Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Thursday May 2nd is the National Day of Reason in the United States. The day is a secular celebration for humanists, atheists, and other secularists and freethinkers in response to the National Day of Prayer, that is unfortunately a legal holiday in the United States. Our government shouldn’t be giving official sanction to a particular religious belief. It should spend its time trying to solve issues of concern to all Americans.
This week the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) is celebrating the work the student affiliate groups do during the year with the “SSA Week 2013”. During the week some bloggers and other online voices will be posting special content to ask people to donate to the group. The SSA does special work and needs your support to keep the quality up and to reach more students.
An Ohio legislator has decided that it is time to legalize marijuana in the state. Of course some are opposed. In a TV interview, an undercover police officer made the false gateway drug argument and then claimed, without a sense of irony, that it is too easy to obtain marijuana. Yes, a 27 year veteran of the war on drugs basically said it has failed yet he doesn’t support legalization of marijuana.
Last week the US House passed the The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and like all of these types of bills that have come through Congress, this bill only seems to protect businesses at the expense of people’s rights. It also gives more power to the Government to violate your 4th amendment rights in the name of “cybersecurity”. The White House has threatened to veto the law but now is the time to contact your Senator and tell them to say no to CISPA.
What is CISPA and why is it a bad law. Let the Electronic Frontier Foundation explain:
The media heated up on Friday reporting that President Obama’s new budget deal will include cuts to Social Security and Medicare (GASP!!!!). It was reported that the “left” exploded at the idea of cuts to earned benefits. If the media would do their jobs they would know the President has been offering these “cuts” for a couple of years now and the Republicans have always refused the offer because they don’t want to increase taxes. They don’t want the President to have a win of any kind. Right now there is a lot more heat than flame.