Inspiring holiday stuff

Gainesville State School is located 75 miles north of Dallas, next to a town of 15,000.  It was originally a girls’ school, but became co-ed in1974 and eventually all-male in 1988.  The school offers courses in agriculture, horticulture, welding, and business in addition to the standard high school curriculum.
Gainesville State is also a maximum-security youth [...]

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More on the Jewish Football Club thing

The other day, Mireille introduced the weird philo-semitism of Ajax Football Club.  Ajax fans, however, are not alone in appropriating Jewishness.  A number of teams worldwide identify with Judaism.  Among them are M.T.K. Hungaria and England’s Tottenham Hotspur.
There are multiple reasons a club gets tagged as “Jewish.”  MTK was founded in 1888 by Jewish businessmen.  Through [...]

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ethnic mascots, part three billion and seven: the Amsterdam Jews

I would imagine by now most people are aware of my aversion to using ethnic groups as sports mascots and how deeply bewildered I am by the fact that my home town’s football team happens to be the Redskins. I’m not even going to entertain the idea that the name isn’t racist– the very fact [...]

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In which I say good things about religion

Earl Stafford is one of 12 children of a Baptist minister.  The Air Force veteran is also the founder of  a successful Fairfax County technology company.  With the historic victory of President-elect Obama, Stafford decided to bring some friends to the inauguration.  (Note to WordPress: “Obama” is no longer a typo.) He dropped $1 [...]

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Daniel Henninger throws crap at the wall

Sometimes you read an opinion piece so incredible, so ludicrous, that you just have to spend the next 10 minutes watching Pac Man in a college library to get your head back on straight.  I’m not talking about Tom Friedman hawking his latest catchphrase, nor some dead-ender propping up an ideology.  I’m talking about monkeys [...]

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No one in marketing caught this?

The American Family Association is a Christianist 501(c)(3), Sobieski’s winged hussars in the War on Christmas. They’ve boycotted 7-Eleven for selling porn, Sears for advertising on Logo, and, in perhaps their greatest victory, the American Girl doll company for supporting a “pro-lesbian, pro-abortion” charity. They also sell buttons and other Jesusy tchotchkes, like [...]

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The atheist bus arrives in DC

Remember the atheist bus?  (I know we’re supposed to call ourselves “humanists” these days, but that implies a halfway decent opinion of humanity…)  The bus is now stateside:

WASHINGTON (AP) — You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ [...]

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Some religious news

Today, Israel’s highest Rabbinical court handed down a crucial ruling effectively annulling the conversions of some 40,000 people.  The Rabbis argued that the Israeli government has been too liberal in approving conversions to Judaism.  The matter is now being referred to the Israeli Supreme Court.
The Rabbinical court’s decision will not retroactively impact the citizenship of [...]

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Historically literate bigotry

A Catholic church in Midlands, Texas has made the news with an inflammatory sign.  The message outside St. Michael’s chapel reads:
“Lepanto 1571:  Mary and her Rosary, Annihilate Islam.”

When asked to comment, church officials stuck to their cannons:
“Islam is a false religion, it cannot offer eternal life,” Michael Banschbach, with St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, Inc, [...]

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Get on the bus

The London bus system sells advertising, and they aren’t terribly picky who they sell to.  In June, ads on London buses carried a link to a website explaining that non-believers would “spend all eternity in torment in hell.”  In response, journalist Ariane Sherine wrote in The Guardian that atheists should counter with their own bus [...]

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