This is the future of America and the reason we’re here is we want to learn what kind of future are they going to have. Are they going to have a future of opportunity, of safety, of freedom? Or are they going to have an opportunity of dependence on government, control from Washington, danger from foreigners? And this election may be the most important election of their lifetime and they can’t vote yet … and so, in a sense, we have to stand in as trustees of their country, all of us, every one of us has to stand in.

If I am president, these children are not going to grow up in a secular country dominated by elites who despise our history, dislike our culture, and dislike our religion. These children are going to grow up in a country which is genuinely free and which worships God, which is the source of our rights!

If Newt Gingrich is president, there is no way the United States will be “genuinely free” because it will only be free for Christians who have the same vision as he does. Everyone else will be discriminated against as much as possible.

More at Right Wing Watch.

Let us also take a moment to remember that Newt, besides being a dick towards the women he marries, would like to remove judges he doesn’t agree with, end the separation of church and state, and remove child labor laws. This doesn’t count the fact that he acts like a hypocrite by telling people he’s running on the very platform that he cannot seem to keep in his daily life. In the end, he’s a disingenuous gasbag.

Source.

They’re a theocracy that has deeply embedded beliefs that the afterlife is better than this life.

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via reddit.

Supporters have said this is about protecting the free-speech rights of students who want to express their views on homosexuality.

But gay rights groups are calling the idea a “license to bully.”

The proposal would alter the state’s anti-bullying laws to allow students to speak their religious and political views against homosexuality without punishment as long as the student isn’t threatening harm or damaging property.

“This kind of legislation can send a message that it’s ok to hate and we’ll even give you religious sanction for it. You can say what you want. As long as you say it’s for religious reasons, you’ve got backup,” said Chris Sanders, with Tennessee Equality Project.

If you want to hold religious beliefs that homosexuality is wrong, fine, but do not allow young, impressionable children to use it against one another. Pushing your beliefs on an adult who can reason and discount your arguments is one thing. Pushing those same words to a child who does not understand that it only your beliefs that is telling them is wrong is damaging to a young person. They are still developing as a person and when they are learning who they are, they want support in that, not words that tear them down as a human being.

You can read the House bill as well as the Senate bill.

The Senate recently passed the buck on voting on legislation to amend a current law stating that military women who were raped are not able to receive abortions. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss this terrible story.

There’s a great discussion about this video over on reddit and this very apt comment.

The most salient point made in this video is Penn’s reference to the idea that “Religion is in its death throes,” which is a quote that many prominent secularists present as a beacon of hope for those who wish to rid the world of organized religion. Much of the fundamental crazy that is being spewed haphazardly by the overtly religious is a direct result of a distinct secular shift in society. Logic and reason are becoming the pillars that people build their lives around, rather than invisible men in the sky, and the religious can sense it. They see the words “atheist” and “secular” appearing more in more in everyday life (words that, in many minds, didn’t exist 20 years ago). They see their beliefs being marginalized by those who know better. They can feel the foundation crumbling. And when a frothing, rabid animal like organized religion gets backed into a corner, it does the only thing it can: lash out in a bloody frenzy.

This radical shift in how we approach the world has been happening gradually since the very first “Church” appeared on Earth, but really gained legs during the Enlightenment. Unfortunately, the Church was still the dominating force in everyday life during that incredible period, and those who challenged its rule were branded as heretics and crushed into oblivion. The power to broadly influence the world has waned significantly since then. But I’d also add that the creation of the United States is the spark the world needed to ignite the fires of logical revolution. The U.S. Constitution will go down in history as the most important step ever taken by the human race in the fight to remove the yoke of ancient fears and ridiculous superstition. By providing a safe haven – an incubator – for freedom of thought without the fear of persecution, the United States built the very first place where religion could be demolished from the top-down without fear of reprisal. This all makes the fact that the U.S. is now serving as the location for the religious to make their final stand all the more fascinating.

Organized religion will fall… eventually. Take solace in that. But every time a Right-wing balls-deep-in-God fool like Bush or ::shudder:: Perry gets elected to office, the removal of religion from the world gets set back for an unknown amount of time. It’s vitally important to vote for candidates in all sectors of public office who clearly do not have a religious agenda and fast-track the excision of the cancerous tumor known as organized religion from this world… and also so that the rest of the world will stop fucking laughing at us. I’m looking at you, Sweden. Cut it out. I see you over there snickering about that I even had to make this post.