‘God Is Not Great’
Posted on August 15, 2008 - Filed Under Religion | 1 Comment
I finished reading Christopher Hitchens excellent polemic on religion last night. Rather than supplying arguments against the existence of god, Hitchens instead focuses on providing examples of how religion retards human progress and fucks people up. He very clearly lays out the case that religion is an entirely human construction, and illustrates how every religion is essentially a rip-off of whatever equally silly nonsense that preceded it. It’s delightful to read someone with the balls to mock religious sacred cows and decry prophets and religious founders as the charlatans that they are.
I unhesitatingly recommend this book to everyone, but I expect that my more pious friends will be reluctant to read such an unabashedly anti-religious tract. This is a great pity for me, but if any of you would like to prove me wrong then you are more than welcome to borrow my copy of it (provided you have no intention of burning it as your forebears would have).
Here’s a clip of the author on Fox News last year, speaking about the late Jerry Falwell, a man who exemplified the tawdriness of religion (although at least he didn’t kill anyone over it, which makes him a good deal less dangerous than plenty of other god-crazed swine).
“In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.”
Posted on August 15, 2008 - Filed Under American Politics, International Relations, Iraq | Leave a Comment
John McCain, staunch supporter of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Georgia.
Four More Years, Four More Years, …
Posted on August 8, 2008 - Filed Under Career, College | 3 Comments
The drama is all over, I’ve accepted the Medicine offer, and I start on September 1st. I’m fairly certain that this is the right choice. Around 80% certain. So anyway, now that I’ve sorted out what I’m going to do for the rest of my life, I can return to blogging more regularly. Or maybe not. We’ll see. At present I kind of prefer spending time in the gym. Hewing your body into shape is more enjoyable than might be thought. I enjoy it at any rate. Maybe I have narcissistic personality disorder. There, my very first diagnosis, and I’m not even a doctor, let alone a psychiatrist, yet. Seems like I’m a natural at this medicine business…
Stewart Nails It
Posted on August 4, 2008 - Filed Under American Politics, Media, Obama | Leave a Comment
Jon Stewart highlights how McCain is getting a pass from the media on a whole host of issues, even while his own side keeps complaining that the press is infatuated with Obama.
Medicine Offer
Posted on August 2, 2008 - Filed Under Career, College | 2 Comments
I got the place. I was told I’d know if I really wanted to do it when this moment came, but I don’t feel very much of anything. Not even a sense of relief. So I don’t know what to do. Goddamnit…
Megan McArdle on Veganism
Posted on August 1, 2008 - Filed Under Animals, Life-In-General | 2 Comments
One of the Atlantic blogging team explains why she blogs about her vegan diet from time to time, and how being a vegan or a vegetarian does not automatically mean that you hate meat-eaters:
Is it possible to be a vegan without judging other people? It had better be, because I just don’t have time to pass judgment on the overwhelming majority of people in the world who eat animal products. Obviously, having decided that it’s morally wrong to eat animal products, I can’t exactly say that I think it’s perfectly okay for other people to do so. On the other hand, I recognize that the universe is a complicated place, and my moral judgements are imperfect.
Or maybe a better way to say it is that there are moral judgements, and then there are moral judgements. I wish more people would stop eating meat, but I also think it is possible to be a perfectly good, moral human being and still eat meat, in a way that I don’t think it is possible to be a good moral human being and still rape twelve-year olds. I have judged the behavior and found it wanting, but I do not judge, in any way, the people who indulge in it. I think there’s something wrong with eating meat, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with meat-eaters.
Elsewhere in the post McAdle remarks that:
Like most vegetarians, I suspect that my angriest critics are those who, like me, feel that eating meat is wrong–and therefore want me to do it too, so that they don’t have to think about their own choices.
I entirely agree. It seems to me that it’s usually people who I have a lot in common with (yes, they do exist) that get most agitated about my decision not to eat meat, in large measure, I think, because they’re not much happier about killing animals to eat them than I am, but don’t want to stop eating meat because it tastes nice.
Randy Pausch
Posted on July 27, 2008 - Filed Under Career, College, Life-In-General | Leave a Comment
Apologies for posting yet another YouTube video, but I just finished watching this and it definitely deserves a mention. Sometime when you’re online and have an hour or so to spare, look up this video on YouTube (or watch it here). It’s a lecture about achieving childhood dreams delivered by a professor with terminal cancer. The premise sounds kind of sentimental, and it runs for well over an hour, but it’s quite possibly the most worthwhile thing I’ve seen on the site. The professor died two days ago.
American Psycho
Posted on July 26, 2008 - Filed Under Film | Leave a Comment
I saw this for the first time last night and I love it! It’s very funny, and Christian Bale is typically outstanding.
Obama’s Berlin Speech
Posted on July 25, 2008 - Filed Under American Politics, Obama | Leave a Comment
“Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii” Deemed Inappropriate Name For Child
Posted on July 24, 2008 - Filed Under News Item | 1 Comment
A judge in New Zealand made a young girl a ward of court so that she could change the name she hated - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.
Judge Rob Murfitt said that the name embarrassed the nine-year-old and could expose her to teasing.
He attacked a trend of giving children bizarre names, citing several examples.
Officials had blocked Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit, he said, but Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay had been allowed.
Makes “Athens Trent Boland” sound eminently reasonable…
John McCain Doesn’t Know What “The Surge” Is
Posted on July 24, 2008 - Filed Under American Politics, College | 3 Comments
This story has been running for a few days, but I didn’t blog about it because it’s kind of technical. It relates to events in Iraq over the past 2 years. Basically, McCain doesn’t know when ‘The Surge’ (an increase in troop levels, and the adoption of a new counter-insurgency strategy) began, even through he keeps trying to take most of the credit for it. In an interview with CBS he confused the ‘Anbar Awakening’, in which local leaders in Anbar province aligned with US forces against Al Qaeda, with the beginning of The Surge, even though this occurred months before The Surge was even announced, and almost a whole year before all the additional troops had been deployed. Furthermore, The Surge was largely concentrated in Baghdad and had little impact on troop levels in Anbar. Keith Olbermann explains the whole story here, with suitable indignation:
Given that McCain is generally said to have an advantage over Obama when it comes to foreign policy, this ignorance is pretty damning, especially when McCain keeps trying to pass off The Surge as somehow being his idea, even though he doesn’t know what it actually is.
Latest Phoenix Cover
Posted on July 24, 2008 - Filed Under Ireland, Politics | Leave a Comment
This is one of their better ones in recent times.
Doing Medicine
Posted on July 23, 2008 - Filed Under Career, College | 1 Comment
I wrote a post about my reasons for wanting to do medicine and upon finishing it I was too embarrassed to publish it. Suffice it to say, they were not particularly lofty, commendable or good. Methinks a reappraisal is in order…
X “Could Care Less”
Posted on July 22, 2008 - Filed Under Language, Media | 1 Comment
I’ve been meaning to blog this for months, but I kept forgetting about it, despite how much it pisses me off. The title refers to a common American phrase, for instance, “John could care less about his neighbour”, which is intended to mean “John doesn’t care about his neighbour”. All arguments about linguistic evolution aside, this is wrong!
What the speaker means to say is “John couldn’t care less about his neighbour”, which is how English speakers elsewhere say it. This accurately conveys the sense that John does not care about his neighbour, whereas the first phrasing expresses the notion that, well, John could care less about his neighbour, which logically implies that John currently cares somewhat for his neighbour, and so could care less for her, given that John already has some basic level of concern for her.
I don’t mean to sound like a grammar Nazi, but I keep hearing Americans misusing this phrase and it keeps annoying the hell out of me.
Colbert on Obama’s Foreign Trip
Posted on July 22, 2008 - Filed Under American Politics, Funny, Media, Obama | Leave a Comment
\o/ He’s funny again! \o/
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