My Blog

Old Whine in New Bottles

lgranados — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:34:58 +0000

]The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a campaign against what it calls a concerted attack on religious liberty. Not in Pakistan or Iraq, but right here in the United States. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, USCCB’s president, complains about a “drive to neuter religion,” intended to “push religion back into the sacristy.” He’s not claiming [...]

In Memoriam: A Chance Encounter with Christopher Hitchens

Jennifer Bardi — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:19:55 +0000

I once met Christopher Hitchens at the post office on Florida Ave. in Northwest DC. It was a rainy day in April. Turned out it was his 61st birthday, several months before he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I saw him from behind—he was standing a few people ahead of me in line—but I recognized [...]

Will Romney Apologize?

lgranados — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:31:07 +0000

Everything is breaking right for Mitt Romney this year, as his opponents do their best to imitate Joe Louis’ old “Bum of the Month Club.” Unless the same strategy that’s failed to revive our economy over the past three years suddenly starts working, it looks like America is about to have its first Mormon president. [...]

Humanists and the Occupy Movement

Jennifer Bardi — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:41:23 +0000

(Guest post by Rick Heller) I have been participating in the Occupy movement, and although I have held a sign outside Bank of America protesting policies that allow banks to be “too big to fail,” my main activity has been to lead meditations at Occupy Boston’s encampment across the street from the Federal Reserve Bank [...]

Remembering Paul Wellstone (July 21, 1944-October 25, 2002)

Jennifer Bardi — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:00:10 +0000

(Guest post by George Erickson) Morning. The sun, shuttered by clouds that brush my Ely Lake treetops, is just a feeble glow. Were it not for the intervening Norway pines, I could see the Eveleth/Virginia airport, and a mile beyond that, my gaze would stop at a roadside memorial to a caring, progressive, Minnesota activist [...]

The Problem with Palestine

lgranados — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 05:52:48 +0000

Palestine is in the news, asking the United Nations to be admitted as a full member despite the fact that it is occupied by a foreign army and that its government exists only at the sufferance of neighboring Israel. This move causes great consternation, because it threatens to disrupt a 40-year old status quo with [...]

What We Were Spared Last Week

lgranados — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:37:36 +0000

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg resisted intense pressure last week, refusing demands to include professional God experts on the official city program commemorating the attacks of September 11. The mayor’s explanation for this conscious omission was straightforward: It’s a civil ceremony. There are plenty of opportunities for people to have their religious ceremonies. Some people don’t [...]

The Enemy of My Enemy

lgranados — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:32:45 +0000

Last week the Vatican published an extraordinary letter, of the man-bites-dog genre. The letter was from Cardinal Tauran, head of the Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and addressed simply to his “Dear Muslim friends.” Putting aside 1300 years of bitter rivalry, Cardinal Tauran called on his Muslim friends to unite with the Church to combat a [...]

Learning from 9/11

Jennifer Bardi — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:22:20 +0000

The following is a guest post by Jason Torpy, President of the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers. He delivered the following remarks to the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers on September 11, 2011, at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, PA. I want to open by talking about why I’m here today. 9/11 is a tragedy, not [...]

The Tax Scam from Heaven

lgranados — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:14:45 +0000

Do you pay too much in taxes? Sure you do. Here’s a terrific way you can save a bundle, that’s perfectly legal. First, figure out how much you pay in total expenses for housing – rent, mortgage, etc. Say it’s $20,000 a year, to pick a round number. Then, go to your employer and say [...]

Just before 9/11: Remembering Younus Shaikh

lgranados — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:19:39 +0000

Like clockwork, on August 11 the news agencies clicked on their coverage of the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. What they’re skipping over, though, is the 10th anniversary of an event that tells us far more about what’s truly wrong with Islam than what happened on September 11. It is true, as [...]

Burnt Scriptures

lgranados — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:18:33 +0000

You remember Terry Jones, right? He’s the pastor who found his 15 minutes of fame by threatening to burn the Koran, backing down when the United States government called him “un-American” for expressing politically incorrect ideas, then pulling off a sneak incineration a few months later when no one was looking. If you followed the [...]

Castrating God

lgranados — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:11:26 +0000

Last month, a national convention of the United Church of Christ voted to delete a reference to belief in the “Heavenly Father” from its constitutional definition of a local church. Instead of belief in a male God who produced offspring, local churches now need only express belief in a “triune God.” This change in the [...]

‘The Annihilation of Caste’ – Part 2

lgranados — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:34:41 +0000

In the debate on caste between the Untouchable Ambedkar and the Hindu God expert Mohandas Gandhi 75 years ago, Ambedkar reminded readers what caste distinction meant in practice: The Untouchable was required to carry, strung from his waist, a broom to sweep away from behind the dust he treaded on lest a Hindu walking on [...]

‘The Annihilation of Caste’ – Part 1

lgranados — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:01:23 +0000

Seventy-five years ago this month occurred an extraordinary debate in an Indian newspaper that retains enormous resonance today. On the surface, the debate concerned India’s system of caste, regulating both employment opportunity and social standing based on the accident of birth. On a deeper level, the debate concerned the role religion should play in matters [...]