Tag: news

How was the end of the world for you?

Did you know the world ended last Saturday?  I heard it was guaranteed.  Apparently God didn’t get the memo.

So basically there’s a “preacher” named Harold Camping who uses mathematical calculations supposedly based on the Bible to figure out when the Rapture and Apocalypse will happen.  He figured it would be May 21, 2011.  He’s not just your average garden-variety fruitcake, though.  He is rumored to have spent about $100 million advertising his “prophecy”.  He promoted it on 55 radio stations and 2000 billboards, plus all the free news coverage he got for it.

As you might have noticed, there was a lack of end-of-the-world events last weekend.  Seemed quite normal to me.  I thought maybe I just slept through it, but it seems like it would’ve been on the news had something of such epic proportions actually happened.  So it’s probably safe to say this guy was wrong.

In this day of extended news coverage, of course reporters asked this guy what happened.  How do you think he responded?

A) Admitted his mistake and apologized.
B) Said it was (another) miscalculation.
C) Blame it on Global Warming or Bush.
D) Pretend he was still right.

Well, A would’ve been the ideal thing to do, but that didn’t happen.  B is what he’s done before.  C is what some people do on all kinds of topics, whether it applies or not.  D is the craziest option, though that’s exactly what he did.  Camping said his dates were correct, that it was “an invisible judgment day” and the final judgment and destruction will happen on October 21, 2011.  He also said we cannot understand the Bible, which I thought was really ironic because he claims to be basing his “prophecies” on the Bible.  (Never mind that his prediction is unscriptural; he must have missed that verse.)

I heard of a humorous tweet about the whole thing:

If this Rapture doesn’t get started soon, my rental Ferrari demolition derby last night wasn’t as fun as I thought. ~ David Burge, 5/21/11

My favorite response so far to all the hullabaloo is this billboard that someone made after the doomsday prediction was proven false.  This is awesome.

Well played…

you’re no better than rocks

What would happen if “Mother Nature” had the same rights as humans?  There are some people trying to find out.  Van Jones, former “green job czar” of President Obama, is working with various obscure groups to give plants, trees, rocks, and such the same legal rights as humans.  Van Jones is also associated with a thinktank supported by George Soros, if that means anything to you.

Supposedly Bolivia has already given the rights of nature equal status with human rights in its legal system.  The President of Bolivia has often said “the central enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism.”  That sure makes this sound political…

Some constitutional amendments being pushed for are provisions that “Nature has a right to be completely restored”.  So does that mean any building can be torn down if nature was destroyed to build it?  Wouldn’t that include everything man-made?  If you take the concept far enough, the Earth was 100% nature before we built anything.

But even ignoring the worst-case scenario with that, it would mean that you could be sued for kicking a rock, or stepping on grass, or using firewood in your fireplace.  I know, it sounds silly.  But try to convince me there aren’t people stupid and greedy enough to do it…

Why can’t we all just get along?  I don’t have any beef with plants.  I’m even okay with eating less plants (except potatoes).

I wonder what vegetarians / vegans think about this legislation?  Some of them get mad at people eating animals, but what if people get mad at them eating plants?  This could get interesting…

Where is the common sense in all this?  Be responsible with the environment, but don’t give sticks and rocks the same rights as humans.  Is it really so difficult?  Sometimes I wonder what this world is coming to…

Will the Supermoon destroy us all?

I saw an interesting headline in the news recently: Will March 19 “Supermoon” Trigger Natural Disasters? Uhh… What is this “Supermoon”?  Apparently it’s just that the moon will be closer to the Earth than it has in the past 18 years (“just” 221,567 miles away), and it will be a full moon.

Here’s what is amusing to me about the article:

“One astrologer believes it could inflict massive damage on the planet.”

Notice the first word of that quote.  The guy is Richard Nolle, who runs a website, and he termed this upcoming event an “extreme supermoon”.  He says when this happens, “chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth.”  If there’s truth to that, then we should be very concerned.   But the very next sentence of the article clarifies the situation:

(It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.)

Ahh…   Back in factual terms, a seismologist has said it does cause more “stress” to the Earth, but it’s a less-than-1-percent increase in earthquake activity and slightly higher in volcanoes.  He thinks there should be more of an effect, but the evidence just isn’t there.  The U.S. Geological Survey has done a lot of studies and haven’t found anything significant at all.

The article goes on to say, “Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all.”   Notice the first word again.  So the moon is to blame for some Earth destruction after all!  Well, as they say, you can’t be too careful — so obviously we should blow up the moon! (There are numerous discussions here at Buffet o’ Blog on why the moon should be destroyed.  Feel free to search the archives and join the discussion.)

Grand Theft Bacon

In our weekly caption contests, when there’s something crazy going on, someone will occasionally say, “What would you do for bacon?”  It’s a valid question, because bacon is awesome. I can see someone doing stupid human tricks to get bacon.  But stealing bacon shouldn’t be one of them.

Last month in Little Rock, Arkansas, a man was arrested for trying to steal bacon from a grocery store.  He stuffed two packages of bacon in his pants and tried to leave the store.  An employee saw him trying to “abscond” with the merchandise and attempted to stop him.  The two got into a fight, before several customers helped restrain him.  (FYI, “abscond” is the word used in the newspaper article.  I wonder if they used a thesaurus for that one.)

Who would steal two packages of bacon?  Would you believe it was a 50-year-old man?   I would expect him to know better.  Also, he did this at 1:15 PM.  Was this a planned heist?  I’m guessing no.

Imagine this man in jail — a fellow inmate would ask, “What are you in for?”  His crime against society is stealing two packages of bacon — by stuffing them into his pants.  It’s not hard to imagine this guy getting beat up if he were to go to prison…