If you live in the Seattle area, check out the list of science/nerdy/geeky awesomeness at this weekend’s GeekGirlCon. Saturday & Sunday offer a long list of amazing panels including: How to Do Your Own Kickstarter Making Science Fun (with NASA)! Tug of War: The Story of Science and Engineering Finding a Happy Medium Sporty Geek: How Roller Derby and Quidditch Are Changing the Game for Women Self-Driving Cars Really Make Your Own Videoblog: Hands-On Workshop Tech Jobs You Never Knew… Read more
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of the late Robert Kennedy, niece of JFK, and former lieutenant governor of Maryland came out in support of gay marriage Tuesday at a Marylanders for Marriage event in Baltimore. Kennedy cited her Catholic roots as having an important role in making the decision to support marriage equality: “All people, gay or straight, should have the opportunity to marry the people they love”… … Townsend, the eldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, invoked her famous family’s… Read more
The Republican National Committee has just released a new commercial accusing President Obama of being a big meanie-pants to religious people: So after the regular rhetoric of “Obama doesn’t share your values” — Side note: Am I the only one frustrated with the Religious Right’s hijacking of the word “values”? It infuriates me — they go into this little ditty: The latest ad then cuts to Romney praising Pope John Paul II, who helped end officially atheist communism in Poland. “[I]n 1979, a son… Read more
From NPR: [David Barton’s] book has already been pulled off the Thomas Nelson website, and the publisher is in the process of pulling down its availability as an e-book from retail partners. Publishing rights are being reverted to the author… … This decision doesn’t leave Barton without a publisher, however. Barton’s own organization, WallBuilders, published his previous books. (in response to this post) Read more
After Sam Harris released what had to have been a lot of pent-up frustration at how people are mischaracterizing him for raising tough questions, Richard Dawkins has now come to his defense. Dawkins doesn’t get into the torture/profiling arguments or offer his take on who’s right or wrong, he just notes that Harris is doing a good thing by getting people to think some very uncomfortable thoughts. (Interestingly enough, Dawkins also lauds PZ Myers for the same thing.) [Sam Harris]… Read more
It seems this image has been circulating online as a darkly funny reminder that “Biblical marriage,” the oft-cited excuse for a conservative Christian’s opposition to marriage equality, is actually more complicated and controversial than we like to think. But when Jennifer Thieme, a blogger for the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage’s Ruth Institute, saw the image, she and NOM interpreted it a little differently. She writes: Look carefully at the image and you will see that in ALL of the… Read more
American Atheists is announcing that British philosopher and author A.C. Grayling will be the keynote speaker at the group’s 2013 conference in Austin, Texas: The 2013 Convention will host more than 1,500 atheists at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas, March 28-31, 2013, where Madalyn Murray O’Hair founded the organization 50 years ago. Silverman, stated, “We are thrilled to have Dr. Grayling join us for our national convention and 50th anniversary celebration. His contributions to the discussion about religion and… Read more
Just a day after NPR reported on the inaccuracies in Christian pseudo-historian David Barton’s very aptly-named book The Jefferson Lies, publisher Thomas Nelson has ceased publication and distribution of the book: “When the concerns came in, from multiple people, and that had weight too, we were trying to sort things out,” said Thomas Nelson Senior Vice President and Publisher Brian Hampton. “Were these matters of opinion? Were they differences of interpretation? But as we got into it, our conclusion was… Read more
In 1638, France’s King Louis XIII decreed that all churches would pray on August 15th for the good of the country. In 2012, all French Catholic churches will pray on August 15th — against marriage equality, adoption rights for gay couples, and euthanasia reform. It’s no coincidence that these are all goals of the country’s new Socialist government and Catholics will certainly pray accordingly: In the text, Catholics will pray for newly elected officials “so that their sense of the… Read more
You may have heard stories of the neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY that has a large population of Hasidic Jews. Pictures of signs like this have surfaced: Or, more famously, there was this picture of the White House Situation Room as Osama bin Laden was being taken out: Apparently Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit was a little too revealing that day… Also you could see her wrist, so it’s understandable why they removed her along with Audrey Thomason (The Director of Counterterrorism? What… Read more
