Voyage of the Damned..lest we forget.

In 1939 the SS St. Louis left Germany for Cuba. Aboard were over 900 Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany.  After their two week voyage, Cuba refused them entry.  The ship sailed to the US in the hopes of finding sanctuary. They could see the lights of Miami from the vessel.

The ship's captain, and many of the passengers sent ship to shore cables to the State Department and to President Franklin Roosevelt appealing for refuge.  The State Department told them they must return to Germany and apply for official visas and "wait their turn". The cables to FDR went unanswered.

The ship returned to Europe.  Four European nations accepted them ... three of whom were eventually over run by the Nazis.                                 

By the end of the war, 257 of those 900 refugees would die in Nazi concentration camps and be fed into the ovens. Here are some of their pictures.  You don't need to know their names, just remember what religious prejudice and hate and fear can do, and that with all our desires to be "Great Again", we failed miserably at greatness in 1939. We're failing miserably at greatness again in 2017.

Write your senators, your congressperson. Tell them, the world is watching.

Rage against the kidnapping of Liberty.

After today's executive action banning Muslims from entry we have crossed a threshold I never thought we'd see again after the Japanese internment during WWII, and our turning away of Jewish refugees - sending them back to their deaths in Europe.

History will judge us harshly for this, and we deserve it as a nation. We are no longer the "land of the free", nor "home of the brave". That faded on January 20, 2017 and disappeared today.

Contact your senators and congressperson. Tell them to rage against this injustice and those  that will surely follow. And may the Founders forgive us.

How much further can we fall as a nation of liberty? Here's a hint:

Trump has declared he will be releasing the names of immigrants who commit crimes in the US. Click on "here" for the whole story.

Anyone who is blind to what is happening is ignorant. Anyone who isn't horrified by what this represents spits on the graves and the memory of every member of "The Greatest Generation" who sacrificed and died fighting fascism in Europe.  Those who do not speak out against it deserve every  condemnation that history heaps upon them. 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana.

End of an Era...Beginning of an Error

Important New Book: Women Beyond Belief

When I read a book that I think my readers will enjoy and benefit from, I like to share the good news. "Women Beyond Belief" is one of those books.

Karen L. Garst has compiled twenty-two essays into a book entitled “Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life without Religion,” which can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and bookstores. Dr. Garst became incensed when the U. S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in 2014. This decision said that because of its religious views, Hobby Lobby, a craft store, would not be obligated to follow the dictates of the Affordable Care Act and provide certain forms of birth control to its employees. “Will we never end the fight for women’s reproductive rights?” Garst stated. Once again, religion has influenced the laws of our land. Politicians cite their religion in supporting restrictions on abortion, banning funding for Planned Parenthood, and a host of other issues that are against women.

 The mainstays of the modern atheist movement - Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett - came with backgrounds in science and philosophy. They launched a renewed effort to show people how destructive religion can be and how all Abrahamic religions are based upon a late Bronze Age / Iron Age mythology, borrowing from other mythologies of the time.  Dr. Garst wants to add a focus on women and the role this mythology has played in the culture of many countries to denigrate and subordinate women. She states that “Religion is the last cultural barrier to gender equality.” And she is right. More and more women atheists are speaking out. And as we all know, if women leave the churches, they will collapse.

The twenty-two essays are all written by women who describe their journeys and experiences from religion to reason. They are varied and compelling.   Here is an excerpt from one of the contributors:


“But at the end of the day, I kept coming back to one simple realization: I fundamentally did not believe that one religion (Christianity) could tell another religion (Hinduism) that it was wrong, that its deities did not exist, that its moral compass was askew, that the beliefs of its people—while noble—did not coincide with the lord-and-savior Jesus Christ and his father-in-heaven God, and therefore could not possibly be valid.

To me, Hinduism embraced beliefs and morals and a lifestyle that was so much more relatable and beautiful than anything Christianity, even in the Seventh Day Adventist form, had ever taught me. The thought of discounting all of it to adhere to a religion that I was essentially born into by way of my geographic location was completely backward. I couldn’t get over the notion that devout faith to one religion obliterates the ability to believe in another, despite the fact that so many millions of Hindus formulated their realities and structured their (in my opinion much more meritorious) belief systems based on those religious principles.”  Taylor Duty



Dr.Garst has received support with reviews by Richard Dawkins, Valerie Tarico, Peter Boghossian, Sikivu Hutchinson and other atheist authors.

If you know of a friend or family member who may be struggling with their religious upbringing, and who may benefit in their transition  into reason and reality by the sharing of these stories you'd be doing them a great service.  I don't think you'll find a better resource.  I found it eye opening and very revealing, myself having not been raised in a religious environment thus never having experienced the escape to modernity and reasoning.   

I encourage you to check out Dr. Garst’s blog at http://bit.ly/2ijnj6D and consider pre-ordering this excellent book.

Happy Holidays

Wishing you and your family a happy holiday, and a better 2017.
Stay safe.

On Defamation and Veneration

I listened as they called my President a Muslim.
I listened as they called him and his family a pack of monkeys.
I listened as they said he wasn't born here.
I watched as they blocked every single path to progress that they could.
I saw the pictures of him as Hitler.
I watched them shut down the government and hurt the entire nation... twice.
I watched them turn their backs on every opportunity to open worthwhile dialog.
I watched them say that they would not even listen to any choice for Supreme Court no matter who the nominee was.I listened as they openly said that they will oppose him at every turn.
I watched as they did just that.

I listened.
I watched.
I paid attention.
Now, I'm being called on to be tolerant.
To move forward.
To denounce protesters.
To "Get over it."
To accept this...
I will not.
I will do my part to make sure this great American mistake becomes the embarrassing footnote of our history that it deserves to be.
I will do this as quickly as possible every chance I get.
I will do my part to limit the damage that this man can do to my country.
I will watch his every move and point out every single mistake and misdeed in a loud and proud voice.
I will let you know in a loud voice every time this man backs away from a promise he made to them.
Them. The people who voted for him.
The ones who sold their souls and prayed for him to win.
I will do this so that they never forget.

And they will hear me.
They will see it in my eyes when I look at them.
They will hear it in my voice when I talk to them.
They will know that I know who they are.
They will know that I know what they are.
Do not call for my tolerance. I've tolerated all I can.
Now it's their turn to tolerate ridicule.
Be aware, make no mistake about it, every single thing that goes wrong in our country from this day forward is now Trump's fault just as much as they thought it was Obama's.
I find it unreasonable for them to expect from me what they were entirely unwilling to give.

Author unknown.

Treason, Thy Name is Trump.

"LOCK HER UP!" was the constant chant of the mindless all through the election as their Fuehrer egged them on.

I say now the chant we should embrace is "HANG THE TRAITOR!" and keep chanting it until he's tried and convicted, along with any of his handlers who participated in or knew of the Russian meddling. 

If hanging was good enough for Mussolini it's good enough for him.

And so it begins....

Trump suggests loss of citizenship or jail for those who burn U.S. flags

http://wapo.st/2gFlksK

An appeal for a real response to an obscene reality

On Facebook people are posting hysterical admonishments that we must "stop Trump from being inaugurated!".  As if by posting memes and signing petitions it will make one iota of difference.  One may as well pray to stop it, for all the good that will do.

The reality is he's not going to be stopped. He was duly elected. And if by some ridiculously remote chance the electoral college electors do not cast their votes for him, more than likely Pence would end up in the Oval Office.  No improvement there.   

I deal in reality as ugly as it may be, not wishful thinking.  Therefore, if we really want to do something feasible, actionable, and meaningful in response to the obscenity that will befall this nation on January 20, I urge everyone to make a donation to the ACLU, and/or Planned Parenthood, and/or the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and/ or Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

They are going to need our support now more than ever.

An Apology to the Free World

The fools have had their say, they have anointed their champion; and now the world will pay the price.   I'm sorry, World. Forgive us. They know not what they do.

And to those who would congratulate the winners, who seek to reconcile, and who use Jefferson's quote as a means of assuring their under educated-right wing-Jesus loving-gun totin'- racist-angry white brethren of no hard feelings I say FUCK THAT!

I wonder how magnanimous Thomas Jefferson would have been if he was Jewish, lived In 1930's Germany, and his "friend" endorsed the "final solution". Or if he was Black, and his white "friend" joined the KKK. Or if he was of Japanese descent in 1942 USA, and his "friend" endorsed internment for Japanese-Americans.

No... it's one thing to disagree on the size of a budget, or foreign affairs, or the running of a pipeline, et al... But it's a whole 'nuther thing to embrace someone who holds in contempt human rights, human dignity, and the sanctity of the freedoms this nation was founded upon.
I'll have none of it.
And none of them.

A final thought before November 8

Have these Jews forgotten what Fascism looks like?

According to the Religion News Service, Jewish voters favor Clinton over Trump by a wide margin.  Here's the key extract:

"... 61 percent of Jewish adults said Clinton and 19 percent picked GOP nominee Trump in the American Jewish Committee survey."     Whole story here.
All well and good.  But it begs the question: What exactly do the remaining 19% of Jewish voters see in a Trump presidency? According to the article, some are annoyed by the nuclear deal the US and our allies made with Iran, but can that really account for almost one in five Jews preferring the obscenity, xenophobia, and fascist like concepts Trump has expressed as his platform?

Having come from a Jewish family, one that lost relatives in the Holocaust, the similarity between Trump's programs ...one might say "solutions" ... to our national ills is so blatantly fascist that it makes one blanch, or should.
 
It  includes singling out of minorities, Mexicans, Muslims  and Blacks.  According to Trump he'd reinstate water boarding ("enhanced interrogation" is the nice term), profiling, and  "stop and frisk" (which has been declared unconstitutional).  How one can hear that, read that, and not think: "I vant to see your papers mein herr!" baffles me.

Oh but of course,  anyone who is or looks black or Muslim or Mexican has to be up to something.  His declaration that Muslims know more than they tell, that we must treat Muslim "neighborhoods" differently;  that every illegal Mexican is a rapist or criminal (after all "someone is doing all the raping!") and must be rounded up; that Blacks are their own worst enemy and are the highest crime producing people in the nation...all of it speaks of demonization, of scapegoating that smacks of totalitarianism.
 
How does an educated Jew who knows anything about the Holocaust accept the singling out of minorities today, any more than they would have accept the singling out of Gypsies, Jews, the physically handicapped, the Trade Unionists, the Socialists in Germany and then across Europe?

Can it truly be  "Well, I'm not a  Black, or Mexican or Muslim, so what do I care?."  Can 75 years of time have really blunted the horror that such "special treatment" and "solutions" delivered? Can they really embrace the "It can't happen here." fallacy? Can those 19% of Jews be so callous or so blind or so hateful that they'll readily wear the same emblem that their ancestors' persecutors wore in the last century, just invisibly?

No explanation or commitment to other national issues could justify this obscenity among people who shouldn't have to think twice about it.  1 in 5 Jews will vote for Trump!!??  It's enough to make me ashamed of my Jewish  roots. 
 

       

A dear friend's appeal on behalf of Trump. I still love him never the less.

He's my childhood friend.   Fifty-five years we've known each other - caroused, hunted, camped, fished, and almost died canoeing and driving while under various influences. I love him like a brother.

But, alas, he has never quite shaken off the "Guns and taxes  is all I give a shit about, and fuck them welfare niggers, ragheads and queers who hate America!" mentality. A mentality that I must confess I once shared, a long time ago in another life.  I oft received obscene and racist mass email mailings replete with gross cartoons or photograph meme's from him, evidently part of the stuff he regularly receives from his similarly racist and right wing New York friends. Happily he respected my request to be removed from that distribution.
 
Today I received this email from him:
  "Pal the next president will be appointing at least one probably 2 supreme court justices.. I don’t think even you will like Clinton’s choices.. You gotta vote Trump."

My response:

"Thanks... but I don't vote for infantile, hateful, narcissistic, sociopath, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist, fascistic, inveterate liar reality stars for president. If I did it would be Charlie Sheen ... a coke head who always thought he was "WINNING" too.

And I'll settle for any Supreme Court justice who isn't 'in the mold of' Scalia or Thomas.  

No... I'll stick with the hideously elitist phony woman with international experience and a modicum of mental stability who doesn't fuck her own daughter. But..,I do appreciate your advice...as always."
I don't expect a reply.  I hope there isn't one since I have exactly no interest in engaging in debate on this.  I'll always love him, I'll always be there for him ...but I mourn the passing of time that has left him so many years behind the evolutionary progress of civility and reasoned thought.  

FLASH: The Catholic Church Steps Up to the Plate on Ending Clergy Child Abuse. LOL ... Just Kidding!!!

In case you didn't hear, the Catholic Church's commission and advisory board to the pope on ending clergy sexual abuse of children has made a major stride in fixing the problem that has plagued this cabal of sex perverts and hypocrites for centuries. The whole story here.

This intensive plan that will no doubt flush the child molesting priests and bishops out of their ranks once and for all is pretty much summarized in this one sentence:
"Following a week of meetings in Rome, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors announced several new initiatives, including a training program for bishops and a day of prayer for victims of sex abuse."Hey, don't scoff. At least it's better than the all too telling quote by Bishop Robert Cunningham last year as shown under his photo above.

Bishop Robert Cunningham

Bishop Robert Cunningham

Bishop Robert Cunningham

Yup... it's been a long time coming, but there it is: training and prayer. Bam!  Why didn't I think of that?  I'm sure this will come as a welcome sea change to the tens of thousands of victims left in wake of the deaf, dumb, blind, sick, and utterly ludicrous Catholic Church. I for one am glad THAT's over.

Behold... Born Unto You This Day, the Holy Potato. Let us pray.

So... they slice open a potato, and lo and behold an execution device appears, placed there evidently by their God of Potato Messages. It's immediately declared a "divine presence" by this group of aging and obviously senile Catholics.   Read all about it here.


Seriously? A signal from God? And he sends it inside a fricking tuber, because he's what... Irish? or maybe because he yearns for some tater tots?

Never mind that it's a commonly recognized disease that causes the death and thus darkening of cells inside of the potato.  Never mind all that normal reasonable scientific fact of freekin agriculture, it's a sign from Gawd! It's a "Miracle"!

I fully expect that potato to be canonized.  It would be just as deserved of that nonsensical mumbo jumbo as is Mother Teresa. In fact...maybe even more so.  At least the potato didn't prolong, and take satisfaction in, the suffering of dying patients. Catholics. Ya just gotta shake your head. . 

Dissent: UnAmerican, or a Patriotic Duty?

I consider myself patriotic. But not blindly so. I love this country, with all its faults and inequities. I'd rather live nowhere else. If called upon to genuinely defend this nation ... I mean for real this time ... I'd do so without hesitation.

But those who see San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's act of dissent by refusing to stand for the anthem out of protest over how this nation treats people of color, as being worthy of punishment or worse, are false patriots.

I'm seeing it from the "LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!" crowd; whites who have never known prejudice; people to whom the concept of "something is amiss in this nation, let's try and make it better, more fair for everyone" is just plain unpatriotic. They are the ones who spit on the very Constitution they claim to love. They are blind patriots ... and ignorant.
When I got back from Vietnam I wasn't exactly grateful for the fact the US had lied to me and sent me there under a false premise. I was young and angry. 

Soon after my return home I went to a movie with the future Mrs. Hump. Back in '69  they played the National Anthem before the film. I refused to stand for the anthem. An old guy behind me growls: "Show some respect for your country."  I almost lost it but I didn't . I said seething through my clinched teeth. "I got back from Nam two months ago fighting for a lie this country sold us; so unless you're man enough to make me stand go fuck yourself."

I don't regret it.  Neither my act of dissent, nor my retort.

And that's about all I have to say about that football player's right to express his dissent and his dissatisfaction with how people of color are treated in this nation.  Other than to say I support his action of conscience ... and his courage. 

France: Making Secularism Look Idiotic One Moronic Law at a Time

Look, I've never held myself up as a bastion of tolerance and brotherly love.  I  have no patience for religionists who wear their foolishness as a badge of honor.  I look at Hasidim attire as patently idiotic; I don't want a waitress' "dead Jew on a stick" necklace dangling in my food at a restaurant; and I find Muslim head scarves and burkas ridiculous.

But I acknowledge that how I feel has exactly nothing to do with people's right to wear what they please as long as it doesn't interfere with my rights or exceed the bounds of good taste (i.e. wearing only an athletic supporter while teaching a class on thermodynamics in a publicly funded college would be an example).  As a secularist it's simply a matter of live and let  live ... their goofy garb not withstanding.

Evidently the French don't share this mentality.  Their laws involving religious garb or symbols have become so draconian as to actually embarrass me as an atheist / secularist.

If you haven't read about it, the police in France forced a Muslim woman to remove more of her covering at a beach than her religion and modesty permits. It's the law!  It's part of the law that also says one cannot wear yarmulkes, or any distinctive religious garb publicly that falls outside the "norm" of French culture.  It is a law so beyond the pale that when I first learned of it I thought it was an article from the satirical site The Onion.  It isn't. It's quite real. Read the whole story here.
It smacks of a bizarre reversal of what was done to the non-religious or to Jews during the Spanish inquisition:  "You damn well better start eating that pork, or we'll arrest you for being a Jew!". 

What the heck has happened here?  How can a nation whose motto is  "Liberté,  égalité,  fraternité"  speak of liberty and equality and brotherhood on one hand, while the other hand holds a baton ready to punish those less deserved of liberty or equal treatment because of what they wear?

I wonder how it got to that point. 
I wonder how much worse it will get there.
I wonder if it can happen here. 
I'm disgusted.

The Product of Religious and Political Stupidity

What do you get when you combine devotion to an imaginary supernatural being, with the worship of a narcissistic sociopath, congenital liar, and purveyor of hate?  This guy.

The Pew Research center reports that Evangelicals have come out strong for Donald Trump. Seventy-eight percent would vote for him for president today.  Here's a link to the story and poll data.

I'm unsurprised. Why wouldn't Evangelicals support a man who has been divorced twice; lusts after his own daughter's "figure";  is a fake Christian who misquotes biblical verse, and panders to the religiously stupid; makes fun of the disabled, is an inveterate liar, and has a wife who poses nude?
After all, Christians in general, and Evangelicals in particular are utter hypocrites. Hypocrisy is a veritable sacrament to them. Let them be damned.