It features Alice Roberts, Bill Nye, Nigel Marvin, Dallas Campbell and more. Materials used in the creation of the video were culled from the following:
Dinosaurs Alive
BBC "How to Build a Dinosaur"
BBC "Extinct: A Horizon Guide to Dinosaurs"
Bill Nye - Dinosaurs
Prehistoric Park
Discovery Channel "Last Day of the Dinosaurs"
Jurassic Park
Jack Horner's 2011 TED Talk
In a revival type speech, Greenwell Springs Baptist Church pastor Rev. Dennis Terry offered some pointed words about abortion, gay marriage, and prayer in schools as he introduced Family Research Council president Tony Perkins and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
As if there was any more correlations necessary to illustrate Rick Santorum's theocratic, discriminatory, and intolerant views.
"There is only one God and his name is Jesus ... We don't worship Buddha, we don't worship Mohammad, we don't worship Allah, we worship God, we worship God's son Jesus Christ...God, have favor on Rick Santorum." said Terry.
A high-ranking member of Indonesia’s highest Islamic authority has urged Muslims not to attend Lady Gaga’s upcoming concert in Jakarta, declaring that the pop star known for her sexy and controversial outfits was forbidden under Islamic law.“[The concert is] intended to destroy the nation’s morality,” said Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) chairman Cholil Ridwan, who added that he had never watched the singer perform and only heard of her “reputation” second-hand.
Apparently, not many Indonesians who know of Lady Gaga's reputation first-hand seem to care. Her show sold more than 25,000 tickets in less than two hours.
Cholil took exception with Lady Gaga’s revealing outfits and sexualized dance moves, claiming that a female dangdut singer who wore similar costumes would also be haram.
But he claimed Lady Gaga was worse. "She is from the West, and she often shows her aurat [private parts of the body] when performing," Cholil said.
While he was aware that many Western singers have already performed in Indonesia, Cholil said maybe it was time to put an end to these "cultural attacks."
Another MUI chairman, Slamet Effendi Yusuf, seemed to be less condemning of Gaga.
“I am sure they know what is good and bad,” he said. “However, I hope Lady Gaga can also wear a proper [dress] in her show.”
Vote For Marriage NC is the deceitful, Bible-thumping, bigoted organization rallying 'marriage supporters' to pass the harmful amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the NC state constitution.
I get their emails. As a straight, married father living and working in North Carolina, Vote For Marriage NC comes across as, well, pathetic. They have nothing. It doesn't matter how you look at it, Amendment One is completely unnecessary, discriminatory, bigoted, shortsighted, bad for business, and just really lousy legislation.
We hate gay people, and this family is a stock photo
Their latest email is a flaccid attempt to rally 'marriage supporters' to stand up and be counted, as they can't seem to rally quite like the anti-amendment folks.
Dear Marriage Supporter,
Recent reports claim that “several thousand” of our opponents will be marching on our State Capitol today in protest of our efforts to preserve marriage through the Marriage Protection Amendment that is on the ballot on May 8th.
These activists have an agenda, and we must act now in order to put a stop to it. Will you stand by while activists seek to redefine marriage in our state, or will you join our efforts to protect marriage? Please donate $20, $60, or $100 now if you want to preserve marriage in North Carolina!
By passing the Marriage Protection Amendment on May 8th, we can protect marriage from the whims of radical activists who are working to redefine marriage against the will of the people. But we can only make our voices heard with your support.
In December 2011, a court case was filed in Guilford County challenging our state’s marriage laws. The threat to marriage is real in North Carolina, and our opposition’s organized and highly funded campaign is using deceptive messaging to confuse voters about what the Marriage Protection Amendment accomplishes. Thankfully, we know the truth: The Amendment simply elevates our current marriage laws to a constitutional amendment where it can only be changed by another vote of the people of North Carolina. Protecting marriage in our Constitution will prevent the court in Guilford County or any other state court, for that matter, from re-defining marriage for the rest of us.
How do we make our voices heard above the roar of activists and our oppositions’ deceptive messaging? Volunteer or donate today! May 8th is rapidly approaching, and we need your support to bring us to victory.
With your support, we can make sure marriage stays between only a man and a woman on May 8th.
Sincerely,
Rachel Lee
Communications Director, Vote FOR Marriage NC
There's something incredibly telling in the email. Vote For Marriage NC can't seem to come up with actual reasons why same-sex marriage is such a threat.
Let's see. Well, for starters, they want to 'protect marriage from the whims of radical activists who are working to redefine marriage against the will of the people.' Hm. Do they mean radical activists like myself? A married, lifetime North Carolinian, father of three, who lives in the suburbs? God forbid a pasty, overweight, lawn-mowing, soccer dad destroy marriage with one of his crazy whims. Am I not part of the will of the people? Are the thousands of gay and lesbian citizens not part of the will of the people? And really, do we want to put the rights of human beings up for a vote? Do you know how that might have went in certain southern states during the civil rights era?
If you believe marriage to be a union between a man and a woman, you are working with a definition of marriage completely different to what actually occurred in, say, 500 BCE or 54 CE. Marriage has been redefined over and over and over again, and it will continue to be until the earth is swallowed by the sun (or until humans are extinct, whichever comes first).
The email mentions that 'these activists have an agenda.' Well, of course we have an agenda. We have an agenda to allow citizens of our great state to be treated equally -- just as civil rights activists had an agenda to allow human beings with different skin color to be treated equally.
Hey Vote For Marriage NC, have you ever thought that maybe you are the radical activists? As I mentioned, I'm not gay. I'm happily married. I contribute to the state economy. I vote. I mow the lawn. I attend parent-teacher conferences. I volunteer at the food bank. I grill out. And I think you are radical. You are actively working to deny rights to other human beings based on their natural traits. That's radical. Jesus would ask you to kindly chill the fuck out.
Which group more resembles the radical Taliban? The people who want equal treatment for all, regardless of natural traits? Or the ones who are hell-bent on oppressing an entire group of citizens because they do not meet your definition of holy?
The only fact in your email, Vote For Marriage NC, is your opening salutation. You're absolutely right. I am a 'marriage supporter.' For everyone.
You probably know the guy from his outlandish anti-choice stunts, which have included blockading the entrances to abortion clinics, his protest of Barack Obama's commencement visit to the University of Notre Dame, or his statement that abortion provider Dr. George Tiller 'reaped what he sowed' when he was assassinated in 2009.
You also may know that Randall Terry is actually running for president of the United States. Kind of. Terry's presidency has been more about getting graphic anti-choice ads on television than anything.
Terry wasted no time gloating over his Oklahoma feat, releasing the below video, in which he taunts his adversaries (including Obama, Slate, and Jezebel).
Rick Santorum, despite what he may say, is not looking out for women's best interest. Rick Santorum prefers a Biblical view of women, and anyone who has read the Old Testament knows women didn't fare too well in that book.
I did not receive an answer from any Santorum supporters, which probably says more about my followers than anything. I'm still waiting for a response.
My feeling is that women supporters of Rick Santorum are responding to a few things which trump any view he has on their abilities, or their autonomy. They are likely responding to his pro-life, Biblical views, which, as many believe, eclipse this business of women's rights.
Perhaps two home-schooled daughters of an Oklahoma pastor can shed some light on the appeal.
Haley, 18, and Camille Harris, 20 have penned a song for Ssantorum's campaign. The video for the "Game On!" has become a viral sensation with nearly 1 million views as of this writing.
The girls sing: "Game on, join the fight/We've finally got a man who will stand for what is right/There is hope for our nation again/Maybe the first time since we had Ronald Reagan/There will be justice for the unborn, factories back on our shores/Where the Constitution rules our land/Yes, I believe Rick Santorum is our man."
Daughters of a pastor in a family of eight, the girls live on four acres with 47 pecan trees. All of the Harris children have been home-schooled, much like Santorum’s kids. The girls say they are best friends, love coffee (though Haley prefers hot chocolate), have never bought a magazine and have never had cable (according to the girls, “Mom and Dad didn’t want to raise hoodlums :)”).
Camille, 20, said she has no desire to watch TV. "Even now, if I had the opportunity, I don’t choose to because they go against my value system. My dad’s like, 'You’re over 18. You can do whatever you want to do.’”
Camille had tried to write a theme song for Santorum before “Game On,” but nothing came. “I couldn’t get anything good or catchy,” she said. “But all of a sudden on Sunday night when someone said, 'Write a song for Super Tuesday,' I said 'I’m gonna write it.' We just prayed and asked God to give us the words and that song came really fast.”
So, there you have it. Perhaps the secret to Santorum's women supporters is the fact that there are way more families like the Harrises than we thought. Those home-schooling, media-avoiding, miracle-seeking, anti-contraceptive families tend to be large, and cut off from other world views. They simply don't know any better.
I realize that sounds awfully simplistic, elitist, condescending, and crass. I also realize that it is a gross generalization.
About women supporting Santorum: I too find this baffling, and can only attribute it to some form of Stockholm Syndrome. As someone who grew up among born-again and evangelical Christians in Appalachia, I would hypothesize that women who have accommodated themselves to living an evangelical lifestyle have nothing to gain from questioning the premises of Christian patriarchy. Their lives are more comfortable, less fraught with domestic conflict, if they simply decide to be happy and make the most of their assigned roles. Although to a feminist the trajectory of their lives seems constrained, on a day-to-day basis evangelical women feel productive and empowered by playing a dynamic role in their churches and schools, from which they derive a potent sense of community. Nor are they necessarily barred from having a job. They have avenues for self-expression such as crafts, baking, or book clubs. (If your first reaction is to disdain these, then unless you’re a professional artist you probably have too high an opinion of your own creative outlets.) In fact, when I recall the women I grew up under, they didn’t think men were superior at all; they took the patronizing attitude that men were to be indulged in their masculine delusions. It would be elitist/snobby/condescending/wrong to view such women as passive or merely subservient. How many of us want to challenge the social constructs within which we have created active lives that are reckoned as meaningful? At any rate, this is my best effort to make sense of the women’s vote, which is otherwise unfathomable and preposterous to me.
It features Alice Roberts, Bill Nye, Nigel Marvin, Dallas Campbell and more. Materials used in the creation of the video were culled from the following:
Via the Jakarta Globe:
Pat Robertson wowed everyone last week with his assertion that marijuana should be legal.
