Sorry to link to such distasteful sources, but I was reading some political news today and found a couple of right-wing sites discussing a flyer Obama recently released to court Kentucky voters.

CBN: Obama and the Cross
Race42008: Barack Obama’s pitch in Kentucky (contains images of the flyer in question)

CBN wonders if publicizing his Christianity like this will help Obama’s image by making him seem less “elitist”. The commenters at Race42008 are crying foul, and don’t seem willing to believe Obama is “really” religious, as if right-wing nutjobs have some kind of exclusive right to religion.

I haven’t heard what other atheists think about this, but I can see how it would make some people a bit nervous. It’s no secret that Obama is a Christian (or at least it shouldn’t be to anyone who’s been paying attention) and he is campaigning in a country that’s mostly Christian, so of course he was going to bring it up at some point. That in itself doesn’t bother me. What I wanted to know was, what does the flyer say? I’m happy to say that Obama didn’t disappoint me.

The front side of the flyer has Obama standing behind a pulpit, in front of a lighted cross. The top reads Faith. Hope. Change. Barack Obama for President. At the bottom right, we have a quote:

My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.

–Barack Obama

In other words, “hands that help are better than lips that pray.” Well played!

On the other side, Obama establishes his Christian creds: A picture of him next to a stained-glass church window in full-on “hope mode“, a red banner down the side reading Committed Christian, and a story about how he was volunteering in the South Side after graduating from college and forged a profound connection with the people living there, who encouraged him to visit a local church (I think we all know which one! ), where he felt a beckoning of the spirit and became a Christian. Finally, the requisite picture of him with his wife and daughters, and voter information.

If this is the kind of religious posturing we can expect from him, I say posture away. It’ll be good for everybody to realize that the likes of Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are not the only religious authorities in this country.

BBC: Aussie straps in beer, not child

Constable Wayne Burnett said: “I haven’t ever seen something like this before.

“This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child… The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained.”

When Constable Burnett handed over the fine he said the driver “just looked at me blankly”.

“He didn’t get it,” Constable Burnett said.

“I asked him about the fact the child was unrestrained and the beer was, and he said he didn’t know anything about it.”

Yes! It’s about damn time someone realized that a kid being thrown through the windshield is nothing compared to the tragedy of unrestrained beer! How many beers will have to be lost before we all wake up and reform our priorities as this brave man has done?

What is this a picture of?

1. A Virgin Mary sighting.
2. A Rolling Stones “lips” sighting.
3. A sighting that I could have done without. Put a bandage on that, for the love of god!

(Source)

Apparently this was the winner of a recent MoveOn contest to generate an Obama ad.

Yahoo: Happy Mother’s Day: Woman pregnant with 18th child

The Duggars have announced that Duggar Spawn #18 is due at New Year’s.

“We’ve had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us,” she said, laughing.

Oh dear god.

Boy, I feel really safe now that I’ve got my super-armored bra and panties.

What is this a picture of?

1. A bored ultrasound tech playing Hangman
2. The second coming of Christ
3. The second coming of Superman!
4. A random pattern on an ultrasound picture

The world may never know.

(source)

Via nullifidian, Sam Harris has opined on Islam and violence.

The connection between the doctrine of Islam and Islamist violence is simply not open to dispute. It’s not that critics of religion like myself speculate that such a connection might exist: the point is that Islamists themselves acknowledge and demonstrate this connection at every opportunity and to deny it is to retreat within a fantasy world of political correctness and religious apology. Many western scholars, like the much admired Karen Armstrong, appear to live in just such a place. All of their talk about how benign Islam “really” is, and about how the problem of fundamentalism exists in all religions, only obfuscates what may be the most pressing issue of our time: Islam, as it is currently understood and practiced by vast numbers of the world’s Muslims, is antithetical to civil society. A recent poll showed that thirty-six percent of British Muslims (ages 16-24) believe that a person should be killed for leaving the faith. Sixty-eight percent of British Muslims feel that their neighbors who insult Islam should be arrested and prosecuted, and seventy-eight percent think that the Danish cartoonists should have been brought to justice. And these are British Muslims.

Color me not surprised. When I hear about the havoc militant Muslims are wreaking on freedom of speech and religion in Europe, I’m actually a little bit grateful for all the fundie Christian rednecks we have in this country. I believe that the reason American Muslims don’t try any of this crap may be that we don’t cotton to none of that “Jihad” stuff ’round these parts. A bit less cynically, maybe the “land of the free” has been lucky enough to mostly attract those Muslims who actually value freedom. Whatever the reason, I’m very happy that Manal and the rest of her foaming-at-the-mouth psychotic friends don’t live here.

To the East Side?

Oh, Chick. You should have stayed under that rock you crawled out from. How is this tract idiotic? Let me count the ways:

1. The theory of evolution has nothing to do with abiogenesis, the beginning of life. The theory of evolution explains the diversity of life.

2. “Science” doesn’t know things. Humans know things because of science.

More… »

Via MediaWatchWatch, some vandal was so offended by a swimwear ad that he painted over it. In response, Councilor Talib Hussain spouts some rape apologetics: Having families seeing naked pictures does not bring the community together, it provokes things.

Oh, those poor Muslims. When will we infidels ever learn that it is women’s responsibility to cover up so teh menz can keep their pee-pees in their pants?