Ohio’s new Republican governor, Mike DeWine, signs an executive order prohibiting discrimination by any state agency, board or commission on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, national origin, and so on.
In stark contrast, Oklahoma’s anti-vax governor-bro Kevin Stitt just wants to do whatever God tells him:
This is something, I pray and I tell our team when we get together, we have an opportunity to join in with what God is doing in Oklahoma.
David Crary at the AP looks at how women are seeking, achieving, and/or being blocked from leadership roles in various religions. For example, Islam:
Some women are challenging interpretations that state only men must attend traditional Friday prayers. A few have chosen to create their own prayer spaces, like the Women’s Mosque of America in California where women lead the services and female scholars share their knowledge.
NYT looks at the new History Channel show Project Blue Book and how it squares with the actual story of the Air Force’s UFO investigative program. At Adventures in Poor Taste!, Skeptical Inquirer‘s own Russ Dobler looks at what the alleged alien monsters probably were: Owls.
Josh Shepherd at Religion & Politics profiles Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James as she looks at how religious conservatives confront (or, rather, don’t) racism.
FiveThirtyEight proclaims that most personality quizzes are crap, but this one on the “Big Five” is one that you can take to the metaphorical bank. Have fun.
James Watson: Groundbreaking genius, scientific pioneer, incredibly huge jerk. Julia Belluz at Vox writes:
In a new PBS documentary, Watson, now 90, affirms his previously stated view that black people are intellectually inferior to white people. .., The famed scientist has a long history of provocation with racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and even fat-shaming remarks.
John Ellis at the right-wing PJ Media says one Dr. Sarah Salviander has “DESTROYED ATHEISM” with her tweet. Salviander destroyed us by saying:
How to Design Your Own Atheistic Personal Philosophy
1. Start with the assumption of no God
2. However, also start with Christian morality
3. Remove the bits you personally don’t like
4. Proclaim that it’s self-evident
5. Ignore the meaninglessness of a Godless universe
Feel destroyed?
DESTROOOOOOOYED!!!!!
Quote of the Day
Bill Colley, once again, from Idaho Fox News Radio, on the faith healing crisis in that state:
We live in a post-Christian country. A few years ago the Supreme Court of the United States decided a case where a group of pagans demanded space in a public park. The pagans worship mummified dogs. The court rejected the pagan monument. One legal explanation was we don’t have room for 10,000 monuments in a city park. … The Idaho Legislature would be well within moral and legal guidance in protecting young children from what amounts to child neglect and child abuse at worst. We wouldn’t allow pagans to sacrifice other human beings to the sun, a brass bull or mummified dogs. Why do we allow fellow so-called Christians the right?