LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1714171,00.html

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

The idea of paying for only the cable channels they want might have strong appeal for consumers, but to religious programmers, the prospect seems just short of apocalyptic

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The Guardian has this story about the spread of the ID/Creationist rot to their schools. Some excerpts:

Academics fight rise of creationism at universities

· More students believe Darwin got it wrong
· Royal Society challenges 'insidious problem'

Duncan Campbell
Tuesday February 21, 2006
The Guardian

A growing number of science students on British campuses and in sixth form colleges are challenging the theory of evolution and arguing that Darwin was wrong. Some are being failed in university exams because they quote sayings from the Bible or Qur'an as scientific fact and at one sixth form college in London most biology students are now thought to be creationists.

Earlier this month Muslim medical students in London distributed leaflets that dismissed Darwin's theories as false. Evangelical Christian students are also increasingly vocal in challenging the notion of evolution.

In the United States there is growing pressure to teach creationism or "intelligent design" in science classes, despite legal rulings against it. Now similar trends in this country have prompted the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, to confront the issue head on with a talk entitled Why Creationism is Wrong. The award-winning geneticist and author Steve Jones will deliver the lecture and challenge creationists, Christian and Islamic, to argue their case rationally at the society's event in April.

"There is an insidious and growing problem," said Professor Jones, of University College London. "It's a step back from rationality. They (the creationists) don't have a problem with science, they have a problem with argument. And irrationality is a very infectious disease as we see from the United States."

Gotta give it to the Brits: they call it as it truly is: a disease. And, unlike our apparently spineless US science community, theirs is standing up to this threat and denouncing it for the pure regressive rot that it is.

Most of the next generation of medical and science students could well be creationists, according to a biology teacher at a leading London sixth-form college. "The vast majority of my students now believe in creationism," she said, "and these are thinking young people who are able and articulate and not at the dim end at all. They have extensive booklets on creationism which they put in my pigeon-hole ... it's a bit like the southern states of America." Many of them came from Muslim, Pentecostal or Baptist family backgrounds, she said, and were intending to become pharmacists, doctors, geneticists and neuro-scientists.

There's that 'trained up generation' that the Christcrats have been brainwashing for the last two decades- bright young people who are now taking the rot to a whole new level. These are the New True Believers, who will take their beliefs into the hospitals, labs, and pharmacies of the world, and who will be part and parcel in reversing the forward trend in both science and civil rights.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kiji_kat)

...but I would be interested in getting some opinions and feedback. Lent has always been a season of mixed emotions for me; there are both positive and negative aspects I associate with it, as you'll see from the entry. This year, I want to make it as positive as possible.

If you're interested, the entry is here.

(This post can be taken down if it's inappropriate. Sorry!)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY zarq)

Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan is trying to establish a new city in Florida to be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no abortion, pornography or birth control. Welcome to America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave Crusading Christian Theocracy.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it “God’s will.”

Civil libertarians say the plan is unconstitutional and are threatening to sue.

The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida. The town and the university, developed in partnership with the Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate business, will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center, a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, at nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan envisions 11,000 homes and 20,000 residents.

During a speech last year at a Catholic men’s gathering in Boston, Monaghan said that in his community, stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.

Homebuyers in Ave Maria will own their property outright. But Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town, meaning they could insert provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items.

You just know that if Islamic Fundamentalists tried to do something similar anywhere in this country these folks would completely just lose their tiny, tiny minds.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

Chicago Tribune | Dead soldier's family harassed

Dead soldier's family harassed

The Associated Press
Published March 1, 2006, 11:52 AM CST
KOKOMO, Ind. --

Local police are watching the home of an
Indiana solider killed in Iraq after the home was vandalized and
his family received disturbing phone calls.

Sgt. Rickey Jones died in a roadside bomb blast last week
north of Baghdad. He was 21.

On Saturday, someone threw eggs at his family's home. The family
also got phone calls from someone who said they were glad that
Jones was dead.

Jones' relatives and police are also bracing for the possibility
that a Kansas-based group that has created furor at other soldiers'
funerals will stage a protest Monday at his funeral.

I'm to angry to comment on this.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

Curtesy, IFILM The women is Televangelist's Benny Hinn's wife....

and for more Fun....

http://www.valleyskeptic.com/bennyhinn.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/3/story_317_1.html

x-posted to cheap_laugh

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY reannon)

This, folks, is exactly why we shouldn't pass these arguably-unconstitutional laws against the funeral protesters.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=93052

Because now the bad guys are getting three times as much press. I wouldn't be surprised, given the usual tone of Missouri state lawmakers, if that was the idea all along.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY amethyst_hunter)

From Pandagon comes this:

Peter LaBarbara of the Illinois Family Institute thinks GOP candidate Judy Baar Topinka is part of O NOES Teh Gay Agenda.

An excerpt:

Enter our friend Peter LaBarbara, of the Illinois Family Institute. He’s started up an anti-Topinka web site, aptly titled StopTopinka.com, which goes full-out in proclaiming that she is a shining beacon of the “Homosexual AgendaTM. From winger Matt Barber’s commentary in the Post-Chronicle. :

StopTopinka.com provides must-see video of Judy Baar Topinka’s annual participation in the Chicago “gay-pride” parade. By virtue of her active participation in the parade, one can only conclude that Topinka endorses its cause and message. This parade features nudity and lewd public displays - even though young children march in the parade and attend as observers. Additionally, it provides facts relative to Topinka’s pro-homosexual activism, and her diversion as state treasurer, of $10 million in state taxpayer dollars to build a “gay” community center in Chicago.

Oh, did I tell you that that her opponent Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis is trying to stay under the radar on this, but J. Matt Barber works for the Oberweis campaign?

It should be noted that Judy Baar Topinka has a reputation as one of those endangered species, the moderate, sensible Republicans. If I had to pick a Republican that I could tolerate replacing current governor Rod Blagojevich, it would be Topinka (Though I still hope Blagojevich stays on as governor).

On the other side, Jim Oberweis - famous for the Oberweis Dairy business, which sells ice cream, among other things - has a record of sucking up to the right-wing hardliners if not trying to appease them, for past screwups. (Oberweis attempted Senate runs in 2002 and 2004) Said screwups include an ad campaign that was perceived by many as racist and anti-immigrant, pissing off the zealot base by making a comment about likening adamant pro-lifers to the Taliban (to cover for this he pledged to support a state constitutional amendment concerning marriage), and signing a Renew Illinois pledge that defines Republican stands on taxes and homosexuality (No prize for guessing how those swing). With the latter, the pledge includes these nuggets of non-joy:

- supporting parental notification and consent for minors (Note: This is something I would ordinarily not have a problem with, except that it's a damn sure bet zealots will misuse this and deny even those females who are pregnant as a result of rape/incest - as we've just witnessed, several states have declared all-out war on female reproductive rights and while Illinois is at the moment better off than those places, the GOP attack squad is on the march to take over and instill their agenda what with the 2006 gubernatorial elections at hand)

- pledging to work to repeal taxpayer-funded abortions

- opposing government funding of embyronic stem cell research

- pledging to promote abstinence in public health education

- opposing mandatory health insurance coverage of morning after pills

Mark my words - watch Illinois this year. It will be a key battlefield.