From the Guardian:

Is physicist Stephen Hawking right that physics, not God, created the universe?

81.3% Yes. I believe in gravity, not divinity
18.7% No. God: Hawking 'not necessary'

Somebody show me the units of divinity, please, as well as a few measurements that show the goodness of fit to theory.

Oh, and show the formula, too.

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Laplace, Hawking, same difference. In a completely unsurprising move, Stephen Hawking has made it clear that we have no need for the god hypothesis.

Modern physics leaves no place for God in the creation of the Universe, Stephen Hawking has concluded. Just as Darwinism removed the need for a creator in the sphere of biology, Britain's most eminent scientist argues that a new series of theories have rendered redundant the role of a creator for the Universe. In his forthcoming book, an extract from which is published exclusively in Eureka, published today with The Times, Professor Hawking sets out to answer the question: "Did the Universe need a creator?" The answer he gives is a resounding "no". Far from being a once-in-a-million event that could only be accounted for by extraordinary serendipity or a divine hand, the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, Hawking says. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing.

Cue condemnations and histrionics, stage left. Fulminations and denial, stage right.

Like it says, this is from an upcoming book, so I haven't read it yet, and The Times seems to have moved everything behind a paywall, so I can't even read the full article or any of the associated content, but the story itself sounds a bit banal. The theists have never offered a single credible, logical reason to incorporate a cosmic intelligence into the history of the universe, and it's about time they were flatly rebuffed and told their contributions are unnecessary.

Besides the annoying paywall, though, I have to point out another nasty element of the reporting — they must really hate Richard Dawkins at The Times.

When it comes to religion, Stephen Hawking is the voice of reason. Not for him the polemical style that has propelled Richard Dawkins to the fore of national consciousness in the God debates. His argument is likely in the long term to be more dangerous to religion because it is more measured than The God Delusion.

The God Delusion was a calm and measured book, and Richard Dawkins' talks are polite, rational events. Have these people even read the book? It looks to me as if they are trying to mollify their readers by setting up a Saint Hawking while reassuring everyone that they can still beat up on Devil Dawkins.

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A priest who impregnated one of his students will face defrocking but no charges will be filled.

The Rev. Luis Bonilla Margarito is accused of fathering a child with a teenager who had been a student at the Catholic high school where he served as chaplain. Her parents had installed a video camera in their basement after they became suspicious of the relationship, and recorded the couple having sex.

The Berks County district attorney says a criminal investigation was closed after police determined the relationship began when the girl was 18.

Move along sheeple, Rev Margarito only fathered a child after his student was 18. There is nothing to see here. There is nothing wrong with a priest impregnating an 18-year-old. It happens everyday.

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• Priest fathers child, now on video (mojoey.blogspot.com)
• Pa. priest won't face charges over videotaped sex (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Pa. priest won't face charges over videotaped sex (sfgate.com)

Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Catholics

Already, deranged Discovery Institute shill David Klinghoffer is blaming the hostage-taking nut James Lee's actions on Darwinism.

Witness the recent examples of Holocaust Memorial Museum shooter James von Brunn, Columbine High School shooter Eric Harris, Jokela High School shooter Pekka Eric Auvinen. Historical figures who drew inspiration, if indirectly, from Darwinian theory include Charles Manson, Mao Tse-tung, Joseph Stalin, Josef Mengele, and of course Adolf Hitler. I've written about this many times before and received much abuse for it, not least when I took up the theme on the Huffington Post. (An editor advised me they will not let me do that again.)

Yes, Lee was apparently an atheist, and he attributed the need for his actions to a badly mangled version of Darwinism (although, really, a strict Darwinian fanatic probably wouldn't rush to commit a violent act that could only end with him dead or incarcerated, and also wouldn't be ranting about ending reproduction for his own species. I'd expect a truly fervent Darwinian to be avoiding risks and expending a great deal of effort in courtship, or at least frantically making lots of donations to the local sperm or ovum bank.) Yes, we can make lists of atheists or people who have fulminated superficially about Darwin who have done evil crimes. So? We can also make lists of Christians who have committed evil.

But let us be clear about a few things about godless Darwinians:

• They don't make claims that believing in Darwin will make you a good person.

• They don't make claims that taking courses in Darwinism will clear up your mental health issues.

• Certified Darwinian counselors do not have free parking privileges so they can rush to the sick and dying to soothe them with a little doctrine in population genetics.

• There is no Darwinist creed that justifies and encourages slaughtering creationists.

• There are no Darwinist elites laying down fatwas against Discovery Channel executives, not even for Ghost Lab or Bear Grylls.

• They do not seek salvation in the mixed bag of pop sci programming on a cable television station. Jamie and Adam are not our prophets, even if Mythbusters is pretty good, mostly.

• There is no grassroots collection of Darwinist supporters lurking in the remote urban wilderness who would have sheltered James Lee while he was on the lam.

• There was no supportive mob of god-hatin' Darwin lovers converging on the Discovery Building to chant in support of James Lee.

• There will be no surly academic Darwinists who will grumble "no comment" at reporters while gathering with the faithful to praise their heroic martyr, James Lee, in the privacy of their communes and revival meetings.

• They all pretty much think James Lee was a mentally ill doofus who got everything wrong — at best a subject of pity.

• There will be no conspiracy theories that James Lee was a good man set up by the Christian majority.

• They will not be telling each other that James Lee will receive his reward for his righteous actions in Darwinist Paradise.

• If he'd lived, James Lee would not have been given free legal help by the Society for the Study of Evolution, nor would they have hidden his crimes and helped him relocate to another regional chapter, which would not have been told about his violent proclivities.

• There will be no secretive James Lee Society set up to work for reduced fertility and angrier television documentaries in his name.

• No one will be writing generous op-eds in which James Lee is praised as a misguided figure with his heart in the right place, in the bosom of scientific thinking.

• James von Brunn, Eric Harris, Pekka Eric Auvinen, and not even Manson, Mao, Stalin, Mengele, or Hitler are praised in any biology textbooks. James Lee will not, either.

• An occasional lone nut spouting idiosyncratic visions of Darwinism does not change the fact that we have the scientific evidence on our side.

• James Lee does not have a constituency, nor does he have any representatives working for his goals in congress.

• James Lee did not increase his inclusive fitness.

I'm sorry, Mr Krazypants Klinghoffer, but there's basically no way anyone can argue that James Lee was representative of any significant subgroup of evolutionary biologists, fans of Darwin, or freethinkers; he's a sad, lonely outlier whose weird collection of confused ideas were a product of his isolation and mental illness, not any substantial strand of evolutionary theory.

Oh, and Hitler did not derive his ideas from Darwin: his primary intellectual antecedent would have been Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who detested anything to do with that Darwin fellow's theory. You've had this explained to you often enough, that Hitler was if anything nominally Catholic, bizarrely pagan, and his ideas had nothing to do with science or with atheism, but you don't care, I know. Is it any surprise that you're considered too obtuse even for the Huffington Post?

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A victim describes the aftermath of alleged abuse by a Catholic priest.

“I tried to work past it,” said the man, a father who works in law enforcement and as a young boy wanted to become a priest himself. “I just figured it was too late to do anything.”

He is one of two Humboldt County men who filed lawsuits last month accusing the Santa Rosa Diocese of fraud and negligence for hiring the Rev. Patrick Joseph McCabe and failing to disclose his sexual misconduct to parishioners in Eureka.

Rev. Patrick Joseph McCabe is accused of molesting two boys in St. Bernard Church in Eureka. McCabe was already a known pedophile priest when he was sent to Eureka.

An interesting take away from this article was the conviction of the victim to “take it to his grave.” His shame was so great that it took the public acknowledgement of McCabe as a known abuser before the victim could bring the allegations to light. How hard must it be for someone to bury this kind of pain for so long? How is this religion authentic? Where is Christ in all of this? The truth is, there is no God and therefore these acts are just the corrupt practices of men drunk on a power granted by mysticism. We give them power. We can take it away.

Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Catholics

Reports of anti-Islamic activity are become disturbing. The recent arrest of a 17-year-old boy for disrupting an Islamic service is a further example.

Orleans County Sheriff Scott Hess says the same teens from nearby Holley shouted epithets and honked horns as they drove past the mosque Friday. That's when they say the 17-year-old fired a shotgun twice into the ground.

Have we moved from media attacks to bands of armed teenaged goons? This could get ugly. The mood feels reminiscent of a tea-party fueled pogrom. I’m actually worried about my Muslim friends.

Technorati Tags: Islam,Tea Party,Violence

James J. Lee took hostages at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel. He claims to be an atheist on his MySpace profile. I think he is (or was) a nutball. He published a list of demands at his website, SaveThePlanetProtest.  I’ve republished it here:
The Demands of James J. LeeThe Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don't build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!

8. Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You're the media, you can reach enough people. It's your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!!

9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war.

10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development!

11. You're also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war.

Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.

For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human's lifespan! THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease!

It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It's like a couple are having 30 babies even though it's just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too!

Also, war must be halted. Not because it's morally wrong, but because of the catastrophic environmental damage modern weapons cause to other creatures. FIND SOLUTIONS JUST LIKE THE BOOK SAYS! Humans are supposed to be inventive. INVENT, DAMN YOU!!

The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally harmful humans.
Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.
The humans? The planet does not need humans.

You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world, and YET you encourage the exact opposite instead of discouraging human growth and procreation. Surely you MUST ALREADY KNOW this!

I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

These are the demands and sayings of Lee.

Alert viewer Robert K. was inspired to create this flow chart based on Matt and Jeff's dialogue with Denise.


The only part that I would object to, a bit, is that it implies that the caller should not be taken seriously if he or she supplies a "wrong answer" to the early questions about what God is actually like. This implies that there is an actual "right answer" to questions like "Did God create hell?"

Of course, the way I see it, the actual right answer is "Of course not, because there is no God." But even for a believer, there's no compelling reason why their answers must conform to anything other people believe, or even the Bible. See, that's the benefit of belief systems that are just made up. Even if they are internally consistent, there's no chance that you can ever be proven wrong. Even if you are, in fact, wrong.

Perez Blackmon is the new pastor at Rosinvick Missionary Baptist Church. The congregation voted him in.

The Early County Sheriff’s Office website earlycountysheriff.com lists Perez Blackmon as a registered sex offender. The website adds that he was convicted Feb. 17, 2005 in Early County for statutory rape.

Blackmon was sentenced to 15 years probation, according to the website.

A convicted rapist who is on probation. He was convicted of raping and molesting a child. He never admitted guilt. The terms of his probation prohibit him from being around children, yet he is the pastor of a church. It has children.

He’s stepped in it though, and I figure Pastor Blakmon’s days as a pastor are over. It looks like he is in violation of his parole, and you know what that means, Pastor Blakmon could end up in prison.

At the risk of going on a long rant, I must ask, what the hell are these people thinking? Why would you put a pedophile up as a pastor and who would follow him?

Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Baptists

According to his MySpace page, James Lee is an Atheist. He’s holding an undetermined number of hostages at the Discovery Channels Headquarters.

According to press reports, he’s a fucking loon:

FOX News - A man known for protesting the Discovery Channel stormed the network's Maryland headquarters carrying a handgun on Wednesday, taking a "small number" of hostages while appearing to have a bomb strapped to his chest, police said.

UKPA - The gunman had what Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger described as a "small number of hostages" but he did not say how many. He also did not say what the man wanted or whether anyone was hurt.

Reuters - A U.S. law enforcement official said he believed the hostage-taker was named James Lee. A man called James Lee of San Diego was arrested in February 2008 after throwing money into the air in a protest outside the Discovery building, the Montgomery County Gazette reported that year.

Pharyngula has a list of demands.

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" …

It a good day for atheism. Our opponents will use this for years to come.

Update:

James Lee was shot. The device may have detonated. The hostages  were rescued. The police are not commenting on the status of James Lee. They will not say if he is alive or dead.

Technorati Tags: Atheism

A gunman with an explosive device is holding hostages at the Discovery Channel building until they give him what he wants. What does he want? Well, he's nuts, and his page of demands is loading very slowly, so here's what I was able to extract:

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don't build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!

8. Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You're the media, you can reach enough people. It's your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!!

9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war.

10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development!

11. You're also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war.

Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.

For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human's lifespan! THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease!

It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It's like a couple are having 30 babies even though it's just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too!

Also, war must be halted. Not because it's morally wrong, but because of the catastrophic environmental damage modern weapons cause to other creatures. FIND SOLUTIONS JUST LIKE THE BOOK SAYS! Humans are supposed to be inventive. INVENT, DAMN YOU!!

The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally harmful humans.

Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.

The humans? The planet does not need humans.

You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world, and YET you encourage the exact opposite instead of discouraging human growth and procreation. Surely you MUST ALREADY KNOW this!

I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

These are the demands and sayings of Lee.

So, basically, he wants the Discovery Channel to yell loudly at people to fix human civilization until they correct all of the world's environmental problems, and he wants everyone to stop having babies and eating food from farms.

I don't think that threatening television personnel with death and asking them to scream as crazily as he does is going to help. Let's just hope that this can be resolved without anyone getting hurt…and by "resolved", I mean get James Lee into a mental hospital.

Just the fact that he thinks the channel of "American Loggers," "Deadliest Catch," "Dirty Jobs," "Ghost Lab," "Swamp Loggers," "Pitchmen" and "Shark Week" will be his allies in his crusade to end the blight of humanity suggests there is something wrong in his head.

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I walked around Las Vegas last Sunday with my camera. It was a wonderful visit. The weather stayed in the low 90s and there was a cool breeze blowing from the north. I explored the new City Center complex, which is way bigger than I expected. On the way back to my hotel, I found this painted on the gum stained sidewalk. It is the kid of thing I love to shoot.

Technorati Tags: Photography

Poaching - any encroachment on another's property, rights, ideas, or the like.

Pastor Mark Holick was tying to poach Muslims outside of the Islamic Society of Wichita.

Pastor Mark Holick of Spirit One Christian Center says he was arrested for handing out "packets that included the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans in English and Arabic, a DVD with testimonies of former Islamists who have come to the Lord."

He was arrested for loitering and failing to disperse. I think the charges should be dropped. He was doing what many Christians do, spreading the word of Jesus. It’s annoying as hell, but it is legally protected speech.

In an email, Holick says his group was peaceful and he was exercising his First Amendment rights on the sidewalk.

So why was he arrested? I suspect it has something to do with 9/11 and the uptick in anti-Islamic activity leading up to nutball Pastor Terry Jones’ Koran burning in Florida.

Let’s say Holick were instead a Atheist named Mojoey, or vjack. Would we be arrested for trying to hand out material critical of religion and Islam? Could we do the same thing in front of a large church and get away without ending up in jail? I hope so, but I think we need to test it. Who is willing to volunteer to do the same thing as pastor Holick? Who among us would stand with him, if he would have us?

Pastor Holick works for the Spirit One Christian Center. I’ve requested comments on his arrest by e-mail.

Technorati Tags: First Amendment,Islam

Youth pastor Christopher Furey stands accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl in his charge at a Emmanuel Fellowship Church in Cottonwood.

Forty-three-year-old Christopher Furey was arrested on Aug. 20 and now faces 20 counts of sex offenses. The charges include felony sex with a minor, sexual abuse and luring a minor for sexual exploitation.

I don’t know how I missed this one. My only excuse is that August has been a busy month for pedophile pastors.

Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse,Rape,Pedophiles

One trait I have noticed among my evangelical friends and family is the believe that God favors the GOP. They claim that the GOP’s focus on faith based issues such as gay marriage and abortion is proof of God’s favor. The GOP is doing God work. On the other team are the liberal democrats, many of whom are religious. They don’t talk about faith based issues much, instead they focus on social issues. It’s like they have an aversion to a holy war.

In Hawaii, religion has surfaced as an issue in the upcoming election. The Hawaiian Republican Party want to keep religious conservatives in the party come election time. The chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party sent a letter to pastors, it is blatant religious manipulation of an election process.

And now a letter from Jonah Kaauwai, the chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party, to some in the Christian community, aims to keep religiously conservative voters pulling a republican primary ballot on September 18th instead of weighing in on the democratic race.

The letter to pastors says "Duke will win because the Church has been behind him the entire time operating the POWER and the AUTHORITY of the NAME OF JESUS!"

It goes on to read "Neither Mufi Hannemann nor Neil Abercrombie is righteous and a vote for either in the primary or general election is succumbing to fear and advancing unrighteousness!"

Have they no shame at all? He is asking pastor to back a political candidate. Wink wink, nod nod. Is God playing favorites? He’s saying that if you are a Christian you should vote Republican. What kind of dribble is that? They are telling people to stop thinking and vote with their faith. Democrats, where is the outrage?

Technorati Tags: Politics,Religion

The Ecumenical Catholic Communion ordained Elaine Groppenbacher as a priest.

Vatican condemnation be damned, on Saturday Elaine Groppenbacher became the forth female to be ordained a Catholic priest in the Phoenix area.

Groppenbacher was ordained into the priesthood by the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, considered to be a more liberal branch of the Catholic church. She received her holy orders from valley Bishop Peter Hickman.

What do you call at female Catholic priest, mother?

The ordination of women is seen as a step toward healing the problems created by the all male clergy and their propensity to molest children.

In recent years, the Catholic Church has experienced a dramatic drop in membership, believed to be caused in great part by a spate of recent sex scandals within the clergy, as well as the church’s unwillingness to recognize women as ecumenical equals.

No word yet on when the Vatican hit squads roll into town.

Technorati Tags: Catholics,Clergy Sexual Abuse,Female Priests

Disney has always been aggressive about extending their copyright to the various Disney characters — they keep going to congress and getting more years tacked on. It's clearly past due that we should revoke all that (come on, Ol' Walt died when I was in 4th grade, and I don't care if his cryogenically frozen head is occasionally revived to dispense marching orders and consume baby brain smoothies). As evidence, I present to you the latest atrocity from the Disney channel, "Disney Blam!" What they do is take classic old Disney cartoons from the 40s, 50s, and 60s and 'update' them by adding obnoxious voiceovers. The narrator yells out grating descriptions of what's going on visually, shouts "BLAM!" too frequently, and adds slo-mo instant replay to scenes where characters get bonked on the head. Really. It has to be seen to be believed.

Don't you feel dumber for having watched that? Or at least, that Disney Corp. thinks you're an idiot?

Why, in my day, I remember when we could expect five year olds to be able to watch these with comprehension, without some jerk on the soundtrack pointing out "BLAM! He got hit in the head with an anvil!" It's not as if these things were ever intellectually subtle, you know.

Stop the disease before it spreads to Tex Avery and Chuck Jones! The Idiocracy will have arrived when the media overlords decide that Roadrunner cartoons need a play-by-play for their audiences to appreciate them.

(via Jhonen Vasquez)

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I published a post on Pastor Terry Jones called, That dove is a hater (Aug 2010), Jones is the pastor who plans on burning the Koran on 911. I thought at the time that he might be a nutball, but I let it pass figuring he was an attention whore instead. I should have made the call. He is a nutball and so are his followers.

Dove world Outreach Center released a bizarre n-word filled video rant that does not really even have a point, except to show his colors as a racist. That makes him a nutball in my book, and dangerous. this is the face of evangelical Christianity folks. Be afraid.

A note on the video. I was offended by it. I will not put it on my blog. If you want to watch it, follow this link.

Technorati Tags: Nutballs,Crazy Pastors,Racists

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