***Update***: You may comment now. Old comments will be imported into the system throughout the night! … I would refrain from commenting for a few hours while the site switches over the a new commenting service (Disqus). Things should be back to normal soon! All the previous comments will be back shortly, too, so don’t worry if you don’t see old threads for the time being. Thanks for bearing with me! Read more
Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York has stepped down from the House Ways and Means Committee — at least temporarily — due to ethics violations. This is one of the most powerful committees in Congress — it has jurisdiction over taxes, Social Security, unemployment benefits, and Medicare. And, at least for the time being, it is being chaired by the sole openly non-religious person in Congress: Congressman Pete Stark of California: At a morning meeting of committee Democrats, Stark told… Read more
It’s not surprising that FOX News is throwing a shit fit about the Smut for Smut campaign. But the clip below is *really* worth watching for the last 30 seconds. Daily Show gold, I tell you… Read more
I don’t know how I missed this, but in the (Internet-only) “Overtime” segment of Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday, the entire discussion revolved around the Secular Coalition for America’s briefing with White House officials. (They didn’t mention us by name, but we all know…) The segment is NSFW (there’s swearing). I cringed during most of the beginning part. Adam Carolla doesn’t get it at all. Penn Jillette isn’t our saving grace. Maher makes a good point that we… Read more
Dave Niose, President of the American Humanist Association, has a piece at Open Salon where reader can find out whether or not they are Secular Americans: If someone (other than your partner) wants to regulate your bedroom behavior, you can bet he or she isn’t a Secular American. If you feel there is too much God-talk in the public forum and that politicians too often wrap themselves in God and patriotism just to win votes, you might be a Secular… Read more
Chatroulette is a site that lets you talk to an Internet stranger via webcam. It could be awesome. It could be incredibly disturbing. I take no blame for whatever you find on the site. In both cases, it’s addictive. You never know what you’re going to come across next (though it’s likely you’ll see a man doing things no one should ever want to see…). Reader Anthony found a way to make the most of the site: In an effort… Read more
When representatives of the Secular Coalition for America met with White House officials last week, we had three items on our agenda: Military religious freedom: Ending religious discrimination, coercion, and proselytizing in the military Fixing faith-based initiatives: Making sure tax dollars are not going directly to houses of worship and that federal funds are not being used to proselytize “Faith-healing” exemptions: Closing loopholes in child medical neglect laws that allow for abuse by so-called “faith healing” Are those the issues… Read more
At the Center For Inquiry in Hollywood, California last Sunday, a great figure from the Golden Age of Freethought gave a moving and inspiring account of his remarkable life. Robert Green Ingersoll, masterfully portrayed by actor and writer Richard McNally enthralled us with stories and speeches from his prime years from around 1860 to 1890. Until now, I knew very little about the man known as “The Great Agnostic.” Now I want to learn much more about him, because the… Read more
As I wrote yesterday, I’m not a fan of “Smut for Smut,” the stunt run by the Atheist Agenda group at the University of Texas at San Antonio in which people trade holy books in for pornography. Obviously, people disagree with me on this, including members of the Atheist Agenda group. I asked them to submit a guest post in defense of their event and one of the group’s officers, Joe E., did. Here’s that post: My name is Joe… Read more
Let this be a lesson to public school teachers who don’t know how the law works regarding church-state separation: Stop talking before you dig yourself deeper into a hole. Dale Halferty is an industrial arts at Guthrie Center High School in Guthrie Center, Iowa. For a project, students had to build something from scratch. One student told him he wanted to build a Wiccan altar. Halferty said he thought about it, and decided allowing the student to make the altar… Read more
