The Blaſphemous Bicycler

Just a quick note to anyone concerned about our well being:

We are back from the river. Everyone lived, nobody capsized.

My digital camera has officially shit the bed. I took one of those disposable waterproof ones along, so pics will have to wait until tommorow night at the earliest.

Klinutus took some digital pics, but his internet connection is currently foobar.

Stay Tuned…

To give my readers some insight into what goes on behind the scenes here at bonius.com, I’m posting an email exchange (slightly edited for formatting) between myself and Mr. Klinutus regarding safety precautions related to a possible kayaking trip this weekend.

Bone wrote:
According to the temp gage in Renovo, the water is sitting around 49F. What’s your safety floor? I’m thinking 45ish?

Klinutus wrote:
Safety floors are for wimps. If the water isn’t frozen I’ll go.

Bone wrote:
BERSERKERGANG!!

Klinutus wrote:
We shall burn and pillage Muncy.

Bone wrote:
I’m going to blog this little exchange to give the bonius.com fans a behind-the-scenes look at how we died.

Richard Dawkins has written an interesting article about religious tolerance. The message seems to be that we should not be tolerant of people who believe in stupid things.

The political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they expect to be ‘raptured’ up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as their minds.

I don’t necessarily think taking such a hard-line is a good idea, but it’s an interesting article nevertheless. There is a really nice counter-argument to the famous “watchmaker argument” that I hadn’t heard before. To paraphrase:

If the universe is too complex to have been created by natural phenomena, any supernatural intelligence you invoke to explain it is necessarily even more complex… Therefore, you are retarded.

Dawkins has written an entire book about the watchmaker argument, by the way. Maybe I’ll get around to reading it one day, but I’m starting to tire of people who try to convince me of things I’m already convinced of.

This post is mainly for the benefit of family and friends, but generous strangers are welcome, as always.

My birthday is next week, and Brandi’s is the week after that.
If you are all out of gift ideas, here are our wishlists.

• Bone’s Amazon Wishlist

• Brandi’s Amazon Wishlist

In addition to the items on the list, I would like a pony, omnipotence, and a Rivendell Atlantis.

I’m not sure why people feel the need to preach to bicyclists on the trail, but they do.

_{For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.}

I’m no theologian, but I was always under the impression that this little piece of biblical wisdom was meant to inspire humility. Like, “don’t be so high and mighty, we’re all fuck-ups in God’s eyes.”

Instead, this line is always delivered with mounds of fire and brimestone, and seems meant to inspire shame and guilt. “You are a fuck up, but look at how righteous I am, with my sign preaching to bicyclers on the rail trail!”

In any event, after I snapped this pic, I pedaled my ass away from there post haste. People like these have been burning people like me at the stake for a long time, and I wasn’t taking any chances.

I made a video (8.6 MB) of my harrowing escape. I was using Brandi’s camera yesterday, so this one even has audio.