williamlobdell.com

Today, the body of Sen. Edward Kennedy traveled from Hyannis Port to Boston along a route that included some of the late politicians favorite places. Spectators cheered respectfully as the hearse went by.
Television and radio reporters talked reverently about Kennedy taking his final trip through Massachusetts. Hello? With all due respect, he wasn’t taking the [...]

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Here’s my travel schedule for the fall.

I’m be the keynote speaker at the ExMormon Foundation 2009 Conference on Oct. 10 in Salt Lake City.
I’m also be speaking at the annual Freedom From Religion convention in Seattle, which takes place on Nov. 6-8.
I’m competing in Ironman Cozumel on Nov. 29 (nothing to do with beliefs, but [...]

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I’m having trouble with definitions, something folks ask me often at speaking engagements. Can someone help me? Please explain to me, like I was a a third-grader, the difference between these terms:

Secular humanist.
Humanist.
Atheist.

Thank you.

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One of my day jobs is co-publisher of the Newport-Mesa Daily Voice, an online newspaper for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, Calif. One of Costa Mesa’s council members is an evangelical Christian who is trying to get the “In God We Trust” motto posted inside the city council chambers. This is an open letter I [...]

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The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association has named its finalists for the 2009 SCIBA Book Awards, and I’m one of them!
I’m one of three finalists for the non-fiction category. Boo-yah! The winners will be announced Oct. 24.

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WESTMINSTER, CALIF — A church youth group leader will be arraigned Thursday for smoking marijuana and having an unlawful sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in the parking lot of the church. Timothy Han, 21, Fullerton, is charged with one felony count unlawful sexual intercourse, one felony count of oral copulation of a minor, and [...]

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Modesty forbids me to tell you that I’ve received Orange Coast magazine’s “Great Summer Read” award, part of its “Best of” edition for “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in American — and Found Unexpected Peace.”

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From the Salt Lake City Tribune:
Mormons have not only posthumously baptized President Barack Obama’s mother into their faith, but they may have performed the ritual for the president’s African ancestors as well, including his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, according to researcher Helen Radkey.
She has uncovered records in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s [...]

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From Gawker:
Want to work in one of Scientology’s fresh new “Ideal Org” churches? Then get ready to put on your 20-piece uniform, mandatory for all cult staff. Planetary humanity is not going to be perfected by slobs, after all.
[snip]
The outfits were done by Richard Tyler, the Los Angeles-based designer to the stars and sometime Project [...]

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The best statistical portrait yet available of atheists, agnostics, humanists and other nonreligious Americans, based on data collected from nearly 6,000 respondents, has just been published in Free Inquiry magazine. Luke Galen, an associate professor at Grand Valley State University (Grand Rapids, Mich.), reported on the Non-Religious Identification Survey (NRIS), which he conducted in conjunction [...]

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