USB banned???
It's been reported, (and I'm not sure of the authenticity, but it's all over the geeks sites as well as The Guardian), that apparently an evangelical cult in Brazil has banned the use of USB for its members because the symbol
What ultra-rich Americans want
In an article filled with statistics, Bernie Sanders explains that ultra-rich Americans will never be satisfied. They want "more, more, more." And they are on the verge of taking control of Congress in order to get it. Here's what about to happen: Republicans "want to add $700 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years by extending Bush's tax breaks for the top 2 percent." Here's where we are headed in the long run, unless the Democrats draw a line in the sand:
The billionaires and their supporters in Congress are hell-bent on taking us back to the 1920s, and eliminating all traces of social legislation designed to protect working families, the elderly, children and the disabled. No "social contract" for them. They want it all. They want to privatize or dismantle Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and let the elderly, the sick and the poor fend for themselves. They want to expand our disastrous trade policies so that corporations can continue throwing American workers out on the street as they outsource jobs to China and other low-wage countries. Some also want to eliminate the minimum wage so that American workers can have the "freedom" to work for $3.00 an hour.
Looking for Jesus at Christmas
Because Christmas is quickly approaching, I decided to start looking for Jesus in the easiest places to find large numbers of people: big box stores. More specifically, I'm looking for large images of Jesus, not thumb-sized Jesus Babies tucked away in a little mangers. 
I started my hunt at Lowe's two days ago. I found huge Santas, reindeer, snowmen, elves, penguins wearing hats and fashion-model angels, but no Jesus. How odd, that when a celebration is supposedly only about Jesus, you won't find any prominent images of Jesus. You'd expect to see huge inflatable images of Jesus on the roofs of the stores and on their parking lots. You'd expect to find life-sized Jesus images on people lawns. You'd expect to see large statues of bloodied Jesuses on crosses, his alleged moment of glory. But, except for those little Jesus babies you might find in an occasional manger kit, that doesn't really feature him, you won't find Jesus, even though he is the purported reason for all the fuss. Nor will you find stores promoting his alleged teachings. Such strange compartmentalization.
Why is it that we don't see a life sized Jesus statue trying to get us to buy that new iPod? Or a Jesus image urging us to buy a life-sized Santa? Apparently, the image of Jesus doesn't sell plastic goods and gadgets. Is that because Jesus is never alleged to have said anything about going into debt by buying lots of consumer goods. Is it because it would be tasteless to buy all of this crap with the image of the alleged creator of the universe, the man who allowed himself to be tortured to save your eternal life, staring at you?
Or is it because we don't really believe the things we say about Jesus, and that we actually don't believe in Jesus, but we only believe in belief?
Funeral Misbehavior
I don't follow gossip columns, or even broadcast news. But I do read a few blogs. Yesterday FriendlyAtheist posted Tony Danza’s Funeral Outburst Makes Sense. I don't particularly care about the actor or the author involved. But apparently he has gotten some negative press for an action that I wish I'd had the cojones to do a couple of times. He cut off a a cleric who was in full stride in a fire and brimstone recruiting speech at the funeral of a friend, to redirect focus to the friend. Personally, I think the cleric was misbehaving, not the friend. And I wish more people would stand up at funerals and demand that the subject be of the life departed, not of the faith of the orator. Better yet, make sure the minister knows beforehand that bald propagandizing will not be tolerated. If the deceased had been a pious person, then discussing the faith and piety of the departed meets with my approval. But using the occasion simply as a recruiting drive is too common of an occurrence. I've been to a few funerals where the cleric/priest/minister had nothing particular to contribute about the guest of honor, but went on and on about how doomed the rest of us were unless we took his preferred sacrament. He simply knew a captive audience and marketing opportunity when he had one. Very dissatisfying to those of us who knew the decedent. I have also been to good memorials, where the focus was on the life as lived. My two favorite memorial services ended with a participatory kazoo performance, or recessional music by Groucho Marx. They were fully celebrations of the life departed, not dire warnings to the audience. Unless as a cautionary example to enjoy life while you can. Here is an example of an appropriate farewell, although NSFW:
Obama’s new high-speed bus program
The Onion network News reports on the new federal high-speed bus system:
Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan