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.
In Tanzania and other East African nations, people with albinism don’t just worry about developing vision problems and skin cancer — common afflictions among those whose bodies don’t produce enough melanin. They also have to keep an eye out for assassins who want to harvest their body parts, says Scientific American. The crimes are motivated … by superstitious beliefs that albinos’ body parts can lead to power and wealth. A rash of more than 100 crimes against individuals with albinism have been reported in the past seven years in Tanzania, according to the Tanzania Albino Society, an advocacy organization. The authorities are trying to crack down on witch doctors who make albino potions and charms, and on the buyers of such wares. Read more
In “No Ordinary Violence,” a new article on his site, Sam Harris tries to classify those who commit mayhem and murder. His attempt was inspired by a media question: After the Boston Marathon bombing, a journalist asked me, “Why is it always angry young men who do these terrible things?” She then sought to connect the behavior of the Tsarnaev brothers with that of Jared Loughner, James Holmes, and Adam Lanza. Like many people, she believed that similar actions must have similar causes. But there are many sources of human evil. Harris sees four main groups of perpetrators (though he readily admits that one perp can have more than one psychological “driver”). Read more
If Catholics were to pray to Lesus Christ tonight, the Vatican ought to be forgiving: it first minted and then destroyed 6,000 papal medals with a Latin phrase that mangles the name of the savior, according to Spiegel Online. I guess it’s an easy mistake to make if you continue to conduct official church affairs in a dead language. Read more
“We don’t cater to you people.” That was the incendiary reply from a Hobby Lobby employee when a Jewish customer recently inquired about Hanukkah merchandise. To be clear, the problem (to me) isn’t that the annoyingly Christian Hobby Lobby doesn’t stock Jewish paraphernalia. I’m pretty sure the 561-store chain doesn’t sell glittery pentagrams and cute Ramadan calendars, either. There’s no law that says a store owner has to cater to all demographics, religious or otherwise. (Think of it this way: If I were to open a craft store, as an atheist, wouldn’t I be well within my rights to decline selling decorative plastic crosses or scrapbooking supplies featuring angels?) [Click headline for more…] Read more
ABC News has the story of the sweet, sweet love that blossomed between Pastor David Love (pictured right) and Teresa Stone, a woman in his flock at the New Hope Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri. There was just one little problem: Stone was married to Randy (pictured left), an insurance entrepreneur, with whom she had two kids. He thought she loved him, as he did her. A friend of the husband recalls that “[Randy] worshipped Teresa — she meant everything to him.” Oh well. The heart wants what the heart wants. So Teresa and her pastor plotted Randy Stone’s murder — any qualms assuaged by a tidy life-insurance payout that would soon fall into their lovin’ laps. They weren’t smart enough to try to make it look like an accident or a robbery. One night, the man of God simply entered Randy’s office and shot him dead with the former Marine’s own handgun, which Teresa had given him access to. Except for Randy Stone’s life, nothing was taken. [Click headline for more…] Read more
