Oh satire, how I enjoy you: South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford released another statement today, this time blaming her husband’s affair on the declining moral values in America. “Of course I’m not saying that Mark is gay,” Sanford said, “but he may as well be. The moral decay in this country has claimed another victim and this time it was my family. Our marriage was perfect until these laws started passing around the country. Clearly the slow dissolution of… Read more
After reading Jason’s story, this one makes me feel a little more optimistic. Doug moved to Louisiana earlier this year and registered his car in his new home state. The Department of Motor Vehicles website explains how anyone can get a personalized license plate — you can even type in what you want and they’ll let you know if it’s “unacceptable or unavailable.” If you type in things like: JESUS, CHRIST, GOD, 4GOD, 4JESUS, JESUS4U, GO2GOD, LOVEGOD, or ALL4GOD, you… Read more
For a few weeks now, I’ve been working fairly intensely on a book idea. I haven’t talked about it on this site yet, but if it works out, you’ll hear more soon enough. The other day, I finally sent it off to an editor interested in looking at it. It’ll take some time before I hear back. If it works out, I dance. If not, I can try taking it to other people. It’s potentially a very long process, that… Read more
Herb Silverman, the founder/president of the Secular Coalition for America, has a unique take on the Mark Sanford situation since he himself ran for governor of the state about 20 years ago. Specifically, Herb takes on the infamous apology to everyone: One of Governor Sanford’s press conference apologies was “to people of faith across South Carolina, or for that matter, across the nation,…” Implicit in his apology, and insulting to nontheists, is that people of faith are expected to be… Read more
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett recently met with Rev. Fredrick Boyd about a mentoring program in the schools. I’m going to assume for a moment that program would’ve been legal/kosher. Boyd asked Bennett if he would speak at his conference. Bennett said yes, thinking he’d be talking about education in his state. Yesterday morning, Bennett discovered what the conference was about: Creationism. He pulled out of the conference immediately. Good for him. He really should’ve known better in… Read more
It’s July 1st. Guess what that means…? If you open up your 2009 Skepdude calendar, you should be landing on a studly picture of me. Mr. July, 2009. Go ogle it. Enjoy. To the rest of you who didn’t order it: You should be ashamed of yourselves. Look what you’re missing out on… Read more
If Jesus came out to dinner with me, I would *totally* be a believer. But then he’d probaby eat meat and I would think nasty things about him. (via Atheist Media Blog) Read more
Thank you, Hawaii Tribune-Herald, for publishing this well thought-out letter-to-the-editor: On the eve of King Kamehameha Day, I had a vision of the king. He told me to warn everyone about the coming mandatory vaccination programs. The swine flu and other inoculations are toxic. We have been warned. Francis Pacheco Hilo Francis is quickly approaching Jenny McCarthy levels of anti-vax crazy. (Thanks to Jeff for the link!) Read more
I don’t know who writes to Billy Graham seeking advice, or why they take him seriously, or what newspapers would run his responses… but his latest column doesn’t make a strong case for reading him. The letter writer asks why atheism appears to be on the rise and why it’s getting more attention these days. Graham first explains that it’s really just a handful of successful authors: They aren’t large in number, but they do tend to be aggressive in… Read more
I mentioned yesterday that a series of articles in The Sunday Times (UK) was riddled with inaccuracies. Samantha Stein, the camp director, has issued corrections to the pieces. There are a *lot*: “Dawkins sets up kids’ camp to groom atheists” (Headline) Richard Dawkins is not setting up Camp Quest UK. The word “groom” is misleading, offensive and inaccurate. … “Dawkins, who is subsidising the camp, said it was designed to ‘encourage children to think for themselves, sceptically and rationally’ “… Read more
