Happy Haloween all.Here’s a nightmare: 2 more years of a House and Senate that doesn’t care about the encroachment of religion into our private lives. Is it a dream? a nightmare? or a reality?Today I cancelled an appointment so I’d have enough time to vote.Here’s a great scorecard to help you decide, and hopefully take an ACTIVE roll by getting others to vote as well. Vote — and wear an Atheist pin when you do it.
Dave can I where a theist pin? Please.
or wear one that would work too
Kucinich was one of the seven representatives with a perfect scorecard. I adore Kucinich. Now I just have to convince him to represent me instead of some other random Ohio district (waves hand dismissively at other district).
I do like the secular coalition for America’s scorecard. I also really like Project Vote Smart’s National Political Awareness Test, where political candidates indicate which measures they’d be likely to support if they are elected to office. Unfortunately, not all are willing to take it (explain how we feel about issues??? Oh swoon!), but I’ve really enjoyed paging through the results of those who have. It gives me a far clearer idea of who I’m most closely politically aligned with than 30 second smear commercials. Their site is at http://www.vote-smart.org/npat_about.php
Kern- don?t the oh-so-popular neck-crucifixes count as ?theist? pins?
It is indeed our world Dave. Our reality, but we can stop it. We have our brains, the only Theist who has used their brain (that I know of) is Spanders. Spanders is on our side, so while we are outnumbered we out smart them.
I sit here having just been bombarded with shitty insulting ads on the radio as I drove to work. I have no idea who actually stands up for anything. It seems the qualifications for running for office is how well you can insult your opponent, and how absolutely stupid the constituents are. In my eyes, they are all the same – all part of the problem. None part of any solutions. Shit, no one even puts forth solutions anymore.
I don’t even know if I care. I have no money and no rich friends, so my voice is useless.
What happened to us? What happened to the ideals that the United States was built on? What happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
OK, it’s early, and I’m bitchy.
Will our government ever again focus on America’s real problems? It seems to me that it is very adventageous for them to simply split apart the citizens.
There is no more middle ground. There is no working together.
There is no room for compromise.
You’re either a nasty liberal or a nasty neo-con. There is no middle ground. None. Nope. Not yours.
I’m so disillusioned I could cry.
/rant over. I’m going to the gym to work out my anger.
Anthony,
What you say may be true, but sadly government and politics is largely based on controlling and manipulating large numbers of people, not increasing their knowledge and wisdom, or telling them the truth.
The religious right does not hesitate to push all the right buttons to stir the general population into an emotional frenzy of ignorance and poor judgment based on deliberate distortion, and people are more likley to act (and vote) their emotions rather than intellectual judgment. Therefore, while we might easily win academic debates based on our secular logic and facts, persuading large numbers of voters to think about (question) their fundamental beliefs and traditions is not really feasible, given the short attention span of the general populace and the brief sound bites available through the public media. What is required is that we present equally emotional (not intellectual) arguments to make our case for secularism. We need to make those who would undermine our separation of church and state appear personally reprehensible and unsympathetic to the voters because they and their beliefs are directly opposed to the very freedoms and liberties that we all share and hold so dear.
If we win this secular/sectarian war (and war it is), it will be because we are emotionally persuasive at the gut level. Voters will not be swayed by intellectual arguments alone.
A person may be smart, but put him/her in a crowd and don’t expect them to necessarily act intelligently.
sentinel
“What you say may be true, but sadly government and politics is largely based on controlling and manipulating large numbers of people, not increasing their knowledge and wisdom, or telling them the truth.”
Sounds like what religion does. I guess we have to lower our standards a bit.
I think education is the long term key to improving equality and decreasing the herd mentality. Unfortunately it is very long term and our opponents also understand it is all about getting your message across to the next generation.
I am all for lowering our standards and hitting emotional buttons in the meantime.
The November issue of The Washington Spectator has an excellent 4-page article on the subject. Unfortunately, I don’t think this publication is available on the web.
“Atheism makes sense for America”
You need an Atheist pin? Well if you live in NJ you can get them at the center. Or you can call the center at 908-276.7300 and order one.
David,
I might get one some time, but if I was in the south I would be a walking target!
Speaking of which I wore an NY hat in the Boston airport once! Being a NY fan up north is like being an Atheist in the south.
Bones:
I totally agree with you (again!). And you’re expressing my feelings exactly to a T. I know that I just don’t care anymore, I also know that I stopped caring a looooong time ago to the extent that I last voted when Wicked Willie was running for office and, then, I only voted for some unknown woman named Monica something (don’t think it was Lewinski though…he he) simply because I knew she would NEVER win and that was my way of casting a protest vote. After that, I simply gave up! Of course, I now know that my vote DOESN’T made a difference when presidents are appointed. That’s usually what I say to the ones that try to make me feel guilty with the “its your right” crap (ha..ha.. as IF we had rights in this country anymore!). Also, not being a registered voter gets me out of jury duty (the OTHER BIG joke in this country). I have sworned that, if I ever get picked for a jury again, whoever is on trail for whatever the reason will get off or, at least, get a hung jury on me!
I think what is so egregiously wrong with this country is that it has sold its soul (or sole!) to the corporations. Individuals don’t matter, we don’t count, nobody cares for us, shit, we don’t even care for ourselves!!! Everybody is in it for the most profit and power and for the short-term only. One side is as apathetic and pathetic as the other one and either can be trusted or believed. Neither one is on our side; they’re both pursuing their own personal agendas. The country is in chaos, our lives are going down the toilet, scores of people as dying by the minute because of it and NOBODY cares! If you complain, then, as you said, you’re labeled with all sorts of things (something learned from the Commander in Duh). Of course, in my case, I’m told to go back to my country! Waa haa…how said is it that I, a damn foreigner, can see what is going on and care enough to discent, but the so called “Americans” keep walking thru life and, as long as the tank in their SUVs are filled with half gas and half blood, they have 50 M Jesus Fish plastered on their tails, their bellies are full of Bud Light in a can and McDonald’s burgers and can watch football games ad nosium, they can happily go thru life with their blindfolds nicely and tightly placed over their eyes…
Ohhhh, crap! Now I’m thoroughly depressed and will stop my ranting…~sigh~
“If Gawd was one of us, would he be a Democrat or a Republican?”
sorry a test
)For the gray box quote, cut and paste your quote (
sorry a test
>For the gray box quote, cut and paste your quote
thad:
Here’s a good example:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/tut13.html
Just doing more testing
trying the bold thing
thad
Don’t forget to try the italic thing or the bold italic thing!
HZ
Nice! I dunno how to do that ‘un!
and of course size and color
LOOK AT ME GETTING ALL FANCY!!!
underline
trying the cite thing
tying this out seeing how it
goes
hey guys, maybe this has been done like a thousand times… but using Google Docs text editor you can type in a WSIWYG window and format just like in a word processor evn put in the blockquote thing without coding in the first tag… then hit spell check and view source paste it over and BEAUTIFUL… no worring about tags and you can outline, bold, etc. without worries… COOL!
You do have to uncheck the Auto-BR thingy below,,,