You've been thrown out of better places than this!

According to available information, the situation is this:
In Brazil, a nine year old girl is sexually abused by her step-father (note: he hasn't been convicted, so I hereby make the obligatory genuflection towards Our Lady of the Presumption of Innocence) and becomes pregnant (with twins!). When her mother finds out, she seeks an abortion for her daughter, which the medical system is willing to grant, given both the rape and the fact that she's still too young to safely carry even one child to term, let alone twins (thus managing to hit not one, but two exceptions to Brazil's general ban on abortion).

And the Catholic Church, displaying the matchless Love of Jesus, tried to prevent it.

Fortunately for this poor kid, her doctors went ahead and did the abortion anyway.

So the local Archbishop excommunicated them. And the girl's mother. There's no word on whether the anathema also applies to the evil bastard who's responsible for the whole mess in the first place.

BTW, the Brazilian Catholic Church seems to be on a roll these days: just last week, they suspended a priest from his duties, for his advocacay of gay rights, and the use of condoms as a public health measure.

But back to the excommunications: the girl is off the hook, as she's too young to be held accountable. However, I can't help thinking that as she grows up, she will remember what her Church did for her in the darkest hour of her young life, and react appropriately. As for her mother and the medical personnel: I also can't help thinking they're better off being on the outside of this insane institution.

Bus ads update

The motion to overturn OC Transpo's bus ad ban was tabled at the 4 March Council meeting, and will be discussed and voted on at the 11 March meeting.

There is an on-line petition here; we invite everyone to write letters to city councilors, at that site and also here

Some other ways you can help:

• come to the council meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, 11 March (more information here)
• write a letter to your city councilor (email addresses and suggestions here)
• donate to the Canada wide atheist bus campaign (tax deductible)
• or, direct your donation specifically to the Ottawa atheist bus campaign (not tax deductible)
• join the FaceBook group - tell your friends

A Voice Falls Silent

The following arrived in my RSS reader today (don't bother clicking the links; it's gone, folks):

Note To All My Regular Readers

from Primordial Blog by blank

I know a lot of my regular readers have been wondering what happened to this blog so I thought I would post a quick note of explanation.

My employer was not too happy to discover that I had been writing a blog and thought that my choice of topics reflected badly on them and on my position in the community. As I prefer receiving regular paychecks to blogging, we came to the agreement that it would be best if the blog was removed from the internet.

Thank you to all the kind people who have enjoyed my writing over the years and have stopped by to comment - it's been great getting to know many of you, but now it is time for me to move on to other things. I'll still stop by to visit the atheist blogosphere from time to time, though not under my own name.

I don't know whether his employer objected to the sometimes-bumptious religion debates, the occasional pictures of nekkid wimmin, or what. As far as I can recall, references to the community, the school, and the kids he taught were generally pretty positive. Whatever the reason, I'll miss my semi-regular dose of Primordiality.

And of course, it also emphasizes the reason that many people prefer to use a 'nym online.

Ad Omnibus

Everyone knows the back story by now: OC Transpo has turned down the "Probably No God" bus-side ads, justifying this decision by a series of prevarications. As it stands, Ottawa busses can carry ads for the evangelistic Alpha Course, the Anglican Diocese, pro-life pregnancy counselling services, and (appearing soon) random capsule Bible lessons. But suggesting there's no God? That might offend people! Nooooooo!

So, the issue went before the city's Transit Committee today -- and actually made the tag end of the six o'clock news. After some nice pics and a sound-bite from some of my fellow Ottawa Humanists, we got committee chair Alex Cullen:

To say that this particular group cannot speak -- if you follow the logic -- means that no Christian can speak, no Muslim can speak, no Hindu can speak, no Jew can speak, because these are all....[interruption by another committee member]

Cullen gets it (and so, to his credit, does the guy running the Bus Stop Bible Studies): If "viewpoint" advertising is allowed at all, then everyone gets their shot at it. If Cullen ever runs for mayor, I'm voting for him (unless of course the other Alex runs again).

Then, cut to Councillor Marianne Wilkinson (whom I believe was the interruptor):

I think that to actually demean religions groups in this city is not what we should be doing at OC Transpo, so I can't support this and I think that you were wrong Mr. Chair that it doesn't do that, because to me as a Christian it does...

No, Marianne. Let me explain "demeaning" to you: "Anyone who believes in God is a moron" -- that would indeed be demeaning of religious individuals and groups. But: "There's probably [not even definitely] no God"? In what universe is that "demeaning"? If I saw that ad 25 years ago, I would have said "No, I disagree", and then had the argument -- but demeaning? How about: "Marianne Wilkinson is a thin-skinned twit" -- yes, that's personally demeaning. Unfortunately, you're providing evidence that it's true.
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Our folks made the Metro tabloid:

Darwin Week in Ottawa

Just because we don't worship Charles Darwin doesn't mean we will refrain from celebrating all those round numbers: Carleton University has a series of lectures planned next week (plus one in April) to celebrate the Darwin anniversaries.

http://www.carleton.ca/fass/darwinweek/index.html

Monday Feb 9th
"Darwin and the Evolution of Reasons" – Daniel Dennett
(Reception following this event is sponsored by the Humanist Association of Ottawa)

Tuesday Fed 10th
"Darwin's Landscape Vision" - Michael Summerfield

Wednesday Feb 11th
"Putting Darwinism and Religion in their Place" - David Livingstone

Thursday Feb 12th
"The Struggle for Existence in the World of Climate Change" Charles Krebs

Friday Feb 13th
"Killing Time: An Explanation for the Contrivances of Males for Seizing and Restraining Females that Darwin Did Not Attempt to Explain" - Dr Patricia Gowaty

I'm an A-bus-ist, Too!

Though the transit strike is officially over, apparently it will take several weeks to get the busses back on the road again. (What, these things fall apart just sitting in the garage?) So while there is some talk of bringing the atheist bus ad campaign to Ottawa, for the next little while this is going to be the main sentiment of Ottawans, of any or no religious persuasion:
Ironically, that's also the current situation back where the bus campaign started.
(Image generated by Bus slogan generator)

Now that's a BIRD!

This handsome guy or gal was perched in our backyard about noon today. We couldn't get a look at its back, but identify it as a probable Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii). Apparently, they're not unknown around Ottawa. It seemed to be hanging out with three crows, who were perched in the other tree, and they all flew off together while I was walking around the yard.