Happy Blasphemy Day!

Hooray, today is blasphemy day!

As you may remember, back in 2005 (on this day) a Danish newspaper published a bunch of cartoons depicting Mohammed. There were a lot of Muslims upset by the depiction of their prophet as a violent jerk, and so they engaged in the only rational response: violence.

Since then, there have been a number of attempts by various governmental bodies around the world to enact anti-blasphemy laws, designed to stifle this sort of free expression. Ireland, for instance, has a pretty nasty new anti-blasphemy law.

There are no enforceable blasphemy laws in America, of course. They'd be blatantly unconstitutional. But the sentiment exists here as well. Some people believe they have a right not to have their beliefs mocked and ridiculed. They don't. There is no right to not be offended.

Obviously, people's rights to believe in stupid things should be respected. They're free to believe whatever they like. But there's no reason the ideas themselves deserve respect. This isn't about making "converts" to whatever belief system you may hold, it's about freely expressing that some ideas are just really dumb.

You wouldn't respect the ideas of someone who thinks slavery should be legal, or who thinks lightning is created by some dude with a hammer, or anyone who thinks that disobedient children should be stoned to death. It doesn't matter that all those beliefs are based on religion, they're still stupid and you have every right to say so.

So, won't you please join me today in blaspheming whatever religion you feel like blaspheming?

While I think they're all utter nonsense, you don't have to agree with me to get in on the blasphemous fun. Lots of Christians enjoy blaspheming Allah, for instance. If you're a more timid sort, you could always pick a religion few people still believe in. It's about time Zeus and Odin were taken down a notch! Scientology's an easy target too, since it's pretty socially acceptable to make fun of it. Or you can pick on the most irritating local religions, like Christianity. You might offend some people, but that's your right!

You could also just post humorous/blasphemous videos, like this:



See, it's easy and fun! Happy blaspheming!

Fundamentalists are funny

This is pretty entertaining. It's just these guys reciting stuff that they got from online fundamentalist forums (like the S&E Topix forums, but even dumber).



Just one complaint: without the random capitalization, hyper-prevalent spelling errors, and wall-of-text formatting you'd see online, you really miss out on the full batshit-craziness of these people. Oh well.


This post has been brought to you by the letter Z, the number i, and the Fitchburg city council being too whiny and stupid for me to stomach writing about them today.

Don't high-hat the monkey!

I'm too lazy to write any real posts lately, but keep finding weird videos. Here is part of Cecil B. De Mille's 1929 film "The Godless Girl." It starts getting really good about 3 minutes in.



Why don't the godless clubs around here have a monkey handing out propaganda? Or oddly attractive 1920s women?

Get on it, heathens!

Fuck you, North Carolina

Well, I guess I can add North Carolina to the list of states where I'm not welcome.

Apparently the big political issue there is how much atheists suck. Here's Elizabeth Dole's attack ad on Kay Hagan.



In keeping with the way people always do these things, I ask you to replace atheists in that ad with Jews, or Christians, or Zoroastrians, or whatever belief system it is you follow.

If we use Judaism, it would go something like this:

Scary Voiceover: "A leader of the Jewish Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan's honor."

Jewish Lady: "Jesus was just a man. Not the son of God."

Scenes of Bill O'Reilly asking Jewish man if he accepts Christ's divinity, to which Jewish man responds "no".

Scary voiceover: "Jewish Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took Jewish money. What did Hagan promise in return?"

Mystery voice: "I'm a Jew!"

Yeah, that wouldn't make it to air.

Nor would it make it to air if they used Christians. It might make it to air if they used Muslims, but would probably get a lot of criticism.

But hey, attacking atheists is fine! Kay Hagan doesn't even seem to have a problem with it, she just doesn't want our dirty godless cooties rubbing off on her.



Gee, thanks Kay. That "bearing false witness against fellow Christians" thing sure sucks.

Hey, you know what else sucks? Bearing false witness against anybody!

It would have been really nice if Hagan had had the strength of character to point out that there's nothing wrong with atheists. That we're citizens and we vote and there's absolutely nothing wrong with hanging out with us or taking our "godless money".

You know, sort of like how Colin Powell's pointed out that there's nothing wrong with being Muslim. It shouldn't be a smear to be called a Muslim, nor should it be a smear to be called an atheist.

It's also worth noting that atheists in this country outnumber Jews and Muslims put together. We may not be the best group to piss off if you want votes.

Fuck it, I'm going to go watch that bikini video again.