JWhiting.com

A comedian buddy of mine recently launched a monthly themed storytelling event at Le Cagibi.

The inaugural storytelling theme was “the law” and I got on board both because I’ve been I’ve been buried for a long time in solitary writing and because the topic hit a nerve. The extent to which modern conservative governments are flagrantly breaking the law really upsets me.

I originally wanted to do a bunch of short stories about the scandals that are linked to up above, but time got the better of me. I only managed to bang out one before the June 26th reading.

The event was, I think, a big success. There was some comedy, some drama and some dramedy.

I thought it’d be fun to post up the story that I read that night along with a song that I think works well with the theme.

Hope you like it…

(more…)

News out of Denmark today about a foiled plot to murder the 73-year-old cartoonist who penned this image here.

See if you can track the logic of this: Man depicts image of a prophet as an instrument of death, followers of prophet take offense and decide to become, uh, instruments of death…

Wtf?

From the Yahoo piece here:

A Danish citizen of Moroccan descent and two Tunisians were arrested in Denmark on Tuesday over a plot to murder one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused worldwide uproar in 2006.

The Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said the arrests near Aarhus in western Denmark were made after lengthy surveillance to prevent a “terror-related killing” that was in an early stage of planning.

I was in Aarhus in November. It’s a sleepy gorgeous tolerant little town. I can’t believe the shit that people get up to in the name of religion.

This whole incident did make me think though: What image could someone draw that would be so offensive to me that it would make me want to kill them? I tried and tried, but couldn’t come up with one.

Why is my capacity to hate so severely limited I thought to myself? It is because I don’t work myself up into the a froth over ideas that come from ancient texts writen by men who thought that the sun revolved around the earth and who treated women only slightly better than cattle? Could be my friends, could be…

Boing Boing has a post up about James Randi who for 10 years now has been offering $1 million to “anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.”

Guess what? The prize remains unclaimed.

James is giving people 2 more years to try and claim the prize and then he’s pulling the plug. From the Boinge:

Now, we’re sure that there will be those who will offer all kinds of objections to this decision – though they could have simply applied and won the prize. There will be accusations that the JREF is concerned about the safety of the prize money – which was never any sort of concern, I can assure you – and there will be more claims that the money was never there in the first place. I can see the professionals out there sighing in relief that they no longer have to answer questions about why they won’t take the prize, and they’ll just wait out the remaining period that the prize is available. All that’s to be expected.

Ten years is long enough to wait. The hundreds of poorly-constructed applications, and the endless hours of phone, e-mail, and in-person discussions we’ve had to suffer through, will be things of the past, for us at the JREF.

Those who believe they have mystic powers now have two full years to apply… Let’s see what happens.

Link here.

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are deliberately infected with HIV .

I’m sure the Dope Pope will use his magical powers to rapidly condemn this wayward view (snark).

This sort of thing makes me sick to my stomach…

BBC NEWS | Africa | Shock at archbishop condom claim

The Globe and Mail has an interesting story today about a British neuroscientist who says he has found a way to induce an out-of-body experience. He makes people feel as if they are standing behind themselves, watching their own backs. They flinch when their virtual selves are threatened with violence. Pretty neat, has great implications for VR & debunking religious superstition.

globeandmail.com: How to be in two places at once