The Catholic Church does not get it

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Michael

A study relieving the priesthood of many common charges has been released:

Researchers hired by the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops to determine the causes of the sex crisis that convulsed the church dismissed all the usual suspects:

Few of the offenders were pedophiles. The abusers were not acting on their homosexuality. Mandatory celibacy did not turn clerics into molesters.

The first two points are incorrect. The offenders are pedophiles by definition – they raped and molested underaged boys – and the vast majority of instances involved men whose interest in children was limited to males. The third point may have nothing to do with many of the acts, but sexual repression is never good and almost always due to sexual immaturity, something the Church and many Christians have routinely displayed.

But I’m being a stickler for facts. The important point here is that the greatest complaints against the Church as an institution have to do with its record. It has again and again covered up its acts. It shifted priests from one church to another, fully aware of the accusations. Hell, even the current Pope did this before he reached his current place.

If the Church thinks that this in any way absolves it of its responsibility for its horrific acts, it’s wrong. It’s dead wrong. But that isn’t going to stop these monsters from making excuses:

Instead, most of the priest-offenders came from seminary classes of the 1940s and 1950s who were not properly trained to confront the upheavals of the 1960s, when behavioral norms were upended and crime overall in the United States spiked, the researchers said.

You see, it was just all that sex and junk from the 60’s. If society had have just listened to the Church, none of this would have happened. Hell, if you think about it, it was really those pre- and early baby boomers who raped all those boys, amirite?

This has to be the single most revolting study I have seen in quite some time. The Church has been pushing this gross narrative for years now where they attempt to absolve themselves by pointing out that people besides priests rape boys too. They don’t get it: That is not the point. The Church protected rapists and then tried to cover itself up after information started to come out. That is devastating to any sense of morality.

These antiquated rape-hiders need to understand what this is all about if they ever want to address the crimes of their institution in any way approaching adequacy.

Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: , , , | 20 Comments »

Law students protest bigot lawmaker

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Michael

Young, well-educated people keep improving the bigoted world created by older, one-foot-in-the-grave generations:

More than 100 newly graduated lawyers walked out of their own graduation at the University of Michigan Law School on Saturday to protest the commencement speech by antigay Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.

It’s just mind-boggling that there really are still people who hate gay people. It’s like these bigots haven’t even bothered to consider what sexuality is, how it works, how it doesn’t work, and what goes into forming healthy human relationships.

Filed under: News, Rights | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

It’s your fault, Serena

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Michael

At least that’s what critics are essentially saying. Serena Williams put up a supposedly risqué photo of herself on her Twitter account. She took it down a little bit later, though, because people like to blame the victim:

“Someone must have gotten to her and suggested something about common sense and hypocrisy,” wrote Greg Couch of The Sporting News.

He’s referring to the recent arrest of a Florida man accused of stalking the tennis star. The 40-year-old man was arrested last week on the grounds of Williams’ Palm Beach estate. One month earlier, Williams took out an injunction against the man, who used her Twitter updates to stalk her in various locations, including in the dressing room of a television studio. Couch doesn’t say so directly, but he’s basically suggesting that Serena putting up a voyeuristic photo of herself in a bra and panties emboldens stalkers.

Couch is happy that Williams took down the photo. After all, she was just inviting people to stalk her by posting it. If she ever gets raped, we’ll know who to blame, amirite?

I can’t believe people really are still this dense. It is never the fault of the victim – no matter what she does. By pretending otherwise, Couch is making excuses for any and all stalkers, telling them that so long as they find their victim sexually provocative enough it isn’t their fault when they stalk. If anything, the stalker is the victim here. WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE STALKERS?!

Maybe next Couch explain why people who go out and don’t wear ragged pants and tattered shirts at fault for getting mugged.

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Big business and science often conflict

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Michael

I once got into a debate with a number of people about how big business and science conflict. Several individuals were insistent that I was somehow making an economics argument. I still don’t understand how they got to that point. What I was saying was that the truth of science often undermines the goals of business. As a result, big business will do all it can to undermine science. We’ve been seeing it forever now with oil companies and other pollution supporters (*cough*Republicans*cough*) in regards to global warming. And we see it with those awful pro-high fructose corn syrup commercials. But now an old player wants to get back in:

The head of cigarette maker Philip Morris International Inc. told a cancer nurse Wednesday that while cigarettes are harmful and addictive, it is not that hard to quit.

CEO Louis C. Camilleri’s statement was in response to comments at its annual shareholder meeting in New York. Executives from the seller of Marlboro and other brands overseas spent most of the gathering sparring with members of anti-tobacco and other corporate accountability groups.

The nurse, later identified as Elisabeth Gundersen from the University of California-San Francisco, cited statistics that tobacco use kills more than 400,000 Americans and 5 million people worldwide each year. She is a member of The Nightingales Nurses, an activist group that works to focus public attention on the tobacco industry.

Gundersen also said a patient told her last week that of all the addictions he’s beaten — crack, cocaine, meth — cigarettes have been the most difficult.

After saying such a dumb thing – to a nurse, no less – surely this guy must have been doing some backtracking soon after, right? Well…

In response, the often-unapologetic Camilleri said: “We take our responsibility very seriously, and I don’t think we get enough recognition for the efforts we make to ensure that there is effective worldwide regulation of a product that is harmful and that is addictive. Nevertheless, whilst it is addictive, it is not that hard to quit. … There are more previous smokers in America today than current smokers.”

There are also more dead previous smokers in the ground than there are living smokers today.

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You mean libertarianism really is just an excuse for greed?

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Michael

I guess Charles Koch doesn’t really understand libertarianism:

A conservative billionaire who opposes government meddling in business has bought a rare commodity: the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.

A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting “political economy and free enterprise.”

Traditionally, university donors have little official input into choosing the person who fills a chair they’ve funded. The power of university faculty and officials to choose professors without outside interference is considered a hallmark of academic freedom.

A key principle of libertarianism is that liberty must be as unfettered as possible. By attaching strings to this money, Koch is exploiting the liberty of this school. Just imagine this: A man is down on his luck and living out of his car. He needs money, and more immediately, food. So along comes Joe Blow to offer the man a sandwich. The only thing is, in order to get the sandwich, the guy has to hop out of his car and take it up the ass. Hard. He can say no, but libertarian or not, he recognizes that he won’t have any liberty if he’s dead.

While Koch is under no obligation to give away the money he doesn’t need and isn’t using to create any more jobs, when he does give it away with such freedom-violating attachments, he is undermining the liberty of others. He has transgressed his libertarian philosophy at a fundamental level.

Of course, he doesn’t really buy into that, obviously. He’s just a greedy fuck like most libertarians.

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College to offer major in secularism

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Michael

Pitzer College and Professor Phil Zuckerman are gearing up to offer a major in secularism:

Studying nonbelief is as valid as studying belief, Mr. Zuckerman said, and the new major will make that very clear.

“It’s not about arguing ‘Is there a God or not?’ ” Mr. Zuckerman said. “There are hundreds of millions of people who are nonreligious. I want to know who they are, what they believe, why they are nonreligious. You have some countries where huge percentages of people — Czechs, Scandinavians — now call themselves atheists. Canada is experiencing a huge wave of secularization. This is happening very rapidly.

“It has not been studied,” he added.

I, of course, think this is a brilliant idea. There are specific areas of religious study that I think are actually helpful to people, and one of those areas is in the history and modernity of these large movements. Degrees related to religious history and the current role of religion (or specific religions) are worthwhile because they hold a relevance to so much that goes into culture, society, divisions, and war. (On the other hand, theology degrees are mostly worthless, even though they touch on religion’s current relevance, because they are just glorified literary criticism degrees – ones with an excessively narrow focus.) Something similar can be said of secularism (though it hasn’t tended to lead to war since it does not offer such explicit labeling as religion). It’s about time that this area of human history and ongoing culture is going to be studied esoterically.

The only real issue I find with this degree is in what field it will get someone a job. All those religious degrees tend to be backed by institutions, or at least a wide base of susceptible people, and so they offer practical job security. But where would someone with a degree in secularism be employed? Certainly there are a few places, but I doubt the market is very big.

Filed under: Atheism/Humanism, News | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

The stubbornness of authority

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Michael

A man in Georgia was denied his right to challenge a parking ticket because of the stubbornness of those in charge:

A man said he was barred from a county courtroom on Thursday because he refused to remove his Muslim head covering, nearly two years after Georgia’s judges voted to allow religious headwear in all state courtrooms.

Troy “Tariq” Montgomery said Henry County State Court Judge James Chafin blocked him from entering his courtroom three separate times to dispute a traffic ticket because he was wearing a kufi, a traditional Muslim head covering. His attorney, Mawuli Mel Davis, said he would soon file a motion challenging the decision….

Montgomery said he was first blocked by a courtroom bailiff from wearing the kufi in the courtroom on April 1, when he was initially scheduled to appear in front of Chafin for the speeding violation. He returned two weeks later with the council’s 2009 policy, but said he still rebuffed.

When he returned on Thursday — this time with his attorney at his side — he said Chafin rejected him again and told him to remain in the hallway during the proceedings. His speeding case is still pending.

This reminds me of my experience with Richard Dubois and J. Christopher Read of the local police department. Neither one is particularly good as his job – and, in fact, the former spends more time trying to have sex with girls 20 years his junior over Facebook than he does helping the city of Augusta (it’s a small town, Richard!) – but each thinks he has an idea of what the law says. That incorrect assumption on their part resulted in me receiving an apology from the chief of police. It seems so common to encounter doofuses who inexplicably are given power.

And that’s the case with Judge James Chafin and his bailiff. It’s quite obvious that these people aren’t really that concerned with getting things right – they just want to feel like they’re right. It’s pathetic and childish. I just hope that once Montgomery wins his battle – and he will win it – he also requests a new judge for his speeding case. It’s obvious Chafin has no interest in fairness and truth.

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The danger of false beliefs

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Michael

A few months ago Wendy Pollack went to cause harm to people in Tanzania by providing them with false hope. She led sick people – specifically those with HIV – to believe that unproven and even blatantly discredited ‘medicine’ could help them become healthier. It was an awful tragedy and we can all be thankful that she has finally left Africa all together. She still practices her form of harm in America, but she at least faces some regulations here. (A complete outlawing of her shenanigans would be preferable.) It is easier to combat the misinformation of chiropractors and other sham-practitioners in a developed nation, even if they still manage to cause damage. Unfortunately, places like Tanzania do not have the institutions or medical infrastructure to implement procedures to protect its people, so even with people like Pollack safely thousands of miles away, alternative medicine practices still run rampant:

Hundreds of albinos are thought to have been killed for black magic purposes in Tanzania and albino girls are being raped because of a belief they offer a cure for AIDS, a Canadian rights group said on Thursday.

At least 63 albinos, including children, are known to have been killed, mostly in the remote northwest of the country.

“We believe there are hundreds and hundreds of killings in Tanzania, but only a small number are being reported to the police,” Peter Ash, founder and director of Under The Same Sun (UTSS), told Reuters.

This is a tragedy exactly along the same lines as what the entire alt-med crowd does. These random and inane – and often dangerous – faith-based ideas take off within a certain population and real human lives are put at risk. There is no evidence to back up any of these stupid and harmful beliefs, but evidence matters less and less as people get sicker and sicker. That’s one reason homeopaths are so successful in ripping people off.

What is happening in Tanzania right now rises to a level slightly above what most alt-med people do, but it really isn’t that far and away different. Remember Lawrence Stowe? He bankrupted sick people, drawing them away from real treatment. Many of those people died as a result of his actions – and he knew they would. Even where the people were terminal and could not be cured, he hastened death and increased pain. It’s standard practice for the alt-med crowd and I see no difference between that and what’s going on in Tanzania right now.

Filed under: News, Pure bullshit | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Last WW1 combat vet dies

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Michael

Tipped off by the sudden increase in hits to my post about the last American WW1 vet to die, I did a little search. It turns out that the final combat veteran from WW1, Claude Choules of Britain, has died:

World War I was raging when Choules began training with the British Royal Navy, just one month after he turned 14. In 1917, he joined the battleship HMS Revenge, from which he watched the 1918 surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, the main battle fleet of the German Navy during the war.

“There was no sign of fight left in the Germans as they came out of the mist at about 10 a.m.,” Choules wrote in his autobiography. The German flag, he recalled, was hauled down at sunset.

“So ended the most momentous day in the annals of naval warfare,” he wrote. “A fleet of ships surrendered without firing a shot.”

He continued his military career, later moving to Australia,

Choules later joined the Royal Australian Navy and settled permanently Down Under, where he found life much more pleasant than in his home country.

“I was nobody,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio in November 2009 of his years in England. “But I was somebody here.”

During World War II, he was the acting torpedo officer in Fremantle, Western Australia, and chief demolition officer for the western side of the Australian continent. Choules disposed of the first mine to wash ashore in Australia during the war.

He later transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police and remained in the service until his retirement in 1956.

Choules remained active and healthy for most of his life,

Still, the aging process took its toll, and in recent years, he grew blind and nearly deaf. Despite that, his children say he retained his cheerful spirit and positive outlook on life.

“I had a pretty poor start,” he told the ABC in November 2009. “But I had a good finish.”

He was 110. The only other surviving service (not combat) member alive from WW1 now is Florence Green who served as a waitress in the Women’s Royal Air Force.

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Dubya declines Obama invitation

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Michael

Dubya doesn’t want to visit Ground Zero with President Obama:

A spokesman for George W. Bush says the former president has declined an invitation from President Barack Obama to attend an observance at New York’s ground zero.

Obama plans to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center towers Thursday in the aftermath of a Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaida attack, which killed about 3,000 people, occurred in the early months of Bush’s presidency in 2001.

The spokesman, David Sherzer, says the former president appreciated the offer to attend but has chosen to remain out of the spotlight during his post-presidency.

You know why he really declined? Because he was dumb and said things like this:

I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority. (March 13, 2002)

Makes it difficult to take credit.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social | Tagged: , , | 13 Comments »

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