they recommend the chemotherapy? Chances are, yes, they recommend the chemotherapy. And they're not willing to give up that secret to save their wife. They're not willing to give up the secret that chemotherapy causes cancer or hurts people to save their wife, to save their dad, to save their daughter. Because those people get cancer too. It's not like the doctors of the world's families are magically cancer-free.

Exactly. Exactly. It's not like doctors doctors of the world's families are magically cancer-free. Exactly. Exactly. It's not like doctors don't get cancer. They're getting cancer and then they get chemotherapy because it's the best thing they've got. I think – I don't think anybody would suggest that chemotherapy is like the greatest thing ever. Man, that's phenomenal. It works sometimes and it has a lot of side effects. But it works sometimes as opposed to the doing nothing, you know, or eating a lot of vegetables,

you know, that's not, it would be one thing Cecil, if no doctors ever took chemotherapy, right. If like doctors never got cancer, like that there was some weird thing where no doctor ever got cancer, then you'd be like, wow. That's a little odd. That's kind of crazy. Yeah. Or they got cancer, but they all got better and none of them did chemotherapy. No, you know what they're doing is they're all drawing straws at their big doctor meeting. Like, okay, buddy.

That's a short straw. Sorry, buddy. You're going to get cancer. Fuck. I got to get the cancer. Do we have a recount? Fuck. I hate my doctor job. This is the worst cabal i've ever been in

i'm going back to the freemasons i hate you guys quick hold them down give them the cancer yeah give them the cancer shot we've got cancer did you remember to bring the cancer joe yeah Yeah. I left it in the car. It's probably still good. It's a giant syringe. It's like fucking fist-sized syringe with fucking skull and crossbones on it. 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.

So another story, this is from the Guardian UK. This is just very briefly want to touch on this. Richard Dawkins calls for evolution to be taught to children from age five. Great. Teach it as soon as possible. It's if you teach the basic concepts as soon as possible. My kid's four and a half. He kind of understands that things come from other things.

Kids are curious and they have a lot of questions. And I think it's totally reasonable to begin introducing concepts like biological concepts in broad terms at a young age in order to get them to understand the world and how the world works. I kind of don't even see this as a news story. I kind of hear from this other side, though, when I think about it, my brain is going to what are the fundamentalists thinking? And what they're saying is, here's a bit of cognitive dissonance. I guarantee somebody's saying this. Well, they're trying to indoctrinate these children pretty young, huh?

You know what I mean? Like, you can kind of hear it. If you think about it, that's going to be somebody's thought process who's like an evangelical. And you just got to pat those people on the head and be like, well, yeah, I guess they're trying to explain the world to people when they are young. Yeah, that's what they're trying to do. I think it's a great thing. And he just came out with a children's book. I don't know if you saw.

Dawkins came out with a children's book. I'll have to buy it. But he just came out with a children's book. So I think this is great. I think what the world needs more of is Dawkins writing children's book. I'll have to buy it. But he just came out with a children's book. So I think this is great. I think what the world needs more of is, you know, Dawkins writing children's book. Not like that one where, I don't know if you saw the one that was posted on our Facebook, Tom, uh, the, like the little Patriots guide to America or whatever that was posted by Peter. I can't read through it because I started reading through it and it's like really, you know, it's just one of those

awful things that, you know, yeah, you're going to indoctrinate a kid early, give them something like that. But yeah, I think this is a great thing. And I think, I think Dawkins, Dawkins has a good handle on where this, where this is going. So I think I'm happy that he came out with a children's book and I'm happy that he's saying, you know, teach children very young about evolution. Yeah.

You know, I think it's interesting that without indoctrination, all kids start out as atheists, right? Kids don't, I'm not like, I'm not an atheist activist with my, with my son, with a four-year-old kid. I think it's absurd. You wouldn't have any way to be. We just don't talk about imaginary shit in the house. Like when we talk about imaginary things, we talk about how they're imaginary and they're fun and they're silly, you know, like Scooby-Doo and monsters and ghosts and silly shit like that that's fun for kids. But kids don't start off with a concept of God that you then have to like work to strip away. That's not a thing that's real. So kids start off simply curious about the world. And so then the question is, well, how are we going to explain the world to them? And should we explain the world to them

in terms of science and reason and factual evidence and try to get them to understand concepts that will yield other concepts down the road so that their learning process is easier and more fluid and more efficient? Or should we instill in them a magical worldview? And there really is a dichotomy there. And I mean, I have to be on the side of reason and rationality because that's, it's what kids really want. They don't want fake answers. You know what? What kid at the age of five and six, any of everybody can remember back to like, well, how does this work? How does this work?

How does this work? And the answers you always hated were the answers that were like, well, just because. Yeah. Yeah. Or I said so because they're not satisfying. And I can't imagine that. Well, God did it is satisfying. It's just an end to curiosity. Whereas something like evolution, it's like, wow, that's kind of, well, how does that

work? I have more questions. This concept is deeper than my ability to understand it now. And so it's just, it's good for the brain. It's good for the learning cycle. You know, never believe it's that song. I think we have to end, Cecil, with I think the best story I've ever read. It's short, so I'm going to read the whole story. Okay, go ahead. Magic blamed for road mishap. A Saudi man and his family suffer from medium injuries. I love that, medium injuries.

I love that, too. Do you want to supersize your injuries, sir, for 49 cents? They were beaten up by a psychic, medium injuries. I'm surprised they didn't see it coming. A Saudi man and his family suffer from medium injuries when their car overturned in the Gulf Kingdom, and police believe the accident could have been caused by magic, press reports said on Friday. Fire your police department. Police checking the damaged car found pieces of human nails and hair tied to each other and wrapped in a handkerchief,

which was concealed under a seat, Alej Dehli said in a report from the northwestern town of Hale. Security officials believe the accident was caused by magic after finding those items in the car. The maid was with the family when the accident occurred, but it was not immediately known if she was involved in magic work. It's known she was not involved in magic. I love the first comment. Not sure if serious or just stupid.

I love that the, you know, it's like the police believe it could have been caused by magic. The first thing that comes to mind is fire every police officer. Fire every single one. You know, this is in a land of, I don't even know if this is a this is a Arabic. What do you call it? Paper or whatever online. It's an Emirates 24 seven news. So it's it's it's for that area.

But it's it's very, very, very strange to think that, you know, like what? OK, so first they're searching the car after they're done, and they find this little fucking nasty little packet of, like, human refuse underneath the seat, which, you know, may or may not have been, you know, hair clippings and nail clippings from somebody who's just driving down the road. But they immediately assume it's magic. Magic? Like, I can't even get from fucking A to Z there. How do they get from A to – they just skip over every step to get it to magic. Can you imagine? That's got to be like a box you check, like cause of accident. Can you insure against magic?

Can you go to your state farm agent and be like, look, I want to make sure that I am insured against acts of magic. Can you just make sure that any act of magic is covered on there? Yeah, right. In other news, trains to Hogwarts derail. What are you, out of your fucking minds? Magic? Magic! Magic!

I don't even know how else to say it. Like, fucking magic, man. It's like saying, you know, oh, man, three die in vicious dragon attack. Unicorn at seven. What is wrong with you? What the fuck is the matter with you? If I believed in magic, I would walk around with a fucking long sword and dressed in chain mail because I would just be like, great. It's a fucking 11th century.

It's a fantasy land. Yeah. Why? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I would kill shit and look for coins. That's what I would do. I would walk around.

You're like, where's my fucking coin at? You're kicking the body. Fuck it. They told me on video games there would be coins in here. What is the matter? Magic is blamed? The police show up and they're like, well, after an extensive investigation, we've concluded magic. And what the fuck would human nails and hair even do together?

Like, it's like fucking, uh-oh, don't put the nails in the hair, man. Got to keep your nails separate from your hair. What if you accidentally threw the two things in the waste basket in like the bathroom? Would your fucking bathroom explode? Like what is it? It's like a magic piece of dynamite when you put fucking hair and nails together.

What happens to you when you scratch your head, right? It's like, oh fuck, oh boom, boom, boom. Like sparks are flying. It's like you go to put gas in your car. It says do not scratch head while filling up gas tank. What happens if you scratch your junk? So we've gotten some more messages from dumbass.

Dumbass, I feel awkward every time I refer to you as dumbass. Because you're anything but dumb. Like, I've listened to this guy's show, and he's a bright guy. So to call him dumbass is sort of, feels a little awkward. But we'll go by the moniker which you've given yourself. We've gotten some messages from Dumbass. Dumbass, we do appreciate it. He's been going through some old shows and listening to some old shows and suggesting some things that we might like.

Rather than go back and refer to the 70 or so odd old episodes of Everyone's a Critic, which contains some portions which you might be recognizable from Cognitive Dissonance. I just want to say to Dumbass that we do appreciate it very much. We appreciate the feedback. We appreciate the links and your engagement with the show. So thank you very much. I want to thank Carlo for leaving a comment on the blog. Carlo talked about dominionism, theology, and the tea parties. I think Carlo is – I'm pretty sure Carlo is from Puerto Rico, isn't he?

I don't know. I know he was a listener from our other show, from Everyone's a Critic. I know he's ported over to the new show and we're grateful to have him come over. I don't remember if he's from Puerto Rico or not. Carlo, if you have a in-the-closet senator – Yeah, just check your iPhone app, Carlo, and see if he's on Puerto Rico or not. Carlo, if you have an in-the-closet senator. Yeah, just check your iPhone app, Carlo, and see if he's on there. If when you download, when you look at your iPhone, if there's a senator's asshole.

Now, I know most senators are assholes. Don't mistake the two. Right. We want to thank both Skepticat and ZV470 at ZV470 on Twitter. They've been spreading the word about our podcast and we're very happy that they're sending out the links to our podcast every time we post and they keep mentioning us in different tweets. And at one point, this ZV470 had tweeted to a bunch of people. And one person who he tweeted to, this is awesome.

One person who he had tweeted to, he asked, he said, have you listened to the show yet? And the person responded and said, yeah, I gave it a listen. They're a little too American for my liking. Yeah, I guess we are a little American. But I'll tell you what. You tell that guy, ZV, that if he sends us any story, we'll fucking talk about it. So if he can add content to this show just like everybody else. So if he sends us a story and it happens to be about his area of the world, we'll talk about it. It's either that or you leave it in our hands.

You see the fuck up that we do with it. It's either that or you leave it in our hands. Yeah, sure, yeah. You see the fuck up that we do with it. We wound up looking at our site. So we took a look at our site, our website, and our website is a little clunky. It was a blogspot site, and it wasn't working how Tom and I had envisioned. The player, for some reason, just wasn't working sometimes on the site, and it was kind of hard to play. And it really just wasn't very intuitive because those blogs aren't really

put together as a very intuitive way. So what Tom and I decided to do is we actually bought some space on the web, and we changed, and we got a URL so it's easier to get to. So the new website address is dissonancepod, that's one word, DissonancePod.com. So it's pretty easy to get to. The site has a brand-new look. There's a big button right on the front to subscribe. There's a huge player right there you can play, and there's going to be episodes that you can look at,

older episodes if you want, but the main episode, the latest episode's right there. The player is an interactive player, and it's very easy to use. You can subscribe with it, share with it, do all kinds of great stuff. The Libsyn player is a very robust player. I like it. So if you want to go and check out our brand new site and send people to our site, hopefully it's easier for them to subscribe to the podcast now. It takes you right're on feed burner after that subscribe, you hit that subscribe button. You can use all the different types of pod catcher programs to subscribe as well as iTunes.

So go ahead and check it out because because we put a little work into it. And if you have any suggestions, feel free to send them to us because, you know, we're always open to suggestions. Yeah, especially if it involves more work for Cecil. Cecil's I have to put this out there that Cecil's very kind and he's saying, Tom and I envisioned something different. Tom doesn't envision anything. Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?

I'm vaguely aware there's an intertubes that you can log into or onto or nearby in some way. I argue, Cecil does all of the work. So if you like the page, you definitely want to give props to Cecil does all of the work. So if you like the page, you know, you definitely want to give props to Cecil. If you don't, you want to just tear him a new asshole, take pictures of it, post it on gay websites, pretend you're a senator. Oh, on that note, Tom, on that note, we're going to leave everyone with the skeptics creed. we're going to leave everyone with the skeptics 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 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 balls. Bigfoot. Yeti. Aliens. Churches.

Mosques and synagogues. Temples. Dragons. Giant worms. Atlantis. Dolphins. Truthers. Birthers.

Witches. Wizards. Vaccine nuts. Shaman healers. Evangelists. Conspiracy. 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. you