Illinois State Legislator says: "It's dangerous for children to know atheism exists!"
Offline I am not sure how many people here know about the activism of Illinois atheist Rob Sherman.
His latest fight is against "a moment of silence" in Illinois schools that is now being heard in front of the Illinois House State Government Administration Committee.
During a general assembly on Wednesday afternoon an exchange took place with Sherman and Representative Monique D. Davis (D) below is a transcript *source
Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy -- it’s tragic -- when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.
I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?
I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous--
Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?
Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!
Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court---
Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.
Here is the AUDIO of that exchange.
Moniquie Davis is a great example of the type of Christians we have living in the US today: they claim to live by a book that they proudly state holds messages of peace, love and understanding then turn around with their claws out ready to strike at anything that attacks their "precious"
-Renee
Slowly building a blog at ~
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I wonder if She'd actually have a stroke if someone pointed out to her that Abe Lincoln throughout most of his life was a hard core Atheist. He became more of a deist in his later years, about the same time he started showing signs of being bi-polar...
LC >;-}>
Christianity: A disgusting middle eastern blood cult, based in human sacrifice, with sacraments of cannibalism and vampirism, whose highest icon is of a near naked man hanging in torment from a device of torture.
Dayum, what a fucktard! She shouldn't be allowed to be a dogcatcher, let alone a legislator. At the very least she needs serious medication.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
I'm all for giving school children a moment of silence. As long as you tell them if you hear from God he exists, if you don't hear nothing back he doesn't exist.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Slanderous ad hom attacks with unfounded assertions...why am I not surprised? I especially like how at the end that guy in the background basically says,"don't pay any attention to or mention that ladie's comments at all" Total bullshit.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
See how suddenly a religious fanatic is ready to force beliefs on others. They only see the Bill of Rights as just when it works for them. When the only thing asked is that religion not be included or promoted in tax supported activities, out comes the suppressed insanity. This is the attitude that killed thousands in the Crusades and the Inquisition. You can hear it in here voice. If she could make atheism a crime she would. Unbelieveable. So much for freedoms with Christian morals like hers.
____________________________________________________________
"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.
Unbelievable. As an Illinoisan, I am outraged. I can't even put into words how much I hate this woman right now.
On a brighter note, I think your haircut looks really pretty in your picture, Renee!
Rep.Davis is a typical bigot "...get out of that chair!" Now Sherman knows how Rosa Parks felt. The hero Rosa Parks made it possible for the bigot Davis to sit in a legislature, Sherman knows that better then Davis no doubt. Senator Lightford should start a magic act from the old " now I said it, now I don't" school of illusions.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
I liked her older pic better. Greek Goddess though, is utterly totally hot and completely babelicious!
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Is that really a word?
Signed,
Arizonan
Wow. He was really nice about it. I would have shut her down and went off.
As a Nuyorican Brooklynite, I'd also like to know if Illinoisian is a "real" word.
Anyway, whatever happened to "equal time for opposing viewpoints?"
Good night, funny man, and thanks for the laughter.
I want you so bad Renee, "one million dollars" worth, just cause I AM short on cash
.... while Davis should be locked up as a danger to children and our tiny little world .....
"I want you shes so heavy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BUS2kQsc58
TRIP OUT ..... Across The Universe - I Want You / She's So Heavy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwB8QiKWodk
Atheism Books.
Wow...... Just Wow. I am originally from Southern Illinois so I know the number of godbots there are in that state. I am just disgusted that such people are in powerful positions like the state assy.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
Illinois is the land of Abraham Lincoln the atheist!
http://positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/qframe.htm
The 16th President of the United States (1861-1865)
-- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge J S Wakefield, after Willie Lincoln's death (Willie died in 1862), quoted by Joseph Lewis in "Lincoln the Freethinker," also appearing in Remsburg's "Six Historic Americans" (Authenticity questioned by some because it allegedly does not appear in Wakefield's papers [Andrew Lutes, persistent picker of insignificant separationist nits]; authenticity questioned by others who claim that Wakefield did not exist [forgotten web site which also featured all the regular and long-refuted arguments for Lincoln's Christian piety]. Go figure!)
What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Mary Todd Lincoln in William Herndon's Religion of Lincoln, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 118
It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Manford's Magazine, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 144
The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Joseph Lewis in "Lincoln the Freethinker"
The only person who is a worse liar than a faith healer is his patient.
-- Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Victor J Stenger in Physics and Psychics
Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged.
-- Abraham Lincoln, sarcasm in his Second Innaugural Address (1865)
It is an established maxim and moral that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him.
-- Abraham Lincoln, chiding the editor of a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper, quoted from Antony Flew, How to Think Straight, p. 17
Oh, that [his Thanksgiving Message] is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools.
-- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge James M Nelson, in response to a question from Nelson: "I once asked him about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being an unbeliever in what was published." Quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 138
The United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.
-- Abraham Lincoln, regarding the Churches, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 143
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Christianity or catholics priest shouldn’t know that children exists.
Tell this bitch what a good job she is doing.
email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Springfield Office: 241-E Stratton Office Building, Springfield, IL 62706 (217) 782-0010 (217) 782-1795 FAX
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and see what's up with being such an idiot. Stupid people shouldn't breathe.
Children shouldn't know religion exists.
Well isn't this interesting...
A week or so ago I posted a topic regarding Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his 1.6 million dollar retirement home that Trinity Church here in Chicago secured a 10 million dollar line of credit for...
Guess who is seen quite often at that Trinity church and guess who has her hands in several issues regarding that church? That is right, it is Monique Davis. Does anyone else smell 'special treatment'?
Slowly building a blog at ~
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"it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists" If our children knew of the situations going on in this discussion, I think they 'the children' would probably have a better grip on reality than Moniquie Davis does right now. This type of representation is something we do not need.
I know! I was appalled when I heard this on Countdown. She should resign.
That's awesome. What a frothing-at-the-mouth lunatic. It's good that Sherman kept his wits and let her head spin around. She should resign for being crazy and unfit for public office, not for the attack on someone's belief system.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think it's even necessary for a rationalist to claim bigotry, or abuse or oppression. Just look at what a kook this woman is. If you hear the audio, she's off-the-chain nutty once she gets going. Sherman was being insulted, sure, but she should step down for pure incompetence (and implicit involvement in a scandal) alone.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
What a cunt, I was shocked that this woman is a democrat.
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/04/rep-monique-dav.html
AND no surprise, since she seems so concerned for the building that ... maybe she's actually concerned for herself.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
I think it's hilarious that American Christians blindly worship the secular heroes of their nation as their own. It's kinda like how they blindly believe that Jesus wasn't Jewish.
Also on the tax exemption of religious groups. It's supposedly on the agreement that they stay out of politics right? Well then surely this is an example of yet another Christian breaking the agreement. They should now be forced to pay up a backlog of tax right the way back to the late 18th century. It could fund a nationalised health service!!
Atheist Books
To be fair, they got that from the European tradition of artists making him match the looks of the local population in their works. At this point, the damage is done. America thinks Jesus was white. He would have been the only white guy in the middle east at the time, but whatever. Sometimes he even gets blue eyes.
Haha - Medicare and Medicaid are going to need that money when all the baby boomers are using it, so it's not a bad call. Except that the funds are already needed to help support the over-burdened American judicial system.
But you're right. The whole "guns in school" speech was a particularly bad red herring when she was clearly implicating herself in a misappropriation of funds to benefit a church.
"You don't want to build up, you just want to destroy!"
"I just want you to stop stealing."
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
From ChicagoTribune.com:
"MSNBC "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann designated Ill. Rep. Monique Davis (D- Chicago) as Tuesday's "Worst Person in The World" for her verbal attack last week on atheist activist Rob Sherman:"
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/
Today's Worst Person in the World: Rep. Monique Davis
Atheist, Get Out Of Here!
ALSO THANK KEITH OBERMAN FOR DEFENDING THE CONSTITUTION.
And everyone send this stateswoman a POLITE e-mail and remind her that she has a duty to defend the rights of all citizens, including her detractors.
THAT WAS AWESOME!
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
They should make her wear an asshat in session fort he rest of her term.
Oh come the fuck on, man. The Dems have no more cred as secularists than the Republicans and they come close to Falwell and his goons when you're talking about poverty pimps like Jesse Jackson and Monique Davis. For all the fiscal liberalism of the black churchgoing crowd in America, they could give a shit about the civil rights of non-believers, homosexuals and immigrants.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell
I'm related to a politician in Oklahoma who thinks a lot like this. My first cousin, Chris Benge (son of my mother's sister), is Speaker of the Oklahoma House and supports Sally Kern, the other state representative who has made some ignorant statements about gays lately. Maybe if children never hear about homosexuality and atheism, they'll never grow up gay or nonbelieving in the tribal Binker.
Keith Olbermann is the only pundit in the mainstream press I have seen mention this woman, and he deliberately did it two days in a row. Kudos to some of the freethinkers on MSNBC. Rachel Maddow is usually pretty good at bringing these kinds of things up as well, and I hear she is getting her own show there in the near future.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
I suspected something might be developing with Rachael Maddow when, for the first time I watched her substitute for Keith the other night. That'll be terrific (for the country) if she does get her own show. BTW, Rep. Monique Davis apologized to Rob Sherman today...well, kind of. No mention from her that she's learned anything of value as to why her expressed views are so wrong [and un-American]. Sounds more like she did this just so people will go away. http://www.wbbm780.com/Lawmaker-Apologizes-For-Comments-Against-Atheist/1980701
I think she caught a lot of flack. I'd say based on her tone in the audio, I wouldn't be shocked if some of her fellow statesmen pulled her aside after that, even before it hit the news and said, "Look lady, some of us here might agree with you, but you acted like the Tasmanian Devil.
I am quite sure Oberman's story had a lot to do with it, but I am also sure she got tons of e-mails from us cootie spreaders too.
It should show you that your voice DOES count. If this had happened 10 years ago or 20 years ago, it might have been acceptable. I can honestly say that in 7 short years that I have been active, I have seen the atheist voice go from being under the radar to being much more part of the mainstreem. There still is a lot of work to do, most of it is up to all of us by merely raising our voices.
BTW if anyone caught last night's "WORST PERSON" Pat Robertson got torn a new one.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Yeah Brian, let's keep on "shouting at the devil" ..... WE atheists dedicated to killing god of abe are helping free humanity from obedience to the greedy rich corrupt masters ...... "eat the rich", destroy them .....
Atheism Books.
I certainly against greed and powermongering, ergo certainly against asshats like Robertson. But I am not against wealth, if one wants it. I am against those who demonize the poor and cant tell the difference between what they "need" and what they "want".
A
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I agree that the zeitgeist concerning Atheist bigotry is shifting in a positive direction for mainstream audiences as a result of things like this. I actually just wrote about Rep Davis' apology and the relevance to what you were saying as well. Saving Face? Rep Monique Davis Apologizes for Comments to Atheist.
That being said, Robertson is a douche and he and Bill O won't be able to escape Worst Persons until they disappear from the public eye or slip this mortal coil.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
This is where websites like RRS can help so much. Don't think for a second that the major news outlets aren't looking at google hits. When we can generate an internet shitstorm over an otherwise buried story, we're helping this trend.
(HINT, HINT!! Always stumble, dig, etc... on stories like this. Demand action for every single one of them!)
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
There definitely is an internet shitstorm occurring on this issue and the Expelled controversy that is transcending Atheism and science, although the atheist and science blogs are taking the ball and running with it like a bat out of Hades.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Why hasn't this woman resigned and why hasn't she been forcefully expelled from congress? Why doesn't her party take action against her?
I imagine there are some serious differences in politics between Canada and the US, but when a conservative MP here says even that he would like homosexuality to be illegal again, he is stripped of his elected status by his party leader before he can even think of resigning (and resigning would be the first thing on his mind). I'm just shocked, I suppose, that Americans let their elected officials get away with making remarks anything like what this woman has and continue to serve their elected terms. In my democracy, people who say things like that are removed from public office, even if their party or constituents happen to agree with them. I find something terribly wrong with the complacency this picture paints of Americans toward the disgusting, bigoted sentiments their elected officials can hold.
BigUniverse wrote,
"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
article
Rep Davis apologized to Atheist Rob Sherman, but while it is was the best thing for her public image to personally apologize, she blamed her outburst on frustration with another school shooting as the reason for her comments. While admitting one's guilt in something is commendable, she did not say she does not believe what she said, but rather she "took out her frustrations and emotions on him(me) and that she shouldn’t have done that." This seems to me a clear admission that she does in fact believe what she said to Sherman and that she is merely going through the media circus of making an apology to get the news cycle moving away from her and the deflect the negative attention she has attracted because of it. Sorry in this case meant she was sorry for publicly speaking of her personal bigoted views concerning Atheists, not that she was sorry about the content of her diatribe.
Rob Sherman took the moral high ground by accepting her half-assed apology and came out looking like a reasonable, forgiving person. The issue that has not been addressed is the complicity of an acceptable double standard of criticizing no religion versus religion. If congressman Pete Stark(confirmed Atheist) berated a Christian, Jewish, or Muslim citizen and said the same type of things about their beliefs as Rep Davis said to Rob Sherman, he would definitely not be able to get away with the excuse of "being in a bad mood and taking out frustrations on someone." He would have a ton of religious groups, political pundits, and colleagues calling for his immediate resignation.
I truly feel that much of the onus put on Rep Davis to make an apology a week after the fact was the Keith Olbermann show Countdown. Keith named her worst person in the the world multiple times and didn't stop mentioning her until she responded. I am not saying that she solely apologized because of her Countdown P.R. debacle, but the show brings national attention to heinous things that don't seem to become mainstream media discussions(as seen in the continued visibility of the Walmart suit being dropped against a worker that was disabled on the job).
This heightened media attention and backlash of Atheists upon their critics might actually be a good thing. It is showing that insulting Atheists is starting to have consequences. The political clout of avowed nonbelievers is starting to resonate more than in recent years. Hopefully government officials will take note of this case, and perhaps consider that no religion does not mean no rights as a citizen.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
I can picture the state Democratic party chairman pulling her aside afterward and saying "Besides the fact you acted about as sanely as Charles Manson on acid, don't you know that atheists vote democrat overwhelmingly you stupid fucktard?"
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
i love how some xians consider exposing children to atheism as some kind of horrible evil, but yet they have no problem telling a child that you'll burn in hell for all eternity for something as trivial as masturbation. no wonder antidepressants are such a prominent part of our society..
www.derekneibarger.com http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=djneibarger "all postures of submission and surrender should be part of our prehistory." -christopher hitchens
The atheist in question, Rob Sherman, made Keith Olbermann's worst person in the world for referring to the congresswoman who attacked him, as a negro. Here is his response:
"Also, a controversy developed in the blogosphere regarding my use on this page of the word, "Negro," earlier in the week. I still thought, today, that Negro and Black were completely interchangeable with identical context, just as Caucasian and White, and automobile and car are. So, I called Jesse Jackson at his office at Rainbow/Push headquarters in Chicago to ask him about it. He and I have had several conversations over the years at VIP events, most recently backstage in the spin room with several of the presidential candidates after the Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate at Soldier Field last year. Rev. Jackson wasn't available when I called, today, so I then called one of my many Black friends to confirm the validity of my perspective. I've known Clint Harris for 23 years. He was my plaintiff in our successful Zion city seal federal case in 1987 that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and my plaintiff in September, 2002, in our successful federal case against the City of Chicago, whose Office of Special Events was planning a municipal church service at the Daley Center Plaza, complete with a responsive reading prayer that was written for the city for the occasion, to commemorate the first anniversary of 9/11. Clint told me that the only people, besides me, who still use Negro are racists who are trying to sound polite. Now I know. There was certainly no intent to act like a racist. I was mistaken when I thought that the words were fully interchangeable and have removed that word from this web site."
I wonder about this. I mean it is Tennessee, but seriously? Negro, I haven't heard anyone in my lifetime use that word to denote anything other than a beer(as in negro model, the word "black" in Spanish, or a derogatory term to refer to black people. Maybe he really didn't know. I don't know. Making Worst Persons with a seemingly racially charged word is not good though. Its crap like this that Oreilly, Hannity, and Rush will be all over in the coming days.
This guy is running for the state representative seat in Tennessee on the Green Party Ticket as well. I have been to TN and there is almost literally a church on every corner. This candidacy is doomed, but at least he's trying.
http://www.robsherman.com/staterep/home.htm
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
This rant is not to you Brian, but to everyone .....
I'm not an economist, but the present money ownership system IS outta wack, getting worse, and needs on going attention. That saying might more accurately go, "eat the filthy destructive rich". How rich , the cut off point?, I don't know, but I think there need be one. Loopholes etc as in corps, is obviously part of this problem. The TV, as it is now, mostly privately owned, is also part of this huge fixable problem ..... I'm not a hard core socialist but I AM wanting a healthy balance of fair laws and taxation.
My shit house is worth 1/2 mill ..... WTF ? Is that progress as I think of the kids and their future ? Where are the atheists on the TV ? Why when one gets "rich" work is no longer necessary ?
Google, this old battle cry, "Eat the Rich" , for lots of discussion ..... "Revolution is my Name" ! , maybe better to say, create a better world for all ..... You can bet the rich won't really much help, as they mostly like it the way it is ..... 5 yacths, and $1,000 lunches for me while so many starve, tells many of us that the $$$ system is seriously fucked up, and creates much unnecessary world suffering ..... What should be done about this obvious mess ??? Kill a million Iraq's? , who fucking Idea was that? , ummm ??? Oh the clever, the rich, EAT THEM trouble makers ! They can't help themselves, they are only people ..... Re-write the laws NOW !
People say, well rich atheist Bill Gates etc are a nice people, Fuck that, I AM not for trusting the elite rich people to be nice and fair .... the rich are fucking outta control , so control them ..... WAKE UP the neighbors , Masters no more , Save the kids, Come together as one .....
Atheism Books.
You know what I need right now? A kleenex.
I've been couped-up all day with a cold and swollen sinuses. And be damned if there isn't a sorry lack of tissues in my apartment.
Hmm. What's a man to do...
...Whew.
Much better.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
No wonder you're sick man, you're horizontal! The human body was designed to be vertical. Get off that dang wall and back on the floor like normal people.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
So, it's true! Atheists are snotty!
Can't help it.
\Gravity works way differently for ninjas.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940