Plagiarism

Kentucky senator Rand Paul apparently likes to liven up his speeches with ideas taken from film plots. That’s fine but Rachel Maddow found that he seemed to be lifting the descriptions of the films from Wikipedia without attribution. And it was not just an isolated practice but done several times. When confronted about this practice, Paul reacted initially with bluster and indignation, saying that this was the work of ‘haters’ and an insult to his honor and that he regretted that these days he could not challenge them to a duel, as if he were a character from The Count of Monte Cristo, which as many of you know is an adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness, it focuses on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune and sets about getting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. (Note: I couldn’t resist making a small joke by lifting the rest of the sentence from the word ‘adventure’ straight from the Wikipedia entry.) [Read more…]

More offensive team mascots and nicknames

CoachellaValley_custom-601985deb5e8d35e392dd8bea9d64dc571b52137-s40-c85I thought that the Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo mascot was bad enough but take a look at the mascot of the Coachella Valley Unified School District in California, whose team is known as the Arabs, even though the area is 99% Latino. So how did they get that nickname and adopt that mascot? The region is home to date plantations because that area is supposedly the best for growing dates. [Read more…]

Dave Allen: God’s Own Comedian

Dave Allen was a comedian of Irish origin. He was a very funny guy, doing both standup and sketch comedy and I have linked to clips from his shows before. He was a master storyteller who died in 2005 at the age of 68. In May of this year they released a one-hour long documentary of his life. I discovered that he was also a serious actor and documentarian as well. [Read more…]

Fake $10 tips

Unless you are eating at a really expensive place, the 20% tip you leave will be less than $10. So a wait staffer who gets a $10 tip is likely to be very pleased. But they should not rejoice too soon. Apparently some people leave what looks like a $10 bill but is in reality a fake with some kind of religious message on the back. (You can see a clear image of the bill and message here, posted by a wait staffer who got one of them.) [Read more…]

Is it ever acceptable to pretend that god and the afterlife exist?

As atheists, we tend to take a hard-headed attitude towards god and the afterlife. Neither exists and we view those who believe in them as being either mistaken or clinging to them out of a need for a comforting illusion. While I am convinced that telling the truth about the non-existence of any gods is always desirable, I am not as sure about the afterlife and am willing to be persuaded that, under very limited circumstances, maintaining the fiction may be justifiable. [Read more…]

Threats of excessive punishments

People who speak in public but want to avoid dealing with pesky questioners use two techniques. One is to say that they will not take any questions. But that would reveal that they are scared or cannot defend their position and few people choose to do that. What they sometimes say instead is that they have another engagement immediately after the allotted time for the event and then they speak so long as to fill up the time. But another tactic is to demand that people submit their questions in writing in advance to a moderator and then have the moderator select only the friendly ones. [Read more…]