Headline Muse 2/24

In the story, below, that I’m linking,
Santorum’s support is found shrinking;
Has he lost his appeal?
Could it be (if it’s real)
Just a sign that the voters are thinking?

Headline: Santorum lead shrinking in national poll

When your popularity is based mostly on the fact that you are not Mitt Romney, the more people find out about what you actually are, the less support you get. Rick Santorum, it will surprise none of you to hear, is a despicable excuse for a vertebrate biped. If pressed to say something nice about him, I will admit that he loves his family and puts his daughter’s health ahead of his campaigning. But he puts his campaigning above the health of every other woman in the country, so take this as a very provisional compliment. To know Rick Santorum is to despise him, and nationwide, the voters are getting to know Rick Santorum.

Cranston Cliff-Notes

What with the decision not to appeal, and now some articles reporting on the scholarship Jessica will be getting (the brainchild of The Friendly Atheist, and proudly supported by Freethought Blogs), a whole new crop of people are hearing about the Cranston Banner for, apparently, the first time. Or if they have known about it, they haven’t learned much, because they are using the same ignorant arguments they have from the beginning.

And they are continuing to threaten. I read a fresh comment today specifying that someone should knock some of Jessica’s teeth out. So, yeah, this has been a fixture of Cranston commentary since at least October. But in the minds of some, who are more concerned with her soul than her safety, there are sadder things about the Banner case… like Jessica’s atheism.

Why couldn’t she just look the other way? After all, only six words out of the whole banner are objectionable! Besides, since atheists don’t believe in God, they shouldn’t be offended by any mention of Him! And it’s not fair to shove atheism down our throats! Hey, when she wins, all that money will say “In God We Trust” on it!

Though some Cranston Christians supported her, for the most part it was “Praise the Lord and start the persecution“. Christians were, it seems, a highly oppressed majority. It was clearly Jessica’s fault that the school had been violating the constitution, and with God on their side, they would surely win the appeal!

Her own representative called Jessica an “evil little thing”. Local businesses refused to deliver her flowers.

The Christian mob wanted their own religion to have a special, favored status, and to be able to punish Jessica for her atheism. On the other side of the world, we saw what that looks like. And we saw that it can happen to Christians when they are in the minority. The only way to be certain that you will not be mistreated when you are in the minority, is to keep those laws safe when you are in the majority. It’s a matter of mutual respect, and of maintaining that wall.

It’s a lesson Cranston is learning the hard way. And one which, as evidenced by their comments, some people are not learning at all.

(and I have learned that I had no idea how much I had written on this one thing!)

A Rapist Named Virginia

If a person named Virginia
Tried to stick an object in ya
In a manner you objected to, we’d have to call it rape.
When this horrid violation
Is an act of legislation,
Then not only is it legal, it’s a crime if you escape.

It’s as if the state has told you
“If you struggle, we’ll just hold you,
So you might as well surrender, though it’s all against your will
We’re not looking to dissuade you
From your choice, as we invade you;
It’s the price we pay for safety… and we’re sending you the bill.”

Rant follows (trigger warning) [Read more…]

New Jersey’s Fun-House Mirror

Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Whippany, said his party’s opposition to the same-sex marriage bill is not about judging anyone or imposing a moral point of view.

“Gay and lesbian New Jerseyans have every right to live as they please, but they shouldn’t be able to tell others what constitutes marriage,” Webber said.

My right to decide
For a gay groom or bride
Is a matter of freedom, you see—
I’ve a right to my view
And to force it on you
But you mustn’t impose one on me.
You can live as you please
Which as everyone sees
Is enough, to a certain degree;
Though your views may be fine
They will never trump mine…
And that’s how we know we are free

Rant, following: [Read more…]

Cash Cow Spotted In New Hampshire

NH Lawmakers Consider Rolling Back Gay Marriage

It’s too tragic to be funny,
But by following the money
We can see the motivation for the movement to repeal
See, despite the sponsors’ spinning
They don’t really think they’re winning
And that’s really not the reason they’ve been showing so much zeal

All their proper protestations
Are designed to cull donations
From the homophobic bigots who’ve been keeping us amused
And whose wallets and whose purses
Offer dollars up with curses
And who never seem to notice that they’re mostly being used

And a liberal agenda
Needs supporters who can spend a
Lot of money, so the issue is plus for them as well—
Every time some bishop hollers
The reaction raises dollars
So the left has every reason to just let the bigots yell

Don’t expect it to be ending—
Not since politics means spending
And the money flows when angry mobs hurl epithets and names
In the fight for same-sex spouses
It’s a plague a’ both your houses
When it comes to rights and freedoms, then enough with playing games!

Rant follows: [Read more…]

Ultimate Morality (Or, Directions From East Orange To Hoboken)

Ok, so I’ve seen, one time too many, a flock of commenters congratulating a christian writer who pointed out that atheism must necessarily lead to nihilism, that atheists cannot have any morality whatsoever because in an atheist universe it would ultimately be meaningless.

The ultimately is key; it is the word that allows them to stroke their chins and nod sagely. “God says X, which makes it ultimately true.” The question of which god says it never arises, cos there’s only one in their universe, and they happened to get lucky and believe in that one. The question of human interpretation of that ultimate truth never arises, because their interpretation is the right one. They can’t see that they are in the same position an atheist is in, except that they have convinced themselves that the human choices they made are based on an ultimate truth.

Thing is, I’m really not looking for an ultimate truth, or an ultimate morality. I’m looking for something a bit closer to home. Something that applies to my life, and to the lives of my fellow human beings. Something that is meaningful to us, even if it is ultimately meaningless. An analogy: The fact that we are no longer considered to be the center of God’s universe, and that there is no absolute up or down, no absolute substrate against which to measure motion, no way of measuring speed or direction without some arbitrary relation to an observer… does not mean that it is impossible to give directions from East Orange to Hoboken. Directions are meaningful when relative. So is morality.

An ultimately true morality that does not care about humanity might allow some monster to believe that, say, killing children is a kindness, cos it sends them to heaven. Me, I like children. If God says “kill these children”, then God is wrong. And if God is ultimately right about that, fuck God, I’d rather be wrong.

The thing is, we can only judge whether our decisions have been good or bad through hindsight. Oddly enough, the same goes for morality–the moral codes that have worked, get to call themselves “good”; the ones that have not aren’t here to call themselves anything. So being kind to one another, saving for tough times, hard work, and so on, are things which our environment has selected as “good”. If religion disappeared tomorrow, our environment would still be selecting some behaviors over others. Morality matters, not because of ultimate decisions from some god, but precisely because of proximal usefulness. Directions from East Orange to Hoboken are not useful when phrased in terms of vectors relative to the big bang.

On Adequate Sampling

He claimed it was a goblet of the sweetest, purest wine
But the first sip tastes like vinegar to me.
He said, “but near the bottom there’s a sip that’s just divine—
You may have to drink a lot of it to see.”
He calls me narrow-minded cos I haven’t tried the rest
Says my condemnation takes a lot of gall
And he’s sure that there’s a sip in there that truly is the best
Which I can’t deny until I’ve tried it all.
It’s true, I haven’t tried it all, but gladly I’ll forego,
Since the first sip only made me want to spit
It might not all be vinegar—I guess I’ll never know—
But the man himself is surely full of shit.

Context here, of course.

H.R. 290

H.R. 290 has just passed the House;
Now it looks for the Senate’s approval.
It’s meant to address the debate on the cross
And prevent its untimely removal

A memorial site is a wonderful thing;
It reminds us of terrible losses
Defenders of freedom who lay down their lives
And all of them, big fans of crosses

(Now, the Jewish, the Muslim, the atheist troops—
Shall we see that their rights are protected?
That’s not the intent of this bill; what it does
Is get Hunter, its scribe, re-elected.)

[Read more…]