Karma

 Yes I’m petty. Nonetheless…

Harris-Beshear

For the record I liked KH in January 2019 & still think she’ll be a great presidential candidate. 

Andy firms up her weaker demographic supporters: rural whites, hunters, Evangelicals.

I feel pretty confident their ticket would get the same states as Biden-Harris in 2020. 

Welp

 

Update Aug 17 2024: I still see these “never surrender” signs all the time at his rallies and think of this quick reaction post…

Orwellian truth sandwich 

...

the ripple effect

Update: Dec 2025

A Short History of Gator Freethought: Ripples From a Small Beginning

When I was a graduate student at the University of Florida, I restarted a defunct secular/freethought student group that had been dormant for years. The group had gone through several incarnations — first HASA (Humanist & Atheist Student Association), then AASA (Atheist & Agnostic Student Association), and finally the unwieldy but earnest AAFSA: the Atheist, Agnostic & Freethinking Student Association. My own 2007 blog entry marking the reboot still survives on the Wayback Machine.

Archived:

• 2007 placeholder post: https://gatorfreethought.blogspot.com/2007/03/placeholder.html

• Early FAQ (2006 archive): https://web.archive.org/web/20120307063906/http://www.gatorfreethought.com/2006/03/faq.html

What began as a small social group — half discussion club, half community — eventually evolved into Gator Freethought, the name that stuck. An archived splash page from 2020 reflects this identity shift:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200730015408/http://gatorfreethought.weebly.com/

The Weebly description nicely captures the transition:

“HASA (oldest), AASA (older), AAFSA (2002). Since these groups had all dissolved, he contacted the old leadership and registered AAFSA with the Center for Student Involvement. We have now evolved to Gator Freethought, and so too has our purpose… from a collection of a certain kind of discussers to a certain kind of discussion — freethought.”

The Unexpected Legacy

I always imagined the group would be temporary — a hobby, a campus niche, a way to meet thoughtful people. But a funny thing happened: the group kept going long after I left UF in 2007. New officers stepped in, meetings continued, and the group stayed active well into the late 2010s. Their Facebook page shows events as late as Fall 2018:
https://www.facebook.com/gatorfreethought

More surprisingly, Gator Freethought ended up playing a visible role in a 2015 church–state controversy involving a Bible verse engraved on Heavener Hall. The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a complaint on behalf of UF students (widely understood to include members of Gator Freethought), challenging the inscription of Micah 6:8 on a public university building.

Coverage:

• Ocala.com report on the compromise: https://www.ocala.com/story/news/state/2015/10/12/in-compromise-uf-will-add-secular-quotes-to-bible-verse-at-heavener-hall/31964746007/

UF ultimately kept the verse but added secular quotations — a rare win in this type of dispute.

Around the same time, an activist Christian organization labeled Gator Freethought an “anti-Christian hate group,” which was absurd on its face — the group has never been anti-Christian, only pro-secular. But it shows the moral panics that secular groups sometimes attract.

Coverage:

• USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2015/03/05/american-family-association-marks-uf-student-group-anti-christian/37401047/

Media Footnote: Hannity & Colmes

Years before the 2015 controversy, I briefly found myself in the national spotlight when I was interviewed on Hannity & Colmes in November 2006 about church–state issues. That was my one moment of national television exposure, and it now feels like a strange artifact from a different life.

Clip: https://youtu.be/zH5u48kjOWM

What Remains

If all this taught me anything, it’s the truth behind a simple idea:

Ripples are all we leave behind.

A student group I started for fun — without any sense of long-term legacy — ended up affecting campus debates and student life for a decade after I moved on. Friends met, ideas circulated, people found community. And eventually the group left a small but real mark on the university’s public history.

Not bad for a hobby with a clunky acronym.

Original Post: 

When I was a graduate student at UF I restarted a defunct student group about church-state separation/freethought/secularism. The first version of the group had a clunky name, AAFSA, which evolved to Gator Freethought. It was a fun social scene / outlet / hobby and partly a brief but intense belief in political activism on my part.

Some student groups are only good for fun and personal development, and that's okay. But some have longer-lasting effects, as I just discovered that Gator Freethought was involved in a 2015 FFRF action at UF to remove religious inscriptions from Heavener Hall. They were also continuing to meet as late as fall 2018, according to their Gator Freethought Facebook group. And they even got added to a hate group list by a religious group as "anti-Christian" although there is literally nothing anti-Christian about the group.

Ripples are all we leave behind. For me a simple choice to create a student group continued to have impacts on others for ten years after I left campus. Just a cool reminder that small things we do add up over time.

I ended up doing an interview on Hannity & Colmes in Nov of 2006 over a controversial topic concerning politics and religion. I guess that will remain my only national television exposure. But there's a lot more out there if you want to dig.

Wayback Archive:

1) https://web.archive.org/web/20200730015408/http://gatorfreethought.weebly.com/ 

2) https://web.archive.org/web/20120307063906/http://www.gatorfreethought.com/2006/03/faq.html

Go big on Biden

I decided to go quiet on Twitter until after the election. But I had to document my thoughts in writing one last time before 11/3/2020.

Back in 2016 I was confident Hillary would win, but I did post two tweets running up to the election that belied my insecurities: here (11/4) and here (11/8). Now that we're a week from Election Day, I'd like to reflect for the record that I think this time around may be a blowout for Biden & what it means.

Two days after the 2016 election, I posted a bit of analysis on the numbers and takeaways. Mainly my point was that Trump's win was a razor-thin margin across MI + PA + WI & that demographics would make 2020 an even harder win ("hinge" election notwithstanding). I stand by my conclusions, although the certified numbers did shift somewhat (in Hillary's favor, actually). As many people have pointed out, third party voters & low turnout won't be the same factor this time around.

So what about now? TL;DR version: a big Biden win. And even better? I think we'll have a good idea on the night of the election because of Florida, Florida, Florida.

politics, values, meaning

Before I reflect on the upcoming election, let me frame two things from two of today's NYT op-ed columnists:

Nicholas Kristof summarizes

"The United States has made other terrible mistakes over the decades, including the Iraq War and the War on Drugs. But in terms of destruction of American lives, treasure and wellbeing, this pandemic may be the greatest failure of governance in the United States since the Vietnam War."

and David Brooks declares a winner in the war of ideas

"The 2020 shift to the left follows years of steady leftward drift. In 2015, a majority of Americans believed that “government is doing too many things better left to business and individuals.” Now only 39 percent of Americans believe that, while 59 percent think, “Government should do more to solve problems,” according to Pew Research Center.

I come from a county which voted overwhelmingly to elect Trump (82-16) & will do the same again this year. I was raised in a staunchly Southern Baptist & Republican household by loving parents. I want to be a good, kind, open-minded person to my friends and family who see the world very differently than me. So I decided to step back from tweeting and stewing in the headlines to reflect a bit more before reacting to everything.

I stand by my analysis of the moral calculus from about a month ago. I think he will go down in defeat. But I think the problems in our country will remain. People are misinformed on a massive scale by special interests, foreign influence peddling, and the outright corruption that results from giving politicians unfettered access to the pocketbooks of corporations and billionaires.

But I am reminded of the bigger picture, in which humans learn from their mistakes. Do they repeat history first as tragedy, then as farce? Maybe. Maybe Trump wins. Life will go on if so. But the fight will continue either way & I am feeling weary, so I am going to step back from political tweeting & blogging.

active Republican Christian terrorist in Washington state

This is fine:

"as of this writing, an alleged practitioner of radical Christian terrorism remains a state legislator in Washington."

You really have to read about Matt Shea to believe it is even real:

"Last year, the chair of the Republican caucus in Washington’s state legislature acknowledged that he had written a manifesto on the 'Biblical Basis for War.' In that document, the lawmaker argued that – as far as Jesus Christ was concerned – American Christians have the right to 'kill all males' who support abortion, same-sex marriage or communism (so long as they first give such infidels the opportunity to renounce their heresies).

The manifesto’s revelation cost its author, Matt Shea, his chairmanship. But Shea insisted that his writings were merely 'a summary of church sermons on Old Testament war that could help place current events in historical context.' And so, the Washington GOP did not call for Shea to resign or expel him from its House caucus. [emphasis mine]"

Although they finally suspended him from the caucus when more information came out, the fact that Republicans in Washington kept a white Christian terrorist in their protective circle tells you all you need to know...notwithstanding my hyperbolic use of #AmericanTaliban.

From April:

"At various points in his strange career, State Representative Matt Shea of Washington’s Spokane Valley has called for a holy war on liberals, advocated for eastern Washington to secede from the union, and spoken to meetings of the John Birch Society. Now, despite a new report that details his participation in a disturbing far-right group chat, Shea, a Republican, is clinging to power. His party seems reluctant to condemn him."

I wrote about Christian theonomy about 13.5 years ago...jeez the more the change, eh?