Thanks For Asking! -- Week of 3/15-3/21

This week's AMA (and this weekend's podcast) brought to you by Darryl W Perry:



Ask me anything in the comments. I'll answer in the comments, in the upcoming KN@PP Stir Podcast, or both. Only requirement: Try to make it fun, difficult or otherwise interesting!

This week, we already have three questions, which I'll copy here from last week's comment thread, where Thane Eichenauer asked them since I hadn't got around to posting this week's thread yet:

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Hello Thomas,

Given your stated desire for more questions and better questions I wonder why you don't post your ask me anything post asking for questions immediately after you post your podcast.

2nd is my question: If you were advising a young (or old) person on his or her college curricula would you generally discourage or encourage that person to take one religious studies course?

3rd: I read about the Yoruba religion in the book God is Not One by Stephen Prothero. Have you heard about it? The author included it as being among the most influential religious on earth. It even managed to score higher in his opinion than the Bahá'í Faith (the religion of both of my parents (and mine for my first two decades on planet Earth). He is the designated professor for the Bahá'í club at Boston University (per the above book).

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Thanks for asking! I'll answer in the comment thread (and maybe on the podcast)!

Bad Google. BAD!

A heads-up from Antiwar.com:

This morning (3/18/15) we received a note from Google Adsense informing us that all ads for our site had been disabled. Why? Because of this page showing the horrific abuses committed by U.S. troops in Iraq at Abu Ghraib.

This page has been up for 11 years. During all that time Google Adsense has been running ads on our site -- but as Washington gets ready to re-invade Iraq, and in bombing, killing, and abusing more civilians, they suddenly decide that their "anti-violence" policy, which prohibits "disturbing material," prohibits any depiction of violence committed by the U.S. government and paid for with your tax dollars.

Whatever happened to "don't be evil," Google?

A Modest Proposal for an Addendum to "Tanja's Law"

It's a Georgia law that, as originally proposed, would have allowed for a charge of second-degree murder for killing a working police dog. The state senate toned it down a bit. Now killing a police dog is "only" punishable by imprisonment for up to five years and a fine of up to $20,000.

Well, OK, then. But if they're going to go that way, how about an addendum/amendment providing for precisely the same penalties for working police officers who kill non-police dogs?