Setting up a new blog is hard. Many of you know this very well from your own experience. I remember spending at least the first full year of this blog having little idea of what I was doing (I still feel that way sometimes). But what I had going for me back in 2005 when I started Atheist Revolution was that there were not very many active atheist blogs around. I had only a handful of models to use, but I also had the freedom of a niche that was still wide open. Starting a new atheist blog today is a very different story.

Not only do you need a good name for your new atheist blog, but you need a way to set yourself apart in an increasingly crowded niche. Maybe you can do what someone else is doing but better. Maybe you have a novel idea for something that nobody is doing adequately yet. And then there are all the mechanics of attracting readers. In any case, the more deliberate you can be about your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them.

What tips do you have for those who are hoping to launch their new atheist blogs?

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The Freethinker recently posted what should be a massive story but one which seems to have been ignored by the U.S. media so far. During a radio interview, former Catholic priest and Benedictine monk, Patrick Wall, provided a detailed description of his work as a "fixer" for the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S.. His job was to conceal child abuse perpetrated by clergy.

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No Forbidden Questions is hosting the 55th edition of the Humanist Symposium. Be sure to check it out and support reality-based blog carnivals.

The story of Oliver O'Grady is disturbing on so many levels. He has admitted to molesting many children, both boys and girls, of various ages, reports sleeping with two mothers in order to gain access to their children, and even spent seven years in prison for a 1993 conviction for the sexual abuse of a child. And yet, he will be paid $788/month for 10 years (totaling $94,560) by an annuity the Catholic church bought for him seven years ago in what has been described as "hush money" to prevent him from testifying against Catholic officials who allegedly knew what he was doing and simply continued to transfer him from one parish to another.

According to church officials, the annuity was necessary to get rid of O'Grady because defrocking a priest is simply too difficult. So when O'Grady, serving time in prison on a child sexual abuse conviction, was up for parole, the church paid him off to leave. The associate director of the office of Child and Youth Protection for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said this practice is "rare, but not unheard of."

H/T to Pharyngula

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Idiot of the Week "honors" go to South Carolina state senator and Boss Hogg impersonator, Sen. Jake Knotts (R). Sen. Knotts called gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, also a Republican, a "raghead" on a web talk show. You see, Ms. Haley happens to be of Indian descent. Evidently, Sen. Knotts is too stupid to tell the difference between Indians and Arabs (the usual target of his racial slur).

"We already got one raghead in the White House," Knotts said. "And we don't need another in the Governor's Mansion."

Sen. Knotts has since issued an insincere apology, claiming that he was joking but also bragging that he has referred to President Obama as a "raghead" previously. Oh, and after he apologized, Knotts went on to say that Haley was not Christian enough to be the governor of South Carolina. She was raised Sikh but converted to Christianity. Not good enough for Sen. Knotts. He's convinced that Haley is controlled by a secret network of Sikhs.

Think Progress has even more on this story, revealing some truly astounding idiocy.

H/T to The Progressive Puppy

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I'm sure the parents of the self-identified 12 year-old girl who emailed me would be trilled to know that their daughter is browsing atheist blogs. Here is what she had to say minus her name:

How can you believe there isn\'t a God? Look at the world around you. Look at your body. Who created you? If you don\'t believe in God then how do you think the world was created? If you think it was chemicals, then who created the chemicals?We couldn\'t be made of chemicals as we have feelings and we can think. I believe in God. We have very different views but believing in God has helped me to want to be a good person and I am actually afraid to do bad things as I am afraid of God. If believing in God helps people then religion should stay. If being an atheist helps you to be a good person then please could you tell me how, but I cannot see how. If you do not like the picture below then feel free to take it off (if you put it as a comment on the blog) but that is my veiw.

Unfortunately, the link to a picture you included took me to an error page on Photobucket, so I never got to see it.

The following is not a verbatim quote I will attribute to a single source but an amalgam of what I have heard again and again from countless American Christians:

America is a democracy. You atheists don't seem to understand that you are the minority. If we want government sanctioned prayers, we'll have them because the majority of Americans support them. Majority rules, get it?

Anyone making such a claim desperately needs to repeat the American Government class that was taught back when I was in high school, but that is unlikely to happen. How then can we explain the problem with this statement in such a way that the person making it might be able to understand? How can we reach those who might actually be reachable?

I tend to start by pointing out that the Constitution protects minority rights in many ways and that this is one of the strengths of our democracy. The majority, however well intentioned they might be, does not get to trample the rights of the minority. I might use Civil Rights as an example.

The Constitution also protects all of us by containing clear prohibitions against certain forms of government action, even if they have popular support. The Establishment Clause, for example, states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In such a case, it does not matter what the majority of the people want; the law is clear.

Here is how the Los Angeles Times recently put it:

But voters' preferences cannot overrule constitutional protections or legal precedent in such matters. If a government body is promoting the establishment of religion, that's a violation of the 1st Amendment.

How about you? How do you try to explain that living in a democracy does not entitle the majority to trample the will of the minority however they want?

H/T to Friendly Atheist

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I missed this story completely until one of my co-authors at Mississippi Atheists brought it to my attention in response to a brief post I wrote there about Draw Mohammed Day.
According to the BBC News, a 59 year-old "militant atheist" received a six-month suspended sentence for leaving posters of religious figures in sexual poses in a prayer room at Liverpool John Lennon Airport. He left these images on three different occasions in 2008, causing great distress in the airport chaplain (Yeah, I'm not sure why an airport would have a chaplain either).

As a proud progressive, I rarely agree with Republicans. It is even less common for me to write a post with a title that sounds like it could be found on a conservative blog and mean it. But based on what I just read over at Pharyngula, I have to do just that. Nancy Pelosi is nuts!

I understand that politicians must pander to get elected. They all do it; they probably always have. Democrats are no different from Republicans in this regard, and the sense that a politician will say damn near anything to achieve or maintain office is common knowledge. But why must politician after politician pander to the worst parts of the human psyche (e.g., fear, faith, etc.)? Yeah, I know. That one's rhetorical.

Here is what Pelosi, the Speaker of the House no less, said at a Catholic Community Conference in May:

"And that Word," Pelosi said, "is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word. The Word. Isn't it a beautiful word when you think of it? It just covers everything. The Word."

"Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means: 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.' And that's the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again."

If you are a sucker for punishment, you can find the video here.

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I am certainly no blogging expert, but I have learned quite a bit about what works and what doesn't work since I started Atheist Revolution in 2005. Starting a new atheist blog is much harder today than it was back then, but that doesn't make it any less important. For the good of our community, I'd like to help others succeed.

In the first part of this series, I focused on some of the more important tips for getting one's atheist blog off the ground (i.e., monitoring blog traffic, using Technorati, joining the Atheist Blogroll, posting frequently, and understanding the benefits of blog carnivals). Now that you're doing those things, it is time to take your blog to the next level.

The following suggestions are designed to bring more traffic to your blog, make sure you are reaching your audience, protecting your content, and encouraging commenting and discussion by your readers.

• Consider when you are publishing your posts, paying attention to the location of your key audience and the time of day.
• Get on Twitter and use it to promote your blog and connect with others in the atheist community.
• Use StumbleUpon effectively to drive traffic to your blog.
• Protect your content, and do not make the mistake of plagiarizing from others.
• Upgrade your blog's default commenting system. I've been happy with Intense Debate.

This should keep you busy for awhile. More tips are on the way, so stay tuned.

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The Vatican is reaching out to atheists in order to "improve he church’s relationship with non-believers" (i.e., convert us). Pope Benedict XVI has even ordered his minions to create some sort of foundation to encourage atheists to meet and debate some of his theologians.

Assume for a minute that the church was sincere about wanting to improve their relationship with non-believers. I don't believe this for a minute, but I want us to pretend for a moment that we do believe it. I have a suggestion for the Vatican that would truly do wonders to improve their relationship with the reality-based community...stop molesting children.

Seriously, stop raping kids that have been brainwashed into trusting you. Stop enabling these atrocities to continue by those who represent your church in our communities through secrecy and transfers to new locations. Stop passing the buck to law enforcement while hindering their investigative efforts, and take some damn responsibility. And take half of all the money that rolls into your corrupt organization each year and distribute it among those you have victimized.

This would have a "miraculous" impact on your relationship with atheists and would be an invaluable first step. Only a first step, you say? I'd also like to see you stop promoting genocide via HIV/AIDS in Africa through your absurd opposition to birth control. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. But stop trying to be the moral police and use your power to do some tangible good in this world.

H/T to God is for Suckers!

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If you subscribe to Atheist Revolution via email, you are in good company. Many readers prefer to receive updates via email instead of RSS. But there's a problem with receiving posts this way - when you reply to the emailed post, nobody but me gets to read your thoughts. Feedburner (the RSS-to-email service that makes email subscriptions possible) treats your replies as if they are replies to individual emails that I sent you directly.

The good news is that it is easy to leave a comment on the blog that everyone will get to see. All you have to do is click on the title of the post you'd like to comment on within your email program, and you will be taken directly to that post on the blog.

Much of what you have to say is too good not to share with others, so I hope you'll consider joining the discussion!

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