Turns out – by virtue of the way-back machine (on loan, from God) – we were able to round-up a whole handful of renderings, produced over the course of Mohammed’s lifetime. (Courtesy of Yea Olde-town Jerusalem Drunk Tank.)   Enjoy!

The life of the Prophet Mohammed in pictures.
From callow youth to crazy old man (Renderings courtesy of Yea Olde-town Jerusalem Drunk Tank.)

~ Copyright © 2013, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

However, these days a police shooting of any kind will inevitably draw a certain amount of reactionary, knee-jerk, ire, from those who would claim to be living in a police state.  One increasingly run amuck. With individual police officers excitedly looking for the chance to claim their 15 minutes of fame.  And not at all averse to the taking of innocent lives, over offenses amounting to little more than spitting on a sidewalk. (There!  I think I’ve stated their sentiments about right.)

But the question naturally presents itself:  Just who are these ‘bleeding hearts’? Liberals? Not exactly.  At least not when the same sentiments can be elicited from gun owner’s – as one more good reason to buy even more guns.  I briefly interjected my own thoughts into the comments that followed.  Suggesting that the word they were casting about for, was Progressive.  As it gives us both progressive liberals and progressive conservatives.

Progressive’s are most easily spotted, by a certain disconnect from reality, that the rest of us usually try to maintain. So that, while they often see themselves as cutting edge liberal – or conservative, as the case may be – they usually get caught up in social issues, only to throw in with the most reactionary, populist, factions.  In singing their hosannas, while coloring outside the lines.  And engaging in intellectually dishonest attacks on those who are often not the legitimate targets of their ire.

It’s interesting that one of the hallmarks of Progressives is their propensity to call for appeasement in situations and scenarios that just don’t merit the consideration.

Usually an effort to avoid pissing off folks who, by definition, are already our sworn enemies.  Of course, an even wider disconnect is required, in order to expect that cops should remain cordial and open to all other options, even in life and death situations.  Ones they’d never dream of subjecting themselves to.

And while Progressives might appear to be a form of Liberal-Lite, Conservatives can be Progressives too.  All it takes is an easy willingness to trade lies and talking points for some actual intellectual effort.  You need look no farther than Fox news network – and virtually all of red-meat radio – jamming up the airways and folk’s minds, with meaningless progressive bullshit.

And that last GOP candidate for POTUS, Mitt Romney? Whatever else his religious and political affiliations, Mitt was as progressive – meaning, completely out there somewhere, in his thinking – as anyone else who’d never allow facts to get in the way of a particularly self-satisfying and self-serving world view.

In a nutshell, Progressives - of every stripe – present us with the strange personification of folks who appear to have abandoned whatever leasehold or proprietorship they once had, to that space between their ears. Who’ve quit it, and now display eerie signs of vacancy in their windows, a “Your sign here” label on their foreheads, and megaphones for their mouths.  (While sporting WIFI – and all kinds of extra bandwidth.)

~ Copyright © 2013, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

There is a story in the Salt Lake Trib.

Turns out their sunning corpse got up and walked off, when investigated by police. And the men turned out to be high on more than just the marijuana they’d smoked.

But I was taken back to a time – over 3 decades ago – when I found myself sitting with a handful of equally polluted country music musicians, in a Chinese restaurant that used to be on Redwood Road.  And, along with sobering amounts of coffee, going over a menu at 2 in the morning.

So I asked one of the guys, whose name I really shouldn’t mention (may he RIP these many years later), if he thought the Chinese Omelets were any good. He looked over at where I was pointing to on the menu, but soon fell silent – wondering about it himself.

The waitress finally came back over, and I let her know – straight off – how I wouldn’t mind trying one of those Chinese Omelets.  She, of course (I’m sure you’re already way ahead of me on this) said, “There is no Chinese Omelet on that menu.”  To which I confidently abjured – finger pointing to the contested menu item – “Sure there is; see – Chinese … Chineese … Cheese Omelet.”

Well, it just goes to show how some pretty embarrassing mistakes can happen.  And while it’s true – we were just drinking alcohol – everyone at the table was laughingly surprised to learn, they’d all thought it said ‘Chinese Omelet’ too.  Except for the waitress.  But I guess that was always the downside, when it came to putting away large amounts of good Canadian blended whiskey.  We all more or less shared Hartley Barney’s ringing endorsement of “How do they make it so good, and sell it so cheap.”

Now, of course – aside from an enlarged liver – it makes me wonder, how we were ever able to make it home in one piece.  But to my credit, I was the guy who wrote Free Cowboy Hats – in black Magic Marker – on a number of those toilet seat-liner dispensers, hanging on the walls, in the bathrooms, of some particularly rowdy beer joints we played.

~ Copyright © 2013, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

I see where Dan Ellis – president of the nonprofit, ATHEISTS OF UTAH – is back in the news.

I’ve had a nodding acquaintance with Dan for the last number of years, on a couple of atheist discussion-type websites. And I’m familiar the kind of work he and his organization often get involved with. So I wasn’t exactly shocked.

Maybe folks will remember that huge “Good without God” billboard they sponsored, off the side of a Highway 201 in West Valley – just last year.

But this time it appears Dan was involved in a quasi-ethical bump head with a West Valley T-shirt print shop owner. And the story caught the attention of at least a couple of Hi-profile web pubs.

Michael Gryboski, of The Christian Post’s article Utah Business Refuses to Print ‘Gotta Be Real Cuz God Ain’t’ Shirts for Atheist Group, and David Edwards of The RAW Story’s Utah Christian company refuses to print LGBT Pride shirts for atheist group, both recount the details.

The one who experienced the ethical conundrum, was TIKI Printing owner, Sam Saltzman.  Who – on learning of the slogan intended for the pink T-shirts – decided the job conflicted with his own Christian leanings.

Apparently Dan wasn’t angry.  Just surprised that the owner would allow his religious politics, to flap out a rather straight forward business deal.

And Dan has already made a point of explaining he has no intention of suing the establishment – or even raising a fair amount of hell.  I’m sure he would like to see some awareness raised – among business owners and religious leaders of our state. Those same upstanding folks who would no doubt eschew any practice of overt religious discrimination – amongst themselves.

But sometimes things happen so fast – and come on a body so unexpectedly, that one hardly has time to wrap their head around the situation in a rational manner.

Kind of like the first time you meet a Mormon – if you’ve never met one before. It’s all you can do, just to remain cordial, while looking for the horns.  And how many of us have actually been able to keep ourselves from asking – straight out – just how many wives might be living under the same roof?

Of course, if they’ve already pumped the gas – and helped themselves to the soda pop, it wouldn’t do much good to tell ‘em their money’s no good now, would it. </sarcasm>

~ Copyright © 2013, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

Business has really picked up for feedly, and a few others, since Google announce the July 1st retirement of  their much-loved Google Reader.

But I’ve recently had occasion to downgrade a previous 5-Star rating - for both privacy and security concerns.

The review was titled Hidebound and Highhanded – and given a reduced rating of 2 out of 5 stars.

As pointed out in the review, it’s hidebound and highhanded – when it comes to available options for protecting your privacy.  And when it comes to treating some of your personal information, as their proprietary property.

Let me start off by saying that – for those of you who use them – this is a stunningly modern feed reader, that does way more than just re-skin Google’s Feed-Reader platform.  And who’s people are actively developing their own free-standing platform, to take over when the Google’s platform is completely taken down, in July.

That said, I’m a bit put off by the inability to export RSS feed URLs (which they apparently consider proprietary information – even though these Feeds are collected, like Favorites and Bookmarks, by individual users).

But I’m way more than just a little put off, by what I consider their biggest affront.  Which is to both user account security and privacy, via the easily overlooked Most Recently Used (MRU) – or Recently Read – list.  A ‘feature’ unique to this reader, and one that can neither be disabled or cleared.  (Individual entries can only be Marked as Read and Hid, at this time.)

Which is to say, in this day and age – when Firefox allows you to delete cookies, browser history, and any kind of tracking information – feedly wishes to maintain a list of your reading – and reading preferences – in perpetuity.

In seeking to address this issue, I was directed to a page where I could “vote” on the desirability of incorporating the ability to edit or clear what otherwise becomes a massive data base of every publication you’ve perused, and every article you’ve ever read.

I call such an attitude both arrogant and highhanded.  And we – who are quickly making feedly into a 5-Star Add-on – need to make our voices heard on this one.

I suggest that anyone currently using the feedly add-on, sign in to your Firefox account long enough to ‘rate’ this app – or downgrade any previous 5-Star ratings.  Making sure to note that it is for “security concerns” – until our concerns can be met.

Like I said, this is a wonderfully nice feed reader, and is currently being given a tremendous shot in the arm – by both Google and Firefox – for its ability to directly tie into and ‘adopt’ existing Google feed reader accounts.  They shouldn’t be allowed to abuse their clients’ trust, as well.

~ Copyright © 2013, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

As an atheist, I can appreciate how God got invented – out of a need to provide a psychological stop-gap, for an overwhelming number of imponderables, at the time.

And I can even appreciate how so many folks, nowadays, eschew the more austere path of science and philosophy – necessary to arrive at an inner knowledge, concerning the truth of the matter, for themselves.

After all, most folks are just as comfortable operating the start button on their computer – without schooling themselves on the underlying digital electronics, Boolean logic, or the binary mathematics behind it.  That, and the fact that the question is simply not as important to many – who often prefer to acquiesce to a socially prevalent ‘default’ belief, in order to move on with other areas of their lives.

But religious belief has its roots in a commonly ingrained error of logic.  Where the very concept of god – much like the edge of space – began as the word for an idea.  But, through superstitious deference and thousands of years of use, the concept has been afforded a presumed actual existence – who’s Name is God.  And with growing numbers of the folks today being increasingly unable to tell fact from fiction, the same kind of accretion of classification – from mere mental imagination, to existing in reality – has taken place with everything from angels to werewolves; ghosts (malevolent and friendly) to Bigfoot and UFOs.

A fundamental error is seldom expelled from philosophy by a single victory. It retreats slowly, defends every inch of ground, and often, after it has been driven from the open country, retains a footing in some remote fastness.  – John Stuart Mill

By merely labeling an idea – and then, through common use and speaking of it as if it were true – it is eventually able to supplant reality, in the minds of many, who come to confuse the mere labeling of the idea, for the ‘name’ given to some actual ‘thing.’

But, in setting themselves against the very idea that there are rational answers to be had, for a rational universe – without a creator-god – ‘believers’ close themselves off to both a higher understanding – and a  higher morality.

For the chance to look out on the universe – and human kind – as equal participants, in having arrived at this station in life.  To give up the naive notion that we are “the protected children of God,” and realize we need slide over and pick up the reins, as protectors and caretakers of this world – and each other.  That it’s time for all of us to come together, to become more spiritually aware and responsible.  And come of age spiritually – as adults.

~ Copyright © 2013, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

..

..Evolution – the lie that’s
too big to be true – continues
to be derided as little more than
an unsubstantiated theory,
by many of its detractors. 

.

.

.

The message gets communicated in any number of ways, but all are dismissive of evolution.

“Life didn’t just assemble itself out of nothing.”

“Even the scientists claim they don’t really know for sure.”
How it possibly could have happened
– or if that’s how it happened at all.

“Everything in nature suffers from entropy.”
Systems run down, and things naturally fall into disrepair.
Things devolve into chaos; they don’t magically organize themselves.

“How can anyone look at nature, and not see the need for a Creator.”
Evolution couldn’t possibly make anything as intricate as an eye

“Besides, no one can really know for sure – whether or not God exists.”
And that’s actually just part of His divine plan.
Why would anyone behave morally, if there was no God.

“Atheists can’t imagine anything existing, that’s greater than themselves.”
It’s all part of a social agenda, by atheists, to turn us away from God.
They want to turn us into a Godless society.

Of course, there are many more - all assuming that little more is known today, than what was first advanced by Charles Darwin, some 150 years ago – while presuming to have just given sufficient support for their own unsubstantiated religious claims.

But when we look at all of the advances made in every other branch of science and applied technology over the last 150 years – or the last 50 years, or just the last 10 – how could anyone not suppose that the amount of accumulated knowledge behind the science of evolution, hasn’t also progressed at a pace that far outstrips anything remotely dreamed of in Darwin’s day - or even 5 years ago.

Compare your new blue-ray, or mp3 player to an old wind-up Edison Victrola, or to an old 8-track tape player.  Or how does a Classic ’55 Chevy coup, compare to an early Ford Model T - let alone anything you can drive off of a new car lot today?

The fact is, between the geological record, fossil discoveries, embryonic studies, the work of microbiologists, and the DNA evidence, life can be traced back to its earliest beginnings – over a billion years ago – with greater assurance and accuracy, than you can probably trace your own genealogy back just a few hundred years.

Some of the things that scientists now know:

We not only evolved from fish, but we go through all of our evolutionary stages during embryonic development – similar, in some ways, to how a caterpillar is transformed, inside its cocoon, into a butterfly.

At first, we appear indistinguishable from fish embryo – repleat with gills, tail, and a spine attached  directly to the back of our skull.  We eventually ‘morph’  into a reptilian stage, including reptile-like jawbones, that will later move – and morph – to become our tiny inner ear bones.

We are completely covered in downy hair, at another point, before eventually reabsorbing both the hair and our tail.

And, along with changes to structures in our necks and hip joints, we are eventually delivered into this world of so-called naked apes.  Who’s members walk upright and exhibit the unique ability to speak – thanks as well to an enlarged and highly evolved brain.

These things are known with the same assurance as the laws of gravity, though scientists are still tweaking their theories of how gravity actually works.

So why, you might ask, is the general public so apparently uninformed about the basic scientific evidence, and the wealth of solid facts that support the truth of evolution?

The biggest reason, is that it has remained completely off limits as course material within our public school systems, for most of the last 100 years - with teachers forbidden to even broach the subject.  And it’s not just that people don’t know.  There are also a good number of folks out there, actively engaged in preventing any further dissemination of this, apparently dangerous information, to anyone - especially school children.

Imagine, for a moment,  if the same taboos existed – as they do in many 3rd-world Muslim countries today – concerning the teaching of our other physical and biological sciences?  We would still be herding goats and riding donkeys, like the folks who first handed us that assembled tome of transcribed oral accounts – ready to vouchsafe its authenticity as not only an accurate historical record, but also as chronicling various social and religious interactions with the God of Abraham.

We can forgive them, for not being able to completely understand the world they lived in.  But for those of us lucky enough to be living in this day and age, such thinking is ridiculously romantic at best, and darkly superstitious at worse.

Fact is, there are a good many religious believers out there, who are actually the ones unwilling to give up the exalted view they hold of themselves.  One of having been singularly created in the image, and by the hand, of a supernatural being - exalted above all other living creatures on earth.

And it’s these same - shall we say - God’s own chosen, who have set themselves up as the anointed protectors of all that is holy.  And so, would deny others even a look at the scientific evidence that, again, would support the proven facts behind their very existence.

Isn’t it time we pulled our collective heads out of the sand, and openly recognized the simple fact of evolution?
 –

Chances are, you’ve never received any formal education, concerning the study of evolution, yourself.  Nor had a chance to actually study the overwhelming evidence.

That’s why, for anyone even slightly interested in learning more, I particularly recommend Jerry A. Coyne’s scientific eye-opener, Why Evolution is True, for further reading.  It’s written by a scientist, in layman’s terms, that just about anyone can understand.

The entire subject is more fascinating than anything you could possibly imagine.  And ultimately, more comforting than you would ever guess.  You’ll certainly never again acquiesce to that worn-out lie, “Well, nobody really knows anything for sure …”

~ Copyright © 2011, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~

Jon Huntsman

You can almost cut the fingernails-on-a-blackboard sense of hysterical tension,
with a proverbial knife.

Huntsman – the only ‘thinking man’s cigarette,’ in a world of political Mo-ho’s – is about to reveal himself as a John Kennedy kind of politician; cognizant of his responsibility to see and evaluate things from a constitutional and legal point of view, first. And not taking any direct council, let alone orders, from Temple Square.

Not that I have any wish to see the Obama administration cut short, in it’s own efforts at political redress of corporate sin. But it seems completely ludicrous that Mormons – who desperately wish to be taken seriously as mainstream political contenders – would look to diss the only halfway-mainstream political contender among them.

As for the Issue of same-sex civil unions, it doesn’t go nearly far enough to address the issue.

As proof that the opposition to gay marriage – among otherwise sane heterosexual people and politicians – is merely a smoke screen for a religious, or otherwise unfounded, and superstitiously biased agenda, I offer the following for open-minded consideration:

Marriage is a personal – and private – partnership, between two individuals, that is protected by legal statutes, (including the right of quiet enjoyment) for purposes of forming an intimate familial bond – and has no need of even considering the sex, or sexual orientation, of the individuals involved.

Why? Because the only difference it could possibly make, is the inability to conceive offspring naturally.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that heterosexual mates haven’t also been ostracized, or even murdered, for their inability to conceive children naturally; take Anne-of-a-thousand-days Boleyn, who was beheaded by Henry VIII (the Pope wasn’t good to go, with divorce).

Religious asshats have been meddling and muddling things up for thousands of years.

But seriously, are we going to deny childless couples (pardon me; couples who are unable to conceive and bear children naturally – sans in vitro, surrogate, or adoptive options) the right to marry? And how about the use of birth control, not to mention abortion; are we still stuck in the middle ages?

The many self-righteous who argue otherwise, are the same pontificating, nonsensical fools who threatened Galileo with torture and burning at the stake, for denying that the earth was flat – and the center of the entire universe – 500 years ago.  And just like them, they continue to use the power of the state to coerce individuals into complying with their personal beliefs, and standards of behavior.

Moe and Joe will never have any naturally conceived children of their own. Would that we could obtain the same kind of assurance, from a number of hetero-others.

~ Copyright © 2011, D R Hosie and The Salt Lake Daily Issue ~