1. Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Comment #41341 by Tavat on May 16, 2007 at 12:46 am

Wow, this is really and truly quite strange: Last night at about 2:30 in the morning, I was reading on BBC.com newsline about Fallwell's continued vituperous and baseless rejection of human-caused global warming, toting it as a "left-wing conspiracy", etc. And I seriously, not joking, said to myself, "Holy sh*tballs, it will be so great when he and Robertson and Roberts and so many of the icons of these hateful mass-stupidity movements bite the dust." But in this case, I was especially thinking about Fallwell--"Hmmm, I wonder when it'll be; Castro's pretty old and so is KimJong Il and everyone has been on the edge of the seat for them. Damn, it'll probably be another decade before Fallwell goes with our luck!"

And I sh*t you not, this is what I thought to myself, clearly and explicitly, no more than a day ago. Now the news comes through that he is dead. Wowwy wow wow. Had I been a believer and prayed to God for his demise, I would no doubt be attributing this "miracle" to my personal prayers. It's times like these when I wish Pascal was right and that one could actually FORCE oneself to believe. Damn damn damn. (Sigh.) Well.....at least he's dead.

2. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #36404 by Tavat on May 1, 2007 at 3:54 am

Yeah, he was pretty sauced, for sure. But I have a feeling that it was just to prevent him from lashing out at Stewart (our the audience)for conducting the show in the mocking and light-hearted and, ultimately, frivolous manner for which the Daily Show is famous. His work is serious and he is VERY serious about argumentation (or at least about arguing), so getting sauced maybe prevented him from coming off as too much of a cantankerous douchebag. See a previous interview with Stewart for a more reactionary Hitchens (Sorry, I can't find the link, but I saw it somewhere on YouTube). He was pretty cool under Jon's distracting giggles.

3. Religion & Culture Panel

Comment #36330 by Tavat on May 1, 2007 at 12:19 am

EVERYONE needs to hear this man speak about this issue. For the same reasons and in the same ways that a charismatic, intelligent, and unflinching premier or president is good for a nation, Christopher Hitchens is good for atheists and good for the camp of reason. It is his stoic and righteous--please excuse the philological implications of that term--presence that grants the ideas he imparts solid and certain access into the true marketplace of ideas which, because this marketplace is highly prone to populism, is not necessarily open to all ideas. That is why religion has pervaded despite all its obvious and total failures: its most successful champions are genuinely charismatic and in its case the message is merely incidental (perhaps). Our torch, meanwhile, has never been carried by such sturdy hands into the marketplace; our ideas have never seen the sweet light of public exposure so directly; never, that is, until now. Mr. Dennett, Mr. Grayling, Mr. Harris, Mr. Dawkins, and Mr. Hitchens (and all the bygone Mr. and Ms. heroes of free thought and rationality), we thank you for your service to the world.

4. Atheism isn't the final word

Comment #32404 by Tavat on April 17, 2007 at 2:37 am

If anyone thought this guy was wholehearted in his criticism, as opposed to being anything more than an agitprop, sycophantic pundit (which he is), check this out:

http://members.iquest.net/~macihms/Christian/Ccomm/Feder.html

-->Foxworthyesque "liberal" bashing, the de rigeur pastime amongst entrenched media diddoheads who banter about the term "liberal" as if it were 1923 and they were using the N-word as power speech. This person is not "genuinely" misguided, but purposefully misguidING and rife with agenda. This makes great fodder for a potential boycott on "America's Newspaper", don't you think? Indeed.