Buy Nothing Day

A group of Santa Clauses were on strike on one of Vienna's main shopping avenues in honor of "Buy Nothing Day," an international initiative to counter consumerist attitudes ahead of the Christmas season.

"Today is Buy Nothing Day, allow yourself a break," ten Santas, in full garb with red felt jackets and fake beards, told shoppers on Vienna's Mariahilferstrasse.

(skip a few paragraphs)

Instead of the usual presents, the "striking" Santa Clauses doled out advice about environmentally safe washing products and energy-saving lamps, and encouraged people to spend time with their families rather than just buy expensive gifts.

- Santa Clauses on strike in Vienna on "Buy Nothing Day"

Petition

We, the undersigned, call upon elected and appointed officials to join us in reaffirming America's religious freedom by demonstrating a commitment to the following:

• Every American should have the right to make personal decisions -- about family life, reproductive health, end of life care and other matters of personal conscience.
• American tax dollars should not go to charities that discriminate in hiring based on religious belief or that promote a particular religious faith as a requirement for receiving services.
• Political candidates should not be endorsed or opposed by houses of worship.
• Public schools should teach with academic integrity and without the promotion of religious preference or belief.
• Decisions about scientific and health policies should be based on the best available scientific data, not on religious doctrine.

We join together, as the most diverse nation in the world, to commit ourselves to defending and preserving this freedom.

First Freedom First’s above petition is just shy of the 50,000 signatures they hope to gather by the end of the week. Haven’t signed yet and want to? Visit their web site http://www.firstfreedomfirst.org/.

Mmmm... Worms...

Did you know that every day 150,000 people die? People just like you and me. Every 24 hours 150,000 people pass from time into eternity. Do you ever think about that? Isn’t there something within you that says, ‘I don’t want to die?’ That’s your god given will to live.

So says one of the floating, talking men of The Way of the Master.

I tried their 10-commandments quiz and am thrilled announce that I’m actually not doing as badly as one might imagine! First, the negatives:

• I certainly take the name of god in vain, though generally only in bed.


• I sometimes work seven-day weeks, thus violating whichever Sabbath you might chose to declare holy.


• I may have dishonored my parents on several occasions as a teenager.


• I have committed adultery. Well, only if you count the sex-before-marriage sort. However, this seems to be a popular sort to count.


• I have lied on occasion (“Yes Suzie, I loooooove your new haircut”).


• I have coveted, among other things, a bagel one of my students was eating in front of me at work last Sunday. What can I say- I was hungry.

So, I’m not entirely biblically pure. However, it’s really not all bad news.

• I can honestly state that I haven’t put any other gods before “god.” I don’t believe in any of ‘em, so there is no need for deity prioritizing.


• I haven’t committed idolatry. This is another benefit of atheism.


• I haven’t stolen.


• I haven’t murdered…. though if thoughts could kill, I might be answering this one a bit differently.

In summary, I have only violated 6 of the 10 commandments, leaving me 40% biblically pure. That’s probably the most chaste I’ve scored on an Internet purity test yet.

Also on this site is a video describing how to convert an atheist. The cool floaty men (though in this video they are sitting rather than floating) oh-so-pretentiously describe their method as “bait and hook.” The bait draws the atheist into the conversation by framing the debate in rational terms. Apparently, logic is to atheists as worms are to fish. Then, once the atheist is happily munching on his or her juicy worm, BOOM, comes the hook, the emotional draw of GUILT in the form of the Ten Commandments. It’s something like this: logic, designer, cars, Ten Commandments, stealing, lying, YOU’RE BAD, guilt, fear, DEATH.

Unfortunately, even the possibly pretend atheists in the video didn’t really seem to reel in perfectly nicely, though they were significantly less eloquent than most real atheists I know (note: a lapsed Christian is not the same as an atheist). Apparently, atheists (even pretend ones) are adept at picking the worms off the hook before swallowing ‘em. Or perhaps they’re just getting their worms from other sources. (shrugs) Something like that. Either way, definitely go check out the videos at The Way of the Master. Just watch for those pesky hooks!

(cross posted at The Atheist Mama)

Save (Same-Sex) Marriage

Romney said he would file a legal action this week asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers don't vote directly on the question Jan. 2, the final day of the session.

Romney, an opponent of gay marriage who decided not to seek re-election as he considers running for president, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of gay marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps.

I’m constantly amazed at the gaggle of “gay marriage opponents” that rally oh-so often. Don’t they have something, anything better to worry about?

"One of the tenets of the Constitution is that you do not put the rights of a minority up for a popularity contest," said Mark Solomon, campaign director of Mass Equality, a pro-gay marriage group. "It is one of the very principles this country was founded upon."

- Mass. governor wants gay wedding vote

Indeed.

Since change is allllwwwaaaayssss bad, I think it clearly falls on the conservatives to protest Romney’s radial decision to redefine the current definition of marriage in the state of Massachusetts.

Impending Floods in Africa

Africans cheer, condemn S.Africa gay marriage bill

By Phumza Macanda Wed Nov 15, 10:25 AM ET

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Africans reacted with a mix of horror and delight at news South Africa had passed a bill to legalize gay marriage, making it the first to do so on a continent where homosexuality is still largely taboo.

South Africa passes a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. We, on the other hand, have our panties in such a twist about same-sex marriage that 27 out of 50 states have amended their constitutions to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

This isn't to say that everyone in Africa approves of such:

"This is a foreign action imposed on Africa," Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told Reuters in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, where powerful Islamists control the south of the country.

"This is not something that is indigenous to Africa, it is something that has come from abroad."

and

Gay rights groups applauded the decision as a step forward for Africa. But some in deeply religious Africa lambasted the decision as "un-African" and immoral.

Not to mention that Africa certainly has its own Pat-Robertson-type-thinkers:

Taxi driver Nicklaus Mwanaseri in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salam said the decision to allow gays to wed was so immoral that it signified the world was coming to an end.

"I see a big flood coming soon because of going against God's teaching," he said.

Atheism with a Smile

I spent part of last Saturday working a shift at my local humanist group’s booth at the Columbus International Festival. I expected to enjoy it, but I was surprised by just how extremely happy I was to be sitting underneath a humanist banner, smiling at visitors, and stamping their festival “passports.” I really love situations where I can be openly non-theistic, especially without feeling as if I’m directly pushing on someone else’s belief system. I love the chance to portray atheism with a just smile rather than an argument.

There are valuable fights in the political sphere; there are lawsuits to be filed and debates to be won. I’m all for aggressively protecting our right to not be governed by others’ superstitions, of whatever variety. However, this sometimes feels like fighting symptoms rather than a root cause.

I think in the end we’ll come closer to winning the larger battle against superstition when a lack of theism becomes… well… normal in the eyes of the general population. It’s not always viable to be “out” in all spheres of life and I admire those who are more open about being atheist than I am. While I never pretend to be Christian, I’m also not interested in antagonizing myself out of my income and certainly wouldn’t consider myself “out” in the community where I run my small business. However, I think the more we can each do to expand the number of spheres where we feel comfortable expressing our lack of theism, the better off we’ll be as a whole.

The more often we drop the phrases atheist, non-theist, humanist, separation of church and state, and freedom from religion into everyday conversation, the more listeners become conditioned to hearing them. Those who know individual atheists are less likely to be nervous by us as a group. The more people who see us smile, laugh, work, raise children, vote, volunteer, eat pudding, and simply live, the more atheism becomes a non-threatening, viable, visible alternative to theism.

(cross posted at The Atheist Mama)

Deer, Oh Dear

On my way from work to tango yesterday, I managed to hit a deer. For over four years, I lived in the middle of the woods where deer and other various critters abound, yet managed to never hit one. Really. I even dodged toads in rainy weather. Then, on the edge of the city I now live in, BOOM, a deer! On my car! Ek!

Okay, I’m done whining. However, I see this as a serious drain on my “getting what is coming to me” fund and thus require a Democratic sweep at tomorrow’s election to make up for the physical (well, to my car and the deer) and emotional (ahhh!) trauma of last night. (nods) All interested higher powers should take note and act accordingly. If Democrats do win both the House and the Senate, it shall be known throughout the land that sacrificing a deer (and an insurance record) is the proper way to metaphysically rig an election.

Smmmmear

Millions spent on negative political ads
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - So far this campaign, the political parties have exposed voters to nearly $160 million in ads attacking congressional candidates. How much spent painting a positive image? About $17 million.

And how much spent on actually informing voters of your actual views on actual issues? I’d imagine that amount could be labeled as proportionally infinitesimal.

Negative ads are the coin of the realm in politics. With one week left in the campaign, voters will continue to be bombarded on television, in the mail and over the phone as political strategists make their closing arguments to a shrinking pool of those who haven't made up their minds.

I don’t really watch TV and thus don’t have to subject myself to such on a regular basis. For the few shows I do watch, my significant other has purchased some sort of magical fast-forward feature that allows me to not watch commercials. Ever. It’s an advertiser’s nightmare, but certainly keeps me significantly saner.

Anyway, even taking into account my extreme inexperience with the gamut of television ad techniques, I can still see a clear difference between:

The NRCC tried to place an ad in New York against Democrat Michael Arcuri, the district attorney in Oneida County, accusing him of calling a sex hotline while on county business. But records show that the call to the 800 number lasted only seconds and that the number has the same last seven digits as the phone number for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. The Arcuri campaign said a colleague of Arcuri's mistakenly placed the call.

and

One ad airing in Pennsylvania cites October as the bloodiest month in Iraq and accuses Republican incumbent Rep. Jim Gerlach of blindly following Bush.

- Millions spent on negative political ads

Come on now. A misdialed number? We can get over this, yes? Please?
As for the negative ads linking Republicans and Bush… well… erm… you are pretty linked, eh? If you don’t wished to be linked with Bush's policies, you may wish to not support his policies that you don’t wish to be linked to. This brings me to my second point: critiquing policy decisions is not in itself smear. It's an essential part of democracy. Building strawmen out policy decisions (or random phone calls), on the other hand, is indeed smear.

***

On a more positive note, I love Project Vote Smart’s NPAT, which allows voters to view the self-report positions on a wide variety of issues, from abortion to election funding to health care to the war on drugs. Unfortunately, many politicians refuse to complete the survey (let the voters know how we actually feel about actual issues? Heaven forbid!). However, with continued pressure from voters I have confidence that this can continue to be a value tool to assess what candidates actually belief… rather than just how they feel about their oppenent's alleged phone calls.

Update: Don’t Throw Away Your Holy Water Yet!

Below is Anton’s analysis of why Costas Efthimiou’s mathematical proof (a few posts down) of the impossibility of vampires is terribly flawed. It was just too amusing to waste away as a simple comment.

Fine, fine, let's play along.

What could be holding down vampiric reproduction? A lower percentage of victims becoming vampires, certainly--maybe most just die, or recover after looking pale and consumptive for a few days. But that would only decrease the natural reproductive rate, and the population would still increase exponentially...we need density-dependent effects.

Perhaps the per-vampire vampirization rate decreases as the number of vampires increases. For one thing, it makes it more likely that several vampires would happen to bite the same person each month (assuming the bites aren't individually fatal), thus only producing one new vampire instead of several. Also, any vampire-resistance alleles are going to be selected for in the local human population, so that over time more and more people are born with an uncontrollable love of garlic, cross-shaped stigmata, etc., making them unsuitable prey.

But an increased vampire mortality (er, re-mortality) rate is probably the biggest culprit. We all know that when you put two vampires in a room for long enough, they'll probably try to kill each other. This is observable in Anne Rice novels, American movies and comic books and Japanese ones, hence must be true. Beyond casualties of direct conflict, the necessary lightless areas for daytime snoozing (warehouses, catacombs and so forth) will become overcrowded, forcing the weaker vampires to cobble together back-alley sunshades from cardboard and newspapers, only to spontaneously combust when a gust of wind or plummeting pigeon corpse lets in a few sunbeams.

Finally, exceptional levels of bloodsuckery can't fail to alert the more observant humans, and in the end warrior priests, Belmont family members, renegade half-vampires, superpowered cheerleaders and so forth will converge on the area. They'll return vampire populations to their normal levels in an orgy of violence that just barely misses the NC-13 rating (because, although people's brains are pulled out of their eye sockets in slow motion, no one is shown in the shower.)

There! I disproved his silly claim the long and rigorous way. Needless to say, with a name like "Costas Efthimiou," he's obviously just trying to cover up the existence of his fellow stalkers of the night.

(nods) I knew I was right to buy the extra-large bottle of minced garlic.