A little poem about murder

The image to the right turned up in my Facebook feed tonight. I almost looked right past it, but the last line happened to catch my eye and upon reading the rest I was disgusted.

Generally I don't start religious or political discussions on Facebook but I do make exceptions, so I thought for a while on whether this case should be one of them. In the end I decided it wasn't worth it. But I still find the whole thing quite infuriating, so I'm going to vent my frustration here.

As you can see, in addition to being a shitty poem it has the audacity to claim that the reason for the increase in school shootings is the fact that official moments of prayer have been done away with in many schools.

First of all: who the hell thought a blithe little poem such as this was an appropriate way to broach the subject of the violent deaths of children? It's so hideously disrespectful that I can hardly believe it's real.

Next, you may have noticed that I was somewhat particular in my description of the state of prayer in schools. The poem claims that it's "illegal ...  to bring the Lamb of God to school, or even speak His name," but that's an outright lie. Nowhere in the United States is it illegal for a student to mention God in school—the Abrahamic one or otherwise. Nor is it illegal to pray in schools. All that's happening is that "moments of prayer" are being replaced with secular "moments of silence;" if a student wants to pray during a moment silence, they're perfectly able to. The fact that this poem is lying through its teeth doesn't do much to secure the position on the moral high ground that it so obviously thinks it deserves.

My main problem with it, though, is how intellectually insulting it is. It takes a complex and tragic problem and has the arrogance to proclaim that all it comes down to is that people aren't praying enough to the author's particular deity. Basically, all you atheists and Buddhists and Jews have the blood of scores of children on your hands for not praying, or praying wrongly. Other than being incredibly offensive, it's a lazy approach to a serious problem. If we were to throw our hands up and decide this was our "solution" we'd be condemning many more children to death. Our kids deserve serious thought put toward real solutions, not cop outs and excuses.

And lastly I can't help but mention the horrible light in which this poem puts its own God through its claims. According to the poem, the allegedly omnipotent God sits by and watches as children are brutally slain because a prayer quota hasn't been met. Sorry, little Katie, He might say, if you'd only prayed a little harder I might have stopped that bullet...

I've got no use for any god that operates like that, and I've gotta wonder about anyone who thinks that sort of behavior is deserving of worship.

Priorities

A great comic from The Oatmeal, which I don't think I need to add anything to. See the rest of it below the fold or the whole thing here.

A match-up for the ages: Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson

So I was watching some talks on YouTube from the recent Skepticon convention when I saw this video as a related item. It had me at the title; it didn't matter what they were talking about, I knew it would be great (and it was). If you've got an hour and a half to spare, it's well-worth a listen. The visuals aren't essential, so just put it on in the background while you go about some other task if need be.

I especially enjoyed Tyson's passionate remarks on science education toward the end. All I can do is reiterate the truth of his arguments: our culture is separating curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking from learning and pretending that fact-memorization is enough. Being able to recall the presidents and the different types of biomes is great and the facts have their uses, but our citizens need more than that to stay competitive in international economics and politics or to solve the problems that face us as a global society.

Another thing that struck me is his comment that our country may have reached the end of its greatness when we congratulate ourselves for depicting destroying an asteroid on a screen instead of starting preparations now for the very plausible time when the danger presents itself to us in the real world.

But don't let my cynical comments dissuade you; I'm just a grumpy person, and on the whole the talk is very positive and light-hearted, not to mention funny. And aside from it being enjoyable listening experience on its own, I'd say it's a great opportunity to make yourself a stepping stone toward learning something new. Do yourself a favor and look up at least one of the topics they touch on that you don't understand that well and see where it takes you. :)

This whole thing just makes me sick

I'm a cynic and even I was surprised by the disgusting displays of callousness and idiocy in the wake of the child rape scandal at Penn State. That people think someone's success in a pointless game should overshadow the fact that they knew children were being abused and allowed it to continue is abhorrent, unbelievable, and depressing. It's fucking football. It doesn't matter. And it matters even less when compared to the well-being of a child.

I'm just glad that someone in the mainstream media is acknowledging that the reactions to the story are nearly as reprehensible as the story itself:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

And for the record, I think the comparison to the Catholic church is incredibly appropriate.

Well, I guess it was fun while it lasted...

...(for some of us, anyway) but I'm pretty sure this is the death knell for the American culture. I don't mean to be alarmist, but this really seems like it could be the singular moment that the entirety of the 'Murkan experience has been leading up to. Do we really have anywhere to go after this?

Yes, that's what appears to be a face on a Walmart receipt. And yes--why would you even ask?--of course it's Jesus. You can click here for the full story, but why bother, really? You already know what it says, and the situation is so beautifully, horribly perfect that it really doesn't need anything added. It's so 'Murkan it hurts.

Hank the Beautiful (Etymology, Comedy, Sexism, Vikings, and Asterisks)

You may be aware that the term "America" likely comes from the name of cartographer Amerigo Vespucci, being the Latinized, feminine form of his first name (Amerigo -> Americus -> America, to match the feminine names of the Old World continents). Vespucci made journeys to the New World after Columbus and his name was on the maps he made, and another cartographer apparently saw fit to therefore name over a quarter of the world's land area after him (to his credit he of course didn't know it was that much).