A young man in Saudi Arabia is less than a month away from being beheaded for his part in a school yard brawl that ended with the death of an 18 year old student. Mohamed Kohail, who is a Canadian citizen, is only a few days from the chopping block, and Canada is seriously dragging it’s feet, and has refused to demand clemency, or take any diplomatic action.

This is all part of the Conservative Administration’s new policy of no longer seeking clemency for citizens that are sentenced to death in countries that have an elected and democratic government. In other words, if you are convicted and sentenced to death in, say, Montana, you’re on your own.

There was a time not so long ago that the Canadian Government actually took a stand behind its commitment against the death penalty. The reversal of this policy is more evidence that the very conservative element of government now in power has no real problem with death sentences. Their failure to condemn this practice is a raining endorsement, and seriously contradicts the majority’s attitude towards the practice.

This is now exacerbated by the fact that Canada has dragged its feet on this issue in order to avoid poor diplomatic conditions with Saudi Arabia, since they would essentially put it in a different category than “democratic countries” according to the new policy.

So disastrous is this new attitude that we are now collectively responsible for the deaths of any citizen traveling abroad who is sentenced to death. We are, through proxy, part of the mechanism which will bring the end of this young man’s life. Forget the fact that his trial lasted on 90 minutes, or that the judge didn’t even allow any testimony on behalf of the defendant. The issue is how this country deals with the protection of its citizens according to our laws and values. The Conservative government, in their growing ambition to usurp the humanitarian values of this nation, have proven once again why they are not proper representatives of this country. Shame on you, Mr. Harper, for making me a part of this mechanism of death.

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If I told you that large groups of fundamentalists were threatening to commit acts of terror over the release of a simple movie criticizing Islam and the Koran, I’m sure none of you would be surprised. We take this kind of ridiculousness for granted now. You can’t release a cartoon, a book, or a documentary without fear of reprisal, and now, rather than only make threats at the authors of such works (which was already outrageous enough as it is), now an entire country is somehow responsible for the work of one of its citizens.

Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, recently made a movie critical of the Koran. The hoopla that’s followed was no surprise; however, the reaction of his own government is beginning to showcase a dangerous and frightening precedence. His own Prime Minister has tried to delay the release of the film, and the Ministry of Justice attempted to find ways of killing the project all together, to no avail. The government claims this is to protect the lives of it’s troops in Afghanistan, there on a peace mission.

It sounds almost reasonable, doesn’t it? Maybe they should censor this movie to prevent innocent lives from being lost. Maybe they should succumb to the intense political pressure coming from Iran, who threatened to review their diplomatic stance with the Netherlands, right?

No. Although I’m not in a habit of writing this sort of tirade, I have no choice but to use strong language in my response to quantify my anger and disappointment at the Dutch government for succumbing to this pressure. Fuck you. Honestly, if we allow ourselves to be bullied by fear, what else are we willing to sacrifice? Do any of you think that defending your principles would be easy? Does anyone think that there isn’t a war of ideology being instigated by Fundamentalists? Who looks like they might be winning? Terrorists are willing to die for their convictions, however convoluted and stupid they are; and yet when faced with the same choice, we run in fear, and submit to their demands. It makes all of us look weak and scared. It makes the enemies of reason emboldened in their efforts to suppress our beliefs and our rights. It makes their terrorism work on us.

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I can only shake my head at how messed up this is.

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I’ve written a few articles on many of the strange superstitions that run rampant in India. Luckily, this one is a much less harmful (especially compared to witch burnings), although still just as damn weird.  It seems a baby was born near New Deli that has two faces, and now the locals believe she is the reincarnation of a God.

Since I don’t like being a depressing atheist killjoy all the time, I’ll tell you a bit of good news for a change. It seems that the fascination of the locals may actually help the parents, since they are giving them gifts and donations in hopes of pleasing this new deity. Babies born with these kinds of serious deformities tragically die quite young, but so far, doctors are saying she’s fine. Hopefully, this harmless though relatively silly superstition will help a young girl get to experience the joys of being alive. Let’s just hope all this “God talk” doesn’t get to her head…

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Ok, well, maybe baby Jesus doesn’t cry, but that hasn’t stopped the Vatican from including failure to recycle as one of the new deadly sins.

In case you were unaware of what a deadly sin is, it’s a ticket straight to hell for eternity (remember the sins of envy, gluttony, and greed? They’re still there, but there have been some additions) . So, if you threw out your soda can in the garbage rather than the recycle bin, you might be bunkmates with Hitler.

If you need further proof that the Vatican is insane, consider the fact that it isn’t a deadly sin to forbid AIDS-ridden Africans from putting a small rubber sheath on their penis. It also wasn’t a sin, until recently it seems, to molest little boys, although technically, it still isn’t a deadly sin to cover it up.

The hypocrisy of the Catholic Church isn’t’ a surprise to anyone, especially me. I experienced it firsthand in my small French-Canadian hometown, when at funerals the priest would sing hymns about our greed and selfishness, all the while passing around the collection plate and enjoying his swanky well decorated house. But this latest effort to force people to recycle or face eternal punishment demonstrates just how twisted their view of humanity is. Do I need the treat of Hell to make me care about the environment? No. I do it because the Earth is my home, and unlike my religious, Armageddon wishing neighbor, I don’t expect Jesus to come down from the clouds and fix all my problems.

I’d like to revise the new deadly sins and add my own. Here’s my list:

1. It is a deadly sin to scare people into complacency
2. It is a deadly sin to lie to people about the origins of the Universe, and to suppress information and findings that give us a greater understanding of the Cosmos.
3.  It is a deadly sin to allow your narrow religious views to interfere with the well being of others. It is also a sin to make people believe that if they don’t think the way they do, they will burn in a lake of fire forever.

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I received this letter from a fan, and I thought I might share it with all of you.

Dear Jacob,

My wife recently stumbled along you podcast on iTunes. I started to listen to your show and I wanted to tell you first off that I have become a huge fan. I started to listen to your archived podcasts and I got to the one where you talk about religion in the Deep South. I am from Charleston, SC. I live here with the evangelical reich and was very interested in hearing your take on what you thought it would be like to be an atheist in the south. So I thought I would write you and give you a first hand opion of what it is truly like. I do not keep the fact that I am an atheist a secret from anyone except my wife’s parents and not out fear or embarrassment but because the are good people and the thought of them not being able to dance in the afterlife without there daughter would crush them. As far as my place in society it has not held my back from anything. No one has openly shunned my family or me for our lack of religious beliefs. I have advanced quickly in my career making it to a management level in spite of the fact that I am openly an atheist and that I call the religious right out on there hypocritical bullshit every chance that I get. One of the biggest problems that I face is that I live in place where they hang the Ten Commandments in our schools right next to the Bill of Rights and the Emancipation Proclamation on the belief that it is a historical document.
Also the religious assholes here have brainwashed some of the most intelligent people I know into thinking that here is no evidence for evolution, and that the world is only ten thousand years old. [A] comment you will here hear a lot is that “I don’t believe in evolution I can’t explain why I just know that I didn’t come from a monkey.” Now these are not the words of an uneducated idiot these are things that you here from people of all class and educational backgrounds. Religion is big here in the south but it is not as openly pushy as you would expect. People here every once in a while try to bring my family and I over to the “right side” of thinking. For the most part as long as you don’t wonder over to a Baptist Church on Sunday morning you are pretty much left alone. Thanks for reading my email.

I want to thank Jason for his kind words, and for sharing his experience of living in the “Bible Belt”. I’m glad that most of his peers chose not to involve themselves too much in his life. I would argue, however, that if you were going to try and get rid of the Ten Commandments in schools (in order to fulfill the spirit of the Constitution), you would notice much more animosity than you are accustomed to.

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Catholics have always had a strange obsession with their beloved saints. In my own city, the mummified heart of St. Joseph hangs quietly in a corner. It’s usually ignored by tourists who consider it far too macabre to be photographed. This recent stunt in Italy, however, break the standard conventions of good taste now that the decayed body of St. Padre Pio of Pietreclina is being exhumed and displayed to the general public.

For those of you not in the know, St. Padre Pio was famous back in the day for his reoccurring Stigmata; the supposed appearance of wounds similar to those that Jesus received while hung up on the cross. It’s a fairly easy scam to perpetuate, especially when your adoring public is more than willing to buy into it.

We’ll ignore the whole stigmata thing for now (I plan on doing a podcast about the subject eventually anyways), and focus on the fact that people are actually interested in seeing the half decayed corpse of a man that died over 40 years ago. Here’s an amusing quote that should turn your stomachs:

“Nevertheless, in spite of all of this [the corpse being deemed to be in good condition], we can say that the upper portion, we refer to the face, is partially skeletal, as well as the upper limbs. Though the rest is very visible, the hands are very clear. The technicians have said that a sort of auto-mummification process has begun in some parts of the body.”

Wow, and some misguided fools think that Disneyland is the place for a good vacation. Where can I sign up to see the half eaten corpse? If it’s any consolation to you die hard skeptics, it seems that the body failed to show any signs of Stigmata. Hard for something that was never there in the first place to be found, isn’t it?

source: zenit.org

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Canada is a liberal country for the most part. It’s values are best described a “socialist” in many respects, although there is always great emphasis on the rights and freedoms of the individual. Canada also makes significant contributions to the arts, giving tax credits for artistic endeavors so they may remain independant of major film studios (what I can only describe as the “Hollywood” treatment). However, there has been a disturbing tread as of late. The conservative government, which has strong ties to powerful fundamentalist religious organizations, has begun to rescind this credit for art it deems as offensive, denigrating, of having not “educational value”. The broad generalization of this new law is specifically targeted at any art that contains elements of homosexuality, violence, and sex.

Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition (if you want to know just how religious an organization is, look for the liberal peppering of the word “family” in its name) is claiming that his lobbying actions were at the heart of the new move. McVety is cut from the same cloth as his American counterparts; he believes that his narrow world views represent the greatest good a society can hope to achieve, while the ethical and moral progress made outside of his limited religious frame only express the evils and wickedness of a perverse and sick world. His blatant disregard for the tradition of tolerance and liberalism in this great country sets a dangerous precedence, and it is another example of why the current conservative government is a poor choice to represent the needs and values of this land.

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If you’re an old hand at the site, you’ll notice that things are a little different. The design of the site has been tweaked a little, but beyond just this cosmetic alteration comes my fervant desire to get back to the business of writing. Too long have I neglected the site, happy to coast by on my popular podcast. No more! From now on, I will use this site as an opportunity to flex my creative muscles a little, and stand on my little soapbox. It should be lots of fun.

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