How is it now, Holzie?
Monthly Archive for June, 2007
A reply to Merlin.
I loves me some Superchunk.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
I just finished this one in audiobook format, and it’s really quite good. Granted, there are probably two types of people who will read this book: Those who already believe what the author, Christopher Hitchens, is saying, and those who need to try to disprove him. It’s not like any of these atheist tomes are really likely to achieve their goals of rendering religion obsolete. That only happens one person at a time and it’s really unlikely that this book or any like it are going to move ranks of believers into the atheist camp. So the atheists (and even the agnostics) can read it and say “Right on!” and the others can read it and think “Well, he’s going to Hell.”
Of the two groups, of course, I fall into the former. At least mostly. I try not to be an asshole about it as is the current trend with the so-called new-atheists. I can’t tolerate Dawkins and Harris. They seem too feverish. They froth and moan with so much conviction they tend to lose the appearance of reason (in my opinion, of course). In my view, proselytizing is proselytizing no matter which direction you’re trying to pull.
I hear Hitchens can be prone to the same patronization and name-calling as the others, but his book (at least) is very well reasoned and for the most part, lays out the argument against religious belief (and organized religion, in particular) quite well. As I’ve indicated, though, I’m not really sure what good it does. It helps me and those like me expand our list of things we don’t like about religion, mostly. Good for me, I guess, but I’m not the guy that gets into those arguments with the religious. I don’t even enjoy debating the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses that come to my door — I just send them away. What about those who do get into these confrontations? Well most of the ones I know already had all the ammo they needed.
I suppose this book will be a good study guide to save the next generations some time.
Just because you’re not smooth enough to get a lady to buy you a drink on ladies’ night doesn’t mean you have to ruin it for the rest of us.
(Those of you who know me well can stop laughing now. Seriously.)
Holy crap… This makes me sick to my stomach:
‘Stealth racism’ stalks deep South
It all began at Jena High School last summer when a black student, Kenneth Purvis, asked the school’s principal whether he was permitted to sit under the shade of the school courtyard tree, a place traditionally reserved for white students only. He was told he could sit where he liked.
The following morning, when the students arrived at school, they found three nooses dangling from the tree.
More at While Seated.
Fucking fantastic to hear the legacies of the likes of David Duke are alive and well in Louisiana, eh? Makes me wonder what’s going on in Mississippi and Alabama that we don’t hear about.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
Oh, I’m not done yet, either! But I’m getting close and it’s getting rather interesting, so I thought I’d tell you about it. (This is me telling you about it.)
Set in England during the war with Napoleon, when behaviors were formal and people spelled normal words oddly, this book tells the tale of two very different magicians and how they bring about the “rebirth of English magic”. I’m no Harry Potter
The books been around forever - I know I had my eye on it for a good long while. If you’ve seen it around and thought maybe you’d like to check it out, i can definitely recommend that you do.
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