Culture

November 27, 2014April 18, 2020

Where Did My Thanksgiving Parade Go?

Jack Lord hosting the Aloha Floral Parade in 1979 on CBS

So I got up earlier than usual on Thanksgiving morning specifically to watch the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I turn on the TV to watch but where is the parade? It is suppose to be on two networks and I see bits of the parade in the background but the hosts act like they are somewhere other than a parade. When did the Macy’s parade become just an advertising vehicle for NBC and CBS? Where did my Thanksgiving Parade go?

Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade was a ritual growing up. It would be on at Grandma’s house as we kids tried to pass the time before we could eat. We would sneak cheese from the cheese plate as we watched the floats and balloons go by.

October 6, 2014April 18, 2020

It Is Not Racist To Criticize Islam

This weekend social media blew up when comedian Bill Maher and actor Ben Affleck debated Maher’s views about Islam on his HBO show. Affleck makes the same mistake most liberals make when religion is involved in a debate, they conflate criticism with ‘racism’. Ideas like that lead us to blasphemy laws.

The heated portion of the debate started after comments from author Sam Harris:

October 1, 2014April 18, 2020

Religious Privilege Has Arrived In The NFL

Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah was penalized for praying

On Monday night, Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah intercepted a Tom Brady pass and returned it for a touchdown. He decided to celebrate the big play and knelt to the ground in the endzone to pray. He was penalized according to the rulebook but the next day the NFL said it goofed. Now there is one set of rules for religious players and another set for those who don’t wear their religion on their sleeves. Religious privilege has arrived in the NFL.

September 23, 2014April 18, 2020

Openly Secular: A Needed Project With A Vague Name

I’ve been part of the non-religious community for 20 years and one thing is constant, we have many different groups to support us and it seems new ones show up regularly. Case in point is ‘Openly Secular’, a ‘new’ coalition of several large secular groups. Its mission of drawing attention to discrimination of non-religious people is needed but I’m disappointed in the fact that they named the group ‘Openly Secular’ instead of ‘Openly Non-religious’.

September 12, 2014April 18, 2020

No, Penn Jillette, Rape And Death Threats Are Not Free Speech

screencap from the movie My Chauffeur (1986)

Penn Jillette being artistic?

There has been a major storm over misogyny in the freethought movement for several years. Women in the movement who have spoken out against it have been harassed with rape and death threats among other nasty reactions. People who don’t see anything wrong with the misogyny, like comedian Penn Jillette, worry more about being able to call a woman a ‘cunt’ than why one shouldn’t be doing that in the first place. That’s the problem.

Buzzfeed has a very thorough article about the misogyny conflict in the freethought movement. It actually gave both sides of the issue and while I knew most of the incidents described the article also included interviews with several women who had been raped and/or harassed.