Terry Eagleton is suf­fering from the racism of otherwise-liberal priv­i­leged, white, west­erners too afraid to speak up against bar­baric reli­gious prac­tices and beliefs.

That state is not too both­ered about what you believe, as long as it does not thwart the right of others to their beliefs.

<snip>

There should be laissez-faire in the realm of belief, just as there should be in the marketplace.

So nice of a person coming from white, western priv­i­lege to allow for such cul­tural rel­a­tivism for us lowly colo­nial sub­jects. It’s a good thing he’s not, say a woman in Swat, or a young girl in Mississauga, who are being flogged and even killed for not fol­lowing the beliefs of their par­ents and their communities.

So nice that he doesn’t have to live in Muslim ghet­toes even in the middle of a Western city and has to follow a script made up for his life by everyone except himself.

So nice of him to allow for the sub­ju­ga­tion of people like me because he’s too afraid of not appearing “lib­eral” enough to his dead, white, male mentors.

Solipsism becomes him.

Japanese man cer­ti­fied as double A-bomb victim

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a busi­ness trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suf­fered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his home­town of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city offi­cials said.

From CBC’s Ideas radio show, I am lis­tening to the pod­cast with Nick Maxwell on the ideas about sci­ence pre­sented in his book From Knowledge to Wisdom: A Revolution for Science and the Humanities.

A long but highly insightful con­ver­sa­tion between acclaimed authors Salman Rushdie and Irshad Manji on the nature of belief, Islamism, the his­tory of Islam and Quran, and what to do in a world full of cra­zies on both the Islamist side and the racist west­erner side. Rational, thinking people of all vari­eties will enjoy this video… please watch in full, it’s worth it. Intelligent com­ments are welcome.

There’s been so much neg­a­tivity sur­rounding Sarah Palin’s VP can­di­dacy, I thought I’d try and find some­thing to thank her for….
————————————–

Thank you, Sarah Palin
for taking women – and men -
back a few notches so fast
we all got whiplash.

Thank you Sarah Palin for proving fem­i­nism right;
For showing that men and women are truly equal.
That women can be just as stupid
as the stu­pidest of men.
Like the men run­ning the country
for most of the past decade.
And of course, Condi too.

Thank you Sarah Palin,
for flashing your girly smile,
and throwing back that silly Northern twang;
Your beauty queen charms warm the limp, lonely hearts
of Bill O’Reillys and Karl Roves every­where.
Thanks for being the pret­tiest beard
for frus­trated Republicans still in the closet.

Thanks Sarah Palin for charging rape vic­tims
for their own rape kits, while preaching to us all
the joys of cher­ishing our rape babies.
Because life is pre­cious -
until hunting season, that is.

Thank you Sarah Palin for helping intel­li­gent women
realize they are intel­li­gent first, women after.
Thanks for helping smart men appre­ciate
smart women more than ever before.

Thanks Sarah Palin for making George W. Bush
look edu­cated by com­par­ison.
Thanks for making Cheney look saner -
at least he shoots at things at close range and
doesn’t make couch covers from their bodies.

Thanks Sarah for not blaming us mor­tals for cli­mate change -
None of us was around 6,000 years ago
when you believe the Earth was cre­ated…
How could we know what caused cli­mate change?

Thanks Sarah.
For every­thing you do.
With every­thing you say,
you are a reminder
for every girl and every woman
of the choice inside each of us.
The choice…
to be a smart, savvy, self-aware human being
or to be
just another jackass, with lipstick.

~Kiran Mehdee, 1 October, 2008

1. Live for the past.
2. Live for the future.
3. Think every­thing is always about you.
4. Think that you just don’t matter at all.
5. Believe that pills will solve all your prob­lems.
6. Believe that pills are stupid and use­less.
7. Do not let your­self change.
8. Believe that it is all your fault.
9. Believe that it is all other people’s fault.
10. Accept all the bad things you have heard, read or thought about you.
11. Deny any good things you have heard, read or thought about you.
12. Never think about other people’s prob­lems.
13. Think that because you can’t do every­thing, you shouldn’t do any­thing.
14. Roll your eyes while reading this list.
15. When hap­pi­ness comes, greet it with fear or guilt or resent­ment.
16. Think that you are or have bad luck.
17. Don’t express your­self cre­atively in any way.
18. Keep on trying to please and/or piss-off Mom and/or Dad.
19. Wait for someone else to come and save you.
20. Exercise only spo­rad­i­cally and only out of guilt.
21. Don’t make friends with silence.
22. Watch a lot of TV.
23. Stay away from Nature.
24. Think of every­thing in terms of black or white.
25. Take all, give nothing.

~Kiran Mehdee [June 2008]

So many things to occupy time, so little time for them to occupy.

Here’s an inter­esting inter­view I came across with author Salman Rushdie

For the other geeks among us, you might find PC World’s list of the Top 50 Tech Visionaries inspiring.

Here, you can listen to an audio ver­sion of a Q&A between Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell and Ann Hathaway (listen to the audio online by clicking on the link in the middle there).

Lastly, but def­i­nitely not leastly, here’s a tribute to the fun­niest guy who ever lived who died this past weekend, George Carlin. The world was fun­nier with ya, George, we’ll miss your sick, twisted, bril­liant brain. Here he is, in his own words…

This is encour­aging news for people who are com­pas­sionate towards all ani­mals: KFC Canada lis­tens to PETA.

Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer’s
‘Angel for Animals’ PETA PSA

Click on the poster to read more about Tricia and to enter a con­test to win Battlestar Galactica DVD’s!

My dad for­warded me this pic that just says it all…