Veiled Identity

I am 100% for sartorial liberty. Most regular readers of this blog would vouchsafe for that. Full burqa is no exception to my position, even though I disagree with the assertion that it is a symbol of woman's empowerment, as some feminists have argued. There are, however, exceptional situations where wearing a garment that covers the entire face, barring the eye, can be dangerous. This story from Italy illustrates one such situation —

Italy: Turin official appeals to school board to ban burqa-wearing mothers - Adnkronos Security: A government official in industrial northern Italian city of Turin has asked the local school board to stop fully-veiled women from picking up their children at school because it makes it difficult to identify them as the students' true parents.

"Some mothers with children enrolled in the Albert Sabin elementary school in Turin have seen Islamic women wearing the full burqa picking up their children, and I have seen this as well," Marrone said, adding that the burqa made it impossible for teachers to "verify the identity" of those picking up minors.

I have personally witnessed an attempt to forcibly abduct a young child, and know of a brave young girl who prevented another with her presence of mind. Neither of the abductor was burqa-clad woman, but both were apprehended outside elementary schools. I shudder to think how these children' lives might have been, had these abduction attempts succeeded.

Permitting fully veiled women to pick up children is an insane idea. For obvious reasons, it endangers their own children by several orders of magnitude more. If these veiled women were caring and responsible mothers, they wouldn't insist on their religion playing with the lives of their children.

Read More...

Blasphemy in the Other Religion

Reporters Sans Frontières - Debate on Internet censorship censored:

It is only logical that an article about online censorship would be censored. But last week’s censorship of such an article by the Shanghai-based business weekly Diyi Caijing Zhoukan (第一财经周刊- cbnweek.com) has again highlighted the extremes to which the propaganda agencies go to ensure that any discussion of the way the Communist Party censors the Internet is nipped in the bud.

Read the full story.

Read More...

Resolved: Civilization Survives Despite Religion

The 6th semi-annual Munk Debate featured Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair, debating the resolution: be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world.

PRE-DEBATE — PRO: 22% CON:57% UNDECIDED:21%

My favorite extract from the full transcript of the debate by Jon Bernstein in the New Statesman:

...I propose a pact with the faith, the faithful, I'll take it again, quoting from the great Thomas Jefferson, I don't mind if my neighbour believes in 15 gods or in none, he neither by that breaks my leg or picks my pocket. I would echo that, and say that as long as you don't want your religion taught to my children in school, given a government subsidy, imposed on me by violence, any of these things, you are fine by me...

I would prefer not even to know what it is that you do in that church of yours, in fact, if you force it on my attention, I will consider it a breach of that pact. Have your own bloody Christmas, and so on. Do your slaughtering, if possible, in an abattoir. And don't mutilate the genitals of your children! Because then I'm afraid it gets within the ambit of law.

All right, don't you think that's reasonably pluralistic and communitarian of me? I think it is. Why is it a vain hope on my part? Has this pact ever been honoured by the other side? Of course not.

POST-DEBATE — PRO: 32% CON: 68%

It is resolved that civilization has survived despite religion!

Read More...

Dr. Sunitha Krishnan on Sex Slavery

... When I rescued them, one of the biggest challenges I had was where do I begin, because I had lots of them who are already HIV infected. One-third of the people I rescue are HIV positive and therefore my challenge was to understand how can I get out this power from this pain...

[F]or me I was my greatest experience [Dr. Krishnan was 15, when she was gang-raped by 8 men]. Understanding my own self, understanding my own pain, my own isolation, was my greatest teacher, because what we did with these girls is to understand their potential.

You see a girl here who is trained as a welder. She works for a very big company, a workshop, in Hyderabad, making furniture. She earns around 12000 rupees [about $280]. She is an illiterate girl, trained, skilled as a welder.

Why welding and why not computers? We felt one of the things these girls had, is immense amount of courage. They did not have any purdahs inside their body, hijabs inside themselves. They have crossed the barrier of it, and therefore, they could fight in a male-dominated world very easily and not feel very shy about it. We have trained girls as carpenters, as masons, as security guards, as cab drivers. And, each one of them is excelling in their chosen fields, gaining confidence, restoring dignity, and building hopes in their lives...

Please visit Prajwala, and do what you can to support the organization and Dr. Sunitha Krishnan in their work to stop this violation of the fundamental rights of women and children.

I would like to start an initiative to nominate Dr. Krishnan and/or Prajwala for the Nobel Peace Prize. The process for nomination and selection of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates can be found here. I will do what I can to advance the process, in particular, canvassing university officials and professors in social sciences.

I invite you to join the initiative and do what you can to help. If there is already an initiative for this that any reader is aware of, please inform me, so other volunteers and I can join the initiative.

Thank you.

Read More...

Festival of Clowns

From

US — a Christian, fundamentalist, wingnut,
India — a communalist, Hindutva, terrorist,
Europe — a racist, anti-immigrant, Islamophobe,
Canada — a hate-criminal, and from
Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia... — a blasphemer, Zionist, dead man,

speaking the truth about Islam and the Festival of Clowns — a.k.a. Human Rights Council — at the United Nations. If I had inadvertantly insulted the clowns, please forgive me.

Ladies and gentlemen, Pat Condell:

Read More...

Schizophrenia: Reason v. Religion

As someone who has witnessed as a child, and then as an adult, close family members torn apart by schizophrenia and subjected to inhuman treatment in the hands of religious quacks, I have a personal interest in medical advances in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. Here are two contrasting approaches to schizophrenia, reason v. religion:

The Insanity Virus

The Christian Approach to Schizophrenia

The facts of schizophrenia are so peculiar, in fact, that they have led Torrey and a growing number of other scientists to abandon the traditional explanations of the disease and embrace a startling alternative. Schizophrenia, they say, does not begin as a psychological disease. Schizophrenia begins with an infection. The idea has sparked skepticism, but after decades of hunting, Torrey and his colleagues think they have finally found the infectious agent. You might call it an insanity virus. If Torrey is right, the culprit that triggers a lifetime of hallucinations—that tore apart the lives of writer Jack Kerouac, mathematician John Nash, and millions of others—is a virus that all of us carry in our bodies. "Some people laugh about the infection hypothesis," says Urs Meyer, a neuroimmunologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. "But the impact that it has on researchers is much, much, much more than it was five years ago. And my prediction would be that it will gain even more impact in the future." The implications are enormous. Torrey, Meyer, and others hold out hope that they can address the root cause of schizophrenia, perhaps even decades before the delusions begin. The first clinical trials of drug treatments are already under way. The results could lead to meaningful new treatments not only for schizophrenia but also for bipolar disorder and multiple sclerosis. Beyond that, the insanity virus (if such it proves) may challenge our basic views of human evolution, blurring the line between "us" and "them", between pathogen and host. Read more...

Sin, the violation of God's laws, has both direct and indirect consequences that account for all of the bizarre behavior of schizophrenics. That is why Christians must refuse to ignore the biblical data. From the perspective of these Scriptural data all faulty behavior (which for the Christian is behavior that does not conform to the law of God) stems ultimately from the fundamental impairment of each human being at birth in consequence of the corruption of mankind resulting from the fall. No perfect human beings are born by ordinary generation. They all inherit the fallen nature of Adam together with its organic and moral defects that lead to all faulty (including all bizarre) behavior. No aspect of a human being, no function has escaped the distorting effects of sin. To some extent, therefore, the same problems seen in schizophrenics are common to all. The differences lie in (1) what bodily functions are impaired, (2) how severely, and (3) what sinful life responses have been developed by the counselee. It is also vital to ask whether the individual is redeemed by the grace of God, since redemption involves a gradual renewal of human nature (cf. Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:10). The identification of the problem of schizophrenia as a theological difficulty points toward a theological solution... Wrong labels point in wrong directions which, in turn, end only in more frustration... If it indicates that the problem comes from sinful living, the term "sin" points in the direction of a theological solution. It is a serious fault thus to suggest that anything less than God Himself can solve a problem that fundamentally has to do with one's relationship to Him. Read more...

Idle polemics? If you are a parent, and your child shows signs of autism, schizophrenia, or any mental or physical illness, would you like to be told that she was a sinner, possessed by demons that ought to be exorcised? Read this news from Trinidad and Tobago Guardian:

Panic broke out at the Moruga Composite School yesterday as 17 female students fell mysteriously ill and began rolling on the ground, hissing and blabbering in a strange tongue, after suffering bouts of nausea and headaches...

Form Five student Kern Mollineau, who attends the Lighthouse Tabernacle Church, said he got worried when the girls’ eyes began rolling up in their heads and they began beating up on the ground...

Mollineau claimed he actually communicated with the “devil which had possessed the girl. “I asked the Devil what he wanted with the girls and the voice said he wanted a life. He kept saying to send the girls in the toilet and to leave them alone,” Mollineau claimed.

Roman Catholic priests, as well as pastors from nearby churches, including Josephine Charles, Deborah Charles and Pastor Gordon, visited the school and began showering the children with holy water and prayers.

Still dismissive of god delusion? Watch this video.

Read More...

The Sublime and the Religulous

The cardinals were confused and disheveled, having been woken up once again from their deep slumber. As they scrambled into their seats, the chatter began, incoherent as always.

"What now? I thought we all would have some sleep, so we could recover from Stephen Hawking's declaration that god was not necessary for creation."

"He said that?"

"Who said that?"

"That doesn't sound so bad. Darwin said something similar quite a while ago, and we have survived."

"Something terrible must have happened, indeed. Otherwise, why were we awakened at this ungodly hour of 8 in the morning!"

"Tsk, tsk, cardinal [inaudible], you know better than to take the lord's name in vain!

"I heard rumors that a pair of human egg and sperm have been chemically synthesized."

"Can't be true. Scientists are quite a distance from getting there. Until then we'll have bread and wine on the table."

"Well, what then? Have the Iranians exploded a nuclear device? I knew that could happen any day now."

"Is this a drill for the Armageddon?"

"Were you at the special screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night? It was awesome."

"Who's cuter, Emma Watson or Bonnie Wright?"

"I think Daniel Radcliffe is the cutest of all."

"Silence! Our most blessed father is here."

"Good morning, esteemed cardinals."

"Good morning, most blessed father."

"Cardinals, we have a problem. They have broken through the 100 milliseconds barrier at CERN."

"What, I thought there were no barriers to break through after the Berlin Wall."

"Where is CERN?"

"What is CERN?"

"Quiet, children, sorry, cardinals. CERN, Switzerland, is the home of the Large Hadron Collider. Scientists there have been able to trap anti-matter for 170 secs. Not once, but 38 times. It's impressive."

"Of course. It's good news, right? Anyone who traps anti-Christ, that too in a cauldron, must be impressive."

"Not anti-Christ, you idiot, anti-matter. And, not cauldron, but Hadron."

"Poor fellow, he must have forgotten his hearing aids."

"Well, it's not good news. The achievement takes science one step closer to unifying quantum theory and general relativity... towards a theory of everything."

"You don't say!"

"What is quantum theory? From its name, it doesn't sound like it can be of much consequence."

"I hear there is a special relativity, too. What is special about it?"

"God is the theory of everything. Everyone knows that."

"Be quiet. I am afraid there are some serious implications here for our beloved church. Foremost, it strengthens the hands of Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, and all their fellow atheists. If they stumble upon a new theory of everything, then we'll be left with nothing. No special status at the UN, no immunity from criminal prosecution for sexual abuse, no tax exemption..."

"That would be terrible, indeed, holy father. What can we do?"

"We must somehow discredit CERN before it's too late."

"Most blessed father, may I be granted permission to speak?"

"Yes, cardinal dean, what have you to say?"

"Surely, they must use a lot of computers at CERN?"

"Most certainly they do, cardinal. Even a pretty little choir boy could tell you that."

"I am sure holiness has heard about our rival from the renegade faith, Rev. Jim Peasboro, and his book, 'The Devil in the Machine: Is your computer possessed by a demon?'"

"Are you saying that the CERN computers are possessed by demons? It's possible, of course, but I find Rev. Peasboro’s theological reasoning about demonic computers rather unconvincing. My personal computer assistant, Dev Peter, tells me that he may have confused the daemon with demon." [hesitant laughter all around]

"I have more than just Rev. Peasboro’s speculation about demonic computers. Have you checked the backside of your laptop lately, holy father?"

"Watch your language, cardinal dean. Do you see anyone on our holy father's lap? How could he check her backside?"

"Shut up, idiot. Go on, cardinal dean."

"Your holiness, there is an evangelical flock in Brazil, who call themselves, 'Paz do Senhor Amado' ('Peace of the beloved Lord'). It's founder, 'Apostle' Welder Saldanha, has made the startling discovery that... I shall not dare utter its name in the presence of the most blessed father... has sneaked its symbol into multiple holes in modern computers. They are called USB ports and they lead to the very soul of the computer. It is with much hesitation that I show you this. Please forgive me.

Apostle Saldanha has forbidden his sheep from using any computer that carries the symbol on its body. I urge our most blessed father to use his influence, and get the Swiss government to ban the use of all computers with USB immediately. That would cripple CERN for quite some time to come."

"Brilliant idea! Thank you, cardinal dean. It surely buys us some time. Meanwhile, my esteemed cardinals, I urge every one of you to put your dirty... er... dazzling minds in the service of our lord. Let us develop a theory of nothing to counter their theory of everything. Let's give thanks to god and pray that god will help us to go forward with strength and faith in the joy of his resurrection."

---

Hat Tip: the freethinker: The Devil and your computer

Read More...

Peeping State and Sex in the Backseat

Sex, in economic jargon, would be classified as an experience good. Like an intimate dinner in a restaurant, its value cannot be predetermined. Only after it has been consummated or experienced. How do the parties then agree on it's worth prior to the transaction? Don't worry, I don't intend to give you a lecture on the economics of marketing experience goods. My aim is quite different — to illustrate how government intrusion into private transactions can produce some strange and unintended consequences.

As usual, my journey into the evaluation of the costs and benefits of sexual transactions began when I was surfing for news about shenanigans of the state. According to what's on xiamen:

[W]hen a policeman was patrolling Phoenix Plaza along Yizhou Road, Linyi City, east China's Shandong Province, he saw a parked black Santana rocking and swaying [really, what else would you expect a car named Santana to do?]. When forcefully opened the car door he saw a man and a woman, naked in the car, the front seats were leaned all the way back, tissue paper and red bull cans on the back seat...

Two of them admitted that they were having sex at the time. Li Jingwei [an official at the Linyi Highway Bureau in charge of the State Highway 206 Yihe Bridge toll] also confessed that he and his 13 other female subordinates have the same kind of sexual relationships, and he also has 2 illegitimate children...

Li Jingwei soon found himself appeared to be impotent, the doctors diagnosed him with impotence caused by psychological reasons. Li thought that his condition was a caused by the policeman dragging him out of the car naked in public; therefore the police should compensate him.

Calculating with the rate of average 200 yuan per sexual intercourse, under normal conditions he should be able to have 5000 more sexual intercourses in his lifetime, the police should pay him 1 million yuan in compensation.

Well, I guess the policeman was well within his rights [and obligations] to investigate a parked vehicle that was rocking and swaying, although any high school junior in this country [and, I am pretty sure, in China, too] would have needed just one glance at the vehicle to tell what was going on. Beyond that, I believe, it's none of his business.

Why do these fellows in positions of power have an obsessive-compulsive desire to intrude into the sexual lives of others? Could it have anything to do with god's puerile interest in human sex? As Sam Harris had observed, "[God] has got galaxy upon galaxy to attend to, but he's especially concerned with what we do, and he's especially concerned with what we do while naked. He almost certainly disapproves of homosexuality...".

There is a perfectly natural explanation, too. With the 750,000,000:1 sperms to egg ratio in a single human copulation, the competition must be intense. So must be, envy and the desire to exclude others from getting at that precious egg!

I don't know if Mr. Li would be compensated for his loss in the end or not, but what about Mrs. Li? Shouldn't she be compensated, too? After all, with her husband impotent, she would have also been deprived of sex. If so, how much should Linyi City Police pay her? More, less, or equally? Could it be nothing, because Mrs. Li could divorce her impotent husband, and seek her pleasures elsewhere?

We have a precedence to help us along. From the same source, what's on xiamen:

A Guangdong Province woman decided to accept a 640,000-yuan ($ 95,941) cash offer from a company she blamed for an accident that left her husband permanently unable to have sex.

The woman, identified only as Wang, dropped her case after the employer, a petrochemical company in Dongguan, offered 640,000 yuan to cover her husband's injuries and for depriving her of a "right to have sex," the Dongguan Times reported Thursday.

Wang, according to the story, was 28. Assuming that both she and Li Jingwei were about the same age, does it mean a woman's expected value from future sex is less than that of a man? Does this give us cause to compensate Mrs. Li less?

Well, if you thought that things are getting hairier here, wait till you hear what my able research assistants, Google, have to say about the perils of sex in the back seat. No, I am not about to guide you on how to have safe sex in the backseat of a car — you can find plenty of material on it, if you wish, with a mere touch of your keyboard. What you are about to find out is that not just the amorous couple, but the car, too, is in grave danger of violating the law! Well, at least in Michigan.

From BENNIS v. MICHIGAN - CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF MICHIGAN, No. 94-8729. Argued November 29, 1995-Decided March 4,1996:

Petitioner [Tina Bennis] was a joint owner, with her husband, of an automobile in which her husband engaged in sexual activity with a prostitute. In declaring the automobile forfeit as a public nuisance under Michigan's statutory abatement scheme, the trial court permitted no offset for petitioner's interest, notwithstanding her lack of knowledge of her husband's activity. The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed, but was in turn reversed by the State Supreme Court, which concluded, inter alia, that Michigan's failure to provide an innocent-owner defense was without federal constitutional consequence under this Court's decisions.

Held: The forfeiture order did not offend the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 446-453...

---

REHNQUIST, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'CONNOR, SCALIA, THOMAS, and GINSBURG, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., post, p. 453, and GINSBURG, J., post, p. 457, filed concurring opinions. STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SOUTER and BREYER, JJ., joined, post, p. 458. KENNEDY, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 472.

What we are witnessing here is a consequence of Michigan State Law that declares a vehicle used for a crime as "public nuisance", and should be "abated" or put away. Because Tina Bennis' husband had sex with a woman for a fee, it was a crime, according to state law. The location of the crime was the backseat of the car that she owned, so the car had to be abated. Even if Tina had nothing to do with her husband's tryst in her car — wasn't in a ménage à trois, for instance — she was held responsible. She must, therefore, forfeit her car. Absurd, to put it mildly!

I agree with the dissenting opinion of Justices Stevens, Souter, and Breyer:

For centuries prostitutes have been plying their trade on other people's property. Assignations have occurred in palaces, luxury hotels, cruise ships, college dormitories, truck stops, back alleys and back seats. A profession of this vintage has provided governments with countless opportunities to use novel weapons to curtail its abuses. As far as I am aware, however, it was not until 1988 that any State decided to experiment with the punishment of innocent third parties by confiscating property in which, or on which, a single transaction with a prostitute has been consummated.

Where does one draw the line for personal responsibility? If the car in question had been parked in the premises of the county library, would the government have declared the library as a public nuisance and abated it, too?

A broader question is, should the State have a right to peep into the backseat of a parked car that is rocking and swaying, obviously to the rhythm of sexual activity? Would it matter if the sex were for free or for a price?

Read More...

Atheists in Foxholes

Where Did God Go in Afghanistan? An Atheist Writes. - NYTimes.com:

I recall dining halls decorated with bible verses, units adorned with bibles, and meetings started with Christian prayers... I recall how my short quote in a small article in Newsweek magazine, wherein I pointed out the falsehood and absurdity that exists in the statement “there are no atheists in foxholes,” resulted in several military members seeking me out through the government e-mail system to threaten me with rape, abuse, and murder.

The U.S. military, I thought, was commandeered to defend against all enemies, the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America. Instead, it seems like they are more preoccupied with defending against their colleagues, the Invisible Unicorn that's supposed to have whispered the Bible in the ears of men who are no more than fossils today.

Read More...

Market for Grades

The Shadow Scholar - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education:

I do a lot of work for seminary students. I like seminary students. They seem so blissfully unaware of the inherent contradiction in paying somebody to help them cheat in courses that are largely about walking in the light of God and providing an ethical model for others to follow. I have been commissioned to write many a passionate condemnation of America's moral decay as exemplified by abortion, gay marriage, or the teaching of evolution. All in all, we may presume that clerical authorities see these as a greater threat than the plagiarism committed by the future frocked.

As a lifelong educator, I have shared with you my experience with cheating students, but I must admit, I was shocked and awed by this article! I have quoted the particular extract above, because it is pertinent to the main subject of this blog, and because there is so much discussion these days on the alleged inseparability between religion and morality. Read it all.

Read More...

Paddled in Alabama: Teachers Fail Math Test

Paddletown, AL: Almost three quarters of elementary-school teachers in the Bethlehem School District in Alabama have failed a math exam administered to them. The test included simple problems involving multiplication, division, and fractions, designed to assess the teachers' ability to stem the decline in standardized scores of the district.

This is not the the first time the teachers' knowledge of the subject has been assessed on a separate test. The results of the previous test administered in October, 2009, were quite similar. The results are not unique to the state of Alabama either. In Massachusetts last year, only about 27 percent of the 600 teaching candidates could pass the math and statistics section of the state's licensing exam.

As a punishment for repeated failure, and with a goal to improve teaching competence, the teachers were called into their respective Principal's Office, where they were each given 10 whacks with an approved paddle, as stipulated in the Alabama Teacher Improvement Act of 2008.

While the rest of the nation, especially the teachers union, was outraged over the corporal punishment for the failing teachers, reactions in Alabama, which is one of the 20 states where corporal punishment was legal for children in public schools, were mixed. Children, of course, were unanimous in their condemnation of paddling, but most parents in this overwhelmingly religious county thought paddling adults and animals went against their Christian values.

As an eager blogger, always looking for weird stories, I was intrigued. I caught the next cheapest flight to a state that I didn't think I'd ever visit. With some shouldering and jostling - fortunately, there was no protective cordon of Tea Party volunteers - I got within the earshot of Miss Jane, who was one of the teachers paddled for her repeat failure.

Me: Miss Jane, how would you describe the paddling you got?

Miss Jane: It was a nightmare. Just like what 18 year old Jessica Smith pleaded she was put through.

He told her to bend over a chair with her buttocks raised. The petite, attractive eighteen-year-old woman refused. The unusually large, strong young man then physically forced her to assume the position and summoned two assistants to hold her down as she struggled to resist. He swung Ole Thunder mightily, striking her buttocks, leg, and hip with the four-foot-long piece of wood. She momentarily broke a hand free and raised it to shield her body from the blows and he struck her hand with Ole Thunder, causing her to cry out that he had broken her hand. His helpers then pulled her feet up, raising her buttocks off the floor, and he continued to beat her. She was crying the whole time, humiliated, and in a great deal of pain. When it was over, her buttocks were bleeding, her hand was too swollen and painful to use, and her face was stained with tears. He then ordered Jessica Smith to return to her classroom and resume her studies. --- Source: Plaintiff’s First Amended Original Petition at 2, Smith v. Sch. of Excellence in Educ., No. SA-05-CA-0062 (W.D. Tex. Sept. 15, 2005) Telephone Interview with Dan Hargrove, Attorney for Plaintiff (Dec. 14, 2005) via Deana Pollard Sacks, State Actors Beating Children: A Call For Judicial Relief.

I knew it was a stupid question, but as a self-respecting reporter I had to ask her how she felt when she was whacked.

Me: Miss Jane, how did you feel when that paddle swung and hit your butt again and again?

Miss Jane [tearfully]: Idiot, how do you think you would feel, if you were asked to strip and bend over, and then paddled, just because you wrote 1/2 + 1/2 = 2/4? It's humiliating... like... who was that... 17 year old Allison Guthrie from Dallas ... yeah, that's her... said in her interview with Human Rights Watch:

I think there were several levels of emotion. Physical pain, mental humiliation. One, it felt a little unjustified — just for being late? And being a female at that age, it was like there was this older man hitting me on the butt. That's weird. Very strange at that age. Even at that age I knew it was inappropriate, this being a man that I don't know. It was this instinctual knowing that it was inappropriate…

I have talked about it since then, but we didn't talk about it as being inappropriate then. I think it took me a while to realize why I was so ashamed by it and how inappropriate it was.

Allison must press charges for assault and battery, you know. Perhaps, molestation, too. I am an adult, not a child, and I have rights. It also hurts badly. Here, take a look!".

Leaving Miss Jane to the mercy of the rest of the paparazzi, I turned to Jason, a high school senior, who had attended the school where Miss Jane taught.

Me: Mr. Jason, what do you think? Should your teacher have been put through a humiliating experience like this?

Jason [livid]: Dude, haven't you heard about my cousin, Payton?

Payton attends Plainview Elementary and is in the seventh grade. Recently, Lewis claims her son came home from school with severe bruises and welts on his behind. Melissa Lewis said her son was upset, "Mom look at my butt and see if there is something wrong with it? He dropped his pants and I said wow what happened? He said I got paddled because I did not pass my science test."

Where is the outrage? Everyone froths with anger when a woman is beaten in distant Malaysia or Saudi Arabia for wearing pants and blouse. Here a six year old is beaten blue in her butt for coloring her hair blue! Look, you can't do what was done to Payton even to a dog in this country. ASPCA will be upon you before you can say Jack Robinson, but they won't dare laying a finger on this teacher. It's about time Miss Jane and the likes of her understand what it feels like when they whack kids half their size! Tell me, why should there be a different rule for them just because they are a few years older?"

Nodding my head vigorously, I moved to Miss Jane.

Me: I think Jason does have a valid point here. If adults could file assault and battery charges against paddlers, why can't children do the same? Don't they have rights on this sort of things?

Miss Jane [twiddling the cross around her neck]: Oh, no, absolutely not. Children have no rights. Except the unborn, of course. The lord god has commanded us to smack children with a paddle to discipline them. See for yourself (she took a copy of the Bible and held it out to me):

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. Proverbs 13:24.

Foolishness [is] bound in the heart of a child; [but] the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Proverbs 22:15.

Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Proverbs 23:13-14.

Me: Yes, the Bible sayeth so, but aren't thereth laws againsteth this? Oops, sorry, Miss Jane, I just got trapped in a language time warp there!

Miss Jane: No, sir, there ain't no such such laws, not around here. Not in any of the 20 states that you foreigners...

Me: Mme, I am not a foreigner. I am a U.S. citizen.

Miss Jane: Whatever... what you godless liberals...

Me: Mme, I don't really care about labels, but I am not a liberal. Actually, I am for small government, zero tax, free market, against the Health Care Bill...

Miss Jane: Well, then you must be in the Tea Party.

Me: ... pro-ERA, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage...", but it's true that I don't believe in god.

Miss Jane [looking confused]: How could that be? Atheists are all liberals, commies... aren't they? Anyway, as I was saying... corporal punishment in schools is legal in the 20 states they call, and we proudly admit, the Bible Belt. We follow god's laws here, not the laws of those Washington frauds and rogues.

Me: So, you think it's okay to paddle children as young as 3 and 4, but the government should protect adults like you and me from it?

Miss Jane: Exactly. And, what's the point of paddling adults like me? Isn't it too late for us to learn how to add 1/2 and 1/2? [Grimacing] oooooh... it hurts badly, you know [starts to sniff].

I held out my hand-kerchief to her, and walked to a genial old fellow standing a few feet away.

Me: You, sir, what's your opinion on padding teachers?

Man [giving me a big grin]: I thought you'd never ask me. What goes around, comes around. If the teacher could paddle the kid till she is blue in her cheek, and expect that she wouldn't be tardy with her homework next time, why not paddle the teacher for being late to work, eh?

Me: How do you discipline a kid then, if everything else fails?

Man: If everything else — including stuff that had a much better chance — failed, why do you think paddling will do it? Is this some kind of "Hail Mary Pass"? [Chuckling to himself, mutters] bloody faith and football fanatics! [Louder] you want to know more about this barbaric stuff? You can read it all here.

Me: How can you say that paddling does nothing to discipline a kid? God said to Moses...

Man: F$#! god, f$#! Moses. That was two or three millennia ago, if it ever happened as they say it happened. Do you mean to say that we have learnt nothing in all these centuries? What do you think all those professors and researchers got paid for? instead, you wanna bet your child's life on these fellows who didn't even know that the earth went around the sun and that small pox could be prevented with vaccination? Good luck!

Me: Okay, but shouldn't parents know what's best for their kids?

Man: No, not always. Are you a parent? Do you know that "at least 10,000-20,000 American students needed medical treatment after becoming victims of corporal punishment in their school environments during the 1986-1987 school year... Medical complications may prevent students from returning to school for days, weeks, or even longer. Reported medical findings include abrasions, severe muscle injury, extensive hematomas, whiplash damage, life-threatening fat emboli, severe arm or leg nerve injury (including fractures), brain hemorrhage, and others (including death!)...

Me: You can always cite extreme cases in your favor. Don't you think with moderation and care, paddling would help children behave?

Man: Science does not corroborate that. Listen to what the American Academy of Pediatrics says: "[C]orporal punishment within the schools is not an effective technique for producing a sustained, desired behavioral change and is associated with the potential for harm including physical injury, psychological trauma, and inhibition of school participation."

Me: So, you think it's quite likely that Payton Lewis will perform no better in his science test because of the paddling that he got?

Man: Payton who?

Me: The kid who got paddled by his teacher for failing in the science test...

Man: He paddled the kid for failing in a test? What a jerk! Who failed the science test here, eh... the student or the teacher?

Read More...

We Need to Talk About Islam

Nina Shea and Paul Marshall: We Need to Talk About Islam - WSJ.com:

But the greatest threat posed by [Geert Wilders] case is not to a lone Dutch firebrand, but to Europeans at large, whose fundamental freedoms of speech and religion are being steadily undermined. Those trying to repress these individual rights in the name of sensitivity are gaining ground with each case that upholds the state's power to regulate the content of speech on Islam. Since Mr. Wilders' defense does not challenge the legitimacy of hate-speech laws per se, but instead points to the specific facts of his case, even his acquittal would not alter this encroachment on core Western rights.

Read More...

My God Is Better Than Your God

Three boys were talking together about what their father's did for a living.

Boy 1 began by saying that his Dad wrote a few words on a piece of paper, sent them away and received £20 for them and they called it a poem.

Boy 2, not to be outdone said that his Dad wrote a few pages of words, sent them away and received £100 and they called it a story.

Boy 3 was full of himself and said that his Dad wrote a couple of sides of words, read them out on Sunday morning, called it a sermon and it took 6 people to go round and collect all the money.

--- Source: guy-sports.com

"My dad is better than your dad" is an old favorite in male ego trips among kids. I guess it can be translated into "my genes are better than yours, so I can, and will, control you". Sort of. Most of us grow out of it. We learn to live and let live, conceding, "I'm okay, you are okay". Some refuse to grow up, though, and persist with slightly more sophisticated male ego trips such as "I've had more girls than you have", "I have killed more villains in Mortal Kombat than you have", and so on.

Religions are not much different from imbecile men. My god is more powerful and nobler than yours, my messiah is the only true messiah and yours is a fake, my book is holier than yours, etc. After years of flexible place and hours of work in this country, I could tell that the mid-morning knock on my door was from the well-dressed baloney delivery couple, without moving an inch from my seat in front of the computer. Fortunately, most religions are no longer so barbaric as to insist on guillotining or incarcerating for life, the hapless men and women who dare to challenge their gods. The days of Joan of Arc and Galileo Galilei are centuries past.

One religion, it seems, is unwilling to budge from its infantile beliefs and laws. After a spat about water drawn from a well by an "unclean" Christian woman, Asia Bibi, and the ensuing argument about "My god is better than yours", her Muslim neighbors decided to leave the matter in the hands of the law — Islamic law:

A Pakistani court has sentenced to death a Christian mother of five for blasphemy, the first such conviction of a woman and sparking protests from rights groups Thursday...

Asia's case dates back to June 2009 when she was asked to fetch water while out working in the fields. But a group of Muslim women labourers objected, saying that as a non-Muslim, she should not touch the water bowl.

A few days later the women went to a local cleric and alleged that Asia made made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed. The cleric went to local police, who opened an investigation.

She was arrested in Ittanwalai village and prosecuted under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries the death penalty.

Ahem... If terrorism were the result of a misunderstanding by a few extremists from "al Qaeda and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion — certainly not a great, world religion like Islam", what do we call a court ordered execution of a woman for claiming that "her prophet was better than their prophet"?

Read More...

Through the Fishbowl

Live Science enumerates eight "shocking things" that we learn from a new book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, the Grand Design. Many of you would have heard about the book — a sensation in circles of philosophical inquiry into the non-entity called god — where Hawking and Mlodinow declared, I quote Live Science, "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going". God is a superfluous concept in cosmology.

I have not read the book, but I have no idea why Live Science should call this and seven other "assertions", shocking. It does not shock me to know that fictitious, and often allegedly anthropomorphic and sentient non-entities, that go by the name "gods", have nothing to do with this and other probable universes. These gods were merely created to serve pompous and parasitic men — and a few, rare, females of the species — who wanted to control the lives of others and extort from them their upkeep and maintenance.

My personal favorite, however, is #5 on the Live Science list:

5. Oppressed fish

A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls. This law was meant to protect the poor fish from a distorted nature of reality, since bent light might show them an odd portrayal of their surroundings.

Hawking and Mlodinow bring up the incident to make the point that it is impossible to know the true nature of reality. We think we have an accurate picture of what's going on, but how would we know if we were metaphorically living in a giant fishbowl of our own, since we would never be able to see outside our own point of view to compare?

That's interesting. Does this mean that we'll never know the "truth" about the universe? Is reality only as we see it through the "fishing bowl"? Is everything that we observe, analyze, and interpret, subjective at best? Does this lend support the Rabindranath Tagore's contention in his conversation with with Albert Einstein eighty years ago, that what we perceived as reality was illusory? I don't think so.

Deriving his arguments from the Upanishads, Tagore thought of matter and the universe — the table in the room where they met, for example — merely as a product of our subjective experience. Einstein had countered that the universe, just as the table that it contained, was an objective reality, independent of the observers. I am with Einstein: unlike the gods who were supposed to have caused it, the existence of the universe is not an illusion.

In any case, it's not like any fiction is going to make truth shine through the fishbowl, is it?

Read More...

Bahai and the Religion of Peace

Cohn: Persecution of Bahai’is exposes Iranian cruelty - thestar.com:

Watching Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strutting on the world stage, it’s easy to get caught up in his latest histrionics: denying the Holocaust, playing the nuclear card, and vowing during last week’s visit near the Lebanese-Israeli border to wipe out the Jewish state.
But to really grasp the pathological cruelty of Iran’s clerical regime, look at the persecution of Iran’s biggest religious minority, the 300,000-strong Baha’i community. The bizarre hounding of this peaceful faith remains a festering sore on the legacy of the 30-year-old Islamic revolution...

Of course, astute observers of the theocratic regime that followed the overthrow of Shah three decades ago, would know of "festering sores" all over its body — stoning of Soraya M., the impending execution of Sakineh M. Ashtiani on November 3, persecution and murder of opposition ...

The monstrosity that starry-eyed liberals beget when they go to bed with the Religion of Peace!

Read More...