The Best of the Neo-Atheist Crop

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything I just finished this one in audiobook format, and it's really quite good. Granted, there are probably two types of people who will read this book: Those who already believe what the author, Christopher Hitchens, is saying, and those who need to try to disprove him. It's not like any of these atheist tomes are really likely to achieve their goals of rendering religion obsolete. That only happens one person at a time and it's really unlikely that this book or any like it are going to move ranks of believers into the atheist camp. So the atheists (and even the agnostics) can read it and say "Right on!" and the others can read it and think "Well, he's going to Hell."

Of the two groups, of course, I fall into the former. At least mostly. I try not to be an asshole about it as is the current trend with the so-called new-atheists. I can't tolerate Dawkins and Harris. They seem too feverish. They froth and moan with so much conviction they tend to lose the appearance of reason (in my opinion, of course). In my view, proselytizing is proselytizing no matter which direction you're trying to pull.

I hear Hitchens can be prone to the same patronization and name-calling as the others, but his book (at least) is very well reasoned and for the most part, lays out the argument against religious belief (and organized religion, in particular) quite well. As I've indicated, though, I'm not really sure what good it does. It helps me and those like me expand our list of things we don't like about religion, mostly. Good for me, I guess, but I'm not the guy that gets into those arguments with the religious. I don't even enjoy debating the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses that come to my door -- I just send them away. What about those who do get into these confrontations? Well most of the ones I know already had all the ammo they needed.

I suppose this book will be a good study guide to save the next generations some time.

The Jena Six

Holy crap... This makes me sick to my stomach:

'Stealth racism' stalks deep South

It all began at Jena High School last summer when a black student, Kenneth Purvis, asked the school's principal whether he was permitted to sit under the shade of the school courtyard tree, a place traditionally reserved for white students only. He was told he could sit where he liked.

The following morning, when the students arrived at school, they found three nooses dangling from the tree.

More at While Seated.

Fucking fantastic to hear the legacies of the likes of David Duke are alive and well in Louisiana, eh? Makes me wonder what's going on in Mississippi and Alabama that we don't hear about.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel is a huge-ass book (just over 1000 pages), which my regular readers will know means I've been reading it for friggin' ages now.

Oh, I'm not done yet, either! But I'm getting close and it's getting rather interesting, so I thought I'd tell you about it. (This is me telling you about it.)

Set in England during the war with Napoleon, when behaviors were formal and people spelled normal words oddly, this book tells the tale of two very different magicians and how they bring about the "rebirth of English magic". I'm no Harry Potter reader, so I can't make any comparisons (if there are any to be made), but this is a fun story overall. Some parts are a bit slow and some parts are real page turners.

The books been around forever - I know I had my eye on it for a good long while. If you've seen it around and thought maybe you'd like to check it out, i can definitely recommend that you do.

Um... Yeah... Never mind, iPhone.

Depending on which phone and which plan the iPhone costs between $2000 and $3000 $6000 over two years. I just switched providers and the three phones I got for the Wife, the Mother-in-Law, and myself and the service for those phones should run me on the low side of the iPhone range in the same time period.

Besides that, I really don't need my phone to do much more than make calls, send texts, and take pictures. By those criteria, I am pretty happy with my Synch (and it's even more phone than I need).

So, yeah. Up to now, I've been saying "I'll wait until the third generation of the iPhone." Unless my needs drastically change between now and then, however, I doubt I'd get one then either.

Flight of the Conchords

OK, so who the heck knows what's going on in John from Cincinnati -- forget it. Instead, I say you spend your time soaking in the comedic joy that is Flight of the Conchords, featuring that really annoying guy from the Outback Steakhouse commercials. (He's actually funny outside of the Outback context.) The NYTimes says it well:

“Flight of the Conchords� is cockeyed and a lot of fun. To say much more might ruin it.

Check the video samples, yo. The "Most Beautiful Girl" clip will give you a proper taste.

Weekend Highlights

I get the feeling that this summer's going to be a scorcher. That lovely Spring weather I was gushing about has faded into something more akin to a preheating blast furnace. Saturday evening the Wife and I gathered with our mothers and various other posse members to take in a tooth-and-nail roller derby bout with our beloved Rocky Mountain Roller Girls handing a sound trashing to the visiting Angel City Derby Girls from LA. Apparently the ACDG are relatively new and they tried to compensate for the lack of experience by - as our Zoom Zoom Zetta put it to me - "playing sooo dirty". As a spectator, I was thrilled. I was really worried Pinky 500 was going to throw down at some point, though (something I've only seen happen once so far). The night ended on a bit of a down note as Penny Payne needed to be helped off after a crash in the last jam.

Sunday kind of fell into the "too hot to move" category, so we took in Knocked Up. I'll give it a B+. It's not as funny as 40 Year Old Virgin, and a couple of the scenes were so obviously pieced together from hours of improv that they actually threw off the rhythm of the movie. All-in-all it's a great chick flick that guys will enjoy.

And... Yeah... That's about it.

21.21% Mainstream

I've become a "scrobbling" addict lately. I'm especially concerned with my last.fm profile accurately demonstrating my overall musical tastes, so I'll tailor my day-to-day listening to try and balance out any temporary flights of fancy I might have (Like the Monkees binge I'm on right now, thanks to Merlin.). Nothing feeds into this obsession more than this Mainstream-o-meter, which compares your top 30 artists with everyone else. My results are skewed due to a couple audiobooks and a few artists that really shouldn't be ranked as high on my list as they actually are currently.

Interesting observations that illustrate an obvious "last.fm users vs. the rest of the real world" bias:

  • Elliot Smith and Sufjan Stevens are more "mainstream" than The Beach Boys.
  • The Beatles and Radiohead are both above 100%, they are so mainstream.
  • Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello and Tori Amos all seem surprisingly low.

(via Brandon's del.icio.us)

Dawn of the Superbug

Strange but True: Antibacterial Products May Do More Harm Than Good

Unlike these traditional cleaners, antibacterial products leave surface residues, creating conditions that may foster the development of resistant bacteria, Levy notes. For example, after spraying and wiping an antibacterial cleaner over a kitchen counter, active chemicals linger behind and continue to kill bacteria, but not necessarily all of them.

I friggin' told you so!

(via Garret)

4-Hour Workweek: How to Be a Huckster in 4 Easy Steps

Anyone else reading The 4-Hour Workweek? I'm listening to the audiobook on my commute. It strikes me as incredibly meta. There's a definite undertone of

"Here's how you can make yourself and expert and sell information to other people -- just like I did with this book! (Sucker.)"

He also explains everything he's doing ("tricks of the trade"-wise) on the book's companion web site.

That said, it's also quite interesting, plenty entertaining, and disturbingly inspirational. (Lord help us...) It's really not as slimy as I'm making it sound, but it's in there.

Let me know your thoughts if you have read it, are reading it, or plan to read it. I actually think I might pick up the dead-tree version in order to cement my own feelings about it.

So... I guess it's recommended...?

Pili Me Ka'u Manu

I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for the ukulele. Yes. Really. From Jake, to Brudda Iz, to Martin Mull... I just can't get enough.

My dear mother knows this about me (nor does she judge), so when she heard about a night of ukulele music at her favorite guitar shop, the Pickin' Parlor in Olde Town Arvada, she pinged me. So it happened that The Wife and I were with our mothers last night taking in a quite enjoyable show centered around that diminutive stringed instrument of the Hawai'ian Islands featuring some local talent.

Uke Night at the Pickin' Parlor

The thing about shows like this that happen at wonderful instrument shops like the Pickin' Parlor, is that they are often accompanied by lessons and workshops. Such was the case this time.

When Mom sent me the email about thee show, I saw the workshop and thought about it for a good ten seconds. The uke is one of a few musical instruments I've fleetingly tried to teach myself, you see. As it turns out, I'm just no good at teaching myself how to play much of anything, musically. When I let my mother know that I had considered it, she went running back to talk to "Uncle" Kit and sign us up for the beginner session.

Despite my musical shyness (based on my years of musical frustration), I had a great time, learned a few nifty things, and my interest in playing the ukulele has been rekindled.

We'll see where that gets me.