Theists actually believe this stuff!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Nigerian Judge Permanently Bans Public Discussion Of Court-Ordered Amputations Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7018261294#ixzz0joR

Kano, Nigeria (AHN) - A civil rights group in Nigeria can no longer debate or discuss amputation as a punishment after an Islamic Sharia court permanently banned it from discussing the topic over Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday.

The order was issued by judge Malam Lawal in favor of the Association of Muslim Brotherhood of Nigeria.


Link:

This is the same Sharia law that they want to have in Muslim courts in Australia. They just have to be kidding. This backward rubbish is the exact reason that Muslim courts need to be kept out of our democracy based on freedom and equal rights.

Only God Can Fire Pope Benedict After Scandals

As outrage mounted over the latest Catholic Church sex scandal, writer Christopher Hitchens called for the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI, and singer Sinead O'Connor said the pope should face a criminal investigation.


Link:

Come on Pope. Sinead O'Conner said walk. Out you go.

If only God can appoint or fire a Pope, and God is omniscient and omnipresent, then God must approve of child abuse.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Do Twilight, Harry Potter open door to the Devil?

THE appointment of a new exorcist by Sydney's Catholic Church precedes a warning by a senior clergyman that generation Y risks a dangerous fascination with the occult fuelled by the Twilight and Harry Potter series.

Julian Porteous, the auxiliary bishop of Sydney, warns that pursuing such ''alternative'' relaxation techniques as yoga, reiki massages and tai chi may encourage experimentation with ''deep and dark spiritual ideas and traditions''.

Link SMH:

Why does crap like this get in the paper? What could possibly be gained by giving idiotic ideas like this the credibility of printing them in the paper?

We could have used this print space to further dig into the rape culture of the catholic church instead of giving them a platform for making deranged excuses.

Why don't they stand up and take a bit of fucking responsibility for their own actions. Something like: "Lots of Catholic Priests raped and destroyed the innocence of children. We're gonna find every one of these bastards and excommunicate them. Then we're gonna gather up all of these people we broke and look after them for the rest of their lives with the billions of dollars a year that we are given by people who attend our churches and the vast government tax breaks we receive."

Instead, we get an "it's you're own fault for doing yoga".

Fuck Off!

Vienna Boys' Choir caught up in sex abuse scandals

The most famous choir in the world has been caught up in the wave of paedophile scandals sweeping Germany and Austria, with eight former choristers denouncing their teachers in the past few days.

An open letter from the management of the Vienna Boys' Choir to parents expressed regret at the incidents, which were recounted by former singers now aged between 40 and 70.


Roger Boyes (no really!) reports:

The reporter's name just has to be made up.

Anyway, the Vienna Boys' Choir. Of course! That would have been a total shag-fest for your bog standard Catholic rock spider.

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Pope Is Not Above the Law - Hitchens

One by one, as I predicted, the pathetic excuses of Joseph Ratzinger's apologists evaporate before our eyes. It was said until recently that when the Rev. Peter Hullermann was found to be a vicious pederast in 1980, the man who is now pope had no personal involvement in his subsequent transfer to his own diocese or in his later unimpeded career as a rapist and a molester. But now we find that the psychiatrist to whom the church turned for "therapy" was adamant that Hullermann never be allowed to go near children ever again. We also find that Ratzinger was one of those to whom the memo about Hullermann's transfer was actually addressed. All attempts to place the blame on a loyal subordinate, Ratzinger's vicar general, the Rev. Gerhard Gruber, have predictably failed. According to a recent report, "the transfer of Father Hullermann from Essen would not have been a routine matter, experts said." Either that-damning enough in itself-or it perhaps would have been a routine matter, which is even worse. Certainly the pattern-of finding another parish with fresh children for the priest to assault-is the one that has become horribly "routine" ever since and became standard practice when Ratzinger became a cardinal and was placed in charge of the church's global response to clerical pederasty.


Slate Article:

The Catholic church is running out of excuses on the child abuse front.

Focus is on Benedict in sex abuse scandal

Germany: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger aware of transfer of a known paedophile in 1980. More than 170 former students in Catholic schools make sexual abuse allegations.


Link:

This might finally be starting to stick to the leaders of the Catholic church. It starts to look more and more like the rape of children was widely known of by church leaders.

AN OPEN LETTER TO CONCERNED BELIEVERS

Thank you for your concern about the well-being of the atheist movement, and for your advice on how to run it. I appreciate your concern for the image of the atheist movement, and I appreciate you taking the time to give us advice on how to get our message across more effectively.


Link:

The Pope Ignored Child Rape. THE POPE

The New York Times reports that Cardinal Ratzinger (aka THE GUY WHO IS NOW THE POPE), as head of the organization that was supposed to investigate and defrock molester priests, personally ignored cries for help from Milwaukee in 1996 when Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy was engaging in a 200-child no-holds-barred rape-a-thon. Oh yeah and the kids were deaf.


Skepchick link:

Sunday, March 28, 2010

That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E



If homeopathy was real...

Just 'cause Jesus is involved doesn't make it not rape culture

Rape culture crops up when male power over women and children is exalted, when sexuality is demonized, and when men are encouraged to think of women (and children's) bodies as their property. All these aspects of patriarchy aren't only part of the Catholic church, they're celebrated. The exuberant love of male dominance that is the Catholic dogma is going to turn men into rapists who get a rise out of sexually dominated people they believe are lesser than them.


Link:

Does God Have a Future?



Sam Harris and Michael Shermer vs. Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston on ABC Nightline.

Bombs kill 5 near house of Sunni candidate in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Several bombs exploded Sunday near the home of a prominent Sunni figure who ran in this month's parliamentary elections in Iraq, killing five people and wounding 26 others, a police official said.

The attack adds to fears of serious post-election violence as the bitter election rivals enter what are expected to be drawn out talks on forming the next government that will rule Iraq as U.S. troops leave by the end of 2011.


Link:

How are the Iraqis ever gonna get their democracy on it's feet with lunacy like this going on.

TAM! Australia 2010

TAM! Australia 2010 will be held at the Sydney Masonic Centre on 26?-?28 November 2010.

We announced the event last year and we are sure it will live up to the high expectations everyone has.

The information on this page is correct at the time of publication and will be updated regularly as more information is available.


Link:

I'm going!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Oh Mr Dawkins....That's Cold



Appeals from subjective experience and getting upset don't count. It's your world view, produce your evidence otherwise we have to set your idea aside like unicorns, fairies and Allah. Produce your proof.

Dan Barker Lecture - Part 1 of 9



This is the first video. Just follow your nose for the rest.

Richard Dawkins: An atheist's call to arms

Dan Barker debating with James White on the Jesus myth.

Amazing coincidence?

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Sam Harris' TED talk.



Sam Harris wants our opinion on his presentation.

Pope's letter protects church, not its victims

Michael Nugent:

Having read the full letter, the following seems clear:
1. The Pope's main priority is to protect the church, not its victims
2. The Pope wrongly blames secularism for priests raping children
3. The Pope's apologies are incomplete and his appeals are self-serving
4. The Pope's "concrete initiatives" are a distraction not a solution
5. The Pope is evading the church's responsibilities to civic society


Is this religion teaching people to be good?

Link:

Monday, March 22, 2010

Creationism, climate change and scientific denialism by Ken Perrott

Ken Perrott says:
Strange how one keeps coming across familiar people. Last week I was shocked to read Andrew Bolt's article on the Global Atheist Convention (see Speakers true love of hatred). He wasn't there and those of us that were recognised his article as full of distortions, misinformation and lies. Then I realised he is one of Australia's most active climate change deniers (no, in his case not a sceptic - a denier). And now I find him quoted by the creationist/intelligent design (ID) Discovery Institute in a nasty little article attacking science (see Climategate: a Word of Advice to the Scientists).


Creationists say:
"What can we do? Criminal prosecution of scientists who manipulate data would be a good start. Scientists who fake data and manipulate peer review to advance their agenda are no different than corporate executives who manipulate stock prices or lawyers who tamper with juries.

Wouldn't that land the ID proponents in a fair degree of trouble?

Link:

The same goons just keep coming up.

Canberra Witches

Not a new issue. Article from October 2009.

What the Hex is going on in Canberra?

If you happened to be in Canberra for the weekend but limited yourself to the usual tourist circuit, you missed out on quite the exorcism. Danny Nalliah, the head of Catch the Fire ministries - convinced that Canberra witches' covens had cursed our federal government with blood sacrifices on Mount Ainslie - gathered some 50 Christians to the North Canberra mountain to drive Beelzebub out.


Link:

There is a link to Grace Canberra:

They actually believe this stuff!
Why isn't there footage of witches flying around on broomsticks all over the net (beyond Harry Potter promos)?
The only evidence they have for any of this is their own fear of it.
And they get the shits if we call them stupid.

Why not show that that witchcraft is real? The person who shows that witchcraft is real by demonstrating it would win a Nobel prize for science. But proving stuff is hard. You can't just comfortably believe what you like and hate people who disagree with you. You actually have to do the work: gather the evidence, analyse the results and write up the paper. Then it is peer reviewed. The very thing that theists hat e the most. Actually putting their ideas up for comment, dissection and the risk of total destruction.

A scientist might work his whole life only to discover that he'd taken a wrong turn at the beginning of the journey and that he had wasted all that time. But it wasn't a waste. A well documented failure lets everyone else know that this is a dead end. The time is only wasted once. Not again and again for thousands of years without achieving a single valid result. What a dreadful waste! Unfathomable opportunity cost!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A C "Giggles" Grayling: Believers are away with the fairies

We'd be better off without religion, argues AC Grayling...

There is an increasingly noisy and bad-tempered quarrel between religious people and non-religious people in contemporary society.

As one of those participating in it - and, confessedly, contributing to its acerbity - my answer might seem partisan. But both sides of the current dispute agree that it raises important questions about the place of religious belief in modern society.


Link UK Telegraph

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Atheism: the good, the bad and the ugly

Another atheist practicing his faith-protectionist-apologetics, who didn't attend the conference, expresses the biases that kept him from the conference as fact. For example:

There's more to the meaning of life than proving God does (or doesn't) exist.

Atheism does not seek to prove or disprove god/s. Atheism is a subjective opinion.

THE atheists have come and were seen, but did they conquer? Not, it would seem, quite yet. Last week's atheists convention wasn't bigger than Jesus, but it was large enough - 2500 unbelievers flocking to the Melbourne Convention Centre to mingle with the like-minded. Somewhat smaller than a Sunday mass at St Peter's Basilica, but you need to realise that these are people who pride themselves on not having a herd mentality.

The author may very well think that the convention was a futile attempt to overthrow religion. The organizers and attendants knew that this was totally unachievable.

--

It took me a long time to understand and accept the label 'new atheist'. People like the author, made passionless by years of struggle and defeat, showed me that I am a new atheist. The old atheist model of just leaving moral authority and deferring to the opinions of theists has failed. They have taken more and more control and are now trying to legislate their baseless moral opinions. Enough is enough.

Link to SMH article.

Tantrik tries to kill Sanal Edamaruku in live TV program with his "magical powers"

Atheists all over the world are challenging religious leaders to demonstrate their religious beliefs. Chalk up yet another failure.

We say that religions are harmless. This tantrik is prepared to kill to prove his beliefs. He believes he can kill and is prepared to risk the death of Sanal Edamaruku. We can't say that this is a peaceful, harmless, loving belief system.

Sanal Edamaruku is an atheist.





Atheist Cartoons

The Intelligence² Debate, Is Atheism the New Fundamentalism?!

Debate via Intelligence Squared



















News Limited hates atheists but aura readers are given credibility.

Aura reader Rosemary Waller judged the light surrounding some of South Australia's most prominent politicians for The Advertiser and these are her predictions.

"I think Mike Rann will be feeling like he's not going to win," she says.

"With Isobel Redmond I do believe she thinks she is going to win."

In fact, Ms Waller says that today the arrangement of the planets favours the Liberal Party.

"This election day is the 20th so it is ruled by judgment day and the planets on that day favours Isobel," she says.


Adelaide Now Link:

Anti-theist playlist

Atheism playlist



A few videos are missing/removed. Good list though.

Dawkins takes tea:



Hitchens and Fry debate Catholics









Friday, March 19, 2010

Heaven's above, this po-faced cynic gives atheism a bad name

The trouble with Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist, is that he has no sense of humour. Or if he does, if there is some elfin gaiety within, it has lost the struggle to get out. Dawkins's argument for atheism is impeccable, the logic unassailable. I agree with every word of it: there are no gods, never have been. It's his method that's all wrong.


SMH Link:

Falls under the catagory of "Meh", Carlton.

I'm not interested in being an 'old atheist'. I have embraced the term 'new atheist' because I'm sick of people saying that churches should just get their way in the world. They propagate nonsense, are anti-intellectual and hurt people. The Dawk politely says enough is enough he gets lampooned by both sides.

Tweeted thus:
Carlton on Dawkins. http://bit.ly/aBvxbd Is this professional envy? #fdqm1r Young Aust Skeptics say this didn't happen. http://bit.ly/c24QtS

The Internet: Where religions come to die

Phillip Adams

When I was a child I was the only person who didn't believe in God that I knew. Everyone else had either been born into one of the major brands of Christianity, or at very least they'd accepted, by a process of social osmosis, the idea of God, even if they remained, for all practical purposes, indifferent.

And that's the good thing about the recent ascendancy of our belief, or rather our disbelief. For atheism does not presuppose, let alone impose, a set of views. All it does is unite us in religious scepticism about the existence of gods. Gods plural because, of course, even within one of the religious brands quite a few variations on God are made available.


Link: ABC.net.au

Edited speech from the atheist convention.

Nazis, earthworms and dodgy journalism

Reporting on the 2010 Global Atheist Convention, Fairfax journalists Barney Zwartz & Jacqueline Maley, in their respective articles "Dawkins delivers the sermon they came to hear" (The Age, 15/?3/?10) and "Dawkins derides sainthood as Pythonesque" (SHM, 15/?3/?10) both misquoted evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, which has resulted in a misunderstanding being propagated throughout the entire Australian media at the detriment of Richard Dawkins' name.


Link: Young Skeptics

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Great Catholic Cover-Up

On March 10, the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true-including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia." This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation.


Link: Slate

The Hitch is about his important work again. :)

A badge of courage - Jane Caro

Until Richard Dawkins exploded onto the scene, I had never heard a man described as strident. It was a put-down reserved exclusively for women with both strong opinions and the nerve and cheek to express them without being the least deferential. Along with the word "militant", strident had become the automatic descriptor for anyone who publicly proclaimed her feminism.

Germaine Greer is often described as strident and so was Hillary Clinton - particularly in her run to become the first female President of the US. Since she has become the mouthpiece of US foreign policy, however, I notice the epithet is no longer so regularly applied.


On Line Opinion

Jane Caro's talk was far too short. The conference offered a women's panel which was just an excuse to cram 4 excellent speakers into one hour. The fellow after was dull like watching paint dry! I wished that they'd given his hour to the 4 brilliant women before him.

'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009

Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on our current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing. Krauss is the author of many bestselling books on Physics and Cosmology, including "The Physics of Star Trek."


New road sign to be introduced around Catholic Churches

Minnesota man caught in Chicago after selling wife for sex

A Minnesota man who allegedly pimped his wife out for sex on craigslist has been charged with a felony following his arrest at a downtown Chicago Hotel.

Clinton Danner, 32, of Rockford, Minn., is accused of forcing his wife to have sex with strangers at locations across the country.

Danner met his wife five years ago, when she was 17 and he was a 27-year-old church youth counselor, Antonietti said.


Link:

So, this is religion teaching people how to be good?

Cabin crew in Dubai jailed for sexy texting: report

Two Emirates Airline cabin crew members in Dubai were given three-month jail terms for exchanging sexy text messages.

The then-married flight attendant, 42, and her male supervisor, 47, were convicted of "coercion to commit sin", the National daily reported court documents as saying on Wednesday.

It said the pair - both Indian - were earlier sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by deportation, but an appeals court last week reduced the jail time and dropped the expulsion penalty.


Link:

This is why I try never to go to Dubai.

Xenophon again fails to get up inquiry into Scientology

The Senate has rejected a call for a parliamentary inquiry into the controversial Church of Scientology.

A group of former members of the church watched from the public gallery as independent senator Nick Xenophon argued the case for a Senate inquiry today.

He said Scientology had engaged in criminal and unconscionable conduct, harassment and stalking, while benefiting from tax-exempt status.


Link - SMH:

Xenophon is never gonna get this idea on its feet. Any finding against the Church of Scientology would have to copy directly to other religions.

Submission - Written By Ayaan Hirsi & Directed By Theo van Gogh

Theo van Gogh was killed for making this film.



Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, Infidel.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Richard Dawkins On Why Evolution Trumps Creationism

He's the King of All the Atheists, and now Richard Dawkins is hammering home what he sees as his key argument against the existence of God. In his book, "The Greatest Show on Earth", Dawkins aims to put the theory of evolution in a factually unassailable position. Here, at Adelaide Writers' Week in 2010, he goes through his book chapter by chapter, and in doing so attempts to convince his audience of the absolute veracity of Darwin's theories.

Sam Harris Defends His Atheism

Why do people believe in God? When he wrote his book "The End of Faith", philosopher Sam Harris found himself having to defend his atheism. Here, talking at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, he details some of the arguments that he has used to refute religious arguments.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Faith Diary: Faith Falls Down Under

The world's leading atheists are travelling to Australia this month for a conference designed to show the world that atheism is a force to be reckoned with.
The Rise of Atheism event in Melbourne will attract secular stars such as Richard Dawkins and Anthony Grayling.

Professor Dawkins insists that religion poses a threat to science, reason, and truth itself, claiming: "We have to devote a significant proportion of our time and resources to defending it from deliberate attack from organised ignorance."


Link:

Good mention of the Atheist Conference.

Christian Values - Catherine Deveny

Why was I banned from Mildura, one of the most cosmopolitan and multicultural places in Victoria? Full of warm welcoming people, great chat and incredible diversity? Was there are Ladies Who Take Their Husbands Surname's Convention? No. Were The Footy Show doing a live broadcast from Irymple with special guest Tony Abbott? No. Was the 4WD, Monster Pram Leafblower Expo on in Wentworth? No.


Link - Catherine deveny's blog:

NonStampCollector - Context!!!!!

Survivors wail as slaughtered women and children buried


Villagers wail as mechanical excavators heap earth on the bodies of dozens of children and women slaughtered in a weekend attack on a Nigerian Christian village blamed on a Muslim clan.


Link: SMH

Another story about the sectarian violence in Nigeria. This is my hit prediction:
We will be reading about the reprisals of the Christian village against the Muslim village.

This started when we invented gods and probably wont end until we give them up.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Christianity Crucifying the [US] Constitution

The 'Catholic League', as well as 'In God We Trust', have made their contempt for the American Constitution, and specifically the First Amendment, abundantly clear. Their demand for continued supremacy and political power, coupled with their intolerance of views or beliefs opposing or divergent to their own, has fueled a debate about their continued preferential status and treatment. In statements earlier this week (1), both Bishop Council Nedd and Bill Donohue, leaders, respectively, of the organizations, criticized and insulted both the White House, including President Obama and his administration, as well as the Secular Coalition of America, for having a non-binding, non-policy making, conversation. The mere attendance at the White House of non-Christian, non-religious, representatives of an organization, was too much for them to accept.


"It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation," says In God We Trust's Chairman Bishop Council Nedd. He continues, "President Obama seems to believe that it is a good idea to have a key senior aide plan political strategy with people who believe faith in God is a disease. Some of the people in this coalition believe the world would be better off with no Christians and no Jews and they aren't shy about it. The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths who believe in God."


Link:

The irrational hatred of people with different beliefs continues...

Nigeria: More than 200 dead in religious violence Buzz up!156 votes SendSharePrint AFP/File - Workers close mass graves in Jos where dozens of peop

Jos has a history of communal violence that has made elections difficult to organize. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people and Muslim-Christian battles killed up to 700 people in 2004. More than 300 residents died during a similar uprising in 2008 and violence that began in January killed more than 300 people.


link:

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Too Much Sex? No Such Thing -- Why Sex Addiction Is Total B.S. | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet

Too Much Sex? No Such Thing -- Why Sex Addiction Is Total B.S. http://bit.ly/dxzmSk #atheism Just a religious lie, I think.

Controversy Grows over Study Claiming Liberals and Atheists Are Smarter | News & Politics | AlterNet

The author of a study claiming liberals and atheists are smarter than conservatives and believers is called 'great idiot of social science' by prominent evolutionary biologist. http://bit.ly/d4IGNr - More info: http://bit.ly/d4IGNr+

The God of the Gaps (by Neil deGrasse Tyson)



deGrasse discusses the history of intelligent design at the edge of our knowledge.

Carlin's ten commandments again...



My blog, I can put this video up as often as I like. :)

Roseanne Barr: Mormon Church Caused marie Osmond's Son's Deathtells is like it is

"Marie Osmond's poor gay son killed himself because he had been told how wrong and how sick he was every day of his life by his church and the people in it. Calling that "depression" is a lie!

"Yet the Osmonds still talk lovingly about their church, saying nothing about its extremely anti-gay Crusade. Marie also has a gay daughter! ...

"G-d is trying to use you for something good and this is your opportunity! Your church is wrong and on the wrong wrong wrong side of things! Get as vocal about that as you are about your diet. G-d bless you too, Marie.

"Take a hard look at the facts now as you use this very sad time for introspection, healing growth and prayer, and become a strong symbol for loving mothers who make no apologies for hatred against their own kids!"



Religion Virus post:
Roseanne Barr's post:

The hatred from theists. It's just horrible. But, that is how you generate a powerbase. Denounce your opponents and tell people they are under attack by a group who can't defend itself. Easy!

Are Psychic Detectives Real? Sylvia Browne's Accuracy Rate is 0% in 115 Cases

This article provides the most extensive study of Sylvia Browne's predictions about missing persons and murder cases. Despite her repeated claim to be more than 85% correct, we researched all publicly available cases and discovered she has not been correct in 115 cases.


Link:

Vatican chorister and usher in gay prostitution scandal

Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian, was dismissed by the Vatican from a prestigious choir after his name appeared in transcripts of police wiretaps.
In the wiretaps, Mr Eheim is allegedly heard negotiating over the procurement of male prostitutes.

The wiretaps were carried out in connection with a probe into corruption in contracts to build public works, including the planned venue in Sardinia of last year's G8 summit.

Among four people arrested last month in the corruption probe was Angelo Balducci, an engineer who is a board member of Italy's public works department and a construction consultant to the Vatican.


Link:

Same story. Just good to see it's getting some coverage.

Religions playing nice.

NEW YORK - Five immigrant men who were detained in roundups in New York and eventually deported following the Sept. 11 attacks have reached a $1.26 million settlement with the U.S. government.


Link:

The men claimed they suffered inhumane and degrading treatment in a Brooklyn detention center, including solitary confinement, severe beatings, incessant verbal abuse and a blackout on communications with their families and attorneys.


Link:

WASHINGTON - Measures take by the U.S. administration against Arab and Muslim immigrants after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon have not only failed to protect U.S. security, but may have made it more vulnerable, according to a major report released here Thursday.


Link:

The federal government has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by an Egyptian who was among dozens of Muslim men swept up in the New York area after 9/11, held for months in a federal detention center in Brooklyn and deported after being cleared of links to terrorism.

The settlement, filed in federal court late yesterday, is the first the government has made in a number of lawsuits charging that noncitizens were abused and their constitutional rights violated in detentions after the terror attacks.


Link:

I understand that Muslims may have been perceived as a threat in the post 911 environment but cruelty is hardly useful.

Californian Senator Roy Ashburn charged with drink driving.

Now drink driving would be bad but it was 2 in the morning and he'd just left a gay nightclub with an unidentified man... Yay. Another anti-gay gay Republican.

I don't care that he is gay. That's just him. But I care that he has voted against gay reform and rights.

Young Turk Video:


Sources tell CBS13 that a state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in midtown Sacramento, early Wednesday morning.

The California Highway Patrol pulled over Senator Roy Ashburn at 2:00 a.m. Wednesday after an officer noticed a black Chevy Tahoe swerving at 13th and L Streets.


CBS Article:

Google News Results:

Friday, March 5, 2010

Hitchens' Ten Commandments

Anti-Gay Lawmaker At Gay Club Before DUI Arrest

The California Highway Patrol pulled over Senator Roy Ashburn at 2:00 a.m. Wednesday after an officer noticed a black Chevy Tahoe swerving at 13th and L Streets.

The Sacramento County district attorney says Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn's blood-alcohol level was .14 percent when he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving near the Capitol.


Link:

I love it when the vocal ones get sprung drink driving from a gay bar!

Atheists 'fuelling sectarian conflict'

"Conflict comes up when groups vilify, deny the right to build the mosques," he told the Studies of Religion in Focus conference in Sydney today.

"Or when the 'nones' - those who are anti-theist - [say] 'You're stupid', that religious voices should be driven out of the public policy area, that religion shouldn't be in schools, etc.


Link:

Christianity has had 2000 years to create a harmonious society. They have failed. Islam and Judaism has had a little less and a little more respectively. Their principal tool for ushering this golden age of peace is killing everyone not like them. Somehow this fails to create peace. Professor Bouma is the latest in a long line of theist to blame "the other" for the problems created by his own world view.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Nephew was outted, and then kicked out of school

I am just beside myself tonight. This afternoon I got a frantic call from my sister in North Carolina. Her 18 year old son was outted at his school today. She had expected he was gay, but due to her religious beliefs, never wanted to believe it. Well today, he was outed at his private Christian school. The principal called him in to his office to ask if the allegations against him were true, and he admitted that they were. He was immediately kicked out of school. He's a senior and was scheduled to graduate with honors in just 4 months. Can they do this?


More religion teaching people how to be good. These parents have alienated their child. Fortunately the poor lad's Aunt is not a fundamentalist fool too and is going to take him in. And the school! I hope the student is able to sue them for discrimination but I suspect that he wont be able to. I suspect that they will be allowed to be bigoted idiots by hiding behind freedom of religion laws.

Link:

Gay prostitution ring linked to Vatican

VATICAN CITY - One of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers and a member of an elite choir in St Peter's Basilica have been implicated in a gay prostitution ring, in the latest sexual scandal to taint the Vatican.


Link:

My favorite question: Is this religion teaching people how to be good?
These horrible, hypocritical people presume to tell us we should listen to their instruction on correct moral behaviour. Come on!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Monday, March 1, 2010

The stupid of Lil Markie Burnses Us!

Former principal faces sex charges

This story had me at: The former principal of St Andrew's Christian Community School

Christianity just seems to attract kiddy fiddlers.

Link:

Loons!