Football concussion brain injuries story gets even worse

Today is a fall Sunday in the US and this afternoon about a thousand large and muscular men are going to spend three hours pounding the stuffing out of each other to the cheers of the crowd. What is becoming increasingly clear is that with each hit, the players are receiving brain injuries that down the road will lead to many of them suffering from symptoms akin to dementia. I wrote about this before (see here and here) but now more disturbing stories are coming to light. [Read more…]

Senate passes ENDA, now what?

The US Senate yesterday easily passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by a vote of 64-32, with 10 Republicans voting with 54 Democrats. The bill bars workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity but got the necessary Republican support to break the filibuster only after an amendment was added that “would prevent retaliation against religious organizations that don’t hire someone because of sexual orientation or gender identity”, because of course it is taken for granted that religious groups must be allowed to discriminate against gays. [Read more…]

What’s with all the spitting?

I do not know of any culture anywhere is which spitting on someone is not seen as a great insult. There is something about the act that is absolutely disgusting and so repulses people that it can arouse the most violent responses. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when very religious people adopt spitting on others as not merely an expression of disapproval but do so in an organized way, as if their religion prescribes it as a recommended course of action. [Read more…]

When one freedom collides with another

The Greece v Galloway case argued before the US Supreme Court on Wednesday has once again brought to the fore the question of prayer in official government-sponsored settings. Two recent events highlight the fact that many people do not understand that the constitutional protections of freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion does not give everybody carte blanche to impose their religious and political views on others. The limits are especially strong when the ‘others’ are children in a captive environment where the sense of coercion is palpable. [Read more…]