Welcome, Croatia!

Religion News Service reports that a San Diego judge has ruled that the teaching of yoga in public schools does not establish a government interest in religion. I’m not so sure Patanjali would agree.

“According to documents released today, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, moved nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund in 2007 specifically to shield it from lawsuits by victims of clergy sexual abuse,” Slate reports. So, who is this Timothy Dolan? Well, only about a month ago, he made a name for himself as a premier homophobe:

Fearing decisions from the Supreme Court that would rule broadly in favor of marriage equality and against DOMA and Prop 8, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, America’s top Catholic, has issued a bulletin to Catholic parishioners across the country, calling upon members of the clergy to give sermons with anti-equality sentiment and counseling members of the laity to pray, fast, and sacrifice as a means to stop what he calls, “the Roe v. Wade of Marriage.”

According to the bulletin, LGBT marriage equality, “serves no one’s rights, least of all those of children.”

Always the children! Unless it’s about paedophile rapists within the church itself.

Pope John Paul II has cleared the final obstacle before being made a saint and is now awaiting the final approval from Pope Francis. To me, it’s bizarre how this church makes its own leadership into semi-gods. It reminds me of the obsession amongst Roman Emperors, who often were very concerned about being proclaimed gods by the Senate.

Seen here is the Destruction of Leviathan (1865), an engraving by Gustave Doré (1832–1883). Leviathan is one of those mythical creatures that fascinate me. In Job 41:33, it is said of Leviathan, “Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature without fear”. Since I tend to read human philosophy into religious myths, I wonder what the writers thought about when they described Leviathan. Some have suggested a fear of water as most people in antiquity couldn’t swim—but I’m not sure…

The head of Egypt’s army has given a address on television in which he announced that President Mohammed Morsi is no longer in office. I’m no fan of Mr Morsi’s presidency not Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamism, but I feel unease about army coups.

Abdication is the new trend amongst Europe’s monarchs. First the Pope, then the Queen of the Netherlands, and now the King of the Belgians.

The Independent writes about Madonna’s latest publicity stunt. I love it.

Perhaps this offers a real explanation to global warming:

Astrobiologists from Scotland’s St Andrew’s University have predicted a death date for the Earth, which is 4.54 billion-years-old, as 2000002013, making our home a relative 50 in human years.

Forget carbon dioxide, it’s menopausal hot flushes.

“Peter Lucas Moses, 28, was given two life sentences on Friday for the 2010 murders of a woman who tried to leave the cult he led, and of a four-year-old boy Moses believed to be gay,” Pink News reports.

Homophobia kills!

Seen here is a picture from the Ambrosian Iliad. It has some relation to what I am doing right now, as I’m writing an essay on the Iliad.

It’s a growing then to put animal rights before human rights:

Until this year, Poland allowed shechitah, making about $650 million annually by exporting kosher and halal meat to Israel and Muslim-majority countries like Egypt and Iran. But the business practically ground to a halt in January after a constitutional court ruled that the country has no right to allow religious slaughter. The ruling was made after a petition filed by animals’ rights groups.

On Friday, the Polish Parliament rejected a bill that would legalise kosher slaughter. This is wrong because religious freedom is a human right.

From EU Observer:

Latvia will join the eurozone on 1 January 2014, becoming the 18th country to join the currency union, after finance ministers backed their membership application. The move comes after reports by the European Commission, European Central Bank and the European Parliament all endorsed Latvia’s membership bid.

Good news! And today, I got a first glimpse at the new coins.

From a press release posted by Human Rights Watch:

Cameroonian authorities should immediately conduct an effective and thorough investigation into the torture and killing of Eric Ohena Lembembe, an activist and journalist who was found dead at his home in Yaoundé on the evening of July 15. Lembembe, executive director of the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), was an outspoken activist who defended the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Lembembe’s friends discovered his body on Monday evening after being unable to reach him by telephone for two days, and went to his home. They found his front door padlocked on the outside, but could see Lembembe’s body lying on his bed through the window. Lembembe’s friends alerted the police, who broke down the door. According to one friend, Lembembe’s neck and feet appeared to have been broken, and his face, hands, and feet had been burned with an iron.

“The Florida killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen earlier this year, has brought national attention to the laws that allow people to use lethal force to defend themselves,” Sarah Childress writes.

The graph speaks for itself.

The photo from While Seated shows Zimmerman and Martin with the races changed.

This is the result of a new survey of 1,661 American men. Thank God for science!

The Guardian reports about a case before Britain’s highest court.

An article in l’Espresso suggests there is a “gay lobby” at work in the Vatican. It’s fascinating how gay people are always portrayed as being part of a secret organisation. The number of priests engaged in heterosexual activities is probably much greater, but who speaks of a heterosexual lobby? No one! Gay people are the last minority to be treated this way. Back in the days when the Catholic Church ruled Europe, it was Muslims, Jews, and gay people. Now it’s down to one.

Read l’Espresso’s article in Italian here.

From the British Royal Family’s official Instragram picture proclaiming the birth of a new prince:

It doesn’t look like much, but this small hill and its trees are what remains of Lindholmen Castle where the peace treaty leading to the Kalmar Union was signed on 17 June 1395. I took the picture today during a drive in the countryside.

From NASA’s website:

The dark side of Saturn, its bright limb, the main rings, the F ring, and the G and E rings are clearly seen; the limb of Saturn and the F ring are overexposed. The “breaks” in the brightness of Saturn’s limb are due to the shadows of the rings on the globe of Saturn, preventing sunlight from shining through the atmosphere in those regions. The E and G rings have been brightened for better visibility.

Earth, which is 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away in this image, appears as a blue dot at center right; the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side. An arrow indicates their location in the annotated version.

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.)

I will probably never see it happen, but the new British prince has been given a name that indicate he will one day be known as King George VII.

One of my favourite blogger, Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, has opened his blog for comments. It’s “a grand experiment” according to his post on the subject.

From time to time I get emails from people asking why I don’t allow readers to post comments on my blog. Well, the answer is that I don’t like it. It takes time to moderate and there are just too many trolls out there. Besides, with Twitter, it’s easier than ever to interact.

Still, if you want to comment, send me an email.

At a press conference in London yesterday, Bank of England announced that Jane Austen will appear on a forthcoming banknote.

I’m not a big fan of her novels, but Austen is still a good choice for the new tenner.

Andrew Sullivan reports on Eastern Europe’s deepening darkness. Progress is going backwards as people are becoming more homophobic. It’s so sad.

Pew Global Attitudes Project reveals some interesting—and, in many cases, depressing—figures on attitudes towards gay people.

Sweet progress is coming to the most important English-language dictionary.

“A neo-Nazi Russian group has taken to social media to publicise images and videos of gay teenagers lured in on the promise of a date, before torturing them and forcing them to come out to friends and family on video,” Pink News reports.

This is what happens when leading politicians legitimise homophobic ideas about gay people harming children.

“Deal brokered by John Kerry enables peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians to begin as early as next week,” the Guardian reports.

I’m not so sure. Israel has done a lot over the years to please the Palestinians—releasing terrorists from prison, evacuating settlements in the Gaza Strip, etcetera—but nothing ever results in anything of substance. But hey, I’d love to be wrong on this one!

Here’s an example of homophobic activism that makes it blatantly clear that homophobia is an illness. American Family Association, a notoriously homophobic organisation, protests a show on ABC Family Channel for portraying a gay family. Family, according to the homophobes, is all about heterosexuality. This is how they protest:

ABC Family Channel has several anti-family programs and has now added to that growing list. ABC Family’s new show “The Fosters” is about a lesbian couple and their diverse family. Adding this program to a lineup that already includes “Pretty Little Liars,” “Twisted,” ”Baby Daddy” and “The Lying Game” many demonstrates to families that ABC Family Channel is anything but family-friendly. But, because “family” is part of the network’s name, we thought a warning should be sent out to anyone who continues to watch the channel.

Apparently, even acknowledging that gay people exist is a threat to the heterosexual family.

Sweden’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt, criticised Russia’s new anti-gay law on Twitter:

The Russians responded with this statement:

Since any specific events or figures that caused his comment are absent, it is hard to give a concrete response. According to Russian legislation cases of hate-mongering are considered acts of crime. Moreover, the Constitution of the Russian Federation prohibits any form of discrimination. Separate episodes do occur from time to time, but the same is true for practically every country in the world, including European states. This is regrettable and such acts are dealt with accordingly by law enforcement agencies.

Regarding the recently adopted Russian law banning propaganda of homosexuality to minors, I would like to point out that it has nothing to do with discrimination of LGBT persons and does not infringe their rights. Such claims are simply false. Throughout the ages Russian society has developed its own set of moral values, cultural and religious traditions that are shared by a vast majority of its people. This is exactly why we do not want to create conditions for “reverse discrimination”, when a small group of citizens is granted the right to aggressively promote to children its views that are contrary to the views of the predominant majority of Russians.

So, it’s “reverse discrimination” when freedom of speech is granted to everyone. It’s absurd.

From Pravda:

While the head of the Catholic Church collects followers on Twitter, promising forgiveness of sins, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill, says that Russian monks should not use the Internet. He also says that citizens of Russia should not succumb to fashion trends from the West.

Above all, he urges people to refrain from socially dangerous behavior. According to the patriarch, young people in Russia fall under the influence of many countries, where people have been moving towards legally justifiable sin.

Patriarch Kirill is concerned about the legalisation of same-sex marriage. According to him, this is an apocalyptic symptom. Legalizing gay marriage, he said, people step on the path of self-destruction. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church believes that the Russians are able to resist the corruption of morality.

The head of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia, film director Nikita Mikhalkov, shares a similar opinion. According to Mikhalkov, the legalisation of same-sex marriage affects cinematography and leads to the destruction of humanity.

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“The pioneering scientist who created Dolly the sheep has outlined how cells plucked from frozen woolly mammoth carcasses might one day help resurrect the ancient beasts,” the Guardian reports.