HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii is a step closer to joining a small group of other states in allowing same-sex civil unions.

In a move that still needs the governor’s signature to become law, the House of Representatives Thursday night approved a measure that has drawn some of the state’s biggest protest rallies.

Bravo, Hawaii. Let’s hope your governor signs the bill.

The case was filed by The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Wisconsin-based group that challenged the constitutionality of a 1988 law giving the president authority to designate the first Thursday in May as National Day of Prayer.

Congress established the day in 1952. In 1988, it set the first Thursday in May as the day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray.

I’m sure this will piss off a lot of people, but really, how would a National Day of No Prayer be any different?

UPDATE: It turns out that Judge Crabb addressed this very notion in her decision:

I understand that many may disagree with that conclusion and some may even view
it as a criticism of prayer or those who pray. That is unfortunate. A determination that the government may not endorse a religious message is not a determination that the message itself is harmful, unimportant or undeserving of dissemination. Rather, it is part of the effort to “carry out the Founders’ plan of preserving religious liberty to the fullest extent possible in a pluralistic society.” McCreary County, 545 U.S. at 882 (O’Connor, J., concurring). The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy.

— Decision at page 64

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

– Albert Einstein, in a letter to philosopher Erik Gutkind, March 1, 1954

Sounds rather unequivocal to me.

Of course, by all accounts the shooter was a 9/11 “truther”, so it would appear that we have irrational beliefs on both sides of the equation.

There’s just no shortage in our country of people who want to tell everyone else how to live their lives, is there?

One in four American millennials — which it defined as those who were born after 1980 and came of age around the millennium — are not affiliated with any faith tradition, Pew found. They characterize their religion as “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular.”

No really. Let’s just say that Mother Teresa was no saint! You do your own research and your own thinking on this one, but if you actually do take a few minutes to learn more about her, you’ll no doubt reach the same conclusion–it’s fucking unavoidable.

By the way, if you don’t already support the Freedom from Religion Foundation, this should make it clear that you should.

Judging by the frequency that the “atheist blogosphere” writes about this topic, I’ll go ahead and venture a guess that I’m not alone in my frustration; there have been some very good articles posted on this topic, including some posted recently.

You know, in a former life (so to speak), yours truly was an “attorney and counselor at law”. The thing that used to “get my goat” more than anything else back then was when someone just felt completely fucking compelled to tell me what “the law says”. And believe me, you’d be surprised just how often people feel compelled to tell a lawyer just what “the law says”. “The law says I can do that!” (The other biggie was the “Can a man?” questions, but I won’t elaborate…)

Today, I get the same “old feeling” when someone tells me “what an atheist believes”.

Here’s the typical scenario: it all starts with me meeting someone. Maybe it’s the parent of one of my kids’ friends, maybe someone standing in a line somewhere, maybe someone somewhere else… That person starts talking all crazy Christian* and–probably about the time they notice I’m not shaking my head in agreement–they ask me point-blank if I agree! My reply is usually along the lines of, “Uh, No. I’m an atheist.” Then there’s the long moment of puzzled disbelief as they, with casual nonchalance, look me over real good to see if they can recognize any of the “telltale” signs of atheism, whatever those are. Not finding any, they usually offer up a fairly standard expression along the lines of, “but wait, I’ve been told repeatedly–by good people that I really trust–that atheists are horrible people, but you seem like an alright fella.” To which I tend to reply along the lines of “well, I think you’ll find that I’m more-or-less representative of the average atheist” followed by the “you do the math” argument. It’s usually about at this point that the person remembers that I am, after all, a self-admitted atheist, so of course whatever I say must be wrong and whatever nonsensical, ill-fitting assertions were made by those “good people” must nonetheless be true. And that’s when the person invariably launches into the long and arduous task of telling me all the various and sundry horrible, horrible things I believe and all the horrible, horrible things I want to see happen.

Now, maybe it’s just me, but I just can’t fucking stand it when it gets to this point, which is not good because my typical response at this point is a polite and dignified, “well then, why don’t you go fuck yourself?” And, of course, that really does no one any good.

So, please GET THIS: an atheist is simply a person who rejects the theist’s claims. It’s really no more complicated than that. I’m not out to destroy you or your church or your family; I’m not out to corrupt your kids**. I just require something more than YOUR BELIEF to convince me that YOUR BELIEF is in fact reality! (And no, it doesn’t help that lots of people believe what you believe. Need I remind you that at one time every living person believed–in fact, it was beyond question–that the Earth was flat?)

If it helps, think of it in terms of our language: what does it mean when a word starts with the prefix “a”? Well, it means “without” or “lacking” or “not”. Ok? It doesn’t mean “against” (“contra”, as in contraceptive) and it also doesn’t mean “opposite of” (“anti” as in antiseptic).

So you see, “atheist” works like “apolitical” or “asocial”. Someone who’s “apolitical” isn’t trying to destroy the two party system or overthrow the government–they just don’t care who’s running in the next election! Likewise, a person who is “asocial” isn’t trying to close down all the bars and restaurants and movie theaters and bowling alleys! They just don’t go to those places themselves…

Get it? I goddamned well hope so. And if not, well, then, why don’t you go fuck yourself?

So here’s the setup: one day, in Wilson County, Tennessee, the principal of Carroll-Oakland Elementary School brings all the students from the whole school into the gym, where she introduces representatives of the Gideons and explains why they are there, and then proceeds to tell the whole student body about the time she received her first Bible. The principal tells the students that taking a Bible is not mandatory, but then the students, row by row, are brought forward–graduation-style (or communion-style, if you prefer)–and each student is given a Bible.

I honestly just can’t fucking believe that there are still public school principals out there who don’t see the problem with this! No, the taking of a Bible was not technically mandatory, but then we all know how much elementary school children enjoy being ostracized in front of the entire student body by a group of Bible-thumping adults, don’t we? Fucking unbelievable.

I’d just love to see the outcry that would result from a local synagogue passing out copies of the Talmud, or a local mosque passing out copies of the Qur’an.

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates his duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
–Thomas Paine

What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology.

You know, every time I read an article about terrorism or terrorists I just can’t help but think how very similar–not identical mind you, but very similar–their actions and methods are to those of our homegrown fanatical Christian fundamentalists. Granted, not many Christian fundamentalists are yet willing to “give their lives” to get Creationism taught in high school science classes, but they are otherwise no less determined.

Resistance to the teaching of evolution is an integral part of the history of American anti-intellectualism, which stems in great part from religious fundamentalism.

You know, I grew up in a religious family, in a religious community, and it just doesn’t make sense to me–it just doesn’t work for me in the long run. You know, I never wanted to step on anyone else’s  religion, though, in their beliefs, that’s what’s great about our country. Until, I started seeing a defining policy, as your documentary so astutely showed … you have a group of people telling other people how to live their lives, and you can’t–you can’t do that … you really have to check what country you’re living in, because the freedom that allows you to practice your religion is the same freedom you’re stepping on–that’s not right … and I want to add that, you know, if this was a nation of gay married couples who were telling you you couldn’t practice your religion, I’d be speaking out for you too, so let’s stop the nonsense. [clip #2, around the 2:00 mark]

Needless to say, Pitt’s themes certainly resonate with me.  It seems so patently obvious, why is this so hard for so many others to grasp?

[via The Perplexed Observer]

For years, I’ve had only a few things to say about the heated and contentious issue of abortion. First and foremost, I don’t “believe in it”. As I’ve said before, I am simply unable to think of a set of circumstances where (given the choice) it would be the choice I’d make. But, that’s as far as I go on the issue; who am I to tell others how to live their lives? You see, other people don’t have to make decisions with which I would personally agree, and that’s okay.

For those of you who just can’t get your head wrapped around this issue, here’s the skinny:

Barker said that atheists regarded the phrase “In God We Trust” as rude, uncivil and un-American.

“Tens of millions of really good Americans don’t believe in God,” he said. “In fact, there’s many more nonbelievers than there are Jews, and we wouldn’t think of offending Jews on our national monuments. . . . Why is it wrong to offend a Jewish minority but it’s not wrong to offend those of us who serve in the military and sit on juries but don’t believe in God?”

Personally, I think “go fuck yourself” would be a more appropriate term to engrave in a prominent position at the Capitol Visitor Center.  After all, it’s also a term with “a long history” and “consistent with the beliefs of America’s founding fathers” (as evidenced by the Revolutionary War), not to mention being a central theme of the Declaration of Independence.

[via Internet Infidels News Wire]

This is a refrain I’m hearing a lot from religious apologists – atheism is a religion. Also its equally fallacious siblings, science is a religion and evolution is a religion. It’s a sign of their desperation that the best argument they have is not that atheism is wrong, or that god does exist (supported by evidence of course), but that atheism is a religion too. A strange argument for a religious person to make on the face of it.  Is it supposed to strengthen the atheist’s [sic] position or weaken the theist’s [sic] one? In reality it’s a sign they have run out of arguments.

Do yourself a favor and read the rest of the article.

It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that some people reconcile any discrepancies they encounter between reality and religious belief by completely disregarding reality.

Secularists have very quietly become one of America’s largest minorities — how long before they use their power?

[via Internet Infidels News Wire]

The number of people baptized in Southern Baptist churches fell for the fourth straight year in 2008 to the denomination’s lowest level since 1987, and membership dipped slightly as well.

The continued decline in the number of followers in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination reflects a trend in other mainline Protestant churches.

Non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of those unaffiliated with a church are growing.

Associated Press:

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it would accept, not appeal, a federal judge’s order that lifts Bush administration restrictions limiting over-the-counter sales of “Plan B” to women 18 and older. U.S. District Judge Edward Korman ruled last month in a lawsuit filed in New York that President George W. Bush’s appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to restrict over-the-counter access.

Sounds good at first blush, but when you realize that the FDA’s own medical reviewers had initially recommended that the contraceptive be made available without any age restrictions, you see that it’s a half-measure.

Critics of the contraceptive say Plan B is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. Recent research suggests that’s possible but not likely.

So the fuck what! Why would that even matter? I mean, in those terms, “God” would have to be greatest abortionist ever–EVER.  In humans, between a quarter and a third of fertilized eggs fail to properly implant in the wall of the uterus–and that’s with no interference or intervention of any kind. Anyone who believes that their “perfect” god created a “perfect” human reproductive system, is sadly mistaken and frankly, either ignorant or delusional.

Get over it already! I mean, I know to your way of thinking sex is a bad thing because Jesus never got laid and all, but remember, hormones yell louder than parents. And remember also that it is the certainty, not the severity, of adverse consequences that deters behavior.  Get that?  Your daughter, as well as mine, has or will have too many friends and acquaintances that are having sex and not getting pregnant for this remote possibility to be much of a deterrent. There’s just too many “ifs”.  If she has sex and if it’s unprotected sex or if she only “thinks” it’s not unprotected sex and if she gets pregnant and if she’s under 18 and if she doesn’t have any friends or friends with older siblings who are over 18 and willing to purchase the Plan B pill for her, and if she winds up having to tell her parents, and if her parents wind up making her have the kid, then and in that event yada, yada, yada.

And it’s always the same arguments from these people!  Kids are so awful and horrible that they will take any chance just to fuck up the lives of their parents, right? Well fuck that. To paraphrase Bengt Washburn, saying this pill will make teenagers have sex is like saying the headlights on my car make the sun go down. Fucking get real.

Well, lo and behold, the pole strokers are at it again:

After a judge found in 2006 that the Wilson County School Board wrongly promoted Christianity, the school system was faced with what it deemed a tough call: how to handle posters from a Christian parents group using Bible verses and religious phrases to promote an event.

So when the group, called Praying Parents, asked for permission to hang posters for the upcoming “See You At The Pole” prayer event last September, school officials told the group that the posters weren’t acceptable. And the school board was sued, accused of violating the Constitutional rights of the group they were deemed to initially favor.

Poor Wilson County: damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and all because the fucking pole strokers believe that they are somehow so fucking special that they shouldn’t have to play by the same rules the rest of us!  Everything was fine and dandy for these people back when the school system was violating the U.S. Constitution on their behalf! But level the playing field and these cream-puffs can’t take it.  Equality is a bitch, ain’t it? (I only wonder what other of Jesus’ teachings they can’t quite grasp?)

It is a pretty funny situation, though.  Read the whole article in The Tennessean and you’ll get a good laugh. In the best traditions of Christian ignorance, these people actually think that putting “student-led” on their signs is enough to comply with the constitutional requirements. I mean, forget for a second that the name of the group is “Praying Parents” for fuck’s-sake, and forget that every time there seems to be a problem it’s because of something one or more parents just happen to be doing on behalf of this “student-led” organization! That’s about as original as tacking the word “science” on to “creationism” to get “creation science”!

Maybe next year they’ll start writing “now twice as ’student-led’ as in past years” on their signs, and we can do this all over again. Something tells me these people are simply never going to be content with respecting my constitutional rights…

You know, the truly funny thing is that if the pole strokers were atheists, then all the “good Christian folk” would call them “adjitators” and wax philosophically about why the adjitators have to be “stirrin’ up stuff ’round here”! But, because the pole strokers are Christians and because all they’re trying to do is get a government institution–in this case a public school– to bend the rules in order to help them indoctrinate other people’s children, they get a free pass! Well, so long as they don’t let their hubris convince them that they are somehow being persecuted!

I only hope these un-American, adgitatin’ pole strokers are ordered to pay Wilson County’s legal fees when the federal judge rules against them.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today expressed disappointment at the Obama administration’s decision to ask former football coach Tony Dungy to serve on the president’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United’s executive director, “I am surprised and disappointed that Dungy has been asked to serve on the council. His view that civil-marriage law should reflect religious doctrine is not in keeping with the Constitution.”

Nonbelievers’ ranks grow: Seculars find solace with social network:

Schwartz is part of a growing nationwide trend. A recent American Religious Identification Survey asked 54,461 Americans about their faith. The top three answers were Catholic, Baptist and none. In 2001, 6 percent of Tennesseans who were asked the same question were categorized as having no faith. In 2008, that number jumped to 9 percent.

Wow, up 50% since 2001. That’s not bad, especially in a state where atheists are constitutionally denied the right to hold public office–and, as the article points out, even though those provisions of the state constitution would likely be unenforceable, it still sends a strong message to nonbelievers. So you see, I’m not really concerned about the numbers, per se, but rather about the acceptance that increasing numbers will hopefully bring. And I’m not alone:

Secular Life members said they’ve grown accustomed to saying “No, thank you” when invited to church. They understand those invitations are well intentioned.But they sometimes feel like second-class citizens. Some group members work for the state or businesses with religious ties, and feel they have to hide their unbelief or put their jobs at risk.

True ‘dat.

Schwartz said that he and other members of Secular Life are not anti-religious. They just want a little respect. That’s a message he wants to get across to believers.

“I don’t hate you or your God,” he said. “I just want to live my life.”

[via vjack on Twitter (saw his tweet before making my usual pass through the press)]

“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”

Sweet evil Jesus! Just throw more gasoline on the fucking fire why don’t you? As Howard Cosell* once famously said, “If ignorance is bliss, you must be ecstatic.” Increases the problem? What problem are you talking about, your Popeness? AIDS, or unmarried sex?

You ever play the sports game where someone raises the question ‘if you could have any pitcher throughout history pitch one game and your life hung in the balance, who would you pick’? And, it’s not always baseball–I’ve heard the same question phrased in terms of quarterback, running back, power forward, etc. The point of the question is to spur discussion of the best pitchers, or whatever, of all time. You ever hear anyone say they’d pick the Pope to pitch that game? Didn’t think so. So why would anyone think the Pope has the answer in this particular life-or-death scenario? As numerous comedians like to point out, this is precisely why you shouldn’t get advice on sex from someone who’s never had sex. Yeah, it’s funny and all, but it’s also apt.

Benedict has never before spoken explicitly on condom use although he has stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.

Ah yes, abstinence. Well, why not? It’s worked SO well thus far… The Pope is certainly sticking to what he does best: dogma. You know, as in the dogmatic adherence to failed policies even in the face of stunningly overwhelming evidence. Jesus! Abstinence doesn’t work. News flash: people are going to fuck. Now in all fairness, abstinence, in theory, could work, but it requires absolute perfection. Wanna fuck? Can’t fuck. Need to fuck? Can’t fuck. Gotta fucking fuck? Can’t fuck. Get it? Absolute perfection. And, doesn’t it seem a little, well, contradictory shall we say, to demand absolute perfection from the very people you hold to be anything but perfect?

Look, this really isn’t a complicated issue. If you want to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, why wouldn’t you utilize any methods that actually help? Condoms aren’t perfect–no one would argue that–but they are effective in stopping the spread of sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS. I just don’t think this “forefront of the battle against AIDS” thing is going to fly when you argue against the most effective means available…

Of course, if you’re only objective is to dogmatically prop up the failed policies and doctrines of the church of which you are the leader, even if it means completely ignoring the realities of life for those you claim to… (ding, ding, ding!  We have a winner!)

Oh, and by the way, Bob Gibson. No question.

By now, of course, you’re all aware of the 9-year-old in Brazil who, raped by her own stepfather and carrying twins, was granted permission by the courts to have an abortion, upon the recommendation of her doctors that the pregancy posed “serious risks” to her life (among which was the fact that she is so small, her uterus simply doesn’t have the ability to hold one, let alone two, fetuses).

Well, it comes as no surprise then, that the Catholic Church has excommunicated everyone involved–well, nearly everyone.  Nixed from “the show” were the child’s mother and her doctors.

The child, of course, was not excommunicated.  Not because damn near every civilization ever know to humanity has recognized the right to defend one’s own fucking life, no, because she’s too young to be held accountable under church law, and that’s actually pretty reasonable.

But, also not excommunicated is the 51 year old stepfather, who’s been doinking his own fucking stepdaughter for three fucking years, since the girl was 6 years old.  Six!  And why does the stepfather get a pass from the church? Well, according to Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, “A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life.”  What?  Abortion is worse than rape, so the habitually incestuous pedophiliac gets a free ride.  Good call, Archbishop doucebag, and extra points for defending your appalling and outrageous position by invoking god.

Brazilian Minister of Health Jose Gomes Temporao sees the whole issue a bit differently, however: “It is legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but these dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole.” Maybe it’s just me, but that sounds vaguely familiar, yes I’m sure I must have read it somewhere…

In another stark example of fundagelicals “using politics to beat people over the head with a moral crusade“, a bill has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee which would allow the legislature to seek to change the state constitution to get rid of those pesky rights with which they disagree.

The Tennessean:

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that privacy provisions in the state constitution offer greater protection for abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution. The court threw out several restrictions on abortions.

Those restrictions would have required a 48-hour waiting period before abortions, abortion clinics to provide detailed information about the procedure and all but first-term abortions be performed in hospitals.

Abortion opponents are trying to change the state Constitution to void the Supreme Court ruling.

And it’s not exactly like Tennessee has an overwhelmingly ultra-liberal Supreme Court!

This whole business of amending a state’s constitution every time the fundagelicals want to beat the rest of us over the head with their personal belief system or their personal view of morality, puts me in mind of Penn Jillette’s incredibly apt observation about the constitution.  Using the very document that is supposed to protect the rights of the few against the many to deny those very rights to the few is fucking perverse–it is, as well, a bastardization of our American system of government.

And before you go whining to me about the rights of the many, since when does the majority need their rights protected (anti-same sex marriage amendments, I’m looking right at you)?  No really.  Think about it.

What is to be served by protecting only popular speech, for example?  Nothing. The only way popular speech would ever need to be protected is if “popular” changes and what was popular speech becomes unpopular speech. See? Popular speech is automatically protected because of the fact that unpopular speech is protected.

This is the concept that the fundagelicals never seem to grasp (or respect, if they do grasp it). The only reason you are free to practice your religion as you choose is the very fact that this is a secular nation. Duh?

…and the people, for instance, like William F. Buckley, who was a friend of my Dad’s, Barry Goldwater–you could have disagreed or agreed with them, but these were not crazy people [...] they wanted a separation of church and state, they were not using politics to beat people over the head with a moral crusade…

Interesting interview… here’s a link to the video on YouTube.

Now, I really don’t know anything about Frank Schaeffer, but scanning some of his recent writings at The Huffington Post, I have to say that I wish more people held his views on the separation of church and state.  Of course, his primary target seems to be the Republican party, the American Conservative movement, and the fundagelical right:

How can anyone who loves our country support the Republicans now? Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan defined the modern conservatism that used to be what the Republican Party I belonged to was about. Today no actual conservative can be a Republican. Reagan would despise today’s wholly negative Republican Party.

There are, of course, quite a few people who’d wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Schaeffer.  However, I think Barry Goldwater would agree with much of Mr. Scaeffer’s argument, as evidence by this quote from 1981.

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

Here’s a tidbit that will shock many “real” Christians:

Christians who aren’t Catholic also are a declining segment of the country.

The study, conducted by The Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has a margin of error of one-half of one percent (0.5 percent).

[via Internet Infidels News Wire]

RIO DE JANEIRO — A 9-year-old girl who was carrying twins, allegedly after being raped by her stepfather, underwent an abortion Wednesday despite complaints from Brazil’s Roman Catholic church.

Police said the stepfather has been jailed since last week.

Abortion is illegal in Brazil, but judges can make exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger or the fetus has no chance of survival.

Call me crazy, but how anyone can tell a 9 year old rape and incest victim, whose preganacy puts her very life at “serious risk” according to doctors, that she cannot even make the choice to defend her own life, is way the fuck beyond me.  And while this particular 9 year old girl lives is Brasil, let’s not forget that this is precisely what countless American fundagelicals would like to make the law of our land.

[via Internet Infidels News Wire]

The Obama administration is moving to overturn a controversial Bush administration policy that allows health care workers to decline to provide or participate in any service that violates their beliefs.

Bravo, Mr. President. Bravo.

The last thing I want to hear when rushed to the emergency room as the result of a auto accident, losing blood and in shock, is that my doctor or nurse refuses to administer blood because it violates their beliefs–but is willing to pray with me…

LEBANON — Developers of the proposed Bible Park USA were scrambling Wednesday to determine where the project stands after Tuesday’s surprise action by the Lebanon City Council to withdraw its support.

Mayor Philip Craighead said the $175 million project was “torpedoed” by the council’s unanimous vote to rescind all previous Bible park legislation. The ordinance was crafted by Councilman Alex Buhler, a consistent park opponent who said California-based EDG Inc. has ignored repeated requests to produce financial statements.

Job well done, council. Where there’s smoke, there is often fire…

“I am for development, but I don’t want anybody in Wilson County or Lebanon hurt by this project like they were in South Carolina,” Buhler said Wednesday.

He was referring to the $400 million Hard Rock Park, which opened in Myrtle Beach, S.C., last summer and sold recently at a bankruptcy auction for $25 million.

No shit! Hopefully, this marks the beginning of the end for Bible Park USA, at least in Wilson County, Tennessee.

A bill before the Senate could allow sales of the spirit in grocery stores

A bill that would allow the sale of wine in grocery stores has resulted in an unlikely pairing of organizations that oppose the measure: the Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association and the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

There go the freedom-loving Baptists again! Somebody needs to explain to them that if inaccessibility is the only thing keeping their members from boozin’ it up, well, then they’ve got a bigger problem than they’re probably willing to admit.

I’ve said for years that there’s no greater motivator than “no option”. Hell, it’s easy to make what other people consider the right decision when there’s no decision to be made, but is that what you really want to teach your flock? That appearance is all that matters? Can’t your mighty god see through that?

What happened to the “personal responsibility” I keep hearing about when the issue is abortion? Why can’t you Baptists excercise a little of that same personal responsibility when you’re in the grocery store? Just don’t walk down the fucking beer and wine aisle! It’s that simple; this isn’t exactly Jesus being tempted during his 40 days in the desert, is it?

As for the liquor store owners, competition is a bitch, no? But that’s the free market at work, plain and simple. You just keep clinging to the last vestiges of the antiquated “blue laws”, don’t you?

Me? I’ll take freedom, and I’m willing to sacrifice a few embarrased Baptists to the more judgmental of their kind along the way if that’s the price. Reminds me of the old joke about how you never take just one Baptist with you when you go fishing, because if there’s only one, he’ll drink all your beer. Like all good humor, it is, obviously, rooted in truth.

Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to a vasectomy. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding how and when a vasectomy may be obtained, especially related to situations involving the knowledge and consent of a spouse when the person requesting the vasectomy is married.

This bill is said to be a response to the efforts of the pro-life* camp, whose lemmings have introduced two bills, HJR61 and HJR66, both of which are aimed at severely limiting access to abortion in the state.

Kind of drives home this issue, doesn’t it? I mean, I’ve never considered having a vasectomy, and can’t imagine that I would, but…

nkb

* When did “pro-life” become synonymous with “anti-freedom”?

In a rare departure, the state’s own top lawyer, Attorney General Jerry Brown, has refused to defend the initiative and is urging the justices to invalidate it. Brown says Proposition 8 itself is unconstitutional because the Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision last year recognized gays as a minority group entitled to judicial protection and established marriage as a fundamental right.

Let’s hope that the California Supreme Court finds in favor of equality. Let freedom ring!

What is wrong with these fucking legislators? The Tennessean newspaper reports that the State of Tennessee, as of the end of January 2009, has 7,184 children in some type of state care or supervision.  So, what’s the solution? Arbitrarily reduce the pool from which adoptive parents can be drawn.

Of course, this bill has nothing to do with children or adoption; it is simply yet another in a long line of legislative attempts to punish gays and lesbians for daring to be in any way different. The hate-mongers are getting better at subterfuge, however, for this bill, unlike previous failed attempts, doesn’t mention the real target (gays and lesbians) but rather speaks in terms of “unwed couples”. “See? It’s not gays and lesbians we have a problem with, it’s anyone who isn’t exactly like us ‘normal’ folk.” Fucking people! Do they really think we’re that stupid?

I’ll keep this one short and only make the following remark (though I could go on for days about this).  The thing that far too many people don’t understand is that there’s no such thing as a “normal” family–there’s only family, and there’s no such thing as a “normal” life–there’s only life. Not everyone is going to live their lives the way you choose to live yours. So get the fuck over it.

[via Pharyngula]

Associated Press:

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – A man shot and killed himself in front of a cross inside televangelist Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral on Wednesday as a nearby volunteer told a group of visitors about the church’s suicide-prevention program, police and church officials said.

The man handed a note and his driver’s license to two ushers, walked to the cross and then shot himself in the head as he appeared to be praying, Senior Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz said.

And, because of the anti-science nature of that Act, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology has announced that they will not hold its annual meeting in Louisiana as long this Act is law, and has so informed Governor “Bobby” Jindal of their decsion.

For those of you who may be thinking “so what, this is not a huge organization, and an annual meeting that brings 2000 people to New Orleans for a week isn’t going to bring the state to its knees”, just remember that even the largest dam (or levee, for that matter), can be completely destroyed by a single trickle of water (piping, I believe it is called).

So kudos to the SICB for being the first to make a bold statement regarding Louisiana’s hostility to science and science education. They surely won’t be the last.

[via Mississippi Atheists, Pharyngula, and Louisiana Coalition for Science]

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican will include discussion of intelligent design in a conference marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” officials said Tuesday.

The announcement reverses a decision to exclude such discussion but officials said intelligent design would be treated only as a cultural phenomenon — not as science or theology.

Organizers of the March 3-7 conference did not explain at a news conference Tuesday why they had decided to include discussion of the view that life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone, and that a higher power has had a hand in changes among species over time.

“The committee agreed to consider ID as a phenomenon of an ideological and cultural nature, thus worthy of a historic examination, but certainly not to be discussed on scientific, philosophical or theological grounds,” said Saverio Forestiero, a conference organizer and professor of zoology at the University of Rome.

Ted Haggard cannot and never will be able to square the circle of his sexual essence with his religion. Something has to go, and that something is his religion, or at least his religion’s attitudes about homosexuality.

Christianity needs to change its beliefs about homosexuality and to quit condemning those — even those in its own flock — to a life of guilt, self-loathing, and conflict. Not only does Ted Haggard need to publicly apologize to the gay and lesbian community for condemning them, his Colorado Springs New Life Church — and Christianity in general — needs to apologize to Ted Haggard for ruining his life, not only by exiling him from his home, community and friends, but by forcing him to live a lie. The data are in: homosexuality is not a choice. Christianity needs to follow the data instead of forcing the data to fit its religious dogmas.

In the film you can hear the guilt in Ted Haggard’s voice and see the self-loathing in his face. Ted Haggard is a broken man, broken not by his biology but by his religion. You cannot “fix” people’s biology, but you can change their religion, and it’s time for Ted Haggard to give up on his religion — and perhaps religion altogether.

I can’t say that I possess much compassion for Ted Haggard, but wouldn’t that be something? Hell, much as I despise his hypocicy, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that Ted Haggard could be an incredible voice for tolerance and reason–not that I think there’s a homosexual’s chance in the National Association of Evangelicals that that would ever happen.

No, my problem is this: while I believe wholeheartedly that you should endeavor to forgive wrongdoing freely admited and genuinely regretted, I just don’t think that sentiment accurately describes Ted Haggard. At least not yet.

By labeling intolerance as intolerant, the schools are opposing Dacus and Harvey’s brand of hate-based Christianity. Where is the outrage from Christians who do not want their religion equated with hatred and bigotry?

Good question.

GoDaddy’s famously risque Super Bowl ads always pull lots of eyeballs, but the company’s latest spots may have resulted in a little too much attention of the wrong kind.

Entrepreneur Brian Harrell, who manages hosting services for dozens of Christian churches and faith-based organizations and uses GoDaddy to host over 160 domains, says he’s pulled several of his clients off of GoDaddy’s servers after receiving numerous complaints about the company’s racy ads that aired during Sunday’s game.

You know, the SuperBowl “wardrobe malfunction” of 2004, while providing a good laugh to my family (my wife and kids–6 and 7 years old at the time–were watching the halftime show with me), might actually have caught some people off guard–for half a fucking second–but this is simply incredulous. To think that anyone–who would care what sort of advertising is used by their web hosting company–wouldn’t have at the very least visited GoDaddy.com one time to check things out is hard to believe (The GoDaddy.com site has their “racy” advertisement placed prominently on their homepage all year long, as best I can remember).

GoDaddy’s response is priceless, and right on the money (so to speak):

The company responded with a boilerplate letter, which reads in part:

Although we wish your opinion of our commercials was a favorable one, please know your feedback is highly valued. At GoDaddy.com, we strongly believe that the freedom to express one’s opinions is one of the defining factors that makes the United States a great nation.

Indeed.

[via Internet Infidels News Wire]

Stein told the Burlington Free Press that he was not “anti-science” as some critics have labeled him.

Yeah, and Archie Bunker never saw himself as a bigot, either.

“I am far more pro-science than the Darwinists,” Stein wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. “I want all scientific inquiry to happen not just what the ruling clique calls science.”

So what he’s saying is that science, which is the study of the natural world, should also study the supernatural. Yeah, great idea… puts me in mind of this incredibly apt Sidney Harris cartoon.

Ben Stein is no dummy, and while his dogged (or should I say dogmatic?) adherence to this ridiculous assertion that ruling-class scientists are somehow suppressing some ‘higher truth’ is, at first blush, so laughable as to not even warrant reply, the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of people out there willing to simply take his word for it. He’s able to perpetuate this nonsense because so many Americans don’t really understand what science is and isn’t, and in the face of utter ignorance, Ben Stein doesn’t sound that crazy. I’m glad he’s not the only one doing the talking.

California’s 4th District Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a Christian school can expel students based on sexual orientation. Now, while I don’t personally agree with this kind of discrimination, I have no problem with a Christian school–that receives no government funding*–making their own rules on who can attend and who can’t.

True, this case turned on a California state anti-discrimination law, but it does demonstrate something I feel strongly about: don’t inject religion into public and otherwise secular schools, and we won’t hold your religious schools to the same standards of decency. See, Separation of Church and State works for all of us.

nkb

* Of course, why we would subsidize this type of unadulterated bigotry with tax-breaks is another question, but one well-worth asking.

Moments of silence include mandatory attendance. Unlike Church, you can’t opt out. You can’t go to the bathroom. You can’t come to school when it’s over. You MUST attend

[via NoGodBlog]

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information – an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.

Supporter of the “Mexico City policy” as it is known, continue to push for extending the ban on funding to any international groups that can even spell the word abortion (hehe)! And to think that we get upset at the very notion of other “international groups” who would dare even think of imposing their belief-systems on Americans!

Knowledge is power. I find it interesting that the now defunct ban included any groups that even provide “information” about abortion, which would include information critical of abortion.

“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.”

“In the coming weeks, my administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world,” the president said.

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Of course, what is patently unreasonable, in the eyes of those who support this policy, is the notion that anything other than their personal belief system ever be the basis of U.S. policy.

Population Action International, an advocacy group, said that the policy had “severely impacted” women’s health and that the step “will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don’t have access to family planning.”

Anti-abortion groups and lawmakers condemned Obama’s decision.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., called it “morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans to promote abortion around the world.”

What a well-educated Representative Mr. Pence is. I mean, the U.S. Extreme Court has always held that this argument (“my tax dollars shouldn’t be used for anything I objectionable”) is without merit. Plus, is he arguing that abortion is “morally wrong” or that the spending of taxpayer dollars over the protest of “millions” of Americans is “morally wrong”? I mean, the former is simply his personal religious belief, and while I support his right to believe what he wants, I don’t support his attempts for force those beliefs on the rest of us. The later, of course, is just is ridiculous on its face. I mean, “we all agree or we don’t do it” didn’t even work very well for The Beatles.

DENVER (AP) – Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard’s former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard – a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.

Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.

Boyd said an “overwhelming pool of evidence” pointed to an “inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship” that “went on for a long period of time … it wasn’t a one-time act.” Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began.

What a fine example of Christian evangelical fundamentalism this guy continues to be. I used to work with a fundagelical who, back in 2006 when Haggard was first “outed” as a patron of both gay sex and methamphetamine, used to tell me that Haggard’s actions did not “diminish his message”, but that’s another story…