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When I heard about Carrie Fisher’s heart attack, I was shocked–and very hopeful that she would survive despite the desperate circumstances around it. But instead, the news reported shortly afterward that she had in fact passed away. She joins a constellation of amazing, talented people that we have lost this year. For those who are maybe a bit young for her iconic starring turn in Star Wars, it’s hard to put into words just what she means for my generation–and what her role as Princess Leia Organa gave the world.

Donald Trump may well have simply given up on this election. One can only hope. But he asked a question today during a speech that reveals much about his mindset and worldview–and where he sees himself in relation to other people.

I don’t think anything else that I’ve seen lately better encapsulates the problem with this election cycle. Even if/when Hillary Clinton wins, as does indeed look more and more like an inevitability, America has a very big problem on its hands.

The whole reason that Trump came to power was that he tapped into the roaring, blazing rage of the Religious Right, and now the whole reason he is falling is that the Religious Right simply doesn’t hold the power that it once claimed. But the kind of people who still support him are also the kind of people who take a little longer to see the writing on the wall when there’s been a massive sea change in circumstances. Weirdly enough, the same attempted justification is being used by both his supporters and the defectors from his banner. It backfires both times.

Michele Bachmann, a former US Representative from Minnesota and infamous religious fanatic and right-wing-nutjob, has decided that obviously all this negative publicity emerging about her party’s nominee is happening only because of a Democratic conspiracy. Yes. She is claiming that Democrats released the tapes and orchestrated the entire drama.

I’ve always been fascinated with how people construct communities for themselves. Certainly many atheists have wrestled with how to create communities without the trappings and shackles of untrue supernatural claims. Well, this past weekend I got to enjoy one way that people are finding to connect with each other without religion.

For a group of people who really hate evolution, fundagelicals sure have evolved on their views of Donald Trump. And we’re not talking about micro-evolution, here. We’re talking about mega-huge macro-evolution. Except macro-evolution isn’t a thing, or so they say. Anyway, I was so struck by this story that I decided we needed to run a special off-day edition of Roll to Disbelieve.

If you’ve been following the latest feud in the atheist community between “The Amazing Atheist” and Patheos blogger Martin Hughes of BarrierBreaker, then you likely won’t be surprised to learn that I’m adding my voice to the growing number of people saying that racists do not speak for them. Today I want to talk about what’s happened, and why I’m weighing in.

I’ve finally gotten my PayPal issues resolved and am pleased to announce that Roll to Disbelieve now has a fully operational Patreon and PayPal account! I’m still working out buttons for the sidebar, but here’s the preliminaries.

Mr. Captain reminded me that in a week or two, Bumble and Bother have to go to the vet to get fixed. The time is flying! It’s time for a FULL KITTEN UPDATE, everyone!