Religion is good for the world. Uh-huh.

From this morning's NYT/AP headlines:

• The Russian Orthodox Church is asking for clemency for three jailed members of the rock band Pussy Riot if they repent for their "punk prayer" for deliverance from President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's main cathedral.
• Gunmen detonated a bomb Sunday near an Islamic boarding school in northern Nigeria and later exchanged gunfire with security forces, causing unknown casualties in the region's latest round of violence, officials said.
• A group of Muslims suspected of ransacking a Hindu temple in southern Pakistan may be charged with blasphemy, police said Sunday. The case is a rare twist on the use of the country's harsh blasphemy laws, which are more often invoked against supposed offenses to Islam as opposed to minority faiths.
• The acting police chief in Kenya's capital says an explosive device set off in a Sunday school class killed one child and seriously wounded three.
• Thai police believe Islamist insurgents fired grenades at a fair in southern Thailand, injuring 30 people, in anger over government efforts to win over local Muslim religious leaders.
• Thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims angry over an alleged derogatory photo of the Islamic holy book Quran on Facebook set fires in at least 10 Buddhist temples and 40 homes near the southern border with Myanmar, authorities said Sunday.
• An Iranian official says Tehran plans to create its own search engine and e-mail service to replace Google and its Gmail e-mail service, even as it weights lifting a ban on Gmail enacted in response to an anti-Islam film.

So don't forget to go to church today. Because religion is a good thing. You can tell by the constant joy that it brings to the world.

Bad juju in Russia

No civilized society can have anti-blasphemy laws. The two cannot coexist. It's literally impossible. Russia doesn't seem to know this, or rather, is hell-bent on establishing a theocratic government to stifle all dissent. (Hat tip to Ed Brayton.)

Nilov said a proposed amendment would introduce criminal responsibility for offences against religious beliefs and feelings and impose a jail term of up to three years.

Putin, in recent comments on Pussy Riot, the global protests over the video “The Innocence of Muslims” and the killings of Islamic leaders in Russia, has said that extremists were trying to tear Russia apart and that the feelings of the faithful must be protected by the state.

Putin has always seen himself as a dictator. Now he's bringing this fantasy to life. I pity the Russians if this comes to pass.

Men's voices change as they age

Lately I've noticed that my voice is deeper. Seemed odd. I guess that's why this story in the NYT caught my eye this morning. It chronicles how a man's voice changes as he ages. And lo and behold, the voice is said to deepen between 50 and 68 years old. And then it gets higher. Horrors! This was described in the following way:

“What happens is that Grandma and Grandpa begin to sound more similar,” Dr. Hunter said.

Something to look forward to. If my voice gets higher I'll just stop talking. I've got a deep, gruff voice. Do you hear me?! Deep and gruff!

Another Christian leader hides child abuse

This time the news is out of Chattanooga. But it's the same old thing: a Christian in a position of power tried to hide an employee's child abuse.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — The head of a Tennessee college has apologized for trying to suppress a student newspaper story about a professor arrested on child sex charges. 

Yup, that was the action taken by Bryan College President Stephen Livesay. Bryan College is, of course, a Christian school. When a Christian leader hears about an employee abusing children, he does what they all do: tries to sweep the issue under the rug. After all, it was only children who were harmed. But a student at Bryan College wouldn't go along with the president's edict.

Editor Alex Green decided to distribute the story himself, placing flyers across campus Monday. It reported the resignation of Biblical studies professor David Morgan after he was arrested during an FBI child molestation sting in Georgia.

Livesay said that in hindsight, killing the newspaper story "might have been a mistake." He said he had originally hoped to protect the professor's privacy. 

That's always the excuse. They were just trying to protect the adult predator because of "privacy" issues. Didn't work out too well for Livesay. His school is now the object of national derision. And that tepid excuse is all he can come up with, even now! That perhaps "in hindsight" it "might have been a mistake." He still doesn't know that he did something that was immoral. Sounds just like Christians to me.

Morality and Christianity have nothing in common. Morals exist out here in the world. You won't find them in some dusty old book.

All-male Vatican says "Jesus' wife" papyrus is fake

While scholars suspect the bit of papyrus is a fake, the Vatican has no doubts at all:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) — An ancient papyrus fragment which a Harvard scholar says contains the first recorded mention that Jesus may have had a wife is a fake, the Vatican said on Friday.  
(snip)
Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married and the Catholic Church, by far the largest in Christendom, says women cannot become priests because Christ chose only men as his apostles. 

So the experts suspect a fake but the Vatican is convinced it's a fake. One wonders if all-male infallibility entered into this assessment. It must be faaabulous to be able to speak unassailable truth any time you want to. This sort of thing comes in handy when your whole, dilapidated, men-only, rapist-assisting establishment is challenged...by talk of Jesus respecting a woman and alluding to her as a disciple. That is abhorrent! Women are mere chattel, unfit for anything but reproducing. The papyrus must be the work of Satan!

AP's lax ways

These are two actual AP headlines that are on their web site right now:

"Netanyathu Says Word Fears About Iran to UN"

and

"Suspect in Killings Was Actor Sons of Anarchy Actor"

These headlines have been there for hours. Yoo hoo, AP. Anybody home?

A Mac thing

I just noticed that I can dictate in Scrivener, now that I've upgraded to Mountain Lion. This is very cool. (BTW, Scrivener is my writing program.)

It's surprising how well it works. If you're on a Mac and using Mountain Lion, just click Edit and choose Start Dictation (in any application that supports it). In my first try, it transcribed my words perfectly. I doubt I'll dictate my next book but it's nice to know that I have this option.