AUTHORITARIANISM: Atheist Experience #477 / “Understanding Right Wing Authoritarianism”
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SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: Andrea Stone / “R. Martin Umbarger, [Indiana] National Guard General, Accused of Ethics Violation for Endorsing Christian Group”
The head of the Indiana National Guard recorded a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organization — an act that violates the constitutional separation of church and state, a watchdog group argues, and that is grounds for dismissal, one of the nation’s leading military law experts says.
In the video, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, endorses Centurion’s Watch, an Indianapolis-based sectarian Christian nonprofit that offers marriage counseling to military families. The video was first noted by freethoughtblogs.com.
ATHEISM: QualiaSoup / “Lack of Belief in gods”
h/t: Dead-Logic
Related articles
- EXPOSITORY ESSAY: Madison S. Hughes / “Atheism, Agnosticism and Antitheism” (alwaysquestionauthority.com)
CRITICAL THINKING: George Carlin / “Teach Your Children to Question Everything”
ACTIVISM: Tom Morello / “Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against”
Photo credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
[…]
Ryan claims that he likes Rage’s sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.
I wonder what Ryan’s favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of “Fuck the Police”? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!
Don’t mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta “rage” in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he’s not raging against is the privileged elite he’s groveling in front of for campaign contributions.
[…]
EDUCATION: PZ Myers / “Woe is U.S. Academics”
Have you been following Doonesbury for the past few weeks? It’s been all about the progressive destruction of the American university, as the old model is replaced by the for-profit university, a hideous scheme in which state and federal support for higher education gets siphoned off to support lousy schools that grind through massive numbers of students, offering low tuition, flexible hours, and a fast-track to a degree…and with abysmal retention rates, low success, marginally qualified ‘faculty’, and an education that is worth less than you paid for it. These are the colleges you see advertised on cheesy commercials on television, in which some guy proudly testifies about getting his fancy diploma working only a few hours a week at night over two years, and never having to step away from his computer to do it.
SCIENCE – EVOLUTION / COSMOLOGY: Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss / “Something From Nothing?” / 02.04.2012
MUSIC – R&B: The Manhattans / “Kiss and Say Goodbye” / 1976
CHRISTIAN BIGOTRY: “So You Still Think Homosexuality is Sinful?”
h/t: Atheism
ATHEISM: Mano Singham / “Casual Mentions of Atheism”
[…]
Once people start mentioning being an atheist casually, as merely one facet of their lives and not their defining characteristic, you know that it has become mainstream.
In fact, it has reached a stage that I get surprised only when I hear writers and artists and other intellectuals mention that they are religious, even mildly so. I do not explicitly seek out atheist writers, so the fact that I encounter so few religious ones must mean something. At the very least, it may signify that the intellectual class as a whole is abandoning religion.
