From Canada, the folks about to bring both decriminalized pot and gay marriage to a country near you:

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa has written Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien a personal letter warning that he has lost his way as a Catholic if he supports same-sex marriage… Mr. Chr�tien has already said he intends to vote for a bill that would make Canada the third country in the world to allow gays and lesbians to wed. (Bishop tells PM: You’ve lost your way)

Of course, the Bishop is just follwing orders from the big guy in charge. No, not that one: Vatican seeks to stop gay unions.

There’s an altar boy joke here somewhere, but even I have my limits.

This Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll says that a Growing Number of Americans Say Islam Encourages Violence Among Followers. Still, while 38% of Amerikkkans would not vote for a qualified Muslim for president (well, 38% admit they wouldn’t), atheism still maintains its solid first-place standing with 52% of the folk unwilling to vote for one of us.

Yeah. We’re number one.

Fun little pro-atheist / anti-”bright” op-ed from Alternet (Techsploitation: The Damned):

“…if we’re going to stand up and fight for our right to be atheists, let’s not try to jump-start some dumb little advertising campaign that makes us sound like cultists or kids who went to hippie day school. Let’s start where it hurts, the way our brothers and sisters did: with words like godless, unholy, damned, infidel, unbeliever, sinner. I am a sinner and proud! Civil liberties for the infidel! We represent the godless future! Now get used to it.”

So, the Danish “atheist” priest has been reinstated. The news reports imply that he “took back” what he said, but it looks like all he did was “express regret for saying it”: ‘Atheist’ priest regains his faithmp3 failure 40ozsymphony 40th mp3sum noots mp3 41dumb mp3 411devotion mp3 415426 mp3 hemimp3 burnt 43salvation 4400 mp3 Map

James “The Amazing” Randi has spent his life exposing mumbo-jumbo, but has largely stayed away from mainstream religion. But he’s apparently reached his breaking point in this 7/25/03 column (“Why I Deny Religion, How Silly and Fantastic It Is, and Why I’m a Dedicated and Vociferous Bright”). Worth a read. About religion, Randi says the following for starters:

I’ve reached the point where I just have to unload on this subject that until now I’ve felt was just outside of the matters that the JREF handles… its embrace is of the same nature as acceptance of astrology, ESP, prophecy, dowsing, and the other myriad of strange beliefs we handle here every day… As a child, I was told to believe that savages were doomed to boil in molten sulfur if they did not accept the “merciful” deity… [who was] capricious, insecure, jealous, vindictive, sadistic, and cruel, and demanded constant praise, sacrifice, adulation, and ego-support, or the penalties could be very severe.

Good for you, Jimmy. About time you pointed out that belief in big invisible daddy in the sky is way crazier than thinking we might have some kind of minimal telepathy.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Bring on the filibuster against ultraconservative:

Pryor’s record is sufficient to disqualify him from any judgeship. In addition to his extreme views on abortion (he opposes it for rape victims), he favors prayer in public school classrooms and the Ten Commandments in the Alabama courthouse. He was also the only attorney general in the nation to argue that the Violence Against Women Act is unconstitutional.

The dems have recently shown a little more balls in resisting Bush’s wacky Xianazi judicial appointments; let’s hope they show some on this one.

Queens collision kills 2

“I’m hanging in there, just taking it minute by minute,” said the 2-year-old’s mother, Viviann Rodriguez, 23, who was behind the wheel of the ill-fated car. “God gives us babies to take care of, and when He’s ready for them, He takes them.”

Yes, and why on earth would God “be ready for babies”? I can’t stand this nihilism bullshit.

Boy, 13, Sucked Into Culvert While Trying To Save Dog

“When I found out he traveled through 600 feet of culvert piping under State Road, I immediately thought only thing that saved this boy was God,” said Barbara Pavelko, Mike’s mother.

Sorry, but I’m also just trying to visualize the dog gasping for breath and dying of suffocation…