"You will be shot"

Two posts, from unconnected blogs..

Over at Atheist Revolution, the Idiot of the Week is republican/Fox News "journalist" Joe the Plumber, with this incredible quote:

"Let me give you another extremist view, 'In God We Trust.' Say that too loud in some parts of America and you will be shot. It's terrible."

What parts of the country are these? In this country, non-Christians (especially atheists) are vilified and wrongly blamed for all manner of tragedies. A Christian student takes a gun to school and shoots dozens of kids? Must be because of atheists! Muslim terrorists fly planes into buildings? It was brought on by the ACLU!

In the real world, however, Alonzo Fyfe on Atheist Ethicist pointed out a real ad from a Christian group calling for violence against atheists. It's chilling. Mr. Fyfe correctly notes that:

"It grants a moral permission to kids with guns to go ahead and kill atheists.

If it is morally permissible to kill atheists, then other activities less likely to bring the police and courts into the matter, must also be permissible. Assault, vandalism, bullying, intimidation, theft, an "accident" in the school yard, some name-calling, withholding honors and inviting ridicule . . . if the use of a gun is permissible, these must be acceptable as well."

Here is the ad:

Tea Bagging Protest

I had the misfortune of walking passed the "Tea Party" protest, filled with people angry as hell about a black Muslim foreign socialist spending government money (but who were all strangely silent when it was a white Christian republican running up a huge deficit).

Even to my untrained eye the group in Chicago didn't appear all that organized, and as far as protests go their numbers were a tiny tiny fraction of the number of people who marched in protest of US Immigration policy. The best comment I've seen:

I’ll bet they’re wishing they had a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER now.

Culture of Victimization

This was too good not to share:

And then there are the activists who are looking forward to tomorrow because they think the president is a secret Muslim fascist/socialist who wasn't born in the U.S. and intends to impose a global currency on us while building concentration camps with FEMA money.

Banned Books

Celebrate your first amendment rights by reading a banned book before religious groups have them pulled from your libraries and bookstores.

An American Patriot

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson!

For Jefferson, separation of church and state was a necessary reform of the religious "tyranny" whereby a religion received state endorsement, and those not of that religion were denied rights, and even punished.

Having a secular government is just as important today as it was when this country was founded.

Heliocentric Heathens!

The Scourge of Keplarism

It is time to quit discriminating against geocentrists in the public schools just because of their beliefs, and to teach not only the children but the school administrators themselves to respect the diverse views of the teaching community.

Hilarious stuff, Atheist Ethicist author Alonzo Fyfe nails the bigotry directed at atheists and scientists.

Protests

Sometimes the best response to bigotry is to mock it. Last year, at FAnime, a group of fundamentalists showed up to inform the rest of us cartoon fans we were all going to hell. Various individuals tried to confront them with logic and reason, but that only bolstered the fundamentalists' faith. Once they got rickrolled though...they hung their heads in defeat and left. It was glorious.

Myths about Democrats and Spending

I watched one CNN's "analysts" explain how independents might be afraid of Democrats spending too much, and I knew this wasn't grounded in reality. Going back to the Kennedy administration, and not even counting the massive Wall Street bailout, here's actual data. Take a few minutes and read the whole thing, but here's the part I wanted to bring to your attention:

The twenty years of budgets prepared by Republican presidents increased the national debt by $3.8 trillion. The average yearly deficit under Republican budgets was $190 billion.

The twenty years of budgets prepared by Democratic presidents increased the national debt by $719.5 billion. The average yearly deficit under Democratic budgets was $36 billion.

Barack's Speech

Another Presidential Debate

Abraham Lincoln vs Stephen Douglas, from Obsidian Wings, putting ABC's horrific moderation into historical context. Hilarious!

Support Science

Make a donation to the National Center for Science Education. I learned about this organization from the Atheist Ethicist post on Expelled and "Truth Tickets", and strongly agree with his argument about supporting evidence based thinking.

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