Saturday, August 22, 2009

Laurie Higgins Wants Parents to Know a HS Math Teacher is an Atheist

A call to arms for the godless, for the sake of our CHILDREN!

Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute Sends an Open Letter to the Friendly Atheist - Repost of my comment on Hemant’s blog:

This makes my blood boil. Who the hell does this woman think she is? Christian busybodies injecting their views into educational settings BY COMPLAINING about things their small minds find “offensive” is a reprehensible tactic that’s proven effective more often than not.

The reason the so-called “New Atheist” movement is an absolute necessity (like yesterday), is because these fundamentalist crybabies like Laurie Higgins have enjoyed 30 years of empire-building in the media, accomodation, appeasement and outright, illegal government endorsement allowing them to manipulate public policy in their favor. They insist on their First Amendment rights while seeking to restrain everyone else’s. They’re out of control and it’s long past time to remind them of their place. In church and homeschooling, if they’re so determined to raise generations of Jesus-bots devoid of intellectual curiosity.

With the sorry state of affairs in American education – in large part due to the dumbing down of our curriculum in order to not piss off Christians – I’m thrilled to have good teachers out there, and what they say or do outside the classroom is none of my concern.

These bullshit “Family” organizations are an obstacle to our kids’ education and a threat to the First Amendment liberties of every citizen. I consider this attack upon the Friendly Atheist (a teacher, no less!) yet another call to arms for all the rest of us, from closeted to militant. Ladies and gentlemen get those arms in (ergonomically correct typing) position and fire at will. No quarter given.
BUY HEMANT’S BOOK “I SOLD MY SOUL ON EBAY”

Sunday, September 28, 2008

In Honor of Banned Books Week

My video celebration of the freedom to READ!!!

Here’s what I dicked around with here & there today, while B went to church with a couple friends who’ll be moving away soon…

If you want any of these books, let me know! They’re in the “donate” category here at OBHQ.

Update: I tried to upload this video to MyspaceTV and it got BLOCKED for “infringement” due to the background music. For-fucking-give ME… it’s not like I used the song without attribution, nor am I using it to sell anything, goddammit! You see… this is how it happens, the “boiling of the frog.” It is not government, but the megacorporations who’ve got the government in their pockets that are using their power to restrain our speech… for NOW. We stand for it, then get used to it, and give away our most cherished rights and freedoms because we’ve trusted others to tell us how we can and cannot exercise them.

This is America. ”Somewhat free” speech is NOT enough!

Monday, September 11, 2006

More crap laws meant to silence legal speech

Earlier today I read a column on DangerousTalk.net that illustrates how far the Religious Right will go toward forcing all Americans into their way of thinking.  Secular Spice addresses the pressure far-right “traditional values” groups are putting on corporations, as well as legislators, in her article, “Waging the War against ‘White Collar’ Porn”:

In early August, 2006, several religious-right groups such as Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, Morality in Media, and the American Family Association, joined forces to place an ad in USA today, demanding that the US Department of Justice “investigate” pornography that is made available to hotel patrons, claiming a violation of obscenity laws.

Worse still, they’re using shitty data to argue that the government ought to step in and enforce their worldview:

Using language usually reserved to describe terrorists, the anti-porn crusaders asserted, “Pornography is a disease plaguing America’s freedom and safety.” They called on the US Department of Justice to step in.

Is this really a good use of taxpayer money? Let’s look at the facts. According to federal crime statistics released in June, the incidence of rape has decreased 85% since the 1970’s. While the Campaign for Corporate Responsibility claims that viewing pornography causes people to commit sex crimes, they ignore the fact that hundreds of millions of porn videos are rented and purchased in the United States each year. Yet, the US Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that violent crime rates have dropped since 1994, to the lowest rates in 2004.

[emphasis added - OB]

It is these SAME deluded, lying fundy assholes who are behind the very REAL laws that have already passed and have a direct effect on thousands of people in the adult industry; laws which I assert are truly a plague upon American freedom and safety.  While the good Christian husband, exercising his freedom to view a (softcore) porn in the privacy and safety of his hotel room may be imperiling his soul, somewhere in a small town there’s a young single mom whose freedom to make some extra money by being a webcam girl has been compromised, because the current labeling requirements would require her to jeopardize her privacy and physical safety.  Even an educational site would need to comply.  It’s ridiculous! Simply because some people disapprove of sexually explicit speech of ANY sort, they would have the government intercede and make the punishments or dangers so dire as to repress it altogether.

The way things are going, it won’t be long until blasphemy and heresy are criminalized; or otherwise regulated such that the penalties for non-compliance will effectively discourage many people from engaging in those forms of speech.  If that happens, I’ll take up arms, Jack!

I was reminded that I never did copy my rant over here…

Reposted from my MySpace blog 7/26/06:

Yet another law with good intent, sure to be challenged because it goes much further than necessary in pursuing its stated goal, HR 4472 includes language that discriminates against constitutionally protected, sexually explicit speech and creates a chilling effect on those who engage in such speech.

There’s a good summary and analysis by Kat Sunlove and Reed Lee of the Free Speech Coalition which points out the numerous and serious problems with this bit of legislation that represses the speech of adults in its zeal to protect children.

Especially vague and therefore dangerous, is this part:

SEC. 503. RECORD KEEPING REQUIREMENTS FOR SIMULATED SEXUAL CONDUCT.

(a) In General- Chapter 110 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 2257 the following:

`SEC. 2257A. RECORD KEEPING REQUIREMENTS FOR SIMULATED SEXUAL CONDUCT.

How, exactly, does one define that term?  It’s important to me that it be clearly spelled out, lest I fail to keep the proper paperwork and/or give out my private information to the world at large because the government insists that any sexually explicit speech is assumed to be child pornography unless it can be proven that it’s not.  That’s just crazy!

Here’s an example:  If I post a little video on ObnoxiousBitch.com of myself engaging in some rant or another, during which I use a gesture that can be construed as “simulated sexual conduct,” and by virtue of ads on my site am considered a “commercial” enterprise, does that mean I have to label my site in accordance with these new §2257 requirements?

This is important for me to know, because anyone who’s known me for more than probably a day, knows that included and fairly common in my repertoire of gestures (extensive and prolific, Sicilian that I am!) are any number that are undoubtedly sexual in nature.  By thumping the end of my tongue in my cheek while simultaneously using a certain hand gesture, there’s no doubt I’m simulating fellatio… something I do quite regularly when the subject is something along the lines of “I wonder why so-and-so got such a good gig/spouse/raise/whatever?”

I need to know if just being myself or most especially, being my persona is going to imperil my liberties and require me to jump through a maze of legal hoops simply because the things I say and do are inappropriate for some people’s children - even though it’s not my intent to speak to those children in the first place, but to rational adults.

Industry Alert: Senate Agrees to Revamping of 2257 Statute

Of course, mainstream entertainment entities are subject to an entirely different and far less complicated record-keeping schema, as well as being immune to the fines and jail time that adult entertainment producers face for having one piece of data out of place.  For those who produce erotic entertainment, there’s a very real possibility that a clerical error will make them a felon… and two will put them in jail for up to 10 years.  The clear discrimination against the adult industry, based entirely on the content of their speech surely must be grounds for a legal challenge!  And if not, why not?

Just as the FCC fines have a chilling effect on anyone who broadcasts across the airwaves, laws like this cause people to self-censor out of fear that they’ll be ruined simply because of something they say.  This is a crushing blow to the First Amendment rights of American citizens, even those who aren’t pornographers.  Comedians, actors, artists, filmmakers and a whole host of people should be concerned that they too can be caught in this ever-growing net of laws that attempt to force a certain morality upon our society.

I’ve been called paranoid for trying to point out small things that indicate, to me, a systematic takeover of our government and our society, by people who believe they have a lock on “morality” because they adhere to a certain faith or belief system, or book, that claims to be the sole source of all law and goodness in the universe.  It is laws like these, that criminalize thoughts and actions contrary to what the bible supposedly says is “moral” that serve as evidence to me that the march toward theocracy continues and unless more people stand up and fight for their rights, anyone who strays from a theistic and/or blindly patriotic mindset will be marginalized, vilified and eventually legislated into either complying or being penalized.

We cannot allow it to happen.  If you haven’t already visited the Free Speech Coalition website, please do so - and REGISTER TO VOTE if you’re qualified. America’s is a government of the People, but right now, it’s only some People who are getting their say, because they’ve been mobilized and are voting in much larger numbers than those who don’t hold their extremist views.

GO DO IT NOW!!!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Happy Birthday to the Great Agnostic

In 3 more minutes, it won’t apply… so, thanks RG!

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/god_in_constitution.html

Les said pretty much everything I’d say anyway… check it out

Friday, May 26, 2006

Praise Jesus! At least one of His followers “gets it.”

Over in the Restore the Pledge Forums, discussing a recent case in Kentucky in which a Judge blocked a school-sanctioned prayer at a high school graduation ceremony and the Christian students’ response, rnrstar linked to a Letter of the Week at World Net Daily that gave me hope that there are at least SOME Christians who have taken the time to “walk in others’ shoes.”

Gary Christenot is an evangelical Christian who, while working with a youth group during service in the Air Force in Hawaii, attended a high school football game in a predominantly Buddhist area and came face to face with being a member of a minority religion in a public religious ceremony involving invocations and practices that were anathema to him.

The point is this. I am a professional, educated and responsible man who is strong in his faith and is quite comfortable debating the social and political issues of the day. Yet when placed in a setting where the majority culture proved hostile to my faith and beliefs, I became paralyzed with indecision and could not act decisively to defend and proclaim my own beliefs. I felt instantly ostracized and viewed myself as a foreigner in my own land.

We often advocate the practice of Judeo-Christian rituals in America’s public schools by hiding behind the excuse that they are voluntary and any student who doesn’t wish to participate can simply remained seated and silent. Oh that this were true. But if I, as a mature adult, would be so confounded and uncomfortable when faced with the decision of observing and standing on my own religious principals or run the risk of offending the majority crowd, I can only imagine what thoughts and confusion must run through the head of the typical child or teenager, for whom peer acceptance is one of the highest ideals.

I would say in love to my Christian brothers and sisters, before you yearn for the imposition of prayer and similar rituals in your public schools, you might consider attending a football game at Wahiawa High School. Because unless you’re ready to endure the unwilling exposure of yourself and your children to those beliefs and practices that your own faith forswears, you have no right to insist that others sit in silence and complicity while you do the same to them. I, for one, slept better at night knowing that because Judeo-Christian prayers were not being offered at my children’s schools, I didn’t have to worry about them being confronted with Buddhist, Shinto, Wiccan, Satanic or any other prayer ritual I might find offensive.

The student in the Kentucky case, it turns out, was a Muslim. 

It has been tradition at Russell County High School in Kentucky for graduating seniors to elect a “graduation chaplain” who delivers a Christian prayer at the graduation ceremony. This year, a Muslim student filed a lawsuit and a judge issued an injunction to prevent it. As the principal began his opening remarks, 200 students stood and recited the Lord’s Prayer. Most of the rest of the audience gave a standing ovation.

When the Muslim student went up to receive his diploma, he was booed.

Ah, feel the Christian Love^™…

I agree with Gary Christenot.  Every Christian in America should be required to attend at least one government-sponsored event in which a non-Christian religious ritual is performed as part of the official ceremony.  Or perhaps have the Eleven Satanic Principles posted in their child’s school, or have their taxpayer dollars spent erecting a monument displaying them at their county courthouse.  Sadly, I think that’s exactly what it would take to get these thick-headed, self-righteous sons of bitches to understand that the only way to guarantee equality for ALL is for the government to stick to the absolute neutrality in matters of religion that the First Amendment requires.

Constitutional matters aside, the response of the Christians at the graduation ceremony was shameful, rude and just plain mean.  Once again we’re treated to a demonstration of the all-too-common attitude of superiority and self-righteousness of the Christian majority.  They’ll rise up to shout out a prayer (or the unconstitutional Pledge, as those congressional fucksticks did a few years ago) in defiance of a judicial ruling, all the while complaining that said ruling is evidence of their “persecution” in America!

People give me shit all the time for calling Christians delusional… but if their acceptance of fable as fact isn’t enough evidence to support that notion, their claim of persecution in the United States clearly qualifies!!!