Category: Religion

Dayam! I Get Some Whack Email!

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And it wasn’t even addressed to me about this blog, it was on a little Yahoo Group that I run to facilitate the Owings Mills Jewish community.*

I have new members set to “moderated” so as to prevent the phenomena where some joins, posts spam, and leaves, and someone posted this over the top screed that appears to call for the murder of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama!

I looked at it, and was about to delete it, and then I looked again and thought that the phrase, “The death time of lucifer and united states and clinton is come. GOD said: ” Kill clinton , Destroy united states !” was enough.

I contacted the Secret Service, read them the letter over the phone, and they had me send a copy to them.

Jeebus, the hate out there is scary.

*Note that the poster is not Jewish. When the opening ‘graph reads, “I am called by Hashem of Israel – my Father GOD, the Most High, and the Son of GOD, the Messiah of Israel – my LORD Yeshua to convey GOD’s Words to people in the last days. I have proof, the visible Sign of HOLY SPIRIT like a Light Dove on my forehead, and the Sign of Light Cross on my face,” it’s clearly one of the Evangelical proselytization group, like J4J or MJ, behind this.

Home Schoolers Have Their One Football League

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A league has been founded in Georgia.

It’s nice to know that they are focused on acedemics and atheletics.

Perhaps the league, the Glory for Christ Football League should also invest in a spell check.

I think that New York Times photog Erik Lesser, was saying something here, when he snapped that shot.

I really hope that this sort of home schooling is not the future of our educational system, or we will be sharecropping to Hondurans in 50 years,

The Worst Person in Brooklyn

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Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who has threatened to close churches in the districts of state legislature if they vote to extend the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse:

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio threatened state lawmakers by vowing to close churches in their districts — and blame them for the closures — if they dared support a bill making it easier for people who were sexually assaulted as kids to sue, legislators told The Post.

I guess it’s because that, you know, it might be expensive for the church.

Here’s an idea, how about Not Letting Your Priests Rape Children!

That would save even more money.

One note is that it appears that the good Bishop’s attempts at blackmail backfired, and a number of legislators are seriously looking at supporting the bill now.

Right Wing Priest Uses Schism to Cover Up Embezzlement

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Well, now we know what’s driving at least some of the Schism in the Episcopal Church over the ordination of gays, some of the right wing priests are taking the money and running:

The conservative Colorado Springs pastor who broke away from the Episcopal Church to form a new Anglican congregation in May 2007 now is accused of stealing $291,000 from Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish.

…

When Armstrong left the Episcopal Church, he said the split was over theological differences, such as his opposition to gay marriage and the church’s ordination of openly gay clergy.

But Colorado Episcopal Diocese officials countered that they believed Armstrong, who had been Grace’s pastor for 20 years, had left to escape reckoning for embezzlement uncovered by diocesan officials. The diocese notified police of its suspicions in May 2007.

I think that we’ll find a lot more of this, but I am a bit of a cynic on such things.

Elections Have Consequences: Who Hoo!!!!!!!!

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Barack Obama’s new budget eliminates abstinence-only funding and a kick back program to churches.

From Page 491 of the budget (PDF):

The 2010 Budget proposes a new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative to support community-based and faith-based efforts to reduce teen pregnancy using evidence-based and promising models. In addition, a new Strengthening Communities Fund will help build the capacity of non-profit organizations and State, Local and Tribal entities to better serve low-income and disadvantaged populations. This Budget also proposes funding for (1) a new child welfare initiative, and (2) a human services case management system for Federally-declared disasters. This Budget eliminates funding for Community-Based Abstinence Education, the mandatory Title V Abstinence Education program, the Compassion Capital Fund, and Rural Community Facilities.

The items in bold are two abstinence only education programs, aka the Bristol Palin teen parent plan, and the Compassion Capital Fund is a slush fund for churches set up by Bush and His Evil Minions™.

Wicked cool!

I Didn’t Expect a Bloody Irish Inquisition!

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The right to blaspheme is a basic human right. Or it should be in a modern democracy.

If your God can’t take me calling him a pig felcher, then he ain’t much of a God.

Of course, Ireland, notwithstanding its economic success until recently, is still very much a 3rd world nation, so the Irish Minister of Justice, Dermot Asshole Ahern, has decided to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights, and put forward a bill to make it crime, punishable by a fine of up to €100,000 to, utter or write anything “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage”.

There is no institution that needs the air let out of it than organized religion, and the right of people to do this should not be abridged.

Tedisco Murphy Tally: Racism and Law Breaking Edition

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The Tedisco campaign is objecting to student ballots, in violation of the law and established court cases, and they are striking absentee ballots of voters with “Jewish” Names, who are assumed to be Democratic voters, and many of the folks have been registered in, and voting in, the district for decades:

The Democrats plan to argue in court, citing precedent, that the votes are valid so long as voters with multiple residences don’t cast ballots in multiple places. Garry even went one step further, holding up his yellow pad and showing the names of those challenged, suggesting that Walsh was also acting with regard to ethnicity.

“Cohen, Pollack, Rosegarten, Winakor—there’s a pattern: they’re Democrats and they’re Jewish,” he said.

If you think that Jews have a home in the Republican party, you are an idiot.

Passover Hell

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So it’s Chol Moed Pesach*, and we had an early morning meeting. About 20 people in the room, and what seems to be a box of donuts for each person, along with soda†, and I can’t have any of it.

Chametz, technically leavened bread, but really anything not certified as kosher for Passover, is forbidden, so I have water, and peel myself an orange.

At another meeting, someone brings in a couple of boxes of left over Easter candy, and I cannot have any of that.

*sigh*

Sometimes, I am seriously Jonesing for leavened bread products right now.

*Not a Yom Tov, in the case of Passover, days 2-5 of the 8 days, so you can work.
†Also not allowed, corn syrup, don’t you know.

And Now Republicans Come Out in Favor of Giving AIDS to Children

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If you ever wondered just how immoral the Talibaptist wing of the Republican party is, look no further than state Senator Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs), who is opposed to testing pregnant women for AIDS, because it would lead to treatments to reduce the chance of their children catching the disease, and their children having AIDS is appropriate punishment for their promiscuity.

The frightening thing is that coming from Colorado Springs, home of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, a significant portion of his constituents likely agree:

  • What he said during the debate: “This stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part and I just can’t go there. We do things continually to remove the consequences of poor behavior, unacceptable behavior, quite frankly. I’m not convinced that part of the role of government should be to protect individuals from the negative consequences of their actions.”
  • What he said afterward: “What I’m hoping is that yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that. The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years … begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior. We can’t keep people from being raped. We can’t keep people from shooting each other. We can’t keep people from jumping off bridges. People drink and drive, and they crash and kill people. Poor behavior has its consequences.”

For all those wankers (that’s you Lord Saletan) who think that we can engage in meaningful negotiations with the abortion criminalization crowd, understand that they want to eliminate all forms of birth control, and re-institute criminal penalties for “fornication”.

In fact, they want to give children AIDS to punish their parents.

You can no more find common ground with them than you can with al Qaeda.

Broken News and Accusations of Witchcraft

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So I’m surfing the net and come across PZ Myers on his blog Pharyngula talking about an ACLU press release about a student in Oklahoma who was suspended for allegedly placing a hex on a teacher which resulted in a “mystery illness”.

So I set fingers to keyboard, and write a ferociously critical piece, invoking knowledge, Texas, and, of course Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and while I’m Googling to see the outcome of the case I notice something in the ACLU press release:

ACLU of Oklahoma Files Federal Lawsuit on Behalf of Student Accused of “Hexing” a Teacher (10/26/2000)

(emphasis mine)

It’s from almost 9 years ago, and the events in question occurred 10 years ago, and Lifetime made a TV Movie about it, but that still does not mean that you can’t have a minor Blogasm over this. (Google Search Link)

I’m just glad that I noticed the dateline before I made a complete ass of myself.

For those of you wondering, the judge dismissed the case, and assessed legal fees against the parents, who then dropped the case in exchange for the fees being waived.

I still need an excuse to invoke Monty Python though….I’m Jonesing for it right now.

This is A Feature, Not a Bug: Papal Edition

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So, Pope Benedict has reversed the excommunication of a Holocaust Denier Bishop, Richard Williamson, in an attempt to make nice with the so called “Traditionalist Schism” in the church.

Just in case you are wondering, this is who this Pope is. It’s the same as his infamous Regensburg speech where he called Mohammad’s teachings, “evil and inhuman”, only this time he won’t have to backtrack, because there is only one Jewish state, and they aren’t going on Pogroms against Catholics over this.

And in case you are wondering who Bishop Williamson is, he is the guy who thought that the movie The Sound of Music was too anti Nazi.

Good Nesw on the, “Bigots Want Your Stuff,” Front

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The bigots who want to leave the national Episcopal church because its to tolerant of “te gay”, have just lost one in court.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that the parish property they are on belongs to the national church, not them:

The state high court said it could resolve the St. James lawsuit by looking to property deeds, state law, the local church’s articles of incorporation and the national church’s canon and rules.

Although the deeds showed the local church owned the property, the parish had agreed to be part of the greater Episcopal Church of the United States and to be bound by that church’s rules, the court said.

The church added a section to a canon in 1979 that said parishes held property in trust for the greater church.

“The local church agreed and intended to be part of a larger entity and to be bound by the rules and governing documents of that greater entity,” Chin wrote.

Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote separately to say that no secular institution would be permitted to take someone’s property that way.

Good for them.