It’s good to watch some prime Hitchens where he isn’t gasping for air or looking half dead.

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Hi gang,

We’re in the process of changing servers, so until the process is completed, I can’t post up the latest podcast I recorded. Hopefully this will all be resolved in the coming hours, but switches can be a little tricky, so please forgive any delays. Don’t worry, guys; you’ll get you crack fix soon.

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I don’t expect celebrities to be beacons of rational and coherent thought, especially when their claim to fame is a terrible song and an equally terrible TV show. Billy Ray Cyrus was recently interviewed by GQ, and he claims that Hollywood has destroyed his perfect family life. He believes the root of all of this evil has something to do with a freeway sign they would pass by on their way to the Hannah Montana studio that said:

ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY
ATHEISTS UNITED

Just before moving out to Los Angeles, the whole family had been baptized together by their pastor at the People’s Church in Franklin, Tennessee. “It was Tish’s idea,” he remembers. “She said, ‘We’re going to be under attack, and we have to be strong in our faith and we’re all going to be baptized…” And there, driving to work each day in the City of Angels, was this sign. “A physical sign. It could have easily said ‘You will now be attacked by Satan.’ ‘Entering this industry, you are now on the highway to darkness…”

Yes, the evil influence of Satan has finally compelled atheists around the world to pick up trash and to keep their highways clean! Mighty is the Dark Lord!

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but perhaps the reason his life sucks right now has more to do with the fact that he cheated on his wife while she was pregnant, and he pimped out his daughter to the Disney corporation. Of course, that would require him to admit his own mistakes, so it’s easier to blame a bunch of trash picking atheists for all your fucking problems.

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I wish this was satire, or some kind of sick joke, but unfortunately, a bill under consideration in South Dakota is changing the definition of justifiable homicide to include:

Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree likely to result in the death of the unborn child…

That’s right, people. This law would be the equivalent of painting a target sign on every abortion provider in the state.

The law is complete garbage; no state can make it a crime to perform a Constitutionally lawful act, but you can bet the pro-lifers (the irony of that name will never cease to astound me) will see this as justification if they decide to start taking the law into their own hands. All they need to do now is get the law passed, and leave a few guns hanging around some of their crazier members, and presto: no more abortions!

It’s already hard enough to get an abortion there. Not only does the doctor have to offer a sonogram, he also has to read out a script meant to discourage her from going through with it.

“The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” Until recently, doctors also had to tell a woman seeking an abortion that she had “an existing relationship with that unborn human being” that was protected under the Constitution and state law and that abortion poses a “known medical risk” and “increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide.” In August 2009, a US District Court Judge threw out those portions of the script, finding them “untruthful and misleading.” The state has appealed the decision.

I guess making it seem legal to kill the doctors is the next logical step, right?
(via)

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It doesn’t get simpler than that, does it folks? Gay marriage isn’t about creating new laws; it’s about upholding the Constitution, and granting the same rights to every citizen in the Republic. Christian Evangelicals and Catholics like to dance around the fact that this segment of society is still second class citizens. They try to play on our prejudices, but this tactic will ultimately fail, and splinter their own churches. If there’s an issue that can destroy the power of these churches, it’s definitely gay rights.

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You hear it over and over again: Christians are complaining that as gays gain rights (the same rights as everyone else, in fact), they begin to lose theirs. More particularly, their “right” to openly discriminate is being challenged, and as people get sacked or lose career opportunities because of their bigotry, they’re crying foul.

Recently, a Christian doctor, Hans-Christian Raabe, who had been foolishly appointed to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in the UK was sacked after it was discovered that he had co-authored a bigoted study linking gays with pedophilia:

He co-authored a study called “Gay Marriage And Homosexuality: Some Medical Comments in February 2005.” The article said that, while the majority of homosexuals are not engaged in pedophilia, there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among pedophiles.

“My appointment has merely been revoked as a result of my views on matters completely unrelated to drug policy,” Raabe complained in comments published the same day by the Daily Mail newspaper.

It turns out that his appointment had already drawn a great deal of criticism (stemming from his “abstinence” stand on all drugs), and when the board found out that he had co-authored the study, several members threatened to quit if he wasn’t removed.

His fellow co-religionists are crying foul, saying that this is discrimination and that the board is anti-Christian. So far, they seem unable to grasp the concept that bigotry is not something society is feeling altogether tolerant about. Had Raabe written a study linking lower IQ with race or gender, he would have been a pariah just the same.

No society can be tolerant of all views and ideas. It’s impossible. You cannot hope to have a free society and allow the systematic discrimination of a group based on their sexual orientation, color, or gender. The perception of Christians that their right to “practice their religion” is being infringed upon is a shield to mask their refusal to accept that homosexuality is not a choice, and certainly not a sin.

Society is taking a stand for the equal treatment of all individuals, and the xenophobic practices and beliefs of many religions will be marginalized as a result. It’s no great loss.

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Oh Carl, why did a random mutation in your cells have to lead to your ultimate and early demise? We could certainly use you now to debate the same pathetic arguments that creationists were, and still are using. Where are all the transitional fossils? Where the fuck is the proof of your non-theory?

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Canadians are a bunch of sobbing vaginas (I say this being an actual citizen of the country). We’re always paranoid of acting in an abusive or forceful manner that we allow all kinds of ridiculous shit to happen on our watch.

The most recent example involves a dozen Muslim families living in Winnipeg that have complained that the music and co-ed physical education programs are un-Islamic. Rather then tell them to fuck off and crawl out of the 8th century culturally, school officials are bending over backwards to accommodate these ridiculous demands.

Is there anyone with a brain and some balls willing to tell these families what we’re all thinking?

Mahfooz Kanwar, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says he has some better ideas.

“I’d tell them, this is Canada, and in Canada, we teach music and physical education in our schools. If you don’t like it, leave. If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole country you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives under sharia law,” said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Kanwar has some interesting things to say about the failure of multiculturalism, and I have to agree here. All it’s done is ghettoize immigrants and made it impossible for many of them to assimilate to the values and traditions of Western countries. We tend to forget all the positive advancement we’ve made in civil liberties and assume (incorrectly) that cultures are equally tolerant and equally just. It just isn’t so, and we need to stop fucking pretending it it.

If those Muslim families in Winnipeg don’t want their kids to benefit from our educational system, then they should take a trip back to their theocratic hellholes.

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