Episode 50: Wanna handle my snake?

10 comments on Episode 50: Wanna handle my snake?

  1. Steven Doyle says:

    Good ol’ Leviticus. Now, the Westboro Baptist Church people (Fred Phelps’ insane family) respond by saying that the prohibitions against mixing fibers, etc., are just “ceremonial”, and the one about homosexuality is the important one because it’s damaging to society and truly offensive to Yahweh. What they don’t explain is why they give priority to homosexuality instead of adultery, which is also a stoning-to-death offense, arguably more damaging to society, and is a direct betrayal of vows made in front of God. Funny, that.

  2. Luke says:

    Great episode, I love your podcast.
    On the JW case I feel so sorry for that girl, because having been a JW for my youth, I know how condemned that is, and her family will see her as unclean even though she had no say in the matter, and she will feel like a failure and a disappointment to god. Hopefully when the time comes she’ll realise that it’s all bullshit anyway!

  3. ullrich fischer says:

    I love your show. You’re almost as good as “The Imaginary Friends” podcast, the one true podcast. I find myself nodding agreement the whole time I listen to one of your shows.

  4. emily says:

    You asked why these groups that handle snakes don’t also drink poison… actually… they do. The original Washington Post profile of this guy from last year talks about them drinking strychnine.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/in-wva-snake-handling-is-still-considered-a-sign-of-faith/2011/10/18/gIQAmiqL9M_story.html

  5. Tom Hail says:

    I appreciate you position on feminism in the skeptical communities. I think you made many great points and I hope you got through to some thick heads. Sometimes the blunt truth is the best. DJ Grothe’s handeling of this hasn’t been very impressive to me. My 20-something daughter and I are paid up for TAM this year again before I realized this issue. We had an awesome time last year with 40% female attendance. I hope to hell that this year isn’t an 18% female sausage fest. If that happens I’m not going back, like you said, I’m paying a lot of money I can’t really afford to be there. I’m not there to hit on anyone (my gal would be sad), I want to listen and talk to anyone with something interesting to say. Having the other half of the population show up doubles those chances! I do hope that women realize staying away doesn’t help their position, they have to stand up to sexism and harassment. Make noise, make it clear why and how it is wrong. Avoiding it won’t solve it. I’ll stand with them if they are there. I applaud you for standing with them clearly and loudly. Thanks!

    1. ullrich fischer says:

      Right on! I’m going this year for the first time and am also deterred by the high cost. IMHO, DJ was acting like a Republican’t spin doctor and should get off his high horse and just apologize already. I think Rebecca maybe over-reacted a bit and might have been better off (at least in deflecting some of the criticism she got over this issue) if she had decided instead to attend TAM and make a big noise about the issue at there. It would be great if she and DJ could do a panel discussion together to hash out all the issues involved with the sexual harassment issue.

  6. ullrich fischer says:

    Re snake handling and drinking poison.

    I would like to see more pressure from the members (aka suckers) in these cults to have their priests drink poison. It is such a good way to separate the fakers from the fakirs. 🙂

  7. Hotttpocket says:

    I love your show. Fuck anyone who dares suggest that any other podcast is as good as yours is (Imaginary Friends! Ha! i fart in their general direction), because that is patently untrue and those people are acutely obtuse donut-punching mouth-breathers to post something so absurd iin a post ON YOUR PODCAST’s blog page. Whatever.

    I just wanted to stop by and let you guys know that you have a new fan in Los Angeles who thinks you-and your spectacularly hilarious podcast are…

    AWESOME! (with a side of awesome)

    Thanks for all your hard work and for restoring my faith in humanity–if you guys exist, then there must be others like you in Los Angeles! (And if not, that’s okay, just knowing that you guy exist, somewhere, is comforting to know)

  8. Ian says:

    Ah, the infamous elevatorgate. I remember that. There were two sides to this story (and they were not good guys vs bad guys) and also no actual discussion. Instead there was overreaction (on both sides) followed by the mass evisceration of strawmen all around. Take the side you’re on, and one of the statements you’ve made as an example. “You have to know how to take ‘no’ for an answer”? Really. That is what you’re presenting as the issue here. Even though in the original story that wasn’t even remotely present. And let’s not forget that the whole fiasco exploded not with the reaction to that original story, but when instead of talking, she named-and-shamed her critics (including some female ones) as mysogynistic for thinking she overreacted to what was a harmless clumsy come-on by a clueless derp. And she did that using a lecture she was asked to give as her soapbox. Only then did the ol’ internet insanity properly took over, but it was NOT black-and-white as you paint it and there was actual wrongdoing on your side, too.

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