And Islam gets even nuttier.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is “not compatible” with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country.

In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: “Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic.”

…

Unlike other clerics in Iran, whose religious rulings are practised by their own followers, Khamenei’s views are interpreted as administrative orders for the whole country, which must be obeyed by the government. Last month Khamenei issued a controversial fatwa in which he likened his leadership to that of the Prophet Muhammad and obliged all Iranians to obey his orders.

Khamenei has rarely expressed his views on music publicly, but he is believed have played a key role in the crackdown on Iran’s music scene following the revolution. When Khamenei was president, he banned western-style music, forcing many stars to go into exile.

Ha, the term “Western-style music” refers to something very different to those in America than those on the other side of the globe. In any case, I shouldn’t be very shocked by this horrible repression but if there are Christians in America who outlaw dancing, it’s not a far leap for Muslims to outlaw music.

Read the entire story.

• Western morality is not the ‘Jewish Way’ (11)
• Water pipes banned for Gaza Women by Hamas (0)
• To be a liberal… (0)

Prop 8 is overturned. Activists and progressives who are concerned with equality and justice just exhaled the biggest rainbow-colored breath. I have written about this divisive and ugly proposition and the following protest (one of the many).

So how cool is this news on this blogger’s 48th birthday: Proposition 8, the horrible and neurotic (Who cares who marries whom?) law prohibiting Gay marriage was overturned today, Wednesday, August 4th, 2010.

In other words, by “Memorandum Order of Judge Vaughn Walker Declaring California’s Proposition 8 Unconstitutional.”

…

What’s massively cool is that Judge Walker is himself Gay. Opponents will certainly look at that fact as an issue in his ruling, but I think it’s fitting that someone who’s life would be altered by Prop 8 has the chance to rule on its constitutionality. [Read more.]

I’m sure the fact that the judge is gay will come up again. And again.

I find this to be an important issue for many reasons. It’s important for not only members of the GLBT community but also atheists as well as – simply and shortly put – caring human beings. It’s each small victory, lined up, one by one. Unfortunately, it’s still a very slow process to equality but some goals are gradually being met. Next on the docket: Getting open atheists elected for public office. Eesh, that’ll be a tough one.

Read the specifics about the Prop 8 ruling. View the rest of the Prop 8 protest photos from May 2009.

• Why the Proposition 8 Ruling Matters to Atheists (2)
• Sometimes bigotry is simply bigotry (2)
• Prop 8 Upholding Protest in Hollywood (3)

Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City today, evicting about 45 members of an extended family which has occupied the building for more than 70 years.

The settlers claimed to have documentation to prove they had purchased the building from the owners. The Palestinian tenants, who have been fighting attempts to evict them for many years, were challenging the takeover in court.

…

According to Mohammed Kirresh, 22, a member of the Palestinian family, “Jewish people and Israeli soldiers with weapons” came at 2am, when most of the family was at a wedding.

He said the family, which had rented the property since 1936, had won two previous court cases challenging eviction orders. He claimed the Israelis had broken furniture and damaged belongings. [Read more]

This reminds me of how Jews have been persecuted for many years. It’s not rational behavior, that after being treated a certain way for no reason, to treat others in the same way. Mostly, I speak from my experiences in America: Bigoted Jews, Mexicans who don’t like Puerto Ricans, homophobic blacks, and the list goes on and on. I come from the line of thinking of The Golden Rule, that it makes good sense to treat others as I’d like to be treated. Apparently, not everyone agrees. Turning years of persecution into reverse persecution only makes matters stickier. Yet people of all races, nationalities, etc. continue to do it.

• A few notes on Israel and the Middle East (1)
• Jews in New York rally against Obama (0)
• A Palestinian man is jailed for rape after consensual sex (0)

A court in Jerusalem has made international legal history by jailing Sabbar Kashur, a 30-year-old delivery man from East Jerusalem, for 18 months.

He was convicted of “rape by deception” following a criminal trial that has drawn criticism from across Israel.

Rape by deception? All because he lied about his name. So the sex was consensual until the woman realized his racial heritage later on? It was only then that she decided it had been a rape? If a women makes a decision regarding sex, it is reprehensible to blame others for her choice in hindsight. If there had been alcohol or any drugs involved, there may be a case. But there wasn’t anything of that sort. She blamed the man due to him not being Jewish but Palestinian after the fact. This just goes to show they all look similar enough that the racism is almost funny, if it wasn’t so sad.

“It is very well known that Israeli-Palestinians living in Israel disguise themselves,” said Leah Tsemel, a human-rights lawyer. “You change your accent and you change your dress because if you look like an Arab you face harassment.

“If you want to enter a pub, you’d better not look like an Arab and if you want to have sex with an Israeli girl, you had better not look like an Arab.”

Trying to fit in doesn’t work. Not trying to fit in doesn’t work. It’s clear there needs to be some peaceful agreement made; this is just stupid. Read the rest of the article.

• Water pipes banned for Gaza Women by Hamas (0)
• Palestinian family evicted from their home of 70 years by Israeli settlers (3)
• Jews in New York rally against Obama (0)

It’s come to this. We’ve been facing a steady erosion of talent here at Scienceblogs, with the loss of good people like Carl Zimmer and Ed Yong a while back, and with the very abrupt departure of 15 bloggers after the recent PepsiCo debacle — an event that damaged the reputation of this place. And now just yesterday we lost PalMD and Bora. Something is going rotten here. What could it be?

…

This is going to hurt. I like blogging; I do this for fun, and because I want to get my message out there. I also know what effect it will have on my traffic if I stop posting, because you’re all a sensible lot and you’re not going to waste time reading a site that has nothing new to say. I just checked, and I’m in the midst of a bit of a traffic surge, with almost 190,000 page views yesterday alone…and that’s going to decline precipitously. I get paid for that traffic, too, so it’s going to hurt my pocketbook. My wife has already given me one of her long-suffering looks when I told her what I had to do, but then, I get those from her all the time, as you might expect. Sorry, my check will be smaller this month, on top of the salary reductions my university has announced.

So now its time for everyone to step up their game and keep the atheist community entertained in the meantime. We’ll miss you PZ.

EDIT: D’oh! I forgot to link. PZ on Strike.

I’m not whole-heartedly surprised in this one but, nonetheless, its still offensive and unfair.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Hamas-run government in Gaza on Sunday said it had banned women from smoking water pipes in public, as fear of the police drove many cafe owners to extinguish the popular pastime.

“The police have decided to ban women from smoking water pipes in open, public places because it is against our customs, traditions and social norms,” interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP.

Read the rest of the story here.

Water pipes now? Hookahs? Bongs, too?

I don’t have much to say about this nuttiness except religious extremism has once again gone further than I ever imagined it would. It is any religion in the first place that sets up allowances for these types of extremism. Trying to establish a notion of religion being untouchable from criticism enables ignorant and hateful acts to commence. However this specific brand of misogyny is just getting sicker. I keep waiting for some type of reformation from the Islamic community, if only for the freedom of these women who typically cannot escape their situation. If not from god, at least from the man who physically holds them down.

The old and new testament are not kind to women. It’s kind of a big sticking point for me. Yet, Jews and Christians have still found a way to not demean women, at least not publicly or by law. Many conservative (Christian or Jewish) women in America still spew out the servitude bullshit that vexes the veins under my very skin. While I see no excuse for willingly making yourself subservient because an old books tells you to, it’s still a bit better than what generally goes on in the Islamic community. Ill be here waiting for that Islamic reformation. And I’ll be waiting for a long time.

• A few notes on Israel and the Middle East (1)
• What is a Jewmanist anyway? (0)
• Western morality is not the ‘Jewish Way’ (11)

I’m not a beer fan, but this is cool nonetheless.

In the early part of fall 2008, a small Danish brewery, Bryggeriet Djævlebryg, released a new Imperial Stout titled, “Gudeløs.” Those translate to “Devil’s Brew” and “Godless” in English. The beer caused a small stir and even earned a few mentions in the mainstream press here in the U.S. despite only being available in Europe.

Read more on Gudelos.

For those with drunken godless stories, they should be submitted here. Also, sober stories are welcome.

• What’s the point? (0)
• What Women Should Want (0)
• The Miracles of Nature (5)

I know I’ve slacked on reporting about TAM8. So here ya go. I only paid for Saturday’s events and got sick (most likely from stress) early on Thursday. It lasted right on through ’til Sunday so I missed even more events that I originally planned on. I know a lot of people got sick as well after their stay at South Point but mine came prior. (And this kind of anxiety sickness isn’t a stranger to me.) Luckily, Eric was able to get all the best photos. If you recall, I live in Vegas now, so we went to South Point  for Drinking Skeptically Thursday night. We had a great time but didn’t stay very late. We had a friend coming in the next day for Friday night hanging out and Saturday’s events. So, Friday night we checked in early for Saturday and did the aforementioned hanging out with friends we knew and just met. Eric did a wonderful job in posting photos shortly after TAM. I suggest you check them all out!

In the meantime, here’s me with Mr. Deity! (Aka Brian Keith Dalton)

As you can see, I got buttoned out…

They are free for download and use sans watermarks. Check them all out now, if you know what’s good for you.

• Vision From Feeling Video Part II from TAM8. Starring Me! (0)
• The Skeptic Movement surely could use more People of Color (2)
• TAM8 and South Point (0)