Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman are a pair of names I’m running across more frequently on the New Age bullshit circuit. They’re a couple of seriously ignorant people. Here, for example, is an example from an interview on a “progressive” political site. (Leftish politics has a soft spot for New Age religion.) In the current … New Age bullshit

The ACLU has just issued a one-year assessment of the Obama administration’s actions on civil liberties, called “America Unrestored.” As the title indicates, Obama has not been all that good for abolishing Bush-era disgraces. There have been some symbolic acts, yes, but by and large, having centrist Democrats in power seems to mean a halting … Obama: almost as bad as a Republican

You sometimes have to admire the comprehensive ambitions of Muslim scholars. They have to have a ruling for everything. Hence my favorite fatwa of the week. Some guy asks if he is religiously obligated to return an “al-salaamu ‘alaykum” greeting spoken by a parrot. The scholar duly answers, comparing the parrot situation to tape recordings. … Parrot Fatwa

Sometimes something humorous can provide philosophical insight. I got an e-mail from a former student, now community college instructor, called “how to fail with dignity.” It had exam questions with funny wrong answers actually given by students. One question was “Why is phosphorus trichloride (PhCl3) polar?” The answer, given by a student who appears devout … “Because God Made it that Way”

A Turkish conservative newspaper columnist yesterday published an op-ed in which he acted as an Islamic version of Pat Robertson. Observing that “The Quran tells us that if collective sins are not met with collective repentance, that some disasters will occur in that region,” Nuh Gönültaş then says that “The fundamental reality of [Haiti] is … Turkish Pat Robertson

The most prominent US humanist organizations, the Council for Secular Humanism and the American Humanist Association, have appeals for donations to help Haiti, through secular channels. (CSH site; AHA site.) In the interests of equal opportunity cynicism, though, I have to wonder how much of this is motivated by a need to demonstrate that the … Secular aid and charity

It’s nice to know that we can count on Religious Right figures to say something grossly stupid at regular intervals. This time it’s Pat Robertson, talking about how Haitians are paying for a past pact with the devil. I guess liberal believers and the nonreligious can use the sense of outrage this produces for a … Haunted by demons

I keep trying to make sense of recurrent demands for “respect” of religious traditions that come from politically liberal and leftish circles, whom you wouldn’t immediately think of as affirming ways of life in which religious faith is central. But then, these days “left” often means the multicultural left, the postmodern animal, rather than the … Multicultural Respect

Uganda has recently considered imposing insanely draconian laws that would punish homosexuality with death and even imprison landlords who rent to gays or relatives who fail to rat out their gay kin. Who whipped up the homophobic frenzy that led to this madness? You get one guess. Yep. Fundamentalist nitwits, disappointed in their efforts to … American Evangelicals Promote Rabid Ugandan Homophobia