I’ve taken an excerpt from a certain person’s Wikipedia article and removed his name. Can you guess who it is? (Answer below) _____ earned a law degree from Washburn University in 1962, and founded the _____ Chartered law firm in 1964. The first notable cases were of a civil rights nature. “I systematically brought down the Jim Crow laws of this town,” he says. _____’s daughter was quoted as saying, “We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did… Read more
Last week, I went to a lecture in Chicago given by physicist Lisa Randall, author of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions. It was excellent. Of all the things I learned, this was the most important: It freaks scientists out when you want them to autograph a full-sized, close-up picture of themselves from an old issue of SEED magazine. She was a good sport 🙂 Also: My Bristol Palin iPhone takes some blurry photos… Read more
What were the scariest religion-related costumes you saw? I’ll admit this one’s certainly unique: … At a party I went to, my friend dressed up as a banana. I was scared. And in true form, she went in for the atheist kill: (Yes, I’m the loser who didn’t dress up. I had to go somewhere immediately afterwards. I swear.) … A lot of people had fun carving pumpkins and dressing up as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, too: … Did you… Read more
On Wednesday, I’ll be writing about the new president (whoever it may be…) for Humanist Network News. Specifically, I’d like to write about the church/state, social, and religious topics that will come up over the next four years. Here are my questions to you: What issues will atheists be concerned with over the next four years? Which of those issues will go our way in an Obama or McCain administration? Which of those issues will be dropped or forgotten or… Read more
By Richard Wade: … I thought this was important enough to post separately rather than just as a response to my recent comment on Hemant’s post about the latest Senator Dole smear. I have been getting email appeals for contributions from Kay Hagan’s campaign ever since I donated to her campaign. So you can understand the context, re-posted here is what I emailed to them earlier today, followed by a surprisingly prompt and personal reply I received just a few… Read more
Nothing to do with atheism. I just love Rachel Maddow. Her video podcast is now available for free on iTunes! (via MSNBC) Read more
Bill Maher spoke about his movie Religulous on Mike Huckabee’s new show on FOXNews. Pretty entertaining for both sides of the religious spectrum: Maher still wrongly defines atheist as someone who categorically denies God’s existence (in other words, saying “There is no God” instead of “I don’t believe in God”). But it’s good to see this type of civil conversation about religion on TV. (via Atheist Media Blog) Read more
In the latest issue of Maclean’s, author Julian Barnes is interviewed about his book Nothing to Be Frightened Of — a memoir about atheism and death. Milena has transcribed excerpts of the interview (it’s not online yet) and you get to hear from an atheist who is not nearly as strident or anti-theist as people like Christopher Hitchens. In addition to his talk about the book, he makes a sad but true remark about the upcoming presidential elections: Q: Your… Read more
In case you decide to throw a party for your atheist friends, don’t forget to make your guests comfortable. It helps to make your home feel like their home. Mmm… fetalicious. (via PinPonPun) Read more