Kleptocracies and How They Gain Public Support

I'm reading a very interesting book right now called Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. In it he talks about kleptocracies and how they maintain their power even though they basically take from the common people.

Kleptocracy: a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves; a government where officials are politically corrupt and financially self-interested; A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption.

I'm reading the Kindle version, so this is from location 4794 of 8299:

What should an elite do  to gain popular support while still maintaining a more comfortable lifestyle than commoners? Kleptocrats throughout the ages have resorted to a mixture of four solutions:

1. Disarm the populace, and arm the elite.


2. Make the masses happy by redistributing much of the tribute received, in popular ways.


3. Use the monopoly of force to promote happiness, by maintaining public order and curbing violence.


4. Construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy.

Sound familiar? Here's the rest of what Diamond says about number 4:

Bands and tribes already had supernatural beliefs, just as do modern established religions. But the supernatural beliefs of bands and tribes did not serve to justify central authority, justify transfer of wealth, or maintain peace between unrelated individuals. When supernatural beliefs gained those functions and became institutionalized, they were thereby transformed into what we term a religion.

Hawaiian chiefs were typical of chiefs elsewhere, in asserting divinity, divine descent, or at least a hotline to the gods. The chief claimed to serve the people by interceding for them with the gods and reciting the ritual formulas required to obtain rain, good harvests, and success in fishing.

Chiefdoms characteristically have an ideology, precursor to an institutionalized religion, that buttresses the chief's authority. The chief may either combine the offices of political leader and priest in a single person, or may support a separate group of kleptocrats (that is, priests) whose function is to provide ideological justification for the chiefs. That is why chiefdoms devote so much collected tribute to constructing temples and other public works, which serve as centers of the official religion and visible signs of the chief's power.

Besides justifying the transfer of wealth to kleptocrats, institutionalized religion brings two other important benefits to centralized societies. First, shared ideology or religion helps solve the problem of how unrelated individuals are to live together without killing each other - by providing them with a bond not based on kinship. Second, it gives people a motive, other than genetic self-interest, for sacrificing their lives on behalf of others. At the cost of a few society members who die in battle as soldiers, the whole society becomes much more effective at conquering other societies or resisting attacks.

Very interesting! As I read this, I noticed some elements in how the U.S. is run or how certain parties are trying to steer the country. Of course, there are elements in other countries as well, but I know the U.S. better so I won't comment on them. What are your thoughts on how governments today use these methods to maintain their comfortable lifestyle at a higher rate than what the common people have?

Stand Up For Separation of Church and State - Again

Here is another ridiculous bill that wastes taxpayer money to force religion onto people. This is an egregious violation of Separation of Church and State. If you live in the US, please take a moment to write to your representative. The AHA makes it really easy.

Yesterday, H. Con. Res 13, a resolution which reaffirms the official motto of the United States as "In God We Trust,"was passed in the House Judiciary Committee, and now faces general debate in the House. If passed on the House floor, the resolution would encourage the display of "In God We Trust" on public buildings, including government institutions and public schools.

"If religion and morality are taken out of the marketplace of ideas," the resolution reads, "the very freedom on which the United States was founded cannot be secured." The resolution goes on to state, "'As President Eisenhower said and President Ford later repeated, ‘Without God, there could be no American form of government, nor, an American way of life.'"

This resolution is an excuse to take aim at the country’s secular foundation and to push the social conservative agenda.

Please take a moment and tell your Representative to vote “no” on H. Con. Res 13 today!

From the American Humanist Association

Also, you can write a letter from the Secular Coalition for America.

Support Nontheistic Festival For Our Troops

An awesome secular event was planned at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on April 2, but now it's been canceled. You can write letters and emails to try to get it going again (see below). Justin Griffith has tirelessly put this event together, so let's help our secular troops out.

Secular Coalition for America sent me this information a bit ago:

Demand Fort Bragg Support Nontheistic Festival
Army Garrison Commander Refused to Provide Event Support

“Rock Beyond Belief,” a festival of nontheistic speakers and musicians that was going to be held at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on April 2, has been canceled after Fort Bragg’s garrison commander refused to provide adequate support for the event – even though Fort Bragg officials had made similar arrangements for a religious event just months ago.

Among those scheduled to appear at the festival were author Richard Dawkins; Dan Barker, copresident of the Freedom From Religion Foundation; “Friendly Atheist” blogger Hemant Mehta; Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; and musicians Spoonboy and Roy Zimmerman.

Rock Beyond Belief’s organizers had asked for lesser or equal amounts of support for their event than the Army and Fort Bragg officials provided for the Billy Graham Evangelical Association’s “Rock the Fort” celebration in 2010. You can see a complete comparison of the more than $100,000 in government funds provided to the Rock the Fort event to the funds asked for by the Rock Beyond Belief organizers here.

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

Help Make Darwin Day Official!

Representative Pete Stark of California (dem) proposed Res 81 to Congress, to get February 12, 2011 as Darwin Day and recognizing the importance of science in the betterment of humanity. This resolution is a culmination of collaboration between Representative Stark, 2008 Humanist of the Year, and the American Humanist Association.

Pete Stark is also the only "out" atheist in our government. (I am pretty sure. If you know of any others let me know!)

Here's more from the American Humanist Association:

In a statement, Representative Stark said, “Darwin’s birthday is a good time for us to reflect on the important role of science in our society. It is also a time to redouble our efforts to ensure that children are being taught scientific facts, not religious dogma, and to fight back against those who seek to undermine the science of climate change for political ends.”

This resolution could not have come at a more important time. The New York Times recently reported that only 28 percent of biology teachers present evidence for evolution as recommended by the National Research Council, while 13 percent “explicitly advocate” creationism. Furthermore, with climate change quickly gaining speed, and anti-environment regulation law-makers denying its impact, a true grasp of science is the strongest defense against global warming.

Read the Resolution here.

Then go to the AHA to the Action Center to use their nifty form to tell your representative to support this resolution. It's easy and it should be something we can all get behind, since we all use science to improve our lives.

Church and State Collide Again

I just received a notice from the Secular Coalition for America telling me about House Concurrent Resolution 13. It does two things; It unnecessarily reaffirms our nation's official motto as "In God We Trust", and supports and encourages the public display of that motto in all public buildings, public schools and government institutions.

This is the "fine" work of Rep. Randy Forbes, Republican for Virginia. There were 24 cosponsors, most god-fearing republicans (except where noted):  Rodney Alexander of LA, Spencer Bachus of AL, Marsha Blackburn of TN, Paul Broun of GA, Michael Burgess of TX, Jason Chaffetz of UT, Mike Coffman of CO, Michael Conaway of TX, Geoff Davis of KY, Bill Flores of TX, Scott Garrett of NJ, John Gingrey of GA, Walter Jones of NC, John Kline of MN, James Lankford of OK, Daniel Lipinski (dem) of IL, Gary Miller of CA, Mike Pence of IN, Nick Rahall (dem) of WV, Phil Roe of TN, Mike Ross (dem) of AR, William Shuster of PA, Addison Wilson of SC and Frank Wolf of VA.

I don't know about you but my Church/State Separation hackles are up. This seems like a blatant and insidious erosion of my constitutional rights. Luckily the SCA is on the case. They sent a letter to the House Judiciary members where they asked the Committee members to “focus on protecting the rights of all U.S. citizens and the integrity of the Constitution,” rather than wasting time on a resolution that does not alter law in any way.

Here are some snippets of the resolution that got me all fired up:

Whereas the sentiment, `In God We Trust', has been an integral part of United States society since its founding;

Whereas in times of national challenge or tragedy, the people of the United States have turned to God as their source for sustenance, protection, wisdom, strength, and direction;

Whereas the Declaration of Independence recognizes God, our Creator, as the source of our rights, `We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.';

Whereas the national anthem of the United States says `praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation . . . and this be our motto: in God is our trust.';

Whereas if religion and morality are taken out of the marketplace of ideas, the very freedom on which the United States was founded cannot be secured;

Whereas as President Eisenhower said and President Ford later repeated, `Without God, there could be no American form of government, nor, an American way of life.

Are you kidding me? Where do I begin? This is so completely full of bullshit.

And how marginalized does this make minorities like atheists, agnostics, humanists, and any religious person who worships something other than "God"? This reminds me of George H. W. Bush saying that atheists aren't even citizens and don't deserve any rights.

Do these congress people even know what the separation of church and state is? Apparently not.

Well, I don't normally talk about politics, but when it comes to this issue, I have to call on you to contact your congressman if you are in one of those states, represented by one of those bible-thumping idiots.

And help me keep an eye on this issue. Let me know if you hear anything about it that we can actually take action on, although I'm pretty sure the SCA will notify me if I can write a letter or something.

Tips For A Skeptical Outlook

Here are a few points on how to have a skeptical outlook. These come from The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. They're just snippets from some of their older episodes that I thought were worth sharing.

To avoid the ego blow of admitting you were wrong, adopt this point of view:

"My opinions are dependent upon the existing evidence. I could be wrong. If new evidence comes out I'll happily change my opinion to correspond to it."
~
Later, they sum it up a bit differently:

Practice science and skepticism: Attach yourself to the process, not the conclusion. The process has to be valid, has to be scientific, has to be legitimate. Don't be emotionally invested in the conclusion. As long as the process is valid, it leads wherever it leads.

That means if new information comes up, or if someone shows that a different logic is more appropriate, then you can happily change your conclusion because you have no attachment to it.

It's just that you have to get the process right.

That's science in a nutshell. Science is a process. It's about the process, not about the conclusion.

Pseudoscience begins with the conclusion, then they pervert the process. They warp the process to continue to match their forgone conclusion. It can seem very logical and reasonable. It's still not science.
~

This applies to all areas of thought, from science and pseudoscience to religion, politics and just the world in general. If you're attached to your beliefs and ideas, that's dogma. The secret is to be attached to the truth and let it take you where it leads, and always be open to change your mind if new and compelling evidence comes to light.

In this way, learning new things is a wonderful adventure, it's fun and exciting. When you're close-minded and set on your narrow world view, you then have to lie to yourself and others to make your limiting belief make sense to you. You have to close out the real world to keep the little bubble of dogma around you intact. It's not very much fun. You're constantly threatened by new facts and information that threaten you.

Then again, a lot of us have Sacred Cows. A sacred cow is some area in your life that can't be criticized. It could be a person, an institution, a belief, an area of belief, or a custom.

What are your Sacred Cows? Why have you made them immune to criticism? What would help you to hold them up to the light of reason?

Tell Your Representative to Stand Up For Fact-Based Education

What a concept. Fact-based education. Why are we fighting for this in the 21st century? I have no idea, but the fact is, it's a big issue here in the United States. I don't often meddle in political issues unless there's a positive action you can take. The Secular Coalition for America makes it easy to contact your state representatives on certain important issues.

Here's a 4:36 minute video and information you need. Then just go HERE to send letters to your state reps through the Secular Coalition For America. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Texas State Board of Education’s moves to impose educational standards into its textbooks intended to indoctrinate Texas public school students with a telling of U.S. history that is based in extremist religious ideology.

Unexpected Friendship With A Palin Lover

Sometimes you can learn something when you least expect it.

My sister-in-law (we'll call her Martha) has been dating this guy who we'll call Steve. I met him the night that she and Steve were reacquainted at the high school reunion last year. It was one of those big affairs where 10 years of classes were invited. Anyway she and Steve have basically been dating ever since. She hasn't had the best luck with guys in the past but she's head over heels in love with him and is very happy, which is good.

The night I met Steve, I mentioned to him that I was reading a great book called Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life. It's a fantastic book that I highly recommend. Butch was there and chimed in that it's all about evolution, which it is, in a very cool, observable way. Steve rolled his eyes and scoffed. Scoffed! I didn't want to get into it since we were heading home but I immediately found myself feeling cold toward him.

So, when Martha brought Steve to a family BBQ the next day I was polite but really didn't have anything to say to him. He seemed nice enough though.

Time went on and I learned from him that he likes Sarah Palin. He thinks she's got some good ideas. (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth there) Martha told me he's a full on conservative republican but that they don't talk about politics. As I do with most people, I was also refraining from political  - or religious - talk with him as well.

To this day we've stayed clear of those two topics. But we've gone out to dinner quite a few times, hung out at family gatherings, and he even invited us over to watch some MMA on a channel we don't get next month (Woot!) He's a genuinely nice guy. He's not stupid by any means, can hold a conversation, has a good sense of humor, and seems to be making Martha extremely happy.

Why am I talking about this? Well, to me, Sarah Palin is a stupid, vapid pentecostal nutcase with only enough brain cells to rub together to help her wink and flap her mouth when someone pulls her puppet strings. The fact that people give her 2 seconds of their time, combined with her views on Armageddon and the end times, makes her extremely dangerous. Usually when confronted with someone who likes Palin, I run the other way.

Australia's New Prime Minister is Not Religious!

My friend Kevin lives in Australia and sent me a message this morning about their new prime minister Down Under. Julia Gillard is the first female prime minister of Australia, AND this is what she says about her personal life:

Gillard has never married or had children.  Her partner since 2006, Tim Mathieson, is a hairdresser. Gillard said through a spokeswoman that she was a "non-practising Baptist" and "not religious". She is tolerant of public interest in her personal life, stating that "People want to know who you are, the shape of your life. That is legitimate."

Very interesting! Australia has voted in a woman who is Not Religious! How did that happen? That's wonderful! She is the first person in high politics I've ever heard of who has said that.

Let's hope she does a great job and that other "non-religious" politicians follow suit and run for high offices and succeed. I wonder if we could ever get that far here in America? Wow, I'm really reaching for the stars now!

Good luck, Julia. I hope you do great things in your run as prime minister.

Dan Barker on Faux News Explains the National Day of Prayer

Dan Barker from the Freedom From Religion Foundation explains the unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer and how we are not a christian nation. And for once, Faux News has an intelligent conversation instead of trying to have a pissing match. (~ 5 minutes)



Obama still proclaimed the National Day of Prayer this year, even though the ruling said it was unconstitutional. The government is wasting good tax dollars appealing. Of course. Power hungry sycophants!

I guess we'll still keep holding the National Day of Reason until reason and the constitution prevail.

Cross-posted from Morgantown Atheists

What's Going On!?

Remember the other day I told you I was working on my computer, installing some hardware upgrades? That saga continues and is yet to be resolved. Sigh! Unfortunately I know just enough about computers to get myself into trouble and not be able to fully get myself back out again. So I'm telling you because it's taking up a lot of my brain power, trying to figure out how to get everything to play nice. So that's that!

Also, I don't often talk about politics, but I told you about the federal funding of religious schools bill that Joe Lieberman was pushing. I thought you might like an update. In this case, secular values won! Woot!

Here's what the Secular Coalition for America said about the victory:

Two weeks ago, we alerted you to Sen. Joe Lieberman's proposed amendment to the Senate jobs bill that would reauthorize the "D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program," an initiative that forced American taxpayers to subsidize religious institutions through school vouchers.

A July 2009 report by Rutgers University on the D.C. voucher program concluded that the way the voucher program is structured "essentially push[es] students into Christian Association and Catholic schools, pricing out independent (non-religious) schools and Hebrew schools."

Those of us who do not wish to subsidize religion with our tax dollars would continue to be forced to do so if Senator Lieberman had his way.

Thousands of you responded, writing to your senators to tell them that public funds should be never be used to pay for anyone's religion. The amendment never made it to the jobs bill--though Senator Lieberman promised he would bring it back as soon as he could.

So the Secular Coalition for America took your message directly to the Senate. SCA staff met personally with over fifteen key senators to make the case that our tax dollars must not be used to fund religious activities, particularly in schools.

Tonight, Senator Lieberman managed to bring the amendment to the floor, attaching it this time to a bill funding the Federal Aviation Administration. Debate was heard, votes were cast, and the amendment was defeated, 42 to 55. We worked together, and helped to stop the unconstitutional public financing of religious education.

It's only the latest sign that the secular movement is growing. Just last month, the Secular Coalition for America and representatives of the secular movement met with the Obama administration for an official policy briefing-the first of its kind for our movement in history-opening up new lines of dialogue between our community and the White House. Many more issues lay before us, and we need your help to keep up the momentum.

If you are interested, sign up for the SCA Action Alerts. When the rights and values of nontheistic Americans are on the line and you can put in your two cents, the SCA makes it really easy.

Want to see how your senators voted on this bill? Go here. Then if they voted nay, consider going to that senator's official contact page and thanking them for respecting the separation of church and state.

Please keep commenting about Advertisements and Logical Fallacies. I am still thinking about your input for a follow-up.

Information IS Beautiful!

Stumbling around the interwebs, I found a site that I think you might love. It's called Information is Beautiful. David McCandless takes all kinds of data and ideas and visualizes it in appealing ways.

The one I found that I thought was amazing was Snake Oil?: Scientific evidence for popular health supplements. (That link takes you to the interactive version. See the static version here.) On the side is a show me button that flies out a list of  uses and types of supplements. Choose what you're interested in to filter the results. The bigger the bubble, the more popular the supplement is. The higher on the chart, the more evidence there is that it works. Notice how many bubbles are below the Worth It line. Remember, the supplements are only good for the conditions listed inside the bubble, which you can see by hovering over it.

What David says about the evidence:

We only considered large, human, randomized placebo-controlled trials in our data scrape – wherever possible. No animal trials. No cell studies. Many of the health claims made by the $23 billion supplements industry are based on non-human trials. We wanted to cut through that.

This piece was doggedly researched by myself, and researchers Pearl Doughty-White and Alexia Wdowski. We looked at the abstracts of over 1500 studies on PubMed (run by US National Library Of Medicine) and Cochrane.org (which hosts meta-studies of scientific research). It took us several months to seek out the evidence – or lack of.

The information is generated from a Google Doc, so when new research comes out it can be easily updated. Very cool indeed. The data has web addresses to the source of the research so you can see it for yourself. It's not just anecdotal evidence.

David also has a chart on caffeine and calories. He even shows how much exercise it will take to work off that large iced mocha you had for breakfast.

He does two interesting charts about politics. The Left vs the Right. A world version and an American version. These are chock full of information.

His 2012 chart is also great. The left describes the believers, the right describes the skeptics, with information refuting what the believers say. Sources are listed at the bottom, and are available in a Google Doc.

His climate change chart shows global warming deniers vs the scientific consensus.

He has many more on his site as well. That's just a few of my favorites.

Tell your Senator to Stop the Federal Funding of Religious Schools

Last night Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) filed a D.C. voucher amendment to the second jobs bill under consideration by the Senate.  The D.C. voucher program uses taxpayer funds to pay for parents to send their children to private religious schools. The program is called the “D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program,” but a 2007 government report found that these vouchers do not give D.C. students seeking a private school education sufficient secular choices, forcing them to attend religious schools or remain in the failing public school system.


By design, voucher programs aid struggling Christian schools. A July 2009 report by Rutgers University on the D.C. voucher program concluded that the way the voucher program is structured “essentially push[es] students into Christian Association and Catholic schools, pricing out independent (non-religious) schools and Hebrew schools.”

By continuing this program, those of us who do not wish to subsidize someone else's church will continue to be forced to do so through our federal tax dollars.

The vote will occur sometime today. Please take five minutes and email your Senators below and tell them to vote against this amendment that would re-authorize this program.


The Secular Coalition for America opposes the use of government funds for religious purposes, including vouchers for religious schools. We agree with the founders of the United States that no individual taxpayer should be required to pay for someone else's religion. We agree with James Madison. Senator Lieberman wants us to go in a different direction.

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, with your tax money, funds and enables proselytizing and religious discrimination. Recipients of the vouchers who attend religious schools are not even allowed to opt out of religious activities at their school—a direct affront to religious freedom.

It is critical that you write your Senators today and ask them to oppose Sen. Lieberman’s amendment that would re-authorize this program and spend your taxes to fund the religious education of children in D.C.

Go to Secular Coalition for America to send a letter today.

Your Two Cents About the Faith Based Initiative Program

The Secular Coalition of America sent me a request a few minutes ago, asking me to write a letter to Obama about the Faith Based Initiative Program. I pretty much keep my nose out of politics, but I thought I'd pass this along because I firmly believe in the Separation of Church and State as my God Given Right! :P

Seriously, this country was founded on the incredibly important idea of religion and politics being separate. If you want to see a country where there is no separation, just go to Iran. I'm pretty sure they are a theocracy. Don't hold me to that, though. My world politics skills have never been very sharp.

Anyway, I think letter writing campaigns work best when the people or organization targeted gets absolutely inundated from all over the place with the same request. Here is what the Secular Coalition for America says:

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised to abide by "a few basic principles" that would protect the constitutional separation of church and state in his plan for an expanded faith based initiative program. He was specific: "First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them - or against the people you hire - on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs."

On February 5, 2009 President Obama issued his Executive Order establishing his Faith Based Intiative program. Twelve months later at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama claimed that his administration had "turned the faith-based initiative around" from its misuse during the Bush administration. But it appears the only thing President Obama has changed about how millions of federal dollars are spent is that the office guiding the direct funding of houses of worship is now called the "White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships" rather than the "Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives." Twelve months, Two words. That's not a turn around, it's a re-branding.

Go Here to Send a Letter to Obama through the Secular Coalition of America. Hey, maybe if enough of us say something it might just make a difference.

Why Do Christians Hate The ACLU?

Because I'm sure many just see it as a title, or an acronym, and recall their mention in the news involving lawsuits, lets start by answering a basic: What is the ACLU?

American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 by Crystal Eastman, Roger Baldwin and Walter Nelles. It was founded to assist in defending the rights of citizens as granted by the United States Constitution. At the time, the three biggest concerns were freedom of speech (for anti-war protesters), civil rights for blacks (and other minority races), and equal rights for women. On their site, the ACLU proclaims themselves as a "guardian of liberty, working [...] to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country."

This is the group who has time-and-time again gone to bat for the 'little guy' to insure their Constitutional rights as a citizen and a human are upheld. The Christian's very doctrine urges them to help the weak, the sick, the poor, the unfortunate, the 'little guy'. So why do so many Christians harbor such vitriol and hate towards the ACLU?

JFK Had the Right Idea

I stumbled upon a transcript on the National Public Radio site awhile-back. It was a speech made by John F. Kennedy in 1960, given to a group of Protestant ministers a few months before the election. JFK was a devout Catholic, but he was also had a solid understanding of the separation of church and state; this speech has some excellent excerpts that exemplify this. JFK was the first Catholic elected president, and during the elections other religious groups (primarily the Protestant group) were concerned about rumors that he would send an ambassador to the Vatican and be taking direction from the Pope. As it turned-out, it was Reagan who established the first ambassador to the Vatican in 1984.

Congress Goes to Recess - Secular Successes and Failures So Far This Year

As nonbelievers I think 'separation of church and state' issues tend to show up on our radar much more easily than it does for believers. Too few believers realize that separation of church and state is what allows them to practice their flavor of Christianity. So many who push for more Christian influence in government don't seem to realize that they might end up disagreeing with the flavor that comes to power. If only more believers realized this, I think we would have so many more supporters of the separation of church and state.

The 111th Congress has gone to recess for their August break. Ill-timed I think, considering all the stir with bills and propositions and initiatives, dealing with the economy and health care reform. But it is their 'scheduled vacation' and-all, so there's nothing we can do about it.

The Secular Coalition for America has listed some of the successes and failures in the separation of church and state fight from this year so far. I thought them worth sharing; especially since it seems we hear about these in the news when they are being argued over, but the results seem to be slipped into the news as an afterthought.

Barbaric Law In Afghanistan Passed Reducing Women's Rights

Another abhorrent law has passed in Afghanistan, showing the barbarism of islam.

• It is now legal for shia men to deny food and sustenance to their wives if they refuse to obey their husband's sexual demands.


• Fathers and grandfathers have full guardianship over the children


• Women must ask permission from their husbands to work.


• A rapist can avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her.


• "Tamkeen is the readiness of the wife to submit to her husband's reasonable sexual enjoyment, and her prohibition from going out of the house, except in extreme circumstances, without her husband's permission. If any of the above provisions are not followed by the wife she is considered disobedient."

Apparently in a bid for votes in the upcoming election, Hamid Karzai has basically sold the rights of women to gain power. The election is Thursday, August 20. But from what I can see, women will lose as long as the country is islamic.

Palin Divorce! The Hypocrisy of the Religious Right Strikes Again!

I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to share this with you.

Palin is supposedly getting a divorce. Apparently there were affairs on both sides! This is hypocrisy of the highest order, isn't it? So much for "good" christian family values.

See the full breaking story here at Alaska Report. There's also a video there about "hurt feelings" of Palin.

A note by the editor of that site says: AlaskaReport was the first website to report that Sarah Palin was running for governor of Alaska and the first website to report that Sarah was picked as John McCain's VP candidate.

So, it seems this is probably accurate. If you hear more comment and let us know!

Violation of Freedom of Religion

In January of 2008, I was arrested for drunk in public. Yea, I know, you gotta be pretty stupid to get one of those, huh? Well, suffice it to say that my fair city had the highest arrest-rate for that particular crime in the state at the time and a disproportionate number of those arrested were Hispanic, a heritage I can claim. Ok, now that we've established that I was guilty of Walking Down the Street While Brown, how does this relate to Atheism? Like this: my civil rights were violated by me being coerced to attend court-mandated A.A. meetings.

Here's the scoop. AA is a religion. All of these courts have ruled that Alcoholics Anonymous is a religion or engages in religious activities:

• the Federal 7th Circuit Court in Wisconsin, 1984.


• the Federal District Court for Southern New York, 1994.


• the New York Court of Appeals, 1996.


• the New York State Supreme Court, 1996.


• the U.S. Supreme Court, 1997.


• the Tennessee State Supreme Court.


• the Federal 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, 1996.


• the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.


• the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh District, 1996.


• the Federal Appeals Court in Chicago, 1996.


• The Federal Appeals Court in Hawaii, September 7, 2007, in the Inouye v. Kemna case.(orange-papers.org/orange-spirrel.html)

Forcing me to go to AA under threat of legal sanctions and criminal prosecution is the same as forcing me to attend a state established religion, which AA seems to be trying to do with their "cooperating with courts and judges" policy, but that's another story for another day.