We’re going a different and exciting route this year for the Solstice celebration in NJ. This year, for the first time, we are cooperating with local Humanist Groups to create a full weekend of atheism.

On Saturday, the 19th of December, the Red Bank Humanists and the NJ Humanist Network will have a Humanlight celebration in Bound Brook ($30). Then, at night, we all sleep at the Hampton Inn, where we will have a BYOB party with music ($65 for the night, the party is free). The next morning, after free breakfast, we all go to the Center for the Solstice event ($20). It’s an inexpensive, full-but-relaxing weekend.

Here’s the scoop — this is meant to bring in atheists from farther away than the very-locals. We need this to happen, to show that cooperation between groups will work better than operating separately. Call your friends and come. Stay at the hotel and socialize. Have fun. Join multiple groups. Tweet and Facebook this blog entry. Shout this from the rooftops!
MORE INFO
Deadline to register for the Solstice event is December 5! See you there.

By a vote of 4-1 the Spencer (Iowa) Community School Board of Education agreed “to discontinue the pursuit of a Religious Liberty Policy” .
…
This is as official as it gets, at least for the foreseeable future, in the effort to defeat an attempt to introduce Intelligent Design and a sectarian Bible class earlier in that school district. And, this time, the Discovery Institute did not even put up a fight in Iowa.

Read more from our friends at TalkReason

A federal district court ruled today that a special Christian license plate mandated by the South Carolina legislature violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie held that the plate, which was to feature a large yellow cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe,” clearly gives favored government treatment to one faith. In a summary judgment ruling, she ordered state officials not to issue the plate.

Read More

It is with deepest regrets that I must pass on that my friend and fellow atheist David Miles died on November 4th after a brief illness.

David Miles was one of the most prolific letter-writers I have ever known. He helped me immensely with the Freethinker’s Letter-Writing Cooperative. His letter-writing skills were amazing and he always had a way of making his points to the readers of newspapers across the Southeast.

David was a Member of American Atheists and his contributions to the cause will be greatly missed. I will miss him at the American Atheist Convention this year and I will miss our email exchanges, but mostly I will miss his friendship. David’s afterlife will be living on in my memories and the memories of everyone that he knew in his life.

You can read many of his letters online:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,1709,n,n

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Bible+class.-a0147057294

http://psysim.www7.50megs.com/annstar031907.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200204/ai_n9058441/

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2009/05/your_views_schools_hit_up_pare.html

http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/NEWS/712140305

Goodbye David! You will be missed by many.

-written by Blair Scott, Posted by Dave

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama dedicated his weekly radio address Saturday to the shooting that occurred at the Fort Hood military base this week.

Mr. Obama said he will be tracking the investigation into how suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, allegedly shot and killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others on Thursday.

The president met Friday with the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to discuss the incident. While Mr. Obama deplored the violence at the military medical center, he also extolled the bravery of the soldiers who quickly came to the aid of victims.

“Thursday’s shooting was one of the most devastating ever committed on an American military base,” Mr. Obama said in prepared remarks. “And yet, even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America.”

Mr. Obama was also quick to note the diversity of U.S. military personnel. “They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers,” he said. Mr. Hasan, a Muslim, was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan.

Read More

It is our responsibility to push the press into reporting the truth; we need to know is how much of this relates to Islam. Is this some guy who ‘happens to be Muslim” going crazy, is it a Muslim-based terror attack, or is it somewhere in-between, where a Muslim who might have been taught that Jihads aren’t terrible might have been pushed over the edge when going to Afghanistan to possibly kill other Muslims?

We need to know if we can trust Muslims in the military to kill bad guys, not good guys. I will be the first to admit I have my doubts.