Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 71: Milk Mustache

Episode Date: October 28, 2012

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Want to stream Cognitive Dissonance to your Android or iPhone? Buy the app! Go to DissonancePod.com and click on the link on the right-hand side of the page. Each purchase helps support the show. God has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, and we wonder why we're suffering economically, why we're suffering politically, why we're suffering the moral decay? And now

as one of the early speakers said, they want to take away that natural union between a man and a woman that calls family. Satan is out to destroy everything that God has created. He has convinced us that we have a right somehow to take away the life within us. Now He's convincing many in our land that they can form a marriage between the same gender. My health, God must be sad about this. He has a controversy with the inhabitants of this land.

And until we reject those evils, we shall suffer accordingly. Our glory shall be turned into shame in this country. And we will continue to suffer because of moral decay. 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. skeptical it's political and there is no welcome matt there is however cecil an awesome story from right wing watch on this episode 71 phoning it in i was debating whether to call this phoning it in or going through the motions but i think phoning it is better because we literally do phone it in. We do. We do. We Skype it in, I guess. So Right Wing Watch has a great story from, this is a story about Moore, Roy Moore. He's also frequently known as a Ten Commandments judge.

Nice. And he's got some awesome things to say about God and America and how God feels sad. He's so sad, Cecil. He's sad. Somebody needs to just come up to God and give him a great big hug, maybe a pat on the back and like rub his arm gently, you know, look him right in the eye and tell him it's going to be okay. I love how slow he says that too.

My, how sad God must be. Like you couldn't think of a more eloquent way to say that, you dumb fuck. And, I mean, really, this guy is a hillbilly. He is truly, he's just like, he's a pig in a soup. Yeah, oh yeah. You know, he's fooling nobody. Like, he stands in front of the microphone, and he's oinking,

but everyone's just thinking about bacon. There's no way to take this guy seriously. You can't, you're like, all right you you fucking you power wash the mud off this motherfucker but come fucking on really this is a guy who says the same thing he says something awesome like uh you know satan is trying to destroy everything god built well didn't god build satan it's just confusing right right? Satan is on a huge path to self-destruction. You just don't know. He's like, he's like an angsty teenage girl who's like cutting himself, you know, like

listening to, listening to like overly emotionally sad music. Now God is punishing America for the sins of abortion and gay marriage. you know, aren't we doing other things that I think are against God's law that he should be punishing us for? I mean, why is he just choosing those two things? Well, specifically, I think because Jesus never mentions gay marriage or homosexuality. So that's got to be big on his. See, what a lot of people don't understand is that if Jesus doesn't mention it, that actually means it's more important.

Right, right. Well, they do mention abortion in the Bible. It's in the book of coat hangers. The book of coat hangers. That's terrible. That's terrible. You know, like God curses a fig tree at some point. Yeah, yeah.

Which is why we have Fig Newtons. Yes. Right? That's, Fig Newtons are our way, like that's a way we can remind ourselves. Right? That's – Fig Newtons are our way – that's a way we can remind ourselves that Jesus is – Hates figs. He gets angry too. God hates figs. They're little bite-sized anger buckets.

Look, we just want a little shortbread, a little fig. That's all we want here. Yeah. It's so funny too because everybody who's listening who's not from America is like, Fig Newton? What the fuck is that? What the fuck's a fig? I'm thinking, fig?

What the fuck? What are you fucking eating over there? Fucking weirdos? This guy is making Alabama look bad. I know, man. When Alabama is kind of like, hey, hey, hey, hey, stop. Just stop, okay? I know we go fishing for catfish in the mud with our hands.

Look, I fucking understand. But just stop, please. Can you do you have no shame, sir? Is he wearing a whole flag, by the way, as a lapel pin? I hope so. Because it looks like it in this video. The whole fucking flag, like one of those mini flags. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Appears to be his entire, like his lapel pin. He says in this that, quote, that God has a controversy with the inhabitants of this land. How do you have a controversy with the inhabitants

of people? You can be embroiled in a controversy. But how do you just have a controversy? Like, hey, Cecil, did you remember to bring your controversy? No? Because that's not something you could just have? You can't have a controversy. You know what? I think the worst part of this, Tom, the worst part of this entire thing that he's saying

is that it's passing the buck. You're saying we're being punished for these two things by some made up God, two things that are perfectly within, you know, which should be perfectly within our rights. Certainly should be a human right for both of those things to happen, gay marriage and abortion. And you're saying, you know what, I'm going to make up some God. We're going to make up some God that makes that bad. Can't do that. And I'm going to pass the buck on all the bad shit that we've done in the past eight years, ten years, whatever.

All the stuff that all the legislation we passed, all the fucking, the times that we could have helped somebody and we didn't, all the times that we sided with big business instead of with the people, all the times that we bailed out banks instead of helping the American people in some way. That's all, who cares about that? None of the decisions we made to put us in this fucking predicament that we're in,

this bad predicament that we're in, how we are suffering accordingly, so to speak, none of that matters. None of the decisions we made matter. It's only God's will that matters. That is a ridiculous, stupid, and hurtful world. Well, it's a smokescreen issue, right? I mean, it's just like pay no attention to the man behind the mirror sort of shit. Right. I mean, it's just like pay no attention to the man behind the mirror sort of shit. Right. As long as we can get you worked up about, you know, God being mad at you, then you're absolutely right.

If God's mad at me, I'm fucked. Soon as God's mad at you, just like I got no chance here. You know, like you said, never mind that you guys didn't pass any usable legislation that got us out of this mess. Like, never mind that. Like, Alabama is not exactly crawling with tech sector jobs. No kidding, right? You know, like, that's not the problem. That's that, you know, never mind any of these real world solutions. It's that, you know, God's mad about abortion.

So focus, people, focus. It is altogether right to discriminate against homosexual behavior. This next story is from the new civil rights movement dot com. Romney hospital visitation for gay couples are benefits, not rights. Cecil, you and I talked about this story a little bit before the show and you had some you had some thoughts about this. Yeah, I've got to say that of the things that, you know, I'm not a fucking Mitt Romney fan. And I know you, Tom. I know that you've been paying attention to the debates.

I watched the debates the other night. I love that Romney wants to make sure that we're still producing as many buggy whips as we can. I love the idea that we have fewer boats now. We need more boats. I just thought of your buggy whip comment. I love the idea that we have fewer boats now. We need more boats. I just thought of your buggy whip comment. You know, you're just like, yeah, fuck, and we also have fewer fucking horses, dude.

There's a reason why we, you know, we fucking move forward with technology here. But this, you know, there's a lot of things that Romney says that I'm just not, I mean, I can't get behind. You know what I mean? Obviously he's going to have one or two points that I agree with. And there's a lot of stuff that he agrees with Obama on, too, evidently. But one of the things that I think makes me really, really leery of him as somebody who's in charge of this country is that he has a anti-gay agenda that he is willing to unleash on this country.

The Mormons hate gays. They want to make sure that gays are selected out, they're segregated against. I don't think that this is a secret. They were one of the major backers for Proposition 8. Absolutely. So, you know, this is not a secret. It's not like the Mormon church is hiding something from us.

They hate homosexuals. They hate the idea of homosexuals. Absolutely. So, you know, this is not a secret. It's not like the Mormon church is hiding something from us. They hate homosexuals. They hate the idea of homosexuals. So this is just going to be an extension if he gets in office. The Mormon church, he's going to do a lot of things by extension for them. People who are in a committed relationship, married or have that sort of union, civil union like we talked about before. Some states don't allow for homosexual marriage, but they allow for civil unions. He won't let those people visit their loved ones in the hospital. The hospital benefit is probably one of the most important things about marriage equality.

I think that, you know, it's all fine and dandy to talk about, oh, well, I want to get married. I want to show people I love this person. I want to, you know, live my life with this person. Yes, that's all great. You can do all that without actually getting married. without actually getting married. But the most important thing, and the thing that we almost always forget,

is that it's all about death benefits. It's all about insurance benefits. It's about real life issues that come up, the problems that happen while you're married. My wife gets into a car accident, and nobody, you know, you can't even get in to see her because, you know, they're only letting in close family. If I was her boyfriend, maybe I couldn't get in, but it's my wife, I can get in there. Well, you know, what if you're gay? Well, now maybe you can't get in there. You won't have the same rights that other people have, the exact same rights that everybody else has if

they're married. And I think that, you know, we are looking at, if he gets into office, we are looking at the rolling back of homosexual rights that have been so slow gaining over the past four years. You know, you're going to roll them back farther than they were during the Bush administration. You know, I think you hit the nail on the head when you were talking about it's the real world issues. And one of the things that comes to mind when we're thinking about this is, you know, end of life decisions. You know, who gets to decide when to pull the plug, so to speak? Or, you know, literally, I mean, who gets to decide when to pull the plug or, you know, can sign you into a home or can do a lot of the things, you know, because one of the one of the particular challenges that gay couples have is that many, many of them are not going to have children. Of course, heterosexual

couples don't have to have children and some gay couples do have children. But by and large, homosexual couples are less likely to have children. So they're less likely to have somebody to help sort of make those decisions and guide them through the end stages of their life. As that happens, it's your partner who's going to be on your side. You know, it's your partner who's part of your team. And if your partner is not legally recognized to help you make those decisions, you're kind of shit out of luck. And now it's not just disenfranchising, youranchising the party who wants to visit you in the hospital, but the person who's no longer able to think and act and behave for themselves doesn't get the benefit of the years that they spent with their partner coming up with and talking about these things and deciding how they want to go out of this world. You know, like those are big issues. And this idea that Romney can come up to us and say, well, we'll let the states decide because those are benefits and not rights.

That really calls into question this idea of, you know, what does Romney think our rights are? You know, because the difference between a benefit and a right is a benefit can be taken away. A benefit's a privilege. You know, we don't want to use that word because it sounds, you know, because the difference between a benefit and a right is a benefit can be taken away. A benefit's a privilege. You know, we don't want to use that word because it sounds, you know, iffy. But a benefit is a privilege, right? My driver's license.

I'm licensed by the state to drive a car. That's not a right that I have. That's a privilege that I have. The state extends to me a license because I perform certain actions and pay a certain fee. But they can take that away from me at any time for a variety of reasons. So that's not a right that I have, but my rights cannot be taken from me because they are rights. The government can't infringe upon them. That's the definitional nature of a right. So to move the conversation away from, you know, talking about these things as basic rights and moving them into the privilege category makes them subject to attack. And as soon as you

do that, you can just see that agenda. And I can't think, I mean, like, that's big government. Like, anytime government wants to reduce your rights and tell you what, you know, well, this is a privilege and we can extend it to you or take and tell you what, you know, well, this is a privilege and we can extend it to you or take it from you at our discretion. Yeah. Well, and Tom, it's even worse than what you say too, because there's, you know, you say that end of life decisions get sometimes made by children. He wants to take that right away too, by allowing states to decide whether homosexual union people that are in homosexual unions and homosexuals can adopt. That's outrageous.

I mean, that is outrageous. That is one of those things that makes me want to strangle the guy. I can't believe you would say so. I can't believe, you know, because what he's saying is he's like, I want to leave it up to the states. But what that's really saying is, hey, red states, hey, any bigot states out there, look, I'm a great candidate for you. Because if you vote for me, I'll let you go through with any bigot policies you want because I'm going to make it a state right. And the idea that you would punish children who need homes. punish children who need homes.

You're so anti-gay that you want to say, I want to reduce the pool of people who are willing to take into their lives and love a child who needs parents. I want to reduce that pool. I fucking hate gays so much that it extends to hating children.

I hate children now. I hate gays so much it bleeds over into at-risk vulnerable kids. I would much rather see them grow up orphans. Right. That's exactly what you're saying. I would much rather see them raised in a two-parent household. Now, they're the same sex, but I'd much rather see them raised by the state or by the charitable organization that is raising them as an orphan than to see them go to a gay home.

You're a despicable human being. And how does it work, too? It's like I hate big government, but the government can do a better job raising those kids. The state is better. Those kids are better off raised by the state, by the government. They are better served than in a loving home if that home is better. Those kids are better off raised by the state, by the government. They are better served than in a loving home. If that home is gay. 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. We work hard.

We play hard. See, so this is from the Friendly Atheist blog. It's a milk carton. I don't even know how to say this. It's a milk carton with a farmer and a cow. And there's a rainbow. And evidently the rainbow has become such a ubiquitous symbol of homosexual pride that putting it on a milk carton has upset the nut groups in Russia

who are anti-gay. Fucking prisms at this point. Fucking Roy G. Biv is gay. Yeah, I know. You know, the thing is, Tom, is that they have a point. Because I was listening to the radio the other day, and they played Dancing Queen on a station. I immediately knew it was a gay station. It's a gay station.

If you play Dancing Queen, you're a gay station. You play any ABBA song, immediately gay. The entire station is gay. The management is gay. I mean, I think that this is how you need to judge everything in life. You see a guy wearing a pink shirt? Gay. Gay. Just gay. No matter what, gay. Doesn't matter.

Skinny jeans? Skinny, gay. Totally, totally gay. Girl with short hair? Gay. Yeah, absolutely. Totally gay. And it's important to make sure that we react as viscerally as possible to our fears about the presence of homosexuals because that doesn't make us look crazy. Oh, no, not at all. At all. Like when you look at a milk carton, you're like, oh, it's gay milk.

It doesn't make a body gay. It does, though. it's not fortified with vitamin gay i love that i love that like a kid sitting there he's just like father i would like some milk like yeah sure here's your milk oh that's very that's that's fabulous it doesn't like he doesn't fucking go into a musical mode you. He doesn't start singing his way to school. It's just milk, man. What the fuck? It's like a happy cow and a dude in a chef's hat. I know.

But they're probably upset about all those got milk commercials because it's like a semen mustache. Well, it is. Admittedly, it's a semen mustache. It's like everybody's getting facials from milk. It's a facial. So they only like it when the female celebrities do it. It's like,'s getting facials from milk. It's a facial. So they only like it when the female celebrities do it. It's like, that's good. There's like a Japanese girl who sits in and a bunch of people pour milk on her face.

Pouring milk on her? It's a milk bukkake. It's a moo-kake. It's a moo-kake. Getting the last few drops out, it's the milkshake. Don't complain because it's sour cream. That's delicious. Yo, science.

What is it all about? Technology. What is it all about? Technology. What is that all about? Is it good or is it whack? So Cecil, it's a bad time to be a scientist in Italy. According to the NPR, if you do not predict an earthquake, which are not scientifically predictable, by the way, an earthquake, which are not scientifically predictable, by the way, you could evidently be sentenced for manslaughter because evidently scientists control earthquakes. That is how that works. Yes. Yeah.

It's the earthquake gun. I think I saw it on one of the Batman. You know, I've got a five-year-old, so I watch a fair amount of Phineas and Ferb. And on that show, Doofenshmirtz. That's not a real thing. You're not even fucking speaking correctly here. There's no such thing as what you just mentioned. Every episode, he builds

an inator, you know? So clearly these guys had built an earthquake inator. Yes. And they had blasted Italy with an earthquake. And therein lies the problem. I say, send him to prison. How many people told them to calm the fuck down about the prediction?

How many people are going to jail here? Six scientists have been sentenced to six years for a faulty forecast that they were forced to make. So somebody, some alarmist wackadoo was basically screaming his head off and causing a public panic, saying there's going to be a great big earthquake. and causing a public panic, saying there's going to be a great big earthquake. And they were forced to respond to this panic by saying, you know, there's no evidence that there's going to be an upcoming earthquake. And then an earthquake happened, which is a stroke of bad luck. But they didn't cause the earthquake.

Well, they must have. I mean, here, okay, an earthquake is unlikely to occur right now no earthquake happened wait let me feel it again no no fucking earthquake that's not how earthquakes happen no that's not why they're put away they were put away because they gave a falsely

reassuring statement that's why they were put away I don't know if you know this it's a little known fact about Italy but it's also illegal over there to tell your wife that she doesn't look fat in something if she actually looks fat. Completely against the law. You can go to jail for that. If she really does look fat and you give her a falsely reassuring statement, you're fucked. Yeah.

It's bad. Reassurance is actually verboten over there. It's just you can't. How to reassure anyone. Children go through their entire school careers and they never get graded. Not a single grade. How am I doing, Dad? I can't tell you that.

I can't tell you because I don't want to spend the next six months in prison. If I tell you you're doing fine and then you crash your bike, then I go to fucking jail. How's that going to work out for me? These things seem so, I mean, it just seems so far off and so fucking wackadoo that you would be like, you know what? This guy,

this fucking crazy person was running around in the street with his fucking underwear on his head saying that the fucking sky is falling. And since something happened that he said was going to happen and you told people it wasn't, it's your, like, like what would they have done? Like the thing is, is like, I could, I could see if it was like he was saying there was fire in a theater and everybody said, no, there's no fire.

And then people died. I could see it. And then there was a real fire there, right? Like, that would make sense. Like, there's something to be said there. But in this case, what do you do? Like, in the case of a fire in a theater, I leave the theater. In this case, what do you do?

Do you just, I mean, were you going to mass evacuate the entire area that an earthquake hit? Is that what you were going to do? Is that what you were going to do? Is that what your plan was? How do you fucking prevent the 300 deaths that happened? Do you immediately, as soon as this guy says,

hey, there's going to be a big earthquake, you tear down every single house and build earthquake-safe houses? You have seven days. Go! Is that what you do? Because how do you prevent these deaths? I don't know.

Even if they were to say, even if they weren't even to come out and say anything. What could have possibly gone differently than what happened? Well, that's a great point. You know, it's like, well, you reassured us. Yeah, but I mean, it didn't change the outcome. But we felt sad. Wait, what?

I'm going to jail because your butt hurt? Yeah, that's exactly it. Hi, my name is Teresa and I'm going to jail because your butt hurt? Yeah, that's exactly it. Hi, my name is Teresa, and I'm a psychic medium. And I don't mean to overstep my boundaries, but I see that your father is present, and I'd like to give you a message from your dad. Tell my father he still owes me $20. He said no chance, you son of a... He said you never should have lent me the $ bucks because you knew you're sort of a bitch.

You weren't getting it back. Okay. Now I believe you're a medium because that's exactly what he said. So this story is from doubtfulnews.com. Turns out being doubtful of the Long Island medium, Teresa Caputo, may turn out not to be good for your health. May, in fact, give you death threats. Yeah, well, you know, it's just a death threat. It's not a real.

The thing is, is that she didn't actually die. So what's the big deal? I'm just blown away that anybody's that, like, like that invested in the Long Island. Who cares? You don't dare say anything about that fucking little Oompa Loompa with the giant hair. And if you died, could you bitch about that fucking little Oompa Loompa with the giant hair. And if you died, could you bitch about it to the Long Island medium? Could you, like, get in touch if you're— So if somebody kills you because—and then you turn out you're wrong, would you be able to, like, call Spirit?

Yes. And be like, hey, Spirit, turns out I was mistaken. Can I get in touch with that trolly little bitch? Can I—is there any way to— Understand that there's someone who died in this room saying that I was a fraud. You know, one of the things I did want to talk about about Caputo

and these shows of these ilk, Tom, is that there's a real case to be made, I think, that these shows are very Christian and religious oriented. More so than any other channel or shows that are on the airwaves today. And they get away with being very religiously oriented because of that paranormal link.

You notice that on like the other paranormal shows. And now I'm linking together this dumb bitch who's a fucking complete and utter fraud. Yes. An absolute 100% fraud. Go ahead and send me your death threats, asshole. You know, a complete fraud. Go ahead and send me your death threats, asshole. A complete fraud.

This woman is – I'm linking her with the idiots who run around and scare themselves in the middle of the night with the fucking cameras. And then the other people like the celebrities who have all the sleep paralysis. I'm linking all those things together because they all have that paranormal link, right? There's always that sort of link together of something that's extra supernatural. It's not natural, it's supernatural. These people, whenever there's a ghost that they want to get out of a house in one of those other shows,

they're never talking about, they're never calling on Allah. They're never calling on Buddha. They're never calling on the pagan spirit of fucking Gilgamesh or something, right? Instead, it's always, I am calling on Jesus Christ. I call on Jesus Christ to compel you to get out of here. Like Jesus Christ is the only one who's like, yeah, I'll get this. You know, it's like every time the doorbell rings in myth land, he's just like, yeah, I got it. Don't worry. I'm by the

door anyway. Don't worry. I got it. You know? So every, like every single one, they always talk about how Jesus Christ is going to get rid of it, how they always pray Jesus Christ getting rid of it. Her, her worldview, the way she talks about afterlife and meeting your relatives and how they're looking over you and all that is completely Christian. Right. You know, this is all, you know, I don't say that it's a Christian right sort of conspiracy or anything. But this is a way in which to get Christian thought and Christian theology in a lot of ways in our daily life, injected into our daily life. And it's on the learning channel. The learning channel.

There's no learning. No. I love the idea that they're always calling on Jesus. I have this, while you were saying that, I had this image of like a waiting room with all the gods in it, like the doorbell rings and somebody's like, demon's here! Like Jesus kind of look at her eyes, finally throws throws his hands at her, and he's like,

no, don't get up, guys. Yeah, I got it. I got it again, fuckers. Yeah. All right. Once more into the breach. Fuck. And why would you even need, it just begs the question, though, if your house was haunted,

and scary shit was happening, why would you need to ask Jesus to make them go away? Like Jesus is just like, huh, you got demons? Yeah, I got demons. You want the demons? No. You know, it's even worse than that, too, because chances are the people in that house prayed already. You know, if they're willing to go out and get a person to pray for them. Yeah, they've already tried it themselves.

They've already walked around their house and been like, you know, God, please get rid of these spirits. It kind of sucks. You know, like they've already done that. And, you know, your God so doesn't care about you at all that you need to go out and get a fucking spokesperson. Basically, he's got to hire a lawyer. He's got to fucking dial papers with the court in order to get the fucking ghosts out of there. Right. It's like

you're praying and God's like, mm-mm, affidavit wasn't notarized, motherfucker. You're back in line. Sorry, that wasn't filled out in triplicate. And, you know, how would the ghost thing work, too? It's like, ooh, you're a bad dude. I know. I'm so evil. Get back to Earth. Okay, and then what? I don't know. Scare

some people. Like regular people? Yeah. Wait, that's my punishment? It's not their punishment? Yeah. I love too, on a lot of those paranormal stories, especially the ones with the famous people, where they talk about like,

oh, and there was a ghost here in this house. And you're like, okay, you know, I've lived in like, Tom, I've lived in probably 15 places in my life, different houses and things like that. Like, why would I choose one over the other? You know what I mean? Like, like, unless I died in there or something like that. I mean, I don't even understand the internal logic of the ghosts anyway. Like, there was one they were talking about, um, uh, Billie Holiday in one of them. Where, like, Billie Holiday's ghost was, like, haunting this one theater. And I'm just like, man, she fucking sang in a lot of theaters. You know?

It wasn't just one. She sang in a lot of them. Like, she just specifically chose this one. Like, why? What's the internal logic behind that if if you did get to come back you know and and haunt the place that you really wanted to go back to strip clubs would be crawling with ghosts ghost city you wouldn't be able to get a fucking lap dance without you have an ectoplasm well you get a lap dance it's probably some ectoplasm. No kidding. Well, you get a lap dance, there's probably some ectoplasm.

Anyway. But this Caputo lady, she is, I mean, she really is a total fucking, I mean, you watch the show, she's so bad at being a cold reader that even with the fucking magic of film edit, which, you know,

they can edit out all the misses that she has, she still walks into a salon, a whole salon full of people, looks out, all the misses that she has, she still walks into a salon, a whole salon full of people, looks out among all these 40 and 50 year old women, Tom, and says, which one of you lost a sister? Yeah. And you're like, you know, of these fucking women that are in this room, and there's a lot of them, you know, there's got to be what, eight, 10 women in the room, you know, one

of them is going to say, oh, I lost a sister or something. You know, like, and, you know, like, she says shit like that all the time. Somebody will come up and be like, he's like in his 60s, 70s. Oh, did you lose your dad? No, he's fucking still alive. He's 140. Wouldn't you love it if she walked in to a place that you were at and somebody, who lost you, and be like get the fuck out of here you emotional vampire yeah get the fuck out nobody needs you fucking preying on the raw unfiltered emotions of other people for money you know i watch that show sometimes

like my wife watches that show i don't know why she doesn't like it but it's it's on and like they i saw one where they're like oh we, we're going to buy our kid a car. The kid learned to drive or something. So they bought the daughter a car. And they bought the daughter like a Mercedes. Yeah, it was a BMW. And a fucking expensive fucking car. Yeah, it wasn't a cheap car.

You know? And they're all driving around. She's the only one who works in that family too. So you know she's fucking pulling down a hefty fucking buck. Right. And that's my point. It's like, she's not doing this for free. She's not just a deluded woman wandering around who thinks she has magic powers.

Like, she is taking money from people in exchange for them confessing their most emotional vulnerable parts of themselves so she can use it to buy her kid a fucking SUV. Yep. Well, and there's, you know, there was one last week.

I got to watch, you got to watch little pieces of this every week. I come walking in the room and I'm just like, fucking God, I hate this show so much. But they'll be on. And she's talking about how she's going to go see a psychic. Like they're in New York. She's like, oh, I got to go see a psychic. Her husband's trying to get her in there. And she's like, I don't know.

I'm pretty skeptical. I'm like, how in the world could you be skeptical of a psychic? How is that even fucking possible? You fucking think or pretend or tell people that you talk to the dead. How is it so different that somebody could look at a card and tell your future then? How is that so different? How is it suddenly like, oh, I'm kind of skeptical of that?

You're skeptical of that? You're talking to dead people, supposedly. But you would think, actually, you know, I gotta say, she's probably the best skeptic out there, because she knows 100%. It's bullshit, right? Just like Randy, right? Just like how good Randy was. There was a clip of that show where the table was moving.

I don't know if you saw this, but it was like one of the clip shows where a bunch of people have their hand on this table, and the table's moving. And they're like, oh, my God, the table's moving. And then a couple people fall down at one point. It's a tiny little table, Tom. It's like a tiny little fucking table, and they all have their hands on it. And you can see the fucking dude as he stands up. He's got his hands on it and you can see the fucking dude as he stands up he's got his hands on it you can see him fucking leaning down to pull the table with i mean you can fucking it's clear as day the dude who has his hands on the table is moving the table

and they're just like oh my god i can't i can't believe that happened they're not gonna believe that when they see it it's like i fucking i believe it completely you know it's funny too because like the ghosts are strong enough to move a table why didn't you ever see him typing on a keyboard i don't know it should be easier less effort you should be able to say hello i am tom i am back from the dead here are the following observations i have made like it it would be less effort but instead it's it's always wasted energy, right? It's always like, I made a door close. Grab a pen and paper, motherfucker. So before we take our break here, which is going to be in a second, I wanted to talk really quickly about the Stitcher Podcast Awards.

Tom and I received a fucking amazing shock this week when we noticed that Stitcher, for their social commentary on Facebook, it's their awards for, and they have many different categories. For one of the categories in social commentary, we were one of the finalists. one of the categories in social commentary, we were one of the finalists. And the people we are going up against, the podcasts that we are going up against, are so unbelievably huge and monolithic that it blew our fucking minds that we would possibly be going up against them.

I'm going to name a couple. Penn Sunday School, The Moth Podcast, Radio Lab, and This American Life. We are going up against those podcasts in this category. Well, we're not hopeful because those shows have millions of listeners. Right. We are hopeful that you will take some time out of your day to give us,

to throw us a vote on Facebook. So all you have to do, we'll put a link on our site. If you're on Facebook, you can go there and sign in. I think you might be able to sign in even if you have a Stitchers account. I don't know exactly how they

handle it. I know they handle it through Facebook, but I think they might handle it through Twitter too. You can go there. You can vote for us for Best Social Commentary Podcast. We would just be so ecstatic to just make a showing here. But we were so happy that people took the time out of their day to put us in as a nominee. It ends at this point.

The voting is going to end on November 5th, and you can vote every day. We would be tickled if you would take time out of any of those days or all of those days to just throw a vote our way. And while you're there, just to promote Stitcher, too, there's some awesome shows that you can link to from this list of bests in all of these categories. I found several shows just by perusing around here in the last week that I've started to listen to. So Stitcher is an awesome service. It's actually worth your time to vote to find new shows to listen to. Yeah. And they're all linked there so you can click directly on and go to the pages. We are so happy to be included in this, and we would love it if you would take the time out to vote for us. So on that note, we're going to take a quick break, give you some information to contact

us, and we'll be back right after this. Want to contact Cognitive Dissonance? Visit them on Facebook. You can find the link at the website dissonancepod.com or type it in the Facebook search bar. Be sure to follow the guys on Twitter. Their handle is at dissonance underscore pod. The guys also post to Google Plus now too, so check them out there. And if you'd like to email them, you can do so at dissonance.podcast at gmail.com. You can also leave a comment on the blog at their webpage or give them a call at 740-74-DOUBT. That's 740-743-6828.

Long distance rates apply. And to everyone who listens, shares, retweets, or rates the show, Cognitive Dissonance would like to cordially thank you for all of your fucking support. So since this story is from The Telegraph. Sharia courts, quote, as consensual as rape, House of Lords told. Muslim women in Britain are being forced to live in fear because of the spread of unofficial and unregulated Sharia courts enforcing Islamic rule.

This is in the UK. This is in Britain. Right. This kind of is unbelievable that these sort of third party religious arbitrators of justice exist at all and are being taken seriously and prey on these communities of vulnerable and isolated people. Yeah, it's amazing. And, you know, this is becoming more and more of a problem over there. I'm reading a book now, The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris that talks about this sort of thing, like where Sharia law is starting to take over in certain parts of Europe. to take over in certain parts of Europe.

And it's because people don't want to say that, you know, your culture is wrong. They want to have this multicultural approach to how people are treated. And they don't want to, they want to have this cultural relativism where they say, well, we don't do that here, but that doesn't mean that it's invalid. Women are being, and you know, you notice, Tom, all this stuff. I mean, every single thing that's about this is all about keeping women in their place. I mean, that's what it is made for. It is made to be misogynistic. It is made to control women.

It is made to make them second-class citizens. It is made to make them basically follow the rules of men and abide by those rules or suffer some very severe punishments. And these punishments are not enforced by anyone except for by these courts, but the women don't know any better. And this is the point where we need to – and Sam Harris makes this point in his book where we need to say cultural relativism be damned. Political correctness about this thing be damned. This is an evil. This is a bad thing. This isn't something that we need to support.

This is something we need to outlaw. This is something we need to stand up against and say, damn it, you will not be repressing these women in this country. You can do it wherever you are and wherever your culture is from where we don't have that power. But you know what? This is the UK or this is the United States or this is France or this is Denmark. You can't do that here. You don't get to bring your culture here and basically subjugate people because we make sure that everybody has rights. And what about whatever happened to following the law of the land? You changed lands. You follow the new law.

Absolutely. You don't just set up – but there's this tradition of groups that isolate, that self-isolate, trying to create enclaves of responsibility and power. And the whole idea there isn't to protect their proud traditions and their cultural heritage and so on and so forth. It's to isolate the community so that the members within that community that are powerful remain powerful. And the members within that community who are on the margins stay in the margins so that they can enforce a power dynamic that is beneficial to those who continue to exist off of the labor, the sweat, and the well-being of others at their expense. others at their expense. And you see that in, I see that all the time in communities here in the States, in isolated communities. I see that particularly in religious communities. Back during the subprime lending bonanza, when I was working, I worked for a title company, and we would close these transactions and we would have these people

come in and they would be working for, you know, bogus name of church and they would call themselves reverend. And then and they'd be doing the shadiest shit and they'd be taking advantage of people who trust them implicitly because they're a member of that isolated religious community. And this is the same thing, but it's writ so much larger because these Sharia courts somehow have some kind of false authenticity. And, you know, the examples that they give, the examples, a woman was forced to travel to Jordan to seek permission to remarry from a seven-year-old boy whom she had never met because she had no other male relatives. Those are the sorts of decisions that are being passed down.

Get thee to Jordan. Yeah. And ask a child what to do. Because as a grown-ass woman, you're less than a seven-year-old boy when it comes to decision-making. And she's forced to do it by her community. And your life is allowed to go into turmoil because you don't have a dick. Right.

I'm allowed to put your life in turmoil because you have a genitalia that's different than the one that's preferred. That's outrageous. How can Britain stand for this? I don't know. I really don't know the answer. I would crack down on these things. How can they stand for this? I would fucking make sure they don't exist because they're not arbitrating things that even that like you said, you know, you have to go by the law of the land.

So I would make sure that what they did was if they arbitrated anything, they would have to go by the law of the land first and foremost. And then their, you know, their book could come in second. But, you know, you can't put judgments on people or tell people to do things that are against what are basic rights. This is that issue that every candidate for federal or even state office faces, and I too certainly stand for life. I know there are some who disagree, and I respect their point of view, but I believe that life begins at conception. The only exception I have to have an abortion is in that case of the life of the mother. I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something

that God intended to happen. So this story is from Huffington Post, Richard Murdoch on abortion. Pregnancy from rape is something God intended because Republicans talking about rape is working for you so well. Win them the offices. All of the offices will belong to us. Why are you doing this? All of the rooms belong to us. I almost, and I don't really, but I almost feel bad. I almost feel like you just want to call them off to the side and be like, listen, stupid, stop saying rape. It is never in your, like, you are an old Republican man.

Why are you saying this? What possible thing do you have to gain from this? I don't know. Indiana GOP U..s senate candidate richard murdoch declared tuesday night um that pregnancies conceived in rape happened because it is something that god intended to happen so when life hands you rape make rape aid yes make rape aid. Here's what he says. Delicious rape aid. The only exception I have to abortion is in the case of the life of the mother, said Murdoch, the Tea Party-backed state treasurer. I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is a gift from God.

I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. That is something that God intended to happen. Fuck your God in the goat ass then. Fuck him running if that's what he intended to happen. If he was, he or she or it or whatever the fuck you

think it is, whatever fucking made up concoction God is in your fucking tiny little brain, you fucking Neanderthal, whatever that is, if that's what they willed for me, if that's what it willed for me, if that's what your brain thinks it willed for me, fuck you and fuck your God. Because that's a despicable, awful fucking creature that you've dreamt up. That's a demon.

That is not a God. That is the literal definition of demonic, you dumb fuck. And what a terrible insult to a woman that's raped. Oh, you know, I mean, especially a religious woman. That's the thing that kills me, right? Is if an atheist woman is raped and somebody says, well, God intended for you to be raped. atheist woman is raped and somebody says, well, God intended for you to be raped. Well, that's fucking ridiculous. And fuck you for saying it. But how are you supposed to reconcile that if you're a religious woman? How are you supposed to reconcile that if you're a Christian woman who was raped? So you have all of these feelings and this terrible anger and shame and

all of these various emotions that go with this terrible thing that happens to you, being raped. And somebody tells you that that's what your God wanted. Your God wanted you to be raped. How the fuck are you supposed to reconcile that? How are you supposed to make sense of that emotionally and intellectually and spiritually? Is it, I mean, wouldn't part of you, if you really, if you really believe this, wouldn't part of you say, if God wanted me to be raped, then maybe I guess I did consent.

Yeah. Because I would never oppose my God. Right. And I would never oppose my God's intentions. So if my God's intentions were for me to be brutally raped, then maybe that rape wasn't rape. You know what I mean? Like it's this convoluted sort of horrifying non-argument that serves no purpose other than just to continually victimize people who are survivors of sexual assault. Why would you say this out loud?

Well, and it's that – it's the fucking, you know, they say it all the time. You know, my kid died. Oh, it was in God's plan. Like, well, God has a fucking shitty plan then. He's not a good planner. He's an asshole. He's the worst planner ever. He's the worst planner ever.

And, you know, like this happens all the time. These are people who can pass off hardship with a wave of their hand. Yeah. And I want to say most of the time it's because it's not them. You know, maybe somebody might say something like, oh, well, my child died. Maybe it was God's plan. But I have a feeling somebody else said that first. I don't think anybody thinks that it's God's plan first.

I think a lot of people, I mean, maybe there are a few people out there that are really fucking deluded that think that, but I have a feeling a lot of people get really, you know, are not immediately saying, well, you know, hey man, it's cool. He's in heaven and God fucking wanted him. So it's cool. It's all good. I don't think there's a lot of people like that exist. I think a lot of people are really upset when somebody dies and people try to comfort them right they try to do some stupid bullshit wave of the hand i can comfort you by just saying something like this oh you had a miscarriage well don't worry god didn't want you to have the baby you had a you know your kid died well don't worry um you know it was in god's plan oh you got raped

well don't worry you know if you have a baby. Oh, you got raped? Well, don't worry. If you have a baby, that's God's will. And it's like, well, yeah, you're taking the fucking personal responsibility off that person in some ways, but you're not helping the situation at all by giving that responsibility to an imaginary person, imaginary thing. And wouldn't it just make you hate your God now?

I would think so. I'll tell you what. I would think so. I'd be furious'll tell you what. I would think so. I'd be furious. If I really think like, wow, you know, I've got this person in my life that I love so dearly. And then I really think, I really genuinely believe that this person was made a part of my life and then killed by my God to hang out in heaven. I'd be like, fuck you too. by my God to hang out in heaven, I'd be like,

fuck you too. I lost this person I love dearly and I lost the idea of a benevolent God. Now, I have a malevolent God. What am I supposed to do with that information? Hi, y'all. This is Hillbilly God, and there's another installment of God's Mailbag.

Here's one I got just a few days ago. Dear God, recently there's been a lot of talk about rape, legitimate rape, and abortion due to rape. I think that's Deuteronomy. Can you set the record straight once and for all? Is abortion okay in circumstances of rape and incest, or are all children a gift from God? Rapey McRaperson, Rapeville, Texas. Well, Rapey, one thing I've made clear time and time again in my book

is that women shouldn't be worrying their pretty little heads about these things. Rape and child-rearing are really what women are made for. But just to be sure that the child is a gift from God, I designed all women to have a tiny little guardian angel in their uterus. Then when they get raped, now we're talking really raped, the little guardian angel comes out and he fights off all the sperm. Now, one of the ways to make sure that you deploy that little sucker is in the middle of the rape, you've got to press real hard now on your belly button.

Now, if you do that, and it's one of those, I didn't want this, or I wasn't really asking for it kind of rapes, then that little guy will come out and prevent it. Just think of the belly button as kind of like a little ejector seat. It's like, you know, you just press on there and it just makes sure you doesn't get pregnant. Now, it doesn't have the same sort of explosions that an ejector seat normally has. But just think of it like that. I hope this settles it. And be sure to tell all your friends so they can get back to important things like making sure the house is clean, the children are being reared,

and you're not touching your husband during your menstrual cycle. This has been God's Mailbag. Be sure to tune in next time when I talk about the best way to skin a possum. It's terrible and it gets worse. From ThinkProgress.org, Pennsylvania bill would reduce welfare benefits for women who cannot prove they were raped. A Pennsylvania House bill seeks to limit the amount of TANF assistance. That's basically like a food stamp type assistance, that low-income women receive based on the amount of children they give birth to while covered under the

program. So basically, if you give birth to children while you are receiving government aid, receiving assistance, unless you demonstrate to the state that you were raped, you receive less assistance because, you know, fuck those kids. They don't need to eat food. Do you believe it? Can you believe that that's a policy that somebody sat down and was like, you know what? Here's the problem. Here's the problem with this namby-pamby being poor bullshit is here you are.

I'm poor, sucking on the government teat, living high on the hog with your fucking Cadillacs and your hose. And you're like, you know what? I'm going to pump out six, seven, eight, 10 more children in the next five months. Like, I mean, really like this is a fucking problem that we're looking at. We're like, you know what? There's so many people that are on welfare that, you know, what we're going to do is we're just going to make sure that any of the kids that get on welfare, they're going to be underfed or you're going to be underfed. Somebody is going to be fucking underfed because we're not going to give you any more money. And really the state's saying like, hey, Jimmy, don't blame us. Your mother's a whore.

Oh, yeah. A whore that doesn't work. You know, if she'd been raped and you were the product of that rape, we would have fed you because, you know, that's not her fault. But we here in this great state of Pennsylvania, well, we're into slut shaming. And your dirty whore of a mother who doesn't work gave birth to you. And we don't want to have to pay for your eating of food. Right. Because that's how you should set up a society.

You should set up a society so that the young and vulnerable members of that society are neglected. That's the smart way to set up a society. That has nothing but positive consequences as you roll down the line. Because those kids will grow up well-adjusted. Can we just fucking make a pact to feed children? Can we just fucking just a pact to feed children? Can we just fucking just like, just say, you know what? I'm not going to talk about, you know, what your mother did, what your father did, how

you came into this world, whether you're a product of fucking rape, incest, fucking whatever, where you're living, how you're living, whatever. What we're going to do is we're going to make sure you're fucking fed. That's it. We're just gonna make sure you're fed and that you got a roof over your head. Can we at least do that for the children of the country? You know, can we at least make sure that they have enough to fucking eat? And, you know, the thing, too, about saying that is if there was an actual child in front

of, and I think even the, even these shithead lawmakers and that kid was like, I'm fucking hungry. Like a little four or five year old kid is all fucking maln malnourished and shitty and is like, I am hungry. You'd feed that kid. You would feed that kid. Yes, you would. Because if you didn't, every part of you that was human would break and you would shatter into pieces of pond scum. of pond scum. But somehow when you make a policy, now we forget the faces. Now we forget the individuals who are affected. Now when we make a policy, we can somehow reconfigure our morals.

So that, and the moral landscape actually talks about this. One of the things that's interesting about morality is that when it's relative to one person, we're more generous. It's bad. It's a bigger deal. Yeah. And as you write that out, we grow less and less and less generous. Yes. And so here you have a situation where nobody would say to a starving child who come who came to you for aid no fuck you get off my porch you wouldn't do it i'm gonna shoot in five four three no not happening

but you'll write a policy that does the same thing right in 1995 our hidden cameras documented a church practice called blasting where children as well as adults are subjected to hours of ear piercing verbal rebukes that are supposed to rid the body of demons. The member being blasted like this boy in the red shirt is surrounded by other members and screamed at for being a sinner. Cecil, have you ever been blasted? I know I've never been blasted. Never been blasted? I know, I've never been blasted. Never been blasted? I'm going to blast you. Okay, blast me.

I'm going to blast you. I've been cleansed. Oh God, is this the dumbest thing on the earth? This story is from the new civil rights movement. North Carolina church accused of imprisoning a man because he is gay. I kind of only care a little bit about that part of the story the better part of the story i'm sorry you know it turns out that's the least crazy part of the story i know that's why that's what i mean it's like that's that is legitimately quite terrible actually don't don't get me wrong

that's awful um but this church um this is the word of faith church. The word is evidently. It's not a word. It's not a word at all. This church has this practice of blasting. Yes. Which is a form of hands-on, high-pitched screaming prayer. It looks like people just going fucking totally batshit crazy.

The video for this is outstanding. There's a part, because it's on Inside Edition, right? So they sneak this camera in, and this guy is just fucking, there's like one kid who's just got his head leaning down and fucking three people screaming as loud as they can into his ear.

And it doesn't even sound intelligible. It's like they're just yelling people screaming as loud as they can into his ear. And it doesn't even sound intelligible. It's like they're just yelling and screaming as loud as they can. And, you know, they talk about this blasting. They talk about like, well, you know, they'll blast children, like toddlers. This would be the scariest shit in the world. It would be the scariest fucking thing ever. It would be the scariest fucking thing ever. You basically get surrounded by screaming Neanderthals who just – I mean blasting is the right word for it.

They came up with the right word for this. Oh, yeah. They just scream and yell at you because evidently like demons are afraid of loud voices or something. I don't even know how this is conceived to possibly work. Demons can't go to rock concerts or fly in planes. Those are the two things they just can't do. Because, you know, the loudness levels are just too high for them.

I think, too, one of the parts of this video that's so shocking, and one of the traits of this church is that they beat people. I mean, they allegedly beat this guy, this 22-year-old who was in prison. They allegedly knocked him out and beat him

and held him against his will for, what is that, four months? Four months? Three months? So they almost four months, they held him against his will, but that's awful, but they also, at one point, there's an infant in this video crying Tom

the infant is in the fucking church sniffling a little you know like that fucking thing that babies do I don't even know they just like to make a fucking sound or whatever and so they're making the sound and the lady on the stage is like I think you need to take that baby out and fucking

like work it over basically like you need to go hit this fucking four month old. Hit a four month old? I'm not a parent, but I don't think you hit babies, like infant babies that are still so like, all they do is sleep,

shit, and fucking scream. That's what babies do. I can't imagine how that would be effective. It's not like the baby's going to all of a sudden come to a reasonable realization that maybe I should actually reconsider my stance on crying. Like, that's not what a four-month-old does. I mean, like, if you wallop a fucking four-month-old, that kid is just going to keep crying, crying worse than it was before. If you keep walloping it, it's going to keep crying because that's the fucking mechanism for you to stop it from crying. Until you kill it. Right. Like, that is the fucking mechanism for you to stop it from crying. Until you kill it.

Right. Like, that is the only time. You know, it's funny. Louis C.K. has this funny bit where, and it's actually pretty insightful, and he's right. You know, he's like, children are the only people we allow other people to beat. Right? You can't just walk up to a grown ass man or woman and smack them or hit them on the ass. I mean, it's assault. You can't even do it to a dog too

hard, but kids somehow that's just, that's like an accepted form of punishment, like discipline. Like, well, you know, I spank my kids. I just, I give them a walloping every now and again, you know, you gotta, you don't want to spare the rod. You'll spoil the child. It's like, well, you wouldn't do that to anybody else. Like, here's the most, like, like, like, here's this thing that, that trusts you implicitly and is tiny and helpless. Like, that's the one, that's the one we got to set up a rule that we can beat that one. That's, if we're going to hit anybody, let's make sure it's kids.

I mean, the hitting of fucking tiny babies is the worst thing ever. And one of the things that I think should be happening when shit like this goes down, when they're like, hey, you know what you should do is fucking tie a lasso around your kid and fucking spin them around or whatever. You know, whatever these fucking fuck nuts out there that have no idea how to rear children are talking about what you should do to your children. They should be fucking closing these, these places down as institutions of child abuse. They should be stopping these churches from spreading this child abuse to their parishioners. If you are on the pulpit telling someone to take the fucking kid outside and fucking give him a whack, you know, fucking chip that kid out into the outfield with a bat, you know, that's not a good thing.

That's not something we should be allowing to happen anyway. This person should be arrested. This person should be investigated by, you know, some sort of child services organization. Well, and don't you think that if I made that same suggestion, I would be, right? Because I'm not a religious person. I'm not a religious leader. So if I said to a stranger on the street, you should beat your kids. Why aren't you beating your kids?

I'm going to pressure you to beat your kids. No way that's acceptable. There's no way. How does that – let's imagine you said that to somebody at work. Let's say somebody at work, a subordinate, for example. Let's create a power structure. So let's say you've got a subordinate who brings their kid to work,

and their kid starts screaming, and you're the boss, and you say, go take your kid outside and beat him. Go on. Take your kid outside and give him a good smacking. You'd be fired. I don't care where you work, you'd be fired so Tom, we got a couple of voicemails I'm going to play them for you, we got one from Logan

one from Tiffany both of them talking about stuff we talked about in different episodes, we're going to play them now and then we're going to read one of them hello just calling in, my name is Tiffany different episodes. We're going to play them now, and then we're going to read one of them. Hello, we're just calling in. My name is Tiffany. Just recently found you guys on iTunes, and I'm starting to backlog. Just listening to episode 67, where you guys were talking about Romney's Mormon religion, and I can't tell you how many times I hear people say, well, Romney's for God, and that's what we need, back in the White House.

And most of these people are Catholic. And I don't understand. Like, Mary's a pretty big deal when it comes to Catholicism, and yet Mormons don't believe she was a virgin. And it just drives me nuts. Well, he's for God. Mormonism is completely different. It's not like Christianity, and it drives me insane. I try and tell people different points about Mormonism.

Did you know this about them? And they're like, no. They get shocked. I'm like, oh, it drives me nuts that they think just because he believes in God, he's automatically great. And then they actually realize the details. And that's another thing that nobody does their research to that it comes back to and it takes me off too.

So just wanted to see you listening to it. It was fresh on my mind. Enjoying the show. I'm going to continue the backlog. Thank you. My name is Logan. I'm a relatively new skeptic and atheist from the Arkansas states, I guess, the Arkansas area.

I live actually in Jonesboro, which is in the district that that asshole John Hubbard represents. Now, I kind of wanted to comment on that because, you know, he's a fucking dipshit. I don't even know how he's in office at all. I keep getting mail from his campaign and that magnificent Civil War area fuck card mustache is totally and completely gone from all his promotional imaging. But rest assured, as a member of the Arkansas Democrats, we're trying to take him down. we're trying to take him down I mean it pisses me off so bad

so bad that we as Arkansans already have this kind of we start off with this rap and then John Hubbard has to open his fucking mouth anyway guys love the show it was one of the first podcasts that I found Uh, anyway, guys, uh, love the show.

Uh, it was one of the first podcasts that I found, uh, when I started trying to get more into skepticism. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but in either case, you're very entertaining. Love you to death. Okay. Peace out, guys. Google voice says, but my name is loaded in on the relatively new. Just get sick.

Andy is from the Arkansas state. I guess the Arkansas area. I was actually in Jonesboro, which is in the district that but John Hubbard represents. I was. I kind of wanted to comment on that because, you know, he's a I don't need to know how he's in office at all. Hi. I keep getting mails from his campaign in that magnificent sewer area. Pardon mustache.

Yeah. If totally completely gone for mail is promotional imaging. But rest assured, us for a member of the Arkansas Democrat, we're trying to take in their hay. I mean, if this is me, off so bad, so bad. That, yeah, we have art and we've already had this kind of. We start off with this way. And then John Herbrick has opened his mail anyway. Yeah, I always loved this show.

Okay. It was one of the first part cap that I found when I started trying to get more into cactuses. I wanted to read that one just for that line. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but in either case, you're very airtight. I love you to death. Okay. If you have doubts. I love you to death. Okay? If you have doubts. I like how it ends.

If you have doubts. I like that. Thank you to Logan and Tiffany. Remember that you can always call us at 740-74-DOUBT. Long distance rates apply. We got a couple of emails here, Tom. We're going to burn through a few of them. Al sent us a wonderful image that

we're going to use for this show. Al, I'm also going to put it on Facebook. So if you want to see this image, you can either look at this show's notes or you can look at Facebook. Basically, he found some penguins that are big fans of the show. And we appreciate those penguins ordering a shirt. We're happy. I don't know what they're going to pay. What are they going to pay us in herring? What is that? They're going to regurgitate the funds into our mouth. Logan sends an email, Tom, and Logan's talking about some people getting together in a sort of atheist fellowship in a way. Like people in atheist meetups and getting together.

And how that kind of reminds him of how they used to recruit for his Bible studies. You know, and he's got some concerns about that. I understand your concerns, Logan, but I think that it's important to realize that religion doesn't get everything wrong about how to behave with each other about fellowship. There's nothing wrong with fellowship, Like getting together with other people and sharing a common experience is the essence of a friendship and community. I think that's what church gets right. Church just gets all of the supernatural shit wrong. Sure, sure. And they get, you know, they get a lot of things right.

Helping each other, helping out the people in your community because lots of times the whole community will go to the church. Helping out a lot of churches help out the disadvantaged. I church, helping out a lot of churches, help out the disadvantaged. I mean, there's a lot of things that churches do right. You're right, Tom. There's a lot of things that they do right. They just get a lot of stuff wrong, too. So we've got to build off that right stuff. And I think getting together with like-minded people is not a bad thing.

Now, the idea of an atheist meetup where you're just getting together to talk about no God, I agree with you. Sometimes that can be a little weird. And if there was no pressure, I think, in this country to be a religious nation by the religious right, there wouldn't be a lot to talk about. But I think that there is a lot of topics that we talk about on this show and that people talk about in daily life that have a big impact on society. So I think that, you know, as long as people are keeping religion in the public sphere,

atheism has a place in the public sphere to stop religion from entering it. We got an email from Jacob. Jacob sends us this. He says that he's from Sweden. And he says that, Tom, he says part of what got him into our podcast is listening on The Conspiracy Skeptic. Can you read a bit of this email? Absolutely.

I got onto your podcast from The Conspiracy Skeptic. I was listening along to Carl's excellent podcast when it was ruined by these two American loudmouths. I was in awe as I come from a quiet people that two men could do this much noise. When the name of your podcast came up at the end, I couldn't help but to start to listen to it myself. I'm actually not

entirely sure as to why. I suppose it is similar as when you had a scab as a child and you picked it, even though you knew things were going south if you did. Still, I tune in every week for your verbal antics, especially since I am a huge fan of off-color humor, which is also why I am going to hell. I like this email.

I really do like the idea, Tom. And I think this is a perfect analogy to our podcast. We are a scab that you pick off. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We're that weird kid who collects them in a jar, actually. We totally are. Yeah.

We got another one from Sweden. This one is, what's this guy's name? This is from Johan. That's terrible. Why am I doing that? And Johan says, Horgen, Schmorgen, Florgenborg. Oh, is that the Swedish chef? Yeah.

He doesn't say he is. Actually, Johan talks a little bit about marginalizing the religious in his country. Evidently, they have a religious party, the Christian Democrats, and they are clearly marginalized. Whereas we are marginalized. If you are not a Christian in this country, it's sort of, you look at this email, and it's depressing kind of how awesome Sweden sounds. I know. I totally want to go there. Thanks, Johan, for sending us an email, though. We appreciate it.

We got an email from Roger Tom Rogers, sends us a picture of him, his shirt, and a glorious Christopher Hitchens poster. Yeah, that thing is spectacular. This image, like, yeah, great, you got a shirt. I want the Hitch poster, man. I know, no kidding. Where did you get that Hitchens poster? Let us know.

That is awesome. I'll fucking hang that up in my office. Steven sent an email, Tom, to us, and he was talking about the death penalty. And he said that, you know, while he did zero research on this, hey, Stephen, so did we. He says, but it seems to me that the death penalty could have originally been meant as a preventive measure and not so much as a punitive one. I would like to think that it was meant to deter crime. If you do that, we'll kill you.

Then, like anything involving humans, it got way out of control. Yeah, maybe that's how it started off. I don't think so. I actually, I would be very much doubtful of that. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what it started off at. The question isn't, how did it begin? The question is, is it effective?

Is it working now? Yeah. And why is it working or not working? And I think if you're looking at it as a deterrent, I don't think anybody really looks at it as a deterrent anymore. Didn't, I mean, they worked, there was pickpockets who were working, the crowds, when there was public hangings back when they used to hang pickpockets. Yeah, it's never been proven to be an effective deterrent. And if it's not proven to be an effective deterrent, then I just think you got to scrap the idea. It's not useful anymore. It has outlived its usefulness. because we hesitate to use the word pro-life,

he says one of the things that he likes to do is say anti-choice. And I think that's how I'm going to try to refer to them in the future. That or pro-fetus. But I think anti-choice is a great way to put it. So thank you, Steve, for that suggestion. We want to say hello to Nick. Nick says, you know, he gives us a long email sort of about where he is, where he was. but one of the things that he says at the bottom of the email is he says, I guess this email went all over the place,

but I mostly wanted to say thank you for the part you guys played in my deconversion. I'm shocked that we were involved in anyone's deconversion, but we want to thank you for listening. Absolutely. Glad to be a part of your process. John from Australia, from Perth, which is – Perth is on like the opposite side of all the good stuff, I think. Perth is far away from all

the stuff that's worthwhile. So it's like Mississippi. Yeah, it's like the Mississippi of Australia. He bought our app, so we want to thank you, John, for buying the app. We appreciate it. You can always find our apps if you go to our website, dissonancepod.com, and on the website, there's a link for both the iPhone, iPad app, the Apple one,

the iOS one. And then there's also a link for the Android version. We got an email from Elena, Tom. And Elena had a really good suggestion. So we kind of riffed off of Elena's suggestion today, but I think we're going to use Elena's suggestion here. Yeah, Elena suggests that we do a Hillbilly God segment. Now, we've used God's mailbag before, and we'll throw it open. If anybody has a question they want Hillbilly God to answer, we'll try our hand at the advice column routine. How hard can it be? And this was a very good suggestion. So thank you, Elena, for sending it in.

If you have a question for Hillbilly God, remember that you can send that question to Hillbilly God, address it, the subject, Dear Hillbilly God, and then we'll answer it. You've got to send it to dissonance.podcast at gmail.com. The last email is from the heart of Mormon land. Lehi is the place where this is coming from. This is Travis. He just wants to say that he's happy that he found the show and he's out in Mormon land and he's just happy that he has some bastion of sanity out there. Glad to provide, Travis. Glad to provide. So this wraps it up for another wonderful, hilarious. Okay, maybe not.

Maybe it's not that good. It's probably not that good. Not a very good episode of Cognitive Dissonance. But as usual, we're going to leave you with the Skeptic's Creed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno-Babylon bullshit. 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.

Double speak. Stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody, evidential, conclusive. Doubt even this. The opinions and views expressed in this show are that of the hosts only. Our poorly formed and expressed notions do not represent those of our wives, employers, friends, families, or of the local dairy council. Outro Music