We have an answer, courtesy of Steve Wasserman, Hitchens’ literary agent: “In accordance with Christopher’s wishes, his body was donated to medical research. Memorial gatherings will occur next year.” I wouldn’t have expected anything less. Please consider donating your body (and organs) after you die — there’s no better way to “live on” than helping people learn and live even after your own passing. Each state has different rules/requirements, but a couple starting points are here and here. Read more
Click to enlarge! By the way, the person who drew that image, Tony Piro, is offering $1 to Doctors Without Borders for every 500 views that cartoon gets, so share it and make sure you link to his site when you do it 🙂 (via Calamities of Nature) Read more
Last month, I mentioned that the Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics (AHA!) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were in a (friendly) battle against Christian and Muslim groups on their campus in order to raise money for the (non-sectarian) Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin. Well, the results are in! Looks like a lot of readers from this site deserve some applause for chipping in 🙂 … by the end of November AHA collected dozens of donations, ranging from $5 to… Read more
Peter, the Preacher’s Kid, is back and he’s talking about the time he went to Vacation Bible School. VBS has never been so hilarious: I attribute a lot of my weirdness as a kid to my strong religious upbringing. That said, holy hell am I glad I wasn’t homeschooled, because those creepy little fuckers have the social skills of divorced dads at laundromats for the first time. It’s like no one told them not to walk up to people and… Read more
Frank Deford at Sports Illustrated has an article up about the role of sports in holiday celebrations. “[S]ports are pretty agnostic when it comes to religion,” he says, and he has a point. From Thanksgiving football to the five games the NBA has scheduled for Christmas Day this year (to begin their shortened season), sports are making inroads as yet another secular focus for traditionally religious holidays. Deford writes: All that old-fashioned Currier and Ives/Norman Rockwell stuff — with the… Read more
Ginger Strivelli, a parent in North Carolina, got in touch with her local chapter of the ACLU after her fifth-grade son came home from his public school with a copy of the Bible without her prior knowledge or consent. The school denies any wrong-doing, noting the box of Bibles was dropped off by the Gideons, who weren’t allowed any contact with the children. The Bibles were kept in the office where students could stop by for one if they wanted,… Read more
Are you “single?… Seeing someone and contemplating marriage?… Newly married and still filled with wedded bliss?… A parent or grandparent concerned for the marriage of your child or grandchild? Divorced…?” Are you any of those things and in need of some new reading material come January 3rd? If so, I have the perfect thing for you to not purchase: Mark and Grace Driscoll’s new book, Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship, and Life Together. (A preview of the first… Read more
Greta Christina has rewritten a letter to Virginia (as in “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”) and it’s worth a few minutes of your time to read: No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus. Love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. But Santa Claus does not exist. He is a story made up by your parents. You should be extremely suspicious of anyone who… Read more
You know that whole fake controversy going on in Santa Monica, California right now, where atheists won 18 of the 21 spots for “holiday” displays (a Jewish group got 1 and Christians got 2)? Remember how the atheists ended up only using 3 of their 18 spots and left the rest of them vacant? Well, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) would like to borrow one of the atheists’ spots for one of their own campaigns: Here’s the… Read more
