Even Stevphen - Islam vs. Christianity

Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert (with Jon Stewart, briefly) demonstrate 

the inherent similarities and shared stupidities of theism..

Thank Gods It's FreyaDay!

Good Evening, Humans.

It has been a long, busy week. A hot, busy, tiring and long week.

Yes, let's have a refreshing beverage. Well, you go ahead. I will just take a little cat nap.

It has been a long busy week.

Thank gods it's FreyaDay!

Voter Suppression Threatens The Republic

Wait!  Don't skip this post because you've been registered to vote forever and are pretty sure it doesn't apply to you. Even if you think you are registered to vote. Even if you have been voting for decades, please take a moment to ensure that you are, in fact, still registered to vote.

Recent news about Republican attempts to suppress the vote highlights just how important it is for citizens to pay attention to what those in power are doing.  Voter suppression has become the most egregious of the tactics in a campaign pockmarked with slimy pits of lies, disinformation and outright intimidation.

It is not just imperative that Americans "get out the vote" this year, but it is now necessary to ensure that citizens' legal right to vote is protected from a campaign to disenfranchise even longtime voters with no reason to think their voter registration would be problematic. Seniors, disabled citizens who do not and cannot have a driver's license, and millions of poor working Americans - for whom acquiring the notarized documentation, filling out the legal paperwork, paying fees and taking time away from their jobs to file for government IDs present insurmountable hurdles - all face potential disenfranchisement in the upcoming election.

Republicans continue to argue disingenuously that they are protecting voter rights by placing more and more roadblocks in the way of the poor, the elderly and the disabled because, they claim, they are protecting us all from potential voter fraud. Repeated studies and investigations into voter fraud have proven that it is exceedingly rare, and that the threat that potential voter fraud poses to the electoral process is minimal. Conversely, the potential for harm to the democratic process resulting from voter suppression practices is very high. In third world countries, American observers stand by to ensure that evidence of voter intimidation and suppression can be recorded and publicized. Who is watching out for the same thing in the USA?

This is a democratic Republic and it is the right and the duty of citizens to protect our own rights and freedoms. Knowledge is power, but action is even more powerful. Let's start paying attention, spreading the word, and mobilizing our fellow citizens to hold our government representatives accountable when they overstep the bounds and try to impede our right to vote.

First stop: knowledge.  To wit:

ACLU on voter suppression:

"During the 2011 legislative sessions, states across the country passed measures to make it harder for Americans – particularly African-Americans, the elderly, students and people with disabilities – to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot. Over thirty states considered laws that would require voters to present government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Studies suggest that up to 11 percent of American citizens lack such ID, and would be required to navigate the administrative burdens to obtain it or forego the right to vote entirely."

Rolling Stone   Ari Berman's excellent article on Florida's purge of voter rolls to suppress Democratic vote:


"Imagine this: a Republican governor in a crucial battleground state instructs his secretary of state to purge the voting rolls of hundreds of thousands of allegedly ineligible voters. The move disenfranchises thousands of legally registered voters, who happen to be overwhelmingly black and Hispanic Democrats. The number of voters prevented from casting a ballot exceeds the margin of victory in the razor-thin election, which ends up determining the next President of the United States.


If this scenario sounds familiar, that’s because it happened in Florida in 2000. And twelve years later, just months before another presidential election, history is repeating itself."

CBS  Lucy Madison reports of mass mailings and robo-calls falsely telling voters that they should not or could not vote in the June 5 Wisconsin recall election.


"(CBS News) As voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, reports out of the state suggest that robocalls are being placed informing voters, falsely, they don't have to vote if they signed the recall petition.


There have also been reports of mailings going out to voters telling them they can't vote unless they did so in 2010, and of people going door-to-door telling voters they don't have to go to the polls if they signed the recall petition, both of which are also untrue."

Raw Story offers a disturbing national roundup of stories from numerous states whose Republican governments are pulling out all the stops to disenfranchise voters. One excerpt (from LAWeekly):


"In a brazen attempt to steal this fall's election, Florida's Republican lawmakers have outlawed voting on Sunday, an African-American tradition. Indeed, across the United States, from Montana to Maine and Texas to Tennessee, 41 states have recently passed or introduced laws to restrict voter registration and early voting, and generally limit suffrage.


It's the greatest show of racially fueled political chicanery since turn-of-the-century laws banned scores of African-Americans from casting ballots. More than 5 million voters — largely nonwhite — could be kept from the polls, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice:

'State governments across the country enacted an array of new laws that could make it significantly harder for as many as 5 million eligible Americans to vote. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo identification, often of a type that as many as one in ten voters do not have. Other states have cut back on early voting, a hugely popular innovation used by millions of Americans. Still others made it much more difficult for citizens to register to vote, a prerequisite for voting'. "

Don't be caught off guard by voter suppression tactics. Go online and be sure that your voter registration is secure and that you will not be disenfranchised this November.  Here are some handy links to information and resources:

FAQs About Voting, Smart Voter (League of Women Voters).

USA Gov. page on voting information, including a link to voter registration deadlines by state and easy-to-navigate information links to answers for frequently asked questions about voting, registration, voting from overseas, working on elections and trouble-shooting.

USA Gov Resources for voters

Brennan Center of Justice Election 2012, information for voters and resources for assistance with barriers to your right to vote.

Here is a 2008 video about voter suppression tactics which is depressingly prescient - it is a brief but thorough overview of the methods and traps used to suppress the legitimate right of American citizens to vote. Please watch and share:

Atheist/Secular Blogathon 2012 Coming Soon!

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!

Other bloggers on the roster include: Greta Christina (Greta Christina's Blog), Hank Fox (Blue Collar Atheist), Al Stefanelli (Al Stefanelli), and Natalie Reed (Sincerely, Natalie Reed)!

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 hide its 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...

Enjoy the blogathon!

Let's keep the growth of REASON going!

Thorsday Tonic - A Wave of Reason

Lyrics:
Russell:
When you are studying any matter
Or considering any philosophy
Ask yourself only: what are the facts,
And what is the truth that the facts bear out

Sagan:
Science is more than a body of knowledge
It's a way of thinking
A way of skeptically interrogating the universe

If we are not able to ask skeptical questions
To be skeptical of those in authority
Then we're up for grabs

Shermer:
In all of science we're looking for a balance
between data and theory

Harris:
You don't have to delude yourself
With Iron age fairy tales

Porco:
The same spiritual fulfillment
That people find in religion
Can be found in science
By coming to know, if you will, the mind of God

Krauss:
The real world, as it actually is,
Is not evil, it's remarkable
And the way to understand the physical world
is to use science

Dawkins:
There is a new wave of reason
Sweeping across America, Britain, Europe, Australia
South America, the Middle East and Africa
There is a new wave of reason
Where superstition had a firm hold

Plait:
Teach a man to reason
And he'll think for a lifetime

Sagan:
Cosmology brings us face to face with the deepest mysteries
With questions that were once treated only
in religion and myth

The desire to be connected with the cosmos
Reflects a profound reality
But we are connected; not in the trivial ways
That Astrology promises, but in the deepest ways

Feynman:
I can't believe the special stories that have been made up
About our relationship to the universe at large
Look at what's out there; it isn't in proportion

Russell:
Never let yourself be diverted
By what you wish to believe
But look only and surely
At what are the facts

Randi:
Enjoy the fantasy, the fun, the stories
But make sure that there's a clear sharp line
Drawn on the floor
To do otherwise is to embrace madness