All entries by this author

Max Dunbar on Fish on Eagleton on God *

May 7th, 2009 | Filed by

Liberalism, enlightenment and all those cerebral shibboleths can be halted at the barrel of a gun.… Read the rest



National Prayer Day is Even for Unbelievers *

May 7th, 2009 | Filed by

And hair gel is for people of all hair styles, and even for bald people.… Read the rest



Pig-headed Mullahs

May 7th, 2009 | By Fawzia Rasheed

I guess it was predictable. Divine retribution had to rear its ugly head over swine flu. Yes, in case you didn’t know, some mullahs claim that God gave us swine flu. They say the virus will devastate the pig-gobbling-West. Yankee infidels will be doomed, and the faithful spared.

Cries from the mosques have this far resulted in culling pigs, along with spurning their owners and, of course, anyone with a penchant for pork chops. Even in Egypt, which hasn’t reported a single case of swine flu, over 300,000 pigs were butchered. Perhaps not so incidentally, their Christian owners were refused compensation. No doubt more ugly acts will follow wherever excuses can be found to wield power and create rifts between … Read the rest



There are people like that

May 6th, 2009 12:27 pm | By

Russell encounters an Eaglefish and has one of those epiphanic moments when a few things suddenly “click”.

[A]mong our friends on the political Left – which is where I have my roots – there are people, not just a few but many, who despise everything I hold dear. These are supposed to be my allies, but they despise liberalism, reason, science, progress, and the Enlightenment. They hate the so-called “New Atheism”…because they see people like Richard Dawkins as providing a rallying point for … yes, liberalism, reason, science, progress, and the Enlightenment…It’s not some sort of accident or coincidence that their commitments so often have them opposing liberalism and all the values associated with it. They know that that’s

Read the rest


Oprah Winfrey is Promoting a Vaccine Skeptic *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

Jenny McCarthy’s campaign spreads misinformation that could bring back once-controlled diseases.… Read the rest



Russell Blackford on the Frightening Eaglefish *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

People on the Left who despise liberalism, reason, science, progress, and the Enlightenment.… Read the rest



Maine Governor Signs Gay Marriage Bill *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

Maine’s Senate voted 21-13 in support of a bill that redefines marriage as the legal union of two people. … Read the rest



Stuck With ‘National Prayer Day’ *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

US Congress in 1988 set date for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray. … Read the rest



Reproof to Costly Duchy Detox Tinctures *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

Regulator found Duchy advert breached the code in substantiation, truthfulness and medicinal claims.… Read the rest



ASA Ruling on Duchy Originals: Complaint Upheld *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

The ad must not appear again in its current form. Duchy told not to make claims they could not substantiate.… Read the rest



Martin on Fish on Eagleton on God *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

In the new war against Enlightenment liberalism, pro-faith Marxists and post-modern relativists unite.… Read the rest



Melanie Phillips is All ‘It’s a Secular Inquisition!’ *

May 6th, 2009 | Filed by

Everyone who said she was wrong about ID is so totally wrong.… Read the rest



Oh go soak your head

May 6th, 2009 10:54 am | By

And people wonder why atheists get huffy.

Obama is scaling back White House plans for Thursday’s National Day of Prayer even as his administration defends the tradition in federal court in Wisconsin…The Obama administration has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which claims the day violates the separation of church and state. In a rare alliance, 31 mostly Republican members of Congress and a prominent Christian legal group are joining the administration to fight the lawsuit. Congress established the day in 1952 and in 1988 set the first Thursday in May as the day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray.

Okay, it’s a small thing, and we can … Read the rest



The community wheeled about as one

May 5th, 2009 4:22 pm | By

Martha Nussbaum says there are liberal Muslims in India – though she doesn’t say how many or what percentage they are or how influential they are. She leaves a lot of details out of her account, which makes it less credible than it might be.

She also starts off with the familiar silly and misleading ‘community’-talk –

India’s Muslim community strongly condemned the terrorist acts and immediately took steps to demonstrate its loyalty to the nation…The world saw a deeply nationalist community, one loyal to the liberal values of a nation that has yet to treat it justly. It was not the first time India’s Muslims have demonstrated a peaceful embrace of the country’s founding values. The personal experience of

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Myers on Eagleton on God *

May 5th, 2009 | Filed by

Ditchkins has made the ghastly error of failing to write The Eagleton Delusion or Eagleton Is Not Great.… Read the rest



Holbo on Fish on Eagleton on God *

May 5th, 2009 | Filed by

Don’t they teach irony in the English department any more? Holbo thinks they should.… Read the rest



Rosenhouse on Fish on Eagleton on God *

May 5th, 2009 | Filed by

‘Now here comes that most odius and content-free New York Times columnist, Stanley Fish…’… Read the rest



Carl Zimmer on Flu Genes Furiously Evolving *

May 5th, 2009 | Filed by

The current outbreak shows how complex and mysterious the evolution of viruses is.… Read the rest



Why Do People Prefer Faith to Thought? *

May 5th, 2009 | Filed by

The great discoveries were not made by those agog at the wonders of the divine, but by those intrigued by the wonders of the mundane.… Read the rest



David Bromwich on the Persistence of Empire *

May 5th, 2009 | Filed by

We love the idea that we are good; that we have and practice the best way of life.… Read the rest