Thoughts for the Morning

First, some good news. The anti-torture bill passed 90 to 10 in the Senate. Even Republicans, it seems, are sickened by the atrocities that have come to light. If it does as well in the House, there's no way that Bush's threatened veto can derail it.

Speaking of Bush, Daily Kos has a list of various politicians (many of them conservative) criticizing his latest pick for the Supreme Court. (Note: thusfar I have no opinion on Miers, but I do agree she was chosen mostly because she has worked closely with Bush) Oh, and Bush doesn't want to be embarrassed by the National Weather Service again. You may remember that 12 hours before the storm, they published an extreme warning telling everyone to get out of dodge, quick. Well, now they have to get authorization to talk to the press. In other words, the one part of the administration that did its job during Katrina is now hindered from doing so in the future.

Last link for the morning is to Skeptic Rant. I just ran across this blog this morning (found the link over at Pharyngula). The most recent post is spot on. In and of itself, lack of belief is not a religion. However, far too many atheists have turned it into a religion. As I have noted before, the religion of atheism most often takes the form of antitheism: the belief that all religion is evil/immoral/pick-favorite-negative-adjective.