Weren't Stalin and Mao Atheists?

Atheist Mullah Richard Dawkins issues a fatwa against religion, Christianity in particular.


In "The God Delusion," the first film in the series, Dawkins targets Catholicism at the pilgrimage site in Lourdes. "If you want to experience the medieval rituals of faith, the candle light, the incense, music, important-sounding dead languages, nobody does it better than the Catholics," he says.

Dawkins, using his visit to Colorado Springs' New Life Church, criticizes conservative U.S. evangelicals and warns his audience of the influence of "Christian fascism" and "an American Taliban."

(..)

In part two, "The Virus of Faith," Dawkins attacks the teaching of religion to children, calling it child abuse.

"Innocent children are being saddled with demonstrable falsehoods," he says. "It's time to question the abuse of childhood innocence with superstitious ideas of hellfire and damnation. Isn't it weird the way we automatically label a tiny child with its parents' religion?"

"Sectarian religious schools," Dawkins asserts, have been "deeply damaging" to generations of children.

Dawkins, who makes no effort to disguise his atheism and contempt for religion, focuses on the Bible, too.

"The God of the Old Testament has got to be the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous, and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, racist," he says. Dawkins then criticizes Abraham, compares Moses to Hitler and Saddam Hussein, and calls the New Testament "St Paul's nasty, sado-masochistic doctrine of atonement for original sin."

Not on University Time You're Not

Cohabiting professors at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota are shocked over being told they work for an institution that believes there is such a thing as sin and therefore must get separate rooms when traveling with university students.

Ellen Kennedy and Leigh Lawton never thought their sleeping arrangement was an issue, but the university insists it goes against Catholic values.

Kennedy has been living with fellow professor, Leigh Lawton for twelve years. They are not married and both teach at the University of Saint Thomas which is a Catholic school.

"I'm not Catholic," says Kennedy, "Leigh is not Catholic and there has never been anything that's been forthcoming, that says these are the tenets of the Catholic Church."

Because Kennedy and Lawton aren't married, school officials say, they must book separate hotel rooms when on the road. But Kennedy says the real issue stems from a newspaper article in the November 11 edition of the campus newspaper about a former choir director at the school, who is gay. She canceled plans to travel with students to France after being told that having her partner travel with the choir presented a moral dilemma for students.

I Need to be an Anti-American Jew Hater

So that I can get a nice and cushy teaching job at a public university and/or college.


A U.S.-based Saudi professor and former U.N. fellow says he agrees with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust is a "myth" and says America eventually will collapse like the Soviet Union.

Abdullah Mohammad Sindi, who has taught at four American schools, told Iran's Mehr News Agency Dec. 26, "I agree wholeheartedly with President Ahmadinejad."

"There was no such a thing as the 'Holocaust,'" Sindi said, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute. "The so-called 'Holocaust' is nothing but Jewish-Zionist propaganda. There is no proof whatsoever that any living Jew was ever gassed or burned in Nazi Germany or in any of the territories that Nazi Germany occupied during World War II."

Sindi, who maintains a website, has taught at the University of California at Irvine, California State University at Pomona, Cerritos College and Fullerton College – all in the Los Angeles area. He also taught political science at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia.

Eh, Well. Maybe Next Year

USC lost. *sigh* On a totally unrelated note, I'm almost done reading Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment. Pretty insightful and informative, and it has really changed my mind on the justification for interning and evacuating people of Japanese descent from the U.S. West Coast during WWII. Like most people who have been fed half-truths on this matter, I used to think it was unjustified, but not anymore.

Even the Mighty Fail

This is a few weeks old, but I just ran across this item about the former dean of Stanford Law School, Kathleen Sullivan, not passing the California Bar Exam. Also noted in this report is the fact that it took former California Governor Pete Wilson four times to pass the Bar, and current mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaragosa, never did pass.

Happy New Year!

And go 'SC! Beat the Cows!

Hey There

Been kind of ill the past couple of weeks, and well, I just haven't been much inspired to blog about anything. Hopefully, things will change after the new year.

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November

While surfing around The Matrix website, I discovered that the Wachowski brothers are coming out with a new movie next year called V for Vendetta.

At first, when I saw some information about who Guy Fawkes was, I thought this movie was about the Gunpowder Plot. Turns out, it's a fictional story about a masked freedom fighter, played by Hugo Weaver (aka Agent Smith in The Matrix movies) who resists the forces of totalitarianism in futuristic Britain. The mask this freedom fighter wears is apparently the face of Guy Fawkes.

V for Vendetta looks like an entertaining movie, but I'd personally be more intrigued if it was about the failed plan to free persecuted Catholics in Protestant Britain.

From the Heart of Mormonism to the Heart of Hedonism

The new Archbishop of San Francisco is George Niederauer. I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling he's a Cardinal Mahoney clone.

Father Niederauer’s first priestly assignment was as assistant pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Claremont. In 1966, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in English Literature from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

From 1972-1994, he served as spiritual director at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. During those years he was also an instructor in Spiritual Theology. From 1987-1992, he served as rector of the seminary. From 1992-1994, he co-directed the Cardinal Manning House of Prayer for priests in Los Angeles.

Not Just for "Old" Guys

After a few years of "thinking about it," I finally got around to joining the Knights of Columbus. Since it seems as though I'm the only attorney in my local Council, I'm sort of curious to know whether there are very many lawyers who are Knights.

Initial Impression: Not Good

Ahnuld taps Carol Corrigan, an apparent RINO and CINO, to replace Janice Rogers Brown on the California Supreme Court.

Corrigan has long been active in the Roman Catholic Church and in Catholic charities. In response to questions, she said the church's views on such issues as abortion and homosexuality may not necessarily reflect her beliefs, nor would she ever permit her religion to influence her legal decisions.

"I was raised to believe that everybody has an obligation to inform their own conscience, and that is my understanding of the Catholic tradition as well," she said.

"Judges," she added, "should not impose their privately held views on the body politic."

If Only They Were Allowed to Marry

Another school teacher is criminally charged for sexually molesting students.

Totus Tuus

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Did you remember to go to Mass?

How About Narnia?

You know the part of the Mass where intercessory prayers are requested of the congregation and the response "Lord, hear our prayer" is said? Over the past couple of weeks at the parish I have been attending since permanently moving to the OC, prayers have been requested for the peoples of war ravaged countries around the world. Specifically pointed out were Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and...Palestine.

Palestine?!

Either someone at this parish is in dire need of a geography lesson, or worse, he or she is politicizing the Mass.

Back in the Blogging Saddle

I just finished my first real trial and we won. The case involved the dissolution of a business partnership in a small restaurant that never made any money, and I was part of counsel for defendants.

Although I didn't try the case alone, I think I probably could have and still won given that plaintiff's counsel did just about everything you shouldn't do in a case that has gone to trial. First and foremost, call the court if you think you're going to be late. In an age where cell phones are as common as traffic jams in Southern California, there really is no excuse for not informing the court that you aren't going to make the designated trial time.

Second, don't list a witness and call that person to the stand if you've never talked to him or her before, and have no idea what he or she is going to say. On two separate occasions, with the same witness, plaintiff's counsel was chewed out by the presiding judge for conducting an examination that was really a deposition. (Depositions are conducted during the discovery phase of litigation, not trial).

Last, if you're arguing that your client is entitled to money, give a specific dollar amount. If you don't, and you have a winning argument (which wasn't the case here), the judge or jury just may give you what you're asking for: nothing.

Heading to Trial

Unless the party who is suing my client has a miraculous change of heart and drops her case, it looks like I'm going to have my first court trial in about 2 weeks. So blogging will be lighter than normal (heh).

I read somewhere (probably from PS Bradley) that there basically two reasons why a civil lawsuit makes it to trial: one side either doesn't know the facts of the case or they have miscalculated. The latter seems to be the situation in the matter I'm involved in to the extent that opposing counsel just doesn't seem to know what the applicable law is.

Pass the Kool-Aid

In the course of chronicling the brewing controversy over the possible moving of Ave Maria Law School from Michigan to Florida, Naomi Schaefer Riley proceeds to not so subtly insult "conservative" Catholics. She, as well as her headline writer at the Wall Street Journal, does this by describing, via an unnamed Ave Maria faculty member, Tom Monaghan's planned Ave Maria Town as a "Catholic Jonestown." So much for substantive debate, I guess.

Initiative Voting

Here's how I'm voting in tomorrow's special election here in California:

Props. 73 to 77 - Yes
Props. 78 to 80 - No

"Happy" 400

If you're a Protestant Brit, today is Guy Fawkes Day a.k.a. lame excuse to express hatred toward Catholicism.

My New Hobby

Tracking down where every member of the North Torrance High School Class of 1987 is today (or as of the end of 2007). It'll be tough, if not impossible, but I'm gonna try to do this without spending any money.