I’m still pissed off at the Republican party. It’s been a while since I quit identifying with them. There was a time when they were the party of personal liberty and fiscal responsibility. The Republican party of today is a party of draconian social conservatism and fiscal insanity. They just keep doing stupid stuff. In case anybody confuses me for a Democrat, I am most certainly not. They just haven’t given me anything to rant about recently, especially not things that fit with the overall nature of this blog.

Let’s look at a few of the stupid things that GOP presidential contenders have said recently:

• The Reverend Mike Huckabee thinks that the American people should be forced to watch a jackass evangelist, at gun point if need be.
  
• Newt Gingrich is afraid we are headed to a secular atheist country that will be dominated by radical Islamists. WTF!?! Read more. (Via the Jewmanist)

There’s quite a few other things going on that are challenging our nations secularism:

• The US Army reneged on the promise to provide an equal level of support to the Rock Beyond Belief event as was given to Billy Graham’s Rock the Fort. This is finally getting some pretty major media coverage so it’ll be interesting to see if they back down.
• It doesn’t look like the Army is letting up on their Spiritual Fitness Test, something that atheists would have a very difficult time passing. In some units soldiers where forced by there First Sgt to see the chaplain about it.
• The Supreme Court refused to hear a case where Arizona “gives taxpayers there a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit of up to $500 for donations to private ‘student tuition organizations.’ The organizations are permitted to limit the scholarships they offer to schools of a given religion, and many of them do.” Read more.
• Michael Newdow is keeping up his fight to get “In God We Trust” off our money and “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance. When his most recent case reached the Supreme Court, they refused to hear it. I’m torn on this one. He’s right and it would be nice if he wins, but I’m afraid that he’s creating bad precedent that will make it so that we can never win.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Sure, I’ve got a good job in management, but I got the job when I was still trying to figure out who I am and while I was still in flux on my way to atheism. Now that I know who I really am, I need to find something that will be fulfilling and satisfying. I’m not content simply apply the campsite rule to life, I don’t just want to make the world a little better, I want to do everything I can to make it a lot better.

My current job certainly satisfies the campsite rule since I am working to improve the health and quality of life for a few thousand people, but I would much rather help change the world for the betterment of reason and freethought. I won’t be making any big changes for a few years since I have some debt to pay off before I can head back to school.

Current things I’m looking at are law and being a Humanist Chaplain in the military. Each would allow for addressing the bull shit above. What’s ironic is that if I go the chaplain route, then I would be having to go back to a seminary…hopefully Harvard Divinity School.