All entries by this author

Gloating for Britain

May 8th, 2010 5:10 pm | By

George Pitcher, Anglican vicar and Telegraph columnist, is just beside himself with glee that Evan Harris lost his seat in the election. Why is Pitcher so delighted? Because Harris is a secularist, and because he thinks terminally ill people should be able to choose when their suffering ends. That’s not exactly how Pitcher puts it though.

For a doctor, he supported the strange idea that terminally ill people should be helped to kill themselves…His political demise will be mourned only by those with a strange fascination for death, those euthanasia enthusiasts whose idea of care for the elderly and infirm is a one-way ticket to Switzerland.

Stupid, stupid man, and dishonest besides. (And he can’t even write. “For a doctor, … Read the rest



Heidegger as Nazi philosopher *

May 8th, 2010 | Filed by

The seminars of 1933-5 show the outright transformation of Heidegger’s thought into a tool of Nazi indoctrination.… Read the rest



Worldwide trends in honor killings *

May 8th, 2010 | Filed by

Honor killings are based on codes of morality often reinforced by fundamentalist religious dictates.… Read the rest



Underpinnings

May 8th, 2010 11:36 am | By

The Sydney Anglican diocese is pissed off because students who have the option are ditching classes in “scripture” to take ethics classes instead. The Sydney Anglican diocese seems to consider this some kind of violation of nature and of its property rights in the children of New South Wales.

The controversial trial of secular ethics classes has ”decimated” Protestant scripture classes in the 10 NSW schools where it has been introduced as an alternative for non-religious children, with the classes losing about 47 per cent of enrolled students.

The figure was calculated by the Sydney Anglican diocese, which is so concerned about the trial that it has created a fund-raising website to ”protect SRE” (special religious education). The website says

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Palin thinks US law should be based on bible *

May 8th, 2010 | Filed by

Cites 10 commandments, which mandate monotheism, sabbath, methods of swearing, iconoclasm.… Read the rest



Prayers and god ruled ok at inaugurations *

May 8th, 2010 | Filed by

Because they’re longstanding traditions therefore they are constitutional, federal appeals court rules.… Read the rest



Scripture classes “lose” half of students to ethics *

May 8th, 2010 | Filed by

Because of course the scripture classes owned the students to begin with.… Read the rest



Your petrodollars at work

May 7th, 2010 3:52 pm | By

A group of lawyers in Egypt who call themselves (with horrible sarcasm) “the Association of Lawyers Without Restrictions” have sued a bunch of people for publishing or just somehow vaguely having something or maybe nothing to do with publishing The Thousand and One Nights,

claiming that the book “offends public decency.” Hisba cases allow citizens to prosecute individuals who they deem to have insulted Islam…

They are demanding those responsible for the publication be brought to trial under Article 178 of the Penal Code, which if convicted is punishable by imprisonment for a term of two years and a fine for everyone that publishes any prints or pictures that “offends the public decency.”

I heard an Egyptian guy talking to … Read the rest



Hesba law lets fanatics sue intellectuals *

May 7th, 2010 | Filed by

There are many in Egypt who regard this type of legal vigilantism as ludicrous.… Read the rest



Egypt: call to ban Thousand and One Nights *

May 7th, 2010 | Filed by

A direct result of opening Egypt to the fundamentalist winds of Wahhabi Salafism.… Read the rest



Saudi photo of women with naked faces shock *

May 7th, 2010 | Filed by

Titanic struggle between reactionaries and lunatics plays out in Wahhabi kingdom.… Read the rest



The pastor and the rent boy *

May 7th, 2010 | Filed by

Baptist minister George Rekers co-founded influential right-wing Family Research Council, hired male prostitute to “carry heavy baggage.”… Read the rest



The document trail: William Levada *

May 7th, 2010 | Filed by

The New York Times gives 81 pages of primary docs.… Read the rest



NY Times looks at Cardinal Levada’s record *

May 7th, 2010 | Filed by

Complicated by the fact that his congregation’s decisions are shrouded in confidentiality rules.… Read the rest



It’s national prayerbook day

May 6th, 2010 3:13 pm | By

So you’ve spent the day praying, right? Well not all of you of course, but those of you who are loyal citizens of the United States…and hey, why not, also those of you who want to show solidarity with devout Americans. No doubt there are some of you bending the knee or head-butting the floor in Swansea and Cracow, Lagos and Kinshasa, Bombay and Karachi, Lima and Santiago, Kyoto and Shanghai, just for the sake of showing that state-sponsored prayer must be supported by the united peoples of the world. Yes?

Okay, I’ll stop now. I’ll just offer a thought from Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

It’s obvious that Americans don’t need a government-sponsored day to

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Religious Right’s Public Piety Pageant Goes On *

May 6th, 2010 | Filed by

But this year Shirley and James Dobson were not invited to the White House. … Read the rest



Jesus and Mo are sad about bigots *

May 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Nobody seems to care what they think any more!… Read the rest



Behzti is no longer taboo *

May 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Of course that doesn’t mean you can actually see it performed.… Read the rest



Philippa Stroud’s lawyers warn media *

May 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Stroud denies belief that homosexuality is an illness, refuses comment on belief that it is demonic possession.… Read the rest



Ayala receives Templeton Prize in palace ceremony *

May 6th, 2010 | Filed by

Ma Teresa, Billy Graham, not in opposition, often complementary, two windows, same world, different views.… Read the rest