BobHarris.com - WWJBw/MO?

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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Tuesday, 06 December 2005

(Who Would Jesus Beat with a Metal Object?)

Our friend Stephanie in Kansas shares the news that the professor who recently announced a course called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies" has told police that he was attacked along a rural road late last night and beaten by two men, who were quite clear that his opposition to Christian fundamentalism was the cause of the attack.

This is precisely the kind of thing that gives being vaguely conversant with history or having the slightest ability to reason the delicious tingle of danger.

Granted, Prof. Mirecki himself isn't infallible, as he showed in an email which referred to his proposed class as a "nice slap in [the fundamentalists'] big fat face." After the controversy -- triggered because, as we all know, most right-wing ministers are glowing paragons of health, often as skinny as supermodels -- the professor decided that the class should be cancelled out of fairness to all concerned.

I agree. Not one televangelist I can think of has enough double-chins to give his head its own scrotum.

OK, well, one.

Actually, five. Wait, no. Seven. Hmm. Anyhow.

Naturally, there are already people on the right -- I won't dignify them with links, but you can find them easily enough -- who have already decided that the professor staged his own attack. Well, certainly. Because beating themselves up in the middle of nowhere is the kind of thing rationalists do.

I don't know if the local District Attorney plans to prosecute this the same way they would if two atheists beat the crap out of a minister, specifically for his beliefs. But they should. I'm gonna send them an This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it in a minute and say so.

And this Kos diary suggests making a donation to Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Prof. Mirecki's name, as a specific show of support for him and a deterrent to future similar attacks. Not a bad idea. I'm gonna go chip in a few bucks myself.