People…Have you checked your feed lately?
February 10, 2010
I must say that this is one of my biggest pet peeves: you go to subscribe to a blogs feed and BLAMO…XML FAILED TO PARSE!
If you really don’t give a flying rats ass about your blogs syndication feel free to move along now. If you have no clue what the hell I’m talking about pull up a seat please.
Blog syndication is very important. It may be just as important as actually going to your bookmarked site and commenting on your favorite authors posts (in that the favor will be returned). After all, somebody…somewhere has a blogroll with your name on it. Sometimes this blogroll may be more than just a url linkback, it may be a subscription that they host on their own site (which links back via rss or atom feed). The readers of said site then click the link (that was harvested via some feed reader) and are then referred to your blog.
Now, most blog platforms (ie. Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc) have very good hands off syndication management. But, I often run across feeds (from blogs that are hosted on these very same platforms) that are totally screwed up. Sometimes it’s to do with character encoding (rare with the major blog platforms) in which the “XML can not be parsed”. Sometimes the feed is just not activated altogether! It’s not there at all!
I’m done ranting. And please do not mistake this post for a tech tip. It is a rant.
Christian Prayer Center (new email)
January 19, 2010
larro,
With the world how it is, it’s often hard to be grateful for what you have. You must look beyond your current situation, and reach for God’s loving hand. I want to help you, and that’s why I set up the Christian Prayer Center. Please feel free to submit a prayer, and we will all pray for it to be answered. http://www.christianprayercenter.comGod Bless,
Pastor John Carlson
Senior Pastor
info@christianprayercenter.com
Okay, it really isn’t all that hard to ascertain from this message that 1) it’s pretty darn pessimistic to assume that everybody is on hard times, 2) everybody needs a helping hand and 3) that the answers/relief are found with a god.
How “is” the world anyway? It just IS!
And a “loving” God!? He must be one “tough loving” sonofabitch what with all the calamity and catastrophe in Haiti! Oh, but I forget, [one of] the very mouthpiece[s] of God (aka Pat Roberston) has revealed to us simpletons that the people of Haiti are devil-worshippers and must be deserving of their fate. Holy shit! God is one smiting motherfucker!
…just the guy I’d like to reach out for in my time of need!
Christian Prayer Center
January 10, 2010
A few days ago I clicked on an add out of complete curiosity (I think it was on Facebook). It was for a site called Christian Prayer Center. I wanted to see what people were praying for or, more accurately, what they were requesting prayer for. I think I had to join in order to view the “prayer requests” so I did. Needless to say, now I get email notifications about every other day now such as the one below. I thought it was pretty hilarious.
larro,
Have you ever thought about how you can bring your Christian faith to the next level and have your prayers answered more effectively? If you have ultimate faith in God, but would like to be closer to Him, I urge you to consider becoming an Ordained Christian Minister. If you are willing to pledge your ultimate faith to God, I invite you to register to become an Ordained Minister, by clicking the link below: http://www.christianprayercenter.com/ministers.html By being an Ordained Minister, you will be able to guide others on the path of God, perform weddings, help friends and family with faith healing, financial blessing requests, relationship healing, and more. God Bless You, Pastor John Carlson
Senior Pastor
info@christianprayercenter.com
What’s funny too, is that I created a profile and specifically stated that I was an atheist. Wonder how long before a) my account gets deleted or b) I get a flood of prayers in my email. LOL
Gargantuan Endeavor
January 4, 2010
I want to start a website that gathers under one roof as many atheist, skeptic, agnostic, secular humanist and freethought blogs that I can possibly find. To bring the atheosphere to a nexus point.
I envision that this site will connect bloggers and help them to discover and aggregate information that circulates through the atheosphere. But this is not the ultimate goal I have in mind. I would also like to create a massive database with statistics on all these blogs. Site traffic, post ranking, post frequency, comment frequency, etc.
I’d also have the site scour blog postings for external links to news articles for trending topics. The site would also have aggregation capability within specific (almost limitless) categories and topics. An “atheist blog search engine”. Resources for bloggers on technical issues with their blogs; like notifying a blogger if their RSS/Atom feed is not parsing correctly.
Yes, I am aware of the multitude of other sites that do things similarly but not one I can think of that does them all. Sadly, I haven’t the expertise in conducting such an endeavor. I’ve only just recently started reading up on PHP so I’m an absolute complete noob in this regard. But I want to build the site from scratch and I am completely lost except for conceptualization. Maybe it’s time to go back to school.
Atheist Teacher Burns Effigy of Darwin Into Students Arm
January 1, 2010
Sounds ridiculous right? Well, it is. It’s a false headline.
However, this one isn’t: Ohio Teacher In Hot Water For Burning Cross Into Skin of Students
Now, I’ve been aware of and been following this story for some time now. But it got me thinking…
I challenge, CHALLENGE anybody to dig up a story of a non-believing/atheist teacher doing something similar.
You see, it’s stories like this that don’t really help me to get away from beating up on straw men. People like this make it so easy to stereotype Christians as wackos and nutters. And then of course there’s the True Scotsman argument that gets thrown around. The argument that I despise with my entire being…”Oh, but he’s not a TRUE Christian!” Bullshit. This teacher reads the same bible as every other Christian on the planet.
More searching reveals that John Freshwater attends Trinity Assembly of God in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Which has “16 Fundamental Truths” of what they believe including speaking in tongues. Pentecostal. Why am I not surprised? *sigh*
I believe John Freshwater’s teaching license should be revoked indefinitely.
And atheists are irrational!?
More…
Being Vegan
December 24, 2009
Well, I guess this is my first post on Posterous about being vegan.
We as citizens are subject to the market influence of agri-business. Sure, I am too. I’m not saying I am immune to the clenched fist of this nefarious industry as it extends into every pore of our dietary lifestyles, yet I try to abstain from consuming any animal or animal by-product wherever I can. I even look at clothing labels to make sure nothing is leather or made from wool. Once in while I may flub something and assume that a product is “animal friendly” and continue on through the check-out and later find that I was an idiot and didn’t read the label. In all actuality I am not a true vegan but I try my damnedest.
However, how can we really know something that we purchase is “animal friendly” unless we abstain from the whole consumer marketplace? By which we actually produce our own cotton and our own garden veggies? To be self-sustaining? I for one would, on one point, wholeheartedly endorse such endeavors. But we are inundated with an environment that espouses a lax consumerism by which people just don’t care where their “stuff” comes from. I must emphasize “don’t care”, because we really don’t care even on second thought. There really is a “third thought”.
So, as a society, on the second point we can’t possibly alienate agri-business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that agri-business, as it stands now, is anywhere but ethical; but that market forces dictate that consumers “get what they want”. Therefore we change things by voting with our wallets and pocketbooks.
Baby’s rally sparks joy – Religion
December 21, 2009
Kristie Hammonds of Raleigh brought her daughter forward to be prayed over by Pastor Sheryl Brady.
As captured on video and posted on YouTube, the girl, named Christiana, was lying in her mother’s arms with her eyes shut as Brady began praying. Soon a packed house began speaking in tongues, waving hands, shouting and pleading with God for the girl’s recovery.
Twenty minutes later, the mother returned with the baby. This time little Christiana opened her eyes, stuck out her tongue, and seemed able to respond to sight and sound.
“The healer is in the house!” shouted Brady, a Pentecostal preacher trained by Dallas megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes. “He can heal you, and you, and all of you.”
Nearly half a million viewers have watched the YouTube segment, “A Christmas Miracle at The River.” The clip has given the little-known church instant celebrity, and a tough act to follow.
At Sunday’s service, Brady and her followers did their best. After a prelude of rousing music and sermons, Brady presented the mother – who returned this time without the baby – with the keys to a Raleigh apartment and a check for one year’s rent, along with dining and bedroom sets, towels, pots and pans, and even a bucket with cleaning supplies.
By the time the three-hour service was over, a church member popped up and added the keys to a car.
“I want a complete, absolute, 100 percent miracle,” Brady said.
Like other Pentecostals, Brady and her church believe the Holy Spirit bestows special gifts on Christians, such as the power to heal, prophesy and work miracles.
But whether it was prayer or a gradual physical recovery that animated the baby is hard to tell.
Meanwhile, Christiana is still fed through a gastric feeding tube. She cannot hold her head up, and for the time being, she resides at the Hilltop Home on New Bern Road in Raleigh, a residential center for children with profound developmental disabilities.
Raleigh police arrested Tammy Danielle Evans, 22, of Raleigh on July 21 and charged her with felony child abuse in connection with the shaking incident, police spokesman Jim Sughrue said.
‘Power is in Jesus’
Brady did not claim the baby was healed.
As she explained to her followers Sunday, “Christiana was not in a coma per se that day.”
Nor did Brady claim she was the agent of healing.
“There’s no healing power in me,” she said. “All the healing power is in Jesus Christ.”
But she did hold out hope something was unfolding.
“It’s obvious to me, to the mother and to all the world that something significant happened that day right before our eyes,” she said. “It’s not a complete miracle, but it’s the beginning of one.”
Hammonds said her daughter has never been more responsive. She’s awake for longer periods of time, seems to show some movement in her paralyzed right side, and for the first time this week made some gurgling baby talk noise.
“I believe in prayer more than therapy,” said Hammonds who grew up in Monroe, near Charlotte. “Belief is what will get her to the next level.”
Hammonds, who was laid off from a Sonic Drive-In after the baby’s trauma, has been renting a room in a boarding house on Avent Ferry Road. She has two other children who live with her mother in Monroe.
During Sunday’s ecstatic service, members said they viewed the timing of the healing prayer – nearly two weeks before Christmas – as providential.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Reginald Arnold, a member. “We cannot go back to anything less. This is the beginning of something awesome.”
“I believe in prayer more than therapy,” said Hammonds
Ugh.
How should we celebrate religious traditions? – Faceoff
December 21, 2009
But by putting up inside Town Hall what everyone knows is a Christmas tree and calling it a “Community Tree,” Cary invites disdain, ridicule and charges of political correctness while offending Christians, non-Christians and pagans alike.
Even more laughably, a large cedar tree outside Town Hall, lighted as part of Cary’s annual “holiday celebration,” is called simply “the tree.”
A town statement emphasized that “Neither tree has been called the Christmas Tree.” Think it’s a Hanukkah tree? An Ashura tree?
This courageous exercise of government discretion has been brought to you by the Community Association of Religious Yo-yos.
Cary need not be so milquetoast to be fair.
Buddy Owens argues here that to be neutral, Cary shouldn’t recognize any religions at all.
It’s true that the government can’t legally favor one religion over another. But the U.S. Constitution doesn’t require obliviousness, and neither does common sense.
Cary mistakenly pursues inclusion through neutering. Instead, it should pursue inclusion through inclusion. Addition, not subtraction.
I don’t see why the town can’t decorate and display an evergreen tree – a pagan solstice symbol Christians adapted centuries ago – and call it a Christmas tree, by golly.
At the same time, the town can put up a Jewish menorah and Star of David, display an Islamic crescent, observe the Buddhist Bodhi Day, acknowledge the Wiccan Yule celebration, etc. Mazel tov!
Matthew Eisley is editor of The N&O’s North Raleigh News and Midtown Raleigh News.
Government should stay neutral by staying out
BY BUDDY OWENS
I like Christmas. Bright lights, giving and pretty music always have a way of softening me up, especially since I have grandchildren. That’s a big deal!
Lots of people enjoy Christmas, but it’s exclusively Christian, and to say it isn’t is absolutely out in left field. Do American Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Muslims enjoy Christmas? Maybe some, but most likely not so much.
Governments can mess up Christmas. Surely a “Community Tree” like Cary’s is offensive to Christianity. A government crèche with a “Community Person” in the manger also would offend.
It gets deeper when someone like Cary Councilman Don Frantz wants to “be all-inclusive while still honoring those who celebrate Christmas.” That means what, exactly?
Oops! See what government support of religion does? What a mess. We are unwisely giving our religion “unto Caesar.”
Cary, Wake County, North Carolina and the federal government don’t need to honor any religion or religious activity.
Our country’s founders knew how to do that. They gave us the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And the first 16 words of that First Amendment give us our very first freedom, the freedom of religion.
Being neutral in religion by staying out of it is the only way all levels of government can honor the religions of all their citizens.
Majorities change. Political parties, religions, social classes and other groups can become different in a short time. Let us hope that we still have the First Amendment when Christmas becomes a minority celebration.
Buddy Owens of Raleigh is President of the N.C. Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Volunteering
December 19, 2009
Okay, it wasn’t exactly volunteering as I could have opted out.
Tonight, I and a fellow co-worker, volunteered our time after work hours (though we still got paid to do so) to drive a group of senior citizens around the city and a neighboring town to see the Christmas lights. I had a lot of fun (although I consider my job a lot of fun anyway). I got to meet some new clients which is a rare treat (I hope I get to have them again on a regular basis).
They had a blast as well. I was surprised to learn, though, that they had no idea that the trip entailed going to the neighboring town. My first thought was: “Uh, oh” because we had already hit the business loop and it was my understanding that they all knew what the scheduled route was. It wasn’t a problem at all though, they were actually excited about this new prospect. Bonus! Because, our neighboring town really goes all out with the Christmas decorations.
I must add though that there is a nativity on public property which I don’t agree with (but, hey, I’m not a citizen of that community). If one of their citizens has a gripe about it I’ll leave it up to them to file a complaint. Not my problem.
After we made our pass down the main drag we stopped at a local home that really goes all out (in a tactful way) with their Christmas decorations. We then went on to the local McDonalds (senior citizens? McDonalds? NO! LOL). We were scheduled to stop someplace where the clients could get a bite to eat and this is where they chose to go.
It was a lot of fun for me and a lot of fun for them. Many senior citizens don’t drive or choose not to drive and are voluntarily homebound most of the time because they don’t want to be a bother to their relatives when they need a ride somewhere; much less to drive around just to look at Christmas lights. It makes me feel really good when I see those smiles and hear those heartfelt thank yous’.
Oh, and it didn’t cost them a dime. I work for a real non-profit funded by the State and the county I live in.
This Country Is Full of Morons…At Least Our Legislature Is…
December 18, 2009
…yet who elects these morons? The people of this country.
As I was perusing the news in my feed reader I stumbled onto this gem: Christian Scientists seek prayer provision. At first I was laughing at how ludicrous a notion this is until…
Such a provision was passed by committees in both the House and the Senate this year, but was stripped from the House bill as well as the current version being debated in the Senate.
What!?! This was actually being considered!? It was actually on it’s way into becoming the wording in a Health Care Reform Bill.
What are we going to do? Pay priests, preachers, pastors, imams and gurus for medical care? This would legitimize all kinds of unsavory and fraudulent practices. I mean: are we going to license prayer? How will we know they are accredited? I got it!!! The prayer practitioner will have to show a success rate. There we go!
“Well, Mrs. Smith. I think I’m going to have to refer you to a specialist. I know a very good one.”
