Archive for July, 2009

HuffPo spews CAM-poo

Friday, July 31st, 2009

I don’t read the Huffington Post for tips on health and fitness, but I do remember a couple of months ago being taken aback that one of their health writers recommended colonics as a preventative for swine flu.

Turns out this wasn’t an isolated incident.  It’s part of a trend at HuffPo to publish articles by “experts” that promote Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (”CAM,” or as I like to call it, “Not Medicine”), or sometimes even flat-out bad health advice.

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How to avoid church

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

There were days I thought of chewing through my own ankle to avoid church.  Never thought of stealing my dad’s car.

(Thanks to Travis for the link!)

The Associated Press
Updated: 07/29/2009 10:09:56 AM MDT

Plain City » Police in Utah say a 7-year-old boy led officers on a car chase in an effort to avoid going to church.

Dispatchers received reports of a child driving recklessly on Sunday morning. Weber County Sheriff’s Capt. Klint Anderson says one witness said the boy drove through a stop sign.

Anderson says two deputies caught up with the boy and tried unsuccessfully to stop the Dodge Intrepid in an area about 45 miles north of Salt Lake City. The car reached 40 mph before the boy stopped in a driveway and ran inside a home.

Anderson says when the boy’s father later confronted him, the boy said he didn’t want to go to church. The boy is too young to prosecute and no citations were issued, although police did urge the father to make his car keys more inaccessible to children.

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Jesus Christ, what now?

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Is there no depth these days to which conservatives in this country will not descend in order to manufacture outrage?

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with VP Joe Biden, in which he discusses the insecurity of a weakened Russia.  Channeling the thoughts of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Biden said, “I can see Putin sitting in Moscow saying, ‘Jesus Christ, Iran gets the nuclear weapon, who goes first?’ Moscow, not Washington.”

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Defining Anti-theism

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

by John C. Snider © 2009

It’s official.  American Freethought is now a “prominent atheist website.”  So implies Robert Wright in his latest essay, “End Times,” part of his guest-blogging stint at Andrew Sullivan’s “The Daily Dish” blog at The Atlantic.  Who am I to argue with him?  :)

“End Times” is Wright’s latest volley in the general direction of so-called “New Atheists,” which I’ve said repeatedly (and may continue saying until somebody corrects me) is a squishy term that is not embraced, as far as I can tell, by any atheist organization; has no self-identified membership or tenets, and is really just a term latched onto by the media ’cause all of a sudden they discovered atheism is sexy.  (Of course, we all knew that already, didn’t we?)

New Atheist = Atheism + Anti-Theism?

Wright’s conclusion, in short, is that New Atheism = Atheism + Anti-theism.  Wright never defines anti-theism explicitly, but he says it involves “the idea that religion is the cause of conflicts that involve religion.”

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Science music for the kiddies

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

One of my favorite bands of all time is They Might Be Giants (the NYC duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell).  They’re indie rock gods best known for their 80s albums Flood and Lincoln.  If you’re never heard of them, you’ve still heard them: they wrote the theme songs for the TV shows Malcolm in the Middle and The Daily Show!

In addition to their alt-rock oeuvre, TMBG also performs shows for all-ages audiences (which means “kid friendly”), and they’ve released three albums for kids so far: No! (2002), Here Come the ABCs (2005), and Here Come the 123s (2008, which won a Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children).

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Sam Harris on Francis Collins

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Sam Harris contributed an op-ed to the New York Times over the weekend, in which he expresses the concerns of the freethought community and science advocates over President Obama’s naming of Francis Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health.

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Neumann on trial for death of daughter

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

As we discussed in podcast #54, Dale and Leilani Neumann are a Wisconsin couple who allowed their daughter to suffer a prolonged death from diabetes, relying on prayer to heal her rather than seeking medical attention.

Fittingly, Leilani was convicted of second-degree reckless homicide and will be sentenced later this year.  Dale’s trial began this week.

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N Korea executes woman for distributing Bibles

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Will the world ever be able to solve the problem of North Korea?  It’s run by an insane thug; it’s economy is in shambles; and its human rights record is one of the worst on the planet.  Oh, and they’re developing nuclear weapons.  (I’m not one of those who thinks the minute NK builds a fully functional nuclear missile the first thing they’ll do is take out Seattle; no, crazy as he is Kim Jong Il wants nukes to guarantee his sovereignty.  He knows and we know that the moment he has proper nukes any chance of his forcible overthrow by outside powers has gone out the window.)

But I digress.  If I have any values which could be called sacred, freedom of expression is assuredly on that list.  I would no more squelch the freedom of Christian speech than cut off my own arm.  Even if I were dictator for a day, I would not bulldoze churches, muzzle street preachers, or close down religious charities.  And I know it’s cliche to say so, but  I do think the freedoms of thought and speech are worth fighting for and dying for.

Now there’s this report that NK has executed one of their own citizens for distributing the Bible. (This report is somewhat unsubstantiated, so there’s a possibility that, after I’ve gotten both myself and you all worked up, I might come back tomorrow with a meek “Nevermind…”)  The report also claims she was accused of spying and organizing dissidents (which is kind of the all-purpose accusation in places like NK).

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Goin’ to jail for the Gospel…not!

Friday, July 24th, 2009

The Associated Press reports that “Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and became an outfitter of the stars, was convicted Friday of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex.”

This is another case of somebody who’s not just religious, but really a nutjob.  This is also another case where, had these crimes not been committed under the cover of religion, they would not have gone on as long.  Had Tony Alamo declared that “Reason tells me to marry 9-year-old girls,” he’d have been in prison a long, long time ago.

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Religion excuses child abuse…again

Friday, July 24th, 2009

[Did I say child abuse?  Murder, really.]  According to the Associated Press, “An Oregon couple who relied on prayer instead of medical care were acquitted of manslaughter Thursday in the death of their 15-month-old daughter.”  A jury convicted them only of “criminal mistreatment,” which means they’ll do a year at most.

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