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Post-SSA Week Geology Challenge Numero Dos!

Dana Hunter2 Comments

All right. So I saw people blogging into the wee hours of today and thought the SSA Week challenge lasted all day. I was wrong. It lasted until yesterday. So our SSA Week Geology Challenge has now become our Post-SSA Week Geology Challenge. Which is completely okay, because there’s still a $250,000 matching donation offer going on, through the end of the year, and that means that when you help me get to $50, you’re really helping me get to $100. Plus, whatever you decide to donate yourself doubles.

Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.

So here’s how this works: I’ll post a picture of some nummy geology, and ask you to identify it. Be first person who can identify the location or the feature (depending on whether the picture’s of a locale generally or a specific geologic feature), and I donate $10 to the Secular Student Alliance in your honor. Cynthia won the first challenge, which went up on G+. We’ve got four left!

All right, here’s our first. It’s a famous locale, so I’m only going to give you a tiny bit of it. This is supposed to be challenging, right?

Geology Challenge Photo #2

For this one, I want to know where it is, and what formed it. If we don’t have a winner by 2pm Pacific, I’ll start posting hints in the comments, but I think this one’s going to be a cake walk for most of you.

Okay? Go!

***

For those who wish to donate themselves, the button still works fine:

Post-SSA Week Geology Challenge Numero Dos!
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The Conversation

Dana Hunter1 Comment

We’re having it. Due to legal issues and the fact that women get incredible blow-back when they mention that sexual harassment happens and it would be nice if men stopped engaging in it (see: Elevatorgate), the Conversation has to be somewhat circumspect in places. Certain names will not be named. At least, not until some Big Names have a documented history of Certain Behaviors that will allow people to say, calmly and without fear of legal reprisal, “Big Name X has had n sexual harassment instances documented, and this is why Big Name X will not be the Big Draw at Conference Y.”

The Conversation isn’t about naming names, anyway. The Conversation is about ensuring women especially but also men do not have to worry so much about harassment when attending conferences. It’s about ensuring the atheist movement has policies in place at its conferences that state clearly and unequivocally that harassment won’t be tolerated, and back that statement up with effective enforcement.

Continue reading “The Conversation” →

The Conversation

Correct an Injustice

Dana Hunter7 Comments
CeCe McDonald, who will be thrown in prison for defending her life. Image Credit: Support CeCe McDonald.

CeCe McDonald didn’t ask to be attacked, but she was. Some vicious assholes decided a transsexual woman of color was fair game for abuse. They assaulted her, they harmed her, and chased her down when she tried to flee. She had a pair of scissors in her purse. She took them out to ward off her attackers. One of them impaled himself on them, and died, and apparently self-defense and stand your ground don’t apply to transsexual women, because she’s now facing prison time for daring to live.

This is wrong on more levels than I can count.

Our society is tough enough on women lately. Misogynistic assclowns with barbaric notions of godly morality would like to see women reduced once again to the status of chattel, and are doing their level best to ensure that reproductive rights are taken away as a prelude to locking women away in their homes, where they can be kept as breeding stock for manly men of faith. And that’s bad enough. I certainly don’t want that life. But it looks like a cakewalk compared to what transsexual women face. Too many people, including those sworn to serve and protect and administer justice blindly, see them as disposable defects.

I want you to look at CeCe’s face. Look at her. There is a human being with hopes and dreams and love and laughter, who has been through plenty of tough times, and yet managed a brilliant smile. And because a group of men decided she was something less than human, and attacked her, and discovered they hadn’t chosen a completely helpless victim but one who fought for her life when cornered, she’s now being shipped off to prison. A men’s prison, mind you. How well do you think a transsexual woman will do there?

People who defend themselves from assault, who did their best to get away but couldn’t run far enough or fast enough and ended up cornered with no way out, people who chose not to become victims but to defend their lives, shouldn’t have to go to prison, where they’re going to be repeatedly assaulted and possibly killed, just because our justice system is horribly broken.

Sign the petition asking for her pardon. Write the governor who has it within his power to set her free. Support CeCe.

Let’s give back the life they tried to take.

Correct an Injustice

Tennessee Kids Don't Need Intellectual As Well As Physical Abuse. Nashville-Area Readers: Rally for Science!

Dana Hunter4 Comments

Short notice, I know, but this shit’s important. If you can, make it out to show that the IDiotic “academic fairness (but what we really mean is we want to overthrow science in the classroom)” legislation that just opened the doors of Tennessee classrooms to all manner of IDiocy, creationism, and outright denialism needs to go down in flames.

Special bonus: it’s a former Earth Sciences professor from Vanderbilt who’s headlining. And Ryan Haupt from the Science…sort of podcast is speaking. For updates, see Science…sort of on Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s the vitals from Ryan:

WHAT:           Rally and press conference to voice concerns about HB 368 and discuss plans for continued work to promote strong science education

WHEN:           Saturday, April 14, 2012, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE:        South steps of the Tennessee State Capitol, 600 Charlotte  Avenue, Nashville

WHO:             Multiple speakers, led by Larisa DeSantis, parent and Vanderbilt professor who led petition drive to urge Governor Haslam to veto the bill.

If you can’t make it, you can still get involved. The cowardly (mis)governor’s contact info is here. Also, thanks to the magic of copy-paste on the internets, here!

Governor Haslam

Phone: (615) 741-2001
Fax: (615) 532-9711
email: [email protected]

The schools of Tennessee already physically beat children (14,868 in 2006 alone). Let’s show them that physical abuse shouldn’t be compounded by intellectual abuse. With better science standards, perhaps the next generation of Tennessee legislators and school officials will be able to figure out that science doesn’t support the efficacy of corporal punishment, and the physical abuse will stop as well.

(h/t Ryan Brown and JT Eberhard)

Tennessee Kids Don't Need Intellectual As Well As Physical Abuse. Nashville-Area Readers: Rally for Science!

Sign the Petition for Trans Rights

Dana Hunter3 Comments

It infuriates me that we have to have discussions like this in the 21st Century. It outrages me that we have to beg people to give folks their basic human rights. Why haven’t we reached the point where it’s obvious to even the dimmest and most backward among us that it’s not okay to deny people jobs, relationships, safety and their lives simply because they’re transsexual?

Oh. Right. Bronze Age religious bullshit and the general population’s total inability to consider the humanity of people different from them.

We need to give society a push in the right direction.

First, read Natalie’s piece on the Canadian bill that would give trans folks a chance a regular, decent lives.

Then go sign the petition to make it happen.

We can make a difference. We must.

Sign the Petition for Trans Rights

"Religion Depends on Social Consent to Survive"

Dana Hunter6 Comments

It’s been nearly a year since I clipped this snippet from Greta Christina’s “Live-Blogging the Rapture.”

Religion depends on social consent to survive and perpetuate itself. We have to deny that consent. We have to keep pointing out, at every available opportunity, that the Emperor has no clothes.

That, coming at the end of a super-snarky session waiting for the Rapture (which, much like Godot, never showed up), struck me hard. “Religion depends on social consent to survive…” The phrase resonated. I clipped it into a post draft, and I’d see it on the list occasionally, where it waited for me to do something about it, this fact that on the face of it seems so obvious and yet seems so often overlooked.

Continue reading “"Religion Depends on Social Consent to Survive"” →

"Religion Depends on Social Consent to Survive"

My Country 'tis of Thee, Bad Land of Police Brutality

Dana Hunter26 Comments

This is what America’s Finest are up to these days:

Note the technique: the insouciant stoll, the pepper spray held at a casual yet effective angle, the expression that says he could just as easily be spraying cockroaches as students, because they’re equally vermin to him. Note that his safety and the safety of others is in no way imperiled by a bunch of students sitting on the ground, yet he feels it necessary to spray them full in the face with a chemical weapon because they were, y’know, protesting. Defying his authortay. Can’t have that.

This is Lt. John Pike. You can go say hello.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/JC_Christian/status/137781926219104257″]

Let him know what you think of actions and injuries like this:

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood. [emphasis added]

If, like me, you have no desire to speak to that piece of shit directly, contact the UC Davis police directly. Maybe you can send them a link to this video and ask them how this comports with their mission to protect and serve the students of UC Davis. And you can let UC Davis know what you think on their Facebook page.

Read this letter from UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi trying to explain away the violence:

And then let her know what you think of her excuses. Maybe just send her a copy of this letter, if you’re too disgusted to write one of your own.

Actions like this are truly disgusting. This is an outrageous way to respond to people peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights. But it also shows how terrified those at the top are. They’re terrified enough to make their precarious position even worse by attacking students for the crime of sitting in front of tents.

Keep ’em running scared.

Occupy.

My Country 'tis of Thee, Bad Land of Police Brutality

Support the Secular Student Alliance

Dana Hunter

It’s this easy:

1. Like the SSA Facebook page. You do not need to be a student to do this, you need only support our cause.
2. Upvote the reddit article to push back against all the Christian down votes.
3. Become a member of the SSA ($35/year, $10/year for students) and/or donate to the SSA. You do not need to be a student to become a member! The upcoming generation of secular activists requires the support of the previous generation! And you know that we’re a 501(c)(3), so this shiz is straight up tax deductible, homie.
4. Spread the word even further! Tweet about it. Facebook it. G+ it. Shout it from the mountain tops. Get a pic. Do a blog! Tell them the taaaaaaaaaaaaale!

Why should you do some or all of that? Because they make a difference:

The mission of the Secular Student Alliance is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics. We envision a future in which nontheistic students are respected voices in public discourse and vital partners in the secular movement’s charge against irrationality and dogma.

The Secular Student Alliance is a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit. We work to organize and empower nonreligious students around the country. Our primary goal is to foster successful grassroots campus groups which provide a welcoming community for secular students to discuss their views and promote their secular values. Though our office is based in Columbus, Ohio and our affiliated campus groups are predominantly in the United States, we do support affiliates around the world.

It’s about time secular students had a voice, don’t you think? They’ve got 18,000+ Likes so far. Campus Crusade for Christ has almost 60,000. Let’s even up those numbers, and show these freethinking kids we’ve got their backs.

Support the Secular Student Alliance

Call to Action

Dana Hunter4 Comments

My darlings, please take one minute and go sign Bernie Sanders’s letter to President Obama:

So, today, I am asking the American people that, if you believe deficit reduction should be about shared sacrifice; if you believe the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations should be asked to pay their fair share as part of deficit reduction; if you believe that, at a time when military spending has almost tripled since 1997, that we begin to take a hard look at our defense budget; and if you believe the middle-class and working families have already sacrificed enough, I urge you to make sure that the President hears your voice–and he needs to hear it now.

I would urge the American people to go to my Web site, sanders.senate.gov, and sign a letter to the President letting him know that enough is enough…

It’s important.

Here’s the full text:

Dear Mr. President,

This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today – which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing.  In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.

Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit – a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.  

Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share.  At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions.  A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.

Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.  Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.    

Respectfully,

Sen. Bernie Sanders;
and Co-signers

Let’s ensure his co-signers number in the millions.  Be heard.

(via Pharyngula)

Call to Action

England's Libel Law is Liable to Bite Yer Arse

Dana Hunter1 Comment

So do what Simon Singh says and sign the petition to reform it:

This week is the first anniversary of the report Free Speech is Not for Sale, which highlighted the oppressive nature of English libel law. In short, the law is extremely hostile to writers, while being unreasonably friendly towards powerful corporations and individuals who want to silence critics.
The English libel law is particular dangerous for bloggers, who are generally not backed by publishers, and who can end up being sued in London regardless of where the blog was posted. The internet allows bloggers to reach a global audience, but it also allows the High Court in London to have a global reach.

You can read more about the peculiar and grossly unfair nature of English libel law at the website of the Libel Reform Campaign. You will see that the campaign is not calling for the removal of libel law, but for a libel law that is fair and which would allow writers a reasonable opportunity to express their opinion and then defend it.

The good news is that the British Government has made a commitment to draft a bill that will reform libel, but it is essential that bloggers and their readers send a strong signal to politicians so that they follow through on this promise. You can do this by joining me and over 50,000 others who have signed the libel reform petition at http://www.libelreform.org/sign

Remember, you can sign the petition whatever your nationality and wherever you live. Indeed, signatories from overseas remind British politicians that the English libel law is out of step with the rest of the free world.

If you have already signed the petition, then please encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can join hundreds of other bloggers by posting this blog on your own site. There is a real chance that bloggers could help change the most censorious libel law in the democratic world.

We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform at http://www.libelreform.org/sign

Please sign and pass it along.

England's Libel Law is Liable to Bite Yer Arse