Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Homosexual Athletes?!

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.
This is too funny not to share...Seriously...wtf?

Via Right Wing Watch:

June 30, 2008

The Dangers of Auto-Replace

In addition to blocking traffic from websites they don’t like, it looks like the web-geniuses behind the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site have a few other tricks up their sleeves, such as automatically replacing any use of the word “gay” with the word “homosexual” in any of the AP stories they run … leading to instances in which proper names are reformatted to meet their ridiculous standard, such as this article about sprinter Tyson Gay winning the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in which he is renamed “Tyson Homosexual”:

Though AFA has since corrected its article, it looks like this auto-replace feature has been embarrassing them for quite some time now:

And while they may have fixed this particular instance, it looks like they haven't gone back through their archives and corrected other articles where this happened, such as this article where professional basketball player Rudy Gay is referred to as "Rudy Homosexual."



Homosexual Athletes?!

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.
This is too funny not to share...Seriously...wtf?

Via Right Wing Watch:

June 30, 2008

The Dangers of Auto-Replace

In addition to blocking traffic from websites they don’t like, it looks like the web-geniuses behind the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site have a few other tricks up their sleeves, such as automatically replacing any use of the word “gay” with the word “homosexual” in any of the AP stories they run … leading to instances in which proper names are reformatted to meet their ridiculous standard, such as this article about sprinter Tyson Gay winning the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in which he is renamed “Tyson Homosexual”:

Though AFA has since corrected its article, it looks like this auto-replace feature has been embarrassing them for quite some time now:

And while they may have fixed this particular instance, it looks like they haven't gone back through their archives and corrected other articles where this happened, such as this article where professional basketball player Rudy Gay is referred to as "Rudy Homosexual."



Political Compass Test

Published
by
CHADMAC
on June 30, 2008
.
My inter-friend (that would be a friend I know only through the word wide interweb) T&A posted his results for the Political Compass Test. I was going to check the results that I assumed I had previously posted and let him know how I came out with the test. Well, I apparently never posted my political compass results. So I will do so now. Also, previously I had posted my results for another online political leanings test and the results are similar to the ones outlined below.

So Here are my results



The exact numbers are:

Economic Left/Right: -8.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.77

So, I lean to the left in economic matters, which I think anyone who knows me would not deny. I also appear to quite libertarian on social matters, which is accurate and good in my opinion. My thoughts - if it's not hurting anyone else, go ahead and do it. I seem to recall getting around -6 on both scales last time I took this test..... I guess I am feeling a little more extreme in my views today.

How do I stack-up against other world figures? I'm glad you asked. Here is the answer:





Well, that is about it for now... any thoughts or comments are, as always, greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Me

Wedding Ink…

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.


As you may very well know, the Heretincess and I are going to be married soon (see countdown clock up and to the right)! We are now checking out wedding favors for our guests and have stumbled upon some pretty interesting things like personalized seed cards and mint tins. Instead of our guests throwing seeds, they will be able to plant them...I think the Park Rangers would prefer that.

Here's where we are kind of stuck...tattoos. We both have a few tattoos, me more so than her, and want to get something original for our wedding. We have a few ideas and so far the front runner is a Mobius Strip with the date, time, and GPS coordinates written on it. We may get them behind our ears, on our foot, possibly on our right wrist, our left wrists are already taken.

Here's my request for anyone who may read this thing: Help us come up with original ideas, it's not really a contest...I'm just trying to get some inspiration. Although, if someone were to submit some kick ass designs...something that really blew me away...I may send that someone something special...A surprise!

Clock's ticking!

Thanks,
Parker

Wedding Ink…

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.


As you may very well know, the Heretincess and I are going to be married soon (see countdown clock up and to the right)! We are now checking out wedding favors for our guests and have stumbled upon some pretty interesting things like personalized seed cards and mint tins. Instead of our guests throwing seeds, they will be able to plant them...I think the Park Rangers would prefer that.

Here's where we are kind of stuck...tattoos. We both have a few tattoos, me more so than her, and want to get something original for our wedding. We have a few ideas and so far the front runner is a Mobius Strip with the date, time, and GPS coordinates written on it. We may get them behind our ears, on our foot, possibly on our right wrist, our left wrists are already taken.

Here's my request for anyone who may read this thing: Help us come up with original ideas, it's not really a contest...I'm just trying to get some inspiration. Although, if someone were to submit some kick ass designs...something that really blew me away...I may send that someone something special...A surprise!

Clock's ticking!

Thanks,
Parker

Proper Use Of Xtian Propaganda

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.
Recently, my lady pointed out these christian propaganda pamphlets:
They are little booklets there to let all of us know which local businesses can be trusted...because you can always trust a christian. Anyway, I thought of something more useful for them:
I noticed that my grocer, like so many others, have recycling bins right inside the front doors:
Being a good citizen of the planet Earth, I usually try to recycle all of the filthy garbage that I can. Everything from PBR bottles to milk cartons to newspapers to tired old propaganda!Bye, bye! To anyone who thinks this is mean...they were free after all.

On the plus side I have a whole host of new businesses to add to my boycott list so, move over Chick-Fil-A! After further inspection "a whole host of new businesses" may be overstating the facts...try like 10 businesses.

Here are a few other things that annoy me about this garbage (literally now):
"We are geared towards bringing the Christian business model to the rest of the world."

What the hell is the christian business model anyway? I guess I must have missed that book of the bible.
"Triangle Christian Business Network will bring visibility to your business and expose your product to thousands that visit our website as well as church websites that are affiliated with TCBN."

Not if me and my recycling bin buddies can help it! At least they don't have any members...well 10 members...hardly seems worth it to print up hundreds of these full color, glossy brochures for me to throw away. Poor bastard.

I approve and would like to encourage all of you to follow suit.

Proper Use Of Xtian Propaganda

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.
Recently, my lady pointed out these christian propaganda pamphlets:
They are little booklets there to let all of us know which local businesses can be trusted...because you can always trust a christian. Anyway, I thought of something more useful for them:
I noticed that my grocer, like so many others, have recycling bins right inside the front doors:
Being a good citizen of the planet Earth, I usually try to recycle all of the filthy garbage that I can. Everything from PBR bottles to milk cartons to newspapers to tired old propaganda!Bye, bye! To anyone who thinks this is mean...they were free after all.

On the plus side I have a whole host of new businesses to add to my boycott list so, move over Chick-Fil-A! After further inspection "a whole host of new businesses" may be overstating the facts...try like 10 businesses.

Here are a few other things that annoy me about this garbage (literally now):
"We are geared towards bringing the Christian business model to the rest of the world."

What the hell is the christian business model anyway? I guess I must have missed that book of the bible.
"Triangle Christian Business Network will bring visibility to your business and expose your product to thousands that visit our website as well as church websites that are affiliated with TCBN."

Not if me and my recycling bin buddies can help it! At least they don't have any members...well 10 members...hardly seems worth it to print up hundreds of these full color, glossy brochures for me to throw away. Poor bastard.

I approve and would like to encourage all of you to follow suit.

"Presbyterian Action Will Not Stand Silent blah, blah, blah…"

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.
From Christian Newswire:
"The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Friday to pave the way toward the ordination of practicing homosexual persons to the offices of deacon, elder, or minister."

Good for them but, there always has to be a blowhard with Chicken Little syndrome who is terrified of what has just occurred and must stamp his feet and throw a temper tantrum because he didn't get his way this time.

Enter Jim Berkley (right), Director of Institute on Religion & Democracy's (IRD) Presbyterian Action Committee:
"Presbyterian Action will not stand silent amid these decisions that are blatantly contrary to the Bible and to biblical morality. We lament the damage to Presbyterian congregations across the country, who still believe God's Word and intend to continue to abide by it, apart from any action of the General Assembly."

Waahh! I grew up in a Presbyterian Church and about 10-15 years ago there was another brouhaha about whether god should be known as a he or a she. A few tight-asses like Mr. Berkley got their panties all in a bunch and the General Assembly decided not to hear the arguments and let the idea die.

The people in my church reacted thusly: "God a she? Oh, that's interesting...Can we hurry this up so I can get my hands on some of Mrs. Farwell's Olive & Egg Salad sandwiches?" And that was pretty much the end of it. No one in our congregation had ever heard of the IRD, nor cared. What I'm getting at is that Presbyterians, at least in my experience, are very tolerant and very open to new ideas...no person that I had interactions with at our church, once upon a time, would be opposed to this new idea...and they shouldn't be...if god made everyone the way he wanted to make them, then it stands to reason that god made gays and lesbians as friggin' gays and lesbians.

Progressive thinking inside churches should be embraced not only by those inside the church, but by those on the outside, as well. I welcome the church's initial decision and wish them all the best in moving forward. However, I get the feeling that guys like Jim and his ilk will not let anything come of this.

There are still a few hurdles for this ammendment to make it into the Heidleberg Catechism. Anyone interested in the Presbyterian Church's parliamentary procedure should check out this link.

P.S. The church pictured above was my home church for my formative years...before my brain turned on.

"Presbyterian Action Will Not Stand Silent blah, blah, blah…"

Published
by
Parker Thomas
on June 30, 2008
.
From Christian Newswire:
"The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Friday to pave the way toward the ordination of practicing homosexual persons to the offices of deacon, elder, or minister."

Good for them but, there always has to be a blowhard with Chicken Little syndrome who is terrified of what has just occurred and must stamp his feet and throw a temper tantrum because he didn't get his way this time.

Enter Jim Berkley (right), Director of Institute on Religion & Democracy's (IRD) Presbyterian Action Committee:
"Presbyterian Action will not stand silent amid these decisions that are blatantly contrary to the Bible and to biblical morality. We lament the damage to Presbyterian congregations across the country, who still believe God's Word and intend to continue to abide by it, apart from any action of the General Assembly."

Waahh! I grew up in a Presbyterian Church and about 10-15 years ago there was another brouhaha about whether god should be known as a he or a she. A few tight-asses like Mr. Berkley got their panties all in a bunch and the General Assembly decided not to hear the arguments and let the idea die.

The people in my church reacted thusly: "God a she? Oh, that's interesting...Can we hurry this up so I can get my hands on some of Mrs. Farwell's Olive & Egg Salad sandwiches?" And that was pretty much the end of it. No one in our congregation had ever heard of the IRD, nor cared. What I'm getting at is that Presbyterians, at least in my experience, are very tolerant and very open to new ideas...no person that I had interactions with at our church, once upon a time, would be opposed to this new idea...and they shouldn't be...if god made everyone the way he wanted to make them, then it stands to reason that god made gays and lesbians as friggin' gays and lesbians.

Progressive thinking inside churches should be embraced not only by those inside the church, but by those on the outside, as well. I welcome the church's initial decision and wish them all the best in moving forward. However, I get the feeling that guys like Jim and his ilk will not let anything come of this.

There are still a few hurdles for this ammendment to make it into the Heidleberg Catechism. Anyone interested in the Presbyterian Church's parliamentary procedure should check out this link.

P.S. The church pictured above was my home church for my formative years...before my brain turned on.

Let There Be Light 2008-06-29 08:15:00

Published
by
Q
on June 29, 2008
.
Oh how I wished to be able to shield those that are close to me from all the pain, the suffering, and sometimes the knowledge this hideous life can throw at them, and how miserably I failed. In the end, I find myself left only with what I can actually offer: My utmost love, care, remorse, and hope that I can help heal the wounds I couldn't prevent in the first place....

Let There Be Light 2008-06-29 08:15:00

Published
by
Q
on June 29, 2008
.
Oh how I wished to be able to shield those that are close to me from all the pain, the suffering, and sometimes the knowledge this hideous life can throw at them, and how miserably I failed. In the end, I find myself left only with what I can actually offer: My utmost love, care, remorse, and hope that I can help heal the wounds I couldn't prevent in the first place....

Sadness and Suffering

Published
by
The Spiritual Atheist
on June 27, 2008
.
Currently Reading:
The Heart of Meditation
by Swami Durgananda



Cause of Suffering?:
I have pretty much always taken it for granted that sadness caused suffering.

The beginning of this week was very sad for me. While I was very sad and generally upset, I noticed something very peculiar; I wasn't suffering. There was no suffering in my sadness at all. They may appear together at times, but one does not necessitate the other.

This begs the question ...


Koan:
If there is no suffering in sadness, then what is "sadness"?


Namaste,
CET

"Much of the suffering in the world comes from the illusion that we are separate from one another." - Shakyamuni Buddha

"Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music." - George Carlin

Godless Code 0.3

Published
by
evtujo
on June 26, 2008
.
REFERENCE: (godless code 0.3)

The first entry of the godless code is always your disbelief path, the rest of the items are optional and may appear in any order. ":" is used as a delimiter between terms.

Belief path: each step of your disbelief journey, separated by "->". You may prefix a node with a number in parentheses to indicate at which age a transition occurred.

Protestant
------------
P++ : The bible is 100% true and I spend much of my life studying/evangelizing
P+ : I really believe, but I could be more involved
P : I call myself a Christian but I'm not on fire for it.
P- : I attend church but some of the ideas don't really hang together

Catholic
-----------
C
[use +/- as above]

Atheist
-----------
A++ : I'm very convinced, very vocal. I am defined by disbelief
A+ : I'm convinced and and active but it's not everything to me.
A : I don't believe, but I don't really think about it too much.
A- : I don't believe but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with disbelief

agnostic
--------------
a+ : I really don't think you can know either way. Also, there might be a tea pot out there. Who can know for sure?
a : The word atheist make people uncomfortable and we don't want anyone to be uncomfortable.

and so on:

B : Buddhist
H : Hindu
I : Islam
M : Mormon
7 : SeventhDay
W : Jehovah's Witness
J : Jew

The above single character codes may be used or if you are feeling fancy go ahead and use the following 3 digit codes:

ADV Adventist
ALL Alliance Church
AMI Amish
ANI Animist
ASA Ásatrú
AOG Assembly Of God
BAH Baha'i
BAP Baptist
BUD Buddhist
CAT Catholic
CHR Christian
CMA Christian Mission Alliance
COC Church Of Christ
COG Church Of God
CON Congregational
CSC Christian Science
DCD Christian Disciples Of Christ
DST Diest
EPI Episcopalian
FRE Free Church/Independent
GRE Greek Orthodox
HIN Hindu
ISL Islam
JAN Jainism
JEH Jehovah's Witness
JEW Jewish
LUT Lutheran
MEN Mennonite
MET Methodist
MOM Mormon (Latter-Day Saint)
NAR Native American Religion
NON Non Denominational
PEN Pentecostal
PRE Presbyterian
PRO Protestant
QUA Quaker
SAT Satanist
SCI Scientology
SHA Shamanism
SHI Shinto
SIK Sikhism
SPI Spiritualist
TAO Taoism
UCC United Church Of Christ
UNI Unitarian
WIC Wicca/Druidry

You can further modify the above with an abbreviated sub-type in []. For instance if you want to specifify Theravadan Buddhism you could write it as: B[Thera]

Religions I find tolerable:

TR(x,y,...)

A tuple of religion codes from the religion path section. The tuple
may be the empty set, e.g. TR().


Holy Books read:

r({B|K|BoM}%XX[, ...]) # one or more holy books you've read and how much

B : Bible
K : Koran
BoM : Book of Mormon
D: Dhammapadda (Buddhism)
TR: Tripitaka (Buddhism)
V: Veda (Hinduism)
BG: Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism)
T: Talmud (Judaism)
TTC: Tao-te-ching (Taoism)
ZA: Zend Avesta (Zoroastrianism)
K: Kojiki (Shintoism)
N: Nihongi (Shintoism)
JS: Jaina Sutras (Jainism)
SGGS: Shri Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism)

eg. r(B%20,K%10)


Religious instruction: How much religious instruction have you received
in your life?

RI(pX,sY,uZ, ...)

hW : years of home schooling
pX : years of primary school
sY : years of secondary school
uZ : years of university
mQ : years of seminary


Exposure: How many people know you are a non-believer?

ex(XYZ(x)[, ...]) or ex(ALL)

Fam - Family
Wk - Co-workers
Fr - Friends

values can range from 0.0 (no one knows) to 1.0 (everyone knows)

e.g. ex(Fam(.54),Wk(.5),Fr(1.0))

ex(ALL) indicates you're godlessness is known 100% to the world.

Religious affiliation of significant other(s):

SO([X, ...])

Where X is one of the religion codes from above. Empty set means no SO. :(


Fanboy (or girl): What non-believers inspire you? And how much?

FB(X[,...])

Currently available non-believer codes:

RD : Richard Dawkins
SH : Sam Harris
DD : Daniel Dennett
SB : Susan Blackmore
BF : Brian Flemming
RC : Richard Carrier
MS : Michael Shermer
JS : Julia Sweeney
CS : Carl Sagan
JR : James Randi
RI : Robert Green Ingersoll
PJ : Penn Jillette
PZ : PZ Myers
CH : Christopher Hitchens
SJG : Stephen Jay Gould

You may include as many as you want to. You may also add a "+" (e.g. DD+) to show special approval of or "-" if you don't really like them (opposite of fanboy appreciation)

Getting the message out:

What do you do to share the news and/or stir up conversation?

M(X[,...])

Blg : blogging
Auth : writing books
D2D : door to door evangelization

What godless memberships do you have?

MS(o,l,n,i,...)

o Online atheist related groups.
l A member of a local atheist group
n A member of a national atheist group
i A member of an international atheist group
csi A member of CSI (formerly CSICOP)
bha A member of The British Humanist Association
iheu A member of Internation Humanist and Ethical Union
nss A member of the National Secular Society

a plus can be used for additional groups up to 2...a single * can be used to denote that the person is active in the leadership of the group(board member, webmaster, etc.)

An example...

MS (o++,l+*,i*)

For member of at least 3 online groups, at 2 local groups and is in the leadership of at least one of them, and is a leadership member of an international organization.


Development of the godless code:

GCD : godless code deity - they who develop the code and/or have
suggestions incorporated

optional "+" if it was your idea in the first place. :)


Version: As the code evolves need to know what version to use for decoding.

[gc-0.1] = Use version 0.1 for decoding this


This coding system is new so if you have suggestions for additions,
clarifications, etc please let me know and I'll try to address for
gc-0.4

Godless Code 0.3

Published
by
evtujo
on June 26, 2008
.
REFERENCE: (godless code 0.3)

The first entry of the godless code is always your disbelief path, the rest of the items are optional and may appear in any order. ":" is used as a delimiter between terms.

Belief path: each step of your disbelief journey, separated by "->". You may prefix a node with a number in parentheses to indicate at which age a transition occurred.

Protestant
------------
P++ : The bible is 100% true and I spend much of my life studying/evangelizing
P+ : I really believe, but I could be more involved
P : I call myself a Christian but I'm not on fire for it.
P- : I attend church but some of the ideas don't really hang together

Catholic
-----------
C
[use +/- as above]

Atheist
-----------
A++ : I'm very convinced, very vocal. I am defined by disbelief
A+ : I'm convinced and and active but it's not everything to me.
A : I don't believe, but I don't really think about it too much.
A- : I don't believe but I'm still pretty uncomfortable with disbelief

agnostic
--------------
a+ : I really don't think you can know either way. Also, there might be a tea pot out there. Who can know for sure?
a : The word atheist make people uncomfortable and we don't want anyone to be uncomfortable.

and so on:

B : Buddhist
H : Hindu
I : Islam
M : Mormon
7 : SeventhDay
W : Jehovah's Witness
J : Jew

The above single character codes may be used or if you are feeling fancy go ahead and use the following 3 digit codes:

ADV Adventist
ALL Alliance Church
AMI Amish
ANI Animist
ASA Ásatrú
AOG Assembly Of God
BAH Baha'i
BAP Baptist
BUD Buddhist
CAT Catholic
CHR Christian
CMA Christian Mission Alliance
COC Church Of Christ
COG Church Of God
CON Congregational
CSC Christian Science
DCD Christian Disciples Of Christ
DST Diest
EPI Episcopalian
FRE Free Church/Independent
GRE Greek Orthodox
HIN Hindu
ISL Islam
JAN Jainism
JEH Jehovah's Witness
JEW Jewish
LUT Lutheran
MEN Mennonite
MET Methodist
MOM Mormon (Latter-Day Saint)
NAR Native American Religion
NON Non Denominational
PEN Pentecostal
PRE Presbyterian
PRO Protestant
QUA Quaker
SAT Satanist
SCI Scientology
SHA Shamanism
SHI Shinto
SIK Sikhism
SPI Spiritualist
TAO Taoism
UCC United Church Of Christ
UNI Unitarian
WIC Wicca/Druidry

You can further modify the above with an abbreviated sub-type in []. For instance if you want to specifify Theravadan Buddhism you could write it as: B[Thera]

Religions I find tolerable:

TR(x,y,...)

A tuple of religion codes from the religion path section. The tuple
may be the empty set, e.g. TR().


Holy Books read:

r({B|K|BoM}%XX[, ...]) # one or more holy books you've read and how much

B : Bible
K : Koran
BoM : Book of Mormon
D: Dhammapadda (Buddhism)
TR: Tripitaka (Buddhism)
V: Veda (Hinduism)
BG: Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism)
T: Talmud (Judaism)
TTC: Tao-te-ching (Taoism)
ZA: Zend Avesta (Zoroastrianism)
K: Kojiki (Shintoism)
N: Nihongi (Shintoism)
JS: Jaina Sutras (Jainism)
SGGS: Shri Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism)

eg. r(B%20,K%10)


Religious instruction: How much religious instruction have you received
in your life?

RI(pX,sY,uZ, ...)

hW : years of home schooling
pX : years of primary school
sY : years of secondary school
uZ : years of university
mQ : years of seminary


Exposure: How many people know you are a non-believer?

ex(XYZ(x)[, ...]) or ex(ALL)

Fam - Family
Wk - Co-workers
Fr - Friends

values can range from 0.0 (no one knows) to 1.0 (everyone knows)

e.g. ex(Fam(.54),Wk(.5),Fr(1.0))

ex(ALL) indicates you're godlessness is known 100% to the world.

Religious affiliation of significant other(s):

SO([X, ...])

Where X is one of the religion codes from above. Empty set means no SO. :(


Fanboy (or girl): What non-believers inspire you? And how much?

FB(X[,...])

Currently available non-believer codes:

RD : Richard Dawkins
SH : Sam Harris
DD : Daniel Dennett
SB : Susan Blackmore
BF : Brian Flemming
RC : Richard Carrier
MS : Michael Shermer
JS : Julia Sweeney
CS : Carl Sagan
JR : James Randi
RI : Robert Green Ingersoll
PJ : Penn Jillette
PZ : PZ Myers
CH : Christopher Hitchens
SJG : Stephen Jay Gould

You may include as many as you want to. You may also add a "+" (e.g. DD+) to show special approval of or "-" if you don't really like them (opposite of fanboy appreciation)

Getting the message out:

What do you do to share the news and/or stir up conversation?

M(X[,...])

Blg : blogging
Auth : writing books
D2D : door to door evangelization

What godless memberships do you have?

MS(o,l,n,i,...)

o Online atheist related groups.
l A member of a local atheist group
n A member of a national atheist group
i A member of an international atheist group
csi A member of CSI (formerly CSICOP)
bha A member of The British Humanist Association
iheu A member of Internation Humanist and Ethical Union
nss A member of the National Secular Society

a plus can be used for additional groups up to 2...a single * can be used to denote that the person is active in the leadership of the group(board member, webmaster, etc.)

An example...

MS (o++,l+*,i*)

For member of at least 3 online groups, at 2 local groups and is in the leadership of at least one of them, and is a leadership member of an international organization.


Development of the godless code:

GCD : godless code deity - they who develop the code and/or have
suggestions incorporated

optional "+" if it was your idea in the first place. :)


Version: As the code evolves need to know what version to use for decoding.

[gc-0.1] = Use version 0.1 for decoding this


This coding system is new so if you have suggestions for additions,
clarifications, etc please let me know and I'll try to address for
gc-0.4

That was the Old Testament…

Published
by
DocMike
on June 25, 2008
.
leader said, yesterday, that was "distorting the " when he made the following statements in a speech:

Obama asked, "Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount?"

Dobson said, "I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology," adding that Obama is "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter." He went on to say that Obama should not be referencing "antiquated dietary codes and passages from the that are no longer relevant to the teachings of the ."

Isn't this typical? It's okay for Dobson and other Christians to distort the Bible to fit their world view; for example calling certain parts "antiquated" and "no longer relevant" while claiming other parts are still completely relevant. I wonder who decides which is which...

In my world view, the entire book is antiquated and irrelevant!

I especially like the phrase "traditional understanding of the Bible." I guess that means don't use your own mind (or reason) to figure out what it says or means. Just ask Uncle Jimmy. He'll set you straight on the "real" meaning. After all, we're all too stupid to figure out what the sky-daddy was talking about. Right?

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Free speech for thee …

Published
by
rjjago
on June 25, 2008
.

Via Ezra Levant today:

Rob Wells is an anti-Christian bigot. That’s fine — Canada is a free country, and people are free to be bigots, just as long as they don’t get violent about it. Hate isn’t against the law. (Well, actually it is, under section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. But no-one has ever been charged under that law for saying anything anti-Christian. It has only been used against Christians. And, while we’re on the subject, not a single Muslim has been charged under that law, either.)

Wells has filed a series of complaints with Canada’s human rights commissions, trying to bully Christians into silence. He’s sued the Christian Heritage Party. He’s sued Catholic Insight, a magazine. As usual, Wells doesn’t have to pay a penny for this persecution — the government happily provides the investigators and lawyers to do so.

Do you see, Ezra? No one will ever be charged with hate crimes against Christians or whites.  It’s definitionally impossible for hate to be directed against those “Bible-thumping crackers”. Here’s what I mean.

Early this month, the BC Civil Liberties Union intervened in the MacLean’s case at the BC Human Rights Tribunal.  Part of their submission was a restatement of the Collins Test.  Without getting into the background, here is what the BCCLU said:

… Furthermore, the Collins test takes the following three non-exclusive factors into consideration: (1) the content of the expression (what was said?); (2) the tone (how was it said?); and (3) the vulnerability of the target group (about whom was it said?).

That last one – the ‘vulnerability’ bit, that’s telling.  You see, not all groups are protected from hate speech in BC, just ‘vulnerable’ groups.  Who defines which groups are vulnerable and which are not? – why of course, the BCHRT.  Based on what?  Lord knows.  Here’s the best guess – if a group was persecuted anywhere in the world by white Christians (though not necessarily in Canada) then they are ‘vulnerable’.

In the words of the BCHRT in relation to Jewish Canadians:

that Jews are “an historically disadvantaged group that has endured persecution on the largest scale.” The existence and expression of anti-Semitism in Canada and elsewhere, both past and present, is beyond doubt.

Elsewhere in the past – in their own words.

EXIT Thingy: Ever read the Collins decision?  Here’s the best quote from it: “It is, in my view, untenable to suggest that freedom is co-extensive with the absence of government. Experience shows the contrary, that freedom has often required the intervention and protection of government against private action.”

They’re saving us from ourselves!?