More Christian Evil; Why Religion is Child Abuse Reason #1,340,230,000

• State authorities have responded to at least 165 allegations of abuse and neglect in the past decade, but homes have remained open even after the state found evidence of sex abuse and physical injury.
  
• The religious exemption has for decades allowed homes to avoid state restrictions on corporal punishment. Homes have pinned children to the ground for hours, confined them in seclusion for days, made them stand until they wet themselves and exercised them until they vomited.
  
• Children have been bruised, bloodied and choked to unconsciousness in the name of Christian discipline. A few barely escaped with their lives. In addition, in two settled lawsuits, a mother said her son was forced to hike on broken feet; a father said his son was handcuffed, bound at the feet, locked away for three days and struck by other boys at the instruction of the home.
  
• Adults have ordered children to participate in the punishment, requiring them to act as jailers, to bully troublemakers or to chase, tackle and sit on their peers.
  
• Teens have been denounced as sinners, called "faggots" and "whores," and humiliated in front of their peers for menstrual stains and suspicions of masturbation.
  
• Parents share the blame. Some sign away their children for a year or more without first visiting a home or checking credentials. But state officials bear some responsibility because they have not warned the public about programs they believe are abusive.
  
• Florida taxpayers have supported some unlicensed homes with hundreds of thousands of dollars in McKay scholarships — a government program to help special needs students pay tuition at private schools.

Smaller government; YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK! Christan Love! Can you feel it, or do we have to HIT YOU HARDER? Fucking monsters, every last one.

Things That Piss Me Off About Fiction

This is just a quick list of the things that get under my skin about fiction these days. For those wondering where I've been, I'm up to my eyeballs in work (they cut back my hours, but holy fuck if I couldn't tell given they've got me pulling several 9 hour days a week now), and I'm working on three separate project: The Second Blue Pimpernel novel; a transhuman novel called Terra Firma, which concerns itself with politics, journalism, and the ethics of terraforming Venus; and a perennial favorite of mine, White Rabbit, Black Swan, I book I can't describe without you thinking I'm on some kind of narcotic.

And... To Restore It

Here - 21 pictures that will restore your faith in humanity.

I almost cried at 18 and 19.

Just Incase You Felt Faith In Humanity This Week...

I actually don't like that statement, because it reeks too much of the whole "people totally depraved" that Calvinism and other extreme branches of Christian philosophy teach. But there are days when I'm shocked by the wanton cruelty, and I can't help but reach for the phrase because of how callous people are capable of being.

Anyway, If you haven't heard about the story of Amanda Todd, this will be a little out of the blue. I haven't read the entire story yet - to be honest, I'm not sure that I could - but I know the general gist of it. It's a horrifying example of the downside of social networking and the internet, and it's enough to turn anyone into a neo-luddite until you remember that shit like this has been with us from the days of lynching post-cards in the Great American Halcyon Age (Circa Nineteen-Fifty-Didnotexist to Ninteen-Fifty-Neverwill) that Right wing hucksters and self-aggregating fraudsters are working so hard to take us back to.

I won't repeat the story here, simply because that'd be rehashing the wheel and right now I'm not entirely sure I'd be capable of doing it anyway: Jason Thibeault has an excellent summation of it here, and really, the whole thing is so upsetting that it makes you question why you bothered getting out of bed.

So naturally, the positive, upbeat, and upstanding corners of the Atheist community, who certainly are not jackasses in the slightest and are pinnacle of upright citizens, are out and about and gleefully sharing their pitiful little opinions about this. This was a young girl who committed suicide; who cried for help, and gets all the wonderful wisdom of Youtube heaped on her in return.

And to make matters worse, the Amazing Atheist (seriously, there's nothing at all amazing about this fucker unless you take into consideration his ego, the self-entitlement issues, or any other negative traits, in which case the moniker is very deserved) Asshole TJ Kincade of Louisana just had to give his opinion, because anymore, it means so much to the Internet, you know. According to one of the commentators on this thread, it's " “I am the other hundreds of thousands of people who died today OTHER than Amanda Fucking Todd.” I've not seen the video. I have no intention of seeing the video. I have, however, seen the picture over at Manboobz.

Right there: that's proof religion is not the cause of all the evil in the world. That's proof any moral argument his type of atheist had made against religion is little more than thin veneer; an excuse to try and feel "superior" to believers, because they haz Teh Lahjickz!

One of the major reasons I don't mock all people with religion is because it's not polite, and at any given time, 90% of my friends on FB are Christian (I have, at most, 4 or 5 atheist friends. Of over 280 friends; I knew fewer Jewish people, but I know 1 or 2), and I respect them. Another reason is that, as TJ up there proves, it doesn't matter whether you have religion or not: assholes are gonna be assholes, regardless what they do or don't believe in.

My guess is that this is his attempt a "moral argument." And while there's a whole hell of a lot wrong with that - just because someone else has a broken arm doesn't mean your sprained wrist stops hurting, to use an analogy, or to be more apt, just because someone is suffering doesn't take away from the fact that you're still hurting, too - one of the bigger, unseen issues here is this: It's hard to make a moral argument when you don't have any morals yourself.

Her loss is a horrifying and sad reminder of just how broken we are as a society and as a species. His reaction is proof we have a very hard fight if we're going to give the appearance of improving.

Want An Idea of Why Our Science Scores Are Crap?

Paul Broun is a Representative from Georgia. Now, it goes without saying that he's got an R in front of his name; this is Georgia we're talking about here. If I saw traces of the 20th century from that State I'd be shocked. He's a Congresscritter, so my expectations of his knowledge weren't very high, and being a republican, I'm pretty sure someone stole that low bar and buried it somewhere in the Dead Sea.

But here's something else interesting about Paul Broun.

You see, this man was appointed on congress to set on the House Science Committee. So really, I'd sort of expect something better than this:

"God's word is true. I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell," said Broun, who is an MD. "It's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior."

"You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don't believe that the earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says."

You've seen a lot of scientific data. Show it to me, you fucking lair.

Don't ask me why I'd expect something better than that from a Republican elected official from Georgia, but being on the House Science Committee... I dunno. No, really, I don't know why he's even there. Him sitting on that committee is fucking stupid even by congressional standards.

Indentured Labor

Welcome, citizen. 

To ensure the safety of our democracy from outside tampering, please make submit your identification card, and present your eye for a retinal scan. Please do not forget to pay the mandatory 25 cents. Thank you for your cooperation. 

Our databanks have identified you as an individual currently receiving government finances. Please submit your identification card again, as well as the last check stub that you received. Thank you. While we scan your identification card, we would like you take this time to answer to answer the following questions. When you are done, click submit and your name with the answers will be attached to the back of the voter form to ensure voter accuracy in the event that there should be fraud. Please not that you must answer all of the questions correctly to vote today. Please note that all answers will be made public:

Question 1. 
Answer with a simple Y/N: Have you not started looking for a job yet? ____

Question 2. 
In order to vote, you must first have a job. This is to confirm your status as an American Citizen. Please identify the last position that you are still working at. ______________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

Question 3. 
Our records indicate that you have 3 children at home under your care, and are African-American and a single woman. Do you make use of our public school system?  Y/N _____ Have you stopped buying your children expensive shoes? Y/N ____ Have you stopped purchasing expensive cars? Y/N____

Question 4.
Read the following passage and state exactly what it means below:

Extended revolutionary methodologies must be applied in order to ensure the growth of our current mission-based relationships, thereby ensuring innovative, out-of-the-box, paradigm-rearranging systems that help the survival of our democracy. Empowering bleeding-edge logistical facilities means granting that certain freedoms must be integrated into point-and-click mortar initiatives.

Please provide what the phrase means exactly here: ______________________________________

Question 5. 
Answer with a simple Y/N: In the event that your identification is no longer valid, you will be notified that you are required to renew your identification. Renewing identification requires a valid identification card, so in the event that this happens, do you have a valid identification card? ______

Question 6.
You submit that your name will be attached to the vote, so in the event that the vote returns as a fraudulent vote, the law will be notified of you and your current whereabouts. You must agree to this in order to participate in the American Electoral System. I Agree ____
 
Thank you for your time, citizen. We have determined that your card is no longer valid, as you are currently receiving government aid in the form of EBT, and your last purchase indicates that you bought $23.30 in cigarettes and alcohol using non-EBT money, invalidating your current identification due to abuse of government funds. Your status has been changed on the government network, and your identification has been tagged with this abuse for all to see. Would you like to present a valid identification card? 

There are countless alternative questions for number 3. Because I live in a city that's majority African-American (one of the few places in the country like that), I'm very familiar with all of the stereotypes, because I hear them all the time from the white people who live here. Any stereotype here will do, but because we all know that Poor = Black, stereotypes about African Americans work best for this circular question.

Speaking of poor = black, you'd think that Mitt Romney would have gotten the hang of knowing when to keep his mouth shut. That doesn't seem to be the case, though: apparently 47% of America supports Obama, and that 47% has no initiative, are leeches on society, and are just in general fucking lazy.

Thing is, that's almost half. That's 47% of people who he will never have on his side.

In a better world, in a better country, that would've torpedoed his chance. As it is, there are people in this nation who will read my little introduction up there and say "That's cool! We need to do something like that to keep them lazy [insert pejorative here] from voting!"

And yes. This is what it feels like trying to vote in the United States sometimes. 

Once Again, It's This Stuff Again

So, the clowns in Georgia (yep. To quote Adam Savage: There's your problem) are setting up for a fight with the ACLU and the rest of the civilized world. They've set up the Ten Commandments inside of a court house (Why do they do that? Why; of all the places to put them, why blaspheme them by sticking them up in front of one of the most dysfunctional justice systems on the planet?), and to my knowledge, even passed a bill making it "perfectly legal" to do so.

The common argument I routinely here is that they're the foundation for American Law and the foundation for Western Law. Western Law I can't speak too, but I know they sure as hell are not the foundation for American Law; explicitly, the Constitution.

How so? A lot of atheists say that, but very few of them actually stop to explain the number of ways that the Ten Commandments violate the Constitution, expecting people to either know or go and look it up themselves. Well, I have some free time tonight (and an earache; the sinus infection wasn't bad enough, you know. I really hate living in this state, with it's unpredictable weather), so I'm going to lay out exactly how and why the Constitution, if it was inspired by the Bible and the Ten Commandments, as is so commonly claimed, it was as an example of what not to do in a system of law.

The very first thing you have to do when talking about this is decide which of the various versions you want to use. Exodus and Deuteronomy both give two versions with their major and minor differences, and each Christian sect has their own variation on the theme. There are some things that run in common, however, but they're not as many as you would think. When you think about it, the very concept of a "generic" list of 10 Commandments is offensive to at least some Christian sect somewhere, because "generic" usually means "dominate group", which in this case would be some form of Baptist. Because it becomes a theological clusterfuck trying to determine which set to use, however, I'm going to just role with whatever set is easiest for me to find - and because Wikipedia is there for me, and Exodus comes before Deuteronomy, that's the version I'm going to be using. I have no fetish for "original commandments" because, if you recall, Moses supposedly broke the original ones on the ground when he saw that the Americans were worshiping Adam Smith, money, and the golden idol of Capitalism Hebrews worshiping the golden calf, so I personally couldn't care less. I just need an example list to show you how wrong this is, so Exodus will do.