OVO

Tom Ellard: Adenoids [LINK-ZUM]

[I very much like the band Severed Heads. The following by Tom Ellard describes a new limited-edition vinyl set of music by Severed Heads called Adenoids. - Trevor Blake]

And here we have it - the ultimate produce of the new millennium. A box of vinyl discs with music from as much as thirty years ago. Could something express any less faith in the future? My guess is that we seek to capture some 'purity' that has since been encrusted with quibbles. It's a hopeless fetish that leads in an ever contracting spiral - music is born continuously and defies attempts to capture it in decorative tombs. Nevertheless. We have here a very decorative tomb.

Music made from 1977 onwards by people who would be identified for a time as 'Severed Heads'. Much is by Richard Fielding who left in 1982. Some by Andrew Wright, gone in 1980. Some by Bradbury, left in 1985, Deering also. I plan to be quit of it as soon as it ceases bleeding. Meanwhile I hold the tourniquet. In each case the music has been taken from the best copy, cleaned only as much as needed and organised to fit onto long playing vinyl. It is ancient, funny, half arsed, crinkly, clever and juvenile. It was compiled by a prick. All proceeds will be spent by Fielding on horse races. Buy two because they will wear out.

Labels: music

Ian Demsky: McNeil Island prison chaplain struggles with new multiple-faith rule [LINK-ZUM]

Tom Suss loves his job. A chaplain at McNeil Island prison, he's been with the state Department of Corrections for more than 15 years. "It's really a privilege to work there," the 63-year-old Catholic priest said in a recent interview. "When there's the opportunity to facilitate someone's realization of living differently, of making better choices, there's just no better high than that."

But Suss took a voluntary leave of absence at the beginning of the year because a new Corrections Department policy allowing inmates to profess multiple religions has put his faith into conflict with his duties as a state employee. He can take up to six weeks off and after that he's not sure what's going to happen. Though his bosses and peers speak highly of his work, he feels he might have to leave his profession behind.

"I'm thinking my days as a state chaplain might be finished," he said. At issue is whether in the state's efforts to protect inmates' freedom to worship, Suss should have to compromise his own religious convictions.

Article continues at link. Thanks as always to the excellent Religion Clause blog for the initial link . Prison chaplains are employees of the State. Their wages, insurance, mileage compensation, etc. are paid for by tax dollars. Is this not a case of the establishment of religion by the State? Can any other corrections employee - janitors, therapists, guards, secretaries - refuse to serve a prisoner based on their perceived religion?

There is no legal definition of religion. The benefit of this lack of a legal definition of religion is that it is made clear the State has no religious function. The State does not approve who is an is not clergy, who is and is not a member of any particular religion, and so on. These matters are left up to individuals. This also leaves the choice of being non-religious, even anti-religious, up to individuals.

The cost of this lack of a legal definition of religion is that at times religious individuals will overstep their domain of choice and attempt to make religious choices for others. Should an adult be able to decide the medical options available to their adult neighbor based on their religion? What if the medical option is abortion or euthanasia? Should an adult be able to decide the medical options available to their child based on their religion? The State is a poor judge in such matters, and that is why many of these choices are left up to individual states in the US and not decided at the Federal level.

In the case of prisoners, who cannot elect to move to a new state in the US if the state they are in does not accommodate their religion, the State has two choices. The first choice is to accommodate every expression of every religion by every prisoner. Prison clergy trained in every religion in human history must be available to anyone who summons them at any time, along with all the appropriate physical materials necessary to practice their religion. The second choice is to continue to consider religion a matter of individual choice, as is the case outside of prison, and not a service the State is obliged to provide.

Most religions include some influence from other religions. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all contain elements of earlier religions as well as shared elements. It is not the business of the State to define what is allowed within a single religion, and single religions contain elements of other religions. Just the same, it is not the business of the State to limit an individual to a single religion throughout their lifetime or concurrently.

Those who wish to offer religious services to prisoners should fund such services themselves. Prisoners should accept that the loss of some aspects of their religion are part of what is lost by being in prison. Prison clergy (if such a job should exist at all) must be prepared and willing to accommodate any religious expression from prisoners. The State should refrain from establishing religion. - Trevor Blake

Labels: christianity, magick, religion, theocracy

Stewart Home: The Assault on Culture [LINK-ZUM]

The Assault on Culture by Stewart Home (1987) is a book I have recommended to many people for many years. It is well-researched while clearly-written, brief while informative. The Assault on Culture describes 'utopian currents from Lettrism to Class War.' Some of the more familiar names in this current might include the Situationists, Fluxus, mail art and punk rock. Stewart Home went on to write Neoism, Plagiarism and Praxis, which includes descriptions of his performance art / magick attacks on agents of conformity in a psychogeographically mapped England. Not only does the character King Mob in Grant Morrison's Invisibles act like Stewart Home, he looks like him. Read up on the real thing.

The entire text of The Assault on Culture is now online for free.

Labels: art, books

BBC: US network faces $1m nudity fine [LINK-ZUM]

US television network ABC may have to pay a fine of $1.4m (707,000 UK Pounds) for airing an episode of NYPD Blue which depicted female nudity. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said the 2003 show had "multiple, close-up views" of a woman's buttocks before the US watershed. The FCC deems "sexual or excretory activities" shown in an "offensive" way before 2200 as indecent.

[Article continues at link. Here is the scene in question (video). What really happened in the less-than-40-seconds which the FCC fined? A woman took off her bath robe and stepped into a shower. The actress in question was not forced to do this and was likely paid handsomely, as was everyone on the set. No one, anywhere, was forced to watch that episode of that television show. No one, anywhere, was harmed in any way by watching that episode of that television show. Truth be told, most people do take of their clothes before stepping into the shower. This was not a sexual act nor was it an excretory activity. I can imagine some people being surprised, or embarrased, or confused by what they saw. But if their discomfort eats away at them for more than a short while, they have problems unrelated to this episode of this television show. One of them is watching television, and there's an easy answer for that problem. Preventing people from being surprised, embarrassed or confused is not the role of government. Neither is preventing people from being naked as part of their job, or in expression of their political views. The actress in question also appears nude in a protest against the use of animal fur in fashion. Should the government fine someone for that as well? A much more damning solution was available to the prudes who brought about this fine in the form of a boycott against advertisers of the television show. In that solution, everyone remains free to make the choices they want yet they are also accountable for them. We don't need the government to tell us what is bad on television. The answer is 'most of it.' Television is called a medium because it's seldom well done, as Ernie Kovacs said. But bad art isn't a crime, it's just bad art. What a shame that mainstream media companies are being punished for brief scenes of non-sexual nudity while not being shaken to their foundations for their uncritical support of George W. Bush's war of conquest and Jesus in the Middle East. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, fascism, sex, television, theocracy

Alexander Cockburn: I am an intellectual blasphemer [LINK-ZUM]

In magazine articles and essays I have described in fairly considerable detail, with input from the scientist Martin Hertzberg, that you can account for the current warming by a number of well-known factors - to do with the elliptical course of the Earth in its relationship to the sun, the axis of the Earth in the current period, and possibly the influence of solar flares. There have been similar warming cycles in the past, such as the medieval warming period, when the warming levels were considerably higher than they are now.

Yet from left to right, the warming that is occurring today is taken as being man-made, and many have made it into the central plank of their political campaigns. For reasons I find very hard to fathom, the environmental left movement has bought very heavily into the fantasy about anthropogenic global warming and the fantasy that humans can prevent or turn back the warming cycle.

[Article continues at link. I have a suggestion as to why large groups of people are supporting the athropogenic global warming theory, but it is one I read long ago by an author I sadly cannot remember and credit. Ask yourself where the largest environmental movements are, and where the most radical / violent environmentalists are. The answer is, roughly, the USA, Canada, England and Germany. All of these countries are, among other things, largely Protestant countries. Compare the environmental movement in these Protestant countries with the environmental movements in largely Catholic countries, such as Italy or Mexico. Compare it also with the environmental movements in Islamic countries. It seems that Christianity co-occurs with environmentalism more than with Islam, and more with Protestant Christianity than Catholicism. Protestant Christianity is heavy with stories of the original purity of humanity and our harmony with the Earth, but through our wickedness in taking on the powers of God we have brought about great suffering and destruction - including the any-day-now destruction of the entire Earth. Compare this to environmentalism, which is heavy with stories of the original purity of humanity and our harmony with the Earth, but through our wickedness in taking on the powers of God we have brought about great suffering and destruction - including the any-day-now destruction of the entire Earth. Environmentalism is in part an echo of Protestant Christianity, which was relegated to ceremonial reverence as the West adopted secular values. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: B12, christianity, islam, science

Trevor Blake: Christianity in the News [LINK-ZUM]

Ex-pastor found guilty of abusing girl: "Rev. William Procanick's guilty verdict of sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl suggested nobody should mistake his actions for a harmless backrub."
Religious fanatic guilty of torturing his sons; Wife also convicted:"The evangelical preacher put safety pins through his sons' lips, sliced their mouths with scalpel blades and squeezed the older boy's tongue with sharp pincers. A jury heard he used a bucket to catch the blood dripping from their mouths... "
Former Mo. Mayor Taped Begging for Mercy: "Allen Kauffman told the AP he has resigned as mayor of Collins and pastor of the town's Temple Lot Church. Kauffman allegedly asked the girl [13 year old] for sex and for nude pictures and... "
Pastor abused trust, jury told: "A Toronto pastor who had sex with two women he was claiming to rid of evil spirits abused his position of trust and is guilty of sexual assault, a prosecutor says."
Priest arrested on perjury charges in alleged mob case: "Rev. Joseph Scia was arrested on perjury charges, accused of lying about his relationship with a mobster in testimony investigating a casino owner's possible ties to organized crime."
Bishop of Tenerife blames child abuse on the children: "Bishop Bernardo Alvarez said there are youngsters who want to be abused, and he compared that abuse to homosexuality, describing them both as prejudicial to society."
Augusta Youth Pastor Charged With Performing Sex Acts On Teenager: "A youth pastor at Bible Way Church has been charged with performing sex acts on a 14-year old girl three separate times. Investigators say 36-year-old Falcon Davis worked at church for 2 years."
Police say former youth pastor killed wife's friend then himself: "Police identified the gunman as Michael Beckworth, 30, and his victim as Joe Lee, 31."

[Which of these actions did God prevent? The answer is none. Which of these actions did God, the author of everything, cause? The answer is all. Why would anyone consider a God that prevented none of these actions and caused all of these actions to be worthy of worship? The answer is I do not know. Here, instead, is the truth: there is no God, there never was a God, there can be no God. It is a misleading argument to blame only 'fanatic' Christians and 'ex' Christians and 'former' Christians for bad moral choices when, in fact, they are doing what their God commands all Christians to do: lie, rape, steal, kill. Christianity does not prevent bad moral choices, nor does it engender good moral choices. Christianity is not a good superstition sometimes bent toward bad ends, but a bad superstition often bent toward good ends. Morality is a secular responsibility, long kidnapped by superstition, ready to be freed. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity

Cinnamon Stillwell: Honor killings [LINK-ZUM]

Throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, young Muslim women are being targeted for violence. Lest it be thought hate crimes are to blame, it is, in fact, their own relatives who are the perpetrators. So-called honor killings, whereby a Muslim male family member, typically the father, murders his daughter in order to defend the family's honor, is a growing problem. While statistics are notoriously hard to come by due to the private nature of such crimes and the fact that very few are reported, the United Nations Population Fund approximates that as many as 5,000 women are murdered in this manner each year worldwide. Undoubtedly that's a low estimate, as reports from Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories, among other locales, are filtering in at an alarming rate. Add to the list Germany, Sweden, other parts of Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and it's clear that young Muslim women in the West are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

[The Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada], like its American counterpart, is part of the problem, not the solution. Working to further acceptance of Sharia (or Islamic) law in the United States and Canada and trying to silence - either through accusations of "Islamophobia," libel lawsuits or boycotts - voices of criticism and reform, CAIR's agenda would seem to be working against the advancement of Muslim women's rights.

Accordingly, representatives of other allegedly mainstream Muslim groups, instead of taking the opportunity to address the scourge of honor killings, downplayed the religious and cultural angle. Shahina Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Social Services Association, claimed that "The strangulation death of Ms. Parvez was the result of domestic violence, a problem that cuts across Canadian society and is blind to color or creed," while Sheikh Alaa El-Sayyed, imam of the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, came to the following conclusion: "The bottom line is, it's a domestic violence issue." In contrast, Canadian Muslim reformer Irshad Manji, in addressing Aqsa Parvez's murder, put it like so: "Moderate Muslims have warned that we shouldn't leap to conclusions. Who knows what other dynamics infected her family, spout hijab-hooded mouthpieces on Canadian TV. Not once have I heard these upstanding Muslims say that whatever the 'family dynamics,' killing is not a solution. Ever. How's that for basic morality?" [...]

Honor killings are not, as the apologists would have us believe, simple acts of domestic violence akin to those that take place in all communities. They are specific to Muslim religion and culture and must be addressed as such if ever honest debate about the matter is to ensue. Regrettably, silence is the more typical reaction to these crimes. Fearful of giving offense or being branded with the ubiquitous "Islamophobia" label, law enforcement, journalists, social workers, government officials and, most of all, Western feminists are allowing a grave threat to women's rights go unaddressed. The misguided purveyors of multiculturalism - an ideology that holds that all cultures or religions are equivalent and none (save for the dominant, or Western, culture) worthy of condemnation — have rendered the West incapable of addressing evils where Third World cultures are to blame. But the truth is Western culture offers the greatest boon to women's rights and must therefore be vigorously defended, even if that means stepping into the realm of the politically incorrect.

Feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women, which put out an occasional press release decrying honor killings, need to make combating this practice as high a priority as defending choice and railing against "glass ceilings." Instead, it is a precious few who are telling it like it is when it comes to the oppression of women in Muslim culture.

[Article continues at link.]

Labels: islam

Sara Corbett: A Cutting Tradition [LINK-ZUM]

When a girl is taken - usually by her mother - to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer center or an emptied-out elementary-school classroom where desks are pushed together and covered with sheets and a pillow to serve as makeshift beds. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl's genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she's given a small, celebratory gift - some fruit or a donated piece of clothing - and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. [...] These photos were taken in April 2006, at the foundation's annual mass circumcision, which is free and open to the public and held during the lunar month marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad. [...] According to Lukman Hakim, the foundation's chairman of social services, there are three "benefits" to circumcising girls. "One, it will stabilize her libido," he said through an interpreter. "Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology."

[...] As Western awareness of female genital cutting has grown, anthropologists, policy makers and health officials have warned against blindly judging those who practice it, saying that progress is best made by working with local leaders and opinion-makers to gradually shift the public discussion of female circumcision from what it's believed to bestow upon a girl toward what it takes away. "These mothers believe they are doing something good for their children," [Laura Guarenti, an obstetrician and WHO's medical officer for child and maternal health in Jakarta] told me. "For our culture that is not easily understandable. To judge them harshly is to isolate them. You cannot make change that way."

[Article continues at link. Ihave three comments on this article. First, female genital mutilation is an Islamic practice. To attack FGM is to attack Islam. I am in favor of attacking Islam. This practice should be outlawed in every nation and those who practice it should be punished to the full extent of the law. That doing so will tred an ancient sacred traditional Islamic practice underfoot does not matter, at all. These women should be judged most harshly, isolated (to keep them from continuing the practice), and no regard whatsoever should be given to the practice because it is part of a culture. Second, it is (as far as I know) always adult women who practice female genital mutilation on girls. What does this mean for the Western notion of feminism and its idea of who oppresses who? Third, let me propose a thought experiment. This is something to think about, not to actually do. Really, don't do this. Get a large piece of wood and strike as many Muslim women in the face with it as you can. This will break their noses. There will be a little blood. Very, very few will die from the process. It will change how they look and breathe, but they will survive. Say that you needed to do it as part of an ancient, sacred tradition. Muslim women do not need to volunteer to have their faces smashed in, any more than girls need to volunteer to have their genitals mutilated before they can understand the consequences of that proceedure. If you object to my thought experiment, you must object to female genital mutilation. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, sex, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Animal Sacrifice, Texas Style [LINK-ZUM]

Jose Merced is an Obe in the Santeria religion. City officials in Euless, Texas (near Dallas) told Mr. Merced he could not kill animals in a Santeria religious ceremony. He filed a federal discrimination lawsuit to prevent the establishment of religion by the State, and to freely exercise his own religion. This lawsuit seems to have failed. At the same time, in the nearby city of Dallas, animals are killed in a Jewish religious ceremony [PDF explaining these "strict rules of Biblical origin"]. It appears that animal sacrifice is acceptable in Texas, but only if it is the correct religion. Unknown at this time is how the Texas courts would rule regarding the animal sacrifices mandated by Church of Later Day Saint (Strangites) or Muslims celebrating Eid al-Adha.

Texas law regarding child sacrifice is equally mixed. If as part of your Christian faith you beat your child to death or suffocate them, you will probably go to prison. But if as part of your Christian faith you deny your child a vaccine and they die from easily preventable disease, that's okay.

Texas courts seem to prefer animal or child sacrifice that occurs slowly and behind closed doors rather than quickly and in public.

Labels: theocracy

President Dwight Eisenhower: Military-Industrial Complex [LINK-ZUM]

On today's date, 17 January, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his Farewell Address to the Nation. From the transcript: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Labels: fascism

Richard Owen: Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia [LINK-ZUM]

Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray "in perpetuity" to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy. Vatican officials said that every parish or institution should designate a person or group each day to conduct continuous prayers for the Church to rid itself of the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy. Alternatively, churches in the same diocese could share the duty. Prayer would take place in one parish for 24 hours, then move to another. Vatican watchers said that there was no known precedent for global prayer on a specific issue of this kind. There are about one billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

[Article continues at link. I commend Pope Benedict for trying to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. However, I have a suggestion for a more effective way of doing so. Denounce the Crimine Solicitaciones. The Crimine Solicitaciones states that clergy accused of child abuse should be moved to another parish and that the crime should be kept secret. The Crimine Solicitaciones was approved by Pope John XXIII on 16 March 1962. It was addressed to "all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops and other diocesan ordinaries." That is, it was sent to the majority of Roman Catholic leaders around the world. The Crimine Solicitaciones is still the official policy of the Roman Catholic Church, as confirmed as recently as 2001 by former Cardinal Jozeph Ratzinger. Cardinal Ratzinger is now known as His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop of Rome, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Vatican City. Denouncing the Crimine Solicitaciones would do something in the real world to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. Prayer, as always, will do nothing. Sadly, Pope Benedict is trapped by papal infallibility in moral matters. To denounce the Crimine Solicitaciones would be admitting that he and a previous Pope were in moral error, which was declared impossible by the First Vatican Council of 1870. Perhaps this is why the Pope is advocating prayer rather than action. The Pope is willing to sacrifice children to paedophile priests in order to preserve his magical link to an invisible monster that lives in the sky. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity

AP and Susan Harding: Mayor's racy photos become the talk of the town [LINK-ZUM]

[Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist] posted pictures of herself wearing only a black bra and panties on her MySpace page. She was on one of the town's fire engines. Kontur-Gronquist's MySpace page is blocked to all but her friends, but the pictures were at one time available to all users. [...]

In an interview with the (Pendleton) East Oregonian, the mayor said she did nothing wrong and those who are offended need to get over it. "That's my personal life," she said. "It has nothing to do with my mayor's position." Kontur-Gronquist, who is also the fire department's executive secretary, said the photos were taken before she was elected mayor three years ago, and she saw no reason to remove them from the Internet after taking office. "I'm not going to change who I am," she said. "There's a lot of officials that have a personal life, and you have people in this community who have nothing better to do than scrape up stuff like this." [...]

And at least one city council member is speaking out, saying the photos are inappropriate and send the wrong message to kids. "It gives the impression that it's just OK to do whatever you feel like doing, whenever, and not have any kind of concern about how it might affect other people, and that is a big concern I have," council member Alice Courtney told KATU.

[Article continues at link. A proud salute to Mayor Kontur-Gronquist! And a big raspberry to council member Courtney. If 'kids' are using the Internet without parental supervision, that's an issue of poor parenting skills and nothing else. If a relatively tame photograph such as this is going to 'affect other people,' then maybe those other people need to not be using the Internet either. Or living in 21st Century America. There are countries in the world where the women are kept covered up and those who rebel are beaten or killed for it - maybe council member Courtney would prefer to live there instead. As use of digital cameras and Internet access increases, I strongly suspect that there will be many more cases such as this in the near future. People playing around, then finding the record of their playing around on a global stage. What I hope to see more of at the same time are people like Mayor Kontur-Gronquist, who say 'yeah I did that, it doesn't conflict with my job as (Mayor, entertainer, parent, educator, clergy, etc.), and why don't you get a life of your own instead of picking pieces off mine?' - Trevor Blake]

Labels: libertarian, portland

Trevor Blake: Suffrage [LINK-ZUM]

Question: In the United States, is there a relation between when a group of people gains suffrage and the percentage of that group that is registered to vote?

Conjecture: The longer a specific group has suffrage, the higher the percentage of registered voters in that specific group will be.

Data: Voting in the United States is based on state law and not federal law. There is no nation-wide right to vote, only nation-wide laws that prevent states from excluding specific groups from voting. This survey uses federal laws preventing state exclusion of specific groups as data points.

1787: United States Constitution grants suffrage to 21-and-older land-owning white male non-Christians.
1856: Suffrage granted to 21-and-older landless white males.
1870: 15th Amendment grants suffrage to 21-and-older non-white non-Native American males.
1920: 19th Amendment grants suffrage to 21-and-older women.
1924: Suffrage granted to 21-and-older Native Americans.
1971: Suffrage granted to those 18-and-older.

The 2004 census makes suggests about specific groups and their rate of registration to vote.

I do not know how to make us of the following data in this investigation. These specific groups were granted suffrage in a staggered fashion. For example, blacks gained suffrage before women did, thus no single percentage can be listed for a group made up of both blacks and of women.

69.5%: white non-hispanic women.
67.9%: white non-hispanic, both sexes.
67.9%: black women.
67.6%: 18-and-older women, black and white.
66.2%: white non-hispanic men.
64.4%: black, both sexes.
64%: 18-and-older men, black and white.
60%: black men.

For the next set of specific groups, gender and ethnicity are not limitations to suffrage. All of the following specific groups have had suffrage for the same amount of time, 37 years.

55.6%: 19-year-old women.
55.1%: 20-year-old women.
53.8%: 19-year-olds, both sexes.
51.5%: 18-year-old women.
51.5%: 20-year-olds, both sexes.
50.2%: 19-year-old men.
47.9%: 20-year-old men.
46.8%: 18-year-olds, both sexes.
42.1%: 18-year-old men.

Conclusion: based on the data consulted and my limited statistical skills, I conclude that the length of time a specific group is granted suffrage is not related to the percentage of that specific group that will register to vote. Groups with the same time period of suffrage (37 years) vary by more than 13% in their registration rates. It is possible there is a relation between gender and suffrage, as women appear to register to vote more often than men no matter their ethnicity or age. My conclusion could be refuted by a better data set or increased statistical skills.

Note: this post has changed significantly over the course of the day, as I find and correct errors and omissions.

Labels: race, science, sex

Christine Clarridge: Phony psychic sentenced for bilking woman of savings [LINK-ZUM]

A phony psychic who fled prosecution in Seattle and ended up on a wanted-fugitive list in Canada was sentenced Friday to 1 1/2 years in prison nearly nine years after tricking a lovesick woman into turning over her life savings to win back her boyfriend.

[Article continues at link... but the first sentence alone fills me with questions. If 79-year-old Sophie Evon was a 'phony psychic,' does that mean there are non-phony psychics? What law did Sophie Evon break in accepting money to cast magic spells? Is that law being equally applied to the leaders of every Christian church, Jewish temple, Muslim mosque, and every other spook house in town? The mainstream superstitions also accept money to cast magic spells. Sometimes the spells are supposed to work 'after death,' but sometimes they are supposed to work right here and right now. These are the kinds of court cases that the megachurches should be pouring their millions into winning, because if the state can decide that one brand of hokus-pokus is a crime, the state can decide another brand of hokus-pokus is also a crime. Theirs may be next. And while all my sympathies lie with the victim, who seems to have learned her lesson the hard way, I think the state has no business sanctioning superstitions. If people want to throw their money into the magic hat, that's their concern. When the state makes some superstitions illegal and allows others to remain legal, it establishes a state religion. The foundation documents of this country rightly forbid this. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, islam, judaism, magick, theocracy

Shawn F. Peters: Abusing Children in the Name of God [LINK-ZUM]

A hemophilic boy in Pennsylvania bleeds to death over a period of two days from a small cut on his foot. An Indiana girl dies after a malignant tumor sprouts from her skull and grows so enormous that it's nearly the size of her head. A boy in Massachusetts succumbs to a bowel obstruction. (His cries of pain are so loud that neighbors are forced to shut their windows to block out the sound.) None of these children benefit from the readily-available medical treatments that might save their lives, or at least mitigate their suffering. Because the tenets of their parents' religious faiths mandate it, their ailments are treated by prayer rather than medical science. The results are tragic.

It is difficult to determine precisely how many children in the United States lose their lives every year as the result of the phenomenon that has come to be known as religion-based medical neglect. A landmark study published in the journal Pediatrics uncovered more than 150 reported fatalities over a 10-year period - a tally that one of the study's authors later said represented only "the tip of the iceberg" of a surprisingly pervasive problem. Assessing whether forms of religion-related child abuse pose a greater risk to children than more widely publicized threats, such as ritual satanic abuse, a wide-ranging study funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded that "there are more children actually being abused in the name of God than in the name of Satan."

Since the late nineteenth century, hundreds of such instances of abuse have resulted in tangled criminal litigation. The parents charged in these cases - many of them Christian Scientists or members of small Christian churches that ground their doctrines in narrowly literal interpretations of the Bible - often have argued that the First Amendment safeguards their decision to adhere to their faiths' religious traditions and treat their ailing children solely by spiritual means. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have balked at the notion that constitutional protections for religious liberty provide an absolute bar to state regulation of religious conduct, particularly when that behavior puts the safety of children at risk. Their task often has been complicated, however, by murky state manslaughter and abuse statutes that appear to provide exemptions for religious healing practices.

[Article continues at link. Congratulations to the author for addressing this topic. I do have a few corrections and amplifications to make, though. I am in agreement that 150 child sacrifices (let's call it by it's proper name) is a low estimate, as I can identify eighty at a single Church. Christian Scientists and the like do not have a narrowly literal interpretation of the Bible; they have the Bible, and what the Bible says to do is exactly what they do. What separates these Churches from other Churches is that in this regard they are less secular and more religious, just as some Churches are more secular and less religious about homosexuality although the Bible clearly states that homosexuals are to be killed by Christian hands. Modern Christianity is largely secular and most Christians know how to be Christians on Sundays or holidays and physicists, educators, or just decent people the rest of the time. Islam has yet to catch the secular bug. State laws do not appear to provide exemptions for religious healing practices [ie child sacrifice to an invisible monster that lives in the sky], they do provide exemptions for religious healing practices. As strongly worded as this article is, it doesn't deliver both barrels to a monster deserving to be put down forever. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, theocracy

Jo-Ann Goodwin and David Jones: The unspeakable practice of female circumcision that's destroying young women's lives in Britain [LINK-ZUM]

It is known by a variety of names, the most common of which are female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision, or simply "cutting" - a word which somehow conveys the raw pain its prepubescent victims suffer. Most people will be unfamiliar with this practice, which involves removing part or all of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood. [...] During a highly disturbing, four-month investigation, however, we uncovered evidence that thousands of British-African girls, in towns and cities throughout the country, have been forcibly "cut". By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. [...] And thousands more girls are at imminent risk as families club together to fly professional "cutters" from Africa to Britain. These women "elders" perform the crude operation for up to 40 [UK Pounds] a time, often on kitchen tables or floors, without anaesthetic, using filthy, blunt knives, razor blades or scalpels.

[Article continues at link. The authors go on to explain that every religion practices female genital mutilation equally - Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, etc. - but culturally insensitive Islamophobes exclusively criticise Muslims. Just kidding. Everybody knows that Islam corners the market on mutilating girl's genitals, leaving the mutilation of boy's genitals largely to Christians and Jews. Every religion has a place at the table when it comes to mutilating the genitals of infants and children. The more we tolerate superstition in the 21st Century, the more infants and children can have their genitals mutilated. Not just in the 'backwards' countries, but right here in the West. In Britain, in Canada, in the United States. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: buddhism, christianity, hindu, islam, judaism

Maged Thabet Al-Kholidy: There must be violence against women [LINK-ZUM]

This title may sound strange, but it's actually not just a way to attract readers to the topic because I really do mean what it indicates. Violence is a broad term, especially when used regarding women. In this piece, I want to shed light on those instances where violence against women is a must. [...] In some cases, violence is necessary, but there must be limits. Those "good human rights organizations" don't make any exceptions in their solutions because their aim is to serve society. Will it be a better society once we see wives, mothers, sisters and daughters going from one police station and one court to another, complaining against their husbands, fathers, brothers and even sons?

As the proverb goes, "If the speaker is mad, the listener should be mindful." This proverb is good advice for every man and woman not only to keep their ears open, but also to avoid the misleading propaganda of such organizations, whose surface aims hide other destructive ones to destroy society's religious, social and moral norms. This matter requires consideration.

[Article continues at link. Excellent commentary on this article here. 'Cultural sensitivity' and 'honoring diversity' toward Islam can start when Islam stops beating, mutilating and killing women. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: fight, islam, theocracy

Science Daily: Dropping Religious Activities Linked To Increased Anxiety In Women [LINK-ZUM]

According to Temple University's Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active. "One's lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness," said Maselko, an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active.

[Article continues at link.]

Labels: religion, science, sex