What a thrill it was to meet Helen Thomas today. She was so gracious. She was visbly moved when she walked in the room and saw the roses. As you know a few days ago DUer Helderheid posted a suggestion that we send roses to Helen Thomas to show our appreciation for her gutsy questioning of the President last week. The suggestion soon became action and dozens of DUers opened their hearts (and wallets/purses), and the money started rolling in. Before she knew it she had enough money to buy 100...

I'm driving west on I-66 leaving Washington (DC) after work and the traffic is terrible. Stop, go, stop, go, stop, go... A guy slides in front of me and when he hit his brakes...I had two Jesuses staring back at me. Can you believe he had Jesus's face clearly etched in black in the red brake lenses!!! Aaaaaarrrrrrrrgggghhhh!! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: (Yeah, I quickly changed lanes!) I need a drink!

(Link) Richard Cohen writes: "...I was reading in the newspaper that Republicans were "distressed by the White House's performance since President Bush's reelection." "Republicans were not "distressed," mind you, by the war in Iraq, which turns out to have been waged for no good reason. Republicans were not distressed by the massive intelligence failure that preceded the war. Republicans were not distressed, either, by the intelligence failure that produced the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, ...

(Link) Evangelist Ken Ham smiled at the 2,300 elementary students packed into pews, their faces rapt. With dinosaur puppets and silly cartoons, he was training them to reject much of geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology as a sinister tangle of lies. "Boys and girls," Ham said. If a teacher so much as mentions evolution, or the Big Bang, or an era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, "you put your hand up and you say, 'Excuse me, were you there?' Can you remember that?" The children roare...

Surely this is an oversight by our Congress because there is a National Pickle Week (actually it's called International Pickle Week) and even a Hot Tea Week. Believe it or not, January 1997 was National Prune Breakfast Month. In May we even have a Be Kind to Animals Week (what does that imply for the rest of the year?). But, um, there's no National Atheists Week. Did I mention that last October was designated as National Toilet Tank Repair Month? Month! :eyes: Now I'm depressed.

(Link)/ We can't let this one go. We need to begin working on a response to this. We need to go public and suggest that as long as millions of Americans will be uniting in prayer on that day, and given the dire circumstances we find ourselves in, it is more important than ever for all the Christians in America to use the National Prayer Day to focus all their prayers on one single, solvable problem, like (fill in the blank). As atheists, we need to publicly challenge Christians to focus all...

A Meryland Court overrulled a State law banning same-sex marriages. The WP reported today that Democratic politicians are pissing themselves over what to do. My letter to the Washington Post today: So the leading Democrats in Maryland are flummoxed about what to do about same-sex marriage? My heart bleeds for them. They are afraid the Republicans are going to use this to hammer them in the next election, which they probably will since most Democratic politicians of the modern era seem to...

I spent two days in Paris last October. Had to cram a lot of walking and photography into the few hours it didn't rain. Paris is my favorite city - hands down. I've had a camera and my billfold stolen there on different occasions, but I can't stop going back. For romantics, a summer evening walk along the Seine with someone you love is an experience you will never forget. And it's a fun city to photograph. ==================== (Image) 1/400 sec, f 4.0 (all photos were taken with ISO 100)...

Last fall I was fortunate to go on a business trip to Copenhagen. I stayed an extra couple of days to play tourist. I also took the train to Malmo, Sweden for an afternoon. Initially I was disappointed with the results. The daylight was either harsh or it was overcast and rainy. Recently I sat down and found a some photos worth salvaging. Here are a few (I apoligize for their size. I let photobucket resize them and they came out much larger than expected): =================================...

I volunteer to help our homeowner's association in a rural community. As such I often get unsolicited humorous and political emails from officers and other volunteers. This one came to me and eight others today: For Our Democratic Friends: "Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable t...

...as a federal holiday. I have finally reached my gag limit on the stupid, hateful, insecure, assholes who call themselves Christians and demand the the entire country pay homage to their god. These fundamentalists, and I was raised as one, have gone too far in their bullying to get everyone in America to celebrate the non-birthday of their one-third of a god, Jesus. What if you're Jewish? Fuck you. What if you're a Muslim? Fuck you...and get the hell out of our country while you're at it. ...

As an atheist Christmas is no longer a religious holiday for me. But having been raised in a Christian home, Christmas carols and Christmas decorations bring back happy childhood memories of gifts, decorating the Christmas tree, singing carols in the car as we drove downtown looking at the store windows, the big family dinner, and the pleasant exhaustion we all felt as the light of day waned. In those days the theme of Christmas was "Peace on Earth, Goodwill To Men" The newspapers were full of...

replaced it with the new compilation of all ten years of Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strips. Calvin and Hobbes books are my Bible. Bill Watterson is the closest thing I have to a god. No matter how low or depressed I feel, pulling out one of his books and reading some of Calvin's exploits always has me laughing again. But it's not Watterson's humor as much as the way he capturs the human spirit. Calvin experiences about every human failing, every human emotion, known to man, but Hobbes is alw...

Okay, I accept that this is a political website first and foremost. Forums and groups covering peripheral topics like sports, cooking, photography, etc. are provided for our enjoyment and generally have nothing to do with politics. Maybe at one time religion could have been relegated to the peripheral, non-political forums, but today we have religious zealots who have amassed great power in the Republican party and they are forcing their brand of Christian "morality" onto the entire nation. I...

(Link) The first sentence of the American Legion press release reads: "HONOLULU, August 23, 2005 - Delegates to the nation’s largest wartime veterans organization meeting here in national convention today vowed to use whatever means necessary to ensure the united support of the American people for our troops and the global war on terrorism." I can only interpret "by any means necessary" to include violence. This is a line which no organization in America has a right to cross. According to t...

C'tians believe that people are inherently bad from birth. Many people, even those who aren't religious, believe this also. I think that people are born with a survival instinct, and that instinct causes people to seek the approval of, first, our parents, and later our peers and society. The best way to earn approval is to be "good" (whatever "good" means in that society). So I believe that people are inherently good. What do you think?

...but as long as you give 10% of your income (What? Of course that's BEFORE taxes) to God (He authorized me to collect it), you are building up treasures in HEAVEN! Just stop a minute and think about it, friends, think of the treasures. Have you ever dreamed of winning the lottery? That's peanuts compared to what God has waiting for you. Give that money you would waste on lottery tickets to Jesus because every believer is a winner in heaven! "But Pastor," you say, "My son has shingles and n...

I just had another encounter with a brainwashed RW xtian and got admonished for calling RW xtians loonies. I tried, yes, I tried to show WHY fundies are looneys, but it didn't register with him/her. I think growing up in a fundamentalist church and a fundamentalist family has made me less tolerent of them. Their beliefs are so irrational and so easy to debunk I find it damn insulting (and frustrating) that my country and it's politicians are still sucking up to them. The Terri Schaivo affair ...

When I was a kid my parents made us attend Sunday School, church, Sunday evening services, Tuesday night visitation, and Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting with them. The church was my second home. We got a pin for one year’s perfect attendance, and then a bar to be attached to the bottom of the pin for each year of perfect attendance thereafter. Needless to say I had plenty of bars on my pin by the time I was 12. Dad wore his with pride. I kept mine in my underwear drawer. Every frickin’ Sun...

I Peter 4:3-4, For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. I seem to be getting more and more emails lately with bible verses in their signature files like the one above. This is one I got from a government employee today. I'm a governmen...

An op-ed piece in the Washington Post written by a former FBI undercover agent. (Link) The FBI has long maintained that Timothy McVeigh, who was executed in 2001 for the Oklahoma City bombing that claimed 168 lives, was the prototypical "lone wolf" terrorist and that anyone implicated in the bombing conspiracy is behind bars. But old loose ends and troubling new revelations about McVeigh's association with white supremacist groups have led many people to wonder whether a wider conspiracy was b...

Yes, a gaggle of Jehovah's witnesses descended on my front door not more than an hour ago. Elderly women all. Very matronly. Doing service for their god. I was expecting someone from Verizon to repair the phone (which has blessedly been silent for almost 6 months), otherwise i would have ignored the bell. The good ladies smiled at me and held up their Watchtowers, told me they wanted to talk about my soul. I smiled and said, "Wrong house. I'm an atheist." Speechless they were, until one sa...

TOPEKA, Kan., May 5 -- Debating a question that the scientific establishment considers settled, Kansas education authorities put evolutionary theory on trial Thursday in a hearing marked by sharp exchanges over Earth's origins and what students should be taught in science class... The debate is the highest-profile confrontation over evolutionary theory in years, pitting the impassioned corps of anti-Darwinists against a scientific establishment that considers the evidence of the chemical and bi...

I was at our homeowners association meeting recently and a homeowner was criticized for putting out mounds of food for wild animals and attracting far too many which were causing problems for her neighbors. Her reply? "I just put it out and let Jesus take care if it." Perfect answer. Now if the neighbors complain, they're criticizing Jesus, and showing hostility to people of faith. They could no doubt be stoned to death for that.

(Link) People lined up for miles to mourn the loss of Pope John Paul II, sending thousands of prayers, hoping he is up there. Some say he is a saint or should be a saint. Surely in heaven, but they are praying for him anyway, because he needs prayers until there is certainty he has arrived. To prove he is indeed up there, people have gone in search of good, of hope, searching for an ease in the suffering. Searching for miracles. Not big miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, the turning of...

Last weekend we saw it again. God was powerless to raise Terri Shiavo from the dead, or even command the courts to keep her feeding tube in place. So he and his (ulp, her?) band of followers had to call Congress together and hammer out legislation to do God's work. Then they had to summon the President of the United States all the way from Texas to sign the damn thing at 1:00 in the morning. All my life I've been astounded at how powerless God is. When I was a kid, God demanded, through his ...