blog

Favorite Songs for 2007

Here's my mix of my favorite songs for the year. The songs with an asterix are also from my favorite albums of the year, which follow below. Tracy's 2007 mix (zip)

1. Is It Any Wonder - Keane*
2. Way to Your Heart - Persephone's Bees*
3. Hella Good - No Doubt
4. New Black Day - Abney Park
5. We Danced Together - The Rakes*
6. Silence is a Burden - Voxtrot
7. The Underdog - Spoon*
8. Everything You've Done Wrong - Sloan
9. The Perfect Crime - The Decemberists*
10. Young Folks - Peter Bjorn & John*
11. Fucking Boyfriend - The Bird & the Bee*
12. La Familia (Guy Sigsworth remix) - Mirah
13. Half a Person - The Smiths
14. Eye in the Sky - The Alan Parsons Project
15. Love is Not a Competition (But I'm Winning) - Kaiser Chiefs*
16. Cosmic Dancer - T.Rex*
17. Split the Difference - Aqueduct*
18. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
19. Couldn't Get It Right
20. Fett's Vette - MC Chris

Best Albums Released in 2007

• Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
• Aqueduct - Or Give Me Death
• Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
• The Bird and the Bee
• Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
• Voxtrot - Voxtrot
• Suzanne Vega - Beauty & Crime
• The Rakes - Ten New Messages

Additional Favorite Albums of 2007

• Aqueduct - I Sold Gold
• Keane - Under the Iron Sea
• Decemberists - The Crane Wife
• Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
• Pulp - His N Hers
• Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing
• T. Rex - Electric Warrior
• Persephone's Bees - Notes from the Underworld
• Abney Park - From Dreams or Angels
• Phantom Planet - Phantom Planet is Missing
• Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

Labels: music, opinion

This year I'm celebrating the winter solstice rather than Christmas. We're probably going to do the same things we do for our usual Christmas celebration, but a few days earlier, on the shortest day of the year. I mentioned this to a (fellow atheist) friend, and he said, "Oh, you're one of those atheists." Since I don't believe the religious foundations of the holiday, why shouldn't I celebrate the lengthening of the days instead? I actually care that we'll be getting more sunlight, and am excited to usher in a new season and a new year. I'm not waging a War on Christmas.

American atheists and agnostics number between 20 and 60 million--why do we have no political representation or respect? An Economist article claims we are choosing the wrong fights and giving people fuel to fight back against us by tackling ceremonial deism and public displays of religion in addition to 'more direct' or 'clearer' cases of government-sponsored religion like the 10 commandments being displayed in court rooms. To me, this makes clear that we MUST continue to fight against ceremonial deism etc because people still do not understand the symbolism of ceremonial deism.

Writing "In God We Trust" on our money and pledging "one nation, under God" constitute a governmental sanctioning of religion from a government that should be completely secular. Declaring our united belief and trust in god through civic rites and on government-issued funds is not merely ceremonial. The words are not meaningless because they are so commonly used. Nor is 'ceremonial deism' continued and fought for because it fosters civic responsibility and patriotism, as some claim. Ceremonial deism is as much government-sponsored religion as federally sponsored faith-based organizations and required prayer/'moments of silence' in public schools. Or how about House Resolution #847, passed 372-9 TODAY, whose stated purpose is to "recognize the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith"? Dear Economist--is this one of those 'ceremonial deism' issues I'm not supposed to be upset about? Maybe I should write my representative to thank her for being one of the nine against.

Labels: activism, atheism, opinion, rant