It’s Wednesday night, and that means it’s time for another episode of Wednesday Night Theater, pumping concentrated intellectual entertainment directly into your bloodstream. This week’s installment features prominent atheist Sam Harris delivering a talk at the 2007 Atheism Alliance Internation conference, wherein he argues that atheism doesn’t exist.
Confusing, I know. Just… just watch it.
Click to embiggen. Cross-posted at The Clarion Call.
Rick Santorum says he “almost threw up” when he read the text of John F. Kennedy’s famed speech on the separation of church and state, saying “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”
Coincidentally, I almost threw up when I Google Image Searched for “Santorum.”
Click to embiggen. Cross-posted at The Clarion Call.
So-called “movement conservatives” have long claimed former Arizona Senator and 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater as the founder of their movement. They’re very fond of trotting out Goldwater’s most famous quip, “extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,” but these days some of his other quotations are curiously ignored. Although we shouldn’t be surprised that religious conservatives would take certain parts of a message as gospel truth while totally ignoring others— they do it with the Bible every day.
Click to embiggen. Cross-posted at The Clarion Call.
Doughy blowhard Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League, is up in arms about the provision of President Obama’s health care bill that would require birth control to be covered by comprehensive health care plans. In typical hyperbolic style, Donohue says that the government is “[lining] up against the Roman Catholic Church.”
Considering that 98% of American Catholics use birth control, who exactly are loudmouths like Donohue speaking for, other than the collection of ancient virgins that make up the Catholic Church’s leadership? Another question— why do the only people upset about this seem to be old men?
Click to embiggen. Cross-posted at The Clarion Call.
This article was originally published in The Clarion Call.
On April 11, France became the first country in Europe to ban the hijab, the veil that some Muslim women wear to cover their faces according to religious custom.
The law, passed last fall by the French Senate by a near-unanimous vote of 246 to one, prohibits any clothing that covers the face to be worn in public.
Though controversial, the measure is popular in France, where anti-Muslim sentiment runs high amid fears of an increasingly Islamic Europe. Women in violation of the ban are subject to a 150-euro fine (about $217) and a mandatory “citizenship course.”
Perhaps those who are in favor of stripping their fellow citizens of the right to wear whatever they want and freely practice their religion (about three quarters of the French population according to polling) are the ones in need of a refresher course on citizenship. Continue reading
This article was originally published in The Clarion Call.
All summer, we as a nation were subjected to much manufactured outrage over the Park 51 Muslim community center set to be built in lower Manhattan, a few blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center towers.
The vast majority of New Yorkers weren’t against it. It was established over and over that the owners of the site (which now is home to a derelict Burlington Coat Factory) have every right to build whatever they please on their property. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the New York City imam who would lead the new community center, has been demonized in the right-wing media as a terrorism-connected monster. But he was quickly revealed to be a Muslim leader with stellar moderate bona fides.
To the people protesting against Park 51, none of this matters. Continue reading
This article was originally published in The Clarion Call.
As a political cartoonist, there’s nothing I like to see more than my work stoke controversy and initiate debate. Indeed, this is the primary reason for the existence of political cartoons. On April 1, Holy Thursday, I drew a cartoon about the Catholic church that did exactly that.
When faced with the reality of predator priests in their midst [church officials] have responded by doing everything in their power to minimize damage to the church, even if that means protecting rapists and silencing the victims of their abuse.
Some called it bigoted. Others said it was offensive to run a cartoon criticizing the church during Holy Week. It even prompted a letter from Clarion University President Joseph P. Grunenwald to each member of The Call’s editorial board and its faculty adviser questioning the decision to publish the cartoon.
While the cartoon may have been offensive to some, any implication that The Call wasn’t well within its rights under the First Amendment to publish it is ludicrous. It’s much more offensive that the officials of a major world religion are protecting child rapists while cowing their victims into silence with threats of hellfire than a political cartoon ever could be. Continue reading
Click to embiggen. Cross-posted at The Clarion Call.
In reference to the hubbub caused by an earlier cartoon, which included a scolding letter from the president of the University.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
“And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIeeeeIIIIIII will always loooooooove cervical caaaaanceeerrrr…”
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
This is one of the only cartoons I’ve ever drawn that was pulled from publication. The cartoon is in reference to an MSU professor named Indrek Wichman who sent an email telling Muslim students to leave the country. The bomb-head element recalls the infamous cartoon depiction of Muhammad with a bomb for a turban. The State News apparently thought my reference to the controversial Danish cartoon would cause Muslims to burn the office down or something.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
Click to embiggen. Originally published in The State News, Michigan State University’s student newspaper.
