Update: Check out this quote from the press conference where Buffet made the announcement…

Update: an even better article on this amazing endowment.

In light of our recent chats about the nature of human morality and altruism — something theists seem to think would not exist without gawd (and we know that humans invented gawd, so that’s quite ironic)…

Buffett donation makes new business of charity

NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) – A philanthropic merger between Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, the world’s two richest men, sets a new benchmark for the wealth others may donate and the businesslike scrutiny they will demand over those funds.

Buffett on Monday signed over much of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the single largest act of charity in U.S. history. The contribution would double the foundation’s assets to more than $60 billion.

In doing so, Buffett said it was much harder to give money away responsibly than to amass it in the first place.

“Philanthropy is a tougher game and really the search for talent to perform in that area should be more important (than in business),” Buffett said in a town hall meeting with Bill and Melinda Gates in New York.

The move may prod even the most miserly of moneybags to reach into their pockets for society, as well as stoke a culture of competitive giving between the fiercest of business rivals, according to philanthropy experts.

“It’s going to cause a lot of other people to think about what’s the most effective way to become a philanthropic player,” said Ray Horton, director of the Social Enterprise Program at Columbia University’s business school.

“I would think the 49 other people (on the list of the world’s richest) are all thinking about this issue today.”

Buffett’s decision also taps into a new infrastructure of charity, in which a growing number of business school graduates use their skills for nonprofit work while corporations take a more active role in social welfare.

A new age of philanthropy? I’m all for it. Since we haven’t figured out how to avoid letting war profiteers gain positions of great power in government, it seems that good deeds must now come from private sources. I wanna see Bill Gates at the back of a dusty cafe in the Upper Haight plucking on a rusty old guitar, hair tussled down over his eyes, twanging out:

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the Intel-chips
’round you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be wired to the bone…
If your time to you
Is worth savin’

Reminds me of this remarkable organization.

Long Bets is about taking personal responsibility for ideas and opinions. Posting, voting, and predicting under your true name is part of standing up for what you think.

There is no maximum amount. The bet money, treated as a donation to the Long Bets Foundation, must be paid at the time the Bet is made, and is tax-deductible immediately. The entire amount goes into a long-term investment portfolio called the Farsight Fund — its assets are in “Endowments”, a mutual fund managed by Capital Research and Management Company. Half of the growth of that fund is drawn off to the Long Bets Foundation, which maintains the Long Bets service; the other half accrues so that the eventual payment to the winner’s preferred charity may be significantly larger than the original bet stakes. The original Predictor pays $50 less into the stakes than the Challenger, because of already having paid the original $50 publication fee.

Some predictions that have been made:

Long live whacky new philanthropy, eh?

With a fond helmet tip to the General- one of my favorite places to hang, I bring you Vivo;

“Long-story-short: Like everything else on earth, water degrades over time. “Vivo” is water restored back to the way it was when God created it 6000 years ago. The metabolic aide and healing properties of Vivo are so great, Dr. Carl Baugh (founder of the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, TX – www.creationevidence.org) devoted two entire episodes of his TBN program (”Creation in the 21st Century”) just to Vivo. The wife of one of the researchers involved claimed Vivo cured her fibromyalgia. She also said her son’s wart was gone after three days of having a Vivo-soaked cotton-ball bandaged to it! A losing olympic swimming team started winning after they started drinking Vivo; the other teams were so shocked at their improvement, they demanded they be tested for steroids! When I drink Vivo, I feel 10 pounds lighter and I don’t get thirsty as quickly as I do after drinking regular water. They say you can use it topically and they’re right – when I smear it on my chapped lips, they instantly stop hurting, and when I rub it on cuts and scrapes, they instantly stop stinging and they heal ten times faster! My father says Vivo gives him more energy. My mother says it “rejuvenates” her. When my brother-in-law’s brother drank a Vivo for the first time, he was amazed – he said it was “smooth” and the best water he ever drank. Two friends of my mother said they could feel difference. People who say “water is water” don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Not to be outdone, Florida Congresswoman/Wicked Witch of the Redneck Riviera, Katherine Harris, wants to solve Florida’s citrus canker problem with Holy Water. (Myself, I think it has more to do with either homosexual bees and their promiscuous pollenating or the trees themselves are veterans of virginity pledges but that’s just me.)

“Rep. Katherine Harris, the Republican best known for her controversial role in the Florida recount battle, is at the center of a new flap — over a report that she pressed the state to treat trees with Holy Water.

Harris reportedly helped associates of the Kabbalah Centre to get officials in Florida’s agriculture department to test the water as a potential curative to the canker disease then plaguing orange groves. At the time, in 2001, Harris was still serving as Florida’s secretary of state, the same post she had held during the post-election fight in 2000.

According to a July 6 report in the Orlando Sentinel, at Harris’s urging, state researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to test Celestial Drops — a product “promoted as a canker inhibitor because of its ‘improved fractal design,’ ‘infinite levels of order’ and ‘high energy and low entropy.’”

Harris reportedly recommended Celestial Drops to the state’s agriculture department after learning about the product from Rabbi Abe Hardoon, now head of the West Boca Kabbalah Learning Centre. Harris denies having known that the product was associated with the Kabbalah Centre.”

Now, I realize that anyone tied to the Creation Evidence museum is automatically asshatted and that Ms. Harris is so out of the loop that the Brothers Bush no longer take her calls. And I’m painfully aware of the ridiculous bastardization of the once hermetic and interesting Qabbalah by celebs with their bracelets and bottled water. Further, I’m well aware that, in and of themselves, these stories can’t touch a Jehovah’s Witness arsenic child murder for sheer heartstring plucking but, perhaps, just perhaps, they’ll cleanse the palate or dust off the old funny bone, as we watch the FUCKTARDS get crazier and crazier like some metaphysical KURU. Indulge.
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Ron, you have been keeping the funniest things from us! This writer seems to think that our devotion to God, here on a site called “God is for Suckers!” will win him or her large amounts of sucker money. Should we send a counter-proposal along these lines? Start up our own God-Suckah trophy room?

To: WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,

I DESIRE TO WORK FOR GOD I am Mrs Jane Moses Ahmed from Netherlands. I
am married to Mr Moses Ahmed from Kuwait an oil merchant before he
died in the year 2002. We were married for eleven years without a child.
He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.Before his
death we were both converted born again Christian. Since his death I
decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which
the Bible is against.

When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $15.5 Million
US Dollars (One Million, Five hundred thousand US Dollars) with a
Security/Finance company in Netherlands(Holland), Presently this money is
still in the Security/Finance company in Netherlands(Holland). Recently,
my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Eight months due to
cancer problem. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund
to good person like you as my spirit told me that you will utilize
this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want you to use this
fund for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God And to endeavor
that the house of God is maintained.

The Bible made us to understand that “Blessed is the hand that
giveth”.I took his decision because I don’t have any child that will inherit
this money and my husband relatives are not truthful not even good at
all because they are the one that killed my husband in other to have all
my late husbands properties and I don’t want my husband’s efforts to be
used by unbelievers. I don’t want a situation where this money will be
used in an wrong way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not
afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to
be in the bosom of the Lord.Exodus 14 VS 14 says that “the lord will
fight my case and I shall hold my peace”. I don’t need any telephone
communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my
husband’s relatives are around me always.I don’t want them to know
about this development.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the
security/Finance company in Netherlands. I will also issue you all the
necessary document that will prove you as the present beneficiary to the
fund. I want you and the your family or the organization you belong to
always pray for me because the lord is my shephard My happiness is that
I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the
Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all
through your life.

I will need you to send your full name/contact address to me and also
send your direct telephone number which i will forward to the
security/finance company to contact you.

Contact me on the this email address: janemosesahmed@excite.com

Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church,
organization or good person for this same purpose.
Please assure me that you will act accordingly as stated herein.
Hoping to receive your response immedaitely.
Thanks and Remain blessed in the Lord.

l remain yours sister in Christ.
Sister Jane Moses Ahmed
Email: janemosesahmed@excite.com

Since we atheists actually consider modern Islam, Christianity, Judaism, et al, simply more mythology, I thought it would be nice to have a topic category for this. I started adding items to the new category, but we have written so much of late that I was only able to go back a month or so before I got exhausted. Bloggers: feel free to go to your old posts and add this topic.

Note that I made a point of including stories from modern religions along with classic myth. There is no difference. The more we can impress this upon people, the better. My take on this category is that it should be used whenever talking about stories, parables, etc. “Myths to live by”, as Joseph Campbell would say. Or, in contrast, myths to despise (hello, Abraham).

I also love the fact that atheists like Eve, Stardust, Marcus, etc., are into mythology as a beautiful human creation. When you stop seeing it literally, and instead use it as a framework for studying the human animal (as the Greeks did), mythology becomes truly wonderful.

Lisa W. over at Lemons and Lollipops sent us this tragic item.

Father of Jehovah’s Witness teen wants charges against lawyers in her death

A Calgary father whose daughter, a Jehovah’s Witness, died after refusing blood transfusions for leukemia is making a last-ditch quest for what he considers justice.

“I want the Watch Tower lawyers . . .charged with the murder of my daughter, Bethany,” Hughes said. “They lied to her. They convinced her that arsenic would cure her and was curing her.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses consider it to be against God’s wishes for one person to take blood from another.

Hughes blames the church for influencing his daughter to believe blood transfusions were wrong and wouldn’t help her.

“If the Watch Tower Society had left my daughter alone, she would have had a fighting chance to live,” he said.

There were months of legal battles over the medical intervention in Bethany’s care.

Her illness and death tore the family apart and renewed public debate over how to determine when a child should be able to choose medical care.

Hughes broke away from the church in order to get his daughter the necessary treatments and eventually divorced his wife Arliss, who is a devout Jehovah’s Witness.

Do a good deed and punch the next JW that shows up at your door at 9 A.M. on a Saturday. Then stuff a copy of this story in his/her mouth.

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My husband and I went to the wedding of our friends’ son yesterday. It was an outdoor wedding at a nearby country club. The weather was perfect — 70s, blue skies, a nice breeze. Everyone was happy and excited to be there and see friends we haven’t seen in awhile. The service began with the bridesmaids walking up the path in their matching pink gowns. The flower girl was as cute as a button. The bride was gorgeous, and everyone got teary-eyed as her father escorted her to the gazebo and then gave her away in traditional fashion.

Then comes the pastor. From that point, what was supposed to be a wedding ceremony turned into a service for Jeebus and Gawd. The first words out of his mouth were, “Thank gawd for this gorgeous day he made especially for this day.” What if it had rained? Would gawd just have been in a bad mood that day? We have been to other weddings where there have been downpours. Does that mean gawd didn’t like those people as much even though they were believers in him? He went on to thank gawd for the friends who came together, thank gawd for this, gawd, gawd gawd!

Then he asked the parents of the bride and groom to come forward. He asked them to pledge their support of their children in their married life with the “help of gawd”. Now, do parents who have been loving and supportive of their children their whole lives NEED to vow to an invisible sky daddy that they will continue to love and support their children in marriage? I, as an atheist, love and support my children and will till the day I die, WITHOUT invoking the help of gods, goddesses, satan, or any imaginary supernatural beings. I would support my children and family REGARDLESS of any gods, even if they did exist.

The service moved on and turned even more into a worship service. There was scripture reading and prayer to the great sky daddy. Then MORE gawd preaching. The pastor droned on, telling the couple about loving each other “just as Jeebus loved the church”. And he said that marriage can only be held together by gawd and prayer. (This is where my eyes were rolling and could not help myself. My husband was squirming in his seat.) More scripture reading. Towards the end of the “sermon” he asked everyone if they would promise to pray for the couple and support them in their married life. Most of the people robotically and in unison chanted “we do” and some added “with gawds help” (does that mean these “friends” and family who were brought together “by gawd” were reluctant on their own accord to wish them well?)

The usual xian pronouncement was made: “What gawd has joined together, let no man put asunder.” If you need a gawd to hold your marriage together, then it is kind of weak from the very start, isn’t it? Also, I have seen so many times that “gawd’s glue” doesn’t hold very well…almost all the married xian friends we have are now divorced, remarried or “living in sin” or looking for someone new. What really gets me is when these divorced xian people remarry and say the same exact religious vows “before gawd” a second, third or even fourth time!

We were just at another wedding a few weeks ago of a young couple where these same exact words were spoken. At the reception, there was a lengthy gawd prayer read that was framed for the bride and groom to hang in their new home. Less than a month later, they are having their marriage annulled despite the bride being pregnant with their child. Again, so much for gawd’s glue!

Let’s hope the couple who were married yesterday look beyond superstition and to EACH OTHER and remember their committment THEY made to each other. If they continue to love one another, respect one another, with the help of true friends and their loving families they will have a long and happy marriage.

Update: We do indeed live in the era of the Kennedy court. Oops. Just when you think you have stacked the deck in your favor, along comes a wildcard to mess up your plans for domination. Of course, the Bushies are standing by their plans for military tribunals, even though the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled them unconstitutional. Hello, the buck stops here. This is the law speaking, fuckos.

———

Do you have conservative friends who still spout the “smaller government” crap that “conservatives” have claimed as their agenda for the last 20 years or so? Do you get into arguments at parties about the role of government in the personal lives of Americans and wish you could whip out a few examples of the complete hypocrisy that has been passing itself off as conservatism these recent decades?

Just take a look at the hard facts about controversial and contentious SCOTUS votes. For years, we have needed a “swing” voter on the high court to keep our country from steadily slipping into fascism. I would love to see some asshole from FreeRepublic.com debate otherwise. Take a look at every damn difficult issue that has come before the Supreme Court, then look at what are ultimately the liberal versus conservative victories. In nearly every case, a liberal victory means more civil liberties, more chances at justice for all… And a conservative victory means giving the jackboots the right to kick in your door and put you away for any reason they feel like.

To our great relief, Justice Kennedy has so far become a bit of a savior… As desperate as that seems, it’s the best we’ve got. This is where the real power resides in the United States… And it holds that power as long as the individual justice can stand to sit upright. The fact that a spoon-fed ne’er-do-well drug addict idiot got the right, by sheer luck of the draw, to appoint two people to this court is a testament to the fact that there really ain’t no such thing as cosmic justice.

Here’s what “conservative” and “liberal” mean in today’s America:

High court saves some best cases for last

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has had divisive rulings this year on the environment, police power and whistleblowers, and the justices are not even through with their hardest cases…

… There are 10 rulings left, on issues from a president’s wartime powers, capital punishment, Texas’ political boundaries and the insanity defense…

… Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has emerged as an important swing voter — a role previously held by O’Connor. Kennedy wrote the term’s two biggest death penalty cases, which made it easier for death row inmates to contest lethal injections and to get DNA evidence before the courts.

Kennedy, a centrist put on the court by President Reagan, also blocked conservatives from dramatically scaling back the Clean Water Act. The 5-4 decision preserves government authority to block development on wetlands as long as the wetlands meet Kennedy’s test.

“We have entered the era of the Kennedy court. It’s striking what a pivotal role Kennedy has come to play,” Duke Law School professor Erwin Chemerinsky said…

In conservative victories, Kennedy wrote a 5-4 decision that said public employees do not have free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs. He also broke a 4-4 tie to make it easier for police with search warrants to enter homes without knocking or waiting.

Roberts, in his first term as chief justice, has built a firm conservative voting record, but without Kennedy does not have a solid voting block.

Time and again, “conservative” seems to mean giving more power to government. But, to be fair, see if you can spot the amusing anomaly in the next graf:

Roberts has written seven opinions, all but one unanimous. Among them, he bolstered police power to enter a home to break up a fight without knocking first; upheld a church’s use of hallucinogenic tea; and found that the government can force colleges to open campuses to military recruiters despite university objections to the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays.

What?? A hallucinogenic tea? Was this just because it was a church? Cuz you know a black man smoking a joint on a street corner in America should go to prison for the rest of his natural life. I just had to look this one up. I won’t go sidetracking, but here is an interesting opinion on the matter, which seems to conclude that Roberts’ own upbringing makes it easier for him to allow more liberal decisions when a church body is concerned as opposed to the rights of an individual. I find that fascinating and another insight into the conservative/religious mindset.

It is tough to tell the court’s direction so early in the tenures of Roberts and Alito, most court-watchers say.

Justices have lined up some significant cases for next fall, on abortion, public school affirmative action and the environment.

“Justices are willing to test the new lineup right away. Next year is where the rubber is going to hit the road,” said John Yoo, a University of California, Berkeley, law professor.

Gawd help us. Maybe American conservatives will start to re-discover what the word “conservative” actually means. By def. #3, “Moderate; cautious,” it could easily be seen as stemming the tide of giving more and more power to your government — something modern conservatives pay lip service to, but rarely actually do. No matter what the pundits tell you, this barrage we have been experiencing since the Reagan era isn’t “rolling back” 30 years of liberalism. It’s rolling back 230 years of upholding the Constitution.

Regardless, we’re in this for the long haul. So fasten your seat belts.

Update:

“What kind of a god is it that’s upset by a cartoon in Danish?”
- Salman Rushdie

So, I took Friday night off from my weekend warrioring and watched the first installment of the PBS/Bill Moyers series; Faith & Reason. His guest tonight was Salman Rushdie. Rushdie has organized a conference on Faith and Reason and assembled 200 writers in New York to discuss the issues. When asked why novelists and not clergymen, he said respectfully, that writers come from a place of imagination and that imagination was necessary to deal with this particular issue. Now, keep in mind I have no transcript so I’m paraphrasing here.

The most interesting thing about the program tonight was Rushdie’s contention that human morality did not arise from religion/faith but, rather, that religion sprang from the morality that preceded it. He suggests that the need to know “right” from “wrong” is hardwired into the species and that religion was created to assuage the discomfort of that uncertainty. Makes it kind of funny to think that the potential deathknell of our species arose from our newfound ability to blush- or as a callous over skin rubbed raw. It also sounds like it could be connected to the postulated “god gene”.

Personally, I’ve always believed that deities were built from the ground up- one for every newly encountered unknown- with religion splattered overtop to cater to the whims of, well, imaginary friends. But Rushdie’s idea makes me perhaps give our species a little more credit than I had previously. After all, the DNA made ‘em do it.