The Morning Heresy 3/20/12
March 20, 2012
Your daily digest of relevant news and links from Paul Fidalgo
(Explanation of what this series is about here.)
USA Today has a big, mostly-positive piece on Reason Rally (by Cathy Lynn Grossman, not exactly a fan of the movement, as evidenced here, comparing American Humanist Association to Westboro Baptist Church in 2010)
PZ is still not happy, but McCreight wants him to suck it up
Dave Silverman at WaPo on why we need the Rally to begin with
CSI's Ben Radford tells of Australian murder suspect whose psychic made him do it
CS Monitor: SCOTUS refuses to take up case of man suing St. Louis archdiocese for allowing one of their priests to rape him 40 years ago. You decide what's more depressing; that the archdiocese is using church-state separation as a defense or this line from the article: "The archdiocese also argued that the suit must be dismissed because the alleged sexual acts did not take place on church property."
Roy Speckhardt in US News: Congress best re-up the Violence Against Women Act
NYT: Pastor at Santorum Rally has a message for everyone who isn't exactly like him:
I don’t care what the liberals say, I don’t care what the naysayers say, this nation was founded as a Christian nation. . . There’s only one God, and his name is Jesus. I’m tired of people telling me that I can’t say those words. I’m tired of people telling us as Christians that we can’t voice our beliefs or we can no longer pray in public. Listen to me. If you don’t love America, if you don’t like the way we do things I have one thing to say — get out! We don’t worship Buddha! I said we don’t worship Buddha, we don’t worship Muhammad, we don’t worship Allah, we worship God, we worship God’s son Jesus Christ.
Santorum, according to the article, did a lot of nodding.
Karen Santorum says women have nothing to fear from Rick. Well, that's a relief.
Panic! Santorum wants to ban Internet porn!
Ari Armstrong at The Objective Standard comes down hard on placating psychic claims with "studies"
Unitarian teens in Utah pen letter to the editor in Salt Lake Tribune to preserve sex-ed in school (Yes, there are apparently Unitarians in Utah)
WaPo columnist says the "we'll watch your pets after the Rapture" thing is "a jerky thing to do."
Texas judge to school officials who dissed atheist students: SAY YOU'RE SORRY.
Atheist expatriots in South Korea find community
Idaho Senate passes mandatory ultrasound bill, because, you know, that's what small government means
Column in Burlington Free Press says Vermont requiring immunizations is a betrayal of free thought
NBC affiliate on how "alternative treatments" may not cure cancer, but help patients cope psychologically
David Katz in HuffPo on religion muddying the waters of nutrition
As of now, a Guardian online poll shows a dead heat as to whether homeopathy should be banned by the NHS -- this race is too close to call!
HuffPo: A photo that may or may not have existed, but if it did, may or may not have been one of the best pictures of a UFO, may or may not have disappeared from UK Ministry of Defence
Telegraph: Dutch Roman Catholic Church castrated at least 10 boys in 1950s to erase their homosexuality
Religion Clause blog: Fines and fatwas for a Pakistani police officer who "used blasphemous words" about the prophet
Some vicars are upset about some blasphemy uttered on Top Gear
Jimmy Carter delves into biblical scholarship -- is he a fan of THE HUMAN BIBLE!?!?! (He should be!)
McGill Daily profiles "compulsively self-deluding" psychic Robert Lindblad
A blog about, yes, turkeys wonders if Bigfoot is killing its raison d'être
Most Hilarious Headline of the Day: Orthodox Christians up in arms over 'Pussy Riot' in church (More on this story in NYT)
Quote of the Day
From a Fark message board about an alleged Bigfoot photo:
"Is his favorite habitat still out of focus areas?"
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Comments:
#2 Paul Fidalgo on Tuesday March 20, 2012 at 10:51am
You are very welcome!
#3 Chiabacca (Guest) on Tuesday March 20, 2012 at 5:14pm
Great feature, thanks Paul.
#1 Daniel Kuck-Alvarez (Guest) on Tuesday March 20, 2012 at 7:41am
Thank you. I’ve been wanting something like this.