Beware of cats seeking work

Greetings.

Jewish date: 25 Nisan 5769.

Today’s holidays: Day 10 of the ‘Omer, Orthodox Easter Sunday/Pascha.

Today’s quasi-holidays: National Hanging Out Day.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Afghan women attacked for protesting marriage law”: (Submitted by Barry.) Thus it is written:
   

   Dozens of young women braved crowds of bearded men screaming "dogs!" on Wednesday to protest an Afghan law that lets husbands demand sex from their wives. Some of the men picked up small stones and pelted the women. "Slaves of the Christians!" chanted the 800 or so counter-demonstrators, a mix of men and women. A line of female police officers locked hands to keep the groups apart.

   I will leave the question of whether Shi‘ite Islam actually allows husbands to rape their wives to experts on Islamic law, though clearly there are Shi‘ites who believe it does. However, this is a government intrusion into freedom of religion. Furthermore, note a lot of blame for opposition to the law being placed on “Christians” and “foreigners”. While there is a lot of international opposition, some people for the law do not seem to understand or refuse to accept the idea that Shi‘ite women (and even men) on their own might not approve of the law treating women like second-class citizens.
   
2. “In Vermont gay marriage law, a hidden victory for religious freedom”: Keep in mind that freedom of religion has to work two ways in order to be fair: the freedom to follow one’s own beliefs and—what some forget—the freedom of other people to follow their beliefs. Just because one has the freedom to do something does not mean other people have to approve or cooperate. Other people have freedom of religion, too, and that has to be protected as well.
   
3. More having trouble with freedom of religion: “Cuba keeps out US religious freedom group” and “The Free World Bars Free Speech”.
   
4. Yet another joke religion: “Scottish police say their religion is Jedi”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Spammers be damned: Junk e-mail is a huge waste of energy”
• “Ala. coffee shop customers pick up other's tabs”: This is beautiful.
  
• “The Great Recession: America Becomes Thrift Nation”: Submitted by Barry.
  
• “Stephen Colbert gets consolation namesake prize from NASA”
  
• “The Mind-Body Problem”
  
• “Should You Run or Freeze When You See a Mountain Lion”
  
• “The Royal Society is no match for these three”: This article is very sarcastic, but the argument is sound: the fact that someone is a celebrity is not in and of itself a reason to believe that he/she knows anything about medicine or science.
  
• “Diabetics insulin-free after stem-cell transplants”
  
• “Baby pythons escape during flight in Australia”: Submitted by Barry.
  

Today’s weird thing is “I has three years Excel and Powerpoint…”

Apparently everyone is looking for a job these days. (Hint, hint, prospective employers.) Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

18 Marḥeshwan 5769: International Day for Tolerance/Button Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “SAVE THE WOLVES OF THE ROCKIES FROM SLAUGHTER”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. I am annoyed over one of the groups promoted in one the ads which Google Ads produced recently for my blog, and so I would like to promote that group’s archenemy, Jews for Judaism.
   
   
2. “Priest: Obama Voters Must Do Penance”: Thus is it written:

   A priest at a South Carolina Roman Catholic church says his parishioners shouldn't take Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because of the Democrat's stance on abortion.

   Fair enough. The Catholic Church is entitled to decide what is offensive to Catholicism and requiring serious penance. But this is the paragraph which is truly problematic:

   But, reports CBS affiliate WSPA, [Father] Newman said his congregants shouldn't take communion until they do penance for supporting the man he called the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president.

   Note the term “pro-abortion”. I have previously attacked the term on August 13, 2008 and February 12, 2008, noting that, unless I am very wrong, no politician has ever come out being actually for abortions, only for government noninterference in women obtaining abortions. I find it very disturbing that people keep making this major mistake in terminology which reflects paranoia and not anyone’s actual views.
   
   
3. “Tomboy protests a security threat?”: Thus is it written:

   Malaysia's police, who have recently cracked down on dissident bloggers and broken up anti-government demonstrations, say that protests over an edict against Muslim women wearing trousers are a security threat.

   Mainly Muslim Malaysia's National Fatwa Council recently issued a religious ruling that wearing trousers was un-Islamic.
   

   It said that, by wearing trousers, young girls risked becoming "tomboys" who became sexually active.
   

   That move triggered small protests later from two non-Muslim non-government organizations -- Katagender and Food-not-Bombs.

   I will leave it to Islamic scholars to determine if it is un-Islamic for women to wear pants. A protest being a security threat is frankly rather strange; unless the protest is unusually violent and threatens to spread and completely destabilize the country, this is hard to imagine. “Security threat” smells of an inappropriate government response. The idea that girls wearing pants leads to them becoming sexually active is probably the most far-fetched notion in the article; if there were actual empirical evidence of it, people in the West would probably be pushing for girls not to wear pants so as to avoid teen pregnancy. Anyone who knows of a study showing such a thing (or the opposite, for that matter), please let me know.
   
   
4. I have contributed two crummy church signs towards the latest issue of Crummy Church Signs. Come and bask in the utter crumminess of bad church advertising!

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Last One Out Please Turn Off the Lights”
  
• “California ordered to prepare for sea-level rise”: Thank you, Governor Schwarzenegger for taking a real threat of global warning seriously!
  
• “I can has cheezburger ... and pathos?”
  
• “Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction”: Something else humanity has to worry about.
  
• “EPA ruling halts all new coal-fired power plants”
  
• “Times Square getting its first 'green' billboard”
  
• “Parkland says: “No smoking outside either””: Finally someone figures this out! May smoking be banned everywhere
  
• “Gaza Violence: By The Numbers”
  

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “12 Oddly Specific Museums Preserving Our History ”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron