A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how bigotry, homophobia and racism are often hidden in plain sight, often under the guise of religious faith. This video should galvanize any American to take the issue of Prop.8 very seriously, and how religion is attempting to usurp the rights of others in order to fulfill their dogmatic convictions.

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Words alone cannot describe how fucking stupid this woman is. I’m angry enough that she would so poorly mask her racism in supposed concern over Obama’s religious beliefs, without compounding how little she understands her own ignorance.

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There’s a stealthy new form of racism these days. It’s often so invisible that to the untrained eye, it goes completely unnoticed. This bigotry is often mascaraed with politeness and false concern, and I believe that we’ve been letting people get away with it for far too long.

Take for example the recent news story about Alex Sanchez, a gay author who’s address to students at Charlotte County high school was canceled after objections from a few parents. These “concerned” bigots were worried that some of the students might not be ready for the kind of talk Sanchez was about to deliver.

Alex wrote a book in an attempt to help gay youth feel less isolated and alone, a tragic realty that can often lead to severe depression or even suicide among teens. Organizers say that Sanchez is a wonderful speaker, and there is no indication that any of his material is graphic, disturbing or crude.

Of course, that didn’t stop some parents, who obviously have a problem with homosexuality, from creating enough of a shit storm to capsize his speaking plans. I have to wonder if anyone called these parents out on their obvious bigotry. Probably not. It seems so long as you mask your racism with false concerns (in this case, the worry that their kids might not be able to “handle” hearing this guy), it’s apparently kosher.

Well, I’m not fucking cool with that. This school board has sent the wrong kind of message to these kids. The bigoted opinions of a few ignorant parents should not have changed their original assessment that the issue had to be discussed in an intelligent manner. Not only have they been robbed of this, but these students have been shown that it is by inaction that racism is allowed to be tolerated.

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If you want to know how to waste your time, then how about trying to prove to a rich creationist that transitional fossils exist. Adnan Oktar is a wealthy writer who is the Turkish equivalent of Richard Dawkins (in light of the country’s failure to accept evolutionary theory, he’s as good as it get). He’s supposedly put up a trillion lira up (that roughly 7 million dollars), daring anyone to provide evidence of a transitional fossil.

Oktar released a book entitled “The Atlas of Creation”, which is the kind of junk writing you’d expect from someone who’s convinced that their bronze age book of magic must somehow be taken literally. In it, he argues that life has not evolved, and that the Koran is the only truly scientific text on the origin of species. Yeah, sounds like a real page turner, no?

Although I’m not usually inclined to judge a book by it’s cover, this guy looks more like a Colombian Drug Lord than a respected scientist. This is the same douche who pushed to have Dawkin’s site banned in Turkey, since he inevitably felt that your average adult would be unable to handle it.

You’re all welcome to try and point this jack hole in the direction of any serious scientific literature that’s come out on the subject in the past 60 years, but he’s convinced all the good stuff was done on the subject roughly 1400 years ago.

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Some of you may have noticed that the site is going through a major redesign. The old look was a bit busted, and I am realizing that although it may seem shallow to focus primarily on the look of a site, it’s undeniable that human beings are drawn to what is attractive and aesthetically pleasing.

In the next few days, there will be plenty of tweaks, but I hope you all come to like the new look. Don’t hesitate to give us advice along the way!

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I received this letter from a fan of the podcast, who corrected me regarding a slight error we made on the last radio show:

“Hey guys,
I’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it!

I hope you guys don’t mind a respectful correction:  I’ve just listened to your latest podcast, and Bonobos are apes, not monkeys.  They are in the same genus as chimpanzees, and are as closely related to us as chimps are.

Please excuse what probably comes off as nit-picking, I’m a biology student specializing in primate taxonomy and behavior, and the differences between apes and monkeys are kind of my thing.

And yeah, they scissor.  (If you’re looking for more info on them, Frans de Waal has a few good books.)

Keep up the great work on the podcast!
-Jason

Thanks for the kind word, Jason. I was totally speaking out of my ass when I said they scissor (for those of you with virgin ears, go look it up). Isn’t science great?

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