Italians On The March

Beat The Drums Loudly

 Drummer Steve Moore
Original video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItZyaOlrb7E

Top Secret Swiss Drum Corps
Original video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHXNaYoguNU

The Drummer of Ravel's Bolero
Original video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCex9IjPNCo

Gordo the Bucket Drummer (Australia)

I won't link to the original video on You Tube
because the uploader has made tens of thousands of dollars from it
but refuses to share even a cent of the cash with Gordo

So here's a link to an interview with Gordo himself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2T6jrot03E

Verbal Diarrhoea

This is atheist Steve Shives reading an excerpt from the Cornelius Van Til book titled Defense of the Faith. Steve's interpretation of the text is short and to the point:

Original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4nJiN6Lpj4

(at about the 21 minute mark)

St Ephrem

I thought this was funny:

http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/

Another Memory Shattered

There is a famous Australian folk song composed in 1891 and titled, "Click Go The Shears". It tells the story of an incident in a sheep shearing shed where the "ringer" (fastest shearer in the shed) is beaten by the "snagger" (the oldest shearer in the shed) when the snagger was lucky enough to get the "bare bellied ewe" (which is often mistakenly called the "bare bellied joe" and in some versions the "blue bellied joe"). Anyway the snagger gets the bare bellied ewe and, because it has no wool on its belly, he saves himself a few seconds of shearing time and manages to beat the ringer by a single "blow" (of the shears).

I've always thought it was the most Australian song ever written - until tonight - when I came across an American folk song composed in 1865 and titled "Ring The Bell Watchman". Both songs are posted below and if you listen to them you will understand why my memories have been shattered: my favourite Australian folk song is nothing more than a rip-off of an American original !

Click Go The Shears (Australia 1891)

Original video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB3EDLqEllI

Ring The Bell Watchman (America 1865)

Original video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNOP5tYPTqI

Another Atheist Gone Berserk

He may or may not have called himself an atheist, but latest reports make it clear that he was definitely anti-religion. It is possible that he was a deist who believed in god but disagreed with organized religion, but my guess is that he was an unbeliever and most likely an atheist. Now he's dead and nobody cares. Serve him right.

The man linked to a violent assault on Dallas police headquarters on Saturday was accused two years earlier of choking his mother, then fleeing to an east Texas town where schools were locked down out of fear he would attack them as “soft targets”, according to accounts from police and family members.

Police said the suspect, who planted pipe bombs outside headquarters and fired at officers from his armoured van, told them he was James Boulware. He was killed hours later by a police sniper. 

Boulware was arrested for family violence in Dallas two years ago, in a case that was later dismissed. According to a Dallas police report, a witness said Boulware was in his mother’s house and “began talking rudely about religion, Jews and Christians”. The report said Boulware then grabbed his mother by the neck for two to three seconds, until a third person could pull him off. The two men fought until Boulware left the house.

The police report said he was then reported on the same day to be in Paris, Texas, about 100 miles away, where he grabbed weapons and body armour and talked about “shooting up schools and churches”. Andrew Boulware and his father, Jim, confirmed the incident.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/14/

Kills Innocent Victims - Harbours No Ill Will

Talha Asmal

This is what the ISIS commanders refer to as a "useful idiot".

TALHA Asmal, who reportedly detonated a vehicle fitted with explosives while fighting for Islamic State in Iraq, has been described as "a loving, kind, caring and affable teenager" who never harboured any ill will against anybody.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Yes of course, as the shrapnel tore his victims into agonized shreds, the last thoughts of this loving, caring sweetie-pie were, "No offense...Nothing personal."

The ISIS bosses pick up these 17 year old idiot virgins, convince them that if they blow themselves up they can go to heaven and fuck themselves senseless every day for eternity - and the silly buggers fall for it !

Well Done That Boy

He should be able to dine out on this story for years to come.

A teenager on work experience discovered a new planet 1000 light years away. Tom Wagg was 15 when he spotted a tiny dip in the light of a distant star during his week-long placement at Keele University. After two years of further research, astronomers have confirmed that he witnessed a mystery planet passing in front of the star.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/69341609/

Did you notice that it is not described as a "previously unknown" planet, but as a mystery planet. (Even a little bit of woo is better than none at all.)

It's In The Book (Or Maybe Not)

Christians love telling each other how sinful they are. If everybody is talking about their favorite foods a Christian will try to kill the mood by pointing out that, "Man does not live by bread alone." (Matthew 4:4) And if everybody is eagerly talking about their retirement plans, a killjoy Christian will say, "There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement." 

That's what Greg Gianforte told his audience during a speech at the Montana Bible College in February 2015:

There's nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it's been an accepted concept in our culture today. Nowhere does it say, 'Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach.' It doesn't say that anywhere ... The example I think of is Noah. How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600. He wasn't like, cashing Social Security checks, he wasn't hanging out, he was working. Right? So, I think we have an obligation to work. Now the role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/09/greg-gianforte-montana

But how come the Christian always manages to find a biblical text that fits so neatly into the conversation? Well some of the sayings are so well-known they have become cliches, but oftentimes the Christians will just make something up!

They don't give a damn about whether or not the bible says such a thing as long as they score a debating point. And they do so, safe in the knowledge that no other Christian is going to haul out a bible and start looking for the alleged text.

So when I heard Greg Gianforte saying that retirement is not mentioned in the bible, I decided not to take his word for it. Instead I went to an on-line concordance; typed-in "retire", and up popped this result:

http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/

Proof once again that accusing a Christian of "telling lies for Jesus" is not an insult but a statement of fact.

-----

In the days before the Internet I had several popular versions of the bible and their Concordances as well. In all my life I never met a Christian who had one. In fact, I never came across a Christian who even knew what a Concordance was! (Priests and parsons knew of course, but I'm talking about ordinary parishioners.)

The Meaning Of Life

Question: What is the purpose of our life? Why are we here?


Answer: We are here to provide a safe haven for tapeworms.

Queen's Birthday in South Australia

I woke up this morning (June 8th) and was surprised to find there was no traffic in the street. I did some checking on the Internet and discovered that it was a public holiday celebrating the Queen's birthday. (I'm retired so I don't have to keep track of public holidays - every day is a holiday for me.)

Funny thing though - the Queen was born on April 21st so why are we celebrating her birthday on June 8th?

Well her grandfather was born on June 3rd !

No seriously.

Up until 1936 Australians had always celebrated the monarch's birthday on the actual anniversary of their birth, but when King George V died in 1936 we said, "Fuck it, let's not keep on changing the dates for all the future monarchs, let's always have the public holiday early in June each year; same as we did for King George V last year.

So that's why we celebrate the Queen's birthday on  June 8th this year

Except in Western Australia where the Queen's birthday is celebrated in late September each year !

And in Queensland next year where they are going to celebrate her birthday on October 3rd.

So now you know?

http://publicholidays.com.au/queens-birthday/

Christian Prophecies Are 100% Accurate

Every few days you will hear a Christian preacher declaring that he has just received a message from god. Usually some nonsense about earthquakes, or tornadoes, or something equally terrible: If we don't pray harder the god of love will kill us all.

• If the earthquake comes the preacher will say, "I predicted that."
• If the earthquake doesn't come the preacher will say, "God saved us because you followed my instructions and prayed harder."

It's easy to understand a pompous preacher pulling a stunt like that, but the thing that gets me is that the mugs in the pews fall for it every time. They marvel at the 100% accuracy of the preacher's predictions and it never occurs to them that the predictions are intentionally designed that way.

Jesus Didn't Save These Christians

An Islamic State militant has reportedly converted to Christianity after dreaming of a “man in white,” who he believed was Jesus.

The Christian Post reports the ISIS fighter had killed many Christians before the dream, and had confessed that he “actually enjoyed” killing the Christians. 

[...]

In another dream, Jesus asked him to follow him and he was now asking to become a follower of Christ and to be disciple.
http://www.christianheadlines.com/

So Jesus just sat back and watched while the Muslim fanatic killed innocent Christians one after the other - and then he saved the murderer!

I guess the Christians were just collateral damage. Not worth a pinch of shit to Jesus; not when he's got a Muslim to convert.

You Can See God - But You Have To Be Stupid First

A narrow red stain that has remained for years beneath a painting of a crucified Christ at the Saint John the Evangelist church in Newport, Rhode Island, has led the church's pastor to speculate on its possible meaning and the presence of Jesus.

Providence Journal reported on Monday that the 140-year-old Episcopal church has recently been attracting attention for the strange rust-colored stain, which in the right light appears to be coming directly from Jesus' crucified feet.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/mysterious-red-mark

Lord and Master of the Universe. Creator of all things past, present, and future. But you can't see the signs unless you bend down and squint a little bit - and the light has to be just right !

Is there anything dopier than a Christian looking for signs of the supernatural?

The Snow Report

In Australia most radio stations include a Snow Report in their weather forecasts. They make it sound like it is coming direct from the Weather Bureau but it is nothing more than an advertisement, paid for and produced by, the hotel owners. 

As a result, these reports are not designed to provide accurate information about snow conditions, but simply to entice people to travel to the area whether skiing is possible or not. The more people booking accommodation the more money the hotel makes.

So I was very surprised when one reporter decided not to go along with the lie. His Snow Report went something like this:

So what are conditions like up there at the moment? 

Well there's always good snow cover at this time of the year.

Yes, but what about today? 

It looks like we're set for a great weekend.

But what about snow cover? 

Well as I look out the window all I can see is white.

Yes but how deep is it?

Well I don't know exactly how deep it is in centimetres.

Centimetres! It wouldn't even be millimetres would it?

And that's where my memory fails. I simply cannot recall how the Snow Report ended but one thing was clear: the radio man wasn't letting the hotel owner tell any lies that particular day.