Vampires, Witches, and Devils *UPDATED*

BBC has an interesting piece on recovered remains in Bulgaria from the middle ages. The bodies were found to have had iron rods driven through their chests, so at to prevent a vampire from rising. There are numerous examples all over the region.

... 

"These skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th Century," explained Bozhidar Dimitrov who heads the National History Museum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. 

People believed the rod would pin the dead into their graves to prevent them from leaving at midnight and terrorising the living, the historian added. 

...

The tweet for this story joked, "Real life vampires?" ...No. Sure it is funny to joke about. You can see the humor rising from a number of disturbing cannibal occurrences recently. We like to laugh at our supernatural narratives.

But these practices were still in use around 100 years ago. Not that long. And, in some places, they may still be practiced in the Balkans. These tales, traditions, and rituals have a way of staying with a culture.

The idea of witches can conjurer up many ideas, mostly fanciful. As you read on appreciate their are different kinds of "witches."

• The Wiccans, Pagans, etc., who have their faiths and private personal practices. 
• The more involved "witch doctors" and shamans, often with an established social duty, found in various places around the world. 
• The TV and movie kind. ...The hat.
• The point at a person you dislike and say, "You're a witch!" type. Things rarely go well for this one, as we'll see.

Now, consider the reactions in certain areas of the world to the notion of witches?

Nigeria, etc.
Rise in African children accused of witchcraft.
Kids being accused in a more recent ideas, apparently coming from the growth in orphaned children.

... 

Most of those accused of witchcraft are boys aged between eight to 14 - who often end up being attacked, tortured and sometimes killed. 

Also, children have had petrol poured into their eyes or ears as a way of trying to exorcise "evil spirits" that healers believe have possessed them. 

It is reported that some evangelical preachers have added to the problem by charging large sums for exorcisms. One was recently arrested in Nigeria after charging more than $250 for each procedure. 

...

Congo
The Witch Killers of Africa

In June of 2001, villagers of Congo's northeast provinces began a bloody witch eradication campaign, sparing neither neighbor, nor friend. Alleged witches were unceremoniously hacked apart by machete-wielding vigilantes, bringing about a scene of carnage unmatched since the machete killing-sprees of the Rwanda Crisis. The innocent victims were first "smelled out" (identified by tribal healers as witches) before they were savagely beaten into incriminatory confessions about others allegedly engaged in the black arts. After the unsuspecting parties were identified, the executions started in earnest throughout the rural areas. Three hundred villagers were killed in the first days of the witch paranoia.[1] In the following weeks, the death toll rose to nearly eight hundred victims.[2] Hundreds of Congolese fled to the relative safety of Uganda, many bearing machete wounds on legs, arms, and torsos. 

...

Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia: Beheadings for 'witchcraft'

A Sri Lankan woman is currently facing decapitation by sword on a witchcraft charge in Saudi Arabia, in accordance with Wahhabism, a strict form of Sunni Islam. The UN reports executions tripled in the kingdom in 2011. 

A Saudi man complained that in a shopping mall his 13-year-old daughter “suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, which happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman,” reports the daily Okaz.  

After the local man denounced the Sri Lankan for casting a spell on his daughter, police in the port city of Jeddah found it sufficient cause to arrest the woman. 

Witchcraft and sorcery imply only one measure in Saudi Arabia – beheading. And it works this way in practice: last year in the kingdom at least two people – a woman in her 60s and a Sudanese man – were beheaded on witchcraft charges. 

...

Nepal
Nepalese women accused of witchcraft and burned alive.

A 40-year-old mother of two was burned alive in central Nepal after she was accused of being a witch, police said Saturday. 

Dhegani Mahato was attacked and set on fire by family members and others after a shaman allegedly accused her of casting a spell to make one of her relatives sick, Police Officer Hira Mani Baral said. 

...

Ghana
Bright Ghanaian teen 'witch' accused of stealing classmates' brains

THE latest victim of Africa’s insane obsession with witchcraft is a 17-year-old high school student in Ghana who has been forced to drop out of her studies after fellow students accused her of being “impossibly intelligent”. 

According to this report, Ghana’s Women and Children’s Minister, Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, intervened after the girl was accused by her classmates of ‘stealing the brains of other students’ in order to get top grades. 

The student, who scored straight As, fled to Gambaga, a camp for witches in northern Ghana, after community members threatened violence. 

...

Vatican
'Harry Potter and yoga are evil', says Catholic Church exorcist

Father Gabriele Amorth, who for years was the Vatican’s chief exorcist and claims to have cleansed hundreds of people of evil spirits, said yoga is Satanic because it leads to a worship of Hinduism and “all eastern religions are based on a false belief in reincarnation”. 

Reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books is no less dangerous, said the 86-year-old priest, who is the honorary president for life of the International Association of Exorcists, which he founded in 1990, and whose favourite film is the 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist. 

The Harry Potter books, which have sold millions of copies worldwide, “seem innocuous” but in fact encourage children to believe in black magic and wizardry, Father Amorth said. 

“Practising yoga is Satanic, it leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter,” he told a film festival in Umbria this week, where he was invited to introduce The Rite, a film about exorcism starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as a Jesuit priest. 

“In Harry Potter the Devil acts in a crafty and covert manner, under the guise of extraordinary powers, magic spells and curses,” said the priest, who in 1986 was appointed the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. 

...

United States
Hagee Tells Atheist to Leave the Country because They are not Wanted and Won't be Missed (w/ video)

Tomorrow, June 6, will be the 68th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy and Pastor John Hagee used his sermon this past Sunday to reflect upon sacrifices made on this day ... and also to tellatheists to get out of America "if our belief in God offends you" because they are not wanted and won't be missed while also calling on Congress to "outlaw the practice of witchcraft and Satanism in the US military, lest we offend the God of Heaven" 

(Emphasis added.)

And, of course, we all remember when the one time governor of Alaska received special protection from witches.



We are mostly unaware, but people are killed every years for being a witch. Witch burnings and hangings may seem like historical jokes. But, in this year people have died, and will yet die. And often these people have to die because some person or group need someone they can blame (for crop failures, for illness, for deaths, for misfortune) and have punished for supernatural nonexistent reasons.

It's cruel attitude and in too many cultures allowed to persist. We should not let fear drive murder. And we should not allow ourselves to be oblivious.

"Witchcraft at Salem Village." Source: Pioneers in the Settlement of America by William A. Crafts. Vol. I Boston: Samuel Walker & Company, 1876. Artists: F. O. C. Darley, Wm. L. Shepard, Granville Perkins, etc.

______
ADDENDUM:
Sorry, been thinking. We have a lot of justified beefs with how Saudi Arabia treats it's people. Rights to drive, vote, etc. How come the fact they cut the heads off "witches" is never brought up? That was just bugging me.

Obama's health care reform works! *UPDATED*

As I have pointed to before, Obamacare, or health care reform, has been a success, and as it continues to unfold it's benefits to the American people and country will grow. Yes, people have been working to muddy the water, but the reform's benefiting are becoming clearer. And it behooves us to remind people of that fact.

Also, we've seen Republicans shift back and forth on the reforms. First they wanted to "fix" them. Then they wanted to repeal and replace them. Then they had to admit the replace part was proving trickier than they thought. Then people like Allen West started saying we'd keep various parts, to which Boehner said, "No, no we aren't." It has been a circus.

But Allen hasn't been alone in continuing to allude to replacing Obamacare with Obamacare. Oh, no. They have some concerns about what happens if the Supreme Court actually gives them what they want. (Funny how often the GOP is actually terrified of their own agendas and platforms, desperate to have Democrats stop them.)

TPM:

... 

“We believe that the whole bill needs to be repealed,” Price said. “That being said, there are some things that have been instituted that a lot of folks have begun to rely upon and plan — make their family plans — based upon. Twenty-six-year-olds being on their parents’ insurance is one of them.” 

...

Or, the plan is going into affect, it is having a positive impact on many people's lives, and the GOP can't be seen to be actually making things worse...But the Supreme is about to enact our plan to make things worse. Oops.

So, as I noted before, Republicans are suddenly eager to:

• Prevent preexisting from being used against patients in need.
• To allow kids up to 26 yo to stay on parent's plans.
• Closing up that Medicare "doughnut hole."

But first they have to allow patients to be denied insurance, they have to kick all those kids off of those plans, and have to reopen that doughnut hole. Then, they will get to fixing them again. And that is before we even get into the fact that all of this is made tenable by having a mandate. I suppose in the months to come, the insurance mandate will be morphed into an original conservative concept.

They refuse to just admit the truth here. The reform advocates were right, that Obama was right. Instead of that, they will dismantle everything, complain about the liberal agenda, and then enact most of it again.

Your Republican Party, 2012.

__________________
ADDENDUM:

Here is a nice piece from Reddit, that takes you quite convincingly through the Health Care Reform Timeline to show what has been gained or improved by reform, and what is still to come this year, and the years to follow. Quite informative for when you talk with people.

Remembering Ray Bradbury

It does seem hard to believe, but Ray Bradbury has passed on. It did seem, as some are saying like he was always here, and would always be here. Writing daily for years, he seemed like a dynamo. He seemed and was a have a tireless creator, with an ever youthful imagination.

Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury:

“Death doesn't exist. It never did, it never will. But we've drawn so many pictures of it, so many years, trying to pin it down, comprehend it, we've got to thinking of it as an entity, strangely alive and greedy. All it is, however, is a stopped watch, a loss, an end, a darkness. Nothing.” 

Like we all will, his watch stopped. Stopped, after long decades of producing real magic for his eager audience. His voice, his words, his visions, and those glasses, will accompany me for the rest of my life, as fond memories.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury:

“Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the Universe together into one garment for us.” 

And he was a master of the patchwork. He was one of those unique voices that helped shaped many of our childhoods, with scares, wonder, and thrills. His was a very special voice that we all should try and carry on in hearts and on our book shelves

I know all of us old fans will be taking time to pull out an old favorite to peruse. But I hope as well, we can entice some more to give one of his books a chance, perhaps one of his beautiful short stories? Or, maybe take some time with one of the movies drawn from his work, or the TV series.

He had a fascinating impact on storytelling, leaving us an array of works and media to enjoy.

Something Wicked This Way Comes:


Or, listen to Bradbury himself:

On Wisconsin: Why Do We Fall? *UPDATED*

As we could see as a possibility for awhile now, Wisconsin did not go well for the recall effort. Time to buck up.

"Why do we fall, sir?"

So, yes. Now we will have gloating from conservatives. We'll have pundits and commentators denouncing the unions, liberalism, and even the president. We will have billionaire fat cats chortling at...well, they don't live in our world.

Really, it is reminiscent of 2004. So many of us were fuming about Iraq and the ills in the country itself. We were sure the election would change everything (We often think that.). And found it did not go our way.

No, it isn't really all that similar. But Bush did smirk and talk of his "mandate." Conservatives chuckled and gleamed at their big plans. And things marched on.

The thing now is to take away lessons (And, let's hope we discover the right ones.) and insight for November.

Greg Sergeant quickly had a piece out, 'A wake-up call for Dems, labor, and the left.' (He placed a comma before the 'and,' I almost have to love him and the piece.) He points to the influx of cash from all those billionaires and interest groups to the recall. Walker raised 8 times his opponents funds. And outside interests outmatched what unions mustered.

But to be fair, Citizen United, as I understand it, focuses on federal elections. Also, Wisconsin still has laws on the books to keep corporate and unions at bay in normal elections. So there still are some barriers in normal elections. But the type of money thrown around in the last months are a taste of what is coming ever more common.

You need a billionaire PAC to stand out. Look at the GOP primaries. Who stood over time? The billionaires, and the people who had billionaire friends. Huntsman dropped when his family had had enough. And Gingrich dried up and shut down when his backer was done with him.

This is how are system now functions. There are no back of the pick up truck candidates. Well, not unless someone manages to create some brilliant viral online campaign, then gets it parleyed into cable news coverage. Even then, it's a fairy tale.

Politics has changed. It's been taken, reforged, and had it's price upped several factors. So what do we do?

We learn lessons. As much as we want to talk cash in Wisconsin, some polling says people were set on a candidate for governor for months. I have no idea how good these numbers are, but, maybe, we'll have a better idea tomorrow. Still, it seems a good starting point. So, consider, many Wisconsinites were set to back Walker.

Why were they set to do this? It is convenient to dismiss conservative voters, or people who vote differently, but...why are we in disagreement? Yes. Some are committed to party. Some are committed to an ideology. But not all of them. Some people are merely customers of lousy political/social product. Conservatives have been selling B.S. vigorously for quite a while now.

And, we should note, conservatives have gotten quite good at selling and embracing a lousy bill of sale. They pass law to ignore science and nature, but it's called job saving (and presented as a stab at "liberal lies"). They have turned the idea of selling off government services, like prisons, into cost saving innovation (despite the added cost to tax payers). The Republicans have worked to create a status quo that is dark and dank, just look what they did to our nation's credit rating. And when it hasn't been so bad, they declare it so. It has been common easy for them to confidently lie. They make up facts about Obama. They shut out voters, and declare they are saving the voting system. The view they have is sadly myopic. They go after everything it seems, from the Violence Against Women reauthorization to support for veterans (See all the filibustering.). But it helps create the gridlock and dreary ambiance they want, to push dread into all our hearts.

I know it can sound like it's a bit much, but they have embraced a path to assume power. And that means being sure we are a broken country, onto which they can work their agendas, and supplant real hope. So, they push and bend the system to accomplish this. Then lie to push things further, working to rewrite our understanding of key American ideas. Unions are bad. The rich need to be pampered to create jobs. Taxes and government services can't be trusted. Liberal is evil. Feminists are vile. Sarah Palin and George Bush are competent. They never liked the reality based community. Reality has been in their way too long.

It's incumbent on us to reinforce reality. And that requires us to present it to The People. As always, it starts with us. We need to counter the claims and distortions with facts. We need to talk about the importance of unions, the need for health care reform, and the results we have already seen in these last 4 years, despite the best efforts of Republicans in government offices and dark back rooms. The public square cannot be ceded to them. We need to let ourselves be heard, with family, friends, and beyond. Then we need to push the media to be more aware of the facts, be willing to challenge current and future wild claims from Romney, the PACS, and the Sunday morning regulars.

Also, to go back to those people we want to reach in the middle, I suggest considering was Milt Shook (at @MiltShook on Twitter) has been suggesting. We need to start listening to those people in the middle, and see just where their concerns and fear lie. They see a failed system. They see that doom the GOP stocking on the shelves. And they see two sides in a shoving match.

... 

For the next few weeks, liberals, take some time out to listen to moderate voter, and discover what they care about. I mean just listen. Don’t ask them leading questions or prod them. Just listen. You’ll find that the biggest complaint from most isn’t that the Republicans are anti-woman, anti-gay and pro-corporation. Their main complaint is that government isn’t working right now. They think the system is too polarized, and no longer meets their needs. Yes, we need more jobs. Yes, we need health care. Yes, everyone should have the same rights as everyone else in every arena. But as long as the right wing is yelling at us and we’re yelling back at them, the average voter has little confidence that either side can fix things. And hot cocoa begins to sound better than voting on a cold November morning. 

Keep in mind, a system can't be polarized unless two opposite sides both make it that way.  If the right wing is screaming, and we calmly ignore them and state our case, the polarization goes away. That's how things used to work. It's only been in the last 40 years or so that we came to think it was imperative that we answer every ridiculous notion the right wing puts out there.  

We have to push hope. We have to be the opposite of the right wing in every way. We can't assume they know where we stand on the issues; just tell everyone, and let them tell you whether they've heard it or not. ... 

...

So, please we need to take a breath, then we need to act. We need to get informed. We need to become involved in the process, and with our fellow citizens. Retreat now is to surrender and accept the Republicans view. And we know their plans for health care, for reproductive rights, for the environment, for Medicare, for Social Security, and for the Supreme Court. These ends are important, and we need to learn and be smart. So just getting angry and indolent doesn't make our case clearer. We need to act, having clarity and making connections. That's how you help rekindle hope.


So, why do we fall?

"So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

So let's learn. Let's pick ourselves up. Let's damn well not start fighting each other.

Bain is coming. And this fight will be against a juggernaut, juiced up with all sorts of cash, unflinching in it's use of dirty tricks and distraction, and unburdened with any moral compass.

Photo: Tom Hardy in "The Dark Knight Rises." Credit: Warner Bros.

__________
ADDENDUM:

Added the quote from Milt Shook.
Also modified the paragraph that followed.

WI: What once was old, is new, and who promised to leave, still remains.

As we ready for voting to come to a close in Wisconsin, as the question of the recall enters it's final hours, we take a breath and remember...

CRAP!!! ARE WALKER"S PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE OF VOTE TAKING AND COUNTING?!!

Now, I don't want to be paranoid. I just think it is always important to be interested in elections being fair, and being sure votes are counted.  Speaking of which, do you remember Kathy Nickolaus? She's the county clerk of Waukesha county.

... 

In last year’s contentious state Supreme Court election, Nickolaus left numbers from Brookfield out of the count and did not report the error for two days. The new totals gave Justice David Prosser the lead overJoAnne Kloppenburg, who initially appeared victorious. 

Democrats reacted with outrage over the race, which had become an early proxy war over Walker’s reforms. A recount was held and a state investigation found that Nickolaus violated the law by failing to post all returns on election night. 

She came under fire again during this spring’s Republican presidential primary,when results from Waukesha were hours behind and plans to post the totals online fell through. Reporters were left to sort through pieces of paper taped to walls. 

...

After this she was asked to step aside, and said she would. It would be better not to have someone like this running things, particularly a critical and intensely fought recall.

She's still around, isn't she?

Yep.

But they promise she won't be there tonight.

We'll see.

But if you haven't yet, in the recall or any of the primaries today, and still have the time. GET OUT AND VOTE!!!

A bit of Victorian "blasphemy."

To go along with the earlier post on blasphemy law, a little look at 19th century tweaking of sensibilities.


Christ In The House Of His Parents by John Everett Millais (1850)

It is an interesting painting. It comes from near the start of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. It sparked horror and disgust (including for respected artist like Charles Dickens) in many people. It gives us "the holy family" of saints and deity as all too human, wounded, worn down, and flawed. It is a very real image. And add to that the vision of young Jesus with stigmata.

Charles Dickens on the horror of Mary's "ugliness":

"She would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England."

Guess that's why he's a writer and not a painter. But, really, the disgust was shared by many. I can only imagine if this painting was done today, Bill Donohue would be on Hardball and FOX News denouncing it, for challenging his thinking.

Prisons: We're doing something wrong.

Think Progress created a nice display of how prison populations breakdown in the world.

The United States has large and growing prison populations. But we seem unaware. Add to that the (further) eschewed statistics showing that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to get picked up, get incarcerated, and receive longer sentences.

This situation gets little attention, and deserves more interest, and concern.

But it's not the only issue.

Then there is the private industry side of this. This has been a somewhat quiet shift. Between 2000 and 2009 the private prison population went from 6.3% to 8% of the total population. Along the way, there has been a growth in the lobbying dollars to spread around, now well over $2,000,000. And in 2010, they had 35 federal lobbyist at work. It is a quite profitable business.

Corrections Corporation of America is the largest of these private prison companies, and continues to pioneer this industry...feel free to be made uncomfortable.

(Emphasis added.)

... 

For two decades, CCA was a member of a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — a nationwide organization made up of corporations and state legislators. At an ALEC meeting in December 2009, where CCA employees were present, according to NPR’s reporting, the group crafted the model legislation that would later become Arizona’s SB1070 and a host of other similar bills across the country. 

... 

The bills CCA has lobbied on this year include a number of appropriations related to Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions, which made up 12 percent of the company’s revenue last year, according to CCA’s 2010 annual report. 

In last month’s quarterly statement, the company announced a quarterly revenue increase of 5.6 percent, which the company largely attributed to new federal contracts.

CCA didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment, but in other statements they have denied that they try to influence the political process. 

Paul Ashton told The Minnesota Independent that many of the legislative policies CCA was close to as a longtime member of ALEC, for instance the “three-strikes-you’re-out” rule, benefit the company’s bottom line. 

“In order for a private prison company to make money, there has to be people in prison,” Ashton said. “In order for them to have an increasing share of the market and in order for them to increase their revenue, there have to be more people in their facility, they have to stay their longer, and they have to come back.” 

It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California. 

In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants. 

“Prison privatization contracts are designed by policy makers. It’s important for these companies to have a political strategy to increase their market share,” Paul Ashton, author of a recent report on private prisons for the Justice Policy Institute, said in a conference call Wednesday. Private prison companies “game the system,” he said, by pushing to increase market share, which in the private prison business means putting more people in prison. 

...  

Prison size and prison populations as a profit center. That is wrong, just wrong.

One reason for these moves is a hope to cut costs for states. Trouble is that many of these privatization moves have proven to not actually work. One example is Chicago, where they sold off the parking meters, but now get bills when the new owners feel they are not getting the profits they expected. So, after selling off the income for a one time payment, they are now paying out to the private operator. That doesn't sound right, does it?

And, as some have reported, the savings from selling prisons are also in doubt, when properly analyzes.

(Emphasis added.)

... 

A series of studies has also cast doubt on the private prison industry's main selling point: efficiency. Research across numerous states has shown that the promised savings from private prisons can be illusory at best. Cost comparisons often fail to account for extra administrative expenses borne by the state, or differences in health care costs for sickly inmates who normally remain in state supervision. 

... 

"It's a real gamble for states to say, 'Gee, we're going to save a lot of money this way,'" said Zach Schiller, research director at Policy Matters Ohio, which did several studies analyzing Ohio's sale of a state prison to Corrections Corporation of America. "The idea that we should do this because we need money on a one-time basis seems like awfully short-term thinking. If we want to talk about what our needs are for the budget, and what our needs are for housing prisoners, let's look at those on a long-term basis and see what the best decisions are." 

... 

But estimated savings often come down to how those calculations are made, and outside researchers have questioned the numbers. In Arizona, for example, a 2010 report from the state's auditor general showed that it cost the state more to house prisoners in private facilities than public prisons after factoring in administrative costs and adjusting for the types of medical care provided to less healthy inmates who tended to be housed in public facilities. And in Florida, where lawmakers this week could decide whether to privatize more than two dozen state prisons, reports about private prisons from the state's legislative research office note, "cost savings estimates are subject to caveats and should be evaluated cautiously." 

... 

State officials have argued that selling and outsourcing the prison will generate $3 million in cost savings each year. But a report from Policy Matters Ohiocalculated that selling the Lake Erie prison would actually cost more in the long term than if the state continued to own the property and pay off the construction bonds. That's because the state has to pay Corrections Corporation of America a $3.8 million annual ownership fee for housing state prisoners, in addition to the prisoner per-diem costs laid out in the contract. 

...

This is a flawed approach. And, like the treatment of people of different races, it deserves for more interest and discussion.

Can I ask a question of religion? No.

Andrew Sullivan (at @sullydish on Twitter) can write interesting pieces. Sometimes it is for the reasons that Sullivan means. Sometimes it is something else entirely. This is true for when he writes on politics and when he writes on religion, and definitely when they overlap.

So recently Andrew Sullivan wrote on this question:

Is Mormonism Different Than Other Religions?

If you have seen some of my other posts, you will know that is a question I am interested and would like to see properly examined.

So what does Sullivan do? To start, he points to a later article coming out to address whether Mormons and the LDS act properly or not. Eh, it's a post from a writer, you can expect that to happen.

But it's where he goes from there that is so interesting.

"Mormonism, in other words, should not be tackled differently than any other faith; but neither can it be completely exempted from examination in this election."

Wow, that is such an interesting view. The first half, is so on point. Mormonism should be treated just the same as other religions. Every religion is weird. Every religion has secrets. Every religion has it's little traditions. So the fact these are facets of Mormonism is not, in and of itself, a good issue.

But that second half. It should be treated like other faiths, but it can't be COMPLETELY exempt from examination... Does that mean the other religions are exempt? If Newt was the candidate, would we not be allowed to talk about the Pope and Cardinal Dolan? If Santorum was the guy, would we be sanctioned for talking Evangelicalism? As I recall, "the black church" got some scrutiny. Was it like Mormonism? 


And this is the presumed starting point for so many of the faithful.

"Of course, we don't have to talk about my faith. That's different, I'm different. It would be offensive. Why would you ask or invade that area of a person's life? How dare you!"

Sacred. It's a human construct. We can choose to respect. We can choose to keep some respectful distance. And, we can choose to pay no attention at all to the topic. But when we debate and dance with religion, we don't have to worry about keeping space for the Holy Ghost. Rather we can get up close and, barring blasphemy law, speak our minds. And, no one should be above this.


As a matter of your personal life, you can believe what you like, without harm to others. Religion, in and of itself, has no immunity and is up for scrutiny, debate, and criticism. And in politics, their is a blend  of the two points, as it is your life, but it is also a public concept with real world impact.


So let's amend, and truncate, Sullivan's line:

"Mormonism should not be tackled differently than any other faith; and like all other faiths, it is not exempted from examination ..."

Religious Law is Blasphemous

Among the varying laws meant to protect or push religion are the blasphemy laws. It might sound quaint to you, but these are ever present in our world.

You may not know this, but in the United Kingdom these laws were on the books up to 2008. And there was wailing and teeth gnashing at the effort to end them. So, no, this was not some old forgotten law on the book. Back in the day, these laws were held over the heads of iconoclasts, like Monty Python. So, again, this was considered vital law. But, as of 2007, when a British teacher in Sudan mistaken let kids name a teddy bear Mohammed and was arrested, suddenly the importance of blasphemy in the U.K. went down. It was hard for them to complain about someone else's stupid laws, when they were still using similar laws.

Moohammad - Atheist Experience

But there has been change. Positive change. So it is easier to turn now and look at how these laws are maintained and applied around the world without that stench of hypocrisy.

So let's see a close example, in Turkey. A Turkish pianist made the mistake of having a twitter account where he made jokes (Twitter is only for sober dialogue.), including about the government and about Islamic beliefs.

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Say, 42, who is also a composer, is accused of ''publicly insulting religious values that are adopted by a part of the nation'', the semi-official Anatolian news agency said. 

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He will be tried in the Fall, and could go to prison for up to a year and a half. FOR RETWEETING jokes on twitter. Not even iffy  @FrankConniff  or @JimGaffigan material. And Turkey is one of the more balanced Islamic nations, between religion and secularism. But also it is trying to garner trust among fellow European nations. Turkey, this isn't helping your case.

In Afghanistan, back in 2008, Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh was tried for blasphemy for writing an online article about the treatment of women in the Quran. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Then that was commuted to 20 years in prison (and appeals process followed that's proved to be a joke.). And he's the one of a number that have faced prison time or death in Afghanistan, for ideas.

In Pakistan, the most powerful governor in the nation, and longtime critic of religious extremist, Salman Taseer, was gunned down for calling for an end to blasphemy laws, in Pakistan.

For the Saudi, it has been an intense and sometimes unternational effort, having a Hamza Kashgari, a journalist who tweeted a joke (Tweeting does seem to be more dangerous than I thought.) was grabbed in Malaysia for the Saudi government. At present he is back in Saudi Arabia. And it is being said, he has gone through some repentance process to be freed from prison. But the facts of this, or if it has happen is not clear for me yet. We can only hope he will be freed.

An Australian man was only partially that lucky in Saudi Arabia. While on a Hajj (pilgramage) to Medina, Mansor Almaribe, was arrested for:

... Family members told Australian media that Saudi officials accused him of insulting the companions of the prophet Muhammad, a violation of Saudi Arabia's blasphemy laws. ...

He was convicted and sentenced to 500 lashes (whipping) and a 2 year in jail (Not to worry, the jail time was reduced.). After fighting over his health issues, it was decided to just whip him 75 times, then send him home. Happy ending? ...He is still alive, at least.

Just so you don't think Turkey is alone in Europe, we have Ireland. In 2009 they passed new blasphemy laws. Old ideas made new again. Hallelujah!

That's right Father Ted is now a crime.


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But there is talk of a constitutional action. And, last year, a new government promised action.


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But this belies further continuation of blasphemy laws in Europe. To be honest, it's not that rare.



Other European Nations with blasphemy, or similar (like Religious Insult), laws:

• Andorra
• Austria
• Cyprus
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• Germany
• Greece
• Iceland
• Italy
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway (on books, but defunct)
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• San Marino
• Slovakia
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Ukraine

Things may have changed this information was first compiled. But it is worth learning about countries of interest. Their is also some merit in debating the line between blasphemy, hate speech, incitement, and the free speech.

I always appreciate the line:

"Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man's nose begins."

Tweeting a joke about your vision of a god lands NO WHERE NEAR your nose. Does it?

Nor, does a satirical play, or an expressed negative opinion.

The opinion may be horrible, the play may be "obscene," and the joke may fall flat. You may see, read, or hear of any of them, and be offended. You may say they are blasphemous.


But that shouldn't make them crimes.

Political ends > Science

The ever thoughtful, Dr. Steven Novella, looks at the moves in North Carolina to legislate science.

Neurologica:

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Recently the North Carolina legislature proposed House Bill 819 to study the effect of climate change on sea levels, and therefore coastlines. For some reason the legislators felt the need to include in the bill specific restrictions on how the science can be done.   

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Apparently being elected to the State House of North Carolina invests politicians with superior knowledge (to actual scientists who work in the field) as to the proper way to model future trends. Extrapolating current trends into the future is always tricky. The very heart of any such extrapolation is to know what the mathematical trend is. There is a tendency to assume a linear extrapolation, but that is usually not the case.  

...

It is astounding that...no, no it's not astounding, it is too common these days to be that. It is too familiar a sight to see state legislators try and spitball scientific truth as they see it and fit it into bills. Evolution, Climate Science, Geology, the facts are all up for debate.

But, no. Just because you got a number of people to fill the oval by your name does not mean you're every half-assed opinion is golden. Sorry. But it's better you know that now. Politicians should have a respect for the people actually crunching the numbers on these complicated issues. A society that chooses to dislike science and scientist aren't ones heading into a golden age.

What happens when Christian leaders do want to stone you?

Uganda

Remember that country? Remember the "Kill the Gays" bill?

No? Damn your lousy memory! Here!

To be far, I think even most people who bothered to be concerned with the treatment of gay folks around the world, have moved on to other shiny things. But the question of law deciding the fate of gay people still exists.

And it gained a new proponent in one Archbishop Orombi. His full title is archbishop of Uganda and Bishop of Kampala. So not a minor figure. He's also the chair of the Uganda Joint Christian Council, which brings together Catholic and other denominations. So, again, not a minor figure.

Among other statements, on taxes, education, and presidential power (...Would love to get into that...), he made a point of pushing to have the anti-gay bill finally passed and enacted in Uganda. (...but, you notice how much his platform nicely parallels the GOP's?) He says he's concerned with protecting marriage and the moral fabric of the country. (...It's like he was separated at birth from Rick Santorum...)


Well, if you want to know the connections this has to the US and GOP, or need a refresher, just look back to Jeff Sharlet's work on it:

Jeff Sharlet on Uganda
Jeff Sharlet Explores the American 'Straight Man's Burden' in Uganda
Finding The Roots Of Anti-Gay Sentiment In Uganda






At the end of the article about the archbishop, you'll notice a name, Bahati. This is a leading advocate of this bill in the Ugandan parliament. In the NPR piece above, he said the following to Sharlet:

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"Bahati said: 'If you come here, you'll see homosexuals from Europe and America are luring our children into homosexuality by distributing cell phones and iPods and things like this,' " Sharlet recounts. "And he said, 'And I can explain to you what I really want to do.' " 

Sharlet accompanied Bahati to a restaurant and later to his home, where Bahati told Sharlet that he wanted "to kill every last gay person." 

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And here he is with Rachel Maddow:




That is the thinking being dealt with here. And it now has the openly public backing of the most powerful religious voice in the country. That's what the gays of Uganda face today.

Many of us may have forgotten about Uganda. But those trying to get these laws enacted have not.

Atlas Shrugged, and they thought it meant the next one was a freebie.

If you haven’t seen or heard of it, yes, they made a movie out of Atlas Shrugged, the book of Ayn Rand. Rather, they made a movie of the first part of the book, intending to do two more movies.

The result was somewhat low rent. Not really the best of anything, but that was because no one really wanted to donate money to get the movie made (Had they no appreciation of Randian philosophy?)

So the movie was made, it was in theaters, we all made jokes (Mr. Mendo did a humorous review of this flop.), and it left the theaters, having made less than $5 million of it's $20 million budget. I wonder if it worked like those lousy religious movies, where the movies really bad, but it espouses ones beliefs, so you love it? No matter it was gone. ...

... Until the DVD was released.

Yep. Really a class operation there. They truly got the core message of Rand, getting and using social security and Medicare.

But that’s not even the end of it. Like Frodo warned of 2/3^rd’s of the way through Return of the King, “There’s room for more.” ...

... Yep. They conned…they got more support and have continued the vanity project. Come on, after Battlefield Earth no one was raced out to do the next part of the story. They had the good sense to burn their identities and walk away. Except, Travolta, he just got a relaxing massage.

But on with this they push. New cast. Got the likes of Michael Shermer to visit the sets. And the tracks looked clear and ready to get up to full speed.

That is, until the Ayn Rand people actually took offense. You see, the movie makers haven't actually paid for the right to make another movie. You don't skimp on paying off the Rand people. They will cut you. (Though I am not sure why they are eager to go after Netflix, for carrying the movie. Guess they are fair game for the "self-interested.")

Why do I imagine that the word parasite was passed around at Casa Rand? Guess the producers of these movies are not the right kind of selfish.

The Romneys, a case study in the need for Obamacare.

Electablog finely pointed out just why we need Obamacare, by example of the life of Ann Romney.

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Then I got thinking: What if Ann Romney weren’t Ann Romney? What if she were a mother of six with a history of MS and cancer and suddenly thrown into the free market to purchase health care? 

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(Photo: Buzzfeed)

You see, Ann Romney has not had an easy life. She continues to deal with the impact of Multiple Sclerosis as she moved around and deals with day to day life, including campaigning with her husband. As well, she has had to face the impact of breast cancer. These are not light or easy issues on her own.

So we all want to give her and her family all due consideration as they have had to deal with concerns no one should face. As LOLGOP (at @LOLGOP on Twitter) notes, this probably helped Mitt appreciate the need for action in Massachusetts. Though, he's since forgotten, apparently.

What is different about what happen to the Romney family, compared to the lives of thousands of other families is that they are rich and connected. When Ann Romney had deal with a pack of kids, then MS, then cancer, she was not alone.

Things they don't have to worry about affording or acquiring:

• ANYTHING

Yep. That's it.


Want a doctor, anywhere or anytime?

Paid and on call. 

Trouble moving around?

Someone's been hired to help. 

Have a preexisting condition?

How much extra will that cost? And how much do I tip you on top of that?

Need a special car elevator to make life easier?

We'll just rebuild the whole mansion to make it fit in better.

When you are rich, famous, powerful, and/or connected, a lot of problems are not problems.

The problem with these not problems is most all of us are none of those things. And when things are real bad, we are alone scared and forgotten.

I am genuinely happy Ann Romney has persevered through her travails. I am glad she has her hobbies and family. But they seem to have both, Mitt and Ann, blithely forgotten about us, poor, the scared, and the uninsured. We need Obamacare. We need more than that, but so far all Romney and the GOP offer is less than Obamacare. That's no good, unless you have the wealth to not need it. Most of us do.

That is not the leadership I want, or that we need.

Calling out Romney's lies.

Why is Romney getting to lie so casually?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When will more journalist call him and his campaign on this stuff? Shouldn't we expect better, of politics and news folk.

We need more the like of Maddow.

FLORIDA. How is this accepted any longer?

FLORIDA. So many issues arise there. But it is in the matter of elections that is of particular importance for us to be informed, and talking. Worse, for us, is the media's relative silence. As most of us are not wonks and news junkies, so many of these key events are unknown, and in the shadows. That is a fault I'll lay on the media. But as they fail as promised, it is up to us to be heard amongst out friends and family.

In electoral events of the last 3 presidential bids it has had serious question arise. And know under Rick Scott, we see things only worsening. While shadiness falls over every election, if you look hard enough, Florida seems to take a special pride, with it's particular mix of different politics, races, cultures, and generations, in being a bur in the side of the process.

So what is happening under Rick Scott.

Think Progress has been chronicling the injustice.

How Governor Rick Scott Is Preventing Eligible U.S. Citizens From Voting In Florida

The Miami Herald reports that “Florida’s quest to identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls was started at the direct urging of Gov. Rick Scott.” Scott instructed his former Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, to compile a list of people who were registered in Florida but ineligible to vote. 

Browning struggled to aquire accurate data and eventually resigned his post in February. Scott moved forward with the effort anyway, and in recent days “the state sent a list to county election supervisors of more than 2,600 people who have been identified as non-U.S. citizens.”   

According to election supervisors, the list is riddled with inaccuracies. Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter earlier this week of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible... 

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A study by the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice found that actual voter fraud is practically non-existent. According to the study, most cases of alleged voter fraud can be traced back to clerical or administrative errors. 

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NEW DATA: Elections Supervisors Throughout Florida Confirm U.S. Citizens Improperly Included In Voter Purge

When Gov. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) administration distributed its controversial lists of possible non-citizen voters last month, state statute required the state’s 67 county supervisors of elections to send out letters requiring those voters to prove their eligibility to vote within 30 days — a window that will end in the next couple of weeks in many counties. But a ThinkProgress survey of several county supervisors in Florida reveals that the lists of presumed non-eligible voters is riddled with errors. In large and small jurisdictions across the state, supervisors have found that a large number of the voters on the list are indeed eligible voters. 

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Meet Bill: The 91-Year-Old Decorated WWII Veteran Targeted By Florida Governor Rick Scott’s Voter Purge

Bill Internicola is a 91-year-old, Brooklyn-born, World War II veteran. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and received the Bronze Star for bravery. He’s voted in Florida for 14 years and never had a problem. 

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Meet Maureen Russo: An Eligible Florida Voter Governor Rick Scott Just Purged From The Voting Rolls

Maureen Russo was born in Akron, Ohio. For the last 40 years she’s operated a dog boarding and grooming business — Bobbi’s World Kennels — with her husband in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Maureen is 60 years old and has been a registered voter in the state for the last four decades. She regularly votes at the church around the corner from her home. 

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Florida GOP Chair Compares Disenfranchising Voters to Stopping Drunk Drivers

Yesterday, Florida GOP Chair Lenny Curryreleased a statement defending Gov. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) plan to purge tens of thousands of voters from Florida’s voter roles. The purge is based on an error riddled list of purportedly ineligible voters which includes hundreds of eligible U.S. citizens in just one county. According to Curry, purging voters is just like a DUI checkpoint ...

But some action is coming, as the Department of Justice demands some answers.

TPM has the story: “The Justice Department sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner Thursday evening demanding the state cease purging its voting rolls because the process it is using has not been cleared under the Voting Rights Act, TPM has learned. DOJ also said that Florida’s voter roll purge violated the National Voter Registration Act,  ...

Also, a federal judge has ruled on this (Thanks to the hard work from BRAD BLOG):

As I'm on the road and largely off the grid this week, I was about to post the following video from last night'sRachel Maddow Show, thanking her for covering so much of what we've been covering here at The BRAD BLOG, for so long, in one nice long top-of-show segment. 

I'm still going to do that, but below that, I'm happy to post a press release just sent out by the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, breaking the news that a federal judge has just blocked the "key provisions of a restrictive voting law in Florida today." The Brennan Center describes the ruling as "a breakthrough victory for Florida voters and voting rights advocates nationwide." 

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But the media needs to start asking questions and start talking more about examples like this around the country, because it is happening around the country. And until, or if, the media gets involved. It falls on us to speak up.


Get informed, get involved.