Promising:
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Maybe they’ll honk at you rather than break into your home, pelt you with Bibles rather than grenades, and pump you full of dogma rather than pumping your pets full of bullets, and all because you look like a gay atheist rather than someone who might once have come into some indirect contact with a pot plant.
Hey, it’s proven to be such an effective strategy so far, no?
(via Joe. My. God.)
Edit (12/13/11 8:50 PM) – Added supplementary links.
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| Ray Comfort |
From evangelical bugaboo Ray Comfort, trying to give Hell more sense to us godless folks (with predictably amusing results):
Much damage has been done to the cause of the gospel by telling the world that they will go to hell “because they don’t believe in Jesus.” This makes no sense to the ungodly. It seems unreasonable that God would eternally damn them for not believing something. However, the verse can be explained this way: If a man jumps out of a plane without a parachute, he will perish because he transgressed the law of gravity. Had he put on a parachute, he would have been saved. In one sense, he perished because he didn’t put on the parachute. But the primary reason he died was because he broke the law of gravity.
Yes, folks, the dolt still hasn’t figured out that falling to the ground is obeying the law of gravity, not violating it.
And here’s how this goes with those hell-bound sinners who don’t have Jesus inside:
If a sinner refuses to trust in Jesus Christ before he passes through the door of death, he will perish. This isn’t because he refused to trust the Savior, but because he transgressed the Law of God. Had he “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14), he would have been saved; but because he refused to repent, he will suffer the full consequences of his sin. Sin is not “failing to believe in Jesus.” Sin is “transgression of the Law” (1 John 3:4, KJV).
So, if you don’t believe in Jesus, you’ll go to Hell. Because you broke (Christian) God’s Law. Because you don’t believe in Jesus.
I didn’t think it was possible for circular reasoning to short-circuit itself like that.
Tags: Ray Comfort • Jesus Christ • Hell • sin • sinners • God's Law
With all the talk about the (slowly but surely improving) status of LGBT rights and equality in the U.S., here’s a visualization of attitudes towards same-sex marriage across Canada (yellow = opposition, grey = acceptance):
At first glance, that may seem like a fair amount of opposition in the central provinces (see map here), but keep in mind that A) even the most anti-gay regions in Canada are still comparable to northeast USA, and B) those three provinces (left to right: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) have a combined population of just about six million, which amounts to under 18% of the national population of 34 million (by 2011 estimates).
Even our conservative dens are still more open-minded than most U.S. liberals. That’s something that fills me with more than a little pride. (And, yes, cockiness. Deal with it, you Yanks.)
(via Joe. My. God.)
Tags: Canada • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • LGBT marriage • Vote Compass • marriage equality
After all these years of decent people evil gay atheists promoting openness waging war on Christmas, we are finally starting to see some repercussions:
| My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →) | [−] |
Every day, innocent American children are forced to live a lie. Ostracized by their peers, their teachers, and even their president, they’re taught to hide, to remain silent, to keep it to themselves.
This is Madison. Her teacher encouraged her to say “Happy Holidays” to her Jewish classmates, and now, she doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.
This is Austin. Every year, Austin has gotten a new G.I. Joe for Christmas, but now, he doesn’t want one because he thinks it will make him gay.
This is Scarlet. She’ll get everything she wants this year, except the comfort of knowing her non-Christian classmates are going to Hell.
Christmas used to be a time of joy in this country, when everyone, no matter their faith, celebrated the birth of Christ, or just decorated a tree and bought presents and stuff. But now, Jews, atheists and gays are out of the closet, forcing America’s Christian children in. Can you stand by while our sons and daughters are taught that it’s okay to display a menorah alongside the Nativity? Can you live with forcing them to say “Happy Holidays” like fools? Can you really tolerate your neighbors celebrating the solstice?
There is a war on Christmas. A war with no casualties, costs, or any negative effects anyone can realistically claim, but it’s a war nonetheless. Which side will you stand on?
Paid for by People For Rick Perry And Not Gays, Jews or Whatever Else People Are.
(Credits: Narration by Darbi Worley [www.darbiworley.com]), Music by Kevin MacLeod [www.incompetech.com] and Images courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com)
Mwahaha – victory shall soon be ours! Keep on insulting God’s Gentle PeopleTM by wishing them a joyous end of the fourth fiscal quarter!
(via Friendly Atheist)
Tags: War on Christmas • Christmas • HuffPost Comedy
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| <no comment> |
Doggycide: Huntington Beach, California cops (allegedly) illegally enter mobile home, then shoot & kill protective pit-bull.
(via The Agitator)
Glenn Greenwald hits on the massive hypocrisy in Hillary Clinton’s big “Internet freedom” speech.
Oh, sad irony: The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart gets a “Pants on Fire” in trying to debunk Fox News’s “War on Christmas” lunacy. (Bonus: Based on History Channel falsehood.)
Oh, dear. [pictured]
(via The Agitator)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
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As you may have heard, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has a new project. He wants Christians to “adopt” atheists:
Approximately 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 96 percent celebrate Christmas. Of the 20 percent who are not Christian, non-believers make up the largest segment, though the number of self-identified atheists is tiny. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, knows this to be true, which is why he is frantically trying to inflate his base. “We want people to realize that there may be atheists in their family,” he told the New York Times, “even if those atheists don’t even know they are atheists.”
We think there is some merit in David’s idea, even if he has things backwards, as usual. Today we are launching our “Adopt An Atheist” campaign, the predicate of which is, “We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian.”
It’s rather telling that Donohue accuses Silverman of “ha[ving] things backwards” without even bothering to mention what error Silverman is supposed to be making. Indeed, Silverman is exactly right; as a majority of atheists will readily attest, one’s deconversion from religious belief is routinely a long, complicated and emotionally taxing process filled with confusion, and it is not at all uncommon for people to claim to be religious by default without actually taking the time or effort to honestly assess their current state of beliefs. It is truly Donohue who has it backwards – “as usual”.
Anyway, here’s what this campaign comprises:
Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area [click here], letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.
If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.”
Notice Donohue’s weaselly wording and how revealing it is: He doesn’t say that atheists actually are “people who ‘believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing’”. He says that they’re “looked upon” that way. Of course, he neglects to mention, as condescending jackasses expectedly do, that people like him are the ones doing all the hostile “look[ing] upon”. It’s preachy Christians and other select anti-atheists who go around making atheists’ lives a misery in any way they can (and that link only shows U.S.-centric discrimination; you don’t need my help to find much worse and wide-spread instances abroad, such as in the Middle-East). It’s intolerant scoundrels like him who treat atheists as second-rate citizens unworthy of adequate civil liberties and equal protections, as the “Other”, as sub-human garbage in general.
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| U.S. Drug War |
Drug War [pictured] expanded: U.S. House votes to ban “synthetic drugs” and allow DEA to ban new substances before knowing their effects.
(via @radleybalko)
U.S. Gov’t: Documents released worldwide over the Web are still too secret to reveal.
(via @ggreenwald)
Sadly, too true: “Can't wait to see which GOP primary candidate will be first to condemn this, call for more rape of illegal immigrants.”
Awesome: U.K. government launches first-ever transgender equality campaign.
(via Joe. My. God.)
Victory: Mississippi high school that prevented lesbian student from wearing tux for yearbook photo now abandons gender-specific attire.
(via @todayspolitics)
Every time you think Jim “Gateway Pundit” Hoft can’t possibly get any stupider …
Woman allegedly hits teen with car, throws him Christian pamphlet, then drives away.
(via @PersonalFailure)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: US House of Representatives • synthetic drugs • bath salts • Charlie Dent • Drug Enforcement Administration • DEA • US State Department • Wikileaks • Cablegate • Bobby Scott • DHS • Homeland Security • Prison Rape Elimination Act • PREA • illegal immigrants • prison rape • immigrant detention centers • Britain • United Kingdom • transgenderism • transphobia • Ceara Sturgis • Wesson Attendance Center • heteronormativity • Jim Hoft • Gateway Pundit • Afton Bladet • Barack Obama • Sad Keanu • memes • Aida Hillen • hit and run
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| Emanyea Lockett (9) |
Zero tolerance in action – backfire edition:
The principal who accused a 9-year-old North Carolina boy of sexual harassment for allegedly calling a teacher "cute" has been forced to retire.
The story of Emanyea Lockett's suspension last week, first reported by WSOC-TV of Charlotte, N.C., created a national controversy. Tuesday, the Gaston County School District apologized to the family and said there was no sexual harassment.
Jerry Bostic, principal of Brookside Elementary School in Gastonia, told WSOC on Tuesday night that he had retired because of the controversy.
"One mistake in 44 years, and I'm not given the benefit of the doubt. I really don't believe I was treated fairly," Bostic told the station.
Well, on the one hand, you do have a point. Everyone should be treated fairly, and it’s generally against common decency to force someone out of a job over one single incident in an otherwise untarnished service record.
On the other hand, you accused a nine-year-old of sexual harassment for saying his teacher was “cute”.
Flamin’ moron.
(via The Agitator)
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Today in outrageous violations of First and Fourth Amendment rights (that we’ve only just uncovered):
Imagine if the US government, with no notice or warning, raided a small but popular magazine's offices over a Thanksgiving weekend, seized the company's printing presses, and told the world that the magazine was a criminal enterprise with a giant banner on their building. Then imagine that it never arrested anyone, never let a trial happen, and filed everything about the case under seal, not even letting the magazine's lawyers talk to the judge presiding over the case. And it continued to deny any due process at all for over a year, before finally just handing everything back to the magazine and pretending nothing happened. I expect most people would be outraged. I expect that nearly all of you would say that's a classic case of prior restraint, a massive First Amendment violation, and exactly the kind of thing that does not, or should not, happen in the United States.
But, in a story that's been in the making for over a year, and which we're exposing to the public for the first time now, this is exactly the scenario that has played out over the past year -- with the only difference being that, rather than "a printing press" and a "magazine," the story involved "a domain" and a "blog."
[…]
Okay, now some details. First, remember Dajaz1.com? It was one of the sites seized over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend back in 2010 -- a little over a year ago. Those seizures struck us as particularly interesting, because among the sites seized were a bunch of hip hop blogs, including a few that were highly ranked on Vibe's list of the top hip hop blogs. These weren't the kinds of things anyone would expect, when supporters of these domain seizures and laws like SOPA and PROTECT IP talk of "rogue sites." Blogs would have lots of protected speech, and in the hip hop community these blogs, in particular, were like the new radio. Artists routinely leaked their works directly to these sites in order to promote their albums. We even pointed to a few cases of stars like Kanye West and Diddy tweeting links to some of the seized domains in the past.
The comparison between a press agency and a blog is an apt one, especially considering the sad but typical ignorance-laced indifference most people have towards the fact that even online journals are meant to be covered by the same free expression laws that protect major outlets from censorship. Indeed, if a media organization was shuttered by the government, everyone and their brother’s dog would be up in arms over it in a moment, but when the same happens to a small-time blog (even a relatively popular one), outrage goes right out the window to be replaced with complacency, or even outright disdain (“they’re not real news, why should they be protected?”). It’s an all-too-real phenomenon, and a very depressing one, considering how it effectively helps keep these miscarriages of justice, such as what happened to Dajaz1.com and countless others, in total secrecy.
In the end, though, I suppose people always think along the same lines: “Sure, a few unlucky bastards got caught up in collateral damage, but it’s for a good cause! And surely, the same would never happen to me.” Which is why, of course, legislation like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are such good ideas that won’t possibly lead to more abuses and violations of people’s rights, including your own.
… Right?
(via @jayrosen_nyu)
Tags: SOPA • Stop Online Piracy Act • PROTECT IP Act • Dajaz1.com • copyright infringement
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| Purse with embroidered revolver |
Shorter police article: “Why bother with vet care or humane euthanasia for unwanted or injured animals when you can just shoot ’em instead?”
(via @radleybalko)
Media: 1/5 of teens engage in “sexting”! Researchers: Bullshit.
New on TSA’s Forbidden Items list: Purses with embroidered gun pictures [pictured].
(via @AmandaMarcotte)
North Carolina dog-lovers defeat proposed breed-specific legislation. Again: No bad breeds, only bad owners.
(via @PersonalFailure)
Large shopping center chain officially bans in-mall pet stores nationwide.
(via @PersonalFailure)
Kudos: Google valiantly thumbing their nose at U.S. government’s warrantless search policy regarding emails.
(via @csoghoian)
PZ Myers destroys David Barton’s idiocy about abortion and homosexuality being “aberration[s]” of nature and “against evolutionary law”.
MythBusters goes loose cannon: Cannonball misses target, flies into nearby suburb, blasts through house and crashes into minivan. Only injuries are PR team’s sudden headache.
(via @thinkgeek)
If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.
Tags: PoliceOne.com • sexting • TSA • purses • guns • Cumberland County, NC • pit bulls • Rottweilers • dogs • dog breeds • Macerich company • shopping centers • malls • pet stores • puppy mills • Google • email • warrants • warrantless searches • Gmail • PZ Myers • David Barton • homosexuality • natural law • naturalistic fallacy • MythBusters • cannons • Tassajara Creek • Alameda County Sherrif's Department
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| Burned-down home |
Last year, firefighters in South Fulton, Tennessee stood back and watched as a suburban home burned to the ground, having been ordered not to help the crisis-stricken family over an unpaid $75 fire protection fee.
Now, this tragedy has once again repeated itself. Tennessee homeowner Vicky Bell was forced to watch her family’s home burn to the ground after they arrived at the scene of her burning house and did nothing because they had failed to pay a $75 subscription fee:
“In an emergency, the first thing you think of, ‘Call 9-1-1,” homeowner Vicky Bell said.
Firefighters came out. Bell said, “9-1-1 said they were in fact dispatched and they showed that they were on the scene.” But once on the scene, they only watched. “You could look out my mom’s trailer and see the trucks sitting at a distance,” Bell said. For Bell, that sight was almost as disturbing as the fire itself. “We just wished we could’ve gotten more out,” Bell said.
For fuck’s sake, South Fulton. You can talk about strained budgets until you’re blue in the face; nothing excuses letting a family home burn to the ground over a measly $75. If that pathetic sum really is that important to the treasurers, then officials can simply bill the family the extra costs – once they’ve been provided fundamental societal services that are already free everywhere else.
Tags: South Fulton, TN • firefighters • fire protection fees
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| Gov. Luis Fortuño (P.R.) |
Lawmakers in Puerto Rico apparently believe strongly in impotent symbolism, because that’s all the island’s hate crimes legislation will amount to if they have their way with it:
The Puerto Rico Senate late last month approved a provision that would eliminate sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity and religious beliefs from the hate crimes statute that was included in the penal code that lawmakers approved in 2004. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the amended penal code this week during an extraordinary legislative session that Gov. Luis Fortuño convened.
Exactly what is the point of even having a hate crimes law if it’s so watered down that it wouldn’t actually apply to any hate crimes anymore?
For the record, I’m still far from sold on the nature of, or need for, hate crimes legislation (I explained my reasoning here; it has mostly remained the same since then), but regardless, one would think that lawmakers would at least make an effort at seeming substantial even if they aren’t actually willing to do anything concrete.
(via Joe. My. God.)
Tags: Puerto Rico • hate crimes • hate crime laws • Puerto Rico Senate • Luis Fortuño
![Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t2wFSl18Xb1mqyiUupIS8CV0ypPg7grW6Vky2K1HqOxUbHf2w8C41-VZ-rHMh-XMSCdCX2toOhQvFFA8DQCo8=s0-d "Joé McKen (18) [taken 07/13/10]")
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I’m a liberal skeptic, rationalist & third-wave atheist stuck in a rut in Québec, Canada and who spends his time composing, writing, drawing, harboring a layman’s passion for science and technology, getting angry at social injustices, and most of all, jabbing cretins and trolls with sharp pointy sticks. (Oh, and blogging.) Proud owner of a Nize Hat!, an indomitable SIWOTI syndrome and an itchy snark finger.
You can find all my musical, literary and artistic works at my art blog, Creativitas.
![There is probably no [superstition]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life](http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad171/crispianjago/Probably-No.gif "There is probably no [superstition]. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life")
