Daily Blend: Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Bob Beckel

Canadian free speech ombudsman asked to investigate whether federal scientists are being unfairly muzzled by the government. (Y’know, as opposed to fairly muzzling them.)

Make a Counter-Strike map of a real Montréal metro station, get threatened with a $50,000 fine because it might, like, scare people or something.

In shocking news to all, a new study reveals that religion isn’t actually a very good deterrent against criminal behavior.
(via Friendly Atheist)

Fox News token liberal Bob Beckel ^[pictured]: “When was the last time you heard about a rape on campus?” Hmm, let’s see.

And finally, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, “humiliated” by God after he was caught shielding child-molesting priests from justice, is “asking God to bless and forgive” … his critics. Quoth Ed Brayton: You should be in prison, you sick bastard.

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

Pope says it’s now okay to use condoms to save lives

Pope Benedict XVI

It seems that the Catholic-in-Chief is now willing to open his mind ever so slightly, much like a creaky mousetrap, to the idea that maybe – just maybe – it would be wise to use prophylactic healthcare means that have been proven to work for decades if it would mean having that much less blood on his organization’s hands:

After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the Pontiff has ended the Church’s absolute ban on the use of condoms.

He said it was acceptable to use a prophylactic when the sole intention was to “reduce the risk of infection” from Aids.

While he restated the Catholic Church’s staunch objections to contraception because it believes that it interferes with the creation of life, he argued that using a condom to preserve life and avoid death could be a responsible act – even outside marriage.

Asked whether “the Catholic Church is not fundamentally against the use of condoms,” he replied: “It of course does not see it as a real and moral solution. In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality.”

He stressed that abstinence was the best policy in fighting the disease but in some circumstances it was better for a condom to be used if it protected human life.

How strange that it takes a “historic shift” to concede that using a medical device that has directly saved millions of lives across the globe over the last hundred years may sometimes be “morally justified”. It wouldn’t take many profound rewrites to turn that into a trenchant parody of the mind-bogglingly depraved state of the Pontiff’s moral standing on these issues. And let’s not even get into the naive folly that abstinence, the single most useless and disproven birth control method imaginable, should somehow be preferred over actual and demonstrably effective contraception.

(Note: It’s only after writing this post that I noticed the source article was dated back to 2010. But still, I believe the points discussed still stand.)

(via @todayspolitics)

Tags: Pope Benedict XVI • AIDS • condoms • prophylactics • contraception • birth control • Joseph Ratzinger • Vatican • Catholic Church

Why context doesn’t matter for holy book atrocities

Keep this one at hand for the next time some apologist goober tries to excuse some of the horrendous material in a given holy book by claiming that it was taken out of context:

‘Kittens In A Barrel’ [by Jonathan Rosenberg @ 03/13/12] | Scenes From A Multiverse [full size (720×732)]

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

CHARACTER 1: How can you call your religion moral? Puppy murder, right there, page one.

CHARACTER 2: You have to read it in context.

---

CHAR. 1: The context states that puppy murder is more spiritually rewarding than kitten rape but you need not practice one at the exclusion of the other.

CHAR. 2: Maybe there’s a wider context.

---

CHAR. 1: The wider context is a detailed discussion of best practices for proper training and storage of the kittens to maintain maximum durability.

CHAR. 2: Let’s go narrower this time.

---

CHAR. 1: Do you want to give me a list of select words we should focus on?

CHAR. 2: Just scan the page until you hit something about virgins or exchanging gifts.

It doesn’t matter that Yahweh told X people to lay waste to Y people’s babies in the context of a thousands-years-old war or whatever. The point is that Yahweh ordered someone to commit atrocious acts. Context simply doesn’t matter when your supposed supreme being is shown either to be breathlessly evil, or to have no interest in anyone’s well-being either way.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Tags: Scenes From A Multiverse • God • holy books

Daily Blend: Monday, February 27, 2012

Card. Francis George

Dear Fox: Thank you for playing eight minutes of House, then cutting to fucking NASCAR for the rest of the hour. I didn’t really wanna know if the guy who choked on his own tooth lived or not, anyway.

ACLU: MS federal court rules that kids convicted as adults can’t be kept in solitary confinement.
(via @radleybalko)

Cardinal Francis “gay activists = Nazis” George ^[pictured]: Forcing Catholic hospitals to offer contraceptive care like every other hospital is so unfair that they should just shut down instead.

Rush Limbaugh on NASCAR star Danica Patrick’s statement about birth control mandate: “What do you expect from a woman driver?!”

Study: Richer people more likely to act like law-breaking dicks.

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

Edit (02/28/12 11:25 AM ET) – Replaced broken link for #4. (Thanks, Skwiver.)

Tags: American Civil Liberties Union • ACLU • Mississippi • Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility • WGYCF • solitary confinement • Francis George • Catholic hospitals • Catholics • Catholicism • birth control • contraception • Rush Limbaugh • Danica Patrick • birth control mandate • U.S. Government • misogyny • women drivers • ethics • wealth • rich

Daily Blend: Friday, February 24, 2012

Card. Timothy Dolan

Glenn Greenwald on those weak wanna-be politicians who care about such silly things as “the Constitution” and “the law”.

A good start for ethics blog’s claim that vegetarians & vegans have “moral obligation” to eat “Frankenmeat”: Stop calling it “Frankenmeat”.
(via The Agitator)

Empire State Building owners refuse to celebrate elevation of Cardinal Timothy Dolan ^[pictured].
(via Joe. My. God.)

… Which has the satisfying effect of predictably pissing off Bill Donohue.

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

Tags: Glenn Greenwald • U.S. Constitution • U.S. President • Practical Ethics • Julian Savulescu • Frankenmeat • vegetarians • vegetarianism • vegans • veganism • Empire State Building • Timothy Dolan • Bill Donohue

Daily Blend: Saturday, January 21, 2012

Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY)

• Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ^[pictured] (D) releases yearly budget with huge cuts to K-12 education – and huge tax breaks for Ken Ham’s Creationist amusement park.

• Sad: Bill Maher defends SOPA without having read it. “[J]ust because you’re sitting at your computer in your pajama bottoms doesn’t mean you’re not stealing.”
  (via @radleybalko)

• “Newt Gingrich is to polyamory as rape is to “making love”.”
  (via Blag Hag)

• Sad but true. Though, I wonder what possible legal basis they could conjure up for banning it.

• Vox Day: British atheists should avoid conflict with intolerant Muslims by supporting Christian domination. Or something.

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

Tags: Kentucky • Steve Beshear • Ark Encounter • Ken Ham • education • Bill Maher • Stop Online Piracy Act • SOPA • filesharing • Newt Gingrich • polyamory • open marriages • adultery • Can I Park Here? • apps • parking • New York City • NYC • Michael Fasano • Muslims • Islam • atheists • Vox Day • Jesus and Mo • Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society • University College London • Christianity

A guide to Christian sexual morality

Just to make sure you’re abiding by God’s Law …

No wonder Christianity breeds so many sexually repressed whiners.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Edit (01/21/12 9:18 PM ET) – Changed “pissy” to “sexually repressed”. More apropos.

Tags: Tom the Dancing Bug • God • Christianity • sex

Assisted suicide is compassionate, forced living is not

Douglas Noble

This is the first time I’ve ever seen the argument that love and caring are why people shouldn’t be allowed to die on their own terms. From Douglas Noble, writing at the British Medical Journal:

Perhaps, though, it is ultimately because of an inability to accept that suffering is an integral part of our world, common to all who share the human condition. Dealing a fatal injection and dressing it up as dignity is not a solution to suffering and pain. High quality palliative care is part of the answer, but so too is the effect of the affection, love, and commitment (sometimes over long periods of time) that we can show to one another when the worst hand is dealt.

So, in short: “Suffering from a debilitating or terminal illness with no hope of recovery? Too bad. Just stay in pain while people get to watch you lovingly as you slowly waste away. No taking the easy way out for you!”

I’ve never seen such a hideously amoral sentiment disguised as compassion before. See, here’s the thing: Accepting that suffering is an unavoidable part of life does not translate to standing aside and letting people agonize endlessly if we have the means to take away their pain. Yes, people get hurt, they fall ill, and many even become terminal, but our moral imperative is to help them, and if we are unable to do so, or if they want something other, then the least we can do – other than absolutely nothing, which is what assisted suicide opponents advocate in every practical sense – is to offer them the means to help themselves, even if that means allowing them to end an existence that has become unbearable.

This is the biggest problem with those who rail against human euthanasia. When all other options run out, the only solution they offer is to stand by the side of the suffering, gently hold their hand and smile all benignly at them whilst forcing them to linger on for ever longer, effectively preventing them from receiving the help they so desperately need. While this may assuage their consciences by deluding themselves into thinking they’re doing the right thing, it does nothing beneficial whatsoever for those whose lives have become an endless and inescapable torment. Forcing someone to live against their will is neither noble nor compassionate. It is rather the epitome of selfishness and heartlessness: prioritizing their own beliefs about the supposed sanctity of life over the needs of others. It is cruel and nothing more, regardless of however well-meaning they may be.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Douglas Noble • assisted suicide • humane euthanasia

Study debunks “slippery slope” argument against assisted suicide

One of the more common arguments used against assisted suicide/humane euthanasia (a right for which I’ve made no secret of my vehement support) is that allowing people to end their own lives on their own terms will somehow lead to doctors taking more patients’ lives without their valid consent. But this new report from the Royal Society of Canada utterly demolishes this slippery slope, concluding that allowing long-suffering patients to end their own lives is not only a moral imperative, but also demonstrably cuts down on rates of non-consensual euthanasia:

Last month, an expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada, chaired by Udo Schüklenk, a professor of bioethics at Queens University, released a report on decision-making at the end of life.^{[PDF, 2.43 MB]} The report provides a strong argument for allowing doctors to help their patients to die, provided that the patients are competent and freely request such assistance.

The ethical basis of the panel’s argument is not so much the avoidance of unnecessary suffering in terminally ill patients, but rather the core value of individual autonomy or self-determination. “The manner of our dying,” the panel concludes, “reflects our sense of what is important just as much as do the other central decisions in our lives.” In a state that protects individual rights, therefore, deciding how to die ought to be recognized as such a right.

The report also offers an up-to-date review of how assistance by physicians in ending life is working in the “living laboratories” – the jurisdictions where it is legal. In Switzerland, as well as in the US states of Oregon, Washington, and Montana, the law now permits physicians, on request, to supply a terminally ill patient with a prescription for a drug that will bring about a peaceful death. In The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, doctors have the additional option of responding to the patient’s request by giving the patient a lethal injection.

The panel examined reports from each of these jurisdictions, with the exception of Montana (where legalization of assistance in dying occurred only in 2009, and reliable data are not yet available). In The Netherlands, voluntary euthanasia accounted for 1.7% of all deaths in 2005 – exactly the same level as in 1990. Moreover, the frequency of ending a patient’s life without an explicit request from the patient fell by half during the same period, from 0.8% to 0.4%.

Indeed, several surveys suggest that ending a patient’s life without an explicit request is much more common in other countries, where patients cannot lawfully ask a doctor to end their lives. In Belgium, although voluntary euthanasia rose from 1.1% of all deaths in 1998 to 1.9% in 2007, the frequency of ending a patient’s life without an explicit request fell from 3.2% to 1.8%. In Oregon, where the Death with Dignity Act has been in effect for 13 years, the annual number of physician-assisted deaths has yet to reach 100 per year, and the annual total in Washington is even lower.

Daily Blend: Sunday, October 02, 2011

Hogwarts?

Glenn Greenwald: “Those praising President Obama's actions on Awlaki include Rick Perry, Bill O'Reilly, Mitt Romney, Dick & Liz Cheney, and Peter King” If these are the people cheering you on, you seriously need to rethink your strategy.

• Anderson Cooper and guests accuse Reddit of spreading child porn with its “jailbait” subsection. Because legal photos of none-nude young adults found on Facebook and Google = child molestation. Obviously.

• Christians angry at atheist group for pointing out church’s tax fraud.

• Today, neurologists say evil doesn’t exist. Tomorrow, zoologists announce leprechauns are fictional.
  (via @ebertchicago)

• Twelve most beautiful U.S. college campuses. Almost makes me wanna go back to school. And become American. (And, with Princeton ^[pictured], feel like Harry Potter.)

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

Tags: Anderson Cooper • child porn • jailbait • Reddit • Freedom from Religion Foundation • Christ Cathedral Church • Columbus, OH • tax fraud • neurologists • evil • brain • Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain • schools • universities

The greatest speech ever made (or close to), by Charlie Chaplin

It’s always interesting how some of the very best quotes and sentiments are so often ones that originated long before our time. (Well, mine, anyway.) Here’s Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator, dishing out some grade-A humanistic principles way back in the 1940s in one of the greatest speeches ever written:

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

[NOTE: Original from Not My Tribe; revisions by me]

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an Emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, Black man, White. We all want to help one-another; human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one-another. In this world, there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now, my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say, “Do not despair.” The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed; the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress; the hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people, and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate; only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: Don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke, it is written, “The kingdom of God is within man”. Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you! You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people. Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

You said it, Charlie.

(via Pharyngula)

Tags: Charlie Chaplin • The Great Dictator • humanism • speeches

Woman and teen boy investigated over online relationship

This is a giraffe looking through an airplane window. From outside. … Yeah, I got nothin’.

Via 4chan’s /v/ board comes this interesting story concerning the legality and ethics of romantic relationships between adults and minors. Here’s the Google translation of the original French article [edited for legibility]:

Can a 33-year-old woman and a 15-year-old teenager become virtual lovers? This is the question that must answer the judges of the Criminal Court of Nevers (Nièvre) who examined Tuesday a never-before-seen case of “corruption of minor”. A report that has dates back to 2008 with the MSN messenger of one of the most famous of videogames, Call of Duty.
     A war game normally not conducive to feeling, which saw Céline, 33, start a platonic but terribly invasive relationship with Thomas*, 15. The latter’s parents filed a complaint and justice must now decide.

Late 2008, Thomas is a teenager like many others. Located in the south of France, he spends much of his free time on his computer. He joined a group of players on a Call of Duty network. Soberly called Team, this group only contains major players and not “pajamas”, minors in videogame jargon.

But Thomas made himself a place. In addition to the game’s military missions, he converses over MSN with Shoot, the pseudonym of Céline, who lives several hundred kilometers away, in the Nièvre. The latter makes no secret of her mature age. In a few weeks, Thomas and Céline exchange more and more texts, phone calls and messages, sometimes in the middle of the night. But in spring of 2009, while Thomas and Céline live a romance by correspondence, the teen’s parents file a complaint because they worry about the scale of the story. Police officers first examine the hundreds of calls and messages. There are also letters and even photos exchanged. On one of the images, Céline is topless. Quickly, they identify the computer and the phone from which these messages come from and arrive at Céline, a divorced housewife and recently a young grandmother.

Heard on the facts in spring of 2009 by the officers in the Nièvre, Céline acknowledges the facts and takes responsibility this curious long-distance love story. She has never seen Thomas other than in photos, he’s almost as old as her eldest daughter, but she is convinced she loves him. For his part, the young boy saw his grades dip, but he too affirms before officers that he’s in love with Céline despite the age difference. He’s only awaiting his legal adulthood to live with her.

During the investigation, Céline and Thomas both underwent psychological examinations that demonstrate that they have a certain “fragility” in common. Thomas’s is linked, according to the expert, to the usual problems of adolescence.

Black student denied valedictorianship over motherhood?

(Not Kymberly Wimberly)

It broke all over the blogosphere this morning (notably in my Daily Blend): Kymberly Wimberly, a Black 18-year-old student in Little Rock, Arkansas with the highest GPA of Class of 2011, was allegedly denied valedictorianship by school administrators in favor of two other White students with lesser academic achievements:

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AR) - A high school southeast of Little Rock would not let a black student be valedictorian though she had the highest grade-point average, and wouldn't let her mom speak to the school board about it until graduation had passed, the graduate claims in Federal Court.
     Kymberly Wimberly, 18, got only a single B in her 4 years at McGehee Secondary School, and loaded up on Honors and Advanced Placement classes. She had the highest G.P.A. and says the school's refusal to let her be sole valedictorian was part of a pattern of discrimination against black students.
     Wimberly says that despite earning the highest G.P.A. of the Class of 2011, and being informed of it by a school counselor, "school administrators and personnel treated two other white students as heir[s] apparent to the valedictorian and salutatorian spots."

This seems rather damning from the get-go, especially given McGehee School District’s track record of not having had a Black valedictorian since 1989, despite the school’s racial demographic being 46% Black. As PZ Myers notes, this certainly sounds like a case of subtle racism on the part of the administration, if the allegations against them are true.

However, a little deeper in the article, we find this [my emphasis]:

"Because of defendants' continuous disparate treatment of African-American students, defendants' actions toward the plaintiff can properly be classed as intentional," the complaint states.
     "Defendants did not support African-American students, and did not want to see Wimberly, an African-American young mother as valedictorian.

So it seems that young Wimberly has hit the perfect duo – she’s Black, and she’s a barely-past-teen single mother. To the fainting couches!

Of course, to anyone who stops to think for more than two seconds, this only makes it doubly clear how Wimberly deserves the honor of being valedictorian. Not only has she scored the best grades in the entire school, but she actually managed to do so while being saddled with a child to boot. Even with the difficulties she must face in a country rife with undercurrents of racism and disenfranchisement for young mothers, she still pulled the feat of kicking the rest of the student body’s collective academic butt. If that doesn’t show her to be a person of utmost courage and moral character (not to mention academic brilliance), then not a student in that school deserves to be valedictorian, period.

(via @blanchebeecham)

Tags: Kymberly Wimberly • McGehee Secondary School • Little Rock, AR • valedictorians • racism

Stupid Christian video: School violence caused by lack of God!

What is it about evangelical Christians that makes them so incapable of formulating any sort of a decent argument? I know it must be difficult to present factual and coherent claims in support of a system of beliefs that is, itself, nothing but purest nonsense, but still, one would think they could at least put a modicum of intellectual effort into their schtick. Alas, as we’ve seen all too many times before, that is evidently expecting too much of them.

Here’s the latest ridiculous Christian video (that I’ve come across), this one unsourced but promoted by the American Family Association, making the insane argument that the reason for the school violence in recent decades is that “[God is] not allowed in schools” and that modern kids are amoral, rapey-killy little heathens due to godless society’s moral decline:

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

TITLES: The Day They Kicked Got out of the Schools

[FADE IN: US map with large crosshair moving over various markers in time with voiceover.]

NARRATOR: Dear God: Why didn’t you save the school children at Moses Lake, Washington [Frontier Middle School, 1996]; Bethel, Alaska [Bethel Regional High School, 1997]; Pearl, Mississippi [Pearl High School, 1997]; West Paducah, Kentucky [Heath High School, 1997]; Stamps, Arkansas [Stamps High School, 1997]; Jonesboro, Arkansas [Westbound Middle School, 1998]; Edinboro, Pennsylvania [Parker School, 1998]; Fayetteville, Tennessee [Lincoln County High School, 1998]; Springfield, Oregon [Thurston High School, 1998]; Richmond, Virginia [Armstrong High School, 1998]; Littleton, Colorado [Columbine High School, 1999]; Taber, Alberta, Canada [W.R. Myers High School, 1999]; Conyers, Georgia [Heritage High School, 1999]; Deming, New Mexico [Deming Middle School, 1999]; Fort Gibson, Oklahoma [Fort Gibson Middle School, 1999]; Santee, California [Santana High School, 2001]; El Cajon, California [Granite Hills High School, 2001]; Blacksburg, Virginia [Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2007]? Sincerely, Concerned Student.

Reply: Dear Concerned Student, I am not allowed in schools. Sincerely, God.

How did this get started? I think it started when Madelyn Murray O’Hair complained she didn’t want any prayer in our schools, and we said, ‘Okay.’

Then, someone said you’d better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says, “thou shalt not kill”, “thou shalt not steal”, and “love your neighbor as yourself”. And we said, ‘Okay.’

Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their personalities would be warped, and we might damage their self-esteem. And we said, “An expert must know what he’s talking about, so we won’t spank them anymore.”

Then, someone said, “Teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave,” and the school administrators said, “No faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave, because we don’t want any bad publicity, and we surely don’t wanna be sued.” And we accepted their reasoning.

Then, someone said, “Let’s let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won’t even have to tell their parents.” And we said, “That’s a grand idea.”

Then, some wise school board members said, “Since boys will be boys and they’re gonna do it anyway, let’s give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won’t have to tell the parents we got them at school.” And we said, “That’s another great idea.”

Then, some of our top elected officials said, “It doesn’t matter what we do in private, as long as we do our jobs.” And we said, “It doesn’t matter what anybody, including the president, does in private, as long as we have jobs and the economy is good.”

And someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children, and then stepped further by making them available on the Internet. And we said, “Everyone’s entitled to free speech.”

And the entertainment industry said, “Let’s make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence and illicit sex, and let’s record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide and satanic themes. [Evil-looking skull appears on screen.] And we said, “It’s just entertainment and it has no adverse effect, and nobody takes it seriously, anyway, so go right ahead.”

Now, we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience? Why they don’t know right from wrong? And why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, classmates, or even themselves? Undoubtedly, if we thought about it long and hard enough, we could figure it out. Surely, it has a great deal to do with “we reap what we sow”.

Once again, there are just so many things wrong with this that one scarcely knows where to begin. The silliness of expecting God to save people from violence (in itself contradictory on a number of levels)? The idiocy of the idea that legislatively banning a supposedly omnipresent and omnipotent God from some earthly locale (and all limited to the US, of course, because we all know the Christian God doesn’t apply elsewhere) would somehow stint his supposedly protective influence? Or the transparent distortion being employed against the concept of separation of church and state?

Daily Blend: Monday, July 04, 2011

Chris Hansen

Happy Fancy Document Signing Commemoration Day, USians!

• Hemant Mehta nails it regarding the latest “sexism in the atheist movement!” kerfuffle.

• Also, PersonalFailure nails it regarding illegal immigration. I don’t give a shit, either, and those who do are usually misinformed or plain bigoted.

• New report: All research into abstinence-only sex education indicates it’s nothing but a detrimental failure.

• Interesting new documentary: Was Jesus a moral paragon, or a madman (or something worse)?

• Why don’t you have a seat over there, Mr. Hansen [pictured].^*
  (via The Agitator)

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

* In case anyone misses the point: I don’t care about Hansen having a mistress. I do care about his hypocrisy in acting as a supposed agent of righteousness and then engaging in decidedly unrighteous behavior, himself. At least, I care enough to point and snicker.

Tags: Hemant Mehta • Rebecca Watson • atheists • PersonalFailure • illegal immigrants • illegal immigration • sex ed • abstinence-only • American Foundation for AIDS Research • AMFAR • HIV • AIDS • Jesus Christ • Peter Breitbart • Christianity • Christians • Chris Hansen • Kristyn Caddell • To Catch a Predator • adultery

Fail church sign of the day

A Christian church poses an edumacated question:

I got a better one. If your God loves everyone, why is he such a dick?

Or: If your church is that clueless, why should people attend?

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Christian Fellowship Church

Daily Blend: Friday, June 17, 2011

US DoJ seal

• US Justice Department [pictured] joins court battle over Indiana anti-abortion law axing Planned Parenthood funds and disqualifying the state from critical Medicaid funds.
  (via @BreakingNews)

• You know how the GOP always whinges about Democrats supposedly committing voter fraud? Well, how ’bout that …

• Bill Donohue growls at organization for being pro-choice when it comes to both assisted suicide and abortion rights. Includes lame punchline.

• A 7-year-old boy’s science blog about pre-dinosaur life on Earth. In case you weren’t ashamed of your non-genius childhood enough.
  (via Pharyngula)

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

Tags: Indiana • Planned Parenthood • US Department of Justice • DoJ • Medicaid • Robert Ehrlick • Julius Henson • voter fraud • robocalls • Maryland • GOP • Paul Schurick • Bill Donohue • Compassion and Choices • assisted suicide • ABC • Life Before the Dinosaurs

Oregon House passes bill to prevent sale of suicide kits

I suppose it was only bound to happen. Last month, I wrote about the interesting dilemma posed by an elderly Washington woman who was producing and selling “suicide kits” online, thus making a quick and painless exit available to anyone, including those not necessarily in a rational frame of mind for making such a critical decision.

Long story short: The reason the woman selling these kits wasn’t in jail was thanks to a loophole in Washington State law. And although Sharlotte is still safe from prosecution in her home state for the time being, this will apparently no longer be true in the near future, if the State of Oregon has its way and enacts a bill that would effectively make it illegal for anyone to sell such kits online, regardless of where they reside [links removed]:

SALEM -- The Oregon House voted 52-6 Monday to establish a new felony charge for knowingly assisting a suicide that targets the sale of “suicide kits.”

Senate Bill 376 was introduced after Nick Klonoski, 29, committed suicide using a “helium hood” he bought online from Sharlotte Hydorn, 91, of California through The GLADD Group, or Good Life And Dignified Death.

While Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law requires people consult with a doctor, many ready-made kits, including the one purchased by Klonoski, do not require any kind of background check for compliance with state law.

“This is narrowly aimed at people selling kits to people, not the Oregon Death with Dignity Act,” Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, said, clarifying that the law does not apply to people who give away materials to commit suicide. “This bill is about people selling this for profit.”

The crime would be a class B felony, which would allow Oregon to bring charges against people outside of state borders and therefore include all online sales.

Some legislators were concerned that SB 376B could inadvertently be used to prosecute people who unknowingly sold an object intended to assist a suicide, but Rep. Matt Wand, R-Troutdale, said the bill’s language excluded that possibility.

“‘For the purpose of’: That’s a legal mental state that means the person knows the outcome and also intends the outcome,” Wand said. “It’s the intent that’s very important in this law.”

For the measure to become law, the Senate must approve House amendments to the bill and be signed by the governor.

I find it rather galling that a state could prosecute anyone residing in any other state for an act that violates a law proposed, enacted and enforced in that state alone. It seems to me that if they truly must make it a criminal offense to sell or possess such an item within state boundaries, they could simply forbid anyone from obtaining or selling it within their own borders, and perhaps (at the most) prohibit anyone out-of-state from making it available for sale or shipping to that particular state.

I’ve already written all about my thoughts concerning assisted suicide and the distribution of such kits online, so I’ll just end by saying that it’s at least a good sign that those behind this measure don’t seem to be targeting Oregon’s current assisted suicide law. People should have the chance to choose rationally what they want to do with their own lives, even if that means ending it. It’s absolutely none of the government’s business which choice they make.

(via @BreakingNews)

Tags: assisted suicide • Oregon • Sharlotte Hydorn • suicide kits • Nick Klonoski • Jeff Barker

Orangutan rescues drowning bird chick

Here’s another video to make you question our understanding of animals’ capacity for experiencing emotions. Was this great rusty-furred ape merely curious about that fidgeting little birdie in the water and wanted a closer look, or did (s)he rescue it out of genuine compassion? (Or perhaps even both?) Either way, as PZ Myers notes, it’s amazing that an orangutan can exhibit either. (Skip ahead to the 0:50 mark to avoid the obligatory ape-tastes-noseberries intro, if that’s not your thing.)

My transcript:

[Click the [+/-] to expand …]

[−]

A little bird chick is floating in a pond surrounded by steep rocky banks, apparently unable to get out. Nearby, an orangutan lazily tastes his/her own snot, even licking at (something?) on the rocks. Orangutan moves around on the rocky bank and peers at the little chick stranded in the water. Orangutan offers a leaf to the chick, nudging the baby bird around. The chick swims around a bit but cannot get out of water due to steep rocky banks. The orangutan pushes the chick with a leaf to the side of the rocky bank, perhaps trying to get the chick to climb out. Chick stays there immobile, and the orangutan stares for a few moments. Ape offers the leaf again; chick appears to nip at it. Then, orangutan grabs the chick by the neck and lifts it out of the water, depositing it on the grass. The ape then lays down and gently nudges and prods the little bird, which moves around feebly. The orangutan picks it up a few times by the head, examining it.

It’s noted that the chick was later examined by zoo vets and declared to be in good health.

(via Pharyngula)

Tags: orangutans • birds • animal emotion • animal morality

Donohue misses the point on “Weinergate” and pervy clergy

Bill Donohue

Here’s yet another instance of the Catholic League’s whiner-in-chief, Bill Donahue, utterly missing the mark when it comes to why critics are going fairly easy on Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) for his inane online indiscretions compared to when clergymen commit lewd acts:

Priests who engage in lewd conversations with teenagers are suspended from ministry for committing a "boundary violation," and are charged with sexual abuse. But Rep. Anthony Weiner can send pornographic images of himself to young girls and he is free as a bird. Indeed, the majority of New Yorkers say he should not resign.

Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle says Weiner's "biggest sin may not have been sexual"—it was "lying." Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine says that "Lying is unforgivable," but has no comment on his sexual offenses. Joan Walsh of Salon confesses that "The lying is what disturbs me." S.E. Cupp's article in the New York Daily News is flagged, "The disgraced congressman should resign, but immorality has nothing to do with it." Similarly, Leslie Savan of the Nation wonders, "How can you be so stupid?"

Ilene Angel of the Huffington Post opines, "I honestly don’t care" what Weiner did. Glenn Greenwald of Salon chalks it all up to "voyeuristic fun." Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic contends that we, the people, are the problem: we spend too much time "focusing on the sexual behavior of egocentric alpha males who spend a lot of time traveling far from home." In a Time interview, Erica Jong not only gives Weiner a pass, she exculpates Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Arnold Schwarzenenegger, Rep. Chris Lee, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer: they all suffer from "a form of mental illness."

To top things off, Joy Behar believes that "Somebody is out to get him, apparently 'cause they don’t like his politics." Weiner agrees: he told a donor last week that this was all due to a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

In other words, if the guilty party were Rev. Weiner, he would be sanctioned by the Catholic Church's "zero tolerance" policy. But because he is Rep. Weiner, there are no penalties. As usual, it's not the offense that matters—it's the status of the offender.

I’m sure this has been explained to him many times already, but the reason why people generally react more harshly towards misbehaving priests – especially when their conduct breaches sexual propriety towards minors – is that priests are held up to a higher standard due to the very nature of their position. One cannot claim to represent the voice of God on Earth and then be surprised when people observe one’s actions – and criticize one’s failings – with more passion and judgment than are reserved towards other lowly laical offenders. This may be seen as a bit of a double standard, but in this case, it is absolutely merited. If you claim to be a paragon of morality, then you’d better rise up to those expectations, or else be exposed as being full of shit when you don’t.

Also, it’s worth noting that contrary to Donohue’s skeevy insinuation, the recipient of Rep. Weiner’s “pornographic images of himself” (because one shot of bulging underwear is considered “porn” now?) was a 21-year-old college student, not some poor little “young girl”, as if he made a habit of sending out crotch-shots to third-graders. But then, no-one expects Donohue not to try and exaggerate the facts a little against whoever he’s bitching against at the moment. That’s just what sleazebags like him do.

Tags: Bill Donohue • Anthony Weiner • clergy • priests