Beat the Heat and Beyond

After 6 long weeks, we can finally say that DFFT, through the donations of many generous nonbelievers, have "Beat the Heat." What began as "an idea in the car in the driveway" morphed into a full kindness campaign that we hope will continue for many years.

At first, we thought this would be simple: we'd ask for donations, buy a couple of air conditioners, find out who needed them, and then provide them. Things turned out to be much more complicated.

First, we had zero luck getting any local help. Everybody claimed it was a great thing to do but nobody had any real desire to do the work. It seems people around here - even churches - are very skeptical about helping others who aren't of their own flock. Everybody talked a good game but when it came down to actually giving their money, they weren't willing. 

Second, we had a really hard time tracing the Community Action group that had the list of folks in need. The phone number in the original article was wrong and, when we got the right one, it was for a different group. We spent a lot of time calling all over northeast Mississippi trying desperately to find out which organization could help us. When we finally found Community Action, we took the time to vet them. They are part of a government program to help elderly, disabled, and low income families. They screen people to prevent fraud and, because they are federally funded, they do not discriminate against any person for race, religion, etc. They told us that they have lots of requests because the local Good Samaritan and Salvation Army don't provide enough help. By this time, we were thoroughly unsurprised.

There was a light at the end of this long tunnel, however. We ended up with a ton more money than we had thought we would thanks to the Friendly Atheist and his wonderful community. These people came out of the woodwork to donate to the cause and, because of their efforts, we were able to buy seven air conditions instead of just one or two. To Hemant and his readers, we thank you so much for trusting us to make the lives of the poor and elderly just a little bit better.

Here are the seven brand new air conditioners we purchased with the donated funds:

We had some money left over so we decided to go shopping and see what else we could put together for donation. This is what we found:

It may not look like much, but this is enough file folders, notebooks, pencils, and hand sanitizer for 40 kids. There are also about 20 rulers in this pack. No child should have to start school without the basic stuff! 

We still had money left over after we grabbed every notebook and folder off those shelves so we went to another store and found some discount medical supplies. We decided to make some little first aid kits.

Just some basics here: alcohol, band-aids, aspirin, antibiotic ointment, and some OTC allergy relief. Not perfect but just what a Mississippian needs going into school and flu season!

So here's the financial breakdown of this campaign:

We're so pleased with how this campaign went that we want to do more of this. And that brings me to some really great news: this campaign has given birth to the Northeast Mississippi Secular Humanist Association (NEMSHA). We are in our infancy stage with only 4 members right now but we want to continue this charitable work in our area and to promote education and secular values. If you live in the Northeast Mississippi area and are interested in participating, please send an email to ournemsha@gmail.com.

Get the Lead Out, Alex Jones

I listened to 5 minutes of Alex Jones on the radio last night - 5 precious minutes that I will never get back. I don't know which "expert" he was talking with but I knew as soon as he trotted out the old "Fluoride lowers your IQ" study, that this guy was scientifically illiterate.

As if to confirm my hypothesis, this "expert" then started talking about how we need "a little" arsenic and lead in our bodies. He finished up this dangerous nonsense with the statement, "Our DNA is made of lead."

Lead is Pb on the Element Table. Here's a photo of it on the chart:

Image: HowStuffWorks.com

Now, here is a picture of DNA. See if you can spot the Pb in there:

Image: Scientific Psychic

Nope, I couldn't either. Whoever that guy was doesn't know diddly squat about biochemistry. Furthermore, this is his 3-step plan to cure sickness. When you contract an illness, do these things:

1.) Fire your doctor.

2.) Sign up for his website/newsletter.

3.) Buy their natural supplements 

Why do this? Because "healing is easy," folks. You don't need any science. Just pop some quacko vitamins and everything will be o-tay.

I am not going to sit here and claim that the pharmaceutical companies are saints. We know they can be very corrupt and, at times, even unsafe. But if you think quackery is a good alternative to science, you're just wrong. It's bad enough that quacks make statements that are scientifically wrong but then they want to sell your their overpriced, unregulated shit on top of that. You cannot guarantee the content or purity of anything that is not FDA approved: homeopathic remedies are mostly just sugar water and those vitamins you take could have any level of any substance in them and you'd never know until it started making you sick.

It's great to look for things that you can do to naturally improve your health (like moderate diets and exercise) but you're taking a huge risk with this kind of quackery - an industry that has so little regard for truth that they will even tell you that your DNA is made of lead in order to sell a subscription and some pills.

Let the buyer beware indeed.