Against my advice, the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers ran an incredibly offensive ad on city buses in De Moines featuring naked lesbians masturbating with Bibles.

No, wait, that wasn’t it. It was an ad announcing that god hated Christians and they were all going to burn in hell.

No, I don’t think that was it. It was an ad offering free bacon to anyone willing to deny the Holy Spirit, and the Iowa vegans were outraged.

Nah, don’t think so. Actually, the horrible, awful, evil ad they were running was this one:

That’s it? “Don’t believe in God? You aren’t alone”? That’s the ad that some people found offensive? So offensive that the ad was promptly yanked from city buses, and Governor Chet Culver announced that he was “disturbed, personally” by them?

That’s insane. What’s the matter with those Iowans? One day they do something to make us proud, the next they do something so petty and stupid.

Look, it’s a clear case. There was absolutely nothing offensive about those ads, nothing that would make the horses skittish or frighten the children. Somewhere down the line, a few intolerant ignoramuses freaked out and started phoning the bus company, and a coward or a zealot somewhere in the chain of command saw an excuse to shut down a harmless advertisement. It’s bigotry, plain and simple.

By the way, there’s also a poll:

Do you think it was right for DART to remove the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers ads from its busses?

Yes
21.6%
No
78.4%

It’s going the right way, at least…but could be better.