Thanks so much for your kind comments. Much appreciated.

John

I think the argument that the buildings must meet certain codes of safety standards would have a degree of validity only if the only people entering into the buildings were employees of the church itself. But once a building opens itself to the public at large, there are greater issues of safety that must be addressed, and therefore, the buildings become subject to established standards for safety, accommodation, and comfort.

Of course, the potential consequences of this ruling could be to make employment by a church less attractive, effectively driving down the number of people who would want to seek employment as a minister. If a potential lawsuit being filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation gains any traction, then there is a very real possibility that the ministerial homestead exception could also become a thing of the past, again driving down the number of people who would want to minister to a “flock”.

http://americanfreethought.libsyn.com/rss

Unfortunately, for now nothing earlier than podcast 132 is available.

Thanks for listening!

John

First let me say that I’m glad that you have recovered from your accident. I’d much rather be having this exchange with you than reading about your obituary. :)

That said, you certainly have a right to be offended, but it does not trump my right to express my opinions on something that was published in the news. Also, you have every right to your personal faith, but you don’t have a right to personalized facts.

Obviously I can’t talk to your doctors, since to do so would be a betrayal of doctor-patient confidentiality on their part. However, if you have the courage, you could ask your doctors these questions yourself:

1. Is there ANY likelihood that a person who suffered the same kind of injuries you did could recover simply due to the body’s natural ability to heal? If so, then what is the evidence that your recovery was divinely directed?
2. If God has had a hand in healing you and persons with similar injuries to yours, then why has He never bother to heal people who have lost limbs, eyes, or other organs? Find a single verifiable news article about the spontaneous recovery of a lost limb due to the prayers of friends and family and I’ll eat my hat.
3. As a result of your miraculous recovery, do you now bear no scars or other evidence that you were in an accident? (In other words, are you as good as you were before the accident, or are there some natural tell-tales or other permanent losses of function. If not, it truly is a miracle.)
4. Has there ever been a case of a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, or an atheist recovering from injuries similar to yours?
5. If the answer to any of the questions above includes “God’s ways are mysterious” then by what method do you determine which of God’s ways are mysterious and which of His ways are meant to be understood? In other words, if He’s so mysterious, how can any of us say anything about what God wants in ANY situation?

Thanks,
John

We had to switch our podcast feed to a new host. If you visit the home page there are instructions on how to get the new feed.

You could just do everything like you are now but put the MP3s up on libsyn, add them to a blog post here and let the RSS generate with the link to the libsyn version of the media. That’s how I encourage people to set things up as a best practice anyway.

A couple of comments on the new podcast URL:

1. Can you put out a 1-minute audio announcement through the old feed site directing podcast subscribers to the new address? It will alert folks of the move and despoil any notion that you have simply become too busy to issue a new episode.

And by the way, the iTunes link posted above actually takes you to an OLD feed that contains episodes 1-76, issued 2007-2009.

However, you can subscribe to the new feed if you search on “American Freethought” and subscribe to the “American Freethought Podcast” feed.

2. As you migrate old episodes to libsyn.com, can you enter the “Release Date” as the ORIGINAL release date, rather than the date you happen to move the podcast?

Otherwise, each migrated episode will load into iTunes as if the upload date is the Release Date. That will confuse subscribers regarding ordering, timeline context, and which episodes are truly new releases.

(This is already occurring. iTunes shows five episodes released in the last week [instead of over the past 2 months] and shows episode 132 as newer than episode 136. Thus when I subscribed, I got episode 132 as the newest episode and had to manually download your latest episode.)

Thanks. I know this represents a lot of work, and as always, I enjoy listening to you guys.

Lawrence.

Richards’ view of Darwin is rather disdainful. About Darwin he said “He (Darwin) didn’t have a darn bit of evidence. If you read Origin of Species the only evidence he had was for things like beneficial breeding, like breeders who bred domestic dogs. Wow, a lot of variation in that population of dogs. They never become anything but dogs.”

This has to be one of the oldest lies in creationism, right up there with the Lady Hope story. I love the line “If you read Origin of Species…”, which is just a rhetorical trope to get an ignorant audience to think that he had and was speaking from a position of authority. And for all that, maybe he has read it, but it doesn’t help the accuracy of his statement. Darwin marshaled plenty of evidence for evolution, such as past and present biogeography, embryology, vestigial organs, anatomical homology, systematics (how species group into a nested hierarchy of taxa), stratigraphy (the succession of fossil organisms), etc. But I can understand the need to lie about these things. Not only do they want to undercut the credibility of evolution, but the creationists still do not have an adequate explanation tying together all these observations. At best they pettifog about the issue (e.g. fossils, vestigial organs, homology) and at worst ignore it completely (e.g. biogeography).

It also highlights the anti-scientific obsession ID creationists have with personalities. Even if everything that Richards claims about Origin were true, it’s been over 150 years since that book was published. It is conceivable that more evidence might have emerged than was available in Darwin’s time. They demonstrate the fundamentally religious rationalization at work: for them it doesn’t matter if there’s been more evidence since Darwin as long as they can prove the ‘faith’ in Darwin to be unfounded, then they have demolished evolution. The fact that scientists don’t have faith in Darwin as the prophet of evolution is not considered.

Isn’t it funny how pedlars of pseudoscience are always selling something? No “conflict of interests” there, then. Meanwhile, us real scientists generally pay to publish in Open Access journals so that everyone can read the work for free. But, of course, we’re the ones with the big conspiracy and cover up. As someone who must be a chief member of the cover up, teaching evolution at University, I’d love to know what exactly I am supposed to gain. (I don’t suppose they mentioned it, did they?)

I also love the comment: “a lot of things we believe… are not going to be counted as knowledge.” Too right! Belief ≠ Knowledge!

And the oft repeated misunderstanding that “facts” can some how be separate from “values”, which they are not.

check out Rationally Speaking podcast

RS32 – Value-free Science?

http://www.rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs32-value-free-science.html

RS37 – The Science and Philosophy of Happiness

http://www.rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs37-the-science-and-philosophy-of-happiness.html

_________________

Skepticon One pt. 1 Richard Carrier and PZ Myers through pt. 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNMUz1iediU

You’re right that ol’ Hank didn’t actually SAY “Obama is Hitler,” but not 20 seconds after making the Hitler comment he stated that “they” (Obama and Biden) are “the enemy.” I’m guessing he wouldn’t say Netanyahu is the enemy. In any case, this whole affair is a good example of the hyperventilated rhetoric that has poisoned any ability to have an honest difference of political opinion nowadays.

Thanks for your comments. I was using the terms “fruity” and “light in the loafers” to describe how conservatives might think of Mr. Bachmann. I have no problem at all if he’s a homosexual. What I have a problem with is closeted homosexuals who prey on mainstream fear of gays to earn a living.

I hope this clears things up.

Thanks,
John

I have to say, however, that I was offended by your use of the terms ‘fruity’ and ‘light in the loafers’ when referring to Bachmann’s weirdo husband. It really shows an insensitivity about gay men and displayed a lazy approach to discussing the subject. These terms are dismissive of/insulting to gay men as well as Mr. Bachmann. And certainly, you must know men who know what kind of wine to drink with what meal, and they can’t all be ‘light in the loafers’. It detracts from your usually reasonable discourse when you use perjoratives like this.
Thanks for your time.

“Superfoods, vitamins, minerals, proper nutrition, if that isnt homeopathy, I dont know what is.”

Well…that ISN’T homeopathy, so you DON’T know what is. Homeopathy isn’t any of those things you mentioned. It’s literally nothing…that is, water plus nothing. :)

He serves on the Board of Advisors of the nonprofit National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools organization, publisher of a controversial Bible curriculum for use in public schools (not to be confused with The Bible and Its Influence curriculum).

Barton was listed in promotional literature as a “new and special speaker” at a 1991 summer retreat in Colorado sponsored by Scriptures for America, a far-right Christian Identity ministry headed by Pastor Pete Peters, which has been linked to neo-Nazi groups.

The Christian Identity movement is perhaps one of the most dangerous theological doctrines in America today. It is made all the more dangerous by the fact that so few people even realize that it exists, much less what exactly it represents. Christian Identity is the dominant theology of many active right-wing Christian groups, including many if not most Ku Klux Klan organizations.

Unfortunately, Christian Identity isn’t a small, isolated ideology with no political or social consequences for the rest of society.

The fact of the matter is, Christian Identity adherents have big plans for society – plans which the rest of us would probably not be happy about seeing enacted. Understanding the Identity movement cannot be limited to simply learning about their history and current ideological position. In addition, people need to be aware of what sorts of political and social goals they have.

Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_identity

How old do I think the earth is? You know what? I don’t have any idea. I know it’s pretty old, so it goes back a long, long way. I’m not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how long, how old the earth is. I hear your mom was asking about evolution. You know, it’s a theory that’s out there. It’s got some gaps in it, but in Texas we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools, because I figured you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.

So… Perry has no idea how old the earth is, but he thinks a public school student is smart enough to figure it out.

Of course, Perry’s not just wrong about the age of the earth, he’s wrong about what the state he runs teaches: they don’t teach both in Texas.

Good to hear from you–and thanks for listening to the podcast! Those first half dozen shows were a little rough, but I think we’ve improved. :) Happy listening!

http://houstonclergycouncil.org/

As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, our understanding for peace needs a jumpstart. Is God a Christian? challenges Christians to embrace a God wide enough for all God’s children, regardless of religious doctrine. Written with a believer’s pen, the book probes the artificial boundaries religions create among peoples of faith, explores the wisdoms and challenges of 7 world religions, and tracks 7 common threads in religions today. The book closes by calling readers to action to create community conversations for peace for it is through listening and talking freely with each other that relationships will flourish. A study guide is posted on the website, http://www.isgodachristian.com.

Keep up the good work!

It’s hard to say whether you should start with show #1 or not. Obviously, we’re topical so a lot of what we talked about 3 years ago was fresh in the news. Naturally, we’d be flattered if you went back and listened to the whole shebang. It’s your all.

I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the rationalist community in Idaho, but I do know there’s an Idaho Atheists group with a mailing address in Boise (I know, on the other side of the state from you). I suggest you try looking for atheist, humanist, or skeptic groups in Idaho. I know there’s a skeptics group in Boise, and there might be one in Idaho Falls. Let me know how what you discover!

http://www.slate.com/id/2296187/?from=rss

Mr. Daniels is going to destroy the lives of thousands of his own citizens over his party’s despicable ideology surrounding abortion.

We were there (the Vicksburg Daily News staff) and were VERY proud to be among the THOUSANDS of people who attended and/or lined the streets to shield the family from the folks at WBC (who never showed their faces).

The rumor mill was running wild that day.
We heard that they had infiltrated the crowd…
FALSE!

We heard that they were turned away because of a lack of a permit…
Not confirmed by anyone at the Brandon Police Department or Rankin County Sheriff’s Department.

We heard that they were too disgusted that they would not be able to gain access to the church property so that their protest could be seen and they decided to pack it in and go home
Really? This is highly questionable… they spent money on the trip because of their convictions and then went home with their tail between their legs? This is VERY UNLIKELY!

We heard that they were protesting outside of the family’s home…
FALSE!

The fact is that there were about 3,000 – 4,000 people that showed up to support this family and that was a direct result of the announcement by the bigots at WBC that they would be protesting. We just recently buried another soldier (in a neighboring town) and there was nowhere near the turnout… We were not able to be there for that soldier’s funeral due to our schedule (we have a staff of 5) but were informed that there was only a small turnout, but there was no threat of protest by WBC!

SSGT Rogers’ family was “humbled” by the show of support from the large group of patriots that showed up to support them in their darkest hour. We (and I believe that I’m speaking for EVERYONE in the crowd) were honored to be there to lift them up at that time and let them know that we are grateful for their son/brother/nephew/husband’s sacrifice!

Everyone reading this should go to every military funeral that they can… the families will be extremely honored with your HONORABLE presence.

That’s why Roberts and not Obama was the defendant.

First of all, Charles Darwin was not a prophet–he was a scientist. His writings are not worshipped, nor even accepted uncritically. Indeed, many of his theories and observations have been discarded and altered over the years.

Secondly, it’s telling that you equate the theory of evolution by natural selection with sodomy. Sounds like a personal issue.

Thirdly, it’s impossible for me to imagine that you could be so willfully ignorant of the Constitution and the long history of court decisions regarding separation of church and state. Teaching what little we know of the historical Jesus would not be a problem. Characterizing him as “our risen savior” reveals the source of the problem. Historically speaking, he is not proven to be risen, nor to be a savior.

Finally, please take a moment and look for the CAPS LOCK key on your computer. In the future, refrain from using it.

Thanks.

Freedom of Speech precedes the establishment of government. Goverment is established to protect it. Governments that fail to do so should be overthrown.

If you agree with the views expressed in this video, perhaps you might forward it to anyone who you think should see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qq4gue6TO0

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-from-science-frontier/id405321193

Dennis

Dennis

British professor Nigel Swiggerton of Chapsworth College has recently found a missing link in the evolution/creation debate. Everyone is familiar with the “stages of man” chart found in textbooks which begins with a naked, hairy, bent over, grunting Neanderthal type which over millions of years finally learns how to stand erect while sporting a 1930s-style haircut. Well, Dr. Swiggerton discovered that someone accidentally reversed the negative. It turns out that the first man was actually standing erect with a short haircut but has been descending over the years until he has finally reached the last stage – the stage at any rock concert filled with naked, hairy, bent over, grunting Neanderthal types!

(Ran across the preceding on the internet. Are overly blessed, underly grateful Americans aware that Darwin acknowledged the “Creator” on the last page of his “Origin of Species”? Why did he used this term if he meant an “unknown process”? When God allows some American city to be destroyed someday, will surviving American ingrates pray to the anti-Christian, anti-American Hollywood shmucks that the ingrates have long worshiped more than God? Thank God for Rep. Jack Kingston (GA) who does serve the Declaration of Independence’s “Creator” and the “God” mentioned in all 50 state constitutions – a congressman who was recently “crucified” on TV by God-hating shmuck Bill Maher and his fellow “nailers” for daring to uphold the creationism overwhelmingly embraced by America’s founders! For more on Maher etc., Google Jesus-bashers “Sandra Bernhard, Larry David, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Joan Rivers, Sarah Silverman.”)

{spotted the preceding on the web – Thomas}

as.utexas.edu/~gaskell/

then click on ASD for those.

On to Gaskell himself, first a clarification of the lawyer’s fees – they don’t exist:

kentucky.com/2011/01/19/1602754/uk-religious-discrimination-suit.html

Gaskell declined to comment Tuesday, but his attorney, Francis Manion, said Gaskell would receive the full $125,000.

“Everything we do is pro bono,” Manion said. “That’s the reason we exist, to represent people in cases like this.”

The two best links I’ve seen on the case (before it was settled) are these:

homepage.mac.com/gerardharbison/blog/RWP_blog.html

forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=195237&page=5

The first is by someone who knows him personally, who is also an atheist. His daughter was in Gaskell’s class, I believe. The second link as well because in spite of being on the Randi forums the eventual consensus they reached seems to be that the university did make a mistake in botching the hiring, airing their concerns too openly by email and speculating about how best to come up with a reason for hiring someone else over Gaskell.

I don’t usually write on this subject but I don’t like the idea of wasting any time or effort when we need to become a spacefaring race as soon as possible. If you are an astronomer you should be given the tools to do it, and you are a Christian astronomer that actively appeals *to Christians* to take an interest in astronomy (as most of his religiously-themed writing did) then so much the better. Qatar discovered its first extrasolar planet the other day too, (statistically) quite likely by religious astronomers. Whoever can help is welcome.

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/01/04/08-56415.pdf

What I really dislike is the notion you can do an end-run around the constitution by transferring a tiny island patch in the middle of public property to a third party.

If you think your biology book offers nothing but theories, I suggest you go back for a re-read. I also suggest you understand the scientific meaning of “theory” before claiming something is “nothing but” a theory.

Sorry to sound so harsh, but you are flatly on the wrong side of this issue, no two ways about it.

Thanks!

Thanks for remembering Lennon and the song exactly as they are intended.

I googled Zicam after seeing a commercial just because I wondered if it had zinc in it. After seeing this I dont care what it has, Im not taking it!

I’m really enjoying the Holey Scripture series regarding the book of Revelations, and the music’s also pretty fun. However, I found the percussive parts kinda distracting and mixed a little to loud. Please keep the ominous music, just lower the level a bit, eh?

Merry Christmas, gents. All my best to you and yours.

I wanted to mention a gift for female science fans. I think you guys suggested this last year – jewelry based on molecules. I got a seratonin necklace last year and I absolutely love it. Just a thought.

http://www.madewithmolecules.com/

Highly recommended.

You said…

“…I won’t bother to address your specious claim that America is a Christian Nation. That’s been addressed before a million times, and firmly established that our form of government is completely and thoroughly secular….”

Just because YOU say it doesn’t make it so. I’ve read through your lopsided arguments and have heard as much proof to the contrary. I suppose you think the Constitution states there is a “separation of Church and State”! If you attempt to use any other documents written by…lets say…Thomas Jefferson…you will be calling yourself a hypocrite.

Your own words…

“Certainly, it is interesting to read what the Founders thought, how they lived, and what they believed–it helps us to understand history better, and thereby understand ourselves. That said, there is only one document the Founders left us that has any legal standing: the Constitution. It is the supreme law of the land to which our elected officials swear an oath to defend. The Declaration is interesting, but it is not a document with legal standing.”

A point of clarification of this concept of the Separation of Church and State! A more appropriate phrasing would be the Separation of State from Church. Justification being thus;

You can take the State out of the Church but you can’t take the Church out of the State. The State is made up of people who hold an assortment of beliefs (church). These beliefs (church) are as much a part of these people as is their blood within their veins. These beliefs (church) are the domain of ones religion. These beliefs (church) are also part of what makes up the character of an individual. It is these beliefs that have made this country what it is. Therefore, at its heart, this is beyond a shadow of doubt a Christian Nation.

Say what you will, you can not honestly deny that the motivation behind the Constitution is as relevant today as it was when they first penned it. It is prudent to understand all that is possible about the writers mind-set and what was going on at the time. The major motivation behind any resemblance of a Separation of Church and State is how the Catholic Church and the Kings were corroborating as OVERLORDS with malevolent designs on the countries.

He states, “I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech… ” Interesting. Is there anyone, even a religious person, who is pounding on his door demanding that he cease from thinking? May the day never come when he is not free to speak as he pleases, but even he must admit that at times he tempers his speech to more appropriately fit the situation, and further, even his own thoughts and speech have been shaped and molded by others and by circumstance so that his thoughts are not entirely his own. He is no less persuaded toward belief than is his religious neighbor. Neither are wholly free.

That was a lucky thing. When the cab driver found out we were heading to the train station, he warned us of the crowd and offered to take us directly to the Mall for 30 bucks. SOLD! ZIP! A bit later, he dropped us behind the Museum of the American Indian and the next thing we knew, we were feelin’ th’ love on the Mall.

We later spoke to some folks at the rally, and they told us they waited 2 1/2 hours for a train from another terminal station on the Green Line. I can’t imagine how long folks would’ve waited at West Falls Church, what with a couple stations further West.

We had a blast. Stayed out for the rest of the evening in Chinatown with a whole bunch of other rally participants (including one of the Oprah winners). Good beer, good people, good time. Made some new Facebook friends. Didn’t have a bit of trouble catching the very last train back to Springfield that evening. (Well, except for a wee bit of drunken staggering.)

The rally was evidently much bigger than anticipated. I understand the application filed with the National Park Service anticipated 60K, though they provided portajohns for 150K. The rally grew so big that the NPS actually had to open up some areas closed for re-sodding west of 7th. The rally organizers actually sold out of schwag! Honest estimates of the rally size range from 215K to 250K.

I really prefer Stewart’s estimate (10 million). Colbert’s estimate of 6 billion just seems a tad high. :-)

We stuck around till Tuesday, visiting the Zoo, the National Gallery and the Smithsonian. All-in-all, very glad we went, wish we’d stayed longer. You should make a point of watching the rally on the Intarweb tubes– it was actually a really good show.

JB

On a different not, thanks for turning me onto “God’s Lunatics”. It’s a great book!

Thanks for your comment. I can’t really disagree with you. When I was editing this show I was faced with two choices: either bag the whole thing and say sorry on the next show, or try to give the listeners some idea of what a frustrating trek the day was. I suppose on that last option I succeeded. Anyway, if it’s any consolation we’ll be back in full swing with the next show.

Thanks again for listening!

John

(And, dudes, you could have at least pointed out that communist systems do indeed have and utilize a means of exchange, ever hear of the ruble? A system without a monetary unit would most likely be anarchist in nature.)

They don’t use the word “corporate” like the rest of us do. To them, it doesn’t mean an incorporate company, it means that a large number of church members are physically present in the same place, at the same time, working together. Caused me no end of confusion before I figured that one out.

Since I brought up the “bless you”/sneezing issue, I thought I’d remind you that you read my comment about that on a previous episode. I was rather proud of that and I joked about how I’m getting closer to completing my 15 minutes of fame. I’m wondering, though, if I can count that towards my 15 minutes. While you guys are getting public exposure, or you wouldn’t be asked to do things like Dragon-Con, do you think it is wide enough to count? A little more seriously, though, I get a little bit of a school-girl thrill to hear my comments read by my favorite podcasters. I think I was more excited to hear my comments read by you and Rich Orman of the Dogma Free America podcast than by seeing myself labeled “Aaron Grow – Garth Burner” (long story) on the local news.

Thanks for putting out such a great show.

In watching this clip, I was astonished by Kyra’s opening sentence. She uses the phrase “lumped in with ATHEISTS”, saying the word atheists as if she were spitting out poison. It’s the same tone of voice she might use in referring to “murders” or “rapists”.
Ms. Phillips should be aware that about 4% of the US population is atheist, and it is the fastest growing minority in the country. Assuming the 4% holds for CNN’s viewers, she is disparaging a substantial fraction of her audience when she refers to them in this contemptuous way.
The commendable tolerance Kyra has for the non-heterosexual father apparently doesn’t extend to all minorities.

Yes, it is interesting to take a multifaceted person and dismiss many faces–to isolate; but, then, to say what was temporarily dismissed needs to be permanently dismissed is a move that loses credibility for the person who does it. “I’ll put this aside so I can focus on this and what I have put aside I’m going to discount as worthless.” No, I’m not baffled by a worthwhile isolation that you can still the other faces and layers of a character.

Spong does not handle well or at all critical inputs from history that feed the Devotional Jesus notion and he certainly does not have a grip on the Historical Jesus either.

Again, it could be important to take a cross-section of Jesus and examine Jesus that way. That’s why the book suggestion is valuable to me but of limited value.

Protestants do not have a tradition of asceticism, mysticism, and non-Western healing methods; so, I wouldn’t applaud one who dismisses aspects of the religious life about which there is ignorance and no substance for evaluation.

There is a new book out (available on amazon.com and bn.com):

Insights on the Exodus, King David, and Jesus
by Steefen

Much of what Bart Ehrman says about the Historical Jesus will have to be revisited after one reads Insights.

It’s one thing to criticize the canonical claims of a historical Jesus, let’s see what Bart Ehrman can do against a better Jesus narrative.

Whatever Bart Ehrman writes and whatever you think after reading Insights on the Exodus, King David, and Jesus will be a significant improvement over the conclusions of Jesus, Interrupted.

I also think it a bit odd that Prof. Ehrman believes removing the historical coherency from the devotional Jesus does not result in a loss of faith. For him, suffering made him an agnostic. One would think after Paine and Ehrman, one would lose faith in sacred scripture to some degree; and, without a weekend base at scripture, faith in God which rests on this scriptural basis, would be lessened also.

-Lisa

Which raises the question: why should someone’s unsubstantiated beliefs in the supernatural be any more privileged than their tendency to spangle their face?

BTW – it’s actually pronounced “KRYST” (the same as Florida Governor Charlie Crist)

———-

Let me know if you have a meetup of some sort. My buddy’s a fervent atheist and would likely get along famously with you guys.

Cheers,
Eric Christ
Candidate
Georgia State Senate District 40

I prefer the arseh.at URL shortener; far more amusing.