by Damon Martin

Finding humor and easy to understand facts as an atheist isn’t always an easy thing to do.

Being an atheist myself, I’m always searching out new ways to help people understand science, as well as why I reject faith and religion as a whole. Sometimes it involves long conversations over several hours, other times it’s watching a film like Bill Maher’s Religulous.

More often than not however it’s the suggestion for that friend, co-worker or acquaintance to read a book that I’ve devoured in the hopes that they will find something interesting or intriguing to capture their attention within it. Normally, I tell them to read the Bible cover to cover and they are almost assured to become an atheist, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Two such books have been released recently. One will make you laugh, but also question things like faith and religion. The other is a fantastic exploration of science triumphing over myth that could be used as a text book for any middle school.

Penn Jillette, the talking half of the famous magician duo Penn and Teller, released a book in late summer titled God No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales in which he presents his version of the ten atheist commandments.

The book was actually inspired by noted conservative and Mormon Glenn Beck who suggested while interviewing Penn once that atheists should have their own commandments to live by, much like those in the Bible that Christians claim to follow on a daily basis.

Penn explores his commandments with a slew of personal stories and encounters, while going right for the jugular with subjects like atheists vs. agnostics (the chapter is entitled “Agnostics: No One Can Know For Sure But I Believe They’re Full of Shit”).

His stories are told in a way that will definitely keep you laughing, but much like his atheist brethren Ricky Gervais, when Penn gets serious and wants to make a point, his writing is crisp, striking and well thought out.

God No! is a great introduction for anybody wanting to learn more about morality in the atheist world, while also finding humor in everyday situations that many atheists will encounter or in Penn’s case have encountered.

While Penn’s book is more of a straight forward slap in the face with reality about being an atheist, famed biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins‘ new book The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True is a spellbinding narrative of the wondrous world of science and how it compares to the myths that seemingly capture our attention as youths.

The book is aimed at children ages 12 and up, and really could be a science manual for kids who are intrigued by science and how things work.

Dawkins along with illustrator Dave McKean weave a beautiful scientific picture of the world while explaining things like where a rainbow comes from, why there are so many different animals, and who the first man was. The questions and myths are laid out and Dawkins sets out to not only disprove them, but explain how science works to give answers that are just as mystifying and amazing.

Dawkins takes the myths and tales that we all learned as children and debunks them in a way that not only makes sense, but makes things fit together like a puzzle.

Throughout the book, Dawkins even admits there are some things he doesn’t know the answer to, but unlike myths and religion, he admits to it and doesn’t try to come up with a story to fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

The Magic of Reality is a book that can be taught to children, but many adults will find just as enthralling. There is also an iPad version of the book (which I purchased), which is a fantastic way to read the text and watch the illustrations come to life.

With either book, God No! by Penn Jillette or The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins, science and atheism are explored, examined and explained in some form or fashion. Both books are well-written, well thought out and a great addition to a library.

Even if you’re not an atheist, everyone can learn something from Dawkins and Penn.

by Blogbot

The #OWS Jedi returned to DTLA for the third weekend running, and the force was with @OccupyLA with an estimated turnout of 3 to 5K for today’s Global Revolution Day march through the city’s financial district.

Added benefits to this protesting business: Marching is pretty much the same as hiking, but with more signs + you can walk the dog.

Another four-legged protester. If corporations can claim citizenship, dogs can too! #JustSaying

Protesting is thirsty work though.

The LAPD continues to be lovely…#Shame the same can’t be said for the NYPD. In New York today they arrested a group of Citi Bank customers — for trying to close their accounts — for realz! Later, 74 protesters were arrested in Times Square. Meanwhile in Denver, riot police broke things up again, and in Chicago they’re trying to evict protesters.

In NYC police have also been detaining protesters for violating an obscure law dating back to 1845 which was intended to stop tenant farmers from covering their faces during a peasant uprising (well I guess #OWS really is one of those!). Meanwhile, in London, Julian Assange was asked to remove his mask by police there. Things are going to get really confusing come Halloween. #JustSaying

Fortunately, in LA, protesting is a family affair.

Lovely weather for it too!

Imagine what the world would be like if the rich and corporations paid their fair share.

To clarify: What part of shared sacrifice don’t you get?

Contrary to what the 1% owned mainstream media would have you believe, we are not rebels without a cause.

The 99 percent are fighting for <3, =ity, & abundance 4 all. I think you should join us!

Because this 99 percenter would like a future worth looking forward to.

Dear 1%, Are you getting it yet?

by Nicole Breanne

Obama put forth his job bill, and on Tuesday night the Republicans killed it. Today they trotted out a freshman Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, to inform the nation that the Republicans have come up with a better plan, one that will bring 5 million jobs compared to Obama’s 1.9 million. But Paul won’t say how. In fact no one will say how. The plan hasn’t been turned in to Obama, and basically we’re all in the dark on this one.

[..]

by Floydian

Let’s make this clear, I have never been an Obama supporter. In my opinion a few years in Senate does not qualify someone to run America. However, one of the first decisions he made as a president was one that I fully supported. He made it clear that the federal government would not spend their time and money chasing down users of medicinal marijuana in states that have medicinal marijuana laws in effect.

Let’s face it, when you are terminally ill and knocking on death’s door, the last worry you need is whether or not you will have access to your medicine. I’ve personally spoken with medicinal users in Santa Cruz that had their medicine taken away during a DEA raid under the Bush administration and the effects on their lives were devastating. It took over two years of battling the government to get their marijuana back; but they won, and they got their medicine back from the DEA agents that had confiscated it in the first place. I would love to interview them again and let you know how they are doing now, but I can’t. Most of them are dead.

[..]

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Greg Palast fights the good fight. He will find and report the truth at any cost to himself. His latest book is Armed Madhouse, which details his investigations into everything our government has pulled on our country and the world in the past few years.

Read our exclusive interview with Greg Palast on SuicideGirls.com.

by Greg Palast

The untold story of the sources of the loot controlled by Paul “The Vulture” Singer, Ken Langone and the Kochs – and why they need to buy the White House.

Hedge fund magnate Paul Singer likes to breakfast on decayed carcasses. What he chews down is sickening, but just as nausea-inducing are his new tablemates: billionaires Ken Langone and the Koch Brothers, Charles and David.

Singer has called together the billionaire boys’ club for the purpose of picking our next president for us. The old-fashioned way of choosing presidents – democracy and counting ballots and all that – has never been a favorite of this pack. I can tell you that from my investigations of each of these gentlemen for The Guardian. When the Statue of Liberty has nightmares, she dreams that these guys will combine to seize America via a cash-and-carry coup d’état.

Welcome to the nightmare. Singer, Langone and the Kochs last month decided to elect Chris Christie for us. The New Jersey governor’s pseudocampaign went belly up before it began. But that’s beside the point. Now that the Supreme Court has effectively ended campaign finance limits and allowed secretive contributions through “corporations,” this new combine of the ultrawealthy should not be viewed as just a political threat to the Democrats, but as a threat to democracy.

Let me give you a rundown from my sulphur-scented files on these men who would be king-makers.

Billionaire 1: Ken Langone

Langone likes to be known as the founder of Home Depot, just your local tool guy in a blue apron with a little bag of screws.

But he was also the man, with his right-wing partners, behind Database Technologies (DBT). It was in my first investigation of Langone in 2000 that I discovered that DBT had created a list of several thousand “felons” – most of them black, all of them innocent, all of them purged from Florida’s voter rolls by DBT’s client, Katherine Harris. And Langone’s company knew exactly what was going on.

What qualifies Langone to pick our president? In his own words: “I’m nuts; I’m rich.”

Billionaires 2 and 3: David and Charles Koch

You think you’ve read all about the billionaire brothers. Well, there’s more:

In 1996, an FBI agent, Richard Elroy, told my team that oil had been pilfered from the Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma. He and other G-men filmed the filch-theft, say witnesses, personally ordered by Charles Koch. A few barrels here, a few barrels there.

It all added up: to about a billion and a half dollars in looted petroleum, says one expert, a third of the Koch fortune at the time. David and Charles shared in the booty via their private company, Koch Industries.

[..]

This Sunday (Oct 9) #OccupyLA will #OccupySGRadio for a very special show which will simultaneously be broadcast on Indie1031.com and livestreamed via OWSLosAngeles from 10 PM til Midnight PST…

We’ve witnessed financial theft on a mass scale, yet the only mass arrests on Wall Street have been of those brave enough to protest about it. We’ve seen the laws that were put in place to protect investors eroded, and new laws enacted to protect those that are robbing us blind from prosecution. We’ve seen banks repossess homes they don’t even have the correct paperwork for, and families made homeless while vacant home stocks are at an all time high. We’ve seen corporations gain “citizen” status to buy influence, yet refuse to submit to one of the basic responsibilities of being one – paying taxes. We’ve seen the already obscenely rich get even richer, while an indecent amount of ordinary folks have fallen below the poverty line. We’ve seen tax breaks reward the wealthy, at the expense of the poor. We’ve seen corporations enjoy welfare, while those that own them bemoan the “entitlements” of those who have worked hard and earned their benefits.

In short, we, the 99 percent, have seen enough.

We’re taking to the streets, we’re taking back our country – this is what democracy looks like.

Please join us this Sunday as #OccupyLA takes over the Indie1031 studios to #OccupySGRadio.

Show your support and be sure to friend and follow #OccupyLA on Facebook and Twitter.

We Are The 99 Percent.

XOX

Listen to SG Radio live Sunday night from 10 PM til Midnight on Indie1031.com

Got questions? Then dial our studio hotline digits this Sunday between 10 PM and midnight PST: 323-900-6012

Busy on Sunday? Then find all our podcasts on iTunes and listen at your leisure.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

#OccupyLA Begins – SG Was There…

See photo gallery for more images from #OccupyLA.