Free-Thinking Friday

In case you’re looking for something to do this weekend, the Illinois Family Institute has offered a helpful list of places you can go to hang out with cool people and…oh, wait. Never mind. The Illinois Family Institute has their panties in a bunch over people kissing. In public. Because teh gays are involved. And they manage to go off the deep end, like, immediately. See, there’s this thing this weekend that’s going to be going on all over the country called “The Great Nationwide Kiss-In.” It’s one of them awareness-raising events wherein people go to kiss each other in public and, gasp, there’ll be lots of gay people doing it. Either way, the professionally offended folks at the Illinois Family Institute saw this rhetorical question:

Shouldn't everyone be allowed to kiss? Kissing isn't a bad thing, it's not obscene, vulgar or inappropriate-is it? In fact, it's a beautiful thing, I love kissing and I'm sure you love kissing too! And sometimes I like kissing my sweetie when we're out, so shouldn't we be able to kiss anywhere?

And decided to answer it. With this:

I think very few Americans want to pass laws outlawing kissing--even kissing that is obscene and inappropriate. And some kissing contexts are, indeed, obscene, which means "offensive to accepted standards of decency," and inappropriate. An adult kissing a pre-pubescent child or a high school-age adolescent in a sexual or romantic manner is both obscene and inappropriate despite the protestations of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) to the contrary. Romantic or sexual kissing between two consenting adults who are in love and who are closely related by blood is both obscene and inappropriate despite the protestations of defenders of incest to the contrary. Romantic or sexual kissing among "multi-partner" unions, like those profiled in a recent Newsweek article, are both obscene and inappropriate despite the protests of polyamorists to the contrary. Romantic or sexual kissing between two people of the same biological sex is both obscene and inappropriate despite the voluble, vigorous, and often vitriolic protests of homosexuals to the contrary.

Yup. They went there. People of the same gender kissing each other is exactly the same as pedophilia and incest. You have to love the stupidity inherent in the system. And so but anyway, if it turns out I’m not going out of town this weekend, I think I’ll wander on down to the Bean. I’m not gay. I don’t have anyone to kiss. But I’m all for seeing people exercise their rights in a non-violent and loving fashion. I think we can all get behind that idea. Oh, yeah, and there’s the Air & Water Show. That’s also fun. Via the Friendly Atheist -------------------------- Speaking of, one of these days I need to put together a post on Christian marriage. Here’s the abstract: Christians get married way too young without any concept of how difficult it is to live with another person. They’re fed fairy tales about how Jesus’s love will make all the other problems go away. Then reality sets in. Interestingly enough, divorce rates amongst evangelicals are higher than in the rest of the population for this. There’s a good reason for it. But rather than admit that their fairy tales have something to do with it, they blame teh gays for ruining marriage. Because, y’know, it’s easier to try to stab somebody else with a pointy stick than actually figure out how to constructively respond to something. ---------------------------- In case you’re wondering, the universe is huge. , shockwave-flash@http://www.youtube.com/v/oAVjF_7ensg&hl=en&fs=1" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/oAVjF_7ensg&hl=en&fs=1" id="">

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field makes the Earth seem so very tiny. And it makes the arguments for a 6,000 year-old universe created so that humans could be the pinnacle of existence even sillier. I mean, did god really create a universe to glorify godself to us with things that are so hard to see we had to point a giant telescope at them for a week and a half just to get a glimpse? Really? Honestly, the universe is much bigger, more mysterious, and downright interesting than any Bronze Age myth of a creator god could ever be. I’d much rather explore the cosmos than the mind of god. St. Augustine’s got nothing on Carl Sagan. Via Starts with a Bang! and Pharyngula ------------------------- Speaking of Illinoisans doing shameful things, I stopped at the La Grange Post Office to get stamps on the way home from work last night, since it's conveniently located between my office and my trendy domicile. There was an...interesting...protest display up in front of the building. There were a bunch of placards I didn't read real closely once I saw the words "Lyndon LaRouche." Oh, and the picture of President Obama with a Hitler mustache didn't really give me any reason to look any closer. I walked in to the Post Office, bought my stamps, and when I walked out there was a man yelling, "Stop health care reform, save a life!" Now, to the credit of the rest of La Grange, Illinois, this was rush hour and the dipshits were directly across the street from the train station. People were streaming by and ignoring this little display. And lest you think La Grange is some podunk, rural village, let me give you some perspective: View Larger Map Yup. Apparently the crazies made it to Cook County...