The quest to rid ourselves of religious oppression and control just had a bit of a blow recently. The secular-humanist magazine Free Inquiry was told by Borders Books & Music that their April/May issue will not be stocked in stores due to the reprinting of the controversial cartoons depicting Muhammad first published in Denmark. Borders claims they are simply trying to protect their employees and customers from harm.

It doesn’t surprise me that a major book store would pussy out when it comes to free speech issues. It seems like no one has a problem with the fact that actually publishing harmless cartoons causes religious wackjobs to react violently; and that’s what I find most disturbing about the whole thing. We would all rather hide our heads in the sand and pretend nothing is happening than deal with the fact that there are dangerously insane individuals in our society ready to kill for the slightest offense to their stupid and juvenile belief system. Congratulations, Borders, on proving once again that no one has any balls anymore.

**NOTE** This story is actually from 2006, so I’m an idiot.

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Apparently God is broke, since in the news today Pastor Rick Warren has called on his flock to donate an extra $900,000 to make up for a serious shortfall in the Church’s income. The recession hit everyone pretty hard according to Rick, which means that regular tithers have opted to keep money for food rather than for the church. Warren has sent out a letter encouraging those who were not affected by the crisis to increase their regular donations to compensate, and to allow them to continue their programs.

The weird thing here is that Warren wants to raise this money in two days, which seems a bit sketchy. The Church doesn’t release their financials, so you all just have to take Rick at his word that the money is needed. Now before you start thinking that he’s probably just using the money to buy himself new suits or golden Bibles, consider the fact that the guy actually gives 90% of his income to the church since the success of his book. At least he puts his money where his mouth is. If it wasn’t for his raging homophobia, I might actually like the guy.

My problem lies in the fact that he refuses to explain exactly WHY he needs the money so quickly, and where it will all go. Imagine a friend of yours called you up out of the blue and started pressuring you to give him thousands of dollars without specifying exactly what he would be using it for. Odds are you might be a little suspicious, even if your friend was a “man of God”. Did Ricky have some crazy losses in the stock market? Maybe he borrowed a bunch of money from mobsters and now needs to pay them back or something; my point is that unless you tell people why the fuck you need so much money in a short amount of time, it’s pretty damn sketchy.

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Ok, here’s a cool little website my girlfriend just showed me just the other day that I thought you guys might get a kick out of. It’s called ohmyscience.org, and it basically reads twitter feeds and replaces the word “God” with “Science” (as in, Oh My Science, did you see the size of that guy’s eyebrows?). It also gives out a gold star every time someone says “Thank Science” (or some variation of this theme) on their own. Since it started, I’ve been told that the amount of times gold stars are handed out keeps increasing. Keep that in mind the next time you express yourself on Twitter, people!

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The more evidence we gather showing the truth about evolution, the more vitriolic creationists get. Recently they tried to sneak a shitty “documentary” called Darwin’s Dilemma into the Smithsonian’s IMAX theater, but they were smacked down when the California Science Center used a special clause in the contract to cancel their engagement. The Discovery Institute is now trying to sue the CSC for not allowing their bullshit propaganda to benefit from the Smithsonian’s reputation.

I love how sue happy people get when their egos are bruised. The CSC refused to show the movie because it failed to meet their stringent requirements, and if ID’ers think they can use the law to pressure reputable scientific organizations to showcase their garbage, they’re in for a harsh surprise. The Dover Trial made it clear that Intelligent Design is not a science, but is actually a masqueraded form of religious creationism.

Will there be a time in our history when we all abandon primitive ancient superstitions in favor of rational scientific models? I suppose if we did I’d be out of a fucking job…

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A few hundred years ago, when the world was a vastly different place, the slaughter of young women for the preservation of honor was a common occurrence. In strongly patriarchal societies, women were seen as disposable, and for cultures obsessed with their honor and reputation, honor killings became a way for families to regain social currency. If you had the stones to murder your daughter for almost no reason, you gained a lot of respect.

In Germany the problem is still pretty rampant, despite the best effort of police to clamp down on it. A young woman identified by the courts as “Gulsum” was murdered when her Kurdish father learned that she had lost her virginity and had an abortion. She was lured to a secluded location where she was strangled and clubbed to death. According to the court, her face was smashed to a pulp.

A judge has given the father a life sentence in jail, though it’s a small comfort in light of the fact that this beautiful woman with an enchanting smile has ceased to live because of a stupid and inhumane tradition. Honor killings have a long history, which is precisely why they are so awful and barbaric; besides, how many practices from the ancient world do you know of that are pleasant and friendly? Can we all please stop living like we’re in the 3rd century? It’s fucking embarrassing.

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According to the Boy Scouts of America, you can’t camp out in a woods with their little troop if you’re gay, agnostic or an atheist. That was kosher 20 years ago, but now that these groups are “out of the closet”, the BSA is starting to look like the bigoted small minded institution it really is. The Los Angeles Police Department, which had a program with the group since 1962 to help encourage kids to explore policing as a career, have disassociated themselves from the organization, saying that the values of tolerance and acceptance are too important to simply ignore.

The LAPD will now be designing their own program that won’t discriminate based on sexual orientation or religious belief. It helps that the police commissioner is openly gay himself (it’s LA people), and I hope the move prompts other government organizations to drop them like a bad habit. Don’t forget that the BSA get to use public funds and government property despite failing to meet the basic requirements of civility and good citizenship. It’s time for the organization to change; if they don’t, they may find themselves on the wrong side of history. Good for the LAPD for standing up for the little guys; it almost makes me like the police for once (I said almost).

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Hey gang, just a heads up that now that the vacation is over (mostly), and I’m happy to report that blogging will be back to normal tomorrow. I’m taking the day off to recoup from all the Christmas fun, so see you all in the ‘morrow. In the meantime, if you want to let me know how your holiday went, don’t be shy to leave a comment and tell everybody what you all were up to!

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