Brent Rasmussen

Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.

Jim Downey

UTI Associate blogger Jim Downey is a former newspaper columnist and also writes at the Daily Kos under the handle Shadan7. "I'm the fat old man of the crowd (well, make that middle-aged and overweight). My life's arc has been colorful in some odd and delightful ways, and though by most conventional standards I'm not 'successful', I've mostly enjoyed the ride. I now keep busy writing, playing with my dog, and as a book & document conservator in private practice."

Paul Fidalgo

UTI associate blogger Paul Fidalgo is an actor, musician, and writer with a background in political media, communications, and research. He holds a master's degree in political management from George Washington University, and blogs on atheism in American culture. He blogs at Examiner.com as the DC Secularism Examiner, and maintains two blogs, Near Earth Object, a blog of several overlapping magisteria including political satire and his own musical work; and Bloc Raisonneur, specifically concerning atheists' precarious place in American politics and culture. Paul's music can be purchased for mere pennies at Amie St.

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Rick Ulrey

UTI Associate blogger Rick Ulrey comes to UTI by way of the Marine Corps: "I'm 31 and I earn my living fixing computers. I served 6 years in the Marine Corps and consider myself a liberal libertarian with conservative leanings. I am a firm believer that the world would be a better place if people took responsibility for themselves and their actions. As you can see from the picture I love food. That's me eating a banana fritter in Australia with a nice cup of coffee. I love to cook and my other hobbies include hiking, camping, reading and on and offline gaming."

Steven Darksyde

UTI co-blogger and friend DarkSyde has this to say about himself: "I'm in my 40s, I work out a lot, I'm a personal trainer as a hobby, I've worked mainly as an investment advisor, stocks and bonds. I've done quite a bit of sky diving. I live a few miles from the Space Center in Florida. I have a strong background in math and physics and I'm an active advocate for Evolution in the Evolution vs. Creationism issue."

The God Squad Delusion

Submitted by Brent Rasmussen on March 20, 2009 - 7:27am.

An atheist writes to the God Squad and asks the good Rabbi why people feel a need to plaster "God" on everything. He's a good husband, a good father, but he thinks that god-beliefs are "silly" and when people start spouting off about God when it's really not necessary, he thinks they "just sound crazy".

Ahem. I agree. Heh.

Gellman responds:

[Rabbi Marc Gellman] In the end, though, I feel for your pain at being castigated as an atheist (actually, you describe yourself as agnostic). If you can get through the valley of the shadow of death without a good shepherd, God bless you...oops. As for me, I’m glad for the addition of any kindness to our broken world, regardless of its source and beliefs.

Shorter Rabbi Gellman:

"The truth scares me, so I lie to myself."

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Yea, religion is real "kind"

Submitted by Kentucky Boy on March 21, 2009 - 8:24pm.

Anyone else see the story about how the Israeli Army's Rabbis were telling their soldiers that their recent invasion of Gaza was a holy war to rid Israel of Gentiles? We could use a little less of that kind of "kindness"

Test from Opera Mobile

Submitted by Brent Rasmussen on March 20, 2009 - 12:50pm.

Test comment from Opera Mobile web browser.

I just got the HTC Fuze

Submitted by wantobe on March 20, 2009 - 2:51pm.

I like the Opera Mobile browser better than the crippled IE (but I repeat myself) that comes with Windows Mobile phones.

Which phone do you have, Brent?

Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.

Samsung i760 Coming On Tuesday

Submitted by Brent Rasmussen on March 21, 2009 - 10:28am.

I've got the i760 coming on Tuesday.

I was actually playing with the online Opera Mini emulator at Opera's website.

Have you tried the Skyfire Browser yet? It is supposed to run Flash really well.

Looks like a nice phone

Submitted by wantobe on March 21, 2009 - 1:12pm.

My wife might like it (she's on Verizon; I'm on AT&T), and it's a decent price for what you get. No support for the V Cast services could be a deal breaker, though. She rarely uses them, but that won't matter; not having them available would piss her off.

I just tried the Skyfire browser, but it didn't work out for me. My phone is supposed to be supported, but it didn't recognize it automatically. Then, after installing, some pages were okay and others were very blurry. I could zoom in and out, but the pages wouldn't adjust to the zoom. It's still a work in progress, so perhaps it'll mature over time.

Still, some of the problems could be because of some add-ons I've installed on my phone. I'm a tinkerer, so I've already installed a number of apps that give me more control over the phone than HTC intended me to have. That just means I have more opportunity to break things :)