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POPSMANDELA Arrives for 90th. Birthday Party Friday's concert coincides with the 20th anniversary of London's Free Mandela concert, which was held to demand his release from prison. He had been convicted as a TERRORIST by the APARTHEID regime. He was freed in 1990 after 27 years behind bars, and was elected South Africa's first black president in 1994. He will be 90 on July 18. He has visited London many times and has expressed gratitude for the constant vigil that was held outside the South African embassy in the city during the APARTHEID years. One GREAT MAN. What if ... .
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POPSA Tale of Two Tell-Alls: Christopher Hitchens book that was published in the first week of April, books pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe have not seen fit to give Feith a review. An article on his book, written by the excellent James Risen for the news pages of the New York Times, has not run. This all might seem less questionable if it were not for the still-ballooning acreage awarded to Scott McClellan. Feith draws on countless internal documents, many of which were intended for, written by, or debated among members of the president’s Cabinet, the most senior advisers to Cabinet officials, and the president himself. Feith has performed a public service by taking the time to present these documents, which have gone through the painstaking process of official declassification, in nearly 600 citations that are reproduced online with links to full texts, transcripts, and presentations. Larry DiRita National Review Online
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POPSThe Four Horsemen RichardDawkins.net has a posted a 2 hour discussion between Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris about public reaction to their books.
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POPSNo God For Me Thanks! A recently discovered letter written by Albert Einstein, has once and for all ended the debate on whether this wise man of science relied on religion to get him through this life. "No God for Me, Thanks" says it all! To hear another intellectual on the subject follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD0B-X9LJjs
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POPSHitchens Vs. Hitchens : Full Video Sequence Added: April 07, 2008 (Less info) Brothers Christopher and Peter Hitchens debate the Iraq War and religion at an event organized by the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies with support from the Center for Inquiry and the Interfaith Dialogue Association.
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POPSBlind Faith Christopher Hitchens: "Mark my words: This disappointment is only the first of many that are still to come."
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POPSChris Hedges: (I) Don't Believe (in) Atheists The bestselling author of The New Fascists speaks out against religious and secular fundamentalism as he explores the New Atheists: those who attack religion to advance the worst of global capitalism, intolerance and imperial projects. Hedges claims that those who have placed blind faith in the morally neutral disciplines of reason and science create idols in their own image — a sin for either side of the spectrum. He makes an impassioned, intelligent case against religious and secular fundamentalism, which seeks to divide the world into those worthy of moral and intellectual consideration and those who should be condemned, silenced and eradicated. Hedges shatters the new atheists' assault against religion in America, and in doing so, makes way for new, moderate voices to join the debate. This is a book that must be read to understand the state of the battle about faith. ISBN: 9781416567950 Author: Hedges, Chris Publisher: Free Press
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POPSThe spirits behind the writers >>Intoxication, if not the source of literary creation, creates a cerebral aura congenial to it. It recasts the glare of life in a softer hue. It soothes anxiety and other stultifiers of reflection. It warms the mind and thaws thoughts frozen in timidity.The fruit of the vine does not give us insight but aids our discovery of it; it can allow you to eavesdrop on yourself. The trick is to find the golden mean between exhilarating and dulling the intellect. Cratinus' belief that only bad verses were written without wine seems too appealing to be untrue. But the best verses no doubt arise when, the wine low in the bottle, Dionysus is still steady enough to dance to the tune of Apollo's lyre.<<
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POPSMath + religion = Trouble
Count John Allen Paulos among the non-believers. A mathematician who teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia and who has popularized his subject in bestselling books such as Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, Paulos's latest offering is a slim but explosive volume whose title is self-explanatory: Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up (Hill & Wang). This newest addition to the neo-atheist field crowded by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and others emboldened by the recent transformation of non-belief from a 97-pound weakling into a he-man, Paulos thankfully employs little math, preferring to see things, as he tells us, in the stark light of "logic and probability." Deploying "a lightly heretical touch," he dissects a playlist of "golden oldies" that includes the first-cause argument (sometimes tweaked as the cosmological argument, which hinges on the Big Bang), the argument for intelli
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POPSGod isn't the problem, it's the followers that kill me! Ross Douthat raises a very valid criticism of Christopher Htichens' book God is Not Great. Most people attacking religion in books are going after God. I think this is a waste of time, normally promoted by personal grudges and emotional baggage. As a general rule, scientists should never try to prove a negative statement. On the other hand, if Hitchens hasn't answered Douthat's question, allow me to offer my ten cents in the following response:
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POPSThe Cost of the Iraq War: A Pundit's Guilt This is a stark moment of humanity for Christopher Hitchens, who I must admit, is not always a lovable character. He has had to soberly (or, maybe not soberly!) face the consequences of his punditry. Political opinions do not exist in a vacuum. These are not simply ideas we are talking about. This nation is overwhelmed with flippant armchair strategists on both sides who have no real understanding of what is actually going on. The Iraq War isn't a failure of American ideals, it is a disaster of well-meaning ignorance.
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POPSAtheists Don't Deserve Freedom And as Joan Walsh added: But I wasn't reassured, I was alarmed. Romney blasted "the new religion of secularism," referring to those who continue to argue for strict separation of church and state, which apparently, like certain of the Geneva Conventions under the Bush administration, is becoming "quaint." I sometimes find the anti-God stridency of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens grating. Listening to Romney's speech I realized what a necessary corrective it is to corrosive political pandering. Calling secularism "religion" is a cheap shot worthy of Bill O'Reilly, not a major presidential candidate. I can't help hoping Romney's speech fails to soothe religious conservatives, because the sooner the Republican Party faces up to the destructive cost of its electoral dependence on religious extremists, the better off our country will be.
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POPSThis is where I get irksome with Hitchens Its undoubtedly heartfelt, but surely you'd know that if you've such a following that they'll be the overtly brave ones to take it to the Nth degree. What Chris? it wasn't meant to go like that? jeeeeeez
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POPSChristopher Hitchens Not to get confused with his brother Peter Hitchens , ahem. I'm a hesitant follower of Christopher's stuff, he's clearly spoke his mind with admirable objectivity, but has a maverick failing that you'd never know whether he's with you or not. Guess I watch from a distance, before taking cue.
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