Every weekend, we highlight some of the scandals you may have missed in a post we like to call “The Week in Muckmaking”…
- The Wall Street Journal did an interesting report on atheists and freethinkers across the country trying to get noticed by advertising their lack of faith on billboards, hosting friendly meet-ups, and staging a Freethought Day. As polls continue to show that atheists are quite outnumbered in America, they also note that faith in organized religion is declining rapidly. As they mention in the article, Christians are all insulted by this and want to squelch all this dissent as quickly as it arises. This quote, in particular, was priceless…
Atheists “are talking to a very small slice of the population,” said Mathew Staver, a leading Christian conservative and law-school dean. “In some ways, they’re really just talking to themselves.”
That’s funny, coming from a guy who speaks to an invisible deity in the sky on a daily basis. It’s disheartening that in 2008, we’re still fighting for just basic acceptance. Our ideas may be offensive to you, but it should be no more offensive than the Jews or Muslims are to your beliefs. The vitriol is unnecessary and exposes more about your lack of faith than it does mine. I think it will be a slow and painful process towards a freethinking nation. England’s been at this a lot longer and they still haven’t shaken it off completely yet, so we’ve obviously got a while to go.
- Good ol’ Justice Scalia is making headlines again with his latest interpretation (re: bastardization) of the Constitution, which he espoused at a Federal Bar Association dinner in Houston. Not only did he criticize those who view the Constitution as a “living document” that must evolve and adapt to the times (even though it was clearly tailor-made to do just that), but he also said, “I fear the courts’ use of foreign law in interpreting the Constitution will continue at an accelerated pace,” complaining that foreign laws were cited to strike down anti-sodomy laws in Texas. For a Supreme Court justice, he seems to understand very little about the foundation of our justice system. Most of our basic laws were based on English common law (the founding fathers weren’t completely original), and Scalia himself has cited English common law regularly, such as in his dissent of Boumediene v. Bush. But, like all conservatives, he lives by only one law – “Do as I say, not as I do.”
- I’m quite sick of reading about the Hillary Secretary of State story already, but this headline brightened my day - Obama to Tap Clinton After Thanksgiving. I mean, it spares Bill from having to do it, but shit, man, you can do better than that. A lot of people are critical of Obama’s pick, but you’ve got to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and if she was his enemy in the Senate, I think he’d be getting a lot less done. And Hillary can be one hell of an ally, especially in women’s rights issues. Bush was trying to push religion back into health care in a last-minute stab against pro-choice advocates, but Hillary was already on top of it. There’s some change I can believe in.
- In the “What took you so long?!” department, Dick Cheney, as well as former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, have been indicted by a Texas grand jury over their investments in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the prison companies running those federal detention centers we keep hearing so many great things about. Not only has it been well-established that Cheney has known about and approved of the unlawful torture in said prisons, it seems that he had something to gain financially from them as well. There’s a conflict of interest if I ever heard one. District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra has been doing his best to push this thing forward, but it’s already hitting a wall because of the presiding judge. You know as well as I do that no one can touch Darth Cheney - if nothing came of the Halliburton scandal by now, this has no hope of going anywhere. A valiant effort, though.
- And finally this week, the U.S. is expected to spend more on defense in fiscal year 2009 than the next 44 highest-spending countries combined. Conservatives, the military, and arms manufacturers are pushing an agenda known as “Four Percent for Freedom,” a misleading title that implies that if we don’t spend 4% of our GDP on hopeless wars that nobody wants (except those who profit), then we must, of course, hate freedom. The only freedom we need to be pushing right now is freedom of thought. Here we are in the middle of a deep recession and economic crisis and all the warhawks can think about is how many more toys they’ll get to buy for Christmas this year. Thanks to Crooks and Liars for bringing this story to my attention, as I’m sure this fight is far from over, even with a Democratic president.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Religionists attack vocal atheists because they are afraid. Intellectually, they know their religious beliefs are silly, but they depend on them emotionally. They just snarl and cling.
I wouldn’t say they are afraid, but more that they are simply trying to preserve something they believe to be true, which indirectly involves the environment they are a part of. So I doubt it has anything to do with “knowing” their beliefs are silly but more of them trying to control their surroundings.
I was trying to figure out of Rich was an atheist or not, I am glad I stumbled on this post since it made it clear his stance.
“It’s disheartening that in 2008, we’re still fighting for just basic acceptance. Our ideas may be offensive to you”
Anyway, good post!