I love Sam Harris. There. I said it.

I believe the point Ayan was making is that we should not be so tolerant that we tolerate intolerance. As the vote is a stand against the spread of the Islamic religion, I will say good for Switzerland. If the vote was to allow the Nazis to set up and begin taking over areas of the country, how would you vote then?

O shit. I was only making the comparison of Muslim to Nazi in the sense that they are different. Please no one bomb my house please...

I love Bill's Real Time on HBO and thought the article was pretty good. Some people here just love to hate him. I don't get it.
Like he said, he's a comedian. So you disagree with him on this subject. Why do you hate him so badly? I swear some of the really nasty comments sound like from a witch hunter wanting him burned at the stake.
No wonder we have such a bad reputation for being rude and insensitive to others.

Comment #425259 by SplendidMonkey

Thanks for that link! That was a good interview. You're such a good little monkey!

Comment #423603 by Hilde Blomberg on October 13, 2009 at 6:48 pm

Yes I have met some educated Iraqis. But it is quite obvious that science is the biggest weakspot in any of their education. Especially biology and astrology. Almost not existing in their worldviews' in general. I do have one good Iraqi friend here who fell in love with Carl Sagan! (I knew he'd love his books from speaking with him)

I'm here in Iraq right now. It's all my fault. I visit this website at least once a day here. I do interact with Iraqis and make my own unbelief known. A good bit of them like what I have to say.

Just the other day I was talking to an Iraqi about the cosmos. We were sharing a beer and talking science. I got to talking about the stars. I explained that every star you see is another sun. You should have seen his expression!!! His eyes just lit up. It was obviously never discussed in his lifetime.

The night and discussion went on for quite some time. And we had a great time.

The children will lead the way.

Hey debaser1, What you mean they did a hit and run on Sam Harris? I just read the whole thing and saw nothing...

Tell the rest of the story and then maybe we'll understand if you make sense or not. Ya can't just throw that out there with no point of reference! Come on!

I was just perusing the comments on the Guardian for the article.

I am just so very "sick and tired" of reading comments from people about Dawkins who have obviously never read even one of his books. They have read "about" Dawkins. They don't know his writings in the slightest. Sure doesn't slow down their opinions of him though does it.

Not expecting any suggestions about what to do. I'm just sayin' I'm sick of it.

Rock on Richard... I really do hope some that don't accept evolution will read your book... Anyway I can hope. How about in the future you had them out freely to place in the nightstands of hotel rooms across the USA?

Diacanu!

Get your ass in here! I wanna hear something from you!

Border Collie,

Unfortunately, the war is on. I hate war. This wingnut backlash will pale in comparison to the evidence and our resolve to bring an end to the era of religion. Faith by definition is non thinking. We shall overcome, just by thinking. That's why god gave us such great big brains! LOL I hope this war will end without bloodshed. It is after all, a war of ideas. Ours is the only one based on serious evidence. It just takes an intellecual push in my opinion. I truely hope so. I kinda dig peace. All we are saaaaaying... is give peace a chance! (It may be more complicated than that if we continue overbreeding, though. To be honest. We very may well have already crossed that threshold. Opinions?

And hey oisha,

You may have a decent idea there. I'd be willing to go door 2 door to preach the gospel of scientific thought! I have invited in jehova's witnesses in myself on the condition that it would be a discussion, and not a lecture by them. We actually had a decent, courteous, back and forth conversation. It was quite pleasant.

oisha,

I'll take your word for it, but that's crazy!!! It is hard to believe that a creationist pamphlet was stuffed into Dawkins' book. Where was this? What is BigW's? Walmart? Where are you from?
I'm from Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia, USA. I want to get a grip on your story.
And if that is true, shouldn't Dawkins be in a good position to sue in some way? It may not be what he would want to do... but in any way shape or form that insert is completely FUCKED UP!!!

He said we're related to cherry trees... I know it... I got a woody thinkin' bout this new book... Giggidy Giggidy Goo Goo Goo!!

SirHairy,

Nice. That sounds exactly word to word like an episode of South Park. The planet was Marklar, and everyone and everything in it was Marklar. It is a priceless episode with Pat Robertson and Sally Struthers as a Jabba the Hutt creature missioning the word of Jesus to the inhabitants of Marklar. It is one of their best. It also features "Starvin' Marvin", a poor malnourished Ethiopian who discovers Marklar after taking an alien ship to the planet and hopes to bring his people there to escape the goddamn missionaries. Priceless!

Give this plant another million years and it'll be Little Shop of Horrors for real. Feed Me!

Chris Davis,

Sorry. Didn't mean to be too harsh... It wasn't just you and I didn't know there was a time diff between the 2 articles. My bad. I was scratching my head as to how the gender mix up could have happened if the commentators had read the first article. Now I know why.

I'd have visualized the same thing with only the article below to go on. Cheers.

I swear a lot of the above commentators did not read the article. It is a woman, Angela Shiel, not a he or a guy.
Also, if you read the article, you would know that it is DART company policy that a driver cannot refuse a working bus. Thus the firing would be standard operating procedure in this situation with any different message on the bus. Not an overreaction at all. Company policy.

The fundies do bring attention to what they protest. I remember a few nuts were picketing the movie "DaVinci Code", and it was all over the news. Free movie advertisement! Come see the controversy for yourselves!
Plus it was sooo funny. It was a fictional story spinning the story of a fictional book. How dare they! REVOLUTION!!! LOL

Yeah I wanna know why the rat can't get out. In the picture you can see his little paws on the lip of the pitcher... Sure looks like he should be able to pull himself out. Rats can get in and out of some unbelievably difficult places.

OmegaBaby,

Nice post. I recently saw something on the news... Just caught it in the middle, though. Something about some doctor's offices starting to provide "menus" of there treatments with prices up front. I thought that sounds like what you're talking about and I think it's a great idea. At least it's a starting point for price competition...

The media does get a bit of blame in all this. It just loves sensationalism and plays any clip of someone screaming insanities at a town hall meeting over and over again.

Anyone who asks a well reasoned question gets ignored in the media circus loop of fire.

Don't worry too much. Most Americans are not near like the nutters we keep seeing on the news in the town hall clips. They're just the only ones being covered.

Lucas,

I wasn't aware Arnie even wrote any book. Can you tell me the title? I'll check it out because I don't really know very much about him other than the movies. Haven't seen too much about really how he's doing as govenator... Got any opinion on that? I'd be interested.

Gaasegang,

"We couldn't turn back for even one second, or else we'd also be turned into pillars of... of who knows what spice?!?!"

That was good. LOL!

Bad Bishop,

Very good point. I hadn't even thought of that! To hold the view that 911 was an inside job is just ridiculous, and I do remember him giving some credence to those crazies that hold onto that conspiracy theory. Spot on.

bendigeidfran,

That one is good for it's hilarious propaganda from the early 1930's.
Some more recent ones are "Grass" narrated by Woody Harrelson. "Emperor of Hemp" by Jack Herer is a classic new one... although you may have to order it online to find it. There is a US Dept of Agriculture film called "Hemp for Victory" which is just awesome. It ties in with Emperor of Hemp in a big way. Watch Emperor of Hemp first, then Hemp for Victory. They will shock you if you never heard of this stuff before I can assure you.

Hey Lucas.

I love what Brad Pitt had to say as well. But please don't knock Jesse Ventura. If you read his books he has just about exactly the same answers to the questions Pitt answered. I recommend "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed." He has appeared on the cover of "Hemp Times" with an interview inside and has spoken out extensively against religion and marijuana prohibition. He's a true blooded American hero in my book, Not a Hollywood blowhard like Arnie.

Jamie V,

Speaking of the insane taxes. I am in Iraq right now. I just bought a carton of cigs for $5, and they're quite good. There are some as low as $3 a carton... but who wants to smoke those shitty cigs! The ones I smoke here for $5 a carton are Gauloises. They're French fags. No tax on them here...

Oh yeah... I wanted to add. Heroin and Cocaine together kill 5,200 a year. Those are US government statistics. These stats are from about 5 years ago to be honest. I am not a big fan of reading statistics all the time. It is boring reading and I've got better things to read. Although now I may check them again... It's nice to be up to date when forming an argument!

Quetz... Yeah, I know that. I'm going with the obvious travesty of justice. Marijuana is just such a no brainer that I really am amazed it is still illegal at all. Going to those other 2 plants is a bit of a different argument for the reason that, in highly refined forms, are a bit dangerous. And I mean a bit. 450,000 deaths a year are a direct result of tobacco use alone. Legal. Aspirin kills over 1,000 people a year. Marijuana. Zero. None. Not 1. Not ever.