Windmill Tilter

I have no desire to see this movie, but PZ over at Pharyngula has a decent post on the topic and the hype. I read (listened to) the book, and wasn't impressed. On top of that, no scholars of the era or of Leonardo support any of the book's conclusions (What's more likely: that the feminine looking person sitting to Christ's right in "The Last Supper" is Joseph, who was a teenager and would have been portrayed femininely as was the custom to portray young men in Leonardo's time, or that Leonardo only painted 11 of the 12 disciples and decided to throw in Mary Magdalene for shits and giggles as a piece in some strange historical puzzle?). Finally, it seems pretty clear that the Priory of Zion, the alleged secret society charged with protecting the secret of Christ's living bloodline, the society of which Leonardo was or was not a member, seems to be a complete hoax.

As usual, I wish I had written this, but PZ did:

The Catholic church has no grounds for complaining about a badly written, ridiculously improbable, mass-market driven work of popular fiction unless it's because they see it as in competition with their similarly atrocious foundation document.

Now to piss some people off: How can there be descendantss of a man who never existed?

This is the most inspiring song ever written consisting primarily of sad themes.

I posted this comment on another blog in response to a comment up the thread by someone who claimed that there is no Bush fatigue:

“Bush fatigue. It ain’t gonna happen.”

That really is priceless.I guess an extremely low approval rating is proof of lack of fatigue, just as the majority of Americans who oppose warrantless wiretapping shows support for the NSA program, or the vast majority of Iraqis who want us out is proof that, as Dick Cheney said, “with respect to the question of were we greeted as liberators, I think we clearly are viewed as liberators by the vast majority of the Iraqi people.”

One more point, how is that not a lie? He knows for a fact that it is not “clear” at all, and that every poll conducted has shown huge majorities want us out. To claim something is “clear” is a lie when you know it’s not. How do you cons defend that? It’s time you own up and admit, as I got one of my con friends to do, that you feel there are greater goals which justify lying to the people. Then think of the company you are intellectually keeping by reaching that conclusion.

Just admit it, my friend seemed relieved after he did. It seemed a weight was off his chest now that he no longer had to throw out the patently false BS talking points regarding the NSA scandal, the lies to gather public support for the runup to the war, Social Security, etc… He no longer felt the need to say that no one lied in the runup, then pretend that I didn’t just show him a blatant example of said lying to maintain the shroud of false consistency. Now he just says that of course they lied, they had to, they wouldn’t have gotten the support otherwise. This is a great guy and great friend. Shows how cultish the idea power can make people.