Battle of the Bands: Jesus, Satan, The Atheists live in Florida!

If you've ever been in a local band, you know that competition to get people to come to your shows can be intense.  So it is that a school district in Florida reluctantly brought about a Battle of the Bands, or something like that.  Turns out a local Christian group, Satan, and some cats calling themselves The Atheists (who also play under the name Freedom From Religion Foundation) created quite a stir in the Orange County Public Schools when they started passing out flyers.  Ironically, it was The Atheists (not the Satanists) who generated the most shock among parents.

Freedom From Religion Foundation Atheist Promotional Flyer

Marilyn Manson would have been proud.  Fans of Satan were shocked as the NWOBHM pioneers from 1979 produced some very un-heavy images, causing quite a stir in metal chatrooms until it was revealed that it was not the same Satan; rather it was more of a baby metal band.

So far Orange County Schools haven't had too much problem with stickers being plastered all over lockers and bathroom stalls, but the controversy seems to have proven quite enough for administrators.  The Atheists responded to the controversy by claiming that the local Christian group was "hateful, sexist, and cruel."  Personally, I think they just need to work on their image because they look really stupid.

 You know it's just plain wrong when a Christian musician stuffs a sock in his spandex to get attention, so maybe the critics have a point.  However, I just can't understand why people these days don't just chill the fuck out!  The Bible thumpers have always been around, because Christianity is the dominant western religion and makes up 32% of the world's population.  That we've reached a point where atheism/existentialism/secular humanism/etceteraism is so passionately proselytized that its believers have come to admonish any challenge to that belief system would seem to contradict its very purpose.  Existentialist super-philosopher Sartre wrote,  "And in thus willing freedom, we discover that it depends entirely upon the freedom of others and that the freedom of others depends upon our own."  It seems like a progressive movement that once felt like an intellectual vanguard has become an ideological abstersion.  And as for Satanism, Spinal Tap summed it up best at the 2:20 mark of this interview.  Back in the 80's Satanists had class and didn't need to go stirring up trouble in high schools.  Classy like this...

Coral Snakes & Ebola Virus

I read this article from the NY Times saying that government is cracking down on companies selling cures or preventative medicine for ebola.  Sounds reasonable enough, since you don't want people getting ripped off or poisoned, but some radically paranoid bloggers are suggesting that the government is trying to crack down on possible cures.  Those kind of leaps toward hysteria seem to drive more traffic than my blog, so here's my take on the situation.

Personally I'm more concerned about the U.S. government's failure to do something about the absence of coral snake venom from hospitals, which could result in an apocalypse of highly neurotoxic envenomation in an America.  It's hard to call these docile and candy-colored little elapids "terrorists," but they are native American and quite deadly if allowed to chew on exposed skin.  Fortunately, the NFL's New England Patriots' quarterback superstar and supermodel-husband, Tom Brady, took the time to film a bare-chested, public service announcement on YouTube to warn people about the danger of coral snakes amongst us.

Come Halloween Night 2014, all coral snake antivenom will be past its already-extended expiration date from the FDA.  This colorful relative of the taipan, krait, and cobra will have free reign among the living, who will no longer have recourse to antivenom, only a potentially awful death!!