My all time favorite Family Guy clip. *promote

The mayor bee clip is one of my all-time favorite Family Guy moments, but everything done by that guy is hilarious.

It'll get ratings initially just for the sake of it being a spin-off. But really, this shouldn't be that surprising to Family Guy fans.

The one reoccurring motif of the show is that it's based on old sitcom cliche's. And much like All in the Family's black family spin-off, 'The Jeffersons', we've got Family Guy's black family spin-off, 'The Cleveland Show'!

Come now, Choggie. You've been reading my comments long enough to know that if I was trying to insult anyone, they'd know it. I posted this because it's a good resource for people who still have family/friends who think Obama is a Muslim.

I was raised in an immediate family that practiced Islam, but all my extended family stateside are evangelical Christians. Even though they've been around me all my life, they still wouldn't vote for a Muslim. I imagine I'm not alone in having family members like this, so I posted this website so people could pass it along to "thems that needs it." I specifically picked it because it has all the requisite documentation.

In other words, it was a resource for Sifters to use in combating the ignorance of those that aren't so enlightened as yourself.

In reply to this comment by choggie:
Is he a mystery, enigma, or a dubious consort.....mostly.
Does anyone here on the sift besides perhaps QM give a fiddler's fuck if he's a Muslim? Probably not, so why the post?? Most folks here are smart enough to have already figured out the answer to the question posed.....so, are you trying to insult us??

Is Obama suited, given the current geopolitical climate to govern this fucked-up country's government, after Bush/Clinto/Clinton//Bush/Bush/......
Fuck no...but Giant Iron Robot with Laser beam eyes, is.

Vote, Giant Iron Robot with Laser Beam Eyes, in 08'.

*"I am Giant Iron Robot with Laser Beam Eyes, and I approve of this puny human's message."

" Does anyone here on the sift besides perhaps QM give a fiddler's fuck if he's a Muslim? Probably not, so why the post?? Most folks here are smart enough to have already figured out the answer to the question posed.....so, are you trying to insult us??"

Come now, Choggie. You've been reading my comments long enough to know that if I was trying to insult anyone, they'd know it. I posted this because it's a good resource for people who still have family/friends who think Obama is a Muslim.

I was raised in an immediate family that practiced Islam, but all my extended family stateside are evangelical Christians. Even though they've been around me all my life, they still wouldn't vote for a Muslim. I imagine I'm not alone in having family members like this, so I posted this website so people could pass it along to "thems that needs it." I specifically picked it because it has all the requisite documentation.

In other words, it was a resource for Sifters to use in combating the ignorance of those that aren't so enlightened as yourself.

Ok... i can't watch the clip for whatever reason... maybe due to my location, but i did see one frame, and it looked like family guy, not south park. That and your tags all say stewie, family guy

>> kronosposeidon:
Seriously, has anyone besides dystopia and me thought about euthanizing all those Simpons/Family Guy/Futurama clips in the dead pool? Or how about this: If any video has been dead for over a year how about automatically * killing it quietly in its comatose sleep? After a year it's probably suffered irreversible brain damage anyway, so pulling the plug on it is probably the only humane thing left to do at that point. Maybe that's something to consider for VS 3.2 or later. Let's not let this end up in the courts, people.

I disagree. Maybe we could have a graveyard or something to put the kinds of dead sifts that are constantly cluttering up the dead pool, but there's no reason to remove the sifts altogether.

Seriously, has anyone besides dystopia and me thought about euthanizing all those Simpons/Family Guy/Futurama clips in the dead pool? Or how about this: If any video has been dead for over a year how about automatically * killing it quietly in its comatose sleep? After a year it's probably suffered irreversible brain damage anyway, so pulling the plug on it is probably the only humane thing left to do at that point. Maybe that's something to consider for VS 3.2 or later.

Let's not let this end up in the courts, people.

The Andijan event was not an Islamic revolutionary act. The report shows the success of the goverment to supress information coming out about the event.

"Thursday May 12 - People have been protesting peacefully outside a city court for four months over the trial of 23 local businessmen accused of Islamic extremism.

Protesters outside Andijan court, 11/5/05 Protests had been mounting all week their families say the men are innocent and have been unfairly targeted. The BBC's Jenny Norton describes the protesters as quiet, orderly and very well organised.

But late on Thursday evening, some of the protesters are arrested and taken to the town's jail, according to Galima Bukharbaeva, country director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4550845.stm

I've never heard of the JWs trying to pass laws against birthday parties or blood transfusions. They keep it "all in the family".

While this is a good thing per se, its also sad that children (Their children, but its still children) DIE because of this ridiculous dogma, and yes, there are some things that are just clearly ridiculous and should be considered a crime in some instances. If a 4 year old boy has been in a car accident, and will die if not given blood, and the parents deny the doctors to do their job, I think that should be considered murder.

This is yet another reason to speak up, and demand reason over faith.

The "Fundamentalist atheists" argument. Here is a excerpt from The God Delusion:

But my belief in evolution is not fundamentalism, and it is not faith, because I know what it would take to change my mind, and I would gladly do so if the necessary evidence were forthcoming.

It does happen. I have previously told the story of a respected elder statesman of the Zoology Department at Oxford when I was an undergraduate. For years he had passionately believed, and taught, that the Golgi Apparatus (a microscopic feature of the interior of cells) was not real: an artifact, an illusion. Every Monday afternoon it was the custom for the whole department to listen to a research talk by a visiting lecturer. One Monday, the visitor was an American cell biologist who presented completely convincing evidence that the Golgi Apparatus was real. At the end of the lecture, the old man strode to the front of the hall, shook the American by the hand and said--with passion--"My dear fellow, I wish to thank you. I have been wrong these fifteen years." We clapped our hands red. No fundamentalist would ever say that. In practice, not all scientists would. But all scientists pay lip service to it as an ideal--unlike, say, politicians who would probably condemn it as flip-flopping. The memory of the incident I have described still brings a lump to my throat.

Another point, is that when we go on with these so called "offensive" or vicious attacks at religion, such as calling God a "delusion", we really are just attacking ideas, not people. One could for instance say that anyone who still denies the Golgi Apparatus, or is an avid supporter of the now defunct theory of group selection, has fallen victim to a delusion,

Scientific theories are constantly victims of such attacks; "Thats just stupid" "Show me the evidence!" etc, infact thats why they are scientific at all, because they WITHSTAND these attacks.

but i still get angry when science, by definition incomplete, gets cocky about its ability to explain EVERYTHING.'

You keep forgetting that we supporters of the scientific method have a secret weapon, three words that we use when our current knowledge fails to explain something: WE DON'T KNOW!

Its also interesting how you use "by definition incomplete" which suggests that religion perhaps is, or atleast it claims to be "by definition complete"

If I told you the answer to it all was "42" and thats that, that would also be a complete answer, by definition, but does that make it a good one? A true one? No.

For all intents and purposes, the God hypothesis is debunked, we all know it, it doesn't stand up to even a little scrutiny, it only lives because people really wants it to live, there is real arguments left on the god-side of things, And this is probably why it needs the gigantic tripple kevlar armor we call religion and faith, so that nothing can ever be allowed to penetrate and hit god directly.. Guess that would be just unfair.

While it is technically impossible to disprove, just like the tooth fairy, I think its safe to say that its an insult to our intelligence when people are killed over which god is the right one, or how the right god likes to be pleased and worshiped, which is every single day.

persephone said:

If you are an atheist feeling oppressed by religious communities, you are paying far too much attention to other people's business.

First of all, I want to make a clarification of terms. A "religious community", in my mind, is just a group of people with (roughly) the same faith. As I said above, I generally do not point the finger or lash out at the average Joe. I respect the right of these people to believe whatever they want. As Condell says, I may find it silly, stupid, distasteful or any thing else, but as long as you leave me to my beliefs, you are welcome to yours. My main problems are further up the hierarchy.

Consider the following small sampling of current issues (at least in the US): Gay marriage, stem-cell research & abortion. These are issues which the Church has strong stances on, and that's fine. If the Church wants to say these are blasphemous and forbid them, that's also fine. But, as a person who does not follow the Church, I take offense when they start trying to apply their rules to me. If I want to live by their rules, I will join their club. So long as I'm not a member, I expect to be left alone.

To further illustrate, the Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays, most take issue with blood transfusions and saying the Pledge of Allegiance is considered idolatry, but I've never heard of the JWs trying to pass laws against birthday parties or blood transfusions. They keep it "all in the family".

nedtheundead said:

in an atheist world view there is no reason whatsoever to believe that there is anything wrong with taking an axe to condell's head yet i'm sure he believes very firmly that this would in fact be wrong.

This is just asinine and it's a perfect example of what I referred to in my original post about people believing atheists are without morals. Morality does not come from the Bible, the Torah or the Qur'an. Morality is defined by your environment. It is perhaps the perfect example of a zeitgeist.

What is right and wrong, and to what degree (there's a lot in the grey areas), is defined by where you live, how you live and when you live. All of us (presumably) believe that slavery and murder are wrong. Why do we believe this? Not because we once read it somewhere, but because we understand the emotional pain and trauma that they cause and we believe everyone's lives would be better without them. As George Carlin once pointed out, religion has never really had a problem with murder. The 5th commandment may be "Thou shalt not kill.", but most, if not all, of the holy books go on to condone killing in various ways and circumstances. So don't tell me I need a book from 2000 years ago to tell me what's right and what's wrong.

A cartoon sift would be nice.
(Animation collective) For all the non family guy, simpsons, south park etc. toons.

And the the activism collective could be called:
left leaning biased media - to ad a bit of lightheartedness and combat the conservatives with their greatest nemesis - irony

@tjs989 notes: "Think about it, when someone needs cancer treatment, or heart surgery where do they go? To the United States because we have some of the most advanced equipment and best doctors."

OK, I thought about it. Maybe I am the first of the two of us to do so.

Your point is that Americans are better off because prohibitively expensive health care keeps less privileged citizens out of the queue, thereby making more room for rich foreigners to purchase time from American doctors. Your global altruism is commendable, but why do you value the interests of rich foreigners above those of your fellow citizens, and quite possibly yourself?

I live in Europe and know of zero examples of people traveling to the US for any type of medical treatment. Many do travel within the EU (often to Germany) when equipment, expertise or capacity is not available locally, with costs funded by their domestic national health. Of course, I might not have researched this as much as you have, but I suspect I have researched it exactly as much (not at all).

Chilaxe notes, sarcastically I assume, "I'd rather ... wait on line a year for an appointment with a doctor!" I am unaware of anybody waiting "a year" for a doctor's appointment, but I do know that I could have a doctor here, at my house, today (it's Sunday), in half an hour, for free. Or go to the emergency room at any time. For free. My regular doctors keeps office hours, but I am sure I could be in to see him some time tomorrow if I needed to. For free.

Don't get me wrong, there are many problems and shortcomings to our health care system here. For example, there _are_ waiting lists for advanced procedures, especially for non life-threatening (yet possibly still quite unpleasant)conditions, and preventative care often gets deprioritized in the face of so many actual fires to put out. People who are especially worried about this can and do buy private health insurance which builds on top of the public one (this should give relief to anybody worried that rich people might not be able to buy extra privileges for themselves just because public health insurance exists). And I say "for free", but of course I actually pay for it through taxes forwarded to the national health insurance scheme. It must be possible to draw a line across the income scale somewhere in which the average persons earning over this line would get cheaper or better health care via private insurance or even per-visit payments, while all below would get it cheaper via taxes because their tax contributions are lower than their actual medical costs. I suppose you could find your score on this scale and decide your position on this issue based solely on whether you are above or below this line, provided you have no social consciousness at all. But this same game lies behind all insurance schemes and also depends on how sick you are. At least in a public system, you will not be denied treatment due to "preexisting conditions".

People love to point out that public services are generally less efficient than private enterprise, but the US system also suffers heavy bureaucratic overhead from insurance company marketing and their convoluted attempts to pay as few benefits as possible. According to Princeton economics processor Paul Krugman, this overhead in the American system is much larger than that experienced in most real-world public systems. See, for example, his editorial, Health Economics 101.

I've not seen Mr. Moore's film yet, though the clips reveal a huge "grass is always greener" problem in his argument--but, hey, it's Michael Moore. I do think, though, that Americans should take a more serious look at existing systems of health care throughout the world and consider how their own system could be better. It looks like this film attempts to do exactly that. American ought not allow a two-word argument ("Socialized Medicine") conjure up outdated images of 4-hour bread lines in Eastern Europe and stop them from considering a nationalized system for health care.

Americans like to talk a lot about freedom, so consider this. How free are you when your boss can hold not only your job and income over your head, but effectively the health and survival of some or all your entire family? Doesn't that make you a bit more willing to sacrifice some personal freedom and put in a little more extra, unpaid overtime?

<RantMode ="Off"> (sorry)

Beautifully produced ! Reminds me that there is only a 1/10 of 1% difference between us genetically that results in various skin colors. We're all one big family and WE MUST respect and be considerate of each other. No guilt tripping each other based on our race and no expectations of a "payoff" from another race. WE MUST respect each others boundaries and customs psychologically AND geograpghically. Communicate, live and love. Understanding---is it possible? Let us start now!

All of my family members have lots of little babies, it's thanksgiving. I found some gin, song seemed apropos.