Loyal NPI readers will know that I’m a very proud atheist. In fact, atheism is one of the few intellectual positions that I try to actively promote—in some ways, I consider it the defining ideological debate of the modern era.
But for all my staunch pro-atheism, I care surprisingly little about anti-atheist “discrimination.” Every so often a new study will come out showing that atheists are the least trusted, or least tolerated, or most feared “minority group” in America. While I find these facts disconcerting, I don’t really expect anything different. A recent op-ed in The Washington Post, though, referred to the “bigotry” that atheists face:
“As with other national minority groups, atheism is enjoying rapid growth. Despite the bigotry, thenumber of American nontheists has tripledas a proportion of the general population since the 1960s.”
This kind of hyperbole is far more upsetting than the facts themselves, and is often counterproductive to the goals of atheists. Continue reading »
Joe Posnanski wraps up the national championship game, and Wright Thompson delivers the goods from Augusta. One of the bigger stories emerging from The Masters wasn’t winner Charl Schwartzel but rather the club’s denying access to the locker room to Bergen Record reporter Tara Sullivan because she’s a woman. We don’t often condone the use of “Really?” as a stand-alone reaction, but…really? Sullivan, who anyone in the business knows is a pro’s pro, wrote about the experience here — a “misunderstanding” according to Augusta National, which somewhat famously doesn’t have any female members — while also delivering her regularly scheduled column on Rory McIlroy. You may also remember Sullivan writing about the Ines Sainz scandal with the New York Jets back in the fall.
Remember old LeBron? You know, Cute, Innocent LeBron? The LeBron who covered up his tattoos when he played on national television for his high school team while appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated? The LeBron who was ruled ineligible because he accepted all those gifts and then allowed to play because the game was supposed to be on TV?
Yeah, where’d that selfless LeBron go?
I am personally offended by this new, egocentric LeBron James. Betrayed, even. I was all set to spend my Thursday night enriching myself with a thorough rereading of The Brothers Karamazov between commercials of a CSI: rerun. Continue reading »
What we read while debating the plausibility of the Shroud of Turin…
Ben Cohen, former (and possibly still?) Deadspin intern and friend of the blog solidified the latter status with his ardent yet in the end conciliatory defense of dear old Duke. Speaking of sympathetic portrayals of Duke basketball, Dana O’Neill chronicles Lance Thomas and Kyle Singler’s studies of art.
Loyal NPI readers will know that 
