You remember Rebecca Vitsmun, the Oklahoma native whose family survived the nasty tornado this past spring. During an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, she had this notable exchange:

Blitzer: Well, you’re blessed. Brian, your husband, is blessed. Anders is blessed… and I guess you gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord? For that split-second decision?

Vitsmun: I… I… I’m… I’m actually an atheist… [Laughs]

Blitzer: Oh, you are! [Laughs] But you made the right call!

Vitsmun: Yeah, yep. We are here! And, you know, I don’t blame anybody for thanking the Lord.

Blitzer: Of course not.

It was fantastic

At the Atheist Alliance of America 2013 National Convention this past weekend, Vitsmun spoke about the disaster, the aftermath, and TIME magazine’s Joe Klein. (Skip to the 12:00 mark to hear the actual speech!)

In the last few minutes of the video, Vitsmun receives a well-deserved — and perfectly-titled — award. If only we could all have that sort of courage to admit we’re atheists when there’s so much pressure to do otherwise.

(via Steve Ahlquist)

This infographic shows households by type, 1970-2012. The most notable trend is the number of married couples with children, which dropped from 40.3% to 19.6%. Interesting.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Beautiful.

✚

caro:

(via)

What a great version of this classic song.