Today's Cool News

Oh Yes, Jesus Right There, oooh

Robert Anton Wilson used to say the worst thing about being an atheist is what do you say during sex, "Oh random chance, oh random chance."??

Now it appears the British government is ready to solve this problem, at least in part, when it repeals the blasphemy laws and allows the release of "Jesus porn"

From the Guardian:

A landmark decision to ban a film showing Christ being caressed on the cross on the grounds that it was blasphemous could be reversed after almost 20 years.

The 1989 ruling by the British Board of Film Classification to refuse a release licence for Visions of Ecstasy, a low- budget film depicting the 16th-century Spanish mystic St Teresa of Avila caressing the body of Jesus on the cross provoked a national furore.

While the film's director, Nigel Wingrove, believed he was making art, the board, under its heavily censorious director James Ferman, took a different view and said its mix of pornography and religion risked upsetting the Anglican Church. Now, however, in a sign that Britain's social mores have moved on, Craig Lapper, of the board's examining body, has invited Wingrove to resubmit the film for classification.

The invitation comes ahead of the repeal in June of the blasphemy law, which has long been a source of anger for those working in the creative industries who complain it is an archaic piece of legislation that stifles art.

(snip)

Wingrove, now a distributor of horror movies, said the suggestion he should resubmit his most notorious work had come 'completely out of the blue' and that he was in two minds about whether to agree. 'If I made the film now I would make it very differently,' he said. 'I was exploring areas of dark eroticism, but I had worked chiefly in prints, not films. People say I should put it out, but on a personal level I have reservations. If I did release it, I would need to put it into context and perhaps release a documentary to accompany it.'

(snip)

It would not just be anti-censorship campaigners who would welcome the film's release. 'I was in Soho recently and bumped into the guy who played Jesus,' Wingrove said. 'He said he'd never seen the film and asked if he could have a copy.'

Advice from Uncle Binnie

Current affairs got you down?  Tired of hearing the same old tired opinions from the blowhard pundits about Obama's preacher or Geraldine Ferraro or Eliot Spitzer or any of the other names in the news these days?

Well you're in luck because soon we will be enjoying the wit and wisdom of Uncle Binnie.  Not sure if we'll be saying "Hey Man, Ayman"... but this is a message you'll want to see and not hear whateverthefuck that means.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is expected to release a new message within the next two days, the U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service SITE Institute said on Wednesday.

The message is entitled, "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear," SITE said in a release.

It said an announcement of the pending message was posted on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, by the administrator of the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Ekhlaas Internet forum.

       

This is more exciting than getting a sneak peak at John Hagee's next rant.

Whatever happened to Ayman's offer to answer our questions?  It seems he doesn't want to be rushed.

Horton Hears a Who Cares?

The one time I met Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, I asked him a rather political question about why kids who read his books when they're young end up borderline illiterate by high school.  He said to me, "You've opened up a whole can of peas there and I would rather not get into it."

That exchange makes more sense to me today in light of the quotes from Ted's widow in this piece about Anti-abortion rights wackos showing up at the premiere of Horton Hears a Who. 

From Kim Masters in Slate:

Your Hollywoodland correspondent attended the glamorous premiere of Horton Hears a Who! last Saturday and was present when protesters started yelling shortly after Horton uttered his famous motto: "A person's a person, no matter how small."

We could not understand what was being shouted and thought perhaps that Seth Rogen or one of the other many vocal talents in the film was expressing love for Dr. Seuss' elephant and his signature line. But as you may have read elsewhere, anti-abortion activists had infiltrated the theater. Afterward, they handed out fliers designed to look like tickets.

None of this sat well with Audrey Geisel, widow of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), who attended the screening. So did Karl ZoBell, the lawyer who represents her and who has represented the interests of Dr. Seuss for some 40 years.

(snip)

ZoBell says it would be nice if these people came up with their own material. But if they don't go too far—by copping the illustrations, for example—they can use a line like "A person's a person, no matter how small," even if it wouldn't have pleased Dr. Seuss. And it wouldn't have. The Geisels were opposed to using the Dr. Seuss books for any political agenda.

Some anti-abortion Web sites claim that Audrey is a supporter of Planned Parenthood. ZoBell says he's never discussed the issue of abortion with her and can't confirm that.

McCain and the Bored Agains

Now that John McCain officially has the time to try to put together a strategy for November, the left is all of a sudden noticing the views of mainstream fundies.  I guess Huckabee had too much "aww shucks" about him to make people take a close look at the doctrinal issues.

So Right Wing Watch puts out a piece today that includes a video about McCain declaring Rod Parsley his "Spiritual Advisor" and highlighting some of the "shocking views" of this rather run of the mill televangelist.

The thing is I don't find any of this all that shocking or surprising. Other than the God wants you to have an airplane thing, the political views he expresses seem to me pretty boilerplate stuff from a right wing televangelist. I suppose the key question is whether anyone believes McCain actually believes this stuff. I suspect not but I adopt cynical poses at times. In case you hadn't noticed.

Gender Equality Even in the Gym

Isn't amazing how exclusionary we can be when we set out to be "inclusive"

Recently Harvard banned men from one of the gyms on campus to allow religious women (particularly Islamic women) to exercise without showing any skin to a man.

I think Lucy Caldwell is on to something here:

Harvard men wishing to pump iron have fewer places to do so, thanks to a recent policy implemented by the Harvard Recreation Department. Following a campaign by a contingent of undergraduate women (including a number of whom are involved in the Harvard College Women’s Center or are members of religious groups such as the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS)), the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center (QRAC) will now hold women-only hours for six hours a week. The change in policy shows a readiness to put minority interests ahead of the entire community, even when it creates a disparity in resources.

(snip)

The length to which Harvard or any institution ought to go to accommodate a range of religious and moral codes presents a complicated question. Although most Westerners reject the idea that a woman ought to veil when in the streets, Harvard fashions itself as a university of the world. Attracting the greatest talents requires accommodating a wide range of social preferences.

Yet accommodating a religious interest need not come at the expense of the majority. Closing a facility to undergraduates whose tuition fees have paid for it can be polarizing, so the matter requires a cautious and nuanced approach. There are already several good models for accommodating religion on campus. For Jewish students on campus, kosher dining is available at Hillel. Yet Hillel’s policy differs from the QRAC policy in that it does not exclude other undergraduates—any Christian, Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim may dine in Hillel any night of the week (and many frequently do).

(snip)

That Harvard’s misguided accommodationist policy may inadvertently divide as opposed to unite the diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds present in Cambridge is regrettable. More dangerously, it bolsters support for the idea that religious fundamentalism (particularly Islam) is incompatible with Western society. Harvard would do well not to make itself a breeding ground for this sort of feeling.

Some days I do wonder if my retirement will be spent living in an America living under at least partial Shar'ia Law.

 

Get High and Read the Bible, They Did, Maybe

For years I've heard talk that ergot poisoning in Upstate New York could have been responsible for the whole Mormon phenomenon..

Now it appears psychedelic experiences may be behind the whole Bible thing.

From News.com.au:

THE biblical Israelites may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant when Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, according to a new study by an Israeli psychology professor.

Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an "altered state of awareness", Shanon hypothesised.

"In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings," Mr Shanon wrote.
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"On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all Being ... many identify this power as God."

Mr Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having "partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts".

Hey dude, pass the Ayahuasca and read that passage again.

Move Over Gideons, Here Comes the Gita

It's late at night and you're sitting in a lonely hotel room somewhere.  You open the drawer expecting to find the Gideon Bible for a little light reading.  Instead, it's the Bhagvad Gita.

From the Times of India:

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will try to place copies of Bhagvad Gita in hotels and motels owned by Indian-Americans and in libraries in the US.

The governing council of VHP's America unit passed a resolution to this effect at a recent meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"To begin with, Gita copies will be placed in temple libraries. We will also explore the possibility of placing copies in rooms in hotels and motels owned by Indian Americans," Vijay Narang, the unit's media director, said.

Explaining the move, he said: "With India's rise as an economic power, people are interested in knowing more about the country.

"Hinduism with its message of universal brotherhood and tolerance as in Vasudhaiv kutumbakam (The entire cosmos is interconnected and interdependent) and Ekam sat viprah bahudah vadanti (Truth is one, sages speak of it variously) is relevant to the times. And Gita is the highly regarded scripture of Hindu dharma.

"In a hotel room where one has more leisure time, one can get inspiration and insights from browsing through a copy of the Gita."

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Have You Seen This Masked Man?

It appears the CIA has seen him..;. but like most of the folks our spooks are seeking, Mokhtar Belmokhtar alias Khaled Abu Al Abbas got away again.

From El Khabar:

Well-informed security sources about counterterrorism issues unveiled that US security forces northern Mali tried to eliminate Mokhtar Belmokhtar alias Khaled Abu Al Abbas, who has escaped many murder attempts the most recent one in September 2006 in an ambush set by Malian agents in Kidal. The same sources added that Belmokhtar has escaped the operation while he lost four men. The US forces track of the GSPC Northern Mali and in the Sahel countries in tight collaboration with local populations and arms smugglers.

In case you missed him at your local post office, here's more on our friend from the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat)

The Muslim Brotherhood Struggles Over Blogging

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is in many ways the father of the modern Islamist movement.  But it seems some younger people in the movement found that trying new things like say, blogging, will just set the older Mullah's to muttering.

From Ikhwan.com (Don't blame me if clicking here puts you on the "No Fly List" ;))

My recent article for Middle East Report captured a moment in which young members of the Muslim Brotherhood turned to blogging as a way to challenge the organization"s status quo - openly discussing its political platform and tactical political decisions, and putting a human face on an often secretive organization.  This "Brotherhood bloggers" phenomenon was controversial, sparking sharp criticism from more traditionalist Brotherhood leaders and inspiring a number of articles in the Egyptian press about impending splits and factionalization of the organization.   The controversies were rising to something of a fever pitch, both within and outside the organization, no doubt fueled in part by the increasing attention being paid to it by the Egyptian and Western media.

(snip)

Last week, sadly, that window appeared to be closing. In a controversial article published on al-Jazeera Talk (and, notably, not on his own blog or on an official MB website), Abd al-Monem Mahmoud ("Ana Ikhwan"), one of the leaders of the Brotherhood blogging movement, declared a mournful end to the Brotherhood blogging opening.   The great mistake of the MB bloggers, Mahmoud concluded, was that they became identified with a specific ideological and political trend - which made it too easy for them to be portrayed by internal and external critics as a "faction."  Blogging was supposed to be a personal thing, not a political trend, and its growth into a movement doomed the experiment.  Leaders were particularly concerned about the trend since it came a time when the Brotherhood faced a harsh regime crackdown;  the airing of internal disagreements helped the organization"s enemies and weakened its public image.

(snip)

For now, the Brotherhood blogging experiment which seemed so hopeful just months ago seems to have hit a much rougher patch.  But is that forever, or just for now?    It"s hard to imagine the bloggers just letting it go over the long term, given their technophilia and their political energy and the taste of public engagement which they"ve now had.  I"m somewhat reassured by the fascinating cross-blog dialogue over the role of women in the Muslim Brotherhood which continues in spite of the current troubles.

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Turkey's Latest Religious Conundrum

For all of its faults, and like anyplace else, it has its share, Turkey remains a somewhat hopeful model for the Islamic world because of its commitment to secular governance.  As the country continues to try to join the EU, one of the problems it faces are "religious liberties" issues brought on by Turkey's methods of keeping the religious zealots on all sides in line.  A Greek Orthodox seminary is now at the heart of the fight.

From The Turkish Daily News:

  (Turkish) Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül was quoted on Tuesday as saying a hotly debated Greek Orthodox seminary near Istanbul would not reopen because the leader of the Greek Orthodox community had rejected Ankara's conditions.

  The Halki Seminary on Heybeliada Island was closed in 1971 under a law requiring state supervision of university-level religious education. The reopening of the seminary is viewed by the European Union, which Turkey aims to join, as a litmus test of Turkey's commitment to the freedom of its religious minorities.

  Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartolomeos says the failure to reopen the seminary threatens the survival of Turkey's dwindling Orthodox Christian population.

  "Allowing the seminary to provide religious education conflicts with the Turkish Constitution and the principle of secularism," mass-circulation Hürriyet daily quoted Gül as saying in response to criticism from Athens.

(snip)

  Turkey, whose population is overwhelmingly Muslim but which has a secular political system, fears any easing of the curbs on religious education could be exploited by Islamist groups.