Monthly Archives: November 2010
Is religion a good or evil force in society?
Americans and citizens of some of the most Islamic countries tend to agree that it is a force acting on the side of good. Many Europeans say the opposite. There is a rough correlation between the religiosity of a country and how much religion is revered (duh) as a primarily good thing.
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The Fetish in relation to Skepticism
I was just glancing through the blog of Katheryn Schulz, author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
This has to do with the idea of a fetish. It is likely that I’m using the word “fetish” in a different way than it is usually used in modern English parlance, so some definition is appropriate. Here’s some material from various dictionary sources:
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Friday funny feline
hat tip: Julia
Making law on the high seas
What really happened at the First Thanksgiving
A re-enactment:
Jimmy Carter: Religion is one of the ‘basic causes’ of violations of women’s rights
The Feast
The enemy has arrived, in force, outside your village. The men are armed and wearing the symbols of war, which is appropriate because your group and the group milling about outside your walled settlement are at war. One of the men, wearing war garb but adorned also with white flagging to indicate a peaceful intent attempts to enter your village but is stopped by guards. They converse briefly and the guards allow the man to crawl into your village through the only opening in the surrounding wall left following preparations for possible attack. The man walks into the center of the plaza and kneels, and is handed a large container of beer which may or may not be poisoned. He drinks the entire amount without stopping, so that if it is poisoned, he will surely die, and if it is not, he will surely cop a buzz.
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What Was Republican Rep Hackbarth Doing in the Planned Parenthood lot with Binoculars and Loaded Gun?
Tom Hackbarth is from Cedar, Minnesota and is a veteran member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. The district he represents is just north of where I live (I’m near 113th and the southern border of Hackbarth’s district is 181st) and overlaps with Michele Bachmann’s congressional district. Hackbarth is a Republican and has been re-elected to represent this district a number of times. With the Republicans taking over the Minnesota house this year, he is the new chair of the Environment and Natural resources Committee. And, when asked by reporters from our local TV station what he was doing behind the planned parenthood building after hours with a map of the neighborhood, a pair of binoculars, and a loaded gun, his reply was:
Thanksgiving Bar Ad Demonstrates Thanksgiving Spirit
Thanksgiving is in some ways the best holiday because it is all about … gravy. But when you dig a little you find racism and religiosity and other icky stuff. Here’s an example of what can go wrong:
The Clemency of Cranberry
Obama will pardon Cranberry but there will be a speech.
Hat tip Julia
Protecting the brain against concussion
Actor Michael Brea Murders Mom in Religious Conniption, Police May Have Contributed to Death
This is interesting at so many levels, but I thought you might find it pertinent to the ongoing discussion of whether or not we should assume that a person is good because they are very very religious, or check our wallets frequently and wear body armor when near them because they are very very religious.
Michael Brea is a bit actor who has had roles in TV shows you may have heard of (“Ugly Betty” being one of them). He was heard by a neighbor chanting religious phrases at his mother and demanding to know if she believed in god while he hacked at her with a ceremonial Freemason’s sword.
The police arrived and found Yannick Brea alive and bleeding, severely injured with multiple stab wounds to the head. She did not live.
When police first arrived they waited 45 minutes to attempt an entry to the apartment. Later, when asked why they took so long to attempt a rescue, they mumbled something about it being a “barricaded situation” and then whined for a while about how dangerous police work is.
One of the neighbors reported it this way:
Women, wartime and the dream of peace
Obama remark on science
“It is in these labs — often late at night, often fueled by a dangerous combination of coffee and obsession — that our future is being won. For in a global economy, the key to our prosperity will never be to compete by paying our workers less or building cheaper, lower-quality products. That’s not our advantage. The key to our success — as it has always been — will be to compete by developing new products, by generating new industries, by maintaining our role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation. It’s absolutely essential to our future.”
Barack Obama during the presentation of the National Medals of Science, Technology and Innovation
The whole shebang:
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