I lost a friend over the weekend. He was HIV positive for 15 years; AIDs the last 5 years brought him a variety of ailments ~ most recently Central Nervous System Lymphoma.

His partner and I found this poem written in one of his notebooks and will read it today during the life celebration. He can only guess that it was written sometime over the last few months ; when diagnosed with the CNS lymphoma;

I found out today
It feels like a veil of black has been lowered,
Over my head

How do I tell you, what do I say
I have never been good at bad news

With the words falling from my lips
You looked at me
and cried; and then I with you

Our son
How do we explain
Ten years old seems so young;
Can death be understood by someone still
so close to birth?

With the words falling from my lips
He looked at me
And said; I will miss you
 

Chalmer Wren, Metro State Atheists former Vice President, was recently invited to write an article for The Reed Secular Alliance about their Freethought Books Project. That article can be found at http://reedsecular.org/2009/06/13/chalmer-wren-book-projec/.

My Examiner page: http://www.examiner.com/x-11708-Philadelphia-Reason--Religion-Examiner

My WordPress page: http://shaunphilly.wordpress.com

My website: http://www.geocities.com/shaunphilly

First, before I explain anything, here is the link to the article about Metro State Atheists published in The National Newspaper, an English language newspaper distributed in the United Arab Emirates.

I'm done explaining.

- Chalmer

Mother's day.

Classically, my day to be envious of my children for having TWO parents instead of 1/2 of a disinterested guardian.

Yesterday was Birth Mother's day. Even most of the adopted people I know didn't know that. That's ok. I always keep a few friends in mind on that day and inevitably I decide NOT to call them on that day to inform them of this day's alleged significance over any other.

It is one of the cases where ignorance isn't bliss, but almost necessary.

I'm not sure of the motivations for commemorating being a birth mother. It seems a little insidious as if it is meant as a backhanded comment rather than a 'holiday'.

There are any number of motives for even acknowledging it as a day as well.

Of course, it depends upon whom one is addressing when discussing it. right?

If it were a birth mother who had to give up the child then it strikes of sadistic obnoxiousness to mention it.

However, if it is a woman who sold or absolutely didn't want the baby at the time at all then it becomes an interesting study in what emotions are at play in the now rather than then when the choice was made.

My sympathies are there for the women who had to give up their title as mother, but not so much for those who just felt like it was okay to have a kid and shrug it off on someone else.

In the case of the former, it seems fair that mother and child be reunited eventually, but in the case of the latter...

I've been spending my mind-numbing, but busy worktime trying to think of the absolutely dumbest thing that has ever gotten anyone noticed by the 'mainstream' media.

I will never understand why Perez Hilton gets to sit at the judge's table for Miss USA. Isn't that like putting a vegetarian in charge of the cattle association???? How in this miserable age did that fucker rate a seat in front of allegedly the best women America has to offer?

Easy.

The people that put him there wanted to capitalize on a stupid fucker that gets a half million views on a club music video called 'My Penis'

The gay Beavis of the new millenium except less humorous.

Somewhere inside that mush of supposed grey matter, this fucktard thinks people like him for his 'insightful' remarks.

Given his audience... he may be right. I might be wrong. However, natural selection means I will outbreed him. lol. So there's catharsis.

But changing gears....

Joe the plumber garners attention by being a 'representative' of the working class for the McCain campaign and STILL is asked for his opinions on current events.

Joe doesn't want his kids around gay people... or was it... Joe doesn't want gay people around his kids. Either way it's probably safe to assume that Joe's kids won't be going to any college besides one akin to a Liberty University. (no offense to you, Patten)

Yes, I know, I know. I've been posting here for over half a year.

My legal name is Yu Sun, but people call me Jay. You can probably deduce from my name that I'm Chinese. I was born in Xiamen, China, and I came to the U.S. when I was seven years old. Today, I'm 19 years old, and I attend the University of Washington, Seattle, majoring in physics.

I grew up in a non-religious household (not counting the government), so while I never believed in God, I never considered myself an atheist until I was older. When I was 16, I was emotionally swindled and had theistic thoughts for a while (I tried praying), but other than that, I've been an atheist my entire life. When I debate with people with a different perspective, I always try to be respectful and understand their position, but I often discover that I have a rather short fuse.

My username is a reference to The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, not South Park. However, if you want to continue reading my posts with Butter's voice in your head, you have my permission to do so, because that's awesome.

Jessica Simpson (aka nice looking blonde christian bimbo #9,992) is featured in Vanity Fair.

When asked about her faith, her response was:

Soooo, nobody told her that what really defines her is the classic 'Chicken of the Sea' clip. 

"Is it fish or chicken?"

Now, I'm guilty of looping the bikini scene from 'The dukes of Hazzard' a couple of times, but even that measure of irrational behavior PALES in comparison to someone being angry with the empty air and thinking it is a good thing.

In other thoughts:

My 12-year-old daughter went on her FIRST overnight out of town trip sans family members.

For achieving the Honor Roll all year. she was treated to: a trip to the aquarium, a dance/pizza party on a river boat, and Six Flags over Georgia for a day.

Dad(me) gave her a cellphone to take with her so as to maintain some semblance of a 'leash' on a girl that is 12 going on 17.

Mom fretted.

Metro State Atheists was nominated for one of  MSCD’s Student Involvement & Leadership Awards, the Student Organization Of The Year, and we won!