Party time at Dublin Castle:

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RTÉ has called it.

RTÉ News‏@rtenews
Ireland’s same-sex marriage referendum has been passed

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God has tweeted about the vote.

God ‏@TheTweetOfGod 2h2 hours ago
Dublin, if this doesn’t tell you My opinion nothing will. #MarRef

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RTÉ’s live count.

17:13 Result for Dublin North: Yes 72.61% No 27.39%. That is 34,494 Yes votes and 13,009 No votes. A margin of 21,485. The turnout is 65.83%.

17:02 Result from Dublin North Central: Yes 68.95% No 31.05%. That is 25,382 Yes votes and 11,431 No votes. A margin of 13,951. The turnout is 68.85%.

Result from Dublin Central: Yes 72.37% No 27.63%. That is 23,861 Yes votes and 9,108 No votes. A margin of 14,753. The turnout is 57.98%.

16:51 Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said the social revolution that Minister Leo Varadkar spoke about earlier has been going on for some time. He said the Catholic Church needs a reality check.

In so many ways.

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YES IRELAND

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RTÉ News on the referendum:

The same-sex marriage referendum looks set to be passed by a margin of possibly two to one, according to tallies.

A number of campaigners against the marriage referendum have congratulated the Yes side on its campaign.

The first official constituency result was declared in Sligo-North Leitrim with Yes on 53.57% and No on 46.43%.

In Waterford the result was: Yes with 60.33% and No on 39.67%.

In Wicklow, the result was Yes on 68.37% and No on 31.63%.

The official national result is expected to be announced before 6pm.

Large crowds have been gathering in Dublin Castle to hear the final result, which will be a resounding Yes vote.

Two to one!! That’s amazing!!!

The count in Dublin, RTÉ just said, is 71% yes.

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Yesssssssssssss.

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The BBC says the yes side seems to be winning.

Government ministers have said they believe it will pass, while prominent “no” campaigners have conceded defeat.

Counting started at 09:00 BST on Saturday morning. An “unusually high” turnout has been reported.

A result is expected late afternoon on Saturday.

The Indy says the no side has conceded.

The Republic of Ireland appears set to become the first country to introduce same-sex marriage by a popular vote, especially now since the ‘no’ campaign appears to have conceded.

David Quinn, of the Iona Institute and ‘No’ campaign tweeted a concession and congratulations to the ‘Yes’ campaign amid widespread reports of a landslide.

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This thing is horrific.

The In Touch article has the details, and they’re jaw-dropping. Vaticanesque, but with the extra turn of the screw that the “girls” in question are his sisters. Maybe having 19 children isn’t such a brilliant idea after all, huh?

WARNING: Graphic descriptions contained in police report.

Jim Bob Duggar waited more than a year after his son, Josh, confessed to sexually molesting several female minors before contacting police, In Touch Magazine is reporting exclusively, based on information contained in the official police report.

The female minors were his sisters.

What’s more, Jim Bob informed the elders of his church about Joshua’s actions and they waited three months before contacting authorities. The explosive new information is contained in a Springdale, Ark., police report obtained by In Touch magazine.

The report has been hidden since 2006 and was just obtained by the mag through a Freedom of information Act request. Jim Bob also refused to allow police to interview Josh when they opened a felony investigation in 2006. The Duggars star on TLC’s hit show 19 Kids and Counting.

Just like the Catholic church, except that it’s his own daughters “Jim Bob” is victimizing.

The report is shown in the article.

Other bombshells in the police report are: Josh Duggar was investigated for multiple sex offenses — including forcible fondling — against five minors. Some of the alleged offenses investigated were felonies. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were interview by the Springdale Police department on Dec. 12, 2006. The report says that James told police he was alerted in March, 2002 by a female minor that Josh — who turned 14-years-old that month — had been touching her breasts and genitals while she slept. This allegedly happened on multiple occasions. In 2006, Jim Bob told police that in July, 2002 Josh admitted to fondling a minor’s breasts while she slept. “James said that they disciplined (redacted, Josh) after this incident.” The family did not alert authorities.

Because “Jim Bob” is the only authority they recognize, presumably.

Jim Bob told police that about nine months later in March, 2003 “there was another incident.” Josh was again accused by a female minor of touching her breasts and genitals. Josh was accused by several minors of touching their genitals, often when they slept, but at times when they were awake.

So basically the parents had created a little harem of pubescent girls for their oldest son to molest. Generous.

Jim Bob then “met with the elders of his church and told them what was going on.” No one alerted the police or any other law enforcement agency. Instead they decided to send Josh to a “program [that] consisted of hard physical work and counseling. James said that [redacted, Josh] was in the program from March 17, 2003 until July 17, 2003.”

He said the program was a “Christian program.” Michelle Duggar later admitted to police that Josh did not receive counseling and instead had been sent during that time to a family friend who was in the home remodeling business.

Because working in construction is well known to prevent men from sexually harassing or molesting women and girls.

The Duggars told police that Josh “apologized” to the female minors and that they had “forgiven” him.

An alleged victim told police in 2006 that Josh had told “mother and dad what had happened… (and) asked for forgiveness.” The report notes the alleged victim says Josh “sought after God and had turned back to God.

Jim Bob told police that “several members of their church were aware of the situation and had been supportive of the family.”

That’s how it works with the Amish, too: forgiveness is all important so the victims are required to forgive the perp – while the perp is not required to stop perpetrating.

In Touch magazine broke the story of Josh Duggar’s dark past in the issue currently on sale. The magazine obtained the police report, hidden since 2006, through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Police had to abandon pursuing charges because the [then] three-year statute of limitations had expired.

The alleged victims all described a consistent scenario of Josh touching their breasts and genitals and later apologizing. They said Jim Bob was aware of the situation and did not go to authorities for more than a year.

And last night TLC ran a marathon of their tv show about these people.

The whole thing is just fucking disgusting.

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I have to laugh. I’m sure it’s very wrong of me to laugh, but I can’t help it – not once I spot the random guy in the back row, like Hitchcock making the cameo in his own movies.

Via In Touch

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It turns out that having 19 or 20 or 40 children and raising them SuperChristian doesn’t guarantee that they will be good people who don’t harm other people. The Duggars are finding that out.

A son in the large Christian family featured in reality television show 19 Kids and Counting issued an apology and quit his job on Thursday after reports that he molested underage girls when he was a teenager.

Josh Duggar, 27, is the eldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, whose long-running show on cable network TLC chronicles the daily struggles and triumphs of a conservative family in Arkansas.

“Conservative” is putting it too mildly. Patriarchal, backward-looking, theocratic, authoritarian – they’re all that and more.

Josh Duggar did not directly address the allegations that were “reported by In Touch magazine and other websites but said in a statement that he felt remorse for what he called “wrongdoing”.

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends,” said the statement.

Duggar resigned from his job at the Family Research Council, a Christian lobbying group based in Washington DC, according to a statement from the organization’s president, Tony Perkins.

“Today Josh Duggar made the decision to resign his position as a result of previously unknown information becoming public concerning events that occurred during his teenage years,” Perkins said.

“Events.” “Events” that “occurred” – as opposed to actions a person took. Tony Perkins doesn’t seem to be much into forthrightness or taking responsibility.

A Duggar family representative did not respond to requests for comment.

The apology came after In Touch published a document it said it obtained from the Springdale police department in Arkansas alleging multiple instances in which Duggar molested underage girls.

The police department said it could not comment and Reuters could not independently verify the document’s authenticity. In Touch reported that charges were never filed against Josh Duggar.

Well he comes from such a nice Christian family, you see…

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The Irish vote on same-sex marriage is today; polls close in a couple of hours. Counting doesn’t begin until tomorrow.

David Robert Grimes takes a look at some of the bad science being deployed by the No side.

Catholic think-tank the Iona Institute are amongst the loudest voices on the no side. Along with other no campaigners, their main argument has been a rather cynical attempt to reframe the referendum as about children rather than marriage equality, a misconception the referendum commissioner has taken pains to dismantle. This hasn’t discouraged Iona and their fellow no campaigners from attempting to emotively and dishonestly reframe the discussion, however.

Biological parents! Better! Better for children! Never mind that the research doesn’t say that!

Of course, if Quinn and his colleagues gave a damn about the reality of the situation, they would have found their protestations on the suitability of same-sex parents to be utterly misplaced. Numerous studies have since found precisely zero differences in parenting or child outcomes between same-sex or opposite sex couples. The American psychological association state rather succinctly that “… the evidence to date suggests that home environments provided by lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychosocial growth.”.

Sadly, the insinuation that same-sex parents are defective continues unabated. Fellow Iona patron Professor Patricia Casey was publicly rebuked on two separate occasions last year for misusing research from both Uppsala University and UNICEF to reach the same dubious conclusion, prompting UNICEF Ireland’s executive director Melanie Verwoerd to slam Casey’s spin as “incorrect and unacceptable”.

They’re lying for Jesus. Surely that makes it ok.

The polls are predicting a yes vote, but there are compelling reasons to consider them unreliable on this issue, partly because of the likelihood that many people will tell pollsters they’re voting yes when they’re not. The Shame Skew, you might call it.

The other big factor is turnout: when turnout is low, only those strongly invested in a particular outcome will vote, and this can skew the result to something quite at odds with majority opinion – essentially a selective sampling problem. This may have been the case in Seanad abolition referendum in 2013, when a turnout of less than 40% skewed the result to quite the opposite of polling predictions.

Ultimately, campaigners in both camps are aware it will be turnout that decides the election. While I generally attempt to hold a neutral position on the pieces I write, I feel obliged to declare an interest here, having canvassed for a yes vote in Ireland last week. As an Irish expatriate living abroad, I cannot vote, yet dearly hope it passes and Ireland becomes a more equal place. Regardless of one’s voting intention, the scaremongering from the no side is simply so much sound and fury, and should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. Their ostensible grasps at scientific credibility crumble upon even a cursory inspection, and their odious arguments, bereft of facts, should not be allowed set the tone of the conversation.

For those with the privilege of voting in such an historic day, I implore you not to let apathy rule, and to use your vote so we can be proud of the country we all call home.

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So now it’s the Wahhabis’ turn.

The Islamic State (IS) group says it was behind a suicide bombing on a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 10 people.

The attack in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province is the first to be claimed by the Saudi branch of IS, which was formally established last November.

They break their eggs at the wrong end, you see.

Witnesses reported a huge blast at the Imam Ali mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh, in Qatif governorate during Friday prayers.

A doctor at the hospital told the BBC that at least 10 people were killed and about 70 injured, “some very critically”.

Allahu aqbar.

The Sunni extremists of IS have a special loathing for the Shia and they will almost certainly have been looking to exacerbate sectarian tensions between Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority and the rest of the population.

Shia anger will likely be directed at the Saudi authorities for failing to protect their community in Eastern Province.

Shias have been concerned for some time at inflammatory speeches given by hardline Sunnis that depict them as being ‘not real Muslims’, a view shared by IS.

That’s religious dogmatism for you. So many people fail to get every jot and tittle of the dogma exactly right, thus becoming “not real” dogmatists, thus deserving to be blown to smithereens.

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