Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

I don't remember who that quote is attributed to (I could look it up - this IS the Internet - but it doesn't really matter - if the shoe fits...)

I am referring to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who made a statement today likening Obama's statement on Gitmo and drones as a victory for Al Qaeda (as if they are still active enough for it to matter):

The President’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory. Rather than continuing successful counterterrorism activities, we are changing course with no clear operational benefit. We knew five years ago that closing Guantanamo was a bad idea and would not work. Yet, today’s speech sends the message to Guantanamo detainees that if they harass the dedicated military personnel there enough, we will give in and send them home, even to Yemen. With the recidivism rate now at 28% and the increased threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates, including in Yemen, GITMO must stay open for business.

 This is a deliberate ignorance of the primary value Gitmo has to muslim terrorists all over the world (not just AQ), which is as a recruitment vehicle.

This is bad.  Not because we are moving towards closing Gitmo, but because it has remained in operation for so long!

There are two reasons:

First, it is just plain wrong.  Gitmo was opened in the first place on the premise that the Constitution applies only within the Continental United States - that the Government can violate that document the Republicans supposedly hold sacred with impunity IF it does so either outside the borders or against a foreign national.  There are no such limitations on the Constitution's safeguards.

The Constitution is a document which outlines the powers allowed the government, and those powers are not allowed to expand beyond those safeguards if it is acting overseas.  They remain the basic law governing how the government may act - ANYWHERE, and in regards to ANYONE.  It does not say, "King's X, only within US borders and this is only protection for citizens".  Its language is generic in regards to whom those protections apply, and are absolute as to wherever the government may be acting.

These are foundational principles we have based our government on - that it may NOT hold people without trial indefinitely.  Even international law limits such imprisonment.  Violation of those principles not only lowers our actions to the level of our enemies', but gives them the perfect excuse to charge us - with good reason - with that violation.  It places us in the very awkward position of being blazing hypocrites!

Second, because it has placed the government in a position where it may be difficult to successfully prosecute those prisoners because of the illegal manner in which they were imprisoned and interrogated, forever tainting the evidence - "poisoned fruit" in legal parlance.

This does NOT represent "successful counterterrorism activities", it represents a very egregious violation of the law - probably several, including international law, I would imagine.

To top it off, many of those men are now known to have been completely innocent of any crimes against the United States when they were detained and transferred to Gitmo.  Something like half, if not more, in fact.

The Senator ignores that his government has illegally held dozens, if not over a hundred perfectly innocent men in indefinite detention, still without charges and without a firm release date or trial date FOR YEARS!!

What part of violating their human rights does this Senator not understand?  How does this man not understand that this places us firmly into the same camp along side such human rights violating luminaries as the USSR, China, North Korea and yes, (Godwin alert) Nazi Germany.  Oh, there may be a matter of a difference in scale, but the principle has been trampled and ignored as completely and as blatantly as if there were no difference at all.

Hence the usage of Gitmo as a tremendously valuable recruitment tool for terrorists the world over, not just AQ.

President Obama promised in his first election campaign to close Gitmo.

It is beyond time to make good that promise.

When will the tipping point arrive?

In every kind of situation where people have a choice between two or more socially visible things, whether they are movies, celebrities, ideas, political parties or even religion, sooner or later in the marketplace of the public mind, there comes a tipping point.  Whatever it is that has struggled to gain acceptance, will reach a place in the public mind where its rivals lose enough steam that people begin to see it as a viable alternative to the other thing that is losing popularity.  Then people who would never have given that new thing a thought suddenly see it not as new and fresh, but as something to have, something popular that can easily replace that old loser.

Now, I don't want to get ahead of myself, and I am not suggesting that we've gotten to that place yet.  But look at some recent stories that may just make you take some second looks.

First, look at the article about the Mexican Archbishop who claimed that abortion is worse than child rape.  May 8th, I posted it on my Facebook page.

Next, note that Minnesota was the thirteenth State to approve marriage equality.  Thirteen, most of them just in the last year, I think.

Or the Christian singer who hired a killer to dispose of his wife.

The increased attention the Religious Right has begun to pay to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), and the lies and the hysteria accompanying those stories, because of its success in recent months in stymying their attempts to continue dominating the US Military, illegally proselytizing American soldiers and forcing their religious ceremonies onto unwilling soldiers, many of whom are christian themselves.

Or the high school principle in Louisville, Ky who is encouraging his teachers to teach - illegally - creationism and christianity to students in their classrooms.

How about Pat Robertson telling his listeners to forgive their cheating hubbies because, well, they're men and that's just what men do?

Or perhaps the increasingly beleaguered state of the right wing pertaining to background checks - even in so called red states?

Look at the way the Republican Party has maintained their grandstanding by voting 37 times to overturn the Affordable Care Act - without a prayer of it passing the Senate or being signed by the President.

I might also point out the female candidate for office down south who claimed to be endorsed by Jesus - and lost by a significant margin!

The nullification movement - states who pass laws attempting to nullify various Federal laws they disagree with - or laws that directly allow things like teaching creationism when SCOTUS has made rulings against them.

There is a common thread passing through all of these things.  It is a thread of desperation, illuminated by the increasingly obvious lack of enthusiasm for religion, particularly the evangelical version of christianity within the US population, especially the under 30 crowd.  Republicans are popularly portrayed by liberals on Facebook as pretty stupid, and a lot of state and local politicians try hard to make it look like they follow that mold, but really, they aren't.  They are as capable of reading the statistical tea leaves as the democrats and know full well that f they do not gain power NOW, while they still have an outsized political influence, in a few years, it will be far too late.

Hence the desperation to incite their real base to get involved, get mad and go to the polls.  Hence their attempts in various swing states to hinder the ability of minorities to go to the polls and vote.  They know that if they can pass many laws that put their program of right wing insanity in place now, they can successfully fight its repeal for years before the democrats can overturn it and return sanity to this country.  They know that they can sabotage the educational system and provide for future conservatives by preventing as many people as possible from getting a real education, so they can be successfully wooed by the religious right as future voters.

But more and more, Americans are rebelling against this insanity.  More and more, the media is letting these stories about the right wing insanity gain traction.  And the more insane they get, the more Americans are likely to notice.

It's time for the general public to let our politicians know how they feel.  It is time to stand up and be counted in opposing the insanity.  Call, write or email your Congresscritter!  Let them know it is time to show the insane ones to the door and to introduce sanity, credibility and integrity back into government.

Let them know - NOW!

More Harm from Religion - Patriarchy, Rape Culture and Sexual Slavery.

Well, today I saw a post on Facebook that chilled me to the bone.

Apparently, the cops found a letter that the kidnapper (slaver?) in Cleveland wrote some years ago in a suicidal funk.  Somebody tweeted some excerpts of it, but the one that gave me goosebumps was where he said something to the affect of, "I don't know why I pursued a third, I already had two in my possession..."

Listen to the relevant part again:  "I already had two in my possession."

Emphasis mine.

Bad enough that he had to kidnap three girls to hold as sex slaves, but this one phrase exposes the whole reason why he thought he could.  They were merely "things" he could own.  Forget his admission that he was raped and molested at home as a child.  That doesn't begin to explain sexual slavery.

They weren't people, but objects.  Things.  Somehow, he had the idea in his head that women were not people at all, but own-able objects.  Where does that come from?  What could possibly give this man the idea that these three girls, total strangers off the streets, minors all, were things he could own?

and seest among the captives a woman of goodly form, and thou hast a desire unto her, and wouldest take her to thee to wife;
then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month; and after that thou mayest go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

Deuteronomy 21, 11-13.

This is among the worst, but all three Judaic religions put women into a second class, below men.  They cannot own property, they ARE property.  They traditionally had no rights to decide who to marry.  They could not have jobs.  (although the latter could be relaxed for widows.)

Churches were admonished to not allow women to teach men, could not speak in church and are also directed to obey their husbands, who as Christ is the head of the church, are also the head of the household.

All of this is taught in all three religions, and in both Judaism and Islam it is worse.  Women are often separated from men and in Islam, cannot inherit as much and their testimony in court is worth half that of a man.  In both they are considered unclean during their periods, and men must undergo strict rituals if they become "contaminated" by them during that time.

Today, we have taken those scriptural admonitions and have added to them in ways that make our culture one which glorifies rape, prevents women from often even reporting it, and in some States, the rapist can even claim parental rights!

Add to this the current Republican "War on Women", where they are attempting to take the clock back to before the 20th century and deny women not only contraceptive rights, but basic health care as well, and it is no wonder men like Castro can think its ok to kidnap three young women and hold them as sex slaves.

Just as we thought that it was safe for women to start thinking about the more advanced ideals of equal pay for equal work, we find that even their basic rights to decent health care is at risk.

This is unconscionable.  This is horrible, worse than mere discrimination, it is the institutionalized objectification and enslavement of half of the human race!

Until we stop the harm that religions do to our human social structures, these crimes will not go away.  We will never end the degradation and the humiliation of women all over the globe as long as religions exist which present them as objects and things without rights or any form of personhood.

Patriarchy is not a social custom.  It is not a cultural phenomenon.  It is directly taught by religions as dogma and as theology.  Religion teaches us that women are less than men and thus less than human.

Yes, your religion does that.  Yours.  Stop cherry picking and go read Deuteronomy, it will open your eyes and shake your world.

Let this be a tipping point - Please?

The news this week that three young women had been held basically as sex slaves for over a decade in Cleveland this week burst on the national scene like a water balloon.  As if a cold eruption of icy water, it shocked the nation's attention while the very colorful character of the next door neighbor turned hero told his chilling story.  The entire nation was happy for the three and their families as they begin a long and torturous journey for them all in coming to terms with this very devastating epic of horror, sex, and violence.

Right in the middle of the tale, and a particularly nasty part of it, we find that a nationally known psychic, Sylvia Browne, had told the mother of Amanda Berry on "The Montel Williams Show" that her daughter was dead.  Barely a year after her daughter's disappearance, too.  One year later, Louwanna Miller was dead of a broken heart - literally.

As one might imagine, the psychic has said nothing - no apology, no sorrowful admission of failure, nothing.  The entire country seems to be outraged - and for good reason.  Psychics have existed for centuries, and probably longer than that, doing what they do best - take the money of the gullible and the credulous for what is essentially made up pablum.

I mean, come on, people, Google says there are about 1,890,000 results (0.54 seconds) for the search "how to be a psychic medium".  Notice it took less than a second to return that number, too!

This is called supernaturalism.  The supernatural is basically defined as anything our 5 senses cannot detect, and the last two hundred years of frantic attempts by the scientifically challenged to find something - anything - that can be even vaguely construed as scientific evidence for the existence of things in that "realm" have turned up nothing but junk science.

It took even less time to find about 593,000 results (0.38 seconds) for the search "how to expose a psychic medium".

It is fake, folks.  There is nothing to it, so called psychics are criminal confidence "persons", to be gender neutral.  They gain your confidence, take your money and then feed you like a mushroom, in the dark so you can't see the shit they're feeding you!

This so called psychic has denied a young woman her mother at a time in her life when she needs one the  most.  She denied that mother the hope that her daughter might one day be found alive - which she was.

Can this please be a tipping point?  When American begins to end this stupid love affair we seem to have with supernatural bullshit?  Is it possible that this event where the utter bankruptcy of the psychic industry is revealed for what it is can begin to lead us back into a better frame of mind where we can see bullshit for what it is?

I'd like to think so, but the election of that politician who-shall-not-be-named to the Congress on Tuesday in spite of his lies, embezzlement of State funds for personal travel and how he has treated his wife doesn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies, folks.

We CAN do better.

I love Republicans - they provide so much amusement.

Yet, somehow, I wish I were a comedian.  Republicans do provide so much fodder for us bloggers, but damn, the amount of ripe, juicy material just sitting there, waiting for some comedian to take it up and use it is simply astonishing.

Take these two items for instance, that Rachael Maddow has on her blog:

'That's absurd beyond the word absurd'

Perhaps the most controversial of the gun-related items, HB 1076 would ban state agencies from enforcing any new federal gun laws, including background checks. The bill passed the Republican-led House on a largely party line vote Monday, but legal experts say the attempt to "nullify" possible future federal laws likely wouldn't pass the scrutiny of the U.S. Supreme Court.

and:

When Reagan worship goes awry

President Reagan would insist that all illegal immigrants return to their native countries and get in line to be legally admitted into the country if faced with the issue today, according to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.).
"President Reagan would insist that those who are here illegally must repent and atone for their illegal conduct by returning to their country of origin and getting in line with everyone else," Brooks said on the House floor.

Let's back up and look at the historical record. In 1986, then-President Reagan signed a bipartisan immigration reform package that extended amnesty to any immigrant who entered the country illegally before 1982. This was, of course, before Republicans were told to perceive "amnesty" as the moral equivalent of a crime against humanity.
And by all accounts, Reagan supported the policy and its goals. 

Reagan "knew that it was not right for people to be abused," [former Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson] says. "Anybody who's here illegally is going to be abused in some way, either financially [or] physically. They have no rights."
Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter, agrees. "It was in Ronald Reagan's bones -- it was part of his understanding of America -- that the country was fundamentally open to those who wanted to join us here."
Reagan said as much himself in a televised debate with Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984. "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally," he said. 

Now, I see three possible reasons for this idiocy.

First, they are stupid.  Tempting, I know.

Second, they are purely politically grandstanding on the theory that their constituents are stupid.  Also tempting!

Third, they think we all are.

I think the last one is really the case.  In my experience, people who want to run roughshod over others are of the opinion that they are right, everybody else is wrong, and furthermore, they'll get away with it because everybody else is too stupid to notice. Or, in this case, god is going to somehow wave a magic wand and make them win.

I can hear Bob Hope now, he would have loved this, it has so much potential.  And when I think of what George Carlin would have done with this material, I could almost laugh and cry even without hearing it.

It's a shame neither man is with us to put these morons to shame.

More Pictures! Spring is here...

No time to type today, so as a consolation prize, here are some spring pictures!

Time to talk about goals.

Labels.

There was a movement a few years ago to denigrate the use of labels to describe people, because folks tended (and still do) to just put a label on someone and leave it at that. Single labels are just wrong, because every human is a varied and complex being. All of us have the ability to change our demeanor and our behavior, depending on where we are and what we are responding to.

Take me. (Please!)

I'm a dad, a husband, a blogger, an IT tech, an IT supervisor, a neighbor, a friend, an atheist, a male, an American, a Nissan Altima owner, a Mac user, and I could go on and on. Each of these things describes a different aspect of who I am and what I do with my life.

Right now, the label that counts is New Atheist. Also blogger!

As one of those, I have a number of goals.

I want to educate people so they know and understand atheists better.
I want to help other atheists in their search for what that is supposed to mean.
I want to be part of the atheist movement that will enlarge the political influence of that demographic.
I want to encourage other atheists to "come out" so our families and friends, coworkers and neighbors can get to know us as atheists so the stigma of that label is erased.
I want to erase the influence of religion in human affairs.
I want to encourage better moral choices by others based on human well being instead of Bronze Age values from a religious book.

Big goals. Obviously, I can't do these things myself, and many of them probably won't be completed in my lifetime, even were I a younger man. But I can be open and verbal and as literarily verbose and prolific as possible in spreading the word and encouraging others to work towards these goals.

This blog is to help others see the world from an atheistic viewpoint. I want you to see things from an atheistic colored pair of glasses. I want to help you remove the religious blinders so you can see just how wonderful this world can be and how the restrictions of religious dogma limits your life choices.

A large part of my atheist "ministry", if I may hijack that word, is to open people's eyes to the very real harm that religion can and does do every day around the world. Especially in our back yard. I want to examine the way that religious values tilt and distort reality and human relations so that our actions are not only harmful to others, but to ourselves, even as we think we are saving up points to get into heaven.

I want to open people's eyes to the way that religion contributes to violence, especially nation to nation violence, which contributes so much to the lowering of the standards of living of the entire human race.

In short, I want, in some small way, to make a difference.

The best way I have is through three kinds of activities.

First, through this blog and on Facebook. I've tied the two together, so that this blog is shared there, and the page is named the same as this blog. So, I can educate people through the written word, on one of the most powerful mediums ever invented by the hand of man, the Internet.

Second, by simple human interactions. I am largely out as an atheist. In some venues, like at work, I don't advertise it, but I don't hide it if it comes up in conversation. Family and friends know. By simple example and living my life as best I can, I "witness", to hijack another Christian term, so that others can see just how an atheist can be just like the regular Joe that I am.

Third, by being active in my area in humanist and atheist groups. I host a meetup discussion group every first Friday at my home, and have for over three years. We meet and discuss current events, view videos and other literature relevant to the interests of the group. This enables more people to be able to meet in an atmosphere of like minded and opinioned people where they don't have to watch their words to avoid offending the wrong people.

All of us can do at least the second two. Not everybody is good at writing. Not everybody is good at public speaking or has a large enough space to allow meetings. We all, however, can show the world that atheists are just like regular folks, and aren't the monstrous baby-eaters the religious fanatics would have them think.

So, lets get out there, show the world who we are, and emulate the gay movement, so we can gain the influence to shut the religious right down and reduce their political influence to what their numbers really deserve.

We are the New Atheists! We should be and can be more militant in our approach to our opponents, and make no mistake, the ultra religious ARE our opponents, if not out and out enemies.

So lets act like it.

Sorry about the slow!

I know I've been a bit tardy with the posts and I am sorry.  Various things have taken my attention lately, including the death of an online friend, the aftermath of which has been...interesting... in that old Chinese curse kind of way.

So, I will try to pick up the pace by tomorrow, so be sure that I am quite flattered that some of you keep coming back to look for new stuff.

Picture of kittens!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a rant.

There's been a lot going on recently, and I've not been able to pay as much attention to this page as I'd like.  My apologies to my regular crowd!

First, the weather is moving towards spring - finally - and there's some stuff that just has to happen in the yard in spring.  Longer days, more daylight, less time on the machine the Cyberwife calls my mistress.   Sigh.

Second, two of the cyberdaughters are pregnant, one with her sixth and the other (the oldest) with TWINS!  This'll make nine grandkids by December.  (My family breeds like rabbits - just let us put down roots, and we'll literally own the whole town in a generation, either outright or just by marrying into it!)

Next, one of my old friends on Facebook, Linda G., is dying of cancer.  Lung, liver and pancreatic.  She is not expected to last very long and has been moved to hospice.  Needless to say, her family is devastated, and the folks on FB who all belong to the group she started are all still pretty much in shock.

I got to meet Linda last year when I drove down to Florida to see Cyberdaughter the Youngest as I passed through Brunswick, Georgia, where Linda and a lot of the FB folks live.  It was a rare opportunity to do a face to face with an Internet friend, and it was good to meet her and share a dining experience, however briefly.

I finally have to face the fact that I am now old enough to begin to experience the death of people I know personally.  That is an idea I will need to adjust to.  It is a new one, and I am not certain how well I will be able to handle it.  Stay tuned on that one.

Last, I am working on a book.  Science-fantasy, and I will not (at this time) reveal the plot.  When I am comfy with it, I will perhaps release the prologue to see how it goes over.  So that will take up more time too.

************

Now, I promised you a rant, and I will not disappoint!  It will be a bit nuanced, though, because it impacts upon a couple of subjects I've touched on before.

First, Rachael Maddow had a very good segment the other day about how the right wing press - the mainstream bunch - has finally gone off on how Islam is totally at fault for the Boston bombing and how it is truly our enemy and how we should now go to war against the whole religion.

I have avoided, except in the most egregious cases, covering the right wing crazy stuff, because it has become so damn normal. Every time I turn around, some right wing nutbag politician has gone off the deep end and said something so totally stupid, if this were forty years ago, they'd have locked him behind a padded door.  But it isn't, it is now, and it is so damn normal, it is almost expected.

But this goes beyond crazy.

Islam is followed, nominally, by something over two billion people.  Now, one can argue as to the sincerity of many of them, given the totalitarian nature of a religion that kills people who say they don't believe the bullshit any longer, but there is no doubt that it certainly controls that many.  Meaning that it can command the public loyalty of those billions and can call upon many of them as combat soldiers if needed.  I truly question the wisdom of going to war with a religion that can command such numbers when our single country comprises less than 400 million.  True, we may have the biggest and most advanced military in the world, but as a past military man (I cannot remember the name of) once said, "Quantity has a quality all it's own!"

A population of two billion can command a lot more combat soldiers than we can.  A lot more.

Besides, the idea that every muslim bears responsibility for the crimes of a small fanatical minority is problematic.

I know that I have expounded on the theory that moderate or even liberal christians (and muslims), by continuing to believe in the sacredness of their holy scriptures, bear some responsibility for the fanaticism of the fundamentalists.  There is some measure of truth to that.  By cherry picking the holy books and ignoring the bad parts, you do allow the bad guys to cherry pick their own verses to provide religious cover for their criminal behavior.  Picking the bad ones you have ignored, thus creating a version of your religion that is probably diametrically opposed to what you, as a liberal, believe.

Funny how the same book can support two completely opposed religious ideals, huh?

On the basis of argument in the public sphere, I can argue this quite sincerely, yet believe at the same time that to blame the liberal or even the moderates to the point of war is nonsensical.

There is a definite difference between arguing theology and dropping bombs.  Public debate and argument is something that can persuade people to one's point of view - and a lot of people are moving away from religion, and not just in the US.  There is a growing number of very courageous people, both men and women in the muslim world, who are beginning to take a stand.

Islam is a bit younger than christianity, by about six hundred years.  Funny how that coincides with the period of time after its creation when christianity began its internal struggle we now call The Enlightenment - that period when people began to see through the sciences and a growing sophisticated society that the old simple values of their religion just didn't work any longer.

Islam is now in the midst of their own struggle with the principles of Enlightenment.  Our news media don't cover it much for some stupid reason, but there ARE muslims out there of a moderate or even liberal persuasion who are vehemently opposed to the fundamentalism of the fanatics and argue strenuously against their actions, condemning them at every turn.  There ARE muslims in this country who are committed to the  American ideals of freedom, justice and the separation of church and state, and are willing to serve in our military to fight and die for those ideals.

The willingness of the right wing media to ignore these people and paint them with a broad fanatical brush is stupid, ignorant and ultimately self defeating.

There are plenty of reasons why I fight religious ideas.  The existence of fanatic fundamentalists willing to kill innocent people (even of their own faith) is one of the best reasons I can think of.  But the Islamic faith isn't the only one that breeds these nuts, Christianity has its share, the Jewish faith does and so do the supposedly peaceful Hindu.

The crimes of a few are NOT reason to declare war on over two billion people in dozens of countries.

We do NOT have the resources to win, folks. Think about that, if for no other reason.

More Religious Harm - Jewish style.

In my continuing series of articles on the harm religion does, the latest is a bit dated, since I've been busy playing Daddy Day Care this week and didn't have a chance to blog much.

It seems that in the State of Israel, where the Jewish Orthodox hold a desperate and tenacious hold on an outsized amount of political influence, the government has arrested and then released 5 women for the dastardly offense of praying at the wrong place.

To be sure, there is an effort at coming to a compromise over the situation, but in a country whose religion, as practiced by an influential few, is about as misogynistic as it comes, a compromise is hard to come by.

This time, the actual "harm" isn't specifically to these women, as they were released without charge.  This time.  The harm is to the peace and order in a society which chooses to worship in a religion which makes women second class citizens, not only restricting them from major religious activities, but supposedly espousing the virtually complete separation of the sexes.

Aren't women's lives hard enough without putting artificial obstacles in their paths as well?

More Harm by Religion, but a bit outdated...

The New Atheist movement has been in the forefront of touting the Harm Done by Religion, and I've been riding that wave where I could find examples, in between my other posts.   As a movement, it isn't very old, as political movements go even in this country.

So, I figured as soon as I found this example of the Harm Religion Does, I'd better get it out there, so people could see just how pervasive and endemic in our society it really is! I mean, these guys should have been stopped, but I fear we're a bit late...

The reasons behind these bog body killings remains uncertain but Ned Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland has suggested a very interesting theory (see Archaeology, No. 63, Vol 3, May/June 2010) . He believes that “these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries. Both Clonycavan and Old Croghan men’s nipples were pinched and cut. “Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland,” says Kelly. “Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.” The bodies served as offerings to the goddess of the land to whom the king was wed in his inauguration ceremony. According to Kelly, both men’s multiple injuries may reflect the belief that the goddess was not only one of the land and fertility, but also of sovereignty, war, and death. “By using a range of methods to kill the victim, the ancient Irish sacrificed to the goddess in all her forms,”.

Oh, didn't I say?  This example is over two thousand years old... isn't it about time the human race grew up and stopped this nonsense?  I know, I know, religion these days doesn't do human sacrifice - we make our victims live out the pain and suffering long term, instead of killing them and putting them out of their misery.  We are much more sophisticated just how we go about it these days.

In a way, that's even worse.

The world is full of sick people.

In part, yes, I am talking about the terrorists who bombed the Boston Marathon today.  This is a terrible crime that will go down in the annals of American history as one of those things we all remember where we were when we heard about it.

Two dead and around a hundred injured, from spotty reports so far.  Other reports about supposed suspects, disarmed unexploded bombs, whether there was another bomb at the Kennedy Library or if it was just a fire - first reports of these things are always wrong and often exaggerated.

However it turns out it is a terrible thing, but whatever the outcome, this kind of thing brings out the additional sickos, and this time the Westboro Baptist Church has decided to join the bandwagon.

Only someone with a religious perspective can be so mentally twisted as to decide to take something like this, totally unrelated to their main goals, and mangle it so badly to make it fit.

Sick bastards, all of them.  You can include in that number any of the players in this drama you want to.

Just when you think you've seen the worst...

I learned something the other day.  I'm sure you've seen the posts on FB and clucked disgustedly over it.

But, did you really think about it?  I mean, really, really think about it?

I did.  I'm talking about the man behind the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum, Gary North.

The basics are bad enough, with a man like Ron Paul lending his name to a man with fundamentalist creds and allowing him to write something Paul will most likely never read - but will undoubtedly get well paid for!

But to see the movement that North is responsible for is ... well ... scary isn't a strong enough word.  I've written about the Dominionists before - a group who wants to bring theocracy to America, whether we want it or not.  Yes, they ARE scary, and you can read about them and their attempts to mold our Armed Forces into an Army of God by using the label "Dominionism" to sort my posts about that group.

But these guys are worse, if that is even possible.  The movement is called Reconstructionism, and it is to Dominionism what a tactical nuke is to a 500 lb high explosive bomb.  North wants to bring biblical laws not just to America, but to the entire world.  And not just the "nice" stuff theocrats want today in fundamentalism, but the whole ball of wax - stoning for adultery, slavery, sex slavery, stoning for kids who disrespect their parents, death to girls who have sex before marriage - everything the Old Testament calls for.

Listen to Walter Olsen:

Those who would face execution include not only gays but a very long list of others: blasphemers, heretics, apostate Christians, people who cursed or struck their parents, females guilty of “unchastity before marriage,” “incorrigible” juvenile delinquents, adulterers, and (probably) telephone psychics. And that’s to say nothing of murderers and those guilty of raping married women or “betrothed virgins.” Adulterers, among others, might meet their doom by being publicly stoned…

Notice that bit about the rapists of married women or betrothed virgins.  Gals who belong to a man.  Remember, the bible allows the rapist of an unmarried women to marry her - or rather it is termed a punishment for him, since he is not allowed to divorce her.  No mention, of course of the punishment to her of being forced to live with her rapist for the rest of her life...

But now, the kid gloves are off.   North admits fully that to him, religious freedom is merely the means to an end:

Everyone talks about religious liberty, but no one believes it. So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.

The story is at the Skeptical Libertarian Blog, and is entitled, "Gary North: The ‘Libertarian’ Taliban Who’s Writing Ron Paul’s Curriculum".

I urge you to go read it, I just can't go on with this, it is just too horribly wrong.

Internet Hoax

Well, it looked good:  Joel Osteen Renounces Christianity!  Resigns from Megachurch!

But, like a host of other headlines, it was a hoax.  An elaborate one; the creator not only created a fake Joel Osteen Ministries site, but several fake news sites to push the hoax!

Facebook, of course, picked this up and ran with it.

Look, I am the first guy to ever be glad that someone dumps the kool-aid and gets reality into their brain, especially if that person is someone important to the other side.

But there are limits to both believability and to what is the right way to do things, and to make a leader of a large number of people the target of a hoax is not only flat out wrong, but counter to what those of us who are humanists should believe in.  This hurts people, both the man as the target and the people he leads.  It also hurts the image those of us who are atheists would like the world to see of us.  This kind of childish prank hurts our cause and does not advance it one bit.

We should be better than that.  I want all of you to understand that I categorically denounce these kinds of pranks and do not support this hurtful activity.  Really, it wasn't even very funny.