The Snarky Humanist

So some poor, distressed public school teacher in France was having a rough time. A recent parents' meeting had gone so poorly for her that she turned hostile towards the assembled parents. A meeting on Wednesday with several students to "clear the air" didn't go any better. So Thursday, she did what she felt was the best thing to do in this situation. She came to school, taught her first class, then went out to the busy playground, doused herself in gasoline, and set herself on fire . According to one of the student witnesses, when people tried to put her out she told them "No, leave me alone. I don't need help. God told me to do this." Now, I certainly feel sorry for this woman. Clearly she was very troubled, and I sincerely hope that she gets the help she needs if/when she recovers from her injuries. And I feel horrible for the co-workers, and especially the students, that now have to deal with the trauma of witnessing someone that they know trying to

If you're an active atheist, than you probably know about the Jessica Ahlquist story. If not, read up on it. Short version: A junior at a public high school in Rhode Island would prefer that the "School Prayer" not be displayed on a giant banner in the school's auditorium. This seems to be fairly cut and dry. We have laws in place protecting the public sector from religion, and it's hard to think of an argument that would validate the need to have a prayer on display in a public school. Yeah. Unfortunately, Christians tend to be extremely protective over their perceived rights to express their faith in any manner they choose. The request made to take the banner down was denied, so Jessica filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union. Yesterday there was a trial, and an eye-witness wrote a really good write-up about it. I love two things about what transpired in that courtroom: 1. The judge asked the defense if it would make a difference if the p

Social media apparently makes it easier to declare yourself an atheist . It's interesting, since in my first blog I noted that I felt as though I really needed to think about whether it was "ok" to call myself an atheist on Myspace 5 years ago. I went ahead and did it, but not because there was safety in numbers. I had, at that time, felt rather alone in my atheism (aside from madscutter, of course), and clearly only got interested in this community/movement/weird assortment of people who care about their nonbeliefs very recently. I don't know if social media, or the New Atheist movement has inadvertently brought non-practicing atheists out of the woodwork, but if I sit and count the number of atheists I now know (none of whom who feel a need to blog about it), the number is surprisingly high. At least, considering the ever-decreasing stigma attached to being a heathen. Maybe Facebook can accept a bit of credit, considering how easy they made to simply select &q

The Affordable Care Act does lots of things. It removes lifetime limits so that people with cancer or chronic diseases won't have to go without treatment because they've reached their "limit". It allows parents to continue to cover their children until the age of 26. It will also provide free birth control to women...assuming you don't work for a Catholic organization of course. The Catholics are trying to get a bill passed that would allow religious organizations the right not to provide free birth control as part of their insurance plan. So, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services added an exemption for the Catholics, but are now asking for comments . The ability to submit comments was supposed to expire yesterday, although the form is still up today. I can't believe that the Catholics are so insecure and distrustful of their own members that they think it's necessary to not provide free birth control as part of their insurance plans. A t