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Debunking the Christian nation myth
By Andrew Seidel
Andrew Seidel, FFRF staff attorney, gave this speech accompanied by PowerPoint (edited here for print) in October at FFRF's 35th annual convention on Oct. 13, 2012 in Portland, Ore.
I'd like to thank Dan and Annie Laurie for asking me to speak here today. It's quite an honor to share the stage with such illustrious speakers. I'd also like to take a moment to thank all the FFRF members out there. Your generosity and support make my job possible, and I absolutely love my job.
Today I want to discuss two things: One, the idea that we're founded as a Christian nation. When you hear that argument, you may debunk it using, say, the Treaty of Tripoli, which most of you are probably familiar with, which says we're not founded in any sense on the Christian religion. Or maybe you cite the First Amendment or the fact that religious oaths are constitutionally prohibited or that the Constitution is entirely godless.
When you use those facts to refute their first argument, your opponent will fall back on the second argument, which is that we're founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Typically, you'll hear three arguments as to why we are founded as a Christian nation: "In God We Trust" or "One nation under God" (these silly little phrases always seem to come up), the Declaration of Independence made us a Christian nation, and the claim that the founders were all Christian.
You obviously know that "In God We Trust" and "One nation under God" are not from the founding era. The former first appeared on one coin in 1863 and was required on currency only in 1956 and the latter was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.
The timing of these late additions is telling. Lincoln had declared martial law in 1863, the year the battle of Gettysburg was fought. Habeas corpus was suspended in 1861 for the first time in U.S. history. Brothers were killing brothers, and the country was literally tearing itself apart. It's at this "propitious" time that Christian nationalists — a phrase I'm going to use to describe anybody who claims that we're a Christian nation — push their religion on us all.
When Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase ordered James Pollock, U.S. Mint director, to make the change on one coin, he wrote: "We claim to be a Christian Nation. . . . The time for this or the introduction of a similar motto is propitious. 'Tis an hour of National peril and danger, an hour when man's strength is weakness, when our strength and our nation's salvation must be in the God of Battles."
The same thing happened in the 1950s during the height of McCarthyism and the "Red scare," marked by witch hunts for nonbelievers and communists, blacklists, loyalty oaths and arrests. Chief Justice Earl Warren at the time said that if the Bill of Rights were put to a vote it would lose.
The second thing to note about these changes is their effect. That religion is divisive is probably not a controversial claim to make here. The founders were well aware of this. James Madison in the "Federalist Papers, Number Ten" wrote that the zeal of different opinions concerning religion has divided humankind into parties and enflamed mutual animosity. This is one of the reasons the founders wanted to keep religion out of government. The original motto was "E pluribus unum" (from many, one). The Christian nationalists erased that unifying theme and put their divisive, religious theme in its place.
The same thing happened with the pledge. It's even more striking because they actually divided the indivisible and then injected religion.
Natural law
When discussing the Declaration of Independence, the Religious Right typically focuses on four phrases from it: "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," "their Creator," "the Supreme Judge of the world" and "Divine Providence." Notice that not a single one of these is Christian. There's no mention of Jesus or Yahweh or the God of Abraham.
There are two competing views on natural law. The first is that laws or rights are given to us by a divine being. The second is that we have rights because we're human.
We know which one of these Thomas Jefferson was talking about because he wrote about natural law in several other places. A great quote from his opinion of the French treaties: "Questions of the natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man. Those who write treatises on natural law can only declare what their own moral sense and reason dictate."
Human rights — natural law — are discoverable by reason. This is most certainly not a divine idea of natural law. Jefferson also said in 1774 that "a free people claim their rights" — they are "not a gift of the chief magistrate." I think that would also include they are not a gift from God. People have to assert those rights.
Moreover, the Declaration of Independence has two principles that Judeo-Christianity is directly opposed to: When you have a tyrannical government, it's a "duty" and a "right" to throw off that government; and it explicitly states that governments are instituted by the people, not by the magistrate, not by the king. The bible directly contradicts these two ideas.
The Book of Romans in the New Testament says, "There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." The Old Testament Book of Daniel says basically the same thing: "The Most High has sovereignty over the reign of mortals and gives it to who He will."
These principles behind Judeo-Christianity are fundamentally in conflict with the principles that the Declaration of Independence lays out.
Founders' faith
George Washington died in 1799. The next year, Mason Weems, a parson, wrote a book about him, a book in which we get the myths about the cherry tree and about Washington praying in the snow at Valley Forge. There's no evidence to suggest either happened, and the prayer story didn't actually come out in Weems' book until something like the 34th edition.
These claims are reminiscent of Mormons posthumously baptizing people — claiming that the founders were all Christian and therefore we're a Christian nation. It's also incredibly rude. These men and women sacrificed an awful lot — lives, blood, treasure — and it just ignores that and attributes to God this monumental achievement.
More importantly, what the founders thought personally about God or Jesus is irrelevant to the nation itself. Religion does not claim ownership over other ideas generated by a mind. For instance, there's no such thing as Jewish blue jeans. We just call them blue jeans, even though they were invented by Levi Strauss. Same thing with vaccines. They're not Jewish vaccines, they're just vaccines. Algebra is just algebra, not Muslim math.
Whatever the founders chose to do in their private lives, publicly they chose to erect the wall of separation between church and state. You've all probably heard the quip that if we're a Christian nation, you might as well call us a white nation. That's a very effective argument to make. The idea that they were all Christian and therefore founded us as a Christian nation is absolute nonsense.
When I set out to debunk the Christian nationalist fallback argument, it took me a while to discover what a Judeo-Christian principle is. It turns out the best answer comes from Harry Truman, president during McCarthy's rise to fame. Known for being a plain speaker, he occasionally used vulgarity.
Arguably, the most vulgar thing he ever said was, "The fundamental basis for all government is in the bible. It started with Moses on the mountain." He then mentions the New Testament and the Ten Commandments.
Let's compare the Judeo-Christian principles in the bible and the Ten Commandments to our nation's founding principles.
The commandments
First, which commandments? There are four different sets of Ten Commandments in the bible. The first set is given to Moses on the mountain. He comes down the mountain and finds his followers worshipping a golden calf. They are breaking one of the commandments, a commandment they don't know about yet. His response is to smash the commandments on the ground in anger and slaughter 3,000 of his friends, brothers and neighbors. Mark that term for later — friends, brothers and neighbors.
God orders Moses to make a new set and promises to sweep all of the current residents off the land in favor of the Israelites. So the second set is sealed with the promise of genocide, and in that set, God lays claim to all the firstborn of Israel. The third set is substantially similar to the first, and the fourth set is just a list of people who are cursed.
Any given bible cannot agree on which 10 are the 10. Actually, different religious traditions do not agree on how the commandments should be numbered or translated either. Such discrepancies may seem like small differences, but when you couple unshakable certainty with a claim to hold the ultimate truth, everything, no matter how small, matters. There is no such thing as a small religious difference.
Which set? I'm going to use the first set, the one that people are most familiar with because of Charlton Heston. We'll use the Protestant version.
First Commandment: "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me." This obviously conflicts with the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion, but it also conflicts with Article VI of the Constitution. The Constitution specifically says that it, not God, is the supreme law of the land.
This commandment conflicts with the constitutional Supremacy Clause and the First Amendment. So it did not have an influence because it conflicts.
Second Commandment: "You shall not make for yourself an idol." But read the unabridged commandment, which continues, "for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God punishing the children for the inequity of the parents until the third or fourth generation." This conflicts with the First Amendment again. You can make as many idols as you want, but the Constitution also directly prohibits punishing children for their parents' crimes. Article III: "No attainder of treason shall work a corruption of blood." That means if you are guilty of treason, only you will receive punishment, not your children, and certainly not your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
This also conflicts with our principle of justice that only the guilty are punished.
Third Commandment: "Thou shall not take the name of thy Lord thy God in vain." I claim that this is void for vagueness. Under the 14th Amendment, laws have to be simple enough for people to understand them, so that they know what action is being prohibited.
I've asked this of a number of people and get different answers. The best I've heard is that it prevents people from swearing an oath and then violating that oath. It fails to give adequate guidance. Quite obviously, this also runs afoul of freedom of speech.
Fourth Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Again, read the whole commandment: "You shall do no work neither shall your male or female slave. In six days the Lord made the heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them."
First of all, we're supposed to be celebrating because a God who is all-powerful took six days to make the earth and on the seventh day he had to rest? I call this celebrating lazy omnipotence.
Most importantly, this commandment sanctions slavery. We do have to concede the bible has had a severe influence on the history of slavery. Every original justification for continuing the practice came from the bible. We can concede that to the Christian nationalists. They are welcome to this shameful influence.
Fifth Commandment: "Honor thy father and mother." I don't really like this commandment, not because I don't want to honor my mother and father, but I think it should be simply to honor people. This really didn't have an effect or influence on our nation's principles, unless somebody can correct me later.
Six through nine
I'm going to group these next few together and come back to adultery at the end: "You shall not kill; don't steal; and don't bear false witness against your neighbor."
These commandments are not Judeo-Christian at all. They are universal principles that apply to absolutely everyone. All successful societies have discovered them.
Secondly, the Judeo-Christian interpretation is actually less moral because it is not universally applied, but applied only to one's "neighbor."
In the original Hebrew translations, there are no punctuation marks, no paragraph breaks, no line breaks. These commandments could be read so that "against your neighbor" applies to all the preceding commandments starting with "you shall not murder."
So it could mean, you shall not murder your neighbor, you shall not steal from your neighbor, you shall not lie to your neighbor. I submit to you that that's actually the better reading.
Who is your "neighbor?" In Leviticus, "any of your people" is how they define neighbor. "Stand against the blood of your neighbor," "your people," "the sons of your own people," "your countrymen." It's only the people who believe in the same God as you, your co-religionists. That's what neighbor means in the Old Testament.
Immediately after getting these commandments, the Israelites commit genocide after genocide. But none of the slain are Israelites. So they are not actually breaking the "don't kill" commandment if it only applies to Israelites.
"You shall not commit adultery." The Seventh Commandment actually did have an influence. I don't think there can be any doubt that Christianity has an incredibly powerful history influencing legislation concerning sex in the U.S. It's also a shameful history.
In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court in 1967 overturned miscegenation laws banning interracial marriage. One law was justified like this: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay, and red and placed them on separate continents."
Condemnation of homosexuality is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian "moral" standards. Finally, a Supreme Court ruling in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas overturned sodomy laws in 14 states. Again, Christianity had a very shameful influence.
Tenth Commandment: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house." Again, read the commandment fully: "or fields, nor his male or female slaves, nor his ox or ass, or anything that belongs to him."
Women are chattel. Slavery is condoned. This is thought crime. Big Brother is watching. Christopher Hitchens was very fond of pointing this out. This completely conflicts with the First Amendment.
To sum up the Ten Commandments and their influence on our nation's founding: they either have no influence, being in conflict with our founding principles or have a shameful influence.
Hell cruel, unusual
Obedience is a theme that runs through the whole bible. In the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, when Lot and his wife are fleeing, Lot's wife disobeys the angelic command to not turn around and look. She disobeys and is turned into a pillar of salt.
And obviously, Isaac and Abraham, the sacrifice, the murder of a child, is often held up as the ideal for obeying God. This is fundamentally opposed to our nature and founding principles.
Edmund Burke wrote: "In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole." In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote about the importance of "securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."
People are required to believe this nonsense by their bible, but they are allowed to believe nonsense because our nation cherishes freedom and has enshrined it, not obedience, in our founding documents.
The Golden Rule? Here's a list [PowerPoint slide] of Golden Rules that predate the Judeo-Christian tradition. Jesus is down there at No. 14. Hillel is down there at No. 12. We have found equivalence of the Golden Rule as far back as 2000 B.C.E. in Egypt. It's arrogant for Christian nationalist Judeo-Christians to claim as their own a rule that is universally known and not even original to their tradition.
Hell is definitely a Judeo-Christian principle. More properly, it's a Christian principle because Jesus invented hell. In the Old Testament is a place called sheol, which was a place for the dead to go but not a place of eternal torment.
On the other hand, the bible describes hell as where "The worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched." It's described as a burning wind, fiery oven, unquenchable fire, furnace of fire, eternal fire and eternal punishment. You should get the sense that hell is hot and it's eternal.
The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Need I say more?
The Supreme Court has actually said that being locked in a jail cell with a five-pack-a-day smoker is cruel and unusual, so I think that hell most certainly qualifies.
Finally, the Judeo-Christian principle: Vicarious redemption, that Jesus died for your sins. This is a total and complete abrogation of personal responsibility. Our entire system of justice is founded on the idea that people are responsible for their own actions.
But abrogation of personal responsibility is the central tenet of Christianity. This conflicts with the central tenet of our system of justice and government. You can imagine how this would go: The defendant gets on the stand and admits to raping children but says, "It's OK, your honor, I've accepted Jesus as my savior and he forgave my sins, so you don't need to punish me."
I'd like to leave you with this quote from James Madison. It's my favorite quote and is on my wall at FFRF. It's how I motivate myself every day:
"It's proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of all citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedence."
I hope that I've given you some mental ammunition to counter the pernicious notion that we are a Christian nation or founded on Judeo-Christian principles. We must prevent that myth from growing and becoming entangled in precedent.
Thank you.
Andrew Seidel graduated magna cum laude from Tulane University Law School and has completed a master of laws at Denver University's Sturm College of Law. He practiced law in Colorado before joining FFRF as a constitutional consultant in 2011. He became a member of the Wisconsin Bar in May 2012, and serves as one of four staff attorneys.
Think: What would make you into a believer?
Peter Boghossian was introduced by FFRF Co-President Dan Barker at FFRF's 35th annual convention on October 13, 2012, in Portland, Ore.
After our convention was fully booked, we realized that you have a nationally known freethought celebrity right here. Peter Boghossian happens to be not only an FFRF member, but he's on the new billboard that you saw last night, "This is what an atheist looks like."
Peter is an instructor of philosophy at Portland State University. They want to corrupt the morals of the young people, right? ["Socratic" laughter]. He has a teaching pedigree spanning more than 20 years and 30,000 students.
His fundamental objective is to teach people how to think, how to think through what often seems to be intractable problems. His publications can be found in Dialogos, the Philosopher's Magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, Inside Higher Ed, Essays in Philosophy, Federal Probation Journal and a host of other popular and academic journals. Peter is working on a book that's coming out soon, which will be called A Manual for Creating Atheists.
Thank you. It's a true pleasure to be here, and I'm incredibly grateful for the work of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and for you here today. Earlier speakers talked about an audience full of their best friends. I feel that I'm among my people and among people that I like and respect.
Thank you also for the work that you do in your communities to make them more thoughtful and rational. I have over two-and-a-half decades of experience teaching in prisons and crowded public universities and in the streets. I call it street epistemology.
One lesson I've learned is walking the talk. That's what I'm going to talk about today.
Street epistemology
What would it take for you to believe? Well, to believe in what? What would it take for you to believe in a particular religion? What would it take for you to be a believing Christian? Or what would it take for you to believe that the communion wafer that Catholics use transmutes into human flesh and becomes the physical body of Christ?
Or that women should be put in cloth bags and occasionally beaten? What would it take for you to believe that through faith, Jesus Christ can heal people of any and all ailments? Or that the Easter bunny is a real entity that hides colored eggs? Or that you go to a happy place after you die?
Why is it important to answer the question, "What would it take for you to believe?" There are two reasons. First, it's important so that we don't become what we're fighting — doggedly certain, closed-minded, epistemologically arrogant, dogmatic and religious. Being genuinely open to revise or to change your beliefs is an attitudinal disposition.
The American Philosophical Association's Delphi Report on critical thinking noted, "Willingness to revise a belief is a core attitudinal component of an ideal critical thinker." Being trustful of reason is another critical component."
Being able to state explicitly what it would take for you to believe or disbelieve in a particular proposition creates spaces, cognitive spaces, openness in your beliefs. Even thinking about a way to answer this question may help you to hold your beliefs less tenaciously.
In philosophy, there's a term "doxastic closure." It's an esoteric term even among seasoned philosophers. Many philosophers use this in a specialized, technical way.
I use the term in ways that accord with how it's percolated into public discourse. Doxastic derives from the ancient Greek "doxa." It basically means belief, but another meaning is how things look or appear to me.
If someone is doxastically closed, that means that their beliefs are immune to revision. Doxastic pathologies are ubiquitous in the realm of faith and religion.
My current research involves looking at mini-dialectical interventions with people to help separate faith from its host — to help people to lose their faith and to become more rational.
The second reason being able to answer this question is important is because it helps us to model the behavior that we want the faithful to emulate. If we want the faithful to be less doggedly certain, less closed-minded, less dogmatic, then this is the behavior that we need to model. If we want the faithful to be trustful of reason and willing to revise their beliefs, then we need to show them by example.
There's an entire line of literature on change and modeling behavior. Sometimes it's referred to as pro-social modeling. It shows that modeling is a key component in eliciting behavior change. One of my favorite questions to ask believers is a variation of Matt McCormick's Defeasibility Test: What would it take for you to lose your faith?
This is a reasonable question, and when I ask it, I expect a clear answer. It's also a diagnostic tool that enables me to quickly ascertain the degree to which one is doxastically closed.
But beyond this, when I'm asked what it would take for me to have faith or to believe in God, I respond that these are reasonable questions. I always give a direct, blunt and honest answer. In order for us to answer this question, we must first make sure that we've asked it of ourselves. We must take a dose of our own medicine. I would never hold a person of faith to a different epistemic standard than I would hold myself. Neither should you.
I want to be clear that there are obviously no guarantees. Just because one can state what it would take to believe or disbelieve a particular proposition doesn't mean they've suddenly experienced some doxastic openness and are willing to revise their beliefs.
Sometimes we engage someone who's argued poorly for their position, but because of dialectical training, we can immediately think of a counterargument to offer for the same conclusion or a better argument, a much stronger argument. We should provide people with arguments for their conclusions that are even better than the ones they've offered.
When I'm having a discussion about faith, I don't want to have a conversation with a straw man. I want to have a conversation with a real person who's giving me powerful arguments that have emerged from their experiences. If they can't provide that, then I'll provide it for them.
One of the strengths of philosophical training is that it enables you to do this. It's also one of the strengths that comes from leading an examined life. This is the thing that we should try to model. This is another component of street epistemology.
Matter of attitude
Having a closed belief system is a complex problem. One part of it is that our brains trick us into thinking that we're open-minded. Michael Shermer has some wonderful work on this in The Believing Brain. Our brains trick us into thinking that we're willing to revise our beliefs, that we're willing to reconsider when we're not.
Confirmation bias is part of this. We have a natural predisposition to go with our own ideas, to go with the way things appear to us, but we get stuck in appearances. We confirm our own biases.
An example of this would be the bones of Christ. Whenever I ask someone of faith, a Christian, "What would it take for you to lose your faith?," often I'm struck when they say, "The bones of Christ."
I used to believe that when people said that to me, they weren't being sincere. I no longer believe that. I think that's a result of a different sort of epistemological pathology. Look, let's say that I had a bag, and I brought a bag in here, and instead of this conference, this is the Apologists' Conference.
I plop the bag on the table and I say, "These are the bones of Christ. I went to Jerusalem, had a great time, went on an archaeological dig." Those bones would be examined with far more scrutiny than what the faithful use to believe their current set of beliefs about Jesus and the resurrection. They would do everything to falsify that claim.
This shows that the problem of why people hold preposterous beliefs is not a matter of a skill set. It's not because they lack critical thinking skills or because they don't know their beliefs are absurd. It's a matter of attitude.
The faithful don't have the appropriate attitudinal dispositions, like a trustfulness of reason and willingness to revise their beliefs. This is also why we need to help them to break through these delusions by modeling the behavior in ourselves.
You may be thinking that I've placed an undue burden upon you. There are just too many issues, too many ideas to consider what it would take to change one's beliefs on all of these issues. I don't think it's an undue burden. This is what it means to live a thoughtful and examined life.
It's the ability to reason through problems, to evaluate evidence, to generate counterexamples, to clearly state why we believe or don't believe, to revise your beliefs, to use the results to inform our decisions to make better lives and form better communities.
What is atheism?
I'm not arguing that this is something that has to be immediate. If someone asks you what would it take for you to believe, if you don't know, just say you don't know, that you'll think about it and get back to them.
An indispensable goal is to be free from bad reasoning, faulty epistemologies and from the attitudes that lead to religion. What's not important is to be an atheist. It is important to be a person who trusts reason, who formulates reason on the basis of reliable evidence and who's genuinely willing to reconsider.
Atheism is a natural consequence of possessing these skills and attitudes. Yet one could be an atheist and not possess these skills and dispositions. That is, one could be a doxastically closed atheist. This should not be an intellectual or attitudinal aspiration.
Atheism is not an immutable, timeless truth. Atheism is a conclusion. It's a conclusion one comes to based on an honest and thoughtful examination of reasons and evidence.
In the next [PowerPoint] slide I've compiled a comprehensive, historical and contemporary list of all of the evidence and all of the reasons that one should consider when examining whether or not there's a god or gods. [Blank slide, laughter and applause.] There is no evidence. Nada. Zip. Nothing.
This is why I don't believe in God. It's not for ideological reasons. Dan mentioned his debate with Dinesh D'Souza recently. We don't not believe in God, as D'Souza claims, because we're angry. I'm not angry. Dan, are you angry?
Dan: "Not with you." [Laughter.]
We don't believe in God because there's a complete lack of evidence. But this shouldn't deter us from providing answers as to what it would take to believe in God, to believe in leprechauns, or to believe in any other proposition.
So let's revisit the questions, the issues that we've looked at this morning. I will honestly say what it would take for me to believe in these things. Physicist Lawrence Krauss has an interesting debate with William Lane Craig, where Krauss said, "If God wanted you to believe in its existence, you'd walk outside, you'd look up at the sky and there it would be. And the stars would realign themselves and say something like, 'I am God. Believe in me.' "
If that happened to me, I would doubt my sanity. I would think that somehow I was the victim of a delusion, or one of my students spiked my coffee with LSD. The philosopher David Hume has an interesting comment on miracles. He says that there's stronger reason to doubt the testifier than to trust the testimony.
I'm not sure I would trust this perception. It may be that no perception, or no feeling state, would lead me to conclude that God exists. Instead, I would need argument or reason.
What would it take?
But let's suspend that for a moment and go with the example. What would it take for me personally to believe in God? Well, the stars spelling things out to people in different languages would be interesting. "I am God, believe in me" in Arabic.
I also want predictions. I'd want, I don't know, something about the future, someone to solve Goldbach's [mathematical] conjecture, I'd want something that I could latch my hands on to. This is the way I would approach the problem. These are the tools that I would bring to bear on how to think through the problem.
The communion wafer transforms into the body of Christ. I'm going to combine this with the next one of faith healing. We can turn the tools of science on these questions very easily.
There's a famous line, "Why doesn't God heal amputees?" The tools of science are quite easy in these cases. What is more difficult is when we enter the moral realm. What would it take for me to believe that we should put half of our population in cloth bags and beat them? Well, this is an astonishingly difficult question.
If I could be shown that my core value of gender and racial egalitarianism was a cultural artifact, and that somehow forcing women into bags and beating them was actually in their own interest, and somehow contributed to the well-being of society, that would really be something.
Or maybe if I could be shown that I was harboring a mistaken view about reality in regard to women. Maybe, for example, if they were malevolent entities, some kind of extraterrestrials bent on destroying humanity. This is the sort of evidence that one would need to warrant belief in these claims.
Regardless of the specific belief that's being examined, in all of the cases, what's important is to sincerely think about answering the question. This is a way that we can nudge ourselves to think more clearly and more rationally. Just stating that we're willing to revise our beliefs if shown sufficient evidence, or if given sufficient reason, is not enough. We must be able to state exactly what it would take for us to believe or to disbelieve a given proposition. We need to model the change that we want to see in the faithful. There's a lot of work to be done to help people to lose their faith and to embrace reason. This is one step in that direction. It's possible for virtually everyone to lead a life free of delusion.
To facilitate this, think back to one of the definitions of belief from the Greek. We need to move from appearance and opinion to knowledge. We also need to model the attitudes that are necessary to provide people with hope.
But the hope we offer is a tough hope. It's not born of platitudes. It won't make you feel better right away. But it takes away a false view of reality and offers a genuine hope, a hope that's based on reason and rationality and the tools of science.
It's a hope your own efforts of thoughtfulness and an examined life will help contribute to that — a hope offered through walking the talk. Thank you.
FFRF member Peter Boghossian is an instructor of philosophy at Portland State University. His main focus is bringing the tools of professional philosophers to people in a wide variety of contexts. Email: ; Twitter: @peterboghossian
Give thanks to the McCollum family
By Annie Laurie Gaylor
Co-President, Freedom From Religion Foundation
Not one workday ever goes by that we at the Freedom From Religion Foundation do not give thanks — to the McCollum family for the landmark ruling they won. We must pause this Friday, March 8, to give special thanks to the achievement of Vashti McCollum and her family. Friday marks the 65th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in McCollum v. Board of Education, a decision that endures and protects schoolchildren and personal conscience throughout the land.
FFRF daily invokes the McCollum precedent in our legal letters of complaint over state/church violations in public schools. McCollum, issued in 1948, is the bedrock upon which rests all other Supreme Court rulings against religious encroachments and devotions in public schools. (We also more than pleased to invoke the McCollum precedent in Doe v. Porter, FFRF's 2004 victory in the 6th Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nixing devotional instruction taught by bible students in Dayton, Tenn.)
I'm writing this tribute en route to a celebration of that decision in the city of origin, Champaign, Ill., where Vashti brought her brave and unpopular challenge. As professor George Axtelle wrote about Vashti: "Very few persons would have been willing to stand up, as she did, not only to the authorities but also to the hostility of the whole community. Here, indeed, is a story of rare courage."
The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, under the leadership of professor Jay Rosenstein, today will be airing Jay's Peabody Award-winning documentary about the landmark case, "The Lord Is Not on Trial Here Today." A famous remark at the trial also formed the title for Dannel McCollum's book about his mother's case as well, called The Lord Was Not on Trial. Jay was kind enough to invite me as a representative of the Freedom From Religion Foundation to be on the post-screening panel.
To ready myself for this panel, I've just reread Vashti's memoir One Woman's Fight and the McCollum decision. In the face of bitter defeat in two lower courts, social shunning, hate mail, reprisal against herself, her family and her children, Vashti did not give up. She was rewarded with a historic decision, 8-1, in her favor.
Justice Hugo Black wrote the main opinion, concluding: "Here not only are the state's tax-supported public school buildings used for the dissemination of religious doctrines. The State also affords sectarian groups an invaluable aid in that it helps to provide pupils for their religious classes through use of the state's compulsory public school machinery. This is not separation of Church and State."
Four justices, represented by Justice Felix Frankfurter, issued a strong concurrence. Frankfurter wrote, "Separation means separation, not something less. Jefferson's metaphor in describing the relation between Church and State speaks of a 'wall of separation,' not of a fine line easily overstepped. The public school is at once the symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny. In no activity of the State is it more vital to keep out divisive forces than in its schools, to avoid confusing, not to say fusing, what the Constitution sought to keep strictly apart. 'The great American principle of eternal separation' — Elihu Root's phrase bears repetition — is one of the vital reliances of our Constitutional system for assuring unities among our people stronger than our diversities."
One of the many great privileges of being an FFRF co-founder has been meeting and working with so many memorable champions of the First Amendment. In 1993, FFRF received permission to reprint Vashti's remarkable, timely and engaging book, first published in 1951 (available at ffrf.org/shop).
In the foreword by FFRF President Anne Nicol Gaylor, Anne noted: "We are all of us indebted to Vashti for her activism in defense of a basic constitutional principle. And we are so please to know her — an intrepid and charming woman of great integrity." It was a privilege to meet Vashti and her husband, John ("Pappy"), and their sons Jim and Dannel, who remain committed to championing the Establishment Clause. Pappy died before Vashti, who died in 2006 at age 93. Vashti, Jim and Dan were interviewed for FFRF's 1989 film "Champions of the First Amendment." Rosenstein's documentary captures their words, the drama and the scope of this decision for posterity, and is a poignant lesson for today.
While we take a moment to savor this strong ruling, it must be noted that the Supreme Court has egregiously deviated from the principles in McCollum in its 2001 Good News Club v. Milford Central School District decision. What the court stopped during the school day, it now blesses as soon as the bell rings at the end of the school day.
A major child evangelism industry is permitted to set up shop in our public schools and use their machinery, truancy laws and classrooms to conduct child evangelism clubs of indoctrination. The Good News Club decision was bad news that cannot be squared with Justice Black's analysis of what is impermissible in McCollum, nor can the Supreme Court's green light on school voucher funding.
Nothing could inspire more state/church activism than reading Vashti's One Woman's Fight. Vashti won the big one. Now it's up to the rest of us to keep mopping up!
Freethought Radio - March 9, 2013 Broadcast
Let Texas school district know school sponsored biblical messages are not OK
The Freedom From Religion Foundation wants you to help give perspective to a Texas school district over allowing religious "run-through" banners displayed by school cheerleaders on the field during school football games. The Kountze ISD Board of Trustees has asked for public input.
FFRF maintains that banners on the football field are perceived as official messages of the school and as such, may not endorse Christianity. FFRF contacted the District in the fall and requested that the religious banners no longer be used. In September of 2012 the District's former superintendent agreed and disallowed religious messages on the run-through banners. Liberty Institute, on behalf of school cheerleaders, filed suit against the district. A Texas court granted a temporary injunction, which allows the religious banners until trial in June.
The cheerleaders and their advocates have claimed the messages painted on the banners are "inspirational." But, the messages are insulting and exclude members of the community who are non-Christians, non-religious, or Christians who do not subscribe to divisive biblical messages being promoted by the school at a football game.
"If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31," read one of the banners displayed by cheerleaders in school uniforms. Others have said:
But thanks be to God, which gives us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:57
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 3:14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.
The banners marginalize community members who are not in agreement with the proselytizing messages. FFRF disputes Liberty Institute's position that the banners are merely private speech. Because the banners are school-sponsored speech they must follow the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
Take Action!!
The Kountze Independent School District is receiving comments on the religious banners through Friday. FFRF encourages you to speak out and let the District know that the divisive banners are unwelcoming and that the Board should take action to prevent the District's display of biblical banners.
Interim Superintendent Reese Briggs
Click on the link below to send him an email:
Kountze Independent School District
PO Box 460
Kountze, Texas 77625
Phone: (409) 246-3352
Fax: (409) 246-3217
Contact the local media
Email a letter to the editor of the area's newspaper, The Beaumont Enterprise:
Talking Points
One sentence is sufficient. Your own words are best. But you may wish to copy this paragraph in your correspondence:
I support Kountze ISD's original decision to stop the display of bible verse banners on the football field.
Cheerleaders and other representatives of the school should not misuse the privilege the school confers on them to promote Christianity.
The banners confer an appearance of official school endorsement, and marginalize members of the community who do not conform to the religious beliefs espoused in the messages. Please put an end to school-sponsored religious banners and show respect for the Establishment Clause and the rights of conscience of all members of our pluralistic society.
Thank you. (Sign name)


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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America's all-volunteer military has been a success, but society at large and service members must ensure a shared understanding exists between them, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a commentary in the Washington Post today.
Dempsey described the all-volunteer force as one of America's finest achievements. The military is so good, he wrote, that many Americans take it for granted.
"The last decade of war has affected the relationship between our society and the military," Dempsey wrote. "We can't allow a sense of separation to grow between us. As the all-volunteer force enters its fifth decade, civilians and the military need to maintain the shared understanding necessary for a healthy relationship."
Dempsey wrote that the nation needs to discuss the military-civil relationship, as well as the nation's relationship with its service members.
"As a nation, we've learned to separate the warrior from the war," he wrote. "But we still have much to learn about how to connect the warrior to the citizen."
Since the end of conscription in July 1973, those entering the military have served as volunteers. In his commentary, Dempsey urged America's civilians to establish a dialogue with their fellow citizens who serve in the all-volunteer force.
"As citizens, we must listen to our veterans," the chairman wrote. "If we do, we'll hear stories of pride and courage, anger and pain, laughter and joy. We'll hear of actions that humble and inspire us. We'll also hear of moments that break our hearts. These stories represent the best of our nation."
Service members also bear a responsibility to communicate with their fellow citizens, Dempsey wrote. "We should tell our stories and recognize that those who aren't in uniform might not know what to say or ask," he added. "We also have a duty to listen. Our fellow citizens may have different perspectives that we need to hear and understand."
The services as well as veterans understand the need for fiscal change, the general wrote. Cuts in funding, he added, are not an attack on veterans and their families.
"Modest reforms to pay and compensation will improve readiness and modernization," Dempsey wrote. "They will help keep our all-volunteer force sustainable and strong. Keeping faith also means investing sufficient resources so that we can uphold our sacred obligations to defend the nation and to send our sons and daughters to war with only the best training, leadership and equipment. We can't shrink from our obligations to one another. The stakes are too high."
Service members and veterans must remember that public service takes many forms, Dempsey wrote.
"Across our country, police officers, firefighters, teachers, coaches, pastors, scout masters, business people and many others serve their communities every day," he added. "Military service makes us different, but the desire to contribute permeates every corner of the United States."
The nation cannot afford allowing the military to disconnect from American society, Dempsey wrote.
"We must guard against letting military service become a job for others," he added. "Children of those in the military are far more likely to join than the children of those who are not. And young men and women in some areas never even consider the military as one of many ways to serve our nation."
Some fault for this, Dempsey said, lies with the military. Service members, he added, cannot just stay on bases and remain in their own world.
"But we didn't stop being citizens when we put on the uniform," Dempsey wrote. "We came from small towns and big cities across our country, and we'll go back one day. Civilians aren't an abstraction; they're our parents, grandparents, siblings and friends."
An all-volunteer force is actually the norm for the United States, the chairman wrote, noting that since 1787, the nation used conscription for only 35 years.
"Except in times of great crisis, we have relied on a tradition of selfless service," Dempsey wrote. "The all-volunteer force continues that tradition. It has served our nation well for the past 40 years. To do so for the next 40, we'll have to work at it together."

subset: commoncrawl


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Whole food, certified organic prenatal multivitamin with antioxidants provides comprehensive support for baby's healthy development and mother's core immunity and vitality.
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Other Directions: Accidental overdose of iron-containing products is a leading cause of fatal poisoning in children under 6. Keep this product out of reach of children. In case of accidental overdose, call a doctor or poison control center immediately.
* Daily value not establishedThese statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Other IngredientsNatural or mineral source organic brown rice protein, silica.Capsule: Pullulan (vegetable polysaccharide).Guarantee: 100% natural-Free of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, preservatives and other objectionable additives often found in vitamin products. Contains no sugar, lactose/dairy, wheat, soy, gluten or yeast.
Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy is your source for natural health products. Browse our online selection of products from all of the best natural brands, or visit one of our pharmacy locations and talk with one of our licensed practitioners. From natural beauty products and cosmetics to vitamins, herbs and supplements, we offer high-quality natural wellness products for the whole family! Start exploring—shop by brand or by condition to find the perfect natural health products for your body, skin, home and more.
The products and claims made about specific products on this site have not been evaluated by Pharmaca.com or the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. The information on this site is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy will not assume liability for any cross-contamination of ingredients, misprints, or adverse reactions to any ingredients in the products we carry. The products sold here may contain lead and other substances that are known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects and other reproductive harm. Prices and promotions are subject to change without notice. All content on this web site is copyrighted by Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy unless otherwise stated. All online offers and prices are valid for online purchases only, and may be different from those in our retail stores. Free shipping offer may not apply to all orders and all states; see shipping policy for full details. Copyright © 2009 – 2015 by Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy. All rights reserved.


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Mission Type: Orbiter
Launch Vehicle: Thor-Able IV (no. 4 / Thor no. 219 / DM-1812-6A)
Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 17A
NASA Center: Goddard Space Flight Center
Spacecraft Mass: 43.2 kg
Spacecraft Instruments: 1) magnetometer; 2) ionization chamber; 3) Geiger-Mueller tube; 4) micrometeoroid momentum spectrometer; 5) photoelectric cell aspect indicator; 6) proportional counter telescope
Maximum Data Rate: 64 bits per second
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi
Launched on a direct solar orbit trajectory, Pioneer 5 successfully reached heliocentric orbit between Earth and Venus to demonstrate deep space technologies and to provide the first map of the interplanetary magnetic field.
The spacecraft had originally been intended for a Venus flyby, but the mission was switched to a solar flyby. Pioneer 5 carried Telebit, the first digital telemetry system operationally used on a U.S. spacecraft; it was first tested on Explorer 6. The system used a 5-watt or a 150-watt transmitter, with a 5-watt transmitter acting as driver. Information rates varied from 64 to 8 to 1 bit per second.
Controllers maintained contact with Pioneer 5 until 26 June 1960, to a then record distance of 36.2 million kilometers from Earth (later surpassed by Mariner 2). The probe, using its 18.1-kilogram suite of scientific instruments, confirmed the existence of previously conjectured interplanetary magnetic fields.


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A man in search of a remedy for his horrible tattoo finally found the man for the job.
The unidentified man's body art has been declared the "world's worst portrait tattoo" by the numerous people who shared the picture of the piece on the Internets over the last five years, according to Gawker.
But the man was undeterred. He went to Empire Ink Studio in Akron where he met artist Scott Versago and told him his story of woe, according to Versago's Facebook post:I got to tackle the official "#1 worst portrait tattoo in the world" today. I'm sure you've all seen it a million times online, as had I. I couldn't believe my eyes when this guy walked in and showed me this project. I think my jaw literally hit the floor. He went on to tell me the story behind the portrait; He had just married his beautiful wife and not even three months afterwards she was killed in a horrible house fire accident leaving him to raise their three children alone. Shortly after he went to a local tattoo studio to memorialize his wife and was left with this abomination. He later returned to that studio for one more session, thinking that perhaps "he had done something wrong in the healing of the tattoo" and they butchered it even more the second time.The result, shown below, is a vast improvement.


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Also of Interest
- B.J. Thomas is still hooked on making music
- 10 fun facts about The Wizard of Oz
- Shopping for health insurance? The health insurance marketplace is now open
- Join our Rock N' Roll group or add your comments to our Music message board
Visit the AARP home page daily for news, deals, savings tips, and more


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Every board in the Jones quiver is a unique high-performance design that attacks the mountain in it's own way. The Mtn Twin, Flagship, Hovercraft and Aviator all shred equally hard, but no two models ride the same. Our 2014/15 line-up is more complete than ever before. Backcountry or resort, slashing or straight lining, we make boards for any terrain and every riding style.
Jeremy Jones' quest to build splitboards that shred equally as hard as solid boards was one of the founding goals of Jones Snowboards. All seven of our splitboard models are designed to meet that challenge and perform in the backcountry with every bit of the technical precision that our solid boards are renowned for. By sharing the same designs between solid boards and splitboards, we also offer the rare opportunity to master riding one board shape in bounds or out.
Women are setting backcountry bootpacks and charging radical lines more than ever before. Jones Snowboards is lock step with this female freeride revolution as we offer a stacked line-up of women's specific boards that are built to shred every bit as hard as our men's models. The dimensions and flex specs of the women's series are simply customized for lighter and smaller riders using the same bomber materials and cutting edge construction.
"Jones packs have everything you need and nothing you don't. They are the ultimate backcountry snowboarding packs." - Jeremy Jones


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Planting Tomato Seeds
The National Garden Bureau has designated 2011 as The Year of the Tomato, with hopes that even non-gardeners will grow a plant or two to enjoy fresh flavor at a fraction of the cost of grocery-store tomatoes.
It's always the year of the tomato in my garden, because I grow beef-stakes, grapes, hollow ones and plenty of heirlooms to eat fresh and freeze as salsa and tomato sauce for winter.
Heirloom and hybrid tomatoes that are homegrown offer much more variety, flavor and nutrition than those purchased. Photo by Doreen G. Howard
I grow oddities and heirlooms and have learned by experience the tricks of starting tomatoes from seed. Colored cherry types are my passion for 2011, plus a few heirlooms. I'm planting Texas Wild (a pea-size red heirloom), Solid Gold golden grape, Aunt Ruby's German Green cherry, Super Snow White cherry, Tumbling Tom cherry and Chocolate cherry. All should be prolific.
The heirlooms include Pineapple, Schimmeig Stoo, Amish Paste and Japanese Black Trifele. Plus, I'm experimenting with several blue tomatoes that breeder Tom Wagner is developing for market; specifically Pansy Ap, Fahrenheit Blues and Blue Bayou. Those should be interesting, and I will share photos of them with you later in the season.
Schimmeig Stoo is an heirloom that is hollow, pleated and packed with taste. It's great for stuffing with cottage cheese or tuna salad. You can't buy it at store, but you can start plants from seed. Photo by Doreen G. Howard
Tomatoes are a warm season crop, so setting seed flats or pots on a heat mat promotes rapid germination. Once seeds are up, I remove the heat source, but keep grow lights two inches from the plant tops. I have to adjust the distance every other day. The reason they grow so rapidly is that I use mycorrhizal fungi inoculants when I press seeds into the planting mix. Simply dampen seeds and roll them in the powder. Fungal hyphae or threads form on plant roots almost immediately and gather extra nutrients and water to fuel development.
I also run a small oscillating fan, directed at the plants. The constant movement triggers the release of hormones that build thicker stems. The resulting tomato transplants end up stockier than normal with sturdy stems, which are more durable when set into the garden bed. You won't have leggy plants and you'll avoid diseases and rot by having to bury long, thin stems.
Other warm-season vegetables such as melons, peppers and eggplant should be started from seed in the same manner. Add a bit of Epsom salts to the potting mix you use for peppers to give emerging plants an immediate dose of boron, which they crave. Plants will bloom faster in the garden and produce more peppers.
Save your eggshells, too, for when you transplant tomatoes into the garden. Crush them, scatter over the soil and then set in plants. The shells gradually release calcium into the dirt, preventing blossom-end rot. Calcium also helps all types of transplants produce vigorous root systems, spurring plant growth.
Doreen Howard has written for The Old Farmer's Almanac All-Seasons Garden Guide for 15 years and is the former garden editor at Woman's Day as well as a photographer. She has grown more than 300 varieties of heirloom edibles and flowers in the last two decades.
In stores now!
Look for Doreen's newest book, Heirloom Flavor: Yesterday's Best-Tasting Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs for Today's Cook. Find in stores everywhere including Walmart and on the Web including Amazon.com.


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999 are an English rock band who formed in London in 1977. They are often cited as one of the first punk rock bands[citation needed]. Between 1978 and 1981, they had five Top 75 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and one Top 40 single. After extensive touring across the Atlantic Ocean, the band's third and fourth studio albums charted in the United States. Despite breaking up a couple of times, they continue to record and play live to the present day.
This area is intended for discussion only. If you have a question about your order, or require customer service you can get in touch via our Customer Service Area. Comments enquiring about existing orders, including personal details, or with questions will be deleted.


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September 24, 2009
Good morning and thank you so much for coming today.
As you know, this is the first of a series of public conversations our department is holding here in DC on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
September 19, 2009
I am thrilled to be here today at WAHE conference and to address a group of women who share my priorities.
First I would like to start with the story of how I got my present job at the US Department of Education.
September 10, 2009
Thank you for inviting me here today.
September 2, 2009
Thank you very much, John. John Wilson is a forceful and thoughtful advocate for HBCUsand he already has begun to reinvigorate the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
August 26, 2009
Good morning. It's a pleasure to speak to America's Choice Superintendent's Symposium. The National Center on Education and the Economy, which helped father America's Choice, has been at the forefront of efforts to develop school improvement models that align rigorous standards and assessments.
July 28, 2009
I realize that I am speaking at the end of a conference where you've already heard from a roster of impressive speakers. I am going to try to keep my comments brief. Adlai Stevenson once said that the best after-dinner speech he ever heard was: "Waiter, I'll take the check."
July 24, 2009
Today is a great daynot just for those of you here to listen to President Obama in a few minutes but for tens of thousands of teachers, parents, principals, school superintendents, and lawmakers across the country who have devoted their energy, their passion, and their commitment over the years to improving our nation's schools.
July 12, 2009
Deputy Under Secretary Robert Shireman's Remarks at the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators
Thank you for the generous introduction. As someone who has spent much of a career immersed in federal education policy, it is a thrill to have a large audience of people who won't bolt for the door if I talk about things like ISIRs, dependency overrides, and Experimental Sites.
July 2, 2009
Good morning. Thank you for having me and thank you for hosting one of our Listening and Learning events. We embarked on this tour to hear from people in classrooms and schools—people who are facing educational challenges and finding solutions.
June 22, 2009
The secretary introduced his speech with an overview of his Listening and Learning Tour and a summary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He occasionally deviated from this prepared text.
Today, I want to focus on the challenge of turning around our chronically low-achieving schools. These schools have failed to make progress year after year.


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Polyken 824 Shrink Wrap Tape is also known as hull preservation tape and is used for taping edges of shrink wrap to a boat's hull. Also used by auto salvage and reclamation yards. It has a polyethylene film and rubber based adhesive. UV protected for prolonged expose to sunlight (has excellent durability & is solvent and moisture resistance). Polyken 824 Red Baron is coated with a specially-designed adhesive which eliminates residue even after extended periods of exposure (also repositionable). It is also conformable so it adheres to rough surfaces and is also easy to unwind. Shrink Wrap Tape is used to seam shrink wrap film sheeting together; patch holes in shrink wrap; secure waste disposal bags; and to hold doors in place. It is also used for stucco & plaster masking and other outdoor masking applications where UV resistance is required. Our distributor gets this made specially from Berry Plastics in white with serrated/pinked edges for easy tearing - no cutting is needed.
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. I'd really like to hear proof of a present day radio ad using Lou's vocal before this ranting continues. I haven't read a single posting that lends credence to all these radio spots that only you seem to hear. Foreignerfan1970 can you put up or shut up? Or better yet, take your concern in an adult manner to Foreigner's management instead of every thread here.
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Through 3 games...
@ Buffalo 32-7 W
@ Minnesota 7-14 L
vs. Jets 49-0 W
Current record: 2-1
I cut Thigpen, Jared Allen, Joey Haynos, Pat turner, and John Nalbone before the start of the season to make room for roster changes at the deadline. Then I traded Will Allen to the Cardinals for Ben Patrick and a 2nd rounder. To get a fourth CB on the roster I picked up TJ Rushing just to fill the spot until the offseason. He has yet to see the field and I doubt he will unless Carroll, Davis, or Smith go down.
Henne- 848 yds, 9 TD 1 INT, 57/76
Ronnie-21 att 138 yds 3 TD, 12 rec 100 yds
Ricky- 2 att 15 yds, 2 rec 28 yds 1 TD
Marshall- 10 rec 152 yds 1 TD
Bess- 8 rec 219 yds 3 TD
Fasano- 8 rec 60 yds 1 TD
Hartline- 6 rec 88 yds
Camarillo- 3 rec 124 yds 2 TD
Polite- 3 rec 31 yds
Ben Patrick- 4 rec 33 yds 1 TD
Donald thomas- 1 pancake 3 sacks
Odrick- 5 tackles 2 sacks
S. Smith- 2 ints
Vontae- 2 ints
Clemons- 1 int
Carroll- 1 int
I think I made the right move by dumping the players. Roster was full and those players would never see the field in my game style enough to be contributors where I could trade for or pick up a few possible weapons at the deadline. The Will Allen trade also seems like it will be a pretty decent one. Carroll has so far filled in nicely as the third CB. Ben Patrick is producing enough as the second TE to make me happy. What's going to make or break the trade is the draft pick. I am thinking either OLB or CB


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I am USING the wordpress Import/Export and have done exporting the XML file from my wordpress site. And now i am moving my site from a local server to a host, after copying the files i noticed that on the new HOST there is no DATABASE connection, since i am not using a fresh install, I am just copying my files from the local server to the new HOST. How can i resolve this by not using any database client from the new host like PHPmyAdmin, is their a wordpress plugin that can solve this? THere is a BIG Error establishing a database connection on my page thank you
Take the 2-minute tour ×
WordPress Development Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for WordPress developers and administrators. It's 100% free, no registration required.
If you're copying your content by means of a WordPress import/export, you'll need to install WordPress on your new host as a fresh install, and put your new DB details in your wp-config.php.
You would need to modify wp-config.php. You can set the DB connections there.
Look for a section similar to this:
Please see my answer here: Developing, Testing and Releasing
You should really setup a conditional wp-config to minus out your headaches during deployments.
Hope this helps!


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Pura Besakih : the revered Mother Temple of Bali
Home » Pura Besakih: the revered Mother Temple of Bali » Find Hotel » Zen Resort Bali
Zen Resort Bali
Reawaken your senses at Zen Resort Bali- a holistic and nature retreat holiday to relax and rejuvenate your physical, psychological and spiritual wellness. Find the joy and pleasures of sustainable living in harmony with yourself, your family and friends and with the world of nature.
Perched above the Sea of Bali, tucked into a tropical landscape of rice terraces, vineyards, natural forest and luscious designer gardens, Zen Resort's serene environment offers the opportunity to regain the calmness of mind, find balance and deep peace and recharge your body while comfortably sinking into the divine knowledge and spiritual experiences through the daily practice of yoga, meditation and pranayama and revitalizing your health and beauty through authentic ayurvedic treatments.
Zen Resort, a luxury boutique retreat with fourteen villas, offers a unique and intimate setting, spiritually bound by a passionate desire for complete privacy, luxurious accommodation, and the most attentive, friendly and renowned Balinese service. We look forward to welcoming you at Zen Resort, Bali's first integrated ayurveda, yoga and nature resort - a unique place where all your senses will be touched, awakened and renewed.
|PO Box 18, Ds. Ume Anyar Seririt, Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia
|+62 362 93578
|+62 362 93579


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Faith Has Its Reasons
from R.C. Sproul Sep 04, 2015 Category: ArticlesChristians from every theological tradition have for centuries confessed their faith by reciting the Apostles' Creed. Elsewhere I have taught on the actual content of this creed, but if there is one aspect of this confession that we often fail to reflect on, it is the creed's opening words... Keep Reading
The Ligonier Academy Doctor of Ministry Program
from Keith Mathison Sep 23, 2009 Category: Ligonier AcademyLigonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies is accepting applications from qualified candidates for admission to the Doctor of Ministry degree program. Our inaugural courses were held in July 2009, and the response of our first students has been overwhelmingly positive. We are very pleased to announce the following upcoming classes. Keep Reading
Crucial Questions, New from Reformation Trust Publishing
from Keith Mathison Sep 22, 2009 Category: Ligonier ResourcesWe are pleased to announce the arrival of the newly revised and expanded editions of the Crucial Questions booklets from Reformation Trust Publishing. This series is designed to present Dr. Sproul's insights on various questions that tend to come up often in the minds of evangelicals today. The booklets deal with issues that trouble us, frustrate us, or confuse us. Dr. Sproul brings his trademark clarity and biblical and theological acumen to each topic. Keep Reading
RSB iPhone App Well Received
from Karisa Schlehr Sep 21, 2009 Category: Ligonier ResourcesReleased just a few weeks ago, hundreds of people have already purchased The Reformation Study Bible iPhone app. Here's what a few iTunes users had to say: I have a couple of different Bible apps on my iPod. But The Reformation Study Bible app outdoes even the ESV Study Bible app. Well worth every penny. I think this is one of the best apps I have ever used - definitely the best Bible software. The notes are great and accessing them with this app on the iPhone is perfect. Keep Reading
The Heresies of Love
from Gene Edward Veith Sep 21, 2009 Category: ArticlesGod is a unity of distinct persons. The one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So says the doctrine of the Trinity. Some people believe in the unity and oneness of God, but deny that He consists in different persons. Heretics such as monarchists, modalists, and Keep Reading
Opening Our Ears to Hear
from R.C. Sproul Sep 20, 2009 Category: ArticlesGod said to Isaiah: "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed" (Isa. 6:9-10, NIV). Keep Reading
Bearing Spiritual Fruit
from R.C. Sproul Sep 19, 2009 Category: ArticlesBy grace, God offers the righteousness of Christ to all who put their trust in Him. For all who believe, all who have faith in Him, the merit of Christ is reckoned to their account. Does this exclude good works in the life of the believer? By no means. Our justification is always unto good works. Though no merit ever proceeds from our works, either those done before our conversion or those done afterward, good works are a necessary fruit of true faith. Keep Reading
Iran: Believers and Broadcasts
from Marty Banzhaf Sep 18, 2009 Category: ArticlesThis past summer has been a fiery trial for believers in Iran. Since the fraudulent elections, the attempted "green revolution," and the subsequent inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Christians in Iran, particularly Muslim converts, have undergone direct detainment. Keep Reading
Cornerstones and Stumbling Blocks
from R.C. Sproul Jr. Sep 18, 2009 Category: ArticlesWhy do the wicked flee when none pursue? Guilt. Why do we by nature exchange the glory of the Creator for corruptible things? Guilt. Why do the nations rage, and the rulers take counsel together? Guilt. Why do the sheep know their Master's voice? Forgiveness. Why do the redeemed worship in Spirit and in truth? Forgiveness. Why have we been made into a royal priesthood, and a holy nation? Forgiveness. Eschatologically, what separates sheep and goats is eternity in heaven and eternity in hell. Here in the not yet, what separates us is living today in heaven and living today in hell. Keep Reading
Doctrine of Scripture: Recommended Reading
from Keith Mathison Sep 17, 2009 Category: ArticlesOur understanding of the nature and authority of Scripture is key to our theology. What we think of the Bible will have ramifications on what we think of everything else. What then are some helpful books for those seeking to understand the issues involved? While by no means exhaustive, here are some helpful texts for those interested in studying the issues in more detail. Keep Reading
In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity
from Mark Ross Sep 16, 2009 Category: ArticlesPhilip Schaff, the distinguished nineteenth century church historian, calls the saying in our title "the watchword of Christian peacemakers" (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7, p. 650). Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century, Rupertus Meldenius. The phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (c. 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. The saying has found great favor among subsequent writers such as Richard Baxter, and has since been adopted as a motto by the Moravian Church of North America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Might it serve us well as a motto for every church and for every denomination today? Keep Reading


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|Liberal, Mo.
|High School:
|Liberal HS
In High School: Dodson has been a four-year starter at the varsity level in three different sports, also standing out on the volleyball court and as a sprinter for the track team.
Dodson was a three-time first-team All-Spring River Valley Conference selection, as well as being a two-time first-team All-District selection, including being named the SRVC Player of the Year as a junior. She hit the 1,000 point plateau as a junior and helped Liberal to a conference championship and a runner-up finish in the District Tournament. On the volleyball court, Dodson was a three-time first-team All-Conference pick, a two-time first-team All-District selection, while also being named All-Region and All-State, helping the Bulldogs finished third in the MSHSSA Class One State Tournament. A standout on the track, as well, Dodson placed at the state meet in the 100m and the 4x400m and holds the Liberal High School record for the high jump, as well as being on the record-breaking 4x100 and 4x200m relay teams.
Personal: The daughter of Daryl and Gina (MSSU Alum) Dodson, Kori plans to major in math education at Southern.


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Help fund FFRF's work through CFC
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has once again qualified for inclusion in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).
The CFC is the only officially sanctioned program for soliciting federal government employees on behalf of charitable organizations. The CFC conducts annual campaigns in the workplace and allows federal employees to make donations through payroll deductions or other forms of payment to an approved list of charities. It's part of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
The Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was first included on the CFC list of eligible charities in 2008. "Federal workers had contacted the Foundation in the past, noting the many religious charities on the listing, and wishing there were a nontheist alternative," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president.
"We're delighted to announce now again in 2012 that our activities throughout the United States, including the many scholarships we grant students, helped FFRF meet the rigorous eligibility criteria," Gaylor said.
To the Foundation's knowledge, it's the only freethought group on the list, which includes hundreds of religious groups. All dues and donations to FFRF are deductible for income-tax purposes.
"Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc." will appear in the listing of "National/International Independent Organizations" that's published in each local campaign charity list in the early fall.
The solicitation period for 2012 campaign donations is Sept. 1 through Dec. 15. Deadlines vary by region. The CFC code that donors will use to designate their contribution to FFRF is 32519.
CFC donors contributed more than $63,000 to FFRF in 2010 and more than $88,000 in 2011.
Another way to give is via matching grant donations, which have become a significant boost to FFRF in recent years. Many companies offer to match (fully or a percentage of) their employees' donations to charitable nonprofits. These matches multiply the impact of the initial donation to further FFRF's goals.
Gaylor added, "It is recommended that all CFC donors check the box to include their name and mailing address (in addition to your email) with the donation. Donors will receive an acknowledgment from FFRF when we receive pledge notification (throughout the year). If you do not receive that acknowledgment, please contact FFRF to be sure we have been given your name and information about your pledge."
Charity Navigator gives FFRF its highest rating of four stars, which means "exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause."
This ad appears in Military Times.
Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children
Texas AG attacks FFRF, butts into banner case
Once again, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has inappropriately weighed in on the wrong side of a Texas state/church controversy involving the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Last December, Abbott sent to a letter to Henderson County over FFRF's complaint about a nativity scene at the courthouse in Athens, Texas, attacking FFRF and offering support to the county.
Abbott sent a similar letter yesterday to the Kountze Independent School District calling FFRF, among other things, "menacing and misleading" for notifying the district about inappropriate religious promotion by cheerleaders at school events. The violation is bizarre even by Texas standards. As the Beaumont Enterprise put it, "For three straight weeks, high school football players in a small southeast Texas town took the field by bolting through large red-and-white banners that hollered the praises of Jesus Christ."
One typical banner read: "But thanks be to God, which gives us Victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:57"
FFRF Staff Attorney Stephanie Schmitt wrote a Sept. 17 letter to Superintendent Kevin Weldon of the Kountze Independent School District, informing him that the practice runs afoul of constitutional principles. Schmitt cited a 2000 Supreme Court decision, involving a Texas case, which nixed formal student-initiated school prayers at sporting events.
Weldon responded appropriately by immediately halting the Jesus banners. A Religious Right group, the Liberty Institute, got a 10-day restraining order on Sept. 20 against the district, which has hired a law firm to defend itself. FFRF is readying an amicus brief in support of the district.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker called it "strange and surprising that the attorney general would weigh in prematurely on a case before a court in his state based on what 'news reports indicate.' He is failing to recognize the difference between free speech, such as what fans might say in the bleachers, and government speech, such as what cheerleaders in uniforms say as representatives of the school during school-sponsored events."
"Just as it would be inappropriate for cheerleaders in school uniforms at official school functions to sport banners saying, 'Praise Allah!' or quoting Koranic verses, so is it inappropriate for them to misuse the podium the school confers on them and their school-endorsed status to promote Christianity and bible verses as part of public school football games," added Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. "We are grateful to the school district for respecting clear court precedent, and the individual rights and freedoms of a diverse community."
FFRF acted on a complaint from a member of the community. KFDM-6 News out of Beaumont interviewed high school students who agree with FFRF that the banners are inappropriate.
If the majority of the cheerleaders were atheists, asked Barker, would Attorney General Abbott support their right to hold up a banner insulting Christianity? "If he would not defend those students, why does he defend banners that quote a book that calls 5 million nonreligious Texans fools (Psalm 14 and 53:1)"?
Public schools are legally obligated to limit any team member's speech that excludes, denigrates or is obscene, since cheerleading chants and banners reflect approval and endorsement by the school. The government, its public schools and its representatives or its actors may not promote one religion over another, or religion over nonreligion at a public school event, FFRF says.
Read previous news release, Sept. 19, 2012


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NATHAN QuickShot Plus Water Flask and Hand Strap
Item # 20355456
|Eligible for $10 Off $50 or $20 Off $100 ! (see promotion details)
|Eligible for $10 Off $50 or $20 Off $100! (see promotion details)
|Eligible for Free Shipping on Orders $49 or More! (see promotion details)
|Members of The League get 5% back when you spend $100! (see promotion details)
Product Details
Stay refreshed during your run with this ultra-convenient NATHAN® QuickShot Plus water flask! Its high-flow, one-way valve opens and closes automatically, while an included, fully adjustable hand strap wicks moisture away to keep you comfy. The strap is also equipped with a zippered pocket for your smaller essentials.
Get your new NATHAN® water flask today from Sports Authority.
- 10 oz flask
- High-flow, one-way valve opens and closes automatically
- Featherlight zippered pocket carries smaller items like your ID, cash and more
- Fully adjustable, moisture-wicking vented mesh hand strap with thumbhole for grip-free running


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Northeast (Nordeste)
After having sacrificed almost everything for her career, Joelle decides, at 43 years of age, to change her life. She travels to Argentina to adopt a child. While there, Joelle discovers the North East, an untamed and vast natural region which is in sharp contrast with the social inequality that abounds in more urban Argentina.
Cast: Mercedes Sampietro, Carole Bouquet, Emilio Bardi, Aymará Rovera, Ignacio Jiménez
Produced by: Aton Soumache, Alexis Vonarb, Iker Monfort
Directed by: Juan Diego Solanas
Written by: Eduardo Berti, Juan Diego Solanas
Running time: 1hr 44min
Opens: Oct 17, 2005 Limited
|Theaters for Today
Pick a day
on this day.


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Our website uses functional cookies that do not collect any personal information or track your browsing activity. When you select your country, you agree that we can place these functional cookies on your device.
ProTEV Protease is an improved 50 kDa version of the NIa protease from tobacco etch virus (TEV) that has been engineered to be more stable than native TEV protease for prolonged enzyme activity. It is used primarily to cleave affinity tags from fusion proteins during or after affinity purification. ProTEV Protease is active over a broad pH and temperature range to allow tailoring of cleavage conditions for the fusion protein of interest.
Promega Notes 97, 22–23.
Jessica Anderson, Jami English and John Shultz
Download Article
We offer a range of services to help you succeed using Promega technologies. From product training to set up of automated systems and development of custom applications—our scientific support goes beyond the basics.
Ask us! We are here to help you.


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A video released this week by Greyhound advocacy group Grey2K USA shows horrifying injuries incurred at the Tri-State Racetrack in Cross Lanes, West Virginia—highlighting the suffering of racing dogs across the United States.
"According to newly obtained state records, at least 3,208 greyhound injuries have been reported at this track since 2005, and nearly 200 dogs have died. Further, it's likely that the actual number of injuries is even higher, as the state still refuses to produce several months of records," Grey2K said in an email to supporters.
Grey2K Executive Director Carey Theil told West Virginia's Charleston Daily Mail that "in terms of the raw number of injuries, this is the largest we have seen for a single track by far."
Though ASPCA racing specialist Ann Church called Tri-State Racetrack's injury record "appalling," she emphasized that the injuries were not at all uncommon. "This is what happens at all Greyhound racing tracks, and that is why we are making the end of racing a priority within the ASPCA."
To learn more about this cruel form of entertainment, please visit our Greyhound Racing FAQ.


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Interpretive Handbook
9340 :
Osmolality, Serum
Clinical Information Discusses physiology, pathophysiology, and general clinical aspects, as they relate to a laboratory test
Osmolality is a measure of the number of dissolved solute particles in solution.
It is determined by the number and not by the nature of the particles in solution.
Dissolved solutes change the physical properties of solutions, increasing the osmotic pressure and boiling point and decreasing the vapor pressure and freezing point.
The osmolality of serum increases with dehydration and decreases with overhydration. The patient receiving intravenous fluids should have a normal osmolality. If the osmolality rises, the fluids contain relatively more electrolytes than water. If the osmolality falls, relatively more water than electrolytes is being administered.
Normally, the ratio of serum sodium, in mEq/L, to serum osmolality, in mOsm/kg, is between 0.43 and 0.5. The ratio may be distorted in drug intoxication.
Generally, the same conditions that decrease or increase the serum sodium concentration affect the osmolality.
A comparison of measured and calculated serum osmolality produces a delta-osmolality. If this is >40 mOsm/kg a H2O in a critically ill patient, the prognosis is poor.
An easy formula to calculate osmolality is:
Osmolality (mOsm/kg H2O)=2 Na+
Useful For Suggests clinical disorders or settings where the test may be helpful
Evaluating acutely ill or comatose patients
Interpretation Provides information to assist in interpretation of the test results
An increased gap between measured and calculated osmolality may indicate ingestion of poison, ethylene glycol, methanol, or isopropanol.
Cautions Discusses conditions that may cause diagnostic confusion, including improper specimen collection and handling, inappropriate test selection, and interfering substances
No significant cautionary statements
Reference Values Describes reference intervals and additional information for interpretation of test results. May include intervals based on age and sex when appropriate. Intervals are Mayo-derived, unless otherwise designated. If an interpretive report is provided, the reference value field will state this.
275-295 mOsm/kg
Clinical References Provides recommendations for further in-depth reading of a clinical nature
Murphy JE, Henry JB: Evaluation of renal function, and water, and electrolyte, and acid base balance. In Todd-Sanford-Davidsohn Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. 19th edition. Edited by JB Henry. Philadelphia, PA, WB Saunders Company, 2006


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Main Content
Your front yard is full of Texas A&M decor — your luminous garden is home to a jovial gnome wearing an A&M uniform, the side of your garage features a large Aggies flag blowing in the wind, and every car in your driveway is adorned with stickers that read "Go Aggies!" and "#1 Aggies fan!" The exterior of your property seems fully equipped with Texas A&M colors, but there is one piece that's lacking in the spirit department, and that's your mailbox. This magnetic mailbox cover will prove to every passerby, neighbor and visitor that you and your family don't kid around when it comes to showing off your Aggies! This cover boasts vibrant Texas A&M graphics on both sides, and comes with three sheets of number stickers to label your mailbox with. It's also very easy to apply and can be reused over and over again, so even if you move, you'll be able to prove your pride to every new neighbor!
- 100% Vinyl
- Approximately 20" x 18" when laid flat
- For all U.S. approved rural mailboxes
- Imported
- Made to withstand most weather conditions
- Non-fading
- Officially licensed collegiate product
- Team logo and colors
Aggies Customers also liked:
Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Senior Rhys Davies (Bridgend,
The PING All-Region teams consist of the top 15 individuals in their region in the Individual Ranking System. Additionally, any player ranked nationally in the top 75 according to the Golfstat or the Sagarin rankings not included in their regions top 15 are added to their All-Region team. Members of the PING All-Region team are automatically eligible for PING All-America honors, to be announced following the NCAA Division I Championships.
Davies is a two-time, first-team All-America selection.
For the complete All-Region team rankings, visit www.collegiategolf.com.
|Copyright ©2015 East Tennessee State Athletics. All Rights Reserved.


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Social Security Benefit Calculator Description
Summary description
The Office of the Chief Actuary, Social Security Administration, produces a Social Security Benefit Calculator. It produces the Social Security benefit for an old-age, survivor, or disability claim, given the characteristics of a particular worker (such as birth date, past earnings, and type of benefit). It also produces the "primary insurance amount" (PIA), "maximum family benefit", the actuarial reduction or increment factor (for early or delayed retirement), and the monthly benefit amount (MBA).
Online calculator
The Detailed Calculator is a comprehensive benefit calculator which is designed to compute historical benefits as well as estimate future benefits. It is somewhat unwieldy and can be difficult to use. If you are estimating a future retirement benefit, you may wish to use our Online Calculator first because it is much easier to use.
Detailed description
There are two versions of the interactive calculator: one works on IBM PC's and compatibles running recent versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, either Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, and the other runs under the Mac OS. The benefit can be computed for either a new entitlement or a recomputation after initial entitlement. Summary results are presented on the screen; there is an option to print out details of the computations.
The calculator can produce a benefit for any historical case from the first Social Security benefit paid (1940). It can also produce a projected benefit, based on standard or user-specified assumptions, through 2090.
Although we have tried to be as accurate as possible, this is not the same calculator as is used for official Social Security calculations and it may produce results that differ from an official calculation. In particular, for primary benefits, we have made approximations for pre-1965 benefits and for the frozen minimum PIA, and we only partially take account of disability non-exclusion computations and the disability guarantee computation. In addition, the calculator is not set up to estimate dependent or survivor benefits where the dependent or survivor also receives benefits based on their own record, or survivor benefits where the benefit is affected by the worker's retired worker benefit prior to death. Based on experience to date, this calculator matches the official calculations very well, with most differences due to late posting of earnings to the earnings record, or different assumptions for projected benefits.
The 2015.1 version, which takes all amendments to the law, and automatic adjustments, through 2014 into account, is now available at this web site. It updates the 2014.2 version by updating the economic data with the new automatic adjustments announced on October 22, 2014.
Special note for the Mac OS version
We now have a Mac OSX version of the Detailed Calculator. It is functional but still under development. It has all the basic features that the Windows version has, and produces the same results for a given case. However, it is lacking the more advanced features of the Windows version, such as context-sensitive help. We will update it as we implement new features.
In addition, the Mac version does not work on Macs running Lion or newer versions of the OS X operating system. We are currently working on producing a new Mac version which will work on newer versions of OS X, but this may take some time.
Questions or comments
Questions or comments about the Detailed Calculator? Be sure to specify the "Detailed Calculator" in your message so we know to which calculator your question or comment refers.