Saturday Rate of Exchange:
Who Gets to be an Atheist?

from Raymond

 
PZ Myers endorses the view of another atheist. Philip Rose makes an effort to avoid any association between atheism and hate-filled people. Myers begins:

I don’t want to be part of a movement that includes racists, sexists, and shitlords, which makes being part of atheism problematic right now. Philip Rose feels likewise, and has a proposal: Atheism Minus.

Two of our readers react:

Infidel753:

PZ Myers is generally a voice I value, but he tends to go off the rails when he starts talking about atheism as a “movement” and what goals and values it should have. Atheism refers to lack of belief in the existence of any deity. Period. People can deride that as “dictionary atheism” until they’re blue in the face, but that’s what the word means. Atheism isn’t a “movement” or “community” any more than the sum total of all people who don’t believe in unicorns constitute a movement or a community.

We can’t drum people out of atheism for being bad, any more than unicorn-disbelieving people can “reclaim” a unicorn-disbelieving “community” from the presence of people who reject unicorns but don’t meet their moral standards. Bertrand Russell was an atheist. So was Stalin. I assume they both disbelieved in unicorns, too.

Infidel writes with insight at his own site.

Long time friend of FairAndUNbalanced, Ryan, offers a seconding opinion.

Ryan:

Agreed. Why do people like Myers get to decide what the proper doctrine for atheists is anyway? Do I get a say too or is all disagreement immediately and uncritically branded bigoted or privileged just as it is in liberal identity politics? (Even asking that question could get me blacklisted!) I’d hate to see doctrinal purism so reminiscent of religion applied to what is and should continue to be a very simple state of belief.

If there is to be an atheist movement, I would prefer that it concern itself with spreading atheism or at least with opposing religion rather than with ideals that already have many champions in the political arena. And such a goal isn’t served by splintering into Atheism+ and Atheism++ and Atheism- and whatever other seemingly Newspeak-inspired label they might come up with next.

Have a safe weekend. See you at worship?

That Recording of Republican Nicholson About Ryan? It’s Worse

found online by Raymond

 
From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday on a recorded conversation (audio) between U.S. Senate Candidate Kevin Nicholson and two other people where Nicholson said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-WI01, has a “light footprint” in Wisconsin.

After the story was reported, Nicholson appeared on the Jay Weber show on WISN-AM, partly to defend himself against the article. Nicholson starts by saying that the recording came from a Republican and that there were only three people in the conversation so he can “track down” who released it to the press. He also complains, “If you read the quote, this is gotcha journalism.”

“It’s a poor piece,” Nicholson said. “It’s really poorly written and, and it’s an attempt to create media controversy where there should be none.”

Nicholson also defended the light footprint remark. “Yeah, he’s Speaker of the House. He’s got a lot of obligations. A lot of things going on,” Nicholson said. “And that’s hardly controversial in any way, shape or form.”

Nicholson then defended Ryan’s record as Speaker of the House, and then said the problem is the Senate.

After listening to the complete recorded conversation multiple times, it’s actually worse than previously described.

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For the Party of Lincoln, Everything is “Worse Than Dred Scott”

found online by Raymond

 
From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

On Dec. 12, Alabamans will go to the polls in a special election to determine the replacement for Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is now Donald Trump’s hatchet man at the Justice Department. Despite Republican control of every statewide office, there is a remote chance the “Heart of Dixie” may send a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in 25 years. This possible pick-up for the blue team has less to do with a resurgence of the Democratic Party there and the strong performance of its candidate, Doug Jones, than with the growing unease over the GOP’s extremist nominee, Roy Moore. As Andy Campbell reported, “Nobody really likes Roy Moore–not even Alabama Republicans.”

It’s no surprise why, as one anonymous pastor put it, “Nobody feels good about Roy Moore.”

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When is Secession Justified?

found online by Raymond

 
From Infidel753:

I think each case should be judged not based on some general rule about secession, but on how the individual case would affect freedom and justice. So, for example, seceding from an authoritarian state to create a democracy (Baltics 1990, for example) would be just, but seceding in order to preserve slavery (Confederacy 1861) would clearly be unjust. The US in 1776 was justified by this criterion since it created a representative government for people who had not been allowed democratic rights under the previous imperial rule — the thirteen colonies had no representation in the British Parliament. Secession by Southern states today (something that was muttered about by some during the Obama administration) would be unjust because black people in those states would very likely suffer suppression of their civil and political rights, while gays and non-Christians might well become targets of outright persecution.

Catalonia is a difficult case to judge under that or any other criterion.

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The President Who Might Have Been, But Never Was


 
As Trump scandals begin moving into actual criminal indictments, with looming prison time, one sports event symbolizes, at least for me, the tragedy of our 43rd President, the President whose love for baseball was unsurpassed.

Otsuka was pitching when Yuli came to bat. It was the bottom of the 9th and things were desperate.

Cinderella teams in baseball often fight to come from behind. That’s what Cinderella teams do. But this was harder than most: down 4-0 before even coming to bat in the first, way behind all the way through the game. And this was for baseball’s final world championship game of 2006.

But the 6th and the 8th innings were the miracle innings, fighting back to within a run. 6 to 5.

The top of the ninth looked like a repeat of the first, giving up 4 more. The score was 10 to 6, when second baseman Yuli Gurriel became a last hope.

That hope was crushed for Cuba, as Japan’s Akinori Otsuka stuck out Gurriel.

Japan had won the World Baseball Classic.

The connection of that event with George W. Bush is not widely recognized.
Continue reading “The President Who Might Have Been, But Never Was”

Another Attempt to Divorce Atheism from the Asswaffles

found online by Raymond

 
From PZ Myers:

I don’t want to be part of a movement that includes racists, sexists, and shitlords, which makes being part of atheism problematic right now. Philip Rose feels likewise, and has a proposal: Atheism Minus.

He’s introducing the idea on YouTube, which might be a mistake — already, the shitlords are flocking to attack it, and the comments are a horror show of the usual dorks with their revisionist history and dogmatic denial of the importance of social justice causes to a social movement. They just want their privileges extended. I’m not in total agreement with everything Philip says, but goddamn, his shallow, stupid, asshole critics are repellent.

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Governor Condescending Elitist Lectures the Rubes

found online by Raymond

 
From Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass:

Last week it was scolding a teacher leader for daring to exercise his rights of free assembly to hold a rally at the Capitol.

Now he’s sneering at his opponents for being too “unsophisticated” to understand his genius plan for stripping Kentucky’s economy down to bedrock before he launches his presidential campaign.

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Let ‘Em All Off

found online by Raymond

 
From Green Eagle:

Guilty or not, or at least let the guilty go if they are Republicans.

Digby gave a good thrashing today to the Wall Street Journal over the following opinion piece, but it is so good I can’t resist taking a run at it too. Here’s what this miserable propaganda factory had to say:

“Mr Trump can end this madness by immediately issuing a blanket presidential pardon to anyone involved in supposed collusion with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign, to anyone involved with Russian acquisition of an American uranium company during the Obama administration…”

See, let Hillary off on completely false charges invented by the Republican lie factory, and then in return let Trump get away with treason. That sees fair, right?

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