Comments on: Furious fundies blast White House officials for meeting with US atheist groups

By: jay

jay — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:58:55 +0000

I do not believe their should be a ‘religious exemption’ regarding childcare, but our current regulated structure does indeed have the government going where it simply does not belong. It is up to parents, not the government to determine who watches their children, whether religious or not.

When I was young it was the norm for local mothers to watch a group of children in their homes for a small fee. It worked well for the stay at home mother, it worked well for the (often poor) working parents. It was simple, inexpensive, and a part of human history for centuries, if not millenia. It worked. But now, given the obsession with regulations and certifications, that low cost option is illegal and largely unavailable. The beneficiaries of this are not the children, not the parents, but the bureaucratic agencies, and the childcare industry, who’ve managed to drive the prices of childcare sufficiently high that low wage mothers essentially work for nothing after paying those bills (I know personally a mother in that situation).

So the state then has to step in and provide childcare ‘assistance’ (laundered through agencies including groups like Catholic Charities) to cover some of this cost (which is really a problem for women who for various reasons like inconsistent work cannot get on those programs), and it manages to make those parents even more dependant on the state’s ‘generosity’. Did it really improve anything? Certifications don’t mean a person is moral or qualified, indeed a parent is probably a better judge of that than a government agency. Problems occurred in the old system sometimes, they sometimes occur in the new. Replacing the parent’s judgement with the government’s is not a gain.

Thanks, regulators, for fixing what wasn’t broken.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:40:07 +0000

PS Like Bishop Neddy Seagoon, Hargreaves also stated his belief that everyone should be entitled to freedom of expression, mainly because that would leave him free to condemn all those with whom he disagreed, particularly homosexuals – but “IN LOVE”! He was mercilessly lampooned last year on Graham Nunn’s excellent, but, sadly now, defunct, Creative Year blog.

http://creativeyear.wordpress....../#comments

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:24:37 +0000

For some inexplicable reason, the Rev. George Hargreaves, of The Christian Party, was being interviewed on one of this morning’s politics programmes, and made the outrageous claim, yet again, that, in a recent survey, over 70% of the British public stated that they were Christian! And this from a man who is calling for more “honesty” in politics – hahaha!!!

http://www.georgehargreaves4mep.com/

By: William Harwood

William Harwood — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:19:24 +0000

I wonder if the ayatollah of the Christian Taliban realizes that, in (incorrectly) identifying Barack Obama as America’s least religious president, he is actually praising him? Is he unaware that “least relgious’ is the same as “least insane”?
The reality is that, while Obama doubletalks to retain the support of America’s 50 million nontheists of voting age, he is as godphuqt as any Republicanazi.

By: Stonyground

Stonyground — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:43:55 +0000

“The most anti-religious president in our nation’s history”. Really? This guy seems to know very little about his nation’s history if that is his view. I rather think that at least the first four presidents were openly contemptuous of religion, or at least privately contemptuous while putting on a God face for the plebs.

By: Name (required)

Name (required) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:53:26 +0000

The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths who believe in God.

But all faiths don’t believe in “God”, just the Jews, Christians and Muslims. This guy can’t even represent his own side properly.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:27:33 +0000

I posted some more links and comments about Bishop Council Nedd II yeasterday, but they have not appeared yet – if they are going to appear at all! I wonder whether THIS will!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_Nedd_II

By: NeoWolfe

NeoWolfe — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:04:49 +0000

It is interesting, isn’t it, when the greatest minds on the planet agree that religion is not only bullshit, but a huge erosive influence on society, that religious pimples are offended that people in power are actually listening.

And notice that these same pimples can’t quote a history of a freethinker “crusades”, or a freethinker “inquisition”, or a freethinker “witch burning”, yet we are the hate mongers, hilarious!!! And their loving god, he so loved the world that he murdered every man, woman, and newborn child in the flood, because they forgot to worship him. Wow.

Yet, all christians love each other, like the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. The most embarrassing stain on western civilization since the American Civil War. And on that vein, the Ku Klux Klan, the most inexcusable hate group that exists in the US, is white Protestant antisemitists.

I think that freethinkers have grounds to sue for rights to hate movements, because christians have a monopoly on all of them.

NeoWolfe

By: ironflange

ironflange — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:26:48 +0000

That poll really needs fixing. Who wants to send it over to Pharyngula?

By: Enlightenment

Enlightenment — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:05:12 +0000

Militant religious people are the original haters! This proves they are bigots!