In a stunning decision, the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which funds social science research in Canada, turned down a grant request from Professor Brian Alters on the grounds that he’d failed to provide the panel with ample evidence that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is correct.
Author: Doug
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I posted earlier about not having a transcript or article about the recent “The War on Christians and Values Voters in 2006” hosted by the religious right front group Vision America. I had an idea of what would be talked about – same old same old tired arguments – but I wanted to read about the conference and maybe some details about it. Thanks to the blog Writing Right, I was led to an article on the People for the American Way site that gave me what I needed.
On March 29th it was reported that the Borders bookstore chain had decided not to stock the April/May issue of the “Free Inquiry” magazine. The chain claimed it was concerned about the safety of their customers because the issue of the magazine would include a selection of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that had been published in a Danish newspaper back in September However Secular Left has learned that Borders looked the other way when a conservative magazine, “The Weekly Standard” published an article about the cartoons AND included a full color photo of the Danish newspaper with the cartoons.
If you are reading this entry on the blog itself you may notice some changes in the look. When I started this blog last May I basically took the templates and css right out of the zip file, added some basic stuff to personalize the site, and *poof* Secular Left was born. Over the year on the air I have been teaching myself how to customize the blog to get it to the way I want it to look, provide the functions a reader would need, and yet not have to do it all from scratch every time or for every page.
It seems that Pastor Rick Scarborough, the founder and leader of Vision America, in introducing Rep. Tom DeLay, former majority leader in the US House of Represenatives, told the audience that DeLay was in legal trouble because he stood up for Jesus. The inference being that DeLay’s legal troubles came about because he is a hardcore religious conservative – as if the charges aren’t really true. Their BIG issue is called “The ValuesVoters’ Contract with Congress: A Declaration of American Renewal” which is similar to the infamous “Contract for America” that Republicans signed when they won the majority in the US House back in 1994. Being a religious group there are the usual religious conservative wish items like a ban on abortion, forcing religious expression in government, ban on gay marriage, and a ban on cloning.
With 2006 being an election year, the Ohio legislature was busy trying to pass some laws that would show voters how important they were – even though a closer look would show that the legislature was pandering. Election year pandering takes the form of passing laws addressing some issue that 99% of the population would agree with and that wouldn’t bite them in the ass while campaigning. This year the issue is sex abuse against children. Another law directed at Catholic Priests who have abused children was changed after heavy lobbying by US Bishops. While the law includes a requirement of the Church to report suspected abuse and creates a registry of non-convicted abusive Priests (those who are held liable in civil court after a trial but who’s criminal statute of limitations have run out), a provision to allow previous victims a chance to file civil suits for old cases was removed.