When Atheists Attack

From Mr Harris' website - http://www.samharris.org

"Sam Harris: Sexist Pig and Liberal Shill"

I???ve received more than the usual amount of criticism for my recent opinion piece on Sarah Palin, most of it alleging sexism and/or an unseemly infatuation with Barack Obama. For those who care, I???d like to briefly respond:

My alleged sexism: It is true that I used some hackneyed, gender-slanted language in the piece (???get sassy,??? ???girl-next-door,??? etc.). This was deliberate. Clearly, I played this game at my peril. I can say that if Sarah Palin were a man of similar qualifications, I would have used equally slanted language to describe him. I might have called Mr. Palin a ???frat-boy??? or a ???lumberjack.??? I would have invoked some silly macho phrasing like,???Watch Cousin Jim flip Putin the bird.??? My concern is not that Mrs. Palin is a woman. My concern is that she is a totally unqualified and poorly educated woman who was added to the Republican ticket as a token woman (and Creationist wacko). For what it???s worth, the article was vetted by the two women closest to me (wife and mother) and by two female editors at the LA Times. If anything, the editing at the Times made the piece even more ???sexist.???

My alleged Obamamania: Many McCain supporters have written to say that (1) Obama is also unqualified (or even less qualified than Palin) and (2) I have shown myself to be a hypocrite by not objecting to Obama???s religiosity. Briefly: My criticism of Palin should not be construed as uncritical acceptance of Obama. Needless to say, I find Obama???s religious pandering repulsive. The suspicion that he is pandering, out of obvious necessity, and not quite as religious as he makes out, is somewhat comforting, however. But even if Obama were precisely as religious as he appears, he is not a Creationist, Rapture-Ready blockhead. Palin, by all appearances, seems to be one. This is a difference worth noting. Whatever you may think of his politics, Obama is very intelligent and reasonably well educated. Palin thinks the universe is 6000 years old. Unfortunately, I wrote my article before some of the most disturbing signs of her religious extremism came to my attention.

So, let me simply declare that I would be overjoyed to have a qualified woman in the White House. I would, likewise, be overjoyed to have a qualified African American in the White House. In fact, I would be overjoyed to have a qualified WASP man in the White House. I will be guardedly optimistic to have a very smart (and somewhat qualified) Barack Obama in the White House. And I would be frankly terrified to have a religious bumpkin like Sarah Palin in the White House. I think you should share this last conviction. Hence my latest opinion piece.

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF OBAMAS PASTOR? SIMILAR MINDS STICK TOGETHER YOU KNOW. OBAMA STUCK BY HIS INSANE BLACK THEOLOGY PASTOR WRIGHT FOR 20 YEARS! DO WE REALLY NEED THAT KIND OF PREJUDICE IN WASHINGTON?

Please look at the facts. Palin has more experience than Obama. Palin has been city council woman, mayor, governor, and commander of the national guard. obama only has been a 2 year senator. Obama is the one who is not ready to be president. obama lacks experience, and repeatedly points his acusing finger at everyone else but himself. Obama was part of this past administration, obama was in washington , so what did he do? joe biden was involved in ripping off the poor people with subprime mortgages.
As far as atheism goes, do you realize that today scientists are conducting an experiment to find the GOD PARTICLE???? yes, it is an energy that nothing can exist without. What will all you atheists do when the GOD particle is found? Palin having a religion shows that she has a MORAL CONSCIOUS that she uses to guide herself with. How different that is from the corupt elite rich officials that are in washington and have mad a mess of things financially with their greed, lies , and cheating the people of this country!!!!!
Why don't you look at obamas muslim upbringing (yes, he was raised muslim in indonesia). Isn't that a conflict of interest to have a post muslim president while our country is fighting against muslim terrorists???

The point about elitism and the concern of people wanting to "relate" to their political leaders is brilliant. I also agree that there are loads of fanatical Christians out there who believe these are the end times...but do we really want them to have the nuclear codes? I applaud your article.

Gee! Does Sam Harris hate the world, women and/or Republicans. Insert Barak Obama's name and gender in the appropriate slots and read the article again. I do not see many writers comparing Obama to John McCain. Many writers and critics (including Obama) tend to compare Obama to Palin. If Harris watched the debate (8/26/08), it would be obvious that Obama knows every little about foreign policy other than, "I voted again invading Iraq when it was not a favorable position." What was Obama's knowledge and "meeting with foreign heads of state" prior to his running for the office of President? In addition, what are Obama's knowledge of domestic issues? What was he doing to instill his "ideas" while serving the the ledgistature? Compare Obama's experience with McCain's experience - there is no comparison.

I would like to shoot the fat assand rid the human race of another "non-thinker".

Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is "out of her league" and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party. Parker's comments follow those by prominent conservatives David Brooks, George Will, and David Frum who have all publicly questioned Palin's readiness to be vice president.

And the above list of conservative commentators are some of the most prominent on the right side of the spectrum. Considering the facts and the commentary of these well respected journalists posting what they did, can you still look someone in eye, knowing that Palin could become POTUS, and say without hesitation, or trepedation that she is ready right now to lead our country after seeing Couric's interview with Palin?

And don't give the bs that Couric was hard on her. If you saw the debates tonight, Couric's questions were easier than the ones that both McCain and Obama were given. So if you think Couric was hard, what is she going to do when she has her faceoff with Biden? Case closed.

This very good articile by Harris tells it how it is. If McCain is elected, which sadly he might be, he will probably never serve a full term and the USA will have this woman as President--God help us all.

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide the largest morgage bank in the world,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. Also, Fanny and Freddy Mae which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States.
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt.If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash and we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before.

McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.

Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He either didn't care or didn't realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?


The chairman of McCains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues they vote on a personality composite. Which means he is trying to sell you personality instead of results.

He believes people will vote against their own interests.

Let's teach him we are smarter than that .

Hold them accountable NOW! while it will still help.

Elect Obama Biden 2008

First, your post about the mortgage industry is off the topic of this thread on Sam's article. If you have a point, please do some web surfing to find a more appropriate thread to post whatever point you wanted to make. Second, your argument is of the form, "P, not P, ha-ha." That form of argument makes you feel superior, but for the people reading this thread, no, it does not help.

Thank you Mr. Harris for a wonderfully written, and thoughtfully reasoned article on why we must not ignore one of this country's most important founding principles: the separation of church and state.

Counterintuitively, half this country insists on picking the dumbest person in the room to lead them out of a burning building.

They've done it twice in the last eight years, and look where that's gotten them. And us.

The long view of history describes an arc towards enlightened progressivism.
Here's hoping that we're in a small, and temporary trough.