Paula White, Ralph Reed, and other Christian supremacist leaders join Donald Pouty-Face Trump for dinner at the White House where he makes things pretty plain:
Trump tells the evangelical leaders their support “has been incredible,” but says he doesn’t don’t feel guilty “because I have given you a lot back.”
Hey y’all, CSICon 2018 is really soon, it’s pretty clearly going to be one of the biggest CSICons ever, and reservations are currently full for the Westgate Hotel. But we have overflow rooms at Harrah’s, just two stops away on the Las Vegas Monorail. So book your room now to get the conference rate of $69-$149/night. Head to the CSICon website, and to paraphrase those young YouTubers, smash that INFO button on the top menu.
Fredrick Nzwili at Religion News Service reports on the rise of atheist activism in Africa, specifically the rather uninhibited Atheists in Kenya who are campaigning for a national “Atheist Day,” and Atheists in Nigeria, which has formed the offshoot Atheist Society of Nairobi “to push for the vision of secular Nigeria.”
The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar says that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and five other generals should be charged with genocide and crimes against humanity for their atrocities against the country’s Rohingya Muslims, which they say “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law.” Hard to argue.
FFRF does their full-page New York Times ad thing again, this time urging Catholics to ditch the Church.
Speaking of that horrific criminal enterprise: Hey, Pope Francis, what should parents do if they find out their kid is (gasp) gay?
Don’t condemn. Dialogue. Understand, give the child space so he or she can express themselves.
Aw, that’s sweet. Oh, you’re not done?
When [homosexuality] shows itself from childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry, to see how things are. It is something else if it shows itself after 20 years.
Oh. Psychiatry. Right. Cough cough.
Melissa Goforth of CNHI News says Culbertson Mansion in New Albany “is known as one of the most notoriously haunted places in Indiana.” (I assume this list also includes the governor’s mansion, where the ghost of Mike Pence’s credibility is said to roam the halls, but never alone with any lady ghosts.) Anyway, there’s going to be some “paranormal research event” there. I’m sure it’s all very scientific.
Air pollution is making people stupider.
Quote of the Day
Philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum writes in the New York Times that we self-absorbed Homo sapiens need to stop asking “what does it mean to be human?” and start considering what it means to be, well, almost anything else:
We tend to think that being human is somehow very special and important, so we ask about that, instead of asking what it means to be an elephant, or a pig, or a bird. This failure of curiosity is part of a large ethical problem.
The question, “What is it to be human?” is not just narcissistic, it involves a culpable obtuseness. It is rather like asking, “What is it to be white?” It connotes unearned privileges that have been used to dominate and exploit. But we usually don’t recognize this because our narcissism is so complete.
We share a planet with billions of other sentient beings, and they all have their own complex ways of being whatever they are. …
… The world needs an ethical revolution, a consciousness-raising movement of truly international proportions. But this revolution is impeded by the navel-gazing that is typically involved in asking, “What is it to be human?”