A GOP pollster who served George W. Bush in the 2004 election, Jan van Lohuizen, fired out a confidential memo telling Republican operatives it’s time to run like hell from the anti-gay-marriage rhetoric. Continue reading “That Swooshing Noise? Oh, That’s the GOP Sliding to the Left”
My Wonderful, Fabulous Life, or, Why You Should (Should Not) Envy Me
Atheism is not all I do. It’s sort of my curse that most things interest me. Used to be, EVERYTHING interested me, but I’ve gotten more conservative in my old age. The uncool part of the condition is that it’s been hard to focus on any one thing, and actually make a good living at it. The cool part is, it’s been (is being) a fun ride.
One of my things is adventuring. Doing stuff for the fun of it. I would actually like to make a living at it, and have been working, at a glacial pace, to develop a website — AdventYear — of “Outdoor Adventures for Fat Old People.” Continue reading “My Wonderful, Fabulous Life, or, Why You Should (Should Not) Envy Me”
Kuwait Votes to Murder Blasphemers
This would qualify as a Monty Python skit if it wasn’t real. (Warning: Fairly shocking pic below the fold.)
Kuwait’s parliament approved a law that calls for the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad, his wives and relatives, in a sign of the growing sway of Islamists who triumphed in elections this year.
Amnesty International describes the thing as “a massive step backwards” for Kuwait. Jeez, you think?
Under the law, any Muslim who, through any form of expression, insults God, his prophets, messengers, Prophet Mohammad’s wives or the Qur’an will be subject to the death penalty unless the defendant repents. If he does, then the judge is to instead impose a sentence of at least 5 years in prison and a fine equivalent to $36,000 (US). Continue reading “Kuwait Votes to Murder Blasphemers”
Short Stack #13
[Apology in advance: Some of these may be repeats.]
Jesus praying to God is the same as masturbation.
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New Superstitions for the Modern Age: If your oatmeal has black specks in it, and if you eat the black specks, you will sicken and die. Eight-year-olds, take note.
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Why, yes, you’re right. It IS a “mute” point. Probably best to say no more about it. Continue reading “Short Stack #13”
Interview With The Blue Collar Atheist
Sometimes you read something you wrote or said sometime back, and you go “Damn! That was me? This is some really good stuff!” That was my reaction to this post on my old site, shortly after the publication of my book.
Anyway, I’m reposting it.
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What’s the book about? Continue reading “Interview With The Blue Collar Atheist”
Fanboy Does ‘The Avengers’
Went to the midnight showing of The Avengers last night.
I’ve been saying for a couple of years that someone figured out something, about the time of the first Spider-Man movie. Something about how to do a REALLY GOOD superhero movie.
The whatever-it-was came to perfection by the time the second Spider-Man came out, the one with Doc Ock, making it the screaming best superhero movie ever-evarrrr.
But then the first Iron Man hit the screen. Blew. Me. The. Fuck. Away. Topped Spidey 2.
The Avengers is Iron Man times three. Continue reading “Fanboy Does ‘The Avengers’”
God Without Spellcheck 2
Thanks to Barry Andrew for the heads-up on the following image:
From their website: “The North Georgia Falcons are a homeschool football team with high school and middle school players. We play football in the Glory For Christ football league, which is made up of Christian School teams and Homeschool teams.”
The lead post at the Glory for Christ Football League site — “Our purpose in life is to give glory to God!” — is at the moment a large ad for the concussion-preventing Guardian football helmet. That’s just slightly ironic, you have to admit (Wait, you say you want to give glory to God by playing football, but you’re not willing to risk everything for Him?), but I’m not going to make too much fun of it. At least they’re not attempting to pray away concussions.
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Doing a search for the origin of the photo, I found these comments on the New York Times website, a couple of letters to the Sports Editor:
Re ”Home Schooling, Home Teams,” June 26: Perhaps the home-schoolers need to rethink their Priority List, as ”3. Acedemics” and ”4. Atheletics” are misspelled on the sign in a photograph accompanying the article.
and
I prefer to think that it was an act of kindness rather than an oversight that compelled you not to notice the misspellings in the North Georgia Falcons Priority List. I commend you on your forbearance. As to the priorities listed on the sign, it is painfully clear that spelling ranks nowhere near the top.
However, the picture referred to does not at present appear with the article, leading me to believe it was scrubbed by a kindly editor, possibly after being contacted by certain embarrassed parties.
In Case You Missed It …
This is the piece that appeared in the Albany Times Union newspaper this last Saturday, in the Voices of Faith column on the Faith & Values page. (Interestingly, it used to be the Religion page, and I suspect the change reflects some sort of sea change in understanding that “values” can come from someplace other than religion. Which is progress, and which I attribute directly to newly-vocal atheists making that very point.)
The two other main stories on the page were “Pope orders crackdown on nuns” and “Faith lost, then found, strengthens Troy mayor.” (Troy is a local city, a once-upon-a-time industrial giant located next to Albany.)
I titled my piece “Being Good Without God: The Option of Atheism” / the editor renamed it Atheists Aim for Goodness. Continue reading “In Case You Missed It …”
God Without Spellcheck
I love/hate this kind of thing. Either way, it’s often worth a laugh.
I’m sure you have your own unfavorite misspelled signs, posters, etc., from the goddy demographic. Send me some links! Let’s start a collection.
Small-Town Blowhard Kills Jesus
I wrote a piece for my local newspaper some weeks back, and it came out today in the Times Union newspaper of Albany, New York: Atheists Aim for Goodness.
Anytime you have a letter or an opinion piece on atheism in your local paper — something well worth doing, by the way — you get a storm of letters in response. Nice Christians diligently explain why you can’t possibly be right, and how you have no logical basis for your atheism, and even how there are no such things as real atheists.
The following week, some nice local priest, or a nice rabbi — both sure to have actual college degrees in the finer points of religion — point out the desperate flaws in atheism, which is, after all, a religion just like any other. Besides which, Hitler and Stalin.
But meanwhile, if you’ve done it right, somewhere out there a 15-year-old girl reads it, or a 19-year-old guy, or a 35-year-old mother of two, and goes, “Exactly what I was thinking! I’m not alone!”
Or at least “Hey … um. I never thought of that. Hmm.”
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By the way: If you’re a Schenectady or Albany resident and got here via the link at the end of the article, you may want to know about these three local organizations:
Capital Region Atheists & Agnostics
Capital District Humanist Society
Each of these groups is filled with bright, kind, interesting, involved people who can answer questions, tell you more about what they do, or help you get involved at the local level in helping us make a better world.