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.
Well, now. It looks like when now-President-Elect Barack Obama said, referring to certain voters, ”…it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them…” that it wasn’t a gaffe, but rather prophecy. His pending presidency is causing a run on the gunshops in certain areas. So far there hasn’t been a run on churches, so I guess we can tell where these folks will turn if push comes to shove.
Meanwhile… I was one of many who received a mass email from Ed Kagin (who is, among other things, National Legal Director for American Atheists and a co-founder of Camp Quest for kids) with the subject line “Vote For the Least Undesirable Candidate Candidate [sic] Who Can Win”, and the simple message “In the election tomorrow, we must do the unimaginable to prevent the unthinkable.”
That was fairly painless. Awoke at 6:00AM, walked out of the house at 6:30 to the polling place a mile away. Got in line at 6:45 with about 200 people in front of me. At 7:00 sharp the line began inching forward and by 8:00 I was ushered to a voting station. By 8:10 I was on my way home. (To my chagrin, I noticed a LOT of state and local incumbents running unopposed, so I wrote myself in to “challenge” the incumbent Republican for our Georgia House of Representatives seat. I’m sure they’ll get a laugh out of that one.)
Well, now. Finally Finally FINALLY Campaign 2008 is at an end. It’s all over but the voting. We hope. It doesn’t appear, at this point, that there’ll be any significant shenanigans or electoral squeakers. And the end result seems like a foregone conclusion: all that remains is to see how much Senator Obama wins by. Anyway, I’ll be off to vote first thing in the morning (hoping to be in line when the polls open at 7:00AM). If anything interesting happens I’ll post something here.
And if you haven’t voted (yet), don’t slack off. Get out there and be counted!
I guess you have to strike while the iron is hot. Come next year these get ups would barely raise a brow.
Anyway, a little white hair spray, a couple o’ flag pins and a hockey stick and - voila! - suddenly you’re transformed into Mr. Maverick and the “Hackey” Mom. (And before I get email, trust me, there’s not a dark hair spray on the planet that will tone down that red hair. I love it.)
So get out there and vote on Tuesday - and please, not for these guys.
Check out this clip from yesterday’s CNN. Some quick background: North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole (R) has been making a lot of hay out of the fact that Democratic challenger Kay Hagan attended a fundraiser organized by the Godless Americans PAC. (more…)
We talk to Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) about the recent action by the Texas Board of Education [www.tea.state.tx.us/sboe] that places three creationists on the six-member committee that reviews science standards [link]. How damaging could this move be to the rest of the country?
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In this episode we throw in a potpourri of items in the news or random events we think our subscribers will find interesting, plus we discuss some interesting listener feedback.