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Category Archives: Activism & Advocacy
Republicans Support Deadbeat Dads
Source: MoveOn.org
Watch: How Some Activists Celebrated the Citizens United Anniversary? Dollar Signs Covering the Supreme Court
Student Faces Town’s Wrath in Protest Against a Prayer
CRANSTON, R.I. — She is 16, the daughter of a firefighter and a nurse, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves Harry Potter and Facebook. But Jessica Ahlquist is also an outspoken atheist who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium, where it has hung for 49 years. . .
For Jessica, who was baptized in the Catholic Church but said she stopped believing in God at age 10, the prayer was an affront. “It seemed like it was saying, every time I saw it, ‘You don’t belong here,’ ” she said the other night during an interview at a Starbucks here. . .
New England is not the sort of place where battles over the division of church and state tend to crop up. It is the least religious region of the country, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But Rhode Island is an exception: it is the nation’s most Catholic state, and dust-ups over religion are not infrequent. . .
Does she empathize in any way with members of her community who want the prayer to stay?
“I’ve never been asked this before,” she said. A pause, and then: “It’s almost like making a child get a shot even though they don’t want to. It’s for their own good. I feel like they might see it as a very negative thing right now, but I’m defending their Constitution, too.”
Do Harsh Pot Laws Create a Dangerous Drinking Culture? Five Reasons to Get Stoned Instead of Drunk
Myths about marijuana convince people that alcohol is safer, but science shows pot is the healthier choice.
Alcohol kills approximately 70,000 people per year. Prescription pills, which have helped overdose become the leading cause of accidental death in America, result in more than 20,000 deaths per year. Marijuana has never killed anybody.
1. Marijuana is not a gateway drug.
[T]he truth is that marijuana is not a gateway drug, and the vast majority of people who smoke pot will never move onto harder drugs.2. Pot smoke is relatively benign and does not cause lung cancer.
Researchers studied the effects of marijuana smoke on lung function, and found that smoking pot does not cause the same irreversible breathing problems as cigarettes.
3. Pot does not cause schizophrenia.These mental health issues are generally as baseless and misleading as past prohibitionist claims . . . the rates of schizophrenia in society have not increased as marijuana use has become widespread.
4. Driving high is not very dangerous.
A study by the Institute for the Study of Labor, a research center for science, politics, and business in Bonn, Germany, showed that in states where medical marijuana is legal, adults were smoking more marijuana and drinking less alcohol, and the result was a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.
5. Pot does not make you lazy.
The technical name for marijuana-induced laziness is “amotivational syndrome,” and research suggests it has a lot more to do with other factors than with pot. A study on marijuana use and amotivational syndrome shows circumstances unique to a person, or some underlying problem, are more to blame for amotivational syndrome than the drug itself.
6. You get this one for free.
More than 30,000 Americans die every year from the health effects of alcohol. The comparable number for marijuana is zero.
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
There’s no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. . . Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice.
Controversy ahead
Polling data and social and political science research do show that prejudice is more common in those who hold right-wing ideals that those of other political persuasions.
Brains and bias
As suspected, low intelligence in childhood corresponded with racism in adulthood. But the factor that explained the relationship between these two variables was political: When researchers included social conservatism in the analysis, those ideologies accounted for much of the link between brains and bias.
A study of averages
[T]here is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.
“Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order,” Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice.”
Simple viewpoints
Prejudice is of particular interest because understanding the roots of racism and bias could help eliminate them, Hodson said. For example, he said, many anti-prejudice programs encourage participants to see things from another group’s point of view. That mental exercise may be too taxing for people of low IQ.
Richard Dawkins: Education Is The Only Antidote To Religion
Richard Dawkins believes that education is the only ‘antidote’ to religion. “We need to protect children from being indoctrinated. It goes on to the next generation and then they see that their children get indoctrinated.”
“If children are taught, however moderately, that faith is a virtue, they are taught that they don’t need evidence to believe something; that they can believe something just because it’s their faith. . .
He believes that atheism will soon become a more popular framework for people. “There seems to be a correlation with education. It’s certainly true within the US — the more educated people are more likely to give up religion.”
Ariane Noelle Patterson, Student, Dies After Tweeting ‘Thank You God for Another Year Of Life’
It was Ariane Noelle Patterson’s 21st birthday, and she was grateful to be alive. The Gardner-Webb University student took to her Twitter account on Jan. 17 and posted the message: “Thank you God for another year of life.” Hours later, she collapsed during a religion class and was rushed to nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the Associated Press reports. The senior at the North Carolina Christian college was originally from Delaware and majored in religious studies, the Shelby Star reports.
The university released the following statement on its Facebook page: We are deeply saddened and in shock by this monumental loss. We pray for Ariane’s family and friends during this difficult time . . .
Another peer acknowledged he had never met Patterson in person, but recalls her cheerful character: Her presence on the quad and at certain events I attended was joyous and positive . . . I bet she got the greatest birthday present of all-time. To make it to heaven with our heavenly father.
Sir Richard Branson: It’s Time to End The Failed War on Drugs
Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed globally. Over the past 50 years, more than $1 trillion has been spent fighting this battle, and all we have to show for it is increased drug use, overflowing jails, billions of pounds and dollars of taxpayers’ money wasted, and thriving crime syndicates. It is time for a new approach.
. . . Between 1998 and 2008, opiate use increased by more than 34 per cent, even as prison populations swelled and profits for drug traffickers soared.
Many political leaders and public figures acknowledge privately that repressive strategies have only made the drug problem worse. It took 14 years for America’s leaders to repeal Prohibition. After 50 years of the failed drug war, it is time for today’s leaders to find the courage to speak out.
Republican Representative Vicky Hartzler: [Anti-Choice Advocates] Should Post Pictures of Fetuses in College Dorms (VIDEO)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) spoke at an event organized by the Family Research Council to mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade this morning and urged anti-choice advocates to plaster pictures of babies and aborted fetuses to recruit more people to their cause. . . Nearly 90 percent of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, however, and look nothing like the fetuses depicted on anti-abortion propaganda posters.
Always Question Authority 