Dateline: Anaheim, CA. Your Roving Reporter, Richard Wade One of Islam’s top clerics, Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaidan has issued a salvo of fatwas, not only calling for the death of executives of television broadcasting companies in the Middle East but also a much more disturbing and potentially disastrous threat. Western-style programming often in the form of soap operas have increasingly been portraying open sexuality in their dramas viewed in several Middle Eastern countries, especially Turkey and Saudi Arabia. al-Luhaidan has already… Read more
Reader Brian asks: Are there any players in the NBA who are publicly Atheist? I would love to follow their career, just on principle alone, maybe even go so far as to purchase/wear a replica of their jersey. I looked through your blog’s archives and didn’t see anything, but I surely could have overlooked something. I don’t know of any… do you? Stephon Marbury’s certainly off the list. Read more
My sister teaches 8th graders in Arizona. This is funny because my sister looks like a 5th grader herself. Anyway, she told me this story. It must be shared. She was teaching grammar this week by putting incorrectly punctuated news stories on the overhead. One was about the passing of Pink Floyd member Richard Wright. The correct sentence read something like this: Richard William Wright was born in 1943 in Pinner, Middlesex, northwest of London. His father was chief biochemist…… Read more
HumanLight is an alternative celebration for Humanists during the winter season. In anticipation of this year’s festivities, the HumanLight Committee is throwing a contest: The HumanLight Committee is hosting a HumanLight Holiday card and ornament design contest for secularists of all ages. Contestants should design an artistic expression to positively address these questions or some aspect of the HumanLight holiday. What do we have to celebrate during the winter holiday season? What do you hope for in the future? What’s… Read more
WordNerd and her fiance (“IP”) are going to have a fabulous atheistical wedding. But they may have to do it against her mother’s wishes: … IP and I are atheists and are adamant about using someone who understands and respects our viewpoints — and I’ve always said that ceremony without meaning is useless to me, so I could never stand in front of a priest and vow before friends and family and a god I don’t believe in that I’ll… Read more
I’ll admit it. I completely misread that headline the first time I saw it. But the Center for Biological Diversity has awarded Sarah Palin their Second Annual Rubber Dodo Award: Here’s the money quotation from the director: “Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”… Read more
… I might actually attend on a weekly basis. For those unaware, Margaret Cho’s a Christian, gay-friendly comedian. Other Christians have been sending her angry emails lately for not backing Sarah Palin in the election. So she responds to them. (Umm… NSFW language below. Lots of NSFW language below.) First of all — you fucking fake Christians — don’t fucking question my Christianity. I grew up in the church. My grandfather was a minister, who is with God now and… Read more
I wrote yesterday about an astrologer’s tribute to David Foster Wallace. It looks like the writer is responding back: On Skepchick my post recieved a mild lampooning, but at the Friendly Athethist I was given what for in the piece, “Please Don’t Let People Do This Me When I Die.” (Hemnant, don’t think you have to worry. Astrologers generally only write about famous people.) … For the my colleagues who understand and for the skeptics who don’t the piece was… Read more
It’s a long process that begins in 2004. It ends in my brown face somehow turning very red and my normally fluent speech turning into stutters. I’ll walk you through the steps. … Purchase your first iPod years ago. Realize you have to enter a name for your iPod when you register it. While thinking of names for your first iPod, try to come up with something else that is also attractive, attached to you at all times, and essentially… Read more
Less than a month ago, the atheist student group at Lorain County Community College in Ohio made headlines when promotional posters for the group depicted a possibly gay Jesus: Aaron Weaver, the president of the group, has now taken it one step further. He’s now using his First Amendments rights to draw focus on Islam: On Thursday, which happened to be Sept. 11, Weaver announced a contest for artistic depictions of Muhammad, and he put up a $100 prize for… Read more
