Carnival of The Liberals #52

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But wait, you say ... I haven't seen a single Carnival of The Liberals post! How can it be "the end?" Never fear, Carnival of The Liberals #52 is here! I have the distinct pleasure of hosting The Last Temptation Edition of CotL for year 2, here at Yikes!

I also have the pleasure of sharing with you that 2007 is the 60th Anniversary of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. In honor of AU's anniversary, the theme for this carnival is church-state separation -- and guess what? Nearly half of you sent in posts on the topic! The rest of you are part of what I lovingly refer to as the 'like herding cats' Liberal movement -- who will be heard, but not herd!

There is a special twist to this CotL. AU recently hosted a blogger meet up in DC, and a few of those in attendance (or there in spirit) were invited to submit a post. So this CotL's features 15 posts, instead of the usual 10. It's with great honor and pleasure that I share with you the entries selected for this edition.

NOTE: If you submitted an entry, but don't see it listed here, keep in mind that I haven't had much sleep over the past two weeks ... so I cannot be held responsible for being such a F*#&ing" idiot to have passed over your excellent post! WHAT was I THINKING?????

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Let's begin with the five selections sent in by our blogger meet up friends. I'm starting with Blue Gal because I love her most of all. BG helped organizer the AU blogger meet up, and has been a great friend and mentor to me over the past year and a half. One of the things I love about BG is that she's a person of faith, who truly understands the importance and value of keeping church and state separate. So please enjoy Christian and American and never the two.... .

What can I say about PZ Myers who blogs at Pharyngula? That he's brilliant ... a science blogger ... an atheist ... or all of the above? ding, ding, ding ... the correct answer would be ALL of the above! It was great fun watching PZ chat it up with the Reverend Barry Lynn. What is even more fun is watching PZ take on both the Discovery Institute and PBS in his post Separation of church and state establishes a new religion!

When I first met this next blogger we both decided we must have bee separated at birth. It was like meeting my twin brother -- only he got all the looks! Tengrain, from Mock, Paper, Scissors, couldn't be with us in person, but he was certainly there in spirit. And as usual, he presents a compelling argument for why church-state separation is so important in his post The Public Library.

The last two entries in the AU blogger meet up category were sent in by a new friend, Vast Left. I'm including them both because they really highlight for me what I had hoped for when we first started thinking about hosting a meet up -- and that is to encourage more bloggers to become blogger lobbyists! Near the end of the second post, Vast Left says: "Please join me in building a strong, concise list of essential points (with links to source material) and sending it to our Reps’ offices." Yes! And now, I called up my Congressman and he said, quote... Part I and I called up my Congressman and he said, quote... Part II.

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When dealing with the anti-separation crowd the inevitable always comes up: So, you want the US to become a theocracy ... then tell me, which God do we pick? For more on this please read: A Particular God, from Daylight Atheism; Discovery Institute Reeling, from Bay of Fundie; and Alabama Governor Riley Asks Citizens to Curse Drought, from Avant News.

I will confess to being a "female chauvinist" ... what can I say? As a feminist and a lesbian, I'm pretty 'woman centered' -- which is why I selected the next three posts. They deal with issues important to women, and were written by women. Get ready to take action as you read $141 Million for Ineffective Education from Woman Tribune; inside the minds of women; Support International Violence Against Women Act from abyss2hope: a rape survivor's zigzag journey into the open; and America: The Country That Kills It's Citizens, from Menstrual Poetry. (Note to MP, I'll be watching SiCKO later today! )

The final four posts all deal with issues of importance to me. They are filled with information, insight, and some even include charts! And, they point out why friends don't let friends vote Republican! Please enjoy The Macaca Conundrum, from And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is...; The American Myth of Mobility Gets Another Nail In Its Coffin, from The Agonist; America DOES Torture, from Atheist Revolution; and last, but certainly not least, The media: dancing around a point, from Staring At Empty Pages.

**The End?**

Not yet!!

The next edition of Carnival of The Liberals on December 5th is the first edition of CotL's third year and will be hosted by Leo at Neural Gourmet.

CotL #53 will be the annual "best of" edition. The rules for this edition are somewhat different from previous editions of CotL:

• It is restricted to only bloggers who have appeared in CotL over the past year


• Bloggers should send in what they consider to be their "best" post from the past year that hasn't appeared in CotL


• From those submitted I'll pick what I consider to be the "best of the best" and run those (I'll also link to the rest on the CotL site).

And finally, Carnival of The Liberals is looking for hosts for next year. If you would like to have the fun of reading ALL the posts submitted, not just the ones selected, email Leo ("tng") Lincourt at: leolincourt AT gmail DOT com.

This was fun! Thanks, Leo, for inviting me!

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