Jen McCreight, (Blag Hag) has done a blogathon for the past three years to raise money for the Secular Student Alliance. For 24 hours, she posts a new blog post every 30 minutes, with no pre-writing or auto-posting allowed. Caffeine-fueled, crazy, funny and sometimes amazing, an exhaustion-propelled blogathon can be a fun-filled experience for everyone!
This year, Jen has snagged some victims organized more participants! There is a schedule of featured bloggers here, but I can tell you that Dale McGowan, author of Parenting Beyond Belief (not to mention awesome blogger at The Meming of Life) has just posted that he is in!
The Blogathon participants are hoping to raise plenty of funds to continue the growth of the Secular Student Alliance, which is one of the few organizations available to high school and college students as an alternative to the numerous religious organizations which dot campuses across the nation.
cru? WTF does that mean? Oh well, it's definitely not a group with an agenda - look how hip this logo is!
One such powerful, secretively-funded and agenda-driven religious group is Campus Crusade for Christ. Campus Crusade for Christ has recently changed its name in what they claimed was a bid not to hideits explicitly Christian religious agenda but to remove the word "Crusade" which they seemed to have only recently discovered that some people find objectionable. The fact that this change coincides with an increase in the number of secular student groups attempting to be recognized on campuses - and the fact that secular and atheist student groups are often denied official recognition based upon a college's professed policy of not endorsing a religious viewpoint (blithely ignoring both that secular organizations are not religious and most colleges currently have long lists of recognized religiously affiliated groups on campus - my irony-meter just went past bust) definitely had nothing to do with it! The new name "CRU" retains the core of "crusade" while hiding the Christ, which suits this organization just fine because it is not at all deceptive or contradictory. Hiding the fundamentalist religious agenda behind a banal "it's all about hip, youthful, community fun" public face is the Campus Crusade modus operandi, and the stylishly meaningless new logo fits right in with their cool, aw shucks, honest-to-godliness stealth strategy.
Openly and honestly secular, promoting freethinking and freedom of and from religion.
In spite of continued opposition, the Secular Student Alliance is growing! Compared to Campus Crusade for Christ's $500 million annual budget, the SSA's annual budget of less than $1 million makes it hard to compete, and yet they are growing.
The reason why is simple: young people are turning away from the manipulative clutches of religion in higher numbers than ever. Help SSA out in their effort to provide options for freethinking youth. Read freethinker bloggers (several suggested blogs linked to the right), donate to Secular Student Alliance so that they can meet or exceed the projected goals shown below and most of all...
Earlier this year, there was a hue and cry from the Christian right over the decision by J C Penney to hire Ellen De Generes as their new spokesperson. A group of Christian women, apparently outraged that any openly gay human being should be employed, launched a boycott campaign against the retailer. The public response was thankfully less than encouraging for the "millions of moms" who just want LGBTQ people to shut up, sit down and have the decency to be ashamed enough of their sexual orientation to keep it secret. The Christian hate group whose site I will not link to (sorry, but I won't contribute to the visitor count for a hate group), campaigned hard to get Ellen DeGeneres fired, and they failed. J C Penney stood unequivocally with their popular spokesperson.
Today's news reveals that J C Penney's commitment to equality is even deeper and more solid than the earlier events might have indicated. I was impressed when J C Penney backed Ellen, but I also had to admit that she is a very popular and well-liked celebrity in her own right. J C Penney may only have calculated that it was a good business decision to stick with their hiring decision after the controversy blew up, especially in light of the huge pushback from supporters and fans of the TV talk show host and actor. Still, I wrote them a letter of approval and got a very nice one back from their customer service department.
So, how good to read this story, today, then! J C Penney seems to have decided to take a far more risky - and therefore more principled and admirable - stand on GLBTQ rights. The company has produced a new Father's Day ad featuring a real life gay couple and their children. There is no famous face with a proven reputation for appealing to a wide market. There is no way to take the position that this ad only happens to suggest acceptance of GLBTQ people tangentially as in the Ellen ads (her ads were about the store and the products and her own bubbly personality - not about her sexual identity - which was of course all they should have been). This ad is about fatherhood and the central figures in the ad are a gay couple who are fathers to the two children in the ad. The ad is openly accepting not only of the sexuality of LGBTQ people, but of their right to marriage, families and openly loving and respected lives.
J C Penney probably did not intend to bring up a hot social issue when it hired Ellen De Generes last year, but the company has had to deal with it because of Christian bigotry anyway. In a way, the Ellen ad was the opening line in a conversation that has picked up both participants and listeners over the past few months with astonishing speed and intensity. Following so closely on the heels of the recent examples of Christian bigotry in North Carolina and elsewhere, this ad - and the corporate commitment to equality and social justice that it seems to represent - give me hope.
Now get out there and shop at J C Penney!! Companies who put themselves out there like this deserve our support!
The humble, inspiring and timelessly apropros words of Carl Sagan narrate this brief (3:45minutes) video incorporating recent historical images.
"The significance of our lives - and our fragile planet - is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance; better by far to embrace the truth, than a reassuring fable. Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Our common-sense intuitions can be mistaken. Our preferences don't count. We do not live in a privileged reference frame. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal." Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot.
A refreshing dose of rationality on a Thorsday morning. Sit back and enjoy, "Anti-Science", another excellent rap created by the inimitable Tombstone Da Deadman.
Watch it! This song will stay in your head all day!
We are having a very dry spring here, after an extremely dry and mild winter. I noticed the other day that the pine tree in our yard is showing signs of stress, it's needles faded and slightly rusty looking. Today I saw that the grass in the local parks is dry and yellow like the end of July in a hot summer! Our spring flowers were forced out too early by the unseasonable heat in March and their colors faded within days - sometimes hours - of first blooming. When I was planting some summer annuals this weekend, the earth in some places was so dry it collapsed like gravely sand. I've never seen anything like it here before.
I hope we get rain soon and plenty of it!
Anyway, all of this dryness and wonky weather made me long for spring showers, the soft caress of cool damp fog on the cheeks and the sweet, clean fresh air heavy with the fragrance of lilacs after a late spring rain. I am longing for deep, bright colors and cool refreshing damp air. And I know just the place to find that!
(via Newfoundland on facebook)
Some houses are wide. Some houses are thin. Some are so thin you can hardly get in.
But wherever you go, you will hear someone say, "Come over to my house. Come over and play!"
Come over to my house. The fishing is great! They bite all the time and you don't have to wait.
Come over some day and bring plenty of bait.
You can play on my roof, but my house is so tall, it's a long way downstairs to go after a ball.
My house is bright pink and it's happy and gay. Our streets are wet water. We like it that way.
Every house in the world has a ceiling and floor. But the ones you'll like best have a wide-open door.
Some houses are rich full of silver and gold. And some are quite poor, sort of empty and old.
Some houses are marble and some are just tin. But they're all, all alike when a friend asks you in.
There are so many houses you'll meet on your way. And wherever you go, you will hear someone say . . . "Come over to my house! Come over and play!" From Come Over to My House, Theo.LeSieg (Theo. Geisel)
And, just for good measure - one last dose of color and glory - and an iceberg!
You're welcome!
It's the weekend, People, and I have a yard to whip into shape!
Nevertheless, I am nothing if not a font of inspirational material for my readers. Take a five minute break from your Sunday leisure - or if you are a productive person like Yours Truly, from your Sunday achievements - and listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson's rousing words in defense of NASA research.
A breath of fresh air from TheraminTrees on a Monday morning.
I was delighted to find this Spanish translation of the video. Bravo to TheraminTrees (or whomever is responsible) for making this excellent work more accessible!
Sit back and enjoy a little musical awesomeness on this Tuesday morning.
Garfunkel and Oates: Sex With Ducks
EDIT: Unfortunately, this video seems to have been taken off YouTube some time since I tucked it away in my "awesome stuff" folder. Please see above for another great video by these two talented young women.
EDIT 2: Well, hooray! Looks like the video is up again! A daily double of Garfunkel and Oates.
In 2008, a clear majority of voters in the state of Michigan sent a strong message to their legislators that they approve of stem cell research and want it to go forward in their state universities. The University of Michigan has gained a reputation as a world leader in stem cell research for cures for several diseases and the people of the state rightly wanted that reputation - and the valuable research for which it was justly earned - to continue unmolested by partisan politics fueled by powerful special interest groups. So, of course you can guess what is coming.
Last year, Michigan house Repubicans, to please their socially conservative corporate backers, decided to execute an end run around the will of the people by inserting language into education funding bills demanding detailed - and unnecessarily burdensome - reports on details of the stem cell research over and above what had previously been required by the law. During the contentious debates which followed, the Republicans went as far as suggesting that the university was evading established rules of accountability to obtain funding underhandedly. Using the most devastating play in the conservative right-wing's handbook, the Republicans appealed to the well-tended public distrust of intellectualism and science, conflating them with their liberal anti-god conspiracy fears which have been equally carefully nurtured over the past few decades by the religious right and its political arm, the Republican party.
Democrats trying to prevent yet another Republican religious attack on higher education argued passionately to repeal the onerous language which had been inserted into the funding bill last year (and which threatens to be continued this year). In spite of these efforts - and in direct defiance of the will of the people who voted in November 2008 to allow stem cell research to proceed - the Republican controlled House and Senate passed the punitive, research-suppressing measures.
It seems that the corporate and religious right is perfecting its strategy to completely bypass the democratic process, undermine the republic and achieve its goal of near total power through a puppet democracy. Thanks to Citizens United, they can now operate as super citizens - a tiny, elite and powerful group controlling 99% of the country's wealth - by pouring money into campaigns to ensure the elections of their personal agents in legislatures across the country. Using the Republican party as their political arm, powerful special interests - nearly always an alliance of churches and corporate "citizens" - now effectively rule the United States. Sadly, they have achieved this oligarchy with the willing compliance of millions of "moderate" Americans who have remained unwilling to rock the boat of their comfortable religious communities by speaking out against religious influence on public policy.
Senator Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, spoke out on the education funding nightmare, defending the right of American students and researchers to continue to receive the funding which the people of Michigan have declared they are entitled to receive.
In addition to fighting to save the world-class reputation of Michigan universities, Senator Whitmer has also stood up courageously for gay Michigan youth. In the fall of 2011, she gave this powerful speech on bullying after the Senate passed the Matt's Safe School Law. The outrageous law, cruelly named after a young Michigander who had been driven to suicide by relentless bullying by religious schoolmates, was touted as an "anti-bullying" law, but in factgave legal protection to bullies whose persecution of others is justified by their religious beliefs.
Watch Sen. Whitmer's brief, but powerful remarks:
While religious conservatives and their corporate allies celebrate their almost total dominance of American government and society, there still remain a few dedicated voices for social justice and liberal ideals. Senator Gretchen Whitmer stood up for Michigan youth, for education and for scientific research, all anathema to the oligarchy which seeks to reduce American society to an uneducated feudal state.
For your Saturday Inspiration, please take a few minutes to listen to this intelligent young woman answering questions from a theist friend. It will help bolster your conviction that some young people are managing to become free thinkers in spite of the cultural indoctrination and enormous privilege that religion enjoys all over the world.
Notable and quotable: (on the value of prayer in difficult situations) "I have to say, that I have never been in a situation that I could do...literally...nothing about. There is always something more useful that you can do than pray. Always." (7:02)
This week, and probably for the next few weeks, my posts are going to be focusing on issues that are important to children, teens and young adults in our demon-haunted world. Young people like FactVsReligion will be featured. I welcome suggestions for other great videos!
Just after I finished up my post about the conviction, without evidence, of Catherine Snow in 1834, Hemant Mehta posted this excellent video about a related topic on his blog. Good timing!
If you've ever found yourself in a frustrating and seemingly pointless debate with a determined theist, here is a video which will explain to you what is happening, and hopefully help you to see how you can approach the theist in a way that might get hir to understand why hir "debating" methods are not honest.
Of course, it also explains why most theists are so resistant to understanding anything of the sort, but at least you will know!
(My only complaint about this superb video - what is up with the one-eyed characters?)
"...Children of Abraham, as kind and as good as you are inside...by being a follower of the Abrahamic god, you are essentially telling me that the creator of the universe once roamed this planet, pointed at a human child and said, 'Kill that - for me.' What am I supposed to do? Tell you that you may have a point?"
Good timing, this. The story of Abraham and Isaac is cued up for Wednesday's Barmy Bible Study.
