Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
Comments
-
I love Rachael Maddow.
0 -
Hi I'm totally out of the loop. who is Rachael Maddow?
On another note: I just read (ok, I know, you all aready knew, that Christopher Hitchens died of esophegal cancer last Dec.) He wrote about his journey - a book called Mortality - So, I never buy Vanity Fair, so never read any of his articles, nor did I read his other books, but for some reason am moved to try to get mortality on library interloan. There was a large excerpt in Toronto's National Post this w/end. the reviwer ended his column with "He left this little book as a token of his last days, reminding us with every phrase, anecdote and literary reference that, through hours of pain and pessimism, he remained his own self until he died, absolutley and defiantly alive. His book makes me like him even more and I did, and miss him even more as well." ok, so now at last, long after the fact, -just like with the Sopranos and Seinfeld - I only jump on the bandwagon way after the parade's over - I'm suddenly all ears. I should read the paper more often, I guess
ps it's only lately that I suddenly realize I totally love Jimi Hendrix, and if you can believe this, way back in 67 or 8, hated his version of the Star Spangled Banner and didn't realize that all that noise I couldn't stand was bombs blasting in viet Nam. duh!!!0 -
flannelette -
Rachel talks about funding Breast Cancer screening
0 -
Don't know if you guys have seen any of the "Where the Hell is Matt?" videos, but his 2006 video helped me get through chemo.
Our country and the world in general feels so divided now, often on religious lines, and Matt's 2012 video gives me hope for the future.
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/
Click on the About button on his website to get his backstory.
--CindyMN
0 -
cindy - thanks for reminding me how much I LOVED those videos...really does encourage smiling....
0 -
Rachel Maddow is one of the top commentators of MSNBC TV. She is a lesbian and a liberal. She has written and talked about the flying spaghetti monster so is obviously an athiest and she is extremely bright. She replaced Keith Olbermann on MSNBC which saddened me because I really liked him, despite his humungous ego but she took over seamlessly and is just as good or actually, even better. It doesn't hurt that I agree with almost everything she says
....I can't believe you mentioned the book by Christopher Hitchens. I downloaded it onto my Kindle on Friday and am about 1/3 through now. He is totally one of the most entertaining, brightest, men on the planet (I should say was, sadly). I had read some of his articles and a couple of his books prior to his death. This book is wonderful. I recommend it wholeheartedly. Mortality, by Christopher Hitchens. Speaking of books and Rachel Maddow, she wrote a good one entitled Drift about how and why our attitudes about war have changed over the years. Very good book as well.
0 -
oh my goodness - thank you so much Cindy for mentioning the Where the Hell is Matt link. I'd never heard of it, just started watching it and I can't stop doing my own happy dance
...... It sure is a smile producer .... I'm loving it.0 -
The outtake videos are also good, but I think he really outdid himself on the 2012 video. He's so earnest in trying to learn the other dance moves, but clearly doesn't take himself seriously at all. It's the simple interaction, communication without words or even beyond words, that really touches me. The dollop of goofiness just sells it all the more.
To me, religion is just another abstract construct to build walls and create differences. In my more hopeful moments, I think that (as a species) we'll surely be able to rise above these petty disagreements and recognize that we're far more alike than we are different.
--CindyMN
0 -
Rachael Maddow didn't take over from Keith Olbermann, for some time they had back-to-back shows on MSNBC. Did she move her show into his time slot after he left?
I subscribe to her show as a podcast through iTunes, as I don't have cable, so I watch/listen to her show but have no idea what time it's actually on.
0 -
you're right. She was on after him and took over his time slot when he left. He is such an egomaniac. He then went to Current TV which is Al Gore's tv channel and got fired after a year. I loved him but his head was just too big.....
and Cindy, I agree with you on religion and that's one of the reasons I can't believe in it. Hypothetically, if there was a god, would he allow us to interpret it in so many different ways and kill each other over it? What would be the point? I used to sometimes wish I could believe, just to be a part of something bigger than myself but there is no way I can do it. I believe in science way too much, and peace.
0 -
I liked Olbermann's show, too, I was sad when he left MSNBC. I hadn't heard that he got fired from Current TV. I never watched his show there. I had cable then, but we didn't get that channel and the show was only clips on the podcast, not the whole show and that annoyed me.
I like Ms Maddow better, though. She's so smart and funny, and I love when she will occasionally geek out over cool robots or something!0 -
I 'subscribe' to Rachel via friends - who tell me when to check it out online We don't have cable here either, and I don't have any thing but this laptop computer and a land line phone....JOY in simplicity.
I may get a cell phone again, someday. When I moved here there was no cell phone service. Now there are a few cell towers, but ervice is still "spotty" - you can always tell, when a car is pulled to the side of a road, it's cuz they found a spot to get service for their cell phones...
0 -
Sunflowers - There is a convience store in Wyoming with a designated calling space in their lot. That one place gets great cell phone reception... the locals get testy if you leave your car there while you run in to the restroom.
0 -
cindy
LOL
I knew I wasn't a "newcomer" here after I stopped asking people parked at the side of the road if they needed help.
They'd just hold up the cell phone from their ear.....
Now communities are organizing to get fiber optic broad band service. I have it only cuz I live within a mile of the little "Verizon" station thingie at the end of my dirt road...
0 -
Having lived in NYC my entire 63 years, it's so easy to forget there is a whole other world out there..... No cell towers? No service? No cable? LOL..... It's hard to even picture but it's definitely a trade. I'm sure life is more peaceful, more beautiful, cheaper and there is time to stop and smell the flowers....
0 -
We have no cable service where I live. It's like 1/2 mile away, but they won't come down our road. So we have dsl Internet, which is better than the dial-up, but only just a little. We do have good cell service where I live, but a friend of mine can only get service (sometimes) in the northwest corner of his living room. Poor guy, he's a technological junkie and used to have to drive into town to use his IPad. The original kindle whispernet only works on the far right hand edge of the state... Oh, yeah when I used to run out of coke I had to travel more than a mile to get one and very few places are willing to bring food to your house.
It takes 15 minutes to drive the 5 miles to work, when the traffic is bad. But you'd better be willing and able to drive because there isn't public transportation. It was really easy to pick an oncologist, all 6 (3 ro's and 3 mo's) are in the same practice. So unless you have the ability to travel 350 miles to the next closest cancer treatment center... So yeah, pluses and minuses.
0 -
Ah, yes, another reason I wouldn't like to live in a small town/rural area. Not having good, reliable cell service and Internet would be the end of me!
We cancelled our cable tv early this year to save money. We get several over-the-air channels, and they actually come in more clearly than they did when we were getting cable. So cable I can do without. The Internet, not so much.0 -
I could not live without my cable tv.... I'd probably give up another thing first. How else to watch Breaking Bad and Madmen and Dexter and Boardwalk Empire and so many other good cable shows..... I'm a tv junky. It's funny to thinjk of someone who has to go to a specific corner of his living room to make a phone call haha....
0 -
I watch Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Mad Men, and other cable tv shows online. Either on Netflix or the newer episodes are available at assorted websites. There are a few sites that have episodes available to watch for free, usually the same or next day after they air. As long as I have good internet, I can watch pretty much anything, and all is well in my world.
0 -
Agree - can't IMAGINE living without high speed internet. There is a consortium working now with all the small towns of western MA to get fiber optics installed. I live close enough to Verizon stationthingie to get it ;-))
0 -
When I first got online normal speed was 300 baud. You could read the data as it streamed in.
Most disconcerting when we got up to 2400, data came in to fast to read as it rolled in.
DSL is much better than that... but I still miss the cable internet we had before we moved.
0 -
Cindy
I've never had cable, so I don't know what I'm missing - YET. I can tell you in the 1990's ( aol, remember those days) dial up in the Washington DC area was horrendous, hard to imagine not having high speed now.
0 -
Sunflowers - I started out with the "Source" and "CompuServe" and even some local bbs sites. The sloooow never bothered me (we didn't know any different, eh?) But the busy signals!?! Oh my gosh. I had like 12 numbers programmed in and some nights, they'd all be busy, for hours. Oh noes! I had a dog at that time the I trained to signal me when I connected... I'm still just happy when I click on my icon and the internet appears.
0 -
Cindy - LOL I FORGOT about the busy signals. Funny how we forget pain, isn't it!!!!
0 -
Oh, and I remember when I'd be online and someone else would pick up the phone somewhere in the house. There went my connection!
Google chose Kansas City as the test market for their new ultra-high-speed fiber network, but sadly my neighborhood isn't within the limits of their initial area. Hopefully they will expand to include my area next year.0 -
I remember my husband would try to call me from work, pre cell phone if I remember correctly, and the line would be busy for hours if I was online. I barely remember though. It's funny. Things move so fast and we just forget how it was before... Remember when you could not heat up anything in a microwave? Remember when you called someone and could NOT leave a message if they weren't home or you had to deal with the busy signal? Remember when you were out and had to find a pay phone and mostly, remember when you actually stood up, walked to the tv, and changed a channel (and we only had a choice between 7 channels also)...
0 -
Bev - You had 7 channels? Wow. We had two. ABC and NBC/CBS. When I was small my folks would ask me what's on? And I could tell them everything that was on from the time the stations signed on with the Ag. Report at 5:30 till they signed off after the Tonight show. And of course, if you wanted to see it, you watched it when they showed it, or you hoped they'd rerun it in the summer.
0 -
cottontail - that's why I had a second land line installed
I had a home office then, and couldn't manage with just one line.I remember when we used LETTERS for the first 2 digits of our phone numbers.
I remember the very first thing I saw on the black & white of course tv in my house - HUGE cabinet thingie - it was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and the I of Scotland, for all those in Scotland who understand why ;-)
I remember when we had an IceMan who delivered a BIG BIG block of ice to our ICEBOX at our beach house in CT.
I remember when you could buy a Sugar Daddy at the movies ( think it was 5¢) and it would last for BOTH movies ( no commercials then) and you could suck it til it had a really, really sharp point and could bite off the very end without breaking your teeth.
I remember when the only telephone line you could get was a "party line" and yes, I'd get in a LOT OF TROUBLE for listening....but I still tried...
0 -
The first time I was on the Internet was before there was Netscape. The Internet was a blue screen and one had to enter Java commands to enter it. The good news was that I was in a government class on the Internet and we had high speed Internet access from the start. (Thank you Al Gore for insisting that all government agencies get on the Net and train their personnel.) At the beginning there was no MSN Windows, so if one left a page, one couldn't toggle back to the previous page. I remember how excited we all were when Netscape came up with the first "shell" that eliminated Java commands and allowed pictures!
I am still to this day amazed by the Internet.
0 -
notself
amazing - that was the MS DOS days - with the F ( and you know what I called them) keys. Which is why when I knew I was going to work as a consultant with a home office, I bought an APPLE Macintosh ( 1988) - which was considered, tee, hee..portable.
The Washington DC Apple user group was called, are you ready? Washington Apple Pi
I've never used anything but the Apple operating system ;-)))) Now on a MacPowerbookPro something or other...
0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atoXaaV_Igk