Atheism and secular living from a woman's point of view.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
New Video: "Sophia Investigates the Good News Club"
hat tip: The Thinking Atheist podcast. He interviews Katherine Stewart, who wrote The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children. She also has a blog. The Good News Club (not a club, really fundamentalist education with a five-year curriculum aimed at elementary children in public schools, even kindergartners) came to her hometown of Santa Barbara, California. They're probably in your town too, or they want to be. They're in 3500 schools nationwide.
She's not the only one drawing attention to this menace. Check out "Good News Club: A Critique."
Monday, February 18, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Random Links
7 Habits of Marginally Effective People I've known a few of these
Wisconsin Republicans tell fundies that transvaginal ultrasound is their top priority. Total lack of imagination. I'm sure every unemployed undereducated Wisconsite would be happy to know this... if they could afford the interwebs or could read long words.
Cruise ship is study in dystopia society. Christians get credit for being the good guys. I'd love to know how many of the food-hoarding drunkards were Christians and how many of the good guys were atheists.
...and in dystopian India, where drugs are manufactured for American companies, there is only one school of pharmacy, and a government program gives six menstrual pads per cycle to rural teens. When I was that age, those would have lasted me two days, max... or maxi.
The Vatican is full of old Italian men who don't like change. And being sent to the United States is punishment. *lol*
And in more Vatican news, they stonewalled a bishop who tried to get rid of a pedophile priest.
Perhaps they were unconcerned because a Buddhist teacher in L.A. is also a sex offender.
Emory University president praises the slavery-era decision to value blacks as 3/5 the value of whites. It was a compromise "both" sides could agree on, but if I recall correctly, black people were not consulted on this.
The 30 y.o. pentecostal who headed the Office of Faith-based (and Community-based wink wink) Initiatives, is on his way out. He e-mailed daily devotional passages to the president... as part of his job duties? How was any of that Constitutional? Or for that matter the whole office. It should close.
Teenage girl gets thousands of dollars for obeying one stupid line in Deuteronomy.
In Missouri, a bill proposes to redefine "science" in a way that permits "intelligent" design in schools.
Wisconsin Republicans tell fundies that transvaginal ultrasound is their top priority. Total lack of imagination. I'm sure every unemployed undereducated Wisconsite would be happy to know this... if they could afford the interwebs or could read long words.
Cruise ship is study in dystopia society. Christians get credit for being the good guys. I'd love to know how many of the food-hoarding drunkards were Christians and how many of the good guys were atheists.
...and in dystopian India, where drugs are manufactured for American companies, there is only one school of pharmacy, and a government program gives six menstrual pads per cycle to rural teens. When I was that age, those would have lasted me two days, max... or maxi.
The Vatican is full of old Italian men who don't like change. And being sent to the United States is punishment. *lol*
And in more Vatican news, they stonewalled a bishop who tried to get rid of a pedophile priest.
Perhaps they were unconcerned because a Buddhist teacher in L.A. is also a sex offender.
Emory University president praises the slavery-era decision to value blacks as 3/5 the value of whites. It was a compromise "both" sides could agree on, but if I recall correctly, black people were not consulted on this.
The 30 y.o. pentecostal who headed the Office of Faith-based (and Community-based wink wink) Initiatives, is on his way out. He e-mailed daily devotional passages to the president... as part of his job duties? How was any of that Constitutional? Or for that matter the whole office. It should close.
Teenage girl gets thousands of dollars for obeying one stupid line in Deuteronomy.
In Missouri, a bill proposes to redefine "science" in a way that permits "intelligent" design in schools.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Epic Rap Battle: Adam vs. Eve
It looked like Adam was winning but then he went too far and it was downhill from there!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Richard Dawkins on Al-Jazeera English
His answers should be familiar to most atheists, but it's unusual to see him being questioned by a Muslim:
Saturday, February 9, 2013
The Week in Women
Lately, there have been so many stories that are really about women & girls that I decided to do a link round-up just of stories about women this week:
Drop in NYC teen pregnancy rate proves that sex education and availability of contraceptives 1) reduces unwanted pregnancy and 2) does not increase sexual activity.
Mary Ingalls, one of the real-life girls in the Little House series, did not go blind from scarlet fever, but most likely from "brain fever," a.k.a. viral meningoencephalitis.
Serial flashers in Houston spend little time in jail. Creepy!
Al-qaeda goons rape the women of Timbuktu. Jihad is just a cover for men behaving badly.
Poor women in India receiving unnecessary hysterectomies for the insurance money.
Ministry reaches out to strippers to help them get out of the biz. Now this is a cause secularists should take on! Instead of asking "what does God want you to do?" we should reach out to these women and say "imagine your income if you earn a scientific or engineering degree!" Of course, there are a lot of women stripping for their tuition money (I knew one personally in Texas), so it would be tough to top that money.
In Egypt, women protesters have been raped at protests. Now they have even more to protest about.
Women and young people in Saudi Arabia are working against extremism. Women can't even drive a car there. They have a long way to go.
Biblical justification for women in combat. Let's hope this trend doesn't slide down the slippery slope to justifying slavery, genocide, and capital punishment for minor offenses.
The best news, Malala goes home after successful surgery. I wish she hadn't credited prayer for her recovery, but from the point of view of her cause that's the best thing she could have said. Women have much greater chances of equality if it can be presented as compatible with religion. Religion is just a tool for weak men to suppress women. Strong men don't feel threatened by an educated woman.
Drop in NYC teen pregnancy rate proves that sex education and availability of contraceptives 1) reduces unwanted pregnancy and 2) does not increase sexual activity.
Mary Ingalls, one of the real-life girls in the Little House series, did not go blind from scarlet fever, but most likely from "brain fever," a.k.a. viral meningoencephalitis.
Serial flashers in Houston spend little time in jail. Creepy!
Al-qaeda goons rape the women of Timbuktu. Jihad is just a cover for men behaving badly.
Poor women in India receiving unnecessary hysterectomies for the insurance money.
Ministry reaches out to strippers to help them get out of the biz. Now this is a cause secularists should take on! Instead of asking "what does God want you to do?" we should reach out to these women and say "imagine your income if you earn a scientific or engineering degree!" Of course, there are a lot of women stripping for their tuition money (I knew one personally in Texas), so it would be tough to top that money.
In Egypt, women protesters have been raped at protests. Now they have even more to protest about.
Women and young people in Saudi Arabia are working against extremism. Women can't even drive a car there. They have a long way to go.
Biblical justification for women in combat. Let's hope this trend doesn't slide down the slippery slope to justifying slavery, genocide, and capital punishment for minor offenses.
The best news, Malala goes home after successful surgery. I wish she hadn't credited prayer for her recovery, but from the point of view of her cause that's the best thing she could have said. Women have much greater chances of equality if it can be presented as compatible with religion. Religion is just a tool for weak men to suppress women. Strong men don't feel threatened by an educated woman.
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