Though I'm not a public figure by any stretch of the imagination, I've learned that it's a good idea to occasionally search the internet for my name, to see if anything posted out there was directed specifically towards me. It isn't a question of vanity as much as not wanting to demonstrate bad manners by ignoring a serious attempt to communicate with me. My most recent search turned up this article by author Dianna Narciso that was originally published over two years ago. She had responded to something I wrote during my time spent as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner. For whatever reason, her article never appeared in the first few pages of search results before now. Oh well. Better late than never, I guess... Ms. Narciso asserted that she is not a close-minded freethinker. We'll see. I don't get very far into her article before Ms. Narciso writes, "Mr. Leonard, I am very sorry to disappoint you. But you do, indeed, believe what you believe without rational thought." Really! That seems an incredibly presumptuous thing to say. What sources of information gave her such great insight? On what basis was her opinion formed? Without reading my books, or more than one article I've written, how on earth can Ms. Narciso possibly know what I believe? More importantly, does she even have a clue as to why I believe what I believe? Has she read Divine Evolution? If Ms. Narciso is actually interested in learning the science necessary to present a coherent argument for her atheism, the end notes of my book Counterargument for God might prove quite helpful. My … [Read more...]
The 2013 Readers’ Favorite awards ceremony
Our journey south for the Miami Book Fair and Readers' Favorite International Book Awards ceremony was a fantastic experience. The timing was also quite fortuitous. Final touches on the whopping new 13,000 square foot location for Nautical Ventures were still underway, so my cousin Hank McDowell and his wife Lauren had time to give us a tour of South Beach and Miami from a local's perspective, culminating with a pleasant dinner on the veranda at the Miami Yacht Club while reminiscing about the foolish days of our youth in Savannah. That alone was well worth the trip. But before I forget, here's a note to future attendees about the book fair: Miami is a coastal city, and on a peninsula. The tropical weather can and does change rapidly, from torrential rain to bright sun and back in short order. In retrospect, carrying a poncho or umbrella would have been prudent at the Miami Book Fair. But as we huddled under the vendor tents, the spontaneous rain shower became a great opportunity to shop for books. During one such interval my wife and I had the leasure of meeting Stephan Earl, author of the children's book Kayla and Eli Discover Jazz. We found Mr. Earl gregarious and engaging. His books are colorful, educational, and entertaining, so we got an autographed copy for my youngest grandson. If you have a preteen kid or grandchild who loves to read, you should check out his website. Miami is also headquarters for M2Hospitality. His client list includes U2, the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics sports teams, Jeff Gordon, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Leonardo Di … [Read more...]
The worst sort of liberal
What is the worst sort of liberal? A person who says something really terrible, then accuses his most hated political enemy of making the offensive statement. For example, meet liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Theoretically, he gets paid big money to express his opinions about politics, not mine. But in a recent column purportedly about Chris Christie and the Tea Party, Cohen wrote about newly-elected mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio: Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) [emphasis added] This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all. Really! What exactly constitutes a "conventional view?" For whom does Mr. Cohen claim to be speaking? The columnist suggested that he had been misunderstood by his usually reliable liberal readers when they called for him to be fired. He even had the audacity to claim that it hurt his feelings to be called a racist. Oh, cry me a river, Mr. Cohen. I believe the applicable expression for him would be hoisted with one's own … [Read more...]
