Every year I pass on the reading selections for the Atomic Reading Club (sponsored by Atomic Books, Baltimore.
Looks good. I have heard that with all the problems in this country, many readers are thrilled with the opportunity to read Humor and Satire. Good theme, Atomic.
In a statement, published on the website for English PEN, an organization that promotes freedom of speech, Salman Rushdie not only condemns the shooting, but religion as a whole.
“Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms,” he wrote. “This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.”
Rushdie expresses his support for the publication and calls for the defense of satire, “which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.”
“‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion,’” he concluded. “Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”
It happens often enough that the inherent humor in the event is no longer met with a smile but rather with a groan acknowledging the stupidity of the news source in question. Yes, too often the right-wing media (we won’t give any special treatment for Fox News since it has been shown to have a truthiness level at a seemingly high 19%) uses its bloated ability to fictionalize in a way that has them taking even the most outlandish and fake satirical news as being real and showing concrete evidence of what their own fiction and lies has been saying all along.
Continue reading “Right to Feed Christian Employees to Lions”
A Celebration of Reading 