Things I find hilaro-tragic about this video:

1. Bolling assuming that the group, which was founded out of state, is intent on forcing their agenda on Texans, despite the fact that he’s told several times that the group responded to complaints from residents of the town.
2. No one on the program seems to understand the difference between free speech and government sanctioned religion.
3. Fox News crew making snarky remarks (that’s my job) in the style of “here we go again”, even though this whole affair is a RESPONSE to Christians shoving their baby Jesus in everyone’s face.
4. The town deputy’s brilliant argument against allowing others the same right to free speech as ‘garbage”.
5. Bolling getting upset when Barker (who wrote a book that stole my bloody name) calls the Jesus parable “insulting to humans” and pulling the whole “this is my fucking show” act before kicking him off.
6. Calling the guy who got kicked out of a show for being honest a “hate monger’.
7. Claiming that the greatest symbol of love is the ritualistic sacrificial blood offering of one’s son with a straight face.
8. Trying to get Ben Franklin on their religious fundy side, despite having said this:

..As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity

(via NCRM)

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We all knew it was coming, but somehow we had managed to ignore the cruelty of reality for a little while. For a moment there, it almost seemed as though Hitch had managed to defeat his cancer. Unfortunately, life is a cruel bitch that kills your heroes prematurely (it’s true that Jack Daniels and Phillip Morris had done most of the damage, but still). Now, the world is a little duller, a little dumber, and a lot less interesting as a result.

Truthfully, I would be more upset if I hadn’t read his last article. In it, he mentioned that had he known of the pain he would have had to endure to survive the cancer, he would have opted against it. It may sound trite, but there is some evidence to suggest that a person having a REASON to live is often a significant indicator of health. I think it wasn’t the cancer but the pain of the treatment that ended him. That’s the sad truth about cancer; the cure is sometimes worse than the disease.

Don’t plan on being sad for very long though. Your grief will soon turn into anger once you read the inane tweets of men like Rick Warren:

My friend Christopher Hitchens has died. I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks. That tweets comes from an actual friend (despite their obvious differences, they seemed to have gotten along well). How many times are you going to overhear some religious jackass gloating that Hitch is burning in Hell for not believing in their specific nonsense?

Even more frustrating is the fact that there is no simple way to demonstrate the obvious stupidity of their assertion. The specter of death haunts us all equally, but our mortality is the only solid proof Christians need of their sadistic fantasies. It’s like arguing with children.

On a selfish note, I never got to cross “having a conversation with Christopher Hitchens” off my bucket list. I hoped perhaps that some of his brilliance might rub off on me. Now the unique arrangement of neurons that comprised his mind have ceased to function, and this pattern is lost forever. Damn you entropy. Why must you rob us of everything we love?

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Hi Gang,

You may have noticed that the show hasn’t gone up this week (or last one for that matter). I’m actually trying to fight the flu, which has been travelling from host to host only to find its latest victim: yours truly. I’ll be spending the time this week finishing up my taxes, but I promise to do at least 2 more shows before the Christmas Holiday, if nothing else to ensure that none of you die of loneliness.

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The Thinking Atheist is doing their part in helping you fire back at annoying Christians trying to make it seem as though they invented people celebrating the Winter Solstice. Normally, I don’t really care to correct them, but it seems that this whole “War on Christmas” just keeps getting more annoying. There is a point where you have to send them back to schools with a few facts.

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I’ve written countless articles denouncing these Christian preachers in Nigeria for accusing innocent children of witchcraft; it’s one of the few times I’ve taken a subject so seriously. It isn’t only because of the images of these poor children -victims of a toxic mix of ancient superstition and organized religion- are seared into my brain. No, my passion comes mainly from the fact that this issue has been completely ignored by the mainstream media because of the obvious question it poses concerning Christianity’s influence in the Third World.

These videos are extremely hard to watch. The situation appears to be getting worse as Christianity’s influence grows. When that little girl starts crying when a person nearby admits to wanting to kill her, you’ll find it difficult to wake up happy tomorrow morning.

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As some of you may know, I am not an American. I’m your neighbor from the Great White North (who is supposed to spell neighbor with a “u” but doesn’t to avoid confusion), which means that my attitude regarding finances and politics tends to be more on the left than your average Apple pie baking Good Old Boy. I was born in the province of Quebec, perhaps the most socialist of all the provinces in this country. I live in a place where access to medicine isn’t likely to send you to the poorhouse, and our myriad social programs (probably too many, in fact) help low income families have access to food, shelter and even dental care. While it’s true that our country is currently in debt, that amount is still much lower than the US, even after you compensate for our different population.

Canada has much stricter regulations regarding banking and finance, which allowed our country to avoid the same financial crisis that cost American Taxpayers a whopping 7 trillion dollars to fix. While this country does consider itself open to the idea of the free market, evidently our citizens are overwhelmingly in the majority of wanting some degree of regulation over the way business is conducted. Whether or not you agree that regulations hinder or help economies prosper, these philosophies have NOTHING to do with our belief about God. Of course, this isn’t the opinion of one commenters on the site who seems convinced that only a Darwinian model is something we non-believers should be interested in:

Atheist Republican here… Atheists should have more in common with free market capitalist Republicans over social wealfare democrats purely on a darwinian view of survival of the fittest through competition. Yes the Republican Party is hijacked by social evangelicals, but overlooking this fact atheists should be working within the GOP to counter balance this

So, because we believe in evolution, we should suddenly embrace its cruelty, waste, and directionless? That hardly sounds wise to me. Besides, this seems only to lend credence to the idea that non-believers are heartless cynics who think only of themselves. I think you’ll find, dear commenter, that the vast majority of us don’t believe in this nonsense. We disdain people who improperly use science to support bogus theories of economics. If you want to argue that free market capitalism is most effective when completely devoid of any restrictions, I’d be happy to participate in such a debate. When you argue that my atheism should support what I regard to be an insensitive, destructive and ultimately inhumane philosophy (social darwinism), then you’ll have guys like me telling you to fuck off. If you want me to support a party of religious fundamentalists in order to have few regulations in an economy already on the edge of collapse, then you’ve got an other thing coming, pal.

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Most of you know that I’m often critical of our community in terms of our charitably, as I’ve complained in the past that many of us are not willing to compete with the financially support organized religions get. I’m convinced that the only way to fight the evils of religion is to play their game, to some degree. Part of that includes giving money to organizations that make an actual difference rather than offer food, comfort and medical services with strings attached.

Over the years, the Atheism subreddit has been growing by leaps and bounds (outnumbering many of the religious subreddits many times over), and are over 300,000 subscribers and counting. Compare that to the Christian subreddit that has a paltry 19k, and you realize the strong secular leaning of the site. Anyone who visits TGA realizes that I often troll these forums, looking for the latest happenings, rage cartoons and funny pictures from the web (that’s putting it mildly; I’m practically a content thief).

The group will probably grow even more after knocking one out of the park:

Atheist bloggers have shown their charitable side by swarming to donate money to Doctors Without Borders…Thousands more clicked through from the atheism sub-reddit, a site normally given over to finding holes in religions and picking fights with creationists, and headed for a dedicated site at firstgiving.com, where they have so far given $180,000.

Sure makes me look like a jackass for claiming we’re a bunch of cheapskates! I’ve never been so happy to be wrong in my life.

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So, what do you do when your neighbors think you’re a satanic weirdo and the local car show doesn’t want you to take part in any of their reindeer games? Well, one option is to create a gigantic light show expressing your anger and allegiance to the devil.

Jackie Blevins built the display over a week ago. “[I] put this sign up here on the building because of what has happened right here,” Blevins said as he pointed to cars he refinished with skulls and devil’s horns.

I have a feeling Jackie is a bit of a joker, and this seems like a pretty effective way to express his disdain for the Bible thumpers at the local car shows. Now, as you may have guessed, some of the locals aren’t too pleased at this satanic display.

“Knowing that a child could ask a parent is Satan really there? Is Satan in his home? What is a parent supposed to say to a child,” Jones told News 5 Friday.

Well, you could try teaching your kids not to believe in ancient desert myth, but hey, that’s just a crusty atheist talking.

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Once upon a time, before facebook and the internet, your stupid racist opinions used to only be your own. Because you lacked the ability to instantly communicate with 500 million people, it was unlikely that some poorly constructed half-thought would find its way into the minds of your peers. That’s all changed now, and it seems as though when given a soapbox to express themselves, many human beings are choosing to display their real colors, and the process isn’t always pretty.

Take the recent suspension of young Natasha Burge from her high school in Windsor, Ontario for these comments she posted on her profile:

Natasha Burge, 19, reposted a comment Nov. 3 saying those who feel offended by Christmas celebrations and the singing of the national anthem at school should “please feel free to go back to your own f—–g country.”

Burge goes on to suggest walking through Kennedy Collegiate dressed up as Santa and “screaming merry christmas to the arabs, pakis, towel heads and whatever other race that doesnt like it.”

“It’s ridiculous. I get suspended over something I believe in — we should be allowed to say, ‘Merry Christmas,’

Yeah, you might have gotten in trouble for saying “Merry Christmas”, although I have this crazy suspicion that your “arab/paki/towel head” comment might have been the real clincher. I guess this racist teen from Ontario doesn’t even realize that telling immigrants that they can go fuck themselves if they don’t like Christmas isn’t the kind of talk that promotes school spirit. Who would have guessed!

Now, some of you might be upset that this girl’s right to free speech has been violated, and feel that what a person writes on their own profiles should remain a private matter. I’m inclined to agree, although it’s becoming increasingly clear that our online identities are quickly merging with our physical reality. If the school decides that bigoted, racist or otherwise disparaging comments on facebook can affect the way their institution operates, it’s rather difficult to argue against it. Kids use facebook to advertise their interests, their beliefs, and their thoughts. When you choose to make public what you believe, this can have profound consequences. All I can tell you for certain is that this perception that your online life is private is quickly evaporating. There may come a time when all that shit talk you’ve been slinging on the internet might come back to bite you in the ass. Post at your own risk, people!

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Remember how American elections are never about issues that are actually relevant to the health of the nation in general? Even while your economy continues to tank, politicians seem totally unconcerned that The Federal Reserve gave American banks over 7 trillion dollars with a negligible interest rate, or that the protracted War in Afghanistan and Iraq has cost them another 1.29 trillion. No, the most important thing for moronic politicians like Michele Bachmann is Congress deciding to remove an outdated military Code of Conduct that forbids uniformed officers from sodomy (that’s non vaginal sex) and fucking animals.

So naturally, everyone without a brain is up at arms that this repeal would suddenly send a message to kids that it’s ok to bang Fido. Here’s Michele’s brilliant argument as to why this issue is so important, and not at all a complete fucking distraction from shit that actually matters:

It’s absolutely abhorrent, reprehensible and you think, this is the kind of thing parents try to keep from their children because parents want to have their children enjoy innocence. Children need that latency period, they need innocence and your own government legalizes this? … Are we really going to say ho hum and laugh and go back to sleep?

I don’t think this woman knows how law are passed. Repealing an outdated and clearly bigoted code of conduct isn’t the same as drafting legislation to make something legal. That’s alright, though: she’s only running for the highest office in the land! She doesn’t really need to learn any of this legal mumbo-jumbo, does she? Wait, what’ her current job?

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