Daily Archives: March 19, 2012

Why are atheists so angry?

Uncategorized, ,

And they are! Just yesterday I was hanging around with a bunch off atheists and they were all pretty angry. They were even getting angry with each other. I could hear “get off my lawn” as a more or less constant droning sound in the background.

People who are not atheists, or who may be indifferent to religion but never thought about it much, might want to know what this is all about. One way to do this is to read a book that just came out, literally about five minutes ago, for the Kindle. This book is by my friend Greta Christina, and it is called Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Thing That Piss Off the Godless.

I’ve seen Greta’s talk on the topic, and it is spectacular. I’ve read some of this book in draft form but it’s too new for me to have read the whole thing yet, but I will shortly. Meantime, I thought you’d want to know about it right away. You will enjoy it no matter what your perspective on religion is; the book is well written, engaging, funny, detailed, compelling and will make you mad.

Get off my lawn!

Dining In The Dark: Hope for Retinal Disease

Uncategorized, , , ,

Of the first dozen times or so that I ever saw Joel, my then future brother in law, I think we were in a restaurant a good four or five times. This was probably just a chance event, but there were a number of dinners and one lunch with the family that Joel and Alyssa (Amanda’s sister) attended. And I noticed something. Joel and Alyssa seemed to be very keen on the idea of consulting over what to eat. Many couples do this, including Amanda and me. For example, if there are two items on the menu that I know I’d be happy with, and Amanda is pretty sure about one but not the other yet wants to try it, we’ll get those two, with the idea that we can either share them or switch them later. So for all these visits to the restaurants, I had assumed Joel and Alyssa were making some sort of similar arrangement, and it was kind of cute.

After several weeks I learned that Alyssa was actually reading the menu to Joel because he was blind. I had no idea.
Continue reading Dining In The Dark: Hope for Retinal Disease →

Stand Your Ground, Racism, and the Second Amendment

Race and Racism, , , , ,

I want you to do a little thought experiment. Don’t worry, if you have had a long day and your brain is tired, it won’t be too hard. If you’re a Teabagger and are not very smart, it won’t be too hard. If you’re a middle class white person with concerns about brown people moving into your sleepy suburb and all your wealth and privilege came to you more or less by accident and your morality, such as it is, comes to you mainly by default, it won’t be … well actually, for you this might be hard but I’m sure you can do it. Continue reading Stand Your Ground, Racism, and the Second Amendment →

Zimmerman Not Arrested Yet for Murder of Trayvon Martin

Uncategorized, ,

A protest is scheduled for today:

On Monday, March 19th, 2012 at 9AM, some students from FAMU and FSU will be gathering on the Set at FAMU’s campus to rally for Justice in the murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin. Students will be gathering to spread awareness on the case, but also demand Gov. Scott take lead to make sure justice is served in this state for the family of Trayvon Martin.

Free Thought Blogger Meetup: A Conversation about Activist Blogging

Uncategorized

Atheist Talk Radio on Sunday was a conversation with (in order of appearance in the photo) Phil Ferguson (Skeptic Money), Moi (X Blog), Jen McCreight (Blag Hag) – that’s Biodork – and Stephanie Zvan (Almost Diamonds). We talked about blogging and stuff.

Minnesota Atheist Talk Radio ... Phil Ferguson, Greg Laden, Jen McCreight, Biodork and Stephanie Zvan

You can download the podcast here.

Later that day, Jen gave her talk on “God’s Lady Problem.” Biodork has a few brief comments on the talk, it will be written up for the Minnesota Atheists newsletter, and I may make a few comments later. It was a great talk, well received, and it was great to meet Jennifer as well as Phil who just happened to be in town checking out schools with his offspring.