dimland radio 9-17-11 show notes

RIP Eleanor Mondale

Eleanor Mondale Poling 1960-2011

I broke the news on Z Talk Radio of the death of Eleanor Mondale Poling, daughter of former Vice-president Walter Mondale. She succumbed after a long battle with brain cancer September 17, 2011. I told a couple stories of my brushes (very tangential) with Eleanor.

Read more here.

Things My Dad Never Told Me About Getting Older

Then I delved into too much information territory. I talked about hair going crazy. Ear hairs, nose hairs, eyebrows just start growing nutty when you get into middle age. And urinating! That becomes an adventure.

News Item: Two Quickies On Evolution

Get your kids a copy today!

CNN/ORC released a poll that included people's belief in evolution and Daniel Loxton's book 'Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be' is awarded the Lane Anderson award.

Read about the CNN/ORC poll here and about Loxton's book here.

The Power Of Prayer? A Story From Minnesota's Past

I read a story about a grasshopper invasion that took place in 1876 and how they ate everything in sight and laid eggs that would cause another infestation in 1877. To stop that future infestation, Minnesota's then governor called for a day of prayer. (Oh, brother!) The prayer seemed to work, can you say coincidence?


I got the story from the book 'Weird Minnesota'.

Atheists Don't Have No Songs

XTC: an excellent band that gave us three atheist songs.

Yes, they do.

I pedantically disagreed with Steve Martin's humorous tune 'Atheists Don't Have No Songs'. I gave examples of three songs by the great (and under-appreciated) XTC. The three songs are 'Jumping in Gomorrah', 'Dear God', and 'The Wheel and the Maypole'.

XTC is an excellent band and well worth your attention.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'Brilliant Blues' by Pete Townshend & 'Good Ole Boys Like Me' by Don Williams
Second ad break bumpers: 'Beating Of Hearts' by XTC & 'The Headmaster Ritual' by The Smiths
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 9-10-11 show notes

My Son's Back To School

My son started the third grade this week and, hopefully, he won't be sick before the end of next week.

News Item: Man Chops Off Own Hand

It's not exactly a new story (it was new in 2008) about a fellow suffering from the delusion that his hand carried the "mark of the beast," so he cut off his own hand and microwaved it. I'm sure that made God proud.

Read the story here.

News Item: "Fortune Tellers" Charged In $40Million Scam

Apparently several "fortune tellers" had been busted in Florida for fleecing people out of $40million. They would convince their clients that bad things (disease, financial hardship, etc.) would befall them unless these "soothsayers" cleansed their clients' money. Well, they certainly cleansed their clients of their money. Let's hope justice is done.

Read the story here.

A Rant: Celtic Thunder And Lip-syncing

Feet apart, backs straight, arms to the side, look to some distant point, be dramatic. Ok, now pretend to sing!

I ranted about Celtic Thunder, Celtic Women, and the Osmonds specials on PBS. The whole concept of the Celtic shows bugs me, but the fact that they all lip-sync their songs that is really wrong.

You can read my blog about it here.

Fox News Poll: Most Believe In Power Of Prayer And Creationism

I talked at length about a Fox News poll and went into a bit of a rant about faith healers and speaking in tongues. I mention the creepy Robert Tilton and his peculiar "talent" of speaking in tongues. It sounds more like baby talk to me.

Robert Tilton: Jesus wants you to send him money.

I also talked a little bit about the fact of evolution.

Read about the Fox News poll here.

Some 9/11 Talk

It's the 10th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. I talked (again) about the conspiracy theories being misguided and wrong. Sure, I'm not that skeptical of the mainstream view of the events, but that's because the science bears up that view. It wasn't an inside job.

Here's a video clip giving the actual and simple reasons for the collapse of WTC 7.

I also thanked the people, government agencies and military for, thus far, keeping us free of any further terrorist attack on our soil for the past ten years. You should thank them too and put out your flag.

Movie Recommendation: Live And Let Die (1973)

First film with Roger Moore as James Bond. First Bond film I saw in the theater. First Bond film my son Hayden has seen. The Bond film with the best theme song of any of the films (Live And Let Die by Paul McCartney and Wings).

Sure, Sean Connery is the real Bond, but Moore is pretty good for a few films anyway. And this one is pretty good, as good as or better than the last couple Connery 007 films. At least, I think so.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'Four Engines Burning (Over The USA)' by The Screaming Blue Messiahs & 'The Beat(en) Generation' by The The
Second ad break bumpers: 'Tantalized' by The Church & 'Twist' by Tones On Tail
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

dimland radio 9-3-11 show notes

Cold Open: Curious George

What?! Curious George making a mess? No way!

I read a piece from my blog about how much the PBS cartoon Curious George annoys the hell out of me.

A Tale Of An Over-served Uncle

I told the story of my Uncle Dick and his bar-hopping trip up north to see his twin brother and how Uncle Dick was a tad bit over-served.

Well, I'm Going To Hell

So, I'm on the Facebook and I sent a friend request to a non-atheist fellow. He accepted my request and then checked my profile. He saw I was an atheist and he unfriended me, but first he had to tell me that I'm going to hell.

InFact...

"Hello, I'm Brian Dunning. I don't want to ruin you favorite movie series."

Skeptic Brian Dunning has a very excellent series on YouTube called InFact... You really should check it out.

I mentioned Brian's three part series on logical fallacies (must see!) that can be found here, here and here.

And Now A Rant: George Lucas Wants To Ruin Star Wars

"Hello, I'm George Lucas. I want to destroy your favorite movie series."

I ranted about how upset I was when I found out George Lucas had found another way to ruin Star Wars. For the Blu-Ray release he has Darth Vader shouting' "Noooooooooo!" as he stops the Emperor's attack on Luke Skywalker in The Return Of The Jedi.

You can read about it here.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'The Sinking Feeling' by The The & 'Second Guessing' by REM
Second ad break bumpers: 'Break My Body' by Pixies & 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' by Hunters & Collectors
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com