Prince: 'It's Fun Being in Islamic Countries'

The Purple One, who once sang the praises of a woman masturbating with a magazine in a hotel lobby is now singing the praises of women who are forced to wear burqas.

From his exclusive interview with The Guardian:

"It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that." When asked about the fate of those unhappy with having no choice, he replied:  "There are people who are unhappy with everything. There's a dark side to everything."

Prince began embracing religion around 2001, when he became a Jehovah's Witness (a move that many fans think ruined his music).

"I was anti-authoritarian but at the same time I was a loving tyrant," he told the Guardian. "You can't be both. I had to learn what authority was. That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible is a study guide for social interaction.

"If I go to a place where I don't feel stressed and there's no car alarms and airplanes overhead, then you understand what noise pollution is. Noise is a society that has no God, that has no glue. We can't do what we want to do all the time. If you don't have boundaries, what then?"

The full interview will appear on The Guardian's Film and Music section on Friday.

Miss USA - The Evolution Monologues

As you may have heard by now, the winner of the Miss USA Pageant, Alyssa Campanella (Miss California), was one of only two out of 51 contestants who fully affirmed their belief in evolution and that it should be taught in schools (Alida D’Angona, Miss Massachusetts was the other).

Via HuffPo:

The rest either confused the question with evolution of species (versus the intelligent design debate), or stated that they thought both should be taught in school, according to Scientific American.

Campanella and Alida D’Angona from Massachusetts were the only two contestants to state that they fully believed in evolution.

There had been concern, leading up to the pageant, that questions about evolution were too controversial and caused undue anxiety.

For those of you who are interested in the pre-recorded answers provided by each of the 51 delegates, the video has been released for your viewing pleasure.

You may wish to encase your skull in foam before watching. Some answers may lead to banging head on desk.

Ten Insane Things About Rick Perry

"Hi, I'm Rick Perry and I'm insane."

1. He goes jogging in the morning packing a Ruger .380 with laser sights and loaded with hollow point bullets.

2. He wears a pair of cowboy boots emblazoned with the words "Freedom" and "Liberty."

3. He believes the economic crisis is happening for a purpose; so that the nation will return to biblical principles and free us from our slavery to the government.

4. As the gulf oil spill, which Perry stated was an "act of God," entered its third month, he issued a proclamation calling on his constituents to pray to "ask [God] for his merciful intervention...in this time of crisis." Dear God, please stop the leak that you started. Amen.

5. He stated,  "Homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?...Well, then why don’t they call it something else?" apparently forgetting that heterosexuality also contains 'sex,' and that in both cases 'sex' is referring to gender, and not 'doing it.'

6.  When asked to provide some statistics that show abstinence works, he replied, “I’m just going to tell you from my own personal life. Abstinence works,” apparently forgetting that his abstinence-focused sex-ed state ranks ranks third in the number of teen pregnancies and first in repeat teen pregnancies.

7. He stated that Intelligent Design was a "valid scientific theory."

8. In April, as Texas fought several wildfires, Perry issued a proclamation for a 3-day "Prayer For Rain." As Native American writer Sherman Alexie said, "Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained."

9. His 'Response' prayer rally, which he describes as "a non-denominational, apolitical Christian prayer meeting," is powered by politically active Religious Right individuals and groups who are hell-bent on injecting their extremist religious views, including degrading views of non-Christians and the LGBT population, into American politics.

10. He's a hair-petter:

Ali G's 'Science Rap'

From the mind that brought us the wonderful Symphony of Science mash-ups, featuring Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and many other great minds, comes Ali G's 'The Science Rap.' Not quite as wise as Hawking and Sagan, Ali G nonetheless shares their curiosity about the world around him.

Spirits and Souls

The latest Calamities of Nature comic dovetails nicely with Sean M. Carroll's recent comments on the soul and the afterlife.

Jerusalem 'Dog Stoning' Story Untrue, Says Court

Remember the story of the dog who was sentenced to death by stoning by rabbis in Jerusalem?

Untrue, according to the Beth Din financial court.

“There is no basis for stoning dogs or any other animal in the Jewish religion, not since the days of the Temple or Abraham.

“The female dog found a seat in the corner of the court. And the children were delighted by it; there were hundreds outside the court. They are used to seeing stray cats but most have never seen a dog before. The only action we took was to dial the number of the Jerusalem Municipality to get the people in charge to take it away.

“There was no talk of reincarnation, a lawyer has never been mentioned, either now or 20 years ago, and there was no stoning. Such inventions are a kind of blood libel, and we wonder why the inventor of the story did not continue to describe how we collected the blood of the dog to make our matzah.”

It's unclear how the original story came to be, but when it was picked up by news sources, it quickly enraged people around the globe, becoming one of the BBC's 'Most Read' items, and generating nearly 2,000 comments on Yahoo! News.

One Nation (Under God) Indivisible

NBC sure stepped in it this weekend when they omitted the words "Under God" (twice, even!) from a pre-U.S. Open video montage.

Clip of the broadcast below:



As one would assume, the network was swamped with complaints, tweets, and social media tirades. Before the broadcast was over, NBC's Dan Hicks served up an apology:

"It was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation's capital for the third time," Hicks said. "Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone, and we'd like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it."

I am sure that among those complaining, there were many who believed this to be just one more example of America's core values disintegrating -- all part of Obama's secular, anti-American agenda.

We can't know for sure (yet) exactly why the omission occurred (it was pretty obvious), or why the final edit was approved (not that it shouldn't have been approved), but we do know that this particular edit of the Pledge was the truest version that has been broadcast by a network television network in quite some time.

I would suggest that those who complained also pick up a phone and contact Warner Brothers to decry Porky Pig's omission in 1939. Pardon me. He didn't omit it. The words hadn't been added yet.