I was browsing CNN.com's home page when I found a link: Conventions turn atheists off.  Considering my interest in the Democratic convention at least, plus my awareness of the whole fooforaw about the god-language in the Democratic platform, I decided to have a look ... and five paragraphs down, I just about dropped my teeth!

After word spread Wednesday that Democrats left God out of their platform, atheists rejoiced. “Truly amazing news,” wrote Loren Miller on Atheist Nexus, a popular atheist blog. “The Republicans remain in the firm grasp of right-wing Christian religiosity, and I really don't know what it's going to take to free them from it.”

I have to say, I'm of two minds about this.  Yeah, I'm STILL an atheist and very much OUT, and if there is fallout from my being more publicly outed, I think I can manage that.  On the other hand, I think I would have liked to have been ASKED FIRST about whether I wanted to be quoted, if for no other reason than the sake of courtesy.  Yes, my words are in the public domain, and it is all too easy to cut-and-paste something and publish it, with or without permission.  I also sort of wonder if they grabbed my comment and not someone like sk8eycat's or someone else's BECAUSE I use my real name.

Sometimes we may be tempted to think of Atheist Nexus as a private club, someplace where we can say what we want to and not worry about repercussions from within the site itself.  For the most part, it is ... but that didn't stop Dan Merica from diving in here and coming up with something for his blog, any more than it stopped him from going on the American Atheists' site and quoting Mark Musante or David Silverman.

Point being: if Dan knows we're here, others will very likely follow - perhaps a cautionary tale for all of us who enjoy the environs of Atheist Nexus.