The Smiling Atheist's Breakup Letter to NBC

Today, I say with a heavy heart, "I'm sorry, NBC, but it's over."

After all of the years we've spent together, it saddens me to leave this relationship. After all, I've spent years enjoying your programming from Will & Grace to Late Night with Conan O'Brien. My nights with Kieth Olberman and Rachel Maddow have put a smile on my face with every joke about Billo and his corrupt cohorts at Fox Noise. But today, I came to realize that our relationship was completely one-sided.

Your unethical treatment of Conan O'Brien has led me to believe that NBC is an organization that doesn't care about its employees, but only cares about the dollar bills those employees make for them (which is of no surprise, but recent events state clearly that your bottom line is just that). I have been a long time proponent of ethical employee/employer relations. I have not shopped at Wal-Mart for over a decade because of their treatment of employees. I don't donate to charities that are more concerned with their public relations than they are with providing help for those in need. I don't bank with large corporate banks because of their treatment to the American people and the tax payers. And as of today, I am no longer watching the NBC product because of its unethical treatment of Conan O'Brien, his staff, and the other late night hosts at NBC, save only Jay Leno, who has been treated with vast favoritism.

Conan O'Brien is a good, fair, just and decent human being, and Jay Leno, who is none of these things, has been put on a pedestal above him. Conan was the 17 year host of one of your highest rated programs, and after only seven months on a new show, he was released in the favor of Jay Leno. All the while, it took Jay Leno over two years to even compare with Letterman in the late night ratings. Therefore, why was Conan, a man who has brought billions in revenue to NBC, not treated with the same respect? A child could tell you that a new show takes time to grab its audience, and your inability or unwillingness to capture revenue from Conan's majority audience of college students and young people on internet sites like Youtube, Veoh and Hulu shows your clear incompetence as an organization.

Jeff Zucker, in his decision, shows a clear favoritism toward Jay Leno, who has stepped on hundreds of people to get to the top, instead of Conan who has only elevated others. And Conan's withholding for one week against a multimillion dollar buy-out, only to make sure that his staff was compensated to a just degree, shows clearly that Conan's reputation is just and viable.

NBC, I will no longer be watching any of your programming from now on. I will no longer buy GE products, as GE itself is a murderous organization responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in third world countries, and I will no longer allow advertisements for NBC products on any of my blogs or sites.

And as a side note, I do know that Jay Leno eats children, and I think that is very, very bad.

Congratulations, NBC, you are Bat-Shit Crazy to say the least. And with a heavy heart, after a multi-decade-long relationship, I hereby call it quits. It's over, NBC. And I want my keys and dog back as well, you assholes.

Please join the boycott of NBC and also join:

I'm With Coco.

Fun with Fundies (January 17, 2010)

On this past Wednesday's edition of The 700 Club, Pat Robertson scored again with a claim that the earthquake that ravaged Haiti this past week was the result of a "deal with the devil" made by the Haitians to gain their freedom from the French, not long after America's Revolutionary War in the 1700s. Here is the actual quote in its entirety:

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.' True story. And so, the devil said, 'okay it's a deal.'" Ever[y] since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle; on the one side is Haiti on the other is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty - same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to god and out of this tragedy I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now we are helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable."

The Smiling Atheist has again lost his smile by the way Pat Robertson is hijacking this horrible tragedy in order to personally gain from it, and to orate his own personal bullshit and hatred in the light of this event. The people of Haiti are suffering and Pat Robertson has convinced his holier-than-thou and probably overweight audience that this is all because of a deal with the devil and only he can truly help. And by "he" he means "god" of course, as he thinks he is God.

The truth of the matter is that Haiti did free themselves from the French, only shortly after working with the French and the United States in the last part of the Revolutionary war, expelling English troops from our southern shores. Shortly after which, the Haitians revolted against the French, which prompted the United States to shun Haiti for the next few centuries. Even to this day, our foreign policy and embargoes are largely to blame for the poverty in Haiti, despite the good they've done for us.

In fact, the US has repeatedly overthrown, imprisoned or assassinated democratically elected Haitian presidents, used economic hit-men to keep Haiti impoverished and much of the foreign aid in Haiti's previous disasters has been eaten up by corrupt "charitable" organizations such as Robertson's. What would we expect in the long run? Robertson has been convicted of smuggling in his own personal jet, so why would we think he would be honest about anything at all? Robertson has repeatedly lied to the American people, and probably to himself. He's made up vile vitriol about those who would oppose him or the evangelical right. And most of all, he's used religion and hijacked disasters again and again to promote hatred on minorities. He did, along with his late buddy, Jerry Falwell, blame 9/11 on the ACLU, feminists, gays, pagans, etc. He blamed Hurricane Katrina on the "debauchery" of New Orleans. And so on.

Pat Robertson is a liar without the remnant of the very "soul" that he and his followers blindly believe in. But without magic, I can only describe him as one of the worst people living today. The mere fact that he has not yet been taken off the air says a lot about TBN and CBN, the stations that air him. He is a vile human being and a disgusting "person". I don't consider him human at all.

Normally I would end this by congratulating people on being completely Bat-Shit Crazy. However, I don't even want to insult the likes of Kirk Cameron or anyone else I've given that title to, because Pat Robertson is worse than any of them. The others probably don't even know any better, but Robertson knows what he's doing. He knows that he's lying and purposefully making this world a worse place in which to live.

Congratulations, Pat Robertson. You are officially the most disgusting person in the only ten years of the 21st century.

Here is a list of good charities to help those in Haiti that are in no way affiliated with Robertson or any other religious institution. I encourage you do donate whatever you can to them. Thank you.

MADRE
ActionAid International
Americares
Doctors Without Borders
Partners in Health
and be sure to visit http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/