arizona

As anti-discrimination  legislation is slowing making its way across the U.S., the backlash often takes the form of claiming that such things infringe on one's religious freedom.

Several cases have gotten into the news: a wedding photographer who was sued after refusing to take photos at a same-sex wedding, a Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, and Christian bed and breakfast owners who did not want a gay couple staying at their B&B and ended up in court.

So there are demands for exceptions to the non-discrimination laws, so that a person of faith is not obliged to do things against their conscience and faith.

I get this, sort of.

ha #5

For those of you who don't read the Russian script, here's the Russian law spelled out in plain English:

Propaganda is the act of distributing information among minors that 1) is aimed at the creating nontraditional sexual attitudes, 2) makes nontraditional sexual relations attractive, 3) equates the social value of traditional and nontraditional sexual relations, or 4) creates an interest in nontraditional sexual relations.

This might seem innocuous to some persons who would like to restrict the amount of information about sexuality that is available to minors, but its lack of definition means that people can readily be charged or arrested under this law for all kinds of things. Not only that, but anti-gay violence has increased in Russia since the law was passed, making Russia a hostile place for those in sexual minorities.

Not only that, but some American evangelical pastors, feeling they've "lost the culture war" in their own country, are promoting oft-extreme anti-gay laws in other parts of the world. Google it and see....

cartoons about serial killers

How do you decide when a cartoon or joke is harmless, or when it hurts people? Of course, the same cartoon can amuse one person, offend another person and confuse yet another. But overall, are there principles or ways of determining where a cartoon stands?

Take this cartoon from Matta as an example:

Should a serial killer be offended by this? Does it make fun of him or her? Or it is simply a funny idea which happens to be about serial killers and their weapons? After all, it's not like one of those jokes that starts with a line like "Serial killers are so disgusting that ...."