"Not the right time" rears it's ugly head again.

[abaris]

And there is a double standard when atheists have loved ones die, even in person we are STILL expected to keep our mouths shut. No and I am tired of that bullshit. If theists get to make statements in mass media about public events, so do skeptics. It is certainly reasonable in face to face personal settings to leave debate out of it, but mass media is not a private in person event. 

Frankly, I don't understand what you mean by that. When my mother lay on her death, I sent her a priest because she would have wanted it, and I couldn't say if it reaches her in her coma. Not because it was important for me, but because I knew the importance for her. Definetely not the right time to make an atheist statement. Same at her funeral where her friends and extended family took comfort in the priest being there. You said it yourself, such a thing would have been a dick move.

Also you didn't say what you posted. But in any case, this obviously was a public figure. I didn't know him, nor what he stood for, since the NFL is alien to us here across the pond. I never understood people mourning a public figure's demise anyway, since they are nothing to us, other than some fun or admiration being taken out of our lives. We didn't know them personally, haven't been friends with them, or were in other ways related to them. They are fair game, so to speak. If certain rules are being observed, since they too had family and friends. Trying to make a statement at the moment of their demise can be in bad taste. Not saying, it was, but it can.