Gaytheists will be hosting the Humanist Symposium on February 21st.  The Humanist Symposium is run by Adam Lee, who also has a blog named Daylight Atheism.  I’m guessing since I volunteered us, I’ll be writing the post.

The Humanist Symposium is a bit different from the Carnival of the Godless – it’s less addressing superstition, atheism, church/state separation, etc and more about dealing with how we live life, find meaning and positive alternatives to belief systems based on the supernatural. 

So if you’ve got something that you think will fit, send it on my way.  You can submit on the form that the blog carnival website provides, or you can e-mail me directly.

I’ll be posting the edition on February 21st, which is a Sunday.  If you’d like to post your article (and have enough time to read through it to be able to sound intelligent about it!), send it to me by midnight EST the 20th. 

Look forward to reading what’s out there!

Good to know that religious belief as a reason to murder someone isn’t condoned in Kansas.

Although I’m a bit put off by CNN’s headline:

Activist Roeder convicted of abortion provider’s murder.

Here’s to you, Dr. Tiller.  I never needed your services, but you touched the lives of many women who did.  And here’s to the dismantling of the bigotry and hatred that resulted in your death.

Your memory lives on.

While I don’t have kids myself, I have a little friend of mine whose name is Grace.  I get to, for a couple of hours every week, immerse myself into the world of a two year old while her mother is pursuing her degree.  The world is a place to be investigated and adventured in, puzzles to be solved and questions asked.  I am refreshed in ways I didn’t know I needed, when I spend my several hours a week with her.

This last Wednesday, we went to a place in our city that is called the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum.  It’s a “museum” designed specifically for children, but it’s got some great things for grown-ups, too.  Everything is interactive, really big on touch and movement and thinking.  They’ve also got really great prompts so that adults can learn along with their kids and explain what is going on.  While I knew a lot of the science behind what was going on, I have to say those plaques did save me from going “How the hell should I know?” a couple of times.

This was my first time at the museum, so I was just as filled with wonder as Grace.  She ran around, playing and describing to me what she was doing and what she wanted me to do.  Eventually, we made it past the plush “bricks”, the slide, a tornado INDOORS!, and the musical stairs to some sort of set-up with plastic magnetic fishes, plastic magnetic fishing poles and lots of water.

And an Archimedes Screw.

It was a glorious contraption, with a turn crank right knee high to a grasshopper so even the littlest child could grasp and turn it themselves.  I couldn’t help myself and started turning it, watching it pointlessly move water from one place to another, splashing into the tub and creating bubbles.  I smiled, because it’s a beautifully efficient device and just fun to think about.  It makes my inner geek sing (badly).

Grace was first amused by the bubbles, the plastic fish and the plastic fishing poles.  She called me from my crank and I went to play with the plastic fish and the plastic fishing poles.  But eventually, we made our way back to the crank, and it was Grace’s turn.

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Seriously?!  That’s all I’m getting on this?

This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.

I’m seconding Reed’s post voicing displeasure with President Obama’s fulfilling , although I’m not featuring Jane Lynch in all of her glory.

He talks a good talk, but I want something a bit more than words before I’m going to get my hopes up again.

*Also, HRC, I’m not  giving you money just because our President punted on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  And, yes, thank you for the reminder to talk to my representatives about DADT.  I’m still holding out hope that it’s just rescinded by executive order because all I’m hearing is “Wait until after the next election, otherwise the Republicans win!”  I’m not holding my breath.

I’m going to go suck down NyQuil, because I’ve been hanging around the cute germ incubators that are also known as children for the last week.

I am not an avid user of YouTube, but I am well aware of the power that videos hosted on this site can have.  I’m also well aware of the false Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims that some people make to stifle videos they disagree with or dislike.  The big case that immediately springs to mind is Thunderf00t’s harassment by Venomfangx and his false DMCA take down requests.  And it seems a bit suspect that the burden of proof is shifted onto the accused as opposed to the accuser. 

So I was absolutely delighted when listening to The Pod Delusion (they’re in the UK, have delightful accents, and you should listen, too) when they had a way to tell Google that the YouTube DMCA shenanigans need to stop. 

Google is now asking for ideas on how to improve their products.  It’s only available for the next week or so, but if you go to http://productideas.appspot.com, you can up-vote the DMCA reform and hopefully Google will pay attention.  At the time I voted, it was by far the highest suggested item in the YouTube category.

Perhaps if I ask nicely, PZ Myers and Hemant Mehta will instruct their hordes to upvote as well.  I’m sure if they can crash polls about the afterlife, they could crash polls on whether illegal DMCA filings should stand.

Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, in which the courts decided that it was a violation of the constitutional right to privacy to deny women access to abortion.  37 years later, access to abortion is still standing, if just barely. 

If you are someone with a uterus who has $500 to spare; if you are someone with a uterus who can afford childcare (if needed) and unpaid leave from work to jump through legal hoops targeting abortion; if you are someone with a uterus who has health insurance that isn’t government sponsored; if you are someone with a uterus who has a clinic that performs abortions nearby; if you are someone with a uterus who can afford to travel to someone performing 2nd trimester abortions; if you are someone who is willing to risk damnation in the Abrahamic faiths for defying their wanted monopoly of sexuality; if you are someone who can brave the misguided people who stand outside of clinics harassing every woman in sight; if your partner or sperminator will sign for the abortion; if you are over the age of consent or live in a state with a judicial bypass system.

That a hell of a lot of “ifs”, isn’t it?

Dr. Tiller provided abortions for women in their 2nd trimester, along with other reproductive health services.  He used to wear a button that said “Trust Women”.  And I’m pretty sure it meant more than “Trust women and respect their bodily integrity and autonomy, but only if they meet this set of pre-defined requirements”.

He meant “Trust Women”.  Period.

“Trust Women” doesn’t end when a person decides to continue a pregnancy.  This idea doesn’t slip out a back door, abandoning pregnant women to the whims of courts and doctors and hospitals who are not qualified to dictate a person’s life, right to refuse medical treatment, or engage in legal activities.  Pregnant women do not suddenly give up their right to agency and autonomy in favour of whatever behaviours society finds most preferable for them. 

“Trust Women” could even be extended to listening to women when we talk about what we need to better our lives, the lives of our children, to ensure that people do not live in abject poverty and terror in the small blink we are here and alive.

“Trust Women” is more than the simple addition of those two words to make a sentence.  It is what we will have to do if we are to survive, to prosper, to thrive. 

There’s a lot of potential in those two little words, aren’t there?

Next November, those of us in Michigan should be on the lookout for the name Paul Scott and probably avoid it at all costs.  The current State Representative from Grand Blanc has put in a bid for the GOP nomination for Secretary of State (our version of the DMV, amongst other things).

In his announcement letter, he outlines four priorities that he believes no other candidate is looking to address:

· I will stand strong against illegal immigration by verifying a valid social security number before issuing anyone a driver’s license, an issue Representative Dave Agema has been pushing for 3 years.

· I will actively push to encrypt the traceable RFID chip in the enhanced driver’s license.

· I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance.

· I will work tirelessly to repeal the over $100 million dollar tax increase on drivers in the form of driver responsibility fees.

The Michigan Messenger (an excellent independent paper that is part of the Center for Independent Media, and has many sister papers in other states) had the opportunity to ask Mr. Scott some questions about why he’s pursuing a policy of discrimination against transgendered persons.  It’s well worth a read, but basically it boils down to hatred and bigotry as a social/religious value.

Now, I have some hope, specifically because the city of Kalamazoo spoke loudly on the idea of transgendered persons being singled out for discrimination.  It seems that perhaps my state is a bit more progressive about things than I’d expect.

I have been glued to my computer every time the Prop 8 Trial Tracker has updated since last Monday.  I’ve devoured each on-the-fly transcript (Thank you Rick Jacobs for sitting through the trial, and for Julia Rosen for the daily summaries)  and just as eagerly devoured the commentary that follows from places like Pam’s House Blend, Zack Ford Blogs, the various news sites that are covering the trial.  I am obsessed, because so much seems to hang in the balance and I fear that the burden of proof on us is made unbearably heavy by the religious affiliations with the concept of marriage.  I wish for video of the trial; I wish for audio records; I wish for something more than words on a page, and journalists and pundits and other prognosticators with their conjecture on what it all means. 

It seems the only thing that can capture my attention for long is Dr. Tiller’s assassin’s pretrial hearings and the various sundry things that have happened, eroding away people’s right to bodily autonomy and agency.  The judge ruled in favour of allowing a voluntary manslaughter defense; the state of Florida had decided that it was merely maintaining the “status quo” when it hospitalised a woman and confined her to bed rest because it was in the best interest of the medical care of the fetus; Kentucky has a bill in the works that would allow them to join the ranks of states requiring doctors to give inaccurate/irrelevant/politically-charged information to women seeking abortions.

I wish I could generate the words for a fruitful discussion with those close to me that when I say religion is dangerous, this is what I mean.  That when I take an absolutist stance against religion and shift the burden of proof onto my conversation partner to show me something redeeming within religion, this is what is in my head.

I wish I had the words necessary to reason the someones responsible out of a position they did not reason themselves into. 

I wish that religions did not get a pass in promoting hate and bigotry as religious values. 

I do not expect my words to change the fate of humanity with this drop in the bucket, but I am obligated to say something, if only for my sanity.

… and because I figure we all need a distraction.  For your eyeballs’  and earholes’ enjoyment*.

I’m a bit more disturbed by this one, in which the Beatles apparently had keytars instead of guitars.  Also, MSpaint is fun.

*Enjoyment is a relative term.  Your mileage may vary.  Please refrain from chucking rotting produce at me when either one of these songs gets stuck in your head.  It could have been worse.

Over at Joe. My. God. yesterday morning, I heard that the NIH is planning to conduct a huge study on LGBT health issues.  Kinda US centric (I apologize), but important.  There’s a HUGE disparity between services available to cisgendered, straight people and the LGBT community (disproportionately affecting those who may need to access government or social services) .  You should go read, but in case you’re not inclined to click though, I’m quoting the “insider [tips] on how to help [make sure you’re heard in the study]”:

The Institute of Medicine (IOM), part of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), has been asked by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct a report on LGBT health. Nothing like this has been done in the past, although IOM did do a report on lesbian health at the end of the Clinton administration. There is a period of public comment between now and Feb 1. People should be encouraged to take advantage of this. Vague comments (“We need more services for gay men”) won’t have much impact. Data-based comments will help, but commonplace, vivid examples of health disparities affecting LGBT folks may get noticed. There will be face-to-face meetings with opportunities for public participation, but they are likely to be DC-based and the dates have not been announced. The report will be used by NIH for planning purposes. It’s likely that other federal agencies (CDC, HRSA, SAMHSA) will take notice of its findings and Congress usually is interested in the outcome of these reports.

So if you have a vivid example of “health disparity”, and you feel to share, I’d say go for it.  I’m not exactly convinced that this will change the way the government or medical communities interact with the LGBT community, but it’s worth a try.