Month: October 2005

Sometimes it seems like every bit of news that we read is depressing, maddening, or sometimes tragic.  In stories that appear to be favorable and wholesome on the surface, our skepticism allows us to see sinister undercurrents.

I think there are a few factors that cause this:
  -) a sensationalist news media
  -) our own mistrustful and sometimes jaded approach to stories that are marketed as ‘good news’
  -) the repeated attempts to package bad happenings in good news like some anecdotal trojan horse

But this is not meant to be an analysis of our system of news.

Instead, I’ve decided to try something a little different.  Lately I have been growing weary (as I know many of you have) of all the bad news; it keeps piling on and on.  And when there is some kind of ‘good’ news, it is invariably based in Republican schadenfreude and we talk and write about it ad infinitum.

So I’ve decided to use this diary to package up a few genuinely good news stories that you may or may not have heard about that aren’t based on the misfortune of corrupt incompetents.

This is the weekly summary of the Humanist Network News (HNN). The Humanist Network News (HNN) is published every Wednesday via e-mail and on the Institute for Humanist Studies (IHS) Web site. This diary is a slightly reformatted copy of the weekly email they send me, which I post here every Thursday (Yes, I have permission from the IHS). (CP @ MLW, BT, SP)

October 19, 2005
Humanist Network News
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1. White supremacist: Jews expelled Darby from atheist group
2. IHS policy director deftly debates minister on Constitution
3. Iranian humanist named first “Secularist of the Year”
4. Assisted suicide to be debated soon in Canada
5. Secular Coalition rolls up sleeves and digs in
6. The Harriet Miers Nomination: What does religion have to do with it?
7. There is no God (and you know it)
8. Requiring pharmacists to be professionals
9. Rationally Speaking: Are crowds wise?
10. Humanism in a strange land
11. Film Review: Wallace and Gromit
12. Sweet Reason, I feel guilty about my skepticism?
13. Letters to the Editor
14. Cathartic Comics
15. Humanist Humor
16. Poll of the Week

Summaries and links across the break. As always, anyone and everyone is more than welcome to write a more in depth diary on any of the stories.

I hoped to have a better booking photo of DeLay than the above. Maybe something more like Nick Nolte’s booking photo. But I’ll take what I can get.

Good evenin’ ladies and gentleman. It is my pleasure to address you. (smirk)

When I was first elected back in 2000, I stressed that me and my team would act like the grown-ups that we were and restore honor and integrity where it had been lackin’ in The White House