Check out this article from the link to the title of this posting. And be sure to check out the video at the bottom and Emma, the president of the Student Workers at this Boulder CO high school.I have my own take on this pledge and prayer business. I went to school prior to the Supreme Court cases on prayer in the 60s. When ordered to pray, every student I knew just ignored the process as well as with the pledge. Children are subject to reverse psychology. Tell them they have to do something and they won’t do it for hell or high water. Tell them they can’t do something and try to stop them from doing it. If you want kids to pray, like those little no-neck monsters in Texas, then sue the school system to stop them from praying. If you want to protect kids from proselytizing then order them to pray all day long. They will do everything but that.One other note: This is the same high school where the US Secret Service questioned the principle and teacher three years ago because a group of high school students were planning to enter a talent contest by singing the 1963 Bob Dylan song “Masters of War”. Somehow the Secret Service got into their confused little minds that Bob Dylan was writing about GW Bush back in 1963 when he wrote the song. Peter Nuhn
Peter,
Are you just now catching up on the news?
Didn’t we post about this already?
Maybe I remember it from another blog?
Saw the video. Good for the students! Also, I have to wonder, are atheists better looking than theists in general. From the video one might get that impression.
OT but I think you will be interested. I think TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) has had similar effects.
BOSTON (Reuters) – Electrodes implanted into the brain to treat a man with a stubborn case of ringing in the ear instead sparked an out-of-body sensation, doctors in Belgium reported on Wednesday.
Stimulating the electrodes made the 63-year-old patient feel like he was outside his body twice, for 15 and 21 seconds, and allowed the doctors to use a PET scanner to track which parts of the brain became active during the experience.
The out-of-body sensation of near-death experiences, sometimes reported by people whose hearts have stopped for a time, are regarded by some people as evidence of an afterlife.
Most scientists are doubtful, especially when epilepsy, migraine headaches, and brain stimulation can mimic the sensation.
A team led by Dirk De Ridder of the Antwerp University report in the New England Journal of Medicine that they were trying to cure the man of tinnitus in one ear when they stumbled onto the phenomenon.
The treatment did not work. Instead, the electrodes made the man feel like he was about 50 centimeters (20 inches) behind his body and off to the left.
Only a certain pattern of stimulation, involving a portion of the superior temporal gyrus, located on the right side of the brain, produced the sensation.
Positron emission tomography, or PET scans, showed that other parts of the brain became active as a result, including the supramarginal gyrus, which processes information from the inner ear designed to detect head movement and position.
“Whether these regions are activated in patients who report disembodiment as part of a near-death experience — and if so, how — is a provocative but unresolved issue,” they wrote.
Haven’t taken a look at the link yet…but I’ll bet it has to do with Christianity…
peter
you got to admit Dr. strangelove is a classic.
phreedm
kaine has postponed the execution of a killer who beat his victim with a brass lamp.kaine likes to display his faith.?why do you believers like to spare brutal killers.i see our godfearing supreme court is worried killers might feel pain well what about the victims.
What: I think there is a lot here that needs to be explored about ‘out of body experiences’.
OT but did you all here about the church getting sued over funeral protests? Made my day.
DeepDiver….I think that church is the “God Hates Fags” church….Fox News calls them extremist…..
The babble cant be full of extremist ideas….is it?
I posted this on the classifieds thread, but I’ll repost here.
http://www.matthewsnyder.org
It updates on the Westboro fine.
DeepDiver and Charlie,
Although I have no love for the Westboro Baptist Church, or anything they do (find them rather repugnant, actually) I am always bothered when 1st Amendment cases are decided against free speech.
Today we shut them up. Tomorrow, who will shut US up?
“rather repugnant”, Ren? I find them totally repugnant, totally disgusting, and their actions way out of line.
I see your point about the free speech issue, but I come down more on the side of their actions amounting to a hate crime more than a free speech issue. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre when there is no fire because you might cause hurt to someone so there are exceptions to free speech rights. In my view these idiots xians are hurting others when there is no fire, except in their twisted minds.
I gotta agree with Ren that it’s free speech. I think the verdict this morning by a fallen soldier’s Dad awarded him 11 million against the Fred Phelps church.
This is what the verdict in the Snyder/Westboro case was about:
for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress. (emphasis mine)
Not just free speech.
**OFF TOPIC**
Sorry, but these always make me laugh, so I have to pass it on.
Principal of a catholic school caught ‘loitering for prostitution.’
http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/b2/20071101/NEWS01/711010395/
TIMx,
HAHAHA! Was he tricking or treating?
I’m with Ren. The Westboro Baptist Church is a terrible organization. But they are free to say whatever they want.
If we’re going to start prosecuting people for intent to inflict emotional distress, that’s a problem. Couldn’t that apply to Atheists when they assert that God probably doesn’t exist?
Invasion of privacy I can agree with, but the Church members were on public property, weren’t they? So it’s not really an invasion of privacy unless they were making so much noise that they could be heard inside the funeral home.
Although I got a warm fuzzy when I saw the decision against “The Westboro Baptist Church”, like Ren and others, I am concerned about this decision.
Actually, this isn’t a speech case. It’s part libel/defamation, part invasion of privacy, part infliction of emotional distress, and part civil conspiracy.
The grounds on the appeal reversing are slim, but the award will more than likely be reduced.