A judge in Texas rules that the defamation suit against Alex Jones by Sandy Hook parents can proceed, rejecting Jones’s attempts to have the case dismissed.
Really only one man knows the Truth. Trump! Ashley Parker at the Post reports on “Trump’s ongoing effort to create a reality where he is firmly at the center and, perhaps more important, the arbiter of his own Trump-favorable truth.”
This fellow in Oregon, Ryan Coleman, is suing his former employer, Dahled Up Construction, who he says fired him for his refusal to attend required religious services every day:
“[Company owner Joe Dahl] said ‘You’re not going to tell me how to run my own company,’” Coleman continued. “I said ‘I’m not trying to tell you how to run your own company, but you’re not going to tell me what god to pray to.’”
Now you’d think this was a pretty slam dunk case, but I have a feeling Jeff Sessions is revving up the the Religious Liberty Task Force’s Christmobile™.
Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Corps (which I assume is one of the superhero teams that fights the Religious Liberty Task Force), considers the state of interfaith relations in the age of Trump:
What’s really interesting about this moment is that so much good comes out of responding to bad.
We have this great opportunity to respond to that in ways that live up to American ideas of welcoming diverse religious identity and moving toward an interfaith America.
A professional soccer player in Italy, Rolando Mandragora, is suspended for being caught on television cameras making “blasphemous remarks” during a game. He apparently said:
Porca Madonna, Vaffanculo, Dio Cane!
Which roughly translates as:
The Virgin Mary is a pig! F*** you! God is a dog!
Michelle Boorstein at the Post looks at how Catholic media is much like media everywhere else, highly polarized and influencing conservatives to become more extreme:
Much like the way in which Breitbart News and Drudge Report have served as media conduits for the brand of conservative American populism led by President Trump, conservative Catholic media outlets have become power players by conveying the anti-Francis point of view, this time becoming part of the story, as well.
Gizmodo talks to our own Ben Radford about the ridiculous “debate” over whether to capture or kill Bigfoot. Ben says:
For a lot of people, Bigfoot is not some abstract entity out there. It’s not a monster. It symbolizes innocence and the wilderness and a free spirit—the better angels of mankind who aren’t weighted with the pollution and politics and all the strife. When you understand that, you realize why a lot of people get so upset about it. To them it’s not just like killing an armadillo or an elk—it is a symbol of purity.
Jim Underdown provides some advice for atheists who want to overcome the existential dread over our inevitable deaths, and starts off with:
This is the ultimate question because wanting to stay alive is built into our DNA. Most creatures that actually have brains generally do their best to keep the clock ticking. This means that even atheists — who, like short people, have no reason to live — for some reason still care about living… as long as we can… forever even… somehow.
Well, I’m atheist and very short, so…not really sure why I’m even bothering to breathe.
An anti-vax nurse is fired for posting personal health information in an anti-vax Facebook group about a patient, a kid with measles. NPR reports:
The anti-vaccine Facebook posts in question were apparently shared in a group called “Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children-Texas.” As of earlier this month, the group had more than 5,000 members.
The group has since been deleted.
Maybe they all died of the measles.
A federal court was absurdly in the position of explaining why it was okay for for Boston officials to reject flying some dude’s Christian flag on the City Hall grounds. From Travis Andersen at the Globe:
[Judge Denise] Casper wrote that the city’s policy against flying nonsecular flags is “reasonable based on the City’s interest in avoiding the appearance of endorsing a particular religion and a consequential violation of the Establishment Clause.
The tourism board of Inverness in Scotland would like you to visit Loch Ness for reasons other than the monster that isn’t there. (Maybe mention that Inverness is where MacBeth’s castle was, and folks can look for Banquo’s ghost, which also isn’t there.)
Americans United for Separation of Church and State says Trump’s evangelical advisory board is illegal, and is demanding White House documents related to the cabal.
Alex Henderson at AlterNet warns us about the GOP’s nominee for governor in Florida, Ron DeSantis:
DeSantis Is an Unapologetic Theocrat: To DeSantis, there should be no separation of church and state. He is on very friendly terms with the Christian Right, favors restricting abortion as much as he possibly can in Florida and has supported anti-gay measures such as the so-called First Amendment Defense Act (which was sponsored by Mike Lee in the Senate and Raul Labrador in the House of Representatives).
Emma Thompson (who is a goddamned genius actor and you should all go watch her in the 1993 film of Much Ado about Nothing) explains her atheism:
The reason that I am an atheist in so far as the world religions that we have, is because I have seen them oppress so many women for so long. So, to me, religion is the history of the oppression of women.
But first and foremost, I am a feminist. I believe in women’s rights and equal rights. I find any system that systematically oppresses women to be one I cannot have sympathy with.
Writing at Science-Based Medicine, Braden MacBeth advises us to steer clear of the crock-documentary Cancer Can Be Killed:
Many of the treatments showcased as effective not only have been proven be ineffective, they can be hazardous to your health. There are three “doctors” presented in the film, two of whom are not actually doctors, and all of whom have a history of slimy business practices, and their reasons for providing these alternative treatments are far from altruistic.
Apparently, the LDS Church interviews children about whether they’ve masturbated or had any other sexual experiences. Church member Sam Young petitioned the church to cut that gross crap out, and is now being excommunicated. Hemant Mehta writes:
This wasn’t about adherence to chastity. This was just a bunch of perverts asking kids for the details of their sex lives under the guise of pleasing Heavenly Father.
As Young wrote in an online petition, “These questions are being asked by an older man, all alone with the child, behind closed doors and often without the knowledge or permission of the parents.”
Quote of the Day:
A long one, but worth it. Former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson laments the fealty to Trump coming from Christians and the GOP in general:
President Trump’s recent remarks to evangelical Christians at the White House capture where Republican politics is heading. “This November 6 election,” Trump said, “is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion.” A direct, unadorned appeal to tribal hostilities. Fighting for Trump, the president argued, is the only way to defend the Christian faith. None of these men and women of God, apparently, gagged on their hors d’oeuvres.
If religious get-out-the-vote efforts are insufficient, according to the president, “that will be the beginning of ending everything that you’ve gotten.” The gates of hell will not prevail against the church, but evidently Nancy Pelosi would.
“It’s not a question of like or dislike, it’s a question that [Democrats] will overturn everything that we’ve done, and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is violence.” Here Trump is preparing his audience for the possibility of bloodshed by predicting it from the other side. Christians, evidently, need to start taking “Onward, Christian Soldiers” more literally.
* * *
Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.