I’ll be in Tempe, Arizona this weekend

I’ve been invited to the 68th Annual Conference of the American Humanist Association, along with Barbara Forrest and Neil deGrasse Tyson and a few other luminaries whose presence make me feel overweening, so we’re flying off on Thursday. Now often on these trips, I try to make some time for some informal get together at some point, but this one has a very busy schedule, and I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to escape. About the only time it looks like I’ll be able to get away, assuming the plane isn’t late, is Thursday evening after we arrive.

So here’s the deal: I’m planning to show up at an Irish pub near the hotel, Rúla Búla, around 8ish Thursday evening. This location was suggested by John Lynch (note new digs), of course, so who can turn down an Irish pub recommended by an Irishman? I’m also hoping to drag along the Trophy Wife and the Trophy Daughter, who is coincidentally working in an Arizona lab this summer, so if nobody else can show up, I’ll at least have family and Guinness to keep me company.

Otherwise, maybe I’ll see you at the meetings!

If George Tiller doesn’t matter to you, does god?

A few years ago, the creationist organization Answers in Genesis launched an ill-conceived ad campaign that featured kids with guns; the message was “If God doesn’t matter to him, do you?”. They were trying to hop onto the fear bandwagon, so popular among conservatives now, of trying to convince people that you must support their aims, or some Other will kill you.

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That sign and the whole aborted ad campaign (it died away fairly quickly after AiG started it) has everything backwards. We start with the recognition of and respect for the right of every person to live, and then…it doesn’t matter whether you believe in gods or not. There are Christians and atheists who are sincerely appalled at the murder of anyone, whether they share the same political views or not, and there are hateful, callous enablers of death who cross all religious lines. And yes, I’ve noticed some presumed atheists ranting about “justifiable homicide” and murdering anti-abortionist families in the comments here, and I deplore it. The only reason I am not deleting those vile comments right and left is that I think they are useful warnings: do not become the monsters you despise.

There’s another place where you can find people arguing for “justifiable homicide”. It’s what Scott Roeder, the killer of George Tiller, believed in. He’s a so-called “Christian Patriot” — a double scoundrel, in other words — who has a history of fringe beliefs, a criminal record of association with violent anti-government groups, and a paper trail in which he wraps himself in religious sanctimony and advocates death for abortionists.

In many ways, though, his religiosity is going to be a distraction. It simply doesn’t matter, and the strongest conclusion we can draw from it is that religion fails to provide a reasonable framework for morality, since it is so easily and regularly subverted to rationalize evil. Focus instead on the root of the problem: Roeder was an amoral, obsessed nut who found support for his delusions among a particularly ugly American subculture. Gods don’t matter. And when you think gods do, you lose sight of the truth: other people matter.

Crash into June with a poll crash!

Look at this mess of a poll. And it’s even associated with an article that plainly says, “Medical authorities have answered that question firmly in the negative” as the very first sentence!

Do vaccines cause autism?

Absolutely. They caused my child’s autism.
13%

Probably. I’ve seen evidence that suggests a link.
25%

Possibly. I am weighing the evidence.
34%

Probably not. Most of the evidence suggests there’s no link.
15%

Absolutely not. There’s no link between vaccines and autism
11%

This is not an isolated incident, it’s the product of a culture of wretchedness

While we’re all feeling a bit shocked at the horrible event in Kansas, we can all turn to the Reagan legacy. Mike Reagan is giving away free copies of a book, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, written by (or more likely, ghost-written for) his father, Ronald Reagan. The title is wonderfully ironic, since these people clearly don’t have much of a conscience. Everyone order a copy, they’re free; suck the money away from these enablers of killers, and put another copy of their trash into the trash.

These are the people who fuel the kind of self-righteous ignorance that encourages people to picket reproductive health clinics, treat ob-gyns as public criminals, and incite murder. The heroes are the doctors who sacrifice so much — privacy, security, and in this case, their life — to provide essential services to women, the women in whom Reaganites find so little value, unless they are pregnant. One of the tragedies of this recent killing and the conservative tradition is that it will be increasingly difficult to find heroes brave enough to step into this role…exactly as these narrow-minded, puritanical enemies of human liberty want.

Another abortion doctor gunned down

Dr George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who has long provided abortion services (including late-term abortions) was gunned down this morning. He has been the target of anti-choice fanatics for years: his clinic has been vandalized, he was shot and wounded by one of these monsters years ago, and there has been ongoing legal harassment to shut him down.

One of these self-righteous and hypocritical creatures apparently shot him to death…as he was attending church services, ironically enough.

The culprit has not been caught, but probably will be soon. I’m sure whoever it is is very proud of him or herself.

(via ema; also note that you can get breaking updates via twitter)

Whoa. Newsweek tackles Oprah

I’m impressed. It’s a highly critical article about Oprah’s peddling of quackery, and it’s about time one of the big media players pointed out that she is promoting dangerous fake therapies…all with a happy smile, of course, and a message of positive self-esteem for women. It’s still credulous glop, though.

It also summarizes why she’s successful.

At some point, it would seem, people will stop looking to Oprah for this kind of guidance. This will never happen. Oprah’s audience admires her as much for her failings as her successes. In real life, she has almost nothing in common with most of her viewers. She is an unapproachable billionaire with a private jet and homes around the country who hangs out with movie stars. She is not married and has no children. But television Oprah is a different person. She somehow manages to make herself believable as a down-to-earth everywoman. She is your girlfriend who struggles to control her weight and balance her work and personal life, just like you. When she recently related the story of how humiliated she felt when she arrived for a photo shoot to find that she couldn’t fit into the clothes she was supposed to wear, she knew she had every member of the audience in her hand. Oprah’s show is all about second and third and fourth chances to fix your life, and the promise that the next new thing to come along will be the one that finally works.

And then it goes on to talk about how she touted “The Secret”.

The thread that will not die

This comment thread, which has been going on since February — I close them when they climb up to around a thousand comments, open a fresh one, and then you guys fill it up again. I threatened to close it off permanently, but participants told me not to…and if I did, I’m sure it would just erupt somewhere else.

So here it is, again. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to open up a “bride of the thread that will not die” and “son of the thread that will not die” and “second cousin’s boyfriend’s brother-in-law’s thread that will not die” someday. I am resigned to it.