In My Own Words…
December 31, 2007
Hey folks.
I’m Luci’s son who was mentioned in the post To Be Deported For Voting. Firstly I really wanted to thank everyone for all the help and support you’ve given to me and my folks, you will never know how much it means to us. Read more
Atheist Radio in Midwest
December 27, 2007
Minnesota Atheists are taking their message to the air waves with a new radio program that will debut in January on the talk station Air America Minnesota.
Called “Atheists Talk” — the same name as a show the organization airs on cable access television — the live radio broadcast featuring news, interviews, listener call-ins and special guests is believed to be the first show of its kind in Minnesota, said August Berkshire, a spokesman for the Minnesota Atheists. Read more
Rational Responders
December 26, 2007
[Editor's Note: We have since discovered that the Rational Response Squad sufferd a major server crash. The events in this article were a simple misunderstanding.]
Yesterday I created an account at Rational Responders, and posted my story about my son’s pending deportation there in the hope to get some support.
Today the post is deleted, and my account de-activated.
To say I am disappointed, is the least. Is this how fellow atheists support each other in need?
Luci
Altruism Monthly Number 2: Luci’s Legal Fund
December 24, 2007
This month, we will be raising money for Luci, our fellow author. For those of you that have not heard yet, her son faces deportation for something that is extremely stupid. No, he is not an illegal. Please read the post to understand the background of what is going on.
We are raising funds for her so that she can afford representation for her son who faces deportation. People have already asked to donate funds to her for that purpose, so we have the widget you see to the right set up to collect funds for for her. All funds will be directly placed into Luci’s PayPal account upon submission.
From Luci~
The funds will be appropriated for legal fees and expenses related to prevention of Erhard being deported.
We have retained an immigration lawyer at $200 per hour. Practice Areas: Labor and Employment Law (Maritime and Airline Labor Law); Immigration and Naturalization Law; Commercial Litigation, Grievances, Mediation and Arbitration; Corporate, Insurance and Administrative Law; Contract Negotiation and Interpretation; Representation Disputes Before the National Mediation Board; Utility and Trade Association Law.
Mr Meltz regards this matter as extremely serious and urgent. He will analyze the situation and present us with options.
We have our first phone conference scheduled for Wednesday,Dec 26.
Please help as you can. I know that the holidays tend to drain the wallets of everyone but anything you can do will help. We have set a goal of $5,000. I know that this is only a fraction of what may be needed, but it is just a goal. If we meet it, we can go beyond that figure. Thank you for your support.
To be deported for voting
December 24, 2007
NOTE: PLEASE thumb this up in StumbleUpon, submit to DIGG, or any other social networking site to help spread the word.
Alright folks, ready to get pissed off?
TJM Author Luci has a problem. Her son received a letter last week, saying he would be deported for lacking moral character. Evidence? After registering for selective service, political campaigners mistakenly explained that he was allowed to vote in a local election because he had registered for selective service.
This young man lacks moral character because a political campaigner told him he could vote, election officials allowed him to vote, and he informed INS officials that he had voted.
Yes, he made a mistake, but it was a mistake that other people had a duty prevent. The campaigner should have known that resident aliens were not authorized to vote, and should not have pressed him into doing so. Election officials should have informed him at the polls that he was not allowed to vote because he was not yet a citizen.
The 26th amendment states that all citizens, 18 years or older, are granted the right to vote. This amendment was passed in 1971. It was proposed because the draft age was 18, but the voting age in some states was 21. People who were not politically represented were drafted and ordered to fight.
Now, this young man, who registered for selective service and could be called to fight and die for the United States, is not only denied the right to vote, he is also facing deportation.
There is nothing fair at all about this deportation.
Luci and her husband have been in the US about 10 years, and are naturalized citizens.
From Luci’s Petition.
~ lu
If anyone has any suggestions for us, please please email me ASAP. We need all the help we can get.
Email: Lucecorner[at]gmail[dot]com
Thank you tonyfor24, for the help in setting it up.
Thanks Xin and Digi for helping to write it.
Thanks for the idea, Antidotes.
Thank you in advance.
I am dying inside.
More details coming, so check back often. I’m looking for various places you can register your opinion, but for right now, the ACLU, Congress, and your local news outlets are good starting points. Make sure you sign Luci’s petition! If you have any suggestions or want to assist, either leave comments to this article or write Luci directly at lucecorner(at)gmail(dot)com or myself at rivalarrival(at)thejesusmyth(dot)com.
Update:
The notice was sent by:
Richard Gottlieb
Field Office Director
Citizenship and Immigration Services
6139 Tyvola Center Dr
Charlotte, NC 28217
This phone number has been associated with this office:
1-800-375-5283
WCNC is a Charlotte, NC news outlet. Contact information is all the way at the bottom of the page. (I couldn’t figure out direct linking to the page)
The following people are representatives for Luci’s son:
Congresswoman Sue Myrick
Phone: (202) 225-1976
Fax: (202) 225-3389
Phone: (704) 362-1060
Fax: (704) 367-0852
E-mail: myrick@mail.house.gov
Congressman Robin Hayes
Contact via web form
Phone: (202) 225-3715
Fax: (202) 225-4036
Phone: (704) 786-1612
Fax: (704) 782-1004
Congressman Melvin Watt
Contact via web form
Phone: (202) 225-1510
Fax: (202) 225-1512
Phone: (704) 344-9950
Fax: (704) 344-9971
Senator Richard Burr
Contact via web form
Phone: (202) 224-3154
Fax: (202) 228-2981
Phone: (336) 631-5125
Fax: (336) 725-4493
Senator Elizabeth Dole
Contact via web form
Phone: (202) 224-6342
Fax: (202) 224-1100
Phone: (919) 856-4630
Fax: (919) 856-4053
Governor Michael Easley
Phone: (202) 624-5830
Fax: (202) 624-5836
State Senator Malcolm Graham
Malcolmg@ncleg.net
Phone: (919) 733-5650
Fax: (919) 733-3113
Phone: (704) 547-1193
State Congressman Thom Tillis
Thomt@ncleg.net
Phone: (919) 733-5530
Fax: (919) 733-2599
Phone: (704) 248-2980
State Congressman Drew Saunders
Drews@ncleg.net
Phone: (919) 733-5606
Fax: (919) 733-2599
Phone: (704) 875-2738
State Senator Beverly Earle
Beverlye@ncleg.net
Phone: (919) 715-2530
Fax: (919) 733-3113
Phone: (704) 333-7180
NOTE: PLEASE thumb this up in StumbleUpon, submit to DIGG, or any other social networking site to help spread the word.
Atheist Christmas - PART 3
December 24, 2007
Lets go back in time to December of 2002, and we will return to the Part 3 of my original blog entry for December 25, 2006.
The story of a Catholic Teenager turned Atheist - finale
Silence, Reverence, & Peace…
The hallmarks of a Church. I just wish that the new age understood this before they had decided to take their previously unexpressed teenage angst and inflict it upon the Church and Christianity. I lived and still live amongst Christians. I understand Christianity much better than most of the true believers out there. After spending 12 years in bible classes, many years of church every single day (when I lived in Bahrain) & rest of the years, I visited church only on Sundays (after coming back to India). My knowledge about what I am and what I wanted to become was at a turning point. I had my path chosen already. The path of god. No, I wasn’t going to be a priest. I wanted to be out there helping people. The poor, those who are hungry, those who lack spirit. To give them strength, hopes for a better tomorrow. But my faith was to be put to an ultimate test. Read more
Church Cries Out: Quick! Burn the Tapes!
December 23, 2007
Will religion ultimately destroy humanity?
December 22, 2007
As far as I am concerned fundamental Christianity and Islam are probably two of the greatest evils humanity will have to face in the future.
Conservative Christianity and Islam try their best and more often succeed to prohibit and get in the way of scientific and medical research. They’re constantly attacking or trying to convert, people who don’t share their beliefs. Their philosophies skew the way people perceive reality; it holds them, and us, back from reaching full potential.
Christianity teaches you that you are not worthy of living as soon as you’re born. Since birth you’re labeled a sinner, and the only way you can be forgiven for this sin (for which you had no part in even), is by accepting Jesus as your Lord and savior. If you don’t accept Jesus, you’ll burn forever in Hell.
The messenger of Allah said the following: “Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, to perform the prayers, to pay the zakat, to fast in Ramadhan, and to make the pilgrimage to the House if you are able to do so.”
This is negative thinking, breaking down humans and hold them in fear.
If conservative Christianity and Islam are allowed to take over, opposing religions will be banned, productive science and medical research will be replaced with faith healing, and sexual experimentation will likely become punishable by a very violent death.
Pimping for Jesus: Pat Condell
December 19, 2007
Logical Path from Religious Beliefs to Evil Deeds
December 19, 2007
Nobody is suggesting that all religious people are violent, intolerant, racist, bigoted, contemptuous of women and so on. It would be absurd to suggest such a thing: just as absurd as to generalize about all atheists. I am not even concerned with statistical generalizations about the majority of religious people (or atheists). My concern here is over whether there is any general reason why religion might be more or less likely to bias individuals towards all those unpleasant things in Christopher Hitchens’s list: to make them more likely to exhibit them than they would have been without religion. I think the answer is yes.
Religion changes, for people, the definition of good. Atheists and humanists tend to define good and bad deeds in terms of the welfare and suffering of others. Murder, torture, and cruelty are bad because they cause people to suffer. Most religious people think them bad, too, but some religions (for example the religion of the Taliban) sanction all of them under some circumstances. For non-religious people, the behavior of consenting adults in a private bedroom is the business of nobody else, and is not bad unless it causes suffering – for example by breaking up a happy family. But many religions arrogate to themselves the right to decide that certain kinds of sexual behavior, even if they do no harm to anyone, are wrong.
The actions of the Taliban, their vile bullying of women, their sanctimonious hatred of all that might lead to enjoyment, their violence, their ignorant bigotry, their hatred of education, their cruelty, seem to me to be as close to pure evil as anything I can imagine. Yet, by the lights of their own religion they are supremely righteous – really good people.
The nineteen men of 9/11, having washed, perfumed themselves and shaved their whole bodies in preparation for the martyr’s paradise, believed they were performing the highest religious duty. By the lights of their religion they were as good as it is possible to be. They were not poor, downtrodden, oppressed or psychotic; they were well educated, sane and well balanced, and, as they thought, supremely good. But they were religious, and that provided all the justification they needed to murder and destroy. Their madrassas and their mullahs had given them good reason to think they were on a fast track to paradise.
Polls suggest that 13% of British Muslims regard the 7/7 London bombers as blessed martyrs. Neighbors and friends expressed bewilderment that such nice, gentle, kind, youth-clubbing, cricket-loving young men could do such terrible things. But once you understand what they truly and sincerely believed – that it was Allah’s will that they blow up buses and subways – it becomes all too easy to understand.
It is easy for religious faith, even if it is irrational in itself, to lead a sane and decent person, by rational, logical steps, to do terrible things. There is a logical path from religious faith to evil deeds. There is no logical path from atheism to evil deeds. Of course, many evil deeds are done by individuals who happen to be atheists. But it can never be rational to say that, because of my nonbelief in religion, it would be good to be cruel, to murder, to oppress women, or to perpetrate any of the evils on the Hitchens list.
The following quotation from the Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg has become well known, but it is so devastatingly true that it is worth quoting again and again: “With or without [religion] you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.”
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