Blog and News Roundup! Part 2

[philosoraptor42]

Atheism and Religion News

Catholic Church on health care reform in the US (Talk To Action)
The Catholic Church have taken their side in the issue of health reform and, surprise surprise, it's against health care reform.
Father Morris on Fox News actually claims without any sense of shame that God wants people to make money and that Obama's health care plan is against the will of God:

However, Father Morris seems positively sensible and unbiased by comparison by the following insanity.

Oh and in case anyone is confused, they are referring to a failed attempt to blow up Glasgow airport with a bomb in a car. Apparently the terrorists were doctors, so they are claiming this proves that the NHS is a breeding ground for terrorism. Naturally they've considered the obvious connection between being a doctor and making bombs. (Er, what?) And of course, as they make very clear, the way you tell whether someone is a terrorist is by checking whether they are watching Al Qaeda videos at work....

Advice to Muslims suspected of terrorism in the US: Get a lawyer! (Sepia Mutiny)
During the trial, he acted as his own lawyer, wearing a Muslim skullcap over his curly hair and engaging witnesses in occasionally odd exchanges about Superman and the antichrist

In addition to the evidence against him, the 23-year-old’s performance as his own lawyer in court may have helped seal his fate, said Evan Kohlmann, an expert witness for the prosecution. Sadequee discussed the fine points of holy war and other Islamic concepts with Kohlmann during a lengthy cross-examination. Sadequee seemed eager to discuss his radical ideas and apparently did not realize that a jury was unlikely to sympathize, said Kohlmann, who also worked as a consultant to investigators in the British trials. “I think he believed he could express these ideas eloquently enough that an American jury could see the light,” Kohlmann said. “But I don’t think there was a light to be seen. He may have convicted himself.”

So yes, the advice they give is as follows:
Okay, I’m only going to say this once, desi guys and gals with legal troubles: get a lawyer. Just. Get. A. Lawyer. This is not the time to fulfill that Perry Mason fantasy you’ve had since childhood. Representing yourself only works well if you’re in traffic court. (And even then, it doesn’t always work :/) Law students don’t go to school for three years for fun. And I don’t care how long you’ve been at the prison’s law library, it’s still not the same thing. It’s time to get a lawyer. Free legal advice from me to you. Thank me later.

Good advice.

An atheist goes to Greenbelt, a 'post-evangelical' camp (The Guardian)
Actually she really enjoys most of it. The Christian rock apparently isn't naff and surprisingly the Quaker worship was quite moving:

By mid-afternoon I headed towards the workshop centers to attend a Quaker meeting. Because they rely so little on a prescribed creed and conservative rules, Quakers have usually benefited from a good reputation amongst secularists and atheists alike, and I was no exception. After reading Rosemary Hartill's excellent Cif piece on the recent Quaker decision to recognise same-sex marriages, I read more about their faith – and even learned that some Friends call themselves Quaker atheists.

And so I joined the meeting with an open mind, and quickly found myself sitting as part of a silent worship. The first few minutes were unnerving as the audience settled, and I couldn't help but feel like a small child forced to observe silence at school: I had to keep immature giggles in check and stop myself from observing everyone in the room. I soon stopped however, and found myself submerge by a sense of peace I can only describe as relief, for it is too seldom that one is given the permission to sit with strangers in silence, without behavioural expectations, and allowed to look inward in synchronicity with others.

Twenty minutes went on and the practice was starting to get hold of me, when someone finally got up to speak. I found myself completely taken aback when my eyes started to water. The simplicity with which he picked his words, and the silent but respectful silence which followed, allowing each of us to consider what had been said, was not only moving but also touched on something pure and true – a moment unlike I had ever witnessed before.

In the 'movie workshop' section at the end, however, she discovers the same evangelical message that we know all too well:
"...secularism and spiritual differences are to be fought against, and children subtly coerced into believing?"

This kind of discourse, I couldn't deal with. I turned around at once, and left.

Pope blames atheism for damge to the environment (Pharyngula)
Yeah, that's about it.... The pope is talking nonsense again.

Turtles in a Temple Tank worshipped as Incarnation of Lord Vishnu (Hindu Blog)
So cool! Sorry, no pics :(

Shiva Themed Pen worth 15,000 dollars (Hindu Blog)
And again, so cool!



Pat Buchanan says Hitler didn't want war (_53)
Um, yeah sort of. He wanted everyone to just give him what he wanted without a fuss. However, Buchanan is saying that the whole war was simply because we wouldn't give them Danzig. (Coz yeah, that method worked so well when we just gave them the outer regions of Czechoslovakia. - Y'know, where all the defensive provisions were located...)

The German-Polish war [sic] had come out of a quarrel over a town the size of Ocean City, Md., in summer. Danzig, 95 percent German, had been severed from Germany at Versailles in violation of Woodrow Wilson’s principle of self-determination. Even British leaders thought Danzig should be returned.

Why did Warsaw not negotiate with Berlin, which was hinting at an offer of compensatory territory in Slovakia? Because the Poles had a war guarantee from Britain that, should Germany attack, Britain and her empire would come to Poland’s rescue.

The 'Tapped' blog sums up his position as follows:
That whole invading Poland thing was clearly just a big misunderstanding. He didn’t want war, he just wanted to arbitrarily annex whatever part of Europe he felt like having — the response was clearly overblown, and maybe even a little rude.


Spanish Burger King advert uses Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, to advertise a burger (_53)
Yeah, um, religious Hindus don't eat meat and certainly don't eat beef (what with the cow being sacred) and you're using a goddess to advertise a burger.... Are you, like, mental?

Actually a few months old, but what the heck...

Camp Quest, Texas
Camp Quest in the Uk seemed rather pointless, but this seems really cool. It's uniting atheists in a place where they are really a minority. I especially like the decision to put the one-day taster on a Sunday, so no one can accuse them of proselytising. I hope the one week version is as successful:

Roman Catholic comedian talks about Jesus

Woman yells "Heil Hitler" at Jewish man:

Apparently she's against health care reform. Surprise surprise.


Movie News

How Twilight Should Have Ended (Filmdrunk)



"We can get these idiots to watch anything with 'Twilight' in the name!" (Filmdrunk)
A straight-to-DVD documentary called "Twilight In Forks" (with no relevance to the Twilight series) uses the word 'Twilight' in the name to market it. The trailer not only consists entirely of people saying that the documentary has "nothing to do with vampires", but even throws in a Pepsi advert for the hell of it.... Seriously random.

New complicated points system for the Oscars (Filmdrunk)
You can go to Filmdrunk's own blog for the real news, but here are what Filmdrunk suspects are additions to this new system:
* +20 votes are awarded if the film depicts the holocaust
* +10 for other genocides
* A film earns +5 votes if the main character is a dead celebrity
* +5 if the lead is a musician
* +15 if the main character is a musician who is also a dead celebrity
* +40 for dead celebrity musicians during the holocaust
* An additional 20 votes are awarded to films which treat characters with a mental deficiency in a dignified manner
* +10 for a physical deficiency
* +5 for romanticization of the Third World
* +5 for every 25 pounds of weight an attractive actor gains for a role, plus an additional 5 for prosthetic noses, unibrows, liver spots, club feet, etc.  Note: not eligible if Jared Leto.
* +10 for films set in New York or Los Angeles
* Cartoonish depictions of race relations earn 5 additional votes
* Historically accurate period pieces with a running time of more than 150 minutes receive 5 votes, plus 5 votes for every additional 10 minutes of running time

Pony Stark (IO9)
Iron Man combined with My Little Pony


Fan-made "Thundercats" trailer
A bit rough around the edges, but all-in-all I'm really impressed by the use of visual editing in this fan-made trailer.

Tarantino has an odd taste in movies
Tarantino makes a list of movies that he likes the best out of those released since he started directing. The oddest thing seems to be the absence of the movie Oldboy, seeing as he was responsible for it winning an award at Cannes.

The movies are:
Battle Royale
Anything Else
Audition
Blade
Boogie Nights
Dazed & Confused
Dogville
Fight Club
Fridays
The Host
The Insider
Joint Security Area
Lost In Translation
The Matrix
Memories of Murder
Police Story 3
Shaun of the Dead
Speed
Team America
Unbreakable

Iron Man 2 has gone 3d for the hell of it. (Filmdrunk)
Oh dear....

Also, anyone not heard about Disney buying Marvel yet...?


Also, Iron Man goes anime

Feminism News


Oh how far we've come... (Feministing)

Yep, it's the same old sh*t, just bigger and more realistic.

Another issue with the decision to remake Fantastic Four (Shakesville)
Wrong section, you reckon? Well, actually I thought that this was pretty boring news, movie wise. Shakesville very astutely note that Fox's sentiment in rebooting the franchise after two very recent movies sounds akin to:
Ha ha! Just kidding about those first two! We know they sucked. That was, uh, deliberate! Yeah! PSYCH!!!
However, the rather bigger issue here is the decision to recast the new movies. Shakesville has some advice:
Hey, 20th Century Fox—I have an idea! How about keeping Jessica Alba but hiring a Latino actor to play her brother, instead of sticking her in a blond wig in a truly stupid attempt to erase her ethnicity?

 
 Totally Random


The Skateboard Kid (via Everything Is Terrible)

8-bit trip

"I'm Gonna Grape Ya In The Mouth!"

Harrison Ford is a little bit typecast