Hmmm, one wonders if those who defended pharmacists who refused to give out “the morning after” pill on religious/moral grounds will so quickly fall in line behind these doctors-to-be.

Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam.

Universities and NHS trusts fear many more will refuse to co-operate with new Department of Health guidance, introduced this month, which stipulates that all doctors must be “bare below the elbow”.

The measure is deemed necessary to stop the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, which have killed hundreds.

Oh, please, as if MRSA is any match for the power of devout prayer. Pshaw! Silly infidels!

Here’s an idea: boot their silly asses out of the medical program.

(found via PZ Myers)

Pope Benedict has seen fit to once again open his mouth and let the stupid run out.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had “shattered” human dignity.

I don’t know about the Pope, but my human dignity is just fine. It might be a different story if I had to dress in pretty robes and ridiculously pointy hats, but that’s the neat thing about leaving the Catholic Church: I don’t have to worry about being elected Pope.

He said this included total respect for the human being as a person “from conception until natural death,” and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse.

Natural death.

Hmmm.

I wonder if Benedict, in his dying days, will be hooked up to some of those respirators and morphine units that grow on trees, natural medicinal gifts from God that they are.

Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had “shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity,” he said.

So, test-tube babies are somehow less dignified than those of us created through the sweating and grunting of the beast with two backs? Given that the man (supposedly) has never had sexual intercourse, I suppose he can be forgiven for seeing the sex act as something akin to a fancy dress dinner party, but someone should disabuse him of that notion ASAP. Else he might keep saying dumb things like that.

While we wait, may I suggest the Church launch death squads to execute all human beings who resulted from artificial insemination? I mean, really, can we have those undignified degenerates walking among us? What if they trick one of the godly into procreating and pass their cooties down the line? Que horible!

It was the Pope’s latest foray into scientific issues. On Monday he warned against the “seductive” powers of science, saying it was important that science did not become the sole criteria for goodness.

Ah, yes, the seductive powers of knowledge and reason and understanding! No wonder that the Pontiff that purveys mythology as fact would live in dread of humans shrugging off the dead weight of superstition, favoring instead to actually know the world, rather than just - uh - make up sh*t about it.

I love that this man can, in all seriousness, discuss science being harmful to human dignity, when he believes that we are all born as evil, sinful creatures through no fault of our own. I suppose that eternal damnation is all about human dignity too. I wonder how many other impossible things he believes before breakfast.

The sweet, sweet voice of calm and reason is alive and kickin’ it in Texas:

STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) — In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO…

“People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it’s the end of times,” said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. “It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.”

Well, duh, unless it was a flying tractor or pick-up with ridiculously large tires, how could it be?

As for it being a sign of Biblical end times, I guess I must have missed the “Book of St. Predator to the Cat from Outer Space” in my copy of the Bible.

Update: The excitement continues as more details come in about the UFO sighting:

Pilot Steve Allen saw the object when he was out clearing brush off a hilltop near the town of Silden. Allen described the unidentified object as being an enormous aircraft with flashing strobe lights — and it was totally silent…

The veteran pilot said the UFO, an estimated half-mile wide and a mile long, was “bigger than a Wal-Mart.”

Bigger. Than. A. Wal-Mart.

That there’s purty dang big, y’all!

All we need now is a report that it landed on the outskirts of a trailer park and aliens carrying Miller Genuine Draft streamed out.

Republican Presidential contender Mike “Me and Jesus” Huckabee wants The Constitution of the United States of America to read more like his Holy Bible:

The United States Constitution never uses the word “God” or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole authority from “We the People.” However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it’s time to put an end to that.

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

Wow, I bet some people of color are going to be pissed that Huckabee wants them to go back to obeying their masters. You know, rather than “some contemporary view” that they are people too.

Maybe that’s why they tend to vote for Democrats.

(found via PZ Myers)

Fresh from the “New Reasons to Type with One Hand” Department:

HAYDEN, Idaho (AP) — A man who believed he bore the biblical “mark of the beast” used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.

The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies arrived Saturday. He was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center.

“It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,” sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. “He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn’t bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.”

Just remember: modern Christians believe the Bible is the true word of God, until someone has the audacity to claim it’s about them specifically. Then it’s “mental illness.”

Oh ye of little faith!

Continuing the Catholic Church’s brave, introspective, and soul-searching battle to fight sexual abuse of minors by clergy, the Pope has advocated that the Church move beyond the earlier bold and daring coloring book initiative.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has called on Roman Catholics to pray “in perpetuity” to cleanse the Church of clergy who have sexually abused minors, The Times of London reports.

Vatican officials said that every parish or institution should designate a person or group each day to conduct special prayer sessions worldwide for the victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Well, that will certainly work as well as it does on any other issue of importance (note to self: world hunger must be an illusion).

The Church seemed to take tangible steps to hide the problem for decades; perhaps I should not be surprised that their efforts to cure it are absolutely laughable.

Well, thank God for that!

DES MOINES, Iowa — Just hours before Thursday night’s caucuses, White House hopeful Barack Obama did interviews on five networks and plenty of local television stations this morning, then hoarsely greeted diners at a downtown Des Moines food court.

And he faced a surprise question from one woman who asked him if he was an atheist.

“I’m a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. I’ve been a member for 15 years,” Obama replied, adding, “Don’t read e-mails.”

E-mails have circulated in recent weeks saying Obama is a Muslim or an atheist or took his oath of office on a Quran instead of a Bible, none of which is true.

“I hated having to ask him that,” the woman, Zanetta Moore-El, said. “But I heard he was like an atheist. I don’t want a president who’s an atheist. I’m a firm believer in God. I just really wanted to make sure because I really wanted to vote for him and he has some good topics and everything.”

Zanetta Moore-El, you are an idiot of the highest order.

Shorter version of your rampant stupidity: “I really like Obama and his stance on the issues, but if he’s an atheist, then I don’t like his stance on the issues any longer.”

Your logic is astounding, Zanetta, my sweet, sweet, bigoted dullard.

As an atheist, I really don’t understand the aversion to voting for people who don’t believe in god(s). Speaking only for myself, I think I would be the most likely candidate to actually defend the right of all people to hold and practice whatever (non-harmful to others) religious beliefs they happen to hold. After all, I’m not beholden to any holy book telling me that my god is the one true god and everyone else is doomed for eternity.

You all have the right to be as silly / stupid / irrational as you like, so long as you’re not doing dumb things like killing your daughters for shaming the family, denying them basic medical care because prayer is all you need, or other such idiocy. It’s simple, really.

Hey, now that I’m 36, I’m old enough to run for President. And it’s an election year. Could this be anything but divine guidance? I think not!

Write-in candidate, y’all!

(found via Unscrewing the Inscrutable)

Yep, another one:

Doctors say they have never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again.

Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a December 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother.

Somehow, Moreno lived, and doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center announced Thursday that his recovery has been astonishing.

He has movement in all his limbs. He is breathing on his own. And on Christmas Day, he opened his mouth and spoke for the first time since the accident.

Somehow he lived? Uh, pardon me, but has anyone considered it just might be the loving arms of Baby Jesus that caught the falling lamb and set him softly on the ground below?

Sure, sure, “softly” might be a relative term…

Dr. Herbert Pardes, the hospital’s president, described Moreno’s condition when he arrived for treatment as “a complete disaster.”

Both legs and his right arm and wrist were broken in several places. He had severe injuries to his chest, his abdomen and his spinal column. His brain was bleeding. Everything was bleeding, it seemed.

Soft, indeed, like a whispered “I love you” on a warm, salty ocean breeze. Snuggles the Bear soft, even.

His wife, Rosario Moreno, cried as she thanked the doctors and nurses who kept him alive.

“Thank God for the miracle that we had,” she said. “He keeps telling me that it just wasn’t his time.”

It was his time, however, for 24 units of blood transfusions, plasma, platelets, pro-clotting and anti-hemorrhaging drugs, a brain catheter, a nifty scar down his abdomen to relieve pressure, a tracheotomy, assisted breathing, and nine orthopedic operations.

And, I’m just guessing here, lots of prayer.

But, um, also 24 units of blood transfusions, plasma, platelets, pro-clotting and anti-hemorrhaging drugs, a brain catheter, a nifty scar down his abdomen to relieve pressure, a tracheotomy, assisted breathing, and nine orthopedic operations.

I’m sure one was just as important as the other.

Science may never be able to explain what protected Moreno when the platform he and his brother were using atop an Upper East Side apartment tower broke free and fell to the ground.

Edgar Moreno, 30, of Linden New Jersey, died instantly. He was buried in Ecuador, where the brothers are from.

My bet for why Baby Jesus didn’t catch the brother? He only has two arms (note: that’s the scientific explanation). He’s not Kali or Cthulhu, you know!

Being serious for a moment, Moreno’s survival is amazing, certainly. His living through the initial case of rapid deceleration was a lucky break, and his continued survival is a testament to the amazing dedication and skill of the EMTs, doctors, and nurses who tended to his shattered body. Here’s hoping he makes a full recovery and return to his wife and children.

As for it being a miracle? Nah. A miracle would have been the scaffolding breaking away from its supports and floating down down down to the ground ground ground like a feather, lost from the wing of a cute baby bird making its first earnest efforts at flight.

But God’s never been one for being, you know, showy.

Except for all the people making and smiting and smoting and salt pillaring and planet flooding and bush burning*.

That was then; this is now. These days he goes for the more subtle miracles that look as if no miracle actually took place.

Clever!

*…bloodletting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

Yes, I know it’s really “book burning” in the song. Shut up.

With this new Pope, it’s sometimes hard to tell.

The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of “Godlessness.”

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

Do some of you folks actually believe in this stuff?

Can I politely ask you to, please, join us in the real world?

I suppose we ought to be happy he’s at least not calling for another round of Inquisition good times.

Update: The Vatican is denying the report:

The Vatican is denying reports it plans to install more exorcists around the world so possessed people can get help quickly.

“Pope Benedict XVI has no intention of ordering local bishops to bring in garrisons of exorcists to fight demonic possession,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters in Rome Friday.

Please note that they still believe demonic possession is real and that exorcism is something more than saying silly things in a dead language. They are still living in the mental Middle Ages.

That God fella. He’s such a card, poking little girls in the head with screwdrivers.