The Atheist Blogger

Well known atheist author Christopher Hitchens agreed to be waterboarded by the U.S Military in an effort to see if it constituted as torture or not. Waterboarding is used in interrogation and is effective because it “simulates” drowning and forces a gag reflex on the victim. It involves having layers of towel placed over the head, and the entire body restrained. The towel is held down firmly and water poured over it, which seeps through and enters the nasal passages of the victim.

Christopher Hitchens described the entire experience in his article for Vanity Fair:

The “board” is the instrument, not the method. You are not being boarded. You are being watered. This was very rapidly brought home to me when, on top of the hood, which still admitted a few flashes of random and worrying strobe light to my vision, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose. Determined to resist if only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had so often been in peril on the sea, I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and—as you might expect—inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me. I find I don’t want to tell you how little time I lasted.

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The problem with running an online book club is that we don’t do a vote on the day of discussion, instead saving it till a later date and having 7 days of voting so everyone has a chance to choose the book they want. This leads to some problems with getting the book, and then reading it, all before the month “deadline”. This month Oliver managed to get through the entire book, but I only made it to the final chapters. So essentially Oliver could talk about Hemant’s conclusions whilst I had no idea.

I have hence devised a more complicated system which should make things easier. Instead of having a 7 day vote starting on the 23rd of month 1 to choose the book for month 2, we will have a 7 day vote starting on the 1st of month 1 to choose the book for month 2.

The book for July has been chosen already, and although it was a narrow vote (3:2), Daniel Dennett’s book “Freedom Evolves” has been chosen. I usually try to keep the discussions on the weekend, so that might mean a slightly early date of 26th/27th July. I am also thinking of putting the time forward slightly so that people in the USA can get home from work, and (more importantly) our Aussie members can get out of bed!

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Tonight at 11PM (UTC+1) we will be discussing Hemant Mehta’s book “I Sold My Soul on eBay” in the IRC Channel. Find out what time you need to be there using this worldclock. The discussion should last about an hour depending how many people turn up, and as usual a forum discussion thread will follow.

Hemant Mehta is going to try to turn up for the discussion, so you will have your chance to share your views with the author.

Only 2 people voted for the book club poll, which made me rethink the entire voting process. Next vote will therefore be held around 23rd June and will be open for 7 days to give people more of a chance to check their RSS feeds. The result of this month’s vote was chosen by a coin toss, and the Queen’s head signalled Hemant Mehta’s book.

It’s available on Amazon and luckily I bought the book a few weeks back to read over the summer. The discussion will take place at the end of the month, but I will post more information nearer the time.

Enjoy the book!

Even though only 2 people turned up for the live discussion (a result of oversleeping and differing timezones) I have had a small number of people contact me saying that they have either read the book or are finishing it and will participate in the forums discussion.

Only one other book was suggested in the submission forum so we have three books up again for the vote. Like last time:

Please don’t vote unless you intend to read the book and/or contribute to the discussion!

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Discussion will be on 31th June unless something comes up. I’d also like to form a mailing list of regular members so we can better organize ourselves. Please contact me through the contact form using your *real* email address and tell me that you want to be added to this list.

Voting lasts 24 hours.