Tuesday, February 15, 2011

How to Convert an Atheist

Hot Atheist Girl




Have you ever wondered how to convert an atheist to any religion? In this video tutorial, a notable atheist explains what evidence he would accept as proof of the existence of God.




Here is part 2. This mostly includes evidence that would not tend to convince an atheist that God exists.



If you're curious, you can check out the website for the video creator.

So, do you think that his videos were a fair analysis of theism? Can an atheist ever be converted to a religion or a theist away from religion? Please leave your thoughts below.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Analysis and List of 3 Groupon Ads: Superbowl 2011

I have had some questions about this lately on my blog, so I thought that I would embed a list of the three Groupon ads from the Super Bowl in 2011. These ads are famous (infamous) for their controversial depictions and seemingly mocking attitude towards the Tibetan culture, protecting whales, and deforestation in Brazil. Love them or hate them, they're all here for you to enjoy:

1. Tibetan Culture:



2. Saving The Whales:



3. Brazilian Deforestation:



My analysis: I think that the ideas for these commercials were ones that were probably funny on paper, on the cutting room floor, and all the way up to 10 minutes after they aired in the Superbowl when the ad agency and management for Groupon both had a major "facepalm" moment. The problem here is that there are a certain percentage of people who will find a commercial like any of the ones shown above highly offensive, no matter how well intentioned the commercials were in the first place. Sure, sometimes people get too wound up about political issues (what the commercials were trying to poke fun at) but the delivery here probably only serves to agitate that tension.

Many people are already laughing a little on the inside about, for example, the highly strung environmentalists who take saving the whales as a personal mission in life. The environmentalists, on the other hand, take their work very seriously. So, on the one side, you've got people who already get the inside joke your commercial is trying to tell and have gotten the joke for years(and so probably don't care that much). On the other hand, you have a group of environmentalists, human rights activists who are ready to crucify you for mocking their causes. Does any of this sound like a combination Groupon's advertising team should have touched with a ten foot pole? Not to me.

What do you think about these commercials? Were they harmless fun, in poor taste, or downright offensive? Please leave your comments below.


Enhanced by Zemanta

Analysis: President Obama - Bill O'Reilly Interview: Super Bowl Sunday 2010

Here is my analysis of an interested interview between Bill O'Reilly and President Barack Obama from February 2010 during the pregame show for the Superbowl. My comments are below the video.



Overall, I was impressed with the interview. Bill was a bit softer on Obama than he might have otherwise been (especially compared with this interview from 2008) but I thought that he asked just enough tough questions at the first to make the interview interesting. The one question that I wish he would have asked Obama but didn't was about the move by the Obama administration during the first two years of office away from the Bush era policy of challenging dictatorships and promoting democracy around the world. I felt that O'Reilly could have made the point that the U.S. could have been much more active in promoting change in Egypt and other places before 2010 than they ultimately ended up being.

The second part of the interview was refreshingly light. Too often, interviews with the president focus on the difficult political questions faced every day as a part of the job description and on not much else. While I'm not advocating throwing "soft ball" questions to politicians as a matter of course, sometimes it's nice to see the media call back the attack dogs a bit when dealing with these issues. I like that Bill gave Obama a chance to explain how hard the decisions are that he makes on a daily basis. As Obama notes, people have to have a thick skin to survive the election process and become president.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below. 
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Stephen Colbert's commentary on Utah Law That Allows Cat Decapitations

I just had to share this funny clip from a recent episode of the Colbert Report where Stephen makes fun of a proposed law in Utah about the treatment of feral animals. To bring my readers up to speed on this, Utah has proposed a law that would allow people with a "reasonable suspicion" that a cat or dog is feral to kill that dog "humanely". Interestingly enough, humanely, as defined in the bill, could include methods such as decapitation or clubbing the animal in the head.


If you think that this is a sick way to treat animals and a sure path to idiots killing their neighbors' pets, you're not alone. The bill has created widespread outrage across the country from animal rights activists and concerned citizens alike. However, in his commentary, Colbert "defends" the Utah bill and talks about how the movement to club animals to death might be misunderstood by the public.

Here is his take:


The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mr. Smith Goes to the State Legislature, Then Later Possibly Washington - Curtis Oda
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive

What do you think? Is the law sick, wrong, or simply misunderstood?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Cops caught playing Wii during drug raid

Ah, tax dollars at work! Check out this video of how cops decide to take a break from a drug raid to bowl a few frames on the suspect's Wii. Isn't it great to be the one with the guns in life?




To me, the funniest thing about this whole Wii bowling video during the drug raid is that the police officers seem to be genuinely engrossed by the game. It's not like they're just playing it to pass the time. You can actually see the different cops jumping up and down if they score a good hit on the pins.

What do you think?
Enhanced by Zemanta

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails
comments powered by Disqus