A brilliant post by Hitchens as usual. Most idiots propounding intelligent design often use as an example the eye. How can something as complex as the eye come about by evolution? Surely there must be a higher force driving the creation of the eye. Ya whatever.

The piece is about cave salamanders, which live in caverns around the world. The amazing thing is that since these creatures have been living in an area where there is no light, these animals have lost the need for eyes and hence have no eyes.

This is mind boggling. Read the bit about what Dawkins says - awesome.

Science - 1 , Stupidity - 0

Take that all you I.D. cretins..

Scouring the post-NBA finals media coverage over the last few days, I've noticed a disturbing new trend: bashing of Euro Basketball players. For instance, the Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy, slipped in this gem in his finals recap: "Kobe Bryant scored 22 for the losers, but ultimately LA just had too many Europeans."

Too many Europeans? Is that a legitimate way to criticize the failures of the Los Angeles Lakers to appropriately compete in the NBA finals, particularly from such an accomplished columnist? This isn't limited to Shaughnessy, either. ESPN's Colin Cowherd, one of my favorites, has repeatedly ripped European NBA players and the Euro lifestyle in general, labeling them as soft as a result of the supposedly cushier living conditions (El Subliminal can better attest to this).

I'm all for freedom of speech, and certainly the Lakers deserved to be criticized for their poor effort throughout the series, particularly in game 6, but such blanket statements amount to racism, don't they? If such similar statements had been made about African American players, the public outrage would not be contained, and guys like Shaughnessy would probably be suspended or fired. In fact, see the backlash after former Green Bay Packer's great Paul Hornung uttered these comments. And we're just over a year removed from the Don Imus controversy. At any rate, I don't think this substitutes for actual game analysis, and we should expect better from sports opinion columns (or should we?).

While I don't agree with Hitchens on many issues, one can't deny he is a brilliant writer, one of a dying breed.
His latest is nothing short of brilliant, the way he eviscerates the leper Bob Smith should be required reading for scathalogy 101.
To add to it, he even quotes the master Wodehouse himself, one of his best handiworks (the bit about 'if not quite disgruntled, not exactly gruntled, either' ) at that.

Good show