Predictable poll: Nonreligious most likely to be pro-choice

Here’s more of that “being on the right side of history” thing to make you proud:

That’s good company at the top.

Interestingly, the rest of the poll focuses on the curious tendency of Americans to overestimate just how many of their fellow countryfolk are pro-choice, when the research shows that the country is actually split pretty much evenly on the issue, with a slight majority favoring abortion rights with certain restrictions. (Better yet, the “legal under any circumstances” group is still more numerous – albeit barely – than the “unborn babies are sacred” camp.)

Why, it’s almost like removing objections rooted in religious dogma leaves people with few remaining reasons to argue against women’s right to bodily autonomy.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Daily Blend: 05/06/13

Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski

I’m too bored/lazy/busy reading/excited about tomorrow/tired from “work” to blog much, so here’re some links.

US Air Force officer ^[pictured] in charge of responding to sexual assaults arrested for drunken sexual assault, underlines the US Military’s generally appalling handling of sex crimes.

“Good Riddance: Fox Cancels Long-Running, Drug War-Glorifying, Abuse-Excusing Reality Series COPS”
(via @AndrewKirell; RT: @radleybalko)

Those who slime together, stay together: Anti-Freethought Blogs/Atheism Plus hater encourages Westboro Baptist Church to picket upcoming Women in Secularism conference.
(via Pharyngula)

And finally, how much do you know about science and religion? (I scored in the 15^th and 13^th percentiles, respectively. Which is probably more of an implicit condemnation of the US educational system than anything else.)
(via Bad Astronomy)

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

Poll: Majority supports gay marriage (and opposes abortion)

Here’s yet another poll, this one by CBS and The Wall Street Journal, showing just how greatly the tides have turned in only a few short years:

Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two highly publicized gay-marriage cases, a majority of Americans continue to say they support same-sex marriage, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty-three percent of respondents favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, which is up 2 points since the NBC/WSJ survey last asked this question in December, though that increase is within the poll’s margin of error.

It’s kind of awesome how ho-hum these polls are getting already.

And now to sour the mood:

According to the survey, a combined 52 percent say that abortion should be illegal either with exceptions or without them, versus a combined 45 percent who say it should be legal either “always” or “most of the time.”

This is a reversal from the NBC/WSJ poll in January, when a majority – for the first time – said abortion should be legal in some form or fashion.

I guess this means we can’t really trust the hoi polloi to decide who gets to enjoy basic civil rights or not after all.

Daily Blend: 04/02/13

Dr. Deandre Poole

So, I guess that should read “exemplary teacher ^[pictured] threatened by student after asking class to step on piece of paper with Jesus’s name in harmless exercise on cultural sensitivity”. And he’s been receiving death threats from those ever-lovin’ Christians, of course.

I was in kinda-sorta-loose agreement with Sam Harris right until he says “[t]here is no such thing as Islamophobia” and that “[it] is a term of propaganda”. Now that’s how you shipwreck an argument, folks. (If he wants to contest the conflation of genuine criticism with bigotry, he should stress that ‘Islamophobia’ only applies to the latter, not that it isn’t actually a thing.)

Reality: Hoaxer dude calls domestic violence counseling line with phony abuse story, repeatedly refuses offered assistance to find free shelter or contact authorities. MRAs: “Abused man ‘denied help’”!

Public Policy Polling does conspiracy theories, reveals an average 10–15% of Americans are effin’ nuts. Not sure why “Bush lied about Iraqi WMDs” is counted as a myth, though.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

And finally, it’s getting almost impossible to tell when Vox Day is being either seriously or facetiously stupid.

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

Donohue wants higher taxes for “miserly” non-religious liberals

The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue has found a new reason to snipe at atheists and other irreligious folks: They (supposedly) aren’t as charitable as religious people, and are thus a burden on society! Or something.

The top religion story of 2012 was The Chronicle of Philanthropy survey of American charitable giving, “How America Gives”; it was released in August. Its central finding was that the more religious a city or state is, the more charitable it is; conversely, the more secular an area is, the more miserly the people are.

[…]

The findings are consistent with other studies. It suggests that the rise of the “nones”—those who have no religious affiliation—are a social liability for the nation. It also shows that those who live in the most liberal areas of the nation are precisely the ones who do the least to combat poverty. They talk a good game—liberals are always screaming about the horrors of poverty—but in the end they find it difficult to open their wallets.

There is little doubt that the “nones” and liberals (there is a lot of overlap) are living off the social capital of the most religious persons in the nation. Perhaps there is some way this can be reflected in the tax code.

Of course, the reality is quite different: The only reason why more religious states appear to outperform more secular states in how much people give to charity on average is because most pollsters include money given to churches and other explicitly religious institutions as “charity”, which understandably and unfairly skews the numbers. It’s not as if “religious nones” had any centralized faithless organization to which they donated a faction of their yearly earnings. In fact, unskewing those numbers seems to indicate the precise contrary – that less religious regions are actually more charitable on average.

What’s more, there’s actually research that seems to indicate that secular folk may be driven more by compassion for others and less by some sense of duty to church or doctrine. You know, in case you needed yet another reminder that religion and faith in some deity aren’t useful factors in determining how good or caring any given person is.

So, with that in mind … who, exactly, should be getting higher taxes, here, Bill?

Daily Blend: Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Quick updates: I finally found how to replace the old “Older/Newer Posts” links with actual post titles, something I’ve been trying to do here for quite a while. I’ve also replaced the clunky old search bar with a Google custom search bar, so older posts should now be much easier to find. Oh, and Disqus reactions are finally working again. That is all.

The Atheist Census ^[pictured] is finally back from its DDoS-induced coma, so get yourself counted if you haven’t already.

Speaking of godless representation, a new comprehensive Pew Research Center study reveals that 16.3% of the world is religiously unaffiliated (though not necessarily atheistic, of course).

Not that you need it (I would seriously hope), but the Bad Astronomer has a write-up explaining in detail how and why the world will not end this Friday.

And finally, it looks like the new SimCity will be the first in the series I won’t be spending my money on. It’s a damn shame; I love Maxis, but to hell with EA’s prohibitive DRM fixation.

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

Poll: Americans (and Catholics) oppose religious restrictions on birth control

Pity your local janitor, for the Christian-Right is likely to suffer from another round of exploding heads as a new joint poll from the ACLU and Catholics for Choice reveals that the vast majority of Americans, including Catholics, are all for reproductive rights and don’t want any religious institutions or employers using faith as an excuse to restrict access to birth control:

Key findings include:

• The great majority of Americans (81 percent) says, “The law should not allow companies or other institutions to use religious beliefs to decide whether to offer a service to some people and not others.”

• Sixty-nine percent of Americans think it is wrong for a university to deny birth control coverage. An equal number of Catholics (68 percent) objects, although much of the opposition to this healthcare provision came from Catholic leaders. Seventy-seven percent of Americans, and an equal proportion of Catholics, object to pharmacies refusing to fill birth control prescriptions.

• Eighty-seven percent of Americans (and a similar percentage of Catholics), say that a doctor should not be allowed to withhold information about fetal defects for fear a woman might consider an abortion. Sixty-eight percent of Americans, and 66 percent of Catholics, say it is wrong for a doctor to refuse to refer for an abortion.

• Sixty-two percent of Americans and 59 percent of Catholics oppose allowing a Catholic hospital to decline to perform an abortion that is medically necessary to protect a woman’s health.

• Eighty-eight percent of Americans and 86 percent of Catholics believe voters don’t have an obligation to follow a Catholic bishop’s recommendation on how to vote. Seventy-nine percent of Americans and 75 percent of Catholics believe Catholic politicians don’t have an obligation to follow the hierarchy’s directives.

Wait, you mean all that talk about the decimation of religious liberty is just impotent squawking from rapacious ideologues who are actually woefully out of touch with what the general people actually wants, which is for overzealous God-botherers to leave their freedom of choice and right to bodily autonomy alone? Why, color me shocked.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Daily Blend: Friday, October 19, 2012

Jenny McCarthy

Guess who’s been caught committing actual voter fraud yet again? Virginia Republicans.

Days after adopting a new policy to support transgender students, Illinois’s East Aurora School Board caves in to Christianist bullies and rescinds it. Now that’s how you tell vulnerable kids their rights aren’t worth standing up for.

Today in Bizarro World: Antivaccination pseudo-celebrity Jenny McCarthy ^[pictured] lands deal for a Chicago Sun-Times column on “being a good parent”.

Godlessness is on the rise in Ireland, too.

That’s gotta hurt as Romney loses the Salt Lake Tribune.

Which is possibly due to things like this: “Mitt has always been a pro-life person; he governed, when he ran, as a pro-choice […]”

Classy quote of the day about Wisconsin Senate hopeful Tammy Baldwin (D): “The last thing [Wisconsinites] need is Barney Frank in a dress.”
(via Joe. My. God.)

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

New survey: Religious “nones” growing faster than ever

Feeling stressed about all the strife and struggles in the battle for acceptance of godlessness in the public sphere? Here are a couple of reassuring graphs, from a newly released report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life:

Be sure to check out the whole report, which contains a multitude of other placating charts and plenty of analysis, all of which paints a sunny picture of the state of declining religiosity in the United States.

Another way to know that these numbers are a good thing: They’ve got Bill Donohue in a horrified tizzy. Doesn’t that make you feel better?

(via Friendly Atheist)

Poll: 6% of Ohio voters think Romney got Osama

One of my first orders of business should I ever find myself at the helm of my own country would be to institute a basic rational litmus test for citizens to be allowed to vote. And recent Public Policy Polling findings reveal that a minimum of approximately 18.7 million Americans would thus be ineligible to let their breathtaking cluelessness contaminate my precious hypothetical nation’s political scene, if Ohio voters are anything to judge by:

Then again, I’m not sure that having 96.6 million potential voters be unable to decide between reality and fantasy is much better.

(via Political Irony)

Tags: Public Policy Polling • Barack Obama • Mitt Romney • Osama bin Laden • Ohio • voting

Daily Blend: Thursday, August 23, 2012 [1/2]

Tony Nicklinson

I managed to forget all about posting yesterday’s Daily Blend, so enjoy this double digest edition! (Part 1/2; stupid label length limits. Part 2 here.)

Not all evil originates in malice. Mindless adherence to heartless legal principles does the job just fine. (Update: Tony Nicklinson ^[pictured] finally passed away of pneumonia a week later.)

Meanwhile, British “pro-lifer” Richard Carvath devotes 2,700 “love”-filled words to calling Nicklinson a “selfish”, “dishonorable” “coward” and smearing those who wanted him to have the right to die on his own terms as a pro-“murder” “lobby”. Also, Jesus.
(via @RichardDawkins)

Hearteningly positive and insightful write-up about Atheism+ at the New Statesman.
(via @jennifurret)

Guess which virulently homophobic, “traditional values” preacher is now caught in a terribly embarrassing sex scandal today?

Once more debunking the patently false claim that nonreligious people are less charitable than believers are. Maybe if poll-takers stopped considering money given to fatten preachers’ wallets as “charity”?

Record-setting petty fascism leads an Oklahoma high school to refuse to give top student her diploma because she said “hell” in her valedictorian speech.
(via The Agitator)

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

Tags: Tony Nicklinson • quadriplegia • quadriplegics • High Court of Justice • paralysis • pneumonia • euthanasia • Richard Carvath • pro-life • pro-lifers • Atheism+ • A+ • New Statesman • Jennifer McCreight • Greta Christina • atheists • Grant Storms • preachers • sex scandals • family values • traditional values • charity • The Chronicles of Philanthropy • nontheists • religious nones • theists • believers • nonbelievers • Prague, OK • Kaitlin Nootbaar • Prague High School • Rick Martin

Survey: Atheism continues to rise around the world

There’s a new WIN-Gallup survey out on global religious adherence, and the news for atheists is predictably (but nonetheless reassuringly) good, as this excerpt from the 2012 Global Atheism Index reveals:

That’s right: Not only are more and more people becoming (or feeling safe to out themselves as) atheists all around the world – thus entailing that religion’s grip on society is conversely loosening, slowly but quite surely – but Canada still whoops the U.S.’s butt! Knew we were the best.

(Wait – 12^th still counts as “the best”, right?)

Tags: United States of America • USA • Canada • atheists • Global Index of Religion and Atheism • RedC

Poll: Record heat wave pushes global warming acceptance

People are such a fickle breed, with everyone but the True Believers^TM changing their minds about virtually anything the moment they catch wind of conflicting evidence. For example, though an approximate and tepid 65% of poll respondents said they believed in anthropogenic global warming earlier this year (correlated here), the recent record-shattering heat wave that turned large swaths of the United States mainland into a drought-stricken wildfire arena has since pushed that number up to 70%:

In a poll taken July 12-16, 70 percent of respondents said they think the climate is changing, compared with 65 percent in a similar poll in March. Those saying it’s not taking place fell to 15 percent from 22 percent, according to data set to be released this week by the UT Energy Poll.

Following a winter of record snowfall in 2010, the public’s acceptance of climate change fell to a low of 52 percent, according to the National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change, which was published by the Brookings Institution in Washington. After this year’s mild winter, support jumped to 65 percent, the same as that found by the UT Energy Poll in March.

Of course, those midwinter poll results would’ve been quite different if people actually understood that extreme cold weather is just as much a sign of man-caused climate change as extreme hot weather is in summer. There really needs to be more of an effort to dispel the notion that global warming is all about warmer weather, given how the point is that gradually rising average global temperatures will lead to extreme swings in weather in both directions on the thermometer. Then again, scientists are having a hard enough time even convincing people that global warming is a reality at all, so maybe this is more of a mixed blessing.

And as always, it’s all about politics:

The latest University of Texas poll also found a sharp divide between political parties, with 87 percent of Democrats saying climate change is taking place compared with 53 percent of Republicans. In March 45 percent of Republican respondents said climate change is happening.

Among independent voters, those saying temperatures are rising jumped to 72 percent in July from 60 percent in March.

Partisan affiliation is the best predictor of someone’s belief in climate change, [U-MN Prof. Barry] Rabe said.

Daily Blend: Thursday, July 12, 2012

Nancy Grace

Another endless day draws to a close …

Nancy Grace ^[pictured] really is a terrible, wretched excuse for a human being.
(via The Agitator)

Remember that “83% of U.S. doctors might quit over ObamaCare!” poll? Turns out it’s complete bullshit … not that it stops the Right-wing blogosphere from running with it.

Meanwhile, Fox News claims a study shows a “cooling trend”, which is also complete bullshit.

Award-winning military heroes: WWI veterans, WWII veterans, Vietnam veterans, Iraq War veterans, drone war controllers … wait
(via Pharyngula)

Greta Christina explains (through quoting Jezebel) how not to turn victims into the butt of rape jokes.

Ten-prong reality check for complacent, self-absorbed Americans.
(via @notjessewalker/@radleybalko)

National Organization for Marriage’s search for “non-intellectual glamorous celebrity” lands them Kirk Cameron.

Viacom yanks online streaming of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report just to spite DirecTV, practically begging to get pirated by everyone.

Walter White supports LGBT marriage equality.

And finally, Bill Maher’s show presents Mitt Romney, the Least Interesting Man in the World:
(via Political Irony)

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

Tags: Nancy Grace • suicide • Toni Medrano • Vodka Mom • ObamaCare • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act • PPACA • doctors • healthcare reform • PolitiFact • conservatives • wingnuts • Doctor Patient Medical Association • DPMA • paleoclimatology • climate change • Fox News • Special Report • Orbital forcing of tree-ring data • global cooling • military drones • UAVs • drone pilots • Pentagon • U.S. Military • Greta Christina • Daniel Tosh • Lindy West • Jezebel • rape jokes • comedy • United States • USA • Mark Manson • Americans • National Organization for Marriage • NOM • Kirk Cameron • Bryan Cranston • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • Real Time with Bill Maher • Mitt Romney

Daily Blend: Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Daniel Tosh

Phew! How’s that for a day of blogging? Now, if only the Internet would send me this many interesting stories every day … (On second thought, please don’t, Internet. I’d surely die.)

Survey: 5-10% of Canadians are LGBT. (You can count on the 18-34 age group being the most accurate, given the increasingly accepting climate they grew up in.)
(via Joe. My. God.)

“Comedian” Daniel Tosh ^[pictured] goes from terminally unfunny to straight-up asshole. (He has since apologized on Twitter.)

The Oatmeal’s final message to Charles Carreon.
(via @radleybalko)

Obama administration lays out rules for proper accommodations for temporary agricultural workers. Conservatives wingnuts: “Nanny State”!!!

Vox Day: Richard Dawkins criticized fellow evolutionary scientist over notoriously poor research, ergo, he’s a “deeply unpleasant individual”, and academic disagreement on a single detail means the entire Theory shouldn’t be taught in schools.

This totally unbiased, super-credible, WorldNetDaily-promoted Daily Caller report claims that 83% of U.S. doctors might quit over ObamaCare.
(via Joe. My. God.)

I spy with my little eye a new xkcd Q&A project! Go check it out. (It includes nuclear baseball.)

“I was raised to believe in god and now someone says they don’t believe in god so I don’t like it.”

And finally, PZ Myers posts his own (first-ever) vlog about the FtB/Thunderf00t kerfuffle:

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

Tags: Canada • homosexuality • Forum Research • National Post • Daniel Tosh • rape jokes • rape • The Oatmeal • Matthew Inman • Charles Carreon • FunnyJunk • Obama administration • Barack Obama • Human Events • U.S. Department of Labor • Diane Katz • Heritage Foundation • conservatives • wingnuts • Theodore Beale • Vox Day • Richard Dawkins • E.O. Wilson • Theory of Evolution • group selection • ObamaCare • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act • WorldNetDaily • WND • The Daily Caller • Doctor Patient Medical Association • DPMA • what if? • xkcd • baseball • speed of light • relativity • Omaha, NE • Omaha Coalition of Reason • atheist billboards • Emlyn Forsuh • PZ Myers • Thunderf00t • misogyny • Freethought Blogs • freethought

Survey: Atheists still the least popular for U.S. political office

Just in case it hadn’t been hammered home yet that the very existence of godless folk is offensive to a vast swath of the American populace, here’s Gallup with their latest sobering poll:

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

[−]

Between now and the 2012 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates -- their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be ______, would you vote for that person?
	Yes, would	No, would not
	%	%
Black	96	4
A woman	95	5
Catholic	94	5
Hispanic	92	7
Jewish	91	6
Mormon	80	18
Gay or lesbian	68	30
Muslim	58	40
An atheist	54	43
Gallup, June 7-10, 2012

These findings are reminiscent to previous surveys that found the vast majority of the American voting public have varying levels of discomfort with the very idea of electing an atheist to office (with Islamophobia in close second). It’s anyone’s guess how long it will take before those numbers reach approximately 100% for “Yes” across the board, regardless of a potential candidate’s given physical and ideological traits. It’s the actions that matter, not beliefs, and even then, only the actions that are limited to defining one’s capacity as an elected representative or leader.

If anything, I’m just surprised there are even 4-5% who are willing to admit that they wouldn’t vote for a candidate on the sole grounds of them being female or having darker skin. The ensuing realization that survey responses are inherently biased towards liberal results, given people’s reticence to admit to their own prejudices, makes one wonder about how open-minded and free our society really is.

Tags: Gallup • atheists • Muslims

Nevada Republicans: Family values for brothels

This new Public Policy Polling report just made my afternoon:

There's one thing Nevada voters across party lines can agree on: they love them some brothels. 64% think brothels should be legal to only 23% who think they should be illegal. The most striking thing in these numbers is that an equal 66% of Democrats and Republicans each think that brothels should be legal. In late March we found that only 20% of Nevada GOP voters supported gay marriage so that's an interesting take on family values there.

I suppose these religious-conservative moralists are just tired of being caught with their pants down illegally.

(Obligatory disclaimer: There’s nothing wrong with brothels, of course, so long as they’re properly regulated to prevent abuse. It’s just amusing – revealingly so – that the Party of Traditional Values^TM would so come out so prominently in favor of the very “sexual immorality” they’re so busy harping about when they prevent marriage equality for LGBT folk.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Public Policy Polling • Republicans • Nevada • brothels • prostitution • family values • traditional values

Graph: Obama’s approval rating around the world

Interesting on a number of levels:

Odd – all those countries he’s not bombing totally love him.

(For the record, I’m still a nominal supporter of President Obama, insofar as there aren’t any better candidates to root for.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Barack Obama • Pew Research Center • Europe • Middle-East

Daily Blend: Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Pres. Barack Obama

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and “leader of the free world” ^[pictured] declares that “all military-age males in a strike zone” are “militants” and can be slaughtered with impunity. I’ve been gradually souring on the President for a long time, but this is just sick. Even Bush & Cheney were never this brazen about their bloodlust.

Ed Brayton provides some clarification – and mild reassurance – about the recent Gallup poll about abortion rights attitudes.

Some hope for Oklahoma as the state legislature shitcans three Creationist and anti-global warming education bills.
(via @BadAstronomer)

WorldNetDaily “exclusive”: Kooks declare that “miracles” in Men in Black 3 make the case for Creationism!
(via Joe. My. God.)

Great write-up about the decline and refitting of churches in Québec, Canada.

Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham to star in upcoming TV series, while Clarice Starling gets slotted on Lifetime (blech). I am perplexed.
(via Fark)

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

Tags: Barack Obama • Obama administration • militants • terrorists • Gallup • pro-choice • pro-choicers • pro-abortion • anti-choice • anti-choicers • anti-abortion • anti-abortionists • pro-life • pro-lifers • Oklahoma • SB 1742 • HB 1551 • HB 2341 • Men in Black 3 • Intelligent Design • Creationism • WorldNetDaily • WND • Drew Zahn • Quebec, CA • Quiet Revolution • churches • Christianity • Catholicism • Hannibal Lecter • Will Graham • Clarice Starling • Hannibal • Clarice • Lifetime • TV series

Daily Blend: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Pitbull

Ohio does the right thing, declassifies pitbulls ^[pictured] as inherently “vicious”. More of this elsewhere, please.
(via @michaelbd)

A record low of 41% of Americans call themselves “pro-choice”. I wonder if that number would change minus the mistaken “pro-abortion” connotation given by lying anti-choice assholes.
(via ThinkProgress)

On the other hand, a record high of 56% of Americans support legalizing and regulating marijuana.
(via ThinkProgress)

Researchers update last year’s study showing how Fox News viewers are the least informed (even compared to people who don’t watch any news at all), increase the sample pool from New Jersey to nationwide. Same results.
(via @todayspolitics)

This “article” (read: collection of bratty tweets) from Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy only shows why you should, in fact, avoid anything related to Michelle Malkin.
(via @radleybalko)

Today’s winner for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Being So Ridiculous to the Point of Possible Satire.

What is it with Vox Day’s obsession with President Obama’s IQ?

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

Tags: Ohio • pitbulls • dogs • pro-choice • pro-choicers • anti-choice • anti-choicers • anti-abortion • anti-abortionists • pro-abortion • pro-abortionists • marijuana • pot • Fox News • news channels • misinformation • Fairleigh Dickinson University • Twitchy • Michelle Malkin • Twitter • Charles Blow • Adam Serwer • American Thinker • Robert Gates • Mara Zebest • Poe's Law • Vox Day • Theodore Beale • Barack Obama • IQ • intelligence quotient • intelligence