NOT a hate crime??

Less than 24 hours after a man targeted a liberal, gay-inclusive church and killed two of its congregants, one "pro-family" figure said that the case will prove that hate crimes protections are not needed because the media will help prosecute it.

58-year-old Jim D. Adkisson of Powell, Tennessee, entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Monday and fired shots from a sawed-off 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun during a Monday children's performance of the musical "Annie," killing two and wounding seven. According to the Knoxville, Tennessee police chief Sterling Owen IV, a letter the out-of-work truck driver left in his car indicated frustration over a lack of employment opportunities, a reduction in his food stamp benefits and his "stated hatred of the liberal movement." Adkisson had 76 rounds with him and did not intend to leave the church alive.

"It proves our case" that hate crimes laws are not necessary, said Americans for Truth About Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera. The media spotlight on Adkisson will "give more attention and better treatment to this case."

More HERE.

Editorial: Road to nowhere

from A. C. Grayling -
I enjoyed the subtlety of the Guardian's page 13 layout yesterday. It was the first page of the international section, and it contained two stories, the first about legal moves in Turkey's constitutional court to disband the country's ruling AKP party on the grounds that it is threatening Turkey's secularist constitution, the second about complaints by Polish holidaymakers who find the nudity on German "free body culture" beaches disgusting.

To the alert eye the connection is direct. Admirers of the Catholic culture of Poland will assuredly be delighted by its success in making the unclothed human frame an object of disgust. Admirers of Islamic culture will be delighted to find that Turkish Islamists are encouraging more women to hide that automatic trigger of unbridled male lust, the tresses on the female head.

More HERE.

"Free Day Away"

In a news release dated July 23, 2008, Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced that it has asked the Department of Defense (DoD) to investigate the "Free Day Away" program at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. In its letter to acting DoD Inspector General Gordon Heddell, Americans United (AU) notes a previous investigation of "Free Day Away," conducted by the Fort Leonard Wood Inspector General. That Inspector General determined that this clearly coercive and, according to reports from numerous soldiers, unavoidable religious program was voluntary and did not violate the rights of the soldiers.

More HERE.

Book Review: David Aikman's 'Delusion of Disbelief'

from Arizona Atheist -
Aikman, like every other theist, tries to place the "four horsemen" (Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris) in a bad light, seemingly trying to discredit them before he even begins to address their arguments. If theists don't attack the four authors directly they try the old atheism is responsible for communism and nazism bit (Aikman does exactly that in chapter 5). As I've said before, I think this new strategy is an attempt to discredit the logical philosophy of materialism by equating it with evil acts, which is just a logical fallacy in itself (the 'poisoning of the well' fallacy).

In my opinion, this new approach is due, at least in part, to the fact that theists have had their arguments critiqued and destroyed and they have been unable to prove their case. Because of this, they've decided to attack the materialistic philosophy directly, but again they have failed.

More HERE.

Rinehart's bizarre campaign comic book

from Wonkette -
Brent Rinehart is a commissioner in Oklahoma County, which is in Oklahoma. Rinehart has been charged with felony campaign-finance crimes and will be tried this fall, which isn’t helping his campaign for re-election. So he wrote this comic book (PDF) and is sending it to everybody in his district.

More HERE.

'Christian Alliance' annexes Iowa GOP

Evangelical Christians in Iowa, dominant in the state's Republican Party, have denied Sen. Charles E. Grassley his request for a place on the state's delegation to this summer's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

"The Republican Party of Iowa is moving significantly to the right on social issues," the just-ousted Iowa Republican National Committee member Steve Roberts told The Washington Times. "It hurts John McCain's chances to win this state."

Other party officials said money for the party is drying up because of past mismanagement and current religious dominance, which has turned traditional Republican politics upside down.

"It's pretty well controlled now by the Christian Alliance," Mr. Roberts said. "If somebody came to me and wanted to be a delegate to the national party convention, I used to say, 'Talk to the state party chairman or to Grassley.' Now it's very simple. You go to the Christian Alliance, and they determine who is a delegate, and you have to do exactly as they say."

More HERE.

Could Josef Stalin be made a saint?

The Communist party in St Petersburg has petitioned the Orthodox Church to canonise Josef Stalin if he wins a television poll to nominate the greatest Russian in history.

A newly published history text book, approved by the Kremlin for use in all schools, glossed over the more unappealing parts of Stalin's rule and ultimately concluded that he was the Soviet Union's most successful leader.

Despite the church's reluctance, St Petersburg's Communists are convinced their vision will come to pass. They have already commissioned religious icons depicting Stalin with a halo round his head that have reportedly sold very well around the city.

More HERE.

NOVA program examines bible authorship

Archaeologist William Dever:
"It's a waste of time to argue with fundamentalists," he said. "This film doesn't do it. It's designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. And, of course, one film is not going to change religious life in America, but it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible in a modern way a chance. If we insist on reading the Bible literally, in 25 years, nobody will read it any longer."

More HERE.

'Allah meat' astounds Nigerians

Diners have been flocking to a restaurant in northern Nigeria to see pieces of meat which the owner says are inscribed with the name of Allah.

What looks like the Arabic word for God and the name of the prophet Muhammad were discovered in pieces of beef by a diner in Birnin Kebbi.

He was about to eat it, when he suddenly noticed the words in the gristle, the restaurant owner said. A search of the kitchen's meat revealed three more pieces which bore the names.

More HERE.

Calling on Gospel to Call Off Debt

Following the advice of their pastor, the men and women shuffled to the altar, cut up their credit cards and placed them near his feet.

"If we want to have victory, we have to come out of financial bondage," the Rev. John K. Jenkins of First Baptist Church of Glenarden shouted during a recent sermon.

Ordinarily Jenkins's sermons are about spiritual freedom and ridding one's self of sin. But his message has taken a different turn lately -- one that preaches the dangers of overspending and debt.

More HERE.