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

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.

Contrast these three situations: 1) you are sitting in a hotel bar in Mongolia and want to use your Visa card to buy a round of drinks for your friends, and; 2) your Mom is at the check-out counter at a Sears store when the clerk asks her if she wants to apply for a Sears credit card and save 10 percent on her order, and 3) a possible terrorist with a dubious travel record and suspected al-Qaeda connections is standing in line at a European airport waiting to board a flight to the U.S. that leaves in an hour. What happens in each of these cases?

In Mongolia the bartender takes your card and authorizes it in seconds across a 12,000-mile round-trip. At the Sears store the transaction is not only authorized in less than a minute, but a new account is created and both your Mom’s identity and her creditworthiness are established and calculated on the spot, along with her discount. Meanwhile the airline, airport, local security, European police, Interpol, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Customs Service, FBI, CIA, and NSA can’t between them figure out in an hour whether this guy standing in line in Holland should be allowed on the plane or not.

How is it that we can run our credit card operations so well and our national security so poorly?

A bit of an unusual comparison, to be sure. But a fair question nonetheless.

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

The action followed President Obama’s decision in March to expand the number of such cell lines beyond those available under a policy set by President George W. Bush, which permitted research to begin only with lines already available on Aug. 9, 2001.

Bravo.  Science is a good thing.

Most Americans expect that their laws are only passed after some period of public debate between Republicans and Democrats or their news-channel proxies. However, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may be an exception to this rule, and if it is signed, many United States laws concerning the Internet and ownership of data may become substantively different.

Various nations (including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the U.S.) are said to be negotiating ACTA now, with the goal of passing a joint treaty to protect intellectual property sometime in 2010. I would like to tell you much more about what’s being written into the ACTA bill, but I can’t: the contents of the treaty are secret.

Yikes.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for protecting intellectual property and clearly the international protections afforded to the intellectual property of Americans often do not even approach the level of U.S. protections. But why secret?

“Even assuming that most of this nation’s citizens have historically depended upon God by choice for their protection, this does not give the General Assembly the right to force citizens to do so now,” Wingate wrote.

“This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority,” he wrote. “The commonwealth’s history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God.”

[via Pharyngula]

Of course, you won’t read about this at Fox News, Drudge, or apparently any of the other major conservative media outlets… go figure!

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]

In recent weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee has been holding hearings about handset exclusivity. That’s when a phone maker (like Apple) offers a particular model (like the iPhone) to a carrier (like AT&T) exclusively for a period of time (like five years).

Come to think about it, that example — the iPhone — is pretty much the only one anybody cares about. These aren’t handset-exclusivity hearings; they’re “Why can’t we have the iPhone on Verizon?” hearings.

As always, I’m just so glad that we’ve obviously solved all the SERIOUS problems facing our nation.  Why else would the senate be wasting time with this nonsense?  And maybe nonsense is a bit too strong a word, but you’ve got to admit that cellphone exclusivity has to be, or at the very least should be, so far down the list of important issues currently facing our nation that only the most technology-centric blogs would devote ANY time it, no?

[via TL]

The Tennessean:

Sherri Goforth, a legislative aide for Senate Republican Caucus Chairwoman Diane Black, sent the e-mail last month to other staff for Republican senators. It shows a portrait or photo of each U.S. president except Obama, who is depicted as just a pair of cartoonish white eyes in a black background.

For fucking crying out loud!  Doesn’t everyone on the planet by now know that you shouldn’t send an email on an office computer that you don’t want the entire fucking planet to see?

The legislative aide has been reprimanded and the letter of reprimand placed in the aide’s “file”.  Democratic legislatures are calling for the aide’s termination.

But aside from the obvious public and political appearances (is a reprimand enough? should she be fired?) the incident raises larger concerns.  Yes, this is merely one incident of a low-to-mid level staffer engaging in what can only be described as incredibly bad decision making, but is it also indicative of a legislative culture that condones racism?  And let’s be clear here, what is colloquially referred to as “good-natured racism”–an oxymoron if ever there were one–is still racism nonetheless…

The Tennessean:

The Tennessee legislature may have to pass more laws to protect bars, said Nashville attorney David Raybin. Until that happens, he says, he’d advise clients to post the sign and let someone else be a test case if a shooting were to happen.

“My prudent advice would be that, because you have the capacity to exclude people with firearms, if you don’t and someone is injured, you run the risk of a greater liability,” Raybin said. “Whether that will pan out as a court holding that way is another matter.”

[...]

All of the business owners Walt Baker has talked to have felt the same way. Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, said not a single restaurant owner he’s spoken with has planned to go along with the new law.

As I’ve said before, I’m a huge supporter of the 2nd Amendment (indeed, the whole of the U.S. Constitution, for that matter), but at some point common sense has to prevail.  I mean, putting aside the well-reasoned arguments of law enforcement, that the provisions of the bill (requiring that a carry permit holder not be intoxicated while packing heat in a bar or restaurant) will be nearly impossible to enforce, it’s just a bad idea.

And why–WHY–would you go eat or drink–with or without your wife and kids–at a restaurant or bar where you truly believed you needed a gun to protect yourself? Let’s call that what it is: bad decision making.

State Representative Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton), Speaker of the House, in his efforts to cut off any debate as to the override, had this to say:

…to rehash the same arguments over and over and over, I think, are ridiculous.  I’ve heard it all for six months almost.

How eloquent! I always thought that the deliberate suppression of any free and open debate was the hallmark of communist and/or tyrannical regimes… (and the church). It certainly runs completely and utterly contrary to the principles upon which this great nation and this great state were founded. Bravo, Mr. Speaker!

Proponents of the bill point to Georgia, where they say “crime went down” after passing a similar law.  But they present no hard facts, and let’s not forget: correlation is not causation.

As State Representative Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory) aptly pointed out:

You know, even in old Dodge City, they checked the guns when they went into the city; they didn’t allow guns in saloons. So, I just think it’s a bad mix. I know, some people say it’s worked other places, but I think it’s potentially dangerous.

Opposing attorneys in the 2000 election fight for Florida – David Boies, who represented Al Gore, and Ted Olson, George Bush’s lawyer and later the U.S. Solicitor General – are teaming up to ask a federal court to throw out California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

The two filed a lawsuit Friday on behalf of two gay men and two gay women, arguing that the marriage ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.

Olson said he hopes the case will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This is a federal question,” he said. “This is about the rights of individuals to be treated equally and not be stigmatized.”

The bill proponents will tell you, Governor, that more guns make bars and restaurants safer, but they have no data to back up these claims.

The data is solid when it comes to police reports, which can tell you what happens when people enter drinking establishments with a gun.

Governor, Tennesseans are outraged that this bill is on the verge of becoming law. It is wrong, and should be fought at every turn.

Will you allow this? Or will you send the legislature and the gun lobby a message that Tennessee cares about the safety of its citizens?

Guns and booze? Hmmm. It doesn’t exactly take a rocket surgeon (or a psychic, for that matter) to see that this is a bad idea. And let’s not kid ourselves, not only is it pretty goddamned easy to get a carry permit, you don’t exactly have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to complete the mandatory, but shall we say, slightly less than “challenging”, course required of carry permit applicants either.

And I know. I’ve taken and passed the course, and I have a carry permit. And sometimes I carry. I just don’t feel the need to be packing every time I leave my house. Shit! If you are so scared to eat at a particular restaurant or grab a beer at a particular bar that you feel you need to be packing, why not just go somewhere that you’ll feel safe, and be done with it? And, if you don’t feel safe anywhere unless you are carrying a piece, well, that’s probably a psychological problem which should disqualify you from carrying in the first place.

You know folks, you have to be willing to accept that there is some amount of risk involved with anything. There is only one way to eliminate all risk–it’s called death, and I don’t know many people willing to undertake that one in the name of safety. Personally, when it comes to having dinner with my wife and kids at our local [restaurant that serves booze], I’m nearly always more concerned about driving there than I am about eating there.

Governor John Baldacci:

“In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions,” Baldacci said in a statement. “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

Indeed. It’s encouraging to see the dominos starting to fall so quickly.

The photostream already contains a number of iconic presidential photographs, as well as a number of more casual photos.

Check it out.  I’ve already subscribed to the RSS feed.

[via Daring Fireball]

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.

A decade-long battle for marriage equality in Connecticut ended late Wednesday when the General Assembly voted to update the state’s marriage laws to conform with a landmark court ruling allowing gay and lesbian couples to tie the knot.

Wow. Reason. Cool.

In an effort to appease some gay marriage foes, lawmakers amended the bill to show they want to protect religious liberties. For example, it says religious organizations and associations are not required to provide services, goods or facilities for same-sex wedding ceremonies.

Again, sounds very reasonable. Truthfully, I don’t think anyone is suggesting the opposite and I truthfully don’t see how any reasonable person could so suggest, but if this language assuages concerns, then good.

But here’s the kicker:

[name redacted], a 62-year-old Roman Catholic from Bristol, clutched her rosary beads as she watched Wednesday’s debate from the Senate gallery. She said she was praying during much of the day for God’s mercy on Connecticut.

Not to single out anyone here, but this is the same mindset that was prevalent 40 years ago amongst opponents of civil rights, 55 years ago amongst opponents of interracial marriage, and undoubtedly 150 years ago amongsts those who opposed “freeing the slaves”. Let’s face it, change can be scary. But in the end, seeing our nation live up to the principles upon which it was founded–and I’m talking about equality here–is more important than a little fear, isn’t it?

Bravo, Connecticut!

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.

NEW YORK – In response to litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Justice Department today released four secret memos used by the Bush administration to justify torture. The memos, produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), provided the legal framework for the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other illegal interrogation methods that violate domestic and international law.

You can now read them for yourself and reach your own conclusions.

Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote — the minimum needed — to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples and joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Tuesday morning’s legislative action came less than a day after Douglas issued a veto message saying the bill would not improve the lot of gay and lesbian couples because it still would not provide them rights under federal and other states’ laws.

The governor’s message is typical of the obfuscation you often hear from Christian extremists and other bigots.  “Well, if it can’t be perfect right out of the gate, then there’s no reason to take this important first step.”  Bullshit!  This is the same fallacious argument used by the young-Earth/anti-Evolution crowd when they spew their propaganda: “Evolution is not a perfect explanation, therefore we must teach God to public schoolchildren.”  Again, bullshit!

But hey, congratulations to the people of Vermont.  How nice it must be to live in a state where fairness, equality and liberty, though no doubt hard-fought, are nonetheless achievable.

Among the celebrants in the lobby were former Rep. Robert Dostis, D-Waterbury, and his longtime partner, Chuck Kletecka. Dostis recalled efforts to expand gay rights dating to an anti-discrimination law passed in 1992.

“It’s been a very long battle. It’s been almost 20 years to get to this point,” Dostis said. “I think finally, most people in Vermont understand that we’re a couple like any other couple. We’re as good and as bad as any other group of people. And now I think we have a chance to prove ourselves here on forward that we’re good members of our community.”

Dostis said he and Kletecka will celebrate their 25th year together in September.

Well said.  And this is the point that many people just don’t “get”.  No one is asking for “special rights” or special treatment or special anything, just equality.  Bravo Vermont.

(CBS) Millions of your stimulus tax dollars are already going to work in affluent Redmond, Wash., the home of Microsoft, where unemployment is among the lowest in the nation.

The stimulus money will help build a bridge over Redmond’s only freeway, reports CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. It’s at a spot that happens to connect Microsoft’s east campus to its west campus. The project has been on Microsoft’s wish list for years, and includes fancy landscaping, a bike lane and pedestrian walkway.

I’m told that an unnamed source inside Microsoft was quoted as saying, “All I know is, Apple doesn’t have bridge connecting its campuses.  See?  Microsoft rules!”

But, seriously, I do think it’s important–in these difficult times–to help struggling companies like, wait, did that say “Microsoft”?  What the fuck?

Iowa Code section 595.2 is unconstitutional because the County has been unable to identify a constitutionally adequate justification for excluding plaintiffs from the institution of civil marriage.

The court’s summary of the ruling reads in part:

The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion

Now, this is a different situation than the one in Tennessee, where my more bigoted fellow citizens voted overwhelmingly to amend the state constitution. And why? Well, I can’t claim to understand, but I believe it had something to do with farm animals, and in all fairness, that just may be a serious consideration in Tennessee, irrespective of one’s “sexual orientation”. Or, it could be that all of that was just a load of bullshit intended to camouflage plain old-fashioned prejudice. I’ll let you, dear reader, form your own opinion on that one! (“No sir, we don’t support no equality ’round here and we ain’t about to go lettin’ just anyone live in freedom, neither.” You can just hear the sound of someone spitting tobacco, can’t you?)

Nonetheless, I think in time the well-reasoned approach of freedom and equality presently being taken in Iowa will eventually become law everywhere. Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later.  Let freedom ring!

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.”

Under the proposal, a person could be fined as much as $1,000 for publicly wearing pants “below the person’s waistline … in a manner that exposes the person’s underwear or bare buttocks.”

Towns says the behavior is offensive.

Now, I completely understand that Rep. Towns may have sponsored this bill–believing full well that it would never make it out of committee–simply as a matter of voicing an opinion, or so that he could claim a “moral victory” to his constituency when he next has to run for office.  But:

The measure sponsored by Rep. Joe Towns, a Memphis Democrat, passed the House Criminal Practice and Procedure Subcommittee on Wednesday.

Jesus-fucking-please us!  I’ve got an idea: let’s turn every police officer in the state into a fucking high school assistant principal! I mean, waistlines today, hemlines tomorrow. What the fuck is going on up there on Capitol Hill???

I for one am just thoroughly pleased that we have, in Tennessee, solved all our problems related to real crime and budget shortfalls and education and unemployment and all the other issues that have a real, substantial daily impact on peoples lives. I mean, why else would good Rep. Towns be sponsoring such meaningless, trivial and trite–not to mention un-American–legislation about incredibly insignificant shit that, pardon, “offends” him. Talk about legislating to the lowest common denominator! What delicate sensibilities this daisy has! (Sorry, that’s actually an insult to daisies which are, after all, fairly resilient plants) What’s next, bluejeans only on Fridays? Christ, we’re talking about sidewalks here, not statehouses!

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate this saggy pants stuff. But you know what I do? I don’t wear saggy fucking pants that fall down to the crack of my ass! Jesus! Whatever happened to freedom? You don’t like saggy pants? Fine, don’t wear them, but it’s a very different thing to go around telling other people they can’t wear them. What is this guy, six, and all of us are over at his house playing in his backyard?

Maybe I’m just flat wrong here, but since when does anyone have the right to not be offended? I mean, in my home, yes, but in public?  Get real!

You know, it’s bad enough when lawmakers try to legislate their own personal, religious belief system in an effort to force the rest of us to live our lives the way THEY say we should, but this guy is actually trying to legislate his own personal likes and dislikes. Did I step through some fucking portal without knowing it and wind up in Bizzaro World?

What’s the deal, Rep. Towns?  Did some other Representative beat you to the punch by sponsoring a bill that would require everyone to smile when they’re in public?

If you’re wondering why mobile phone carriers get away with imposing blatantly unfair policies, there’s a simple reason: No one stops them.

If the carriers were to be stopped, the Federal Communications Commission would be doing the stopping. But when a carrier is accused of misbehaving, the FCC has a simple procedure for adjudicating the claim: It simply asks the cell phone company if it’s guilty. When the answer is “no,” the case is closed.

Sullivan recounts his experiences related to canceling his Sprint mobile service after his contract was finished, and his attempts to have his final month of service pro-rated based on his cancellation date. This, of course, results in the customer often paying for service that not only won’t be used, but can’t be used. Bottom line: shit out of luck:

If you want to know why U.S. companies seem to run rough-shod over consumers on a regular basis, now you do: federal regulators hold the door open for them. The inconvenient truth of this tale is that the FCC seems to simply do whatever the telecommunication firm tells it to do — in this case, close my case.

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?

This Order is an important step in advancing the cause of science in America. But let’s be clear: promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda – and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.

Now, that’s a breath of fresh air. What’s sad is that it will be regarded by many as a bold political statement, but why should it be?  Shouldn’t “free and open inquiry” be the standard in all things in the “land of the free”?  Shouldn’t the notion of listening “especially when it’s inconvenient” be the default position in a country whose founders took great care to pronounce in the clearest of terms that even unpopular speech was not only allowed but vital?

There is no finish line in the work of science.

A message as timely as it is apt. Bravo Mr. President.

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]

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!

Yeah, well, John Stewart nails him:

Yeah! That’s Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor, rising star of the Republican party, and a leading anti-stimulus voice. His state has been offered $3.8 billion dollars in federal aid, but Jindal has said, “No!” He’s only agreed to take a little over $3.7 billion.

And Sarah Palin cancelled the “bridge to nowhere” too. What a fucking unabashed bullshit artist.

I spend my time paying attention to as much of the science media as I can, and the reality is that the reporting on climate change is dominated by the few scientists who disagree with each other. The rest of the science world is doing what they do best… their jobs. And, the science supports the consensus.

[emphasis added]

An excellent observation, and climate change is not the only area where this is the case (evolution is another that readily springs to mind). It’s always been this way, of course, (how many times have you heard the aphorism, “the squeaky wheel gets the greese”?) but many people just don’t recognize it.

I just want to remind people that science is never based on the work or the opinions of one person. Science is not a petition. It is based on data-based consensus over time. So, while it might be useful to read Roy’s book as Cali suggests, it is also good to look for other books and articles by many other authors before forming an opinion.

Unfortunately, the issue has been so politicized that people do have opinions whether or not they know anything about climate science because of the emotions involved. I have a basic understanding of the science involved, but I leave the details to the experts, those working on the science. I try to temper my own opinion with the understanding that I don’t know everything on this topic.

[emphasis added]

Again, sound like any other area of science that you can think of?

It is good to be skeptical, but not to the detriment of reason. Sometimes skeptics forget to poke holes in their own arguments. I don’t think science is about skepticism. It is about critical thinking, which is necessary for proper support of skepticism. Yes, be a skeptic, but look at as many sides of an issue as you can, and remember that there are probably others that you have not considered. An opinion is just that, an opinion, not a statement of fact. We all have them, but that doesn’t make us experts.

It used to be that Bush officials, when asked about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, would reply in a dark and meaningful manner, “We will not leave this problem to the next administration.” But, as you may have noticed… Still, one has to hope that the Obama administration does not make the opposite mistake and substitute a “make nice” policy for a policy that displayed neither soft speech nor the big stick.

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]

A special U.S. vaccine court ruled against parents with autistic children Thursday, saying that vaccines are not to blame for their children’s neurological disorder.

The judges in the cases said the evidence was overwhelmingly contrary to the parents’ claims – and backed years of science that found no risk.

“It was abundantly clear that petitioners’ theories of causation were speculative and unpersuasive,” the court concluded in one of a trio of cases ruled on Thursday.

The ruling, which was anxiously awaited by health authorities, was a blow to families who have filed more than 5,000 claims for compensation through the government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The claims are reviewed by special masters serving on the U.S. Court of Claims.

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.

Science Magazine, Louisiana Creates: New Pro-Intelligent Design Rules for Teachers:

Last year, Louisiana passed the Louisiana Science Education Act, a law that many scientists and educators said was a thinly veiled attempt to allow creationism and its variants into the science classroom. On Tuesday, the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted a policy that sharpens those fears, giving teachers license to use materials outside of the regular curriculum to teach “controversial” scientific theories including evolution, origins of life, and global warming. Backers of the law, including the Louisiana Family Forum, say it is intended to foster critical thinking in students. Opponents insist its only purpose is to provide a loophole for creationists to attack the teaching of evolution.

“We fully expect to see the Discovery Institute’s book, Explore Evolution, popping up in school districts across the state*,” says Barbara Forrest, a philosopher at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank, is a proponent of Intelligent Design. In a statement on the institute’s Web site, its education analyst Casey Luskin hailed the new policy as a “victory for Louisiana students and teachers.” The policy will now be printed in the Louisiana Handbook for School Administrators, which public school officials use as a guide.

Phil Plait, the renowned skeptic, author and astronomer behind the Bad Astronomy Blog, and President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, has a take on this that is dead-on:

So they changed tactics again, now claiming that teachers need “academic freedom” to discuss controversial theories. The thing is, evolution isn’t controversial. Not among real scientists, that is. It’s a manufactured controversy, with reality on one side, and antiscience creationists making stuff up on the other.

The ultimate irony of all this is that the last thing the creationists want is academic freedom. What they really want is for children to learn only their errant beliefs, and get no real science education.

Precisely. This isn’t about freedom, academic or otherwise, but is simply about telling other people how they must live their lives and how they must raise their children, and that is anything but freedom. “Ultimate irony”, however, is quite an understatement. As I’ve said before, when discussing the Creationists’ recent claims that reading the Bible (in public schools, of course) promotes critical thinking:

The bottom line is that nothing, absolutely nothing, is too patently false, too intentionally misleading, too unnecessarily obfuscating of the real issues, or even too hypocritical for these people [to use as a justification].

[via Bad Astronomy Blog]

Tom Hanks, Executive Producer for HBO’s controversial polygamist series “Big Love,” made his feelings toward the Mormon Church’s involvement in California’s Prop 8 (which prohibits gay marriage) very clear at the show’s premiere party on Wednesday night.

“The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen,” he told Tarts. “There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here’s what happens now. A little bit of light can be shed, and people can see who’s responsible, and that can motivate the next go around of our self correcting Constitution, and hopefully we can move forward instead of backwards. So let’s have faith in not only the American, but Californian, constitutional process.”

Far too many Americans are of the mistaken impression that their religious freedom gives them the right to tell everyone else how to live their lives, or that their religious freedom trumps mine, or that the fucking bible trumps the Constitution.

This is solely an issue of freedom and equality. Now, I’m no expert, but I think as Americans we’re supposed to value freedom and equality… yes, I’m certain I’ve read that somewhere…

The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.

Yeah, it’s more or less what I expected: we’re great and they are horrible and god, of course, is on our side. But do some light condensing and you get this:

The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.

And now, rather than alluding to al-Qaeda (and other like-minded fanatical foreign groups) and the United States, what two “dramatically different” groups spring to mind? I’ll give you a hint, they’re both American groups…

There will be future anti-evolution efforts in our state, but we have demonstrated that we can mount significant opposition quickly.

Indeed. Great job! And, congratulations to all of you who helped make it happen. You could have done nothing and very easily convinced yourself that someone else would speak up, and then people like me might very well have soon been writing about how unfortunate it was that such a horrible bill was passed… What an excellent example you’ve set for the rest of us!

Kudos.

Any Mississippi residents reading this should (1) be concerned about this, (2) get involved, and (3) stay informed. Mississippi Atheists has numerous posts detailing what you can do to help, as well as reporting the latest news on this important issue.

Come on Mississippi! Reason and Freedom can prevail, but it’s going to take an awful lot of you actually getting involved. Christian or not, atheist or not, you should oppose this legislation and, by extension, the legislators who sponsor and support it. Read the text of the label being proposed: it is flat-wrong, and where not out-and-out wrong it manages to be intentionally misleading. Don’t let the state government lie to your children–in anybody’s name.

Illegitimati Non Carborundum (yeah, I know, but it’s still funny–and applicable).

Well, everyone except the Boy Scouts of America, but that may be changing.

David Silverman has an excellent piece at the NoGodBlog detailing the hard one (i.e., decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals) the Boy Scouts have to swallow, Boy Scouts Denied… Again.

[via NoGodBlog]