All concerned with civil rights, First Amendment separation of Church & State must speak out NOW and let Senators know ? Extremist Judge Samuel Alito must NOT be appointed to a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States!Hours remain until the U.S. Senate is expected to hold a full vote to confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.On Monday, January 30 the Senate is likely to vote an end to any filibuster that would stall or prevent a floor vote on the appointment of Judge Alito. Supporters of Alito need just 60 votes to force cloture, and according to Associated Press have 62. That will force a vote by the full Senate on Tuesday, January 31. The latest count indicates that 53 Republicans and three Democrats will vote to confirm Alito, well over the required majority. The White House is moving for a full ?up-or-down? vote on Alito in time for President Bush?s address to the nation on Tuesday night. In his weekly radio address last Saturday, Bush called for immediate Senate confirmation on Alito, describing him as a nominee ?who understands that the role of a judge is to strictly interpret the law.? This is our final opportunity to prevent George W. Bush from ?packing? the Supreme Court and installing a majority that is likely to reverse decades of important decisions affecting all Americans!AMERICAN ATHEISTS is asking all ?Godless Americans? ? Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists and other nonbelievers to mobilize now and help flood the Senate with phone calls, faxes and e-mails demanding a NO vote on the Alito nomination!* We urge all nonbeliever groups to circulate this Action Alert, and “mobilize your base” of members and supporters to contact the Senate! Alito would assume the post occupied by Justice Sandra Day O?Connor who often (but not always) provided the crucial ?fifth vote? cited by SJC member Sen. Michael Durbin of Illinois. Rather than replace O?Connor with an enlightened, progressive judicial moderate who would offset the strident views of justices like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, Bush catered to his powerful religious-right constituency and instead selected Alito.The vote by the full U.S. Senate will be the last opportunity we have to stop this appointment! Based on the current party rankings, all Democrats must ?hold the line? and vote against Alito ? and moderate Republicans must be persuaded by their constituents back home to ?break ranks? with party leadership, and vote ?No? on this nomination!Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and other non believers must join the effort to stop Alito now by helping to flood the Senate with letters, e-mails, phone calls and faxes! Tell your Senators that you oppose the Bush-religious right takeover our Supreme Court!What you can do!Contact Senators NOW! Urge them to vote “NO!” on Alito! Your letters, calls and e-mails should be concise, polite but to-the-point (see our tips page.) Be sure to ask for a response from your U.S. Senator on how he/she will vote on the Alito nomination! Share your communications with U.S. Senators. Send us a copy and we will post them at our web site Spread this Action Alert! If you are in an Atheist/freethought group, consider posting this message to your newsletter, web site and e-mail lists. Urge others to circulate this Alert, too! After writing your U.S. Senators, consider sending a letter-to-the-editor of the your local/regional paper and other publications voicing your disapproval of the Alito nomination! This will help inform the public and mobilize opposition to this extremist nominee. Be sure to point out that Samuel Alito is ?bad news? for the constitutional separation of church and state! Be informed! Here are some stories about the Alito nomination. We also encourage you to visit other web sites to gain information, including Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and People for the American Way. Related Reading?All Over but the Vote? Alito sails through hearings, some Demos mull filibuster ? what about the new SCOTUS?? 1-18-06 ?New Documents Raise Further Concerns Over Alito & Establishment Clause,? 1-1-06 ?Tipping Point? Alito nomination battle to begin in January, determine possible direction of the Supreme Court ? Free Exercise collides with Separation? 11-22-05 Take Action Now?This may be our last chance to stop this dangerous nomination. If confirmed, Alito will move the court further in the direction of ?accommodating? discriminatory religious practices, allowing blatant proselytizing in the public square by government and religious groups, and even possibly further funding for ?faith-based? social projects. Stop Alito now ? before it?s too late!(AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.)
Excuse me HeatheNZ, while I deal with the feebleminded gator.
“Comment from: alexgator1 [Member]
DK wrote: “Do you, (U.S. Citizens, wether ultra-left or ultra-right), really think it matters wether or not you have access to full-automatic firearms?”
Hey DK, I don’t think that civilians need automatic fire weapons but I do think that we have every right to own a handgun if we want to.
***AGREED! HMDK!!!*
“As if their availabillity matters now.
It might have, way back in the corrupt, mysoginistic, racist founding of yonder country, but now?”
That’s right-the USA was founded under such horrible circumstances and pure little perfect Denmark has clean hands. Viking Danes never invaded the UK and Ireland to rape, torture, and take slaves or later on to set up racist and mysoginist colonies in the Caribbean or Africa did they? Wait a minute…
***I AGREE! WE -DID- DO SUCH THINGS! I never claimed otherwise, yet you make it SOUND as if I did, which is dishonest and disgusting.
“[USA Citizens] Don’t be more moronic than you already are.”
More predictable anti American sentiments from an elitist European-this is why I don’t go back to Europe as much as I used to. I mean what has Denmark given the world? Hans Christian Anderson and existentialism.
*** You’re welcome.***
HeatheNZ:
“Interesting and provocative statement. I instinctually disagree with it, but need to think about why that should be so. I will consider it during my commute.”
Wow. Someone actually mulling over another’s proclamation?
Sarcasm aside, I’d like to nominate HZ for an award of some kind.
And, gatorguy, while we’re at this abominable
“how-low-can-my-country-go” limbo contest, let me add that the current
right-wing danish government supported Shrub’s invasion of Irak.
I am by NO means trying to paint my home country as in any way innocent,
but then again we don’t have a heaving multitude of morons trying to get “creation-science” (oxy-moron par excellence!) taught as “truth” in our classrooms.
Don’t automatically blame outsiders for being able to point out domestic problems.
Personally, I would rather have Hans Christian Anderson and existentialism (which is much more a French/german vintage) over most American cultural exports.
In honor of George’s SOTU speech tonight, and to lighten up a gloom and doom day:
“The Center for Disease Control is late in reporting this disease which was widespread in late 2004, an STD in the form of a new strain of gonorrhea and designated as gonorrhea lectim. It is commonly pronounced gonna-re-elect-him. The disease was contracted by what electronic machines say was a majority of voters after having been screwed for about 4 years. Whether a majority or minority, the disease is none the less serious, characterized by anti-social personality disorders, delusions of grandeur w/ messianic overtones, cognitive dissonance, inability to process information, xenophobia and paranoia, inability to accept responsibility for own actions, cowardice masked by displaced bravado, uncontrolled facial smirking, ignorance of geography and history, tendencies toward evangelical theocracy, categorically all-or-nothing behavior.
It is baffling to the Center for Disease Control how this disease became so destructive after originating only a few years ago from a bush found in Texas.
It looks like the Dark Ages is in the horizon and approaching.
Take a look at my blog for a post regarding the number of atheists and our relative importance.
Im the first to agree that those in Kansas who want to teach creationism are indeed idiots just as those who support the stupid war in Iraq but to lump all Americans together as being “moronic” is in itsself moronic. What I’m trying to get across is that it has become fashionable and easy for Europeans to sit back and point and laugh at the USA without turning that same critical eye towards their own country. We do not have exclusive claim to idiocy or religious backwardness and I can assure you that it is rampant throughout Scandinavia just as it is here-no more, no less.
My humble and “feebleminded” opinion.
Alex.
It is my Constitutional right to bear arms!!!!
Still, try as I might, I have only been able to bear human children.
I must be doing something wrong…
If there were a revolution in the US, I don’t think it would be fought with guns. I’m waiting for the scenario for that to be described. Having trouble figuring out whom I should shoot and from whom I should hide. What do they look like? Will there be uniforms? Armbands? Will they be the ones with tanks to my handgun? How is this going to play out?
“Policemen are no different than you.”
Yes, but they have to train and qualify, and REqualify, and fill out all kinds of paperwork and answer all sorts of questions when they discharge their weapons.
Oh yeah, here are some other notable Danes gator…notice in particular Niels Bohr, Tyco Brahe, Lar Ulrich, Anders Hejlsberg…
Morten Andersen, NFL kicker
Bille August, film director
Vitus Bering, explorer and navigator
Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen, author
Niels Bohr, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Victor Borge, entertainer, pianist
Tycho Brahe, astronomer
Canute the Great, king of Denmark, Norway and England
Ole Kirk Christiansen, inventor of LEGO
Helena Christensen, supermodel
Ren? Dif, member of the pop band Aqua
N.F.S. Grundtvig, poet, hymnalist, educationalist
Piet Hein, polymath
Anders Hejlsberg, computer scientist, inventor of the C# programming language
Georg Jensen, designer
S?ren Kierkegaard, existentialist philosopher
Tom Kristensen, seven times winner of 24 hours of Le Mans
Michael Laudrup, footballer, winner of Confederations Cup 1995
Viggo Mortensen, actor
M?rsk Mc-Kinney M?ller, transport and business mogul
Asta Nielsen, silent film actress
Connie Nielsen, actress
Brigitte Nielsen, actress
Carl Nielsen, composer
Bjarne Riis, professional road bicycle racer, winner of the 1996 Tour de France
Peter Schmeichel footballer (goalkeeper), winner of European Football Championship 1992, Confederations Cup 1995 and UEFA Champions League 1999
Allan Simonsen, 1977 European Footballer of the Year
Bjarne Stroustrup, computer scientist, inventor of the C++ programming language
Lars von Trier, film director
Lars Ulrich, musician, member of heavy metal band Metallica
J?rn Utzon, architect
Hans Christian ?rsted, physicist, discoverer of electromagnetism
Why guns??
Have you been keeping up with the news? more and more candidates in Officer candidate school are being heavily recruited into evangelical church. How many military officers would it take to take over the US under some Bush (LIE) pretense?
Today there are not enough. Many would reject it offhand but in a few more years with sufficient pressure from the current evangelical officers. Who knows. The work of the Bush team is still going on throughout the gov’t. They truly intend on taking over. First they learned the fantasy language of the faith based believers. then they ran W for pres just to see if they could win. They did and they will not stop until we stop them. Not with guns but with impeachment and voting against their initiatives. Puting pressure on school boads that teach ID. When push comes to shove Push back. Fight ignorance everywhere you find it. Join just one organization that will do just one thing well and take power away from all the gov’t.. The political parties are NOT it. The demos are a bunch of whinny ,gutless, ass lickers. The repubs have been taken over by the far right loons and have become just as gutless and even criminal. And sadly the Libertarian party wants the reform of marijuana laws OOOOHHHH wwwwoooooowwwww big fricking deal.
Gun control is a clear shot and a steady hand. LOL:)
JIM
“Still, try as I might, I have only been able to bear human children.
I must be doing something wrong…”
Karen- Children are more dangerous than any weapon.
Whoah the f* whoah!
Relax.
All of you.
Both Alex whose strong gatorjaws seem to be clamping on to me,
and Zac Hunter who’s taken it upon himself to defend my country.
Ease off, all of you, and focus on the real problems at hand.
alex said:
“Im the first to agree that those in Kansas who want to teach creationism are indeed idiots just as those who support the stupid war in Iraq but to lump all Americans together as being “moronic” is in itsself moronic. What I’m trying to get across is that it has become fashionable and easy for Europeans to sit back and point and laugh at the USA without turning that same critical eye towards their own country. We do not have exclusive claim to idiocy or religious backwardness and I can assure you that it is rampant throughout Scandinavia just as it is here-no more, no less.
My humble and “feebleminded” opinion.
Alex.”
And guess what, alex.
As I already SAID, I AGREE with you, you delightful bastard.
Sorry if I painted with too broad a brush, but if we’re talking about western secular countries,
then the U.S. IS indeed the most important place of debate.
You can blame me for pointing that out to your heart’s content,
but it won’t get you anywhere.
Meso
“Children are more dangerous than any weapon”
Yeah, and you’re not allowed to lock them up in a safe!
Karen:
Thanks for stopping by and commenting in my blog. Do you have a personal blog that I can visit?
You can give me the answer in my blog if you wish
Here is the second amendment in its entirety:
“A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
Much has been made of the comma in that sentence. Does the right to keep and bear arms have to do with the well regulated militia or not? Are they two separate, distinct sentences or is the comma there for a reason?
My opinion is that the United States National Guard IS the well regulated militia, of which THE PEOPLE keep and bear arms on a “One weekend a month, two weeks a year” basis!!
The states were afraid of the Feds having too much power (like the British had over them). They wanted to protect the right of their militias to be maintained and to stockpile weapons of the sort that could fight the powerful overlords such that they would be(Concord, Massachusetts, residents stockpiled weapons of which the British military were sent to investigate and through which the first shot of the revolutionary war was fired)
The USNG is under state authority as opposed to federal authority for this reason. What are you gonna do to an F16 fighter jet or a tank or a battalion with your handgun?
I see no problem with people owning handguns unless there is rampant misuse of those handguns(the US is a hotbed of misuse). I have no problem with police cracking down on irresponsible gun owners. I have no problem with federal laws restricting gun ownership to the point of extinction(that’ll never happen).
jim
Agreed.
This amendment was written by people who were afrid of reliving the nightmare of the kind of government they had under the Brits.
IMO, it was not intended to arm John Doe against his neighbor, but against oppressive governance.
John and Jane Doe owning handguns does not a “well regulated militia” make.
You tell it Karen!
Those who promote gun ownership for the purpose of self defense are fear mongering. They have no basis within the constitution for their arguments.
Fear monger away, just don’t use the constitution as an argument unless you want to rewrite it? I think it’s quite clear as it is.
The second amendment: It’s one sentence, not two!
More about the second amendment and what the founders meant
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?ID=21
IF you believe that the first amendment guarantees your right to speak up? Think again. It is now illegal to have a protest sign that has not been approved by the political ccomittees when you are at a political rally.
Visit http://www.democracyrising.us For more on how we are being sold out.
From listening to Air America Radio tonight: Mike Malloy said, Cindy Sheehan was an invited guest to the SOTU. She sat down, took off her coat, and was wearing a t-shirt that had the number of dead american soldiers on it. She was arrested for “creating a disturbance”.
MSM is saying she had a banner that she intended to unfold.
jimmerone,
That’s pathetic! They think they can actually tell you how to PROTEST? Isn’t that a fundamental freedom, one of our last resorts? What would Ghandi and Voltaire say to that?
DD:
You think that’s bad? We have a thing in the US since 9/11 called ‘Free Speech Zones’.
The party line is that ‘terrorists’ are most likely going to be in the crowd, protesting the Shrub’s bad acts. IOWs, when the Shrub has an appearance, dissenters are led to a large chain link fence, 5 miles away from the procession.
The short version?
Shrub in a bubble. Shielded from the growing dissatisfaction.
Can you say ‘dictatorship’, boys & girls?
I’d like to hear jcc’s, phreedm’s, or Tim’s defense on that bullshit.
heathenz:
“I become uncomfortable when people going about their everday life feel the need to carry a firearm.”
You should feel uncomfortable over your contempt for the Bill of Rights. Your lack of comfort comes from being brainwashed by the mass media. Maybe you’ve acquired a gun phobia.
“I’m uncomfortable because I know that at any moment such people have the ability to draw and fire, thus ending my life.”
‘Such people’ don’t need a firearm to end your life at any moment. Probably, because you’re so uncomfortable, it’s your gun phobia that’s generating so much discomfort.
“I’m uncomfortable because I do not wish to be pressured into carry a firearm in order to ‘keep up’ in the arm’s race.”
Few, like me, will want to pressure the likes of you to keep up in the arms race. But the ‘pressure’ is to disarm, not arm; and it comes from those like you. See how confused you are (phobia?)
“I’m uncomfortable because it’s too damn hot in the south to wear a flak jacket when walking my dog.”
Flak jackets were originally designed
to protect from ‘flak’ not bullets. But a bullet proof vest and helmet will do little to prevent a well aimed bullet from inflicting harm. So you can leave them home when walking the hound. You know little of the subject you debate.
“I’m uncomfortable because I would rather be shot than kill in anger or by mistake.”
You probably should be shot before you kill in anger or by mistake.
“I’m uncomfortable because I am aware that most people carrying fire arms that actually use them in a situation away from the firing range will accidently shoot a family member, themselves, or an innocent stranger.”
‘Most people’ will do that ? Get real; you need some help with reality.
“Lastly, I’m uncomfortable because I do not want to be any of these people.”
And most people do not want you to be anything like them – and you are not. You are a gun phobe that has discarded simple and plain logic, respect for natural rights and common sense for nonsense, and a preference for being contrary and rebellious all at the expense of the safety of law-abiding citizens, including the most vulnerable.
Your phobia proves the brainwashing effect of the news media.
“Fortress mentality”:
a term used by the news media to brainwash ? As if it’s wrong to have security and protection from an intruder in ones home. And that any level of thought about being free from a warrantless search or an illegal entry in ones home is wrong and evidential of mental illness. And that illegal entries into a “man’s castle” never occur (furthering my point that opponents of guns leave the unknowing in harms way.) Gun opponents (Bill of Rights opponents) want others to believe that gun proponents are mentally unbalanced, but it is the gun opponents that lack mental health and mental balance. They pursue utopian goals that defy and remove natural rights (it’s wrong to defend my home, which makes the Fourth Amendment wrong). Their rediculous (and dangerous)assumption is that we can all actually live in perfect peace and harmony, totally void of all violence. They attempt to outlaw anger.
Gun opponents have placed more people in harm’s way than any other group that opposes freedom:
“Do you dispute that firing a shot at a hound that is mauling a child is a foolhardy thing to do?”
If one is armed it’s the only thing to do and it’s the right thing to do. To have to explain that one proves that you are brainwashed and a gun phobe. Or, are you being paid to be contrary to common sense?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001358.html
handgun statistics by Chris Cox
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=189
more stats on RTC and on conceal and carry.
The NRA supports the nomination of Alito.
Brock2,
Your stock answer seems to be that I am brainwashed by the mass media, and that I am a gun phobe (whatever that is).
I put it to you that you are paranoid and that such defenses are resident only in your mind.
For your information:
I am well read, and while aware of the mass media, am certainly not soley influenced by it.
I have nothing against guns per se – just the morons that paranoid people that them unnecessarily in the fantasy that they need the for ‘protection’.
I am interested in reasons for owning/carrying guns – esp. concealed weapons. Thus far all you seem able to do is aim attacks at my person. How about dealing with the issue.
I’m sure glad we are trading words. If we were face to face I fear I might be facing lead by now.
Wow, this place got hectic overnight.
Karen,
Thanks, there goes my childcare program. I’ve always kept my kid in a safe. I know where he’s at and he doesn’t get in trouble. j/k folks.
No one in particular,
I’ve changed my position over the last decade. I’ve never owned a gun, my parents didn’t either. I use to think that if we all stopped owning guns that gun crime would cease. I now believe that criminals would find that a weakness and obtain guns to commit crimes. Criminals now fear gunowners shooting them and that deters crime to some degree. Have a great day and disagree at will fellow freethinkers.
Brock2,
I appreciate the links. You’ll excuse me if I note that they are NRA links and thus might be a little biased.
Still it’s gratifying to see that firearm related crime has declined since 1993. I do how ever note that ’93 was the crest of a spike, and the US is now back to pre-1988 levels.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/guns.htm
A few purported facts on deaths involving firearms:
Note: These are taken from the web rather than the original source – although the original source is referenced.
Hey Zac you are right! I forgot the important contributions of Legos and sex change surgery. Denmark Rules! (sarcasm)
I am relaxed DK but your America bashing and broad generalizations about American intelligence is so tired and predictable. My first true love was a Dane and I have a special place in my heart for your country but lighten up on us Americans. Just as not all Danes are gloomy nihlistic social_ists drug addicts who work in the sex industry we Americans are not all a bunch of Bush voting, NASCAR watching, Wal-Mart shopping, deer hunting, inbred, backwoods, bible thumping, cousin humping, creationist racist homophobes packing automatic fire AK 47′s. Even those of us living in the South like me.
Alex.
BTW Heath those statistics were misleading. Of course the UK, Canada, and Australia are going to have a fraction of gun deaths that we have in the USA because these countries have a fraction of our population. We are nearly 300 million people now in America compared to 1/16 of that number for Australia.
I would like to see per capita statistics even though I’m sure they will still show much higher numbers in the USA than other countries.
Alex.