Videos for Suday: Hitchens Edition

Since the passing of Christopher Hitchens Friday, I have engulfed myself in his writings and words via YouTube, Vanity Fair, Slate, and other websites.  It is entirely way too easy to start looking up his material, and spend several hours getting lost.  Whether it is reading one of his columns or listening to him in a debate, one can feel simultaneously smarter and dumber.  Smarter, because the level of elegance and erudition he brings to the conversation.  Dumber, because of the awe-inspiring nature with which he uses his words and attacks against opponents.  One get's the feeling they could never be a match for the great Hitchens.  As a writer, I don't think I could ever match the wit, sophistication or learned-spirit that Hitchens does in his writing.  But the benchmark that he set, while ridiculously high, seems like a challengingly fun one to reach (although I will be using a thesaurus quite frequently).

I knew I wanted to use material from Hitchens for this week's video, because there is plenty of good material to use.  There is just one problem: there is too much good material out there to use.  So, I have picked a few of my favorites.  Sit back with your Sunday morning coffee (or cocktail if you prefer in the spirit of Hitch), and enjoy.

The True Meaning of Christmas

 Photo from Blog Critics

There are many wonderful traditions about the Christmas season that people around the world enjoy every year: the decorating of Christmas trees and lights, the hanging of stockings, the wrapping and unwrapping of presents, the singing of Christmas carols, Santa Claus and so on.  As an Atheist, I love all these traditions, even the one about Jesus and the Nativity.  I think a large part of it is nostalgia growing up in a Christian household, going to a church I liked and performing in Christmas plays for church.  I realize it is complete nonsense, and we are not even sure if Jesus was a real person.  In fact, both the birth story, and the rest of Jesus's life story isn't even an original story. 


Going back to Christmas, one new tradition that has seemed to come about in this country in more recent years is fighting a battle against those evil atheists against a so-called "War on Christmas".  Fundamentalist Christians and conservatives in the media will find isolated incidents where an atheist complains about a nativity scene being on public property, a non-Christian parent doesn't want their child singing Christmas Carols in school, or some other story with a similar storyline.  Suddenly, there is an all-out assault on Christmas and Jesus himself by atheists, secularists, and liberals.  And don't even think about saying "Happy Holidays".  It's MERRY CRHISTMAS, God Damnit!


In addition to the cherry-picking of "Christian Persecution" stories, the term "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" has been acceptable phrase for as long as I've been alive, and probably a lot longer.  It was only a few years ago that this alleged assault on Christmas began to take place.  Part of this is the effective work that fundamentalist Christians have put in to help delivering this message that they are under assault by evil, secular forces.  In reality, of course, these Christians don't want anything that isn't Christianity getting in their way of glorifying their Lord, or spreading the word of the Bible.

Part of this phenomenon is also that some members of the media always need something to complain about so people will watch their show or read their articles.  This is especially true for conservative pundits and journalists who love to talk about how liberal, secularists are persecuting conservatives, Christians, and of course, conservative Christians (double whammy).  I can assure you Christians that while we secular liberals have many items of business on our agenda, neither persecuting Christians or ruining Christmas is not among those things.

One phrase those individuals who insist there is a "War on Christmas" like to say is that "He is the reason for the Season".  But the funny thing about the season is that Christmas is primarily a pagan festival. Check out this fascinating video from The Thinking Atheist, and you will learn about the origins of Christmas.




Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

 

Photo from Young Australian Skeptic

A Couple of Points on the Recent GOP Debate

 Picture from Media Scrape

For the sake of disclosure, I did not actually watch the debate, but I still feel compelled to comment on a couple things.

First, Michelle Bachman made this comment on Governor Rick Perry's policy of instituting mandatory HPV Vaccination in the state of Texas after the debate to Fox News:

"There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences."

I am not an expert on medicine or vaccines and thus, I do not have much of an opinion on the HPV vaccine per se, nor do I have an opinion on this policy in Texas (it appears both sides have legitimate points). 

However, I am an expert on individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, and I can tell you that there is no link between the HPV vaccine (or any vaccine for that matter) and Intellectual Disabilities.  So, what cause one to become Intelectually Disabled?  There are numerous causes that range from likely to definite:

• Infections (present at birth or occurring after birth)
  • Congenital CMV
  • Congenital rubella
  • Congenital toxoplasmosis
  • Encephalitis
  • HIV infection
  • Listeriosis
  • Meningitis
• Chromosomal abnormalities
  • Chromosome deletions (such as cri du chat syndrome)
  • Chromosomal translocations (a gene is located in an unusual spot on a chromosome, or located on a different chromosome than usual)
  • Defects in the chromosome or chromosomal inheritance (such as fragile X syndrome, Angelman syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome)
  • Errors of chromosome numbers (such as Down syndrome)
• Environmental
  • Deprivation syndrome
• Genetic abnormalities and inherited metabolic disorders
  • Adrenoleukodystrophy
  • Galactosemia
  • Hunter syndrome
  • Hurler syndrome
  • Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
  • Phenylketonuria
  • Rett syndrome
  • Sanfilippo syndrome
  • Tay-Sachs disease
  • Tuberous sclerosis
• Metabolic
  • Congenital hypothyroid
  • Hypoglycemia (poorly regulated diabetes)
  • Reye syndrome
  • Hyperbilirubinemia (very high bilirubin levels in babies)
• Nutritional
  • Malnutrition
• Toxic
  • Intrauterine exposure to alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, and other drugs
  • Lead poisoning
  • Methylmercury poisoning
• Trauma (before and after birth)
  • Intracranial hemorrhage before or after birth
  • Lack of oxygen to the brain before, during, or after birth
  • Severe head injury
• Unexplained (this largest category is for unexplained occurrences of mental retardation)

Now, I don't want to say for sure that Michelle Bachman lied when she told that story about the woman in the crowd.  But given the accuracy of a lot of the information that comes out of her mouth, one must take an immensely large grain of salt with her claim.

By the way, the American Academy of Pediatrics has come out refuting Bachman's claim and defended the use of the HPV Vaccine.

I also want to address something that happened at the debate that a number of people are talking about.  This is when Wolf Blitzer was asking a question to Ron Paul about giving life-saving treatment to someone who is uninsured and whether or not society has a responsibility to take care of that individual.  When Blitzer asks Congressman Paul if "society should let him die", watch how parts of the Tea Party crowd react:




The way the Tea Party has conducted themselves as a movement in the past two years ranges from comical to ignorant to just plain greedy and cruel.  It is all the more terrifying that they have not merely developed into a major political force in American politics, but they are now the controlling block in one of the political parties of our two-party system.  The dangerous and troubling fact of what the Tea Party (and thus GOP is today) is best described by Andrew Sullivan in a recent post about this incident:

"Of course, even if such libertarian purity does make sense, that cannot excuse the emotional response to the issue in the crowd last night. Maybe a tragedy like the death of a feckless twentysomething is inevitable if we are to restrain healthcare costs. But it is still a tragedy. It is not something a decent person cheers. Similarly the execution of hundreds, while perhaps defensible politically and even morally (although I differ), is nonetheless a brutal, awful business. You don't delight in it. And the same is true of torture. Even if you want to defend its use in limited circumstances, it remains an absolute evil, no humane person would want to do it, and no civilized person would brag of it or dismiss any moral issue with it at all. And yet that is what Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney have repeatedly done. They are positively proud of their torture record.

The fish rotted from the head down. Last night, we got a whiff of the smell."

Thank You, Jon Stewart!

Teacher bashing is nothing new, but since the events is Wisconsin started two weeks ago, it has seemed to reach an all time high by many in the media.  In the clips below, Jon Stewart takes a look at this phenomenon.  Not only are teachers being blamed for the budget crisis that affects nearly every state across the country, but some of the oldest, most overused and unnecessary put downs of teachers are being used by pundits who feel most teachers have it easy.  As The Daily Show played clips of these pundits talking about what a cushy job teachers have, I sat in cold silence with a smirk on my face, while my wife yelled at the TV because they clearly didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

Jon Stewart, certainly out of a love for his mother who is a teacher, takes on these pundits, and defends teachers against these charges.  Anyone who is a teacher or who has a loved-one who is a teacher knows that teaching is anything but cushy (with the exception of the Fox News pundit in the first video below whose Mom is a teacher).  There are many long hours outside of their work day where they are grading papers, planning lessons, or talking to parents.  Chances are, if a teacher isn't spending time outside of their 8-hour contract period doing work, they aren't very good at their job.  Yes, there are summer breaks, but many teachers teach summer school, tutor, take a second job to earn extra income, or spend time coming up with new lesson ideas and getting ready for the upcoming year.  Often times, they are doing a combination of these.

Finally, there is the issue of teachers having a cushy pay in comparison to those in the private-sector workforce.  I will admit that in today's economy, the pay of a teacher probably looks pretty good compared to the many jobs people are now forced to get because of hard times.  But five years ago, when I decided to become a teacher, this was not the case.  While teachers have always had their detractors, it was widely agreed that teachers were overworked and underpaid.  One woman I knew growing up who is a now-retired professor of education joked that whenever I get married, I will know that girl is not marrying me because of the money I make (and I can honestly say that is true).  But times have changed, and suddenly teachers have it easy, they are overpaid, and are living off the the hard-earned money of the taxpayer (how dare we do that).  Fortunately, Jon Stewart challenges this thinking, and brings in some much-needed reality to this debate.

Here is Part 1:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - Angry Curds
www.thedailyshow.com
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Here is Part 2, a message to the teachers from Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - Message for Teachers
www.thedailyshow.com
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