Gay marriage loses in Maine

The recall vote on gay marriage won yesterday in Maine (53% voted for the repeal with 83% counted). This is a little discouraging but somewhat expected: polls were showing it would be close. And there is the usual line in the article:
It is currently legal in five states, but only by virtue of politicians or judges.
The [...]

Priests and Polanski

The Catholic Church still doesn’t get things. Sunday’s Boston Globe had this bit:
David Gibson, writing for Politics Daily, also asks, “Comparisons are by their nature invidious. But what if Roman Polanksi were wearing a Roman collar? Would ‘Monsignor Polanski’ receive the same considerations?’’ Peter Smith, a religion writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal, wonders, “Let’s say [...]

Gay marriage news

There are three developments in gay marriage:

A law recognizing same sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions went into effect yesterday in Washington DC. It passed the DC council in May, but the US Congress had 30 days to rule on it and have not. DC does not allow same sex marriages.
Same sex marriage foes in [...]

Ok, now NH will allow gay marriage

The New Hampshire legislature first passed a gay marriage bill back on April 30, but then there were a few bumps. Anyway, a gay marriage bill has now been passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.
I will again link to the Union Leader, because they again have links to the text of the [...]

Dr. Tiller murdered

I’m a day late to this but I offer my condolences to the family of Dr. Tiller, one of the very few late term abortion doctors. He was murdered on Sunday during a church service.
I actually would find the fixation on late term abortion providers by ‘pro-life’ activists a bit weird if I didn’t know [...]

Women in Afghanistan

Back in April there was a big outcry about a bill that Afghanistan had passed that severely restricted women’s rights. Because of the outcry, President Karzai said the law would be reviewed. So far nothing has happened–if Karzai was as outraged as this article says that seems a bit weird. Perhaps, this article is more [...]

Regret means more than saying you’re sorry

 A report out of Ireland about schools run by the Catholic church:

found that sexual molestation was “endemic,” committed by offenders who were often transferred to other institutions rather than dismissed or turned over to authorities.

…
Nonetheless, it wasn’t tough enough for some of the victims. Many are angry that the report includes no names of alleged offenders, [...]

Hate Crime

Jeff Jacoby has an article about Hate Crimes legislation. He shows he isn’t bad as some:
Every crime that would be covered by the bill is already a felony under state law. Each one can already be prosecuted and punished. Its name notwithstanding, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act will not prevent any hate crimes. [...]

Free speech and taxes

Last fall I was hoping that a group of conservative churches would follow through with their threat and endorse political candidates even though the IRS says this would mean they would no longer be tax exempt. They did go through with it and, so far, nothing has happened. The pastors still think they should be [...]

8 year olds and marriage

A Saudi court has granted a divorce to an 8 year old girl. I’m not sure what the worst aspect of this case is. Is it:
“It is incorrect to say that it’s not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, said in January, according [...]

Religious Craziness in the UN

The UN Human Rights Council has voted for a non-binding resolution to:
provide “protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation, and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”
“Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination, and violence toward their followers,” Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram said. [...]

Pope shows no mercy for AIDs

Well then, it seems that the Pope is really against contraception:
Benedict also said the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront of the battle against AIDS.
”You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane heading to Yaounde. ”On the contrary, it increases the problem.
Lovely man. If people [...]

Truce in Pakistan with Taliban

I was worried about the truce between the Taliban and the government in the Swat valley in Pakistan. How silly:
On Wednesday, the provincial government signed an accord with the local Taliban leader that imposes Islamic law, or Shariah, in the area, and institutes a host of new regulations, including a ban on music, a requirement [...]

Catholic Church shocked by abortion by 9 year old raped by stepfather

The Catholic Church is absolutist when it comes to abortion, but you would think this might give them pause:
A 9-year-old girl who was carrying twins, and whose stepfather is suspected of raping her, underwent an abortion on Wednesday despite complaints from Brazil’s Roman Catholic Church.
Amazingly, since she is only 9, there is also a serious [...]

Craziness becomes even crazier

He’s a nobody, but Colorado state Senator Dave Schultheis makes it obvious that he thinks that people should be punished for having sex:
Sexual promiscuity, we know, causes a lot of problems in our state, one of which, obviously, is the contraction of HIV. And we have other programs that deal with the negative consequences — [...]

North Dakota is a bit crazy

Amanda has a post about North Dakota’s attempt to ban abortion by declaring fetuses people (which passed their house). When I went to look for the official language, I found that there are other bills about abortion:

they want any abortion provider to put a sign with this up (this passed their senate):

“Notice: No one can force [...]

Pakistan and Sharia Law

Well, it seems that the Pakistan government has agreed to allow Sharia law in their Swat region:
The Pakistani government, desperate to restore peace to a Taliban-infested valley once known as the “Switzerland of Pakistan,” agreed Monday to enforce strict Islamic law in the surrounding district near the Afghan border, conceding to a long-standing demand by [...]

Pope: anti-Semitism not ok, but …

The Pope said the right things about the recent controversy over eliminating the ex-communication of Williamson:
In his weekly audience with the public on Wednesday, Benedict said he “renewed with love” his “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews, whom he called “our brothers of the first covenant.”
He added that he had repeatedly visited Auschwitz, the location [...]

Church: Anti-Semitism not bar to priesthood

It seems that Holocaust denial isn’t that big a deal to the Catholic Church allowing Richard Williamson back into the church despite this:
In comments to Swedish TV broadcast Wednesday, he said, “I believe there were no gas chambers” and that only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million.
Williamson went [...]

Increased expectations

Ok, a day of President Obama has increased my expectations. I no longer expect atheists to be demonized and I’m not even surprised when we’re included:
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers.
And I shouldn’t be. [...]