As he heads into his final few years as president, Obama seems to be finally taking a stand on a few things. He is going to veto the Keystone XL Pipeline. Hooray!
Coming to Minneapolis this August, it’s the Secular Women Work conference. They’re in the planning phases now, and most importantly, in the fundraising stage, so they need our help to get it together. I’ll be contributing this evening, after the secular working woman in my house gets home — we should all chip in what we can!
It’s always sad when a child dies of cancer. Makayla Sault, an 11 year old Ojibwa girl, has died after refusing chemotherapy for her treatable cancer. She claimed to prefer indigenous medicine, although actually it was her parents who insisted on it, and strangely, this indigenous medicine consisted largely of megadoses of Jesus.
But guess who gets the blame for her death?
See note at bottom from Richard Carrier.
This person was very anxious to contact me and get a reply, and sent me a couple of messages on twitter and in email. I gave him a shot. I shouldn’t have bothered.
Always a good philosophy.
After learning that some media are practicing “cultural sensitivity” and being delicate about portrayals of animals that certain religious groups found offensive, Mary suggested that today’s metazoan should be a pretty pink pig. A good idea, I thought, but you know me — I can’t just stop there. So I read Leviticus.
Boy, Leviticus doesn’t just despise pigs…it detests just about everything. All these dirty, filthy animals (except the ones their tribe happens to raise for food and milk and fur, of course) that are disgusting and unclean. They are not only unfit to be sacrificed to the Lord, and not to ever, under any circumstances, be eaten, but if you touch them, alive or dead, you are befouled; if they touch any object it is unclean and must be destroyed. This is like the anti-biology chapter of the Bible.
So, for your edification, I’ve put the complete text of Leviticus 11 below the fold, along with a sampling of examples of the animals the Bible frowns upon. You know, it’s not just pigs — the Bible really loathes birds, and all invertebrates except 4 species.
It has been brought to my attention that way too many Americans have no idea what the Infinite Monkey Cage is, and that I have to enlighten you. It is Brian Cox and Robin Ince and a few other guests talking about science and comedy.
There. Job’s done.
In addition to my familiar and tiresome herd of trolls, the Gateway To Reason organizer is receiving more damning information about me from another source: it’s Comma again! And he’s teaming up with slymepitters and Twitter twits! I guess I’m doomed.
For some reason, though, I think it would have been even more amusing if Mr Smear had an Irish accent.
It turns out that it’s not as simple as going “eww, ick” at that breastfeeding scene on Game of Thrones. Katie Hinde explains the science of weaning — there’s lots of solid information there, but the bottom line is this:
So proscriptive attitudes about what women should and shouldn’t do with their bodies can suck it.
