We need these books

At Reason: Heeding the Sage of Baltimore

A new edition of H.L. Mencken’s Prejudices captures the legendary journalist at his corrosive best

On William Jennings Bryan:
“Imagine a gentleman, and you have imagined everything that he was not.”

Strangely (In)Appropriate

This is a bad bit of boobala pop, but the subject and a slap near the end are worth it (from Upright Citizens Brigade).

Paycheck Alert!

Case Study 21

For the next 2 months, I will be eating only noodles and peanut butter sandwiches: Books-A-Million is selling some relatively cheap books on modernism, Case Study houses, progressive architecture, surrealism, and Bauhaus. I browsed through a few, and I have to have them all.

The book on the Case Study houses left two stains in my underwear, but I still managed to stop myself from buying it. I was conflicted when I saw a compelling book about my photographer-hero Man Ray. My brain went into overdrive; I didn't know where to spend my cash. So, until tomorrow...

Dance The Manta Ray!

Reading Material

Saki & Ned are exhausted from doing their
reading in preparation for next season.

Here here

Philip Pullman: "No One Has the Right to Spend Their Life Without Being Offended."

You know who is awesome? Philip Pullman. He's the author of the marvelous His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), a kind of anti-Christian un-Narnia series for kids who would rather have their fantasy reading unadulterated by Christianity. Excellent starter books for the tot too young for Nietzsche or Rand.

Philip Pullman Has A New Book

And its title alone is making some people very upset.


Pullman addresses the controversy well:

Book Review: Republican Gomorrah

Max Blumenthal worked his way into the heart of the modern Republican machine and researched the origins of the Christian evangelical movement. His pedestrian result, Republican Gomorrah, still reads as a brilliant summary of what backed the Republican rise to power after the disastrous 70's and later took them down in the late 2000's: the sadomasochistic authoritarian wish-thinking of the religious right.

Blumenthal introduces his book with a story about Eisenhower, who despised McCarthy and the "persecution" thinking behind him. Using Eric Fromm's clinical dissection of the authoritarian mindset, he links RJ Rushdoony, Francis Schaeffer (who, strangely, was pro-gay), and James Dobson to the rise of an autocratic, fascistic anti-Enlightenment movement that hates the freedom it so cynically promotes.

Whilst narrating the lurid story of the rise and fall of the evangelical-driven Republican party, Blumenthal uses Fromm's Escape From Freedom to explain how its leaders and followers formed a culture of sadomasochism: prostate yourself to the master (here, the mass delusion of fundamentalist Christianity and its leaders), admitting you are a sinful creature in need of Jesus (and "Christian" father figures like Dobson). That masochism gives its followers the strength to sadistically prey on those considered lesser, weaker, and outside of "The Family." Twisted racism, misogyny, and homophobia were contemptuously played as "death" cards to rile a group of disillusioned, privileged middle-class white dopes into promoting a sectarian anti-egalitarian social agenda, a hoary righteous platform both espoused and ignored by the most cynical amoral reprobates imaginable, and a fiscally conservative agenda that was anything but.

One of the more interesting narratives in the book is how Dobson hated Gingrich and Armey because they were too "secular," ie they didn't pay homage to Dobson. If you wonder why the two moderate Republicans in the last election were Obama and Clinton, it's because Dobson systematically replaced any fiscal, reasonable conservative with superstitious twats subservient to the odious, born-again (and admitted Dobson follower) Tom DeLay.

McCain won the Republican nomination because the religious base was split between the fiscally moderate Mormon Romney (who believes that Jesus and Satan are brothers!) and the fiscally irresponsible Huckabee (who believes in every crazy anti-Semitic, racist superstition the religious right loves). After McCain won, the only way to appease those "Family" voters was: Sarah Palin, a hot meat puppet of the neocons who had the intellectual prowess of her Down Syndrome son Trig, and who was admittedly tied to Alaskan Christian Dominionists (many of whom wanted to secede from the US). As someone who lives in a part of our country that actively engaged in treason roughly 150 years ago, I have nothing but contempt for a woman who schtupps a former member of a secession party whilst campaigning that middle-class white people in fly-over country are "real Americans" --as though the multicultural, multi-religious, diverse people of industry living more closely together in urban areas aren't. Palin, and the religious right, failed to see that their charges against the elitism of the "others" were nothing more than a condemnation of their elitist simpleton culture. They still haven't grasped that moderate Americans have figured it out.

The book is sickening; it's no wonder the Republicans have lost every single intellectual supporter they had, from Goldwater to the Buckleys to libertarians like me.

And like Joe Scarborough, who nailed the recent "controversy" over Obama telling kids to work hard and study. Watch his visible revulsion and celebrate the last of the pragmatic (small r) Eisenhower republicans.

"You're Terribly Late, You Know. Naughty!"

The trailer for Tim Burton's glorious Alice in Wonderland is available here.

Book Review: The Incredible Shrinking Son Of Man

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition? by Robert M. Price

What happens when one puts forth a rational, objective method of researching historicity and applies it to the canonical gospels of the bible? Dr. Robert M. Price, aka The Bible Geek, comes to a very unpopular conclusion: there is no evidence to support that a historical Jesus ever existed.

TISSOM begins by outlining the rationale for Dr. Price's methodology, and then goes event by event through the gospels, comparing the accounts given by the four gospel writers. To each event, he details the contradictions and similarities, outlines the history of the event's likely origin(s), and proposes the probable motive(s) and rationale(s) of each gospel writer when formulating his particular account.

While seemingly an average-length book, TISSOM took me quite a while to get through. It's enthralling and enlightening, which also makes it a book to slowly digest and contemplate rather than quickly consume. And though the subject matter can be ponderous, Dr. Price's style is rather light-hearted. His genuine interest in and voluminous knowledge of the New Testament, combined with his biting humor, keeps the reader both challenged and entertained. I highly recommend it, especially to those interested in ancient religions or the origins of modern Christian superstitions. Or zombies...

I've already purchased his answer to the bombastic-yet-delicate whiny Christian apologists: Jesus Is Dead. I'll let you know how it goes. But I think I've found my new favorite hobby de jour of the day: critical biblical study.

Two side notes:

1. Dr. Price has a podcast, TheBibleGeek.org, available free at iTunes. It is easily my favorite and most anticipated podcast.
2. Dr. Price is also a Lovecraft scholar. And while I can go along with his whole "Jesus never existed" thing, his insistence that Cthulhu is fiction is simply absurd...
   

Tyrion Lannister

Great! Now where's Dance of Dragons?

We need this book

Would You Wear a Serial Killer's Sweater?
On jellyfish genes, autism, politics, and how our intuitions lead us into strange territory.

Psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Bruce Hood has been known to brandish a cardigan belonging to the serial killer Fred West in the lecture hall. West tortured, raped, and murdered at least 12 women. Of course, a moment's reflection will reveal that his sartorial choices probably had nothing to do with his grisly hobby. And there's no possibility of catching serial killer disease from his sweater, right? Nonetheless, most people will refuse to wear the sweater once they know its provenance (false provenance, actually, the sweater Hood uses is not really West's). Odder still, in large lecture halls, members of the audience will physically recoil from the few people who say they are willing to wear the sweater. The crowds, which often consist of highly-educated, secular people, laugh nervously as this little drama is played out, says Hood, because they realize that there is something odd and illogical about their reaction.

Hood has made a study of these intuitive ways of seeing the world. In his new book Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable (HarperOne), he looks at the moments where our intuitions come into conflict with our rational faculty. We're born with a proclivity to see patterns that aren't there, to sense agency where there is only randomness, and to tell stories about cause and effect that may or may not be true. Hood examines religion through this lens, but most of the book focuses on the ways that even people who don't consider themselves religious—or even superstitious—are governed by intuition.

We need this book

The Nero Wolfe Cookbook

Nero Wolfe's Yorkshire Buck

1 tablespoon butter
1 lb cheshire cheese, grated
1 cup ale (not beer)
7 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 dash tabasco
6 slice canadian back bacon
3 english muffins
2 tablespoon dijon mustard

Melt the butter in the top of a double boiler. Add the cheese and as it begins to melt, add the ale slowly, stirring constantly. Beat 1 of the eggs and add it, along with the salt, dry mustard, and Tabasco. Continue to stir until the cheese is melted and the mixture is smooth. Lower the heat and keep hot. Poach the remaining 6 eggs and keep them warm while you fry the bacon on a griddle. Split and toast the English muffins and spread them with a thin coating of Dijon mustard. Put the muffins on a serving plate, pour on the cheese, and top with a slice of bacon, a poached egg, and some more cheese. Serve as hot as possible. Run the muffins under a hot broiler to glaze the tops, if you like. (from The Doorbell Rang) Source: The Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout

I found this recipe here:

My Favorite Book Of Childhood

HD version here.

Clearly, much has been added to the simple story I loved as a kid. Can Spike Jonze pull it off?

Not Bad...Fun Even

I finished reading Stephen King's Cell. It's the first book by him which I've read in well over a decade.


The characters are surprisingly interesting, and the quasi-zombie plot is very engaging. It has flaws, but they are what they are. High points:

1. The first 100 pages are some of the best apocalyptic writing ever done.
2. One of the main characters is gay, but it only becomes apparent later. This character is not stereotyped, nor is he put out there for humor or politics. King's nonchalant treatment of him is actually quite sweet and modern.
3. Gross, gross, gross, and sick, sick, sick. So creepy at points it reaches the level of the Screaming Heebie Jeebies.
4. Having visited Boston, I had a vague recollection of the geography described during its destruction.
   
5. Brilliant, unresolved ending, but not in a schlocky, cheap way.
6. The "moral" of the story is not as overt as one might expect from King. Like any good zombie story, you have to think about it for a while before it hits you. And it's a good one.
   

Short, mostly fun read...

Yes, I actually found this at Books-A-Hundred...

... However, it was a discarded Palm Beach County Library book, & only cost me 3 bucks.

A Sci-Fi Book List worth reading

The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life

Oh For Fuck's Sake...

George R. R. Martin has an update on the next Ice and Fire book. No surprises.

Call Up The Bunde! We Need A Bonfire!

Republics are meant to not please everybody, but to accommodate everybody peacefully. Apparently, Birmingham's public school systems aren't teaching that. And the offended are not amused by reason. What is the reasonable justification for this book's being present on a public library's shelves?

"It's a cautionary tale for teenagers that oral sex is sex," Smith told The Tuscaloosa News. "You serve a wide range of people in a library, and you have to have something for all of them."

You want a place where your particular beliefs are not offended publicly, try a religious dictatorship. Last time I checked, the world has them in spades. Otherwise, live with it. All of us atheists live with constant threats of eternal, immortal, unfathomable torture; and we endure multiple fallacious and erroneous charges that our position is not scientific, offers no hope, has been completely rebutted by Christianity's apologetics, and results in evil. You think that's less offensive than your kid learning that blow jobs are a sexual act? Up yours! You don't see atheists asking that the bible be taken off the shelves of libraries for condoning slavery, misogyny, and genocide.

When will these people grow up? Haven't they become the same tyrannical absurdities of the 90's left who wanted Huckleberry Finn banned because it used the word "nigger?" Jesus take the wheel if the kid checks out this book.

What I'm reading...

... when I'm not stuck in Pixieville

Hitchens Follow-up to god is Not Great

Anybody know about this? From the Wall Street Journal.............

.....A spin-off is already in the works. Rival publisher Da Capo Press, which is owned by Perseus Books LLC, got in touch with Mr. Hitchens and signed him up to edit, "The Portable Atheist," a compilation of essays by such writers as Mark Twain and Charles Darwin that will be published in the fall.