Four tributes to Hitch

December 17, 2011 • 5:43 am
First, a lovely eulogy from Richard Dawkins in the Independent, “Illness made Hitchens a symbol of the honesty and dignity of atheism.”  (Much of this was in Richard’s tribute to Hitchens when giving him the Richard Dawkins Award in Texas this October.)

He inspired, energised and encouraged us. He had us cheering him on almost daily. He even begat a new word – the hitchslap. It wasn’t just his intellect we admired: it was also his pugnacity, his spirit, his refusal to countenance ignoble compromise, his forthrightness, his indomitable spirit, his brutal honesty.

And in the very way he looked his illness in the eye, he embodied one part of the case against religion. Leave it to the religious to mewl and whimper at the feet of an imaginary deity in their fear of death; leave it to them to spend their lives in denial of its reality. Hitch looked it squarely in the eye: not denying it, not giving in to it, but facing up to it squarely and honestly and with a courage that inspires us all.

Before his illness, it was as an erudite author, essayist and sparkling, devastating speaker that this valiant horseman led the charge against the follies and lies of religion. During his illness he added another weapon to his armoury and ours – perhaps the most formidable and powerful weapon of all: his very character became an outstanding and unmistakable symbol of the honesty and dignity of atheism, as well as of the worth and dignity of the human being when not debased by the infantile babblings of religion.

Every day of his declining life he demonstrated the falsehood of that most squalid of Christian lies: that there are no atheists in foxholes. Hitch was in a foxhole, and he dealt with it with a courage, an honesty and a dignity that any of us would be, and should be, proud to be able to muster. And in the process, he showed himself to be even more deserving of our admiration, respect, and love.

Farewell, great voice. Great voice of reason, of humanity, of humour. Great voice against cant, against hypocrisy, against obscurantism and pretension, against all tyrants including God.

A Martin Rowson cartoon from today’s Guardian:
A short video tribute put together yesterday, highlighting his opposition to religion and his attitudes toward life.
And the only picture I could find of Hitch in cowboy boots, from a slide show at The Washington Post.  (Susan Jacoby has a tribute there, too.)  Boots, of course, should not be worn over the pants for males.
h/t: Matthew Cobb, Grania Spingies, Diane G.

Caturday felid: a 26-toed cash cat

December 17, 2011 • 5:25 am

Normal cats have eighteen toes, but an inhabitant of a Milwaukee animal shelter, a moggie named Daniel, has eight more.  He’s what’s known as a “superscratcher”: an extremely polydactylous cat. (This is usually due to a dominant genetic mutation. Check out the pictures at the Wikipedia entry.)

As The Daily Mail reports, Daniel has become a cash cow (cash cat?) to raise money for an enlarged shelter, and they’re asking for donations of a dollar per toe:

Officials at the centre found out their rent at a Milwaukee-area mall was being doubled on January 1. So, the shelter is buying a new building and is seeking small donations of $26 – or $1 per toe.

They’ve collected enough so far to secure the financing with about $80,000 raised since October 24, but they hope to raise $120,000 by December 23 so they can become even more financially stable.

It’s a no-kill shelter, and you can donate here.

And a video:

This is not the record for toes, by the way.  The Guinness Book of World Records pegs the most-toed cat as having 28 digits!

Today is that day

December 16, 2011 • 12:46 pm

An excerpt from “Godless in Tumoursville,” from the Telegraph:

Discussing mortality, Hitchens and a friend used to muse that there would come a day when the newspapers would come out and they wouldn’t be there to read them. ‘And on that day, I’ve realised recently, I’ll probably be in the newspapers, or quite a lot of them. And etiquette being what it is, generally speaking, rather nice things being said about me.’ He shrugs. ‘Just typical that will be the edition I miss. But it’s not so much that; it’s more that you’re at the party and you’re tapped on the shoulder and told you have to leave. The party is still going on, but it’s going on without you. And even people who swear to remember you are not really going to do so.

And yes, nice things are being said about him, and no, we won’t forget him.

Our Hitch memorial

December 16, 2011 • 7:24 am

I don’t intend to extol Christopher Hitchens in detail: I’ve done that before, and others are far better than I at expressing our sadness at the passing of this great lion of a man.  But perhaps we can do this as a tribute: take a picture that represents your feelings about Hitchens and his life, and send it to my email address (available via a minute’s Googling) by Sunday morning.  It would be nice if you were in it, but that’s not necessary; just let it represent your memorial to Hitchens.  Do avoid mundane pictures of just his books, as we all have those, and try to be creative.  And let me know how you want to be identified.  Or, if you wish, make a drawing, but a new one.

Amber restoratives immediately suggest themselves.

I’m not offering prizes, as that would be unseemly, but since Hitch had the monopoly on eloquence, let us celebrate his life instead through pictures. I’ll be contributing one too.

Hitchens

December 16, 2011 • 4:15 am

The great voice is stilled; the great mind is now an inert collection of molecules.  Hitchens was a huge influence on most of us, and yes, some people are irreplaceable.

Let us by all means mourn him, but we should celebrate his life in the way he did himself: go on with business as usual as long as we can, enjoy the short span that is given us, and keep fighting the good fight.

Richard Dawkins is collecting all the memorials and obituaries of Hitchens; you can find them here.

Texas approves Jesus license plate

December 15, 2011 • 2:30 pm

How’d your Beamer look with this baby on the back?

According to the Los Angeles Times, these clearly unconstitutional license plates, called “Calvary Hill,” were just approved by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Texas governor (and presidential candidate) Rick Perry refused to comment, which is a tacit endorsement given his opposition earlier this year to a Confederate-flag plate proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

It’s even more unconstitutional than just the picture and motto, for the money goes to baby Jesus:

Motorists who choose to buy the plate pay a surcharge, which is divided between the state and the sponsoring group — in the case of Calvary Hill, a Christian-based youth anti-gang ministry in the east Texas city of Nacogdoches.

And this would be funny if it weren’t so sadly typical of Dysfunctional America:

But Jonathan Saenz, the director of legislative affairs for the Austin offices of the conservative Liberty Institute, blogged in support of the plates, saying critics are attacking Christians.

“People have this view that Christians should be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” Saenz told The Times, adding that when it comes to purchasing the plates, “This is a private decision and private speech.”

“It’s ludicrous for anyone to suggest that because someone puts a license plate on their car, that is endorsing religion,” he said, adding that the design is “about as mainstream Texan and American as you can get.”

I wonder how a plate with a crescent moon and the slogan “One State Under Allah” would fare.

And if you’re a Texas (or anyone else, I guess), you can complain to the Texas DMV by filling in the online form here.

If you’re one of those equal-time folks, you might suggest the following plate, created by reader tabb:

h/t: Joshua

Close encounters of the plane kind

December 15, 2011 • 2:08 pm

Take a look at this photo. It looks Photoshopped, no?

It isn’t: it’s a plane landing at Princess Juliana National Airport on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten.  The approach to Runway 10 at the airstrip takes the plane low over Maho Beach, a famous site for planespotters. In fact, local cafes are said to cater to these thrillseekers by posting the daily timetable of takeoffs and landings

The low approach is required by the short runway. If you still don’t believe the photo, here’s a video of a Boeing 747 landing on Runway 10:

Planespotters get so close to the planes landing and taking off that this sign has been placed nearby:

Surprisingly, there’s never been an accident here: a testimony to the skill of pilots.

There’s a whole slew of scary photos of planes landing on St. Maarten. Knock yourselves out; here’s one more—another 747.

Rarely can you get this close to a landing plane. I approximated this experience when working on the island of São Tomé, as there were no fences around the airstrip and I’d sneak onto the shore by the end of the runway; but the planes came in higher.  Seeing planes so close is reason enough to go to St. Maarten.

I’m sure that at least one reader has landed and taken off from this strip. Weigh in if you have.