Dispatches from the Culture War

Thoughts From the Interface of Science, Religion, Law and Culture

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May 14, 2008

09:30
Since the Texas legislature passed a law encouraging (some say mandating) Bible electives in public schools, it was inevitable that the NCBCPS curriculum was going to be used in many of them. The Ector County schools in Odessa already tried it and was forced to settle a lawsuit by agreeing not to use that curriculum. Now it appears that at least one more is going to use that curriculum, in Pilot Point. Time to start looking for plaintiffs. Read the comments on this post...
09:30
Since the Texas legislature passed a law encouraging (some say mandating) Bible electives in public schools, it was inevitable that the NCBCPS curriculum was going to be used in many of them. The Ector County schools in Odessa already tried it and was forced to settle a lawsuit by agreeing not to use that curriculum. Now it appears that at least one more is going to use that curriculum, in Pilot Point. Time to start looking for plaintiffs. Read the comments on this post...
09:23
According to a Wall Street Journal blog, John Hagee has issued one of those fake "to anyone I might have offended" apologies to Bill Donohue and the Catholic Church: "Out of a desire to advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful," Hagee wrote, according to an advanced copy of the letter reviewed by Washington Wire. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:23
According to a Wall Street Journal blog, John Hagee has issued one of those fake "to anyone I might have offended" apologies to Bill Donohue and the Catholic Church: "Out of a desire to advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful," Hagee wrote, according to an advanced copy of the letter reviewed by Washington Wire. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:16
The post is by someone using the name dagon and it's entitled Free Debate or Freedom From Craziness. The author advocates shutting down free speech for those ideas he doesn't like. And he begins by showing his legal and historical ignorance: A decade or so ago a neo-Nazi group decided to hold a parade through a community heavily populated by survivors of Nazi concentration camps. There was a huge uproar. Progressives, veterans, and most sensible Americans came down on the side of "No Nazi March!" The ACLU and some progressives came down on the side of Freedom to Assemble and Free Speech - give 'em a parade permit. In the end a compromise was reached ... they marched in Chicago, I believe, and everyone ignored them. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:16
The post is by someone using the name dagon and it's entitled Free Debate or Freedom From Craziness. The author advocates shutting down free speech for those ideas he doesn't like. And he begins by showing his legal and historical ignorance: A decade or so ago a neo-Nazi group decided to hold a parade through a community heavily populated by survivors of Nazi concentration camps. There was a huge uproar. Progressives, veterans, and most sensible Americans came down on the side of "No Nazi March!" The ACLU and some progressives came down on the side of Freedom to Assemble and Free Speech - give 'em a parade permit. In the end a compromise was reached ... they marched in Chicago, I believe, and everyone ignored them. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:09
PZ posted this Youtube video and I had to put it up here as well. This guy emailed all of the biologists and biochemists named on the list and found that nearly all of them accepted common descent and several of them said they've demanded to be taken off the list. He also points out what many of us have pointed out before, that the DI dishonestly uses different standards for the institutional affiliation of each person on the list. An honest list would use either where they got their highest degree or where they work now, but the DI changes which it uses depending on which sounds more prestigious. Indeed, they seem to use any past affiliation that sounds prestigious, no matter how tenuous (for years they listed Richard Sternberg's affiliation as the Smithsonian, where he neither worked nor got his degree). Video below the fold. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:09
PZ posted this Youtube video and I had to put it up here as well. This guy emailed all of the biologists and biochemists named on the list and found that nearly all of them accepted common descent and several of them said they've demanded to be taken off the list. He also points out what many of us have pointed out before, that the DI dishonestly uses different standards for the institutional affiliation of each person on the list. An honest list would use either where they got their highest degree or where they work now, but the DI changes which it uses depending on which sounds more prestigious. Indeed, they seem to use any past affiliation that sounds prestigious, no matter how tenuous (for years they listed Richard Sternberg's affiliation as the Smithsonian, where he neither worked nor got his degree). Video below the fold. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:02
This is a rather odd situation. The Holmen Village Board will have at least three offers to buy the land under the Star Hill cross/star display when it meets May 8, including one bid of 12 times the value of the property. The American Humanist Association based in Washington, D.C., sent an offer to buy the land for $1,000 and included a check for the full amount. The Madison-based Freedom from Religion Foundation topped that with a bid of $1,200. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:02
This is a rather odd situation. The Holmen Village Board will have at least three offers to buy the land under the Star Hill cross/star display when it meets May 8, including one bid of 12 times the value of the property. The American Humanist Association based in Washington, D.C., sent an offer to buy the land for $1,000 and included a check for the full amount. The Madison-based Freedom from Religion Foundation topped that with a bid of $1,200. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...

May 13, 2008

09:30
Obviously so: Crews and search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in piles of debris after tornadoes and storms rumbled across the region a day earlier and killed at least 23 people in three states. So how long before we hear what God was angry about this time? John Hagee, you discerned the signs and explained Hurricane Katrina. Any guesses here? Pat Robertson? You claim to talk to God on a regular basis. Gays again? The ACLU this time? Whatever it is, I'm sure those 23 people deserved it. Read the comments on this post...
09:23
L. Ron Brown has a frightening post at the Frame Problem where the leader of the Church of Scientology in Canada, speaking to protesters wearing masks, tells them "we could find you, just so you know. We could. If we wanted to." Sounds like a not-so-subtle threat to me. What other possible purpose could be served by saying that? He has video of it as well, which I'll post below the fold: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:16
Two old friends have left a fascinating set of comments on an earlier thread and I liked them so much that I'm moving them up here to make sure everyone sees them. I have known Henry Neufeld for about 15 years, since first meeting him in the Compuserve religion forum. I have known Sastra for probably 10 years, since meeting her in a religious debate channel on IRC. Henry is a Christian, a Hebrew scholar and the director of a Bible school; Sastra is an atheist and longtime activist. Despite those differences, they are two of the clearest thinkers I have ever known. I'll paste the exchange below the fold. First, Sastra's comment: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:09
I just finished reading The Devil in Dover by Lauri Lebo (if you only read one book about the Dover trial, this is the one to read - it's absolutely brilliant in every respect) and she discusses the background of Vic Walczak. Vic is the legal director of the ACLU of Pittsburgh and was one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Dover trial. And his entire life puts the lie to this idiotic slur that the ACLU are communists. Before going to law school, Walczak went to Poland to give aid Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement. He documented police brutality, wiretapping and other human rights violations as he dodged the secret police. He was detained by them and strip searched, but the documentation had been handed over to an American consulate worker who would ship them back to the US in a diplomatic bag. When he returned to the US, he knew that he had to become a human rights attorney. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:02
There are a couple of interesting new lawsuits that involve church/state issues. The first is in California, where the ACLU is representing a religious group that was prevented from feeding the homeless in a state park. They've filed suit against the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The second is in Pennsylvania, where the ADF is representing a Christian student group in a suit against Shippensburg University, claiming that the college is violating free speech rights through their anti-harassment/hate speech code. In 2004, the ADF had settled with the university in a similar case but they are arguing now that the university isn't holding up their end of that settlement. Read the comments on this post...

May 12, 2008

09:30
DaveScot writes: My position is that in the ordering of baby killing God was wrong and therefore cannot be a trusted source of moral absolutes. If the Old Testament is a true accounting of God's interaction with the world then I have no choice but to conclude that my morals are superior to His. But rather than believe that I choose to believe that the Old Testament is not a true account of God's interaction with the world but is rather, at least in part, a rather destructive immoral human fabrication created during a much more barbaric, violent time and place in world history when the sword was more respected than the olive branch. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:23
In a replay of what happened in Dover, the school board members in Odessa, Texas who voted for the NCBCPS Bible curriculum have been voted out of office. A reader from Odessa informs me that all four board members who favored that curriculum who were up for reelection are now off the board. Renda Berryhill was ousted last year because she didn't live in the school district. Randy Rives tried to turn his brief fame into a State Rep seat and got 9% of the vote. Butch Foreman, the one who famously said critics of the Bible class could "kiss my butt" finished dead last in the election last week. And Doyle Woodall lost as well. 4 up, 4 down. Good riddance. Read the comments on this post...
09:16
Yet another pointless freakout by parents over gender and sexual orientation, reported in the Worldnutdaily: A Pennsylvania elementary school has angered parents by giving them one-day's notice of planned couseling sessions with 100 third-grade students to explain that one of their male classmates would soon begin wearing girls' clothing and taking a female name and to ask that they accept him as a girl and not make unkind remarks. The exercise in "social transition" was initiated by the boy's parents who approached the administration at Chatham Park Elementary School in Haverford Township asking that the school help in having their child's female identity find acceptance among his peers. After consulting experts on transgender children, the Haverford School District sent letters to parents advising them the school guidance counselor would meet with their children, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
09:09
Here's an absolutely outrageous story from one of Radley Balko's readers, who emailed this to him: Last night, my sister's boyfriend was pulled over. They searched him and found a small amount of marijuana on him. Going through his wallet, they then found a picture of my sister and her kids. The officer called the department of human services on my sister... who was NOT with him at the time, nor were her kids. They came to talk to her today and they are forcing her to take a drug test. If that doesn't make you angry, someone needs to check your pulse. Holy shit. Read the comments on this post...
09:02
I'm glad to see Rep. John Conyers of Michigan get involved in challenging the DEA on their continued raids on patients using medical marijuana legally in their home states, and even using civil forfeiture laws to seize their property in such cases. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he is considering holding hearings on the issue and sent a long letter to the acting administrator of the DEA asking serious questions. Like these: Is the use of civil asset forfeiture, which has typically been reserved for the worst drug traffickers and kingpins, an appropriate tactic to employ against individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness and are authorized to use medical marijuana under California law? Has the DEA conducted any analysis of the potential economic consequences of using civil asset forfeiture in an area that is experiencing some of the nation's sharpest declines in property values? Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...