World News Korner

Courtesy of Pakistan Today:

Malala Yousufzai’s recent book ‘I am Malala’ will be banned completely due to its ‘controversial’ contents in all private schools across the country, Pakistan Today has learnt.

The decision was announced by All Pakistan Private Schools Federation President Mirza Kashif on Wednesday who said children were idealising Malala and reading her book will leave them in a ‘confused’ state of mind.

“Our academics have thoroughly studied her (Malala’s) book and have concluded that reading that book will only confuse our children. Malala’s defence of Salmaan Rushdie in the name of freedom of expression, not writing Peace Be Upon Him after the name of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and criticising the Quranic injunctions about the status of women in testifying as witnesses are only a few things which will challenge the ideological foundations of our next generation,” Kashif said while talking to Pakistan Today.

Interestingly, the private schools owners have taken the decision on their own while the government has nothing to do with the decision.

“It (the book) is not part of the curriculum and hence the government has nothing to do with our decision. The federation has taken the decision on its own in order to save children from getting confused,” Kashif added.

Further explaining the ban, he said, it would not be allowed to keep the book in any school library or use for co-curricular activities - essay writing or debating competitions.

“We can see from her writing that she has not authored the book herself. Even if she has, it creates a lot of doubt amongst our kids regarding religion which we, being Muslims, can never allow,” he added.

So Malala stands up for education in her country, takes a bullet to the face from the Taliban for her troubles, and this is how Pakistani educators respond?

I guess this is what's to be expected when religion takes precedence over education.

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And on a related topic.

For many Americans it simply does not matter how much data scientists present concerning the fact of evolution. Because if it creates that "extremely uncomfortable" feeling, or questions the foundation of their faith, they simply cannot allow themselves to consider that it is true.

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Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler, from Venezuela, center, waves after winning the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013.


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By Associated Press

Courtesy of Patheos:

The media failed to tell the real story of how we reached the shutdown and brink of default. To get what’s happening to the GOP and, to America, you need to understand the theology of the extremist frankly stupid and misinformed evangelical heartland. We don’t have a political problem. We have an evangelical stupidity problem. The Republican Party has fallen into the grip of an evangelical-led group of religious fundamentalists who are either true believers or who know how to cater to them. Now the experience of the hostage taking these “Christians” did in the shutdown is over, it’s worth figuring out how things got so crazy because they will again– until we admit who and what is at the root of our political dysfunction.

In the late 19th Century a battle began between fundamentalists and liberal Protestant theologians. The battle between those who claimed to believe in the Bible literally and those who wanted to bring historic fact, science and nuance to their faith raged on into the 20th Century. By the mid 20th Century the liberals had won the argument but they lost the popular vote as it were. But for all its popularity fundamentalism was no longer intellectually respectable. So it was rebranded by a core group of image conscious preachers and evangelists as “evangelicalism” to take the edge off the scorn reserved for faith rooted in biblical literalism.

The echoes of the bitter theological battle left the evangelicals feeling embattled and adversarial. Then from the mid 20th Century forward, Billy Graham, and many other evangelicals (including my late evangelist father and religious right founder, Francis Schaeffer) convinced a huge swath of America to convert to born-again faith.

While the evangelical camp grew the mainline denominations shrank. The fine print of conversion to a hot literal faith included a directive to not to trust facts (the way those liberals did) but to look for special information which was visible only to the faithful. This way of thinking led inadvertently to an us-or-them view, revealing those with whom you disagree to be not just wrong, but lost, or even willfully evil. When politicians operate from this mindset, the agenda is no longer political. It’s a holy war. While the Tea Party gets blamed, there tends to be silence about these folks’ religion. But to cover the story of the takeover of the GOP by extremists without delving into the beliefs behind it is inexcusable. I’m not anti-religious. I’ll be in church next Sunday. I’m just against the insanity of literalistic, retributive theology that’s the basis of the bitterness evident in the recent shutdown and near default.

The evangelical subculture has bought into an angry God whom we must placate by being saved through a revivalist born-again formula. This pits the true believer against not just science but any information that comes through nonapproved channels. There are two kinds of facts: theirs and ours. This theology has trained millions of brains to choose between God and truth. The folks that believe in a literal Bible don’t believe in evolution, in global warming, in gay rights or, we now know, even in increasing the debt limit. These are not theological issues per se but the spirit of sectarian warfare is at the heart of the bitter refusals to be swayed by mere facts.

This of course is exactly what I have been talking about for the last nine years as well. The Tea Party is just the latest incarnation of a nasty little group that has been attacking our fundamental rights for decades.

And they are part of the underlying darkness which continues to permeate our politics and endangers our future.

The more we recognize this, and report on it, the harder it is for them to operate in secret, and the quicker they will be removed from power. Perhaps not soon, but someday.

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The video introduction that plays right before Palin takes the stage is filled with imagery from her SarahPAC funded bust trips and photo-ops, with snippets of her voice saying vague yet patriotic things, and the voices of others, including Bill Clinton and Ted Cruz, saying complimentary things about her.

It ends with the image of that bear standing on its hind legs, and the words "It's YOU who inspire ME!"

Which of course should be translated to say "It's YOU who paid my way here."

Palin goes on to kiss Iowa's ass hard enough to leave lip shaped bruises and then manufactures a mythology about loving Phyllis Schafly as a teenager and having a "Concerned Women for America" decal on her window while in college. Which is most likely a complete fabrication, and simply another attempt by Palin to shape her past for the audience to whom she is speaking.

Of course she calls Schafly the original "Mama Grizzly." (How many times has she used this line now?)

Palin then goes on to conflate freedom in America with religion, and that leads to the "War on Christmas," which "coincidentally" allows her to talk about her new book.

"I say in a very jolly Christmasy way that enough is enough, enough is enough of this politically correct police out there that is acting to erode our freedom to celebrate and exercise our faith." is one such quote.

There are other quotes, taken directly from the book as well. (Many of them I reported on yesterday.) And they are just as ridiculous here as we thought they were then.

Apparently Palin did not receive the memo about the fact that CBS had to retract their Benghazi story, so she goes on to attack the Atheists as having faith in a government that allowed the IRS to target the Tea party, allowed the NSA to spy on its citizens, and, of course, could not be bothered to defend the consulate in Benghazi. Not to mention tossing out war veterans from seeing monuments during the government shutdown. (For any of you who may yet have wondered if this pathetic, hateful creature had any shame, I think you can put that question to rest now.)

There are also attacks on Obamacare (Sham-wow advertising, train wreck, losing health plans.), attacks on the President's policies (Using the problems created by Bush to do it,), and attacks on intellectuals. (Hey!)

Palin keeps referring to the "Church of Big Government" and clumsily attempts to suggest that IT is where the intellectuals and non-religious go to worship. All while suggesting that our "problems" are due to a lack of faith in God.

Palin also pimps the Tea Party and slams the Republicans who are falling out of love with them, claiming that the Teabagger message is the message that will repair what she sees are the problems with the country. She also says that we are going to soon see the end of the "Era of Obama." (Yes, in 2016, just in time to usher in the "Era of Hillary.")

Then Palin compares the national debt to slavery, after first assuring her audience that it is not racist.(Nice try.)

After this Palin decides to pepper her speech with references to her family, playing hockey ("Haven't we all been that hockey goalie, deflecting as many of the radical Left's pucks as possible?") , playing basketball (Piper), and other tidbits to remind them that she is still just that small town gal from Wasilla.

The speech is essentially one long screech, chock full of regurgitated Palinisms, and attacks on Obama, all with the intent of rousing the crowd to vote in the 2014 elections and, of course, buy her book. She stumbles a lot, and seems to lose her place more than once, always recovering by increasing the volume of her voice as if making a point.

All in all it is a rather transparent, and pathetic performance. However considering her audience, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, I doubt they will notice, or care.

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I always find it laughable when religious people refer to Atheists as arrogant.

We are anything but. We openly admit how little we know and how willing we are to have our minds changed by new information.

All that we know for certain is that the answer to the great mysteries of life were absolutely not answered thousands of years ago by primitive desert dwellers.

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I think this is probably one of the best illustrations I have seen that explains what is happening in our country right now.

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