RALPH Shortey is an Oklahoma state senator who this week got himself branded as “hilariously delusional” after he tabled bill that would ban the use of aborted human foetuses in food products.
According to this report, the ridiculous Republican and ardent Christian pro-lifer said he filed the bill after reading that an anti-abortion group – Children of God for Life – had called on the public to boycott products of several major food companies.
Wingnut Sen Ralph Shortey is 'hilariously delusional'
COGFL claimed that the companies had partnered with a biotech enterprise that produces artificial flavour enhancers. One corporation, PepsiCo did partner with food product development company Senomyx to develop a new low-calorie sweetener, but Pepsico denied using foetal tissue in its research in an April 2011 email to Children of God for Life.
In this report, Shortey was quoted as saying:
As a pro-life advocate, it kind of disturbed me that we would use aborted embryos or aborted human fetuses to extract stem cells and use them for research to basically make things taste better.
He admitted that he had never heard of any instances of this happening, but decided that his bill would, at the very least, give any food companies toying with the idea an “ultimatum.”
The legislation, known as SB 1418, states:
No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.
Federal food safety officials have never heard of such a thing happening. A US Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said that the agency has never received any reports of foetuses being used in food production.
Shortey, elected in 2010, has introduced a spate of dottyl bills including denying Oklahoma citizenship to children of illegal immigrants born in the state. Another bill he concocted would have allowed police to confiscate the homes and cars of illegal immigrants. He also tried to advance a bill that would have required presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship before being allowed on Oklahoma’s primary ballot.
None of Shortey’s controversial bills have become law.
As news began circulating of his latest legislative priority, the Twitterverse erupted with disbelief and amusement.
One person wrote:
This may conflict with my dream of eating aborted fetus dumplings, but Sen Ralph Shortey is hilariously delusional.
Another said:
Today in Oklahoma crazy: Sen Ralph Shortey (R) proposes banning ‘human fetuses in food’. Didn’t know it was a thing.
Hat tip: Buffy
FACED with the realisation that her pet cat had died after a grim encounter with a pastor, a five-year-old Central Texas girl – on being told that her pet, Moody, was now “in heaven” – declared:
I don’t believe in Heaven anymore, Moody’s just dead.
Moody, left, and the godly Bartlett
Moody, according to this report, died after falling, or having been thrown off a 40ft-high bridge by Rick Bartlett, pastor of the Bastrop Christian Church. He now faces a charge of animal cruelty which could result in a $4,000 dollar fine and a year’s imprisonment.
He trapped the child’s pet in a cage after having had trouble with feral cats in his garden. He then placed Moody in his pick-up truck, where it was “forgotten” for three days.
The pastor then drove the cat to the police.
An animal protection officer noticed a name tag, including the phone number of Moody’s owners, Sarah and Eddy Bell, on the cat’s collar. The officer offered to take Moody back to his owners but police said Bartlett told them he’d take the cat back himself since they were his neighbours.
The kitschy sign outside the Bartletts' Bastrop home
Later on the same day, a park visitor discovered Moody’s near lifeless body on the bank of the Colorado River, some 40-50 feet below the bridge.
There is a possibility that the animal had jumped from the truck, rather than having been thrown, but but in the eyes of the law, the animal cruelty charges are the same since Bartlett admitted to police that the animal was in his care.
Moody was Sarah and Eddy Bell’s cat for 11 years. They said that trying to explain his death to their daughter has proved “challenging”.
Hat tip: Remigius
FIRST off, let me make it absolutely clear – to BarrieJohn in particular – that I did not choose to blog this sorry saga because a key player in it has a funny name: Dr Hazel Chowcat.
Chowcat is a magistrate in Yorkshire, and according to this report, she accepted the defence of a 73-year-old Catholic priest who crashed his wheels into the car of a young woman in the car park of St John the Baptist Church in Normanton.
Canon Peter Maguire – Picture Ross Parry Agency
Canon Peter Maguire was double the drink-drive limit and unsteady on his feet when the crash occurred, but he denied a drink-driving charge, maintaining he was not using a public road when the offence was committed.
Chowcat heard the boozehound hit the car of a woman attending a puppy-training club in the church hall on August 30 last year. The priest had been “drinking socially” before attempting to move his car from the car park to his garage. He hit Hindle’s blue Vauxhall Astra with his Fiat Punto.
The car park he was in services the church, the church hall, the church social club and the Presbytery. And although it is used by those attending the church for weddings and funerals and guests at the Parish club it was argued that, at the time, it was only being used by those attending the puppy club and, therefore, was not open to the public.
Hindle told Wakefield Magistrates Court:
Somebody came into the hall at the end of the club and asked who had a blue Astra, I said it was me, and I was told: ‘I think the priest has just hit your car’.
She rushed out to see that her car was slightly damaged, and the priest was:
Unsteady on his feet and a appeared a little bit vacant. I thought he was drunk because of his demeanour, the vagueness and the unsteadiness on his feet. He suggested we could sort anything between ourselves and handed me his card, but at that point I was already speaking to the police.
Charles McRae, prosecuting, argued the car park was a public place because it could be used by anybody who wished to go into the church and that the church was a spiritual place open to all.
But Denis Lofthouse, representing Canon Maguire, said the church operated as a business and the only people allowed in were those who had been invited or were paying, as in the case of Miss Hindle.
The car park could be deemed as open to the public some of the time and not at others. At the time of the accident, it was a private car park.
Delivering her not guilty verdict Chowcat said:
The court finds the car park is not a public place, the people using the car park were members of the puppy club, we regard the puppy club as a closed group because they have to pay a fee to attend.
Hat tip: Glenn
A FEW days back, Alex Spillius, writing in the Telegraph, said:
In 2008, Americans made history by choosing their first black President. This time round, they could break with precedent again – by electing a Mormon. Mitt Romney, the strong favourite for the Republican nomination, is a devout follower of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A Mormon President? Heaven for forbid, say a vast number of Christian fundamentalist, including Pastors for Huckabee. Here’s a screen shot from their website, replete with spelling error:
While I was researching Mormonism, and its effect on US voters, I received an email yesterday from “Molly”, who lives in the US. She has made a most informative and fascinating video about Mormonism:
An image from the Egyptian ancient Book of the Dead inspired the charlatan Joseph Smith to invent Mormonism (click on pic to see video)
“Molly” then informed me that she was a Dudist … and as of today, I am a Dudist too – and I have the certificate to prove it.
The Church of the Latter Day Dude, to give it its full name, claims to be “the slowest-growing religion in the world” – and says on its website that it is:
An ancient philosophy that preaches non-preachiness, practices as little as possible, and above all, uh…lost my train of thought there. Anyway, if you’d like to find peace on earth and goodwill, man, we’ll help you get started. Right after a little nap.
It is the brainchild of freelance journalist and photographer Oliver Benjamin, who is based in Thailand. In an interview with CNN last August, Benjamin said:
Jeff Dowd, left, the real-life person upon whom the character of the Dude was based, appears alongside Oliver Benjamin at the 2008 Lebowskifest in San Francisco, California. Photo courtesty Oliver Benjamin
Money is power. Dudeists don’t tend to be the upper crust of society. So we’re never going to compete with the really wealthy religions like Christianity.
Ideally, we’d like to help people find ways to earn money with less work, but of course that’s always a challenge. Fifty years ago, everyone thought that robots would be doing all the work for us and people would be living lives of leisure. That this has not come to pass is surely mankind’s biggest tragedy.
Benjamin, who was inspired by the Coen Brothers’ movie, The Big Lebowski, to establish his new religion, added:
One problem also is that too many people just think the Dude is a burned out hedonistic stoner. Nothing could be further from the truth. He’s an intellectual with strong moral character and a lively, creative mind.
He’s also a stoner, but that’s not a bad thing. Too many people confuse Dudeism with anarchism or selfish laziness. Dudeism recognizes the need for organization and rules, and the laziness it touts is disciplined and determined.
Free time should be used to free your mind and cultivate inner peace. Not to play ‘Grand Theft Auto’ all day and gorge on snack food.
In explaining what Dudism is, Benjamin points out:
Incidentally, the term ‘dude’ is commonly agreed to refer to both genders. Most linguists contend that ‘Dudette’ is not in keeping with the parlance of our times.
A FACEBOOK page has just been created in support of One Law for All’s rally for Free Expression which is being held in London from 2pm to 4pm at the Old Palace Yard opposite the House of Lords on February 11 – and one of the first people to comment – someone called Simon Richards – posted this lame comment:
Naturally, I support this, but I do think it regrettable that freedom of expression has been coupled with secularism here. Freedom of expression should exist both for those who support and those who oppose secularism. There are, for example, many instances of Christianity in the UK being discriminated against as a result of secularism.
- Maryam Namazie
I immediately responded to this bilge, saying:
Christians being discriminated against in the UK? That’s just rubbish. The majority of recent high-profile “persecuted Christian” cases have either involved homophobic bigots who flouted equality legislation, or zealots who have refused to comply with dress codes that forbid the wearing of religious symbols at work. These people have unreasonably demanded exemption from anti-discrimination laws and workplace rules, and fully deserve to be prosecuted and held up to ridicule.
And Hassan Radwan said:
Secularism is the only way to guarantee freedom of expression. If we allow religion – any religion – to dictate what we can say and do, you can kiss goodbye to freedom of expression and a good many other freedoms. Christianity today is only relatively benign because secularism and the enlightenment has pushed it into the private sphere and defanged it. But give it half a chance and it would soon be enforcing itself on us all – for the love of Jesus of course.
Please feel free to add a comment on the Facebook page.
According to Maryam Namazie, the call for action follows an increased number of attacks on free expression in the UK, including 17-year-old Rhys Morgan being forced to remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon or face expulsion from his Sixth Form College, and demands by the UCL Union that the Atheist society remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon from its Facebook page.
It also follows threats of violence, police being called, and the cancellation of a meeting at Queen Mary College where One Law for All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters was to deliver a speech on Sharia.
The Day of Action has already been endorsed by nearly 100 groups and individuals including Jessica Ahlquist, Centre for Secular Spaces, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, Richard Dawkins, Equal Rights Now, Jesus and Mo Creator, Taslima Nasrin, National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, National Secular Society, Salman Rushdie, Southall Black Sisters, and Peter Tatchell. Please add your name to the declaration.
In addition to the London rally, there will be demos and acts of solidarity in other countries, including Australia, France, Gambia, Germany and Poland. To see the list or to add your own action or event, click here.
Said Namazie:
Clearly, the time has come to take a firm and uncompromising stand for free expression and against all forms of threats and censorship. The right to criticise religion is a fundamental right that is crucial to many, including Muslims. February 11 is our chance to take that stand. You need to be there. Enough is enough.
IS IT me, or is America’s 2012 presidential campaign throwing more religious lunatics into sharp relief than any in the past?
Dozier, left, and Santorum
Take, for example, the Rev O’Neal Dozier, a wingnut described here as “a firebrand social conservative”, who heads the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, Florida. Dozier loathes Islam and cares even less for The Gays:
Dozier, honorary chairman of wannabe president Rick Santorum’s Florida campaign, once declared that homosexuality was:
Something so nasty and disgusting that it makes God want to vomit.
Santorum, “a conservative darling in the Republican presidential race”, yesterday spoke from the pulpit at Dozier’s Church.
At a Reclaiming America convention in 2003, Dozier declared that:
We should take control of every facet of society.
He added that God was:
100 percent for capital punishment. Oh, yeah, God knew some were going to slip through, a few innocent ones. He knew that. But you cannot have a society without capital punishment.
He also said:
God would never ordain a government to take from the rich to give to the poor, you see, so therefore God is not a socialist. God is not a Robin Hood.
After Santorum said his piece at the Worldwide Christian Center, Dozier told the Palm Beach Post that Mitt Romney was bound not for the White House, but for hell:
You can look at the June Gallup poll that shows the people have already spoken – 22 percent of the electorate will not vote for a Mormon.
He added:
Blacks are not going to vote for anyone of the Mormon faith. The book of Mormon says the Negro skin is cursed.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
