When Sherri Shepherd, America’s Stupidest Celebrity, looks in her rearview mirror, surely she sees Charlie Daniels gaining on her fast.
Yes, that Charlie Daniels. The father of the country rock masterpiece ”The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (Full disclosure: I kind of like that song) has devolved into a hunkering troglodyte who spews jingoistic bigotry like “This Ain’t No Rag, It’s a Flag (And We Don’t Wear It on Our Heads)”.
Here’s more on the incident in Georgia in which a judge held a Muslim woman in contempt for wanting to wear her headscarf in the courtroom.
What the hell is Barack Obama thinking? Rick “The Purpose-Driven Hammerhead” Warren is going to deliver Obama’s inauguration invocation? (We could talk about why there’s an invocation to start with, but that’s another matter…)
Here’s one from the Georgia homefront. A judge in Douglasville, GA put a woman in jail for trying to enter the courthouse wearing her hijab, or Muslim headscarf. The judge cited a rule about no headcoverings. This same judge previously had another woman removed from court for not removing her hijab.
Interview with singer/songwriter and sociopolitical satirist Roy Zimmerman. Find out whether or not Roy succeeded in playing gigs in all 50 States before Election Day 2008! Roy follows in the long tradition of socially progressive troubadour activists like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Here’s a great clip from The Daily Show, with host Jon Stewart discussion the issue of gay marriage with former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee:
In this crazy win-some-lose-some political season, no other issue has had a more mixed result than gay rights. Now a Florida judge has ruled the statewide ban on adoption by gay couples is unconstitutional. Wrap your head around this one: it’s now unconstitutional to gay-marry in Florida but constitutional to gay-adopt.
Interview with Mel Lipman (approx. 42 minutes into the show), president of the American Humanist Association (and, incidentally, the father of Lori Lipman Brown, lobbyist for the Secular Coalition for American, whom we talked to in podcast #23). We talk to Mel about the AHA’s holiday ad campaign, which puts the message “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake!” on buses in Washington, DC.
When it comes to weeknight news commentary, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann is my pick. Olbermann is well-dressed, well-spoken, well-informed, smart, funny and passionate about his work. Plus he’s up against Bill O’Reilly so he needs all the viewers he can get. Anyway, check out his impassioned response to California voters who passed Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage via amendment to the state constitution):
Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama! The possible ramifications of an Obama presidency will be shaking out for weeks and months to come, but freethinkers are particularly interested in the effect it will have on separation of church and state, the integrity of government-funded science, gay rights, women’s rights, etc. We’ll also take a look at various election results from across the country.
