1. Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson

Comment #122519 by anotherclinton on February 5, 2008 at 11:36 am

Hey! I was at this debate! Jackson took his lumps like a man, though a lot of time was wasted on the MLK question.

2. Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief, and Uncertainty

Comment #97216 by anotherclinton on December 11, 2007 at 6:30 pm

Awww. I was hoping I was going to beat Sam to a first author paper in a refereed journal. I bet the reviewers were total sons of bitches given his celebrity.

3. Teresa, Bright and Dark

Comment #66467 by anotherclinton on August 30, 2007 at 3:54 am

Just to chuck in my brace of dinari as a long-term Hitchens reader, he does believe that abortion is the premeditated taking of human life (and therefore abominable) and to confirm that he has a balanced view here, he's also very much against capital punishment. This is not to say that he rejects the Roe v. Wade decision as unconstitutional or wishes for it to be overturned as a matter of the nation's morals or is against the use of fetal tissue for science. Furthermore in god is not Great, he describes spontaneous abortion (that is to say the "natural" kind) as a genetic necessity for the species, in that the fitness of the mother and her other children would be abjectly affected in the forced care of a malformed or idiot child--surely not the opinion of an extreme right-to-lifer. He simply believes that the termination of a healthy pregnancy is a regrettable thing, not in the forcing of pregnant women to bring a child to term and commit the same to the state if the child is unwanted.

4. A Matter of Faith

Comment #64782 by anotherclinton on August 21, 2007 at 8:54 pm

Good old Christopher McHitchens from Portsmouth, Northern Ireland.

Excellent research, CBS.

5. The Flea Circus Invites a Newcomer!

Comment #60247 by anotherclinton on August 1, 2007 at 11:29 am

I much prefer McGrath's "The Twilight of Atheism". The title itself suggests that Atheism must have a Midnight, a Dawn and a Bright Shining Day.

6. OUT Campaign Launched, 'Scarlet Letter' Shirts Now Available!

Comment #59259 by anotherclinton on July 28, 2007 at 2:50 pm

This seems like a bit much, really. I'd feel kind of ridiculous as a heterosexual white male adopting the social break-in philosophy of persecuted minorities.

7. Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Edd Doerr

Comment #58617 by anotherclinton on July 25, 2007 at 11:50 am

This is yet another of these so-called debates (a la Harris versus Hedges) in which the atheist is set upon by both the liberal believer or humanist and the moderator. We must be some smart sons of bitches to necessitate this kind of doubleteam.

8. Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #57140 by anotherclinton on July 18, 2007 at 11:17 am

Avi Lewis is pretty amazing. I'm especially impressed by his insinuation that a person can only be president of the United States if he/she is part of a kind of power elite. Like Bill Clinton. Who was born White Trash in the shitkickingest part of the state of Arkansas. Cheers, Avi. Shame on you Ayaan. Put on a veil.

9. Republican candidates range from ignorant to dishonest, part 2

Comment #48483 by anotherclinton on June 8, 2007 at 6:18 am

Mitt Romney? Seriously? You like Barack Obama and you prefer Mitt Romney to Rudy Giuliani? I need some reasoning here.

10. Hitchens and Prager Debate

Comment #46102 by anotherclinton on May 30, 2007 at 8:22 am

What knocks down a lot of Hitchens' opponents is his memory, and he's very proud of it. I've been watching his performances for years prior to the new atheism debate, and I've never seen him read from notes.

11. Another Christian Science Fair embarrasses itself

Comment #44771 by anotherclinton on May 25, 2007 at 9:12 am

Ah, Pawley's Island. Right off the coast of my own benighted home state (single tear). Further proof, of course, that Christians love crystals.

12. The Fastest-Growing Religion

Comment #42384 by anotherclinton on May 18, 2007 at 6:24 am

Unfortunately the Wiccan claim to "paganism" is an incomplete one; for pagans of the ancient world, moral philosophy was more commonly derived from secular sources than from the tenets of nature worship or the mystery cults, given that neither actually had a moral function. So essentially, you had people listening to each other when it came to describing a good way to live and to the priest-class when it came time to space out in a field somewhere and wake up with your underwear poorly adjusted. Today's pagans actually do attempt to derive moral standards from nature worship, with all sorts of hippie-like justifications, showing the bad influence that the Judeo-Christian culture can have on people once more. If you really derived your ethics from nature, then the boring asshole from the entomology department who's been hitting on your special somebody would be six feet under.

13. Hitchens on Falwell

Comment #41846 by anotherclinton on May 17, 2007 at 7:29 am

"... Cooper interviewed Hitchens previously, (also posted on RD.net) and gave him a similarly easy time. Closet atheist? Possibly. Or maybe just knows Hitchens is good controversial TV any day of the week and that all you have to do is sit back and let him go."

Firstly, regarding Cooper, I hear he's already in the closet regarding something else, if you catch my drift. Secondly, I met Hitchens last night in Atlanta right before he was going to do a live segment for Hannity and Colmes on Fox News about Falwell's death. As I was walking up the line for the book signature, I heard the man say to another fan, "Watch me on Hannity and Colmes tonight, I'm going to piss on Jerry Falwell!"

Awesome.

14. The stone is cast

Comment #41430 by anotherclinton on May 16, 2007 at 5:44 am

The author of this piece stated that the American people didn't want the hateful rhetoric that Falwell was spouting, but that's hardly accurate. Poor white Protestants lapped this stuff up and asked for more. That's why they made his ministry into a $100 million a year business and why a school like Liberty University has as many students as it does.

15. Face-Off: Can You Prove God Exists?

Comment #40461 by anotherclinton on May 14, 2007 at 10:10 am

Well, Ray and Kirk are hardly the leading lights of their movement, for that matter. This is a middlebrow debate on both sides.

16. How dare you call me a fundamentalist

Comment #40400 by anotherclinton on May 14, 2007 at 8:29 am

God Delusion's already going into paperback--this thing's still selling like crazy and the publishers are willing to cut the price to sell more of it less than a year after release. This book is a real phenomenon.

17. Row over Scientology video

Comment #40394 by anotherclinton on May 14, 2007 at 8:25 am

That was awesome. More please.

18. A conversation with journalist Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38746 by anotherclinton on May 9, 2007 at 5:16 am

Actually, it's Charlie Rose who butts in more during this interview, and Hitch dealt with it all pretty gracefully.

19. Now Muslims Get Their Own Laws In Britian

Comment #36606 by anotherclinton on May 1, 2007 at 5:59 pm

Is the bespectacled Daughter of Islam in the photo giving the camera the British version of the finger (Never learned the technical term for that)?

20. The God disunion: there is a place for faith in science, insists Winston

Comment #34822 by anotherclinton on April 25, 2007 at 11:19 am

"equally eminent scientist"? Does Winson have a D.Sc.? Does he hold a chair at a prominent university? Did he have a big hand in killing group selection?

21. Pope abolishes limbo

Comment #34027 by anotherclinton on April 23, 2007 at 4:29 am

Limbo: The bar's too low for unbaptised babies!

22. Here Comes the Fourth Musketeer.

Comment #33676 by anotherclinton on April 21, 2007 at 4:31 am

It's unfortunate that Hitch still gets confused with the neo-cons, especially by the bright people who post on this website. Hitchens' antitheism comes straight out of Paine's "The Age of Reason", and he has quite obviously modeled himself on the man in other ways as well; that is to say, he has taken the position of stirring a secondary revolution within his own ranks, in his case, the attempt to remind middle class liberals that fascist governments still exist and are a threat to their own people and to their neighbors. Hitchens has always admitted the poor planning on the behalf of the military and the civilian authorities, but he's the one man who constantly reminds us that religious sectarianism is solely responsible for the continuing crisis in Iraq.

23. Einstein & Faith

Comment #31418 by anotherclinton on April 12, 2007 at 2:46 pm

I didn't read past the name of Einstein's mentor Max Talmud. With a name like that, he had to be the Ashkenazi Shaft.

24. Hey Mom, I'm an Atheist

Comment #30923 by anotherclinton on April 10, 2007 at 10:49 am

Getting your bitchy mom screaming at you on tape and getting every fair-minded person on the internet on your side is pretty sweet trade for Christmas presents.

25. Even non-believers must recognise the moral necessity of Christianity

Comment #30646 by anotherclinton on April 9, 2007 at 6:31 am

"Even non-believers must recognise the moral necessity of Christianity"--I like the "must" in there. See, we have to hear about how atheists could never hold political power without enacting Stalinist purges and other such nonsense, but they get to say what we "must" do. They must be joking.

26. The Most Hated Family in America

Comment #29635 by anotherclinton on April 3, 2007 at 6:01 pm

OHo yes. The Phelps's are for real. Fred himself has what people have called a "Noah Complex"--that is the coming Apocalypse will admit but a family of survivors, and Fred thinks it's his disturbing little brood. I really enjoyed the clip, especially where Phelps's granddaughter exclaims "Who's going to marry us!?" Indeed.

27. 'The Evolution of Homer' Intro

Comment #28722 by anotherclinton on March 30, 2007 at 1:56 pm

Wish it had been Rev. Lovejoy or Ned instead of Moe.

28. Dawkins says religion is 'like sucking a dummy'

Comment #28416 by anotherclinton on March 29, 2007 at 6:01 am

Pardon my American origins here, but to me, a "dummy" is a mute (in old-timey politically incorrect speach), a stupid person (in playground speach) or a kind of mannequin meant to simulate human movement for the purposes of film (say you don't want to throw Judi Dench down the stairs, you dress up a dummy like her instead). I can't imagine Richard was talking about sucking anyone of these, so enlighten me as to the nature of a "dummy".

29. Neil Peart cites The God Delusion in new album's liner notes

Comment #28044 by anotherclinton on March 27, 2007 at 5:07 pm

Good point bringing up Rush's earleir endorsement of objectivism shetland. Given that Neil's the main lyricist, I get the feeling that it was him who picked up on that so strongly. All the same, Rush still has a good many older fans out in middle America who might get a new attitude toward the constantly trumpeted spirituality of their neighbors if they know that their favorite band isn't cool with that sort of thing.

It's a tremendous weight upon me to be the only rockabilly atheist, I know that.

30. Peanut Butter, The Atheist's Nightmare!

Comment #27882 by anotherclinton on March 27, 2007 at 5:51 am

I can think of something else that's "just the right shape for the human mouth", but that Aussie dude would probably take issue with me having the design argument apply to what is technically sodomy.

31. Gimme That Old Time Religion (Bashing)

Comment #27343 by anotherclinton on March 24, 2007 at 6:56 am

Every time I see a person from the secular world worry so limpwristedly over Harris's "simplicity", I can only assume that we're dealing with the masochism that cultural relativism demands of all Western people who want to appear noble before the eyes of the undeveloped world. Which is more concerned with getting something to eat than thinking that somebody as well-fed as Frederick Clarkson is noble.

32. Episcopal Church Rejects Demand for a 2nd Leadership

Comment #27124 by anotherclinton on March 23, 2007 at 8:19 am

As an American, and a big fan of the Revolution, this whole Anglican Communion pisses me off in another way. American Episcopals should be free to practice their religion in any way they please, so long as it doesn't hurt anybody, but the Declaration of Independence states that the people of the former 13 English colonies no longer acknowledge the authority of the Hanoverian monarchy in any way. And then they go and join right back up with Mad George's descendants for Jesus' sake.

33. Germany Cites Koran in Rejecting Divorce

Comment #27109 by anotherclinton on March 23, 2007 at 7:03 am

New, from the people who brought you the Nuremburg Laws, it's Conditional Legalization of Spousal Abuse!

"If you liked the Holocaust, you'll love Christa Datz-Winter's newest verdict!"
--Simon Wiesenthal

34. Biology teacher fired for referring to Bible

Comment #26593 by anotherclinton on March 20, 2007 at 4:46 pm

This really isn't about a "Christian" "polluting minds" with his views, it seems to me. It seems to be about a mentally disturbed person who got hired as a part-time teacher. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a biology teacher get fired for teaching creation (I'd rather see a biology teacher get fired for teaching evolution and win millions from the school district), but this guy's managing to hold a collection of delusions together, not a solely religious one.

35. How my eyes were opened to the barbarity of Islam

Comment #24913 by anotherclinton on March 9, 2007 at 7:47 am

I don't have much sympathy for the woman, but I'm impressed with her story. How fucking dumb does a "freethinking" woman from the US have to be to marry a practicing Afghani Muslim and go back to Afghanistan with him? I can't get a date with a smart woman and apparently people are crawling all over guys with the feminist sensitivities of a Hebrew patriarch.

36. Religion and Politics

Comment #24263 by anotherclinton on March 5, 2007 at 3:27 pm

Barash makes a good point, and I hope he's got tenure if he's making it as brashly as he is. But Romney's not an issue. I think Giuliani or McCain will beat him to the Republican nomination. If the GOP primary voters really want a "believer", then they've got a twice (thrice?)-divorced (that's just evidence of a conflict-filled inner spirituality, obviously) Roman Catholic and a WASP who sucks up to Jerry Falwell to pick between before they go for the wannabe polygamist.

37. Atheists come in last

Comment #22832 by anotherclinton on February 23, 2007 at 4:45 pm

Here's a devilish little question...would anybody from [i]this[/i] forum actually vote for a Mormon? I can honestly say I wouldn't--and not so much because of the crazy stuff they believe, but because they all have identical political beliefs as far as I can tell, and those are solidly right-wing. I wouldn't vote for a Muslim who insisted on his wife and daughters wearing veils in public, either.

38. Memo: Stop teaching evolution

Comment #22550 by anotherclinton on February 19, 2007 at 2:52 pm

You guys are missing the best part of the story. They've asked Bridges for comment on his e-mail as well. His reply was (as reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution)

"I agree with it [the sum of views purported by Marshall Hall] more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory," Bridges said. "I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?"

So the man agrees with Geocentric Theory more readily than he agrees with Heliocentric Theory. Wonderful.

39. Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens debate blasphemy

Comment #19331 by anotherclinton on January 26, 2007 at 8:47 am

When Hitchens uses the phrase "partially evolved", he is referring to the size of human prefrontal lobes and adrenal glands, the first being too small and the latter too big, potentially leading humans toward irrational and overemotional behavior. He's not misspeaking or misunderstanding evolution, but being satirical. The man understands the science, he's merely using the misinterpretation of natural selection as having a goal to make a joke.