Just another cruel, arrogant atheist rant...YAWN...

[onager]

For newcomers - Michael Nugent is the head of Atheist Ireland (and was recently re-elected to that job). Nugent has spent much of his life tangling with opponents like the Irish Catholic Church and the IRA.

In 2011 his wife, Anne, died of cancer at a cruelly young age. She donated her body to an Irish medical college for study by future doctors.

The link takes you to Nugent's article about it. I thought some of you might like to read it. Then think of how often atheists are accused of arrogance, cruelty, having no feelings, etc.

http://www.michaelnugent.com/2014/11/07/a-parting-gift-to-anatomy-from-my-late-wife-anne-and-other-donors-broadcast-by-rte-on-our-wedding-anniversary/

[trotsky]

1. A prominent DU poster is fond of labeling us hated atheists as "Spocks"...

because evidently that fits with her narrow worldview that the mean atheists are incapable of emotion.

[AlbertCat]

2. fits with her narrow worldview that the mean atheists are incapable of emotion.

And she obviously has never seen a Star Trek episode, because Spock has emotional outbursts ALL THE TIME.... it's like, y'know, part of the interesting thing about the character....

[Rob H.]

3. "Spocks"? Seriously?

I'm okay with that, not because I agree but because SPOCK IS AWESOME.

[trotsky]

4. The "Spock" she has in her mind is anything but awesome.

Cold, emotionless robots. That's what she prefers to see us as. Guess it helps her dehumanize us. Makes it easier to demonize us and dismiss our opinions.

[Rob H.]

6. I'd take being a Vulcan over embracing religion and its related (imo) nonsense

I get your point, though, especially about using the term to try to make us seem like beings incapable of empathy or any other human feeling. It's sad that some people seriously consider not believing fairy tales cooked up thousands of years ago to be a bad thing. FTR, I am not a simpering, devil-eared freak whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia.

[AlbertCat]

10. The "Spock" she has in her mind is anything but awesome.

Well, religionists DO have a thing for fictional characters they think are real.

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. She means THIS Spock, of course.

[onager]

12. Speaking of Spock...

Check your Netflix/Hulu/MeTV etc. for a 1964 episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E," with the title "The Project Strigas Affair."

The guest stars included:
--Werner Klemperer, a/k/a Col. Klink in "Hogan's Heroes."
--Leonard Nimoy playing a bad guy
--And yes, The Holy Shat Himself (PBUH), William Shatner as the good guy!

Nimoy & Shatner together, several years before "Star Trek," with Col. Klink as a bonus.

Bonus #2 - David McCallum goes undercover in fake hair/moustache, looking like a dead ringer for Trotsky (Leon, not our esteemed poster Trotsky).

Here's a short clip:

http://m.

[mr blur]

7. THIS Spock?:

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Yes, we are all very human.

It is amazing that people can be so hurtful to atheists and think that that is ok. I call those people bullies.

I miss her every day. Even here on this couch, I miss her when I am watching television, because we spent so much time watching box sets of DVDs when she was ill. I miss her when I go to bed. I mean, we were together twenty five years, so it’s not something that I am ever going to stop missing her.

[progressoid]

8. Hey this is off topic onager,

but I just ran across these clips from British Pathe about tanks.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3kG3TM8jFKjeWOlbsiFPJxverv1VnkBQ

[onager]

9. T'anks for the link!

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I hadn't seen many of those clips, but that British Pathe video library is all kinds of awesome. I've found tons of great historical videos in there.

SORTA ON-TOPIC: even those who hate the military, tanks, etc. might want to read Patrick Wright's "social history of the tank," which is entitled...uh...Tank. You can find it on Amazon priced as low as 1 American penny. Yep, $0.01.

Wright, a British professor of Modern Cultural Studies, is more interested in cultural impact than main-gun impact: for one thing, how the tank has been variously seen as liberator (WWII Europe) or oppressive tool of authoritarian govts. (Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, China 1989.)

The book is full of fascinating detours - the influence of tanks on Israeli culture, which even produced religious-themed songs about armor; the insane courage of Russia's female tankers in WWII; the goofy fight over the "pink tank" in Prague, which artists not only painted pink but decorated with a large middle finger, to make sure everybody got their point. (It was a Russian tank.)

And "punk culture?" That term was used in WWII to describe the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend." A bunch of snotty teens enlisted from the Hitler Youth, with black leather uniforms and very bad attitudes.

Some of the most fascinating stuff concerns one of the world's first tank experts, the British J.F.C. Fuller. He was an early devotee of Aleister Crowley and an honored guest at Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday party in April 1939. He became convinced that democratic governments were no match for properly organized Fascist regimes, and joined Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts. All of which got him into some trouble after September 1939...

http://www.amazon.com/Tank-Patrick-Wright/dp/0142001910