The Onion News Network is Launched
Check out this new Onion video on the human cost of immigration. And I dare you to watch this Onion news promo without laughing. Or consider this proposed solution to the troop shortage in Iraq.
3,300 active duty soldiers deserted the army in 2006
According to this article by Newsweek, 3,301 U.S. active-duty soldiers deserted the Army in 2006. Jeffry House is a defense lawyer representing many of these soldiers. Newsweek asked House why so many soldiers were deserting. According to House, The common idea is that the war in Iraq is going nowhere,…
Why Republicans deny global warming.
Jonathan Chait of Common Dreams raises a good question: why do Republicans disagree with climate scientists more at a time when climate scientists are accruing new terrifying evidence that human activities are truly responsible for warming the atmosphere?
Last year, the National Journal asked a group of Republican senators and House members: “Do you think it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Earth is warming because of man-made problems?” Of the respondents, 23% said yes, 77% said no . . . So, the magazine asked the question again last month. The results? Only 13% of Republicans agreed that global warming has been proved.
As the evidence for global warming gets stronger, Republicans are actually getting more skeptical. . . . How did it get this way? The easy answer is that Republicans are just tools of the energy industry. It’s certainly true that many of them are. . . But the financial relationship doesn’t quite explain the entirety of GOP skepticism on global warming. For one thing, the energy industry has dramatically softened its opposition to global warming over the last year, even as Republicans have stiffened theirs.
The truth is more complicated — and more depressing: A small number of hard-core ideologues (some, but not all, industry shills) have led the thinking for the whole conservative movement . . .Conservatives defer to a tiny handful of renegade scientists who reject the overwhelming professional consensus.
In other words, the thinking process of most Republicans is worse than …
The palpable idiocy of the new best-selling book: “The Secret”
Here’s a good way to save yourself $23.95: Don’t buy The Secret. It’s not that I’m against secrets in general, it’s just that I want to spare you from wasting your money on a hot new book called “The Secret,” a book that has hit a new low in shallow, self-absorbed and insipid hype. There is almost nothing in this book worth reading, which is a pretty amazing thing to say about a a book that is featured prominently at Borders and other large bookstores. It’s has even become the number one best selling hardcover advice book according to the NYT. And why wait to make it into a movie? Truly, why wait?
I don’t know much about Rhonda Byrne, the author, or her gaggle of “great writers, leaders, philosophers, doctors, and scientists.” Byrne presents an unlikely image of a sage. She attempts to strike a pensive blonde pose on that the inside flap, yet obliviously presents herself as strained, contorted and out of her element. Much like her book. Or am I too contaminated by the shallow, self-absorbed and insipid hype that one finds wrapped in that beautifully designed book jacket? Truly, the book jacket is gorgeous, though you would get equally helpful advice (perhaps more) by trying to “read” a Persian rug.
You’re impatient, though. You want the goods. Here they are: What can you say about a book based on the following premise: “Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. …
How does one raise a thoughtful, moral and religion-free child?
Ebonmuse (one of our authors, who also writes thoughtful posts at Daylight Atheism) recently interviewed Dale McGowan who has edited a book of essays on raising a child without religion. McGowan’s book, Parenting Beyond Belief, will be released next month.
The book features original essays by Richard Dawkins, Julia Sweeney, Penn Jillette, Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Michael Shermer, and more . . .
This book looks to be of superlative scope and quality, covering a wide range of important topics: religiously mixed marriages, secular education, humanist ceremonies, moral instruction, teaching children about death, and more. [B]ooks like this may well be at the forefront of the “third wave” of atheist activism – atheists moving into society, living alongside everyone else in openness and honesty, establishing a set of social structures that can directly compete with and provide an alternative to religion.
Ebonmuse’s post intrigued me enough that I placed my order for a copy of Parenting Beyond Belief. I look forward to reading it, then discussing it on this site.
In the meantime, I’ve been busy raising two open-minded daughters (aged 6 and 8 ) without the benefit of McGowan’s book. Notice that I’m not really trying to raise them “without religion.” We regularly discuss various religious traditions. On several occasions, I’ve taken my daughters to churches (not just weddings and funerals). One of my daughters received 1 1/2 years of her kindergarten and 1st grade school education at a neighborhood Catholic school. …