Thinking Unenslaved Internet Radio

The War on Christmas, Part 2

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:59:16 +0000

(retroactive post is retroactive, sorry for delays)

So, Zach came along, and we wandered all over the place, topic-wise, after some major sound glitches during the live show. The problem with using a software soundboard, lol. I humbly apologize. No budget means…well…things happen sometimes. It has become the catalyst for a format change, however, which will begin next week.

Zach and I discuss the whole war on Christmas thing but with a slightly different focus that ranged from modern Krampus celebrations in counter culture to giving more air-time than deserved to Kirk Cameron’s ~~Hating on Christians~~ Saving Christmas to….Charlie’s Angels? Why yes, the topic did wander a bit, as I noted…

The War on Christmas Has Begun

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 19:06:31 +0000

(belated upload is belated). This broadcast launches the “official” War On Christmas, 2014…which will really be a series of discussions on privilege, but the holiday timing and impulsive, reactive media make it fair game. Amanda Novotny (South Dakota director of American Atheists) and I chat for a couple of hours regarding Christmas and Thanksgiving traditions, and their roots. Pertinent, given two key facts:

There is nothing….nothing, in the various Christmas traditions that are actually unique to Christianity. From the whole idea of an incarnate God and the date chosen all the way through the various cultural celebrations, everything about Christmas is actually borrowed from other religions and traditions, most of which are pagan in origin.
Thanksgiving is not actually a secular holiday in origin. The various decrees which instantiated our Thanksgiving traditions in the United States were clearly religious. It is a day of giving thanks. To whom? To God, of course. There is an interesting interplay between Christianity’s acceptance of this holiday for secular use, whereas devout Christians tend to get bent all out of shape about the “secularisation” of Christmas. Funny stuff.

Please listen in for a lively romp through these traditions. We’ll cover some of them in a little more depth (and a bit more clinically, I hope) starting next week.

The Stupid. It Burns. Again.

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 14:22:57 +0000

Last night, still being under the weather with a flu-like thing, I chose to re-broadcast one of my old episodes. This is where my obtuse episode names don’t necessarily serve me all that well. “The Stupid. It Burns” was in my head as one of those episodes where the three of us (Paul, Zach, and myself at the time) had a great series of lively conversations on various topics. However, what the show really was, was, Paul, Zach, Kile and myself listening to Antitheist Angie and Laci Green take on a particularly abstruse and narrow-minded anti-abortion bigot from Ottowa. It was, in fact, one of the best shows I ever had, made all the more magical when Laci showed up in the broadcast chat and asked to join. Absolutely amazing stuff.

A couple of folks last night missed my opening, which reminded listeners that this was a rebroadcast, therefore feeling a bit “War of the Worlds” when I closed out the show and again reminded people that it had been a rebroadcast. Oops. If I do this again, I’ll try to remember to cut in from time to time and remind people that it’s a rebroadcast. Sorry about that, but last night was still intermittent trips to the facilities while the show was playing. I certainly wasn’t playing any Dragon Age: Inquisition and drinking lots of tea. Oh, no.

A word of warning: My old setup under BlogTalkRadio was a funny thing: my voice cuts in and out quite a bit, especially the more people who were on the call. Please bear with my crackly, intermittent voice; this was all over three years ago, and there’s no way to improve the sound as it was recorded at the time. The callers generally came through loud and clear, and it was only my voice that got garbled from time to time, especially when the lines were open with several people on. Please bear with that. The conversation between the individual from Ottowa, Angie, and Laci are the actual golden parts here.

And yes, I’m now totally contemplating asking Angie and Laci back for a conversation. They’ve both always been more popular than me, as it should be, but Laci in particular is now a “huge” name on YouTube, and I actually feel reticent to bug her, but we’ll see. Her thoughtful insight, and Angie’s repeated use of statistics to combat “the feels” of the anti-abortion lot, are what made this broadcast the golden thing it is.

Freethought and Free Thought

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 04:17:25 +0000

So, tonight I begin my discussion into freethought with Amanda Novotny, South Dakota State Director for American Atheists and president of the Siouxland Freethinkers Group. It was actually Amanda who brought up the distinction between Freethought and “free thought”, and it sparked a great discussion and will serve as an excellent basis for upcoming discussions. I committed to doing some more research on past freethought writers and luminaries while admitting to certain biases against them that I should be working to overcome in certain terms, with the caveat that if someone was a “Freethought Luminary” with an active religious background, I cry foul. We were joined at the end of the show by Zach, a frequent participant in Thinking Unenslaved’s past incarnation. Zach says he will be here next week and even worked out a kink in his work schedule to do so. I’m already looking forward to next week, and I haven’t even selected an overall topic yet!

Please give the show a listen and feel free to join us live next week at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific!

Post-traumatic Stress Election

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 03:45:55 +0000

I’m not quite as upset, really, about the elections as you might suspect. It was fairly predictable to me. “The People” have spoken, and “The People” are clearly focused on what everyone else is doing, instead of what’s good for themselves. I think that’s really the most interesting takeaway here. I’m most concerned about the short-term effect this election will have on science progress, particularly on climate change: because those short-term effects will have long-lasting consequences.

Joining me tonight will once again be Cory Allen Heidelberger from Madville Times, and we’ll talk about all those things and more. Then, around the 8 o’clock hour, Ellee Spawn from Sioux Falls and I will talk about all sorts of things from voter competence to what “free thought” means to persons of religious backgrounds, and where such folks can find middleground with nontheist freethinkers.

Thinking Unenslaved Reboot Show

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 02:50:05 +0000

Behold the inglorious audio of the (re)debut show! The audio gremlins bit Josh and me both. I have two willing helpers on the audio side, so I’m confident we’ll knock these things out for next week. Many thanks to Josh Tordsen and Cory Allen Heidelberger! And I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that interview with Steve Hildebrand after the elections!

Blog Party: The Post-non-Rapture, Pre-non-Apocalypse Version

Wed, 25 May 2011 23:58:56 +0000

(this was the last official broadcast of Thinking Unenslaved in its form at the time. which is funny, because given the subject matter, maybe it was the end of the world after all….)

Sorry. It took me a while to get Internet connected down here in my post-rapture bunker. I understand the world is now being ravaged by demons, angels, zombies, and other nefarious things. I hope some of you are left alive to help me get a grip on what’s going on.

Dangit. There’s that scratching noise at the door again. I may have to talk very quietly….

10pm eastern, 9 central, 8 mountain (mostly), 7 pacific. or something like that.