What I’m Reading, May 8, 2014

By Ralph Chaplin [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsRepublicans are Trying to Mix the Ideologies of Jesus Christ with an Atheist and That Doesn’t Make Any Sense, Allen Clifton, Forward Progressives, April 14, 2014

It’s amazing to me how few conservatives know who Ayn Rand is. Especially considering that she’s quite possibly the most influential person behind most of the Republican party’s economic ideologies.

She was a person who spoke out against social programs, believed that people should only worry about themselves, opposed big government and worshiped at the “glory” that is unregulated capitalism. In other words, she’s the epitome of what most Republicans support economically.

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There’s just one problem – Ayn Rand was an atheist. Not that there’s any problem at all with being an atheist (more power to you) but there is a big problem with a political party that builds its social platform on “Christian” values while basing its economic ideology on that of someone who didn’t believe in God.

How Piketty’s Bombshell Book Blows Up Libertarian Fantasies, Lynn Parramore, Moyers & Company, April 30, 2014 Continue reading

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Buddhist Fundamentalism

Mano Singham wrote recently about a rise in militant Buddhist fundamentalism in parts of Asia:

Whenever I write about Buddhism in Sri Lanka and how militant Buddhists, including monks, have been leading the charge against minorities and even resorting to violence against them, western readers are often surprised. The image they have of Buddhism is that of a peaceful and contemplative religion. And they are right when it comes to the underlying philosophy of the religion.

But the real test of a religion is how they treat minority groups when their religion is the majority and the record for Buddhism is not something to be proud of. This report looks at the way that an intolerant and militant Buddhist nationalism is talking hold in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar.

Any religion can be turned into a source of militarism and nationalism. Americans tend to see Buddhism and other dharmic religions as purely peaceful, but there’s no guarantee of that.

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Do Men Really Think About Sex Every Seven Seconds?

No, they do not.

Well, maybe some men do, but here’s the thing: how do you think researchers could possibly come up with an actual figure for this? Here’s a possible scnario:

Researcher: Okay, please sit here for the next hour and press this button every time you think about sex. But please don’t think about sex any more than you might normally think about it, just because I keep talking about it. When we are done here, there will be cake.
Subject: [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button] [presses button]…..
Professor: Damn, guys are horny.
Undergrad assistant: Maybe he just really likes cake.
Professor: You’re fired.

I’m sure it went exactly like that.

(h/t Louren)

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An Unsurprisingly Dishonest Headline

The following headline caught my attention the other day:

BREAKING: Supreme Court Judges Say Obama Birth Certificate A Fake

WHAAAAAAAAAAA????????

Dave Winer [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)], via Flickr

My first clue that this article might not be entirely on the level—I mean aside from the extremely WTF headline—is that it was posted on a website called The U.S. Patriot. I decided to look closer.

First off, the article itself made clear that this was an Alabama Supreme Court judge. Not the U.S. Supreme Court. Not even the entire Alabama Supreme Court. Continue reading

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What I’m Reading, May 7, 2014

By California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsU.N. Human Rights Chief: Stop Lethal Injection in U.S., Noa Yachot, ACLU Blog of Rights, May 2, 2014

The pain and suffering of Clayton Lockett during his gruesome execution in Oklahoma this week has been met with outrage around the world. Today the United Nations human rights chief said that Lockett’s botched execution may violate international law, and called for an immediate moratorium on the administration of the death penalty across the United States.

Should scientists ‘Jurassic-Park’ extinct species back to life? John D. Sutter, CNN, May 2, 2014 Continue reading

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Just Because You Think the Second Amendment Says You Can, It Still Doesn’t Mean You Should

By Lucio Eastman (Free State Project - PorcFest 2009 - Open Carry) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsYou might have a Second Amendment right to carry a gun into a restaurant, but others also have the right to call the police on you. I certainly have the right to state my opinion that you are a jackass. The following happened in Fort Worth

Let’s all take a moment to pity Open Carry Texas. The armed freaks who enjoy parading around terrorizing the public because they can are once again playing up their victim status after frightening the staff of a restaurant so badly that employees locked themselves in a freezer to protect themselves.

Thursday night, the “peaceful” and “non-threatening” group barged into a Jack in the Box with their usual heavy armaments, striking fear into the staff.

On multiple occasions in the past couple of years, I have heard people explain the difference between carrying a rifle in a manner in which it cannot be easily fired, as though this somehow makes it better that someone decided to stroll down the street with his definitely-not-for-hunting rifle (and I say “he” because it seems like it’s always a “he.”)

What is never explained is why I should trust the guy standing there with an arm cannon that is not in a firing position, simply because at that precise moment he isn’t holding it in a way that it could be fired. I know it doesn’t take long to move it into such a position—it wouldn’t be very useful otherwise—and that makes it impossible to tell the difference between a “good guy with a gun” and a “bad guy.” Continue reading

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When the Baby Kicks

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has been in the news for his interesting take on freedom of religion under the First Amendment:

Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.

“They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship,” he continued. “Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”

Thomas Gainsborough [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Yes, 21st-century America should totally take all of its cues from this cat.

He said something else interesting, though, that seems to have been largely overlooked:

Chief Justice Moore later defined “life” via Blackstone’s Law — a book that American lawyers have “sadly forgotten” — as beginning when “the baby kicks.” “Today,” he said, “our courts say it’s not alive ’til the head comes out.”

He is referring to the Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone, first published in 1766. I figured I’d see what Blackstone actually said about the issue, because that’s how I roll. In Book 1 (The Rights of Persons), Chapter 1 (Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals), Blackstone writes on pages 125-26: Continue reading

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What I’m Reading , May 6, 2014

jodylehigh [Public domain, CC0 1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en)], via PixabayPrison rape is not a form of poetic justice–it’s an actual crime–so stop cheering it on, Robyn Pennacchia, Death and Taxes, May 2, 2014

[C]heering on something like rape takes away from you as a person. Although yes, sometimes crimes are so horrific that our id takes over and we want nothing but horror and misery to come to the perpetrator. Trust me, I understand that. But we have these rules for a reason, we have the 8th amendment for a reason–and it doesn’t have as much to do with the rights of a prisoner as it does to protect us from becoming the kind of people that cheer on “cruel and unusual punishment.” We need to be better than that. We need to prevent our ids from taking over, or else we’ll end up becoming exactly what we despise.

Where’s The Next Alexander Fleming? Or Why Corporations Don’t Have Incentives to Create New Antibiotics. Echidne, Echidne of the Snakes, May 1, 2014 Continue reading

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It’s Not Just Crimea

By en:User:Aivazovsky [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsRussia isn’t just mucking about in Crimea. Foreign Affairs has an article reviewing the long-simmering conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that wants to join Armenia (h/t Doug):

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on the eve of the Soviet breakup, as ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan’s province of Nagorno-Karabakh rallied to join Armenia. Moscow armed both sides and played them against each other, turning a local dispute over the status of a territory inhabited by 90,000 people into a regional war. For close to six years, the newly independent states of Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over the territory, leaving 30,000 dead and creating around a million new refugees. Eventually, Armenia was victorious, and it took control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other Azerbaijani districts. Continue reading

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A Prayer-less Year

CNN’s Belief Blog has the story of Ryan Bell, a pastor who decided to try being an atheist for a year. (This started back in January, but I just learned about it.) He lost his job at a church, and decided that the time was right for a “neat little intellectual experiment”:

“It’s like when you go to a movie and you suspend disbelief for three hours to get inside the story,” Bell said. “I’m suspending my belief in God to see what atheism is all about.”

It is commonplace for theists to make statements about atheists that suggest that they have either never spoken to an actual atheist, or weren’t really listening when they did. This guy seems to be reaching out, though, as the story continues:

He would interview atheists, attend gatherings of nonbelievers and read through the canon of skeptics: Friedrich Nietzsche, Baruch Spinoza, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, among others.

He has even started a blog called Year Without God. There was one piece from CNN’s post that caught my attention in particular, though regarding how he would live differently: Continue reading

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