Fox News North

I haven't been blogging much because I'm in despair over the level of political discourse going on. The bald-faced lies, endless spin and re-spin, ideology trumping sense every fucking time. I'm just so sick of it and it's going to get worse if the Harpies get Fox News North on basic cable.

There's an online petition to sign. The text reads:

To CRTC Chair von Finckenstein and PM Harper:
As concerned Canadians who deeply oppose American-style hate media on our airwaves, we applaud the CRTC's refusal to allow a new "Fox News North" channel to be funded from our cable fees. We urge Mr. von Finckenstein to stay in his job and continue to stand up for Canada's democratic traditions, and call on Prime Minister Harper to immediately stop all pressure on the CRTC on this matter.

There are almost 30,000 signatures now. When the total hits 100,000, the organizers will run a full-page ad in a major newspaper.

Please sign and circulate to your friends and associates.

And in a beauty little nutshell (snerk), here's a preview of what Faux News North will be like.

The Blogging Tories are spinning the petition as -- you guessed it -- media censorship.

Blogger posts two tweets, one from Margaret Atwood and one from a Liberal candidate, then says:

Turns out there is an on-line petition circulating (see here) to stop Sun TV and these two wingbats are actually publicly endorsing this attempt at media censorship.
. . .
Can’t wait to hear how the Canadian loonie left that worship Margaret Atwood will try to defend her coming out against freedom of the press.

And here's another ijit spouting the same crap.

When it's a ReformaTory cabinet minister spewing porky pies like this, I hope to hell it's because they toeing the ideological line not because they are actually that braindead. But with Blogging Tories, one wonders.

Avaaz Sabotaged

Well, isn't it classy?

Yesterday Avaaz experienced an attack on our “Stop ‘Fox News North’” petition consisting of fraudulent sign-ups of targeted individuals.

And dig this (bold mine):

It's deeply disturbing that in all Avaaz's years of campaigns against US President George Bush, Burmese, Zimbabwean and Sudanese dictators, irresponsible multinational corporations and corrupt politicians, no one has ever yet stooped to this kind of tactic to undermine our members' right to express their views.

Go here to see what sort of dictators and war criminals they have taken on in the past. And Fox News North supporters are the first to stoop to sabotage. Isn't that special?

Sounds like Avaaz is some pissed:

We do not yet have all the facts, but it appears to speak to the poisonous political climate and deeply deceptive tactics that have been bred by the radical right in Canada and its progenitor in the US. It is precisely this kind of bare-knuckled, brazenly deceptive and often hateful political climate that Sun TV's "Fox News North" appears keen to promote.

Canadians understand this, which is why, in just over 36 hours, well over 50,000 Canadians have signed our petition against Stephen Harper's attack on the independence of the CRTC as it resists the Sun TV request for access to Canadian’s cable fees.

Go sign the petition if you haven't yet. When I looked a few minutes ago, the number was closing in on 58,000.

And, of course, KKKory Teneycke's hissy fit will just help the numbers. I'm not linking to it; you can find it if you must.

Here's some background on Avaaz.

Avaaz.org was co-founded by Res Publica, a global civic advocacy group and non-profit organization, and MoveOn, an American non-profit progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. The organization is also supported by Service Employees International Union, a founding partner, and GetUp.org.au. Avaaz's individual co-founders include Executive Director Ricken Patel, Virginia congressman Tom Perriello, Australian progressive entrepreneur David Madden, Jeremy Heimans, Andrea Woodhouse, Tom Pravda, and MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser.

KKKory's Freudian Lingerie

This is delicious. ReformaTory, aka US Rethuglican-wannabee, lies and shenanigans spin together two current ugly confrontations -- the long-gun registry (which, by the way, may now be safe thanks to the NDP) and the Fox News North kerfuffle -- into a perfect hurricane of irony.

I knew I'd heard KKKory Teneyke say something about the US National Rifle Association meddling in Canadian politics as he hysterically claims Avaaz, the organization running the Stop Fox News North petition, is doing.

I was looking for a link, but was pretty sure it was during the shouting match debate betweeen KKKory and Avaaz's Canadian director, Ricken Patel, on the Evan Solomon CringeFest a week or so ago.

Bingo. James Bowie to the rescue.

"What if the NRA came in to Canada trying to influence policy and decision? People would be outraged!" - Kory Teneyke 03 09 10

Hee. The NRA is doing exactly that and has been for years and yes, KKKory was right on one thing, people are outraged.

When I heard him make that comparison, I thought to self, 'KKKory, are you sure you want to go there?" Maybe as he was bloviating about 'foreign' meddlers, he had a Freudian lingerie moment and out popped the name of a powerful foreign extremist group that he knew bloody well had been meddling for years.

Wikipedia says of the NRA:

Members of Congress have ranked the NRA as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country several years in a row. Opponents of the organization accuse it of unduly influencing political appointments.

In related news, Avaaz today turned over the Ottawa-area IP address of the saboteur(s) of the FNN petition to the RCMP and the Ottawa Police. You remember, that sabotage that KKKory has some connection to? KKKory said that an 'acquaintance' told him he or she had signed up fictional characters. But the acquaintance denied signing up real-world journalists -- which would be identity theft. Avaaz says that the same IP address was used to sign up both.

Ooooh, I'm making a REALLY big bowl of popcorn for this one.

If you do one activisty thing in the next two weeks. (with update)

Squeal about this.

The CRTC seems to be about to change its regulations to enable Fox News North.

A recent, little-noticed news item may result in a deep and indelible blemish on the Canadian mosaic.

Earlier this month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), without fanfare, posted on its website a potential game-changer in the world of broadcast journalism. The CRTC is seeking to relax restrictions concerning the broadcasting of specious information on radio and television.

Currently, the law stipulates that broadcasters “shall not broadcast any false or misleading news.”

Sounds reasonable enough — and straightforward — as it should, since it concerns the integrity of news reporting.

But not apparently to the CRTC. It is proposing to soften the regulation, banning “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

In short, with the new wording, broadcasters could air false or misleading news with impunity, provided that it does not endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.

Unfortunately, the CRTC does not specify who will judge whether or not such disinformation poses a danger.

Like the public discourse is not already degraded enough.

WTF is the CRTC thinking/smoking?

Squeal here. And do it soon. The deadline is February 9.

Um, Margaret, can we get a little promotion here?

Update from deBeauxOs - NDP MP Charlie Angus is also concerned - grand merci to AZ. Reminder - deadline is Feb. 9 - this Wednesday.

Judge to Fetus Fetishist: FFS!

One of the Jubillee Jailbirds, Linda Gibbons, was in the news last week.

Again.

But some good news to report. Judges are getting increasingly pissed off at these scofflaws.

After sentencing Gibbons to the max, without reduction for time served, the judge displayed her, um, annoyance.

The judge went on to administer a tongue-lashing to Gibbons at today's hearing.

"She has indicated no remorse to the court," [Madam Justice Feroza] Bhabha said angrily. "She believes in the rightness of her cause ... (but) abortions are legal. Miss Gibbons does not appreciate that it's a legal right."

The judge added a "strong message" needs to be sent to her and others that "there needs to be respect for the law" and she characterized Gibbons as "a martyr for her cause ... It's very likely that she will appear again before this court."
. . .

She said Gibbons's continual appearance before the courts meant she was not amenable to "rehabilitation" and her conduct "must be denounced," with general deterrence emphasized in order to "enhance respect for the law."

Commenters over at ProWomanProLie are wallowing in glurge. Lookit this from 'antigonon'.

It is arguable that Gibbons – along with Mary Wagner, also in jail in Toronto, & for the same reason – may doing the most valuable work on earth. By their willingness voluntarily to absorb a small measure of the injustice inflicted on the innocent, no child dies without this incomparable witness to their value. They are thus – humanly speaking – not utterly abandoned. Hard to see what else in the world stands against injustice as these two do.

That would be Mary Wagner, the other Jubilee Jailbird, who was something of a cause célèbre among fetus fetishists last year when another judge let fly.

Quote from LieShite. Note ellipses.

“You’re wrong and your God’s wrong,” [Judge S. Ford Clements] continued. “You have complete contempt … There is a right to (abortion) in this country … You don’t have a right to cause (abortion-seeking women) extra pain and grief the way you do.”

Fox News North and assorted other usual suspects went batshit Christian martyr-crazy and the judge got his wrists slapped for his little tirade.

But at least her attempt to get public funding to take her 'cause' to the Supreme Court was also slapped down.

They continue NOT to get it. Yes, you have the right to freedom of speech. What you do NOT have is the right to the audience of your choice.

[Sorry for all the LieShite links. They are the only ones to cover this crap.]

Your Compassionate Conservatism at Work

'Tis the season yadayada. . .

This is the time of the year I do my charitable donations. Not because of any seasonal sentiment, but because it's only at the end of the year that a freelancer knows how much she can afford.

So I was doing that and thinking about all the cuts that have been made and will be made by various levels of nasty governments, necessitating more of us ponying up more to try to mitigate the harm done to the most vulnerable here and elsewhere in the world.

Then I heard that CBC Radio had held its annual day-long Sounds of the Season fundraiser for local food banks yesterday. It was announced that a record $230,000 in cash and around 15,000 pounds of food have been donated so far. (The campaign runs to the end of the month. You can donate here.)

Good. Might help ease the sting of the Grinchy cut to the city's Christmas Bureau.

Here's what the our measly $125,000 DID.

Since 1956, the Christmas Bureau has coordinated the distribution of gifts and donations to thousands of children and their families in Toronto annually. Employment and Social Services is proud to partner with Toronto Fire Services, CHUM Christmas Wish and the Toronto Star to make this possible.

The Christmas Bureau:
• Co-ordinates the distribution of Toronto Star Gift Boxes to children 12 years of age or younger whose families are receiving social assistance.
• Provides a referral and information service to people receiving social assistance and low income families living in Toronto.
• Connects individual and corporate donors to appropriate agencies.
• Co-ordinates the distribution of gifts to community agencies to give out to low income families. To do this, the Christmas Bureau works closely with CHUM Christmas Wish and the Toronto Fire Services.

Cut.

Yabbut, yabbut, compassionate conservatives don't loathe poor people; they just think that private charity should do all that kinder, gentler stuff.

I looked around for local charitable efforts, especially sponsored by media outlets because, you know, that's a great way to get the word out, viz CBC.

The Toronto Star is running its annual Santa Claus fund with a goal this year of $1.6 million (almost $1.3 million raised as of now).

The local CTV station does 'Toy Mountain' every year.

I had a quick look but couldn't find anything from Global TV.

Then I went looking for what the Toronto Sun might be doing. On its home page, it's got a link to Variety Village, but it goes directly to that organization's home page. Seemingly no promotion other than a link. (They are promoting the
Molson Coors Drink Responsible [sic] Contest though.)

Looked some more and found this.

So I’m sitting here getting depressed reading how Canadians are giving less and less to charity.

Donations are at a 30-year low, says Statistics Canada.

It’s the economy, right? Or we’re too busy. We gave last year. We’re taking the kids to Disney World. Granny needs new teeth. The cat just had kittens. The locusts ate our crops. The tornado...

Myriad reasons, all good. But it’s worrisome, since 80% of charity comes from you and me, not big corporations.

So I’m down in the dumps — as I get set to launch my 2011 Christmas Fund for Variety Village.

Oh. The Christmas Fund for Variety Village is the work, not of the Sun Empire, but one columnist. Gracious of them to let him use valuable corporate assets to do it, doncha think?

Now you're wondering what Fox News North Sun News Network is doing for the Giving Season, aren't you?

Zip. That I could find.

But Big City Lib has the Xmas message the corp has for its staff. Wage freeze for 2012.

No compassionate conservatism from those lying vultures, it seems.

But here's a heartwarming antidote. Mysterious donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts.

Of course I sit ready to be corrected if someone has news of any effort by FNN.


h/t for the Kmart story to godammitkitty.

Towards a Post-Partisan Blogosphere?

impolitical has an interesting idea.

The internets will be this generation's Cité Libre, methinks.

Well, here's a site trying to get that going.

The Sixth Estate describes his effort:

I’m frustrated enough with the demonstrable inability of the major media to cover the important issues that I’m starting a little experiment called the Sixth Estate Newswatch, will be a news service based primarily on blogs (left to right, but mostly just the sane ones) and hopefully will become at least as useful, if not quite as often-visited, as the raving climate change denialist running Bourque. Consider this a demonstration of just how utterly useless the mainstream corporate media is if it’s serious about settling into a role consisting entirely of rebranding AP and CP reports, summarizing press releases and soundbytes and the occasional leak or ATI request which comes its way with only the slightest pretence of genuine investigative journalism, and then offering meaningless commentary from Larry Solomon, he who says Canadians shouldn’t vote.

There are, of course, aggregators out there, but the political ones are partisan.

And we just saw how well this increasingly poisonous partisanship performed for the country.

Other bloggers agree: Orwell's Bastard, Just Another Willy Loman, and The Galloping Beaver, to name just a few.

Maybe it's time, as they say, to move on.

Alice Klein, one of the people behind the (unsuccessful) strategic voting site, Project Democracy, calls herself a 'passionate post-partisan progressive'.

But it is not just progressives who are dissatisfied with both the state of democracy and the mainstream media in Canada. After all, Fox News North was created on the pretense premise that media is biased. (Well, it is, but not quite in the way right-wingers think.)

After the last prorogation, we saw citizens coming together to form groups like Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament and CRUSH. In the CRUSH Facebook group, there were disgusted democrats of all stripes, but we managed to keep partisanship out of the discussions.

I, for one, welcome the arrival of a new post-partisanship.

Who's in?

Did the good guys just win one?

Seems so.

On Tuesday, after a speech in Ottawa, Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre Karl Péladeau said the company would withdraw its request to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for an exception to the rules of its licence that would have made Sun TV News available to more Canadians.

So, now they're going for an ordinary Category 2 licence, despite the fact they had previously argued that Fox News North wouldn't be financially viable without the three-year 'must offer' special licence.

Oh, and speaking of special, isn't this? Quebecor is actually going to follow the rules.

“We’ve decided to go with the policies of the CRTC,” said Quebecor spokesman Serge Sasseville. . . .
“We are in favour of deregulation, but that [three years] would have been a transition period for us ... but we are part of the free market, so we decided to renounce that special request.”

Now they're part of the free market?

Impolitical speculates on the reasons for the walk-back, but I'm going with the straightforward.

After their ReformaTory bumboy with, supposedly, the ear of the PeeEmmOooo made a complete ass of himself and had to resign, Quebecor simply didn't have the juice.

And, of course, more than 83,000 pissed off Canadians who signed the infamous Margaret-Atwood-backed Avaaz petition had zip zero nada nothing to do with it either.

Mr. Sasseville said the decision to change its request to the regulator “had nothing to do with the Avaaz petition.”

Yaaaaaah, riiiiiight.

No juice and egg on their face. Not quite the hog's trough banquet they were expecting.

Let the market decide. And I'm betting this venture is falling flat on its eggy face.

March of the Feti Roundup (updated)

Prevented by Blogger's malfunction, I wasn't able to do my annual post-fetus-fetishist-bunfest snark yesterday.

So. As always, inquiring minds want to know. How many teenagers got bussed in for an edumacational day on the Hill?

Police estimate 5,000.

Here, we have the phrase 'estimated at over 10,000' but no word by whom.

The ever-reliable LifeShite claims 15,000 attendees.

When I posted a link to the nifty Hill Cam on Twitter, David Akin, a major star at Fox News North, pointed out that by then the gathering had perhaps started to dwindle as the march had started.

I asked when he reckoned the peak occurred. He said, 12:45 to 1:00. (I loooove Twitter.)

Moseyed around the toobz for a while and found this screen-shot at Trashy's World.



I asked when it was taken. By chance, the window was still open and read 12:51, smack dab in Akin's peak period.

Tweeted a link to Trashy's and asked if that look 'peakish' to Akin.

Answer:

Yup. That's what I saw RT @fernhilldammit: Screen shot at 1251 http://bit.ly/kA0VUR @davidakin said that's within peak attendance time.

And as Antonia Z pointed out, that crowd includes cops, media, bystanders, and pro-choice demonstrators.

So, what do you think? Here's another shot from a little while ago for comparison.



And just to round out March of the Feti (JJ's phrase, which I'd reference if bloody Twitter would stop pulling a Blogger), here's what the oft-disappointed-but-sure-they're-on-track-with-a-Con-majority think is in store for us.

Pat O'Brien, a former Liberal MP who sat as an Independent after falling out with his party over abortion, said "the debate is on" and politicians will have to catch up with the public.

And Georges Buscemi, president of Campagne Québec-Vie, said abortion services can be scaled back without a new law making the procedure illegal.

For instance, federal funding to family-planning organizations "can be diverted to other groups that are more open to life."

"There could be some behind-the-scenes work done," Buscemi said at news conference.

"Different things, subsidies to different organizations, policies on health, policies on education. There are a lot of things that can be done behind the scenes to prepare for the future."

March organizer Matthew Wojciechowski claimed there are now between 60 and 65 MPs out of 308 elected to Parliament who are in favour of new abortion laws.

Behind the scenes, eh? Nope. No hidden agenda atall atall.

UPDATE: Buckets does some sciency-facty stuff and comes up with 8,000.

Oh, the compassion

You may have missed this story, but the fetus fetishists (see usual suspects) are aalllll over it.

In fact, a mutual hand-wringing session with Brian Lilley and Andrea Mrozek (she of ProWoman ProLife *gag*) on Fox News North, is prefaced with a clip from Bill 'Tiller is a baby-killer' O'Reilly. Some broad tells O'Reilly that the measly five-year penalty for infanticide means that 'in Canada, it is open-season on babies'. (Note, however, the penalty in the in the US is two years.)

Speaking over a banner that reads: 'Baby Killer set free: Lack of outrage is mind-boggling', Mzozek cites the judge's reasoning and adds that infanticide is 'anachronistic', that we no longer believe that women who have just given birth have mental disturbances. (We'll get back to this stupidity.) She also drags out Peter Singer, the radical animal liberationist and utilitarian philosopher who is oft-quoted for his justification for killing newborns.

Let's have a look at what the judge said (CBC link above):

The fact that Canada has no abortion laws reflects that "while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support," she writes.

The judge noted that infanticide laws and sentencing guidelines were not altered when the government made many changes to the Criminal Code in 2005, which she says shows that Canadians view the law as a "fair compromise of all the interests involved."

"Naturally, Canadians are grieved by an infant's death, especially at the hands of the infant's mother, but Canadians also grieve for the mother."

So here's the story as told by Susan Martinuk:

Six years ago, a 19-year-old Wetaskiwin teenager named Katrina Effert secretly gave birth in her parents’ downstairs bathroom, then strangled her newborn son with her thong underwear and tossed his body over the fence into a neighbour’s yard.

You know — just an average evening for a hormonal, out-of-sorts teenager.

Yet what seems like a straightforward case of “girl murders baby” has since turned into anything but, and Effert has been wandering in and out of Alberta courtrooms for the past six years. She was twice found guilty of second-degree murder by jury trials (in 2006 and 2009), but each judgment was subsequently overturned by a provincial appeals court. In May of this year, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned her 2009 murder conviction, ruling that the jury’s verdict was “unreasonable.” It then replaced the murder conviction with the lesser charge of infanticide.

Since 2005, Effert has served the equivalent of almost eight months in legal custody, encompassing time spent in a remand centre, prison and psychiatric hospital. While judges and juries obviously have very different opinions on Effert’s actions and what is an appropriate punishment for baby killing, a conviction for the improper disposal of a body did stick and she was sentenced to serve 90 days for that transgression.

Last Friday, Effert faced Justice Joanne Veit of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton for sentencing. Veit called it a “classic infanticide case” and sentenced her to a three-year suspended sentence with probation.

Martinuk cherry-picks polls on public opinion on abortion, including the SHRIEEEEK- worthy fact that a majority of Canadians don't know that there is no legal time limit on abortion.

From there, Martinuk goes here:

In fact, if Effert had gone to a willing doctor just before giving birth, she could have avoided her legal problems altogether. She could have had a late-term abortion under Canada’s non-existent abortion laws.

Which, as regular readers of DJ! know, is complete bullshit.

This young woman has been dragged through the court system for six fucking years, served eight months, and now has a conviction for infanticide.

What is infanticide?
This is an offence of lessened capacity that is limited to a female person who, not fully recovered from the disturbing effects on her of a birth of her child or subsequent lactation, by a wilful act or omission, causes the death of her newly-born child. The maximum penalty is five years imprisonment.

Here is a history of infanticide, including explanations, such as economic, sex-selection, customs and taboos, psychological and psychiatric reasons.

The psychiatric reasons are postpartum psychosis and severe postpartum depression.

Let's review: a 19-year-old woman living with parents gives birth in secret. Why in secret? Parents don't know, will throw her out? Strangles newborn, throws body over fence (she thinks she's getting away with this?), then lies. Tells investigators she's a virgin, then switches stories and says she gave newborn to its father.

Sounds like a cold-blooded baby-killer to you?

Sounds like a very distraught young woman to me.

Who finally had some compassion shown to her after six fucking years. The judge is female and while I haven't read the entire judgement, she did open the door to all this nonsense with the reference to abortion. She could have stopped with 'classic case of infanticide', as far as I'm concerned.

Well, water under the bridge now. The fetus fetishists are gleefully spinning this sad story as a symptom of our 'culture of death'.

For the record, here is the Canadian Medical Association's policy on abortion (PDF):

Induced abortion, as interpreted by the CMA, is the active termination of a pregnancy before fetal viability. In this context viability is the ability of the fetus to survive independently of the maternal environment. According to current medical knowledge viability is dependent on fetal weight, degree of development and length of gestation; extrauterine viability may be possible if the fetus weighs over 500 g or is past 20 weeks’ gestation, or both (Gestation begins at conception).

Listen up, Ms Martinuk and other fetus fetishists: A doctor 'willing' to perform an abortion right before birth would face serious sanctions and probably lose his or her licence. For that reason, late-term abortions do NOT occur in Canada unless for the direst of reasons.

Of course, it is too much to hope that the 'pro-lifers' would leave this young woman alone now. No way. They're all 'pro-woman' until there's a hapless woman involved they can demonize to further their cause.

BREAKING! Bye-Bye KKKory

Wow. According to Kady's liveblog, KKKory Teneycke just resigned. No reasons given, no questions taken.

Of course, people are wondering if this has anything to do with a potential investigation into the sabotage of the Avaaz petition to stop Fox News North.

ADDED: ReTweet from Antonia Z.

UPDATE: Ricken Patel of Avaaz responds.

Not Just for Theists Anymore

Collected for your edification from the non-religious corners of the internets and put up to go with the Woodworth WTF-freeverse-poetry-so-deep-it's-incomprehensible-Is-this-his-official-MP-page-paid-for-by-taxpayers?, I present the recording of an abortion debate held at the Texas Freethought Convention this year.

One reason I thought DJ! would be interested is because the pro-forced birth stance in the formal debate is being presented by a self-identified secular Canadian.

This Canadian, Kristine Kruszelnicki, who appears to be giving MP Woodworth not only fan props but a run for his forced-birth money by being solidly in the ranks of this Very Concerned Group Of Americans Who Kindly Let Canadians Join Up.

My biggest take away from what I've been able to scrape up on the 'scientific' defenses in play by these secularist vagina controllers is it's pretty much the religionist forced-birth ideology with the heavenly serial numbers filed off, complete with reinterpretations of science in what was termed American election night on Fox News as "math he does as a Republican to make himself feel better...?" (he being Karl Rove denying Obama took Ohio's EC votes).

The pro-women's-autonomy stance in the debate was taken by feminist ally Matt Dillahunty of the ACA, a gender irony he notes himself during the debate, but it seems it was his work that brought this hyperskeptical-evidence-thin secular pro-forced birth group to greater scrutiny in the non-theist community*.  He has since apparently stated he's willing to keep challenging secularist forced-birthers as often as they can match schedules.  Given that the ACA is also home to a strong core of feminists including Matt's partner, Beth Presswood, there could be some very interesting higher profile pushback coming up in the North American non-religionist communities.

I predict such pushback will garner greater cries of conflation between alleged immorality of atheism and support for legal, unfettered abortion.  Be interesting to see how that plays in Canada.

I dunno.  Is a non-religionist who still stumps for incubator status of women, a He-ist or an Aiiieeeist?

*bonus points.  DJ!'s blogroll biologist on matters embryological, PZMyers of Pharyngula blog, snaps like a dry twig and makes an appearance at the end of QnA.