americanatheists

There was a ?press conference? today with the Jena 6 prosecutor DA Reed Walters. Or there was supposed to be a press conference but instead Walters played host for a gathering which sounded more like a revivalist tent meeting. ,While reporters noted they had never before been allowed to bring cameras into the courtroom, Walters had quite a show set up complete with about 60 local residents – described as ?white supporters of the DA? on CNN who broke into applause when he appeared. I guess they had loved his performance back in 2006 when Black students protested the hanging of nooses in the ?white tree.? Then Walters arrived at the school with a group of police and warned the peaceful student protest that ?I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen.? This is the same Walters who consistently claimed ?This case is not and never has been about race? and who ?credits the ?imaginations? of African-Americans for the heightened racial tensions around the case.? Today, his words were less overtly threatening but the racist message was just as clear.Walters talked a whole lot about Jesus – and not much about justice. He did make a special note that it was only through the ?direct intervention of Jesus!? that last week?s demonstrations were peaceful – a pretty outrageous claim when the demonstration was a peaceful and amazing gathering and participants even picked up the trash before heading out of town.

Of course, it was also jesus that controlls everyone when they do good, and Satan that takes over when they do bad. But we all have free will.

Well, it’s over, the “Chrystal Clear Atheism” Convention for the AAI 2007. I must say, I was impressed. The five keynotes, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and Hirsi Ali all gave different and interesting speeches, highlighting the many facets of Atheism, underlined by a common goal. All the speakers had a lot of fans, and they seemed to be pleased to be here (although dawkins was obviously overwhelmed by his own popularity).I am thrilled to have been a part of this event. My talk went over well, to an overflow crowd, and even Ellen showed up to show her support for “cause unity”.American Atheists looks forward to working with AAI as our relationship grows and expands.

http://www.atheistalliance.org/conventions/2007/aaicon2007_video.phpToday I arrived at the star-studded Atheist Alliance Convention. This place is packed! check out the link and sign up for the Internet feed if you can. It’s going to be a great convention.

Seen here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/27/pace.gays.ap/index.html?eref=ib_topstories

Joint Chiefs chairman again says gay sex immoralWASHINGTON (AP) — Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, caused a stir at a Senate hearing this week when he repeated his view that gay sex is immoral and should not be condoned by the military.Pace, who retires next week, said he was seeking to clarify similar remarks he made in spring, which he said were misreported.”Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing Wednesday focused on the Pentagon’s 2008 war spending request.”We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it,” he added. “And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God’s law.”Anti-war protesters sitting behind Pace jeered the four-star general’s remarks with some shouting, “Bigot!” That led Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Byrd, D- West Virginia., to adjourn the hearing abruptly and seal off the doors.The hearing resumed about five minutes later in which Pace said he would be supportive of efforts to revisit the Pentagon’s policy so long as it didn’t violate his belief that sex should be restricted to a married heterosexual couple.”I would be very willing and able and supportive” to changes to the policy “to continue to allow the homosexual community to contribute to the nation without condoning what I believe to be activity — whether it to be heterosexual or homosexual — that in my (emphasis mine) upbringing is not right,” Pace said.Pace’s lengthy answer on gays was prodded by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who said he found Pace’s previous remarks as “very hurtful” and “very demoralizing” to homosexuals serving in the military.In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that Pace said in a wide-ranging interview: “I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.”Harkin said he wanted to give Pace a chance to amend his remarks in light of his retirement.”It’s a matter of leadership, and we have to be careful what we say,” Harkin said.Pace noted that the U.S. Military Code of Justice prohibits homosexual activity as well as adultery. Harkin said, “Well, then, maybe we should change that.”

Funny how that works. I see it as immoral to place your religious beliefs over the law of the land. I see it as immoral to try to rewrite the constitution to better serve his religion. I see it as immoral for a general to even comment on the private, off-hours activities of other people (so long as they don’t affect performance).

I just had to point out that the thing President Allahmuhammedkillamerica stressed was that monotheism was his method to get to peace. Faith must be strong for peace to envelope the world.Then he ordered the guards to shoot the gays and non-burka’ed woomen. Allah loves you.

A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks in a western civilization class Tuesday. He said he was fired Thursday.?I?m just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master?s degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job,? Bitterman said.Sarah Smith, director of the school?s Red Oak campus, declined to comment Friday on Bitterman?s employment status. The school?s president, Barbara Crittenden, said Bitterman taught one course at Southwest. She would not comment, however, on his claim that he was fired over the Bible reference, saying it was a personnel issue.?I can assure you that college understands our employees? free speech rights,? she said. ?There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment.?Bitterman, who taught part time at Southwestern and Omaha?s Metropolitan Community College, said he uses the Old Testament in his western civilization course and always teaches it from an academic standpoint.Bitterman?s Tuesday course was telecast to students in Osceola over the Iowa Communications Network. A few students in the Osceola classroom, he said, thought the lesson was ?denigrating their religion.??I put the Hebrew religion on the same plane as any other religion. Their god wasn?t given any more credibility than any other god,? Bitterman said. ?I told them it was an extremely meaningful story, but you had to see it in a poetic, metaphoric or symbolic sense, that if you took it literally, that you were going to miss a whole lot of meaning there.?Bitterman said called the story of Adam and Eve a ?fairy tale? in a conversation with a student after the class and was told the students had threatened to see an attorney. He declined to identify any of the students in the class.”I just thought there was such a thing as academic freedom here,? he said. ?From my point of view, what they?re doing is essentially teaching their students very well to function in the 8th century.?Hector Avalos, an atheist religion professor at Iowa State University, said Bitterman?s free speech rights were violated if he was fired simply because he took an academic approach to a Bible story.?I don?t know the circumstances, but if he?s teaching something about the Bible and says it is a myth, he shouldn?t be fired for that because most academic scholars do believe this is a myth, the story of Adam and Eve,? Avalos said. ?So it?d be no different than saying the world was not created in six days in science class.?You don?t fire professors for giving you a scientific answer.?Bitterman said Linda Wild, vice president of academic affairs at Southwest, fired him over the telephone. Wild did not return telephone or email messages Friday. Bitterman said he can think of no other reason college officials would fire him and that Smith, the director of the campus, has previously sat in on his classes and complimented his work.?As a taxpayer, I?d like to know if a tax-supported public institution of higher learning has given veto power over what can and cannot be said in its classrooms to a fundamentalist religious group,? he said. ?If it has?then the taxpaying public of Iowa has a right to know. What?s next? Whales talk French at the bottom of the sea??

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092107Z.shtmlSoldier Who Sued Army Facing Threats By Jason Leopold t r u t h o u t | Report Friday 21 September 2007 An Army specialist stationed in Iraq said he has been repeatedly threatened by other US soldiers after word spread that he sued the Secretary of Defense and an Army major this week for allegedly retaliating against him when he convened a meeting of atheists, according to the founder of a military watchdog organization who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the soldier and has been in close contact with him since then. Jeremy Hall, 22, who is deployed in Iraq, sent an urgent email message to Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, whose organization is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Pentagon, saying a fellow soldier has threatened to “beat his ass,” called him an “atheist ass pirate,” “a faggot,” and enlisted a “lynch mob” of other soldiers to intimidate Hall because of the allegations Hall made against the military in a lawsuit Weinstein’s foundation, and Hall, filed Monday in US District Court in Kansas City. Weinstein said he has been in contact with supporters of his foundation that have reported the posting of messages on military and civilian based blogs, such as military.com, apparently threatening Hall with “fragging,” a term used by the military in which an unpopular soldier could be killed by intentional friendly fire during combat. “Mikey, I hope I am not a victim of a hate crime while I sleep tonight,” Hall wrote in an email to Weinstein Thursday evening. “I do not want to die for my country this way. [The soldier] is threatening to beat my ass and all sorts of things. I may be harmed or worse. I am afraid for my safety. I cant sleep man… I just layed in my bunk for two hours and I couldn’t sleep.” Messages left for several Pentagon spokespeople Thursday evening–on cell phones and at the Defense Department–were not returned.

For those without HBO or who just missed it, watch the New Rules from Friday’s production of Real Time with Bill Maher presented on Truthdig.com.In the last new rule, postulates on how non-believers whom he calls “rationalists” should take the religious beliefs of the candidates into consideration before voting for any of them.Also last week, there was this article in the Washington Post about the reasons for why Atheists should run a candidate for President. Although the author is not one of us, his argument makes sense. As a matter of fact, I came to the same conclusion a couple of weeks earlier. I would like to see Dave Silverman make a run for President and have the American Atheists announce the candidacy during its Annual Convention next year. The state associations and all other local rationalists societies throughout the United States could start working to sign petitions to place Dave on the ballots where ever we are strongest. I think we would definitely get on ballots in the states of New Jersey, New York, California, Texas, Michigan, and Wisconsin. We would probably succeed in still several more states. The victory would not come in the form of elected a President. The victory would come in the form of demonstrating just how popular the concept of having a rational person elected President. You know, one who does not wear magic underwear or believe the world is flat or the sun is a golden chariot carrying gods across the heavens. Wouldn’t that be sweet?Peter Nuhn

NEW YORK (Sept. 21) – Days after Barry Manilow’s verbal attack on Elisabeth Hasselbeck, another ‘View’ co-host launches a feud with a different notable figure: Galileo Galilei.When asked this week by Whoopi Goldberg if the earth was flat, new panelist Sherri Shepherd deadpanned: “I don’t know,” adding “Is the world flat has not been an important thing to me.”

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/television/tv-news-story/ar/_a/view-co-host-unsure-if-world-is-round/20070921144509990001Watch this video! See SOME intelligent women bantering with a no-name who can’t reconcile that the Bible is SOMETIMES totally wrong, and watch Barbara Walters and Whoopie try not to sound too, well, sensible.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 22) – Scientists, wringing their hands over the identity of the famed “hobbit” fossil, have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorderNow, a study of the bones in the creature’s left wrist lends weight to the human ancestor theory, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. The wrist bones of the 3-foot-tall creature, technically known as Homo floresiensis, are basically indistinguishable from an African ape or early hominin-like wrist and nothing at all like that seen in modern humans and Neanderthals, according to the research team led by Matthew W. Tocheri of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. That indicates that it is an early hominin and not a modern human with a physical disorder, they contend. “It seals the deal,” Tocheri said in a telephone interview. The specimen he studied lived on the Indonesian island of Flores about 18,000 years ago, a time when early modern humans populated Australia and other nearby areas. Scientists had thought humans had the planet to ourselves since Neanderthals died out about 30,000 years ago, and the discovery of Hobbits indicates another evolutionary cousin who coexisted longer, Tocheri said. It isn’t known whether humans and Hobbits coexisted on that island, he said, but it is clear we shared the planet for some time. “Basically, the wrist evidence tells us that modern humans and Neanderthals share an evolutionary grandparent that the hobbits do not, but all three share an evolutionary great-grandparent. If you think of modern humans and Neanderthals as being first cousins, then the hobbit is more like a second cousin to both,” Tocheri said.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/study-says-hobbit-not-a-modern-human/20070921215709990001Don’t these guys understand that they’ve found Golum? He was normal before that ring.. that Precious ring…. For amusement, you may want to check out the user comments.