http://www.disinterestedparty.com/ SORTING THE GOOD EGGS FROM THE BAD Copyright 2009 Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:11:55 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.33 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss We were, of course, never at war with Eastasia.... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/12/1984_all_over_a.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/12/1984_all_over_a.htm Politics Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:11:55 -0500 More good news for advocates of abstinence programs: a five-year study cited by the New York Times found that 49% of teenagers who had, er, benefited from abstinence education had never had sex—while 55% hadn’t had sex in the past... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/losing_it_1.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/losing_it_1.htm Education Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:01:41 -0500 As il papa says, there is only one true church. And because its priests abuse kids, that church is now another $600 million or so poorer.... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/how_to_spot_the.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/how_to_spot_the.htm Religion + cults Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:54:15 -0500 If there’s anything Christians truly want to believe, it’s that their hard-earned dollars will miraculously do the loaves-to-fishes thing. Enter British con artist Howard Welsh and his wonderfully named American girlfriend, Lee Hope Thrasher, who managed to take American... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/welshed.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/welshed.htm Religion + cults Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:06:21 -0500 If you were wondering when the religious right would jump on the global-warming bandwagon, meet Joel Hunter, one of America’s “New Guard” evangelicals: Until recently, the national evangelical leadership included those who denied the scientific consensus that global warming exists.... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/creating_creati.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/creating_creati.htm Energy + environment Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:21:46 -0500 Pope Benedict turns back the Vatican clock another century. Pissing off everyone from liberal Catholics to Jews (“a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations”) in the process.... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/regula_sancti_b_1.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/regula_sancti_b_1.htm Religion + cults Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:14:09 -0500 But only if you’re a God-fearing, bible-thumping Christian—because, as we all know, today is primarily a religious holiday. At least, according to a full-page ad in today’s New York Times it is (click here or on image to see... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/happy_independe.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/happy_independe.htm Religion + cults Wed, 04 Jul 2007 14:45:03 -0500 Michael Behe represents all that is entertaining about creationist pseudo-intel-lectuals. Even his own faculty, Lehigh University’s Department of Biological Sciences, disowns him, noting on its Web site that Behe is the “sole dissenter” from its “unequivocal” support of evolutionary... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/department_of_f.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/07/department_of_f.htm Evolution Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:49:57 -0500 Although I’ve written about the activities of the Exclusive Brethren sect in Australia and New Zealand, I hadn’t realized how well-established it is in Britain, too. There, as in Australia and New Zealand, the sect is targeting kids: the Brethren’s... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/losing_focus.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/losing_focus.htm Education Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:49:55 -0500 And in more news from the 12th century, Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, estimates that 7% of the world’s Christians—around 150 million people—are “on the move... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/pilgrims_lack_o.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/pilgrims_lack_o.htm Religion + cults Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:46:50 -0500 So starts a Times (of London) article on demonic possession and exorcism, obviously hot topics in the 21st—or should that be 12th?—century. Let’s hear from Father Gabriele Amorth, Rome’s exorcist-in-chief: Where psychiatry and therapy require a person to look within... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/the_devil_doesn.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/the_devil_doesn.htm Religion + cults Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:32:31 -0500 The good news: according to the (subscription-only) Wall Street Journal, Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is one of this summer’s surprise bestsellers. Seven weeks after being launched with an initial run of 40,000 copies,... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/summer_reading.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/summer_reading.htm Religion + cults Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:00:52 -0500 The Council of Europe—which oversees human rights in the European Union’s member countries—will vote next week on a proposal to defend the teaching of evolution, and keep creationism and intelligent design out of science classes in EU state schools.... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/eurocreationism.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/eurocreationism.htm Evolution Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:51:19 -0500 Edinburgh’s Fringe festival is discovering that Scientologists are a little thin-skinned when it comes to parody—particularly one as high-profile as Xenu is Loose!, a Fringe play that dares to mock St. Ron’s abysmal “Battlefield Earth.” (The play’s subtitle is... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/lunatics_meet_t.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/lunatics_meet_t.htm Religion + cults Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:14:36 -0500 Religious crazies are taking root in Second Life—bad news for those of us who sometimes like to trade theocratic reality for godless virtual reality. Naturally the evangelical megachurches are leading the crusade: Oklahoma-based LifeChurch.tv, for instance, now broadcasts its... http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/second_coming.htm http://www.disinterestedparty.com/archives/2007/06/second_coming.htm Religion + cults Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:29:43 -0500