While we certainly ought to be concerned about the influence of Islamist groups in those countries that overthrew their dictators during the Arab Spring, there is good news out of Libya, where the pro-democracy forces are fighting back against the Islamic reactionaries. Reuters reports:
Monthly Archive: September 2012
Sep 27 2012
Those Edgy Nude Calendars
Rebecca Watson has a post at Skepchick about the wisdom and usefulness of all those nude calendars. She notes that Skepchick used to do the same thing but stopped a few years ago and she explains the reason why. The post is prompted by the new calendar for Secular Woman, in which several of my …
Sep 27 2012
Ryan Would Not Reverse DADT
Well this is an interesting development that should have the hard right throwing a fit. Paul Ryan did an interview with a Miami TV station and said that while he opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, he does not think that decision should be reversed and that’s time to move on from that …
Sep 26 2012
Religious Right Leader Wants to Educate Away the Gay
A religious right leader delivered a message on the Piers Morgan show that should surprise no one, saying that gay people don’t deserve equal rights because being gay “ceases procreation” and that the educational system should be reformed to make sure no one becomes gay. Did I mention that the religious right leader in question …
Sep 26 2012
New Orleans Speech Restrictions Stopped For Now
The ACLU is suing the city of New Orleans on behalf of an evangelist over absurdly broad speech restrictions and the judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the ordinance to be enforced pending the outcome of the case. AP reports:
Sep 26 2012
Romney: We’re Fine. Nothing to See Here.
Mitt Romney went on 60 Minutes on Sunday night and struck the Alfred E. Newman “What, me worry?” pose, saying that his campaign is doing just fine and there’s no problem at all. I especially loved this bit of word salad:
Sep 26 2012
Jacobs: Obama Responsible for Weather Calamities
Here’s a delightfully idiotic rant from faith-healing fraud Cindy Jacobs, claiming that she “prophecied” that 2011 would have terrible weather patterns and disasters because of Obama’s “anti-Biblical” policies. She says that 2011 was “the worst year for weather-related disasters in our history, and I was mocked everywhere for that because they don’t understand spiritual things.” …
Sep 26 2012
Barton Screws the Pooch on Lawrence v Texas
David Barton can’t seem to get much of anything right. Not only is he wrong about practically everything he says about the founding era of the country, he is equally ignorant of modern American history. Like his recent claims on his radio show about Lawrence v Texas, the case that overturned state sodomy laws.
Sep 26 2012
Schlafly’s Bizarre Title IX Claims
Phyllis Schlafly is a fountain of absurd and crazy claims, but this one may take the cake. On her radio show last week, she actually attacked Title IX on the grounds that women won too many medals at the Summer Olympics and the men didn’t win enough.
Sep 26 2012
Wingnut: Obama Wants to Eliminate Non-Poor
Joel Gilbert, the guy behind the absurd documentary Dreams of My Real Father, which claims that Obama’s real father is not Barack Obama Sr. but Frank Marshall Davis, who apparently passed communism to his progeny through his genes, says that health care reform is a plot to kill everyone other than the poor.
Sep 26 2012
Plantinga, Nagel, and Evolution
Andrew Sullivan links to a number of other sources talking about a new book by Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga. Atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel reviews that book and gives it far more deference than it is due, mostly because Nagel appears to be pretty clueless about evolution.
Sep 26 2012
German Catholic Bishops Like Mandatory Tithing
I didn’t know this, but apparently Germany has a really creepy law that assesses a higher tax to those who declare themselves adherents of a particular church, with the extra tax being given to that church. The German Catholic Church gets more than $6 billion a year from that policy.
Sep 26 2012
BLAG’s Lame DOMA Defense
Too many acronyms! The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), the attorneys hired by the House to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is making some rather silly arguments in the various legal challenges that they are engaged in. Take a look at this brief filed in one such case. They’re trying …
Sep 26 2012
Romney’s Adventures on Univision
With the polls showing him losing the Latino vote by a huge margin, Mitt Romney booked an appearance on Univision, the Spanish-language TV station, last week. It didn’t go so well. Not only did he show up with a fake tan that would make John Boehner blush, now details are coming out on a whole …
Sep 26 2012
Colombia Creates Small Separation of Church and State
In what seems like an incredibly obvious development, but probably isn’t to everyone, the nation of Colombia has prohibited judges from quoting Bible verses to justify their rulings, saying that their rulings must be made on the basis of secular reasoning and the country’s constitution.
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