mjh's blog

From the Village Atheist

So, Archbishop Sheehan doesn’t believe in atheists. That’s as self-serving as Wal-Mart’s CEO disparaging unions.

I certainly don’t expect to prove that Sheehan is part of the problem. However, to the “you can’t prove a negative” argument, I say, “so, what?” The efforts of the vast majority of the human race have failed to prove the existence of god — and with very good reason.

Sheehan places the Inquisition and Communism on the scales of justice and pronounces the Inquisition ‘not so bad after all.’ I wonder if his god admits the trivial murders and torturers into heaven while barring the door to the really bad cases. “Lord, it was only a few thousand people and we did it in your name.” The absolution of scoundrels.

Equating communism with atheism comes as no surprise from a religious zealot. It is ‘militant regionists’ who have polarized the entire world. In truth, humans pick and choose their beliefs and behaviors with maddening inconsistency. People of great faith and people without faith turn out to be heroes and ax murders. You can look back and say, “see, of course he did that because ….” It really proves nothing. The Virginia Tech mass murderer came from a deeply religious family and saw himself as christ-like. That’s a specious remark but no less so than blaming the behavior of brutal despots on atheism. Humankind is a murderous breed that embraces lies as readily as the truth. Even if we grow out of our religious infancy, we’ll find new reasons to brutalize each other. mjh

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Atheists Spit Into Rising Wind

The May 26 article on militant atheist writers making an all-out assault on religious faith moves me to respond.

Christopher (an odd name for a nonbeliever!) Hitchens’ book “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion” and others seem to be selling briskly according to the article.

Michael Novak, writing in the June issue of the magazine “First Things,” notes that there is an odd defensiveness about these books, as though they were a sign not of victory but of desperation.

Everywhere on earth except Europe, religion is surging. According to a 2007 Princeton survey for Newsweek, at least 91 percent of Americans believe in God. Only 3 percent say they are atheists. In fact, the whole group of nonbelievers including agnostics and those of no religion is only 10 percent.

These atheistic authors are kind of like men spitting against the wind. Each trots out his arguments for atheism, it might seem, to convince himself. Maybe the books are selling well because there are always people that are curious about authors who attack the respected and the sacred.

Religion throughout history has brought about the establishment of great movements for civilization— the establishment of universities and education, hospitals and various means of helping the sick and the poor.

The atheists typically bring out the sad reality of the Inquisition, but the death inflicted by the Inquisition is a mere pinprick (at most 1,500) compared to what was done by atheists in our times. In the 20th century alone communist atheism has been responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million people.

In reality it is hard to prove the nonexistence of God as one can’t possibly prove a negative. And agnosticism, humanisticly attractive to some, leads to a moral indecisiveness leaving the religion question up in the air. It is hard also because there is a universal hunger in the human heart for the Transcendent.

There will always be the village atheists but those who believe in God, the vast majority, will continue to experience joy and strength in their belief in God.

MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN
Archbishop of Santa Fe
Albuquerque”

http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/letters/567122opinion05-31-07.htm

Global Peace Index: We’re 96th! We’re 96th!

Iran, U.S. have something in common: Both rank high in violence, By BARRY SCHWEID, ASSOCIATED PRESS

The United States placed 96th [in an assessment of the peacefulness of 121 countries] and Iran came in 97th on the global index released Wednesday by researchers at the Economist magazine.

“The United States suffers because it is the world’s policeman, with high levels of militarization,” Andrew Williamson, the director for economic research, said in an interview. …

Norway was rated at the country most at peace, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland and Japan. Iraq was in last place, with Sudan and Israel just above. …

Western Europe was rated the world’s most peaceful region, although France was ranked 34th and the United Kingdom 49th. …

About 24 indicators were used, including wars fought in the last five years, arms sales, prison populations and incidence of crime. …

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070531/NEWS07/70531018/1009

Following the Masters

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Leaves of Grass came out on July 4th 1855. Whitman paid for its publication himself and arranged for it to be sold in different formats, at different prices, to reach as wide an audience as possible. He anonymously wrote wildly enthusiastic reviews of the book himself. He said: “The public is a thick-skinned beast and you have to keep whacking away at its hide to let it know you’re there.” But despite all of his efforts, he sold only 10 copies of the first edition, and gave away the rest.”

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2007/05/28/#thursday

Who am I to argue with Whitman. Gotta go check my Amazon rank and write myself a wildly enthusiastic review. mjh

The Village Idiot

During a Rose Garden news conference on Thursday, President Bush was asked by New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg why Osama bin Laden is still at large. Bush responded:

“Why is he at large? Because we haven’t got him yet, Jim. That’s why. And he’s hiding, and we’re looking, and we will continue to look until we bring him to justice. We’ve brought a lot of his buddies to justice, but not him. That’s why he’s still at large. He’s not out there traipsing around, he’s not leading many parades, however. He’s not out feeding the hungry. He’s isolated, trying to kill people to achieve his objective.”

Stop Fighting

There is a chance — a hope — that one day humankind will grow up and stop killing each other en mass. Perhaps, we will all finally recognize war as futile madness. I think there is a slightly better chance we will completely destroy ourselves first. peace, mjh

Last Week’s WTF?!

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Wolves Terrorizing Catron County

MEXICAN WOLF program personnel are the ones flagrantly and regularly breaking federal laws and regulations and thereby causing intolerable endangerment in Catron County as the people are made to tow the line in all areas regarding safety for wolves.

There are many similarities between dumping killer predators in people’s yards and commandeering airplanes and flying them into buildings. In both cases the targets are people, not government.

These federal functionaries who illegally and/or unsafely dump killer predators are not attacking the U.S. government. They are attacking average citizens in our homes and on our properties. …

Will the Department of Justice explain why cover-ups and the breaking of federal law and rules leading to illegal predator dumping is not terrorism, and why they are shirking their duty? Will the U.S. attorney explain to the world why planned and deliberate acts of terror directed against the people are of no concern to his office, if indeed, that is the case?

MARY MACNAB
Blue, Ariz.

A few years ago, conservative loonies feared The New World Order, enforced by jackbooted thugs, black helicopters and UN forces. Before that, the bogeyman was a communist. (Why do we let the fearful set our agenda?)

This is what happens when we engage in a war without end against a faceless enemy that could be anywhere, anytime (look over your shoulder, look under your bed). Terrorism is the new name for anything you don’t like. It’s becoming meaningless, as are the conservatives. mjh

From One Member of the 2%: Don’t be angry, be cool

I could do without the war metaphors. Human history is a slow struggle out of ignorance and towards comprehension. Shedding religion will just be another step in our maturation. We also need to outgrow the madness of War and find a way to control our inherent anger. You can’t rage for peace; you can’t be mad for reason. Calm down and wake up. mjh

Angry Atheists Are Hot Authors By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer [mjh: the alliteration calls for "ABLE Authors" or "Acute"]

[B]elievers far outnumber nonbelievers in America. In an 2005 AP-Ipsos poll on religion, only 2 percent of U.S. respondents said they did not believe in God. Other surveys concluded that 14 percent of Americans consider themselves secular, a term that can include believers who say they have no religion.” …

The time for polite debate is over. Militant, atheist writers are making an all-out assault on religious faith and reaching the top of the best-seller list, a sign of widespread resentment over the influence of religion in the world among nonbelievers.

Christopher Hitchens’ book, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” has sold briskly ever since it was published last month, and his debates with clergy are drawing crowds at every stop.

Sam Harris was a little-known graduate student until he wrote the phenomenally successful “The End of Faith” and its follow-up, “Letter to a Christian Nation.” Richard Dawkins’”The God Delusion” and Daniel Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon” struck similar themes — and sold.

“There is something like a change in the Zeitgeist,” Hitchens said, noting that sales of his latest book far outnumber those for his earlier work that had challenged faith. “There are a lot of people, in this country in particular, who are fed up with endless lectures by bogus clerics and endless bullying.”

Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif., said the books’ success reflect a new vehemence in the atheist critique.

“I don’t believe in conspiracy theories,” Mouw said, “but it’s almost like they all had a meeting and said, ‘Let’s counterattack.’”

The war metaphor is apt. The writers see themselves in a battle for reason in a world crippled by superstition. In their view, Muslim extremists, Jewish settlers and Christian right activists are from the same mold, using fairy tales posing as divine scripture to justify their lust for power. Bad behavior in the name of religion is behind some of the most dangerous global conflicts and the terrorist attacks in the U.S., London and Madrid, the atheists say.

As Hitchens puts it: “Religion kills.” … [mjh: gods don't kill people, people kill people.]

Given the popularity of the anti-religion books so far, publishers are expected to roll out even more in the future. Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor for Publishers Weekly, says religion has been one of the fastest-growing categories in publishing in the last 15 years, and the rise of books by atheists is “the flip-side of that.”

“It was just the time,” she said, “for the atheists to take the gloves off.”
- – - – -

Is Atheism Just a Rant Against Religion?
Humanists Say Atheists Need to Offer More Vision Than Rhetoric, By Benedicta Cipolla, Religion News Service

Despite its minority status, atheism has enjoyed the spotlight of late, with several books that feature vehement arguments against religion topping the bestseller lists.

But some now say secularists should embrace more than the strident rhetoric poured out in such books as “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins and “The End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris. By devoting so much space to explaining why religion is bad, these critics argue, atheists leave little room for explaining how a godless worldview can be good.

At a recent conference marking the 30th anniversary of Harvard’s humanist chaplaincy, organizers sought to distance the “new humanism” from the “new atheism.”

Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein went so far as to use the (other) f-word in describing his unbelieving brethren.

“At times they’ve made statements that sound really problematic, and when Sam Harris says science must destroy religion, to me that sounds dangerously close to fundamentalism,” Epstein said in an interview after the meeting. “What we need now is a voice that says, ‘That is not all there is to atheism.’ ”

Although the two can overlap, atheism represents a statement about the absence of belief and is thus defined by what it is not. Humanism seeks to provide a positive, secular framework for leading ethical lives and contributing to the greater good. The term “humanist” emerged with the “Humanist Manifesto” of 1933, a nonbinding document summarizing the movement’s principles.

“Atheists are somewhat focused on the one issue of atheism, not looking at how to move forward,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the Washington-based American Humanist Association. While he appreciates the way the new atheists have raised the profile of nonbelievers, he said humanists differ by their willingness to collaborate with religious leaders on various issues. “Working with religion,” he said, “is not what [atheists] are about.” …

The suggestion that atheists may be fundamentalists in their own right has, unsurprisingly, ruffled feathers.

“We’re not a unified group,” said Christopher Hitchens, author of the latest atheist bestseller, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

“But we’re of one mind on this: The only thing that counts is free inquiry, science, research, the testing of evidence, the uses of reason, irony, humor and literature, things of this kind. Just because we hold these convictions rather strongly does not mean this attitude can be classified as fundamentalist,” Hitchens said.

Distinguishing between strong opinion and trying to impose atheism on others, Phil Zuckerman, associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., also finds “fundamentalist” a misnomer. Instead, he faults atheists for preferring black-and-white simplicity to a more nuanced view of religion.

“Religion is a human construction, and as such it will exhibit the best and worst of humanity. They throw the baby out with the bath water in certain instances,” he said.

The humanists are taking advantage of renewed interest in atheism — in effect riding the coattails of Dawkins and Harris into the mainstream — to gain attention for their big-tent model. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the share of American adults who do not subscribe to any religion increased from 8 percent in 1990 to more than 14 percent in 2001.

While only a small portion of the nearly 30 million “unaffiliateds” might describe themselves as atheist, Epstein, from Harvard, sees humanism appealing to skeptics, agnostics and those who maintain only cultural aspects of religion. …

More than a kinder, gentler strain of atheism, humanism seeks to propose a more expansive worldview.

“Atheists don’t really ask the question, what are the vital needs that religion meets? They give you the sense that religion is the enemy, which is absurd,” said Ronald Aronson, professor of humanities at Wayne State University in Detroit.

“There are some questions we secularists have to answer: Who am I, what am I, what can I know? Unless we can answer these questions adequately for ourselves and for others, we can’t expect people to even begin to be interested in living without God.” [mjh: I disagree. I have questions without answers but no need for god and no interest in god other than in understanding other humans. I am not just "interested in living without god," I am doing so every damn day.]

For equal time, hold your nose and read the sarcastic wit of the Washington Times, god’s own paper:

Revival time with the village atheist Wesley Pruden, editor in chief of The Times

The jobs don’t pay a lot, and you take most of your pay in self-esteem, but somebody is always trying out for village idiot or village atheist. Often they’re one and the same.

Lately we’ve seen fresh pursuit of these positions, fueled by a rash of books about atheism, or more accurately, irrational screeds mocking those who have the faith the authors clearly envy. Atheists are organizing. They have their registered lobbyist now on Capitol Hill, and they’re planning a revival meeting in Arlington in September. …

Merely driving by a church to shake a fist at the steeple on a Sunday morning is no longer enough to make an atheist tingle. [mjh: LOL!]
- – - – -

Desicritics.org: The Atheism FAQ with Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins, the author of the NY Times bestseller – The God Delusion – has been interviewed many a time recently. The questions asked were mainly related to his book, the views on atheism, morality and present world.

He answered all questions in a flawless and confident way. Each and every answer speaks about his passion and eagerness to explain his stance on every point. It’s an amazing experience to watch him speak. I have tried to pick up a few commonly asked questions and his answers on different topics.

Why are you against faith?

Because, I am a kind of person who cares about the Truth. The religion and any sort of dogma are the biggest obstacle against the Truth. Not only that, I am worried about the position religion enjoys in our society. You can attack other’s political view, criticize a football coach but cannot attack one’s religious faith. It’s a kind of immunity from criticism that religion enjoys, despite being proven to be mostly illogical.

[mjh: I agree with Kahlil Gibran: "Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.']

Bible Literalism is Voluntary Ignorance

If you believe the universe is only a few thousand years old, you are wrong. This is not a matter of opinion or perspective. This is willful ignorance. This is choosing to be stupid. That is one’s choice, but unbearable to witness. mjh

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” — Daniel Patrick Moynihan

The Denver Post – Museum’s biblical take on “history”
Exhibit opens to public Monday
By Dylan T. Lovan, The Associated Press

Most scientists say there’s a gulf of millions of years between humans and the giant lizards, but according to the Creation Museum, they lived in harmony a few thousand years ago. It’s part of the literal interpretation of the Bible adopted by Ham and other creationists.

“People are just fascinated by dinosaurs, but they’ve sort of become synonymous with millions of years and evolution,” he said.

Evolution is derided at the 60,000- square-foot facility, packed with high-tech exhibits designed by an acclaimed theme-park artist, animatronic dinos and a huge wooden ark. In this Old Testament version of history, dinosaurs appeared on the same day God created other land animals.

A Colorado group offers a similar take on area museums. Littleton- based Biblically Correct Tours, founded in 1988, offers religious tours of secular sites, such as the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

The Kentucky museum’s displays include fossils, hung in large glass cases. Ham said most fossils were created by the massive flood detailed in the book of Genesis.

“The Bible doesn’t talk about fossils, but it gives you a basis for understanding why there are fossils around the world,” he said. [mjh: what a curious equivocation, to take the Bible literally but then fill in gaps as needed. Why not just say there is no such thing as a fossil because the Bible doesn't mention them?]

Ham said the stories of the Bible are supported by science, a notion that has drawn the ire of science educators across the country.

“They make such a point of trying to make it appear scientific,” said Lawrence Krauss, a physics professor, author and critic of the museum. “Instead of shying away from those things that clearly disprove what they’re trying to say, they use those things for deception.”

Event Day Birth Happy Linnaeus Carolus

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

It’s the birthday of the man who gave us a system of classifying and naming all the living things on the planet, Carolus Linnaeus, born in Råshult, Sweden (1707). He was born at a time when human beings named plants and animals in a variety of ways, usually based on what they looked like: names like Queen Anne’s Lace, ghost orchid, and sword fish. But these names were always local. Even within a single country, like England, a plant could be called by half a dozen different names by different groups of people.

Linnaeus was a botanist, and it was his goal to help import new plants to Sweden to help improve the economy. In order to keep everything straight, he developed a naming system based in Latin, so that he and his students would always know what they were talking about. He put each specimen into a large group called a genus and a smaller subgroup called a species, and this became the binomial naming system, which he published in his book Systema Naturae (1758).

Biologists found his naming system extremely useful. His ideas made him famous around the world, and scientists as well as kings and queens sent him plants and animals as gifts for his garden and zoo. Catherine the Great of Russia sent him flower seeds. The crowned prince of Sweden gave him a North American raccoon.

But Linnaeus had little success importing new crops into Sweden. The tea plants his students sent home all died. Coffee did not make it. Neither did ginger or cardamom or cotton or coconuts. In fact, rhubarb was one of the only new plants that took hold. Late in his life, Linnaeus said that the introduction of rhubarb to Sweden was his proudest achievement.

But today, we remember Linnaeus for his contribution to taxonomy. His system of naming living things has been modified, but the basic idea behind it has endured for 250 years. When he published his first taxonomy of plants in 1758, Linnaeus listed the 4,400 species of plants known to science at that time. Today, his system has been used to name more than 1.5 million species. We have Linnaeus to thank for the idea behind all those names, including our own name: Homo sapiens.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2007/05/21/#wednesday

[mjh: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom]

Fifty-two

Today I am 52 years old. There’s something odd about that even number. There are fifty two weeks in a year and fifty two cards in a deck (without the jokers). There are fifty two states, counting DC and Israel.

On the day I was born in the rainy state of Hawai’i, the dry state of New Mexico experienced its greatest rainfall ever recorded (11.28 inches in 24 hours at Lake Maloya). That’s a good rain, even by Hawai’ian standards.

At sunset tonight, Venus sidles up to the moon, not quite close enough for a kiss (“Not ’till 2031″), but less than 1 degree apart.

Free Will Astrology : Taurus Horoscope (April 20-May 20)

It’s about time you got the chance to be knocked on your ass by a flood of positive surprises and good feelings. I hope you’re trusting enough to go with the tidal flow, even if it does temporarily render you a bit woozy. Naturally you’d like to know if this giddy surrender will land you in trouble. Is there any chance that you’ll have to endure some karmic adjustment at a later date because of the fun you’re having now? Here’s my prediction: absolutely not. If anything, your enthusiastic cooperation with the free-form dazzle will shield you from any negative repercussions.

How did the astrologer know about my concern for the righting of the karmic scale. I can’t promise surrender, but I will cooperate. mjh

To paraphrase the Beatles,

You say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too–yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s my birthday
Happy birthday to me.

Cue David Bowie’s Fame

I returned from two days in Chaco (that’s another story) to find myself on the cover of the Albuquerque Journal’s Business Outlook. Cool! I knew Andrew Webb’s article was coming, but I never expected the big color photos by Greg Sorber (taken during an Advanced HTML class).

I am thrilled and honored, as one should be to see one’s name in the same sentence as wit sans nit. I’m humbled to be identified as a photographer, poet and prolific blogger — even if that is just a quote of mine. (For what it’s worth, it is much easier to be a photographer than a poet, and blogging is easier still. However, they all pay the same.)

I enjoyed my lively conversation with Andrew and I appreciate the generous article he has written well. Though I strive to be profoundly memorable and he took notes, I don’t expect any two people to recall a conversation exactly the same way. I’ve had students say to me the exact opposite of what I thought I just said — communication is a sloppy process, even between professional communicators like Andrew and me. Nothing that follows should be construed as criticism of Andrew’s article. Consider this compulsive tidying-up.

Originally, I was to be THE technical editor of the book, not one of several. The original author didn’t exactly back out — he failed to deliver on schedule. (I do not mean to rub his face in that.)

Although I had about five days to think about taking the job, that period was a bit more interesting. As TE, I wrote the DE (Development Editor) to inquire when I would begin to receive chapters. He told me there was a problem and if the author missed a critical deadline, Wiley would offer the book to “… wait for it — you” (quoting him quoting Barney). The five days — miserable days of doubt — were between that teaser and the actual offer. It was during that time I passed through the stages of grief/death, from elation to certainty that they had found someone else. When the EE (Executive Editor), Chris Webb (no relation to Andrew Webb), offered me the job, I waited overnight to accept. (My friend, Leah Kier, at UNM Continuing Education, once observed that when asked to do the extraordinary, I always say no and then come around to yes.)

Now, it is absolutely accurate that I wrote the first draft in barely 8 weeks — I inherited the original author’s deadline and none of his lead-time. Those were demanding, exhilarating days. In early October, 2006, I delivered the last chapter. Almost immediately, I began to receive edited chapters in return. The DE, John Sleeva, did a great job of coaxing more out of me. In fact, over the next month, I added 50% more material, including one or two new chapters. And that wasn’t the end (though I wish it had been, in some sense). Next came the PE, CE and proofreader — all striving to make this a better book.

I finished the last round of review on New Year’s Eve. Merri and I walked out the door on Valentine’s Day to find two cases of books waiting on the porch. At last, it was real.

At the moment, the book ranks #12,732 #9,885 on Amazon Books (rank has to be below 2,000 to penetrate the Best Selling Computer Books). Still no review. mjh

PS: If you want more, I blogged during the process. See the first entry (http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/book/the-book/) and follow links to “next in this category” at the bottom of each entry. There are 14 other entries. Or see http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/category/book/ for the same material organized newest to oldest, as is the blog-way. That’s not the best way to tell a story.

PPS: I’m wearing Marj Mullany. That’s to say, she created my beautiful tie, which Merri bought as a gift for me. The tie-clip was a gift from a stranger, but that, too, is another story.

Speak Truth to Power

My favorite contemporary writer is Dan Neil. I think he pays his bills by writing car reviews for the LA Times, but that earns him the option to write a column labelled “Pop Culture.” Neil is literate; nearly every column includes some deliciously offbeat word that gives me pause.

While I enjoy almost everything Neil writes about contemporary culture, I especially appreciate his take on our war-culture. I’ll let him speak for himself here, but if this excerpt doesn’t impress you, seek him out — he’s worth reading. mjh

[mjh: In a column titled "Bomb Mots," Neil writes about cable TV shows devoted to military weapons. I'll resist the urge to highlight a few choice phrases. I think you'll see them for yourself.]

Bomb Mots – Los Angeles Times

God knows I love to see things blow up. A proper gentleman’s education cannot be considered complete unless he has, at some point, shot a watermelon with a high-powered rifle. But I have a major problem with a lot of this programming, the first being its clinical and morally vacant fascination in killing. You know that familiar wing-camera footage of white-orange napalm blooming in the jungle canopy in Vietnam? There are people under there. At the other end of every smart bomb is some poor dumb bastard who is about to be blown to bits. When I hear some narrator crow about America’s precision bombing, I just cringe. There is nothing precise about a 1,000-pound bomb.

I had a similar reaction to media coverage of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Grand Challenge, DARPA’s annual open competition for autonomous ground vehicles. How many people registered that this was a program to develop robotic weapons? Did anybody even see “The Terminator”?

It’s not about the necessity of armed conflict, or morality of a particular weapon. All of that is, as they say in the military, above my pay grade. It’s about making glib entertainment out of mechanized death. You couldn’t blame a visitor from another country watching this program and concluding that Americans have slipped into a nutty late-Roman fascism.

[mjh: I cut from this Neil's exchange with one of the hosts of such a show, but here's the ending.]

Good propaganda fools the people who see it. Great propaganda fools the people who make it.

Stupid Passtime

KRQE News 13 – Paintball potshots end in arrest

An alleged drive-by shooter was arrested Sunday after an officer spotted him firing at pedestrians with a paintball gun, Albuquerque police reported. …

On Sunday morning, Ernest Jerry Molina is accused of taking those factors for granted while shooting at people from his truck at Central Avenue and Washington Street.

An officer reported witnessing the shooting. Molina was thrown in jail, charged with propulsion of missiles.

“The problem with this is the guns look very similar and almost exactly to a regular weapon,” Hoffman said.

Even up close a paintball gun does appear to be a deadly weapon, and it shoots like one.

That’s why it’s taken so seriously by paintball gamers and game centers. A paintball bullet can cause serious injury if hit hard enough and in a vulnerable place.

“If they’re shot in the eye, … it could take an eye out.” Conrad Morawski of Hinkle Family Fun Center said. “If they get shot in the head at 400 feet per second there’s a possibility for brain damage.”

In rare cases, death can even result. …

Molina, who reportedly admitted his actions, is out on bond and id expected in court Tuesday.

I’m not an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ guy, but Molina should know what a stupid and cruel thing he did. mjh

mjh’s blog — Photo of Paintball Wound

http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/nada/paintball-shot/

Don’t let fear rule America

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Dems Put Us Back On Path to Defeat

SEN. HARRY REID, with the approval of his fellow Democrats, is this century’s Benedict Arnold and Neville Chamberlain, all in one. Arnold was a traitor who decided the Revolutionary War was lost and gave war plans to the British; Chamberlain told the world that “peace in (his) lifetime” was the result of the deal he made with Adolf Hitler.

Both of these men led others down a foolish path of defeat that led to great suffering, the path of today’s Democratic Party. History teaches us that both Arnold and Chamberlain were wrong. Today we have Reid, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, all joining the cut-and-run, don’t-offend-our-enemies crowd— just like Chamberlain. The unknown is whether the Democratic leaders are just naive fools or Benedict Arnolds. …

PHILIP HOWELL
Albuquerque

Thanks for the history lesson, Philip. You must be the new Paul Revere. But, according to your lesson, al Qaida is the equivalent of the British Empire and Nazi Germany — in strength, in numbers, in fire power. Funny, I thought they were originally a few dozen loonies with box cutters. Granted, thanks to our ineptitude, we have more enemies than ever, though some still live in caves and ride donkey carts. Don’t let fear rule America. mjh