Archive for December 11th, 2008
Chalk one more up for freedom from religion
Posted by CyberLizard in Politics, Religion on December 11, 2008
Federal Judge Blocks Issuance Of ‘I Believe’ Automobile Tag Featuring Cross And Stained-Glass Church Window
We almost had this fight here in Florida earlier in the year. I’m almost glad that it went to court because now we have a precedent. Not that it should have needed one. It seems quite clear that allowing this would be an obvious violation of the separation of church and state.
Interestingly, the lawsuit was brought on behalf of four clergy members. It’s nice to see that both atheists and religious folks can agree that the government is no place to drag religion into.
A federal judge today ruled that the state of South Carolina may not issue a special “Christian” license plate featuring a cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which sponsored the litigation to stop issuance of the plate, hailed the decision.
“The ‘I Believe’ license plate is a clear example of government favoritism toward one religion,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “The court drove home an important point: South Carolina officials have no business meddling in religious matters.”
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie today issued a preliminary injunction forbidding the state to issue or manufacture the plates. She also ordered the state to inform people who requested the plates that they will not be available and to remove information about the plates from the state Web site. Currie will release a written opinion on Monday.
Americans United brought the Summers v. Adams legal challenge on behalf of four local clergy the Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Summers, Rabbi Sanford T. Marcus, the Rev. Dr. Robert M. Knight and the Rev. Dr. Neal Jones as well as the Hindu American Foundation and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
In legal briefs, AU asserted that the “I Believe” license plate was unlike other specialty tags offered by the state. The measure authorizing the special plates was passed unanimously by both houses of the legislature, with the active support of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.
Americans United also pointed out that some legislators openly admitted that they would not vote for similar plates for minority faiths.
Asked by a reporter if he would support a license plate for Islam, Rep. Bill Sandifer replied, “Absolutely and positively no…. I would not because of my personal belief, and because I believe that wouldn’t be the wish of the majority of the constituency in this house district.”
Said AU Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan, “The ‘I Believe’ license plate sends the message that South Carolina has a favored religion. That’s one message the state is not permitted to transmit.”
Khan argued the case in Columbia before Judge Currie, assisted by AU Madison Fellow Elizabeth J. Stevens. Aaron J. Kozloski of Capitol Counsel, a Columbia, S.C. law firm, served as local counsel.
A year of CyberLizardy goodness
Posted by CyberLizard in Blogging, Me on December 11, 2008
I can’t believe I missed this. Actually, I can believe it, this is me we’re talking about. What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, my blogiversary! My foray into blogging began on 15 November 2007. I’ve maintained a site since 1999, mostly to host various programming projects I was working on and to put up pictures and stuff. But I made a decision to start blogging last year, got myself a Blogger account, and went at it. And now, here we are.
There is a year-in-review kind of meme in teh blogosphere. The only rule is to “post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.” Mine will actually go all the way back to last November in order to get 12 entries because I didn’t post anything during a couple of the months last year (don’t worry, it won’t happen again).
So enjoy this recap of the mad mad mad mad world of the CyberLizard.
- November 2007
I suppose that it’s about time I actually started dumping this crap out of my head and out onto the net.
- December
The final battle of Beowulf.
- January 2008
While staring at bag after bag of crumpled wrapping paper that inevitably follows the xmas blitz, I began to wonder about the possibilities of recycling.
- March
Not only have I actually put together a LEGO MOC, photographed it, and published it, but I submitted it for a contest.
- May
So chalk this one up to the same strange impulse that causes humans to crane their necks to view an accident scene or watch auto racing with the secret hope that someone will crash.
- June
It’s a sad day.
- July
You can have my garden when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers
- August
Once again, one of my pictures has been selected to appear on Insect Picture of the Day.
- September
This is starting to get scary.
- October
Congrats to the Rev. for his winning the August Molly award over on Pharyngula!
- November
Oh, boy, here we go.
- December
Wow, that’s the longest I’ve gone without blogging anything for a while now.
No comments for you!
Posted by CyberLizard in Blogging on December 11, 2008
Actually, you can make comments, just not with the new fancy thingy I was playing with. I’ll mess with it some other time. Continue about your business, nothing more to see here.
Playing around with comments
Posted by CyberLizard in Blogging on December 11, 2008
I’m currently messing with the commenting system. I’m trying out a replacement for Blogger’s built-in comments. It’s called IntenseDebate. The only problem is that I think I’ll lose all existing comments, and I really don’t want to do that.
So for now, if you see a weird comment thingy that doesn’t look right, just know that I’m playing with it. I’ll let y’all know if/when I complete the switch.
Has the media gotten it right about vaccines and autism?
Posted by CyberLizard in Science on December 11, 2008
It’s a relief to hear an article from the mainstream media that makes Jenny McCarthy sound like the frickin’ idiot that she is. NPR had a piece on Morning Edition today; an entirely factual piece that makes no concessions to the whackaloonery spouted by the likes of Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. In his intro, Steve Inskeep basically starts off by saying that there is no connection between vaccines and autism. The following article actually uses the phrase fear-mongering with regard to the coverage of the supposed controversy surrounding vaccines. The only frustrating thing is that the only thing that makes them take notice is that the “pro-vaccine forces” now have their own celebrity, in the form of Amanda Peete. One of the best things she does as a celebrity spokesperson is to explicitly say that she is not and expert and if people want to know about science, they should talk to a scientist. In this vein, she has teamed up with Dr. Paul Offit, author of Autism’s False Prophets, who provides some great commentary in this article.
I suggest you listen to the actual article, the text on the website appears to be a paraphrasing of the audio.
For some background on this whole subject, ScienceBlogs recently held a book club around Dr. Offit’s book, in which I was fortunate enough to participate. It’s a terrific source of factual information about the manufactuversy surrounding the vaccine-autism “debate”.
I’m hoping that this means that we have turned a corner and are starting to put the wingnuts like McCarthy back out on the fringes where they belong. It’s about time that the MSM has begun to embrace fact over fiction in this area. Let’s see if it’s catching.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for Thursday, December 11th, 2008
