Staying Power

Christopher Buckley on ‘Mortality,’ the new collection of Christopher Hitchens’ writing while he was sick.

Bill Nye on Creationism

You may have seen this already because it’s been flying around the internet for the past week, but if you haven’t, it’s pretty great.

Can we cool it with the billboards already?

Yes, it’s sad that American Atheists had to take these billboards because of threats. But I wonder if doing stuff like this is even productive.

I’m not sure where this trend of atheists putting up stupid billboards and bus signs got started. Can we just stop it? Not only is it a waste of money, it just antagonizes religious people needlessly, convinces no one, and I suspect doesn’t even make atheists who seem them feel any better. It feels Dawkins-esque. It’s smug and condescending.

In God We Trust

Senator Marco Rubio, speaking last night to the Republican National Convention:

Our national motto is “In God we Trust,” reminding us that faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all.

Valley of God

April Dembosky reports on the under-the-radar presence of faith in Silcon Valley:

They talk about which new mobile apps have the best design, coding challenges for iPhones versus Android phones, and how their work aligns with God’s plans for human flourishing.

(via @pkedrosky)

DHS Crushed This Analyst for Warning About Far-Right Terror

In the wake of the shootings earlier this week at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, Spencer Ackerman talks to Daryl Johnson, who wrote the paper on Right-Wing Extremism that angered a lot of conservatives a few years ago.

The Department of Homeland Security’s apparent lack of focus on this type of domestic terrorism is rather alarming:

According to Johnson, his former team now consists of a single analyst tasked with tracking all domestic non-Islamic extremism. His database has been shuttered.

“Why is there a program called Evolution in CE?”

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the existence of an Ubuntu “Christian Edition”.

(via @mikeash)

No Refuge

Important story about the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) compound in Eldorado, Texas, five years later. Shocking anecdotes about the treatment of children.

Black Sabbath - Paris 1970

The Killers - Runaways

Carles:

The Killers just sound like Arcade Fire with a Mormon twink singing instead of a chorus of honkies who found artistic solace in the buzzlands of Canada.