The people who sell such shirts are the mainstream of the Republican party now, because it has swung so far right as a whole especially to appeal to this crucial group of voters lest they go third party. They are increasingly bold in their attacks on moderate Republicans and if you describe yourself as conservative you are squarely aligning yourself with them. Teabag/birther/912 conservatives gather by the hundreds, not in pairs like Code Pink is pictured.

It happens all the time. Goes with the territory, I suppose. That doesn’t make it any less bothersome, though.

is this where i pointedly suggest such folk might try to pass for harmless atheists just doing their secular humanist duty…?

I do know what you’re saying in that we shouldn’t be providing charity accompanied by proselytisation. I try to be very careful when doing so.

But at the same time…

We would be liars if we betrayed our core beliefs. Pretending to be atheist would be denying God. So I have no qualms with offering charity without any kind of strings attached or any proselytising for the faith. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves.

But I can never ever take any action while denying God. That is an anathema to me.

I mean, imagine trying to do your Christian duty to the poor and the sick and the downtrodden only to find that they are terrified that you’re a violent nutjob or that, if they don’t share the same political beliefs as you, they might be in danger being around you.

is this where i pointedly suggest such folk might try to pass for harmless atheists just doing their secular humanist duty…?

I’m more concerned for those Christians, who find this kind of stuff appalling and still have to deal with the fall-out from it. I mean, we’re literally at a point where people are afraid of Christians, afraid they’re violent, or that they see nothing wrong with threatening to be violent if they can’t get their own way.

I mean, imagine trying to do your Christian duty to the poor and the sick and the downtrodden only to find that they are terrified that you’re a violent nutjob or that, if they don’t share the same political beliefs as you, they might be in danger being around you.

That’s the thing that kills me. I don’t think the vast majority of Christians owe me anything other than commiseration and shock that people who claim to be Christian don’t know better than this.

But I think these Christians owe an enormous apology to the vast majority of Christians for royally fucking things up for all of them.

Diana Butler Bass in Sojourners: http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/17/psalm-1098-a-prayer-to-destroy-obama/ Frank Schafer on Rachel Maddow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wo1tw6RvfM

Brian McLaren, Matthew Paul Turner, Adam Hamilton, Jim Wallis and Dan Merchant are just a few of the Christian leaders who have been speaking out about things like this for a while. Yes, there need to be more, but they are speaking, just having a hard time getting others to listen.

You and me both. I just keep wanting to say GET OFF MY CLOUD, YOU HIPPIES.

The viking theme for NaNo is not to write about vikings (the theme to write about if you choose is Pirates…and I don’t choose.) They’re just using vikings for the logos, pep talks, etc.

And I’m with you — I want to shake my butt at the middle of this week and do a little “in your face’ dance to the semester low-point. My job really isn’t a bag of suck after all.

Oh, ‘course it wont happen . . .

You’re kidding, right? You’re not kidding? [shudder]