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USA Today’s website features a reader each day. Today’s reader said “Losing My Religion” was one of her all-time favorite books. (along with, believe it or not, “The Oresteia” by Aeschylus). Thanks Alisa Driscoll!

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(Los Angeles Times photo by Mark Boster)
From a Los Angeles Times story by Christine Hanley:
Mike Carona’s fall from “America’s Sheriff” to convicted felon reached bottom Monday as a federal judge gave Orange County’s former top law enforcement officer a half-hour lecture about honesty before sentencing him to 5 1/2 years in prison for attempting to [...]

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When I talk to atheist/skeptic groups, I say that I want to answer the first question I know I’ll get at the end of my talk. “It took you 46 years to get to the truth that I discovered at age [fill in the blank, usually it's between 6 and 10]. Why are you so [...]

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So I was driving home from UCLA tonight, and listened, really for the first time, to the words of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” I had grown up with this song, so I was numb to the words. But listening anew, I couldn’t believe the depth that Mick Jagger and Keith Richard [...]

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I just got back from a gig as a panelist at the Los Angeles Times’ Festival of Books. I can’t lie. I got my ass kicked.
Here’s the problem. On one side, I was up against author/journalist Chris Hedges, a super-liberal intellectual (and former longtime foreign correspondent with the New York Times) who’s never in doubt [...]

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I’ve always dreamed of being reviewed in the New York Times. This Sunday, I will be. And the review is better than anything I could have imagine. Please spread the word. Thank you.

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Looking forward to being on a panel in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at UCLA’s Korn Convocation Hall. The topic is “Religion: The God Question.” Moderator  Zachary Karabell (“The Last Campaign” and “Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal”) will moderate, and my fellow panelists Chris Hedges [...]

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You may have seen or heard about this. It’s cheesy execution, designed to protest same-sex marriage, has led to many parodies. The best, so far, has been by Stephen Colbert.

The Colbert Report
Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Colbert Coalition’s Anti-Gay Marriage Ad

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor
NASA Name Contest

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I’ve got a busy weekend. On Saturday, I’ll be giving a talk and signing books at 4 p.m. at Laguna Beach Books, a great independent bookstore in one of the world’s most beautiful towns.
And on Sunday, I’ll be speaking at 10 a.m. at the Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles, and at 4:30 p.m. at Center [...]

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An evangelical believes that the Christian movement is on the verge of collapse. Why?
Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad [...]

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