An extra special Aah Fooey to organised religion, as usual, but in this case inspired by Durga Puja. This year's Durga festival got over on the weekend. There's a Durga temple near my house, and on sunday they took out their usual procession, parading the idol of the goddess through the area.

My wife and I went out to pick up some groceries on Sunday evening, and here's what we were treated to:

Crowds of devotees blocking the streets and roads.
Unruly, drunk hooligans, often with face paint on, swaggering around and drinking in public (which I'd get caned for at a rock show, you fucking hypocrites)
Trails of litter left behind by the devotees, including beer cans, arrack packets (I thought those things were banned) and the usual snacks wrappers
One loathsome, vile asshole who took advantage of the darkness and the crowds to grope my wife. We confronted him, and he and his friend tried to rough us up, and threatened me with a rock. We started yelling and asking them to come to the police (who were just around the corner), and they ran. No thanks to the highly socially responsible rubberneckers who parked their bikes at a safe distance down the road to gawk.

My wife did get in a good punch at the fellow who molested her. I could hear the thud when her fist impacted. I hope that hurt.

To all the gods-sucking theism apologists out there, is this the sense of community and shared values that you keep pretending religion provides? Is this the sort of respect for women that is being instilled by goddess worship? Yeah, right.