DUers are right in line with the average American: CNN bumps Dawkins for Anna Nicole Smith...

[BlooInBloo]

... Way to go American viewing/talking public.

http://digg.com/television/Paula_Zahn_bumps_Dawkins_for_Anna_Nicole_death_coverage

[rocktivity]

1. Well, of COURSE a professional atheist is going to take a back seat

to a dead gold-digging floozy and a homicidally jealous astronaut!

:crazy:
rocknation

[Katherine Brengle]

4. Ick.

Is it really necessary to bad mouth her? You could try just ignoring the story if you don't care...

:eyes:

[StClone]

14. Am I missing something

I'll give a nod of sympathy to the tortured soul that was ANS. I just fear the distractive nature of the media surrounding the swell of past non-existent importance the women will suddenly receive.

And to be honest you'll have to clue me in as to why ANS deserves a great deal of respect and defense from the mild (however I agree some is mean-spirited) posts about her demise. Call me insensitive if I see her as ignoble and a victim with a hand in her own decline. Is she seen as a compatriot for other women sympathetic to her life of self-abuse and abuse? What goodness did she bring to the world besides a child that is now motherless?

I just don't get it.

[rocktivity]

15. If she HADN'T been a gold-digging floozy, she never would have BEEN news.

It's what CNN "cares" about that's the issue.

:headbang:
rocknation

[JackRiddler]

16. Fine, I'll say the same thing, but in positive terms

Until her derailed final years and the death of her son, she took the hand that was dealt to her in life, and made the best of it. I see no shame in her seeking to re-purpose the ill-gotten fortune of an oil billionaire. Is "gold-digger" worse than "robber baron"? If he got it by whatever machinations, what's wrong with her getting it by using the weapons she had? (I am certain what she offered him for the final two years of his life was as good as he could have possibly imagined.)

I'm sure if I were her I would have set out to do the same, and felt fine with it. Why, did anyone else deserve to win the lottery more (or less) than she did? What she accomplished -- only to be foiled by the billionaire's equally undeserving family -- was the modern American dream. It's the only reason any of us even know her name. What followed was an all too typical story of personal downfall in a society where addiction is the ever-present motivator.

But otherwise she's just another of thousands of people who died before their time on the very same day, all of them equally ordinary or extraordinary, take your pick. I'm kind of shocked at seeing nine or ten big current threads on this. Can't we just consolidate the condolences?

I do believe Dawkins rates the TV time.

[StClone]

2. Put on your Flame retardant Mags

You can ignore mothers dying with their children in Iraq, and turn a blind eye to Darfur, and downplay Iran bombing possibility but don't you go dissing ANS's farewell coverage!

[deadparrot]

6. Oh, please.

95% of the 20 most recent pages of GD don't have anything to do with ANS. Probably more.

No one is ignoring other major new events; we can post our condolences to the family of ANS and care about other things going on in the world. Grow the hell up.

[StClone]

17. I am speaking of the outside world

Grow up? Who you kidding your mourning someone you haven't really known. Who are you defending? Playmates, Gold diggers, pathetic souls with destructive tendencies.

I've worked with impoverish depressed people. No money for meds, programs are cut or running out, I have had Dear souls die watching a priest delivered the last rites more than once. Veterans, Military Nurses, lost souls and they did more and received less.

It's this schmaltzy ANS worship when she is no more than the thousands that die every day. What made her special to bring out defenders sniffing out real or imagined threat to her tribute?

[deadparrot]

24. I'm hardly mourning her.

Nor am I dancing on her grave. God forbid I think it's sad that a woman died young and left behind a baby. A baby that, one day, will look back on the coverage of her mother's death and see nasty attacks by people who didn't know her. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know her, either, but I'm not the one making wild generalizations. All I did was comment that the whole matter was sad.

She was a human being; no more, no less. Why the hell can't one acknowledge that, tragically, tens of thousands die every day, and still acknowledge that the whole ANS thing is unfortunate? I'm not raising one above the other; why do people continually think that the two are mutually exclusive? Do you really think the vast majority of DUers or even Americans are rending their garments over ANS' death? I'm pretty sure they have other concerns.

[mzmolly]

3. WTF is it with the insinuation that we can't focus on more than one topic at a time?

We have several threads going here daily, and no ONE person gets to decide what is worthy of discussion.

[StClone]

19. Yes muti-task I agree we're awash in it

Yes and it's bad form to attack the dead, but she must of been a lot more than meets the eye to have such avid defenders to most any slight. I can't give one resounding thing she did other than work for animals. It's crazy what is going on DU now. I am giving this a rest.

[mzmolly]

21. I don't think anyone said she did anything resounding.

We can discuss her life/death from a different stand point. You know, "gee that's a shame such a tragic life/unfolding of events." We don't have to chasten one another about HOW to or WHAT to discuss. Her story is interesting, we discuss interesting things here. It needn't be always about hero worship. The world is full of REAL people, Anna Nicole Smith was a real person, both flawed and kind.

[Seldona]

29. I chalk it up to ignorance.

I can see someone incapable of focusing on more than one issue believing no one else is capable of such a feat.

That being said, I am absolutely shocked at the reactions from many so called progressives about this human being's death. Cold, cruel, heartless, commentary that is not only wrong but completely unnecessary. It really is sickening, not to mention the last thing I thought I would see allowed here.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. Ummmm, Who The Heck Is Dawkins?

[BlooInBloo]

8. 'Nuff said.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. Does That Mean It's Somebody We Don't Care About?

Was the OP sarcastic?

Not sure what you meant by "'Nuff said"

[Bigmack]

11. Richard Dawkins....

"Darwin's Rotweiller", scientist and Oxford professor. In your face atheist. Author of "God Delusion."

My hero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. Oh Ok. I Thought It Was Some Political Character.

Thanks for the info. :)

[AtheistInBabylon]

22. Operation Mindcrime

Mindcrime, is your board name in any way related to the band Queensryche and their all-time classic "Operation Mindcrime" album?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

28. Absolutely :o)

[AtheistInBabylon]

30. Excellent

Absolutely the greatest f ing album of all time. I live by that album, and Queensryche´s music (and lyrics) in general.

:toast:

How´d you like Mindcrime II?

Revolution Calling! :patriot:

[AtheistInBabylon]

20. Nice one

Ha ha :toast:

Nice characterization. One of mine, certainly. The book "The God Delusion" is warmly recommended to all. Also the author of the ground-breaking "The Selfish Gene" and "The Blind Watchmaker", among others.

[Critters2]

23. Here's a little irony

I read _The Selfish Gene_ for an ethics class in seminary. Great book!

[AtheistInBabylon]

27. Hi mycritters2 (friendly wave :) )

I think it´s actually a supremely important book for understanding ethics in the first place. If ethics are seen as part of the evolutionary process, there´s a much better chance to ground ethics socially than to ascribe them to a non-entity (God) or to ascribe their validity to a particular vacuum or need in the course of time. When a particular ethic, as conceived of by humans, becomes vital to our own sense of survival, as opposed to being a convenient excuse to disengage from debate or as opposed to serving as a fig leaf for oppression, it is much less likely to become doctrinaire ideology and much more likely to be a constant source of renewal. Glad you enjoyed the book :) (I´d raise the glass, but by smilies link isn´t working right now)

[Guaranteed]

7. Wait- didn't you spend the last four days talking about

a Snickers commercial?

[BlooInBloo]

9. Um, no?

I've spent the last four days talking about how to implement 6-month-projecting interest rate models.

[madrchsod]

13. this guy?

oh i`m bad--richard dawkins

[Critters2]

18. Actual, interesting conversation? In the American media?

Yeah, like that'll happen.

[nam78_two]

25. Dawkins was on?

I wish I had known..he is always interesting..
I think I have read pretty much every book he has written.

[LeftyMom]

26. Well, he was going to be

After CNN did a panel discussion on atheism with no atheists on it, and people rightly threw a fit. But, you know, priorities. Dead B-list celebrity > bestselling intellectual.