Jesus Christ Superstar

Last night the NBC TV network broadcast a live performance of this rock musical to coincide with Easter Sunday. I started watching the high-energy 2½ hour show but gave up after 40 minutes. This was not because I thought it was bad. I liked what I saw but the frequent breaks for commercials finally got the better of me. It seemed like for every 8 minutes of the show, we had a break for about 4 minutes of commercials. I understand the business model of ads paying for free programming, but the time spent on ads was just too much and they were so frequent that it destroyed the sense of engagement. If a DVD comes out, I may well watch it but today clips were made available and I embed some below.
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Pulse nightclub shooter’s wife acquitted of all charges

The mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in June 2016 was a horrific event even by the standards of the US where mass killings are so common, in which 49 people were killed and 58 wounded by a single person Omar Mateen, showing how much firepower he had at his disposal. Mateen himself was killed after a three-hour standoff with police. Mateen had sworn allegiance to ISIS and said that his motive was revenge for US actions against ISIS.
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Why is there no war on Easter?

Today is Good Friday and this coming Sunday is Easter Sunday, both major days in the Christian calendar. The so-called ‘war on Christmas’ is something that politicians have got a lot of mileage out of. In addition to feeding the persecution complex of some Christians who like to think of themselves as under siege for their faith in the US of all places, it is also used as a cudgel by them against those who oppose their attempts to impose Christianity and its practices on everyone, by having prayers and Christian symbols occupy the public sphere.
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Facebook implicated in Sri Lankan religious clashes

The Sri Lankan government has accused Facebook of not acting swiftly enough to take down and counter posts that the government says have inflamed passions among Buddhist hardliners in the country who have been instigating mobs to attack Muslims and destroy their homes and businesses. The government has now moved to block many social media platforms.
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The Thinking Housewife goes full-on massacre denialist

Long time readers may recall that I used to check in from time to time on a website known as The Thinking Housewife, seeing it as a somewhat genteel and quaint version of highly conservative views based on a Roman Catholicism that was so ultra-traditional that it viewed the current pope Francis as some kind of liberal anti-Catholic imposter who had infiltrated the church in order to subvert if from inside. All that was good clean fun until in 2015 she suddenly put up a post where she went on an extraordinary anti-Semitic rant. At that point, I decided that the site was not funny anymore and stopped visiting.
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Charting the travails of the skeptic movement

Amanda Marcotte uses the current discussion swirling around allegations of predatory sexual behavior by noted physicist and skeptic Lawrence Krauss to chart the recent history of the skeptic movement. She describes and how it initially gave hope to unbelievers of all stripes, especially women, that they had found a welcoming home but that the less than unequivocal backing of some of the organizations (the Center for Inquiry emerges as a major problem though it seems like it is belatedly trying to make amends) for the right of women to be free from a hostile environment has led to a great deal of disillusionment. The angry reception that Rebecca Watson received for her gentle hint about how women would like to be treated at secular events marked the nadir.
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Theological spin on scientific discoveries

After posting earlier today about the detection of when the cosmic dawn (i.e., the appearance of the first stars) occurred, I started thinking about how religious people would react to news like this, especially those religions that have anthropocentric views of the universe, like the Abrahamic religions that have the Genesis story as their foundational myths
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Shaolin monk pierces glass with a needle

The Shaolin order of monks in China is noted for its rigorous training that enables them to perform quite incredible feats of strength and endurance. They are also known for being fierce kung fu warriors, strange for Buddhist monks who are supposed to be pacifist. So how did that happen? Kallie Szczepanski provides a brief summary of the turbulent 1,500 year old history of the order that mixes legend with facts.
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