What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. Are atheists their own worst enemies? Sure looks like it. It turns out when you get people thinking about death, their no hope for an afterlife approach isn’t really appealing. And their so-called values don’t have any foundation that people can relate to.
From LiveScience “Atheists consistently rank among the lowest of the low in the court of American public opinion. Now, research suggests one reason why: Thinking about atheists reminds people of death.
In fact, prompting people to think about atheism triggered death-related thoughts just as strongly as, well, directly prompting people to think about death, a new study finds. These death thoughts help trigger a subconscious dislike of atheists, said study leader Corey Cook, a social psychologist at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Not only do thoughts of death put people in a negative frame of mind, Cook told Live Science, but they also prompt people to hold more tightly onto their own values.
“There’s a little circular thing going on where encountering atheism will make people grasp their values closer and then become more negative because atheists are perceived as not having values,” Cook said.”
______________________________________
2. Another secret email.
From TheNYPost “A second secret email address used by Hillary Rodham Clinton while she was secretary of state was revealed Monday.
The email address, published by The New York Times, was used in exchanges between Clinton and longtime adviser Sydney Blumenthal, and is from the same private email server that was uncovered earlier this year.
“Fyi. The idea of using private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered,” Clinton wrote Blumenthal from the email address HRod17@clintonemail.com.
The two were discussing strategies to help the opposition rebels oust Moammar Khadafy in Libya as that country descended into chaos in 2011.
Clinton’s office insisted just two months ago that the only private email address used by the former secretary of state during her tenure was hdr22@clintonemail.com.”
______________________________________
3. So now we have proof that the Ferguson protest and others weren’t really grass-roots at all. Just more paid agitation from Soros and company.
From WeaselZippers “More Proof Of Paid Protesters: Ad Asking For Protesters To Travel To Protest, List Of Payouts To #Ferguson Protest Organizers”
“MORE and OBS, two groups funded by George Soros, advertised money available for people willing to travel to protest.”
“After protesters protested not getting their checks from MORE on May 14th, MORE allegedly distributed the following list as to who was paid to protest in Ferguson and elsewhere, to show where the money had been going.”
“You can see money paid out to Lisa Fithian, $1,127.75 for ‘visit expenses’.
For those who do not know, Lisa Fithian is an infamous leftist organizer. She organized at Occupy, but has been used as a training organizer for many years before that. She spent time in Ferguson in 2014 training people to ‘simulate chaos’.”
A real President and AG would be coming down hard on these people for the damage their agitation and “chaos” caused. But we have a President and AG that agree with them, so they’ll ignore their jobs yet again.
_______________________________________
Wandering Views 
Atheists & other non-believers do have values. They just don’t realize that they are “cultural values” based on biblical values.
LikeLiked by 1 person
#1 — All people really know there is a God, according to the Apostle Paul, but some suppress that knowledge. But it’s still there … Deep inside, they know. And that’s why relatively few people actually proclaim atheism outright (but instead default to the softer agnostic position). Many of those are still functioning atheists, of course, if they have no faith in the true God.
And Karen makes a good point, we live in an evangelized culture with all the benefits that come with that. Nonbelievers don’t realize how much of what they enjoy in individual & corporate freedoms, protections and other guarantees began and were advanced only by what was a Christian worldview.
LikeLiked by 1 person
#1 Atheism is essentially a religion without hope. It makes people aware of “no hope”. We were talking in SS last Sunday about the way our country is going.
Most of the people engaged in this are not evil people, they are just careless.
I’m certain that evil people are behind it, but most people are just careless about their spiritual lives.
Atheism promotes hopelessness.
We had a co-blogger here once, Random Name, who was obviously looking for hope, but disregarded the path he was shown.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Donna – Regarding the HuffPost article you shared last night: I saw that when it was posted on Facebook by a friend back in February. No matter how well it is explained that comments like that man’s are taken out of context, that he meant the resulting baby is beautiful, not the rape itself, some people want to hang on to the “He said rape is beautiful” narrative. They also will not accept that a baby born from rape could be a blessing to the mom, or to an adoptive mom.
Every time I see comments about how awful it would be to have a baby from rape, how the mother would hate to look at that baby & be reminded, I feel sorry for the many people out there who know they were conceived in rape, & may be reading those comments. Talk about “dehumanizing” someone!
I don’t know how accurate this is, but I once saw a statistic that three out of four women impregnated by rape choose to have the baby, not abort. I found that quite telling. It is as if they instinctually know that they would be adding another act of violence to the first.
LikeLike
I completely understand what he meant (and agree with it as well) — but I think public officials also have to be very careful when they’re speaking in such a public setting like that to understand how this will *sound* to others.
Not sure how it could have been said more sensitively; perhaps the wording could have been changed; maybe it’s something he shouldn’t have tried to say at all in that particular setting at all, I don’t know.
It’s an exceedingly sensitive & personal topic, especially for a man to be speaking to, frankly.
It was absolutely predictable how this would be interpreted (“rape can be beautiful”) and that it would go viral for all the wrong reasons. He apologized, but …
Those in the public sphere simply need to be very careful about the topics they choose to speak about — and the words they choose if they do decide to take the plunge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps male politicians should take a break from making public pronouncements about rape (and birth control?) for a while. They always step right into quicksand, it’s almost a given. 😉 And I’m not sure how the topic is even relevant to anything being discussed in the public square right now, to be honest.
I just always cringe when I see these middle-aged male politicians making these seemingly random statements. Here we go again, I think … And, sure enough, it’s quickly plastered everywhere with much outrage. But it was partially, at least, their own fault …
That’s where being “wise as serpents” can, I think, be well applied.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t know that “beautiful” is ever a word you use in conjunction with rape.
I’m pro-life but rape is one of the (rare) instances in which I’d allow for the option of legal abortion in the scope of making public policy. I’ve thankfully never gone through it, but I suspect it’s traumatic enough that some would understandably opt for it, tragic though it is.
LikeLike
I agree that those male (usually Republican) politicians should stay away from those topics, & refrain from those kinds of comments. If they are asked directly (which is usually done to catch them in a stupid comment), maybe they could say something like, “Well, you know, abortion is legal, so this isn’t relevant to current issues.”
I think Rand Paul said something somewhat similar on this or another topic.
LikeLike
Even when a politician doesn’t say something stupid, someone can make a Facebook meme incorrectly paraphrasing what they said, but not mentioning it is their paraphrase, & people will take it at face value.
A Facebook friend had shared a poster (prefacing it by saying he’s another Republican who hates women) that “quoted” Rand Paul supposedly saying that paying women equally to men was a communist idea right out of Soviet Russia. Skeptical, I looked it up on Google.
Turns out what he actually said was that dictating to companies what they should pay their employees was a communist idea out of Soviet Russia. A big difference.
LikeLike
I always thought that a woman who was raped should have a D&C immediately afterward just as a matter of principle and security.
Anything wrong with that?
LikeLike
True Karen — and I did check the statement yesterday, thinking it may have been taken out of context (which, in a way, it was — but he did later apologize).
There have been a string of these comments from male Republicans in recent years, you’d think they’d become wiser …
But I’ve seen some outrageous “bumper sticker” style slogans posted on FB (it’ll only get worse in 2016) that I know aren’t true (and yet they’re posted by people you’d think are educated enough to know better — people who are professionals: school teachers, attorneys, etc, and not particularly young so we can’t even allow them that excuse).
There’s no explaining rabid, knee-jerk partisanship.
LikeLike
Donna and Karen,
Many times these media members try to set them up with gotchas. And then later they use the first guys words to make everyone else on the other side condemn them too, even if taken out of context, lest they be painted the same way. Rand doesn’t usually play along, but neither does Cruz.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/cruz-sex-obsessed-media-lets-talk-about-islamic-states-war-gays
“After a string of questions on his opinion on same-sex marriage and gay rights, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) called out the left and the leftist media (particularly MSNBC) for “obsess[ing]” over opinions on sexuality while “ISIS is executing homosexuals.”
The comments came during a campaign stop Tuesday in Beaumont, where Cruz met with county officials and other local leaders to discuss his positions on foreign policy, promoting economic growth, and defending the Constitution. When reporters began to ask him about his views on same-sex marriage, Cruz called out the left and the media for what he characterized as a myopic perspective on gay rights (transcript via Texas Tribune):
CRUZ: Is there something about the left—and I am going to put the media in this category—that is obsessed with sex? ISIS is executing homosexuals—you want to talk about gay rights? This week was a very bad week for gay rights because the expansion of ISIS, the expansion of radical, theocratic, Islamic zealots that crucify Christians, that behead children and that murder homosexuals—that ought to be concerning you far more than asking six questions all on the same topic.”
LikeLike
Karen,
Your Facebook friend is not alone. The left, and some on the right, have no problem being dishonest if it suits their needs. That’s Alinsky 101, just keep saying it, even if it’s not true, and enough sheeple will pick up the meme. Context means nothing to them.
Here’s yet another example of that behavior.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/harvard-prof-apologizes-branding-rick-santorum-racist
“Self-proclaimed progressive and Harvard professor Robert Putnam used Twitter to apologize to Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) for misquoting the senator as saying “all black men are sexual predators.”
Mark Hemingway of The Weekly Standard is responsible for bringing about the apology. In his Monday blog, Hemingway recalled Santorum recently citing Putnam’s book, Our Kids, which broaches the subject of the breakdown of the American family and its effect on children, especially in contrast to the stable homes of the 1950s. Santorum appeared to agree with Putnam’s work and used it to speak out against low income men who are notorious for fathering children with multiple women.
Putnam interpreted this statement as a blanket statement against black males. He told BuzzFeed: “But there is a presidential candidate, who yesterday quoted me as saying therefore — he’s quoted me as saying all black men are sexual predators. I’m not going to say who it is but what I’m trying to say is, he’s a conservative and he took what I was saying and sort of so misinterpreted it that it’s nothing like — it’s just isn’t even in the universe of what I said. [sic]”
LikeLike
Oh for cryin’ out loud…. 🙄
Yet another. You’ll love this.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/05/19/white-bikers-black-thugs-why-texas-looked-to-relax-gun-laws-after-biker-shootout/?postshare=9531432066099404
“Over in a corner of Twitter that most of white America doesn’t visit (because apparently our social media networks are about as segregated as they are in real life), snark took over. Many tweeted ironically about the corrosive influence of biker culture on weekend warriors and the imperative need for white leaders to denounce the broader scourge of “white on white crime” in front of hashtags like, “#stuffthemedianeversays.” Pictures of Sarah Palin and in leather biker gear popped up along below tweets about “radical white politicians, who “coddle,” and commune with, “thugs.” The subtext of all of it was clear: This is what the world’s paid and volunteer shouter corps say when the tragedies involve black people, not white.”
__________________________
The relevant part these Twits left out? That the picture of Sarah with bikers was from a Rolling Thunder charity event and the so-called biker gang were all vets, not assorted criminals. But hey, why let truth get in the way of your preconceived notions and bias’ right?
LikeLike
True, the media will try to tip politicians up — but it’s incumbent upon those office holders (and especially those who are running for high-level positions) to be wise enough to handle that. It’s the norm, it should be expected to happen.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
FTR, my husband has been saying all along that the Ferguson riots were funded by Soros. . . .
LikeLike
A D and C is not that easy, Chas. A woman who is raped needs to go to the ER without stopping anywhere in between. She also needs to get in touch with a rape counselor because flashbacks and other horrors can really cripple a woman for many years afterward.
LikeLike
Up next?
http://thefederalist.com/2015/05/20/lgbt-activists-arm-for-further-war-on-free-speech/
” … with an expected federal win for gay marriage from the Supreme Court, the LGBT movement is poised to shift its focus to policing speech in the workplace, schools, businesses, and public squares across America. …
“The ultimate goal of the campaign, according to The New York Times, is passage of a national LGBT anti-discrimination law. In the meantime, Singer and Gill, et al. will be pushing for ever more and ever stricter ‘anti-discrimination’ and ‘anti-hate’ laws in state legislatures. …
“There’s so much to unpack here, but if pressed to dissect this vat of worms, I’d say that the Orwellian ‘Freedom for All Americans’ meme boils down to the ancient urge to centralize power. That always begins with controlling people, which, in turn, requires the control of human relationships. To control relationships, central planners need to divide and conquer people by restricting their ability to communicate with one another.
“The bottom line is that free speech is a use it or lose it proposition. That means speak now, or forever hold your peace.”
LikeLike