I do not know who will be elected as America's next president, but I'm comfortable predicting that it will probably not be Obama. Setting aside my own disappointment with him, a sentiment shared by growing numbers of progressives, I do not see how he possibly overcomes this unemployment rate without the sort of drastic action which he has so far refused to take.

I expect that either Mitt Romney or Rick Perry will be our next president. And of those two choices, I sure as hell hope it is Romney. Whatever other flaws he may have, Romney seems far less likely to be a Christian extremist than Perry.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry already received Idiot of the Week "honors" for his Christian extremist prayerfest. You know, the one in which he has proudly used his office as governor to promote evangelical fundamentalist Christianity. But since today is the day said prayerfest is happening, I felt that another mention was in order. Besides, Perry is hardly the only idiot associated with this thing. Even though none of the state governors Perry invited are planning to attend, he has still managed to assemble an all-star cast of idiots like nothing we've ever seen since the last National Prayer Breakfast.

Thanks to Secular News Daily, we have a fairly comprehensive list of who is behind this idiotfest, featuring the likes of the American Family Association, the International House of Prayer (seriously, there is a group with this name), John Hagee, James Dobson, David Barton, and many others. A smorgasbord of idiocy!

American Atheists has organized a protest of the event in Houston. They are expecting over 900 protestors.

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Many of us, including some fairly open atheists, are less than thrilled with the prospect of being publicly identified as atheists, at least in some contexts. Suppose you are quoted in a newspaper article about the importance of separation of church and state and the reporter writes something like, "John, who is an atheist, thinks that..." You know that this will almost guarantee that those you were hoping might be reached by the article are going to tune you out and dismiss whatever point you might have been making. This needs to change, and I have some thoughts on what we need to do in order to change it.

A reader left a comment on one of the recent posts in which I shared some Christian hate mail I'd received asking why I don't share the identities of those who send this stuff. It had never occurred to me that this might be something I should do. When I share Christian hate mail, I could include the author's handle, email address, and even IP address. The question is whether I should. I'm very interested to hear what you think about this - good idea or bad idea?

What is it that enables some people to discard the religious traditions in which they were raised and be comfortable with atheism in a culture that demonizes it? I don't have the answer to that intriguing question, but it seems to me that part of it must involve a certain level of comfort with adopting the role of outsider. I have certainly seen a connection between the two in my own life, and I wonder if this has been important to others.

My Idiot of the Week series has certainly contained people who are not politicians. Religious leaders, media personalities, celebrities, government agencies, and even ordinary people who do stupid things have been represented. However, it is clear that politicians have been "honored" far more than any other group of people. Why? Given that this blog focuses primarily on atheism, why would politicians be overrepresented here?