assassination plot foiled

A plot to assassinate the Danish cartoonist who drew an image of muhammad that was published in newspapers was stopped when three men (one Danish citizen of Moroccan origin and two Tunisians) were arrested. There was unrest in Denmark consisting of burning schools and cars. This might have been caused by the reprinting of the cartoons which was done in solidarity of the cartoonists.

you can't always get what you want

Huckabee supporters pray for deaths of leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. There is a new word I learned from this story: imprecatory prayer is prayer for the misfortune of others. The pastor that made the call is being investigated by the IRS for endorsing Mike Huckabee because under tax exemption status, churches are not allowed to endorse candidates for election. Should churches lose their tax exempt status when they ask god to smite their enemies? Of course, when the Baptist Press reports on the story, they leave off a bit of what the rest of us find quite hypocritical.

islam is not oppressive to women and journalists (just don't kill me)

A journalist has been sentenced to death in Afghanistan under sharia law for downloading a report that says that islamic fundamentalists use the Koran to justify oppression of women. Apparently he did nothing more than read the document and for that he was sentenced to death.

Grisham calls baptist convention intolerant, then is labeled as "negative"

John Grisham was a voice of tolerance, anti-war, and anti-poverty at a baptist convention. His speech was then labeled as "negative" by the reporter.

How strange that the reporter in question picked out such positive aspects of the speech, such as
* Baptists should be inclusive rather 'proudly intolerant' (e.g. excluding women)
* should use the mission of the ministry to raise children out of poverty
* oppose the Iraq war

and then call the speech negative.

plead insanity

A priest for the Orthodox Church in Bucharest, Romania was convicted of killing a young nun during an exorcism ritual. Apparently the nun had schizophrenia and the priest and 4 other nuns decided to try to cure her by performing the ritual but accidently killed her. The priest and the nuns were each given a sentence of 5-6 years.

god, save us from your follower

"I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than trying to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family."
-- Mike Huckabee
And of course, Mike, you know the word of god, so we should let you change the constitution.

the attack of the pope

The pope was supposed to speak at the opening ceremony of La Sapienza university in Rome but he cancelled because of protests from university professors who pointed out that this pope has a bit of an anti-free academic history. The pope gave a speech in 1990 also at La Sapienza where he said that he thought that the trial of Galileo was right and just. Pope John Paul in 1992 admitted that the earth did not stay stationary, only three centuries after Galileo was tried for heresy.
The pope in a blatant hypocritical remark said this weekend "I encourage all of you, dear academics, to always be respectful of the opinions of others, and to seek the truth and the good with an open and responsible mind because we might jail and torture you just as we did to Galileo." Ok, so that last bit I might be misquoting him, but of course for the physicists at the university this is actually what is happening since there many in the general public who are calling for their jobs.
So lets analyze this carefully: You are not allowed to disagree with the pope or you will lose your job.
There was a large crowd at the Vatican this last weekend in what the media is calling support of the pope although apparently there were protesters there too.
The real hypocrisy is that the pope was the one who cancelled his own visit and now is playing the victim and crying saying that he doesn't get to speak. boo-hoo. Um, mr. pope, sir? Don't you get to speak to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people every week? The professors are not asking you not to speak, just not at their ceremony where you will be given an open position to attack academic freedom (as you did last time).