How Fast Are You?

Words to live by:

The more you love, the more you can love and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.

– Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love

Via Sooz.

See also:

Trying to make someone fall in love with you is about as pointless as trying to control who you fall in love with.

(source unknown)

Via Richard.

Fine folks from the League of S.T.E.A.M. are having a gallery show tomorrow night in Santa Monica. These are always a blast. You should go.

The League of S.T.E.A.M. presents
An Evening with the Unfamiliar: Scientific Investigations of Paranormal Oddities

Location:
Renee’s Courtyard Cafe & Bar
522 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, 90401 [map]
Parking available at 1234 4th St., $3 flat rate after 6pm

Time:
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
7:00 PM to Midnight

UPDATE: LA Weekly was at the show, and has a nice little write-up and some photos to boot! Go Team S.T.E.A.M.!

click to enbiggen

From the new and already fantastic Small Victories.

via No Smoking in the Skullcave (an occasionally NSFW site)

One of my favorite costumes at work to day, Midge as Junice:

“Who is this Junice??” I hear you cry. I’m glad you asked:

That Midge, she’s a hoot.

Reader Dave commented on yesterday’s post about those pro-atheist ads that will be running in New York transit stations soon.

Quoth he:

My only issue with this is that it is creating a double standard for expression of religion (or lack thereof). How is it that the Ten Commandments are banned from public court houses everywhere but tax payer funded public transportation can be used for support the Atheist movement? I don’t think this is right. I think there are a plethora of other places this could have been done without encroaching on public funded domains. I certainly understand why someone would not want to have to go ride the subway everyday and have the ten commandments, or any other religious doctrine, staring you in the face. However, there are two sides to that story. I do believe in God and I would not want to have to go ride the subway everyday and be visually told that I should just denounce that belief. I respect your convictions and definitely empathize with, what I am sure, is a personal belief that you may find yourself constantly defending. I just ask that you respect mine in return.

I replied to Dave’s comment, but I’d like to re-post my reply here because, frankly, I want to be really clear about a couple things.

In my (ever so humble) opinion, freedom of religion and freedom of speech are essential human rights. Therefore, I will not only respect your beliefs, but I consider it my duty to promote and defend your right to believe as you will, and your right to express yourself as you will.

(continue reading…)

These posters will soon appear in subway and transit stations all over the city of New York. I approve.¹

CNN reports:

On October 26, a dozen bustling New York City subway stations will be adorned with the ads as “part of a coordinated multi-organizational advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about people who don’t believe in a god”, according to a statement from the group, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason…

[Michael De Dora Jr., executive director of the New York Center for Inquiry,] says the ambitions behind the advertisements are threefold.First, the coalition hopes the promotion will enhance awareness of New York City’s secular community. He explained that the coalition also hopes to encourage “talking and thinking about religion and morality,” as well as support involvement in groups that encourage a sense of a social community for non-believing New Yorkers.

John Rafferty, president of the Secular Humanist Society of New York, another member group of the coalition, said the ads are in no way an anti-religious campaign. They are looking to reach out to more people who have similar feelings, but might not be aware of an outlet to express their beliefs, he said.

Rafferty and De Dora cite the American Religious Identification Survey, released earlier this year, as evidence of a shift away from organized religion. Those checking “none” for religion rose from 8 percent of the population in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008, effectively making “no religion” the fastest growing religious identification in the United States.

It is nice to be reminded occasionally that I’m not alone in my godless decadence lifestyle.

Via jesthered.

This highlights a valid and common concern for people like me, who conduct so much of our personal and professional lives via email. I had settled on “Thanks” myself, but now I’m totally switching to “Piss off.”

Piss off,
-thatbaldguy

From the always helpful Savage Chickens.

(click to enbiggen)

From the always observant xkcd.

Because that’s the kind of reaction that Locke and Demosthenes’ blog would get in the world you and I inhabit. I mean, if I can’t get billions of readers, how could they?

(Yes, I know. I don’t have any readers because I never post anything good.¹ Still, I’m going to keep telling myself that I am the best blogger ever. Please be gentle with the fragile ecology of my delusions.)

From the ever acute and accurate xkcd.

UPDATE: It occurs to me that this post is really about me complaining that I don’t get enough visitors, and uses a reference that less than 0.00003% of the population will understand. I think I may have inadvertently put my finger on my problem, so to speak. Silly bald man.