That sneaky, nasty blasphemy law

Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland made a few more videos of me babbling before I left, and has posted them to the website. I’m terrible in them — no fault to Michael, I was just worn out and burned out on the last night of my trip. You can poke fun at me if you want.

The interesting thing about them, though, is that they were made in the Oonagh Young gallery in Dublin, which is currently hosting an exhibit of blasphemous art, in blatant defiance of the blasphemy laws. Everything in there is offensive to someone; the exhibits mock religion and religious beliefs with words and pictures.

The Garda aren’t storming the place.

That’s the evil of the blasphemy laws: they make everyone a criminal, and are not being enforced, but they have the potential to be selectively enforced. That’s a very useful tool in the hands of the state; an art gallery exhibit which defies the law can be overlooked, but if someone starts really shaking up the establishment, it will be another convenient truncheon to silence dissent. I personally felt no risk at all in traveling to Ireland, because I’m just an outsider with no power, and can be safely ignored. I’d worry more if I were part of an organization with some political influence that was growing and had some shot at helping to secularize Ireland, because right now critics have the tool to break the back of such organizations with strategically applied accusations of violations of the official blasphemy laws.

It’s a very Christian approach. We’re all sinners, therefore God is justified in any action he takes against us. We’re all blasphemers, and give the state the power to condemn a common behavior, and they can be justified in the arbitrary exercise of the law.

Rise up, Texans!

Grassroots action can do wonderful things. Voters in Don McLeroy’s district in Texas are organizing an ad campaign and are looking for contributions to help air radio ads opposing McLeroy’s candidacy: as they say, “The ads will target moderate republicans who realize that to compete globally in the 21st century Texas needs smart students who are well educated, critical thinkers,” which is exactly the right approach to take. We need to mobilize the sensible conservatives and get them to realize that their continued entanglement with raving nutbags has been a formula for short-term electoral success and long-term disaster.

Nice euphemism

It’s yet another Catholic sex scandal, this time a chronic pattern of sexual abuse by a few priests in Berlin that was known and tolerated by church leaders for almost 20 years. They’ve got a nice phrase for what was going on: “intimate, fatherly behavior.”

Catholic church: you don’t know what fatherly means, and none of you deserve the respectable title of “father” at all. I’m a dad, please don’t taint me with your skeevy, repellent attitude towards men who actually care for their children.

Dutch poll needs a little help

Dutch creationists have put up a foolish little poll — surprise them with a little adjustment.

Hoe is het leven op aarde ontstaan? (How did life arise on Earth?)

God schiep het leven in zes dagen (God created life in six days)
69.4%
Door Evolutie (By Evolution)
20.7%
Door Spontane Generatie (By Spontaneous Generation)
5%
God stuurde de evolutie (By god-directed evolution)
4.1%

God schiep het leven in langere tijd (God created life some time)
0.8%

Er is een intelligente ontwerper maar onbekend wie (There is an unknown intelligent designer)
0%

But he doesn’t know my mom

This article on why an octopus is more awesome than your mom is generally accurate and valid — octopuses probably are more awesome than your mom — but suffers a bit from an incomplete survey of moms. The author has not met the awesome mom of me, nor is he acquainted with the ferocious Trophy Wife™, who also happens to moonlight as the indomitable Trophy Mother™.

Otherwise, though, it is an acceptable overview of octopodal merits.

I’m home!

I left Morris on the 19th of January, and finally, here it is the 8th of February and I finally made it back. Now leave me alone. I get a moment to rest, don’t I? That bottle of Irish whiskey I was given in Galway will help.

OK, moment over. Next up: I get to go the the University of Northern Iowa on Wednesday! Don’t say it, I know I’m insane. Anyway, it’ll be an evo-devo talk in the Maucker Union, Hemisphere Lounge, at 7pm. There won’t be much creationist bashing, but I’ll probably spend a few minutes bashing Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini and Mary Midgley, because they’re morons who are abusing evo-devo in the name of making misguided criticisms of evolution. Everyone expects me to growl and gnash the fangs a bit about something, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint.

Then I get to come home again.

Oh, and one last totally random thing in recollection of my wonderful trip to Ireland. Here’s me receiving an award from the University College Dublin Secular Humanist Society…from Captain Jack Sparrow. How awesome is that?

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Actually, that’s David, but if ever he wants to become a pirate, I’ll join his crew.

A reasonable deconversion

Here’s a thoughtful video about one person’s deconversion process: the interesting thing about it is that he was a believer who reasoned himself out of religion.

Although I was brought up in a religion, I’ve discovered that there is a large difference between those who were seriously immersed in a faith, like this fellow, and people who just got a fairly brief and not very deep exposure, like myself. I was rather easily disabused of religion — when I first was taught the tenets of the faith, my reaction was more like, “You believe what? And you expect me to believe it too? That’s batty!” I didn’t need the careful dissection of belief, because what jumped out to me was the raging absurdity of original sin, virgin births, gods manifesting as men, etc., etc., etc.

At least James Dobson will approve

Focus on the Patriarchy has always favored punishing children to teach them right from wrong, so I can’t imagine them being too upset at this news: a fellow’s 4-year-old daughter was having trouble memorizing her ABC’s, suggesting that she needed some extra incentives to excel. So Dad waterboarded her. How sweet that Daddy cared so much about the importance of her education.

I’m going back to teaching in the fall. Will this be considered a reasonable educational technique? I’m thinking of putting a rack in the lecture hall and carrying around some thumbscrews just to help my students learn better.

I don’t know which way I want this poll to go

Some guy named Gerard Alexander has an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled “Why are liberals so condescending?” I will say one thing in its favor: it gets to its point quickly and clearly in the first few sentences.

Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration.

Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there. He does demonstrate nicely that many liberals do categorize many conservatives as idiots, but he doesn’t seem capable of addressing the question of why they think that. It’s mostly a lot of waa-waa about the tone and how this attitude is an obstacle to politics.

He doesn’t consider the obvious explanation that many conservatives are amazing idiots pursuing idiotic policies.

Seriously. Sarah Palin.
Conservatives defending Palin’s stupidities. Republican candidates for the presidency who are certain that the earth is only 6000 years old. A Republican party dominated by the religious right.

Years ago, I would have considered Alexander to have a good point: that on some policies, such as economics, conservatives had something to contribute. But then they elected Reagan and Bush and the crowd of clowns in congress, and any claim to being a serious political party went out the window. They are the silly party now, and where they do the most damage is when pompous wankers demand that we treat them seriously simply because they are the conservative party we’ve got. No, we shouldn’t: we should laugh them out of office until they come up with candidates who aren’t stupid shills.

So I’m divided on the poll accompanying the article.

Who is more condescending?

They’re both impossible 12%
Conservatives 22%
Liberals 66%

It’s really just an attempt to tar liberals with another insult — ironic for an article that is so condescendingly disparaging liberal tone — but it’s also true. We are more condescending. Because most conservatives are so deserving of condescension.

Ms Palin, you fail

Sarah Palin gave a $100K speech to a convention of teabagging wankers, she faced a few pre-screened, prepared questions, and what did she need? She had to have the answers written on her hand ahead of time!

Here’s what gets me the most, though. She didn’t have a cheat sheet of wonky little details, stuff that would be hard to keep straight and important to get exactly right. No, she had to write down the three most important goals for a conservative majority. What, she’s shaky on that?

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Energy
Budget cuts
Tax
Lift Americans
Spirits

Man, next time I go off to give a talk, I’m going to get a sharpie and write “Science. Evolution. Anti-creationism.” on my left hand, in case I get asked what I’m going to talk about. ‘Cause I might forget, you know.

And then I’m going to ask for a few thousand dollars. And the presidency. All right, I’m not going to be greedy — the vice-presidency will do.