From the 1999 film Dogma. (Thanks to Norm)
There is something richly ironic about casting the late George Carlin, an atheist whose tirades against religion in his comedy routine were legendary, as a Catholic bishop.
Here’s one such performance with some brilliant theological insights. (Language advisory)
There is an interesting development in North Carolina that is worth paying attention to. It is the only southern state that does not have a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage (although there are laws that prohibit it) but on May 8th, people will go to the polls to vote on whether to pass one that bans not only same sex marriage but anything that raises even the suspicion of equality for gay people, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships. [Read more…]
Although I listen to NPR regularly, I never forget that its reporters too are the products of the filtering process that ensures that only a limited range of opinions is even considered, and that they will not see some obvious hypocrisies even if they stare them in the face. While the best NPR reporters, such as Daniel Zwerdling (whose in-depth features are excellent), Nina Totenberg (legal affairs), and those who deal with internal matters and soft features are worth listening to, others who deal with national politics (Don Gonyea and Mara Liaison) and defense and foreign affairs (Tom Gjelten and Dina Temple Raston) might as well be considered outright propagandists rather than reporters, last two being especially atrocious. [Read more…]
Nice cover of the Gerry Rafferty song.
The Colbert Report
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(This clip appeared on April 16, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
I like optical illusions, such as the Ponzo Illusion, which is one of the better explanations of why the full moon on the horizon seems so big. They provide nice examples of the complex interplay of visual sensations and brain activity and cautions us that what we ‘see’ may not be really what is out there. [Read more…]
Emily Herx was an English teacher at a Catholic school in Indiana who was fired because she and her husband used in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant, which a local church official declared was a “grave, immoral sin”, presumably taking his cue from pope Ratzo who views IVF and other forms of ‘artificial’ procreation as immoral. [Read more…]
Coming on the heels of the story about the TSA’s aggressive handling of a four-year old child, we now have an even worse case of an aggressive pat-down given to a seven-year old girl with cerebral palsy who uses crutches, resulting in the family missing their flight. Add to this the charges of stealing, and the TSA is well on its way to becoming the most hated agency of the government. [Read more…]
Or so this photo seems to suggest.
TIME magazine publishes an annual list of the 100 most influential people. At a dinner given for this year’s mentions, Stephen Colbert gave a speech that included the following comments aimed at the Catholic church and Cardinal Thomas Dolan who is a smug example of Catholic homophobia and sexism. (Unfortunately I have not been able to find a video of the speech.) [Read more…]
Victor Stenger has had a long career in experimental high-energy physics. He has become a prolific writer on the intersection of science and religion and I have referred to him frequently in past blog posts, especially to material in his 2007 book God: The Failed Hypothesis. Stenger is an unabashed ‘new atheist’ who thinks that science and religion are fundamentally incompatible and does not shy away from saying so bluntly. The title of his latest book (and its subtitle The Incompatibility of Science and Religion) leaves the reader with no doubt as to where he stands. The book was released this month and I have just had the pleasure of reading it. It essentially updates and expands on the arguments of that earlier one. [Read more…]