[+/-] The Carnival of the Godless Christmas Extravaganza!

Welcome to the Carnival of the Godless Christmas Extravaganza! We have loads of godless goodness for your reading pleasure today. Grab a cup of eggnog and settle into the superstition-free zone.

First off, we have from Ron's Blog, Festivus for the rest of us, where he is working out what to celebrate (or not) as an atheist parent.

And For My Next Trick... is from the common man. TCM provides a brief rant about godly impotence.

Ebon Musings gives us "An Essay on Christmas" which provides a critical analysis of the religious right's paranoid "war on Christmas" meme and a study of what the holiday season should really mean to an unbeliever.

Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers presents "True Christians don't do science," where I think he speaks for many of us free-thinkers when he states, "I think it's a bad idea to afflict a society with an institution dedicated to opposing critical thinking, the acceptance of dogma, and belief in unsupported and frankly, ludicrous claims."

EarlyRiser, gives us two posts. The first tracks his views on Christmas with Coming To Terms With Christmas. In the second, he provides his thoughts on being an atheist Republican in an anti-capitalist Unitarian Church, in On Being a Capitalist Unitarian-Universalist.

An exasperated No More Mr. Nice Guy! at No More Mr. Nice Guy! presents Chipmunks roasting on an open fire, where he asks, "Okay, I've had it. Where do I sign up for the war on Christmas(TM)?"

Brent Rasmussen of Unscrewing the Inscutable gives us the humorous, Allegory & Metaphor where he reviews the new furry-porn masterpiece, the "Chronicles of Barnia: the Lion, the Bitch, and the Wardrobe Malfunction". Heh.

In a non-holiday-themed post, Buridan's Ass examines the recent Dover ruling in The Dover Ruling versus Public Opinion. He argues the effectiveness of public opinion for supporting ID in the public sphere was drastically diminished with the Dover ruling.

Ron at God is for Suckers! presents a little allegory about people who come to atheist blogs to witness for Christ, in Can I get a witness?

Mark A. Rayner at The Skwib presents some holiday humor with Ask General Kang: Do you have Santa Claus on your home planet?.

Another humorous port is from Madeleine Begun Kane at Mad Kane's Notables. Check out Bill O'Reilly's Faux War On Christmas Song Parody. Go caroling with your free-thinking relatives!

Richard at Philosophy, et cetera, examines how atheist ethics, "allow for a deeper respect for humanity" in "Positive Atheism: Ethical Stability".

Limerick Savant offers us Season's Bleetings in "Finding Solace in the Solstice".

Coralius at Revolvo Inritus presents a discussion of how fundamentalists tend to mistrust and misunderstand technology and science, and how that feeds back into their fundamentalism, in "Fundamentalism and the Mistrust Of Technology."

David Gross at The Picket Line asks if the secular anti-war movement somehow become as effective as righteously stubborn without getting lost in a tempting garden of balderdash, in If Christianity is neither true nor necessarily helpful, what can activists learn from it?

Keri Hulme, the New Zealand author of "The Bone People," presents "Celebration." Her joie de vivre really shines; check it out.

We have two entries for today's COTG from Goosing the Antithesis. The first, by Francois Tremblay, is entitled, "Christmas is OUR holiday." It explains why the author claims Christmas for atheists everywhere, both in historical grounds and on moral grounds. The second, by Aaron Kinney, is on a lighter note: "You might be a Christian if...".

Socratic Gadfly at The Philosophy of the Socratic Gadfly gives us two thoughtful posts. The first, "Ezra, Meet Snopes" looks at how Photoshopping pictures and distributing them online gives a refutation by analogy to fundamentalists who refuse to believe biblical authors could get anything less than the absolute truth to circulate that quickly. The second, "Genesis 6 retold," provides a skeptical poetic look at the flood myth.

Daniel Morgan from Get Busy Livin', or Get Busy Bloggin' gives us "Master Painter?" which serves as an allegory using the subjectivity of interpretation of art to highlight the absurdity of religious dogmatism.

UberKuh from UberKuh - The Artistic Atheist, in "Something is Wrong with Theists" asks a question burning on all our minds today: what in God's name is wrong with theists?

Finally, I offer my own bumper sticker as a counter to an annoying pin my mother-in-law always wears this time of year.

That's it! Enjoy your Solstice/Saturnalia/Kwanzaa/Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus/Sunday. Remember to begin writing your eulogy today: be kind.

The next Carnival of the Godless will be hosted at Buridan's Ass January 8th, 2006. Send your submissions to cotg-submission@brentrasmussen.com. In addition to writing "COTG Submission" in the subject of the email, please include the following information:

• The name of the blog where the post is from
• The post title.
• The post author's name or handle.
• The post's permanent link.
• A short description of the post.

[+/-] Today's quote: Mencken

"The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that a horse-hair put into a bottle of water will turn into a snake."

~ H. L. Mencken

[+/-] Conservative scholars argue Bush’s wiretapping is impeachable offense

The Chimperor is all alone on this one:

Conservative scholars Bruce Fein and Norm Ornstein argued yesterday on The Diane Rehm show that, should Bush remain defiant in defending his constitutionally-abusive wire-tapping of Americans (as he has indicated he will), Congress should consider impeaching him.

Listen to The Diane Rehm show here, especially the segment that begins at 33:40.

[+/-] Carnival of the Godless needs submissions!

I only have FIVE submissions for the Carnival of the Godless Christmas Extravaganza! Come on, people! Tis the season to piss off a fundie!

Do your part by sending your submission to cotg-submission@brentrasmussen.com. In addition to writing "COTG Submission" in the subject of the email, please include the following information:

• The name of the blog where the post is from
• The post title
• The post author's name or handle
• The post's permanent link
• A short description of the post

[+/-] New bumper sticker!

Shoutouts to WabiSabi for the quote!

[+/-] Sanity enforced on Dover

Enlightenment 1, New Dark Age 0:

'Intelligent design' cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.

[+/-] Why 30,000 Iraqi war dead is so far off

April Hurley, MD: NPR Swallows Bush Guestimate on Iraqi Dead: "This proposes a mortality rate for Iraqis from combat alone that is lower than Washington D.C.'s homicide rate during the year of the latest stats, 2002. A war zone also safer than Baltimore, Detroit and New Orleans before Katrina."

[+/-] Xbox 360 file system cracked

Well that didn't take long:

The Xbox 360's DVD file system has been exposed, a coding group calling itself Pi, has claimed.... [I]t is likely to provide the foundation for work seeking to attack the content protection put in place by Microsoft.

According to the Pi people, the Xbox 360's file-system is essentially the same as the one employed by its predecessor console: "Once you get past the protections and down to the raw bits on the disc, its just the standard xboxdvdfs, however the offset and layer breakpoint are different."

[+/-] Carnival of the Godless #29

Wow, this time of year really brings the godless out in droves. Who'da thunk it? Check it out for yourself over at the latest Carnival of the Godless at Unscrewing the Inscrutable.

The next COTG will be the Christmas Extravaganza on December 25th, 2005, right here at Nanovirus! Send your submissions to cotg-submission@brentrasmussen.com. In addition to writing "COTG Submission" in the subject of the email, please include the following information:

• The name of the blog where the post is from
• The post title
• The post author's name or handle
• The post's permanent link
• A short description of the post

[+/-] Blessed are the torturers

JC Christian, Patriot, sums it up:

[+/-] The war on Winter Solstice

There is a war on Winter Solstice.

For thousands of years humanity had celebrated the beginning of days getting longer in a peaceful and celebratory manner:

The Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, each year beginning on December 17 in a festival called the Saturnalia. This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which at that time fell on December 25 (today, following calendar reform, it falls on December 21). During Saturnalia the Romans feasted, postponed all business and warfare, exchanged gifts, and temporarily freed their slaves. With the lengthening of daylight, these and other winter festivities continued through January 1, the festival of Kalends, when Romans marked the day of the new moon and the first day of the month and religious year (the secular year began in March).

By the 4th century another factor was also at work. Many Romans also celebrated the solstice on December 25 with festivities in honor of the rebirth of Sol Invictus, the "Invincible Sun God," or with rituals to glorify Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light...

No longer. There is a war on.

Historians generally agree that the Cult of Christ started the War on Solstice. They began by coopting the symbols of this most ancient of celebrations: holly, evergreen trees and the Yule log. Those cultists even moved the date of their god's birth from summer to winter! Moreover, they outright plagarized the story of how the greek god Dionysus was born in a cave in the presence of three shepherds.

You might think humanity would be pissed, but you know what? Nobody really gave a damn. Oh, those silly christers would have you think otherwise, but Winter Solstice was a time of diverse celebration all over the planet. What did the rest of us care if one more faith was participating? A Roman might shout "Io, Saturnalia!" [io, pronounced "yo"] to another Roman, while all over Persia cheerful greetings of "Merry Mithras" rang out. Jewish peoples could wish each other a "Happy Hannaukah," and Christians could say, "Merry Christmas" to one another.

Of course, once large migrations and interminglings of various faiths began, such greetings had their limits. Wishing a Merry Christmas in 1950s Brooklyn was bound to get you as many strange looks as wishing the ancient Persians a Happy Saturnalia.

No matter: customs quickly evolved to convey Winter Solstice greetings. For example, while it remained customary for one Christian to say Merry Christmas to another, to a stranger it was considered more thoughtful to say "Season's Greetings," or "Happy Holidays." Such was the beauty of tolerance: all faiths were able to be true to their origins while respecting their fellow humans' right to do the same.

We thought the War on Winter Solstice had ended in the fourth century. How wrong we were: it was merely dozing. Once again, it was those Christ Cultists that attacked. No longer content to share in this ancient celebration, they wanted to own it.

Now we once again find ourselves in the midst of battle. Seemeingly overnight, "Merry Christmas" has transformed from a genuine greeting of goodwill to a public proclamation of faith. Even in the most religiously diverse country on Earth, the Unites States, Christians are screaming for the elimination of all alternative celebrations. Indeed, they seem to be advocating the elimination of all differences.

Hey Christians! This time, their will be no assimilation. Let the war rage on. Humanity is tired of you and your destructive belief that love of your god is best expressed by purchasing more stuff you don't need as others go hungry. And you know something else? We outnumber you two-to-one. This is a war you cannot win.

Happy Winter Solstice! Express your thoughts on the season right here on December 25th when Nanovirus hosts the Carnival of the Godless Christmas Extravaganza!

Send your submissions to cotg-submission@brentrasmussen.com. In addition to writing "COTG Submission" in the subject of the email, please include the following information:

• The name of the blog where the post is from
• The post title
• The post author's name or handle
• The post's permanent link
• A short description of the post

[+/-] Today's quote: Fey

"A new study suggests that middle-aged adults who go on periodic drinking binges may face a heightened risk of dementia later on in life. The study is entitled, 'National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.'"

~ Tina Fey

[+/-] Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'

This explains a lot:

Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don’t give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!"

The highest law in the land... the guarantor of our freedoms... it's just a goddam piece of paper. Bush should be tried for treason.

[+/-] Today's quote: Voltaire

"It is not enough to conquer; One must know how to seduce."

~ Voltaire

[+/-] CIA prisons moved out of Europe

Two CIA secret prisons were operating in Eastern Europe until last month when they were shut down following Human Rights Watch reports of their existence in Poland and Romania:

Current and former CIA officers speaking to ABC News on the condition of confidentiality say the United States scrambled to get all the suspects off European soil before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there today. The officers say 11 top al Qaeda suspects have now been moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert.

I'm sure that while they are there the prisoners will learn all about America's "culture of life."

[+/-] Today's quote: Gandhi

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth & love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it...always."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

[+/-] Bush takes Cheney out of the loop on national security

This can only be a good thing:

The role of Vice President Dick Cheney as the administration's point man in security policy appears over, according to administration sources.

Over the last two months Mr. Cheney has been granted decreasing access to the Oval Office, the sources said on the condition of anonymity. The two men still meet, but the close staff work between the president and vice president has ended.

[+/-] Osama's message to Bush

After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive," Osama himself decided to send the Chimperor a letter in his own handwriting to let Bush know he was still in the game. Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message: 370HSSV-0773H.

Bush was baffled, so he faxed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI. No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA. With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI-6 for help.

Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply: "Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."

Tip o' the hat to my Dad for fowarding this to me!

[+/-] Today's quote: Laplace

"Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis."

~ Pierre Laplace, to Napoleon on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God.

[+/-] Pharmacy disciplines pharmacists who balk at contraception

Walgreens says it has put four Illinois pharmacists in the St. Louis area on unpaid leave for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception:

The four cited religious or moral objections to filling prescriptions for the morning-after pill and "have said they would like to maintain their right to refuse to dispense, and in Illinois that is not an option," Walgreen spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce said....

The licenses of both a pharmacy and that store's chief pharmacist could be revoked if they don't comply with the Illinois rule, Bruce said....

I think this is entirely reasonable. If a person has moral objections to their job, then they should find another job. Contientious objectors, for example, don't refuse to fight a war after enlisting: they don't enlist in the first place. Moreover, Walgreen even gives them an out:

Walgreen policy says pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions to which they are morally opposed — except where state law prohibits — but they must take steps to have the prescription filled by another pharmacist or store, Bruce said.