http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=bO_3eSbLjyM
ANTITHEISM: “What Religion has Contributed to the World this Month” / ConversationWithA / Episode 2: December/January 2013
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Monthly Archives: January 2013
CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY: “After Louie Giglio Bows Out, Some Ask If Conservative Evangelicals Are Welcome In The Public Square” / Jaweed Kaleem
Now that the Rev. Louie Giglio, the Atlanta pastor who was going to pray at President Barack Obama’s inauguration but came under fire for an anti-gay sermon he gave in the mid-1990s, has bowed out, some conservative Christians and evangelicals have began to ask: are they welcome in the public square?
[…]
The inaugural committee says that Giglio’s comments on gay people “don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this Inaugural” and is seeking someone else to deliver the benediction. Who should it choose?
Related articles
POLITICS: Amitai Etzioni / “The Conservative ‘Party’ Dominates”
There is a very widely shared myth about “Washington.” Accordingly, there are two camps, the right-wing GOP and the left-leaning Democrats, who are more or less matched. Each control one house of Congress, and command about half of the electorate. Hence, the gridlock.
Actually, much of American politics over the last four years or longer should be understood as a contest between the conservative “party” (most of the GOP and good part of the Democrats) and a liberal minority party. . . .
Gridlock exists when one party pulls east and the other party pulls west and, hence, nothing budges. This is not the case in Washington. Here, most times, one party wants to move east and the other wants to stay put. Thus, what appears as gridlock is actually one conservative blocking victory after another. The fact that the last Congress passed only half as many bills as most previous ones does not trouble the conservatives one bit.
OP-ED: Thom Hartmann and Sam Sacks / “The Founding Fathers Versus The Gun Nuts”
Sorry, gun nuts, you’re on the wrong side of our Founding Fathers.
For example, in a tirade against CNN’s Piers Morgan, Alex Jones argued, “The Second Amendment isn’t there for duck hunting. It’s there to protect us from tyrannical government.”
It’s an argument that’s often echoed by gun nuts – as though their fully-loaded AR-15 with 100-bullet drum will keep them safe from Predator drones and cruise missiles. If indeed this is the true intent of the 2nd Amendment, protection from the government, then here’s the newsflash: you guys are woefully outgunned. And the 2nd Amendment would have allowed you to own a cannon and a warship, so America today would look more like Somalia today with well-armed warlords running their own little fiefdoms in defiance of the federal government.
But luckily, this was never the intent of the 2nd Amendment. Our Founding Fathers never imagined a well-armed citizenry to keep the American government itself in check. It was all about protecting the American government from both foreign and domestic threats.
Poring over the first-hand documents from 1789 that detailed the Fist Congress’ debate on arms and militia, you’ll see a constant theme: the 2nd Amendment was created to protect the American government.
CHRISTIAN MISOGYNY: Matt Dillahunty and Tracie Harris / “Atheist TV host boots ‘piece of shit’ Christian for calling raped girl ‘evil’”
If I were in a situation where I could stop a child rapist, I would, that’s the difference between me and your God.
~ Tracie Harris
Read article and watch video here . . .
h/t: Kenny in Pacific Grove, CA
h/t: AlterNet.org
ATHEISM: “In Good Company”
ATHEISM: “Atheist Temples”
INTELLECTUALISM: “Left or Right?” / David Hayward
nakedpastor.com
h/t: Planet Atheism
h/t: Friendly Atheist
ACADEMIC STUDY: Susie Madrak / “Conservatism Is Lack of Complexity In Political Brain”
Interesting studies. Whenever I argue with a conservative, I always end up saying in frustration, “But it’s not that simple!” It appears that for some people, their inability to reason out complex ideas is what makes them conservatives, and not their hatred of the human race (although there may be some overlap there)!
[…]
In the four studies conducted by Scott Eidelman, Christian S. Crandall, Jeffrey A. Goodman, and John C. Blanchar published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, they concluded, “(P)olitical conservatism is promoted when people rely on low-effort thinking.
[…]
We think that compassion and empathy are a fundamental part of liberal values, and we note at times that it takes being in that specific situation for conservatives to grasp why, for example, liberals support universal healthcare for all. There are many studies that address that take on things, but this study is specifically addressing whether or not having low-effort thinking will produce conservative thinking initially, and they showed that it does.
Always Question Authority 