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Saturday, November 27, 2010

News Morning News: Poison gas, Bombs, and Fox News

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 9:12 AM

Posted by news intern David Trujillo

How not to get to know your neighbors: an apartment complex in Lynnwood is evacuated and 14 people are taken to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning after a family forgets to use the fireplace damper for a charcoal cooking fire.

They hate us for our maple-bacon donuts: at a Portland Christmas tree lighting ceremony, a Somali-born teenager attempted to blow up a van full of explosives … which were duds, and provided by undercover policemen.

McGinn and US House Repugs have opposing plans for transit; while McGinn wants to promote transit, Republicans want to “focus on the National Highway System.” Oh, Repugs, is there any area in which you aren’t head-slammingly backward?

South Korean protesters are calling for a more aggressive response to North Korea’s lethal shelling, and the North Koreans have recalled some of their workers from Russia - presumably to help gear up for military operations. If you need to do something as embarrassing-looking and unproductive of national confidence as yanking workers from their across-the-border jobs to help the homeland, methinks you’re probably serious. Stay tuned.

Another wikileaks release looms, this time of a massive collection of diplomatic cables. US envoys are preemptively apologizing, which indicates that some of these cables will be pretty amusing; but after so much work trying to repair our reputation abroad — seriously, what the fuck?

Fox News North will launch in Canada. Yep.

In another stop on his never-ending-until-biology-dictates-otherwise debate tour, terminally ill anti-theist Christopher Hitchens argued against Tony Blair on the question of whether “Religion is a force for good in the world.” Hitchens won, unsurprisingly to anyone who’s watched him argue.

Sweeeeeeeeeet: the Big Bang might not have been the beginning of the universe, but merely one iteration in its ever-changingness. Crazy!

Comments (20) RSS

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Funny zinger by Hitchens: "Is it good for the world to consider women as an inferior form, as all religions do?"

I don't know how Blair answered and I wonder what the response would be if a woman was the pro-faith debater and had to respond and rebut.

Posted by Keister Button on November 27, 2010 at 9:23 AM

I really find it disappointing that an otherwise intelligent person like Blair could be so blind when the subject is religion. Especially Catholisism, which has the most depraved and murderous history.

Posted by Vince on November 27, 2010 at 9:47 AM

I am sad that Hitchens's days are numbered. . . I loved when he said religion set up a "celestial dictatorship, a divine North Korea. . ."

Posted by LuisitaPhD on November 27, 2010 at 10:03 AM

I'd like to think a Canadian Fox News wouldn't fly here, as the fear mongering "scare news" isn't seen in Canada, at least on our national channels. Hopefully, Fox North *and* Harper will have an equally short tenure.

Posted by Canuck on November 27, 2010 at 10:11 AM

Defunding transit and pushing a massive investment in highways? Gosh, I thought they were talking about Seattle City Council and Governor Gregoire for a moment.

Posted by Baconcat on November 27, 2010 at 10:16 AM

I watched Mr. Hitchens debate Rabbi Wolpe at my college a while back. Hitchens won intellectually, hands down. But Wolpe was more compelling emotionally. I concluded that religion's merit is entirely emotional, and that it is without intellectual justification. Since that time I have developed a new philosophy - a philosophy of defiance. We are mortal. The Earth is mortal. The stars are mortal, and the universe itself may be mortal. In that mortality, we all share a common kinship. Let us revel in, and celebrate, that unity, even as we seek to defy it in what little time we have: live, though we will die; love, though all we love will die; and create, though everything we create will die. If the universe is immortal, as the linked article at the bottom seems to suggest, then we have a measure of immortality after all: the fact that we are part of an immortal universe. We cannot be separated from the whole which we belong to, and that much is eternal.

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on November 27, 2010 at 10:49 AM

what about that 'downtown club' incident that the pi is barely reporting. What happened there?

Posted by NotSean on November 27, 2010 at 11:26 AM

Glad to see that Mr Hitchens is still out fighting the good fight.

Posted by Last of the Time Lords on November 27, 2010 at 11:43 AM

Fireplace damper, my ass. There is NEVER a good technique for indoor charcoal cooking. DON'T DO IT.

Posted by Fnarf

on November 27, 2010 at 11:57 AM

@9 But when you have dozens living in your home, there just isn't room on the stove.

Posted by Vince on November 27, 2010 at 12:12 PM

@7: I was curious about the same thing. Seems like something the Stranger would totally be all over. But not any mention of it here.

From 911 info though, it looks like it was at or very close to Studio Seven. (Map and info about the place at http://www.yelp.com/biz/studio-seven-sea… )

Posted by stinkbug on November 27, 2010 at 12:36 PM

@5, very smooth.

Posted by gloomy gus on November 27, 2010 at 12:46 PM

Re: cyclical universe. Big Duh! It's only the monotheists who posit a "one-time-through" model of existence. Hindus, Buddhists, and every stoner ever born are perfectly aware of the infinitely regenerating nature of reality.

Posted by ZenDog on November 27, 2010 at 12:54 PM

Fnarf is correct. There is never a smart solution to indoor cooking that doesn't involve the stove, unless your home is designed for it.

Posted by svensken on November 27, 2010 at 1:39 PM

@11 : thanks

Posted by NotSean on November 27, 2010 at 1:57 PM

#15, I like this tweet:

"A fight broke out last night at the Studio Seven club in Seattle last night. The club's Four Square mayor was not available for comment."

http://twitter.com/WheezingGeek/statuses…

Posted by stinkbug on November 27, 2010 at 4:53 PM

I keep telling you: it's not "Fox News," it's "Fucks Gnus," reminding us that this is what its newscasters like to do, and Murdoch's favorite pastime when he's on "safari."

Posted by CharlesYFarley

on November 27, 2010 at 5:21 PM

Hitchens made callous, irritating mistakes. He was bored. He chose to get hawkish. I loved it when he coincidentally argued my side on something, but he was not reliable though he could have been.

Posted by Amelia on November 27, 2010 at 10:02 PM

"Hitchens won, unsurprisingly to anyone who’s watched him argue."

Unless you're talking about his boner for "secular" war (such as in Iraq, and towards Iran), in which case he's a dick-pounding neocon imbecile.

Posted by i enjoy his diatribes until he goes there on November 28, 2010 at 2:17 PM