A few days ago Salmaan Taseer, Governor of the Punjab province, was shot from behind. Mumtaz Qadri, who was assigned to Taseer as a bodyguard, pumped over twenty rounds from his assault rifle into Taseer’s back.

Salmaan’s supposed crime? Defending a woman, by speaking out that she should not be killed. Why was she to be killed? She had been said to have committed the crime of blasphemy.

Here we have Qadri, bouyed by numerous outspoken sharifs, mullahs, and politco-religious groups of Pakistan, not only admitting to the killing, but, with those others, claiming it was a good, justified, and righteous killing.

Over what? Over differing beliefs. In this particular case over an insult to their god, Allah. So here we have a tale, one where mortals must defend the honor of a supposed being – a being claimed to be powerful enough to create a universe and all the laws therein – but apparently not powerful enough to defend itself from possible slander.

This tale is pervasive. Blasphemy laws don’t just exist in Pakistan, and this odd notion that the most powerful being in the universe must be protected from criticism because it cannot protect itself can be found throughout all religious societies.

If that is not a shining example of madness, of the insanity of religious beliefs, I don’t know what is. More frightening, this is merely the beginning of the tale. The shrill cry of religious extremism is fast gaining ground in Pakistan and those who would oppose it are being cowed into silence by threat of death. Taseer was an example to all those that would try to talk sense – it will not be tolerated, your reward will be a
gunshot in the back, blood on the street, and legion are those willing to bring these threats to fruition.

The ramification here is that Pakistan is not without teeth. It has a capable military and possesses nuclear weapons. That thought combined with the open celebrations of Taseer’s death as shown in the Guardian’s article creates quite the queezy spot in my stomach.

Madmen with the weaponry, moreover the willpower to kill based off of a faulty, bronze-age belief system. Rationalism cannot win in the face of that.

It only further proves both Christopher Hitchen’s point, that eventually religion poisons everything, and Steven Weinberg’s quotable, “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.”

Humans have walked on the moon.

We’ve sent robots to the outer most limits of our solar system.

We’ve split the atom.

We’ve peered billions of years into the past to watch stars explode.

We’ve created a system by which all humans on the earth can communicate with one another no matter how far apart, how high above or far below the earth.

We’ve even created life with the seemingly infertile.

All this we owe to reason, to the sciences, to logic and human ingenuity.

What lofty goals we have achieved.

Comparatively what have superstitions given us? Tales and stories at its best.

Its worst is being brought to bear on Molly Norris. She’s a cartoonist and the creator of a “Draw Mohammed Day” – an exercise to show the insane  reactions that fundamentalists have. It was an exercise that should have left everyone laughing.

Ardent believers of ancient superstitions have taken away Molly’s freedom. The Seattle Weekly News writes:

The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, “going ghost”: moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It’s all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” cartoon.

How in this day and age are these bullshit beliefs tolerated? That people would threaten violence over fairy tales, much less cartoons of fairy tales, is intolerable.

Will you continue this legacy of stone-age nonsense or will you help this generation and the next leave behind this worthless, puerile crap called religion?

Really, religion does its best to minimize women and subjugate them to secondary roles, if not worse.

The latest peach is from the Vatican itself:

The Vatican today made the “attempted ordination” of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.

There you have it ladies, your new worth in the eyes of the Pope and every devout Catholic.

Is it battered woman syndrome? Help me understand why you would willingly put up with this decree as opposed to nailing a new Diet of Worms directly into the Pope’s forehead that tells these robed ignoramuses to fuck off?

Today is draw Mohamed day. This came about from a mix of ideas and events that have taken place the world over. This event has garnered a lot of eyeballs and comments all over the internet, both smart and derogatory.

Reaction can be boiled down into roughly three categories.

1) Outright censhorshop of the whole thing.  In places like Pakistan YouTube and Facebook are being blocked in a bid to “promote religious harmony and respect”.

2) Smart comebacks. Most notably:

Muslim students’ reaction? Add boxing gloves and re-label the drawings “Muhammad Ali.”

3) Whine incessantly about how horrible it is for people to be disrespectful like this.

First, some perspective.

In 2006, 50 people were killed in protests over the Dutch cartoons. Embassies were attacked, and lives were made forfeit – all over drawings of  Mohammad. In Islam it is considered a grave sin to make idols, most especially of their prophet Mohammad.

Of all three scenarios I find those barking about people being disrespectful the most ludicrous. These selfsame individuals go on that all ideas, most especially religious ones, should be respected.

Are these people daft?

Do you really believe that all ideas have equal merit or weight? What kind of illogical, irrational and screwed up world this would be if all ideas were respected.

Nothing would ever get done. Society would never advance. Life as we know it would come to a grinding halt.

Every day your mind processes ideas, weighs their value and tosses out the trash so you can get things done. You (hopefully) make choices based on the value, merit, efficiency, and efficacy of ideas and respect those ideas that improve your life and well being.

By what inane law in this universe should religion, much less any idea or philosophy, be given a special pass or consideration that would allow it to bypass those tests of worth?

It boggles the god damn mind.

Yes, Draw Mohammad day is about disrespect - disrespecting the idea that people should die over cartoon drawings.  Disrespecting the notion that people should live in fear of not following the beliefs of a religion that they couldn’t give two shits about. Disrespecting the concept that because Islam is a religion it should be given special shelter from critique. Fuck that lot, one and all.

If one’s base reaction is violence and the threat of death over a drawing, or in some cases what has become the reality of acting on that impulse, then there is no force on earth that should grant you respect or tolerance.

Your idea is crap, your notion is shit, your belief is worthless if it cannot be defended rationally or debated logically.

As such I present JPS er, I present Mohammad under a starry sky.

I drink your milkshake, I drink it up.

Senator David Schultheis has proposed legislation for Colorado schools that would allow students to not learn anything nor attend anything that might cause them confusion or mental duress.

As reported by the Denvor Post,

Schultheis has proposed district-drafted religious bills of rights, defenses against what he says are widespread threats to religious freedoms in public classrooms.

Among the proposed legislation would be:

• Express religious views to the same extent as secular views are expressed.

• Sing religious songs along with secular songs as part of school assemblies.

• Wear religious garb and jewelry on campus.

• Express religious beliefs as part of school assignments or oral presentations.

• Opt out of any class or part of class that is inconsistent with his or her religious beliefs.

• Teach religious topics in school for educational purposes.

• Avoid teaching topics that violate their religious beliefs and avoid discipline for doing so.

I’m still wrestling whether this Senator is just blasting out as much as he can in hopes of getting something small through, or if he’s really just short-sighted to the point of being blind.

If one is looking for a way to ferment bigotry, hatred and incite violence, then the Senator is certainly on the right track. Under this bill, students couldn’t be punished for preaching religious views that call for, say the stoning of a girl who wore a dress above ankle-length. How about we get a few radical Islamists in there to preach death to Jews? If it is that student’s belief who are we to critcize? I mean, who doesn’t enjoy being told repeatedly they are going to a particular hell because you don’t believe in their splinter-branch of a sect of a break away chapter of  Christianity? Wouldn’t that kind of banter enrich the learning experience?

Perhaps the best proposal here is the one that lets students avoid topics that violate their religious beliefs.  Who needs science class or health class, and I suppose we could toss out history class too.

I guess there aren’t enough education options for those that desire more religion in their life. After all, with only church, homeschooling, or private schools as an option, public  school is an obvious and overwhelming obstacle for people that need to express their religious belief.

These poor individuals that the Senator is championing must feel horribly oppressed with only 75% of the options in their favor.

What’s the harm? Why so vociferous?

Here’s why from the Washington Post:

An Oregon couple (Jeff and Marci Beagley) was found guilty Tuesday of criminally negligent homicide for praying over their ill son instead of seeking medical help.

As a parent I can’t even begin to imagine how the hell you let this happen.  But, you see, the stupid doesn’t stop there.

The Beagleys are the parents of Raylene Worthington, who along with her husband were acquitted of manslaughter last year in the March 2008 death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava, from pneumonia and a blood infection. Her husband, Carl Brent Worthington, was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mistreatment.

So wait, we have TWO generations of morons killing their kids with pseudo-scientific bullshit. Their excuse?

both members of the Followers of Christ Church

Oh. But wait!

Church members gasped as Judge Steven Maurer read the verdicts (for the Beagleys).

Yes, we have a whole congregation of loons that are shocked – positively shocked that someone of their ilk is going to jail for willfully murdering their kids.

Right now there could be two healthy, happy kids. Instead, because of a belief that some magic is going to heal these kids that stems from an even larger magical being that lives in a magical realm we have two kids dead, that no doubt suffered a lot of pain and fear while the people they thought loved them clasped hands and gibbered nonsense over them.

And that, folks, is why believing in nonsense kills.

So what is the punishment for this? 16-18 months in jail.

Somehow justice has not been served.

I swear I want to find cool tech stuff to blog about. Then along comes a story that is so full of insanity that if makes your blood boil and at the same time you want to pretend something that idiotic couldn’t really be happening.

So the unlikely duo of Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Orrin Hatch of Utah are working on pushing prayer-based legislation into the embattled health bill.

Why? Well with Sen. Hatch it’s a no-brainer.  He’s Mormon and a large amount of his constituents are Mormon. For Sen. Kerry, the Christian Scientists hail from his state.

The end game: tax-exempt institutions being able to charge for praying. In other words, they don’t contribute AND your taxes will end up funding them. Moreover, as it stands the idea is to charge for the comparable service they are praying for. Praying to cure cancer? You get to charge like a hospital treating cancer. Has your mind exploded yet?

Now the angry side of me would like nothing better than to leave the argument with a parting shot that cults like Christian Scientists are no better than child abusers as they’ll happily let a kid suffer and die due to their misguided notion that prayer works better than medicine or operating.

Thankfully, I don’t have to resort to ad hominems. There are plenty of published, peer-reviewed studies that show in regards to medicine and healing, prayer doesn’t work like this. Instead, prayer works like meditation – it has been show to relax and calm individuals. It can even put people who pray in a positive frame of mind to enable the healing process to work better – again just like mediation, or yoga, or deep breathing exercises. It’s a good placebo, and placebos do have a place in modern science and evidence based medicine. That is, their place is along side conventional treatments – not in place of. Nor should you be able to charge thousands of dollars  for placebos (or even hundreds for that matter).

So why would two veteran senators fly in the face of all evidence to support these measures? Simple, it’s for votes. Forget about doing what’s right and saving the tax payers money by not loading up the health care bill with crap.

Meh. Bought and sold like two cheap whores.