PR exec Justine Sacco apologizes for racist joke on flight to Africa; outrage sparks website

Above is the work of someone who is obviously stupid--and who probably thinks she got a cushy job purely
through her own hard work and personal worthiness. I'd like to point out that even if she were drunk, it only means her inhibitions were lowered. She'd be more likely to say what she was thinking, but normally had enough sense to conceal. UPDATE: It turns out that Sacco is from South Africa, so she had plenty of time to develop her attitudes about race and AIDS in Africa.

Below is the work of someone who is the opposite of stupid, and who is obviously concerned about those who lack the good fortune of people like Justine Sacco.

JUSTINESACCO.COM

UPDATE DEC. 22, 2013:

'Ashamed': Ex-PR exec Justine Sacco apologizes for AIDS in Africa tweet
By Brian Stelter
CNN
December 22, 2013
Offensive tweet cost exec her job

[Maura Larkins comment: Maybe this woman really doesn't belong in public relations for international companies. Something more provincial might work.]

(CNN) -- Justine Sacco, a former PR executive who sparked a firestorm of controversy on Twitter, apologized Sunday for her "needless and careless tweet" about AIDS in Africa.

In a written statement. Sacco apologized "for being insensitive to this crisis -- which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly -- and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed."

She added that she is a native of South Africa and was upset that she had hurt so many people there.

"I am very sorry for the pain I caused," she wrote.

Media company IAC "parted ways" Saturday with Sacco after the tweet, which read: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

"The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question," an IAC spokesman said in a statement.

"There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally," he said. "We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core."

[Maura Larkins' comment: A lot of apparently decent people probably share Sacco's attitudes. And perhaps they can't help it, so they don't deserve condemnation. But they should be kept in jobs where they can't offend--or harm--the people they consider inferior.]

The tweet Sacco sent before she left Friday for Cape Town, South Africa, went viral and created a social media firestorm.

The incident -- Boing Boing called it "the tweet heard round the world" -- was a glaring reminder that every word uttered on the Internet can be heard by seemingly everyone on the Internet, sometimes with serious consequences.

Sacco was the head of corporate communications for IAC, the media company chaired by Barry Diller that operates websites such as The Daily Beast, About.com, CollegeHumor and Match.com. Her whole job revolved around communicating with reporters -- which made her Twitter comment about Africa all the more shocking.

Sacco was in London and about to begin a long vacation in South Africa when she wrote the message. Her Twitter account was relatively obscure when she posted it -- fewer than 500 people were following it. But the message went viral on Friday, unbeknownst to Sacco, who apparently did not have Internet access on her flight.

Websites such as Valleywag and Buzzfeed highlighted Sacco's account, and soon it had thousands of followers -- and thousands of harsh replies directed at it. Some were downright hateful. Others said they felt sorry for Sacco, regardless of how offensive her Twitter message was, because she hadn't had a chance to defend herself during the 12-hour flight.

As Twitter observers parsed through her public posts, many were disturbed by her previous messages. ("I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night," she once wrote.)

Her account was a laundry list of banal complaints about poor customer service and other apparent indignities.

"It seems she has left a trail of casual racism across social media on her various travels," Chris Taylor, a writer for Mashable, opined.

Still, Taylor wrote, "it was hard to ignore a disturbing feeling in the mob's response" to the Twitter messages "and something creepy in the trial by social media that was going on in her absence."

On Friday afternoon, with hours to go before she landed, another corporate communications representative for IAC issued a statement that tried to address the online controversy.

"This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC," the company said. "Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action."

The statement led many to believe that Sacco would be reprimanded or even terminated when she landed in South Africa.

Parody accounts started to appear on Twitter and Facebook that portrayed Sacco as a mean, bitter person. On Friday evening a Twitter hashtag, #HasJustineLandedYet, became a running commentary about Sacco; some people observed that she'd have to put her crisis communications expertise to the test to save her own career.

Meanwhile, other Twitter users started scoping out Sacco's past messages and flagged other questionable comments she'd made before, like this one: "I can't be fired for things I say while intoxicated right?"

All of those messages disappeared, though, early on Saturday, when someone -- presumably Sacco -- deleted her Twitter account. IAC had no immediate comment about how or why her account was removed.

Some good does seem to have come out of the incident, at least.

Advocates for AIDS relief set up websites to encourage donations; one of the sites read, "The AIDS epidemic is bigger than a tweet from a person in PR. If we want real change, we need to think beyond Justine. Let's turn that anger into something tangible."

ORIGINAL STORY:

PR exec Justine Sacco tweets racist joke on flight to Africa; outrage sparks website, Twitter hashtag
Justine Sacco, director of corporate communications for IAC, tweeted out Friday: 'Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!' The outrage piled up on social media, with someone creating the website justinesacco.com and pointing it toward links to charities that benefit sub-Saharan Africa.
By Nina Golgowski
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
December 20, 2013

Justine Sacco, the chief communications director for IAC, who represents brands like OKCupid — as proudly seen on her jacket — is in hot water after tweeting out a racist joke that's getting few laughs.

It's sounding more like OK Stupid.

The communications director for media conglomerate IAC, which represents brands like OKCupid, is in trouble after publicly tweeting a racist “joke” that’s getting few — if any — laughs.

“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Justine Sacco tweeted Friday, apparently from London shortly before departing on a trip.

Sacco, who's represented brands also include Vimeo and CollegeHumor, was not immediately available for comment.

But the offending tweet disappeared late Friday night — which would be early Saturday morning in Africa. Just after midnight in New York, in fact, Sacco’s entire account vanished.

Pope Francis Takes on 'Unfettered Capitalism'

Pope Francis Takes on 'Unfettered Capitalism'
To the Point
KCRW
DEC 17, 2013
Host: Warren Olney

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church has called free-enterprise capitalism "a new tyranny" and called for new focus on serving the poor. We hear different views on what Pope Francis means about politics, economics and religion...
Pope Francis: God and Money (1:08PM)

The new Roman Catholic Pontiff shared his 77th birthday today with homeless people, one of whom brought his dog inside the Vatican. It was a visual example of Pope Francis' informality and modest lifestyle, in contrast to what he has called the "idolatry of money." In a recent statement he said, "It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare." This weekend, he denied right-wing accusations that he's a Marxist, while defending his criticism of capitalism and his focus on serving the poor. Is one of the world's most influential leaders pitting his church against the free market? Is he inserting religion into the realm of politics, or emphasizing the teachings of Jesus Christ, who warned against trying to serve both God and money?

Guests:


Jerry Z. Muller: Catholic University of America, Catholic University of America, Professor of History at Catholic University of America and author of The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought

[Maura Larkins' comment: Mr. Muller looks like Albert Einstein, but he doesn't sound like Albert Einstein. Mr. Muller impressed me with his refusal to admit that unfettered capitalism was responsible for the global financial crisis. What are they teaching at Catholic University of America? How to ignore reality as one goes about accumulating wealth and power? I got the impression that Mr. Muller believes that Jesus would be an investment banker if he lived today, and would feel no guilt about the worldwide financial devastation caused by greed.]


Chris Lowney: Author of Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads; one-time Jesuit seminarian who later worked as a managing director at the banking firm of JP Morgan
First Theme of Heroic Leadership: Self Awareness



Reza Aslan: University of California, Riverside, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside, founder of Aslan Media and member of the Council on Foreign Relations author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror, Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam (revised, updated edition for the tenth anniversary of 9/11) and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth; former contributing editor at the Daily Beast and Middle East analyst for public radio's Marketplace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Aslan


Mark Silk: Trinity College, Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Director of its Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life; author of Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America and co-author of Making Capitalism Work, his blog, Spiritual Politics, is published by the Religion News Service
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Silk


Links:

Limbaugh on Pope Francis' comments
Varney on Pope Francis
Silk's 'Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America'
Silk on Pope Francis v. the free marketeers
Lowney's 'Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads'
Lowney on Pope Francis' 'radical views'
Muller's 'The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought'
Aslan's 'Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth'

What made Nelson Mandela great

"But in jail -- especially for those who stayed in single cells -- you had enough opportunity to sit down and think," he said.

What made Nelson Mandela great
By John Battersby
CNN
December 5, 2013

Nelson Mandela, the prisoner-turned-president who reconciled South Africa after the end of apartheid, died on Thursday, December 5, according to the country's president, Jacob Zuma. Mandela was 95.

Editor's note: John Battersby served as a correspondent for The New York Times (1987-89) and the Christian Science Monitor (1989-96) before, during and after South Africa's transition to democracy. He was editor of The Sunday Independent in Johannesburg from 1996 to 2001. He interviewed Mandela on numerous occasions and is coauthor of "Nelson Mandela: A Life in Photographs" (Sterling, 2009) and author of the afterword in the updated version of "Mandela: the Authorized Biography" (Harper Collins, 2011).

(CNN) -- Nelson Mandela was always mindful that his leadership role in the liberation of South Africa from apartheid might not have been possible if he had not been imprisoned.

"It is possible that if I had not gone to jail and been able to read and listen to the stories of many people. ... I might not have learned these things," Mandela said of the insights that he gained during his 27 years in jail.

In an interview less than a year after he had stepped down as the country's first black president, Mandela shared with me reflections of how prison changed him.

He said that reading the biographies of great leaders who had been able to overcome their shortcomings and rise to do great things had inspired him. He said it also helped him to realize that behind every seemingly ordinary person lay the potential of greatness.

"I have been surprised a great deal sometimes when I see somebody who looks less than ordinary, but when you talk to the person and they open their mouths, they are something completely different," he said.

Mandela said that prison gave him time to think about the times when he had failed to acknowledge people who had been kind to him.

Mandela said that at the height of the struggle against apartheid, he and other leaders were understandably angry at the humiliation and loss of dignity of those who suffered under the unjust policy. It meant their actions were driven by anger and emotion rather than by reflection and consultation.

"But in jail -- especially for those who stayed in single cells -- you had enough opportunity to sit down and think," he said.

There was time to listen to the stories of people who were highly educated and who were widely traveled and experienced. "When they told of their experiences, you felt humbled," he said.

Mandela said that he had learned that when you had the moral high ground, it was better to sit down and talk to people and persuade them of the correctness of your cause.

"If you have an objective in life, then you want to concentrate on that and not engage in infighting with your enemies," he said. "You want to create an atmosphere where you can move everybody toward the goal you have set for yourself," Mandela said.

In his twilight, Mandela was at pains to publish and acknowledge his weaknesses and shortcomings in his family life, in his relationships with women and his first wife, Evelyn. He was keen to dispel any notion of sainthood that might be bestowed on him.

He also spoke increasingly about the importance of changing oneself.

"One of the most difficult things is not to change society -- but to change yourself," Mandela said in 1999 at a tribute to billionaire businessman Douw Steyn who had made his Johannesburg residence available to Mandela as a retreat after his prison release in 1990.

Mandela had given similar advice to wife Winnie in a letter written to her in 1981 after she had been jailed by the apartheid regime. Mandela noted that there were qualities "in each one of us" that form the basis of our spiritual life and that we can change ourselves by observing our reactions to the unfolding of life.

Ten years later, Mandela said that it gave him a feeling of fulfillment to see that Douw Steyn had changed and had learned to share his resources with the poor.

"It enables me to go to bed with an enriching feeling in my soul and the belief that I am changing myself" by reconciling with former adversaries, Mandela said.

I believe that the essence of Mandela's greatness was to change himself fundamentally during his period in jail and emerge as a potent leader and example for all humanity.

Opinion: Nelson Mandela saved my life

The reflections took me back to the extraordinary day of Mandela's release. The day the legend became a man. Even now, the moment seems frozen in time.

It was February 11, 1990, and the African sun shone from a clear blue sky on a windless summer's day in Cape Town. About an hour's drive from the city, the international media thronged around the entrance of a neat prison warder's house to await the emergence of one of the century's most iconic figures...

Nuns gone wild are appalled by Rush Limbaugh's dissing of Pope Francis

Nuns gone wild. and Rush Limbaugh

The Nuns on the Bus think you don't have to be a communist to care about the poor. By the way, does Rush think Jesus was a communist?

Nuns' Group Responds After Rush Limbaugh Says Pope Spouts "Pure Marxism"
By Molly Redden
Mother Jones
Dec. 4, 2013

In late November, when Pope Francis promised to remake the Catholic Church as a decentralized institution that would agitate against the economic injustices of capitalism, Rush Limbaugh was quick with an explanation: "Somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him."

Limbaugh's remarks—in which he also assailed the Pope's agenda as being "pure Marxism"—have drawn the ire of many Catholics, and one group, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, is already calling for the radio host to apologize.

On Wednesday, Donna Quinn, who coordinates the National Coalition of American Nuns, a liberal activist group of several thousand nuns, joined the Catholics denouncing Limbaugh's comments.

"Men and women who are educated and those who have street smarts see right thorough those kind of statements," she says. (Quinn, who is well-known for her support of gay marriage and reproductive rights, notes that she is a big supporter of Sandra Fluke, the women's rights activist who gained national notoriety when Limbaugh called her a "slut" and "prostitute" on his program.)

Quinn adds that although she does not count herself among those "smitten" with Pope Francis—"enough of the words," she says, "we want to see some action"—she is troubled by Limbaugh's callousness toward the people about whom Pope Francis was speaking. "In these dire times…those are the people that it would behoove Rush to take a look at. To see what's best, not for his program or for his rowdy statements, but rather for the people of God."

Don’t Be Evil? Google Funding a Slew of Right-Wing Groups

Can Google shut down the government of the United States? It would appear that this is the case.

"An August 2013 report by US PIRG – “Offshore Shell Games” — found that Google is now holding more than $33 billion dollars offshore, avoiding taxes on these earnings in the United States."


(Click to see the article on Bill Moyers' website, with lots of links:)
Don’t Be Evil? Google Funding a Slew of Right-Wing Groups
December 4, 2013
by Nick Surgey
PR Watch

Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.

Organizations that received “substantial” funding from Google for the first time over the past year include Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union (best known for its CPAC conference) and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation that led the charge to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act: Heritage Action.

In 2013, Google also funded the corporate lobby group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, although that group is not listed as receiving “substantial” funding in the list published by Google.

US corporations are not required to publicly disclose their funding of political advocacy groups, and very few do so, but since at least 2010 Google has chosen to voluntarily release some limited details about grants it makes to US nonprofits. The published list from Google is not comprehensive, including only those groups that “receive the most substantial contributions from Google’s US Federal Public Policy and Government Affairs team.”

What Google considers “substantial” is not explained — no dollar amounts are given — but the language suggests significant investments from Google and, with a stock value of $330 billion, Google has considerably deep pockets.

Google has a distinctively progressive image, but in March 2012 it hired former Republican member of the House of Representatives, Susan Molinari as its Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations. According to the New York Times, Molinari is being “paid handsomely to broaden the tech giant’s support beyond Silicon Valley Democrats and to lavish money and attention on selected Republicans.”

New “Substantial” Right-Wing Google Grants in Past Year

CMD examined the information released by Google for the years 2010 to 2013. The voluntary disclosures indicate that the following groups are either new grantees of Google since September 2012, or have been listed as having received a “substantial” Google grant for the first time:

American Conservative Union
Americans for Tax Reform
CATO Institute
Federalist Society
George Mason University Law School Law and Economics Center
Heritage Action
Mercatus Center
National Taxpayers Union
R Street Institute
Texas Public Policy Foundation

Detailed information on each of these groups can be found at CMD’s Sourcewatch website.



Google Funding for Anti-Government Groups Heritage Action, the tea-party styled political advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, is perhaps the most surprising recipient of Google’s largesse.

More than any other group working to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Heritage Action pushed for a sustained government shutdown in the fall of 2013, taking the country to the brink of a potentially catastrophic debt default.

Laying the ground for that strategy, Heritage Action held a nine-city “Defund Obamacare Town Hall Tour” in August 2013, providing a platform for Texas Senator Ted Cruz to address crowds of cheering tea party supporters.

For Cruz, increasingly spoken of as a 2016 presidential candidate, the government shutdown helped raise his profile and build his supporter — and donor — base.

Notably, Heritage Action received $500,000 from the Koch-funded and Koch-operative staffed Freedom Partners in 2012. It is not yet known how much Heritage Action received in 2013 from sources other than Google.

Perhaps surprisingly, Google has a history of supporting Cruz. Via its Political Action Committee – Google Inc. Net PAC – the PAC provided the “Ted Cruz for Senate” campaign with a $10,000 contribution in 2012. Additionally, despite being five years out from the freshman senator’s next election, Google’s PAC has already made a $2,500 contribution to the Cruz reelection campaign for 2018, the largest amount that the PAC has given so far to any Senate candidate running that election year, according to disclosures made by Google.

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the anti-government group run by Republican operative Grover Norquist, was another new recipient of funding from Google in 2013. ATR is best known for its “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” and for its fundamentalist attacks on any Republican who might dare to vote for any increase in taxes. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, ATR received 85 percent of its funding in 2012 ($26.4 million) from the ultra-partisan Karl Rove-run Crossroads GPS, another dark money group.

ATR President Grover Norquist infamously said that he wants to shrink government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Google’s position on the relative size of government versus bathtubs is not known, but according to a Bloomberg analysis of Google’s US corporate filings, it avoids approximately $2 billion dollars globally in tax payments each year through the use of creative tax shelters.

Bloomberg reported in May 2013 that in France alone Google is in the midst of a dispute over more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes that have been alleged. An August 2013 report by US PIRG – “Offshore Shell Games” — found that Google is now holding more than $33 billion dollars offshore, avoiding taxes on these earnings in the United States.

National Taxpayers Union, headed by former eleven-year American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Executive Director Duane Parde, has a similar anti-tax, anti-government agenda, and it also received funding from Google in 2013.

Google Sponsor Event Honoring Justice Thomas

Google also recently sponsored a gala fundraiser in Washington DC for the Federalist Society, a network of right-wing judges and lawyers that includes Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas was the guest of honor at that event, for which Google was listed as a top-tier “gold” sponsor. Google names the Federalist Society on its list of groups receiving its most substantial grants in 2013.

The company is also funding state special interest group operations. The Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes PRWatch, recently posted a major national report on the State Policy Network (SPN), a network of right-wing think tanks, with at least one organization in every state in the country. SPN groups typically promote a pro-corporate agenda, often at the expense of the interests of ordinary working people.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which is part of SPN, also received money from Google in 2013. As Progress Now’s state affiliate and CMD have documented, the legislative agenda promoted by TPPF includes opposing renewable energy, blocking access to affordable healthcare and opposing state minimum wage laws.

Google, which did not respond to a request for comment, may argue that it simply funds groups on both sides of the political spectrum, providing other grants to organizations that advocate on behalf of values more closely associated with the corporation’s progressive image. Since Google does not release details of all its grantees and the dollar amounts, it is hard to judge this, although they do disclose providing funding to some progressive groups including the American Constitution Society, People for the American Way and the NAACP.

Although Google has funded both “conservative” and “progressive” groups, it does not disclose the relative proportions given to each, beyond the superficial symmetry, and the degree to which the groups tilt to the right or left in their agendas.

However, as noted by CMD’s Executive Director, Lisa Graves, “there really aren’t two proportionate sides to the facts about the climate changes that are underway, as to whether working people should be paid a living wage and whether corporations should have to pay taxes just like working people do. By funding extreme groups on the right under the guise of a false equivalency, Google is enabling groups that seek to undermine government.”

Google Membership in ALEC, Funding of CEI

Since CMD launched ALECexposed.org in 2011, revealing the complete agenda of that corporate front group that was secretly voted on by corporate lobbyists and state legislators behind closed doors, corporations have been running to escape association with the group. At least 50 corporations are known to have dropped funding since 2011, including Walmart, Coca Cola and Pepsi. Google – along with Facebook and Yelp – is bucking that trend having quietly joined in 2013. Google does not list ALEC as being a recipient of one of its largest grants, instead it separately names ALEC as an organization to which it has become a member.

There are many good reasons for brand-conscious corporations to stay away from ALEC. For example, its legacy of Stand Your Ground gun laws and bills to make it harder for Americans to vote, its work to repeal renewable energy laws and the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases and its efforts to privatize almost everything, are just a few of its extreme measures.

ALEC is a corporate-funded lobby group, and the businesses that fund ALEC do so hoping to move a legislative agenda. An ALEC publication sent to corporate members in 1995, celebrated its legislative agenda to members as a “good investment,” stating clearly “nowhere else can you get a return that high.” As CMD’s Lisa Graves has said, “It’s a pay-to-play operation.”

Google joined ALEC just this year, and stepped up funding to groups such as ATR, Federalist Society and Heritage Action in 2013, but under the radar it has been funding a handful of other right-wing groups for several years. In 2013 Google provided a reported $50,000 sponsorship check to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), another group trying to thwart efforts to address climate change, but it has previously funded “Google Policy Fellows” at CEI for several years, and has listed the organization as one that it has supported financially on its “transparency” pages for at least three years.

Google states that its fellows “work closely with CEI scholars to research and promote innovative, pro-consumer solutions to the public policy challenges of the information age.” Whatever projects Google fellows end up working on at CEI, the Google brand is now tied to an organization that has a reputation strongly connected to the denial of climate change.

“Political spending for corporations is purely transactional. It is all about getting policies that maximize profitability,” Bob McChesney told CMD. “So even ostensibly hip companies like Google invariably spend lavishly to support groups and politicians that pursue decidedly anti-democratic policy outcomes. It is why sane democracies strictly regulate or even prohibit such spending, regarding it accurately as a cancer for democratic governance.” Professor McChesney co-founded the media reform group Free Press in 2002, and this year authored Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy.

The policies advocated by some of the Google’s grantees are in stark contrast with the progressive image that Google has worked to promote. It has publicly committed to invest more than $1 billion dollars in renewable energy projects, reduce the use of cars by its employees, power its offices with renewables and otherwise green its buildings. The contrast between these promises, and Google’s funding of groups that deny or challenge the reality of climate change – groups motivated by funding received from fossil fuel companies – has led several organizations to launch campaigns calling for Google to stop funding climate change deniers. Forecast the Facts has a “Hey Google! Don’t Fund ALEC’s Evil!” petition, and Sum of Us has a petition calling on Google to “never fund climate change deniers again.”

ALEC is holding its next conference in Washington, DC, from December 4th through the 6th. A Google lobbyist will likely be there, celebrating ALEC’s 40th anniversary alongside legislators and other lobbyists. CMD will report on the events of the conference through the week at PRWatch.org. To sign CMD’s petition to Google CEO Larry Page, calling for him to publicly quit ALEC, click here.

Nick Surgey is director of research at the Center for Media and Democracy. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian.

Jewish activists set sights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world; Army Rules Illegal Settlement Now 'Legal'

UPDATE

Israel Grabs More Palestinian Land
Army Rules Illegal Settlement Now 'Legal'
By Reuters
April 13, 2014

Israel has carried out a new land appropriation in the occupied West Bank, the Haaretz daily said on Sunday, in a move that could complicate efforts to extend troubled peace talks with the Palestinians.

Haaretz said the Defence Ministry declared nearly 250 acres (100 hectares) of territory in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc just south of Jerusalem “state land”. Asked by Reuters about the report, the ministry declined immediate comment.

The land appropriation, the left-leaning newspaper said, was the largest in years and could eventually lead to the expansion of several settlements and authorisation of a settler outpost built without Israeli government permission in 2001.

The measure, which falls short of annexing the land to Israel, is based on an Israeli interpretation of an Ottoman-era law that allowed the confiscation of tracts that had not been planted or cultivated for several years in a row.

Haaretz said the heads of nearby Palestinian villages that claimed the land as theirs were informed of the move last week and have 45 days to appeal.

It was not immediately clear whether the reported appropriation was part of sanctions that Israel has begun to impose in response to the April 1 signing by Palestinians of 15 international conventions and agreements during the current crisis in U.S.-brokered peace negotiations.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, accused Israel of trying to destroy chances for peace through a “frantic escalation” of settlement activity.

“This is the real face of the Israeli government,” she told Reuters. “This is a government hostile to peace moves and it’s taking steps which have a longer-term strategy.”

ISRAELI OPTIMISM

Speaking before the Haaretz report appeared, Israel’s chief peace negotiator, Tzipi Livni said on the YNet news site that she is optimistic the statehood negotiations will be extended beyond the original April 29 deadline for a deal.

“I believe that we are close enough to a decision on the part of both leaderships, encouraged by the Americans, to continue the negotiations,” she said.

Livni has been meeting her Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat in an intensive push over the past few days to try to salvage the talks.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that Israel’s publication on April 1 of a tender for 708 homes for settlers in East Jerusalem was the proximate cause for the near collapse of the talks, which began in July.

Israel’s anti-settlement Peace Now movement said on its website that at least 90 of the 120 Jewish settlements built in the occupied West Bank since its capture in a 1967 war are on “state land”. Most countries regard the settlements as illegal.

Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and fear settlements will deny them a viable country. Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and says Gush Etzion is one of the enclaves it intends to keep in any future peace deal.

Citing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s signing of U.N. human rights conventions, Israel said on Wednesday it was limiting its contacts with Palestinian officials, although Livni could continue to meet negotiators.

Announcing another sanction a day later, an Israeli official said Israel would deduct debt payments from tax transfers which the Palestinian Authority routinely receives, and limit the self-rule government’s deposits in Israeli banks.

For his part, Abbas has accused Israel of violating a commitment to release two dozen prisoners at the end of March, including Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis, when the negotiations resumed. This is the last group of 104 prisoners Israel pledged to free as a confidence-building measure.


ORIGINAL POST

Hatem Moussa/AP - Gazans protest in Gaza City on Sept. 24 against visits to a disputed Jerusalem holy site by religious Jews, claiming it is a desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque. The hilltop compound is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, and by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Jewish activists set sights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world
By William Booth and Ruth Eglash
Washington Post
December 2, 2013

JERUSALEM — A small but growing movement by Jewish activists demanding the right to pray at the site of their destroyed temple, in the heart of this disputed capital’s Old City, is creating a potentially explosive clash with the Muslim world, which considers the spot holy and bans Jews from public worship there.

Each week, hundreds of Jews ascend the creaky wooden ramp built above the Western Wall and enter what is often called the most contested real estate on Earth. Many then embark upon a game of hide-and-seek with their police escorts — whispering forbidden prayers while pretending to talk into cellphones, and getting in quick but banned bows by dropping coins and then bending to pick them up.

Their proposals, long dismissed as extremist, are now being debated in the Israeli parliament and embraced by an expansionist wing in the ruling coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

These political leaders, many in Netanyahu’s party, want Israel to assert more, not less, control over the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City, including the place known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary.

“We’re looking for it to be divided between Jews and Muslims,” said Aviad Visoli, chairman of the Temple Mount Organizations, which claims 27 groups under its umbrella. “Today, Jews realize the Western Wall is not enough. They want to go to the real thing.”

Two millenniums ago, this place was the site of the Jews’ Second Temple, destroyed in A.D. 70 by Roman legions under Titus, who cast the Jews into exile. The Western Wall, visited by 10 million people a year, is part of the remaining rampart built around the raised temple complex. Together, the wall and the site of the destroyed temple are the holiest landmarks in Judaism.

The same courtyard is home to al-Aqsa mosque, one of the oldest in Islam, and the Dome of the Rock, the golden landmark where tradition says the prophet Mohammad made his night journey to heaven.

For Palestinians and much of the Muslim world, any mention of changing the status quo at the site, the third-holiest in Islam, is incendiary. Protecting al-Aqsa has been a rallying cry for generations.

“This place belongs to the Muslim people, and no others have the right to pray here,” said Sheik Azzam al-Khatib, director of the Waqf, the Islamic trust that administers the site. Khatib said the mosque is a unifying symbol for the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims.

“If they try to take over the mosque, this will be the end of time,” Khatib warned. “This will create rage and anger not only in the West Bank but all over the Islamic world — and only God knows what will happen.”

The site, like all of Jerusalem’s Old City, was under Jordanian control until 1967, when it was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War. The Waqf administers and protects the site. Israeli police also patrol the area and accompany Jewish visitors while they visit.

Non-Muslim tourists are welcome to wander freely around the grounds. But non-Muslim prayer is forbidden. Jews in religious garb are taken aside at the entrance by Israeli security officers, screened more closely and sternly warned not to pray, bow, sing, tear their clothes in mourning or display any religious items.

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has ruled that Jews should not enter the Temple Mount esplanade, for fear they will accidentally walk upon ground that is part of the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and only the high priest was permitted to enter.

But political leaders are urging that this stance be reexamined. Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, deputy minister of religious affairs, has proposed giving Jews an hour a day to pray there.

“There is a growing reality among sectors of the population who want to go up there and pray, and there are rabbis who are encouraging their followers to do so,” Ben-Dahan said at a November committee hearing on the matter in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The rabbinate needs to recognize this reality.’’

War of words

The hearing quickly devolved into a shouting match. “Every citizen of Israel should have the right to pray at their holy sites without harassment or being attacked,” said Miri Regev , the committee chairwoman. “If Jews want to go up to the Temple Mount to pray, they should have that right.”

“There is no such thing as the Temple Mount!’’ interrupted an Arab Israeli parliamentarian, Jamal Zahalka. “It does not exist. It is not there. ”

Legislators hurled shouts of “Barbarian!” and “Fascist!”

Arab Israeli lawmakers stormed out in protest.

“Because of your games at the al-Aqsa mosque, a third intifada could erupt,” Ahmad Tibi, deputy speaker of the Knesset and leader of the Arab political party Ta’al, told Regev. “You are a dangerous woman — to yourself, your children and all of us. Enough of playing with fire!”

In 2000, in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations mediated by President Bill Clinton, Israeli politician Ariel Sharon — campaigning to become prime minister — visited the Temple Mount with an escort of 1,000 police officers.

Some analysts say the visit sparked the second Palestinian uprising, often referred to as the al-Aqsa Intifada. Others claim that Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat was looking for an excuse to unleash the uprising and found one in Sharon’s action. In a report by former U.S. senator and peace negotiator George P. Mitchell, Sharon’s visit was called “poorly timed” and “provocative.” But the report said Israel’s use of lethal force against rioters in subsequent demonstrations had a greater negative effect.

Today, as yet another round of U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are underway, Khatib and other Islamic clerics warn that proposals to grant “time and space” to Jews looking to pray on the Temple Mount could ignite a holy war.

The clerics say they have pleaded with Israeli police to limit the number of Jews allowed to visit the site and warned that Jewish extremists are trying to change a delicate status quo and create new facts on the ground.

Uri Ariel, Israel’s minister of construction and housing, told reporters after a recent visit: “The Temple Mount is ours, and it cannot be argued about or negotiated. . . . It must be open for prayer at every hour, to every Jew.”...

Rihanna's statement about African hair

Rihanna, at the 41st American Music Awards, November 24, 2013
(Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)


Rihanna's style should please the administrators at Vanessa VanDyke's school.


Vanessa VanDyke, another young African-American woman, prefers natural African hair: See Christian school orders girl to "style" her African hair.

See all posts re African hair.

The politics of Rihanna’s hair: Her AMA do was a powerful form of resistance
In an award show celebrating the co-optation of black musical forms, a star's hairstyle was an important statement
Brittney Cooper
Salon
Nov 26, 2013

Two nights ago, my mouth fell open, when I looked up to see Rihanna rocking a doobie at the American Music Awards.

What’s a doobie? In the South, we just call it a wrap. It is a particular way that black women with straightened hair style their hair by combing and brushing it around the base and crown of the head before bed in order to maintain the style for the next day.

During the 10 years that I wore a relaxer, wrapping my hair and securing the wrap (or doobie) with a scarf or bobby pins or a combination of the two was a nightly ritual. But what you never did — with any level of propriety anyway — was wear your wrap out in public.

I mean, sure, you could get away with it on a quick run to the corner store. But in general, once the hair is wrapped, you are in for the night and the style is not for public consumption.

So when Rihanna showed up at the AMAs rocking just such a style, but adorned with fancy bejeweled bobby pins, I registered it immediately as ratchetness.

Ratchet, because it wreaks of impropriety, and rejects the unstated rules of black women’s hair. There are certain things that black women don’t do out in public regarding hair: We don’t wear rollers outside (that is the ultimate act of ratchet-ghetto behavior), we don’t wear doobies outside, and we don’t wear ratty headscarves outside. If you do don a headscarf, you better tie it up in an intricate way and make it look Afrocentric – “cultural,” you know.

Rihanna took no such pains with her appearance, defying all the rules at this year’s awards. I promptly wondered what it meant. She very well knows that black girls know that a doobie ain’t a style – it’s a pre-style, no matter how pretty the bobby pins are that you put in it.

If you don’t unwrap your hair, then basically you have made very little effort to get all donned up for the show. Exposing people to your doobie either means you know them very well, or know them so little that you couldn’t care less what they think.

The scholar in me is tempted to read this homage to ratchetry as a kind of subtle resistance to the pomp and circumstance of these awards. I feel emboldened in that reading by the blatant whitewashing of black culture that went on at the AMAs.

The AMAs haven’t been particularly good on this point in a long time, which is why it is not one of the major shows that I watch. But last night, Justin Timberlake won for best soul/R&B album in a category that featured him, Robin Thicke and Rihanna, and Macklemore won for best hip-hop album, just as he did at the VMAs.

When Sarah Silverman made a quip about the category being dominated by two white guys and a Caribbean artist, Justin, upon winning, remarked that Silverman’s remarks constituted the first time that he had ever felt “racially profiled.”

Race analysis #FAIL, JT. Please don’t make it hard for me to like your music. It’s already hard to admit I like it, since your musical career has relied on the appropriation of a black sound and the requisite awarding of cookies because you are a white boy who does it well...

Read more HERE.

Christian school orders girl to "style" her natural hair to appease bullies

Nov. 30, 2013: Is Rihanna's style what administrators really want?



See all posts re African hair.

When bullies at a Christian school acted up, the administrators decided to order the target to get rid of her naturally puffy African hair. After all, if students see African hair growing naturally, it's to be expected that they would be inspired to bad behavior, right? The administrators decided that the problem God created needed to be fixed by concealing God's handiwork. These geniuses figured this would be more reasonable than giving students a lesson on Christian virtues, civil rights, or the simple common sense of accepting the reality of biological differences among human beings.

My advice to Vanessa: don't fix it because it ain't broke. And learn from the experience you're living. Perhaps there's another Christian school nearby that has administrators whom God gifted with functioning frontal lobes.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out how Vanessa is supposed to "style" her hair, since administrators claim they aren't requiring that she cut her hair or use chemical products. I think that's exactly what they intended, but they're backtracking now.

How can she limit the volume of her hair without chemicals or scissors? Even if she braided her hair, the shorter hairs, and the hair on the top of her head, would escape and puff out. Cornrows would be a solution, but I doubt that's what the school has in mind, especially since they would have to require all students to wear cornrows in order not to specifically target African hair.

I'm getting a kick out of picturing all the classrooms, with every child wearing cornrows. Blond cornrows, brown cornrows, red cornrows, black cornrows. It's actually kind of a beautiful picture, isn't it?


Is this the solution this school needs?


Also, see my plan for voluntary separation of pedophiles.


UPDATE: ADMINISTRATORS CHANGE THEIR MINDS

Girl Who Faced Expulsion Over Natural Hair Gets To Stay At Private School
Nov 27, 2013
By Ruth Manuel-Logan
News One

On Monday, 12-year-old Vanessa VanDyke (pictured), who attends Faith Christian Academy in Central Florida, was faced with quite a dilemma.

School officials allegedly mandated that she restyle her natural hair or be expelled for a week. But, just one day after the bizarre request got national media attention, the edict was suddenly rescinded and Vanessa now gets to remain in school with her crowning glory as is, according to WKMG Local 6.

Vanessa has attended the private school for three years and had never experienced any bullying over her hairstyle until now. When Vanessa’s mom, Sabrina Kent, approached school officials over her daughter being taunted by classmates because her hair was not straight, they thought it would be in her best interest to straighten it.

The tween, who loves the texture of her hair, talked to Local 6 about her choice of hairstyle. “It says that I’m unique,” Vanessa said. “First of all, it’s puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it’s not straight. I don’t fit in.”

Kent told the news outlet that the school’s threat of expulsion over her daughter’s hair was not a solution to her daughter being bullied. “There have been people teasing her about her hair, and it seems to me that they’re blaming her,” Kent laments. According to the miffed mom, school officials allegedly informed her that Vanessa’s hair was a “distraction.”

The academy does have a dress code in place which also loops in how students can wear their hair. “Hair must be a natural color and must not be a distraction,” and the stipulations include, but are not limited to, mohawks, shaved designs and rat tails.

Despite the school’s strict dress codes, Kent is standing firm that her daughter’s hairstyle will not change. “I’m going to fight for my daughter,” Kent said. “If she wants her hair like that, she will keep her hair like that. There are people out there who may think that natural hair is not appropriate. She is beautiful the way she is.”

Faith Christian Academy officials released a statement on Tuesday regarding the hair-raising issue:

“We’re not asking her to put products in her hair or cut her hair. We’re asking her to style her hair within the guidelines according to the school handbook.”

[Maura Larkins' comment: I'm trying to figure this out. It seems they're saying that she needs to wear braids. But shouldn't all students be required to wear braids if that's what the school wants?]

Meanwhile, Vanessa and her mom will be lining up strategies over the Thanksgiving holiday just in case.

[Read more HERE.]


ORIGINAL POST:

African-American girl faces expulsion over 'natural hair'
by Ole Texan
Daily Kos member
Nov 27, 2013

An African-American teen says she faces expulsion because administrators at her private school want her to cut and shape her hair.

Vanessa VanDyke said she was given one week to decide to whether cut her hair or leave Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, a school she's been going to since the third grade.

Whoa!! This was my first reaction after reading this article. And don`t ask me why. I have trouble remembering when it was a time that I saw such beautiful hair on a teenager. Being the state of Florida giving this lovely girl one week to decide to whether cut her hair or leave Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, a school she's been going to since the third grade is not surprising to me.

But for now, she and her mother do not plan to change her hair because it is part of the 12-year-old's identity. But her natural hair style comes with a cost.

"It says that I'm unique," said VanDyke. "First of all, it's puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it's not straight. I don't fit in."

VanDyke said that first the teasing from other students, but now, school leaders seem to be singling her out for her appearance.

Faith Christian Academy has a dress code and rules against how students can wear their hair. The student handbook reads:

"Hair must be a natural color and must not be a distraction," and goes on to state examples that include, but are not limited to, mohawks, shaved designs and rat tails.

"A distraction to one person is not a distraction to another," said VanDyke's mother, Sabrina Kent. "You can have a kid come in with pimples on his face. Are you going to call that a distraction?"

Interestinly enough, Vanessa had her large, natural hair all year long, but it only became an issue after the family complained about students teasing her about her hair. Teasings escalated from obvious taunts into bullying from those whom I think were more envious of such beauty and not on account of distraction.

"I'm depressed about leaving my friends and people that I've known for a while, but I'd rather have that than the principals and administrators picking on me and saying that I should change my hair," said VanDyke.

It is sad, but highly commended that this teenager take a stand and fight for her principles, her right to be, and self determination to keep her hair. It is undisputable that Vanessa`s hair is her natural hair and is not tainted with hair dyes. Or at least it is not alleged by the Academy.

"I'm going to fight for my daughter," Kent said. "If she wants her hair like that, she will keep her hair like that. There are people out there who may think that natural hair is not appropriate. She is beautiful the way she is."

School administrators responded to an email asking about the issue, but did not provide any answers to questions. And I have to wonder why.

Michigan about to require women to buy "rape insurance" based on petition signed by 4.2% of voters

Graphic by Anne C. Savage. Cross-posted from Eclectablog.


Michigan about to require women to buy "rape insurance" based on petition signed by 4.2% of voters
by Eclectablog
Daily Kos member
Nov 27, 2013

The War on Women continues...

Thanks to a petition drive that resulted in 4.2% of Michiganders voicing their minority opinion, Michigan is about to become a place where women have to plan ahead for their abortions. If you become pregnant accidentally or if you are raped and become pregnant and haven't purchased a separate abortion coverage rider on your health insurance, you won't be covered. This isn't just for state government insurance plans or those purchased on the health insurance exchange. It's for EVERY insurance plan available in the state.

Apparently no government is too small to get between you, your doctor, and your health insurer.

A controversial initiative that would require women to buy an additional rider on their health insurance if they wanted abortion coverage is one short step away from going to the Legislature, where it is likely to easily become law.

Because no one filed a challenge by Monday’s deadline to the more than 315,000 signatures turned in to the Secretary of State, an initiative that would prohibit abortion coverage from being included in standard insurance policies will go forward.

And the Secretary of State certified Monday that Michigan Right to Life, which spearheaded the petition drive, has more than enough valid signatures to start the ball rolling on the new state law. A minimum of 258,088 valid signatures were needed. The anti-abortion activists turned in 315,477 signatures. And the Secretary of State’s elections division estimated that 299,941 of the signatures are valid.

The state Board of Canvassers will meet at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 2 to certify the signatures and then the petition moves to the state Legislature, which has 40 days to approve, reject or do nothing with the legislative ballot initiative.

If Republicans vote it down or fail to act on it, it will be a ballot iniatitive in the next general election. Neither of these is likely given their ideologically extreme views. If they pass it, it becomes law. The other 95.8% of us won’t have a say and neither will Governor Snyder.

Oh and, by the way, most Michigan voters actually oppose the law.

Don't tell me there isn't a War on Women in Michigan being waged by religious conservatives in our state. The evidence is right before you.

If you want chime in, Planned Parenthood has a petition going asking legislators to allow ALL Michigan voters to have a say in this. You can sign the petition HERE.

UPDATE: For those who are asking how this is possible/legal, the process is called an "indirect initiated state statute". I've described how it works HERE. Challenging the legality of the law itself can't happen until it actually becomes a law so that may yet happen.

7 Reasons Why It's Easier for Humans to Believe in God Than Evolution

The ascent of man? José-manuel Benitos/Wikimedia Commons. Photoillustration by Matt Connolly.

7 Reasons Why It's Easier for Humans to Believe in God Than Evolution
What science can tell us about our not-so-scientific minds.
By Chris Mooney
Mother Jones
Nov. 26, 2013

Late last week, the Texas Board of Education failed to approve a leading high school biology textbook—whose authors include the Roman Catholic biologist Kenneth Miller of Brown University—because of its treatment of evolution. According to The New York Times, critiques from a textbook reviewer identified as a "Darwin Skeptic" were a principal cause.

Yet even as creationists keep trying to undermine modern science, modern science is beginning to explain creationism scientifically. And it looks like evolution—the scientifically uncontested explanation for the diversity and interrelatedness of life on Earth, emphatically including human life—will be a major part of the story. Our brains are a stunning product of evolution; and yet ironically, they may naturally pre-dispose us against its acceptance.

"I don't think there's any question that a variety of our mental dispositions are ones that discourage us from taking evolutionary theory as seriously as it should be taken," explains Robert N. McCauley, director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University and author of the book Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not.

So what can science tell us about our not-so-scientific minds? Here's a list of cognitive traits, thinking styles, and psychological factors identified in recent research that seem to thwart evolution acceptance:

Biological Essentialism. First, we seem to have a deep tendency to think about biology in a way that is "essentialist"—in other words, assuming that each separate kind of animal species has a fundamental, unique nature that unites all members of that species, and that is inviolate. Fish have gills, birds have wings, fish make more fish, birds make more birds, and that's how it all works. Essentialist thinking has been demonstrated in young children. "Little kids as young as my 2 and a half year old granddaughter are quite clear that puppies don't have ponies for mommies and daddies," explains McCauley.

If essentialism is a default style of thinking, as much research suggests, then that puts evolution at a major disadvantage. Charles Darwin and his many scientific disciples have shown that essentialism is just plain wrong: Given enough time, biological kinds are not fixed but actually change. Species are connected through intermediate types to other species—and all are ultimately related to one another.

Teleological Thinking. Essentialism is just one basic cognitive trait, observed in young children, that seems to hinder evolutionary thinking. Another is "teleology," or the tendency to ascribe purposes to things and objects so as to assume they exist to serve some goal.

Recent research suggests that 4 and 5 year old children are highly teleological in their thinking, tending to opine, for instance, that clouds are "for raining" and that the purpose of lions is "to go in the zoo." The same tendency has been observed in 7 and 8 year olds who, when asked why "prehistoric rocks are pointy," offered answers like "so that animals could scratch on them when they got itchy" and "so that animals wouldn't sit on them and smash them."

Why do children think like this? One study speculates that this teleological disposition may be a "side [effect] of a socially intelligent mind that is naturally inclined to privilege intentional explanation." In other words, our brains developed for thinking about what people are thinking, and people have intentions and goals. If that's right, the playing field may be naturally tilted toward anti-evolutionist doctrines like "intelligent design," which postulates an intelligent agent (God) as the cause of the diversity of life on Earth, and seeks to uncover evidence of purposeful design in biological organisms.

Overactive Agency Detection. But how do you know the designer is "God"? That too may be the result of a default brain setting.

Another trait, closely related to teleological thinking, is our tendency to treat any number of inanimate objects as if they have minds and intentions. Examples of faulty agency detection, explains University of British Columbia origins of religion scholar Ara Norenzayan, range from seeing "faces in the clouds" to "getting really angry at your computer when it starts to malfunction." People engage in such "anthropomorphizing" all the time; it seems to come naturally. And it's a short step to religion: "When people anthropomorphize gods, they are inferring mental states," says Norenzayan.

There has been much speculation about the evolutionary origin of our anthropomorphizing tendency. One idea is that our brains developed to rapidly assume that objects in the world are alive and may pose a threat, simply because while wrongly mistaking a rustle of leaves for a bear won't get you killed, failing to detect a bear early (when the leaves rustle) most certainly will. "Supernatural agents are readily conjured up because natural selection has trip-wired cognitive schema for agency detection in the face of uncertainty," write Norenzayan and fellow origin of religion scholar Scott Atran.

Dualism. Yet another apparent feature of our cognitive architecture is the tendency to think that minds (or the "self" and the "soul") are somehow separate from brains. Once again, this inclination has been found in young children, suggesting that it emerges early in human development. "Preschool children will claim that the brain is responsible for some aspects of mental life, typically those involving deliberative mental work, such as solving math problems," write Yale psychologists Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg. "But preschoolers will also claim that the brain is not involved in a host of other activities, such as pretending to be a kangaroo, loving one's brother, or brushing one's teeth."

Dualistic thinking is closely related to belief in phenomena like spirits and ghosts. But in a recent study, it was also the cognitive factor most strongly associated with believing in God. As for evolutionary science? Dualism is pretty clearly implicated in resistance to the idea that human beings could have developed from purely natural processes—for if they did, how could there ever be a soul or self beyond the body, to say nothing of an afterlife?

Inability to Comprehend Vast Time Scales. According to Norenzayan, there's one more basic cognitive factor that prevents us from easily understanding evolution. Evolution occurred due to the accumulation of many small changes over vast time periods—which means that it is unlike anything we've experienced. So even thinking about it isn't very easy. "The only way you can appreciate the process of evolution is in an abstract way," says Norenzayan. "Over millions of years, small changes accumulate, but it's not intuitive. There's nothing in our brain that says that's true. We have to override our incredulity."

Group Morality and Tribalism. All of these cognitive factors seem to make evolution hard to grasp, even as they render religion (or creationist ideas) simpler and more natural to us. But beyond these cognitive factors, there are also emotional reasons why a lot of people don't want to believe in evolution. When we see resistance to its teaching, after all, it is usually because a religious community fears that this body of science will undermine a belief system—in the US, usually fundamentalist Christianity—deemed to serve as the foundation for shared values and understanding. In other words, evolution is resisted because it is perceived as a threat to the group.

So how appropriate that one current scientific theory about religion is that it exists (and, maybe, that it evolved) to bind groups together and keep them cohesive. In his recent book The Righteous Mind, moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that religions provide a shared set of beliefs and practices that, in effect, serve as social glue. "Gods and religions," writes Haidt, "are group-level adaptations for producing cohesiveness and trust." The upside is unity; the downside, Haidt continues, is "groupishness, tribalism, and nationalism." Ideas and beliefs that threaten the group or the beliefs that hold it together—ideas like evolution—are bound to fare badly in this context.

Fear and the Need for Certainty. Finally, there appears to be something about fear and doubt that impels religiosity and dispels acceptance of evolution. "People seem to take more comfort from a stance that says, someone designed the world with good intentions, instead of that the world is just an intention-less, random place," says Norenzayan. "This is especially true when we feel a sense of threat, or a feeling of not being in control."

Indeed, in one amazing study, New Zealanders who had just suffered through a severe earthquake showed stronger religiosity, but only if they had been directly affected by the quake. Other research suggests that making people think about death increases their religiosity and also decreases evolution acceptance. It's not just death: It's also randomness, disorder. In one telling study, research participants who were asked to think of a situation in which they had lacked control and then to "provide three reasons supporting the notion that the future is (un-) controllable," showed a marked decline in their acceptance of evolution, opting instead for an intelligent design-style explanation. (Another study found that anti-evolutionists displayed higher fear sensitivity and a trait called the "need for cognitive closure," which describes a psychological need to find an answer that can resolve uncertainty and dispel doubt.)

Such is the research, and it's important to point out a few caveats. First, this doesn't mean science and religion are fundamentally incompatible. The conflict may run very deep indeed, but nevertheless, some individuals can and do find a way to retain their religious beliefs and also accept evolution—including the aforementioned biology textbook author Kenneth Miller of Brown University, a Catholic.

Second, while there are many reasons to think that the traits above comprise a core part of who we are, it doesn't automatically follow that religion is the direct result of evolution by natural selection. It is also possible that religion arises as a byproduct of more basic traits that were, in turn, selected for because they conferred greater fitness (such as agency detection). This "byproduct" view is defended by Steven Pinker here.

In any event, the evidence is clear that both our cognitive architecture, and also our emotional dispositions, make it difficult or unnatural for many people to accept evolution. "Natural selection is like quantum physics...we might intellectually grasp it, with considerable effort, but it will never feel right to us," writes the Yale psychologist Paul Bloom. Often, people express surprise that in an age so suffused with science, science causes so much angst and resistance.

Perhaps more surprising would be if it didn't.

My plan: a separate community that prevents child molestations and doesn't cost taxpayers a cent

California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (top left) watches as Maria Keever (left) and Milena Sellers Phillips (right) speak out against the proposed plan to release Douglas Badger from a state hospital. Badger, a repeat sex offender, has been accused of assaulting several young men and one 16-year-old girl. Christian Rodas for SDUT

I have an idea about where pedophiles should live. It would work for Douglas Badger (whose release is a hot issue here in San Diego), and it would work for those who have not offended, but who are sexually attracted to children.

It wouldn't just apply to child molesters who have served their prison terms. It would also prevent sexual assaults in the future by pedophiles who have not offended yet.

And it would be entirely voluntary on the part of the pedophiles. They'd rather live in my proposed development than in a trailer outside Donovan State Prison on Otay Mesa, the only viable location that has been proposed so far for Douglas Badger. And even sociopaths might be smart enough to choose a life for themselves that wouldn't involve prison--at least not for sexual assaults on children.

I call upon real estate developers, particularly those who have benefited from the generosity of San Diego taxpayers--like Corky McMillan's company, for starters--to design a development where pedophiles would live. (Perhaps those with other illegal urges would also want to move in.)

No children would be allowed into this development, and no residents would be allowed to leave except in extreme circumstances, and they would be supervised by a guard while on the outside. Anyone who leaves without a guard would not be allowed back. This would not be a place from which predators could leave to commit crimes and then come back and hide. If they leave, my guess is that they'll probably end up in prison.

How would the problem of child pornography be handled? Perhaps residents would have to agree to have their computers regularly searched, and mail would be examined. This town would allow much greater freedom and opportunity than prison, or a trailer outside the gates of a prison, but residents would have to agree to give up some of their rights in order to make sure the community could not become a haven for criminals.

I am thinking of starting a petition to this effect.

The residents could own and run their own grocery stores, restaurants, and all manner of businesses, generating taxes to pay for guards and administrators of the development. The residents wouldn't be paying any taxes if we waited for them to offend and then put them in prison.

Maura Larkins


Housing For Sexual Predator Douglas Badger To Be Determined By Judge
By Dwane Brown
KPBS
November 12, 2013

GUESTS
Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Assemblywoman
John Rice, Deputy District Attorney, San Diego County

County and state officials, along with concerned parents, voiced opposition Tuesday to the release of convicted sexual predator Douglas Badger. A court hearing to locate housing for 70-year-old Badger will be held Friday.

Douglas Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974.

Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974. His victims were primarily 18- to 29-year-old male hitchhikers, although in one case he assaulted a 16-year-old girl.

He was convicted in 1981 and served 10 years in prison. Shortly after his release in 1991, he re-offended and was again convicted of sexual assault.

In 1997, Badger was committed to a state hospital as a sexually violent predator. In August, a judge ruled that Badger could be safely released into the community with continued treatment and supervision.

Milena Phillips' is the creator of the Jonathan Sellers and Charlie Keever Foundation. Sellers, Phillips' son, and his friend, Keever, were killed by a sexual predator in 1993. Phillips strongly opposes releasing Badger back into the community.

"A repeat offender, a repeat sexual sadist — to let him in an area where he could be in walking distance of children is just unthinkable," Phillips said.

San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox and state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez also made remarks voicing their opposition.

The Department of State Hospitals originally proposed placing Badger in Campo, in the East County, but that was withdrawn by the owner. Officials will update a judge Friday on efforts to find suitable housing for Badger.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents East County, said in September that she wanted Badger released to a trailer near Donovan State Prison in the southern part of San Diego.

Friday's hearing will be open for public comment.

City News Service contributed to this report.


South County officials oppose sex predator's release
By Dana Littlefield
SDUT
Nov. 12, 2013

SAN DIEGO — In a pre-emptive move, two South County officials spoke out Tuesday against the pending release of a sexually violent predator, saying they do not want him placed in any of the communities they represent.

It remains unclear where Douglas Badger, a 70-year-old repeat sex offender, might be allowed to live after his release from a state mental hospital now that a proposal to place him in rural East County has been rescinded.

But state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and county Supervisor Greg Cox aren’t waiting to find out. They said at a news conference that Badger should not be released at all, given his history of attacking young men and a 16-year-old girl.

Only a handful of sexually violent predators have been released in San Diego County since legal changes went into effect that allowed those considered the worst offenders to be committed civilly to state hospitals after they served their time in prison. One offender remains under supervision in the community.

Gonzalez and Cox said that other sexually violent predators — including Badger — had been allowed to live in South County, specifically in a trailer outside Donovan state prison in Otay Mesa. Badger lived in the trailer from June 2006 to October 2007.

Authorities at the time said he was sent back to the hospital for medical reasons.

“It’s not OK to dump people into these communities,” Gonzalez told reporters Tuesday outside the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego.

Cox said Badger should remain at state-controlled facility, because he has shown previously that he cannot be trusted.

“If he had reoffended once before, what guarantees do we have that he won’t reoffend again?” the supervisor asked in a letter to San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill.

A hearing has been scheduled for Friday in Gill’s courtroom, when state officials are expected to discuss ongoing efforts to find appropriate housing for Badger in San Diego County.

Badger was one of the first people classified as a sexually violent predator to be released in San Diego County after state legislators enacted laws in 1996 that extended custody for the worst offenders.

Originally, offenders who fit the criteria were sent to Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County, where they had the option of participating in a specialized sex offender treatment program with the goal of someday being deemed safe for release.

The program was moved later to Coalinga State Hospital in Fresno County.

At first the law required the offenders to be committed to the hospital for terms of two years, but Jessica’s Law — passed by voters in 2006 — changed existing statutes to allow predators to be committed to the hospital indefinitely.

After one year, however, they have the right to petition for a new hearing to determine whether they still fit the predator criteria.

On Aug. 21, Gill ruled that Badger could be released into the community safely with continued outpatient treatment and supervision, such as GPS monitoring.

Authorities from the state Department of Hospitals announced a month later that Badger could be allowed to live in a semi-permanent mobile home placed on nearly three-acres on Hartfell Road in Campo.

Warning to racists: don't take a DNA test unless you're ready for the truth; white supremacist Craig Cobb wasn't ready

Craig Cobb

If your family has lived in this country for a long time, especially in the South, there's a real chance that you have some African or Native American ancestors, no matter how white your skin is. At the same time, African-Americans are frequently surprised to learn how much white ancestry they have.

Craig Cobb deluded himself about the reality of racial mixing, and now he's a fish out of water in the supremacist community he himself created. I guess no one ever taught him how to deal with the ambiguities and uncertainties of this world. If he had any sense at all, he would have known it was time to change his tune, not turn up the volume.

In contrast, the descendants of Thomas Jefferson who had believed for generations that they were entirely white, then a few years ago found out that they were descended from Sally Hemmings, readily embraced their black ancestor.

Feud tied to DNA test of supremacist's black blood
Doug Stanglin
USA TODAY
November 21, 2013

The recent arrest of neo-Nazi Craig Cobb, who wants to turn a small North Dakota town all-white, was apparently sparked by a feud with a fellow supremacist who turned on him when DNA tests showed Cobb to be part black, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Cobb, 62, was arrested Saturday along with a fellow neo-Nazi for allegedly threatening citizens while going on "patrol" with weapons in Leith, N.D. (population:16).

Cobb and Kynan Dutton, 29, are each charged with seven counts of terrorizing residents, five of the counts involving guns. The pair could face 10 to 35 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The latest twist in the story comes as Tom Metzger, founder of the White Aryan Resistance, tells the Associated Press he disagrees with Cobb's high-profile antics and is returning property in Leith that Cobb had deeded to him.

Cobb, a hate crimes fugitive from Canada with a long history of association with hate groups and white separatist believers, quietly began buying up local property months ago in a bid to take control of the town council and make Leith an all-white community.

Grant County records show that Cobb, who has purchased 13 lots, has since transferred ownership of two lots: one to Metzger, who is also a former grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in California, and another to Alex Linder, originator of the Vanguard News Network, a white supremacist website, according to the civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center.

Leith, with a population of 16, is located 51 miles southwest of Bismarck.

"The way he does business is not the way I do business," said Metzger, who tells the AP that he still considers Cobb a friend. "I think people should move into communities as regular people and become part of the community, and not necessarily declare their racist views."

"His view was to come into town like a brass band. I disagreed with that," he said.

In a text message to the Tribune before he was taken into custody on Saturday afternoon, Cobb said, "Because of the many violences (sic) and harassments against we (sic) and the children, we have commenced armed patrols of Leith." In a follow up text, Cobb said he has new plans to name some of his property the "Adolph Hitler Pvt. Park of Leith."

The violence, however, apparently was traced back to another white supremacist who had a falling out with Cobb, the Times reports.

Grant County Assistant State's Atty. Todd Schwarz tells the newspaper that a fellow supremacist apparently targeted Cobb with racial graffiti after he'd found out that Cobb's DNA results showed he was part black.

"The individual in question was interviewed, and when his interview answers weren't matching up, he essentially admitted it," Schwarz, who declined to name the persons, told the Times. "The one that tipped it off -- he painted on the house, 'BACK IN BLACK,' and he's not an AC/DC fan."

Cobb gained national attention recently when he appeared on the Trisha Goddard Show's "Race in America" series and agreed to undergo DNA testing. The results showed he is 14% sub-Saharan African and 86% European. Cobb rejected the results as "short science" and "statistical noise".

Schwarz said the pair "had a falling out" on the day the DNA results became public. Schwarz said the unidentified man was "not real mentally stable" and left town the same day.

One of the two targets in Saturday's incident was Leith City Councilman Lee Cook, who alleged that the pair came to the end of his property with a gun and that Dutton had his finger on the rifle trigger, the Bismarck Tribune reports.

Both Cook and Bruce, who has been posting updates about the neo-Nazi activities in the town on Leithnd.com website, called 911, the Tribune reports.

Contributing: Associated Press

Plan: Create a voluntary, closed, controlled community for pedophiles supported by their own tax dollars

California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (top left) watches as Maria Keever (left) and Milena Sellers Phillips (right) speak out against the proposed plan to release Douglas Badger from a state hospital. Badger, a repeat sex offender, has been accused of assaulting several young men and one 16-year-old girl. Christian Rodas for SDUT

I have an idea about where pedophiles should live. It would work for Douglas Badger (whose release is a hot issue here in San Diego), and it would work for those who have not offended, but who are sexually attracted to children.

It wouldn't just apply to child molesters who have served their prison terms. It would also prevent sexual assaults in the future by pedophiles who have not offended yet.

And it would be entirely voluntary on the part of the pedophiles. They'd rather live in my proposed development than in a trailer outside Donovan State Prison on Otay Mesa, the only viable location that has been proposed so far for Douglas Badger. And even sociopaths might be smart enough to choose a life for themselves that wouldn't involve prison--at least not for sexual assaults on children.

I call upon real estate developers, particularly those who have benefited from the generosity of San Diego taxpayers--like Corky McMillan's company, for starters--to design a development where pedophiles would live. (Perhaps those with other illegal urges would also want to move in.)

No children would be allowed into this development, and no residents would be allowed to leave except in extreme circumstances, and they would be supervised by a guard while on the outside. Anyone who leaves without a guard would not be allowed back. This would not be a place from which predators could leave to commit crimes and then come back and hide. If they leave, my guess is that they'll probably end up in prison.

How would the problem of child pornography be handled? Perhaps residents would have to agree to have their computers regularly searched, and mail would be examined. This town would allow much greater freedom and opportunity than prison, or a trailer outside the gates of a prison, but residents would have to agree to give up some of their rights in order to make sure the community could not become a haven for criminals.

I am thinking of starting a petition to this effect.

The residents could own and run their own grocery stores, restaurants, and all manner of businesses, generating taxes to pay for guards and administrators of the development. The residents wouldn't be paying any taxes if we waited for them to offend and then put them in prison.

Maura Larkins


Housing For Sexual Predator Douglas Badger To Be Determined By Judge
By Dwane Brown
KPBS
November 12, 2013

GUESTS
Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Assemblywoman
John Rice, Deputy District Attorney, San Diego County

County and state officials, along with concerned parents, voiced opposition Tuesday to the release of convicted sexual predator Douglas Badger. A court hearing to locate housing for 70-year-old Badger will be held Friday.

Douglas Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974.

Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974. His victims were primarily 18- to 29-year-old male hitchhikers, although in one case he assaulted a 16-year-old girl.

He was convicted in 1981 and served 10 years in prison. Shortly after his release in 1991, he re-offended and was again convicted of sexual assault.

In 1997, Badger was committed to a state hospital as a sexually violent predator. In August, a judge ruled that Badger could be safely released into the community with continued treatment and supervision.

Milena Phillips' is the creator of the Jonathan Sellers and Charlie Keever Foundation. Sellers, Phillips' son, and his friend, Keever, were killed by a sexual predator in 1993. Phillips strongly opposes releasing Badger back into the community.

"A repeat offender, a repeat sexual sadist — to let him in an area where he could be in walking distance of children is just unthinkable," Phillips said.

San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox and state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez also made remarks voicing their opposition.

The Department of State Hospitals originally proposed placing Badger in Campo, in the East County, but that was withdrawn by the owner. Officials will update a judge Friday on efforts to find suitable housing for Badger.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents East County, said in September that she wanted Badger released to a trailer near Donovan State Prison in the southern part of San Diego.

Friday's hearing will be open for public comment.

City News Service contributed to this report.


South County officials oppose sex predator's release
By Dana Littlefield
SDUT
Nov. 12, 2013

SAN DIEGO — In a pre-emptive move, two South County officials spoke out Tuesday against the pending release of a sexually violent predator, saying they do not want him placed in any of the communities they represent.

It remains unclear where Douglas Badger, a 70-year-old repeat sex offender, might be allowed to live after his release from a state mental hospital now that a proposal to place him in rural East County has been rescinded.

But state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and county Supervisor Greg Cox aren’t waiting to find out. They said at a news conference that Badger should not be released at all, given his history of attacking young men and a 16-year-old girl.

Only a handful of sexually violent predators have been released in San Diego County since legal changes went into effect that allowed those considered the worst offenders to be committed civilly to state hospitals after they served their time in prison. One offender remains under supervision in the community.

Gonzalez and Cox said that other sexually violent predators — including Badger — had been allowed to live in South County, specifically in a trailer outside Donovan state prison in Otay Mesa. Badger lived in the trailer from June 2006 to October 2007.

Authorities at the time said he was sent back to the hospital for medical reasons.

“It’s not OK to dump people into these communities,” Gonzalez told reporters Tuesday outside the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego.

Cox said Badger should remain at state-controlled facility, because he has shown previously that he cannot be trusted.

“If he had reoffended once before, what guarantees do we have that he won’t reoffend again?” the supervisor asked in a letter to San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill.

A hearing has been scheduled for Friday in Gill’s courtroom, when state officials are expected to discuss ongoing efforts to find appropriate housing for Badger in San Diego County.

Badger was one of the first people classified as a sexually violent predator to be released in San Diego County after state legislators enacted laws in 1996 that extended custody for the worst offenders.

Originally, offenders who fit the criteria were sent to Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County, where they had the option of participating in a specialized sex offender treatment program with the goal of someday being deemed safe for release.

The program was moved later to Coalinga State Hospital in Fresno County.

At first the law required the offenders to be committed to the hospital for terms of two years, but Jessica’s Law — passed by voters in 2006 — changed existing statutes to allow predators to be committed to the hospital indefinitely.

After one year, however, they have the right to petition for a new hearing to determine whether they still fit the predator criteria.

On Aug. 21, Gill ruled that Badger could be released into the community safely with continued outpatient treatment and supervision, such as GPS monitoring.

Authorities from the state Department of Hospitals announced a month later that Badger could be allowed to live in a semi-permanent mobile home placed on nearly three-acres on Hartfell Road in Campo.