BobHarris.com - Word Panic

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Thursday, 03 July 2008

The sports section of this morning's L.A. Times reports that the content filters at a "Christian" website had a wee problem in reporting how a sprinter named Tyson Gay performed at the U.S. Olympic trials:

"Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has. . . . Homosexual qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice he's certainly someone to watch in Beijing."

"It means a lot to me," the 25-year-old Homosexual said. "I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me."

Genius. Apparently they still don't like the word "gay" as slang for "homosexual" (their preferred word), since this is unfair to... um... words.

Fair enough — which is why I've placed "Christian" in quotes here.

There's not one word in the Gospels criticizing homosexuality. Not one. There are two bits in the Old Testament (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13) predating Christ by a few gazillion years, right where eating shellfish is condemned just as harshly. If these "Christians" really cared about their own holy book, they'd also be protesting outside of Red Lobster.

Complicating things, the original Hebrew in Leviticus 18:22 is unclear. There's nothing close to an agreed-upon translation, and for anyone to proclaim that they know exactly what the words mean (not even to mention postulating them as the unquestionable word of a deity) is simply dishonest.

On the other hand, Leviticus 25:44-46 heartily endorses slavery, in terms way less ambiguous than other stuff. And Exodus 21:20-21 explicitly says it's OK to beat the crap out of your slaves so badly they can't work for a couple of days, as long as you don't kill them.

Oy.