August 10 Link Round-up

Baptist pastor expelled from church for attending Rick Ross ("God Forgives, I Don't") concert.  Oh the irony.

The Slate reports on the sexual harrassment problem in secularism.

Crazy Christian in Washington (state) blows up the family dog because it had demons.

Two British teens visiting Zanzibar are the victims of an acid-throwing attack.... because they sang during Ramadan.  Seriously?  Singing?

Conservatives don't care about the consequences of their "morality."  Someone got paid to study that.  I picked the wrong career!

Teens exploited by churches around the country to demand a ridiculous exhibit comparing abortion to the Holocaust.  Even sadder, they're probably aware of being used and proud of it.

Former  basketball coach converts to Islam, goes off the rails, threatens Mormons & Catholics, and gets arrested for pot possession.  Yes, this is the real reason pot is illegal: to get people you don't like off the streets.

Link round-up at a blog I've recently started following, "No Longer Quivering"  Great links, great blog.

Atheism is considered a suicide risk by the military.

Clashes between Hindus and moslems in Kashmir, the only Islamic-majority part of India.

Salon says it misses Hitch more than ever since a video of Kissinger dancing with Colbert goes viral.  (with video interview of Hitch from 2001)

A humanist chaplain at Harvard explains why a humanist/atheist chaplain would be a good idea in the military.

The Barking Atheist challenges Rep. Michael Burgess on his vote to deny atheist chaplains in the military.  Check out the Barking Athiest's blog, too.  His video of this event is the video of the week, below:

August 3 Link round-up

The big news this week is that Ball State University's president made an unequivocal statement on the non-place of Intelligent Design in science education.

Blog posts of interest, mainly for the comments!

• Ball State alumna Jessica Bluemke blogs about it on The Friendly Atheist at Patheos.
• Larry Moran gives the Canadian academic view on Sandwalk.
• Richard Dawkins's site reprints the SF Gate story by Tom Coyne (no relation to Jerry Coyne) and links to the original in SF Gate.
• The comments after the Huffpo piece are a hoot!
• Inside Higher Ed:  Taking a Stand for Science
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Ball State U. Bars Teaching of Intelligent Design as Science
• Jerry Coyne was interviewed for The Christian Post.  
• The Christian Post:  Ball State University Denounces Intelligent Design, Keeps Professor Accused of ID Bias (warning: annoying prosletyzing video loads)
• 
  

The local paper's comment section continues to be trolled by creationists and idiots:

• July 31  Intelligent Design Removed from BSU Class (675 Facebook Shares)
•  July 31:  President Gora calls Intelligent Design Religion, Not Science, which also reprints the statement.  There are over 550 Facebook shares.
• August 1:  Ball State Fumbles Handling of Hedin Case Whiny professor fears faculty will have to do their jobs now  (375 shares)

For comparison, the Huffpo piece has 944 shares, and the latest local story about Ball State being a good deal for the money has zero Facebook shares so far.  So apparently people are paying attention.  I wonder how many re-shares these stories have gotten.


Video of the Week, Saul Becomes a Christian (Atheist Bible Study):
He had to do a second take, which means he was even drunker than usual while reading the Children's Bible. I literally laughed out loud in the middle of this one! My brain says "hey, he's really not that funny" but then I laughed anyway (especially after about 5:20).

Ball State President's Statement on Intelligent Design

President Jo Ann Gora declared Intelligent Design is not a science and does not belong in a science classroom.  She said it belongs in social science or humanities courses, but only if it is presented in the context of other 'theories' of similar ilk.

You can read the entire statement at Jerry Coyne's blog or the local newspaper.  Additional information about Hedin's course is vaguely hinted, but apparently he's been "cooperative" in working with the higher-ups on the issue.

The local student paper covered the story more briefly, and quotes FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel.

This is great news, assuming she really means it.

Homeschoolers and Quiverfull Families

This week's Washington Post has an article about a young man who has struggled to rectify the deficiencies in his homeschooling education:

Josh Powell wanted to go to school so badly that he pleaded with local officials to let him enroll. He didn’t know exactly what students were learning at Buckingham County High School, in rural central Virginia, but he had the sense that he was missing something fundamental.

By the time he was 16, he had never written an essay. He didn’t know South Africa was a country. He couldn’t solve basic algebra problems.

The local school system wouldn't go against his parents' wishes when he decided he wanted to enroll in public school.  He left his family, and with the help of a friend was able to attend community college.  From there, he enrolled in Georgetown University -- no small feat for a community college transfer student.  (Not to mention, it's a Catholic university, which has to rankle his Pentecostal parenst!)

Now he's trying to help his eleven younger siblings get a real  education.  His parents may have meant well, but they have no credentials for teaching any subject other than farming and homemaking, and teaching all grade levels at once will inevitably result in what happened to this family -- the competing interests of all the children resulted in none of having their needs met.

As you read through the article you realize there's an essential issue being ignored: the rights of the children to have a say in their education (not to mention their right to have an education).  This boy should have been able to enroll in school, and so should his siblings if they wish.

So ... how could that happen?  The article talks about education standards, but I think this is an issue of child neglect.  If a child is enrolled in public school and never shows up, the parent will be investigated by Child Protective Services.  Where is CPS when children are forced into these incompetent family schools?

Both the older and the younger children need protection from these delusional parents.  When there are twelve children in a family, if there are only two actual adults in the home, the oldest kids' needs will be put to the side as they are forced to help out with the younger ones.  And the younger ones who get this help, are they better off?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Depends on the older kid who gets assigned to them.


The article doesn't mention the Quiverfull movement but this family sure smells like a Quiverfull family.  They are a fundmentalist family with an excessive number of children, and they homeschool.  The mother refused to comment and let her husband do the talking for the article.  That's because her role is that of a brood mare, not an actual human being with thoughts and ideas.  The only good side of the quiverfull movement is that it's creating a whole generation of children who will grow up learning how totally insane and destructive their religion is. ... assuming their mother isn't the next Andrea Yates.

July 27 Links

Dogs' memories are as good as human's. Their "declarative memory" is, anyway.

Federal judge blocks unconstitutional North Dakota abortion bill.

Hijab tourism pisses off women who are forced to wear it, or choose to, or whatever.  Sheesh.  How could learning what life is like for other people first-hand be a bad thing?

I can't wait to hear how authentic rednecks feel about this example of gun tourism.

Wanted: Young Creation "Scientists"  Apparently recruiting believers to science is as difficult as getting scientists to be liars for Jesus.

Scientist fights back against climate deniers who accuse him of fudging the data.

Rush Limbaugh is now a right-wing welfare bum.  He & Sean Hannity take payola to talk up conservative organizations.

Mormons are ending door-to-door missionary practice.  ... in part because people answer the door with firearms!

Here's a contest winner for ya:  Smallest Penis in Brooklyn! (photos tastefully edited)

Mind-raped by the Christian right!  An alcoholism program is a lure for a fundy cult.

North Dakota anti-abortion nutters put creepy fetus dolls into candy bags for children at parade!

The North Pole has melted.  Here it is, frame by pitiful frame.  (Snopes is currently trying to verify it)

The Atlantic goes after Food Nazis.  (found via Weird Things)

Video of the Week:  The Young Turks (TYT) ask "Is the Internet Destroying the Mormonism?"

July 20 Link Roundup

Zoom from theoretical subatomic particles to the observable universe at this cool site.

Lewis Black tells Rick Perry, Don't Fuck with New York!

The Atheism sub-reddit of Reddit got booted off the main page.

I wonder if Paula Deen has seen this parody of her portrayed by a black woman.  It's hilarious.

The ACLU sent Frankfort, KY a letter threatening a lawsuit if they permitted Gideon Bibles to be distributed in schools.   A religious "freedom" organization counter-lettered.

In Pakistan, 717 people were killed in religious violence last year.  (This doesn't count people killed in drone strikes ordered by Americans who think God blesses the country)  Most were Shia muslims.

The most controversial topics on Wikipedia, i.e. the 'edit wars' are about religion.  

England's supreme court is pondering whether Scientology wedding ceremonies are "religious."

Video of the Week: Kids React to Controversial Cheerios Commercial
After all the coverage of the Zimmerman trial, this video is a welcome change:

The Real Reason why Zimmerman Shouldn't have Followed Martin

In all the hubbub over the Zimmerman/Martin case, one fact stands out to me, and I found some confirmation of it in the New York Times:

There is less violent crime when it is raining. (at least fewer murders in New York)

Bad guys are just like the rest of us.  Actually until they do something bad, they are the rest of us!  They don't like rain, cold, or snow.  Just like us, they would rather be inside watching television on a rainy night than walking around outdoors.  Just like us, they'll postpone an errand if the weather sucks.  We just go to the Seven-Eleven for different errands.

Of course, it's possible Trayvon Martin really was scoping out the neighborhood to plan his next burglary... and it's possible that his jones for sweets was so strong he decided to walk to the store in the rain.  If Zimmerman had been rational and well-trained, he'd have known better than to worry about the kid being up to something.  His only assumption would be that the kid doesn't have a car, which may be unusual but it's not criminal.

As for what happened after Zimmerman made his decision to follow Martin, I'm not upset with the jury because juries match up evidence to their jury instructions.  If there's no match, they are required to make a finding of not guilty.  In the United Kingdom, the jury would say "not proved," which I prefer.  In the sequence of events, there would have to be a line crossed from "stupid" to "illegal" for a guilty verdict.  I listened to quite a bit of the trial, and I can understand the jury not being sure beyond a reasonable doubt about that.  If you follow someone and they turn around and punch you in the nose, you had it coming in a moral sense but not necessarily according to the law.  Sometimes the law and our sense of morality don't match up.  (When it comes to Wall Street it's more like all the time)

What I am upset with are irrational reactions to this whole incident and trial.  One of my Facebook friends demanded the rest of us defriend her if we weren't outraged.  My feelings about it aren't really that strong because I'm a grown-up and I understand that sometimes things don't go the way I'd want or expect.  I also don't expect my friends to agree with me 100% of the time.  Heck, I don't agree with me 100% of the time!  I have mixed feelings about this situation as I do with many others.  If I couldn't handle a friend who sometimes disagreed with me I'd have no friends.

My krav maga instructors often reminded us that just because someone doesn't show you a weapon doesn't mean they don't have one.  Martin probably thought that Zimmerman was unarmed.  Zimmerman didn't know whether Martin was armed.  Likewise, the fact that Zimmerman ignored the 911 dispatcher's advice is irrelevant because being a dumbass is not illegal.  Following someone is almost always legal, even though it's creepy.  Following someone because you don't like their look or their race is also not illegal, and it's extremely disturbing.  Being a dumbass will get you a punch in the nose or worse, but it's not illegal.  Another main teaching point of krav maga: don't start a fight, but if someone starts one with you, be sure you are the one who finishes it.  That's not an official stance of KM but that's the basic idea.  Our drills started with someone putting their hands on you or threatening you with a weapon.  Until then, your life is not in danger, and you most likely still have the Nike option.  Neither person took the Nike option in this case.

And a final point I learned in krav maga:  never go to ground if you can help it.  Very very bad things happen once things go to ground and you are much less likely to go home alive.  If you are on the bottom and someone is on top of you, you are in very very deep trouble.  Unlike Zimmerman, I learned a few wrestling moves to get the bad guy off of you.  Even if you know what you're doing, and you know your teacher or classmate won't kill you, and they are not doing something super crazy, it's very very difficult to do but it's possible.

In the law, if you start a fight and you end the fight, you're guilty.  If someone else starts the fight and you end the fight, you're not guilty because of self-defense.  If you start a fight and you're a bad fighter, then you shoot the other person, you're a dumbass and a murderer.  If you piss someone off and they start the fight but then you shoot them, you're a dumbass but not guilty.  The jury's decision was about the end of the chain of events, not the beginning.  If I had a gun and I'd gotten myself into a fight that went to ground and the other person was a better fighter, I'd use that gun even if it meant going to prison.  Once the situation went bad for Zimmerman, he did what anybody, black or white, who had a gun would do.

So like a plane crash, the killing of Trayvon Martin was due to multiple mistakes, miscalculations, and misinformation.  It should never have happened, not because he was unarmed, but because it was raining.  The first tragic mistake was of not crediting bad guys for having the good sense to get out of the rain.  Zimmerman shouldn't have suspected him; he should have offered him a ride or at least asked him if he was okay.