MoebiusTrip's Blog on Artician

the infidel's library

Category: Religion & Spirituality - Atheists

Thursday August 13th, 2009

These titles make up my personal library as of now. I've read most of them. One day I'll read them all, but by then I might have more books! Emotion: biggrin.gif

I recommend looking them up on Amazon, then buying one or two at your local bookstore (not a chain store, please).

BASIC/INTRODUCTORY TEXTS

What Is Atheism? (A Short Introduction) - Douglas E. Kreuger
A Question of Faith - William E. Kaufman, Morton Shor
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason - Sam Harris
Letter To a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens
Atheism: A Reader - S.T. Joshi, ed.
Atheism: The Case Against God - George H. Smith
Why I Am Not a Christian - Bertrand Russell
The Case Against Christianity - Michael Martin
God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong - S.T. Joshi
Irreligion - John Allen Paulos
Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity - John W. Loftus
God's Problem - Bart D. Ehrman
Ethics Without God - Kai Nielsen
In Defense of Secular Humanism - Paul Kurtz
Prejudices: A Selection - H.L. Mencken
The Vintage Mencken - Alistair Cooke, ed.
Letters From the Earth - Mark Twain

HISTORY/CURRENT EVENTS: CHRISTIANITY

In the Name of Heaven: 3000 Years of Religious Persecution - Mary Jane Engh
God Against the Gods - Jonathan Kirsch
The Dark Side of Christian History - Helen Ellerbe
The Medieval Papacy - Geoffrey Barraclough, ed.
The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason - Charles Freeman
Strange Histories - Darren Oldridge
The Scopes Trial: A Brief History With Documents - Jeffrey P. Moran
Sacred Causes - Michael Burleigh
The Missionary Position - Christopher Hitchens
Terror In the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence - Mark Juergensmeyer
Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
When Men Become Gods - Stephen Singular
Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism - Michelle Goldberg

HISTORY/CURRENT EVENTS: ISLAM

Islam: A Short History - Karen Armstrong
Why I Am Not a Muslim - Ibn Warraq
Islamic Imperialism: A History - Efraim Karsh
The Assassins: A Radical Sect Within Islam - Bernard Lewis
The Crisis of Islam - Bernard Lewis
Sword of the Prophet - Serge Trifkovic
Guests of the Ayatollah - Mark Bowden
The Siege of Mecca - Yaroslav Trofimov
Ministry of Lies: The Truth Behind the Nation of Islam's "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews" - Harold Brackman, Ph.D.

RELIGIOUS THOUGHT/RESPONSES

God and the New Atheism - John F. Haught
Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age - Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose
The Late Great Planet Earth - Hal Lindsey
Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood - George Grant
What's Right With Islam Is What's Right With America - Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

SCIENCE, CREATIONISM

Superstition: Belief In the Age of Science - Robert Park
Abusing Science - Brad Kitcher
Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and the Nature of Science - Massimo Pigliucci
God: The Failed Hypothesis - Victor J. Stenger
The "God" Part of the Brain - Matthew Alper
The Bible Unearthed - Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman

ADVANCED TEXTS, MISCELLANEOUS

Language, Truth, and Logic - A. J. Ayer
Fallacies and Pitfalls of Language: The Language Trap - S. Morris Engel
The Impossibility of God - Michael Martin & Ricki Monnier, eds.
Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery - John H. Holland, Keith J. Holyoak, Richard E. Nisbet, Paul R. Thagard
Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits - Bertrand Russell
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong - Russ Kick, ed.
Follies of the Wise - J. Frederick Crews
Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life - Louise M. Antony, ed.
The True Believer: Thoughts On the Nature of Mass Movements - Eric Hoffer

various

Category: Lifestyle - Other

Tuesday August 11th, 2009

1. After checking out the photos in a certain Deviant's gallery, I'm glad I missed the "devmeet". It must have been fun for those who went, but I'd have definitely been out of place. Besides, it's not like I wave the DA flag everywhere I go. If I ever go to a members' get-together, it'll be for Artician. Unless it's also full of people who I would be out of place among...

Guess I'm getting old. Which is fine. Once I walk with a cane again, I can whack homeless people with it. Emotion: wink.gif

2. A few days ago, I was pulling out into the street (on my bike, as always) & I had the signal to cross. This twentysomething couple are pulling out in their black car & looked in the direction of oncoming traffic, but not where I was coming from--the other side. The upshot is they hit my bike, me & bike hit the ground, & they tacoed the fucking front wheel. I was not harmed nor frightened, but I was pissed. Fortunately I managed to keep myself in control. We all went to a nearby parking lot (I carried my bike there since it sure as shit wouldn't roll) & the girl offered me $50. I turned it down because I didn't know how much a new wheel would cost, & we exchanged contact info instead. Might post the receipts from the bike shop here later, I dunno. At least I could get a new wheel that same day. Those kids owe me approx. sixty-five bucks now.

3. I don't always hate my job, but after today, I despise the store's GM. And I know, with utter certainty, that I will never make a career in corporate retail in my life. I'd sooner live on the streets or wind up on disability than become a retail guy, after seeing what the business does to those who stay too long in it.

the job at Sears

Category: Career & Jobs - Customer Service Tags: anthill , worker ant , worker bee , scut work , k wage , wor , slave , job

Tuesday August 4th, 2009

On most days, just before the store opens (1000 hrs), there's a staff meeting. This morning we were informed that our "C-Sat" (customer service) rating was 40-something percent. It's the lowest the store has had in years. The manager leading the meeting informed us that despite the remodeling going on, if C-Sat scores stay down for long enough, corporate HQ could decide to close the store. This is the second staff meet (not in a row) at which I've heard that.

Never mind that I always do my job as well as I can when I'm there. Never mind that just today, it was because of my assistance that we sold three items (one a vacuum cleaner) out of Appliances & Electronics within 45 minutes or so. Never mind that we get an unusually large quantity of old people in the store, & those folks don't typically have Internet access at home & so can't do the survey. Never mind that in general, people are far more likely to notify a business of something when complaining than when they're pleased. Never mind that a lot of people just toss out their receipts instead of following the link on it, & we have no way of knowing what they thought. Never mind any of that. The bottom line & percentages are all that matters.

I've already started looking for another job, closer to home. If the managements' statements are even halfway true, then the store at Hancock Ctr. is a sinking ship.