h/t: The Proud Atheist
CRITICAL THINKING: “That’s Offensive” / Christopher Hitchens
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AMURIKAN HISTORY: “How is Columbus Day Still a Thing?” / John Oliver
h/t: The Huffington Post
AMURIKAN HISTORY: “Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery” / Eric Kasum
Once again, it’s time to celebrate Columbus Day. Yet, the stunning truth is: If Christopher Columbus were alive today, he would be put on trial for crimes against humanity. Columbus’ reign of terror, as documented by noted historians, was so bloody, his legacy so unspeakably cruel, that Columbus makes a modern villain like Saddam Hussein look like a pale codfish.
Question: Why do we honor a man who, if he were alive today, would almost certainly be sitting on Death Row awaiting execution?
If you’d like to know the true story about Christopher Columbus, please read on. But I warn you, it’s not for the faint of heart.
AMURIKAN HISTORY: “Reconsider Columbus Day / Columbus Day Truth / Columbus and Western Civilization”
Columbus and Western Civilization by Howard Zinn
In the year 1992, the celebration of Columbus Day was different from previous ones in two ways. First, this was the quincentennial, five hundred years after Columbus’ landing in this hemisphere. Second, it was a celebration challenged all over the country by people—many of them native Americans but also others—who had “discovered” a Columbus not worth celebrating, and who were rethinking the traditional glorification of “Western Civilization.” I gave this talk at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in October of 1991. It was published the following year in the Open Magazine Pamphlet Series with the title “Christopher Columbus & The Myth of Human Progress.”
Read Howard Zinn’s Columbus and Western Civilization here . . .
AMURIKAN HISTORY: “Columbus Day is Severely Fucked Up” / Dusty Smith
AMURIKAN HISTORY: “Columbus Day, An Honor Bestowed to the Genocidal, Imperialistic, Father of the Transatlantic Sex/Slave Trade Brought to You by, You Guessed it, CATHOLICS”
ANTI-THEISM: “If Religions Advocate Peace, . . .”
DISSIDENT: “The Noble Title of Dissident, . . .” / Christopher Hitchens
FAMILY VALUES CHRISTIANS: “The Bad Boys of Congress” / Real Time With Bill Maher / 10.03.2014
CRITICAL THINKING: “What Ben Affleck Missed in the Islamophobia Debate with Bill Maher and Sam Harris” / Andrew L. Seidel
There’s an interesting video making the viral rounds. Bill Maher on his excellent show, Real Time, had on author Sam Harris, actor Ben Affleck, writer Nicholas Kristof, and political operative Michael Steele as guests. The discussion, debate is a better term, was about Islamophobia.
Maher and Harris argued that criticizing Islam is necessary and is not bigotry or discrimination. As is the tendency when accusations of racism and intolerance are flying, the debate got a bit heated.
Affleck said that Harris’s “argument is, ‘You know, black people, they shoot each other'” and “gross and racist.” Kristof said that Maher’s criticism of Islam has “a tinge of how white racists talk about African-Americans and define blacks.”
It is a bit frustrating to watch because the two sides are talking past each other. Maher and Harris are clearly correct. Affleck, Kristal and Steele are making valid points, but not against the arguments Maher and Harris raised.
Always Question Authority 