Gay Couple Weds In DC After 60 Years Together

The Advocate reports: After a 60-year romance, a gay couple in their 80s tied the knot in Washington, D.C., June 20. Henry Schalizki and Bob Davis exchanged their vows at the J. W. Marriott in Washington in front of 60 friends and family members, according to The Washington Post. The couple reveals that while Schalizki immediately […]

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One Nation Indivisible

Just Monday morning I was riding along a Florida Highway staring with irritation at a giant billboard looking just like the one below except it had the giant word “GOD” in the middle contributing to three phrases.   Atop and to the left of the word God it said “One Nation Under”, on the left […]

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Judge This: No Gay Kissing On Modern Family?

I am a bit late on this story but wanted to offer a contrary viewpoint to the dominant one of the outraged blogosphere. Though I have never seen the show, I was interested in the controversy over the show Modern Family which apparently features a gay couple among its lead characters.  The controversy centers not […]

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McChrystal The Torturer

I have never liked General McChrystal being allowed to run our Afghanistan operations.  Long before his current foolish comments in Rolling Stone that have gotten him fired and replaced by General Petraeus, he should have been brought up on charges of war crimes: “Once, somebody brought it up with the colonel. ‘Will [the Red Cross] […]

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“The Law Of God Which Is Above Human Rights”

Any religion, or interpretation of a religion which takes the view that the law of God can be above human rights cannot be immune to violating human rights.  In this case, we have an Iranian cleric calling for unveiled women to be treated like criminals as though they were drug traffickers, robbers, or terrorists: Guardian […]

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Pakistani Police Investigating Mark Zuckerberg On Charges Of Blasphemy From Lawyer

In response to “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day”: Last month, according to English-language Pakistani newspaper The News International, a Pakistani High Court judge summoned the police after lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique filed an application for a First Information Report (FIR), claiming that the owners of Facebook had committed a heinous and serious crime under Section 295-C of […]

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How The Texas Textbook Standards Got Corrupted

People For The American Way have an analysis of the process by which Texas’s textbook standards became tools for rewriting history according to a contemporary right wing religious political viewpoint.  Here are just a few glimpses of the changes, both those merely proposed and those actually accepted by the school board, which I had not […]

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Spanish Singer Prosecuted For Cooking A Crucifix In 1978

Here’s the offending video: And the story of the penalties to be paid for it: Musician Javier Krahe faces a fine of £159,000 after stills from the spoof cookery show, which involved baking an effigy of Christ for three days, were shown on television in 2004 during an interview with the star. Despite the length […]

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Is Shari’a Law “Inevitable” For UK Muslims?

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, claims it is: Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4′s World at One that the UK has to “face up to the fact” that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system. Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social […]

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Exit Polls Say Geert Wilders’s Anti-Islamic Party Doubles Its Seats In Dutch Parliament

The Guardian: The Netherlands’ anti-Islamic MP Geert Wilders appeared on course for major gains in a general election yesterday, more than doubling his party’s seats in the Dutch parliament and overtaking the incumbent ruling Christian Democrats, according to exit polls last night. Wilders’ Freedom party looked to have taken third place in a close-fought election […]

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Why A Biologist Says We Should Kill, Not Clean, The Oil-Covered Birds

Tree Hugger explains the advice of Sylvia Gaus, biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park along the North Sea in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, in Der Spiegel: This may shock many, and the advice certainly appears contrary to that of the myriad conservationists who have set up centers around the Gulf to care for oiled birds. Despite […]

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Who Super-Soaks The Watch Dogs?

Glenn Greenwald rightly excoriates members of the press for frolicking with the members of the White House last weekend: On Friday, CNN’s Ed Henry posted a series of giggly, adolescent updates on his Twitter feed, describing the events that took place at a “beach” party thrown by Joe Biden, at the Vice President’s mansion, for various […]

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Angry Atheist Debate About A Mosque Near Ground Zerosts

Saturday I put together a large post highlighting a spectrum of thoughtful and/or provocative opinions on the recently approved plan to build a mosque a couple of blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center in New York.  That day, for the sake of balance, I wanted to find someone who could […]

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Aspiration

“If I have one goal in life, it is to be known as the guy who doesn’t surprise acquaintances when he punches a shark.” Your Thoughts?

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A Mosque At Ground Zero?

New York City has approved a plan to build a 13 story mosque and community center near the site of the former World Trade Center as part of the area’s proposed revitalization. I decided to group all the most interesting and relevant videos and editorials I could find into one large post in order to […]

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A Little Evidence That Atheists and Theists Don’t “Simply Think Differently”

In order to respond to certain misunderstandings based on this post’s original, provocative title (Do Atheists Just Have Asperger’s?) I have re-edited it and retitled it.  There is now a new opening paragraph and extra concluding paragraphs. It is often suggested that the difference between theists and atheists might simply stem from differences in their naturally given […]

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American Academy Of Pediatrics Reverses Support For Female Circumcision “Compromise”

The American Academy of Pediatrics had proposed permitting American doctors to ritually “nick” the clitorises of girls whose parents want to maintain their customs in America.  The thinking was that this compromise would prevent such parents from going underground to have a fuller mutilation of the clitoris carried out instead.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues that […]

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Burqa Banning: A Religious Or Cultural Issue?

Another thoughtful and passionate debate on this difficult issue from the land down under: Your Thoughts?

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Pat Tillman’s Family Was Insulted By Army Colonel For Being Atheists

Keeping with the theme of the treatment of atheist service people, Matt posted this infuriating, 3 year old report, on the contemptuous treatment of Pat Tillman’s memory and family on account of his atheism by an army investigator: Your Thoughts?

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Maldivian Man Attacked By Crowd For Disbelief In Islam

In a country where being a non-Muslim is illegal: MALE, May 29, 2010 (HNS) – A Maldivian man was assaulted Friday evening, after he declared his atheist status to the public during the Q&A session of a lecture given by visiting Indian scholar Dr Zakir Naik. Mohamed Nazim, 37, said although he was born to […]

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Islam Needs An I-Pod

The Amazing Atheist nails it (for the first five minutes anyway and then becomes rather hit and miss, missing the hardest on Ft. Hood): Your Thoughts?

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Teachers Suspended For Sprinkling “Holy Water” On Atheist Colleague

Last weekend I discussed the incident in which a teacher accused two other teachers of bullying her over her atheism by threatening to sprinkle her with “holy water” (in the form of a bottle of perfume).  I agreed with the atheist teacher’s assessment that she was being bullied but did not think the passive aggressive […]

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Teen Werewolves

Am I just getting older or are teens really becoming a whole lot less distinguishable from children? The wisdom of a teen werewolf: I don’t believe any one is just human.  Everyone’s got something else mixed in with them, just they’ve got to actually look inside themselves to see what it is. Thanks to Brandy […]

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Should Religions Be Exempt From Laws Otherwise Applicable To Others?

ProfMTH explores the issue with a wealth of information, siding against such exemptions: The second video is chock full of legal information.  The most interesting bit in here is where he discusses Antonin Scalia’s strong case against religious exemptions and Sonia Sotomayor’s general support for them. 1. Regarding Christian Legal Society v. Martinez– –the decision […]

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Teachers Accused Of Bullying Atheist Colleague

South Florida News reports: The district is looking into whether the women at Ely High School tried to bully the counterpart into becoming a believer. “The students whom I interviewed said that’s absolutely untrue,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Johnny McCray, who represents both teachers, Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson. He says the two didn’t have […]

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