Prolific author and time-tested conservative Norman Podhoretz describes why the current global struggle is in fact World War IV. What happened to WWIII? Podhoretz says we are now engaged in the third conflict in a succession of conflicts against totalitarianism. We took on Nazism in WWII, communism in the Cold War (which in retrospect Podhoretz labels WWIII), and now Islamofascism in WWIV.

I grabbed my half-full (always the optimist) bottle of Red Hook ESB and went to the door. I opened it up to find two women standing on the porch, smiling warmly, clutching Bibles. I could see their black Lexus parked at the curb at the foot of my driveway. Great, I thought. The freakin’ neighbors have turned me in. Found out I was an atheist and sicced the Christians on me.

In the last few days, both Ed Brayton and Glenn Greenwald have written about the story of Ezra Levant, a Canadian conservative who's currently under investigation by the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Levant's "crime" was republishing the Mohammed cartoons first printed in 2005 in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which spurred the filing of a complaint by a Canadian imam named Syed Soharwardy.

Siljander has a long, and often bizarre, association with religious groups in the U.S. He was initially elected to Congress thanks to the support of fundamentalist Christian groups. Upon taking office, he said he had been elected "because God wanted me in." Just two years later, in 1983, he claimed that "Arab terrorists" planned to kill him at a pro-Jewish rally, a claim the FBI and Secret Service discounted.

Some time ago I began to engage a few fundamentalists with some critical questions about some of their claims. I know, many will think I was wasting my time and in some ways I was. But one charge these folk raised against me a number of times was revealing. They accused me of “attacking Christianity”. At the time I tended to brush aside the charge or at most offered a simple denial. It should have registered with me at the time that by raising this accusation against me they were in fact informing me why it would be a waste of time continuing any attempt at a critical discussion with them.

The Vatican's position on Harry Potter has changed considerably over the years. Pope John Paul II once praised both the author and the book series, saying that the leading character was fighting against Satanism. Pope Benedict XVI doesn't accept this; even while still Cardinal Ratzinger he once wrote a letter attacking the series and it appears that he may continue to hold this position.

I was contacted by Aljazeera English TV for an interview request on reaction to Bush's visit and to the Iran-US boat incident from an Iranian point of view. I declined the interview at first thinking they are looking for some expert on international relationship, which I am not, but when they insisted they are just after a lay man's view, I accepted the offer.

I happened to be watching a debate between The Rational Response Squad versus the Way of The Master (Ministries). They had a televised debate on ABC Nightline, some american tv show. And my Dad popped by and watched most of it with me. The best part is that he seemed to mostly agree with what "the atheists" were saying throughout the debate although when it went in the evolution/creationism, christian god/other gods and similar arguments, he popped "Why don't they have a Hindu on the show?".