Happy Blasphemy Day!

As I have stated several times over the years I have blogging on Menstrual Poetry, I am an out-and-proud atheist; Menstrual Poetry also joins nearly 1500 other blogs as part of the Out Campaign Blogroll; see very bottom of sidebar for more information on that. Being an atheist basically means that I have no belief or faith in any god or higher power whatsoever; I am not spiritual in any way, shape or form and like most other atheists out there, I know very well the discrimination that is bestowed upon those who have no belief in a higher power; and most specifically (if you live in the US) any person who does not identify as either Christian or Catholic.

As some of you may know, any visual depiction of the prophet Muhammad is considered a grave offense under Islamic law. September 30th is the anniversary of the original publication of Danish cartoons in 2005 that depicted Muhammad’s face. Newspapers that published the cartoons were blamed for the outpouring of violence that took over the Islamic community. It is widely believed by those who are religious that all religious beliefs and ideas deserve respect and are beyond criticism or satire. This belief is ignorant and is fueled by fear and it is because of all of this that September 30th has also been deemed International Blasphemy Day.

Description of Blasphemy Day from the Facebook Group:

Blasphemy Day International is a campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to challenge, criticize, and satirize religion without fear of murder, litigation, and reprisal. Blasphemy Day takes place September 30th to commemorate the publishing of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons. The purpose of Blasphemy Day is not to promote hate or violence; it is to support free speech, support the right to criticize and satirize religion, and to oppose any resolutions or laws, binding or otherwise, that discourage or inhibit free speech of any kind. While many perceive blasphemy as insulting and offensive, this event is not about getting enjoyment out of ridiculing and insulting others; rather, it was created as a reaction against those who would seek to take away the right to satirize and criticize a particular set of beliefs given a privileged status over other beliefs. Criticism and dissent towards opposing views is the only way in which any nation with any modicum of freedom can exist. Without this essential liberty, those in power are those best able to manipulate others will suppress and silence dissent by labeling it “defamation” or “blasphemy” or whatever other bogey words they can use to stifle opposition by turning popular sentiment against it. Please, do not let them do this.

International Blasphemy Day is not merely a day, it is a movement and it was created to remind the world that religion should never be beyond open and honest discussion or criticism. Religion has for far too long had such a strong hold of people and of countries, including the US. Religion should be up for debate just as much as anything else and our future, as a society, truly relies on the US amendment to freedom of religion, an amendment that no one who is religious seems to actually acknowledge as a true amendment of the country. Perhaps freedom from religion will be awarded to non-theists soon.

Blasphemy Day has been celebrated on Twitter, which I am happy to say I participated in. Some of the best Blasphemy Day tweets:

• LOL!!! RT @DarlaV: Knock Knock / Who’s there? / God / God who? / I Know, RIGHT?!?! #atheist #atheism #blasphemyday

• RT @scottishstevie: Man created God in his own image : intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent. #blasphemyday

• HA! RT @OmegaWalrus: #blasphemyday Jesus came back from the dead only once – Jason Vorhees does it all the time

You can follow Blasphemy Day tweets by searching #BlasphemyDay. You can also join the Blasphemy Day Facebook group.

Happy International Blasphemy Day, everyone!

Not Even Texas is Willing to Admit Abstinence-Only Works

Texas currently ranks at third place for the highest teen birth rate in the country and they have the highest rate of repeat teen births. Coincidentally, Texas leads the entire country in the amount of government money spent on abstinence-only education. Luckily for the teens of Texas, some school districts in the state are shifting away from abstinence-only, admitting that it isn’t working.

Roy Knight, Lufkin Independent School District superintendent said, “Our data says that what we’re doing isn’t working, and our community is ready for us to do something different.” He also stated that the decision to go a different route as far as sex education goes was “absolutely driven” by a teen pregnancy rate that is higher than the state average.

Currently across the country, one in four teenage girls have a sexually transmitted infection and 30% of US girls become pregnant before the age of 20. Medical experts from the American Public Health Association and US Institution of Medicine have testified that scientific studies have not found that abstinence-only teaching works to cut pregnancy rates, sexually transmitted infection rates or the age when sexual activity begins.

While abstinence-only education tells teens that abstaining from sex and sexual activity is the safest choice for teens, we also know that it includes very little other than that sentiment, including extremely limited information about contraceptives and condoms and downplays their effectiveness. Texas school districts are planning to put an “abstinence-plus” sex education curriculum in place which does include abstinence in the material, but also stresses the importance of using protection if teens are sexually active.

Abstinence-plus education fits the Obama administration’s effort to shift dollars from abstinence promotion to strategies aimed at lowering teen pregnancies. Thankfully the Obama administration has been adamant of ending abstinence-only and we have all seen that abstinence-only robs teens of the information that they have a right to have. The federal abstinence program, known as Title V, expired on June 30 and an even larger program, Community Based Abstinence Education, is expected to cease after 2010. Both of these programs have sent about $14 million every year to Texas, most in the form of federal grants to nonprofit groups that contract with school districts. Because these groups will soon not exist at all (hooray!) it is wise to assume that school districts are putting abstinence-plus in place because their funding has dried up for abstinence-only and the reason why funds have dried up for abstinence-only is because it is an insult to teens everywhere.

Luckily, 17 of the 50 states have refused to accept any federal funding for abstinence-only education and I am so glad that I can report that many Texas school districts have realized that telling teens not to have sex will actually sway teens to abstain.

Hollywood Stands Up for Health Insurance Companies

A new hilarious Funny or Die exclusive features Will Ferrel, Jon Hamm, Donald Faison, Olivia Wilde, Thomas Lennon, Linda Cardellini and other Hollywood stars as they join together to ask “why is Obama trying to reform health care when insurance companies are doing just fine making billions of dollars of profit?”