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 Mother’s Day, Christine Weick, a born-again Christian protester against gay marriage, stood at a busy intersection in Grandville, Michigan, and displayed a sign that read: “Thank your mom today for not being gay.” Soon, counter-protesters showed up with competing signs, which read “Thank your mom if you’re not a bigot,” “Fuck her,” and “But two moms can be fabulous!” Fair game, right? But then, … a woman named Jessica Prince approached Weick and threw a slushie at her. Read more
Via Haaretz: The writer and Israel Prize laureate Amos Oz said on Friday that those responsible for hate crimes against Arabs and Christians are “Hebrew neo-Nazis.” … Oz added that in his mind, perhaps the only difference between neo-Nazis around the world and perpetrators of hate crimes in Israel is that “our neo-Nazi groups enjoy the support of numerous nationalist or even racist legislators, as well as rabbis who give them what is in my view pseudo-religious justification.” With his comments, Oz (pictured above) addressed both the ultra-right-wing Israeli settlers who have long attacked Palestinian families in the West Bank and their brethren who are openly hostile against Christians. Read more
No matter the volumes of evidence to the contrary, theists still believe that other theists — especially those in their own tribe — are automatically trustworthy. I was reminded of that when I read the story of Vincent Ciccone and his wife Karen, Canadians who, on Wednesday, in Kitchener, Ontario, were arrested for large-scale financial fraud. Read more
