Brian Flemming's Weblog about me   |   email me W H A T ' S   G O I N G   O N My most recent film, The God Who Wasn't There, is available on DVD at the official site and elsewhere. Bat Boy: The Musical is currently being staged in productions of various sizes around the world. A movie adaptation directed by John Landis is in development, with no casting announced or shooting date set. My next feature film, Danielle, remains in development. Bill Gates is still dead. B L O G R O L L FILMMAKING: Cinema Minima Filmmaker HD for Indies indieWIRE Blogs Hollywood Liberation Army The Movie Marketing Blog FREE CULTURE: Creative Commons Copyfight EFF Deep Links Freedom to Tinker Lawrence Lessig POLITICS: Atrios Daily Howler Orcinus The Raw Story Talking Points Memo OTHER FAVORITES: Boing Boing GreenCine Daily Nora Murphy Pharyngula J O I N Original text in this weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License A R C H I V E S July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 powered by

« February 2007 | HOME | April 2007 » March 2007 300 blows Just saw the hit movie 300. It made me think, are Americans really this stupid? Answer: Yes. UPDATE: Amusing response from a reader: "I totally agree that Americans for the most part could likely be stupid. However, you did pay... March 31, 2007 Humanist chaplain Greg Epstein wants you to join him, asshole Humanism wants us all to get along: Not all nonbelievers identify as humanists or atheists, with some calling themselves agnostics, freethinkers or skeptics. But humanists see the potential for unifying the groups under their banner, creating a large, powerful minority... March 31, 2007 Schizo YouTube Here's an interesting interview by a YouTube editor with ParkRidge47, the guy who made the "Vote Different" mashup that is largely made up of Apple's "1984" commercial. The weird thing is that YouTube is giving its implicit endorsement to a... March 30, 2007 Uri Geller abuses DMCA to cover up embarrassing YouTube videos The latest person to discover how easy it is to abuse U.S. copyright law appears to be Uri Geller, the self-proclaimed "psychic" who has been fooling people about his supernatural powers for decades now. Geller has been exposed as a... March 30, 2007 Persecution! Bryan Killian had his religious rights trampled on when he tried to wear the sacred garments of his religion to school. Weaverville – When you’re a pirate, some dangers just come with the territory: scurvy, grog hangovers, a walk down... March 29, 2007 Upcoming appearances Coming up: --See what I look like as I sit at this computer every day. I'll be doing a Q&A live on Stickam (sort of a webcam chat room) following CFI Chicago's screening of The God Who Wasn't There. You... March 29, 2007 I have no idea You know, sometimes moral questions arise that I have never once even thought about.... March 28, 2007 What I admire about PETA, and what you don't I have long been an admirer of PETA's publicity stunts. PETA constantly leverages a small outlay of promotional costs into a bounty of publicity, resulting in exactly what they want: Conversation about animal rights. PETA feels, rightly, that the treatment... March 28, 2007 Department of Obvious ABC News: Does believing that "God is on our side" make it easier for us to inflict pain and suffering on those perceived to be our enemies? If we think God sanctions violence, are we more likely to engage in... March 28, 2007 Radicalism at work The lives (and deaths) of a huge number of animals just got a whole lot better. And who is mainly responsible for this substantial reduction in the real suffering of real animals? Those unhinged, rude, bothersome, polarizing radicals at PETA.... March 28, 2007 Nightmares The horrors, the horrors. This stuff would be funny if the crackpot ideology of anti-evolutionism did not have behind it tens of millions of dollars in annual spending and significant influence in the U.S. government and the media -- as... March 27, 2007 Dying and rising saviors A noticeable uptick recently in emails asking about the dying-and-rising gods before the Jesus Christ story came onto the scene. The best way I know to learn more about this? Get your hands on the work of Robert M. Price.... March 27, 2007 Happy Happy Remmidemmi (All German videos via Mefi)... March 26, 2007 More German rap March 26, 2007 Lenny Bruce, Queer Nation... ...and the Blasphemy Challenge. Greta Christina puts the Blasphemy Challenge in context. Excerpt: Right now, this country is having a public conversation about religion, in a way that, as far as I'm aware, it never really has. And part of... March 26, 2007 I dare you to watch this March 24, 2007 More harm than good Correlation is not causation, but still these facts do cry out for explanation: In an opinion poll published in Britain recently, 82 percent of the people polled said that they thought religion does more harm than good. My first reaction,... March 24, 2007 The fringe People who claim to understand war protesters should actually attend a war protest or two and talk to the people present. At every protest I attended, there was some tiny fringe group doing something (vandalism, supporting Mumia) that made the... March 24, 2007 Apple TV The hacking has begun. Mike Curtis of HD for Indies is tracking developments at his new blog. Some internet-video entrepreneurs believe that Apple TV could open up opportunities for independent videomakers. I wish Apple TV easily facilitated the playing of... March 23, 2007 Richard Carrier is an interesting guy. (Via Richard Carrier)... March 22, 2007 Imagine no religion That's where the trend lines are headed, according to the Pew Research Center: It doesn't appear that younger people tend to acquire superstition as they age, either. Gen Y is the most religion-free generation in the survey, but the trend... March 22, 2007 Bedside manner I've never yelled on a set. But then, I've never worked with Lily Tomlin. (No, I'm not excusing the behavior in that clip.)... March 22, 2007 CONTEST: Who Said It When, Part 1 A quote for your consideration: "I'm talking to the Park Avenue Sound Shop about HDTV, which isn't available yet." Who said this and when? Free signed DVDs of The God Who Wasn't There and Nothing So Strange to the first... March 22, 2007 Sam Harris vs. Andrew Sullivan Continued.... March 20, 2007 Don't worry, be happy One more reason to dig that bunker: The sub-prime and overall mortgage carnage is now likely to lead to a financial crisis whose cleanup and bailout costs will make the S&L bailout bill look like spare change. We are only... March 19, 2007 Family values As usual, Democrats display them, Republicans don't.... March 19, 2007 The script Sometimes it's astonishing that they play their role so precisely as intended.... March 19, 2007 Unintended consequences With this story, and the mention of its spread as an urban legend in The God Who Wasn't There, I apparently spawned a falsehood I never intended to: While illustrating the way things are told so often they become fact,... March 15, 2007 May 3: National Day of Futile Babytalking to the Sky On the National Day of Prayer, while the superstitious are seeing who can grovel before the Sky Daddy the best, atheists will actually be doing something good for the world. Atheists: 1 Babytalkers: 0... March 15, 2007 Talk about it I'd like to see this happen. But not just "I believe in God," which is so vague that almost anyone can say it by privately defining "God" however they want in their own minds. When it comes to debating religion,... March 15, 2007 Defense of marriage What I learned about my readers when I blogged about sex and marriage: --Many of you are married and loving it --Many of you have no problem supporting that claim by sharing the intimate details of your sex life --Many... March 15, 2007 CFI on tour From CFI: The Center for Inquiry is taking to the road with new theme-focused seminars. We will be bringing top presenters to cities across America -- hosting intensive weekend seminars on some of the most urgent controversies facing secular humanists,... March 15, 2007 Important distinctions Mentally ill. Normal. (Thanks, Andrea)... March 15, 2007 L.A. event In case you need cheering up.... March 14, 2007 The horror, the horror Part 2. (Well, Bat Boy: The Musical's Kerry Butler is starring, so it'll be worth seeing just for her.)... March 14, 2007 Hillary? No effing way. UPDATE: She clarifies.... March 14, 2007 Santa shot! And other atrocities. (Thanks, David)... March 14, 2007 My God Is marriage really (warning: sexually explicit text) this bad? Sometimes it sounds like a living Hell*. Like I always say, I won't get married until gays and lesbians can also get married -- and then I'll find another excuse. Which... March 14, 2007 "God vs. the Bible" Faithless deist John Armstrong has finished his book "God vs. the Bible," which he has been working on at least since I first met him in Louisville.... March 14, 2007 The horror The horror.... March 13, 2007 New Apple product: iRack Not up to Steve's usual standards. (Thanks, Keythe)... March 13, 2007 Man bites dog It's currently the most viewed story on latimes.com: "When the Secular Coalition asked me to complete a survey on my religious beliefs, I indicated I am a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being," Stark said. "Like our... March 13, 2007 Blogger interviews blogger Simon Owens of Bloggasm has another interview with me.... March 13, 2007 More? The blog Petty Larseny sees more than one non-theist lurking in the Capitol: Toss in Mr. Ellison, of Minnesota's fifth district, and you're now talking about two non-theists in the House, one non-Judeo-Christian monotheist, six more possible non-theists and two... March 12, 2007 Religion never does any harm, ever The future research scientists of Kentucky are obviously well-served. America is on the right track.... March 12, 2007 Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), nontheist. Apparently. Who is that mysterious godless congressperson? According to nontheist lobbyist group the Secular Coalition for America, it's Congressman Pete Stark: There is only one member of Congress who is on record as not holding a god-belief. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.),... March 12, 2007 Robert M. Price on "Point of Inquiry" Bob Price is always worth a listen. Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He’s a fellow of the Committee for the... March 09, 2007 Science and sin Speaking of batshit crazy.... March 08, 2007 Yeah, but what kind of Christian? Atrios is right: Plenty of voters will take into account the religion of the candidate, and plenty of candidates will make an issue of their religion. Which brings us to one of the points I've been trying to make: Therefore... March 08, 2007 The March 2003 game Many bloggers have picked up the March 2003 challenge and looked through their archives to see what they were writing then. Atrios nailed it in real time (March 4, 2003): Remember, back in the summer when the Iraq chatter started... March 08, 2007 This day in God "Australia's #1 podcast" interviewed me about The God Who Wasn't There and a variety of other subjects. So did some totally gay Canadians. (It's on today at 6 pm PT, I think.) A hip young Episcopal priest who all the... March 08, 2007 March 12 Are there any atheist members of Congress? Of course there are. But is there one willing to come out and say so? If so, I believe he or she will be the first elected official at the national level to... March 07, 2007 And to think, I accused the pro-war side of bad faith Last week I issued a challenge to bloggers to write an entry called "What I was wrong about in March 2003" -- the month that the United States invaded Iraq, interrupting the ongoing U.N.-sanctioned inspections of that country for weapons... March 06, 2007 Misc. Hope for the future. An Italian blog about fake documentaries includes an entry with clips from Nothing So Strange. Why a comparative religions course should be a requirement for high-school graduation. (It won't happen here -- Christian theocrats want prayer... March 05, 2007 Hi, Mom! Kevin Drum admits he doesn't use profanity on his blog regularly because he knows his mother reads it. Same here. I wonder how many mothers are out there, unwittingly keeping the blogosphere from descending into a shitstorm of vulgarity. Sorry,... March 02, 2007 This machine grills Baptists Tonight the president of Liberty University Theological Seminary, Ergun Caner, will be facing off with the Rational Response Squad on their radio show. I'll personally be talking with Caner for the third hour of the show. For a Baptist running... March 02, 2007 Jerry Springer: The Opera It's a concert version of the show, but you should still definitely see Jerry Springer: The Opera if you are near Las Vegas. You will thank me after. The premiere run of the show in London was a hit (it... March 02, 2007 More inappropriate content Peter Popoff is a scam artist. The James Randi folks can't figure out why a video exposing him was deleted by YouTube. YouTube's only clue: "Inappropriate content." (Not copyright vio.) (Thanks, David)... March 02, 2007 I so don't want to think about this I managed to put Peak Oil out of my mind for awhile, but the evidence keeps stacking up. I wish the naysayers could answer the question: When the energy source that the entire global economy depends on starts running out,... March 02, 2007 What I was wrong about in March 2003 I just noticed. Today is Brian Flemming's Weblog's fourth anniversary. I've been leading you astray since March 1, 2003. Out of curiosity, I glanced down the list of entries for March 2003, and it's pretty much a record of my... March 01, 2007 Digg's integrity problems vs. YouTube's Wired News has two interesting stories today on problems at Digg that are somewhat similar to the problems that YouTube has with its red-flag system (although I'll point out a significant difference below): I Bought Votes on Digg A sneaky... March 01, 2007 This is not your father's humanism There is a new humanism. And they have a conference in April. Eat breakfast with E.O. Wilson, listen to Dar Williams, and watch former Democratic senate candidate Ned Lamont throw any national-office aspirations away as he associates himself with these... March 01, 2007

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