the blue frog says...

WFN: Smithsonian to get Kermit the Frog

BigBlueFrog — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:06:17 +0000

The latest donations to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will include puppets created by the late Jim Henson, including the original Kermit the Frog..

A total of 10 Henson-created puppets will be donated to the museum, including Henson’s oldest surviving puppet, Pierre the French Rat, which was created in a comic strip that Henson drew for his high school yearbook in 1954.
…
According to the Smithsonian, the original Kermit joining its collection has ping pong balls for eyes and was made from a green-felt coat discarded by Henson’s mother.

As a fan of the Muppets, Sesame Street and Jim Henson, as well as a big frog fan, I think it’s great that the original Kermit will now become part of the Smithsonian’s collection. Kermit can be seen in the performance of “I’m In Love With A Big Blue Frog” from the Muppet Show, so there’s kind of a “degrees of separation” thing going on here.

Bookmark and Share

Bronze Age Superstitions “Incompatible” with Scientific Fact

BigBlueFrog — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:11:57 +0000

Wow. I’m glad we straightened that one out.

Albert Mohler, head of the Louisville, Kentucky Southern Baptist Theological Seminary recently opined: “The theory of evolution is incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ even as it is in direct conflict with any faithful reading of the Scriptures.”

Well, of course it is!

The Hebrew Scriptures were written by semi-nomadic Bronze Age goat herders, and the Christian reiteration was penned by a radical sect of those same goat herders, under the influence of Platonist philosophy and a mixture of Persian and Greco-Roman mythology. Science, on the other hand, is the process of examining our universe and seeking new understanding of how and why it is the way it is. Why would it surprise us to find that one was incompatible with the other?

Bookmark and Share

Blogger Investigated For Pornographic Christ Image

BigBlueFrog — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:31:36 +0000

A blogger in Germany, Malte Welding, has received notice that he is under investigation by the state police for “profanity.” This after he posted an unaltered photo of a religious icon from a Catholic church in Warr Acres, Oklahoma.

Having taken a few art history courses, I know that religious “icons” in the Byzantine style are purposefully stylized to avoid looking like a real person. This is a work-around for the Commandment against idolatry in the form of “graven images.” This one is no exception. The icon at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Warr Acres, including the “phallic” abdominal muscles, is a copy of the 12th century San Damiano crucifix which now hangs in the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Italy.

Now I’m not saying that these aren’t phallic. They clearly are. In fact, there may have been a theopolitical motive for representing Jesus with a gigantic uncircumcised penis. Who knows? I do know that iconographers are bound by certain traditional restrictions, and part of their job is to reproduce the original icon with as much attention to detail as possible. Here is a small cross-section of potential Jesus penises in Byzantine-style iconography:

Personally, I think some of these are more phallic than the Warr Acres icon. What do you think?

Bookmark and Share

WFN: Monkey attempts to ‘adopt’ toad in zoo

BigBlueFrog — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:56:53 +0000

Today in Froggy News, we bring you a story from the Telegraph (UK) of monkey motherly love gone awry. “Swoozie”, a female swamp monkey living at the Paignton Zoo in Devon, gathered the toad from a pond at the edge of her enclosure and tried to resuscitate it for a full day before it escaped. Swoozie didn’t realize that toads are cold-blooded, and she apparently thought the amphibian needed warming up.

I’d love to know more about this story. So far, the news reports have all been clones of the same Telegraph story, so it’s hard to get any more than feel-good anthropomorphism. What I’d like to know is whether Swoozie had ever lost a child, or if she’s a sibling of other monkeys. In other words, I’d love to know why she took to this toad.

Elsewhere, the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program in Canada “is promising ‘buckets of fun’ for anyone who wants to come out and help baby toads cross the road next week.” People are encouraged to bring buckets to carry the small Western Toads across the highway. It’s an effort to avoid a repeat of the 90 thousand toad massacre which occurred last year near Nakusp, British Columbia.

I think this is great. Hopefully they’ll have a big turnout and the toads will make it safely to their mating grounds.

Bookmark and Share

In Much Wisdom…

BigBlueFrog — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:17:10 +0000

I've been waiting so long...

In my job at the Fish-Wrapper, I sometimes have the opportunity to work on the ads for a local grocery chain that likes to put a Bible quote on their ad every week. The particular quote is left up to the designer, but gets final editorial approval by the customer. Whenever I’ve worked on this ad in the past, I’ve tried to slip by some of my favorite quotes from the Bible. For instance:

You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month – until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it… – Numbers 11:20

That one got shot down pretty quickly.

This time I prevailed! I got the following quote through, and published. It’s one of my favorite Bible quotes of all time.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. – Ecclesiastes 1:18

Unfortunately, I don’t get to work on this ad very often, so this will probably be the last time for a while that I’ll get to spread “the good news” through bizarre Bible quotes.

Bookmark and Share

What Do I Have To Do To Win Your Hate

BigBlueFrog — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:12:14 +0000

Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki puts ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed’ cartoonist Molly Norris on execution hitlist according to New York Daily News.

What do I have to do to get these people to issue a fatwa against me? What is so special about a handful of cartoonists in Sweden, the Netherlands and Britain? I drew a cartoon of Muhammad back on Everybody Draw Muhammad Day. Why am I not getting any love from the terrorists?

I hope I get better response from the Christians et. al. when I really let loose on Blashpemy day.

Bookmark and Share

Good News From Texas (For A Change)

BigBlueFrog — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:40:51 +0000

From the Wall Street Journal, Austin federal judge Sam Sparks has dismissed a suit by the Dallas-based Institute of Creation Research, which sought the right to grant a master’s degree in “science from a biblical perspective.” I’m sure they’ll study such interesting topics as:

Plants being created, growing and making fruit before there was any light for photosynthesis. (Genesis 1:11)
How you can get goats to have striped kids by putting striped sticks in front of them while they copulate. (Genesis 30:37)
What kind of bird a bat is. (Leviticus 11:13)
How birds used to have four feet. (Leviticus 11:20)
The amount of weight a unicorn can carry (Numbers 23:22)

And that’s just in the first three books! I bet there’s all kinds of scientificky stuff in there just waiting to be discovered!

My favorite part, though, is that the judge called the Institute of Creation Research group’s legal filings as “overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering and full of irrelevant information.” You know what that means? It means they submitted the Bible as a legal brief. Can you imagine anything more “verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering and full of irrelevant information” than the Bible?

Bookmark and Share

Doubt in the Pulpit

BigBlueFrog — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:53:34 +0000

After reading On Faith Panelists Blog: Non-believing clergy: Now what shall we do? – Daniel C. Dennett and the responses from the faithful and faithless alike, I’m reminded of a conversation I had with my brother-in-law, a Southern Baptist and part-time missionary.

The brother-in-law doesn’t think I should go to church with my wife. He thinks it’s the height of hypocrisy for me to even set foot in a church, Christian or otherwise. When I confronted him with the statistics that say, just within his own 2000+ member church, there could be anywhere from thirty to three hundred and twenty non-believers, he maintained his denial. There are no atheists in his church. Everyone believes.

Everyone.

Now I read this article and the attached research (PDF) showing that yes, even Protestant pastors who are still preaching from the pulpit, teaching Sunday school classes and counseling their flock can lose their faith. Of course, we already knew that, but this research by Dennett and Linda LaScola confirms it. I would like to think that this would shake the foundation of his (my brother-in-law) little world, but I doubt it. He’s made a way of life out of denial. This is the same guy who spends a couple of weeks each year with his family, trying to convert Catholics to Christianity in Guadalajara.

Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to let a little thing like facts get in the way of his unshakable beliefs.

Bookmark and Share

Support Judge Barbara Crabb

BigBlueFrog — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:00:15 +0000

In April of this year, U.S. District Court Judge (Western Wisconsin District) ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, and equated the 1952 and 1988 laws establishing the Day of Prayer as federally mandated calls for religious action. In so deciding, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote that the government can no more enact laws supporting a day of prayer than it can encourage citizens to fast during Ramadan, attend a synagogue or practice magic.

In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual’s decision whether and when to pray.

Judge Crabb noted government involvement in prayer may be constitutional if the conduct serves a “significant secular purpose” and doesn’t amount to a call for religious action. I’m not sure where or in what capacity prayer could serve a “significant secular purpose” but a National Day of Prayer definitely doesn’t fit the bill.

It goes beyond mere ‘acknowledgment’ of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context… In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.

The lawsuit against the federal government in 2008, filed by The Freedom From Religion Foundation, argued that the day violated the separation of church and state. Even though Crabb wrote that her ruling shouldn’t be considered a bar to any prayer days until all appeals are exhausted (and President Obama’s administration has already filed their intent to appeal) she has received an overwhelming amount of hate mail, including death threats, from angry Christians. Here’s a sample from Progressive.org (emphasis mine)

“Judge Crabb needs to be removed from her position,” wrote Bob Ferguson by e-mail. “She is a stupid bitch.”

Al Kafer of Cleveland, who described himself as a “70-year-old Vietnam vet,” addressed her as “Babs” and wrote: “We could give a damn what some INTELLECTUAL PYGMY in a skirt in cheeseland says.” And he added a P.S.: “We are no longer taking your shit anymore.”

“You mam [sic] are a disgrace to America,” wrote Michael Yeager. “Only an Anti-Christ individual would deny a national day of prayer. . . . Basically, you have committed treason against God who established our nation.”

John in Texas (jkcope5427@sbcglobal.net) wrote: “I will be praying God removes her from office.”

…

“Can you imagine what it will be like to live forever in Hell?” wrote David Lee (dflee10@inbox.com). “We have had enough of the Obamas of this world, and we plan on stopping them as we will also you.”

One anonymous letter, addressed “To the Dishonorable Barbara Crabb,” said: “You Barbie are a disgrace to this country just as Obama is. . . . Enjoy Hell, you will be there soon. I pray for your kids.”

Mrs. Eleni Rigual of Bedminster, New Jersey, called for “immediate impeachment.”

Roger Stapp sent an e-mail that said: “There should be a way to remove communist judges from our courts.”

Others told her to go into exile. “Please do this country of ours a huge favor and leave it,” wrote David Anderson (flightpro2@netzero.net).

And still others told her to find Jesus. Demanding that she must “repent,” B. Eric Culbertson added: “Put your faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did on the cross. The decision is yours, and it will have eternal consequences.”

Please take the time to write Judge Crabb a letter of support. As far as I know, the only way to contact Judge Crabb’s office is by snail mail (come on, you still know how to do this!) or by phone. Here’s the contact information:

Peter Oppeneer
Clerk of Court US District Court, Western District of Wisconsin
120 North Henry Street, Room 320
P. O. Box 432
Madison, WI 53701-0432
Office Hours and Telephone:
(608) 264-5156, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily except Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays.

Freethinkers of all stripes need to be sure that we’re providing a counterpoint to the vitriol being spewed by the Religious Right. Buy a stamp or give the judge’s clerk a call. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. Just a short line of support. Here’s what I sent:

You get a gold star! Thank you so much for upholding the First Amendment by striking down as unconstitutional the National Day of Prayer. I’m so happy to hear that judges are still willing to judge a case on its constitutional basis, and not the whims of a religious majority. I know you’ve gotten a lot of hateful mail resulting from your decision, and I wanted to let you know that both you and the Bill of Rights have fans as well.

Bookmark and Share

Upgraded to WordPress 3.0

BigBlueFrog — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:48:24 +0000

I’ve upgraded my blog to WordPress version 3.0. If you have any problem viewing the site, let me know so I can address it. I’m always a little wary about upgrading, but this one went off without a hitch…

…or did it?

Let me know!

Bookmark and Share