This week we kick it off the news podcast with little talk about the young lady who was recently fired from her teaching position at a Catholic school because she joined Atheist Nexus and said that she didn’t believe in God on Facebook. We might have some more in depth info from that direction in the very near future. Stay tuned.
In the news this week, it’s more yammering about circumcision. A lot more. I know that it doesn’t directly have much to do with atheists or atheism in general, but one of the benefits of quitting smoking and becoming a grumpy jerk is that there are a lot more things that really piss me off all of the sudden. So, I am embracing my inner jerk.
Surprisingly, Richard doesn’t necessarily agree with me on the whole circumcision thing, so we actually have a half-way decent conversation about it rather than just agreeing with each-other incessantly. It didn’t erupt into a full blown argument, though, which would have rocked.
During the show I promised a link to this gem:
http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html
Again: I found it once upon a time and I can’t claim it’s all the truth, but it was interesting–to use a nice, non-committal adjective.
We also discuss the titular “Best fatwa EVAR,” but I don’t want to spoil it here. Just know I am ready to help implement this fatwa here in the United States ASAP.
And… I have a nagging feeling that I am forgetting something…
Oh well, maybe it will come to me later.
Have a good week, chums
–Joe
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Were the two separate voices put on separate channels on purpose or was it a mistake? Either way, it either ruins my one-eared podcast-listening time at work entirely or is very distracting when both ears are actually involved.
Please don’t ever do that again.
I think it’s worth mentioning that with school vouchers that they do not have the problems you mentioned because it’s state funded, not state led. It’s parents using government money, The government is not choosing who to give money too. It’s similar to tax rebates, I’m getting money from the government, but I’m using it for my own reason’s and I can give it to religious institutes if I want.
As for the discrimination issue, The business and the customer have a private contract. If I have a restaurant and don’t want blacks to come in I shouldn’t have to let them. They have a choice in where to eat and I can choose who I want to serve. Making a law is, in essence, taking away one person’s freedom to supplement another person’s choice, not freedom.
I’ve been fired for being an atheist. More shock was that I found here in Canada there was nothing nor any group to help me fight for my rights. To this date no atheist groups will help others in these matters. 0
I second Christopher’s comment - particularly as my left earphone is a bit faulty so Joe’s voice kept dropping out every now and again; it was a absolute disaster.
Couldn’t find a “contact” form so I’m posting this as a comment: you might consider recording in mono, as it would reduce bandwidth and help those who listen in loud environs to hear you. Plus the extreme left channel/right channel division of your voices makes it sound like you’re yelling in my ear.
Love the show though
Another vote against the stereo effect, I spent ages trying to find a way to change the settings on my iPod to mono, but couldn’t. It became really quite distracting. Thanks for the ep, though.
godfrey2 - If your case is legitimate, then this is exactly what the Canadian Secular Alliance deals with. Please let me know if you’d like me to get you in touch with the group.
Chris
chris@christophercain.ca
RE: circumcision reducing the chance of getting AIDS- From what I understand, the foreskin contains a large number of immune cells which is what the virus inhabits. So removing the foreskin reduces the number of houses for it to move into.
Loved the stereo version. It works really well when I have my mp3 plugged into the stereo system.
As for the teacher thing, it was my understanding that they could hire or not hire for whatever reason but could not fire on the basis of race, creed, etc… If she was upfront and honest on all the questions put to her during her pre-hire interview, I think there is a valid lawsuit in the works.
Also, now that Joe is not doing Chariots anymore, does that mean AN will become a weekly podcast or that Joe will just become lazy with his weekends. Just wondering.
Keep up the great work.
Glad you and Bro Richard are back! And hopefully on a more regular schedule.
Posted over on Chariot’s site that I believe the new “split” with allow both podcasts to reach more listeners and take some work off of a few and spread it around.
Once agian glad you guys are back BSing and spread the news! Same thing about Eli and Lamar!
Thanks Jerry! I hope we all use this as an opportunity to grow and make things better. I’m already feeling almost normal since I quit smoking and actually replied to a bunch of email today, so maybe there is hope!
The stereo version was a mistake… >.>
When I record, I have Richard on one channel and me on the other. After I am done editing, I make it all mono because a lot of people listen to the show with only one earpiece. Other people just find the pseudo-stereo effect annoying. I kind of like it, but I’m weird like that. I took a poll on this a long time ago and mono clearly won, so…
The teacher firing will be interesting. We’ll see how it comes out. Personally, I can see why it is desirable to protect the interest of the organization as well as people’s personal rights. I’m still waiting to hear an ethical/legal perspective on this that totally clicks with me.
AN is not likely to become a weekly podcast, but I sure won’t have any excuse to go three weeks or a month without a podcast anymore. What it does mean is that we’re going to try to do a lot more interviews with people in the news. We’re also talking about making some improvements to the show in the future, so I’ll keep you posted.
As to a businesses right to discriminate against customers… there are some practical reasons why this is not going to work. If I live in a town with one drug store and I am the only black person in town, how is that going to work out for me if they deny me service? Saying that I have the “freedom to open my own drug store” or the “freedom to move somewhere else” or something like that is just silly. So, we can add caveats to the idea that you can serve who you want, just to accommodate scenarios such as these (which, in my opinion, would get crazy-complicated,) or we can just say that you are a person, but your business is just a business and is not a person. It doesn’t have the right to protest people being black, or gay. It’s there to make money, not make statements.
–Joe