The Primate Diaries
Archives for October, 2009
Christopher Hitchens in Collision with Religion
Posted by EMJ on October 30, 2009 It’s been an unusually busy week, so I apologize for the lack of original posts, but I just came upon Christopher Hitchens’ latest piece in Slate reflecting on the many debates he’s had with religious proponents in the last few years. His new film, Collision, looks fascinating and I look forward to reviewing it. What…
Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit
Posted by EMJ on October 30, 2009 Michael Shermer in a video produced by the Richard Dawkins Foundation
Jon Stewart Needs Your Help!
Posted by EMJ on October 29, 2009 Last night Jon Stewart hosted the Israel/Palestine peace activists Anna Baltzer and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. The angry response from the Pro-Israel crowd resulted in a backlash against the show for even having the discussion (including the show’s first heckler in eleven years). Baltzer, an American-Jewish author, has put out a public letter asking that people…
Chimpanzees Mourn the Death of Their Own Kind
Posted by EMJ on October 29, 2009 At the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, chimpanzees form a gallery of grief, looking on as Dorothy–a beloved female felled in her late 40s by heart failure–is borne to her burial. Image: National Geographic / Monica Szczupider The Prancing Papio has brought attention to this powerful photograph presented by National Geographic showing chimpanzees focused on the…
The Difference Between Fox News and Fox Opinion
Posted by EMJ on October 29, 2009 From Media Matters for America
Obama May Have Death Panels After All
Posted by EMJ on October 28, 2009 What happens when a Nobel Peace Prize winner breaks international law in the rules of war? The world may find out as increased attention is being focused on the use of unmanned military drones that are carrying out assassinations of suspected militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions,…
Eye of the Beholder
Posted by EMJ on October 28, 2009 As a species we are consumed by love. Ask yourself, how many cultural productions (films, stories, songs, dances, arts) do not have love, the loss of love or the absence of love as their central theme? Would you be satisfied with what was left over? That fact that love has so much power over us…
What Does Arab Racism Look Like?
Posted by EMJ on October 27, 2009 Republican Losers Have Lower Testosterone
Posted by EMJ on October 26, 2009 In a new understanding of the term power grab, researchers have shown that the supporters of a political candidate literally have their power taken from them after they lose an election. In a new study by Steven J. Stanton and colleagues in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, researchers asked 163 Republican and Democratic voters (57…
Whose Health Coverage Would Jesus Deny?
Posted by EMJ on October 25, 2009 Answer: Everyone that couldn’t afford it, if his representatives are any indication. From People for the American Way: Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, on a recent conference call for anti-choice activists, sounded both those charges, calling reform legislation a “huge abortion industry bailout” as well as a “health care power grab by the federal…