Maybe a Genetic Cause for Autism

How much money do you want to bet that anti-vax douchebags Jenny McCarthy and her retarded boyfriend Jim Carrey won't ever mention this article in their little Kill the Children tours? I'd bet a lot.

Researchers have found that many people with autism share common genetic variations, a discovery that may improve diagnosis and offers the promise of developing treatments for the frustratingly mysterious disorder.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the treatments these folks are talking about have nothing to do with a "mommy instinct". Just a hunch. Check this out:

...most autistic people examined have a genetic variation in a portion of their DNA that affects the way brain cells connect with one another.... Both reports add weight to the idea that autism is related to problems with the way brain cells connect.

So it's not vaccines, then? No? Right. I love this bit:

Up to now, the medical community could say very little about what causes autism or how to treat it. The lack of scientific knowledge about autism has led to a proliferation of pseudoscientific explanations for the disorder, as well as unproven treatments. (my highlighting)

Psst...Jenny...he's talking to you...douchebag.

A 7th Day Adventist Wants To Play

Back in aught six I wrote a post about the Seventh Day Adventists who left one of their stupid booklets in my door. In that piece, I wrote this paragraph:

I could never be an SDA person because of the fact(s), namely: they hate gays - well, obviously; they don't drink (strike two); and they think "creation science" solves millions of years of evolutionary evidence. Gatdamn, I'd rather punch myself in the face for a year and a half than spend a minute in the presence of SDA weirdos in my home.

The other day, one of the believers stopped in to my site, found said article and was, shall we say, offended by my accusations. "Anonymous" commented thusly:

I find it offense and clearly ignorant that you group the whole sda community in your objections

your accusations are false and unfounded to a great extent.

show me proof from the bible or egw that we believe or have the traits that you have mentioned?

I'll leave the poor grammar and punctuation alone for the time being because there are more pressing issues. I must defend my writing! Okie dokie, here we go. On the "hating gays" thing:

Seventh-day Adventists believe that sexual intimacy belongs only within the marital relationship of a man and a woman. This was the design established by God at creation. The Scriptures declare: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24, NIV). Throughout Scripture this heterosexual pattern is affirmed. The Bible makes no accommodation for homosexual activity or relationships. Sexual acts outside the circle of a heterosexual marriage are forbidden...For these reasons Adventists are opposed to homosexual practices and relationships. (from here.)

Ooo, a stinging blow from the site of the Seventh Day Adventists themselves! Sucks to be you. Alrighty then? Yes, I thought so. Moving on to the "don't drink" accusation:

The Seventh-day Adventist Church reaffirms its historic stand for the principles of temperance, upholds its policies and programs supporting Article 21 of the Fundamental Beliefs, and calls upon each member to affirm and reveal a life commitment to abstinence from any form of alcohol and tobacco and irresponsible use of drugs. (from here)

Jab and a hook! He's looking tired, Goldie. We good so far? Righty O. Lastly we have to deal with the SDA's alleged belief in "Creationism". Hmmmmm, how about a selection from the SDA's "Affirmation of Creation" page?

Reaffirmation of the church’s Fundamental Belief regarding creation is strongly supported. Seventh-day Adventist belief in a literal and historical six-day creation is theologically sound and consistent with the teaching of the whole Bible...We affirm the historic Seventh-day Adventist understanding of Genesis 1 that life on earth was created in six literal days and is of recent origin...

Any questions, Anonymous? I expect that you either have no idea what your religious organization actually believes or, perhaps, you are just as dumb as a fucking chimp clit. Either way, I expect an apology soon - I will, however, be reading a large science book whilst I wait.

Ok, and could you cretins please use fucking spell-check/grammar-check before you send your goddamn criticism? Is that really asking so much? If Jesus was on your side, HE'D check for you so you wouldn't sound like so much brainless blathering.

I'm going to bed.

Brandon Raynor - My Letter to the Toronto Star

Let’s say you go out to dinner at a nice restaurant and order an entrée. It arrives and it is not bad. You see the chef walking around the room and as he gets close, he stops at your table and asks you how your chicken tastes. You tell him that it was pretty good but a little overcooked. He replies that he “feels” when the chicken is perfect and that it has nothing to do with internal temperatures.

Slightly concerned, you ask about the cutting boards in the kitchen and how they are used with respect to raw chicken. The chef tells you that everyone in the kitchen uses the same cutting boards for everything and they wash them at the end of the night. “No sense in washing everything a hundred times, right?”

Would you continue to eat at this establishment? Would you assume that the Health Inspector would soon make a visit? I would hope so.

From May 11th to 22nd, Brandon Raynor’s School of Natural Therapies is offering a five and ten-day course at Rhythm in Motion dance studio in Toronto taught by Jason Leue. Raynor’s theory is that they “don’t believe that reciting Latin names for muscles or knowing the names of every bump on every bone is what it takes to be and outstanding massage therapist.” (all Raynor's quotes are from his website).

In this statement there is an incredible level of anti-intellectualism and self-righteousness. Raynor (and, presumably, Leue) is a practitioner of unproven and unscientific techniques that rely heavily on supposedly manipulating “energy”, “chi”, or whatever non-existent phenomenon he espouses. Raynor is quoted from a video on his site saying, “…some people get tingling in their bodies, usually the start of the chi starting to move…you can feel a lot of little bumps and things on his head which is all signs of, um, too much chi in the head.” (third video)

I guess that’s a technical diagnosis. I think I saw that on a chart at Sick Kids once….

The problem is that Raynor and Leue are deceiving their potential students and the general public. In Ontario, to be a registered massage therapist, you have to do a 2200 hour course – two years – during which time you learn about the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the body; the nervous system; the bones & joints and limitations of said; plus internal anatomy, pathophysiology, proper massage techniques, and much more. We are complementary health professionals – “complementary” in the sense that our modalities are most effective when used with others such as physiotherapy.

On Raynor’s website, he says that taking his course, “…gives you a legal way to practice in Canada without having to do a 3000 hour course, and also allows you to get full malpractice insurance.” They will need it. For reasons similar to why a chef does not know only about what foods look and taste good together, but also about safe internal food temperatures and the dangers of cross-contamination, massage therapists know about anatomy, physiology, and pathology so we can effectively treat our clients or refer to an appropriate health care professional if the problem is outside our scope of practice.

The College of Massage Therapists of Ontario is there to protect the public from practitioners who do not meet the provincial standard. I know in my practice, contrary to Raynor’s assertion that certified massage programs, “…fill your head with a lot of jargon and anatomical terms that you will never use…”, I explain to clients on a daily basis how specific muscles work, how injuries happen, proper stretching and strengthening techniques, and why if their lower back is injured oftentimes they will get pain in their calf or foot. Here’s a hint: it has nothing to do with “chi flow”.

In July of 2007, the College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia (CMTBC) issued a warning that Raynor’s course was not accredited and that potential students and the public should beware. The CMTO should follow suit if it has not already done so. Raynor asks why one would, “…waste 3 years of your life and $20,000 just to use a special reserved word when you can become a better practitioner from our shorter intensive course that is only 10% of the price and uses only 1 or 2 percent of your time but makes you a 200% better practitioner?” I will take a shot at answering that question: perhaps because when a client shows up to see an actual registered massage therapist and says, “Listen, my shoulder was injured when I fell off a horse and now my pinkie and ring fingers are tingly. Can you tell me what’s wrong and can you help me to get better?”, the answer they do not want to hear is, “Oh, of course I can help you! See, what happened is that you disrupted your chi flow and your aura has turned a dark blue color so I have to massage your arm-y type thing to make the baddies go away.”

Massage therapy is a field that, sadly, is riddled with pseudo-science and quackery, but the way to fix it is to keep standards high, encourage critical thinking and basic science skills, and make the bar as high as possible for entry. By lowering or eliminating standards, as Raynor advocates, we will only see unqualified individuals ultimately causing harm to the public either directly or, more likely, indirectly by changing their minds so clients believe that working with nonsense like “chi”, “meridians”, or “energy” will heal what ails them. It is then that laypersons will avoid actual proven therapies in times of need, causing pain, suffering and in worst case scenarios, death.

Raynor advocates letting clients decide who gives the best “treatment”. At first pass, this sounds like the right thing to do, but there is a flaw in the reasoning. It is the same flaw that we see when a news organization does the “man on the street” interviews and asks people questions about foreign policy and such. This is a bogus tactic because most people have no idea about the situation and as such, cannot give an informed opinion.

There are people who come to the physiotherapy clinics I work at and the treatment they receive may not be the most relaxing or most enjoyable, but that is not why they came. I treat primarily car accident victims, post surgery clients, sports injuries, and age-related musculo-skeletal conditions. As such, the clients describe their symptoms, I do diagnostic tests, come up with my clinical impression, and treat them as I see fit. Most people have no idea how their bodies work, and why would they? It is not important to them. They depend on experts to help them when something goes wrong the same way that when a foreign policy situation occurs, most people depend on specialists to deal with it in the appropriate manner.

The Brandon Raynor School must not be allowed to continue advertising in Toronto as it has been. They deal in quackery, nonsense, and wackaloonery, and then try to act like it is their right to pass it off as health care. The College of Massage Therapists of Ontario and the general public who deserve better must step up and say “no”.

Brandon Raynor's Bullshit Massage

Brandon Raynor is everything that is wrong with massage therapy. At a base level of quackery, he hits the mark by providing a closed loop of bullshit - a diagnoses of "bad chi" and/or "deep stuff" that needs to be fixed (watch the videos in the above link to see that I'm not making that up), he then provides the fix, then declares the "problem" cured but with the requirement of "maintenance" treatments.

Raynor is one of those Newage (rhymes with "sewage", if you were wondering) people who want massage therapy to be deregulated so any whackjob who spouts unproven and ridiculous crap about "energy lines" can foist his or her dangerous non-treatment on the public. I love his quote from that last article where he says:

Thai massage, as taught at the Wat Po temple in Bangkok, where Thai massage has its origins, is taught in the traditional Thai manner focusing on learning the Sen or energy lines and also on practical application, rather than on Western anatomy.

Can I clear up a bit of a possible misconception here? There's no such thing as "Western anatomy". It's just fucking anatomy. We're all the same and guess what? There's not "Sen" lines or energy lines, or meridians or anything. Get the hell over it. Prove it to me that what you say are "energy lines" exist in the first place, then maybe we can talk.

Also prevalent in Raynor's (and the letters on his blog) writing and attitude is the "it's in you or it's not" feeling that oozes anti-intellectualism. "You don't need to know those big words or scary Latin, you just have to feeeeeel where the 'tension' is and how to move the chi around to heal people". Complete bullshit. The reason we know anatomy, physiology, and pathology is so we can (a)treat a problem by properly identifying what's wrong and (b)refer to the proper professional when the problem lies outside of our scope of practice. My guess is that Raynor has never felt the need to not treat someone. He'll even throw in a neck-crack for good measure! (watch the first video of the first link)

I have to get into some of the more crazy and what I consider controversial quotes from the first link article. About his course:

We spare no expense to make it so that the massage techniques as well as our overall massage style is the most cutting edge, effective and sought after massage therapy treatment that is available anywhere in the world today.

Anywhere in the world, eh? Cutting edge? And all this can be yours in just ten days!

We don't believe that reciting Latin names for muscles or knowing the names of the every bump in every bone is what it takes to be an outstanding massage therapist.

No, to be fair to Raynor, that doesn't make an outstanding massage therapist. It does, however, make for a knowledgeable health professional who can answer his/her client's questions in a manner befitting someone treating the general public, often after an injury. It has been my experience that when someone asks, "Listen, my shoulder was injured when I fell off a horse and now my pinkie and ring finger are tingly. Can you tell me what's wrong with me and are you able to help me get better?", the answer they don't want to hear is: "Oh yes, of course I can help you. See, what happened is that you disrupted your chi and now I have to massage your arm-y thing to make the baddies go away." Just saying. You might want to mention their ulnar nerve and have some information about nerve tension tests.

A wonderfully shitty analogy:

...we keep the focus of our training on teaching you to be an excellent massage practitioner without getting you sidetracked into unnecessary details that can actually make you lose your focus...Just like a good cook knows more about the look, feel, smell and taste of food than he/she does about the chemical composition of the food...(my emphasis)

Good chefs know about the composition of food. When you cook, you know that it's the sugars in it that brown. Ever watched Good Eats? That Alton Brown mofo knows his shit. What's that you say? You want condescension and more anti-intellectualism? You got it!

Would you like to learn massage in a way that respects massage as an ancient art form and doesn't bore you by making a massage course into just a scientific jargon filled class that teaches you so many things that you really don't need to know

Yes, all that boring scientific jargon that you don't need to know like, I don't know, thoracic outlet syndrome, compartment syndrome, or perhaps lateral epicondylitis. If someone came into the clinic with one of these very common ailments, would any of your five or ten day "graduates" know what the fuck was happening or would they just babble on about "chi" and "bumps" and "tension"? I thought so.

A little more? Sure:

We will teach you only what it takes to make you into an outstanding world class massage professional.

No, you don't want to weigh them down with all those scaaarrrry muscle names. "What in the hell is a quadricep??? Howzabout laying off the technobabble there, Poindexter." You know, it's this do-nothing-yet-still-get-credit attitude that annoys the living shit out of me more than anything. There are some things in this world that you can't learn in a fucking week-long seminar and health care is one of them. I'm a massage therapist - am I as knowledgeable as an M.D? Of course not, but I'm a hell of a lot more educated in anatomy and physiology than a layperson and that includes anyone who has completed a 5-day "advanced diploma" course.

...incorporates the best of massage techniques from all over the world, plus incorporates many powerful techniques developed by Brandon Raynor, a Naturopath who has trained extensively in Eastern forms of natural therapies such as Ayurveda and Chinese and Japanese Medicine.

Gee, how'd I know he was going to be flaky? On a bit of a technical side note, if you watch the three videos from the first link, you'll notice that Raynor uses his thumbs to work on both the client's back and leg. This is a no-no as using a small body part on a large one, over time, is asking for a repetitive strain injury or RSI to the thumb. I guess that's one of those boring, scientific jargony things that you don't really need to know.

I really can't get over this...a five day or ten day course?! As a comparison, to get certification as a registered massage therapist in Ontario, Canada, where I work, you need to take a 2200 hour course - so two years - then pass provincial board exams including both practical and written elements. Is it a lot? Certainly. Too much? Not at all. To effectively treat a client, you have to know what's wrong - specifically. Otherwise you're just a backrubber and no one needs a five-day course to be one of those.

Oh I'm sorry, you wanted more condescension...

We show you not just how to massage the common areas of the body that most massage therapists do such as the back, legs and arms but we also show you the importance of feet and hand massage, face and scalp massage and most important of all - abdominal massage.

Yes, I know that my training completely ignored the feet and hands as well as the scalp and abdomen. Oh, wait, no it didn't. But there was precious little newage blathering about reflexology or chi and when it was brought up it was questioned and critically evaluated (i.e. made to look silly) by people like me. A foot massage feels nice, but your feet have nothing to do with your goddamn chest.

After completing our massage course in any location within Canada, you will be qualified as a massage professional and you will be able to get professional indemnity and malpractice insurance.

To be clear again, in Ontario and other Canadian provinces with massage legislation, the title of massage therapist is a restricted title, which is likely why Raynor uses the term "massage professional". It's a loophole that he probably exploits to lure students into his woo-woo course.

I have to include this quote from the last video of the first link. It's from the first minute when Raynor is massaging the neck of the volunteer:

...the chi has come up to the head and they get a bit jumpy

I know I get jumpy when my chi bunches up in my head. What the fuck does that even mean? Chi is not real, sir. You are full of...um...what's that word...? Dammit... Oh, right. "Shit". You're full of shit.

Ok, last one. I can't resist. This is too stupid not to include. Here it is:

...it'll (the massage) start to break it (the chi) up so then a person can get, we can get this flow happening between the belly and the head where the chi will start to move really well between the two areas....some people get tingling in their bodies usually the start of the chi starting to move...you can feel a lot of little bumps and things on his head which is all signs of, um, too much chi in the head.

Yep. Too much chi in the head. I think I saw that on a chart once in Cedars Sinai Hospital.

Pope to Nuns: You're Not Hateful Enough, So Kill Yourselves

Juuuuust in case you were wondering how that whole "religion = love" thing was coming along, I thought I'd kick you a couple of delicious sausage links to help you sort that shit out. The first is a beautiful tale of the Vatican investigating a group of American nuns for their teachings on homosexuality. You just can't be against the gays enough to satisfy those dress wearing, hypocritical assholes, can you?

I guess if the nuns cause enough of a kerfuffel, you could just kill them. I mean, it's not like it's that uncommon. Seriously, check out what "Father" Daniel said about the visitor-turned-nun he killed being tied and chained to a cross while being denied food and water for days leading - obviously - to her death:

God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil...I don't understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this. Exorcism is a common practice in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests

Ok, that about wraps up the discussion. Any questions can be directed to your instructor and papers are due on the last class day of the month.

Religion makes you crazy!(h/t to both Huffington Post and The Good Atheist)

Love Your Freedom! Love It!!!

Bradford Campeau-Laurion got ejected from a Yankees game because, get this, he tried to go to the bathroom during the playing of God Bless America. Some officers took exception to Laurion saying that he, "was not concerned with the song" and wrenched his arm behind his back and kicked his ass out.

The United States of America: Where you're free to do anything you want...except what the man decides you shouldn't.

Predictable Response

In response to my slapdown of "Dr." Mikio Sankey, someone known only as "anonymous" has left a comment that is worth reposting and having a bit of a go at:

That's so sad. If you've read any (or all) of Mikio's books or tried any of his acupuncture patterns on yourself, you'd know that he's the real thing. I really recommend him to everyone - if you're open to expanding your consciousness. But even people who aren't - he has basic patterns to begin to open patients - and they basically help with stress as well. He's just using simple TCM points learned in every acupuncture school, but he's doing them in a specific order to create sacred geometry patterns (in other words, the treatment will have more of an impact). Whether you call something "Plum pit qi from Liver qi stagnation" (TCM) or "Throat chakra imbalance" (Mikio) you are still treating someone's lump in their throat.

Firstly, we have the old "try it yourself and you'll see it's real" fallacy. This is the woo-believer's favorite tactic because they don't realize that anecdote do not equal data. A person's experience does not, in any way make that experience scientifically valid because no variables were controlled, hence, fabulous parting gifts for you. Enjoy the Rice-a-Roni...it's the San Francisco treat!

Secondly is the "you're a closed-minded skeptic and should be open to opening your consciousness chakra healing whitelight blahblahblahblah" fallacy. Anyone who has talked to believers has dealt with this particular brand of stupidity. In any event, I'll repost the great video that's been making the rounds of skeptical websites of late, only because it's super relevant to this person's attitude:Ok, now that we've all watched that for the seventh time, let's move on to the, "simple TCM...sacred geometry" bullshit. Traditional Chinese "medicine" is not medicine. Sorry, but it's not. I'd recommend reading parts one and two of Yao Man Chan's Tao of Chinese Medicine over at Skepticblog. He's better at taking apart the silliness and, you know, he's Chinese.

Lastly, I'd like to point out a flaw in the last sentence. "Anonymous" says that, "Whether you call something "Plum pit qi from Liver qi stagnation" (TCM) or "Throat chakra imbalance" (Mikio) you are still treating someone's lump in their throat." Well, no, actually, you're not treating shit if you're doing anything with their "chakra", "meridian line" or "qi" because those things are as make-believe as Gremlins, Chewbacca, or Nic Cage's accent in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. That's like saying you can treat a sinus by massaging the tips of your toes. Oohhh...wait...

So, to sum up: nothing new here, same old same old, thanks for offering up the standard tripe, Anonymous - if that is your real name - and feel free to come back later with more drivel that I can use to make a new post.

"Bromance"? Seriously?

Do we really need a word for dudes who hang out and get along that involves the "-mance" suffix? Jesus, how many episodes of What Not To Wear do you have to watch before "bromance" seems like a good word to use?

When guys meet and hang out, it's hanging out. There's no gayification of that, ok? We shave our faces and maybe trim the chest, we keep the crotchal areal well trimmed and in good shape, but that's just regular old maintenance, not goddamn "manscaping". We use that word as a joke because the queerifaction of our language is amusing to us from time to time.

By the way, if you read this blog at all, you know that I'm all about gay rights. Equality for all. What I'm not down with is the over-compensation like where the Christians who freaked out during the Communist Threat of the Cold War got "...under God" into the U.S. pledge and "In God We Trust" on their money. That shit should have never happened in the same way that "bromance" and "manscaping" and "metrosexual" have no place in straight man talk.

Gay rights? Hell-to-the-yes. "Bromance" - please, just say no to the fagification of English. (Side note: if gay dudes want to call their friendships "bromances", not a prob, fellas...just don't use the term for my friendships. Thanks.)

Rabbi Avi Shafran - Tremendous Douche

Avi...Avi...what are we going to do with you? You write another stupid article, this one "admiring" Bernie Madoff - a scumbag who stole $65 billion dollars. On top of that, you say you don't admire Cpt. Chesley Sullenberger because he didn't grovel and wail that his "saving" was due to your precious and insecure Old Man in the Sky (OMITS).

Do Jews actually pay attention to this jerkoff or is he like the Jewish Pat Robertson? I'm just askin'....

I've taken Avi out to the woodshed before but apparently he just doesn't listen to criticism...or read...or pay attention to life around him in any substantial way. I mean, listen to this helmet-headed reasoning for Madoff's crime not being that major:

Judaism teaches that stealing is a sin, but it doesn’t differentiate between misappropriating a million dollars and pilfering a dime.

Well that means your religion is fucking stupid. If I have $1.40 and then pinch a dime off the counter so I'll be able to buy a large coffee on the way home, I'm pretty sure the secretary at work won't notice that I "stole" it. If I, however, wanted to start my own missile defense company and needed $65 billion dollars and proceeded to take that from my clients, that's a whole other ball of wax. Anyone who can't see that difference needs a CAT scan immediately.

Oh, and I absolutely love this bit:

...Madoff likely began his crime spree in the hope of rewarding, not swindling, investors, and by the time it became clear he would not be able to do that, he already was deeply entangled -- and daily becoming more entangled -- in the web he wove.

None of that, though, is to belittle the great pain Mr. Madoff caused, and is certainly no cause for affording the iniquitous investment broker respect. No, what I admire about him has to do with his owning up to his crime.

"So, yeah, I was trying to make my wife a better woman by showing her how to please me. She wouldn't listen though so I punched her in the face several times. I did cause her pain, to be sure, but I'm sorry. I take full responsibility for my actions. Do you 'admire' me?" What a tool. Here's Avi saying that Madoff stayed in the U.S. because he knew he was going to be caught:

Think about it. The man knew for years that eventually his scheme would come apart and that prosecution loomed, yet he took no steps to flee, huge bribe in hand, to some country lacking extradition treaties.

Does Avi know the meaning of the words "greedy fucking douchebag"? The former CEOs of World Com, Tyco, Enron...these people were greedier than any other people on the planet with the notable exception of Bernie fucking Madoff. Admirable, indeed.

And then Avi says that Sullenberger deserves the hakoras hatov (thanks and appreciation) of those he saved - along with the flight crew - but that's just about enough, thank you, because he didn't give thanks for his excellent and competent training to:

the One Who instilled such astounding abilities in His creations (and Whose help the captain was not quoted as acknowledging)

Talk about a douche. To paraphrase Patton Oswalt, when our bodies return to the loam and the cities are but dust, alien civilizations will know that he was a douchebag. The Neuromancers walking the wastelands will carry high his standard of douchebaggery!

I'm done with this jackass.

(h/t, like he needs the traffic from me...to PZ)

Fuck Steve Harvey

Do yourself a favor right now and press "play" on the video below, followed immediately by pause. Let it load so you don't have to suffer through the whole thing. Ok? Ok.

So the gist is that this is an interview with audience questions on the Tyra Banks show and her guest is comedian Steve Harvey. He, for some unknown reason, wants to be the black Dr. Phil now and put out a relationship book. Here, he answers a woman's question about how long to wait until getting intimate with a guy, then he expounds to Banks about what a woman should ask a man when they start going out. Ok, so now hopefully the video is loaded and you can skip to the 5:00 mark. He says he has questions for women to ask. Then at the 6:00 mark he gets to his "question number three - the personal stuff" and he drops this little retarded morsel:

...does he have a relationship wit' God? You sittin' up here talkin' to a dude and he tells you he's an atheist, you need to pack it up and go home. Talkin' to a person don't believe in God, you (inaudible), what's his moral barometer? Where's it at? It's nowhere....

Ok, so you don't even really need to listen to/watch the video because all you need to know is right there. Granted, Harvey isn't any sort of illuminating thinker, but you'd expect someone in the entertainment industry to have met a non-believer that wasn't closeted. I guess that's just the religious prejudice hung out, all pink and naked for everyone to see.

I wonder if anyone would seriously take relationship advice from a three-time-married, sued-by-his-second-wife, I'm-going-to-die-of-not-surprise-he's-a-born-again-christian douchebag? I think he's on the same advice-giving rung of the ladder as the maladjusted elderly virgins of the Catholic church.

Actually, you should watch that one little segment because when he makes the stupid comment, Banks looks a little uncomfortable. There's a weird little laugh she does that says, "Shit, I'm going to get me some letters about that...".

Yes, Tyra, you are.

(h/t to Hemant at the always fantastic Friendly Atheist)