Fundies Say the Darndest Things! (FSTDT) is a popular web site that hosts a database of quotes, usually from Internet message boards. FSTDT is structured as a blog, where readers can leave comments and vote for their favorite quotes. It gives out up to 30 satirical awards each month.
FSTDT is largely inspired by Bash.org, but mostly comprises quotes from forums rather than IRC, and focuses on religious or pseudo-religious quotes perceived as bizarre by the submitters rather than humorous quotes in general. FSTDT derives its name from the Art Linkletter book, Kids Say the Darndest Things.
History
FSTDT began when Allan Glenn started using humorous quotes from message boards in his forum signature. Glenn featured a new quote in his signature each week, while saving the old quotes in a text file. This file began circulating the Internet, with many people adding their own quotes to the list. Seeing that his collection was becoming popular, Glenn decided to create a website dedicated to bizarre religious quotes. In August 2003, the site was renamed from Christians Say the Darndest Things to Fundies Say the Darndest Things..
Glenn operated FSTDT until August 2004, when he decided that updating the site by hand was far too time consuming[http://winace.hyperboards.com/index.php?actionview_topic&topic_id335]. FSTDT remained dormant until May 2005 when Glenn began receiving offers to resurrect the site from various programmers. Glenn ultimately approved an automated replacement (with voting and comments) made by a programmer known online as "Yahweh".
Allan Glenn died of cystic fibrosis aged 20 on November 4 2005 and since then Yahweh has owned and administrated FSTDT.
Site details
FSTDT is a non-profit satirical website operated by a small group of volunteers. New quotes are submitted mostly from Internet forums, and until recently, they were stored in a moderation queue awaiting review by a site moderator. Today, however, the moderation process is run by the users, who determine through a voting system which quotes are accepted and which are deleted. Around 300 new quotes are accepted each month.
Over the course of each month, up to thirty quotes are given satirical "awards", including "Post of the Week", "Post of the Month", "Tinfoil Hat Prize", "Bizarre Creationist Assertion of the Month" and "Bigot of the Month Award".
Criticism
The most common criticism of FSTDT is that quotes are taken out of context. However, every quote on the site is displayed with a link to the source where it was found, and the FSTDT FAQ states that any quotes found to be taken out of context will be removed[http://www.fstdt.com/weekly/article.php?id_article=40#misquote].
The site is also criticized for quoting people without the original author's knowledge or expressed permission. Critics have claimed that this is indicative of copyright infringement. FSTDT has stated it is consistent with the [http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107 Section 107 of US Copyright Law] on fair use; it says that quotes are being used for non-profit educational purposes, the quoted material is limited to a few sentences or paragraphs at most, the quotes are obtained from public Internet forums that are freely accessible by anyone with an Internet connection, and the quotes themselves have zero market or monetary value.
Another criticism is that the readers who post comments on the site may be as 'fundie' as those who are quoted. FSTDT appears to acknowledge this, and is known to publish quotes from its .
FSTDT is generally criticized for being very liberally biased. This comes from the fact that the site regularly features quotes from opponents of homosexuality and gay marriage, opponents of abortion, anti-secularists, anti-feminists, and conservatives. The site admin states that he does not actively single out conservatives, but claims that 'atheists are just uninteresting and unfunny'. FSTDT does .
Recently, some FSTDT critics have attempted to label FSTDT administrator Yahweh as a fundamentalist herself [http://www.fstdt.com/forums/thread.aspx?p=19376#19376] for her vocal support of animal rights and placing a link to PETA on every page of her site [http://www.fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=17713#17713]. Yahweh is a strict vegan who categorically opposes the use of animals for food and in medical research. Although she has made a number of controversial statements, such as her claim that "there is no moral difference between taking the lives of animals and mentally similar humans," many posters acknowledge that Yahweh supports her claims with well-researched, detailed and "reasonable arguments" [http://www.fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=648#648]. However, others have ridiculed her stance that if given the choice, she would prefer to save the life of a dog over that of a human baby [http://fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=45641#45641]. Yet, Yahweh wears leather shoes.
More criticism is leveled at her vehement opposition to medical testing on animals, where she claimed that, "..its wrong to use animal tested products. What difference would it make if the products were tested on animals, as opposed to tested on mentally similar humans bred for experimentation?" [http://fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=11347#11347]
Spin-offs
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FSTDT is largely inspired by Bash.org, but mostly comprises quotes from forums rather than IRC, and focuses on religious or pseudo-religious quotes perceived as bizarre by the submitters rather than humorous quotes in general. FSTDT derives its name from the Art Linkletter book, Kids Say the Darndest Things.
History
FSTDT began when Allan Glenn started using humorous quotes from message boards in his forum signature. Glenn featured a new quote in his signature each week, while saving the old quotes in a text file. This file began circulating the Internet, with many people adding their own quotes to the list. Seeing that his collection was becoming popular, Glenn decided to create a website dedicated to bizarre religious quotes. In August 2003, the site was renamed from Christians Say the Darndest Things to Fundies Say the Darndest Things..
Glenn operated FSTDT until August 2004, when he decided that updating the site by hand was far too time consuming[http://winace.hyperboards.com/index.php?actionview_topic&topic_id335]. FSTDT remained dormant until May 2005 when Glenn began receiving offers to resurrect the site from various programmers. Glenn ultimately approved an automated replacement (with voting and comments) made by a programmer known online as "Yahweh".
Allan Glenn died of cystic fibrosis aged 20 on November 4 2005 and since then Yahweh has owned and administrated FSTDT.
Site details
FSTDT is a non-profit satirical website operated by a small group of volunteers. New quotes are submitted mostly from Internet forums, and until recently, they were stored in a moderation queue awaiting review by a site moderator. Today, however, the moderation process is run by the users, who determine through a voting system which quotes are accepted and which are deleted. Around 300 new quotes are accepted each month.
Over the course of each month, up to thirty quotes are given satirical "awards", including "Post of the Week", "Post of the Month", "Tinfoil Hat Prize", "Bizarre Creationist Assertion of the Month" and "Bigot of the Month Award".
Criticism
The most common criticism of FSTDT is that quotes are taken out of context. However, every quote on the site is displayed with a link to the source where it was found, and the FSTDT FAQ states that any quotes found to be taken out of context will be removed[http://www.fstdt.com/weekly/article.php?id_article=40#misquote].
The site is also criticized for quoting people without the original author's knowledge or expressed permission. Critics have claimed that this is indicative of copyright infringement. FSTDT has stated it is consistent with the [http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107 Section 107 of US Copyright Law] on fair use; it says that quotes are being used for non-profit educational purposes, the quoted material is limited to a few sentences or paragraphs at most, the quotes are obtained from public Internet forums that are freely accessible by anyone with an Internet connection, and the quotes themselves have zero market or monetary value.
Another criticism is that the readers who post comments on the site may be as 'fundie' as those who are quoted. FSTDT appears to acknowledge this, and is known to publish quotes from its .
FSTDT is generally criticized for being very liberally biased. This comes from the fact that the site regularly features quotes from opponents of homosexuality and gay marriage, opponents of abortion, anti-secularists, anti-feminists, and conservatives. The site admin states that he does not actively single out conservatives, but claims that 'atheists are just uninteresting and unfunny'. FSTDT does .
Recently, some FSTDT critics have attempted to label FSTDT administrator Yahweh as a fundamentalist herself [http://www.fstdt.com/forums/thread.aspx?p=19376#19376] for her vocal support of animal rights and placing a link to PETA on every page of her site [http://www.fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=17713#17713]. Yahweh is a strict vegan who categorically opposes the use of animals for food and in medical research. Although she has made a number of controversial statements, such as her claim that "there is no moral difference between taking the lives of animals and mentally similar humans," many posters acknowledge that Yahweh supports her claims with well-researched, detailed and "reasonable arguments" [http://www.fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=648#648]. However, others have ridiculed her stance that if given the choice, she would prefer to save the life of a dog over that of a human baby [http://fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=45641#45641]. Yet, Yahweh wears leather shoes.
More criticism is leveled at her vehement opposition to medical testing on animals, where she claimed that, "..its wrong to use animal tested products. What difference would it make if the products were tested on animals, as opposed to tested on mentally similar humans bred for experimentation?" [http://fstdt.com/forums/thread.asp?p=11347#11347]
Spin-offs
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Epicedium are a technical death metal band from Southern California.
Biography
In the winter of 1995, Rainier O'Donnell and Aaron Cross met after a string of unsuccessful attempts to get ahold of eachother through advertisements. After playing together a few times they knew they 'had something that was intense'. Having searched for a name for quite sometime, it wasn't until the disbanding of the former Epicedium (who at the time Dan Dismal now of Crematorium was a member) that the current Epicedium got their name.
Through building a following in southern California over the years by playing such notable venues as The Whisky, The Roxy, Showcase Theater, Brick by Brick, and having played throughout the state of California and beyond, Epicedium 'sent seismic waves through the underground'.
In 1999 the band went into record a 5 song demo at Moon Studios, and got connected with Brutal Sound Productions who helped promote the band on a larger scale. Epicedium went on to do shows with Deicide, Six Feet Under, Malevolent Creation, Fleshgrind, Mortician, Junglerot, Moonspell, Exhumed, Origin, Cephalic Carnage, Disgorge, Vile and Deeds of Flesh.
Epicedium's self titled debut album was released in spring 2005.
Biography
In the winter of 1995, Rainier O'Donnell and Aaron Cross met after a string of unsuccessful attempts to get ahold of eachother through advertisements. After playing together a few times they knew they 'had something that was intense'. Having searched for a name for quite sometime, it wasn't until the disbanding of the former Epicedium (who at the time Dan Dismal now of Crematorium was a member) that the current Epicedium got their name.
Through building a following in southern California over the years by playing such notable venues as The Whisky, The Roxy, Showcase Theater, Brick by Brick, and having played throughout the state of California and beyond, Epicedium 'sent seismic waves through the underground'.
In 1999 the band went into record a 5 song demo at Moon Studios, and got connected with Brutal Sound Productions who helped promote the band on a larger scale. Epicedium went on to do shows with Deicide, Six Feet Under, Malevolent Creation, Fleshgrind, Mortician, Junglerot, Moonspell, Exhumed, Origin, Cephalic Carnage, Disgorge, Vile and Deeds of Flesh.
Epicedium's self titled debut album was released in spring 2005.
A team of Seton Hall legal scholars, led by Mark Denbeaux, published a list entitled: Defense Department list of terrorist organizations other than the Taliban or al Qaeda in 2006, based on documents released by the US Department of Defense.
A second report on the Guantanamo detainees, entitled: "Inter- and Intra-Departmental Disagreements About Who Is Our Enemy" documented that the Department of Defense was detaining captives for association with organizations that the Department of Homeland Security did not regard as a threat.
The "Defense Department list of terrorist organizations other than the Taliban or al Qaeda" is an appendix to the Denbeaux team's second report.
Contrary to its misleading title, the list was not created by the Department of Defense nor is it used by them. It was compiled by the legal team from their interpretation of Combatant Status Review Tribunals summaries and transcripts.
A second report on the Guantanamo detainees, entitled: "Inter- and Intra-Departmental Disagreements About Who Is Our Enemy" documented that the Department of Defense was detaining captives for association with organizations that the Department of Homeland Security did not regard as a threat.
The "Defense Department list of terrorist organizations other than the Taliban or al Qaeda" is an appendix to the Denbeaux team's second report.
Contrary to its misleading title, the list was not created by the Department of Defense nor is it used by them. It was compiled by the legal team from their interpretation of Combatant Status Review Tribunals summaries and transcripts.
The relationship between guns and crime is a controversial measure for the appropriate degree of firearm regulation in some countries, such as the United States. One major aspect of the argument involves potential positive or negative correlations that many argue exist between crime, especially violent crime, and gun ownership. Both sides actively debate the relevance of gun laws and self-defense in modern society. Correlations are, of course, hard to establish, because countries with different gun laws are never the same in all other aspects.
United Kingdom vs Switzerland
A European example would be to compare the violent crime levels of the United Kingdom, which has very strict rules against gun ownership, with Switzerland, which has fully automatic assault rifles in 14% of homes. According to the British Home Office, Switzerland had a homicide rate per 100,000 of 1.2 average over the years 1999-2001, which is less than England & Wales at 1.61, although Scotland is higher at 2.16, while Northern Ireland - with its historically exceptional conditions - is at 2.65. The latter compares with the Republic of Ireland (with similar gun control laws to the UK) at 1.42.
These data indicate a negative correlation between gun ownership and crime. However, simple correlative evidence concerning two examples is inconclusive as to causation. Put another way, these data do not conclusively indicate that the higher gun ownership rate in Switzerland is a cause of that country's lower homicide rate, although that conclusion is frequently drawn. In addition, the prevalence of firearms in Switzerland is a direct result of its rigidly-controlled citizen army comprising most of the adult male population, who keep their service weapons at home, and so can be viewed as an exceptional case not directly comparable to other countries, even those with a high level of private firearms ownership.
Australia vs USA
Australia has always had tougher gun laws than the USA, despite its own frontier history and its cultural similarities to the United States. In 2003-04 (financial year) in Australia, 53 out of 305 homicides involved the use of firearms (17%) , while in the United States the number for 2004 was 10,654 out of a total of 16,138 homicides (66%) . It is useful to note that, excluding murders by firearm, that the USA still has a much higher rate than Australia (252 from 20 million versus 5,484 out of 278 million, equating to approximately double the rate of Australia).
Brady Bill correlation with crime in the US
The 1993 US Brady Bill is an example of a gun control law that some believe correlates with a decrease in overall crime levels. Critics of the Brady Bill argue that the reduction was driven more by improving economic and other factors than by the gun control regulations, and further point out that during this same period, many states began issuing concealed carry licenses (48 states as of 2007), resulting in increasing numbers of lawfully armed citizens. Furthermore the drop in gun crime started in 1993, one year before the Brady Bill took effect. Because the Brady Bill was a national law, some claim that the measurement of its results must be treated as a single sample. That is, it should be considered to have no more nor less weight than the findings after a change in the laws of a single state or municipality.
Federal Assault Weapons Ban correlation with crime in the US
The 1994 federal Assault Weapons Ban, which recently sunset, led to no obvious change in firearms crime rates during its ten year run, and no statistics are currently available to show if the removal of this ban has had any effect.
United Kingdom vs Switzerland
A European example would be to compare the violent crime levels of the United Kingdom, which has very strict rules against gun ownership, with Switzerland, which has fully automatic assault rifles in 14% of homes. According to the British Home Office, Switzerland had a homicide rate per 100,000 of 1.2 average over the years 1999-2001, which is less than England & Wales at 1.61, although Scotland is higher at 2.16, while Northern Ireland - with its historically exceptional conditions - is at 2.65. The latter compares with the Republic of Ireland (with similar gun control laws to the UK) at 1.42.
These data indicate a negative correlation between gun ownership and crime. However, simple correlative evidence concerning two examples is inconclusive as to causation. Put another way, these data do not conclusively indicate that the higher gun ownership rate in Switzerland is a cause of that country's lower homicide rate, although that conclusion is frequently drawn. In addition, the prevalence of firearms in Switzerland is a direct result of its rigidly-controlled citizen army comprising most of the adult male population, who keep their service weapons at home, and so can be viewed as an exceptional case not directly comparable to other countries, even those with a high level of private firearms ownership.
Australia vs USA
Australia has always had tougher gun laws than the USA, despite its own frontier history and its cultural similarities to the United States. In 2003-04 (financial year) in Australia, 53 out of 305 homicides involved the use of firearms (17%) , while in the United States the number for 2004 was 10,654 out of a total of 16,138 homicides (66%) . It is useful to note that, excluding murders by firearm, that the USA still has a much higher rate than Australia (252 from 20 million versus 5,484 out of 278 million, equating to approximately double the rate of Australia).
Brady Bill correlation with crime in the US
The 1993 US Brady Bill is an example of a gun control law that some believe correlates with a decrease in overall crime levels. Critics of the Brady Bill argue that the reduction was driven more by improving economic and other factors than by the gun control regulations, and further point out that during this same period, many states began issuing concealed carry licenses (48 states as of 2007), resulting in increasing numbers of lawfully armed citizens. Furthermore the drop in gun crime started in 1993, one year before the Brady Bill took effect. Because the Brady Bill was a national law, some claim that the measurement of its results must be treated as a single sample. That is, it should be considered to have no more nor less weight than the findings after a change in the laws of a single state or municipality.
Federal Assault Weapons Ban correlation with crime in the US
The 1994 federal Assault Weapons Ban, which recently sunset, led to no obvious change in firearms crime rates during its ten year run, and no statistics are currently available to show if the removal of this ban has had any effect.