Child molester to become ordained minister
Mark Hourigan, convicted child molester (sexually abusing an 11 year old boy) is going to be ordained as a Minister in Kentucky.
Wonderful.
Hourigan has served his time and he has agreed not to have any contact with children as a condition of his probation, but his probation is over - and though he will be forever on the books as a sex-offender, he is no longer barred from contact with children.
In fact, as a minister, I should think he'll be in frequent contact with the children of his flock. Maybe I'm biased, maybe I'm prejudaced, but I have a feeling it won't be too long before Hourigan is back in custody again, even if 'god [HAS] touched his heart'.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Child Brides
Obviously, this is something I've known about and ranted about before (and often, respectively) but after logging on to the news this morning, I was confronted with not one, but two reports concerning the barbaric act.
The first was found in the Daily Mail (shut up, I read it for the laughs and rant opportunities) and told of the 12 year old girl who died trying to give birth to her still-born child, after three days of labour and horrendous blood loss. I had a look around, and found it confirmed by various other news reports.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef - who was married at eleven, to a 24 year old Saudi Arabian man - died of severe blood loss in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province in Yemen, and her story is only being told because of a serendipitous discovery of her situation by Ahmed al-Quraishi, Chairman of the Siyaj human rights organization.
Fawziya is only one of many such cases in Yemen, the poorest of the Arab countries, where there is no law to protect such girls from what is essentially government sanctioned pedophilia. Due to a lack of education, strict tribal customs and a surplus of the very poor, girls like Youseff are often forced or even sold into marriage (her parents receiving hefty dowries.)
Yemen's Government actually attempted to raise the age of marriage to 17 earlier this year, but apparently it was deemed 'un-Islamic' and sent back for review. I don't hold much hope for that actually ever making it past the review stage.
The second story was found in Reason Weekly, and concerned yet another child bride, this time 10 years old and in Saudi Arabia.
The little girl, who is nothing more than a babe herself, has been forced, by her father, to return to her 80 year old husband, after spending ten days hiding at her aunt's house, following her marriage to the man.
Apparently, the man had previously been engaged to her older sister, but when her sister decided to end the engagement to continue her education, their father offered him the younger girl.
Like a piece of meat, perhaps?
And people have the gall to tell us that Islam respects women? That it is a peace loving religion and all that other rot that gets said about it by fundamental and even moderate Muslims?
If that were so, we wouldn't constantly be hearing reports about child brides, suicide bombings, random acts of downright cruelty and terrorism. I find myself wondering why we, as a country, still deal with places like Saudi Arabia, when they allow things like this to happen.
Oh, but of course, it'll be all about Politics and oil. Our government can go blithely ahead, ignoring the truly shitty lives these women and girls are leading, the crap that countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey get away with, because these are petty issues, beneath their notice.
It makes me sick to my stomach, whenever I hear of these reports.
The first was found in the Daily Mail (shut up, I read it for the laughs and rant opportunities) and told of the 12 year old girl who died trying to give birth to her still-born child, after three days of labour and horrendous blood loss. I had a look around, and found it confirmed by various other news reports.
Fawziya Abdullah Youssef - who was married at eleven, to a 24 year old Saudi Arabian man - died of severe blood loss in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province in Yemen, and her story is only being told because of a serendipitous discovery of her situation by Ahmed al-Quraishi, Chairman of the Siyaj human rights organization.
Fawziya is only one of many such cases in Yemen, the poorest of the Arab countries, where there is no law to protect such girls from what is essentially government sanctioned pedophilia. Due to a lack of education, strict tribal customs and a surplus of the very poor, girls like Youseff are often forced or even sold into marriage (her parents receiving hefty dowries.)
Yemen's Government actually attempted to raise the age of marriage to 17 earlier this year, but apparently it was deemed 'un-Islamic' and sent back for review. I don't hold much hope for that actually ever making it past the review stage.
The second story was found in Reason Weekly, and concerned yet another child bride, this time 10 years old and in Saudi Arabia.
The little girl, who is nothing more than a babe herself, has been forced, by her father, to return to her 80 year old husband, after spending ten days hiding at her aunt's house, following her marriage to the man.
Apparently, the man had previously been engaged to her older sister, but when her sister decided to end the engagement to continue her education, their father offered him the younger girl.
“I was allowed to have a look at her according to Shariah and found her acceptable”
Like a piece of meat, perhaps?
And people have the gall to tell us that Islam respects women? That it is a peace loving religion and all that other rot that gets said about it by fundamental and even moderate Muslims?
If that were so, we wouldn't constantly be hearing reports about child brides, suicide bombings, random acts of downright cruelty and terrorism. I find myself wondering why we, as a country, still deal with places like Saudi Arabia, when they allow things like this to happen.
Oh, but of course, it'll be all about Politics and oil. Our government can go blithely ahead, ignoring the truly shitty lives these women and girls are leading, the crap that countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey get away with, because these are petty issues, beneath their notice.
It makes me sick to my stomach, whenever I hear of these reports.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Sunday Angel
From the cover of Nezami Ganjavi's 'The Quintet' - a collection of persian poetry.
As we all know, Islam is essentially descended from Christianity and Judaism - and as is to be expected, Islam developed it's own host of angels. I think this is an illustration of the four archangels (if I am wrong, please get in touch and I'll edit this) Jibril (Gabriel), Mikal (Micheal), Izra'il (angel of Death) and Israfil (angel of Last Judgement).
'The Greatest Show On Earth'
I've got my hands on a copy (stolen off my mother, she had to leave it behind when she went on holiday, the thing's too heavy for her hand-luggage!) and I am now reading it.
I'll give y'all my verdict when I'm done. (But so far? I'm enjoying it XD)
I'll give y'all my verdict when I'm done. (But so far? I'm enjoying it XD)
Monday, 7 September 2009
Islamic Search Enginge?
Yupp, you read that right - 'Islamic Search Engine'. After seven months of development, the ImHalal service has been released for Islamic browsers.
This report, from the Times Online, was sent to me by an amused friend, and I thought I'd share. And rant a little.
It's certainly amusing, in that these people are so concerened about what the internet provides, that they had to create their own search engine for it. But it's also - in my opinion - ignorant, dangerous and down-right hateful. For example, this paragraph from the article:
I gave it a go. Type in 'homosexual' or 'gay rights' and you get the 3 point haram level and a warning:
I even tried 'lingerie' and 'sexual health' and got the 2 point Haram warning:
I suppose on the upside, it does allow one to search for 'abortion' and 'feminism' without any warnings (though I wonder for how much longer this will be the case, as there is a 'feedback' system, for users to send in terms to be filtered out - 'Bikini' has already been sent in). This doesn't, however, make up for the blatant discrimination against homosexuality and even heterosexual sexual health issues.
This search engine is basically advocating censorship of basic, everyday issues and trying to hide that fact behind claims of moderates avoiding the internet over worries about what their children may come in contact with:
There are ways of preventing your children from accessing such worrying material - it's not hard. Though it may not be perfect, you can do it without limiting search engines with discriminatory and censorious 'haram' level filters.
Obviously, people can go elsewhere, use other search engines - but that this thing exists is bad enough. Limiting the availability of information in this way can cause harm. People restricted to an engine that explicitly describes 'homosexual', 'gay', 'lesbian' and so on, as 'haram' and will not open any page containing the words, limits the exposure to such that normalises and help to create acceptance of a significant portion of the population of this planet.
In short, I don't like it.
Islamic search engine ImHalal filters out potentially sinful material.
This report, from the Times Online, was sent to me by an amused friend, and I thought I'd share. And rant a little.
It's certainly amusing, in that these people are so concerened about what the internet provides, that they had to create their own search engine for it. But it's also - in my opinion - ignorant, dangerous and down-right hateful. For example, this paragraph from the article:
The filter works by examining the user’s search terms and the websites that come up, trawling for a “danger list” of words that may indicate forbidden fruit. On the site, sex-related terms such as “gay”, “lesbian” or simply “sexy” merit a haram level of three. But “beer” and “pork” only merit one point, while “drugs” earns two.
I gave it a go. Type in 'homosexual' or 'gay rights' and you get the 3 point haram level and a warning:
Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again.
I even tried 'lingerie' and 'sexual health' and got the 2 point Haram warning:
Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 2 out of 3. This means that the results fetched by ImHalal.com could be haram!
I suppose on the upside, it does allow one to search for 'abortion' and 'feminism' without any warnings (though I wonder for how much longer this will be the case, as there is a 'feedback' system, for users to send in terms to be filtered out - 'Bikini' has already been sent in). This doesn't, however, make up for the blatant discrimination against homosexuality and even heterosexual sexual health issues.
This search engine is basically advocating censorship of basic, everyday issues and trying to hide that fact behind claims of moderates avoiding the internet over worries about what their children may come in contact with:
Mr Sardeha said: “Before we started this, we got the feeling that a lot of people in the Middle East, a lot of Muslims, really avoided the internet and prevented their children from accessing the internet because they were afraid their children might come into contact with sexually explicit material.”
There are ways of preventing your children from accessing such worrying material - it's not hard. Though it may not be perfect, you can do it without limiting search engines with discriminatory and censorious 'haram' level filters.
Obviously, people can go elsewhere, use other search engines - but that this thing exists is bad enough. Limiting the availability of information in this way can cause harm. People restricted to an engine that explicitly describes 'homosexual', 'gay', 'lesbian' and so on, as 'haram' and will not open any page containing the words, limits the exposure to such that normalises and help to create acceptance of a significant portion of the population of this planet.
In short, I don't like it.
James Randi
I just found out that he's currently dealing with cancer, with something like a 50/50 chance of another 5 years with us.
The guy's a bit of an inspiration to me, and certainly important to most, if not all, skeptic/freethinking/atheist's around the world. He'll be sorely missed, but he's not gone yet.
If nothing else, Randi's a fighter - he's 81 and has been doing live shows for years, giving his talk on Critical Thinking, Skepticism and Debunking - and he's undergoing chemotherapy, so I doubt he'll be taking that step into the long sleep anytime soon.
There seems to be a little worry over what will happen to the JREF and TAM when he's gone - but I don't think they should worry so much. He may be the face of both, but his legacy will keep them going, especially considering there are so many people now involved, with ever more joining and contributing all the time. Phil Plait has already taken over as the new President at JREF and TAM has many supporters and famous faces (not least of whom are Penn and Teller!) so I doubt it will founder with Randi gone.
But as I said, he's not gone yet, and probably won't be for a few more years to come - so, from my tiny little corner of the blogosphere, I wish him well and hope his chemo isn't too taxing. He's a great mind and a great personality and will continue to inspire us free thinkers, skeptics and atheists for years to come.
The guy's a bit of an inspiration to me, and certainly important to most, if not all, skeptic/freethinking/atheist's around the world. He'll be sorely missed, but he's not gone yet.
If nothing else, Randi's a fighter - he's 81 and has been doing live shows for years, giving his talk on Critical Thinking, Skepticism and Debunking - and he's undergoing chemotherapy, so I doubt he'll be taking that step into the long sleep anytime soon.
There seems to be a little worry over what will happen to the JREF and TAM when he's gone - but I don't think they should worry so much. He may be the face of both, but his legacy will keep them going, especially considering there are so many people now involved, with ever more joining and contributing all the time. Phil Plait has already taken over as the new President at JREF and TAM has many supporters and famous faces (not least of whom are Penn and Teller!) so I doubt it will founder with Randi gone.
But as I said, he's not gone yet, and probably won't be for a few more years to come - so, from my tiny little corner of the blogosphere, I wish him well and hope his chemo isn't too taxing. He's a great mind and a great personality and will continue to inspire us free thinkers, skeptics and atheists for years to come.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Sunday Angel
I've decided to give myself a kick up the butt and start properly blogging again.
So, taking a leaf out of various blogger's books (most prominantly, Pharyngula) I've decided to share an image, and maybe talk about it a bit, every Sunday.
As an Artist, I've gone with, well, art (who'da thunk it, right?) and as an atheist, I decided 'Angel's' were an appropriate and artistically interesting subject to run with.
(I know, a godless heathen appreciates art depicting mythical ceatures! I'm sure you'll get over it.)
So! I'm starting this off with an image by William Blake, which, hopefully, will show you that I won't be sticking with the typical, disneyfied images of angels that do the rounds among the religious and woo-fans alike.
A gorgeous start, right? And not your typical rendition of an Angel, either - something that I rather like about Blake's work, he didn't use the cliche, effeminate, robed creatures that are so oft' used to depict scenes from the Bible.
This image works perfectly as an illustration of the text, with a very litteral interpretation of the moment Saint John was 'gifted' with a 'Divine vision' - the quoted text above - and later recorded.
While I may not believe any of this really happened, or in anything divine, I can definitely appreciate good art and interesting imagery. It has to be said, holy writings have inspired some fantastic works, some of which I hope to share with you on Sundays from now on.
Enjoy!
So, taking a leaf out of various blogger's books (most prominantly, Pharyngula) I've decided to share an image, and maybe talk about it a bit, every Sunday.
As an Artist, I've gone with, well, art (who'da thunk it, right?) and as an atheist, I decided 'Angel's' were an appropriate and artistically interesting subject to run with.
(I know, a godless heathen appreciates art depicting mythical ceatures! I'm sure you'll get over it.)
So! I'm starting this off with an image by William Blake, which, hopefully, will show you that I won't be sticking with the typical, disneyfied images of angels that do the rounds among the religious and woo-fans alike.
William Blake
The Angel of Revelation
Pen and watercolour,
393 x 262 mm
c.1805
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1914, 14.81.1
Revelation 10:1-7
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down." Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets."
A gorgeous start, right? And not your typical rendition of an Angel, either - something that I rather like about Blake's work, he didn't use the cliche, effeminate, robed creatures that are so oft' used to depict scenes from the Bible.
This image works perfectly as an illustration of the text, with a very litteral interpretation of the moment Saint John was 'gifted' with a 'Divine vision' - the quoted text above - and later recorded.
While I may not believe any of this really happened, or in anything divine, I can definitely appreciate good art and interesting imagery. It has to be said, holy writings have inspired some fantastic works, some of which I hope to share with you on Sundays from now on.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Maine and Prop 1
Seriously, if you've not read Greta Christina's blog about this yet, do so.
She's right, of course. If you lot across the pond get your asses in gear, you can keep this going, and keep it going until the rest of the States get it into their thick skulls that homosexuals are people as well, and that they deserve exactly the same human rights as heterosexual people.
Here, have a couple of links - the first one can be found on Geta's page of course, but open them now as you open her Blog.
Protect Maine Equality
Queer's United
Same Sex Marriage, And Why you Care Passionately About Maine
She's right, of course. If you lot across the pond get your asses in gear, you can keep this going, and keep it going until the rest of the States get it into their thick skulls that homosexuals are people as well, and that they deserve exactly the same human rights as heterosexual people.
Here, have a couple of links - the first one can be found on Geta's page of course, but open them now as you open her Blog.
Protect Maine Equality
Queer's United
Monday, 24 August 2009
Sorry!
I do apologise, I've been distracted elsewhere, and haven't updated in a while! ^^
As a consolation, have a link to my art blog, which I just updated with a bunch of new art yesterday:
Bag's Art Blog
I do plan to make a few posts in the near future, so bear with me ^^
As a consolation, have a link to my art blog, which I just updated with a bunch of new art yesterday:
Bag's Art Blog
I do plan to make a few posts in the near future, so bear with me ^^
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Birthers, Truthers and Highlighters now?
For those of you who haven't seen this yet (I found it on Pharyngula).
For my part, I'd just like to say that as a Brit who has had to use the NHS a couple times, these fucking American anti-'nhs'-style-health-reform arseholes need to grow up and look at exactly what it is that they are fighting against.
I really, truly admire the way you lot compare Obama to the Nazi's. It truly sounds like you know exactly what you're talking about. And not like you're in fact stuck so far up your own arses that I'm surprised you're not barfing your own shit. Really.
For fuck's sake people, the NHS may not be as perfect as it needs to be, but that's mainly due to lack of funding and incentive for new staff. In the most important way, it's brilliant. I am quite happy to thank the staff who have treated me or my loved ones in the past.
Get over it people, and find some real cause to get up in arms over.
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