Don't Believe in God? You Are Not Alone According to Billboard

The billboard you see in the picture has been appearing all over America, including Dallas, which is where the one you see in the picture is located. Another appears in Fort Worth.

Somehow this would seem to be a tad provocative here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

The billboards are brought to America courtesy of something called FreeThoughtAction, which is part of something called the American Humanist Association.

According to the executive director of the American Humanist Association, Roy Speckhardt, "The point of the billboard is to let nontheistic people, such as atheists and agnostics, know they’re not alone."

The founder of FreeThoughtAction, Jan Meshon further explained, "For all the attention given to religion lately, the number of secular Americans is booming. The tide is definitely turning."

To which Speckhardt adds, "So why have nontheistic Americans been made to feel marginalized and deviant? This billboard demonstrates our will to push back and refuse to be passive in the culture wars. And after so many religious billboards, it’s only fair that we should have one that gives voice to nontheists."

It really is no great surprise that the news of these billboards would generate at least one embarrassingly wrong-headed letter to the editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I'll copy it below. See how many erroneous beliefs you can spot in the letter....

Disturbing message

What is the world coming to when you see billboards that ask, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone”?

Metroplex Atheists Chairman Terry McDonald is exercising his freedom of speech but, at the same time, he is confusing church and state. With America as “one nation under God,” how could we let this happen?

“In God we trust” is printed on our money. Our country was founded on God, and for this billboard to stand anywhere in this country is a mockery of our founding fathers.

— Thomas T. Risher, Fort Worth

Veterans Park Veterans Memorial

I'd not taken the time to closely look at the new Veterans Memorial in Veterans Park til today. There are paver stones on which the names of local veterans are engraved. Or notes from loved ones.

I don't quite know for sure what I think of the part of the memorial where the engraved paver stones end up at a pair of what I assume are intended to represent caskets.

The casket on the left, at the point where the pavers meet the casket, the engravings were for several Choctaw Code Talkers from World War I. I knew about the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, but I'd never heard of Choctaw Code Talkers.

In a Burger King in Kayenta, Arizona, on or near the Navajo Nation, there is a museum, as part of the Burger King, that tells the story of the Navajo Code Talkers. That was the first I'd ever heard of them. That was in the early 1990s. Since then their story has become well known, via movies and I think a memorial other than the one in a Burger King.

There were pavers for soldiers from the current Iraq war, the previous Iraq War, Vietnam, Korea, both World Wars. And the Civil War. Two from the Civil War. I thought that was interesting. Jack Tankersley and James I Brewton, Civil War Confederate.

When I first came to Texas, we went out to Weatherford, we were walking around the county courthouse, which looked cool to our northwest eyes. And then there was a statue, a statue memorializing the War Between the State and the Confederacy. It was at that point that for the first time I realized, yikes, I'm living in a Confederate state. At the time this seemed significant. Now, not so much.

Cemeteries in Texas are very interesting to a person who grew up in the northwest. Washington only became a state in 1889. Prior to the 1850s there weren't a lot of people other than Indians living in Washington. So, if you walk around even the oldest cemeteries in Washington, like the one in the small town of Rosyln, you see some very intriguing gravestones, it's got something like 20 sections, divided by everything from religion to nation to race.

But, in a Washington cemetery you don't see anyone buried that was born in something like 1799. I never saw such a thing til I was in Texas. Texas cemeteries are like walking through a museum. If' you've not walked around the cemetery by the Dallas Convention Center and Pioneer Plaza, well, it's worth a walk. It also has the biggest Civil War monument I've seen. I think Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and I forget who else are on it.

I've got to remember to blog about an interesting, pretty much hidden, war memorial that I came across in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. I took pictures and then forgot about it.

Veterans Park, Chinatown, Wildflowers & Golfing in Texas

Yesterday's rainy Easter kept me indoors most of the day, except for a drippy morning swim that was quite pleasant. I repeated the swim this morning, though under blue sky.

With yesterday's unpleasantness behind me I was in need of a walk and some goods from Chinatown. So, it was off to Veterans Park in Arlington to take care of the walking need and then on to Chinatown for red peppers and oyster sauce, among other things.

At Veterans Park I noticed a sign I'd not noticed before. Its list of prohibitions and warnings amused me. Number 2 said "No Golfing Allowed in Park." While #5 warned, "Caution: Disc/Frisbee Golf in Area.

So, #2 said no golfing while #5 warned you to watch out for the golfers. Sort of.

Easter's heavy rain seemed to have done no damage to the wildflowers at Veterans Park. I saw a couple I'd not seen before, like the red one in the picture.

After Chinatown my intention had been to come back here and make lunch. But, I was convinced to agree to go to The Tandoor Restaurant for their buffet again. It was good.

These type places fit in with my plan to gain weight. I got comments to my blogging yesterday about Morbid Obesity that convinced me that I should not write about such things unless I was writing from personal experience.

I figure it'll take me about 6 months to get Morbidly Obese. Give or take a month or two. Seems like this could be an expensive project. I used to know a Hugely Morbidly Obese person, in fact, it was from that unfortunate acquaintance that my fascination with the disease was born. She was so obese and had such expensive food tastes I figured she was waddling around wearing 20-30 thousand dollars worth of pure blubber. It takes a lot of cookies, pies and butter to make that much heft.

Wal-Mart Thieving Milk Scam

My one reader may remember last week, or the week before when I said I would not set foot inside that corrupt bastion of bad behavior that calls itself Krogers, due to chronic, over and over again price mistakes that I really think should have some Kroger employee sometime somewhere charged with theft just like Kroger's would with a shoplifter.

I've mentioned before that while Wal-Mart sometimes makes mistakes, with Wal-Mart it can go either way, their favor or mine, unlike Krogers where it is always in their favor. Which is what makes Krogers' pricing mistakes seem like purposeful thievery.

Now back to Wal-Mart. For months now Wal-Mart has been selling milk at $1.98 a gallon. Last week on the way back from Southlake I knew I neeed a gallon, so I stopped at the North Richland Hills Wal-Mart Supercenter, took the 2 mile walk to the back where the milk is, saw the BIG "GALLON MILK $1.98" sign.

Walked the 2 miles back to the self-checkouts. Quickly scanned the milk and it rang up as $2.00. I think to myself, how stupid, but 2 cents was not worth fussing about. That and I was in a hurry.

Now, today I was in Chinatown in Arlington. On the way back from that I went to the Tandoor Indian Restaurant (again) for their lunch buffet. After on the way back here I remembered I needed milk again.

So, I stop at my neighborhood Eastchase Wal-Mart Supercent, run in, well, more accurately I walked quickly in, made the 2 mile journey to the back of the store, saw the $1.98 sign I'm used to see. Grabbed my milk and quickly made the 2 mile trek back to the front of the store.

Scanned the milk and you can see the result in the picture of the receipt above. Again, $2.00

So, almost a week after the first incident, at a different store, and now again today, Wal-Mart got 2 cents more than I thought I was going to be paying them. Now, if Wal-Mart is running this Milk Scam system wide that could add up to a lot of pennies.

I suspect Wal-Mart employs psychologists, just like Microsoft does, to try and figure out how much pain they can inflict before their customers react. The research probably showed something like only 1 in 3,459 customers was even going to notice the mistake and that only 1 in 55,493 of those who do notice would take the time to wait in the Customer Service line to complain. The research probably also showed that something like 1 in 433,356 of those who notice the mistake will blog about it and at that time they'd have to label the blogger a crackpot.

America's First Dog Bo Is A Texan

President Obama finally got around to making good on yet one more of his campaign promises, this one being the one he made to his little girls that they could have a pet dog if they moved to the White House.

It has to be a special type dog due to one of the girls being allergic. A Portuguese Water Dog met those criteria.

The First Dog is named Bo. Bo used to be named Amigo's New Hope when he went to his first adopted home. But those adopters did not work out. Bo was not homeless for long before Senator Edward Kennedy bought him to give to the Obama girls.

Who I guess re-named him Bo. Bo Obama has a nice ring to it.

Bo is a native Texan, born in Boyd at Amigo Portuguese Water Dogs. Boyd is a small town about 30 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

So, it did not take Texas very long to get another native son back in the White House.

Bo sure is a cute dog. He reminds me of my nephew, Max.

Volunteer To Help Me At The Prairie Fest

The 4th Annual Fort Worth Prairie Fest is happening in less than 2 weeks, on April 25. Volunteers are needed to help me set up the Festival.

You probably could use some good fresh air and exercise. And you've been wanting to do something different with some different fun people. This is your chance.

Volunteers are needed on April 24 (the day before the festival) from Noon til Dark for pre-festival set-up. And on April 25 (festival day) to help from 7 am til 9:30 am.

If you can help, please call Prairie Fest Headquarters at 817.731.2787 or email Debora Young to let it be known what day and time you can help out.

It is a Happy Wet Easter in Texas

I am very sad to say I got not a one invite to have ham anywhere on this drippy Easter Sunday in Texas. I wonder if Zorro's Buffet has ham today?

On Friday I blogged about Good Friday and my bafflement at the whole Jesus died for your sins thing. And then was miraculously back living again shortly thereafter. All part of his Dad's plan to save the souls of the earthbound humans.

This morning's Dallas Morning News had a full page ad on this subject. That's the ad in the picture.

There is a note under a hammer and three spikes. The note says...

Son,
I need you to Build a Bridge, here are all the tools you will need. See you soon.
Love, Dad

P.S. Sorry I had to have you killed in such a brutal, painful way. But it had to be done for the greater good of all the humans I've created.

Okay. I added the P.S. It seemed to fit the theme. Isn't it a tad blasphemous for a newspaper ad to make up words from God in a trite note referencing the murder of Jesus? Oh, I just remembered, the entire Bible consists of mortal men making up words from God.

I was afraid that my Good Friday blogging might stir up some thumping being that I'm sitting on the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

But there were only 2 comments and neither seemed to be from Planet Loony Bin. Although one did make the comment all in capital letters, which is the Internet method of shouting.

Bryce said...

It sounds like God has really got you thinking about His Son.

And then Anonymous shouted...

OH DURANGO, SAD , SO VERY SAD.AH.. BUT THERE IS HOPE, ALWAYS, AND HIS MERCY AND LOVE COVERS IT ALL. TAKE THIS FROM SOMEBODY WHO LOVED FREEDOM TO DO WHATEVER, LITTLE BIT OF AGNOSTICISM, LOGICAL AND SARCASTIC ME. YOU WILL FIND HIM, SINCE HE IS ALWAYS THERE. GOD BLESS AND HAPPY EASTER, HE IS RISEN.

Bryce, God didn't get me thinking about anything. I do my own thinking.

Anonymous, thank you for your Happy Easter wishes.

Morbid Obesity, Only Child Syndrome & the World's Biggest Butt

Who knows why, but this Easter morning people from all over the world are coming to this blog looking for the World's Biggest Butt, Only Child Syndrome help and what to do about Morbid Obesity.

Why does this world-wide search for the World's Biggest Butt go through these repeating cycles? I can understand why those who are at the mercy of an Only Child might search for relief and why people are concerned about Morbid Obesity. But the endless quest to find the World's Biggest Butt?

Actually, I can sort of see a connection between big butts, only child syndrome and morbid obesity. As in I've seen all three in one person, more than once.

Anyway, this morning I got the longest comment ever to this blog. The subject was Morbid Obesity. The commenter was my most frequent commenter, that being Anonymous.

Below is what Anonymous had to say about Morbid Obesity, complete with reference links Anonymous provided...

I agree with you that morbid obesity is a form of mental illness and often-times bad character, including self-loathing, boundary issues, lack of personal responsibility, delusional thinking and usually obsessive-compulsive.

Survey says grossly obese people even over 400 pounds don't view themselves as overweight so that ought to be a tip off right there that there is something horribly wrong with them.

"...Indeed, among adults who met the National Institutes of Health criteria for being obese, only 15 percent realized they were obese, notes Kimberly P. Truesdale of the University of North Carolina. She says that her team's findings, which she reported in San Francisco earlier this month at the Experimental Biology '06 meeting, have important public health implications: "If [obese] people don't identify with being obese, then they're most likely going to ignore messages warning of health risks."..."

Most of them claim it's some kind of thyroid problem, but even people with thyroid difficulties who wish to be healthy can manage it.

It's a lack of self-control and often a method of trying to force other people to give them sympathy and special treatment while themselves lacking empathy for others.

Many morbidly obese are complete power-freaks. Morbidly obese women tend to view all normal weight women as enemies and tend to be bullies and this is true even in childhood.


"...What has struck me is that often the female serial bully is fat, and chooses a slim female target on to whom to project her self-loathing. Envy is a strong motivator for bullies...."

Survey says - most fat people are fat because they are lazy:

Very obese adults almost completely sedentary.

"Morbidly obese adults are sedentary for more than 99 percent of the day, getting only a fraction of the amount of walking that experts recommend for staying healthy, a small study suggests...

...The study of 10 men and women found that participants spent an average of 23 hours and 52 minutes sleeping, lying down or sitting each day...."

Kids Who Lack Self-Control More Prone to Obesity Later

"... In two papers published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, scientists found that preschool-age children who had trouble with self-control and the ability to delay gratification gained more weight by the time they were preteens than those who were better at regulating their behavior..."

Google's Feedburner Burns Me

Okay, I have to say, even though someone kindly mailed me a Blogging For Dummies book, and even though I read that entire book, including the chapter about Feeds, I still don't understand the concept.

As in what is the point of burning a feed? And why do people subscribe to a feed? Rather than just going directly to a blog, if you like that blog?

Soon after I started this blog I, to use the vernacular, burned a feed of this blog, using Feedburner. At that point in time Google had not yet acquired Feedburner.

Feedburner had a 'monetize' option. It seemed easy to set up. You could use your Google AdSense code. However, Feedburner had you adding code to your blog layout. This was totally screwed up. It did not add the ads to the Feedburner feed. Instead it messed up the ads in the blog. So, I removed the code from the layout.

Time passed and Google bought Feedburner. I was then told I could manage Feedburner ads from my AdSense account. So, I did so. I enabled ads for feeds. But the ads still did not show up in Feedburner. They showed up in the html code for Feedburner. You could see the space where the ads should appear. But no ads appeared in the feed.

But. The Google ads do appear in other feeds. Like Google's News Reader. Why does Google have both Feedburner and Google News Reader? I can't help but wonder.

Are some Feedburner geeks annoyed at being eaten up by the Google monster and retaliating by messing up the Feedburner code?

Another Feedburner thing that bugs me is the number of subscribers. The number goes up and down, constantly. Yesterday it was 47, today it is 45. 45 subscribers? And that's just with Feedburner. And yet when I look at my AdSense account, like I just did, it shows there were only 6 Feedburner page impressions. So, I've got 45 Feedburner subscribers, but of those 45 only 6 pages were looked at? I don't get it.

Anyway, can anyone enlighten me out of my ignorance regarding this Feedburner conundrum?

Taking a Fort Worth Bus to the Tandy Hills

Today a bus riding aficionado talked me into riding Fort Worth mass transit, in the form of a natural gas-powered bus, for the first time. The destination was Tandy Hills Park to do my usual Saturday mountain hike. The distance, about 4 miles.

The bus arrived right on schedule, the #21 bus, pulled up right at 11;52 am. The bus aficionado gave me his pass to swipe through the ticket machine while he bought another ticket for $1.75. He thought it was a round trip ticket. This turned out to be erroneous, we later learned.

I have been on mass transit buses previously in other locales, that being Seattle and my old home zone of the Skagit Valley. In the Skagit Valley they were called SKAT buses, due to it being Skagit Area Transit. Bus rides in the Skagit Valley were free, back then, paid for by a slight increase to the sales tax.

In Seattle the buses are HUGE, long articulated things, meaning the bus is so long, two halves are connected by an accordion like thing so it can go around corners. The Fort Worth bus was quite small and noisy. I loved how the bus zoomed along, like some sort of ride in a theme park. At the most there were 8 passengers on the bus with me today. My last time on a Seattle bus, last summer, zipping through the Seattle bus tunnel, it was standing room only.

On the way to the Tandy Hills the bus stop exit point was not were I was told it would be. This resulted in about a half mile walk on city streets to get to the park. We hiked around for about an hour, then hurried back to Oakland Street to catch a return bus. Got to the bus stop ahead of when the bus should get there.

15 minutes went by. No bus. Called the bus center. After about 5 minutes on the phone we were told the bus was late and had just left the transit station. That meant it should reach where I was standing in about 5 minutes, which it did.

Getting back on the bus I swiped my pass. Then the bus aficionado swiped his and was told it was a one-way ticket, that he'd need to buy another ticket or a transfer pass for 75 cents. The bus aficionado somehow thought that $1.75 got him a roundtrip ticket to go 4 miles each way. When it actually cost $3.00 for a roundtrip ticket. This seemed a bit expensive to me, all things considered. I think I paid 50 cents the last time I took a Seattle bus from the north end to downtown, with Seattle buses being free in the downtown zone. When the bus aficionado bought the $1.75 ticket the driver asked if he wanted a transfer pass, to which the bus aficionado, not knowing what a transfer pass was, said no. With a transfer pass, apparently one could do the 4 mile round trip on one ticket. It all seemed way too confusing to me.

So, the bus aficionado asked me if I had 2 bucks. All I had was 2 ten dollar bills. After way too much brouhaha the super smiling sweet lady bus driver said she'd pay for it. And then we were on our way. A short distance later a lady got off the bus with a huge number of bags filled with groceries. The super sweet always smiling lady bus driver helped the lady get her bags off the bus, helping her get mobile on the sidewalk.

Early on in today's bus ride adventure I was thinking I'm liking this. I always do the driving, it was nice to be able to look around. And the ride was fun. But, by the end of the bus ride adventure it seemed like something I would likely not soon repeat. Even though the bus drivers were very nice.

But, it was a good hike around the Tandy Hills. I saw another illusive Celestial and the sky has now returned to total blue from that unfortunate wildfire haze we had going on a couple days ago.

Ride a Seattle bus with me through the Seattle bus tunnel last summer in the YouTube video below (note all the buses in the tunnel, all as crowded as the one I was on, unlike today's bus ride)....