• Thursday, August 6th. A shopkeeper in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province claims that a 60-year-old muslim woman “disrespectfully flung about pages of the Koran at his shop”, according to the BBC. The woman claims “it wasn’t the Koran she flung to the ground but a register in which the shopkeeper had listed her credit”. A crowd of people gathered at the woman’s house and threw rocks at it until police broke it up.
• Two days earlier, Tuesday, August 4th. The owner of a leather factory in Punjab province takes an old calendar down from the wall. Unfortunately for him, a lot of calendars contain verses from the Koran. A factory supervisor got incensed and stirred up the workers and local residents. The owner and one other person were killed in the ensuing violence.
• Three days before that, Saturday, August 1. A week after three christian youths in Gojra, eastern Pakistan are accused of burning a copy of the Koran, clerics call for their deaths. Fanatics stream in from surrounding districts. 40 houses belonging to christians are burned down, killing at least eight people, and possibly dozens.

So what’s happening here? According to local officials, none of the allegations were credible. But the BBC reports that there is “recurring evidence” that people are using Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and, in the case of the 40 christian houses, the government’s indifference to the rights of non-muslims, to settle personal scores by falsely accusing people of blasphemy. A shopkeeper and a customer have a dispute over accounts, and so the shopkeeper intimidates the customer by having people throw rocks at her house. Factory workers have a beef about their wages, so they incite violence and kill their boss. People don’t like having 50,000 christians in their town so they send thousands of them running for their lives.

This is what happens when governments pander to religious nuts. This is what happens when a government takes a stance that says “this portion of our population is better than the rest.” The saner religious folks are fine, but by and large they condone the extremists and people die. Whether it’s Najeeb Zafar in the Pakistani leather factory, or George Tiller in a Kansas church, or any number of genocides and “ethnic cleansings” around the world, or Aqsa Parvez right here in Toronto, religion kills.

Below the fold is my response.

To: editor@the-underground.ca
Subject: Re: When freedom of speech goes too far

Dear Underground,

Erica Rodrigues’ article “When freedom of speech goes too far” (Underground, Nov. 27, 2008) is a perfect example of the sort of idiocy people like Paul Myers and “FSM Dude” were mocking in their acts of so-called desecration.

No, Ms. Rodrigues, a host wafer is not an embodiment of Christ. It’s not *actually* a piece of Jesus’ flesh. It is a metaphor, a symbol. The object itself is not special, no matter what your priest tells you. What’s special about a religious symbol is the way religious people treat the object: the ritual surrounding it, not the object itself.

Likewise, the Qur’an itself is not special. What a non-Muslim does with it is none of anyone’s business. Whether I throw my Qur’an in the garbage, set it on fire or wipe my behind with it, that’s nobody’s business but my own.

Here’s the thing that people like Ms. Rodrigues miss as they’re crying about the imagined violation of their religious freedom: freedom of speech and freedom of religion doesn’t just mean that religious people get to teach whatever nonsense and superstition they want. It also means that people get to call it nonsense and superstition. People get to make fun of Catholics by desecrating host wafers. People get to tear pages out of the Qur’an, put a yarmulke on the ground or make cartoons about Mormon underwear. People get to do these things in part because they don’t infringe on the rights of religious people to practice their religions.

Where that freedom stops is at inciting violence or other harm. Paul Myers has never, to my knowledge, advocated harming anyone. He has never suggested that religious people have anything but freedom to believe what they want and practice their faith in non-harmful ways. However, and this brings me to an interesting omission in Ms. Rodrigues’ article, PZ Myers has received tens of thousands of letters since “Crackergate” from irate Christians, demanding that he recant, proclaiming that he should be stripped of his professorship and insisting in various ways (including death threats) that he be denied the right to speak his mind and express his views on religion.

I ask that Ms. Rodrigues and other people who think that “freedom of religion” exists solely to protect the existence of religion, and to shield it from criticism and ridicule, take their heads out of their behinds and rejoin the real world.

Thank you,
David Leaman
UTSC Undergrad

Seriously, though, Venn diagrams are a concise and satisfyingly geeky way to convey complex information. Instead of writing a paragraph about how some of the people in my life are geeks, and some of the people in my life are artsy, and explaining that those groups overlap , and further that some subset of the overlapping region will find my webcomic project viscerally satisfying, I can draw three circles in a square and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

And Venn diagrams are versatile! You don’t even have to mouth off to anyone any more if you can just scribble some pithy circles on a bar napkin. Draw three interlocking circles titled “smart people”, “sexy people” and “talented people”, then enclose them in a circle labeled “people who aren’t you” within a larger rectangle labeled “everybody”. See? It’s that easy!

Yes, the Venn diagram could be the key to an new, utopic, entirely non-verbal society. Keep your eye on it!

1. a black baptist lesbian
2. a straight white male atheist

Assume the candidates have equivalent platforms, and neither is trying to cover up their identity.

On the one hand, atheists are the most selected-against demographic in US politics. On the other, candidate 1 has a whole list of strikes against her.

I think the thing that might work in candidate 2’s favour is that he only has one “hurdle” to overcome; if he can spin his way around that he’s good, but candidate 1 will be accused of favouring each of ethnic minority rights, women’s rights and gay rights over the “real issues” — and will probably be unable to evade all three long enough to focus on whatever she’s actually campaigning on.

I like Jake’s comment: “There would be no president that year”

Update: upon further inspection, being gay is not far off from being an atheist in terms of being selected against. Maybe it’s cuz nobody could be one a them fags iffen they believed in the Word, so they gotta be a devil-worshippin’ atheist! :P But wow, look at the breakdown by political ideology!

So I’ve gone ahead and started circulating a petition around campus. It lists the ways in which the current VP Students & Equity has not been doing his job properly, and demands that he resign. If he doesn’t, it demands that the Board of Directors remove his powers.

This comes on the tail of months of trying to get him to perform the duties outlined in his job description, with no appreciable progress. It’s ridiculous that this guy is being given 14,000$ of student money to sit on his ass and not represent student needs.

The full text of the petition is below; you can also get this in PDF format, and if you feel inspired to spread the word, print out a few copies of the signature sheet and circulate the petition. Drop off the petition in the LGBTQ Lounge before 5 on Friday, March 7, so I can bring it to the board meeting. Note that this is for students of UTSC only — love and support from elsewhere is greatly appreciated, but reasons of legitimacy I need to limit the actual signers of the petition to current students.

Petition to Ahmad Jaballah, SCSU Vice-President, Students and Equity and to the SCSU Board of Directors

WHEREAS the VP S&E has neglected to co-operate with the Special Advisor to the
Principal on Equity Issues, Aysan Sev’er, and has failed to attend a single
meeting or event organized by Professor Sev’er,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has failed to establish a positive working relationship with the
LGBTQ Resources & Programs Office and other Equity Offices, violating
the terms of his job description, viz: “Maintain communication with the
Equity Officers of the University of Toronto.”

WHEREAS the VP S&E has failed to establish a positive working relationship with
and has attended no meetings or events of the Sustainability Office, the
Cultural Affairs Office, Student Housing & Residence Life or the Athletics
Centre, in many cases never even having met with representatives from
these offices and departments,

WHEREAS various other departments and organizations have so little faith in the VP
S&E that they have given up on trying to contact him for events and
campaigns,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has attended no meetings or events organized by the UTSC
Advisory Committee on Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities, UTSC
Cultural Affairs Committee, the Equity Matters at UTSC Committee or
the Positive Space Committee, violating the terms of his job description,
which mandates that he sit on these committees,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has made no efforts to promote positive space on campus,
violating the terms of his job description, viz: “Ensure the accessibility,
inclusivity and quality of all SCSU services and events. [...] Promote
equity, diversity and inclusivity goals of the organization”,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has repeatedly been resistant to meeting with the coordina-
tors of the LGBTQ Lounge,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has repeatedly failed to attend meetings of the Standing
Committee on Students and Equity, the UTSC Council on Student Ser-
vices, the UTSC Advisory Committee on Campus Safety and Security, the
SCSU Clubs Funding Subcommittee and the UTSC Advisory Committee
on Equity, thus violating the terms of his job description,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has repeatedly failed to comply with the recommendations
and directives of SCOSE, violating the terms of his job description, viz:
“Undertake other duties as assigned by [...] the Standing Committee of
Students & Equity and the Board of Directors.”

WHEREAS the VP S&E has already been censured by the SCSU Board of Directors
for not fulfilling the requirements of his position,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has violated the terms of said censure, specifically “The VP
Students and Equity [shall] write a formal letter of apology to the Board
of Directors and a major media publication before January 30th.” and has
thus violated article 8.01 of By-Law 1, “The Executive Committee shall
execute all resolutions of the Board [...]”

WHEREAS the VP S&E has, by his own admission, been unable to perform his duties
and has failed to arrange for his mandate to be fulfilled, and has thus vi-
olated article 9.05 of By-Law 1, “The Vice-Presidents of the Corporation
shall carry out their assigned duties as directed by the Board, the Execu-
tive Committee, the SCSU Operational Manual, and their respective job
descriptions”,

we the students of UTSC deem Ahmad Jaballah unsuited to the position of
Vice-President Students and Equity, and demand that he resign his position
immediately.

Should Ahmad Jaballah refuse to resign his position of Vice-President Students
& Equity upon presentation of this petition from the student body demanding
that he do so,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has shown no inclination to fulfill the mandate of his position,

WHEREAS the SCSU Board of Directors has set a deadline on the terms of his censure
and this deadline has passed without the terms having been met,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has shown no inclination to fulfill the requirements of his
censure,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has flouted the rules and procedures of the SCSU board of
directors,

WHEREAS the VP S&E has refused to take responsibility for his delinquency by
resigning his position,

we demand that the SCSU Board of Directors entertain a motion to proceed
with a tier 3 removal of powers of the VP S&E.

Signed,
The students of the University of
Toronto, Scarborough Campus

So for various reasons I showed up at the latest meeting of the committee that oversees the member of student government in charge of equity issues. Actually, I might as well say what the main reason was: the member in question was found to be a religiously homophobic asshole. So I presented my case, and lo and behold, the committee that oversees the homophobic asshole are also a bunch of religiously homophobic assholes.

That’s fucked up, right? It’s not just me? That the member of student government in charge of making sure that everyone gets a fair shake, as well as the committee that is supposed to make sure he’s doing his job properly are uniformly (or almost) homophobes?

KIDs 08.09.07 17:40:42
give Me little resources and I you shall not touch.

KIDs 08.09.07 17:49:37
I you destroy if you I shall not help!

[I check, and KIDs has a fraction of my population]

me 08.09.07 18:13:24
Go on, then. Destroy me.

KIDs 09.09.07 16:29:53
Afterwards not dialects that I you has not warned.

No use trying to fight it, you’re an eight-sided die, a d8. A fine example of simple elegance, the d8 is one of the least appreciated types of dice, and is often neglected. You are known to be quiet and shy, outward traits that conceal viscous sarcasm and mean wit. You are very smart, yet wise enough to hide your intelligence the quicker they found out how smart you are, the sooner they’ll put you to work, which is something you can do without. People call you dark and pessimistic, or moody and cynical. You find little point in arguing.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

This survey is completely scientific. Despite the mind-boggling complexity of mankind, the billions of distinctly different personalities found on Earth can easily be divided into seven simple categories that correspond to the five Platonic solids, a pseudo polyhedron, and whatever the hell a d100 is. The results of this quiz should be considered not only meaningful but also infallible, and pertinent to your success as a fully realized individual. If you feel the results of this examination do not match your perceived personality, you should take whatever drastic measures are needed to cram your superego back into proper alignment, as described by the quiz results.

So today a man in a suit is walking toward the building. First impression: “He has a really small head. Or perhaps his suit is just really loose in the shoulders.”

Then he scratches his cock through his pants. Fair enough, I think, sometimes that needs to be done. It was just a small adjustment, and he could reasonably have expected that nobody was watching.

Then he gets to the end of the cul-de-sac where my office is, as well as a couple more businesses. He looks around, confused, seemingly unsure whether the building that looks like a house is really where he’s going. He examines the surrounding buildings, then eventually steps toward this one, out of my sight.

I work for a bit, listening for the knock on the door. We have a big door knocker, so the entire building knows when someone arrives. But then I see him step back out, still looking confusedly at the doors around him. Then he fiddles with his littler head again. Then he opens his fly, reaches in, and spends the next ten or fifteen seconds vigorously shaking.

I’m not sure if he saw my “WTF” expression staring out the window at him or not, but he made a right-face and walked off.