Daily Blend: Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Beneath the placidly smiling face, the heart of a monster

• Remember that innocuous, imperfect Declaration on Religion in Public Life put together during the last Copenhagen atheist convention? It just sent Ken Ham into a delusional little paranoid fit. Laughter and exasperation ensue.

• Freedom of the Press wins out: Coast Guard finally removes ban prohibiting reporters and photographers from documenting the oil spill.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki ^[pictured] calls for the death of Molly Norris, the cartoonist who originally launched “Draw Muhammad Day” before withdrawing from the event for (ironically enough) safety reasons. Or, in which my anger at the Obama’s administration efforts to find and eliminate Awlaki just lost some (though not all) of its edge.

• Prominent Moscow art curators who set up an art exhibit satirizing the legal censorship of blasphemous art face 3-year jail sentences for setting up art exhibit featuring blasphemous art. Update: Both have been found guilty but received hefty fines without any accompanying jail time.

• So, if you’re an skeptic/atheist, are you a warrior or a diplomat? Personally, I’m really quite casual about it all and my attitude (ie. level of respect) towards others is determined by their own attitudes and actions, not what they believe in. As far as I’m concerned, believe in whatever the hell you want, just as long as you aren’t demonstrably harming anyone else in the process. In which case, the invective machine revs up with a wrathful roar.

• Fox “News” again trots out the 2008-era smear that Obama wants to teach sex to kindergarteners. What, run out of new fabricated smears?

• Just fucking don’t and shut up about it.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Yet another alleged terrorist at Gitmo is found innocent of all charges and released.
  (via @washingtonpost)

• The US’s current political choice: Nerds who can’t communicate vs. sociopaths who refuse to let anyone else have the country.
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Tags: atheists • secularism • Ken Ham • Christian Persecution Complex • Freedom of the Press • BP Oil Spill • Coast Guard • First Amendment • Anwar al-Awlaki • Molly Norris • terrorism • Draw Muhammad Day • blasphemy laws • Yuri Samodurov • Andrei Yerofeyev • Barack Obama • lies • gay marriage • abortion • drugs • sex • hypocrisy • Gitmo • Democrats • Republicans • USA