Just wanted to remind everyone about the SCOTUS case today…

Supreme Court takes up church-state case

Wednesday, the US Supreme Court takes up a case that examines to what extent those opponents have legal standing to file federal lawsuits alleging that the White House’s faith-based initiative amounts to unconstitutional entanglement of church and state. […] Although the case revolves around the esoteric issue of taxpayer standing to sue, analysts say the case could foreshadow a shift in the Supreme Court’s church-state jurisprudence. It marks the first opportunity for the high court to rule in a major religion case since the retirement of key swing voter Sandra Day O’Connor and the addition of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. […] In most instances taxpayers lack legal standing to sue the government merely because they object to how the government is spending tax dollars. Instead, the courts require that someone suffer a direct and personal injury that entitles them to sue. This requirement of legal standing helps prevent the courts from becoming a quasi-legislature where policy arguments are debated rather than a forum to decide specific legal disputes. […] But in 1968 the Supreme Court carved out an exception that allows taxpayers to file establishment-clause lawsuits challenging congressional spending that benefits religion. […] The Bush administration is arguing that the 1968 exception only permits taxpayer lawsuits challenging appropriations by Congress that raise church-state concerns. The portion of the faith-based initiative under challenge is an activity of the executive branch that does not involve outlays of government money earmarked to religious groups.

As you might imagine, given the recent changes on SCOTUS, I’m not all that optimistic — and I have a feeling that the faith-based crap will just be endorsed.

But hey, I’m just old and cynical…

In a Special Comment last night, Olbermann took Condi to task for making the following ridiculous and historically inaccurate analogy on FOX News Sunday:

“…It would be like saying that after Adolf Hitler was overthrown, we needed to change then, the resolution that allowed the United States to do that, so that we could deal with creating a stable environment in Europe after he was overthrown.”

Nice response from Internet Weekly.org
Condoleezza “Condi” Rice - Parody News Cartoon

The Obituarites:

David B. Ast, a New York dentist who helped show the effectiveness of fluoridated drinking water in preventing tooth decay, has died. He was 104.

In 1944, Ast began a 10-year study of fluoridation that bolstered the use of fluoride in public drinking water to prevent tooth decay.

He selected two towns of similar size along the Hudson River, Newburgh and Kingston, and compared the health and dental records of their residents. During the study, Newburgh’s water was treated with fluoride compounds, while Kingston’s water was not.

The results showed that children in Newburgh had a 60 percent reduction in numbers of cavities between the ages of 6 and 9, and a nearly 70 percent reduction in cavities by the time they reached ages 12 to 14. Moreover, the study found no significant difference in the incidence of cancer, birth defects and heart or kidney disease between the two towns.

A random check of Google shows that this issue has not completely died down.

Read Flouride and Aggression, by Mary Sparrowdancer, of Tallahassee FL. She lists no degrees or other qualifications, and provides no links to substantiate her claims. At one point, she notes that, according to NIH, two-thirds of Americans are obese, and follows that sentence, in the same paragraph with a CDC report of two-thirds of Americans drink fluoridated water. Ergo…what? [Posted by Chris Gupta, in NewMediaExplorer blog.]

I couldn’t make that up–if I tried…

Howard V. Ramsey, Oregon’s last living World War I veteran, has died. He was 108.

But did he drink fluoridated water?

Religion News:

Is this really the last resting place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene - and their son?

If it really were the most important archaeological discovery in history, the point of truth came with very little song or dance. There was no drum roll or fanfare, just the sweeping aside of black felt drapes to reveal a pair of simple stone boxes sitting side by side.

(yawn)

But for the panel of film-makers, theologians and statisticians at New York’s public library yesterday, this really was the moment. As James Cameron, the director of the film Titanic who has lent his name to the project, said: “It doesn’t get bigger than this”.

The claim that Jesus was married to his disciple Mary Magdalene, that they had a child together in the style of the Da Vinci code, and that after his death he left behind his bones rather than being resurrected in the flesh elicited an outcry that was as instant as it was predictable. The American-based Catholic League dubbed the theory a “Titanic fraud”, saying that not a Lenten season goes by without some author or TV programme seeking to cast doubt on the divinity.

(yawn)

Mental Health News, Section 8

Brother and sister fight Germany’s incest laws

A German brother and sister are challenging the law against incest so that they can continue their relationship free from the threat of imprisonment.

Patrick Stübing, an unemployed locksmith, and his sister Susan have had four children together since starting a sexual relationship in 2000. Three of the children are in foster care, and two have unspecified disabilities.

Betcha didn’t know this, from the same source:

Napoleon abolished France’s incest laws in 1810. Neither is it a crime in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal or Turkey. Japan, Argentina and Brazil have also legalised it in recent years.

Incest is forbidden in Britain, where the law was extended in 2002 to include not just those with blood ties, but also step-parents and their children and in cases of adoptions.

Whoa!

News From Around the World

From Syria: May God Help Iraq’s Scientists

Have U.S. forces intentionally created an environment dangerous to Iraqi scientists in order to, ‘control the people, their thoughts and their scientific pursuits?’ According to this op-ed article from Syria’s state-controlled Al-Wehda newspaper, while the U.S. is chiefly at fault, Arabs aren’t without blame for the catastrophe that has befallen what was once the Arab World’s most advanced nation.

A little over-the-top, but they’re on the right track.

From South Korea: We Must Learn to Do Without the U.S.

South Korea’s security faces a potential crisis from a Feb. 13 pact reached in six-nation denuclearization talks, because the U.S. is moving in the direction of leaving South Korea under threat from North Korea’s existing nuclear weapons and materials. Our security hangs in the balance. The U.S. may deny it, but we feel betrayed by America.

George W. Bush may have betrayed South Korea, but the US hasn’t.

From France: Europe and the CIA: In Fear of the Truth

Up to now, criticism of the American commitment in Iraq - which is the key element of the global offensive against terrorism initiated by George W. Bush - only had practical political consequences in the United States. If sensitive to the sound of the bugle [the call to war] and with respect to its detractors – America is primarily a democratic country in which those who support Bush one day, when confronted with the undeniable facts, can repudiate him the next.

They weren’t reading the rightwing blogs, were they?

Comics:

What! That wasn’t funny enough for you? You want comics, too?

For Gods and Country: The Army Chaplain Who Wanted to Switch to Wicca? Transfer Denied

A year ago, he was a Pentecostal Christian minister at Camp Anaconda, the largest U.S. support base in Iraq. He sent home reports on the number of “decisions” — soldiers committing their lives to Christ — that he inspired in the base’s Freedom Chapel.

But inwardly, he says, he was torn between Christianity’s exclusive claims about salvation and a “universalist streak” in his thinking. The Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, which collapsed the dome of a 1,200-year-old holy site and triggered a widening spiral of revenge attacks between Shiite and Sunni militants, prompted a decision of his own.

“I realized so many innocent people are dying again in the name of God,” Larsen says. “When you think back over the Catholic-Protestant conflict, how the Jews have suffered, how some Christians justified slavery, the Crusades, and now the fighting between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, I just decided I’m done. . . . I will not be part of any church that unleashes its clergy to preach that particular individuals or faith groups are damned.”

Larsen’s private crisis of faith might have remained just that, but for one other fateful choice. He decided the religion that best matched his universalist vision was Wicca, a blend of witchcraft, feminism and nature worship that has ancient pagan roots.

On July 6, he applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S. armed forces, setting off an extraordinary chain of events. By year’s end, his superiors not only denied his request but also withdrew him from Iraq and removed him from the chaplain corps, despite an unblemished service record.

You can read the rest, at the link above. And watch a video of him being interviewed.

He’s a nice man, obviously. He’s been on a “spiritual quest” his entire life, it seems, having studied, sampled, and joined quite a few. But, of all the religions, Wiccan is one (of a scant handful) that doesn’t raise my hackles, piss me off or worry me with “creeping theocracy”.

It’s a given that the DoD is wrong to deny his transfer. But are you surprised? Think: Christian Embassy. I believe that if he had wanted to switch to Islam (which he did once already), they’d give him a hassle but, in the end, they would probably allow it.

“…I will not be part of any church that unleashes its clergy to preach that particular individuals or faith groups are damned.”

Duh! When did this occur to you? This is not new, Larsen!

[The top image is a Wiccan pentagram; the second image is a Wiccan “portal”.]

[This post is for amy and amy’s husband, and for all the amys and husbands and soldiers and the families of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. And for all Americans…]

From Everything2.com:

The tin-pot general is the type of officer who is liable to engage in ill-advised manoeuvres for the sake of commanding an operation, or to harass civilians because he can, and is closely related to the stereotypical portrait of a small, blustering man in uniform who suffers from an inferiority complex and who acts like a child bossing around his playmates. [VP Cheney was once the SecDef during GHWB’s Gulf War, although he managed to avoid military service, through five deferments, during theVietNam War.]

A tin-pot dictator would be the sort who imagines himself as being an international statesman and/or military genius, and conducts himself in a manner inconsistent with his actual (diminished) prestige outside his small realm of absolute power. These are the ones who are likely to embroil their country in military escapades outside their borders. Idi Amin might be a good example. [President Bush is the CinC of our military, despite the fact that he was AWOL from his National Guard commitment during the Vietnam War.]

(The word first appears in the OED as early as 1838 but is not found in less comprehensive works.)

Tinpot dictators are rulers of lesser countries, usually third-world, whose “democracies” are laughable, and whose inhabitants are pitiable. Think: most of Africa, most of the ME, and some Asian countries. If there are extractive resources (such as diamonds, oil, or uranium) that provide incredible riches, those riches are not shared with the population, either directly or through social programs that benefit (such as education, health and environment).

Instead, the head-of-state and a small cadre of sycophants and loyal supporters live like sultans. Rarely does anyone leave the lowest class for the highest. Except through demonstratably superior skills in intimidation and/or torture–but one must be really brilliant at them, as the competition is fierce.

Why do I bring this up?

Read the rest of this entry �

No, I am not endorsing Hillary . . . yet. It’s too early to settle on any candidate. I posted this because I think television media is not real news, it’s “newsertainment” in the same category as Jerry Springer, Real World and all of the trashy “reality” programs on television today that focus on the negatives of our society or provide a warped view of the truth that many people take for actual fact. This type of news and programming would not be successful if the majority of viewers weren’t interested in sleazy, hateful, dramatic, raunchy…well…I could go on and on with my list of adjectives for this kind of television “entertainment”. Whatever happened to programs like Ed Sullivan Show and Hollywood Palace that I used to watch together with my family? Is this negative reality stuff and newsertainment what the majority of people in the western world really want?

This is my post and I will write it from my perspective–as a woman, a feminist and an atheist. I invite you to tackle this subject in rebuttal. I will seriously consider every submission and the GifS Pantheon will make the final decision on posting it.

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and son of a former governor of Michigan, is a candidate for the US presidency, as his father was in 1968. As a Democrat, I would never be able to vote for him–not even if Zell Miller were the Democratic candidate! Just so you know…

Mr. Romney is a Mormon (or more properly, a member of the sect known as “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). His bio indicates that he has been married to his high school “sweetheart”, Ann, for 37 years. However, the news biz is reporting that his great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather practiced polygamy, with 12 wives and 5 wives respectively. Are you shocked? Me neither.

This just gives me the opportunity to find out why the Mormons practiced polygamy. So I went to answers.com–

According to current LDS scripture, Joseph Smith recorded a divine revelation July 12, 1843, outlining the law governing celestial and plural marriage. This revelation explained that even if Joseph Smith “have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery” because “they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.” The revelation also taught that plural wives “are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfill the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men.” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:62-63)

Utah is a very inhospitable place, even today. Most of the land is still barren and undeveloped. The task of turning such land into agriculturally productive acreage was daunting. One man working full time was doomed to an early death. One man and many sons had better prospects. And for that reason, polygamy was attractive to a patriarchal male, because women (damn them!), took around a year to produce each child! (Useless creatures!) He could die of overwork while she took her own sweet time giving him sons, and she was undependable in even that little respect! (Contrary females, anyway!) BUT if he could have a whole slew of wives, he could have his “workers” that much faster. And the women could help each other with the chores. (Yeah, that’s the ticket…) Women were not consulted.

But that was in Utah. Joseph Smith never made it to Utah, dying in a hail of gunfire while in jail in Illinois. Smith never saw what Brigham Young saw, when he looked down on the Great Basin, in which the largest body of water is saltier than the global oceans, and said, “This is the place.”

Smith, instead, in 1843 had a “divine revelation”, while living in Illinois, about “plural marriage”, a practice that his wife, Emma, was seriously opposed to. [Duh!] However, we must consider that the “revelation” was probably to cover his tracks–he was either a polygamist or he was a serial philanderer. His first “plural marriage” occured in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1833! So it took him ten years to tell his followers of his Divine Revelation?

Fanny Alger…was married to Joseph Smith in approximately early 1833, at age sixteen. She then lived in joseph’s house as a maid but was expelled from the house by Emma when she became pregnant, according to one source. (CC)

And then in quick succession:

Lucinda Pendleton, age 37 (CC); Louisa Beaman, 26 (CC); Zina Diantha Huntington, 20 (CC);

In point of fact, Zina was seven-months pregnant with the child of her current husband, Henry Jacobs, when she married Smith!

Presendia Lathrop Huntington (the older sister of Zina Huntington) 31, (CC); Agnes Moulton Coolbrith. 33 (CC); Sylvia Porter Sessions, 23 (CC); Mary Elizabeth Rollins, 23 (CC); Patty Bartlett, 47 [mother of Sylvia Sessions, wife Number Eight!] (CC); Marinda Nancy, 27 (CC); Elizabeth Davis, 50 or 51 (CC); Sarah Maryetta, 53 or 54 (CC); Delcena Didamia Johnson, 37 or 38 (CC); Eliza Roxcy Snow, 38 (CC); Sarah Ann Whitney, 17 (CC); Martha McBride, 37 (CC); Ruth Daggett Vose, 33 (CC); Flora Ann Woodworth, 16 (CC); Emily Dow Partridge, 19 (CC); Eliza Maria Partridge, 22 (CC); Almera Woodward Johnson, 30 (CC); Lucy Walker, 17 (CC); Sarah Lawrence, 17 (CC); Maria Lawrence, 19 (CC); Helen Mar Kimball, 14 (CC); Elvira Annie Cowles, 29 (CC); Rhoda Richards, 58(CC); Desdemona Catlin Wadsworth Fullmer, 32 or 33 (CC); Hannah S. Ells, 29 or 30 (CC); Olive Grey Frost, 27 or 28 (CC); Melissa Lott, 19(CC); Nancy Maria Winchester, 14 (CC); and Fanny Young, 56(CC).

Lumped like that, they look like stones on the ground–merely the minutiae of History…

Smith married sisters (Partridge, Lawrence, Huntington), a mother&daughter (Bartlett&Sessions), Brigham Young’s older sister, Fanny, and Heber Kimball’s daughter, Helen. Some were as young as 14; some as old as 59…

Some of Smith’s “widows” married Brigham Young (Beaman, Frost, ZDHuntington, MLawrence, EDPartridge, Richards, Rollins, and Snow) and Heber Kimball (PLHuntington, SLawrence, McBride, SPSessions, Walker, Whitney, and Winchester).

So was it for the sex? To disseminate (great word!) the seed of the prophet? Or, as one site suggested, maybe it was utopian in outlook…

The women were passed around, they entered and left relationships, and they died young or of incredible old age, even as old as 97! They had children–lots and lots of children!–but most of them were girls; and most died young, too, no matter what sex they were. And except for Emma’s children, Smith only fathered one child rumored to be his.

Strangely enough, or probably because it was so new and such a small cult, the women had more power and effective input. When they weren’t planning weddings or having babies, that is.

And did you know he was only 39 when he died? According to answers.com:

By 1844 Smith had come to regard Nauvoo as an enclave independent of the United States, and the leaders of his church crowned him king of this new kingdom of God on earth. That same year, Smith offered himself for president of the United States, advocating the establishment of a “theodemocracy” and the abolition of slavery.

In 1844 an apostate published an exposé of Mormon polygamy. Smith ill-advisedly permitted his followers to destroy the defector’s press, which gave the surrounding “Gentiles” an excuse to retaliate against the Mormons. The Illinois governor sent the militia to arrest Smith for riot, but the militiamen exceeded their orders and brutally murdered Smith on June 27, 1844.

I have a friend who has spent a great deal of time in Europe. Doug tells of multi-unit relationship arrangements that include both sexes. He says that they are accepted without raised eyebrows. I can see that it could be possible. There. That we could have straights and gays in one relationship. There.

And I can see that I have now opened my mind to “something like” polygamy/polyandry. Even here. But not yet…

Going back to Bob’s posts “Okay, Take Two”, and “Ready to Vomit” that include video segments of Paula Zahn and CNN on “atheists in Amerikkka,” I would like to point out that tommy (also known here as tommykey) at Exercise in Futility has written an excellent response dedicated to Karen Hunter and Jesse Peterson titled “Where My Values Come From.”

A segment from tommy’s post:

In short, I believe in civilization, liberty, justice, human rights, personal responsibility, accountability ,and the spirit of self betterment. While Jesse Peterson boasts that he gets his values from the Bible, I derive my values from the wisdom and knowledge accumulated by the human race from thousands of years of experience. You see, what Karen Hunter, Jesse Peterson and countless others fail to realize is while they focus on the comings and goings of a collection of semi-nomadic tribes between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, complex and sophisticated civilizations thrived in Egypt, Crete, Greece, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, along the banks of the Indus River and in China. The Israelites and their collection of tales that would eventually comprise the Old Testament had no impact on the development of these civilizations.

*snip*

It is only very recently in human affairs, say the last two or three centuries, that it has become possible for an educated person to have access to the moral and ethical traditions of cultures outside of his own. Nowadays, anyone can go to a local library or Barnes & Noble bookstore to find books about the Greek philosophers, ‘The Analects’ of Confucius, the texts of Hinduism and Buddhism, along with the Bible and virtually every great work that has been written and published up to the present day. Because we live in a predominantly Christian country, it is to be expected that the Bible will have a greater hold on the imaginations of most Americans. But as the Clarence Darrow character in “Inherit the Wind” says of the Bible, “It is a good book, but it is not the only book.” When considering the collective wisdom of humanity, the Bible is but one of many pillars of human civilization. So, when Jesse Peterson boasts that he gets his values from the Bible, I would tell him that the source of his values is much poorer and limited than mine.

It’s a rather long post, but well worth taking the time to read in its entirety.