>> The word atheist has none, and can never have any more meaning than that.

Except it does. Even Dan Dennett doesn't necessarily like the term atheist because it carries with it the connotation of "belaboring" Christians about their beliefs.

While I suppose, yeah, if you just look at a strict definition by a dictionary, you can make that claim, but people make associations in real life based on their experiences, and while most of my experiences with atheists are positive (I'd say the majority of my friends are atheists, while I'm a Xian), there have been many instances to the contrary as well. On Slashdot, the atheists there are in the majority and incredibly condescending to anyone who believes in Christ, and at my university (UC San Diego) we had a very vocal atheist professor (http://polisci.ucsd.edu/faculty/irons.htm) who was quite the dick to people who didn't agree with him in class, if he thought they were religious in any fashion.

His biggest act of asshat-ery, though, was when during a legal battle over the existence of the cross on Mt. Soledad, he sneakily booked the site for Easter morning, even though (well, because) a church group had held Easter morning services there every year. So that he could hold a pagan ceremony there instead. Basically, though, just to be a dick.

Way to go MINK!

These are a few of my personal favs:

http://www.videosift.com/video/A-Whitney-Brown-on-everything-in-the-world
http://www.videosift.com/video/Reggie-Watts-Beatbox-looping-and-comedy-at-the-same-time
http://www.videosift.com/video/Dan-Dennett-Ants-terrorism-and-the-awesome-power-of-meme

Keep up the great sifting! and commenting (= no rubbish)!