The fundagelicals were all up in arms over the human papilloma vaccine — it was recommended for all girls to prevent the sexual transmission of a virus that can lead to cancers of the female reproductive tract. They were agin’ it; it might give their womenfolk the idea that sex is not a punishment, and a few thousand dead girls is a small price to pay for sin.

That might change now, though. Clinical testing has revealed that HPV can cause oral cancers in men, and they are recommending that all adolescents, not just girls, should consider getting the vaccine.

Now the religious right is going to face a dilemma. Shall they encourage this vaccination to protect their precious boy-children, or will it be sufficient to scream against the sin of heterosexual oral sex from the pulpit? And can they even bear to talk about such ‘bizarre’ sexual practices in church?

(via Saneblog)

In the wake of the recent efforts of a School Administrative District in Maine to expel evolution from the curriculum, we now have a pointless poll seeking the vox populi on this badly worded question: “A school board member in SAD 59 wants the topic of evolution dropped from high school science curriculums. Do you agree?”

While I agree that a school board member wants to do that, I think the poll actually intends to ask whether you want evolution dropped from the curriculum.

The Irish Independent has a poll at the bottom of their main page: “Are you in support of the Catholic Church retaining its key role in Irish schools?” It’s very evenly split, 49% yes, 51% no, which represents some solid opposition already. I had no idea that the church controlled 90% of the primary schools in Ireland, but it’s a good sign that the church seems to be interested in reducing its authority.

Sometimes the NPR Series “This I Believe” peddles a short dose of codswallop, but today’s is pretty good.

Would you believe a school in Minnesota suspended three eighth graders for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? Outrageous. The pledge is ridiculous to begin with and replaces conscientious thought with blind obedience, and I think it ought to be rejected everywhere, but to punish students for refusing to kowtow to McCarthyite relics is absurd.

Greg Laden wants us to crash this poll. It’s a bit redundant, fortunately, since the forces of reason are already leading, but let’s tip it farther.

Here’s the silly poll:

Did school officials react properly to the students who did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

• Yes, but the punishment should have been more severe.
• Yes, a one-day, in-school suspension is about right.
• No, they should have been given a warning first.
• No, they shouldn’t be required to stand.

The town of Frankenmuth, Michigan likes to flaunt their crosses — they’ve put them up on signs, and they’ve got one on the city logo. I suspect the town contains a Christian majority, so their local news probably felt safe putting up an online poll asking,

Should Frankenmuth remove its cross from the city shield?

They don’t expect a horde of ravening godless atheists to descend on them and vote “YES!” — they never do. Mount up, internet warriors, and assault their poll with fire and sword and level it until they reel back crying for mercy.

Frankenmuth won’t know what hit them.^*

^*Literally; most probably won’t even notice. It’s just a pointless internet poll.

The Catholic church is always ripely ridiculous, and it’s a fine fillip on the rococo elaborations of their dogma when some silly news organization tries to turn them into a poll. Here you go, two, count ’em, two polls at once on the absurd entity called the Virgin Mary. You get to vote on “Do you believe the Virgin Mary has appeared as an apparition?”, which is silly as it stands, but then there’s also this ambiguous question, “Are you surprised the church officially recognized the Virgin Mary sightings from the 1600s?”. So we’ve got “do you believe in ghosts with hymens?” and “are you really surprised at how stupid religion can be?”.

I had to vote no on both. Vote according to your reason now!

(By the way, don’t expect dramatic shifts in the results on this one — they’ve got over 150,000 votes each right now.)

So here’s another one. A West Virginia newspaper poll asks,

Should local governmental bodies be allowed to open their meetings with a prayer?

You know the answer to that one.

It’s an event that caused more than 10,000 dead in Myanmar, and who knows how much devastation.

All we have to do, though, is wait a few days, and it will disappear from the news.

Did you all catch Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World segment? Ben Stein almost made the top of the list — he was beaten by Ann Coulter, though, so the competition was fierce.

The other “almost”…what prompted the nomination was Stein’s claim that listening to me reminded him that science is all about killing people. Alas, Olbermann only mentioned me as a generic scientist, not by name. Oh, well.