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Saturday Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers asked for a little reality from the conservatives and Congresspeople who are attacking contraception and women’s reproductive rights more broadly: Your Thoughts?
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Really, Congress? Really?
February 20th, 2012 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Hilarious, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Satire, Political Satire, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Satire, Satire 
Tags: "We're All Catholic Now", Amy Poehler, Congress, Contraception, Darrell Issa, Mike Huckabee, Really?, Seth Meyers, Transvaginal Airlines, Virginia Life Begins At Conception 
3 Comments »Vatican Loses Part of its Tax Exempt Status in Italy
February 17th, 2012 Daniel Fincke The financial crisis in Italy has made indulging religious economic privilege intolerable. 130,000 people signed a petition as part of making this happen: Prime Minister Mario Monti has announced the Vatican must pay taxes on non-religious property, from which it previously enjoyed an exemption. The annual cost could be up to 720m euros ($945m; £598m) according [...]
We Have Lost Whitney Houston.
February 11th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Very sad news. She was only 48. Her music was such a mainstay of my childhood. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Music, Music, News, News Discussion, News Discussion Tags: Whitney Houston dead 10 Comments »Ayaan Hirsi Ali Warns of “Rising Genocide” Due to “Christophobia” in Muslim World
February 11th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Ayaan Hirsi Al’s case is alarming: We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a [...]
Virginia Expected To Allow Religious Adoption Agencies To Discriminate Against Gays
February 11th, 2012 Daniel Fincke More special, unconstitutional, protections of religious conscience bigotry, to the exclusion of equal protection: On Friday, the Virginia Senate passed SB 349, which gives private adoption agencies the power to deny the placement of children with same-sex couples on religious grounds. Known as the ‘conscience clause’ bill, the bill allows adoption agencies to deny same-sex couples the [...]
Posted in Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Law, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics Tags: Adam Ebbin, Discrimination Against Gay Adoption, Gay State Senator, State Senator Adam Ebbin, Virginia Law Allowing Adoption Agency Discrimination, Virginia State Senator Adam Ebbin 4 Comments »The Forgotten Women of Health Care Reform
February 9th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Lawrence O’Donnell does a bang up job articulating the case for a single payer health care plan and the unacceptable consequences of the path we have chosen instead: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Your Thoughts?
Posted in Law, Law, Law & Politics, News Discussion, News Discussion, Politics, Politics Tags: Affordable Care Act, Anti-Obamacare, Catholic Church Birth Control Exemption, Catholic Church Contraception Exemption, Negative Consequences of Affordable Care Act, Single Payer System, Virtues of Single Payer System 1 Comment »Religious Privilege and Grievance-Based Catholic Identity Politics on Full Display
February 7th, 2012 Daniel Fincke In a column last week, Melinda Henneberger criticized the Obama administration’s refusal to exempt the Catholic Church from requirements it provide for its employees health insurance which would cover birth control at organizations it runs which have secular functions. The column is an extraordinary exemplification of religious entitlement, identity politics, and anti-secular, anti-democratic demands for [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheism, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Faith, Feminism, Feminism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Law, Law, Law & Politics, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Rape, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tags: Affordable Care Act, Bart Stupak, Birth Control, Catholic Identity Politics, Catholic Voters, Conscience Exemptions, Faith and Politics, Grievance Politics, Liberal Protestant, Melinda Henneberger, Obama National Prayer Breakfast, Obama's Faith, obamacare, Religious Rights, Religious Tests For Office, Reproductive Rights, Ressentiment, Secularism 11 Comments »“What Are The Limits of Church Authority In the Public Sphere?”
February 5th, 2012 Daniel Fincke This is part 2 of a debate with Roman Catholic theology graduate student named Mary. In part 1, we introduced and began to debate the topic of whether or not universities, hospitals, and social agencies run by the Catholic Church should be exempted from laws requiring employers to provide their employees health insurance that covers [...]
Posted in Abortion, Abortion, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Bio-Medical Ethics, Bio-Medical Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Feminism, Feminism, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Law, Law, LGBTQAA, News Discussion, News Discussion, Personal, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tags: 1st Amendment, Affordable Care Act, Conscience Exemptions, Discrimination Against Gays, Free Exercise, Freedom of Religion, Gay Rights, Health Coverage For Gay Spouses, Mary C. Young, Pharmacists Rights of Conscience, Relig, Religious Discrimination, Reproductive Rights, Roman Catholic Adoption Agencies Refuse Gay Adoptions, Roman Catholic Charities, Roman Catholic Church 55 Comments »“Should Catholic Employers Be Exempted From Paying For Health Insurance Covering Contraception?”
February 5th, 2012 Daniel Fincke If you were reading Camels With Hammers regularly before we made the move to Freethought Blogs, you would have frequently been treated to the long, insightful, and vigorously argued comments of my friend Mary. Mary is a Roman Catholic and is politically liberal in many (but not all) respects. We met when I was a [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Authority, Authority, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Feminism, Feminism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Personal, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Rights, Women's Issues Tags: 1st Amendment, Affordable Care Act, Catholics and Obamacare, Conscience Exemptions, Discrimination, Freedom of Religion, Mary C. Young, obamacare, Obamacare and Contraception, Religious Discrimination, Reproductive Rights, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Universities 48 Comments »Mitt Romney Fires Debate Coach For Making Him Bad By Making Him Look Good
February 4th, 2012 Daniel Fincke In South Carolina’s debates watching Newt Gingrich debate Mitt Romney was like watching Cicero debate automated customer service telephone prompts. So Romney diligently and proactively went out and got an excellent debate coach, Brett O’Donnell. And Romney went on to utterly neutralize and deflate Gingrich next they met, in Florida. So that’s a point in [...]
Posted in News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics Tags: Debate Coach, Mitt Romney 16 Comments »On What’s Presidential, What’s Creepy, and What’s Mitt Romney
February 2nd, 2012 Daniel Fincke I honestly am confused when people say Mitt Romney looks the part of a president–”like he was sent straight from central casting”, as the cliche goes. I never think of presidents as coming off as equal parts sleazy slick soulless greedy corporate raider, creepy door-knocking glazed-eyed proselytizer, and robotically pandering inauthentic politician. I have this [...]
Gabrielle Giffords Stepping Down From Her Congressional Seat
January 22nd, 2012 Daniel Fincke A moving video: Your Thoughts?
Now A Muslim Extremist Terrorizes The Audience, Not Just The Speaker
January 17th, 2012 Daniel Fincke The New Humanist recounts a chilling, appalling, infuriating story: Yesterday evening, a talk on “Sharia Law and Human Rights” organised by the Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society at Queen Mary, University London, had to be cancelled after threats of violence. The talk was due to be given by Anne Marie Waters of the One Law [...]
Posted in Islam, Islam, News, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, World Affairs, World Affairs 5 Comments »The Author of The Cranston High School Prayer Outraged
January 14th, 2012 Daniel Fincke This week, Jessica Ahlquist and the ACLU won their court case against Cranston High School West in Rhode Island. The school was ordered to immediately remove a banner containing an official school prayer addressed to “Our Heavenly Father” and ending in “Amen”, which hung over the school gymnasium as an unambiguous endorsement of the Christian [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: ACLU, Cranston High School West, David Bradley, Jessica Ahlquist, The American Civil Liberties Union 22 Comments »Islamists Voted in in Morocco…
January 12th, 2012 Daniel Fincke …and the women promptly vanish from the government: The recent parliamentary elections in Morocco have led to the creation of the first ever elected Islamist government in Morocco’s history…[T]he new government only includes one woman minister in a cabinet of thirty. This is a sharp drop compared to the recent past, when governments formed by other [...]
Video Surfaces of Marines Allegedly Urinating on Dead Afghans
January 12th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Mother Jones reports: The Marine Corps is reportedly investigating the origins of a YouTube video posted early Wednesday that appears to show four Marines urinating on the heads of Afghans they’d just killed in a firefight. “Have a great day, buddy,” one of the alleged Marines can be heard saying on the footage. The video [...]
Openly Bisexual and Non-theist Woman (Who Rejected Parents’ Mormonism) Runs For U.S. Congress
January 7th, 2012 Daniel Fincke Kyrsten Sinema is a Democrat from Phoenix who has resigned her seat in the Arizona state senate to run for the state’s new 9th Congressional District. She is a bisexual with a history of advocacy for gay rights. She is also a non-theist of some variety who openly participated in a 2010 event marking the creation [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, News, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Kyrsten Sinema, Kyrsten Sinema atheist, Kyrsten Sinema non-theist 23 Comments »Marshmallow Man Thinks Michelle Obama Is Fat
December 22nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke UPDATE: The second quote below (with references to swimsuit models and Alex Rodriguez) is not from the Congressman, as I first reported, but from Rush Limbaugh. Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (pictured above) was reportedly overheard saying of Michelle Obama: She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself And Rush Limbaugh put [...]
Did NYU Fire a Professor for Giving James Franco a D?
December 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke The Guardian: A professor who was fired by New York University has filed a lawsuit claiming he was dismissed for giving celebrity student James Franco a D grade for poor attendance. Dr José Angel Santana, who taught as an assistant arts professor on the actor’s graduate film course, says that Franco – who supplements his acting career [...]
In Memory of Christopher Hitchens, A Nietzschean Lion
December 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Christopher Hitchens was not fond of Nietzsche. When I picked up his Portable Atheist I flipped to the table of contents to see what Nietzsche selections he’d included. And saw none. None?? Possibly the most famous, unabashed, and irreverent atheist of all time was not worthy of inclusion in Hitchens’s compendium? A brief remark found [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: and Child, Camel, Christopher Hitchens, Hitchens and Nietzsche, Lion, lost a lion, Nietzsche, Three Metamorphoses of the Soul, Three Transformations of the Soul, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Tribute to Christopher Hitchens, Truthfulness 11 Comments »Kentucky Church Excludes Interracial Couples
December 1st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Is there any evil at all that the alleged Christian God, who is allegedly love itself, can prevent those who worship him from committing? He cannot even make it so that in 2011, all his American churches have caught up with repudiating racism? Before stepping down as pastor in August, Thompson told Harville that her fiance [...]
On Not-Pologies, Forgiveness, and Gelato
November 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Kinds of Forgiveness Let’s start with the theoretical. How should we characterize forgiveness, and when and why should we forgive people? Full forgiveness involves three things: 1. Waiving all just moral and/or legal penalties, including all forms of restitution and compensation, that we would normally demand for wrongdoing. 2. Restoring amicable emotional, social, and/or professional [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Virtues, Virtues 39 Comments »Atheists Perceived As Less Trustworthy Than Rapists??
November 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke I may have underestimated in the past just how bad misperceptions of us are: Consider one of the experiments. One hundred and five students read a brief vignette about a man who fails to take responsibility when he hits a parked van with his car, and then pockets money from a wallet he finds on [...]
The Eeriest Protest (Or Is It A Shaming?)
November 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke First some background. As you have likely seen by now, on Friday police pepper sprayed students at UC Davis: In response to that, one blogger suggested pepper spraying is torture. Do you think so? Also an assistant professor in English at the school, Nathan Brown, wrote an open letter to the Chancellor Linda Katehi. Linda [...]
Is The Use of Pepper Spray Torture?
November 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Yesterday digby discussed various cases of the use of pepper spray to argue that it is obviously torture. Is it torture? If it is torture but in some cases it could foreseeably prevent an altercation with greater likelihood of long term physical damage could it be justified nonetheless? Is it only unjustified when applied to non-violent [...]
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