It's the Jews' fault

Bishop 'blames Jews' for criticism of Catholic church record on abuse |The Guardian:

"A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a 'Zionist attack' was behind the criticism, considering how 'powerful and refined' the criticism is.

The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.

Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: 'They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers.'"

more christian terrorists

At least seven people, including some from Michigan, have been arrested in raids by a FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana as part of an investigation into an Adrian-based Christian militia group, a person familiar with the matter said.
The suspects are expected to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Monday.

"They are more of survivalist group and in an emergency they withdraw and stand their ground. They are actively training to be alongside Jesus," he said.

From The Detroit News

more abuse by the church

Claims of abuse flood Munich diocese: "The head of a task force set up to deal with sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the pope's former archdiocese in Germany has been inundated by a 'tsunami' of claims.

Reports have emerged almost daily of sex abuse cases involving Catholic clergy in several European countries. The controversy threatens to overshadow a letter the Pope is to release on similar scandals in Ireland.

Fresh claims have emerged that Benedict XVI failed to do enough to safeguard children from pedophile priests when, as Joseph Ratzinger, he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. 'It's like a tsunami,' said Elke Huemmeler, the female head of the diocese's newly established Task Force on Sexual Abuse Prevention.

Yesterday, the body began reviewing about 120 cases of alleged sexual abuse. Around 100 involve a boarding school run by Benedictine monks at Ettal, in southern Bavaria.

The most damaging revelation is that the then archbishop allowed a priest accused of molesting an 11 year-old boy elsewhere to move to his diocese in order to undergo 'therapy' in 1980."

morons

Teabaggers.
Selfish, ignorant, and content to be so.

The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it

Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine: "The Roman Catholic Church is headed by a mediocre Bavarian bureaucrat once tasked with the concealment of the foulest iniquity, whose ineptitude in that job now shows him to us as a man personally and professionally responsible for enabling a filthy wave of crime. Ratzinger himself may be banal, but his whole career has the stench of evil—a clinging and systematic evil that is beyond the power of exorcism to dispel."

Right wing closet cases part Eleventy million

I swear half the gay marriage opponents in America are frustrated closet cases:

Talking Points Memo: "Ashburn has now taken a 'leave of absence' from the day job after getting picked up on a DUI after leaving a gay night club on Wednesday morning. Ashburn of course was a longtime opponent of gay rights and gay marriage in particular. So just how anti-gay was Ashburn's public record? Justin Elliott's tallies up the votes and positions."

Hitler was a Christian

Hitler's religious beliefs and fanaticism:

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)"

Miss Beverly Hills Lauren Ashley: God wants gays "put to death"

Christian beauty queen wants to kill gay people.

Feministing:

"'The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman,' Ashley told FOX News. 'In Leviticus it says, 'If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.' The Bible is pretty black and white."

Someone ship this nazi to Uganda.

Barbarism in Utah

Criminalizing miscarriage. Theocrats for limitless government reaching into wombs and family life.

ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES:

"Perhaps the most troubling part of the bill is a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by so-called 'reckless' behavior. Under the 'reckless behavior' standard, an attorney only needs to show that the woman behaved in a manner that is thought to cause miscarriage, even if she did not intend to lose the pregnancy. Under this law, if a woman drinks too much and has a miscarriage, she could face prosecution.

Many states have fetal homicide laws, most of which apply only in the third trimester. Utah's bill, hwoever, [sic] would apply through the entire duration of a woman's pregnancy. Even common first trimester miscarriages could trigger a murder trial."

'Family Guy' Actress Responds To Sarah Palin's Criticism

'Family Guy' Actress Responds To Sarah Palin's Criticism:

"In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."

Ayn Rand on Religion

Ayn Rand: "Faith is the worst curse of mankind, as the exact antithesis and enemy of thought"

No Miracle

Brain-damaged patient proved unable to communicate |
Science |
The Guardian:

"The turnaround vindicates those doctors who had doubted Houben's apparent ability. 'It's like using an Ouija board,' said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bio ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. 'It was too good to be true, and we shouldn't have believed it.'"

Man Charged With Stockpiling Weapons Was Tea Partier, Palin Fan

TPMMuckraker:

"The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent 'Armageddon' appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a 'righteous 'Mission from God,'' as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society."

Palin's hypocrisy

CNN.com: "Sarah, I haven't bought into your fake 'I'm-a-real-American' persona. You slam the president for using teleprompters, but write crib notes on your hand to remember basic beliefs that should be easy to regurgitate. 

You decry the 'lamestream' media, but you bask in its glory and have joined its payroll as a Fox News contributor, even having the network build a studio in your home. Talk about media elite. 

You give a speech riddled with falsehoods about the president and national security, and then try to shrug them off as the 'lamestream' media attacking you. 

You don't fool me, even as your legion of fans considers you the second coming of President Reagan. You quit on the people who elected you to become a political celebrity, which your presidential running mate blasted then-Sen. Barack Obama for doing. 

You had the opportunity to show everyone that you're willing to take on anyone who crosses the line against those who are mentally challenged, and you failed. 

Please, make as much money as you can. Paraphrasing comedian Martin Lawrence, ride this train until the wheels fall off. But please, cut the crap. You're a crass politician with no true conviction. Your actions have shown that."

good comment

over at the black kettle a commenter nicely sums up the core issue with the Intelligent Design "argument", such as it is:

"It is easy to find gaps/holes/flaws in this theory; however, arbitrarily assigning these gaps in the theory as support for intelligent design is not really good science.

Your theory is incorrect Therefore, ours is correct.

This article only goes to point out problems with the theory of evolution, but in no way does it relate it back to Intelligent design. There seems to be a logic, that if evolution is wrong, therefore intelligent design is correct.

Flaws in the theory of Evolution do no support intelligent design.

Unknowns about evolution do not support intelligent design.."

Flaws in specific aspects of evolutionary theory add absolutely no weight to intelligent design. It must stand or fall on its own as a hypothesis. It fell.

Antievolution bill in Mississippi dies | NCSE

Another small victory for the Enlightenment.

NCSE: "Mississippi's House Bill 586, which if enacted would have required 'scientifically sound arguments by protagonists and antagonists of the theory of evolution' to be presented in the state's schools, died in committee on February 2, 2010, according to the legislative website."

Bangladeshi Rape Victim Receives 101 Lashes for Becoming Pregnant

via Unreasonable Faith:

"Her rape emerged after her pregnancy test and Muslim elders in the village issued a fatwa insisting that the girl be kept in isolation until her family agreed to corporal punishment.

Her rapist was pardoned by the elders. She told the newspaper the rapist had “spoiled” her life.

“I want justice,” she said."

Good luck with that.

The grisly truth about the Super Bowl abortion ad

At Slate, great comments from William Saletan on the Tebow abortion ad, and the role of survivor bias:

Pam's story certainly is moving. But as a guide to making abortion decisions, it's misleading. Doctors are right to worry about continuing pregnancies like hers. Placental abruption has killed thousands of women and fetuses. No doubt some of these women trusted in God and said no to abortion, as she did. But they didn't end up with Heisman-winning sons. They ended up dead.

Being dead is just the first problem with dying in pregnancy. Another problem is that the fetus you were trying to save dies with you. A third problem is that your existing kids lose their mother. A fourth problem is that if you had aborted the pregnancy, you might have gotten pregnant again and brought a new baby into the world, but now you can't. And now the Tebows have exposed a fifth problem: You can't make a TV ad.

On Sunday, we won't see all the women who chose life and found death. We'll just see the Tebows, because they're alive and happy to talk about it. In the business world, this is known as survivor bias: Failed mutual funds disappear, leaving behind the successful ones, which creates the illusion that mutual funds tend to beat market averages. In the Tebows' case, the survivor bias is literal. If you're diagnosed with placental abruption, you have the right to choose life. But don't be so sure that life is what you'll get.