Reason Rally

I am an atheist. Just four little words that, back home in Europe, are not that big a deal. Things are quite different in the USA - atheists are mistrusted more here than any other "minority' group, including muslims, lesbian/gay/bisexuals or recent immigrants, according to a 2006 study from the Univeristy of Minnesota (see here for a summary of the data or read on Wikipedia). Indeed, given the choice for president, the US would choose to elect a gay Muslim communist over an atheist.

Atheism in the US is almost like voting Tory in Scotland - something that people only admit to in the privacy of their own homes. I hadn't really noticed though: a figure often quoted is that 90% of scientists working in research are atheists, so most people I encounter are generally left-leaning secularists. But I was aware that most USians take their God rather seriously, which means that if Dom and I ever visit the bible belt, I'm not allowed to even open my mouth without permission from my wife.

But today was something different. Today, in the US, atheists and agnostics decided to come out as a movement, and I have to say that they did it in style. For those who don't know, the Mall is the big grassy bit in the middle of DC where Congress, the museums and all the monuments live. It's also the place where all the big political rallies are held, so it was a good venue for the Reason Rally today.

We arrived just as Tim Minchin was doing his thing, including this song, the Pope song. Watching shocked parents desperately trying to cover the ears of their children was particularly hilarious: I'd be surprised if the Mall has ever heard the words "mother fucker" spoken so many times at such a high density - respect to the women doing sign language on the side of the stage!

Other highlights were Nate Phelps, son of the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, a bunch of absolute mentalists who do lots of nasty things including picketing funerals with placards. If you've never heard of these nutters, check out the Wikipedia page. Given that the URL of their website is "www.godhatesfags.com", you can imagine what kind of unpleasant people they are. Anyway, I'll stop giving them more publicity and go back to the Reason Rally.

Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers both gave pretty good talks and Eddie Izzard was simply hilarious. Dawkins pulled what was probably the biggest crowd of the day which was a surprise, but I guess Eddie Izzard probably isn't so big on this side of the Atlantic. The main aim of today was to try and get "social and legislative equality" for atheists. It was a good outing and I was glad to see that it didn't turn into just an excuse to bash religion, which would only ever be counterproductive and also miss the point.

A few religious types did turn up to explain to all us godless atheists that we were scum and due to burn in hell for all eternity (see above photo). I would have felt sorry for them, but they seemed to be quite happy. They were all concentrated in one area but mingling with the heathens, and people were queuing up to get a chance to debate with them. Think Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park on a Sunday, but with the American tendency to not hold back and you're half-way there. I've stick more photos on this page because some of the banners were truly hilarious.

Overall, I think the Rally got its point across. It included a video address from Representative Pete Stark, the first congressman to officially come out as atheist, and another video message from Senator Tom Harkin who, whilst a believer himself, was happy to see a group that represents around 15% of USians finally make their voice heard. Such a contrast to the UK, where we had Alistair Campbell stop Tony Blair from discussing faith with his now famous words "We don't do God".

One thing that we can learn from our cousins across the Atlantic is activism and personal involvement in politics. Back home, the political class have sort of budded off from reality and most people are apathetic. Here in the US, it's a lot more grassroots and a lot more people get involved in the full range of the political spectrum from campaigning on local single issues to being involved in caucuses and selecting the presidential candidate. That's something that has to be admired, even if it means that entities like the Tea Party can come to prominence. But I'll save talking about politics for another day.

Eatin' oot!

Regular readers of this blog (I know they exist, Google told me so) may be forgiven for believing that I think everything in the US is terrible, apart from their beer. I suppose this is because I'm a grumpy old man who likes to rant, and the things that I think the US does badly (healthcare, driving, bread, etc) are far more striking than the things which the US does well. Apart from the beer, which I noticed very quickly. Another thing that regular readers will notice about this blog is that many of my ramblings are focused on food and drink. Being a fatty takes effort, so food and drink are a big part of my life. From a culinary perspective, my wife and I are basically hobbits. So, this is another blog post about food.

One striking difference between the US and the UK is that the standard of restaurant food is generally quite a bit higher here. There are bad places here too, but the baseline is somewhat higher, which goes part of the way towards explaining why USians complain when they get to the UK. One thing I like is that most places will give you a couple of different types of veg on the side, and even pub-grub comes with crispy, steamed veg and not stuff that has come out of a freezer and been boiled to death. So, well done to the USA.

There are a few differences, though. Although pub-grub and restaurants tend to be better here in the US when compared to the UK, USian fast food is that bit saltier, fattier and generally nastier than its UK equivalent, even when coming from the same multinational. Dominos pizza in the UK isn't great, but much better than from Dominos in the US: we phoned in a Dominos when we first arrived here, and we were left feeling dehydrated all of the next day, presumably because EVERYTHING is much saltier here. Everywhere. I got a Subway a couple of weeks ago and even if left me feeling parched for quite a while.

Mexican-style fast food is becoming quite popular in the south east of England. The Mission burrito place in Oxford is a blatant rip-off of the USian company Chipotle (right down to the colour scheme and fonts on their menu!), but the Mission does the burrito so much better. And I've still not come across anything in the US that rivals Chilango, another burrito place which we only discovered in London the month before we left. I'm talking about fast-food Mexican though, we've been to one or two cracking Mexican restaurants here which have been pretty damned good.

Anyway, back to the positive. Restaurants are generally better and we've found a new Favourite Place. Well, we were taken there back in September by a couple of good friends, and we've spent a lot of time there in the last week or so. It's called Silver Diner, and there are a few of them dotted around Maryland and Virginia. They're laid out like a classical 60s diner (complete with matching music, dodgy colour scheme and silly juke boxes), but all of the food is locally-sourced, often organic and just bloody delicious. Mmmmm, bison. The photos in the this post were taken there in the last week or so, with Alyssa poisoning herself with milkshake (she's a lactard) and myself, below, enjoying a nice local craft beer. Mmmm, IPA.

There are a few things about the restaurant experience which are a little bit different from the UK, some of which are good, some of which are bad. The friendly customer service is good, but odd, and mostly because the waiting staff are paid less than minimum wage so need tips in order to eat. Which leads me on to the bad thing: the price in the menu is not what you get charged. You need to add on sales tax and a tip of around 20% (or you're a bad person, apparently), so this was confusing to begin with.

If you happen to clear your plate during the meal, it'll be quickly taken away even if other people in your party are still eating. This was really annoying to begin with, and seemed very rude, but it just seems to be how things are done in this country. Quite often, as soon as you say "no" to dessert, the bill will be brought to you unless you explicitly say "don't bring the cheque, we haven't finished drinking yet." Again, this seemed rude at first but most USians are busy and active, so I guess they like a fast turn-around at meal-time. One more thing: the portions are epic, truly epic. Even as an accomplished fatty, I often struggle to finish. But that's standard here and most places will offer you a doggy bag unprompted.

For a country where one fifth of all meals are eaten in a car, the quality of restaurant food in this country is pretty spectacular. The only thing missing is great Indian food. You can get decent stuff here, but it's not a patch on that to be found in Glasgow / Manchester / Birmingham / London. In fact, we're heading to Edinburgh on Sunday just to get a curry from Kismot, which is easily the best Indian restaurant we've been to. Mmmmm, curry....