We haven’t crashed a poll in a while — and to be honest, it’s like they’re all trending our way anyway anymore — but since I’m on my way to Texas, sure, let’s do a Texas based poll on the recent court decision that public high school cheerleaders get to flash bible messages at spectators. It’s classic Texas: football, cheerleaders, and god, but good grief, even the Texans see through it as an endorsement of religion.

The Kountze High School cheerleaders’ use of religious messages on banners at football games:

amounts to a school endorsement of religion and should be banned. 58.7%

is freedom of personal expression and not representative of the entire school 41.3%

It seems a shame we can’t tip it even more strongly in a sensible direction. Or can we?

How do you feel about allowing same-sex marriage?

Strongly in favour of it 57%

Don’t feel strongly but lean towards supporting it 4%

Don’t feel strongly but lean towards opposing it 1%

Strongly opposed to it 38%

I’ve noticed lately that people sending me polls are sending me ones that are already pre-skewed in the right direction. Are atheists just automatically bombing polls even without my suggestion?

The haters created a petition to remove Rebecca Watson from Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. It’s ridiculous; Steve Novella isn’t going to pay any attention to a clearly biased sample, especially since the response is pathetic. 70 people have signed on, including Hoggle and his tiny crew of cretins. And if you read the comments, you’ll notice that it looks like about half of them are yanking the creators’ chain.

Watson is dogmatically dedicated to unproven ideas like “rape is bad” and “blacks should be allowed to vote”. That’s not what skepticism is about! Skepticism is about making me feel super smrt for not believing in Bigfoot! How can I feel smrt around a girl?!?! Her withering glare makes my penis feel even smaller than its two inches.

In contrast, another petition to keep Rebecca Watson on the show has been made. It’s just as pointless — Novella isn’t going to pay any attention to it, either — but notice the numbers: it already has 306 signatures.

Feel free to crash either one.

The big music festival, SXSW (which I must attend someday) also has panel discussions, and apparently they accept public input on which panels to put on. Voting is going on right now, and one that’s getting some attention is “It’s Reddit’s Web. We Just Live In It.”. Here’s the description:

For many years, Reddit — a site that allows people to post, vote on, and comment on links from around the Web — was an also-ran news aggregator, a place stuck in Digg’s shadow. But suddenly Reddit has become the most exciting and influential community online. The site, which now gets billions of page views every month, was the epicenter of the Web’s protest against Congress’s SOPA copyright legislation, a gushing source of Occupy Wall Street memes (pepper-spray cop started on Reddit), and home to some of the most helpful, and the most misguided, Internet vigilantes. Redditors helped a bus monitor who was abused by her terrible kids raise hundreds of thousands of dollars; they also mistakenly attacked a cancer fundraiser, they’ve frequently posted child porn, and they’ve been accused of sexism. How is Reddit’s power altering Web culture — and should we celebrate it, or fear it?

Well, I’d question the premise that Reddit is powerful…it’s a tool for mobilizing a community of people to type faster (kinda like Pharyngula, only bigger…), which can sometimes be influential. It’s greatest weakness is it’s self-reinforcing nature, which allows really stupid, nasty people to sometimes send Reddit haring off towards really stupid schemes—like Reddit Island or their constant battles with a vocal and wretched misogynist minority, that can also wield the autocatalytic power of Reddit well.

So it sounds like an interesting panel, with provocative stuff to say on both sides of the opinion of Reddit. The description is certainly reasonable and fair.

But…the proposed panel has Rebecca Watson on it. And as we all know, that immediately fires up the hate brigade.

So of course Reddit has a thread denouncing the heretic and telling everyone to go vote it down, protesting the fact that a panel discussing the pros and cons of Reddit might actually include someone who is critical of Reddit’s slimy underbelly. They’re also upset that Shit Reddit Says, the mocking watchdog subreddit, is involved, somehow.

At the poll site, there’s another anti-Watsonista, BlueofHume1, who’s on a roll of stupid. He’s making the argument that in a community of 20 million readers, the fact that only 21,000 say “misogynistic/sexist/ablist/homophobic” stuff, by one count, means it is therefore not as bad as everyone says. He’s comparing all registered users to the vocal subset that are active commenters! I’d say it’s a bigger concern that 21,000 scumbags are allowed to thrive and promote scumbaggery on the forum. It’s an open question whether the nasty subset are a representative sample of some significant proportion of the 20 million readers, and his argument doesn’t touch it.

Anyway, if you hate faulty reasoning, if you’re just sick to death of people making excuses for women- and gay-hating fratboys and chill girls “because they are atheists”, if you’re fed up with the enemy constantly waving Rebecca Watson as the emblem of evil, go register at the SXSW site and leave a vote.

It’s time for a ball game tomorrow evening: the Mr Paul Aints vs the Amarillo Sox, sponsored by Minnesota Atheists. A few people in the Texas media are a bit concerned about participating in a godless game, and they’ve put up a poll about whether the Amarillo team should forfeit rather than throw their ball around while atheists stand around and watch.

Do you think the Amarillo Sox should still participate in the game?

Yes 58%

No 42%

To their credit, the team is not considering abandoning their responsibilities, so they’ll be there. It’s sad that about half the Texans would boycott us.

I’ll also be there! Minnesota Atheists will be having a tailgate party beginning at 5 in the stadium parking lot. Midway Stadium is at 1771 Energy Park Drive St. Paul, MN 55108. I’ll be there in my official Mr Paul Aints jersey, stroll up and say hello.

There’s something easy you can do: sign this petition. Call upon the Indonesian government to respect the freedom and dignity of all its citizens and to free Alexander Aan. You’ve got until the 16th of this month, but don’t procrastinate. You might as well take care of it right now.

I guess it’s topical, but I feel a bit odd to even think about it: I’ve never eaten at a Chick-fil-A anyway, not before I learned they were a business run by a fundagelical homophobe, and especially not now.

Will you eat at Chick-fil-A?

Yes (44.6%)

No (55.4%)

They’re what? One of those greasy fried chicken fast food places? I hear that stuff will kill you, too.