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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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POPSIf Cheney & Co. Had Really Plotted the 9/11 Attacks ...
Matt Taibbi's hilarious re-enactment of the secret govt. conspiracy (that never happened) to conduct the attacks. Tools email EMAIL print PRINT 724 COMMENTS 51tvu53eefl.ss500 "The Great Derangement" by Matt Taibbi (Spiegel and Grau, 2008). Share and save this post: Digg iconDelicious iconReddit iconFark iconYahoo! iconNewsvine! iconFacebook iconNewsTrust icon Also in MediaCulture Martin Amis & Chris Hitchens: Vicious Racism Concealed by a British Accent John Dolan The Most Savage Shock Jock of Them All Rory O'Connor, Aaron Cutler If Congress Slaps Rove with Contempt, How Will His Bosses at Fox and Newsweek Deal with It? Eric Boehlert The Press Is Only Too Happy to Burnish McCain's Reputation Eric Boehlert Is Who Becomes the Next President All That Matters? Danny Schechter More stories by Matt Taibbi RSS icon MediaCulture RSS Feed RSS icon Main AlterNet RSS Feed Get AlterNet in your mailbox! Advertisement The following is an adapted e
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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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POPSClassic London Transport posters The 1940s and 50s was a period, in England, when the public were encouraged to explore Britain's countryside and archaeology. Writers such as John Betjeman and Niklaus Pevsner had already begun to produce architectural guides to the counties of England. These pictorial posters were part of a series published by London Transport in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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POPSReply from An Atheist-Theologian Excellent article addressing the Christian apologists who would try and claim that people not versed in Theology "don't get" what is "really" being said. Rubbish says Mark Barratt, who himself has a degree in this very area. The New Atheists are bang on..:) Rest of Article here: http://richarddawkins.net/article,1816,Are-the-New-Atheists-avoiding-the-real-arguments,Edmund-Standing-ButterfliesAndWheelscom
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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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POPSIn Memoriam to a soldier, not unknown This is the conclusion of Hitchen's essay on the death of Mark Daily, a young man who was inspired by Hitchens to join the army, and gave his life in Mosul, Iraq. The essay is a very interesting and introspective piece, and was one of David Brooks' picks for best essays of the year. It is well worth reading to contemplate the reality of the war, separate from the propaganda and politics. A very refreshing change.
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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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POPSThe Four Horsemen: Harris, Dennet, Dawkins and Hitchens :) All four authors have recently received a large amount of media attention for their writings against religion - some positive, and some negative. In this conversation the group trades stories of the public's reaction to their recent books, their unexpected successes, criticisms and common misrepresentations. They discuss the tough questions about religion that face to world today, and propose new strategies for going forward. http://richarddawkins.net/article,2025,THE-FOUR-HORSEMEN,Discussions-With-Richard-Dawkins-Episode-1-RDFRS
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POPSHoly Nonsense - Romney's worthless speech. Romney drones on about a barely relevant moment of emotion in 1774 and comes up with the glib slogan that "freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom." Any fool can think of an example where freedom exists without religion—and even more easily of an instance where religion exists without (or in negation of) freedom.
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