Alan Dershowitz to Mike Huckabee: Go Back to School

An Agnostic Christmas

I love the holidays! I enjoy the cold weather, the shopping, listening to Christmas music, watching my favorite Christmas movies, and I most of all my mom's fudge!! This year is no different for me than any other, except that I have embraced being an agnostic/atheist. However, I am not giving up my holidays.

I was recently asked how I can celebrate Christmas if I no longer believe in God. Well, for one thing the holidays to me have never meant celebrating Jesus. To me the holidays represent a time spent with family, upholding traditions, love, and peace. I look at the holidays as a time to be thankful for everything that we have, and to celebrate and make memories. Just because someone is agnostic or atheist does not mean that they are uncaring. My husband and I still got 2 angels from the tree and will donate presents. We may not have a lot but we still make it a point to give to others. Christmas time serves as a reminder to give to those less fortunate, something we should strive to remember throughout the entire year.

For almost as far back as I can remember I have always questioned if there is a God. I vividly remember being around eleven or twelve and my grandmother asking if I was atheist. At the time I said no because part of me did believe, but I was still questioning. It has not been until this past couple of years that I have come out of the closest so to speak. I am disturbed more and more everyday by how hypocritical religious people are and once I began studying philosophy and science I knew that I could no longer deny how I really feel. I have been amazed and astonished at how many other people are like me and have found a very welcoming and close community within the free thinkers out here.

So, if you see me out this holiday season, you may still wish me a Merry Christmas! I will not be offended, for I wish you the same. Just as I wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukah, though I am not Jewish myself. I will not apologize for enjoying my candy canes, christmas lights, presents, christmas carols, and egg nog. It is the time to be with loved ones and that has nothing to do at all with any religion.

Tis the season for Reason!!!

And here is a reminder from Mind Posts.

Christmas for Atheists?!?

Christmas is part of our Greco-Roman-Judeo-Christian Western tradition.

It has always been a special time of year across diverse cultures. It need

not be dedicated to mysticism and supernatural nonsense. Atheists can

embrace Christmas as a mid-winter celebration with friends and family.

It is a wonderful time to share family traditions and discuss the rational

roots that keep your family strong.

Happy Holidays to ALL!

Jokes

My favorite Blasphemy Slogans from http://freethoughtpedia.org/
It's under "Atheist Bumper Stickers" in "Humor"

- Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers.
- Honk if your religious beliefs make you an asshole.
- "Worship me or I will torture you forever! Have a nice day!" - God
- If Jesus is inside me, I hope he likes fajitas ’cause that’s what he’s getting!
- If There is No God, Then What Makes the Next Kleenex Pop Up?
- Cheeses Is Lard. Argue With THAT If You Can.
- Cheeses Dried Foyer Shins. Praise the Lard.
- Jesus is Coming? Don't Swallow That.
- GOD - APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD!
- God + Whacky Tobacky = Platypus
- When the Rapture Comes, We'll Get Our Country Back!
- Creationism: Holy Shit!
- I Love Christians. They Taste Like Chicken. - Okay... this one's just random... and kinda creepy. Ewww...
- "Intelligent Design" Helping Stupid People Feel Smart Since 1987
- I Found God Between The Sheets
- I Gave Up Superstitious Mumbo Jumbo For Lent
- My Flying Monkey Can Beat Up Your Guardian Angel
- I Forget - Which Day Did God Make All The Fossils?

The word God is the product of human weakness

The word God is the product of human weakness

Why I love Einstein. No more needs to be said.

Rep. Peter King: Bush 'Should Get A Medal' For Authorizing Waterboarding

I love our country and I today on Veteran's Day, I thank every man and woman who has stood up for our freedom. I want to be proud of the USA but why do our leaders so often make this country out to be so hypocritical. We are supposed to support human rights and be better than the heathens out there, yet we had a leader condone torture, simply ridiculous.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tea Partiers Protest Clean Water Rules Meant To Prevent Bladder Cancer

"...local Tea Party organization stepping in and arguing that the county should simply ignore federal rules." There answer for everything, just ignore it and the problem goes away! When babies play peek-a-boo they are learning that when you close your eyes things do not really disappear. Obviously the Tea Party missed out on that lesson.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Michele Bachmann's GOP Conference Chair Bid OVER

I am saddened today. I was so looking forward to sitting back and watching this lunatic lead by being the HRCC. However, I do have confidence that the GOP will still come through and fulfill my wish. And what is with all the Jebs in the GOP? Is there any better way to scream we are redknecks?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Olympia Snowe Party Switch? Dems Reportedly Pursuing Prospect

I may be a Democrat but I have personally always loved Olympia Snowe. I can see why would she want to leave the GOP. Before you know it they will truly be a party of the crazy, if they keep pushing out their own moderates. "...she said that Sen. Arlen Specter's (Penn.) switch to the Democratic Party "underscores the blunt reality" that the GOP is not a welcome place for moderates." I say come over to the bright side!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Time for Equal Rights for LGBT Americans Is Now!

Marriage is a union created by man. Many will say that marriage is only to be between a man and a woman. But who are you to make that determination? What gives you the right to determine what two people are in love and want to spend their life together?



This country needs to stop legislating morality and stick to our what this country was founded on and that is freedom. As long as two consenting adults agree to something and it harms no one else, then it should not be illegal.



The U.S. wants to boost how progressive we are and we condemn other nations, such as Iran, for the treatment of women and the violation of human rights, yet we still do not give equal rights to everyone here in our own country. Our government is so hypocritical it is ridiculous.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Protest Works. Just Look at the Evidence -- And Start to Fight Back

Make your ripple seen and heard!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Pelosi: Jobless Who Spurned Dems Won't Get Help From GOP

I agree with Pelosi to a point. I do think part of the reason the Dems lost was because jobs have not come back fast enough. However, I think the biggest lesson the Dems need to learn is that they need to get some balls and stand up for what they believe. They are too worried about being the nice guys all the time and do not fight back like the Republicans do. I am not saying to stoop down to the Republicans level but my gosh, fight for the middle class like you mean it. Quit being so worried about being re-elected and actually do something during your term.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

My Ten Commandments

1. Always seek to be learning something new.

2. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.

3. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.

4. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.

5. Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief it it does not conform to them.

6. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

7. Leave others to do as they wish (so long as it damages nobody else) in their private life for it is none of our business.

8. Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.

9. Take responsibility for your actions, and do not use the actions of others to excuse yourself.

10. Question everything.

Election Day Quotes

Just wanted to share this post from The Quote Garden!

Quotations for Election Day

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ~George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter 5


The politicians were talking themselves red, white and blue in the face. ~Clare Boothe Luce


If the World Series runs until election day, the networks will run the first one-half inning and project the winner. ~Lindsey Nelson


Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. ~Sydney J. Harris


A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election. ~Bill Vaughan


It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. ~Tom Stoppard, Jumpers


Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. ~Author Unknown


Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. ~W.C. Fields


Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. ~George Jean Nathan


How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America? ~Author Unknown


There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen. ~Author Unknown


Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right? ~Robert Orben


Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. ~Author Unknown


Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least. ~Robert Byrne


Our political institutions work remarkably well. They are designed to clang against each other. The noise is democracy at work. ~Michael Novak


A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected. ~Carl Sandburg


I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. ~Alexander Woollcott


I like the smell of a dunged field, and the tumult of a popular election. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827


People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. ~Walter H. Judd


If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven. ~Will Rogers


Our presidential race is beginning to sound more and more like Harry Potter's duel with the Ministry of Magic. ~Dave Beard, 2008 Aug 02, during the Obama-McCain race


If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. ~Jay Leno


The problem with political jokes is they get elected. ~Henry Cate, VII


The most important political office is that of the private citizen. ~Louis Brandeis


Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour


Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~Oscar Ameringer


If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress? ~Author Unknown


Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. ~Gore Vidal


When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it. ~Clarence Darrow


Truth is not determined by majority vote. ~Doug Gwyn


George Washington is the only president who didn't blame the previous administration for his troubles. ~Author Unknown


Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. ~Charles Krauthammer



Mankind will never see an end of trouble until... lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power... become lovers of wisdom. ~Plato, The Republic


Don't vote, it only encourages them. ~Author Unknown


Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. ~H.L. Mencken, 1956


Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize. ~Saul Bellow


In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. ~Charles de Gaulle


Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear. ~Alan Coren


We have plenty of Confidence in this country, but we are a little short of good men to place our Confidence in. ~Will Rogers


Applause, mingled with boos and hisses, is about all that the average voter is able or willing to contribute to public life. ~Elmer Davis


The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is... the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. ~Adlai Stevenson, speech, Democratic National Convention, 18 August 1956


I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952


There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. ~Alexis de Tocqueville


We would all like to vote for the best man but he is never a candidate. ~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard


We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. ~Stewart Udall


Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of cerebration man can normally muster. ~James Harvey Robinson, The Human Comedy, 1937


When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale. ~John Gardner


A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation. ~James Freeman Clarke, Sermon


During a campaign the air is full of speeches - and vice versa. ~Author Unknown


If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide. ~Meg Greenfield


American youth attributes much more importance to arriving at driver's-license age than at voting age. ~Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964


If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal. ~Emma Goldman


A man that'd expict to thrain lobsters to fly in a year is called a loonytic; but a man that thinks men can be tur-rned into angels by an iliction is called a rayformer an' remains at large. ~Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley's Philosophy, 1900


The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. ~Winston Churchill


Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. ~James Russell Lowell


Democracy: The state of affairs in which you consent to having your pocket picked, and elect the best man to do it. ~Benjamin Lichtenberg


The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. ~Karl Marx


Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln. ~Will Rogers


Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate? ~Will Rogers

A poem for the (too often) forgotten victims

(Un)Heard Screams

by Lisa Spurgeon Bullock

Shapes and colors are what I am taught in school,

Circles of violence and black and blue.

Why do we stay? She is such a fool.

I cry tears most every night,

But they are gone by mornings light.

She will act like they never existed.

I will keep screaming, yet no one will listen.

My voice is one of many others.

We are the children, they our mothers.

Do you not see the hurt in my eyes?

Please, I beg you, do not fall for the lies.

My screams are weakening and I am going hoarse.

If you do not act now you will be full of remorse.

For those who ignore the screams, and feign ignorance is bliss.

You might as well be the ones who are throwing their fists.

I feel so alone and need to be saved.

I do not want my tomorrows spent from a grave.