Christopher Hitchens, one of my heroes, is dying. Everybody is dying, but for Hitchens “the process has suddenly accelerated”.

He’s been diagnosed with a particularly ferocious form of throat cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Yet he still continues to write, and even found time to do a video interview with The Atlantic:

Hitchens is not shy about his cancer, choosing not to retire in to obscurity to wage his war against the disease but to fight it openly and in plain sight, for all to see.

For this I admire the man even more than I already did. He has always been a public figure, and the fact that he’s not letting a little thing like cancer get in the way of that says volumes about his strength and determination.

The hot news today is how a team of American scientists have managed to create a bacterial lifeform using nothing but synthetic genes. This is, essentially, artificial life.

To say that this is a big deal would be a monumental understatement. We likely won’t be seeing any real world applications of this biotechnology any time soon, but the implications are mind-boggling: from cells that eat carbon dioxide and shit petroleum to customised cancer-eating bacteria, this technology has the potential to radically change our lives.

Of course the technology has its critics. As usual the loudest voices come from religious organisations who, without a hint of irony, shout down the progress of science from the comfort of their air-conditioned homes with HDTV and broadband internet connections.

And then there are the environmentalists denouncing everything even remotely reeking of biotechnology and genetic engineering. These are just as bad as the religious nutcases, because likewise their entire argument is based on disinformation and ignorance. If these eco-hippies were really serious about not using any artificial biotechnology, they’d all starve to death in a matter of weeks and die horribly of all kinds of diseases.

Because, you see, the moment humans started cultivating crops and breeding animals, we started to artificially engineer life. From mixing stronger types of crops for better harvest yields, to breeding sturdier and more milk-producing cows, biotechnology has been around for as long as agriculture has.

On top of that biotechnology has given us some monumentally important medicinal advances, from penicillin to aspirin, from vaccines to heart-transplants.

So denouncing biotech is a pretty fucking stupid thing to do. Instead we should embrace it and ensure that whatever we end up doing with this type of new technology, it doesn’t just end up as the playthings of the rich and powerful. We should strive to make it benefit those who need it the most: the invisible masses of poor and starving people across the world that with their low-wage slave labour enable the privileged west to live its decadent lifestyle.

Once more I am ashamed to be Dutch.

The Dutch cabinet has fallen over the Iraq issue. The left-wing PVDA has chosen the fleeting comfort of public opinion and opposes an extended mission for Dutch troops in Afghanistan.

The result is that at the end of the current mission in August all Dutch troops will withdraw from the Uruzgan province.

This is a Very Bad Thing. I could try to explain why, but this NY Times opinion piece does a much better job. An excerpt:

“The war in Afghanistan is not just about America’s security. It, too, is about denying sanctuaries to Al Qaeda, which has also carried out deadly terrorist attacks in Europe. NATO is stronger when it stands together. The Netherlands weakens itself and all of its allies by choosing to stand alone.”

The irony is that the PVV, the party of Geert Wilders, also opposes the Dutch presence in Afghanistan. This is stupendously ignorant of them.

Wilders keeps on pointing out the dangers of Islamic extremism in the Netherlands, but utterly fails to realize that this is exactly why we need to oppose Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Geert. The success of our struggle for western values over Islamic fundamentalism doesn’t end at the Dutch borders. You either get on that train all the way, or not at all.

In Afghanistan we’re fighting for much more than our own safety. Our withdrawal from that fight makes us nothing short of spineless ignorant cowards.

We should all be ashamed. I certainly am.

Christopher Hitchens is one of my heroes. He writes and edits superb books, he verbally destroys stupid people with quintessential Britishness, he loves to drink, and he has quirky hair.

Now we can add another reason to that list: He speaks truth about airplane security (one of my pet peeves). An excerpt:

“For many years after the explosion of the TWA plane over Long Island (a disaster that was later found to have nothing at all to do with international religious nihilism), you could not board an aircraft without being asked whether you had packed your own bags and had them under your control at all times. These two questions are the very ones to which a would-be hijacker or bomber would honestly and logically have to answer “yes.” But answering “yes” to both was a condition of being allowed on the plane! Eventually, that heroic piece of stupidity was dropped as well. But now fresh idiocies are in store. Nothing in your lap during final approach. Do you feel safer? If you were a suicide-killer, would you feel thwarted or deterred?”

Read the full thing here: The truth about airplane security measures (Slate.com)

(Via Unreasonable Faith)

I may need to retract an earlier statement where I proposed that “we shove the whole complacent Irish population into containers and ship them to Afghanistan where they can join their Taliban brothers in the stone age.”

It seems Ireland is not populated entirely by brainwashed religious nutcases, as evidenced by Atheist Ireland. To start the new year in proper fashion they’ve published a series of 25 blasphemous quotes on their website in an effort to provoke a lawsuit over Ireland’s newly adopted and utterly backwards blasphemy law.

These blasphemous quotes are not the rantings of random bloggers (such as yours truly) but come from a fairly respectable bunch of folks: Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie, Richard Dawkins, and even some quotes from the prophet Muhammed, Jesus Christ, and the Pope.

Each of these quotes can be interpreted as being blasphemous towards one religion or another. It demonstrates the utter stupidity of this law against blasphemy. I hope Atheist Ireland gets their trial - whether they win or lose, it will definitely serve to demonstrate the stone age thinking currently prevailing in Irish government circles.

Recently, as part of the Intelligence Squared debates, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry took on an archbishop and a conservative politician in a debate on the question: “Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?”

The whole debate can be viewed on the IQ2 website, but if you can’t spare the full 50 minutes I at least wanted to share Stephen Fry’s passionate speech:

The answer to the debate’s central question is, as you may have gathered, a resounding no.

In May 2009 Ireland was shocked to its core by the Ryan report that revealed systemic and pervasive child abuse in Catholic-run boys’ schools since 1936.

Since then no effort has been spared to find suitable scapegoats. This frenzy of accusation and incrimination has resulted in the Murphy report published last month, which states that the leaders of the Irish church deliberately covered up reports of abuse of young boys by priests.

And now an apologetic Vatican has announced that, in an act of penance, it will ‘significantly reorganise‘ the Irish Catholic church. There might even be some resignations.

Let me clarify this for you in plain, uncensored language:

Adult men have beaten, assaulted and raped hundreds of young boys over many decades, and this fact has been deliberately covered up by other adult men. The appropriate penance is deemed to be ’significant reorganisation’.

I don’t expect ’significant reorganisation’. At the very least, as an absolute bare minimum, I expect to see excommunication, followed by swift criminal prosecution, culminating in severe prison sentencing!

I expect heads to roll. I expect the guilty to be publicly named and shamed and thrown in jail for the remainder of their natural lives. I expect enormous sums of compensation money to be paid to the victims. I expect every party even vaguely complicit in the cover-up to be punished as severely as possible under the law.

But instead we get ’significant reorganisation’? Are you fucking kidding me?!

If Ireland as a nation has its collective head so far up the Catholic church’s anal orifice that it accepts apologies, reorganisations and token resignations as sufficient penance for these unspeakably horrific acts, the Irish people have truly lost their way.

A country that deals with these heinous crimes in such an inexcusably lame and cowardly way doesn’t deserve to be called civilised.

I propose that we shove the whole complacent Irish population into containers and ship them to Afghanistan where they can join their Taliban brothers in the stone age. Then we can repopulate the island with truly civilised people and can continue to enjoy its natural beauty, without having to deal with these toothless, spineless cowards.

Today, September 30, is International Blasphemy Day. Blasphemy is, as you know, the ultimate victimless crime. It’s an imaginary offense against an imaginary being that somehow makes delusional people so upset they’re ready to kill over it.

Blasphemy is an archaic and medieval concept that has no place in a modern, free society. Blasphemy is often used by religious fanatics as an excuse to silence criticism and stifle open debate.

“The objective of International Blasphemy Day is to open up all religious beliefs to the same level of free inquiry, discussion and criticism to which all other areas of academic interest are subjected.

Why September 30? The last day in September is the anniversary of the original publication of Danish cartoons in 2005 depicting the prophet Muhammad’s face. Any visual depiction of Muhammad is considered a grave offence under Islamic law. The fury which arose within the Islamic community following this publication led to massive riots, attacks on foreign embassies and deaths.

The newspapers which chose to publish these cartoons were in many cases blamed for the outpouring of violence which followed. This unfortunate yet inevitable sequence of events clearly demonstrated a dangerous misconception that had piggy-backed into the 21st century on the shoulders of ignorance, fear and apathy, that all religious beliefs and ideas deserve respect and are beyond criticism or satire.

International Blasphemy Day is a movement, not just a day, to remind the world that religion should never again be beyond open and honest discussion or reproach. Our future depends on it.”

So go forth and celebrate Blasphemy Day. Taking the Lord’s name in vain is optional, but encouraged.

Ireland is an interesting country. I’m not talking about its beautiful landscape, its delicious beers, its fine whiskeys, or even its wonderful people.

No, it’s interesting because on one side Ireland wants to belong in the 21st century, with an economy powered by high-tech companies and an educated population to go with it. But on the other side, Ireland seems intent on embracing the ways of ancient times.

First there came a law against blasphemy, a law that would befit a nation in the 1400’s. But certainly not a nation that’s a part of the modern civilised world.

And now the largest ISP in Ireland, Eircom, has announced that at the request of record companies it will start blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Corporate-controlled Internet censorship has arrived in Ireland in full force.

With this move Eircom is essentially taking the side of obsolete business models and deliberate ignorance. Instead of innovation, a word so often used by Ireland’s government officials, it’s choosing to adopt older ways of thinking. Ways that have totally lost their relevancy in the modern world.

Ireland should be learning from past mistakes and looking towards the future. Instead it seems to be blind to the flaws of history and continues to stare at the past with an utterly misplaced sense of nostalgia.

Here’s a warning for Ireland: Keep this up and the rest of the modern world will be leaving you behind with your Dark Age mentality as we move onwards to better things.

It’s been a mad week here with little time for individual blog updates. So instead I’ve collected the interesting stuff of last week in one post:

• Ireland Retreats To The Dark Ages
  Not content to join the rest of the world in the 21st century, Ireland decides to make time go backwards and heads for the Dark Ages at full speed by passing a law against Blasphemy. It’s now illegal in Ireland to take the name of the Lord in vain. Well, Goddammit.
   
• Sauron’s Evil Eye Burns In The Night Sky
  Well, it’s not really the Eye of Sauron, it’s just an eye-shaped galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. But it’s still cool.
   
• Toygasm Overwhelms Adamus
  I have a new toy to replace my once-slick-but-now-clunky Tytn II: the HTC Hero. Like many of my new toy acquisitions, it is made of Pure Awesomeness until I get tired of it. Which in this case is likely not to happen for a while. Seamless integration with my Gmail, calendar and contacts, loads of cool apps, smooth interface, and most of all: open source. Fuck you, iPhone.
   
• U2 Still Rules
  I went to see U2 on their 360° tour in Croke Park, Dublin last Friday and it rocked.

That is all.