Are you overweight? Are you superstitious? Are you emotionally weak and needy?

Well, do we have just the weight loss cult program for you: Gwen Shamblin’s Weigh Down Workshop - the pioneer of cult faith-based weight loss!

(I saw these loonies on television tonight… weird stuff. Just click on through and witness the Bible-zombies singing the virtues of their ridiculously-permed messiah, Gwen Shamblin. People continue to test my incredulity by being so stupid.)

Sometimes I see the strangest ads rotate through the ad banners on this site. It’s amusing enough that many of them are religious in nature, but this one really confused me:

Capital Punishment

Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today.

www.ebay.com

Apparently, AdSense not only thinks this is a Jesus blog, but a Republican Jesus blog at that.

Many times through the life of this blog, while debating with this or that anti-evolution individual about the field of science, I’ve heard the accusation that some theories, for example that of “dark matter,” are non-scientific since they can’t be tested.

No, it never made sense to me either, but then understanding science isn’t really a strength among those who reject evolution.

Regardless, a new article in the Independent describes further physical evidence for the existence of dark matter:

One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is about to be unravelled with the first detailed, three-dimensional map of dark matter - the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.

Astronomers announced yesterday that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of creating a picture of something that has defied every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933.

…

One of the most important discoveries to emerge from the study is that dark matter appears to form an invisible scaffold or skeleton around which the visible universe has formed.

Although cosmologists have theorised that this would be the case, the findings are dramatic proof that their calculations are correct and that, without dark matter, the known universe that we can see would not be able to exist.

“A filamentary web of dark matter is threaded through the entire universe, and acts as scaffolding within which the ordinary matter - including stars, galaxies and planets - can later be built,” Dr Massey said. “The most surprising aspect of our map is how unsurprising it is. Overall, we seem to understand really well what happens during the formation of structure and the evolution of the universe,” he said.

Sounds pretty well tested and confirmed to me. There was no “pre-Cambrian rabbit” to be found. Now, much like with evolution, the specific details are up for debate and further investigation in the scientific community, a mystery to be solved rather than chalked up to “Goddidit.”

Hey, perhaps that lattice-work of dark matter was constructed by an Intelligent Structural Engineer! Could this be a new field of religious study, replete with laughable textbooks, court cases, and videos (starring Kirk Cameron) about how the banana is the most structurally sound construct in the universe?

I’ve got a 3-year old girl, a 1-year old boy, and a 34-year old woman all puking their guts out tonight.

Yay me.

Here’s hoping I dodge the bullet.

Update, Sunday night: Bullet not dodged. Presently lodged squarely in my midsection. Will spend tonight sitting on the bed, among other “furnishings.” Apologies for TMI.

Yeah, yeah, I’m talking about Don Surber. Again. Because, you know, thinking is like hard and stuff.

Don, using the headline “Don’t Quit the Day Job Nancy,” quotes an email that says:

If you listened to the MSM you’d swear that it was Pelosi. As false as most of their impressions are, you’d be wrong listening to them again.

Today’s approval numbers via Rasmussen are:

45% approval for Bush
43% approval for Pelosi

Another MSM conventional wisdom flushed down the toilet.

Oh, if only it were so. Let’s make a couple of observations, shall we?

First, the survey regarding Bush deals with “job approval,” while the survey regarding Nancy Pelosi deals with whether or not the surveyed individual has a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the new Speaker. While there may be some similarity between the two, the topics are not the same and thus to use them as a point of comparison is a bit silly.

Second, so long as we’re being silly and playing the role of partisan hack, let’s look at the flip side of the survey results. Bush’s job disapproval stands at 54%, while the unfavorable opinion of Pelosi is only 39%. That’s a pretty striking difference in contrast to the 2% bump Bush has in the first instance (nevermind that Bush’s approval ratings have remained pretty constant over the last year, while Pelosi is on the way up).

So, Surber could just as easily have written a headline like “Nancy Pelosi Less Unpopular Than Bush by 15%” and have been just as “correct” and “meaningful.”

Which is to say: not very.

Update: Eugene Volokh notices the same thing, which leads Instapundit to do the same.

See it, even if you think Al Gore is a robot made of wooden planks.

While I was one of those disappointed when the University of Alabama athletics shmoes fired Mike Shula - and while I continue to think that Mal Moore should be the next one shown to the door (something about “the buck stops here” and “the consonance of his name is annoying”) - this sounds good to me:

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Nick Saban landed to chants of “Roll Tide,” then stepped off the airplane and made the long trek across the tarmac to greet throngs of screaming Alabama fans.

That feverish reception Wednesday kicked off a “new era” for the Crimson Tide under a coach they’re hoping will finally restore the program to championship heights.

Alabama lured Saban from the Miami Dolphins back to the Southeastern Conference with a deal reportedly worth at least $30 million over eight years, the most lucrative in college football.

To Saban’s credit, he only has to lose to Auburn the first two to three years and they’ll buy him out for the full amount. We should all get such dream jobs.

Hell, I’ll put the offer out right now: I’ll coach the Crimson Tide for a mere $250,000 a year. What do you have to lose, other than the majority of your games?

Apparently sources close to President Bush are part of the cliche-based community:

President Bush is expected to announce his new Iraq strategy in an address to the nation early next week, several sources in Washington told CNN Tuesday.

The president has not yet signed off on any changes, including a possible increase of U.S. troops, according to sources with information about Bush’s deliberations on Iraq.

However, the sources say he is “driving toward a conclusion” and a plan is “taking shape” which is “getting more detailed” as the president puts “on the finer points.”

Well, that’s good news. Maybe now we’ll really have those “evildoers” finally “on the run” so we can, once again, “turn a corner” and have the insurgency “in its death throes.”

It’s like Oval Office MadLibs!

Adding to my worry: the Bush administration didn’t change course based on events on the ground, but on Republicans getting their asses handed to them in the last election. So, either they held onto a losing strategy thinking they would win the election, or they dropped a winning strategy in order to pander to the electorate.

Neither is very honorable, if you ask me.

Ah yes, because they’re stupid:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday a horrific terrorist act on the United States that will result in “mass killing” late in 2007.

“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”

Because, you know, God isn’t much for the details.

“I have a relatively good track record,” he said. “Sometimes I miss.”

Wait, I thought it was God - ye olde omniscient one for the ages - doing the talking. Now it’s Pat just making shit up?

Of course it is, you idiots.

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America’s coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring’s heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

Wow, storms crashing into the coastline - such foresight! - as opposed to those hurricanes that form over landlocked Kansas, I guess.

I’m not sure what troubles me more: that people are stupid enough to give money to this charlatan, or that I’m too honest to rip them off too.

Bill from INDCJournal is posting new entries while in Iraq, having just wrapped up a day with the Marines of Bravo Company, 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion (did you know that they’re amphibious because of intelligent design, thus proving God is real?).