Ooh snap! MSNBC’s Chris Matthews really lays into Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin over his banning of Rep. Patrick Kennedy from Communion due to Kennedy’s support for abortion rights. Matthews trowels it on pretty thick but I think he’s on the right side of this one. I enjoyed this one. It’s not every day one of the clergy has his feet held to the fire like this.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Check out Hanna Rosin’s “Did Christianity Cause the Crash?“ It’s an interesting article in The Atlantic about the so-called “prosperity gospel” and how it’s focus on material gain and financial risk-taking may have led to America’s current economic troubles.
Review by John C. Snider © 2009
Aliens landed at Roswell. The Apollo moon landings were faked. HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. And 9/11 was an inside job.
Americans love their conspiracy theories almost as much as they love their religion. Once a crackpot idea grabs the public’s attention, no amount of data, science and common sense will talk them off of whatever ledge they’ve crawled onto–and no one has perfected the art of blithe denialism more than the so-called 9/11 Truthers.
From the Associated Press
Published: November 10, 2009
A federal judge ruled that the state cannot issue license plates showing the image of a cross in front of a stained glass window along with the phrase “I Believe.” Judge Cameron M. Currie of Federal District Court said in her ruling that the license plates were unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment ban on establishment of religion. The fight over the plates started shortly after Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer helped push the legislation through in 2008. Groups including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee challenged the law. Judge Currie ordered the state to cover those groups’ legal expenses.
Review by John C. Snider © 2009
Love her or loathe her, there’s no denying that Ayn Rand was a fascinating person. Born in 1905 in Czarist Russia, Alisa Rosenbaum’s childhood was devastated by the upheaval of the revolution and the subsequent reversal of her family’s fortunes under the Communist regime. Emigrating to the United States in 1926, Alisa reinvented herself as Ayn Rand, going on to write plays, screenplays and two mega-bestselling novels–The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged–and founding the still-controversial philosophy known as Objectivism. The perpetually prickly Rand became ever more strident as she grew older, eventually alienating all but a handful of sycophants. She died alone and embittered in 1982.
We interview Jennifer Burns, assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia and author of the new biography Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. It’s a timely book considering the recent resurgence of Rand’s works (especially her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) as a reaction to the country’s current economic situation. For more about Prof. Burns visit www.JenniferBurns.org. Read John Snider’s review of Goddess of the Market and/or order you very own copy at Amazon.com.
Podcast #72 - Jennifer Burns (Goddess of the Market) [78:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4573)By now you’ve likely heard about the massacre yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas that left 13 dead and many more injured. The shooter was Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist born in Virginia. After initially reporting that Hasan had been killed on the scene, authorities now say he is alive and in stable condition, despite being shot four times during the incident.
Much is being made of the fact that Hasan, although a native-born American and career military man, is a lifelong Muslim who was outspoken in his opposition to US actions overseas (to be fair, not an unusual position for many citizens). He reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar! (God Is Great!)” during the shooting.
So, is Hasan a Muslim terrorist, a one-man sleeper cell wreaking havoc at the heart of the Great Satan? Or is he a mentally unstable soldier who just happened to be a Muslim? Even if we have some answers soon they won’t be satisfying.
As I reported a few days ago, evangelist and armchair evolution critic Ray Comfort has engaged in debate with Dr. Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education. Their exchange has been posted at US News and World Report. Here’s the second and final round. First, Ray Comfort trots out more of the same old nonsensical blither-blather, then Scott finishes him off in her closing statement.
Look for Comfort’s minions soon at a major university near you–they’re giving away copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species with a 50-page “introduction” by Comfort. Aren’t you lucky?
Podcast #73 – War on Christmas Special
Monday, November 23rd, 2009(more…)
Tags: evolution wine, hominid, massimo pigliucci, origin of species, out of hand theater, war on christmas
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