I Just Couldn't Stay Away

Okay, my "vacation" from blogging is over. I just couldn't stay away -- there's too much going on.

Thanks to all of you who expressed such good wishes and thoughts when I went on this abbreviated hiatus. The good news is that I'm back!

Longtime readers of this blog know that I am an activist with Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Last weekend I went to our yearly conference in Washington DC, and there's nothing like being around and among a bunch of like-minded activists to clear your mind, reset your inner clock, reboot your internal computer and reinvigorate you for the coming battles.

An added plus was a special "bloggers meetup" on Saturday night of Bloggers Against Theocracy, where I got to have my picture taken with Rev. Barry Lynn, the Executive Director of American United (and who could have had a stellar career as a standup comedian, if he wanted to):

At the meetup, I also got to reconnect with several of my blogger-buddies, such as BAC of Yikes!, Alicia Morgan of Last Left Turn Before Hooterville -- who also just published her terrific new book, The Price of Right: How the Conservative Agenda Has Failed America (and Always Will) -- and DCup from Politits:

There were a lot of other fellow bloggers there, including a number of big names in the blogosphere, which made me feel sort of like an "air-guitar" player suddenly thrust on stage with Led Zeppelin. I'm still in a kind of "blogger groupie heaven" mindset, but here's the complete list:

• Blue Gal
  
• Correntewire
  
• Dispatches from the Culture Wars
  
• DistributorcapNY
  
• Fran I Am
  
• Jesus General
  
• Last Left Turn Before Hooterville
  
• Mainstream Baptist
  
• Mock Paper Scissors
  
• Nailing Jello to the Wall
  
• Neural Gourmet
  
• No Blood for Hubris
  
• Pharyngula
  
• Politits
  
• Yikes!
  
• Zaius Nation
  

A deep thank you to each and every one of my fellow bloggers, for everything you do in the fight against theocracy.

Okay, back on topic: If any of you readers of this blog have not yet joined AU, I strongly encourage you to check us out and get involved. Regardless of what you might have heard in the CPM*, the evil legions of the Religious Right are NOT dead. They are not even on life support, despite the drubbing handed out to them in this election. They are still an ominous and looming -- and well-heeled -- threat to American freedom, and AU stands at the bulwark of the defense of those freedoms.

We need your help. It's as simple as that.

You can join us for as little as $25 a year, and there's probably an active chapter in your local area. If there isn't, you can always start one.

Our freedoms are too precious for us to allow them to be swept away by the Radical Christianists, the American Taliban. And they are now too fragile to stand without our help.

[* Capitalist Pig Media]