Gay marriage has been in the news a lot of late, mostly because they want to do it and the Christians, or at least some Christians, really don’t want them to. They believe that a marriage is between one man and one woman under God, and that a marriage between two men or two women is a perversion of the institution. The implication is that somehow a Christian definition of marriage is the only definition that matters.

I am fairly certain that marriages were happening prior to the birth of Christ and the formation of the Christian church, and even in groups that were not in any way related to the Christian God, Abraham, and the descendant faiths. So we have a bit of a paradox. We know that these Christians aren’t asking for homosexual marriage to be unlawful because they are bigots, they are asking for homosexual marriage to be unlawful because it does not conform to their theological description of marriage.

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I was reading a post called The inherent racism of “Tough on Crime” by Crommunist, and it got me thinking about natives, a topic I haven’t really brought up here. I think the real reason I haven’t brought it up is because it’s a doozy, and I don’t believe for a minute that I have any real answers. I’m by no means a scholar on the experience of natives, so please don’t assume I have a clue in hell what I’m talking about.

Natives in Canada often have a tough go, and a story that my mom experienced shows just what I’m talking about. She was teaching in a fairly poor elementary school in Calgary, and she had a student she was worried about. The kid was a native, and lived with his mom. If I remember the story correctly, she was one of those hard working people who work full time, raise a kid, go to school, and are constantly working to fix their lives. The dad lived in Brocket, which is a community in southern Alberta on the Peigan reserve that suffers from a very high alcoholism rate. The kid was around ten years old, and he was presented with two very different lives.

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Allow me to a moment to heartily applaud Arnand Grover, the Special Rapporteur to the UN on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health. That’s a hell of a long job title, but essentially his job is to look for ways to use the UN to pressure people to help everyone on earth have the best possible health. It’s a pretty amazing task when you think about it, and it sounds like the kind of job that involves a lot of luncheons and not a lot of getting things done. The UN is a body politic, and there doesn’t seem to be much that happens there to rock the boat, so Mr. Grover’s recent publication of a report telling all UN states that they must legalize and provide safe abortion and access to contraception for women.

Yeah, you read that right. And it really is quite the bombshell, especially in what feels like an increasingly faith-driven modern time where first world nations are actively destroying pro-abortion legislation.

Hats off to you, Mr. Grover, for having the courage to make an unpopular stand for the betterment of the people of the world. Now make sure you point that finger at the Americans who want the state to control the wombs of the many.

Jim

Sometimes I get asked why I’m so quick to get bitchy when people defend their faith to me. There are lots of answers to that question, depending on how nice I’m feeling. Sometimes I’ll gladly admit that I overreact when people start telling me that science is a religion and other times I’ll tell them it’s because they are a fuckwit. The real answer is somewhere in the middle. I have long grown tired of the misconceptions and the balls-out lies told about me and my fellow non-believers. In some cases, it is a question of outright malice, but more often, it is a case of simple ignorance on the topic.

So I was over at Dispatches From The Culture Wars, a blog I thoroughly enjoy for those of you who aren’t regular readers, and I read an article Ed wrote called The Eternal Sunshine of the Wingnut Mind. It’s a compilation of a few of the comments that the faithful put on Sarah Palin’s wall expressing their sadness that she wouldn’t be running for Queen Of Narnia. Ed’s favorite happens to be mine as well:

—SARAH, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU WILL SEE THIS OR NOT, BUT I AM DISAPPOINTED THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT. I FELT AS THOUGH YOU HAVE GOD IN YOUR HEART AND WOULD HAVE TURNED THIS COUNTRY BACK TO ONE NATION UNDER GOD. THERE ARE MANY GODLESS PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY AND THEY LIVE FOR THE FLESH, THEMSELVES AND GREED. I WISH YOU WOULD CHANGE YOUR MIND SARAH, WE NEED YOU SO DESPERATELY.GOD BLESS YOU.

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I hadn’t heard this before, but it turns out that Denmark has enacted legislation to tax fatty foods. And to be honest, I’m torn on the subject of sin taxes.I regularly hear people say that we should tax convenience food more heavily, or that fatty food should be taxed due to the fact that people who eat large amounts of fatty food are likely to require more from the medical health system. This is similar to the idea that alcohol and tobacco should be taxed heavily because their users are statistically higher users of other services such as health care.

Dr. Coyne puts it well, though, in the final sentence of his post. “Once you start taxing things that are bad for you, just because they’re bad for you, there’s no end to it.” That is my concern with sin taxes. How much do you punish people for enjoying something that is bad for them?

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New York has become the sixth state to allow gay marriages. It wasn’t exactly a routing, the bill passed with 33 votes for and 29 against. Frankly, I’m stunned that a city as progressive as New York would be able to elect 29 people who are against the issue, but that’s hardly the point. Congratulations, New York. You have joined five other states in the modern era and made what shouldn’t be but is a bold stand for the rights of your citizenry.

Naturally, there is an uproar. Catholic church leaders are huffing and puffing about the topic and asking their flock to “not invite any state legislator to speak or be present at any parish or school celebration” as well as rejecting all honors bestowed upon them from Governor Cuomo.

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In February, Egypt’s tyrant, Hosni Mubarak, was forced out of office and the military took control of the country amid hopes for peace, safety, democracy, and freedom. I was skeptical, and it appears my fears are proving themselves to be true. The military has been cracking down on protests, and now there are allegations that detained women can look forward to virginity testing.

What is a virginity test? Well, I don’t rightly know. But like you, I have a pretty good idea that it involves some sort of humiliating probing of a woman’s private parts against her will rather than simply trying to confuse them by asking in rapid succession, “Do you like ice cream? Do you love your parents? Have you ever had sex? How far is Newark from here?” Oh, and the women were also beaten and electrocuted. Smells like freedom to me.

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Jim’s Note: From time to time, we receive posts from friends that we think are worthy of promoting. Ian Kittenstew originally put this up as a Facebook note, but with his permission I have included it here.

I am an agnostic and very non-religious.  I came to this conclusion many years ago after much introspection and no small amount of self doubt, but now I am firmly in the camp of ‘I don’t know’ in regards to the existence of a deity/deities/divine-something-or-other.  I don’t see any substantial proof that there is/are a god/gods, but I don’t want to be so close minded that I automatically discount the possibility.  However, I see a lot of silly ideas that religious folk believe, and I try not to be too preachy about how some of the dogma in modern religions is not very progressive, or all that modern.  Sometimes I succeed at this and sometimes I fail.

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