The Atheist Mama

Love,
Mr. and Mrs. President Bush

http://www.atheists.org/nogodblog/index.php/2005/11/30/bush_hates_god_and_xmas

This is interesting! I would have expected different…

Ok, so apparently John Reneer and his sodomy and murder (yes, murder) charges/convictions are old news.

But hey, it’s news to me!!

If you’re interested, here are several more articles on him, the crimes he committed and other neat stuff -

http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/kentucky/9126158.htm
http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/kentucky/9129656.htm
http://www.wlky.com/news/2697456/detail.html

Anti-War-Line

Why is this guy walking around stalking people at porn shops?

Ok, I’m done with this now. *Sigh*

This has got to be some kind of joke.

I was re-reading the article that I linked to below and found that the founder of this group is a convicted sex offender.

So I found him.

********************************************************

http://kspsor.state.ky.us/ - Look for yourself - Search for Reneer

Offender Identification
SOR Number - 2339

Name - RENEER, JOHN E

Address - 8219 MINORS LANE
LOT #94
LOUISVILLE, KY 40219-
JEFFERSON COUNTY

Date of Birth - 10/20/1946
Sex - MALE
Aliases (None)

Physical Description
Height 5′ 11″
Weight 175
Hair Color GRAY
Eye Color BLUE
Race W - CAUCASIAN

Offense(s) Requiring Registration
Date Registered - 04/17/2001
Offender Type - COMPLIANT
Registration Type - LIFETIME
Offenses 510.070 - SODOMY 1ST DEGREE

Remarks
Last Updated 11/08/2004

********************************************************

“Reneer: There’s nothing I can do now that could ever make up or alleviate what I’ve done in the past. My goal is to try to make a difference.”

Are you kidding me???
I’m speechless.
I wonder if he’s down at the Lion’s Den now…

Tags:
columbusblogger, porn, sex offender

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557

I know this has been linked too, and talked about, but I just wanted to put it up here in case you haven’t seen or heard it. Follow the link and listen. It’s really great.

Tags:
Atheism, penn

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10258499/

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An organization based in Kentucky is photographing customers who go into adult bookstores and then making them public.

Unfortunately, what they are doing is legal. But what the patrons of the Lions Den are doing are legal as well!
The group posting the pictures is called WAR-LINE.
What I want to know is where they are getting their facts.

“Statistics are pretty revealing. Porn shops and strip joints are demeaning to women and promote sexual violence.”

Ok, a link to your statistics please??
Yes, they are demeaning to women, but promote sexual violence? Maybe some of those hard core videos, but strip joints?

Hmmm… I wonder if religion has anything to do with this…

Tags:
columbusblogger, ohio, Porn, religion

Have you ever listened to these guys??
They’re great! They’re based out of Cleveland (for now - they’re moving to Chicago at the beginning of next year). They’re on 107.1 in Columbus. They’re also on in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Rochester, Memphis, Cincinnati, Madison, and St. Louis.

Anyway, I get a real kick out of them every morning. If you are in these areas, listen sometime!

Tags:
columbusblogger, radio

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10252134/from/RL.1/
A man who killed his mother-in-law and 5-year-old stepdaughter after a cocaine binge 20 years ago was executed by the state of Ohio on Tuesday, the 999th person put to death since United States reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

So here are the details of his crime -

Hicks was a cocaine and alcohol addict. He had purchased some cocaine
around 4pm on August 2, 1985, but felt a further craving, so took the
VCR from his own home as security for a $50 purchase. He did not have
the cash to redeem the VCR and so knew he wife would become angry when
she found out what he had done. It was now that he decided to rob and
murder Armstrong.

After buying more cocaine, he realised his stepdaughter would place
him at the scene of the crime and could be a potential witness. He
returned and smothered her with a pillow. When this failed to kill his
stepdaughter, he tried to use his own hands, and then duct taped her
mouth and nose. He attempted to dismember Armstrong in the bathtub,
but gave up after nearly cutting one of her legs off. Returning to the
body of Brandy Green, he removed her underpants and penetrated her
with his finger. His last actions in the apartment were to steal a
checkbook, a ring, a .32 caliber pistol, and a box of ammunition.
After returing to his apartment around 3am, he fled from Cincinnati at
6am. He would be later arrested in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 4.

Now, I’m not quite sure where I stand on the death penalty, and this is exactly why. How can anyone really want to keep a man like this alive?

Tags:
ohio, columbusblogger, death penalty

Reid Hoyle

Reid Hoyle, 54, of Asheville, died Wednesday, July 30, 2003, at a local hospital.
A native of Asheville, he was the son of Alton R. Hoyle Sr. and Jean Allen Hoyle. A graduate of Asheville High School, he served in the U.S. Army, then returned to Asheville where he worked in the construction industry.
He was preceded in death by his brother, Jere M. Hoyle. Along with his parents he is survived by two sons, Stuart and Andrew Hoyle of Asheville; brother, Michael A. Hoyle of Asheville; sister, Jeanie H. Lane and her husband, Jack, of Atlanta; three nieces and one nephew.

I was thinking a lot of Reid this afternoon for some reason.
Reid was a “father figure” to me for quite a few years when I first moved to Asheville, NC in 1996.
I met him while at his neighbor’s house. He yelled over at us, “come on over and burn one!”

He was a complicated guy. He was rarely seen without a vodka tonic in one hand (or the occasional Coors Light) and a cigarette in the other.
Reid was FILLED with stories of his past. Women, drugs, sex and war.
He told many, many stories about the horrors of the Vietnam War. One night while watching a documentary on the Vietnam war, he started crying.
“I just got so sick of worrying about the other guy.”
It wasn’t until this year that I found out that he was never in Vietnam. Not for one of the three tours that he told stories of.

He also told many stories of “boy’s camp,” or prison as many of us know it. Reid was put in prison because in 1987 he killed someone. He told us of the time that he was working with the police to catch a local cocaine dealer that was “destroying his town.” That cocaine dealer attacked him at a restaurant one night (after Reid had gotten very drunk) and in the struggle the man got shot. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that there was no cocaine dealer. The man that Reid killed that night was someone who was asking for a ride and became aggressive when Reid told him no..

I didn’t find out about Reid’s death until this past summer. After moving from North Carolina, and some big changes in my life, I lost touch with him.
In July of 2003 he walked into his mothers living room, put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, just as his brother had done in 1980.

Reid was obviously a very troubled man. I don’t know what it was, but something must have happened to him in his past. Something that made him think that he had to be someone he was not.

Regardless of it all, Reid was a good man - to me. He was very caring and loved company and having a good time. He was always quick to offer you a room or a home, a cigarette or a joint, a burger or a stake.

I’m sorry he’s gone, but he must have been in so much pain… At least he’s not feeling the pain anymore.

(the person in the picture of him above is me, but it’s not one of my better pictures so I cropped myself out)

**Update**

I found a link to Reid’s High School Class page and they had a photo of him -

Just have to say how much I love The Body Shop. No, I don’t work there, and I don’t do The Body Shop at Home (although that would be pretty cool) but I love their products. Great stuff!!

If you ever walk by this store in the mall, stop in. They give samples galore and you can try anything and everything. I recommend the Hemp products and the Body Butter.

:-)

http://www.nbc6.net/news/5419551/detail.html

Random, high-profile security operations will keep terrorists guessing about where police might be next, he said. For example, a group of officers might surround a downtown bank building, checking the identification of each person going in and out and handing out leaflets about terror threats.

So what do you think about this?

I understand that it’s important to stop terrorist activity, but at the expense of our rights?
So while I’m walking down the street one day and have to go into a bank to use an ATM machine I might get IDd?
What if I forgot my ID at home? Will I be arrested or held for questioning?
What’s next? Will they start surrounding random homes and coming in to search just to keep terrorists guessing?

I just don’t think that I want to give up my rights to that one in a million chance that they might find someone planning something.

No, I don’t have anything to hide. But I don’t want to have to prove that either.

Tags:
Civil Liberties, civil-liberties, terrorists

Well that was interesting!!
From the VERY beginning there was a negative spin on the atheist. She would rather play on the computer than take care of her kids? She doesn’t bring them outside? LOL!! The Infidel Guy doesn’t spend any time with his family.
Ok, while I suppose there may be some truths to some of this, I’m sure it was totally exagerated.
And the pastor… Well he was just an extreme.

Does anyone remember the Wife Swap that had the anti-war activist and the Bush lover?
It was actually Episode 17: Patrick/Leierwood. It was on in February.
I actually “knew” her. We were both a part of an “exclusive” mom’s group online. I’m no longer a member but it was pretty funny. I still have that show on DVD. She’s a real bible thumper. The debate board on that site we were both members of got pretty interesting (98% of that group was xian). She never really took part in a debate until god was mentioned.

Anyway, I can’t imagine swapping families with anyone, ever. I’d miss my boys way too much…

Tags:
Atheism, atheist, atheist mom, columbusblogger

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/5415807/detail.html

An American Electric Power substation exploded on Monday morning, leaving at least 32,000 customers on the city’s north side without electricity.

This includes Robert’s company. He’s home from work this morning. They have claimed that there will be electricity in 4 hours, give or take.

If you look at the pictures, it seems it was quite an event!!

Tags:
columbusblogger

I know that it may be a surprise to a lot of you that I’m an atheist. Yes, I’ve been a closet atheist for some time now and have spent the last year and a half or so “coming out of the closet.”

Here are a few things that atheists are and what they are not (this is a great list from http://www.atheist.org - follow the links for more info) -

Atheism is NOT a “belief.”

Atheism is NOT a Religion

Atheism is NOT linked to Communism

Atheists are NOT “secular humanists”…

Atheists do NOT Advocate Satan Worship…

Atheists are NOT “Forcing their Opinions” on Society

We are a happy, atheist family!

With the christmas season coming up, I want to say that we don’t celebrate christmas (or easter, or any other christian holidays). Nope, no tree, no decorations, no carols, no santa.
We do celebrate the Winter Solstice though (as well as the Summer Solstice, and the Equinoxes).

So there it is. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. I welcome them!

Tags:
Atheism, atheist, atheist mom, columbusblogger

I grew up in a “Catholic” family. But we weren’t strict Catholics, not at all. Basically, it was the religion that my mother grew up believing in.
We didn’t go to church often. We did the Easter and Christmas thing. I made my first confession when I was in the 2nd grade or so. I was so nervous about it. I was told that I had to confess all of the sins I had committed up until that point. All of the bad things that I had done, all of the bad things that I had said, and all of the bad things that I had thought. I was literally shaking and stuttering while kneeling there in the confessional. I guess it was then that I received my first communion (if my memory isn’t failing).

When I reached the 5th grade, we moved to Savannah, GA and I was sent to a Catholic school because the education in GA wasn’t considered all that great. I was coming from a DODDS school and my parents were trying to keep me up in education. I attended church several times a week, and confession once a week. I would be made fun of and given warnings by teachers if my family didn’t show up for mass on Sundays. I was in religion class every day.
I was taught that masterbation was wrong. I was taught that “heavy petting” was wrong. I didn’t even know what masterbation was. I was taught that it was wrong before I even knew the definition. I had to go home and ask my mother what it was and I told her that “Sr. Mary said that God says it’s wrong and you could go to hell for it.” My mother assured me it wasn’t true and that it was nothing more than a normal part of being human. This is just one small example of different things that I learned. It stands out in my memory. LOL!

I read the Bible. Not the entire thing but most of the OT. I probably read Genesis 40 times. There was a lot that I didn’t understand, but when I asked questions, I was made fun of by the other students, and the teacher would kind of join in on the snickering (Sr. Mary was a real bitch…). I felt stupid and embarressed so I quickly learned to shut up. I figured that I just wasn’t as smart as the others were and that for some reason I just didn’t get it. So I pretended to.

I was to be confirmed in the 8th grade but after the 7th grade I moved and went to a public school. I learned exactly what confirmation was and I told my parents that I didn’t think that I was old enough to confirm myself to a religion for the rest of my life. After we moved, we didn’t attend church at all. I think we went a few times, but we didn’t belong to a church.

Through highschool, God and religion didn’t even enter my mind. I believed in God but that was about it. I didn’t pray, I didn’t think about it, I didn’t care. After graduation, I moved down to Asheville, NC and everyone was very “spiritual” and new agey. It was all about “energy” then. Bad energy, good energy, vibes… I still believed in God but I didn’t think about it often. I also knew that I thought that organized religion was a bad thing.

A few years passed, I moved a few times, and ended up with my husband and we were having a baby. It was then that I was faced with baptism. Of course, my family expected it. My great aunt (and God mother) already had the Christening gown made and ready to go. My husband was raised as agnostic and was very against the idea. So was I, but I didn’t feel as strong as he did. I was going to go through with the baptism because it was what they wanted but I decided to tell them no. I told them that I was not a practicing Catholic, or even a practicing Christian and that it would make no sense for me to baptize my child. I caused a fight between my mother and I. My great aunt sent me a long letter quoting the Bible and sent tracts and clippings from different Catholic newsletters.

It was then that I knew I had to figure out exactly what I believed. So I started researching. As I said before, organized religion didn’t do a thing for me. I briefly looked into Paganism, but the idea of many gods seems silly to me. I wasn’t even sure if there was one, let alone many! I also looked into Pantheism and while it seemed like a very nice idea, it just didn’t stick. I then learned about Deism, and it made sense. I was down with the idea that there was a god, but that he wasn’t babysitting the planet earth. I thought that I had figured it out.

Then I came across The Closet Atheist and I was telling my husband about something that I read there. He laughed and said that we were “probably just closet atheists” and I looked at him in disbelief. Atheist?? No…. How could I not believe in God? I couldn’t even imagine not believeing in a god. I didn’t even realize that not believing in God was an option - until that moment.

So I started thinking… What if there was no god? The more I thought about no god, the more it made sense. My thoughts started snowballing. This is the best way that I can describe it. Everything started falling into place, and quickly. I had NEVER felt so free and relieved. All of that wondering and worrying about what to believe - and there was nothing to believe in. I started to live for myself and stopped wondering and worrying.

Apologies for typos… I don’t have time right now to proofread. :-)

Welcome to one of many that I have started… I always seem to find a reason to ditch one blog for another.

If you know me, you may be surprised by some of the things that you read and see here. So proceed with caution and open mindedness.
If you don’t, here is a little about me and my family.

I’m Cassandra and my husband is Robert. We have 2 little boys.
We live in Columbus, Ohio. We are atheists, and yes, we vote (well, my husband and I do).

I’m 27 years old. I’m from Northern Virginia (Fairfax). I’ve lived all over the United States and in Germany.

I like to garden when the weather is perfect (not too hot and not too cold). I also love house plants but sometimes have a hard time remembering to water them.
I have an unhealthy urge to spend money. I honestly believe that it’s an addiction.
Guinness is my drink of choice.

That’s me, in a nutshell. Enjoy!