News Roundup for 6/13/11

Arkansas Christian edits a bus ad

-Headline of the day-
"Atheists Told To Buy 'Insane Christian' Insurance To Protect Atheist Bus Ads."

A group of Arkansas atheists want to buy some bus ads and turn everyone into godless heathens and probably socialists. So they contacted an ad agency and encountered a little problem -- the agency wants extra money in case someone vandalizes the buses.

The group got an email from the agency that spelled out their worries. "Arkansas is the buckle of the Bible Belt and I can easily envision zealots or upstanding citizens with a strong faith acting out," the email read. Which is weird, because once you start vandalizing buses, the words "upstanding citizens" no longer applies.

The agency and the bus company obviously "trust the atheists in this community more so than the religious," says LeeWood Thomas, the group's spokesman, "otherwise the churches that advertise would have that extra insurance premium added to their total cost."

Whatever, you hellbound wretch. (Wonkette)


-Prosti-Newt?-
Political cartoonist Lee Judge poses an interesting question.


Click to embiggen

It's funny 'cause it's true! (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"After running pizza chain, Cain says he can make foreign policy decisions."

Because it's really just the same thing when you think about it... (Daily Caller)

Pope Rewrites History to Attack Atheism

I was going to write about this at length, but events conspired against me and now I'm running behind. But I can still post a shorty on the subject.

The Guardian:

Benedict XVI used the first papal state visit to Britain to launch a blistering attack on "atheist extremism" and "aggressive secularism", and to rue the damage that "the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life" had done in the last century.

The leader of the Roman Catholic church concluded a speech, made before the Queen and assembled dignitaries at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, with the argument that the Nazi desire to eradicate God had led to the Holocaust and a plea for 21st-century Britain to respect its Christian foundations.

"Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society," he said. "In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate.

"Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms; and may that patrimony, which has always served the nation well, constantly inform the example your government and people set before the two billion members of the Commonwealth and the great family of English-speaking nations throughout the world."

Yeah, the "Nazi atheism" crap again. Needless to say, this is completely wrong. For one thing, Hitler wouldn't shut up about religion. For example:

We are determined, as leaders of the nation, to fulfill as a national government the task which has been given to us, swearing fidelity only to God, our conscience, and our Volk.... This the national government will regard its first and foremost duty to restore the unity of spirit and purpose of our Volk. It will preserve and defend the foundations upon which the power of our nation rests. It will take Christianity, as the basis of our collective morality, and the family as the nucleus of our Volk and state, under its firm protection....May God Almighty take our work into his grace, give true form to our will, bless our insight, and endow us with the trust of our Volk.

I don't know about you, but that looks to me like someone doing a really lousy job of eradicating God. "Pope Benedict seems to have forgotten Germany and Europe’s long, sordid tradition of Christian antisemitism," wrote Charles Johnson, "a tradition that was one of the dark roots of the Holocaust, and a tradition in which the Catholic Church was arguably one of the worst offenders."

If the crazy old wizard's plan was to replace church-sanctioned antisemitism with church-sanctioned anti-atheism, this would be a fine first step. Here's a crazy idea Wiz, next time you need to scare people with a dark enemy in their midst, try using child molesters. I understand there was a big child molester conspiracy at one time. That sounds pretty scary.

Maybe you ought to do something about that, rather than create boogeymen by rewriting history.

Griper Blade: An Atheist Christmas

Ah, Christmas time. The carols and the trees and Santa and the Kentucky Fried Chicken and the belly dancers. The holly and the booze and the Christmas cakes and strippers. What does Christmas mean to you? That depends on where you happen to be.

In Japan, Christmas has more in common with St. Valentine's Day, with cakes instead of candy. There's still Santa and trees and rampant consumerism, but it's more about love of another than love of humanity. The television media runs stories about "romantic miracles" and restaurants and hotels clean up on what is basically national date night. It also marks the beginning of year-end celebrations, which is basically a month-long drunk.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has convinced everyone that the traditional western Christmas dinner is -- big surprise -- KFC and you actually have to order your Genuine Christmas Chicken Dinner beforehand. They make a killing. By the way, I'm entirely serious about this. It's true.

But real Christmas weirdness comes to us from Turkey. I wrote about this a couple years ago and it sounds awesome. Turkish Daily News reported at the time that "Turkey has for decades been having the weirdest New Year's Eve celebrations on earth. Symbols of Christmas are infused into 'crazy parties' of heavy drinking, gambling, belly dancing and even strip shows." In Turkey, they wrap Christmas and New Years Eve up together and kill two birds with one stone. Kids get gifts from Santa Claus, then everyone goes out, gets hammered, and watches belly dancers. This is a holiday I can get behind and support...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

The Pissed Off Faithless

I came across this in my local paper. It's pretty good, but it probably won't get national press, so I thought I'd share it here.

Robert Weitzel, The Capital Times:

Christopher Hitchens, contrarian atheist and slayer of all beasts fascistic and theocratic, will be in Madison this fall to present the keynote address at the Freedom From Religion Foundation's fall conference. Anyone who is familiar with Hitchens' substance and style will expect a speech that is irreverent and uncompromising and totally worth the price of admission.

Predictably, letters to the editor and op-ed pieces appeared bemoaning Hitchens' upcoming visit and calling him a boorish bigot for his willingness to describe the emperor 's nakedness in all its scabious and purulent magisterial arrogance.

Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are not bigots. They are an unholy trinity of best-selling atheist authors who are fed up with having to tap dance around people of faith whose religious beliefs are as irrational as they are ubiquitous, and as potentially deadly as they are personally cathartic.

I wish I could repost the whole thing here, but copyright's a bitch. Go check it out.

Congressman is Openly Athiest; Religious Right Openly Hostile

Peter Stark made a statement about his religious beliefs, making him just one of many congress critters who've done so. In fact, for too many, their religious beliefs are their only real qualification for office -- they're empty suits who pump out religious dogma for a living. Stark's beliefs make for a nice change of pace.

Associated Press:

The American Humanist Association applauded Rep. Pete Stark for publicly acknowledging he does not believe in a supreme being. The declaration, it said, makes him the highest-ranking elected official -- and first congressman -- to proclaim to be an atheist.

The organization took out an ad in Tuesday's Washington Post, congratulating the California Democrat for his stance.

"With Stark's courageous public announcement of his nontheism, it is our hope that he will become an inspiration for others who have hidden their conclusions for far too long," executive director Roy Speckhardt said in a statement.

Of course, it didn't take long for the religious right to freak out about it.

Cybercast News Service:

"It is unfortunate in a society that is going down the path of godlessness and making right wrong and wrong right, that we continue down this path by celebrating one member of Congress who denies that God exists altogether," Concerned Women for America Director of Legislative Relations Mike Mears told Cybercast News Service.

No, what's unfortunate is that there are some in the US who would criticize someone for a religious belief. There's a word for that and it needs to be used much more often -- bigotry. CWA speaks for a lot of people in this country and every one of them who holds this opinion is a bigot. Pure and simple. These are people for whom 'freedom of religion' means the freedom to embrace their religion and no one has any right to believe anything else.

It's small-minded, sheepish, and a mindset unworthy of a free people.