NaCl Available on Amazon - Free Copies for Select Reviewers

OK, so this is not an atheist relevant post other than that I'm an atheist and I created some of the album art for my partner's album of somewhat liberal and experimental rock and roll.  You can listen to clips from NaCl on Amazon or buy the album as a package of mp3s or as a CD.

You can watch a video (soon to be two videos) from the album on Reverbnation and listen to different clips and whole songs from NaCl.  

If you are a writer and would like a free CD of NaCl, contact me and I will furnish a free copy of NaCl in exchange for an honest, substantial review on Amazon.  Supplies are extremely limited.

16 Atheist Documentaries You Can Watch for Free on DocumentaryStorm

I just popped on for a moment so I could share a link to a website where you can watch sixteen atheist documentaries for free.  I have a slow Internet connection and computer but I was able to load and watch the documentaries.  If you have an issue with getting the videos to load, try restarting your computer or switching browsers.

Atheist Documentaries on DocumentaryStorm

I plan to go through and write a brief review of each of the atheist documentaries on the website and post them here as time allows. 

Why Do Threat-Type Messages Occur In Clusters or Waves?

Most abusive comments don't make it to the page because most people delete them if they contain swearing to keep their pages visible or simply don't publish them to avoid turning their blog, editorial, or article into venue for a flame war.  I practice a little of both.  I don't publish comments with any swearing on Squidoo because my pages will become invisible to the public if I do and if comments anywhere cross a threat line I take them down or don't publish them.  I follow similar rules on my blogs but allow some mild swearing.  All of this makes it difficult for others to tell when I'm getting abusive comments.  I presume it is the same for other bloggers and atheist writers.  So I'm wondering if anyone else is getting clumps and clusters of sweary-pants comments right now?  

I hadn't gotten any for over two weeks and then they started trickling in again.  Now I'm getting them in clusters of three or four at a time, several times per day from what appear to be different people.  This has always been how it happened in the past, stretches without nasty comments or threats interspersed with clumps and clusters of them.  Before, they always seemed to correspond with something atheist relevant I'd written experiencing a burst of near popularity.  This time, my view counts are pretty small on my atheist material, and my most popular writing at the moment has to do with crafts.  Are the vocal anti-atheist, anti-non-Christian folks just generally extra stirred up right now or something?

The kind of weird thing is that the sweary comments I'm getting contain zero death threats so far.  I'll take that as a good sign but maybe it's just an indication that the death threat people are bothering someone else at the moment.

So what is your theory as to why the nasty comments tend to come in clusters rather than more-or-less evenly scattered in time?

Atheist Documentary: Anything but an Atheist: Chapter One

Earlier this week it was my pleasure to be introduced to a site devoted entirely to showing documentaries.  I also found out they have an entire category for atheist documentaries. 

As I browsed through their selection deciding which one to watch first Anything but an Atheist caught my eye.  The title grabbed me because it’s something I can relate to as an American atheist.  Some people don’t seem to be bothered by whatever you are just so long as you aren’t an atheist.  In any case I loaded it up and watched chapter one of Anything but an Atheist today.

It starts out with a graphical depiction of the statistics from the University of Minnesota’s data showing how atheists are America’s least trusted minority.  It moves on to show some very revealing clips from television shows illustrating how very acceptable it still is to bash or hate atheists in a very open manner. 

The documentary shows quite a few prominent people who are atheists or who were atheists when they were alive throughout the video.  While I’ve seen a lot of lists of celebrity atheists I liked seeing their faces.  I think it’s really helpful to put faces to people to break down the stereotypes. 

There are also a few segments showing interviews with atheists who have experienced discrimination.  While I’ve seen the clip from 20/20 with the young lady in Utah who was treated so awfully once her family came out as atheists, it still got me a bit teary-eyed because her experience being a young atheist in small town America is so similar to my own.  There’s no reason people need to do this to people whose beliefs aren’t harming them one bit.

Anyway, I think that chapter one of Anything but an Atheist is well worth a watch.  I look forward to watching more of this documentary.  I also think it might be a good tool to help atheists show their friends and family members what kind of problems atheists in America face.  Many theists aren’t even aware that this kind of thing goes on and I think they need to be if we’re ever going to be accepted by the society we live in. 

Risk Assessment Help for Teens Coming Out Atheist

I recently put up a page to help teens and young adults coming out atheist to evaluate the risks they might face in coming out atheist to family, friends, and their school.

I decided to write it because many of the homeless lgbt teens and young adults I took into my home over the years wished they could have a do-over and take it back after coming out and getting kicked out of the house, either with or without a period of escalating abuse or a nasty beating. They hadn't considered all the possible risks. I think that atheist teens may face the same risks.

In any case, here's a link to my new page for atheist teens and young adults thinking of coming out atheist.

If I've missed something glaring or you've experienced some other negative affect of coming out atheist as a teen or young adult, please let me know. Also, if you have any links to resources for teens and young adults coming out atheist, I'd love to add them to the page. Your help is greatly appreciated because I never had to come out as an atheist to my family and never "came out" as anything else to them as a young person. This is obviously still a work in progress and more content and photos will be added.

I have a plan to write a whole series on coming out atheist in America so this page need not include everything to do with coming out atheist. I plan to remove the very few coming out tips from the page and link to a page of coming out tips once that page is, if not finished, at least somewhat presentable.

I'm Back

Wow, I haven't done anything with That Atheist Bitch for a very long time! At least I haven't been kept away by health issues this time aside from the way my illnesses limits my working capacity. I've been writing a lot of other stuff, including an atheist book I've been working on almost forever. It appears that I can only write a certain amount during a given time period so I've been intensely focusing on writing that earns money.

I hope to do better about posting for a very happy reason; my health has been slowly improving since I was put on better pain medications and a vitamin D supplement. It's amazing how much better a person feels when one can sleep through the night without waking up due to pain every hour or so.