The Wonderful World of Magical Thinking XI

The week in fundie:

*Homophobic activist quack Paul Cameron again claims that homosexuals have a shorter life expectancy than heterosexuals. And then lies about it. (Via Ex-Gay Watch and Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

*Canadian wingnuts apologise to the world for legalised gay marriage. (Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

*It turns out that Perth Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has articulated his support for teaching ID in schools on a previous occasion. In October 2005 he declared: "Intelligent design is a far more elegant description of historical changes than an entirely evolutionary approach, and it therefore should not be ignored in the classroom. "Intelligent design, while it does not demand belief in a creator, sits very comfortably with Catholics who believe that whatever came first came from God who has a clear design for the universe and for each human being in it." (AD2000)

*Interesting article on B. A. Santamaria in The Australian.

Santamaria's attitude to so many of these issues was perhaps summed up in his statement in 1952 that one of the great evils of modern history was the birth of the "modern, liberal, democratic, secular state" in Europe in the years between 1750 and 1848. Think of the notions that are rejected in this statement: modern, liberal, democratic, secular.

Santamaria, who in his time was a hero of the Labor Right, is now a hero of the ultraconservative wing of the Liberal Party. (He also founded the aforementioned AD2000). UPDATE: See Bruce's post on Santamaria protege Tony Abbott and the abortion debate.