Minding the Store
Hey, Atheists! It's a Goddamn Contest
Do you have a video camera, a healthy doubt about the existence of God, and a hunger for another copy of Radar? You may be in luck. MORE >>
Sapient's blog
Ranting defense of RRS and some positive comments about us
Submitted by Sapient on December 27, 2007 - 8:02am.RECOVERED FROM GOOGLE CACHE AFTER LOSING TWO WEEKS WORTH OF DATA
Recently an atheist blogger asked his audience what they thought of The Rational Response Squad. Now I recognize and expect for about half of the atheist community to disagree with us. I think that's a good thing. I do however find it ironic that people who disagree with us rarely take the time to find out that we think a passive atheist is needed as well. We wish we could be the passive atheist, and it's only after many years of experience in this realm (and being the passive atheist for a while) that we decided a more blunt approach from a few intellectuals is necessary and vital. We recognized this niche wasn't being filled properly and have fallen into it quite nicely. When we started our group we envisioned it as a jump off point for strident ideas. We envisioned ourselves as a united front of people who agree that religion must go, and that our collective activist power would be strong enough to actually make an impact on a wider front, this was the "Squad" aspect we were hoping for. We see ourselves as the people who shake up those comfortable with irrational beliefs, a passive atheist can spend compassionate dialogue time helping the theist overcome religion, and will have a more receptive candidate after the individual was "shaken up" a bit. However it is entirely possible that the passive atheist will have little chance to help a friend overcome theism if that friend never had the RRS "shake up."
Restoring lost content, determination
Submitted by Sapient on December 27, 2007 - 7:19am.How determined are you?
I'm not posting long, just wanted you to take note of the restored content from Kelly, myself, andthe rationalresponsesquad account. Kelly and I are working hard. She's been up 48 hours and wont last much longer. I tried to relax a little yesterday so I could come back refreshed (she relaxed during her sick time on Christmas day). Yes we get a little downtime, but we bust our ass, day and night, nothing deters us. We fight the good fight, and don't let setbacks get us too down. We are determined and relentless. We think this is a quality we all should embrace. Do you?
As far as I know, I'm not actually Satan
Submitted by Sapient on December 7, 2007 - 6:45am.Because of this, and the obvious idiocy that plagues a large base of listeners from infowars.com I am pulling our ad there for good. Initially, I thought some of the conspiracy theory crowd would enjoy a good "religion is bullshit and takes over the world" conspiracy. I do not, however, wish to bring in people who are this crazy...
Kelly at ya throat.
Submitted by Sapient on November 26, 2007 - 6:37am."I think instead of doing the introduction paragraph I might go straight for the throat this time." - Kelly (sitting next to me as she's two paragraphs in to her next blog)
Subscribe to Kelly's blog via email. Here is how you subscribe via email to Rooks blog, and clicking on this link will subscribe you to my blog via email.
Radar Magazine homepage and OutCampaign news
Submitted by Sapient on October 29, 2007 - 11:19pm.A ton of work was done behind the scenes today. One of the items I'm proud to report on is that RDF has accepted my suggestion to make the "A" logo from the Richard Dawkins OutCampaign one that can be used by anyone to sell shirts that would enable atheists to "out" themselves. Profit made from sales of your own "A" shirt creations would be your own.
The Rational Response Squad store will have "A" shirts for sale soon, with RRS links and an rdf link on each shirt. Evolvefish.com will probably have them, too. I encourage every atheist vendor to sell these shirts and hope that others will sell them, as well. Please purchase the shirts from an atheist organization that you support, so that they will receive the valuable funds needed to maintain their organizations. Please alert your favorite organization to this new information.
There will be an official statement as to any rules soon coming from the outcampaign site. I suggested that all atheist organizations should sell the shirts for the same price of $20. I hope that they write about this soon.
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Radar magazine upgraded our article to a homepage story today.
http://www.radaronline.com/ (right sidebar, about half way down)
AAI Videos, Dawkins, Downey, our Youtube
Submitted by Sapient on October 26, 2007 - 3:28pm.It's been a hectic morning, as usual. Jake is in town and we've spent several hours brainstorming and picking ourselves apart to become better at what we do. Our conversation has been stopped a few times to help handle a "situation" with videos that were posted on our RationalResponse Youtube Channel. The videos were removed at first due to the AAI videos that will be coming out for sale next month. I believe RDF was also licensed to make a dvd, and AAI didn't expect so much material to get onto youtube. So AAI asked for RDF who uses our youtube account to upload videos to pull the videos. They complied swiftly.
Things you can do to help us grow, and what I'm doing (long)
Submitted by Sapient on October 19, 2007 - 7:56pm.Blog or Digg our post on Digg which mentions our new video site, the first of its kind.
We (the RRS) have been working with Margaret Downey on the "atheist unity" thing, which includes helping other atheist organizations get exposure. We will be adding many new sites to our network and soon you'll be able to hop from site to site, leave comments, R.S.V.P. for events and participate in projects that embrace the goals and aims of The Rational Response Squad.
And, last week, http://www.MargaretDowney.com was brought online.
Today we learned that Margaret's site has had around 3,000,000 hits. According to Alexa traffic ranking, this is extremely high... almost a million more than Greg Epstein (and dozens of other popular atheist sites) Greg Epstein!.
The IE warning will soon be on all of our sites, although it will be reduced in size... get Firefox with Google Toolbar now!!
Gizmo, FormerFollier first to win autographed copies
Submitted by Sapient on October 16, 2007 - 11:05pm.A Radar Magazine advertising confirmed with me today that if we can get 15 people to upload videos to youtube as we've asked, they'll supply the extra copies of the mag. The whole process could take a little while. We'll wait until we've awarded all 15 to send them out all at once.
The first two people to submit videos are Gizmo and Formerfollier, two of the hardest working activists out there, thanks guys!
Former Follier:
Kelly and I are going to Borders to see our story in Radar Magazine.
Submitted by Sapient on October 15, 2007 - 11:15am.I'm in a rush, but I just wanted to tell you that the November issue of Radar Magazine has a three page story about us. The November issue should be available today at Borders Book Stores all over the US. You may want to call in advance to be sure that they have it. Barnes and Noble stocks it, but both stores we visited did not have the latest issue, and according to the store's computer, B&N didn't think they'd get it for another month. We think that was an error because Radar was previously published bi-monthly. Another user reports that a local Barnes and Noble stocks it. So... go to Borders today if you want the November issue in which our 3 page spread is shown. I hope that Kelly and I will be able to scan the article and show it to you (after it's no longer a current issue). Here's what they say on their site: Fame The No-God Squad How a scrappy band of heathens became a media sensation—and gave godlessness a fresh new face. By Richard Rys Radars online story simply links to the Blasphemy Challenge video... GREAT EXPOSURE FOR THE VIDEO!
