It has just come to my attention that their customer service reps do not understand the difference between 2 thousandths of a DOLLAR and 2 thousandths of a CENT.

Also, Randall Munroe (of xkcd) is awesome.

The claim: Hillary voters are excluded from the “privileged” group of white people. They are perceived as “less-than”, “off-white”.

The evidence: Obama is #8 on the list of Stuff White People Like, but Hillary didn’t make the list at all.

The reaction: Are you fucking kidding me?! Meghan Daum’s probably also one of those people who thinks Harry Potter fans worship Satan, and that Obama’s a Muslim ’cause she done heard it on the teevee. What an idiot.

LOL! ROFL! NOOB!

Sorry, Obama, just because you’re cool doesn’t mean I’m not going to tell you when you’re wrong.

The comments in this thread on Pharyngula linked to a video of Barack Obama talking about gay marriage, prompting this from me, which I am also sending to him via his website:

I was dismayed to hear about the comments you made on the topic of gay marriage in New Hampshire in January. You mentioned your parents’ interracial marriage and the fact that couples like them had to fight for their marriages to be recognized, but the rest of your comments undermined everything that they fought for in the ’60s and that gay people are fighting for now.

“Separate but equal” is not okay. You may consider marriage a religious phenomenon, but the fact that the government is involved in it means that it *can’t* be defined or restricted on religious grounds. We do not have an established state religion in America, and with good reason. Christianity does not have nor deserve the authority to make these determinations.

Trying to stick the gays in a “civil union” ghetto is *not* okay. They deserve nothing less than entry to the same institution and access to all the same rights and privileges as straight people have.

And also in honor of the recent victory for gay rights in California, I think it’s about time I reposted the 12 reasons that gay marriage is going to RUIN SOCIETY.

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control are not natural.

2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get legally married because the world needs more children.

3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children.

4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears’s 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.

5. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn’t changed at all: women are property, Blacks can’t marry Whites, and divorce is illegal.

6. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of minorities.

7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are always imposed on the entire country. That’s why we only have one religion in America.

8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall.

9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license.

10. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to cars or longer lifespans.

12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “separate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages will for gays & lesbians.

In honor of the recent victory for gay rights in California, and in extreme consternation that people like this still exist, I am going to eviscerate another Chick tract. Today’s victim is The Gay Blade.

How is this Chick tract royally fucked up? Let me count the ways…

1. The proper response to “Wilt thou…” is “I will”, not “I do”. No self-respecting educated gay couple would make this mistake.

2. Groom #1 had better watch out, the Reverend looks like he’s about to suck out his soul or something.

More… »

Sorry to link to such distasteful sources, but I was reading some political news today and found a couple of right-wing sites discussing a flyer Obama recently released to court Kentucky voters.

CBN: Obama and the Cross
Race42008: Barack Obama’s pitch in Kentucky (contains images of the flyer in question)

CBN wonders if publicizing his Christianity like this will help Obama’s image by making him seem less “elitist”. The commenters at Race42008 are crying foul, and don’t seem willing to believe Obama is “really” religious, as if right-wing nutjobs have some kind of exclusive right to religion.

I haven’t heard what other atheists think about this, but I can see how it would make some people a bit nervous. It’s no secret that Obama is a Christian (or at least it shouldn’t be to anyone who’s been paying attention) and he is campaigning in a country that’s mostly Christian, so of course he was going to bring it up at some point. That in itself doesn’t bother me. What I wanted to know was, what does the flyer say? I’m happy to say that Obama didn’t disappoint me.

The front side of the flyer has Obama standing behind a pulpit, in front of a lighted cross. The top reads Faith. Hope. Change. Barack Obama for President. At the bottom right, we have a quote:

My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work.

–Barack Obama

In other words, “hands that help are better than lips that pray.” Well played!

On the other side, Obama establishes his Christian creds: A picture of him next to a stained-glass church window in full-on “hope mode“, a red banner down the side reading Committed Christian, and a story about how he was volunteering in the South Side after graduating from college and forged a profound connection with the people living there, who encouraged him to visit a local church (I think we all know which one! ), where he felt a beckoning of the spirit and became a Christian. Finally, the requisite picture of him with his wife and daughters, and voter information.

If this is the kind of religious posturing we can expect from him, I say posture away. It’ll be good for everybody to realize that the likes of Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are not the only religious authorities in this country.

BBC: Aussie straps in beer, not child

Constable Wayne Burnett said: “I haven’t ever seen something like this before.

“This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child… The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained.”

When Constable Burnett handed over the fine he said the driver “just looked at me blankly”.

“He didn’t get it,” Constable Burnett said.

“I asked him about the fact the child was unrestrained and the beer was, and he said he didn’t know anything about it.”

Yes! It’s about damn time someone realized that a kid being thrown through the windshield is nothing compared to the tragedy of unrestrained beer! How many beers will have to be lost before we all wake up and reform our priorities as this brave man has done?

What is this a picture of?

1. A Virgin Mary sighting.
2. A Rolling Stones “lips” sighting.
3. A sighting that I could have done without. Put a bandage on that, for the love of god!

(Source)

Apparently this was the winner of a recent MoveOn contest to generate an Obama ad.