Obama campaign uses down syndrome woman to attack Romney

[opebo]

Good.  Obama's campaign needs to pull out all the stops and go for the low blows and do whatever it takes, because the racism steamroller is out and headed their way.  They need to save at least a few of the less racist of the swing states - namely, NH, IA, CO, and WI.

[opebo]

Just when you thought the Obama campaign couldn't get any lower.

Shameful, absolutely shameful, exploiting a down syndrome individual in this manner, using her for their own selfish, crass, political purposes.

Well good lord Winfield, Romney and Ryan would throw this woman under the bus in terms of gutting programs - how can saving her be 'using' her?

[opebo]

In our secure society,

'Secure society'?  What're you getting at here? American society is precisely a society of complete insecurity - living from paycheck to paycheck with no social safety net and unemployment looming.

being an atheist is something that one should probably keep to them self unless they are willing to bear some rough consequences. I mean, with the exception of breaking certain laws, being a self-proclaimed atheist is the most likely way of being cast as a social pariah. At least in America, anyway. Then again, some people secretly enjoy being social pariahs...

Really?  I've always been an open atheist and everyone around me assumed I was and expected me to be one.  You must live in some setting surrounded by the uneducated.

[opebo]

A lot of otherwise good, reasonable people, even in the more "secular" states, look down on atheists with disdain. Some are more subtle about it than others.

I say all of this just so younger posters on here are aware of the potential consequences of being open about their current (maybe temporary/maybe lifelong) atheism.

I've never encountered that.  Are you old?  Or perhaps you work in some kind of profession dominated by lunkheads. In academia I can tell you atheism is normal. 

That said, I'm about 7 years out of date - it having been that long since I was last trapped in the Bad Place.  Maybe it has changed (there were already plenty such bigots around when I was there, they were just beneath me).

[opebo]

I've never encountered that.  Are you old?  Or perhaps you work in some kind of profession dominated by lunkheads. In academia I can tell you atheism is normal.  

Absolutely, but academia is the exception to the rule. Start talking about atheism with ordinary people outside of a university setting, even in many places in Boston or Los Angeles, and you're not likely to get a great reception.

Absolutely to what?  You're an old, or that you work in some kind of profession dominated by lunkheads?

Anyway I should note that I never talk about it - after all it is a silly topic, and talking about it implies you take seriously the sort of simpleton who would engage in religious belief.