Daily Blend: 04/24/13

Deepak Chopra

I promise I’m not dead! I think. Just reading a lot. And trying to work on my songs.

Also, the searchbar to the right now includes an image search. Just so you know.

A proposal: How about parents put on probation after killing one sick child with prayer lose custody of their remaining kids before they kill another one?

CNN is just actively trying to punish its viewers at this point.

What’s more hilarious than über-crackpot Deepak Chopra ^[pictured] whining about TED “censoring” pseudoscientific talks? (No, really, what?)

And finally, I’ve updated ‘A Morning by the Sea’ over at Creativitas.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: 03/13/2013

TJ Kincaid

Heads Up: Later today/tomorrow is when Disqus is slated to force its “upgraded” platform upon users (like me) who still cling to the old, customizable version. Might take a little while for changes to take effect. Stay tuned.

I’m also trying out a new title style for this Daily Blend (rather than the usual long-form date). We’ll see if it sticks. That is all.

Oh, look, it’s another bone-chilling climate study for pseudoscientists and ideologues to deny and lie about!

New Zealand votes to guarantee passage of same-sex marriage. Yay!
(via Joe. My. God.)

Some more gay (in both senses) news: Floundering “ex-gay” group National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) loses tax exempt status, forced to slice their Rentboy budget.
(via Joe. My. God.)

This just in: TJ Kincaid ^[pictured] is still an embarrassment to the atheist community and humanity in general. (Also: Go, Anita Sarkeesian!)
(via @SallyStrange; RT: @jennifurret)

Virginia steps a little further into the 21^st Century by overturning law against “consensual sodomy”. (Wingnut outrage in 3 … 2 …)
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, here’s an interactive infographic of global Internet porn habits. (East Europe is amazingly perverted.)
(via Joe. My. God.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, February 22, 2013

Diana Medley

Ontario top appeals court rules it just fine if police want to snoop around a suspect’s cellphone – so long as there’s no password, or then they have to ask permission.

Indiana Republicans agree: One government-sanctioned rape by medically pointless transvaginal ultrasound just isn’t enough for women seeking an abortion.
(via @jennifurret)

I’m not sure what’s remotely surprising about a study that links childhood bullying to psychological disorders in adults (except to those “it’s normal/harmless for kids to pick on each other” assholes).
(via RT: @jennifurret)

Sullivan, Indiana teacher ^[pictured] suspended over anti-gay remarks, universally suspected of being special educator Dianne “gays have no purpose in life and I don’t understand it” Medley.
(via Friendly Atheist)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Pres. Barack Obama

The blogging vibe has forsaken me today, so here’s a quick link dump for y’all.

President Obama ^[pictured] enacts whistleblower protection law – then adds signing statement that he’ll ignore any protections that prevent him from targeting whistleblowers. You can’t make this shit up.

Creeping Creationism in Colorado.

Meanwhile, the ugly and pseudo-historical Creationist branch of racism contaminates Texas schools.

Oh, look, it’s a new report about the Catholic Church covering up clerical child abuse for Bill Donohue to splutter in denial about.
(via Friendly Atheist)

Today’s argument against banning assault rifles^*: There aren’t that many people being slaughtered by them, and besides, we already tried it once and it really didn’t work, so fuck it, amirite?
(via The Agitator)

Proof that there is an Intelligent Designer, and that it’s totally wasted.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, random adorable photo time:
(via @EmergencyPuppy)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

* Because the linguistic pedant in me refuses to use the term “assault weapons”.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, January 01, 2013 – Bienvenue à 2013!

Happy new orbital revolution! [source]

Quick note: I now make it my policy to automatically delete empty or otherwise illegibly glitched comments (as now noted in the Commenting Rules). Just so you know. Carry on, then.

Old but important: Anti-abortion activists actually tried to get a doctor fired for refusing to force a mentally ill 10-year-old incestuous rape victim to endure her pregnancy. I couldn’t find any word on whether Dr. Neuhaus won her appeal in the end.
(via Uzza)

And finally, I am satisfied to learn that Fox News’s Sean Hannity lost over half his audience after it was revealed last November how impressively full of shit he is.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Sunday, December 23, 2012

William Kokesch

Here’s hoping that finally having a decent laptop will make tomorrow’s family reunion somewhat more bearable for this antisocial loner, eh?

Your obligatory reminder that President Obama never ended extrajudicial renditions. (Then again, he never said he would, something a number of liberals seem confused about.)
(via @jeremyscahill; RT: @greenwald)

Montreal Catholic clergyman ^[pictured] charged with you-guessed-it.

And finally, best wishes to Dispatches from the Culture Wars’s Ed Brayton, who’s having a rough time with his health.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

AZ students punished for fighting by holding hands in public

This shouldn’t be embarrassing

This Mesa, Arizona high school principal apparently believes there’s no more effective punishment for fighting students than by making them look, like, totally gay in front of the whole school:

Earlier this week, the two students at Westwood High School in Mesa, Ariz., who have not been named, were faced with the prospect of either suspension from school, or sitting in chairs in the high school’s courtyard and holding hands for 15 minutes during a lunch period. They opted for the latter.

“Kids were laughing at them and calling them names, asking, ‘Are you gay?’” student Brittney Smyers told ABC affiliate KNXV.

Teens at the high school inevitably posted photos of the two, who spent the time shielding their faces with their heads in their hands, to social media sites.

On the Facebook posting, users commented that the public punishment is not appropriate, as it positions the teens as targets for taunting and name-calling. Others suggested the punishment was anti-gay, as it implies two males holding hands is embarrassing.

Helen Hollands, director of communication and marketing for Mesa Public Schools, told ABCNews.com that the school’s principal, Tim Richard, who is in his first year at Westwood, had the idea.

“He’s done some great things there,” she said. “He’s focused highly on maintaining a standard where [ideally] no students are failing a class.”

It’s only too bad that his “standard” apparently doesn’t rise to the level of treating his students as diverse human beings and understanding that acts stereotypical of a sexual minority don’t actually imply anything wrong against them. Even worse is that given the cultural climate in the region, particularly amongst youths, he’s most certainly right about it being an effective deterrent.

It just shouldn’t be.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Daily Blend: Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Random polar-bear-cub-in-a-basket pic of the day [source | full size (510×360)]

Another Catholic institution, this time a Montréal, Canada school for deaf boys, sued for repeated child molestation that lasted decades. Makes me prouder than ever of the Quiet Revolution.
(via My Secret Atheist Blog)

U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right to record on-duty police officers in Chicago, IL.

PZ Myers tears into an anti-Atheism Plus douchebag for misrepresenting scientific research to defend vaginal douching.

And finally, Ed Brayton takes apart that stupid Fox News column about a supposed “war on men” where “women aren’t women anymore”.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, November 19, 2012

Lisa Biron

Another Bible-loving Christianist “traditional values” advocate ^[pictured] busted for child porn & molestation.
(via Right Wing Watch)

Former Michigan assistant A.G. Andrew Shirvell demanding unemployment benefits after being fired for illegally using government computers to stalk and harass a gay university student.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

100,000 Stars: Take a spectacular virtual tour of the Milky Way galaxy.

And finally, give a stingray an X-ray and you apparently get an alien:
(via Pharyngula)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Catholic Church funds defense for repeat Aussie child molesters

[source]

The ongoing clerical child abuse scandal in Australia worsens:

THE Catholic Church has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees to defend priests and brothers who have already been tried and convicted of serious sexual assaults against children in their care.

A Fairfax Media investigation has revealed that at least two Catholic orders have continued to fund the legal defences of some of their religious members as they went to trial for the second, third and even fourth time for the sexual abuse of children.

This includes the funding of multiple appeals, hiring top barristers who charge thousands of dollars a day, and hiring private investigators.

In some cases the result has been that criminal prosecutions and the victims of abuse are dragged through the courts for many years.

I really have nothing to add other than bafflement at the idea that anyone, anywhere, can still in good conscience support this putrid edifice to delusion and corruption with their money or membership. How many children must be raped, how many women must die, how many millions must suffer and how long must progress in general be held back before people decide to just quit the goddamned Catholic Church?

(via Joe. My. God.)

Daily Blend: Saturday, November 10, 2012

Dean Boland

Lawyer ^[pictured] ordered to pay $300K for “harm[ing]” unidentified children whose stock images he used to create fake child sex photos to prove how irrational and overbroad child porn laws are. So … mission accomplished?
(via @tedfrank; RT: @radleybalko)

The Catholic Church reaffirms its commitment to obsolescence.

Ed Brayton has a measured take on five clichéd catchphrases that atheists should stop using.

And finally, in case there was any suspicion, Vox Day is still a dumbass.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, November 05, 2012

Karen Castor Dentel

New blog policy! For the sake of convenience, I henceforth reserve the right to fix any broken links in reader comments (leaving an admin’s note whenever I do so, of course). That is all.

It still bewilders me how some cultures perceive teenaged girls showing the slightest interest in boys as a greater “dishonor” than burning them to death with acid.
(via Friendly Atheist)

Stunningly hideous Republican attack ad compares Florida elementary schoolteacher and Democratic House candidate ^[pictured] to Jerry Sandusky for supporting teachers’ unions.

Shorter buzz-killing scientists: Not only is light-speed space travel impossible, it would also irradiate us to death in minutes. (Stupid hydrogen.)
(via The Daily Grail)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, November 02, 2012

Eric Bodenweiser

Meet today’s “family values” Republican hypocrite ^[pictured] caught diddling other women male prostitutes children.
(via Joe. My. God.)

I’m quite happy with Microsoft’s decision to banhammer anyone caught being a sexist shitheel in Halo 4 on Xbox Live. Those who can’t play well with others shouldn’t play with them at all.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Glenn Beck in 2011: Political summer camps for kids are similar to “Hitler Youth”. Glenn Beck today: Sponsors new “Patriot Camps” to brainwash kids with wingnut-approved version of U.S. history.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

And finally, Sweden continues to provide an optimistic glimpse of the future.
(via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Scenes from the Prison State of America. Keep in mind that more than half were convicted of nonviolent offenses, in large part thanks to the Drug War.
(via @radleybalko)

Lawsuit: Santa Fe, NM cop Tasers 10-year-old boy who refused to clean his patrol car.
(via @radleybalko)

The only honest answer to whether global warming helped create Frankenstorm Sandy: “We don’t know, but it’s somewhat likely.”
(via @BadAstronomer)

And finally, have a marshmallow-loving fox:
(via @KyellGold)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Australian police accuses Catholic Church of covering up child abuse

The only thing that ever seems to change about allegations that the Catholic Church is responsible for covering up decades’ worth of clerical child abuse is which country they come from next. It’s now Australia’s turn, where local law enforcement has a bit of a bone to pick with the Church:

VICTORIA Police has launched a scathing attack on the Catholic Church, accusing it of deliberately impeding its investigations into child abuse.

In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by churches, signed by Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, police recommend that some of the church's actions to hinder investigations be criminalised.

The submission lists a number of ways in which the church has hindered the criminal justice process, including dissuading victims of sexual crimes from reporting them to police, failing to engage with police and alerting suspects of allegations against them, ''which may have resulted in loss of evidence''.

It says the church moved or protected known or suspected sexual offenders. While the submission notes the church has recently improved co-operation with police, in some cases it has been reluctant to provide information even when a warrant was issued.

Police also say the typical delay in reports of sex offences within the church means more reports of alleged offences from the 1990s and early 2000s are expected in coming years.

To further confirm the pattern, expect a fresh defense of the Church’s actions from the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue in less time than it takes for a priest to shove an altar boy’s head under his frock.

(via @rdfrs)

Ann Coulter thinks disowning LGBT kids is totally hilarious

Today’s knee-slapper from Ann Coulter:

Last Thursday was national "coming out" day.This Monday is national "disown your son" day.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) October 16, 2012

Oh, terribly droll. I’m certain the tens of thousands of youths who find themselves homeless after their families learn of their sexuality are laughing, too, assuming they don’t commit suicide first. Which I’m sure is comedy gold as well.

I wonder how long it’ll take before the usual excuses of “it was just a joke!” start popping up. Of course, humorous statements (regardless of whether or not they’re actually funny) shouldn’t be taken seriously; then again, neither should anything Coulter ever says. But it’s nonetheless interesting how being a (terrible) comedian has become the new favored argument for claiming immunity from criticism after acting like a bigoted asshole.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Dan Savage: “Every dead gay kid is a victory” for Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins

I don’t usually pay much attention to Dan Savage, who tends to be a tad too crass even for my tastes (not that he’s wrong, mind you), but he recently lashed out at Tony Perkins of the SPLC-recognized hate group Family Research Council in a brilliantly eviscerative speech at Minnesota’s Winona State University:

Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council — First of all, they tell, Tony Perkins tells parents whose kids come out to reject them. Tony Perkins tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide — doubles their already quadruple rate of suicide. Why would someone who calls themselves a Christian do that? Because every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council. They argue that the gay lifestyle is sick and sinful and dangerous and they point to the suicide rate, and then they turn around and do everything in their power to make sure that suicide rate does not come down and to drive it up. Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work — and he calls himself a Christian. I don’t understand how real Christians let that little fucker get away with that.

Of course, the point should be made that all Christians are “real” Christians; they just believe in different brands of Christianity, just as all believers pick which religious teachings they take to heart and which they ignore. But that nitpick aside, every point Savage makes is incontrovertibly true. It must be nice for Perkins to be able to rely on such insular thinking – LGBT teens are dirty little sinners, which makes them lost and conflicted, which makes them more suicidal, which is in no way related to all the hate and abuse being shoveled at them by people like Tony Perkins, who’re all about loving thy sinners and whatnot.

Savage’s speech was recorded and shared by Campus Reform, a conservative group devoted to combating all that pesky liberal bias in U.S. universities, with the evident intent of shaming Savage or some such. As expected, Savage isn’t exactly backing down:

I'm Dan Savage and I approved -- and stand by -- this message: bit.ly/SuUvWT

— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) October 1, 2012

Naturally, Perkins & co. are beyond rustled in their jimmies^*, with Perkins even hinting at a threat of legal action against Savage. Because how dare he get all huffy and rude and use pointy words when talking about a lying ghoul who uses the suicides of vulnerable children that he’s partly responsible for to peddle his hate-soaked agenda?

* Don’t make me use LMGTFY.com.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Pres. Barack Obama

Quick notes: Firstly, in correspondence with both popular (or so) demand and my increasing weariness, I shall henceforth relegate most doggycide incidents to Daily Blend mentions and reserve individual posts to only the more brazen gob-smacking cases. Secondly, I’m retiring my “Fail Quote” tag as it’s become largely redundant.

Obama administration fights to keep the right to indefinite detention (that Obama ^[pictured] said he’d never use because it’s totally wrong).

Boy Scouts takes a leaf from the Catholic Church’s book, tries to cover up hundreds of cases of child molestation.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Doggycide in Bennington County, Vermont: Deputy resigns during an investigation into the shooting death of his neighbor’s escaped pitbull. Details are mostly anecdotal for now.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

Doggycide in Elyria, Ohio: Police kill an “extremely aggressive” “pitbull” by shooting it eight times with a rifle. So many questions that this one-sided police release fails to address.
(via Dogs Shot by Police | Facebook)

It seems New York State has some of the worst sex ed classes ever. (At least they’re illustrated!)
(via @pzmyers)

Conservative wingnuts whine about how the media doesn’t treat the Romney “47%” video with the same suspicion they reserve for serial hoaxer James O’Keefe’s bogus “stings”.

And finally, here are some awesome, touching and generally badass photos of military dogs.
(via @ebertchicago)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Barack Obama • Obama administration • National Defense Authorization Act • indefinite detention • Department of Justice • Boy Scouts of America • child molestation • Bennington County Sheriff's Department • Chad Schmidt • Donald Loveland • Melissa Kilbride • pitbulls • Elyria Police Department • June Ross • New York State • New York Civil Liberties Union • James O'Keefe • David Corn • Mitt Romney • John Fund • dogs • military dogs • army dogs

Daily Blend: Friday, September 07, 2012

Bill Donohue

Right-wing pundits everywhere wish to remind you they’re a bunch of lying sexist idiots.

Meanwhile, Bill Donohue ^[pictured] would like to remind you that he’s still a disgusting child-sexual-abuse-excusing jackass.

Petition to replace Columbus Day with Armstrong Day!

And finally, it would appear that the Disqus CAPTCHAs on this blog aren’t exactly language-sensitive.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Sandra Fluke • sexists • misogyny • misogynists • birth control • contraception • Todd Kincannon • Ann Coulter • Dana Loesch • Michelle Malkin • Michael Berry • Chris Barron • Jonah Goldberg • S.E. Cupp • Bill Donohue • The Catholic League • Sean Ratigan • Robert Finn • Catholic Priests • clerical child abuse • Columbus Day • Armstrong Day • Neil Armstrong • Christopher Columbus • Indians • Native Americans • Disqus • CAPTCHA

Gawker and the scientific case for treating pedophiles humanely

I got nuthin’, so here’s a flower

It’s been a while since I’ve (presumably) creeped y’all out with this subject matter, but long-time readers may remember that pervasive social stigmas faced by discouraged sexual minorities was an early running theme on this blog (whatever that might say of me). It’s now time to jump back in, not because some other travesty of justice or reason has transpired, but because Cord Jefferson at Gawker has penned a lengthy, detailed and wonderfully insightful piece on the changing scientific views of pedophilia and how those stuck with this most unfortunate sexual attraction truly aren’t the devils that our society makes them out to be.

The whole thing is a definitive must-read, but here are just a few highlights, starting with describing just some of the endless difficulties these people face in their everyday lives:

Then there's the problem of finding homes for pedophiles who are arrested and eventually put back into communities. In Florida, where Miami-Dade County has grown increasingly restrictive about where people who commit sexual crimes can live, the department of corrections has started housing a small group of pedophiles under a bridge, like real-life trolls. Elsewhere in America, with neighborhoods both informed and alarmed by a growing number of sex-offender tracking sites, it's now become easier than ever to harass and intimidate a pedophile in your neighborhood until he moves away. But to where? Nobody seems to care as long as it's not near them.

In an ABC News article from 2003, a corrections officer from Los Angeles told reporter Michael S. James that imprisoned pedophiles "usually don't make it" without protective custody. Leslie Walker, a prisoner's rights activist, told James, "[Child sex offenders] are at risk of being murdered, having their food taken, having their cells defecated and urinated in. Their life is truly a living hell." Good, most people will say.

I take it “most people” haven’t received the memo about how the precepts for being a decent human being include acting like one even towards those one wouldn’t consider to be decent human beings.

The article then focuses on the number of (mostly Canadian!) researchers who are growing convinced that rather than being a mental illness or some other potentially treatable (or even curable) disorder, true pedophilia – as defined as the exclusive sexual attraction towards prepubescent children (as opposed to hebephilia or ephebophilia, and unlike those who engage in pedophilic acts whilst still being attracted to adults) – is in reality more akin to an actual sexual orientation in shape and function, with the accompanying limitations: