Godless Rachel

I have seen a lot of Bat-shittery in my day, I have, but this new thing where men act like helpless babies who are at the mercy of women, and they act like we are what is wrong with the world? Let me inform you. Women aren't the problem. Men and their constant need to control and dominate women in a regard that is shameless, and forthright are what is wrong with the world. Women are just trying to actually be equals with men, much to the chagrin of our male counterparts who happen to be blazing sexists. If it were up to men like Paul Elam, women would be in the kitchen with their mouths closed making him a damn sandwich. He's the boss and he's absolutely certain of it, except he's not. He is another example of why the women in this would still have to cry feminism. He says that women mess up the workplace for men, that they can't be a boys club if women and their nasty vagina's are unleashed on the work place, to cry sexual harassment, and feminine up the pla...

It is one of the fundamental values we take for granted every day. From our favorite football team, to that ice cream we don't like, to speaking out about corruption government and corporations. Free speech is everywhere, but so is the silence that is falling around it. While it may not be good to go around offending people, that can't always be said, and even if you don't like it, free speech isn't free if we don't all have the same access to it. Let me start out by explaining. Free speech is not consequence free speech. It is far from that. The language you choose to use, and the things you say can prevent you from ever getting a job in your specific field. It can make you have to go to court. It can cost you time, it can get you fame. It can bring you up, and it can throw you down. Some examples of this are the GOP, who have systematically attacked women and their right to their own sexual organs. Rush Limbaugh who has called women "Sluts" and accu...

Roe v Wade took so long that the fetus they were going to court over was actually born. When women celebrate the date of the victory, the boy who was born celebrates the fact that decision took so long. When we hear things like that it stirs our emotional connection to our fellow humans. We are biologically programmed to do so, social bonding is part of our biological rhythm. This has more to do with why some people are pro life, than any religious decision. Basically, we are programmed to desire altruistically to aid our own species. That is why abortion has been misunderstood by those who claim to be pro life. It is also why abortion is a difficult decision, compounded by social guilt, and societal pressure to bare offspring that a person may not be financially, or emotionally, or even psychologically ready for. What women who need an abortion are facing is one of the most insidious attacks on their choice, just short of taking their choices completely away from them. Roe V Wade...

      During a time when exposure to viruses like the measles and mumps, America took a stand and called on everyone to vaccinate their children. In fact, being in public school, meant, you had to show proof of vaccination. It was so successful that two things happened. The first is that we stopped worrying about people getting them so much, and we got healthy enough that some people challenged vaccines for various reasons. The reason for the anti-vacc hysteria was all due to one scientist who abandoned his moral ethics for a lump of cash, and claimed that vaccines caused autism. After hearing this, many concerned parents stopped vaccinating their kids, and the fire spread. Suddenly people were looking to blame vaccines for almost everything.  The effects of vaccinating the whole of a population was that diseases that had killed 4-500 people per year, like measles, and hospitalized 38,000, was not only a reduction in the number of cases of deaths, bu...

If you know Fayetteville  Arkansas, then you know how desperately they need something, anything to alleviate the crushing weight of a religious society. That can also be said for most of the bible belt and most of America. Logicon is the new kid on the convention block. It has been going for just a few years, and it is not in an atheist or humanist popular area, but the shock is, if you build it, the people will come. Well the people are coming, and the building has stopped. Unfortunately the funding fell through and the convention might have to be canceled. Not for the best either. It was to feature Jerry DeWitt, Dr. Darrel Ray, Dorion Sagan, and  Lisa Corrigan. You can access the link here Logicon Now, the need is urgent. With less than a month left to go to raise the funds needed to make it happen, Jason Bathon and the organizers of the event are scrambling to find major funding sources. After all, the speakers are booked, the venue is booked, the guests are b...

Does America want an actual conversation about Fat? That burdensome thing on our thighs, bums, and well for some of us, all over? Or is it easier to blame obese people for their own fate, as we drive through, big gulp, grab and go, and super size our waistlines. Do we really want to hear that yet another gene linked with obesity has been identified? Well, we need to, because corporations are taking advantage of genetics and blaming the victims. Having a gene, by default, does not mean it is active, or that it will be the one expressed. You can have many genes which don't express and never do anything guilty inside your body. However, certain genes express when stress hormones are introduced. A dormant gene can go to functioning, when the switch is turned on by a stressor, which, is made to preserve you. Stress hormones are part of evolution, the trigger the fight or flight response, but they do much more, during a time of limited resources those genes would have been vital for...

When it comes to evolution, many people don't understand what Darwin saw and why he believed that even humans had evolved. We have genetics now to solidify our evidence for evolution, but we also have a greater understanding for how similar to all our cousins we are. In biology there is a Taxonomy which classifies families and groups of species. It separates others, but tells us how the lines are drawn. One important feature of evolution to understand is Pleisiomorphies and Synapomorphies. These are how things arose, who shares them and who doesn't. Pleisiomorphy is an appendage which has a similar function, but arose from different lines of evolution. Synapomorphy is an appendage which is similar in form and arose from common ancestors. The importance in these is expressed in the photo above. The Bat, which is a mammal, has five digits on its upper appendages, it has evolved to have them at different lengths, and four of the five compose the wing portion of the bat,...