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Report shows Paul Cameron's dangerous pseudo-science-based hatred

Hat-tip to Frederick Clarkson at Talk To Action. The Box Turtle Bulletin issued a report about homophobic false scientist Paul Cameron, whose discredited statistics supposedly detailing "the gay lifestyle" (as if there is such a monolithic thing) are still routinely cited by the religious right and religio-rightwing Republicans.

(Fred also highlights in the same post this story showing, in his eloquent words, "how indisinguishable the neocon and the religious right view has become. There is no armaggedonist vision or rhetoric here -- only a vision of long-term global militarism.")

England bested Samoa in RWC match

On September 22, England beat Samoa in a Pool A Rugby World Cup match (Nantes, France). Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson made a great comeback after another string of injuries. He scored 24 points from three conversions, two dropped goals and four penalty goals. I walked past a newspaper stand here in NYC on Sunday to see Jonny on the front of The London Times and The Observer.

"Wilko" is a constant on the pitch. He's still the hero of the 2003 England capture of the the Rugby World Cup, but also a team leader, good-looking, and injury-prone even without the special punishment he sometimes receives. (The Samoa center Brian Lima was cited by a commissioner for a dangerous tackle on Wilkinson.)

England plays Tonga in Paris on September 28. The US plays Samoa today, September 26, and plays South Africa on the 30th.

(Photo: Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson during the match against Samoa, September 22, 2007.)

55% of US believe Constitution establishes a Christian nation

A new poll out shows that 55% of Americans believe that “The Constitution establishes a Christian nation.”

The Constitution established a nation in which religious liberty is to be protected by way, at least in part, of defining the republic's government as non-religious--a government of secular laws. The only place religion is mentioned in the Constitution is by way of prohibiting religious tests for office holders, that is, to determine a citizen's eligibility to hold public office.

Chris Rodda has done a lot of research on notion that America was founded as a Christian nation.

Many of the founding fathers were influenced by deism, including Thomas Jefferson, who was sometimes attacked for this.

UK taxpayers fund more religious instruction

Hat-tip to Onegoodmove. A.C. Grayling writes of how Ed Balls, the schools secretary for the Government (UK), joined with religious leaders around a proclamation endorsing religious schools as aiding social cohesion. Not only is this a ridiculous notion--that segregating children based on faith makes society more unified--but it bolsters the concept of taxpayer funding of religious education, something that the UK needs to get away from, and something we here in the US struggle to keep at bay.

Jonny Wilkinson

We pause for some shameless Jonny Wilkinson admiration:

Our Jonny - A Tribute

José Clemente Orozco's "The Epic of American Civilization"

While a visiting lecturer in the department of art at Darmouth 1932, the Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco (b. 1883) completed an amazing 24-panel mural on the walls of the reserve book room in the basement of the Baker Library. It is entitled The Epic of American Civilization.

Learn more here.

(Image: Panel 5, "The Coming of Quetzalcoatl," from The Epic of American Civilization. Click to enlarge.)

Speak Out

A new TypeList, "Speak Out," has been added to the lower left sidebar of this blog. It features two links: one to a site by which you can contact your members of the Congress, and the other to a site by which you can contact local media with letters to the editor.

Madeleine L'Engle

A great tribute to the wonderful writer and woman, Madeleine L'Engle, who died early this month. Here is her obituary in The New York Times.

Pro-Taliban group tries to blow up buddha carving

BBC: "Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan."

Recall that the "world watched in shock in March 2001 as Afghanistan's then rulers destroyed the 6th-Century Bamiyan Buddhas. The Taleban said they were offensive to Islam."

J. Kenneth Blackwell's religious right gig

Kenneth Blackwell, a darling of the religio-Republican Party rightwing has landed a gig with the Family Research Council. Bill Berkowitz over at Talk To Action has the story.

J. Kenneth Blackwell, who besides being Ohio's former secretary of state has also been the former undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, has landed firmly on his feet in the nation's capital.

Earlier this year, the Family Research Council (FRC) announced that Blackwell had been hired on as a Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment at Washington's premiere right wing religious lobbying outfit.

Over the years, Blackwell has carried enough water for the GOP to fill up a good part of Lake Erie.... He is credited with being part of the team that helped double President George W. Bush's vote count among Blacks in Ohio in 2004....