Ah … everyone loves a statistical map, and this collection takes the cake!

A Kansas State University geography PhD student, Tom Vought, created density maps of the seven deadly sins across the US. The operationalizations of some of these constructs are unquestionably up for debate, but this is a totally fun demo to play around with, anyway. Interesting how the Bible Belt seems to be most deeply entrenched in sinful behavior … if asked for a retort, I bet they would point out that the seven deadly sins is a catholic concept, anyway.

The first article linked below describes the project, including the statistics that were used to index each of the 7 deadly sins. The second link goes straight to interactive maps of the US for each of the seven deadly sins. Classic!

RTFA: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar/26/one-na…

The question of evil and where it lurks has been largely ignored by the scientific community, which is why a recently released study titled “The Spatial Distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins Within Nevada” is groundbreaking: Never before has a state’s fall from grace been so precisely graphed and plotted.

Geographers from Kansas State University have used certain statistical measurements to quantify Nevada’s sins and come up with a county-by-county map purporting to show various degrees of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride in the Silver State. By culling statistics from nationwide databanks of things like sexually transmitted disease infection rates (lust) or killings per capita (wrath), the researchers came up with a sin index. This is a precision party trick – rigorous mapping of ridiculous data.

Interactive Graph for the US:

RTFA: http://www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2009/mar…

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090223/ap_on_en_mo/os…

I have yet to watch slumdog, but heard there was some outcry at the portrait painted of Indians. I’m wondering if these criticisms have merit. Am I missing something here, the director said this at the Oscars last night:

“Just to say to Mumbai, all of you who helped us make the film and all of those of you who didn’t, thank you very much. You dwarf even this guy,” Boyle said, holding up his directing Oscar.

Now to say that all of Mumbai dwarfs an Oscar is an insult right?

What is amazing about the following story is the reaction of key Canadian religious figures to it. First, we begin with the background and a brief synopsis of reaction in the US and Britain, then we’ll move to reactions of Canadian religious figures, and close with the reactions to similar ads run in Washington D.C. and Italy:

RTFA: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM…

The atheist slogan, “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life,” may soon be coming to subways and buses in Canada’s largest city.

The Toronto-based Freethought Association of Canada, inspired by a campaign that has plastered British buses with the phrase, has contacted the private firm that handles ads on the Toronto Transit Commission to see if the message would violate any rules. Organizers plan to launch a fundraising page on the website atheistbus.ca in the next few days.

The British campaign, which has inspired similar moves in Washington, Barcelona and Madrid, has sparked complaints to the country’s advertising authority and a backlash from the evangelical group Christian Voice, which has proclaimed that Britain is in “deep sin.”

Now for how Canadian religious groups are taking it:

Neil MacCarthy, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said it was difficult to comment on ads that he hasn’t seen.

“The reality is that organized religion is often an easy target,” he said. “… At the same time, this type of campaign would likely generate discussion and dialogue around faith. And that can be a healthy thing, as long as it is done respectfully.”

The moderator of the United Church of Canada, Right Rev. David Giuliano, said he would rather see atheists say what they believe in, rather than what they are against.

But, pointing out that his church also uses advertising, he said he has some sympathy with the impetus behind the ads.

…

Mohamed Elmasry, founder of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said he had no problem with the ads: “They have a system of belief like anybody else, and they are entitled to live with this system and also propagate it among others.”

…

TTC vice-chairman Joe Mihevc, a former Christian theologian who has long sat on the ad-review committee, said he would welcome the atheist ads: “What better place to have one of the key theological, philosophical debates of our time but on public transit?”

Not a single religious group quoted said the Atheists were all damned to Hell and/or shouldn’t be allowed to post the ads. That’s a freakin’ enlightened society! I almost couldn’t believe these quotes when I read them. For me, anyway, this story is almost more interesting for the reactions of Canadian religious authorities than the ad campaign itself.

For a little comparison, here’s an article discussing the way people in the US reacted to a similar campaign being launched in Washington DC:

RTFA: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica…

[The American Humanist Association] launched our Washington DC advertising campaign on November 11 with the slogan “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.” The venue was the sides, rears and insides of 230 of the city’s buses. News coverage of the campaign generated an outpouring of phone calls and e-mails, mostly negative. The largest number came directly to us but hundreds of complaints also came to Metro, the government entity that handles the city’s buses and subways. One of the complainers expressed a wish (or perhaps a prayer): “May all your atheist buses break down!”

The sudden high volume of visitors to our special campaign website www.whybelieveinagod.org crashed our server twice. Soon, the conservative talkshow hosts were clamouring to give us air time so they could argue against us and further rouse their audience. And conservative Christian organisations not only denounced our efforts but encouraged their flocks to come bleat in our ears. All this before our bus ads actually started to appear one week later.

UPDATE: Similar ads banned in Genoa, Italy for violating advertising ethics code

RTFA: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM…

Italian atheists have lost a bid to run “no God” advertisements on city buses after strong opposition from conservative political parties, a member of the group said on Saturday.

The ads reading “The bad news is that God doesn’t exist. The good news is that you don’t need him” were to have been put on buses in the northern city of Genoa, home to the Catholic cardinal who is head of the Italian Bishops Conference.

The mock-up was ready and the contract was sent to the group for signing but the publicity agency changed its mind and said the ad could not run it because it violated an ethics in advertising code, according to Giorgio Villella of The Italian Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agnostics (UAAR).

“Right-wing politicians criticized us ferociously,” Mr. Villella said by telephone from the group’s base, adding that at least one bus driver in Genoa said he would refuse to drive a “no God” bus.

“It’s strange that in a country where ads depicting near-naked women wearing skimpy lingerie is permitted on buses that we can’t run ads about atheism,” Mr. Villella said.

RTFA: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/opinion/12mon4.h…

On Christmas Eve, the conservative pundit Monica Crowley argued on Fox News that instead of rescuing America from the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s spending on public works made it worse. She insisted that this bizarre claim was confirmed by “all kinds of studies and academic work.”

The show’s host backed her up. “Yes,” said Gregg Jarrett, “I think historians pretty much agree on that.” In the same vein, a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece said F.D.R. helped turn “a panic into the worst depression of modern times.” Now, as Congress begins to debate President-elect Barack Obama’s ambitious economic stimulus plan, this anti-New Deal talking point is popping up all over.

Conservatives have railed against the New Deal from the start. In 1934, H. L. Mencken was already decrying it as “a saturnalia of expropriation and waste.” When F.D.R. ran for re-election in 1936, a headline in William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers insisted that “Moscow Backs Roosevelt.”

But Americans were not fooled. They knew F.D.R. was on their side in a way that Herbert Hoover and his fellow free-marketers hadn’t been. They could see first-hand the good that Roosevelt’s jobs programs were doing for the Depression’s victims and the slow but unmistakable improvements in the economy.

…

Congressional Republicans say Mr. Obama’s stimulus will cost too much, and that over time the economy will cure itself. When critics raised the same objections to F.D.R.’s programs, his relief administrator, Harry Hopkins, had a ready answer: “People don’t eat in the long run. They eat every day.”

What, Americans should go to work? I thought they should sit at home and collect unemployment or welfare checks. The best thing for the rocketing unemployment rate right now is to make sure we don’t create new jobs. Jobs are bad. Jobs make Americans think they shouldn’t be lazy. Screw American industriousness; that was a myth of the 50s.

But, wait -> The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Benjamin Bernanke, disagrees with this rhetoric:

RTFA: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/…

U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the stimulus package being crafted by President-elect Barack Obama and Congress could provide a significant boost to the sinking economy. But he warned that such a recovery won t last unless other steps are taken to stabilize the shaky financial system.

Although Mr. Bernanke has previously endorsed the notion for a fresh round of government stimulus to lift the country out of a recession, it marked the first time the Fed chief has referenced the roughly $800-billion U.S. recovery plan now being worked on by Mr. Obama, who takes office next week. Mr. Obama envisions a blend of tax cuts and increased government spending, including on big public works projects, to make up the stimulus plan.

Mr. Bernanke, who didn t weigh in on the details of the evolving package, made clear that such a recovery plan was needed as part of a broader, multi-pronged government response to combat the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. and the global economy since the 1930s.

The incoming administration and the Congress are currently discussing a substantial fiscal package that, if enacted, could provide a significant boost to economic activity, Mr. Bernanke said in a speech to the London School of Economics.

At least someone has some sense!

RTFA: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/art…

Former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran, seeking to cleanse the stain left by his 2007 conviction for obstruction of justice, is angling for a last-minute pardon from President Bush and has lined up a group of former Massachusetts governors to back his request.

Finneran submitted an application for a presidential pardon last month, and the four governors – Democrat Michael Dukakis and Republicans William F. Weld, Paul Cellucci, and Jane Swift – followed up with a letter to the White House praising his integrity.

Finneran has already been “severely punished,” the governors wrote, citing the loss of his state pension, the suspension of his license to practice law, and his firing from a lucrative private-sector job.

“And he has suffered daily taunts and ridicule of those who believe that every elected official is the equivalent of a common thief,” the governors told the president in their letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe. They assured Bush that Finneran has “seen the error of this episode” and is truly sorry.

…he is sorry he got caught …and sorry that the current law prevents Bush from granting this pardon.

Of course, a law preventing something hasn’t stopped Bush in the past!