Hedwig

That's cool. I have a good friend who's a Jewish hellenistic witch (honestly, that's what he calls himself.)

Don't mind me...very few of my posts contain anything of substance...my post was on the light-hearted side.

I agree with your point, though.

[ June 30, 2002: Message edited by: Hedwig ]</p>

notto

FYI - Maybe a complaint to Dodge (or at least a heads up on the issue) is in order.

<a href="http://www.weeklyracingseries.com/northwestregion/news.asp?News_ID=481" target="_blank">http://www.weeklyracingseries.com/northwestregion/news.asp?News_ID=481</a>

"I have to give a big thank you to Mike Olson Dodge in Yakima and Wheeler Logging for giving the chance to drive this Dodge Intrepid at Tri-City Raceway," Jefferson said. "Without their support and the great equipment that my car owner, Doug Betteral has given me, I know I could not be here talking about this historic win."

"Dodge has brought a lot of excitement to the grass roots level of racing and it's an added incentive to run the Dodge," Jefferson said. "It allows our team the chance to get support from a local dealer so we can go racing at this high of a level."

Splat

False alarm. He said: "If you're an Atheist, and you don't believe in this country I'm gonna' charge you ten more grand for a car,"

So to get the God and Country discount, you have to not believe the US exists AND be an athiest.

According to the CUNY ARIS data, Washington has more athiests than any state in the US (a whopping 25% of the population). I bet very few of them don't believe in the US.

<a href="http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/key_findings.htm" target="_blank">http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/key_findings.htm</a>

[ June 30, 2002: Message edited by: Splat ]</p>

Jezebel

I realize you weren't speaking to me but personally, I'm thrilled to live here in Washington, particularly the Seattle area. I mean, c'mon, it's so liberal here that the Gay Pride Parade is now a 2 day event. I think this car dealer in Yakima is an idiot but damn, I'd rather be here right now then alot of other places in the country. I'm pretty sure Washington has one of the highest percentages of atheists in the country.

Corwin

It does.... but having grown up in the northwest let me explain a quirk to the rest of the country...

The northwest is known for being one of the most liberal, secular regions of the entire country. Washington and Oregon bounce back and forth from year to year for having the highest percentage of atheists.

That's in the city.

Most of the population up here is very urban, most of the landmass is very rural... and once you get outside of Bellingham, Seattle, Olympia, Portland/Vancouver, Salem, Eugene, and Roseburg... the numbers change dramatically. Those cities contain the bulk of the population, but outside the cities the bulk of the remainder is evangelical christian, assemblies of God, and (more than the other two combined) LDS. Utah may be famous for its mormons.... but Washington, Oregon and Idaho each have huge mormon populations. In addition to all of this, in any rural community in the northwest there is generally a small, frequently nervous, community of catholics.

I love living in the northwest... but understand that it's not some atheistic humanistic utopia. (yet.)

NumberTenOx

Thanks, I guess I was a little too worked up about this.
You're right, I love it here too. I think it's easy late at night to feel isolated and alone in a sea of religious dogmatism.

But in the light of day, Doug Betteral is just a small minded idiot.
I noticed that. However, he made several statements that didn't have the "not believe in the US" restriction. I think he was actually equating atheism with not being a patriot.

But in the end, you're right that this is a false alarm. My hope is that Mr. Betteral has already been taken to the woodshed by his lawyer, if not by leaders in his community.

Grumpy

<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=45&t=000702" target="_blank">Cross-posted</a> in Misc. Religion.

Jezebel

I agree, and I should have made it more clear, that I was speaking particularly to my experience in the Seattle area because I noticed the author of this thread lived close to Seattle as well. I grew up in a small town just outside of Pittsburgh, and compared, this is wonderful. I don't know if you noticed the "death threats" thread in the Secular Lifestyle/Support forum was written by a Pittsburgh resident. I know Washington isn't perfect, particularly the rural areas, but I'll take it anyday over Pennsylvania.


[ July 02, 2002: Message edited by: Jezebel ]</p>

pz

I grew up near Seattle and went to college in Oregon, and I agree. There are strongly liberal leanings in the two major population centers, Seattle and Portland (with a third enclave of even more radical sentiment in Eugene), but everywhere else is more like something from Alabama. You can see the split in the legislatures, too -- you can pretty much tell which side of the political spectrum a representative is on from by side of the Cascades he's from.

Oh, and this car dealer is in Yakima -- that's on the Republican side of the Cascades, in God-fearing country sparsely populated by ranchers and fruit-growers. In my youth, it was also infamous as one of the primary places through which the drug trade made its entry into the state, and had one of the highest rates of violent crime.

[ July 02, 2002: Message edited by: pz ]</p>

Reverend Mykeru

NumberTenOx


Wait, how can we be patriots if President Bush Sr. claims that atheists should not even be considered citizens?

Damn, ever get the feeling that the deck is stacked like a woman who used two bean bag chairs as a breast implant?