Find a way to serve a veteran on Veterans Day!

Less than 1% of Americans are veterans.  Many of them are unemployed, homeless, and/or alone.  If you have done well in this country, you've done so thanks to the veterans who've secured for us what we have at great personal sacrifice.

Do something for a veteran this year on Veterans Day.  If you own a business, hire a veteran, if you can't hire but already employ a veteran, give them a raise, or at least an extra day off with pay.  If you're not a business owner/manager, feed a veteran...  Invite a veteran over for a meal with your family.  Contact a shelter or s soup line to volunteer to help feed the homeless (many of whom are veterans).  If you have a skill and you're aware of a specific need, use your skill to serve a veteran...  For instance, if you're a plumber and you know a veteran who is having plumbing problems in their families home, why wouldn't you do what you can to help someone who has done so much for us?

Help your favorite veteran...  A family member, a coworker you know and like, a neighbor...  

Here'a a great idea for those who don't know any veterans:  A number of chain restaurants around the country, including Chile's, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse and many others are offering free meals to veterans on Veteran's Day.

Call around your area and see which chains are offering free anything and ask what documentation is needed. Then call your local VA facility or VFW hall and find out which vets have no family, or no money, or haven't been out to a restaurant in years. Grab your spouse or a buddy and go and take that vet or vets to lunch.

Regardless of what you decide to do, or who you decide to help, observe Veterans day this year by doing something to serve those who've served.

I can like boobs, and like you too!

Fuuuuuck that. I'd rather keep my eyes, oogle some boobs, and be a heathen.

Also, ladies, I appreciate that you are not eye candy. I don't think your boobs are all that you are. I think it's like getting an iMac. It's sleek, awesome to look at, enjoyable to play with, but inside it's smart and you have to get to know it in order to really appreciate it.

Let me know if that's a terrible metaphor. It's just hard to explain that I can really like boobs without that being the only thing I pay attention to in a person. - One Nation Under Nothing

The Shared Experience of Absurdity

If you like to laugh, please watch this video.  It's wonderful!

After you watch it, please share post your thoughts on it below!

A Conversation about religion and christianity - Ignorance and Self-Deception: What's the harm?

For those who like to read:  Back in June, I posted the following comment to my facebook page.  I tagged several of my friends in it, three or four who I know to be atheists/skeptics, and three or four I know to be christian, to solicit some conversation with them about the point I was making.  The comment I made was in response to a recent statement President Obama made, comparing Republicans in Congress to the Flat Earth Society.

I thought this was a great example of the kind of self deception we are all  susceptible  to if we do not guard against it, even me.  Especially me...

10 Point Vision of a Secular America

Sean Faircloth’s Ten Point Vision of a Secular America


1. Respect Our Troops – Our military shall serve and include all Americans, religious or nonreligious with no hint of bias and with no hint of fundamentalist extremism coloring our military decisions at home or abroad.


2. Reproductive Information Based on Science – Any federal or state funded program, whether offering services domestic or foreign, that relates to reproductive decisions shall be based on science and public health; not on religious bias or the denigration or women or secular minorities.


3. Healthcare Professionals Fulfill Professional Duties – Healthcare professionals shall fulfill their professional duties and they must do so without a hint of religious bias or they must find another job. That includes fundamentalist pharmacists that turn away rape victims from Plan-B (Morning After Pill Emergency Contraception).


4. No Religious Bias in Land Use or Employment – There shall be no bias in land use planning or environmental law or employment law based on religion or lack thereof.


5. No Bias in Marriage Law – Marriage can be defined by religious congregations howsoever they choose within their own services but marriage under American law shall have no bias whatsoever.


6. Autonomy for End-of-life Choices – When facing end-of-life decisions, all Americans shall be guaranteed control over their own bodies without being thwarted by religious bias.


7. No Religious Bias in School – America’s youth shall never be subjected to bias in education. If there is one penny of government funds there can’t be one iota of religious bias.


8. Congress Shall Include Secular Americans – The composition of Congress and legislature shall include secular Americans and there shall be no bias against secular candidates.


9. Children Protected from Religious Abuse - There should be one consistent standard pertaining to the health and welfare of children regardless of a child’s parents, school, or child care center. They are all human beings that deserve human rights and protection.


10. Medical & Scientific Innovation Shall be Dedicated to Health & Advancement – Medical, technical, and science innovations shall be dedicated to the health and advancement of our fellow citizens and must never be impeded by religious bias.








"If they can organize for intolerance and injustice, we can organize for science, reason, and compassion." -Sean Faircloth

More thoughts on the Zimmerman Trial

Chris L explained it in a discussion I saw on facebook recently  better than I've seen anyone explain it yet.

I contend that (1) the only racist on the grounds that night was Trayvon Martin. He's the only one who said racist words and who profiled someone based upon their appearance.

(2) Trayvon Martin's actions made his observation by Zimmerman justified. Not that there needs to be any justification at all. You are within your rights and freedoms to observe anyone in public places, to take their photo, and to watch them.
(3) Zimmerman spent as much of the time as possible during the incident ON THE PHONE with Police. Trayvon didn't call the police, he called a friend to brag about his up coming confrontation. In that call he used racist language. He also made a damning admission that he would be returning from close to the residence he was staying at BACK up to the area where Zimmerman was to confront him.
(4) This part is rather crucial. You've heard much about who was stalking who and who followed who. Well, Zimmerman claimed and all evidence presented at trial is consistent with Trayvon casing houses suspiciously that night in a complex that was subject to a string of home invasions / robberies. He was suspicious enough for Martin to call Police and this behavior is not inconsistent with his history.
You might not have heard this, but Martin was a vandal who was caught on tape vandalizing school property. A lack of respect for the law and for property rights. When he was detained his backpack was searched for the marker he used to tag the school property and they found him to be in possession of fine jewelry and a burglary tool (flathead screwdriver) that were reported missing from a home not far from his school. So it's not just idle speculation that Trayvon was a thief and that his suspicious behavior was benign. Of course Zimmerman didn't know this at the time, but if we are to weigh the veracity of all the evidence presented that Martin was not simply walking straight home from his Skittles purchase, then it certainly adds a pattern of behavior that is consistent with what Zimmerman testified to and reported to the police before he could have known that Martin actually was a thief.

(5) If you watch the entire video of Zimmerman walking the police through the events of that night and look at an aerial view of the map of the location and compare the time stamps of calls and known events, it's rather clear that Zimmerman did not stalk Martin until he was cornered or threatened which precipitated the attack. In fact, all evidence and eye witness testimony confirms that Zimmerman never walked down the direct path that Martin disappeared down before Zimmerman got out of his car. Martin had time to make it all the way down that street and back to confront Zimmerman.

While we don't know his exact location, his own words while he was on the phone, the time scale, and the fact that when Zimmerman stopped at the T-junction at the top of that street to see if he could see Martin he neither saw him nor heard Martin on the phone.
(5) Zimmerman's injuries match his story and the actual shooting doesn't show a frenzied malice and desire to kill Martin. It was only one shot after Zimmerman had already been taken to the ground, beaten on, and Martin went for Zimmerman's gun.
(6) The timeline, eye witnesses, and physical locations fit Zimmerman's story and they show that he did nothing which warranted being assaulted, nor was he quick to pull a gun, nor did he use it inappropriately. Zimmerman broke no law. Trayvon Martin did.

Zimmerman Trial: My Thoughts

Full Story and Live Coverage of the Trial

Having watched most of the trial, I don't think the prosecution was able to make their case, and I will be very surprised if the jury convicts on Murder 2.  I'll be disappointed, but not surprised, if they convict on a lesser included offense.  

It appears to me that Zimmerman did nothing wrong up until the confrontation, and no one knows what caused the confrontation except Zimmerman and Martin.  It's clear from the evidence Martin ended up on top of Zimmerman either, punching him in the face causing his head to repeatedly slam against the concrete, or actually slamming his head into the concrete.  In either case, it it had been me instead of Zimmerman in those circumstances, I would have shot Martin also.

Americans do have and should have the right to defend themselves from an attacker, and we do and should have the right to approach someone who has raised our suspicion to ask them questions or engage them in conversation without being attacked, which is what appears to have happened in this case.

I'm expecting if he's acquitted, or if he's found guilty of a lesser offense but doesn't receive much time in prison, there will be blood!  There will be riots, burning cars, people injured/killed, businesses looted, just like the LA Riots in the 90s.  Just back up all your electronic data off site (carbonite is a good source for this), purchase renters insurance (replacement value, not depreciated value), make a video recording of all your property verbally reading out model numbers and serial numbers for your electronic devices, and head out of town for a few days when the verdict is expected... Preferably to a very expensive area with few minorities. You'll be just fine. Everyone can use a good excuse for a weekend excursion vacation, right?