About red pandas

I took this picture of a stuffed red panda at the Natural History Museum. I don't know for you but they seem to be everywhere these days. Bill Maher even mentioned them a few months ago in his new rules, saying they are living cute plush toys. I have seen live ones since my visit at the NHM and they truly are cute and adorable looking. That said, I associate the red panda to the series of espionage graphic novels Queen & Country by Greg Rucka. Because Volume 8 is called... Operation Red Panda. There is nothing cute about this story, in fact it is bloody and violent. In a way, the red panda's fiery red fur fits the story perfectly: there is plenty of blood and fire in the graphic novel. So anyway, each time I see a red panda, I think about the series of graphic novels. And you, what do you associate red pandas with? What do you think about them?

The wise man, the jester and the loud mouth idiot

I have not posted about a controversy on Vraie Fiction in a long while, but here is the time and I could not ignore this. You must have seen or heard about this recent controversy: on the show Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Ben Affleck attacked not only the TV host and stand up comedian, but guest star Sam Harris, because they criticized Islam. You know where I stand: I am an atheist, like Maher and Harris, I am a secular humanist, I am also left leaning, at least on social issues. I think that you cannot be all this and not be very critical of any religion, including Islam. Affleck in a juvenile tantrum, reverted to name calling, ad hominem attacks instead of actually defending his point, or trying to demonstrate he actually had any point. Harris defended his view very well, both on the show and on his blog. Affleck, well, let's just say he is as honest a debater, as educated on these issues as he is a talented actor. And no, I don't consider him much of an actor. I wished Hitchens had been alive and there, so he could have hitchslapped the loud mouth idiot like only he could do. But Harris remained intelligent, pondered and polite. He did not have to remain polite. But hey, some people have class, some other are crass.

Religulous

Another movie I want to see. I got to give it to Bill Maher, he got guts. I am deeply worried about fundamentalism, coming from all religions. They have a fair share of fundamentalists in the US, of course, but we also have a few of those freaks here in the UK, and of course, sadly, in my beloved Québec. I think this documentary will give us all a healthy dose of secularism. A hilarious moment of the movie here.