Jack Chick, the creator of the infamous "Chick Tracts," has died. Boy is he in for a surprise.

Courtesy of the New Republic:
  
Jack Chick, soul-winner and Catholic-hater, is dead.Chick, who produced hundreds of fundamentalist Christian tracts over 50 years, passed yesterday at the age of 92. He was initially known for tracts like “This Was Your Life,” which used compelling and sometimes frightening visuals to depict fundamentalist beliefs about hell and salvation. His contribution to the Satanic Panic rightfully earned him public infamy, as did his fear-mongering about feminism, LGBT rights, New Age spirituality, and even Catholicism. 

Chick was a true cultural separatist whose doctrinal views were heavily influenced by works like The Fundamentals and Charles Finney’s Power From On High. Only the King James Version of the Bible sufficed; Satan is directly responsible for all other translations. Catholics? They’ve eaten the infamous Death Cookie and are doomed to hell. Infant baptism? Dangerous heresy! Dungeons and Dragons? If you have to ask, you’ve probably got one foot in the lake of fire already. 

A few of Chick’s views, specifically on abortion, evolution, and LGBT people, possess a pernicious longevity. He celebrated AIDS as just deserts for anyone who didn’t adhere to his stringent sexual standards—a sentiment 14 percent of Americans still believe.

 You know I think the first time I saw a Chick Tract it was mixed in with some of my Halloween candy when I was just a kid.

I cannot even begin to imagine the number of children that have been traumatized by reading this garbage, but all it did for me was to make me even angrier that there were adults who victimized kids with bullshit like this.

Those Chick Tracts were heavily focused on eternal damnation and any non-Fundamentalist point of view was essentially labeled Satanic and dismissed out of hand.

As an adult they are so over the top that they seem comical, but to a young child this is the stuff of nightmares.

Somehow I feel that the planet is just a little bit more progressive now that Jack Chick has shuffled off his mortal coil. 

Creationists are trying to ruin Halloween for the kids again. Aw man, and they're using dinosaurs to do it!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Anti-Halloween creationists have some ideas about the holiday that could turn your home into the least popular trick-or-treat stop in the neighborhood. 

Instead of handing out candy, Answers in Genesis wants you to give trick-or-treaters fake $1 million bills that warn children of the fiery hell that awaits them. 

“Have you ever lied, stolen or used God’s name in vain?” reads part of a fake bill with Noah’s Ark on the front. “The penalty for your crimes against God is death and eternal hell.” 

A bill featuring a picture of a dinosaur is just as pleasant. 

“Have you ever lied, stolen, hated or dishonored your parents? Have you looked with lust? God says that’s the same as committing adultery in your heart,” a message on the bill reads as it describes the Ten Commandments. 

And if you’ve broken any of these rules, you’re doomed: “The penalty of sin is death and eternity in hell.”

Answers in Genesis are that group of assholes trying to trick kids into thinking that Evolution is bullshit and that every animal we see today was rescued from a global flood in a physics defying wooden boat.

Any "Christian" adult who attempts to terrify children with visions of hell should be arrested for domestic terrorism in my book (I know that may seem extreme to some but I think purposefully giving children nightmares, and making them live a life of fear, is just about the worst thing you can possibly do.) and thrown in the same jail cell where they keep the child molesters and kiddie porn watchers.

Actually that is probably the best place for them to run into other members of their church.

By the way for the next knuckle dragging moron who comes over to IM to bitch that I am always going after religious people, shit like this is the reason why.

If religious folks want to stay in their little churches lying to each other about things their pee brains are too tiny to understand I would not think twice about them.

But when you push your religious point of view into the realm of politics, public education, and into our children's lives then you deserve whatever negativity you might receive.

From my daughter's Facebook page.

Yep, I done good.

If you do this you are NOT a loving parent.

Do you remember the first time that somebody told you that you would suffer for eternity?

I do.

Televangelist James Robison suggests that we should replace every member of Congress with a conservative Christian because it will make "the demons shudder."

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

On his "Life Today" program this morning, James Robison interviewed Todd Starnes about his recent book "God Less America" and the two agreed that if conservative Christians in America could simply come together, they could save this nation by voting every member of Congress out of office and make "the demons shudder!" 

"This is the thing you’ve got to understand as a Christian," Robison said. "In a democracy where the majority rules and where we're the ones who choose, then those we choose reflect the heart conscious and convictions of those who vote or who don't vote. Too many Christians have checked out. You've been told it's politically incorrect for church people to be involved. That's one of the biggest lies that ever came through the lips of Satan. Do not believe it! Of all people on this earth that ought to stand up and protect the precious and be light to illuminate the way out of this present and pressing darkness, we're the ones to do it." 

"Hey, government, we can take control," he continued. "There are only 500 of you. We can get rid of the whole bunch in one smooth swoop and we can really reroute the whole ship! ... All hell is trembling — the gates of hell tremble. The very fact that people who love God and know God and love their neighbor, whatever stand up, speak up, and become a shining city set on a hill, oh, the demons shudder!" 

Well I don't know about shuddering demons but the idea of  a Congress filled with conservative Christians certainly makes the hairs on MY neck stand straight up. 

Could you imagine the government jam packed with superstitious idiots who did not trust science, want complete control over women's reproductive systems, and who believed that any minute Jesus would come back if only they could start enough wars in the Middle East?

I think that should make the entire country shudder.

By the way who was surprised to see Todd Starnes there nodding his fat head in agreement? Because I certainly wasn't.

Perfectly protesting intolerance.

I'm not a believer in heaven or hell, but I can say unequivocally that wherever those two wind up will be a great deal more fun than wherever that guy ends up.

Child abuse.

I have said it before, but I will say it again, there is really NOTHING you can tell an impressionable child more terrifying than that they are constantly being watched and judged, and if they do the wrong thing they will suffer eternal punishment. 

There is no horror movie scenario that even comes close.

Gotta love the bible belt.

Now this is somebody who is desperate to get her message across.

So desperate that more than a dozen bumper stickers were simply not sufficient in explaining that we are all going to Hell.

Alabama news station asks for opinions from viewers about a woman who is promoting the idea of a privately funded atheist display. Oh, this won't go well.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Responding to a question posed on a Facebook page — maintained by Alabama television station WKRG — asking for opinions on a recent proposal for a privately-funded atheist display, self-identified Christians filled the comment section with vitriol and hatred for a woman speaking for a Mobile atheist group. 

According to the Friendly Atheist, WKRG focused the question, not on the display itself, but on Amanda Scott who represented the Mobile Atheist Community. 

“FACEBOOK QUESTION: What are your thoughts on a local woman who wants to see an Athiest motto placed next to the words “In God We Trust” at Government Plaza?,” WKRG posted. 

What followed were several thousand comments — many deleted now– attacking Scott, wishing for her death, telling her to leave the country, and criticizing her appearance.

Here are just a few of those responses as captured by the Friendly Atheist:

You know if Jesus really were to come back and meet some of the people who claim to be followers of the religion inspired by him, he would waste no time in staging a self crucifixion before one of these terrible people could ask him to pose for a selfie with them.

What is it that Gandhi said again?

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

Amen to that. 

History of Hell.

And yet for centuries we have been terrifying our children with the threat of ending up in a place that simply does not exist.

Child abuse, as only religion can provide it.

Stephen Hawking on the afterlife.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said. 

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.

I sometimes find myself struck silent by the musings of seemingly intelligent people about the possibilities of an afterlife.

I think the realization that such a thing was not possible occurred to me quite young, and my research and musings since have only reinforced the obviousness of that realization.

Our consciousness is really only a collection of our memories and experiences, that are contained within the computer housed within our skulls.

Once that amazing machine is rendered inoperable our memories, our consciousness, our soul if you will, are also gone forever.

This would seem as obvious as the realization that once the heart stops pumping blood our bodies no longer function, and yet the opposite is held so dear by so many of us that to suggest the lack of a life following this is considered heretical even by many of those who consider themselves non-religious. 

I often think of it in terms of a USB flash drive.

Though it may be fairly bulging with documents, and pictures, and video of a person's life, if there are no more computers left to read the information it essentially does not exist. And it is as if the life contained within was never lived.

That is why I always stress the importance of experiencing all this life has to offer. Rather than mourn the loss of eternity, instead we should embrace and squeeze joy out of the one life that we have.

Every kiss should be savored, every laugh echoed by our own, and every moment of pain respected for the lesson that it teaches.

In that way we will touch the lives of those around us in a fashion which carries some small part of us forward. And as they touch the lives of others as well, perhaps our brief life will have an impact that lives past our final breath.

(Source)

Religious woman threatens restaurant staff with hell if they make her pay bill, gets arrested, and now her church is picketing them. Man I wish I was making this up!

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Florida woman and her mother have been arrested for skipping out on a restaurant check after the daughter told the cashier that she would go to heaven if the meal was free, or go to hell if she insisted on charging the meal to her credit card. 

According to NewsChief.com, Willie “Mother” Lewis, 78, and her daughter Ruthena Lewis, 44, ate breakfast at the A&G Restaurant in Winter Haven, Florida, with the bill coming to $18.46.

After finishing, Ruthena Lewis took her mother out to the car and then returned to the restaurant to pay her bill. Lewis presented A&G cashier Crystal Henson with her credit card which was subsequently declined. According to the restaurant staff, Lewis held the cancel button down as the Henson attempted to process the charge. 

According to the police report, “(Ruthena Lewis) stated to (Henson) that if she gave them the meal for free she would go to heaven. If she ran the credit card again, she would go to hell.” 

Lewis then handed the cashier a business card with the name of her church pastor , Bishop Joseph Lewis of the Church of God the Bible Way, on it, saying to call him and he would pay the bill. Lewis is not related to the two women. 

Ruthena Lewis then left the restaurant, got into her car with her mother and drove off, however a restaurant employee got her license number and turned it over to Winter Haven police, who arrested the pair soon after. 

The mother, Willie Lewis, who was in the car and couldn’t see what had transpired, had $80 cash in her purse at the time of her arrest. 

Following the arrest Bishop Joseph Lewis went to the restaurant and paid the women’s bill, getting assurances from owner George Paragios that he would ask police to drop charges against the women. 

According to police reports, officers arrived at the restaurant to have Paragios sign a waiver of prosecution and Paragios declined. 

Since that time, members of the Church of God the Bible Way have been picketing A&G Restaurant urging customers to stay away.

Let's see, so you threaten that people who make you pay for food will burn in hell, drive off without paying even though you have the money, and then have your church members try to bankrupt the restaurant for holding you accountable.

This must be an example of the kind of morals that one can only get through religion. 

Looking forward to it.

I am well past the point of not finding the ideas of heaven and hell completely ridiculous, but if I thought there were a possibility that I might end up in heaven with the people who are constantly bragging that they are on the fast track to acceptance like Pat Robertson, Sarah Palin, and Ken Ham I would start knocking over banks and setting churches on fire just to make sure they took me off the invite list.

Besides I don't care how hot it is, the idea of hanging out with Albert Einstein, Richard Dawkins, and Mark Twain for eternity sounds like a hell of a party.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's take on the devil and the Atheists who do his bidding. Uh oh!

There is a new interview with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, that is rather shocking in many ways. Scalia comes off as an extremist on almost all fronts, and somebody who should certainly NOT be sitting on the Supreme Court.

However there was one portion which I found especially troubling. Take a moment to read through it and tell me if you agree.

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

You believe in heaven and hell? 

Oh, of course I do. Don’t you believe in heaven and hell? 

No. 

Oh, my. 

Does that mean I’m not going? 

[Laughing.] Unfortunately not! 

Wait, to heaven or hell? It doesn’t mean you’re not going to hell, just because you don’t believe in it. That’s Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other. 

But you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven? Or believe in it? 

Of course not! 

Oh. So you don’t know where I’m going. Thank God. 

I don’t know where you’re going. I don’t even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that’s what the pope meant when he said, “Who am I to judge?” He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows? 

Can we talk about your drafting process— 

[Leans in, stage-whispers.] I even believe in the Devil. 

You do? 

Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that. 

Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety of Catholics out there … 

If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it. 

Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately? 

You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore. 

No. 

It’s because he’s smart. 

So what’s he doing now? 

What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way. 

That has really painful implications for atheists. Are you sure that’s the ­Devil’s work? 

I didn’t say atheists are the Devil’s work. 

Well, you’re saying the Devil is ­persuading people to not believe in God. Couldn’t there be other reasons to not believe? 

Well, there certainly can be other reasons. But it certainly favors the Devil’s desires. I mean, c’mon, that’s the explanation for why there’s not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament. 

Right. 

What happened to him? 

He just got wilier. 

He got wilier.

Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil? 

You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil. 

I hope you weren’t sensing contempt from me. It wasn’t your belief that surprised me so much as how boldly you expressed it. 

I was offended by that. I really was.

Let me remind you that this man is one of only nine individuals sitting the United States Supreme Court and he believes that the Devil is a real person. 

Not only that but he seems confused as to why there are far fewer demonic possessions today than in centuries past, and seems to believe that Atheists are doing Satan's work.

And yes Scalia is right about the rest of the country. A Gallup poll from 2007 stated that 70% of Americans believe that the devil is real.

However as troubling as it is to recognize that the majority of my fellow countrymen believe that there is a constant tug of war between two great supernatural powers, one good and one evil, and that we are simply pawns in their conflict, at least THEY are not sitting on the Supreme Court!

P.S. By the way did anybody else think that Scalia sounded drunk during this interview?

(H/T to The Friendly Atheist)

That awkward moment when the primitive tribe you have come to convert to Christianity, instead converts you to atheism.

I have started to write about this incredible conversion multiple times but always put it off. But the other day I stumbled across this YouTube video of Everett reading from his book and realized that it was much more powerful coming from him. (Oops it turns out it was read by another. Still better hearing it read aloud though.)

The Pirahãs, he said, “believed that the world was as it had always been, and that there was no supreme deity”. Furthermore they had no creation myths in their culture. In short, here was a people who were more than happy to live their lives “without God, religion or any political authority”. 

Despite Everett translating the Book of Luke into Pirahã and reading it to tribe members, the Pirahãs sensibly resisted all his attempts to convert them. 

According to a report in the New Yorker: 

His zeal soon dissipated … Convinced that the Pirahã assigned no spiritual meaning to the Bible, Everett finally admitted that he did not, either. He declared himself an atheist.

As an Atheist of course I find this story very gratifying. But as an American I am almost saddened to realize that even such a primitive people were able to discover a truth which still eludes so many of my fellow countrymen.

The most terrible lie ever told.

A few months back somebody accused me of being angry at Jesus, and that was why I was an Atheist. Of course that was so ridiculous, mostly because I have little faith that the Jesus of the Bible actually existed, that I did not bother to respond.

However that started me remembering back to the time when I was the MOST angry about religion.

It was when I was quite young and still working through my understanding of religion and what the purpose of the whole thing might be. As you might imagine from a child's perspective, my first thought was that it was a trick that parents played on their children.

It was also the beginning of my introduction to critical thinking. And it must be noted that all of this took place at a time in my life when I had little difficulty accepting the possibility that ESP, UFO's, and ghosts actually existed. In fact, to be fair, I sort of hoped that they did.

Now I was never told anything about Hell by my mother, and only learned about it when I started to question the existence of God.

Remember I was only seven years old, and in order to frighten me back into obedience I was told that those who "choose" not to believe in God and Heaven will forever be punished by pitchfork wielding demons, while hellfire burned the flesh from my bones for all eternity.  (Nobody bothered to explain how my soul, no longer encumbered with my earthly body, could have "flesh" to burn, but then again none of this seemed to be too carefully thought out.)

I pondered this information as I received it, but my follow up questions as to the location of Hell (And for that matter Heaven), were either ignored or rebuffed.

I remember devouring books about oil drilling and Volcanology assuming that if ANYBODY would stumble onto the entrance to Hell surely they would be the first.

But nothing was ever mentioned. Which to my young mind was insane. Why WOULDN'T we be looking for such and incredible place?

It did not take me too very long to determine that this place of eternal torture was a fantastical tale with no basis in reality. And with that realization came my first experience with rage.

I was to deal with my bad temper often in my life, but I did not usually get so angry that I could not be reasoned with or talked down, but this was one of those times.

How DARE they use such a horrible lie to bully children into submission! How dare they insert such terrifying imagery into our dreams! How dare they make us fear that the deaths of our loved ones will see them punished for all eternity, and perhaps worst yet, that WE may we forced to live forever while being separated from those we love but who failed to earn God's grace.

As if such a place as that could ever be called "Heaven."

What could be the excuse I wondered? Do the adults not know any better? Or do they know, and yet feel they have the right to lie to us because we are children? Or are they in fact as deluded as children themselves, and no longer worthy of my admiration and trust?

I fretted about this for months, refusing to go near a church or to talk to anybody about religion.

I remember being kept in from the playground because I frightened the other children with my talk about the possibility that there was no God.

"What is wrong with you young man? Have you lost your senses? Do you not fear God's wrath?"

"No, I don't. Is that why I must be kept indoors?"

I learned over time to stop talking about my thoughts on the playground. I learned in time to hide my anger from the adults. But I never learned in time to stop exercising my critical thinking skills, and I never again took anything on faith.

Sometimes I still get asked how I could have such disdain for religion, but the answer is quite simple. No idea which, to be successful, must be implanted in the minds of the young or ignorant, is worthy of my respect. Especially when it withers and dies so quickly when exposed to the light of reason.

As you can imagine I had a somewhat lonely childhood, as I was often isolated from others with only books for company. (Nobody wants their precious child to play with the neighborhood Satanist after all.) But ultimately I was rewarded when more and more started to openly express their animus toward religion and began to take great pride in their humanistic nature.

It is not so lonely anymore, and in fact I find that this newer generation is even further ahead of the curve than was I. And perhaps most gratifying of all is that when THEY have questions there are places that are ready and willing to answer them and help them through their journey.

THAT gives me great hope for the future.

Does Hell exist? And if it does how do you feel about your loved ones being sent there? One woman's response might shock you.

The video below is from the BBC program "The Big Questions" which is a remarkable program with the kind of format that we in the states cannot seem to pull off effectively.

I must admit that I am somewhat addicted to the program and have watched numerous episodes, many dealing with religion, Atheism, the bible, and many of the types of controversial topics that I like to discuss here on IM.

In the one below they are talking about he existence of Hell and have a variety of experts representing various religions, faiths, and the nonreligious to discuss the topic. There are also a couple of regular church members included as they also are asked to provide their opinions.

This woman, Liz Weston, who has already established her belief in Hell, is asked at the 3:50 mark how she could enjoy heaven knowing that many of her loved ones are being tormented in hell.

Her response is so bizarre and irrational to me that it makes my head ache. Here take a listen:

Wow! Here is what she says, in case you also cannot believe it:

Weston: "No, it won't. Because I will be with Jesus."

Host: "But the people that you love.."

Weston: "The person that I love the most is Jesus."

Host: "But what about the people you love in your life?"

Weston: "But I don't love them as much as I love Jesus. That's the point."

The rest of the conversation is well worth watching and I encourage you to do so, but it is this one back and forth that quite literally caused me one or two sleepless nights.

Simply put I have NO frame of reference to understand how somebody could look forward to living for eternity while believing that the people she one loved are punished in the most excruciating manner possible, simply because she will be in the presence of a person that she has never met, and has no reality based relationship with.

Essentially, despite what she might believe, everything that she believes is admirable about Jesus, and worthy of her love, is something she read in a book or was told by a representative of the religion named in his honer.

She has NO actual relationship with Jesus, and yet gaining access to HIM after her death is more important than what will happen to the people who have loved her all her life, and those she has laughed, cried, and struggled beside for her entire existence.

It makes me wonder if she is able to really form relationships here on earth, if she is always thinking of how much more fulfilling the one she has after she dies will be? I mean is it possible to truly love, when you care more for the possibility to a perfect love that lays behind death's door than you do about the ones you are having as a mortal on this tiny rock in space?

I am anxious to hear what you have to say, because in my nonreligious brain this feels like the very definition of insanity.

A video that my daughter wants very much for all of you to see.

(Part two can be found here.)

It is not often that my daughter provides content for the blog, but last night she insisted that I watch a video, and further insisted that I share it will all of you.

The video is a rather incredible, and touching rendition of what it would be like for those of us who are heterosexual if the world suddenly found OUR sexuality deviant.

It really is quite amazing, and certainly something that I would have probably shared on my own.

But since my angel asked a favor of me, it just gives me that much more pleasure to do so.

Alabama State Senator wants to pass personhood bill because he is afraid that unborn zygotes might go to hell.

I guess this story is a day or two old now, but I just stumbled across it the other day and felt it was something that really needed more attention.

This from the Daily Sentinel:  

State Sen. Shadrack McGill said he plans to try again to push pro-life bills in the Legislature. 

“Did you know you can be charged up to $250,000 for destroying an eagle egg, but you can destroy babies in the womb?” McGill asked this week during an interview with the Times-Journal. 

The senator said he still wants to see a “personhood” law that would put into state law that life begins at conception. Such bills failed to make it out of the Legislature in the two regular sessions since 2010 when McGill was elected and Republicans gained a majority in Montgomery. 

“Just based on the Scripture alone, the Psalm that talks about God knowing us before he placed us in our mother’s womb, is enough for me to know that that is a life inside of a mother,” said McGill, R-Macedonia. 

“So my question concerning aborted babies is, where do they go, heaven or hell? I just want to know what [people’s] perspective is.”

As I think many of you are probably aware this idea of unborn babies going to hell has NEVER really been part of the Protestant or Baptist teaching.  Many Catholics used to believe that unbaptized babies went to "Limbo" but apparently that was never part of the Catechism and later Pope John Paul ll beseeched the International Theological Commission to make it official that such was not the case, and they responded thusly:

“Vatican sources said yesterday that the commission would recommend that Limbo be replaced by the more “compassionate” doctrine that all children who die do so “in the hope of eternal salvation.”” (Times, November 30, 2005) 

Of course Senator McGill seems to be aware of none of this, and I seriously doubt it would make much difference as he seems to make all of his political policy decisions based on a complete lack of the understanding of biology, and solely on his overzealous religious beliefs, which even extend to fertilized eggs not yet placed in a mother's womb.

You might want to sit down for this next part.

“I sympathize with the folks who have had to go the expensive route of the in-vitro process, and thank God for that knowledge that the doctors possess,” said McGill, who noted that a fellow senator’s family grew through in-vitro fertilization, a fact that held up the debate in past years. 

“My understanding of that process is they fertilize 10 eggs in a petri dish. Basically they take three of the strongest and insert those into the womb, into the mother, and pray for the best,” McGill said. 

“If the mother conceives, then what do you do with the seven remaining fertilized eggs?” 

McGill said he previously suggested Williams change the wording to say life begins “at fertilization inside the mother’s womb.” 

“And I never had peace about that,” McGill said. “That’s what we tried and that failed.” 

The senator said that, after prayer, he thinks life begins at the moment of fertilization, be it inside the mother or “creatively outside the mother’s womb.” 

“That union between the sperm and the egg is where life begins, and maybe where God places his spirit inside that child, so to speak,” McGill said. “Therefore, I would hope that the legislation that we push in the future would state that all the eggs fertilized need to be placed in the mother’s womb.” 

McGill said that means doctors should fertilize only as many eggs as they plan to implant.

So McGill is attempting to pass legislation that would force a doctor to put every single fertilized egg into the mother receiving in vitro fertilization which of course  means the doctor would only be able to fertilize one or two, which dramatically reduces the possibility of one of them being strong enough to implant into the uterus, or else fill her up. Octomom style, with up to ten fertilized eggs and hope they all did not turn out to be viable.

How many women do you think would be willing to pay thousands of dollars for in-vitro fertilization, with the viability this dramatically reduced, then?

You know the only thing worse than having politicians making policy based on Biblical teaching, is having them make policy based on their misunderstanding of Biblical teaching.

Russell Brand tries to play nice with members of the Westboro "God Hates Fags" Church.

It kind of took me awhile to warm up to Russell Brand (I found his voice a little annoying) but after I saw him in the movies "Get Him to the Greek" and "Arthur" I really started to appreciate him more.

However after seeing how genuinely kind and patient he is with these two UNBELIEVABLE assholes I now feel badly that it took me so long to appreciate him.

Do me a favor and tell me how long it took before you wanted to jump into the video and tell these two douchebags off. (I would have ripped them a new one the minute they walked out with this horribly insulting sign.)