November 04, 2005

MM

Ha! I ran into Manson at the new Gottfried Helnwein show. We kicked it and talked about Rose.

May 05, 2005

A Big List of Assholes

Today I found a huge list of assholes on the Internet.

April 25, 2005

Ratzinger!

Religion in the Airport

Sorry for the quality of this photo. This is the warning notice at the "Free Speech" area at SFO airport.

March 11, 2005

Antiabortion Activist On Trial for Bringing Fetus to Protest

The Washington Post reports:

It was the furtive movements of a couple of demonstrators that caught the attention of police officers last spring outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on 16th Street NW. And then the officers saw it, in a glass jar passed from one protester to the other:

A human fetus.

Holding it in his pocket, according to police testimony, was Jeff White, an antiabortion activist. When officers asked what he had, White pulled out the jar and confirmed that it contained a fetus. Set in a clear liquid, the tiny limbs were plainly visible.

[...]

The argument of abortion rights advocates has long been that a fetus is nothing more than a cluster of cells and is not a human being, White's attorney, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, said in an interview.

"If that argument is correct," he said, "then how can somebody be charged by the District of Columbia with displaying a human being" when it was a fetus?

"It's a contradictory argument," Chavez-Ochoa said. "If it's not just a clump of cells, is the attorney general willing to concede that a . . . fetus is in fact a human being?"

January 24, 2005

WP Editorial on Intelligent Design

The Washington Post's institutional editorials (the ones written by the newspaper's editors) are usually so middle of the road and cautious that they often appear naive or not well informed. The editorial writers often appear fooled by those "slick web sites" and "public relations" so often used to sway opinion. Today, when I saw the editorial titled "God and Darwin" below, I thought that it would say something like, "a balance could be struck between intelligent design and evolution." But no, they came down strongly on the right side of something. For once. Good job, Fred Hiatt.

WITH THEIR SLICK Web sites, pseudo-academic conferences and savvy public relations, the proponents of "intelligent design" -- a "theory" that challenges the validity of Darwinian evolution -- are far more sophisticated than the creationists of yore. Rather than attempt to prove that the world was created in six days, they operate simply by casting doubt on evolution, largely using the time-honored argument that intelligent life could not have come about by a random natural process and must have been the work of a single creator. They do no experiments and do not publish in recognized scientific journals. Nevertheless, this new generation of anti-evolutionists, arguing that children have a "right to question" scientific truths, has had widespread success in undermining evolutionary theory.

...To teach intelligent design as science in public schools is a clear violation of the principle of separation of church and state.

It also violates principles of common sense. In fact, the breadth and extent of the anti-evolutionary movement that has spread almost unnoticed across the country should force American politicians to think twice about how their public expressions of religious belief are beginning to affect education and science. The deeply religious nature of the United States should not be allowed to stand in the way of the thirst for knowledge or the pursuit of science. Once it does, it won't be long before the American scientific community -- which already has trouble finding enough young Americans to fill its graduate schools -- ceases to lead the world.

December 22, 2004

Would Jesus Use That Much Electricity

Well, all is not lost. People may be requesting nonalcoholic gin, but they are still defiling religion. The Washington Post reports:

Just as pumpkins are smashed at Halloween, a number of Nativity scenes fall victim to pranksters every year. But this year the number being vandalized or stolen appears to be higher than usual; the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says it has logged twice as many complaints as in most years, and more are expected in the days leading up to Christmas.

Some see the rash of stolen Christ figures as indicative of hostility toward Christmas or Christianity.

"There will always be some young people who are drinking who would smash a menorah or a Nativity scene, whatever is there," said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, which places a Nativity scene in Central Park and has received several dozen reports of stolen Christ figures from around the country. "But this is happening so much this year, I can only see it as part of the trend of Christian-bashing and trying to stamp out Christmas. It started with the criticism of the Mel Gibson movie ["The Passion of the Christ"] earlier this year. The culture wars are at their height right now, and this is part of it."

December 07, 2004

New Yorker on Ole Anthony

An excellent article in this week's New Yorker Magazine (not available online) discusses Old Anthony, "[h]is many enemies, most of them televangelists, sometimes call him Ole Antichrist..." Anthony publishes The Door Magazine and runs the Trinity Foundation.

...Anthony has waged a guerrilla war against televangelism-"a multibillion-dollar industry," as he describes it, "untaxed and unregulated, that preys on the elderly and the desperate." The United States has an estimated eighty million evangelical Christians, and about twenty-five hundred ministries that broadcast to them over radio and television. Dallas, the buckle of the Bible Belt, is one of their unofficial headquarters. Fifteen miles from Trinity's ramshackle homes, its opposite number, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, owns a gleaming office building that resembles the White House. Since 1973, TBN has created a twenty-four-hour lineup of religious shows that now go out over forty-six satellites to nearly seven thousand television stations worldwide. A few of its most popular ministers, among them local figures such as Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, tend to preach what's known as the "Prosperity Gospel," which promises health and wealth to all true believers and generous donors. Twice a year, TBN hosts "Praise-a-thons," which raise an average of ninety million dollars each.

Anthony calls this the "Gospel of Greed" and has made it his mission to expose its excesses. Six Trinity members are licensed private investigators, and they have a network of informants and undercover agents in ministries across the country. Their most damning discoveries have led to prosecutions for fraud and to exposes on "PrimeTime Live," on "Dateline NBC," in the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. Trinity's admirers like to think of the foundation as the conscience of evangelical Christianity. Its targets prefer to call it a godless, penniless, and deeply annoying cult. "The televangelist I worked for not only feared Ole-he wanted to do him physical harm," one of Anthony's informants told me. "These guys think he's Satan incarnate."

...Trinity's approach to detective work hasn't changed much since 1988, when it began to investigate Robert Tilton… Tilton had the fastest-growing ministry in the country by then, with more than eighty million dollars a year in donations. He owned or had personal access to several lavish "parsonages," one of which was worth four and a half million dollars, and a hundred-and-thirty-two-thousand-dollar yacht. Yet his ministry, like any other church, was exempt from most federal and state taxes…

Two months later, Anthony showed up at the offices of Response Media, Inc., the marketing firm in Tulsa that handled Tilson's mailings…he had been in contact with Diane Sawyer, the co-anchor of the ABC news show "PrimeTime Live." Sawyer had become intrigued by Tilton while watching his antics on cable one night. After vetting Trinity, she had agreed to collaborate on an investigation. On the day Anthony went to visit Response Media, he was accompanied by two "media consultants": a cameraman from "PrimeTime Live," who had a video lens hidden in his glasses, and a producer for the show, who had concealed a microphone and a video recorder in her purse. For the next two hours, they documented just how well the psychology of direct mail-with its crude manipulation of curiosity, expectation, habit, and obligation-was suited to religion.

"New names is the key. Just think, New names," Jim Moore, the president of Response Media, told Anthony. The firm began by gathering the addresses of hundreds of thousands of Tilton's followers. Then ghostwriters put together a series of direct-mail packages. Some packages contained prayer cloths (a red one for healing, a blue one for miracles, a green one for financial breakthroughs) that Tilton promised to anoint if they were sent back to him. Others contained plastic angels and outlines of Tilton's feet for donors to stand on while praying. Whenever someone sent in a pledge and a prayer request, he received a personal reply from Tilton, mentioning his problem specifically and promising to talk to God about it. Then he received a bill for the pledge.

As the letters from donors poured in, they were bundled together in Dallas and sent to a bank in downtown Tulsa, Moore explained. But he couldn't, or wouldn't, say what happened next. How did Tilton handle the prayer requests- thousands of them a day?

…Sifting through the pizza scraps, crumpled invoices, and coffee-stained spreadsheets, they slowly pieced together Tilton's "Wheel of Fortune," as Anthony later called it. The letters made their way from Dallas to the main bank to the branch bank, where they were opened and stripped of donations. The prayer requests were then read by Internal Data Management employees, who summarized their contents with a simple code ("JBS" for "job needed," for instance, or "BAR" for "barren wife"; "PCA" for "rebellious child" or "FON" for "Bob, pls call me"). The codes were entered into computers and used to generate personalized form letters from Tilton. Anthony and Guetzlaff found thousands of prayer requests in the Dumpster behind the branch bank. One of them, which Anthony keeps in his wallet, was from a woman whose son had lost his job. If he didn't find work, she said, he might commit suicide. "I couldn't believe the callousness of this whole mechanized operation," Anthony says.

"PrimeTime Live" aired a series of exposes on Tilton, based on Trinity's research. The minister fought back from his pulpit and on his own show…

Less than two years later, Tilton's show was off the air and his wife had divorced him…

…Robert Tilton has a new show on cable TV, and Benny Hinn recently held a crusade in India for nearly five million people. Even Jimmy Swaggart, whose visits to prostitutes once shook the religious right, now broadcasts his show to more than fifty countries

…After the wave of televangelist scandals in the early nineties, the Federal Communications Commission considered a truth-in-advertising clause for religious solicitations. If a televangelist declared, on the air, that he had cured a donor's cancer or tripled his bank account, that claim would have to be verifiable. Anthony made three trips to Washington to lobby for the change, and was told that it was certain to pass. Then, in 1994, the Republicans won control of the House, thanks in part to the religious right, and the measure was quietly tabled.

December 04, 2004

New Yorker on the Anti-Kinsey

Blogging from Berkeley!

The Anti-Kinsey, Judith Reisman, accuses Alfred Kinsey of the "current state of sexual degeneracy: the repeal of laws against abortion, adultery, fornication, and even sodomy."

December 02, 2004

Abstinence Only Education Full of Religion, Bizarre Morals, Betrayal of Truth

A new report (PDF) from Representative Waxman covered in the Post alleges that:

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.

October 10, 2003

Does Pat Robetson Want to Blow up the State Dept?

Reuters reports:

"Introducing Mowbray on his Christian Broadcasting Network, Robertson said that a person who read Mowbray's book would reach the conclusion that a nuclear explosion at the State Department was the best solution. "I read your book. When you get through, you say (to yourself): 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom (the State Department's main building), I think that's the answer' and you say: 'We've got to blow that thing up.' I mean, is it as bad as you say?" he said. "It is," Mowbray replied. Mowbray himself did not make the suggestion, either in his book or in the interview. According to the network's Web site, Mowbray's book "exposes the mixed allegiances, hidden agendas, and outright anti-Americanism found in the State Department."

Wayne Madsen's complaint to the FBI regarding Robertson's Fatwa is online at Cryptome.

A message from a friend to the FBI terrorism tip address:

On Thursday, October 9, 2003, M.G. "Pat" Robertson, a resident of Virginia Beach, VA, communicated a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) terrorist threat against the U.S. State Department building in Washington, DC. Robertson's business address is 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23464 (phone: 757.226.4127). During a broadcast of Robertson's syndicated television program, the "700 Club," Robertson said the following to National Review journalist Joel Mowbray, "'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom (the State Department building), I think that's the answer." Robertson then reiterated his threat, "'We've got to blow that thing up."

I live some 4 miles from the State Department building in Arlington, VA and I feel personally threatened by Robertson's remarks. Robertson also has the financial means to acquire WMDs. I would like to know what measures the FBI will take to prevent Robertson from communicating more terrorist threats to the metropolitan Washington, DC region.

If an Islamic cleric in the United States were to say what Robertson said, I am sure he would now either be under arrest or detained incommunicado under the provisions of the Patriot Act.

September 14, 2003

Religion Fun

at Recreational Christianity.com.

September 10, 2003

Jesus Wants You to Have a Fake ID

I keep on getting spam from Jesus Christ urging me to visit FakeIDMan.org. It turns out that this is a pretty neat site that rates fake IDs that you can buy on the Internet.

In any case, a serious evaluator of IDs should buy the ID Guide.

September 09, 2003

America Braces for Three Days of Prayer

George Bush has declared that September 5-7 are National Days of Prayer.

Presidential Documents

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 53011]]

Proclamation 7701 of September 4, 2003

National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, 2003

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

As we approach the second anniversary of September 11,
2001, we remember all that we lost as Americans and
recognize all that we have witnessed about the
character of America. During these National Days of
Prayer and Remembrance, we honor those who were killed
and their families, and we ask God for strength and
wisdom as we carry out the noble mission that our
Nation began that morning.

The passage of time cannot erase the pain and
devastation that were inflicted on our people. We will
always remember those who were brutally taken from us.
And we ask God to comfort the loved ones left behind;
their courage and determination have inspired our
Nation.

We thank God for the unity and compassion Americans
have demonstrated since September 11, 2001. The great
strength of America is the heart and soul of the
American people. And we will continue to help those who
are hurting or are in need.

We pray that God watch over our brave men and women in
uniform. We are grateful to them, and to their
families, for their service and sacrifice. We pray for
peace and ask God for patience and resolve in our war
against terror and evil.

This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of
others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our
choosing.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim Friday, September 5, through
Sunday, September 7, 2003, as National Days of Prayer
and Remembrance. I ask that the people of the United
States and places of worship mark these National Days
of Prayer and Remembrance with memorial services, the
ringing of bells, and evening candlelight remembrance
vigils. I invite the people of the world to share in
these Days of Prayer and Remembrance.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord two
thousand three, and of the

[[Page 53012]]

Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-eighth.

(Presidential Sig.)B

August 30, 2003

A Lexicon for the Irreligious

So my brother will no longer say "Jesus" or "Christmas." These words have become Jeebus (from the Simpsons) and Xmas (from Futurama).

November 08, 2002

WWJD?

What would Jesus drive?

February 01, 2002

Catholic Boy Fucking

If the Pope would finally let priests marry, perhaps they'd stop fucking little boys.

July 13, 2001

Joe Loves God

Yes, it's true. During the 2000 election, Joe Lieberman talked so much about God that the Anti-defamation League told him to tone it down.