Scott Lohman will be talking to Jen Hancock, the author of Handy Humanism Handbook.

Jen blogs at Happiness Through Humanism. She is an author, blogger and humanist activist. Her website is at Jen-Hancock.com. Scott is the president of the Humanists of Minnesota.

Atheists Talk is produced with funding from the Minnesota Atheists, the Humanists of Minnesota, and the generous support of our members and donors. We also wish to thank Q. Cumbers restaurant for purchasing on-air advertising and for providing a great place to eat and gather.

Details here.

Next week, I’ll be interviewing Don Prothero. Details forthcoming.

Scott Lohman will be talking to Jen Hancock, the author of Handy Humanism Handbook.

Jen blogs at Happiness Through Humanism. She is an author, blogger and humanist activist. Her website is at Jen-Hancock.com. Scott is the president of the Humanists of Minnesota.

Atheists Talk is produced with funding from the Minnesota Atheists, the Humanists of Minnesota, and the generous support of our members and donors. We also wish to thank Q. Cumbers restaurant for purchasing on-air advertising and for providing a great place to eat and gather.

Details here.

Next week, I’ll be interviewing Don Prothero. Details forthcoming.

Trolls have shown up. Now, you need to have an approved comment to keep commenting. If you have have been commenting but only since I turned that feature off a couple of weeks ago, you may not be approved (I have no idea, we’ll see.)

If you are a troll, you know who you are and your comment has been deleted. If you are someone who has been commenting and you think I don’t like you an am repressing you, you are merely being delusional. Just make your comment and I’ll approve it as soon as I can. I’m checking the comment bin frequently. I am not repressing you at this time. I may repress you later, though.

For the rest of you (normal people who are not trolls), sorry for the inconvenience.

Right now, Raytheon and the National Science Foundation are denying Renee – Nicole Douceur, the Winter Site Manager at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, life-saving medical treatment after a stroke she suffered last month. To avoid transporting her to an actual hospital, against theor own doctors orders, they have declared her stroke, a severe medical condition, not an emergency even though the lack of treatment endangers her vision, her mental capacity and her very life itself. This denial means they are making her wait for treatment for another month, when the regular transport arrives. Money should not be considered more valuable than the life of an employee, and as a government agency the National Science Foundation is acting in an appalling manner. Please help us take action to correct this situation and make their decisions no longer “cost effective.”

Go here and make the calls and emails.

Sign this petition

Freethoughtblogs.com has just added seven new bloggers, and I thought you’d want to know. With this new group of bloggers, FTB.com has become too big for our own sidebar listing us! Gonna have to go drop down soon.

Here’s the rundown:

Continue reading Free Thought Blogs Dot Com Grows!!! →

A friend of mine send me this:

This was my letter to Raytheon and the National Science Foundation

To whom it may concern.

I am writing on behalf of my mother, Renee-Nicole Douceur. I am trying to figure out by what standard you consider a stroke a non-emergency. Almost a month ago I received a phone call from my mother informing me that she had a stroke the week before. As I am sure you can imagine, my heart dropped and my emo…tions kicked in because I was unable to be by my mother’s side during this scary time. I know that she has put in almost 3 years of dedication for Raytheon and National Science Foundation in Antarctica because she loves what she does, even though it meant being away from her family. I also understand how difficult it is to fly in Antarctica during the winter months so emergency evacuations should be kept at a minimum, but are still possible for emergencies.

Again, I am trying to figure out how a stroke victim, who is being told by doctors on site as well as in the US to be evacuated as soon as possible, is not considered an emergency. I am sure that if it were your family member, you would have great concern and frustration as I have at the total lack of humanity being shown by both your companies for a woman who put her service and faith into you. Think about it, if your mother, or daughter, or son or father were to have a stroke, and were refused the best medical care for over a month (and by the time she would get it, if she has to wait for your company to deem her important enough to fly home, it would be almost 2 months) how would you feel? Angry? Disgusted? Wouldn’t you think that the company that your family member works for would place any concern on human life? How would you feel if by the time your family member returns home at the big corporation’s say so months later, your family member had
permenant damage that could have been avoided if they were treated like any other normal human being would have been treated? Strokes are harmful, the brain is a delicate organ yet it controls who we are. Even the smallest of injuries are life changers. But as long as it doesn’t happen to you or your families, it’s ok right?

Well this is not ok with me. My mother is a fighter and I hope that by the time she leaves Antarctica she will still be strong enough to overcome this stroke. I am getting married in a few months and if my mother is in any way debilitated because Raytheon and the National Science Foundation dragged their feet because they obviously don’t care about human life as long as money is involved I will be utterly crushed. Money is not worth human life. It’s not. Even in this economy without your family, without your health, without humanity, we have nothing. When you go home to your families tonight, please pray that they never work for a company who treats their life as meaningless. My mother means something to me. If you refuse to help then I pray to God your family will always be healthy because no one should ever have to deal with the total lack of empathy your companies show. Please look inside yourself and fly her out ASAP to give her the best possible
chance of full recovery with no lasting effects.

The White House, my Senator and newstation WMUR will be hearing from me. I’m sure they would be interested in hearing a story about how yet again big business kills people and doesn’t care.

Sincerely,
Sydney Raines

This is a web site related to Renee’s stroke and efforts to get her out.

You can SIGN THIS PETITION

… as atheists, I mean …

Continue reading Are more people coming out than usual? →

Holy crap! I was just randomly pushing buttons on the TV Remote (I never actually watch TV, of course) and there was LeRoy! He’s so talented! LEAN ON ME LEROY!

Musician LeRoy Bell

Very nice job, they loved you. Knocked it out of the park.

Don’t miss these two upcoming events:

Sketpically Speaking: Changing Planet
This week, we’re looking at the medical effects of global climate change. We’re joined by Dan Ferber and Paul Epstein, to talk about their book Changing Planet, Changing Health: How The Climate Crisis Threatens our Health, and What We Can Do About It. And on the podcast, Josh Rosenau, of the National Center for Science Education, joins us to compare the denial tactics of advocates against climate change and evolution.

We record live with Dan Ferber and Paul Epstein on Sunday, October 2 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, October 7

And somewhere near you, Richard Dawkins will be hawkin his book.

moved