When I was in Dublin Ireland, I met with Ashling O’Brien and Ciarán O Floinn. We found an unoccupied meeting room in the basement of the Ashling Hotel (no relation to Ms O’Brien) and did an interview for their podcast, Freethought Friday. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHmWYCD5mdY[/youtube]
It never ends
I’m in Northern Ireland at the moment, speaking tonight in a suburb of Belfast. When I was a young boy, back in the late 1960s, I heard the name Belfast on TV news the same way I heard the names Beirut, Syria, or the West Bank: they were always associated with riots or bombings. Yesterday, […]
We voted for Bernie
Lilandra and I will be going abroad soon, touring 15 countries in six weeks, starting next week. So we took advantage of the option for early voting while we’re still here. In Texas, we have to register to vote, and we have to show ID. Sometimes women have even had to have legal proof of […]
Darwin Day in Wisconsin
Appleton Wisconsin in February has four to five foot-tall piles of snow all over absolutely everything. I live in Texas, where it is hard to remember what color snow is. I was invited to speak here by Alexa Blumenstock, a self-motivated activist whom I have encountered in Washington, Columbus, Omaha, Memphis, Manhattan, and I don’t […]
Trumpless Debate Tonight
In my opinion it is always a good idea to watch a presidential debate. Even though the GOP debates have been rancorous. At least tonight we won’t have to cringe at Trump bullying Jeb Bush. More information is always better though. One of the objections I often hear that sets my teeth on edge is […]
Cruisin’ the UAE
If you read my earlier article, Hopping through Arabian Airports, then you know how little I know I about Islam or the Arab world. That’s actually why I went to the United Arab Emirates. It was by invitation of a rich [compared to me] Arab who funded that trip. He is an unbeliever, an infidel […]
The Cow
Last week when I was in the United Arab Emirates, someone gave me a copy of The Qur’an, a new translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. I’ve already read the Avestas of Zarathustra and the Bhagavad Gita. So it’s about time I read the Qur’an as well. But I’m not having a good time […]
Tentative Solution
At different points around Delhi, I saw little tent communities like this one; where people literally live on the sidewalk -but with some privacy and shelter where they can actually sleep undisturbed and go about their day, earning enough to eat at least. I saw one of these rows of tents erected along a creek, […]
How to get pneumonia in a tropical country
When I first arrived in Delhi, I stepped out of the airport to see a blanket of fog in late afternoon. Fog is an early morning occurrence. So what’s going on here? At first the locals told me that the fog never lifts because it is winter and it is cold. But I don’t think […]
Riding through Agra
To get to the World Atheist conference in Vijayawada, I had to connect in Delhi. Having never been to India, I arranged a layover. A friend who lives there hired a car to take me to Agra for the purpose of seeing the Taj Mahal. If I’m in India anyway, I may as well see […]