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Recent Posts
Monthly Archives: January 2010
Laura Miller Reviews Rebecca Goldstein’s anti-Harold Bloom Novel “36 Arguments for the Existence of God”
In Rebecca Goldstein’s recently released novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, Yale’s famous literary behemoth, Harold Bloom, apparently takes some bruising hits. Here’s Laura Miller on this aspect of the novel: Obsessed with “genius” (and his own supreme authority in the … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Camille Paglia, cults, English, God, Harold Bloom, literature, philosophy, psychology, religion, science
6 Comments
My Uncle in Las Vegas Recently
He’s 78 years old, and his stage name is Steve Rossi. His nonstage name is Steve Tafarella: And when he was young:
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Tagged 1960s, comedians, comedy, comedy teams, funny, humor, Las Vegas, life, steve rossi
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Are You a Romantic or an Enlightenment Rationalist?
What, exactly, is being accessed by Todd here?:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Blake, Freud, philosophy, poetry, psychology, reason, romanticism, Shelley, skepticism, Walt Whitman, Whitman, Wordsworth
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G.K Chesterton’s Defense of Mysticism and Poetry
The Catholic essayist, G.K. Chesterton, in the second chapter of his 1908 book, Orthodoxy , had the interesting and counterintuitive idea that mysticism and poetry do not cause a person to run the risk of going mad, but that doing mathematics … Continue reading
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Tagged g.k. chesterton, John Calvin, mathematics, mysticism, poems, poetry, religion, science, twilight, writing
1 Comment
Glenn Beck, Secret Atheist?
Is Glenn Beck sending out coded messages to his atheist compadres, or shall we simply ask the Heavenly Father to forgive him, for he knoweth not what he quoteth from? I ask because Glenn Beck, at the start of his show, … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, founding fathers, Fox News, glenn beck, God, Jesus, mormonism, religion, rush limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Thomas Jefferson
13 Comments
Harper’s Index Has Been Catalogued, and is Now a Searchable Data Base!
How cool is this? Harper’s Magazine has made its popular Index searchable! You can now go to the Harper’s Index page here, type in, say, ”evolution” or “Walt Whitman,” and find suprising and curious little stats about them. Sometimes you might even … Continue reading
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Tagged diversion, evolution, fun, harper's magazine, life, math, pleasure, statistics, the Internet, thoreau, Whitman
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Why I Oppose the American Tea Party Movement
I cannot offer anything but resistance to so reactionary and ridiculous a movement. I know that there are some people in a thrall to its libertarian elements, and if that was all that was going on with the Tea Party … Continue reading
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Tagged America, authoritarianism, craziness, freedom, glenn beck, life, republicanism, rush limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, tea party movement, teabaggers
12 Comments
Geek Rappers Explain the CERN Large Hadron Collider
In case you were wondering about it:
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Tagged geeks, higgs boson, large hadron collider, music, particle physics, physics, science
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Andrew Sullivan Asks a Good Question: How Can a Christian Listen to, and Support, Rush Limbaugh?
Andrew Sullivan at his blog today: It’s staggering to me that this callow charlatan is supported by people who call themselves Christians. There is no way for anyone who is not a monster to respond to the fathomless tragedy of Haiti … Continue reading
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Tagged Christianity, fundamentalism, God, James Dobson, Jesus, Pat Robertson, Politics, religious right, rush limbaugh
10 Comments
A Film about Noticing Life’s Small Graces: Woody Allen’s “Whatever Works” (2009), Starring Larry David, is a Funny and Profound Meditation on Existence
Woody Allen’s movie, Whatever Works, offered up in the fall of 2009, sassed and summarily dismissed by critics, and quickly sent by SONY to DVD, was seen at home by my wife and I last night. We loved it. And laughed throughout. And … Continue reading
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Tagged beauty, Camus, existentialism, film, happiness, irony, Keats, love, movies, philosophy, psychology, woody allen
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Judge Roy Moore: Anti-Gay Bigot and a Speaker, with Sarah Palin, at the Upcoming Teabagger Convention
At the Nashville Teabagger Convention in February, Sarah Palin will be joined on stage by numerous religious authoritarians. One of them is Judge Roy Moore. The American Prospect today offers a bit of telling background on this lovely man, and it makes you … Continue reading
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Tagged authoritarianism, far right, gay equality, gay marriage, gay rights, glenn beck, Politics, religion, roy moore, Sarah Palin, teabaggers
21 Comments
“Another Woman”: An Obscure Woody Allen Film from 1988 That I Thought was Exceptional
My wife and I own—with perhaps the exception of one or two titles—all of Woody Allen’s films on DVD. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’ve actually watched all of them. We have favorites, for example, that have endured multiple viewings—Husbands and Wives and Matchpoint—and … Continue reading
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Tagged 1980s, 1988, aging, Apollo, death, film, life, love, movies, poetry, rilke, woody allen
2 Comments
Wanna Live to 100? Dan Buettner Thinks He Knows How
Dan Buettner has been thinking about longevity issues for a long time, and here’s a digest of his ideas via TED TV:
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Tagged diet, dieting, exercise, health, life, longevity, meat eating, seventh day adventism, vegetarianism, yoga
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Accomodationists v. Obnoxionists: Physicist Sean Carroll Coins a New Term in Reply to Those New Atheists Who Call Him a “Faitheist”
For the New Atheists, physicist Sean Carroll suggests the word “obnoxionists”: The irony is that the pro-obnoxious crowd (obnoxionists?) is ultimately making the same mistake as the accommodationist crowd. Namely: blurring the lines between the truth of a claim and … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, civility, faitheists, God, New Atheists, physics, religion, sean carroll
1 Comment
