Daily Blend: 04/05/13

Joe Rogan

PZ Myers voices my exact thoughts concerning Sam Harris vs. Glenn Greenwald on “New Atheism” and Islamophobia.

Benevolent sexism in a nutshell: Compliments are nice; applying them to stereotype an entire category of people is less so. (See: “Asians are good at math”, “Blacks are good at sports”, etc.)
(via Pharyngula)

Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) isn’t happy with all this anti-vaccination, anti-global warming, anti-Constitution bullshit going around.

Today’s proudly bigoted “comedian”: Joe Rogan. ^[pictured] He’s since continued on Twitter, naturally.

And finally: “Give me a napkin quick. There's a turd floating through the air.” “I didn’t do it. It ain’t one of mine.” — actual astronauts aboard Apollo 10.

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

Daily Blend: 03/20/13

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

Happy tenth anniversary to the clusterfuck in Iraq and the spoon-fed lies that got the US populace to go along with it.

Another underage victim blamed for being raped by football players. Some people are just fucking sick.

Why is it that so many of those in charge of laws pertaining to computers and the Internet are absolute morons about computers and the Internet? (Though, to be fair, Rep. Gohmert (R-TX) ^[pictured] is usually wrong about everything.)

Another day, another blatantly dishonest global-warming-denying article from a renowned crank in a Daily Mail-associated tabloid.

I’m really embarrassed by fellow progressives’ penchant for nanny statism at times. Is it really that hard to commit to the ideal of personal freedom even if it means allowing people to make unhealthy choices?

Faithlessness is healthy and growing in Canada.

More of that Christian Love^TM, this time in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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

Daily Blend: 03/17/13

Card. Wilfrid Napier

Predictably, the Canadian Government’s decision to lay off all non-Christian prison chaplains has already resulted in a lawsuit.

Public Shaming offers these handy guides on how to thoroughly void your Decent Human Being card.
(via @MotherJones)

In the category of “a first for everything”, I defend a clergyman’s ^[pictured] remarks about pedophilia from someone who apparently can’t distinguish between a sexual paraphilia and the actual act of child abuse.

And finally, here’s another month’s worth of refutations to the claim that religious people are more moral:
(via Friendly Atheist)

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

[−]

African woman says that “everything bad should be done to” gays, including imprisonment and execution;

Former pastor Haden Conrad accused of soliciting sex with a 14-year-old girl;

Metro News: “Six new sex abuse charges for retired Catholic priest”;

Rev. Donald R. Jung accused of molesting his 9-year-old granddaughter;

Birmingham Mail: “Solihull priest Ted Simpson arrested over child sex accusations”;

Baltimore, CO Deacon William Albaugh busted for child porn possession;

The Irish Times: “Report finds Dutch religious abused ‘tens of thousands’ of girls”;

Archdioceses of New Orleans & Lake Charles, LA sued for allegedly harboring accused child-raping priest Mark Anthony Broussard;

The Times: “Papal frontrunner Cardinal Peter Turkson links sex abuse to homosexuality”;

Manitoba, CA school administration & local churches oppose anti-bullying law meant to stop anti-gay discrimination;

The Advocate: “Florist Tells Longtime Gay Customer That Jesus Won't Let Her Do His Wedding”;

Gay Star News: “Brazil elects racist, anti-gay pastor to be human rights boss”;

Kansas City Atheist Coalition blocked from participating in Saint Patrick’s Day parade;

The Raw Story: “Atheist cop sues after being demoted to car washer for refusing to pray”;

North Carolina considers forcing Bible study classes on public-high-schoolers;

The Telegraph: “Church school pupils will need baptism certificate to board school bus”;

Montana’s Pinehaven Christian Children’s Ranch accused of physically abusing troubled children;

Deccan Chronicle: “Attackers hack hand off 7-yr-old Tanzania albino boy for witchcraft”;

Fifteen-year-old Maldives rape victim sentenced to 100 lashes for consensual premarital sex;

Osun Defender: “Father ties, locks up six-year-old daughter for witchcraft”;

UN cancels humanitarian marathon after Hamas bans women from racing;

Toronto Star: “Muslims storm church in Egypt looking for woman suspected of converting to Christianity”;

Middle-Eastern Islamists riot, demand execution of bloggers accused of blasphemy;

The Independent: Pakistani mob torches Christian homes in Lahore over prophet Mohamed 'blasphemy';

Iran bans Buddha statues as “symbols of cultural invasion”;

Bella Naija: “Nigerian Nurse who Caused Baby’s Death after Botched Home Circumcision in the UK Walks Free from Court”;

Miami, FL imam accused by US Gov’t of funneling $50,000 to Taliban;

Global Post: “Cairo court affirms death for 7 Copts over anti-Islam film”; and

11 extremists stopped “weeks or days” before building bombs for “another 9/11”.

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

Daily Blend: Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Pres. Barack Obama

A Tale of Two Obamas: BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski presents a trenchant exposé on the President’s ^[pictured] then-and-now stance on civil liberties and government powers.

10-year-old Alexandria, VA boy arrested and charged with “brandishing a weapon” for showing his orange-tipped toy gun to other kids on a school bus.
(via @radleybalko)

Maybe the reason some police departments hate being recorded (including by their own surveillance tools) is because it exposes their corruption.
(via @normative; RT: @radleybalko)

And finally, latest Republican attempt to force God into classrooms includes text from a noted pro-choice atheist.
(via Rob F)

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

Daily Blend: Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Vox Day

Quick notes: I made a few minor changes to the commenting rules and revamped the Dungeon. That is all.

Another ACLU win: Federal judge rules key part of NYPD’s “stop and frisk” unconstitutional, orders them to stop immediately.
(via @ACLU_NorCal; RT: @radleybalko)

Ohio’s Jackson Middle School administrators are willing to waste a whole lot of money losing in court rather than comply with the law.

Vox Day ^[pictured]: Sloppy thinker, lazy photoshopper, and all-around terrible person. (Originally planned to devote a full post, but then I realized I just don’t care anymore.)

Public Policy Polling: “While the Democrats in Congress aren't popular (-12 at 38/50) their approval rating is a net 48 points better than their Republican counterparts (-60 at 15/75).”
(via @BuzzFeedAndrews)

And finally, just in case you thought the Freethought Blogs/A+ haters couldn’t get any more pathetic.
(via @DaylightAtheism; RT: @pzmyers)

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?

Stewart on Fox’s “War on Christmas” & O’Reilly’s philosophy

Last night, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show once again took Fox News to task for its ridiculous one-news-channel campaign against the mythical “War on Christmas” by those annoying iconoclastic atheists, and then rounded on Bill O’Reilly over his even-stupider-than-usual declaration that Christianity is somehow a “philosophy” rather than a religion.

(The segment does include a couple of swipes at atheists which, while presumably intended as humorous and satirical, kind of miss the point – secularists are only interested in upholding the Establishment Clause in order to promote fair and equal treatment for all. It would’ve been helpful if Stewart had acknowledged that little detail.)

Québec mayor channels French-Canada’s embarrassing tribalism

Mayor Jean Tremblay

I generally try to avoid talking about local politics because A) they’re usually a lethal bore, and B) I don’t pay enough attention to regional happenings to develop much of an opinion, anyway. But one thing about the cultural climate here that’s been driving me up the wall over the last few years is the steadily growing undercurrent of tribalistic thinking that reduces any discussion about immigration to a reactionary debate about “us (true citizens) vs. them (filthy minorities)”. There’s something peculiar about living in a universal-healthcare-receiving, gay-equality-espousing liberal quasi-utopia where people still complain about all those foreign savages taking our jobs and how they should just return to their hellholes and leave our precious traditions alone. It’s like Arizona, if the Republicans were Left-wingers.

As a perfect representation of this phenomenon, I’ll let Mayor Jean Tremblay from the local town of Saguenay illustrate just what I’m talking about. Here he is just this past August, reacting to Parti Québécois (a quasi-separatist Québec-first political party) then-candidate Djemila Benhabib’s proposal for a truly secular Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms that prohibits the display of religious symbols on government property (sound familiar, U.S.ians?):

“What shocks me, is to see us, the gentle French-Canadians, being told how to behave by someone from Algeria whose name we can’t even pronounce,” Tremblay said.

Told that Benhabib has been in Quebec 15 years, Tremblay laid out the perceived threat posed by “them.”

“They are quietly, and with nice language, eating away (at our traditions),” Tremblay said. “They quietly start by removing the prayer in city hall, then they’ll remove our religious objects, then they’ll take away the crosses in cities and after that they’ll go into the schools ...

“They’ll do away with our religion and culture everywhere, and you won’t notice.”

Not so much “latent” xenophobia as “blatant”. As in, “So blatant, you’d think it were a parody of discriminatory bigotry if it didn’t actually represent a virulent mentality espoused by a prominent faction of the population.”

But Tremblay wasn’t done making a ridiculous scene over an obvious non-issue. He’s now upset that the Québec Human Rights Tribunal ordered the Saguenay city council to stop wasting time with sectarian prayers before meetings and to take down a crucifix from the chamber wall, and is determined to keep shaking his little fists at those darned secularists for casting symbols of religious oppression out of the government:

Donohue upset at “new normal” of secularism and public nudity

Bill Donohue

The Catholic League’s perennial malcontent, Bill Donohue, is now kvetching over how the tables seem to have turned over his brand of prudish Christianism:

For most of American history, manger scenes adorned public property at Christmastime without controversy. It was also normal to ban public nudity. But times have changed: now the authorities in Santa Monica and San Francisco are set to rule on these issues.

Today in Santa Monica a federal judge will decide whether the city can ban churches from erecting crèches in Palisades Park. On Tuesday, lawmakers in San Francisco will decide whether the city can ban public nudity. Activists in the atheist and homosexual communities are responsible for upending these traditions.

Those doggone heathens and their anti-religious, pro-nudity (?) ways!

And naturally, it wouldn’t be a Donohue rant if there weren’t plenty of gratuitous swipes at those filthy gheys:

Homosexuals have been walking around naked in San Francisco with increasing regularity, and tomorrow lawmakers will rule on whether to adopt an ordinance that would make public nudity illegal. There is a caveat: because gay pride is inseparable from genital liberation, the law being considered would still allow these men to go naked at the annual gay pride parade, and at the Folsom Street Fair; the latter event is marked by naked homosexuals who whip each other in the street. Jolly for them, they will still be allowed to torture themselves in public even if the law is passed.

Of course, as has already been noted, San Francisco’s policy regarding public nudity and the proposed law to ban it has nothing to do with “gay pride” (and whatever grotesque caricature Donohue’s fevered mind may fabricate about it) and is instead the result of nudist activists in the area, who are largely considered to be majoritarily straight. In other words, it’s Donohue’s precious heterosexuals who want to retain the right to bare it all in the streets, but that would be too inconvenient to admit, so he’d rather just close his eyes and wag his stubby finger towards Big Gay^TM, instead.

But the overall point is even more discrediting towards him. Throughout all that whining and grinding of teeth and shaking of tiny fists about those pesky gays and atheists, one thing Donohue never even mentions – perhaps because he knows doing so would destroy his argument – is that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (corroborated by decades of judicial precedent) strictly prohibits government endorsements of religion. Even the nuttiest of religious-Rightists have yet to come up with any rationale to explain how allowing explicitly religious displays on government property shouldn’t be interpreted as a violation of the separation of church and state, which thus explains why they rely exclusively on tiresome red herrings about “tradition!” and “religious liberty!” where they simply don’t apply.

In the end, there’s a reason why government-endorsed religious displays are outlawed whereas public nudity is (for now, in certain select locales) legal. Seeing others in their birthday suits may be disturbing to some (or even most, given how prudish Americans are known to be), but I’ve yet to hear about it ever causing harm to anyone. And if the sight of wieners and vajayjays is more disturbing to you than the thought of breaking down the only line of defense between a government that treats all faiths equally and one that’s overrun by the very kind of oppressive theocrats the U.S. Founding Fathers sought to keep out in the first place, then I propose you have bigger issues to deal with than the risk of seeing others enjoy full-body tans out on the sidewalk.

Edit: 11/19/12 9:55 PM ET – Revised the concluding paragraph for coherency.

Daily Blend: Thursday, November 15, 2012

Nate Silver

Apologies for the third link dump in a row; blogging fodder’s running a little low.

Freedom from Religion Foundation sues the IRS for failing to respond to all those tax-exemption-flaunting churches. Eventual next step: Eliminating religious tax exemptions altogether.

Nate Silver [pictured]: Brilliant with statistical analysis, apparently not-so-brilliant with climate science.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Oh noes – Ed Brayton from Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a (hilariously incompetent) stalker! (Be sure to read the comments for further, equally entertaining, updates.)

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

Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 – The Re-linkening

Consider this a continuation of my previous “wrap-up” post as the dust continues to settle. There’s plenty of good and a smidgeon of bad, so hold onto your butts:

The good —

LGBT: Last night was a major win for equality with same-sex marriage passing by popular vote in three states (and a constitutional ban failing in a fourth), the election of the first-ever openly lesbian senator, and the fall of anti-gay candidates everywhere like flies.

Meanwhile, in the schadenfreude department, Sen. Scott “racist” Brown (R-MA) and Rep. Joe “deadbeat dad” Walsh (R-IL) are both kicked out.

Oh, and Troy, Michigan’s notoriously homophobic mayor, Janice Daniels, is also out on her bigoted ass.
(via Joe. My. God.)

New Hampshire: I wonder how many men feel discomfited now that both state senators, both representatives, and the governor are all women?

Florida: The Sunshine State did particularly well, with voters turning down abortion restrictions, killing a ban on Obamacare’s health insurance mandate, and preventing taxpayer money from going to churches and religious schools. Upholding abortion rights, healthcare reform and secularism all in one – not to shabby for a state renowned for its zaniness.

More good Floridian news: Rep. Allen West (R) will soon be Rep. no longer, possibly as a result of all that crazy shit he’s always spewing.

Atheism: While the only openly atheist Congressperson, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), lost his seat after decades of serving the progressive community, candidate Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), rumored to be both an atheist and bisexual, is winning, though her opponent isn’t conceding yet.

Drug Laws: Massachusetts approves medicinal marijuana, though a similar initiative fails in Arkansas.

So, all in all, I guess this means those polls weren’t skewed against Republicans after all.
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, we can safely say that yes, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver is (probably) a witch. (Or just very good with statistical analysis. Either way.)

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)

Maher on the importance of keeping Romney out of office

Bill Maher makes a strong point: However disappointing one may think President Obama has been, he’s at least given the nation a break from the Republican Party’s theocratic madness over the last four years. Here’s how electing Mitt Romney as the U.S.’s new Commander-in-Chief might just be a bad idea:

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

[−]

BILL MAHER: America, before you get in bed with Mitt Romney, remember: He may seem like a nice fella from what we know about his core beliefs (nothing), his tax plan (nothing), his faith (off-limits) and his donors (anonymous), but a compulsive liar whose whole life is secret can get you a lot worse disease than Romneysia.

Now, when I talk about getting into bed with Mitt Romney, obviously, I don’t mean that literally. [jump cut?] What I’m trying to do is make an analogy to that old public service announcement about how when you go to bed with one person, you’re not just sleeping with them; you’re … well, it’s like that with Mitt. When you elect Mitt, you’re not just electing him; you’re electing every Right-wing nut he’s pandered to in the last ten years. If the Mitt-mobile does roll into Washington, it’ll be towing behind it the whole anti-intellectual, anti-science freakshow: the abstinence obsessives, the flat-Earthers, homeschoolers, the Holy Warriors, the anti-women social neanderthals, the closeted homosexuals, and every End-Timer who sees the Virgin Mary in the grass over the septic tank.

Now, I understand having issues with Obama, but stop to think of all the crap we haven’t had to deal with in the last four years. Anybody remember Terri Schiavo? Obama isn’t perfect, but he never turned the entire federal government into a Jesus-Freak episode of House. And he doesn’t have an Attorney General like John Ashcroft, who once covered up a statue at the Justice Department because it was showing too much tit. Like it was Janet Jackson.

I’m just saying: The last four years, no crises about boobies. No controversies about whether stem cells are actually tiny people. No Defense of Marriage Act. No Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. [Except Obama expanded it. —JM] No peddling Creationism at the national parks. Did you know that before Obama got in, the Smithsonian couldn’t mention global warming as a possible reason the glaciers were shrinking? Because heat melting ice was just a theory.

Yes, that was our daily diet of turd under the last sensible, business-minded Republican moderate. And before you say, “Well, that was then, this is now,” sitting in Congress right now, we’ve got a fresh can of nuts just waiting to be cracked open.

A few weeks ago, we heard from a Republican congressman named Paul Broun. Here he is, at a dead deer convention, telling his supporters that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are all “lies straight from the pit of Hell”. And he’s on the Science Committee! Along with Todd Akin. Fuck, even the deer are rolling their eyes.

Mitt Romney might want a government full of sober gentlemen who discuss policy in quiet rooms; he’s also gonna get a bunch of snake handlers just spouting nonsense in antler-filled rooms. People like congressman Ralph Hall, who was chairman of the Science Committee and says that we don’t need to address global warming because “I don’t think we can control what God controls”. By that logic, why ever put out a fire? Or open an umbrella? Or wipe your ass?

This is what you get with today’s Republican Party. And a new Republican administration would be an “open for business” sign to all the bizarre, Bible-thumping bullshit that the Obama administration has given us a break from. And to those who say, “Oh, don’t worry, Mitt Romney will stand up to the extreme elements of his party,” there’s just one problem with that. It has the name “Mitt Romney” and the words “stand up” in the same sentence.

Yes, it may well be a case of lesser evils, but that’s still so much less evil that can be avoided come November 06.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Daily Blend: Monday, October 22, 2012

Anne Germain

Amnesty International: Secret US Drone Program Still Getting Away With Killing Children.
(via @AntDeRosa; RT: @radleybalko)

Federal judge blocks Arizona bill that would defund all Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

Yet another psychic, Britain’s Anne Germain ^[pictured], is exposed as a Peter Popoff-style con artist.

Meanwhile, guess what happened after this “facilitated communication” practitioner was proven wrong. (No, really. You’ll be surprised.)
(via Rob F)

Why isn’t the IRS doing anything about all the tax-exempt churches breaking the law by endorsing candidates?

PZ Myers writes brilliantly about the problems with dismissing responsibility for online trolling with excuses of “free speech!”.

And finally: Paul Ryan poses for fake photo op at soup kitchen against their wishes. Soup kitchen owner complains. Ryan supporters lash out … at soup kitchen.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

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

Daily Blend: Thursday, October 18, 2012

Alber Saber

Deceased parent, leg injury, financial difficulties, and now (treatable) cancer: Please consider helping Greta Christina any way you can.

Egyptian lawyer’s rationale for arresting, imprisoning and brutalizing atheist Alber Saber ^[pictured]: He hurt people’s feelings and insulted God on Facebook. Or, Why Secularism Matters.

Christianist hate group goes antivaccination, fear-mongers about HPV vaccine to try and scare underage girls into not having sex.

Douche-meister Bradlee Dean is still very, very sore over losing his bogus defamation suit against MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

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

Donohue upset that Biden won’t force Catholic views on others

VP Joe Biden

During last night’s vice-presidential debate, the candidates were asked about their stance on abortion rights and how they reconcile them with their Catholic beliefs. While Republican nominee Paul Ryan gave the predictably authoritarian response that he would ban all abortion except for emergencies, Vice-President Joe Biden broke with tradition and gave an answer that wasn’t only not embarrassing, but even laudable:

With regard to — with regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a — what we call de fide (doctrine ?). Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.

But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.

I — I do not believe that — that we have a right to tell other people that women, they — they can’t control their body. It’s a decision between them and their doctor, in my view. And the Supreme Court — I’m not going to interfere with that.

Despite the obligatory fluff about “life begin[ning] at conception” (as if biological activity only began during the egg’s fertilization), that’s the only true answer any so-called “pro-lifer” should ever give (and not only because providing access to abortion demonstrably saves lives). It’s also the only acceptable answer for anyone who honestly claims to uphold secularism in government by refusing to legislate their own religious beliefs at the expense of everyone else. You don’t have to agree with abortion to be pro-choice; you just shouldn’t try to force anyone else to abide by your personal moral code, no matter how strongly you feel about it. Both science and the courts have long since ruled that abortion isn’t “murder”, so all that’s left is to respect women’s right to bodily autonomy.

Biden also proceeded to throw some cold water over the claims that the federal contraception mandate supposedly violates the religious freedom of anti-abortion employers:

With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy — any hospital — none has to either refer contraception. None has to pay for contraception. None has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact.

Canada fires all prison chaplains … except Christians

Min. Vic Toews

You know, I really don’t think I care much for Canada’s Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, given that the only times he came to my attention over the last year were when he excused the use of fundamentally flawed information gained through torture in certain circumstances and compared defenders of people’s right to privacy to “child pornographers” in his attempt to garner support for his Internet snooping bill. And now, it seems he may be a tad logically challenged to boot, as indicated in this report about how he’s firing all prison chaplains … who aren’t Christian:

The federal government is cancelling the contracts of non-Christian chaplains at federal prisons, CBC News has learned.

Inmates of other faiths, such as Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, will be expected to turn to Christian prison chaplains for religious counsel and guidance, according to the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is also responsible for Canada’s penitentiaries.

[…]

Toews said he wasn't convinced part-time chaplains from other religions were an appropriate use of taxpayer money and that he would review the policy.

In an email to CBC News, Toews' office says that as a result of the review, the part-time non-Christian chaplains will be let go and the remaining full-time chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates.

One can imagine what would happen if it’s the Christian chaplains who’d been let go, thus forcing Christian inmates to resort to Muslim and Hindu counselors. Something tells me there’d be a lot more fuss than is expected with this present move.

But better yet, here’s how he rationalizes these pointless cuts:

"The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … [Christian] chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths."

So, he’s upholding the government’s commitment to secularism … by imposing a Christians-only rule for government-employed religious penitentiary counselors.

How the hell does that work?

(via Pharyngula)

Infographic: Debunking the “fundamentalist secular humanist”

Keep this handy for the next time you’re accused of being a “fundamentalist” for arguing that religion should stay out of government:

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

[−]

PEOPLE LIKE TO FRAME MANY OF OUR VIEWS AS IF THEY’RE THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THEIR OWN VIEWS.

---

ONE EXTREME: Endorse religion on money, in the pledge, etc. (“One nation, under God”) / Only straight people can get married.

THE OTHER EXTREME: Don’t use the government to promote any religious views. / Everyone can get married.

---

This gives them certain advantages. It allows them to say things like:

“You’re just as fundamentalist as I am.”

“You’re trying to force your views on everyone else, just like me.”

However, our views aren’t the other extreme. They’re the neutral stance:

---

ONE EXTREME: Endorse religion on money, in the pledge, etc. (“One nation, under God”) / Only straight people can get married.

NEUTRAL: Don’t use the government to promote any religious views. / Everyone can get married.

THE OTHER EXTREME: Endorse atheism on money, in the pledge, etc. (“One nation, without God”) / Only gay people can get married.

---

BUT ALMOST NOBODY IS ARGUING FOR THESE, BECAUSE WE’RE NOT BIGOTS TRYING TO FORCE OUR VIEWS ON OTHER PEOPLE. THEY ARE.

Once again, I am amazed at how people can actually accuse us of being the nosy fundamentalists for telling religionists to stay out of other people’s business.

(via Rob F)

Tags: infographics • secular humanism

Daily Blend: Monday, September 17, 2012

Karen Handel

Wait, you mean the Islamic world is mostly pissed off because of all the U.S. bombings and military invasions? And here I thought it was all because of one stupid Internet video.
(via The Agitator)

Karen Handel ^[pictured], former Komen for the Cure VP who orchestrated the short-lived defunding of Planned Parenthood, becomes the latest Right-wing bully to accuse her victim of bullying. (Includes bonus childishly bad book title.)

Dear U.S. secularists: Please stop using these fake Founding Fathers quotes. You really don’t need to be using tricks from the religionist playbook.

Scientology lawyer publishes ineptly outraged letter over a Vanity Fair piece about Tom Cruise. Streisand Effect strikes again, baby.
(via @ebertchicago)

On the other hand, a Jack Daniel’s lawyer sets an example with the friendliest cease-and-desist letter ever.
(via @the_yamen)

And finally, Denmark gives us the most epic public transportation promotion ever:
(via Joe. My. God.)

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

Tags: Muslims • Islam • protests • riots • anti-Americanism • Innocence of Muslims • drone attacks • Karen Handel • Planned Parenthood • Planned Bullyhood • Susan G. Komen for the Cure • conservatives • wingnuts • Founding Fathers • secularists • atheists • fake quotes • Thomas Jefferson • John Adams • Abraham Lincoln • Christianity • Church of Scientology • Scientology • Vanity Fair • Tom Cruise • Maureen Orth • Jeffrey Riffer • Jack Daniel's • Jack Daniel's Properties • cease and desist • lawyers • Patrick Wensink • Denmark • buses • mass transit • public transportation • Midttrafik • The Bus

Why the U.S. is not a Christian Nation (redux)

Sorry for the silence today. Here’s a nice little silence breaker, in the form of an educational and supremely well-sourced video by The Thinking Atheist that should be shown to everyone (particularly politicians) who still thinks the United States is a “Christian nation”:

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

[−]

The United States of America is a Christian nation?

If you believe the rhetoric of many Republican political candidates, you’d certainly believe so. Former presidential candidate John McCain once said, “I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.” His choice for vice-president in 2008, Sarah Palin, has called the United States a “Christian nation” and suggested that it’s “mind-boggling” to think otherwise. At George W. Bush’s inauguration, his very first act was to have the son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham officially dedicate the presidential inauguration to Jesus Christ, invoking “the Father”, “the Son”, “the Lord Jesus Christ” and “the Holy Spirit”.

Many U.S. presidents have sworn their oath on the Christian Bible. “God Bless America” has become a familiar slogan: in good times, bad, reflected on banners, T-shirts, church marquees and songs like Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA”. The Internet is populated with websites like KeepGodInAmerica.com, which promotes the Christian Bible and declares that “Without God, there is no America”. You can sign online petitions like this one [http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keepgodinamerica/], which declares that “God ordains our leaders for his own glory and the public good”.

Certainly, the United States protects the freedom of its citizens to call down blessings from their deities, Christian or otherwise. Free citizens have the right to pray, worship and practice their religions however they wish, within the boundaries of the law. But did our Founding Fathers create a Christian nation?

Well, if they did, it’s odd that ‘God’ is not mentioned once in the U.S Constitution. The mention of religion in Article 6 of the First Amendment served to separate religion from government altogether. The Founding Fathers actually guaranteed the right of the non-religious to hold public office. And the language doesn’t even use the word ‘Christian’; it says ‘religious’, covering all faiths.

‘God’, ‘Creator’ and ‘Providence’ are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence; however, after Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the Declaration of Independence was not the document the founders used to govern. Instead, they reconvened and drew up a different document to define U.S. laws: first, the Articles of Confederation, then the Constitution.

The Founding Fathers didn’t put “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins; that was done during the time of the Civil War. They didn’t put “In God We Trust” on U.S. paper currency; that was done in 1957. The words ‘under God’ weren’t part of the original Pledge of Allegiance; those words were added by Congress in 1954 as the West was making a statement against the “godlessness” of Communism by also instituting a national Day of Prayer and replacing “E Pluribus Unum” with “In God We Trust” as our national motto.

Contrary to the assertions of the religious, many of our Founding Fathers were either Deist or ambivalent about the Christian God, including Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine, and even George Washington. Thomas Jefferson, a Deist, rejected concepts like the Trinity, the virgin birth, the divinity of Christ, the Resurrection, Original Sin, and other core Christian beliefs.

Further separating our founders from a Christian nation is Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, sighed by John Adams in 1797, which stated clearly that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”.

So, if our Founding Fathers weren’t necessarily Christian, they excluded God from our Constitution, had nothing to do with any mentions of ‘God’ in our Pledge of Allegiance, they omitted ‘God’ from our money, they removed any religious requirements to hold public office, and declared publicly that the United States is not founded on Christianity, are the politicians and pundits on the religious-Right being completely honest with themselves and with the public about their attitudes and intentions? Are they attempting to integrate their own religious agendas into a government designed to operate religion-free? Are they using God in an emotional appeal to win support and votes from a largely ignorant electorate? Has Christianity, or any other religion, contaminated the secular framework for government established over 200 years ago?

The next time a politician says that the United States is a Christian nation, it might be time to give them, and the millions of Americans watching, a history lesson.

I’m sure we’ll have no more of that particular falsehood, now, will we?

Right?

(via @rdfrs)

Tags: United States of America • USA • Christian Nationalism • The Thinking Atheist • Christianity • Christians • Republicans • Founding Fathers • U.S. Constitution • Declaration of Independence • Treaty of Tripoli