What?!?

So, it's been how many years? And I've finally caved in and started a blog. I don't know exactly what I'll be blogging, or if I will even keep the thing current. But we'll find out, I guess!

At the moment, a few things have rattled to the front of my mind:

1.) WTF is going on in this world, that the rabid-right think that they have the right - nay, the DUTY to inflict their beliefs on EVERYONE? Not just in the US, but around the entire world. I seem to remember Freedom of Religion being, oh, THE FIRST AMENDMENT IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS! (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.) Some of you may have caught during the last Presidential Election the statement by more than a few RRW's (Rabid Right Wingers) that "the Constitution promises freedom of religion, not freedom from religion!" This is so wrong, it makes my head hurt.

I will say it slowly, so that even the most dense can understand:

Freedom OF religion would inherently INCLUDE freedom FROM religion. "Freedom" means that EVERY person - even if they happen to be brown, or ::gasp:: Muslim, or atheist or agnostic, or Pentecostal or Unitarian or Quaker or whatever - EVERY person has the right to choose what he or she wants to believe in or not believe in; the right to choose whether or not they want to be part of the social network of a church, or the social network at the corner bar. Other regimes have tried to dictate what religious beliefs are acceptable, and what everyone must think, and from that we have the examples of World War II, Jonestown, and the Manson Family. 'Nuff said.