Free Speech & Blasphemy

Cross posted at JesusLovesBags.com

My last postwas about the appropriate response to terrorist attacks.  Appropriate in the sense that the response would yield the most productive outcome for society.

Non-violent Free Speech, you’re doing it right.

In this post, I’m interested in discussing the free speech facet of the whole story.

Needless to say, when content of mere images and video cause so much angst and agitation that you can only respond with random (or non-random) violence and destruction, you are seriously fucked up.  There’s really no other way to put it, you may need to seek professional help.  Because you are a menace to society.

And yet, people will still lay the blame at the feet of those exercising their free speech (however disgusting and incorrect it may be) by saying ‘you should have known that people would die as a consequence of your words’.  Which is really an admission that those committing the violence are out of control lunatics.  Free speech does not, and society should not, submit to the irrationality of lunatics.

Tunisian Journalist Arrested For Criticizing Proposed Anti-Blasphemy Law

Police arrested a Tunisian journalist and outspoken critic of a proposed anti-blasphemy law under pretty suspicious circumstances.

Sanal Edamaruku Interview #2

Sanal Edamaruku is the founder-president of Rationalist International and our first repeat guest. We talk about how he recently debunked a Catholic miracle claim in Mumbai and the blasphemy charges against him that ensued. You can donate to the Sanal Edamaruku Defence Fund and support free expression in India here.

Sally Morgan & Other Frauds

“Gimme all your money or I’ll crush your head!”

One of the more celebrated debunking instances among skeptics is when James Randi and his cohorts caught the notorious scam artist / phony “faith healer” Peter Popoff red-handed lying to his audiences. For those who don’t know this story, Popoff’s staff would ask the audience as they were arriving to fill out “prayer cards” with their names, contact info, and which ailments they were hoping to cure by showing up. Popoff’s wife would collect them and during the performance, she would read some of the more promising entries and transmit the information to a receiver Popoff had hidden in an earpiece.

The 8 Most Awesome Drone Stories of 2011!

Compiling this list is always difficult. There are just so many needy nations, upon which our beneficent empire could deliver death from above, that you can’t help but be disappointed by how relatively few we actually oblige. And, of course, this compendium is both wholly subjective, and admittedly incomplete. Perhaps your favorite assassination didn’t make the cut, or you’ll take umbrage with my ranking system. Or maybe one of our awesome Predators killed your entire family with a Hellfire missile, and you’re being a whiny little bitch about it. What can I say? Everyone’s a critic.

Although there’s been 70 unmanned aerial vehicle strikes in Pakistan alone this year, it’s my contention that the bulk of our terrorist-thwarting, freedom-loving, Chuck Norris-style ass-kickings produce only a few gems worth mentioning. Fortunately, our incredibly wise and moral Nobel Peace Prize-winning President Barack Obama has unleashed more C.I.A. drones than did his predecessor, and the Pentagon has asked Congress for nearly $5 billion for UAVs in 2012, so next year’s list is already looking good.

Well, without further ado, I’m proud to present to you The 8 Most Awesome Drone Stories of 2011:

Hindus and Hindon’ts

We’re getting to that time of year again when the snow starts falling and we all come together in the spirit of harmony and goodwill to wage War On Christmas. But as we get into the serious anti-Christmas fighting over the next few week, we might take a moment or two to consider the less fortunate among us who might not have a Christmas to wage war against. And by that, I mean Hindu and Buddhist fundamentalists.

Not many of us here in the West get too worked up about these two religions. Liberals want to be ecumenical, inclusive, and multicultural, so they tend to withhold harsh criticism of minority (in America, at least) religious views. Conservatives believe Hinduism and Buddhism are just different forms of Islam, so they figure they’ve already got it covered. But what both groups miss is that these religions make claims which are just plain wrong. And those wrong beliefs can lead to some terrible actions.

Kurt Vonnegut vs. The Bible

“Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”
–Psalms 137:9

The high school board of education for the city of Republic, Missouri last week voted unanimously (4-0) to ban Kurt Vonnegut’s classic antiwar novel Slaughterhouse-Five from the school’s library. The board was responding to public complaints by one Wesley Scroggins, who was outraged that the city would use his tax dollars to store books which teach “principles contrary to the Bible” for children to read.

Leave It To the Humorless, Subhuman Belgians To Take This Seriously

There’s a wonderful children’s book out for all the parents out there who want to teach their children about international politics and the case for a Belgian genocide. Here is a quick outline of the case for killing all the Belgians:

Let Us All Compare the President to a Human Penis

So Megan Fox Mark Halperin got suspended from Transformers 3MSNBC for calling Michael Bay President Obama Hitler “kind of a dick.” But the only thing I could find unprofessional about his saying that was that it’s a comment which is way overdue.

There’s nothing wrong with calling the President a dick, especially when he is one. And there are plenty of reasons to call this President a dick. Here is an unfortunately all-to-abbreviated list of reasons why.

Rachel Maddow on Shutting Down the State-Run Press in Libya

I’m still trying to get caught up from stuff that happened a week or so ago, so you’ll have to bare with me if you’ve already heard about this.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow usually does a decent job at reporting. She definitely has a perspective, and it’s usually completely in line with the Democratic Party line. Sometimes she criticizes them for giving in too much to Republicans and for being the wimps they are, but more often than not her editorializing crosses over into the same kind of partisan propaganda you get at Fox.