JREF Banned From YouTube

As you may be aware of, YouTube has recently been suspending the accounts of atheist commentators when they criticize religion, especially Christianity and Islam. But now they've gone too far... they've banned the account of the venerable and highly respected James Randi Educational Foundation.



James Randi is one of the most respected voices in the skeptical, scientific, rational world. He's appeared in more documentary's than I can count. It's just ludicrous that YouTube has become the self appointed guardians of religious sensibilities on the internet. All of us that believe in free speech need to let them know how we feel.

Let's All Go

The American Atheists national convention is in Atlanta Georgia on April 9 through 12. My daughter, her boyfriend, and I are going. AA has a great line up of speakers including Richard Dawkins. It should be a lot of fun... see you there!

Happy St. Paddy's Day

I love St. Pat's Day mostly because I love Irish music. I play the bodhran (the Irish frame drum) and used to play with an Irish band called Cara until it disbanded. Anyway, my family always has an Irish dinner. So tonight we'll have an Irish cheddar and stout fondue followed by corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread. Then we'll finish with key lime and grasshopper pies for desert (they're green). And we'll listen to Irish music. In honor of today here is a video of the band Evergreen. Actually it's the bodhran player, Abe Doron, playing a solo and then being joined by Gal Shahar for a bodhran duet and then the band finishes with a quick reel. Enjoy and Happy St. Paddy's Day:

Happy Pi Day!

Today is Pi Day (March 14, 3/14). Now, true geeks were celebrating at 1:59 this morning. But us less than true geeks can celebrate anytime today. My family and I will have a Pi Day dinner this evening. And, of course, we'll have pie for dinner (probably a deep dish chicken pie) and pie for dessert. Also, while you're celebrating don't forget to raise a glass and wish Albert Einstein happy birthday. I've always thought that is was a fitting coincidence that Albert was born on Pi Day. How cool is that? Oh, and just for fun, here is Pi calculated to 1 million digits. And here is a site where you can search for your birthday (or any other date for that matter) within the digits of Pi.

On Our Way to World Domination...

Well... probably not but... The results of the 2008 ARIS (American Religious Identification Survey) are out and they are interesting. In 1990 non-theists were only 8.2% of the population of the US in 2009 we are 15%. That's the third largest group in the country after Catholics (25.1%), Baptists (15.8%). What's significant about this study is its size, well over 50,000 survey respondents were included. This greatly increases its accuracy. This is good news for the non-theist community.

Narwhals, Narwhals

If this little ditty doesn't give you an earworm then you're dead!

Another Reason to Hate Religion

I really didn't need to see this article this morning. Just when you think it's safe to ignore religion and pretend it's not there they give you a new reason to hate them. Here is another good example of why religion is evil and toxic to our society. A nine year old girl in Brazil was raped and pregnant with twins. Physically, there was no way she could carry this pregnancy through to term, neither the girl nor the babies could have survived. So the doctors did the only medically sensible thing they could and aborted the twin fetuses. Now the EVIL and VILE catholic church is raising a big stink about it. This kind of crap makes me so angry... must... calm... down... now... lower... blood... pressure...

I'm okay...