Who else but Fox and Friends would be willing to report on this “non-story”. It turns out that a 1998 biology textbook entitled “Asking About Life” has some pretty honest words concerning creationism and it’s religious roots. Unsurprisingly, some Christians are feeling singled out. While it’s true that they aren’t the only morons who think that something complex can’t possibly be the result of natural forces, there’s no denying where the dogma is originating from.

Taking a page out of the Catholic Church and its long history of censorship, some idiot parent is attempting to have the book banned (if you can’t beat em, ban em’). Here’s a pretty basic question: What else is a science book supposed to write on creationism? Maybe the dictionary can be of some help:

a traditional or legendary story…with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.

Uh oh, you better ban the dictionary too; I think it has a bias against those who make shit up too…

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You can’t expect a private corporation to care about something as important as free speech, but it’s still a disappointment to hear that the childish cries of outraged Muslims all over the world was enough for Facebook to kill the “Everybody Draw Mohammad Day” page from the “interwebs”.

It’s equally ironic/tragic that the woman responsible for the whole thing also retracted and issued a sincere apology (even going so far as claiming she never intended to get this thing off the ground, even though a radio interview with her says otherwise). I guess she couldn’t stand the idea that when people practice free speech, you invariably have some of the disagreeable kind in there as well. Hey folks, if you want speech to be safe, there’s no better safeguard against hurt feelings than good old fashion censorship. Of course, you might also not be allowed to say some important things as well in the process, so it’s best that you get over your little ego and just accept the fact that some people will always say shit you don’t like. The flip-side is that no one is FORCING you to listen. If you don’t like it, do what the rest of us do every time some religious douche-bag starts spewing nonsense: ignore the fuckers.

**NOTE** It would appear that the page is, in fact, quite alive and well. In any case, even if the page had been taken down, someone else would have started up another in no time flat. The truth is that blasphemous drawings of the prophet will continue until Muslmis learn that not one of them is protected against getting their feelings hurt.

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Here’s an article from Christopher Hitchens on Yale University Press and their decision to censor their own book out of fear of Islamic violence.

Yale University Press announced last week that it would go ahead with the publication of the book, but it would remove from it the 12 caricatures that originated the controversy. Not content with this, it is also removing other historic illustrations of the likeness of the Prophet, including one by Gustave Doré of the passage in Dante’s Inferno that shows Mohammed being disemboweled in hell. (These same Dantean stanzas have also been depicted by William Blake, Sandro Botticelli, Salvador Dalí, and Auguste Rodin, so there’s a lot of artistic censorship in our future if this sort of thing is allowed to set a precedent.)

More pandering to religious extremism. When are we going to stop being so gutless when it comes to [updated] threats of violence for expressing our freedom of speech?

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There are some passionate people out there with plenty of time on their hands. Most of them channel it by watching shitty television programs that slowly rot their brains. Luckily, a few of them end up trying to devote their lives to a worthy cause; and what could be better than trying to hold priests accountable for molesting children? Literally, I can’t think of anything that would rival it.

This site does not fuck around. Unlike most sites that seem to be lost trying to identify their purpose, BishopAccountability.org goes for the jugular. It’s a huge (though obviously passionately cluttered) database of written material dealing with everything pertaining to the Church’s involvement in child molestation.

It pleases me greatly that there is an organization that takes this issue so seriously. Not only that, but their righteous indignation goes far beyond simple priestly accountability; they also have a huge beef with Google over censorship issues in China. Man, talk about fighting the power! If any of you feel generous, I suggest giving them a hand.

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