Should the Democratic Convention Exclude the Irreligious?

I was reading Friendly Atheist this morning, and found out that the DNC is preparing to start their convention (coronation ceremony?) with an interfaith religious service. (Link to the post) They invited representatives of several religions to speak, but explicitly denied access to any atheists, agnostics, pagans, spiritualists, or humanists.…

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Moonlight Ramble, Mostly Ignored

My town has a tradition on the August Saturday night closest to the full moon called the Moonlight Ramble. I attended it last night, and worked up a sweat along with several thousand others on bicycles riding along 17 miles of closed city streets from midnight to 3. Most of…

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Georgia On My Mind

Just when we thought it was a good time to buy one of those magnificent, Soviet-era dachas in Georgia, this happens. We're getting the updates on the most spectacular round of this event, but the fact is this has been brewing since the break up of the Soviet Union.  Georgia…

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Equality and History

In the interests of discussion concerning the election and some ideas that get bandied about here from time to time, I thought I’d post one of my very favorite quotes.  This comes from a wonderful book about the Heroic Myths of the Greeks, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by…

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Can Amateur Athletics Threaten Internet Integrity?

I'm talking about an assault on the internet of Olympic proportions. Literally. The Olympics could possibly bring the internet infrastructure to its knees. Or not. Experts say 60% chance of no-problem, vs. 10% chance of total crisis. According to this discussion, the over 300 channels of live internet feed from…

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