Here he is in his element, talking about foreign affairs, slamming an opponent and being funny all at the same time. The expression on his face at the end of the clip is priceless.

Video via Andrew Sullivan.

I unhesitatingly recommend this book to everyone, but I expect that my more pious friends will be reluctant to read such an unabashedly anti-religious tract. This is a great pity for me, but if any of you would like to prove me wrong then you are more than welcome to borrow my copy of it (provided you have no intention of burning it as your forebears would have).

Here’s a clip of the author on Fox News last year, speaking about the late Jerry Falwell, a man who exemplified the tawdriness of religion (although at least he didn’t kill anyone over it, which makes him a good deal less dangerous than plenty of other god-crazed swine).

Jon Stewart highlights how McCain is getting a pass from the media on a whole host of issues, even while his own side keeps complaining that the press is infatuated with Obama.

Is it possible to be a vegan without judging other people? It had better be, because I just don’t have time to pass judgment on the overwhelming majority of people in the world who eat animal products. Obviously, having decided that it’s morally wrong to eat animal products, I can’t exactly say that I think it’s perfectly okay for other people to do so. On the other hand, I recognize that the universe is a complicated place, and my moral judgements are imperfect.

Or maybe a better way to say it is that there are moral judgements, and then there are moral judgements. I wish more people would stop eating meat, but I also think it is possible to be a perfectly good, moral human being and still eat meat, in a way that I don’t think it is possible to be a good moral human being and still rape twelve-year olds. I have judged the behavior and found it wanting, but I do not judge, in any way, the people who indulge in it. I think there’s something wrong with eating meat, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with meat-eaters.

Elsewhere in the post McAdle remarks that:

Like most vegetarians, I suspect that my angriest critics are those who, like me, feel that eating meat is wrong–and therefore want me to do it too, so that they don’t have to think about their own choices.

I entirely agree. It seems to me that it’s usually people who I have a lot in common with (yes, they do exist) that get most agitated about my decision not to eat meat, in large measure, I think, because they’re not much happier about killing animals to eat them than I am, but don’t want to stop eating meat because it tastes nice.

Apologies for posting yet another YouTube video, but I just finished watching this and it definitely deserves a mention. Sometime when you’re online and have an hour or so to spare, look up this video on YouTube (or watch it here). It’s a lecture about achieving childhood dreams delivered by a professor with terminal cancer. The premise sounds kind of sentimental, and it runs for well over an hour, but it’s quite possibly the most worthwhile thing I’ve seen on the site. The professor died two days ago.

I saw this for the first time last night and I love it! It’s very funny, and Christian Bale is typically outstanding.

A judge in New Zealand made a young girl a ward of court so that she could change the name she hated - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

Judge Rob Murfitt said that the name embarrassed the nine-year-old and could expose her to teasing.

He attacked a trend of giving children bizarre names, citing several examples.

Officials had blocked Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit, he said, but Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay had been allowed.

Makes “Athens Trent Boland” sound eminently reasonable…

Given that McCain is generally said to have an advantage over Obama when it comes to foreign policy, this ignorance is pretty damning, especially when McCain keeps trying to pass off The Surge as somehow being his idea, even though he doesn’t know what it actually is.

This is one of their better ones in recent times.

What the speaker means to say is “John couldn’t care less about his neighbour”, which is how English speakers elsewhere say it. This accurately conveys the sense that John does not care about his neighbour, whereas the first phrasing expresses the notion that, well, John could care less about his neighbour, which logically implies that John currently cares somewhat for his neighbour, and so could care less for her, given that John already has some basic level of concern for her.

I don’t mean to sound like a grammar Nazi, but I keep hearing Americans misusing this phrase and it keeps annoying the hell out of me.