Saturday, September 05, 2009

Internet celebrity deathmatches

The Internet - especially Facebook, brings you into text-level contact with celebrities. Some of the arguments I've had with celebrities
(I realize that most of these are not celebrities by many people's standards - only Ann Magnuson has been in a TV series or a Hollywood movie):

Me vs. Steven Pinker over whether or not Stephen Jay Gould's scientific opinions are discountable because Gould was a Marxist (I've heard from other sources that Gould, while a leftist, was not a Marxist.) I was pro-Gould, Pinker was anti-Gould

Me vs. Ann Magnuson (she's my Facebook friend) over whether or not Keith Olberman is just as bad as Bill O'Reilly - I said certainly not in a million years.

Me vs. Richard Dawkins over whether Helena Cronin, author of "The Ant and the Peacock" is obnoxious and whether or not Christopher Hitchens is a gigantic douchebag. Really, it's me and most of the civilized world vs. Dawkins on the Hitchens issue.

Me vs. Katha Pollitt on whether or not I was too harsh against a right-winger woman posing as a feminist. I agree with Pollitt on almost everything, so that was surprising.

And if my FB friend Christine Ebersole says one more word about how much she loves Ron Paul - it's ON!

Stay tuned for more celebrity arguments.