[When faced with criticism that one's art is pornographic,] no one ever defends pornography. They argue that their art is not pornography without questioning the assertion that pornography is intrinsically bad.
The God of Abraham is one of the most twisted, hate filled, evil literary characters ever. He kills babies, promotes incest, rape, genocide and slavery, wipes out families to test individuals, demands sacrifices, needs constant praise, and periodically destroys the bulk of humanity. Yet we’re always told how loving and fatherly he is…
Yeah, the trauma of 9/11 made some on the left go a little nuts. It also made a lot of folks on the right go nuts in different ways, and eight years later we’re still stuck in two wars as a result. But the whole Obama “birther” thing is a different kettle of fish insofar as the only “trauma” these people seem to have suffered is living to see the day a black man got elected President.
When I became convinced that the universe is natural-that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world-not even in infinite space.
I was free-free to think, to express my thoughts-free to live to my own ideal-free to use all my faculties, all my senses-free to spread imagination’s wings-free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope-free to judge and determine for myself-free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past-free from popes and priests-free from all the “called” and “set apart”-free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies-free from the fear of eternal pain-free from the winged monsters of the night-free from devils, ghosts, and gods.
For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought-no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings-no chains for my limbs-no lashes for my back-no fires for my flesh-no master’s frown or threat-no following another’s steps-no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain-for the freedom of labor and thought-to those who proudly mounted scaffold’s stairs-to those whose flesh was scarred and torn-to those by fire consumed-to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.
“A RWJF survey summarized in the September 14, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine shows that 62.9 percent of physicians nationwide support proposals to expand health care coverage that include both public and private insurance options…”
The New York Times has live coverage of 9/11 memorial services in New York.
The Washington Post has coverage of the memorial at the Pentagon.
The Post-Gazette is covering the memorial in Shanksville, PA.
I do think that my profession, journalism, went off the tracks when it accepted as axiomatic the notion that “Perception is reality.” No. Perception is perception and reality is reality, and if the former doesn’t conform to the latter, then it’s the journalist’s job to hammer and hammer the reality until the perception conforms to it. That’s how “intelligent design” gets treated as “science” simply because a lot of people believe in it.
- Charles Pierce, author of Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free
Language is a slippery beast that will twist beneath your efforts to tame it.
“Candy doesn’t have to have a point. That’s why it’s candy.”
- Charlie Bucket
