Terry Firma, though born and Journalism-school-educated in Europe, has lived in the U.S. for the past 20-odd years. Stateside, his feature articles have been published in the New York Times, Reason, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Wired. Terry was the founder and Main Mischief Maker of Moral Compass, a now-dormant site that pokes fun at the delusional claim by people of faith that a belief in God equips them with superior moral standards. He was the Editor-in-Chief of two Manhattan-based magazines until he decided to give up commercial publishing for professional photography... with a lot of blogging on the side. These days, he lives in an old seaside farmhouse in Maine with his wife, three kids, and two big dogs.
On Thursday night, the New York Police Department still described hatchet-wielding attacker Zale Thompson as “just an angry man,” downplaying the possibility that he was a terrorist. Then the cops looked at his Facebook page and searched his computer, and whaddaya know — the would-be murderer is a fan of Allah, with a fondness for violent jihad. A man who attacked New York City police officers with an ax had converted to Islam in recent years and the assault appears to have been a lone-wolf terror attack. … One officer who was struck in the head with the ax by Zale Thompson on Thursday is in critical but stable condition, Police Commissioner William Bratton said. A second officer was also injured. Thompson, 32, was shot and killed by two other officers as Thompson charged them with the ax, Bratton said. Read more
Cathy and Terry Hodgson, a couple from New Concord, Ohio, went on Fox News the other day to share photos of their new lawn ornament. It’s a four-feet-tall picture of Jesus and some bleating creatures under the text “The Lord Is My Shepherd.” Why did Fox deem this worthy of national attention? Because a year ago, the ACLU informed a local public school that a similar sign that had been displayed in the building for more than forty years was in violation of the law and asked that it be removed. In a five-to-zero vote, the school board agreed to take the sign down. Fox News’ Steve Doocy seems to be positively gloating over the Hodgsons’ lawn art, presenting it as some clever end run that the couple had done around the ACLU. But why? While the sign may bother people who are allergic to religious kitsch, there is nothing constitutionally wrong with it, and I know not a single atheist or civil libertarian who’d be offended by it in its new location. (In public schools or on government property, however, that’s another matter.) Read more
She had sex on-camera with a hundred women (not all at once, I think) and appeared with barely a shred of clothing in Hustler and Penthouse. These days, using the title “Porn Again Christian,” Teresa Carey sells wet dreams of a different kind, preaching religious surrender and salvation to audiences that include church groups and student gatherings. Read more
It’s free, and it’s a spectacle you won’t soon forget. Many have testified and been healed from incurable diseases Cancer, HIV, and many have walked out of wheelchairs and crutches, canes after Apostle Ssali has prayed for them. October 24th & 25th 2014 7pm nightly. That’s tonight and tomorrow night. I’m dying to be there, but Hemant and I, being dwellers of the North, will have to let an Augusta-area reader do the honors. How could you not want to be a witness to this? Read more
Who doesn’t like “values”? Values are what those of us with kids would probably most like to impart to them. But whose values? That’s what Roy Warren, an Australian father, is asking a state school after his five-year-old son was subjected to a values curriculum. The teaching is, to say the least, a little one-sided. The program is run by the Churches Education Commission, which acts on behalf of Christian churches to teach religious education in state schools. … [Says Warren:] “I went through the 18 lessons and every one of them is about God. For 18 weeks these children are being told to believe in God. It’s evangelistic.” Families can opt out of the program but Warren did not want to isolate his son. “I thought it was very unfair to take him away from his classmates and get him sitting by himself coloring in and making him feel ostracized,” he says. “And then have to explain to him he hasn’t been bad or naughty, but it’s just against what we believe in as a family.” Read more
