What the hell are we doing?

The current situation in Iraq looks to the uninformed eye to be back sliding into further disaster. Apperances can often be misleading. However in this case even the uninformed eye is correct. I want to ask the American people how many more soldiers have to get blown up, and how much more money are we supposed to spend on that dung hill before we decide to come home? The Bush administration has said today that Iraq should work harder at forming a government. The response by the Iraqi UN ambassador was basically "mind your own business."
So what is the situation? We do not seem to be able to crush the insurgency. We cannot keep the streets safe for Iraqi's. The Iraqi government, such as it is, is powerless. The Iraqi army is being commanded by???? The infrastructure of the country is being rebuilt only to collapse again due to lack of maintenance or sabotage.
In case you have forgotten my question here it is again. How many more Americans have to get killed in Iraq? How much more of our money do we have to spend there? And another Q we need to ask it how is the operations in Iraq making America safer? Porter Goss does not think it is making the world safer. The State Department does not think it is making the world safer.
Maybe we are making the mideast safer by showing the other tyrants that we mean business. it wouild be great if the petty tyrants in the mideast were our enemies, but they are not our enemy. The biggest tyrant of all is the king of Saudi Arabia and he is best freiinds with Bush. Osama Bin Laden and his kind, is our enemy. What have we shown him? That we can be checkmated by using very inexpensive systems of resistance. But that is being too defeatist, not gung-ho, not home-alive-in-45 enough. So lets go back to the other idea of us making the mideast safer by showing the tyrants we mean business. So Syria pulls out of Lebanon and we say "hurray!", but again Syria is not our enemy. Syria may pay protection money to Hesbullah and Islamic Jihad, but only in the context of keeping its petty dictator in power. The little men of the mideast have not worldwide ambitions. They are constantly having to keep themselves from getting knocked off.
Osama Bin Laden doesn't like the kings and dictators in the mideast anymore than we do. We can actually agree with him on that count. He sees the dictatorships as all a part of some grand American design to destroy Islam. Sort of like Dr Dobbson sees gays having a grand design to destroy Christendom. Niether Dobbson or Bin Laden can be reasoned with. Their lack of faith in their own religion, and their use of fear and hatred to achieve their ends makes them irrational.
We are in a global war with an enemy that has an irrational view of the world. They have a rational view of power, and how to apply what power they have to kill, but that is about it. Meanwhile our leaders seem irrational in their blind adherence to a policy that shows no signs of winning this war.

A Question for you

Would you worship God if there was no hope of salvation?
Would you still go to church? Read the bible? I say that many people love the concept of heaven, or eternal life, but few love God. We see God as a means to an end, not the end in of itself. He is a facilitator in the consumation of our desires for more stuff, life included. His presences is desired on death beds, but seldom desired in the marriage bed.
We have developed elaborate rituals to ask His forgiveness, but the reasons behind us asking are ripe with suspicion. To ask for forgivness so you can partake in the sacrement of holy communion, is not the right reason. Our relationship with God cannot be a giant game of Redlight-Greenlight.
We are used to asking so we can recieve. But we fail to understand what to ask for. Few ask "How can I be of service today?" We all just want more life for us and our relations. We want to be taken care of and cannot accept that in order for that to happen we have to take care of our fellow man. It is not a quid pro quo either. God may not give you more life, a happier life, if you serve others. The door that opens before you may be the door to a gass chamber as surely as it may be the door to a mansion.
So I conclude by asking the same question. Would you worship God if there was not hope of salvation? And before you answer do not predicate it by saying that there is always faith or hope. Because there again you are trying to use hope or faith for salvation. I guess another way to put the question is what do you love? God or salvation? And if you say that you love God and have faith that because of that love you will acheive salvation then I put it to you that you do not love God but salvation, for where your treasure resides so resides your hart.

BENEDICTVM XVI PONTIFEX MAXIMVS

I think of myself as a progressive person, open minded, believing in science, evolution, global warming, etc. Yet I am really annoyed by people dumping on the new pope as if he was the worst of all choices.
1: He was a hitler youth? All young boys and girls were automatically in that dubious organisation during WWII. It was mandatory.

2: He was a German soldier? True. When he was 16, Ratzinger was drafted into the German army. He deserted Hitlder's army in 1945 shortly before the end of the war. Desertion in time of war, in even the US army, was an offense that carried the death penalty.

3: He's an arch conservative right? Actually his career has been pretty moderate (for the Catholic Church). Benedict, like JP2, is not following the moral and ethical relativism of American conservatism. According to this Pope, premptive war is a sin, as is any form of capital punishment, unchecked capitalism, social injustice. He, like JP2, was an advisor at the 2nd Vatican Council and still defends its conclusions including Nostra Aetate, the document on respect of other religions and the declaration of the right to religious freedom.

4: But he wrote Dominus Jesu, where he says that those outside the Christian faith cannot attain salvation? This may come as a surprise but followers of Jesus Christ like to quote the man. He himself said, "I am the way and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." and "No one comes to the Father accept through me." So from a Christian standpoint, and particularly a Catholic standpoint, the Pope isn't saying anything that should be too shocking.

Lastly Benedict is not JP2. He is not going to be a globe trotter. One Vatican official said it best, "We have to recover from a hurricane" refering to the affter effects of John Paul II's pontificate. Benedict is there to put the house in order and whatever else God wills.

The Price of Friendship and Osama Bin Laden

In 1981 we made the movie The Price of Friendship. In this movie a terrorist dupes two men into navigating a cargo ship to a space station then, at a pre-determined point, the terrorist hijacks the ship to crash it into the space station causing mass casulties. Basically turning a ship into a weapon of mass destruction. This is infact what happens, the two men escapce, their cargo ship destroys the space station and the terrorist escapes never to be heard from again.

April Poll Crunch

Things are not looking good for the President. Current poll crunch gives him an approval rating of 46.6% Gallup has Mr. Bush at 45%. This gives the President the dubious honor of having the lowest approval rating of any president in the last 75 years.

The negative numbers are also begining to hurt him on the Hill. Republicans, normally solidly behind the President, are showing signs of disunity and distance, particularly concerning the Bolton nomination for the UN.

The Republicans are also begining to find out that you cannot really claim to be the underdog when you run the Hill and the White House. While Democrats are finding their footing as a minority party and are behaving like pit bulls.

2nd terms are always a bitch.

No More Terrorism! Hurray!

In a bold move that shows the high level of logic and brain power of the occupents of the White House, the State Department has decided not to issue any more yearly reports on the status of global terrorism.
If we don't report on it, it must not have happened. Right? The White House said that recent terrorism reports, showing increasing terrorism world wide, are viewed as "not reliable".
This is another example of the typical Republican philosophy of either ignoring facts that do not match their viewpoint, or simply not asking for the facts at all. Clearly the White House is upset that their own State Department says that their war on terror is not going well.
The key to all Republican decisions is to let the American people know as little as possible about reality so they can lie to them. It is soooooo simple.
What is next? Stopping CNN from showing the Dow Jones Industrial average numbers? Can't have Americans thinking that stock investments might ruin their retirement.
The Republicans are continuing to offer us a large bucket of cement to put our head in. "If you only put your head in here, all your problems will go away. We will take care of you."
I find it more than a little ironic that the Republican dominated government sees all of us as Terri Shaivo. We are all brain dead, incapable of doing anything for ourselves, and needing Tom Delay et al, to help us spend our money, blood, and lives. And when we dare to try and think for ourselves we are class warriors, or unpatriotic, or even dare I say political.
There is nothing that will make a Republican more cranky than an American citizen not believing in their bullshit. George Bush is a lowsy President, we are not winning any war on terrorism, they don't even know what the hell the war is all about, they are lousy bankers, worthless budget makers, horrible generals, and couldn't make a real deal to save their lives. It is not conservativism that I oppose as much as mind boggling stupidity wrapped in the flag and brandishing a gun.
Republicans suck because they are incompitent.

Nazism Alive and Well on The Weiner Nation!

On Nov. 13, during one of many furious tirades that month about the Southern Poverty Law Center, Savage responded to a caller who seemed to agree with him about the case, but who questioned what appeared to be Savage's Jew-baiting.

And t hen we have Michael Weiner (Savage) He likes to call Liberals Nazi's but listen to this:
"What do you mean I am trying to stir it up?" Savage demanded. "A guy like Cohen, who is obviously a Jew from New York, is going after a decent Christian man. What am I supposed to do? Sit here and take crap from him? I think he is a vile human being who ought to be arrested for a hate crime.

"And I am not going to mince words. And I guarantee you that he says 'goy' behind the scenes." ("Goy" is a Hebrew word for a non-Jew that, depending on its usage, can be derogatory. Savage also uses the plural "goyim.")

At one point in the exchange, Savage seemed ready to advocate violence against Jews. But he stopped short of spelling it out.

"I'll tell you the truth, it's enough to break your heart to see what this country has become," he said. "And I have a lot of things that I really want to say today, that I'm going to have to control myself and not say, because there are things that need to be done that I can't say. But the country's at a terrible, terrible balancing point."

Savage's self-control didn't last long. Later in the same broadcast he mocked Jews in a fake Brooklyn accent and laid out a justification for anti-Semitism.

"That's next isn't it?" Savage asked. "From these verminous Brooklyn College lawyers, isn't it? Go down South and have a tee-hee over the goyim. Laugh at the goyim. Go down there and take away the crosses and they can't touch you, huh Mr. Cohen? [Mock laughter.]

"Mr. Cohen, and you wonder where anti-Semitism comes from. Let me strip the mask off it for you today, because if you think I'm going to mince words you are mistaken. It comes from situations like this, when you have a New York Jew like Cohen going down South into the heartland of Christianity and stealing the religious symbol from Christians."


A note from the blogger (me): As a Christian I wish to say that Michael Savage (Weiner) does not speak for either me or my God. Like all good nazi's he is using other peoples faith as a toothingstone for his own bigotry and hatred. He obviously has not faith in God, or anything else for that matter. Only those who walk in darkness on the wide road to hell can spew such nonsense.

Another Cheer for Democracy in action!

Tom Delay, that pillar of moral might, lobbyed to keep US laws from applying to the US controled Marianas Islands, where thousands of people work in sweatshops to make our shoes and where women are sold into slavery in brothels. He took his birbes in the form of free trips to the islands, as the guest of the sweatshop owners. God bless America! That big fat land, full of big fat people, with big fat mouths saying absolutely nothing. The land of sham, where everyones soul is for sale. Who's righteous rage and moral pretense stand like two ten thousand foot high granite blinders to its own hypocracy. Cheeseburger central where even a pauper can die of corinary artery disease. Does anything remain of the sons of liberty? Is all that is left of our soul, some cold statutes and dusty parchment? "Fire Sale! Freedom 1/2 off! Get it while it lasts 'cause when its gone its gone!"

A different perspective

The Churches perspective of the world is vastly different than our own nation. It can speak of how it dealt with the Emperors of Rome. It watched the Huns ravage Europe and then recede back to Asia. It's perspective on Islam is as an institution that was already 600 years old when Mohammed walked the earth as a child. From it's point of view Western Civilization is not a class to take, but what it forged with the Bible and a sword. It held Europe as a state and viewed kings as vassels. And it gave birth to the University system of higher education.
In 1945 Stalin was asked what he thought the role of the Pope would be after WWII. Stalin said mockingly, "The Pope? How many divisions does he have?" Yet the Church helped destroy Stalin's conquests without lifting a single gun. So when we get frusterated at the Church as an institution that is inflexable and dogmatic, we need to remember that it is the ultinmate survivalist. Empires have come and gone, whole cultures have been born, lived, and died, while the Church went merrily onward.
I am not trying to paint a utopian picture of the Church. It has been responsible for all sorts of not-at-all nice things. And it has splintered, and cracked, and convulsed throught the millenia. It will probably continue to do so on into the future; like a dividing cell, growing the organism by replication and evolutionary variation.
I have all sorts of advice for a new Pope. Let the clergy marry, birth control is a good thing for the third world (don't worry there'll still be loads of Catholics). Counter Evangelical Protestantism by combining the antiquity of the Mass in all its incence, and chanting, with modernity of music and speach. Use the Cathedral as a guide. Remember it was the first multimedia religious extravaganza. There was nothing else like them anywhere in the world.
But of course the Church will do what it is going to do. To us its actions may seem foolhardy. Like when the decided to send monks into lands ruled by bloodthirsty pegan warriors. Or even before that when, after having their Savior executed by Rome, deciding to go to Rome itself to preach. Or even before that when James and John gave up a perfectly good fishing careers to follow a homeless man. Some how I have faith that the Church will survive.

Review of Dark Star

"And I used to think you were cute." This pretty much sums up Dark Star. A movie who's VHS tape sleeve graphics far outshin the actual art direction. Okay enough nay-saying. This film is still pretty funny and has really held up well for a 1974 sci-fi film. It has held up well mainly due to the fact that it must have looked crude even back then. Blue screen? We don't need no stinken blue screen. It's visual effects are only slightly better than The Price Of Friendship and to be frank, not that my name is frank, TPOF's effects were better. The asteroids in TPOF kicked ass compared to Dark Star.
What Dark Star has is campy-fun and a total lack of pretense. It is a more honest film than Phantom Menace.

It was shown in an age before Star Wars, Alien, and all the rest. It sort of falls into that bizzare era betweeen 2001 and Star Wars. Fitting in well with Silent Running and Dr. Who. I am surprised that no body has wanted to do a remake of this film. Yikes!

Review of Popes funeral coverage

I channel surfed a bit in the lead up to the funeral mass. CNN requires that horrible data line at the bottom of the screen giving us all sorts of crud we don't need to read so I opeted for NBC. At least those guys left a full screen and kept the talking to a minimum. For a Catholic the mass, whether in latin, or English or Italian, is understandable. NBC had their clergy-pundit do the translation of the latin bits. I had the KJB open and followed along. Then a couple of things went sideways.
First of all when the psalmist began singing the latin version of Psalm 23, pretty much mandatory in a funeral service, the NBC pundit and the super script that flashed on the screen said it was psalm 22. Brian Williams picked up on the legendary psalm 22 as did the female counterpart. The 23rd psalm is the most famous and oft quoted psalm. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me...etc" Psalm 22 starts out "My God My God, why have you forsaken me ...etc."
The punditry kept quiet until near the end when the crowd was chanting alernately "Magnus! Magnus!" and "Santo! Santo!" letting the Cardinals know that John Paul sould be known as John Paul the Great and that he should be canonized. I have no doubt that both will be done in good time.
The Papel "historian" on the NBC punditry staff then said that this had not occured in recorded Church history since the funeral of Pope Gregory the Great in the 8th century. Well I will admit that I can't recall a papel funeral where the Pontiff was lionized so. Though that is probably because I have only seen three papel funerals out of 264 Popes. The pundit was of course wrong about the date of Gregory's funeral. He truely would have been one amazing pope to have been born in AD540 and lived until the 700's. The truth is that Gregory died in AD 604 in the 7th Century. I know this is papel hair splitting but I find that the pundits usually spew errors like this. The key is to not know anything about what they are talking about, then they sound smart.
Overall I think the news people were at a real loss for accurate words. One glaring omission on behalf of NBC was the lack of words regarding the heads of state. Now you can say that God is dead, and that John Paul was just a Jesus freak. But sitting together at that funeral were the leaders from the US, Iran, and Syria. The funeral of John Paul brought enemies together for 3 hours in one place. Looking at all the Jews, Muslims, Eastern Orthodox, Budhist monks, Sieks, and Hindus in attendance one can begin to appreciate what the Hand of God can do when He is so moved. Yet this event was ignored.
Not to beat up on NBC too much though because the real losers were the heads of state that missed a giant, historic, and literally God given opportunity to advance peace.
"May the peace of the Lord be with you all. Let us offer each other the sign of peace." Ratzigner spoke. And as millions in attendance, in Rome and around the world, my Mom and I included, embraced and said "Peace be with you." The leaders of the Earth stood still, or offered their allies a handshake.
How the world might have changed if President Bush had bothered to walked ten steps and offer his hand to the President of Iran or vice versa. But none took up John Paul's staff. If they had only taken to hart what John Paul II said when he first spoke as Pope in 1978. The words were not his but Christs, "Be not affraid."

Magnus Magnus, Santo, Santo! Santo Giovanni Paulo!

Ray

I am not sure why this movie was so good. But it was really good. It is a pretty simple story that plods along in pretty much chronological order and ends happily. There is a lot of predictable, and very well known, things that happen to Ray Charles. He lets success get to him. He is a womanizer. He abuses too much heroine. What saves this movie is the performances by Jamie Fox, Kerry Washington, and Clifton Powell. The performances of this film take an ordinary film and make it extrordinary.

It gets a 8

Human Parots

We have a heck of a time discovering the true nature of ourselves since we are so close to the subject. An objective view of ourselves by us is pretty much impossible. I think we are closer to parots than we might think. If a parot hears the same word enough, and is rewarded upon hearing the word, it can learn to say the word.

Brak!...Conservative Good Liberal Bad...Brak!

We practice a dehumanising culture of name calling, fear mongering, and scapgoating on many sides of the political spectrum. Examples of this are: Democrats do not love America. Republicans want a dictatorship. Christians want to cram God down our throats. Atheists want to ban God from everything. Liberals are amoral hedonists. Conservatives are backward thinking reactionaries. etc.

There was a time when even though people had differing views of politics etc, they had a presupposition that their foes were good people who loved their neighbor and were worthy of respect.
With the continued dehumanising culture of name calling, threats, and broad brush accusations on both sides of America, we are losing a huge part of national security. That being our willingness to stick together.

In our nations past there have been times when this sort of thing has cropped up. Spiraling in intensity until some event takes place to shift our attention back toward cohesion. In the 1930's it was the depression. In the 1850's and 60's it was the issue of slavery that ended in Civil War.

It would be wrong to think that our nations stability is granted to us from above. We have weathered crisis well, as we did in confronting the Depression. And we have weather crisis poorly, as in our ducking the issue of slavery until War came.

My advice is to stop listening to the right and left on the radio. They offer nothing but hatred, and fear.

Bushes other nickname

To the lovers of Bush he is, Bushy, Dubya, or to those who really know him Mephistopheles.

To other there is a word that matches the President in almost everyway. That word, his nickname, Charlatan.

"Charlatan" pron: Shar-le-ten

A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge;
A quack or fraud.
A person fraudulently claiming knowledge and skills not possessed.
A flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

I say that this nickname is almost perfect because he is not flamboyent, nor does he tell jokes well. To add to his full nickname I have chosen other words that fit him and his crowd:

Reactionary:
Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative.

Know-nothing:
1. A totally ignorant person; an ignoramus.
2. An anti-intellectual.
3. An agnostic.
4. Know-Nothing A member of a political party in the United States during the 1850s that was antagonistic toward recent immigrants and Roman Catholics.

Fuax-Yokel:
A multimillionaire claming to be a rustic bumpkin.

Slime:
1. A thick sticky slippery substance.
2. Biology. A mucous substance secreted by certain animals, such as catfishes and slugs.
3. Soft moist earth; mud.
4. A slurry containing very fine particulate matter.
5. Vile or disgusting matter.
6. Slang. A despicable or repulsive person.

Hypocrite
one who puts on a mask and feigns himself to be what he is not; a dissembler in
religion. Our Lord severely rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their
hypocrisy (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16). "The hypocrite's hope shall perish" (Job 8:13).
The Hebrew word here rendered "hypocrite" rather means the "godless" or
"profane," as it is rendered in Jer. 23:11, i.e., polluted with crimes.

So his grand nickname is: A Reactionary-charlatanistic-know-nothing-faux-yokel-slimey-hypocrite. Not a good name but whats in a name?

I make no claim to judge GW damned. Or indeed any human being. Since that judgement would be passed upon me. So I only point out the lousy Rep's stuff and the wastoid liberals stuff to get people to think. Not to assume either side condemed by God.

Sources:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

Review of Motorcycle Diaries

Che Guevara is more a graphic icon than anything elese, at least in the US. The movie trys to make him into a human being again. Well it does and it doesn't. The film never really clicks as a story of Ernesto's early years. The transformation he undergoes during the long gruling road trip is a bit too fake. However the performances are great and as a road trip movie this is one of the best. It shows us all sorts of parts of the South American world that we really haven't seen. It is a nice film too because it was made down south and does not try to sugar-coat things out of a sense of political correctness. If this movie had been made in the US it would have battles, and wars, and lots of mass killings; and of course all those things were taking place in 1950's South America. But this film is more adult than that. It takes forgranted that you are an intelligent person who does not need to be beat over the head with violece. You know it is there. You end up feeling good about both characters and want only the best for both at the end. This film left me wanting more of the story.

It gests a 6.5 for storyline and a 9 for roadtripage.

Well its just gone 9 o'clock and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode.

Killing Communist Sims.

Yesterday I killed communist sims. I was part of a three man squad that infiltrated enemy territory and instead of talking and dancing with the Sims, we took them out with automatic weapons and grenades. For their part the Sims did not show any desire to put their bling on and boogie with us. They too were armed to the teeth. We got to know them by shooting them in the head.

I then went home and did some chores and then decided to play Sims. My main Sim, Zuul, has recently moved out of his parents home and into a trailer with his friend Dudley. Dudley is a pig and does not pick anything up. He eats a burger then drops the plate on the floor and tunes the radio to heavy metal. He has a grave yard shit job so he sleeps most of the day. He is also careless with the barbeque and sets the damn thing on fire along with the fence. He, being Dudley, does nothing but wines that there is a fire. Zuul has to wake up, for he too works nights, and in his pajamas, has to put the fire out. He dresses and eats some cereal. He hates his suroundings, he doesn't like Dudley. He craves stuff to do. He spend an hour taking the trash out and cleaning up after another Dudleyfest. Then, in a cranky mood, he goes to work as poison tester. To make matters worse he pisses his pants while walking to the bus to go to work. I cannot understand why a teenager would play this hell-game.

Zuul needs to quit his stupid job and join the special forces. Then he can become a member of an elite team, as he works toward the common goal of killing all the bad guys. To Zuul every Sim Communist is Dudley.

Well Done Good and Faithful Servant

So passes one of the giants of history. I did not live in the age of Julius Caesar, or Napoleon. I lived not in the age of Roosevelt or Ramsese. I lived in the age of John Paul II. A man who's life changed the world. I have trouble with some of what John Paul had to say. But on the whole I respect him as a man who was not a hypocrite. He provided a moral compass that was ever fixed upon Christ. He was a great Pope. He presided over the largest gathering of humans in recorded history when he said mass before 7 million people in the Phillipines. He prayed before the wailing wall in Jerusalem and there set in its wall of payer an apology for all the evils done to Jews by Christians. He presided over 3 million people in mass in Krakow, in defience of the dictatorship in Poland. He scolded priets in public that had taken up arms in centeral America. He lectured GW Bush on the imorality of the war in Iraq. He was unafraid of the pompus powers of the earth. He forgave his wouldbe muslim assasin then went to Moroco and spoke of spiritual unity before tens of thousands of Muslims. He sided with the Palestinians on their right to have their own country. He spoke of the dangers of dehumanising capitalism as well as faithless communism. His life will be judged by men and some will say he was a great man and some will say he was foolish. But the only judgement that really matters is Gods judgement. In that regard I have no worry that Karl Woyteja will be welcomed as a faithful servant.

Breaking News: Pundits sweating

The scenes of intense saddness on the faces of TV pundits all over the world comes as no surprise. The fact that the Pontif is still alive has utterly devasted them. Yet not all is in darkness. For there are many pundits who revel in the telling and retelling, and re-re-retelling, of the Holy Father's condition. Producers all over the world are deep in meditation over their productions of "John Paul: A life Remembered", "Way To Go Karl", and Micheal Moore's "The Pope That didn't care for Bush".

So all media men and women silently, and loudly, wait out the last few seconds, minutes, and potentially days or years of this Popes life.

The Vatican has banned TV pundits from the square at Saint Peters. "They make a hell of a mess." Said Msngr. Visconti, in charge of cleaning up after Papal Funerals. "Usually we simply let the Swiss Gaurd get some Pike practice pitching the SOB's over the wall. But tonight, seeing them all weepy at getting to cover this event, we decided to simply kick them in the teeth."

And so, with his front teef mithing, your faiful corithpondet signs off.

Challenging Times ahead for Church

Listeninig to the TV guys, salivating over the coverage of JP2's demise, is enough to make me want to move to the Isle of Sky and be a hermit. But that would be bad since I don't like the concept of being a hermit.

9am: Pope John Paul II is near death. His vital signs are fading.

10am: His organs are shutting down.

11am: The janitor is coming in to take out the trash and has turned the "Open" sign to the off position.

12pm: Pope is really really really not doing to well.

Breaking News: Thousands of TV Pundits make pilgrimage to Rome to take up position overlooking Saint Peter's Basillica. Make ready to comment on Popes death.

Breaking News: The parents and husband of Terry Shaivo, band together to fight the loss of media coverage due to the Popes final hours, file law suit against Catholic Church claiming the termination of media coverage of their problems is a violation of their right to bicker at each other on television.

Breaking wind: National Right to Life group really pissed that they were behind the curve on Pope's Death. Claim they couldn't get the appropriate goon squad to camp outside the Vatican to protest the Popes wishes not to have extreme life saving measures applied.

But seriously folks. Can the Catholic (Universal) Church survive in these challenging times? Well it survived the burning of Rome by the Visigoths, the collapse of the Roman Empire, six hundred years of the dark ages, multiple schisms as well as some really bad Popes and anti-popes. Somehow it has still remained strong and vital.

If the church was only a construct of man, for man, it would have collapsed long ago. It has a devine spark at it's core that allows it to continue. To say the Church is of man for man is to argue that 264 men have really been geniuses to keep the institution alive for 2000 years. Clearly the men who have held the office have not all been geniuses. So the church will continue on into the future adapting to the situation.

Further Clarification of the clarification about dying

Make a living will!

I want to be King of Vietnam!

One day a few years ago, my freind Phong and I were both lamenting the shitty economy, the sad state of things generally, and how far the dollar doesn't go. Phong said that if he and I went to Vietnam, his homeland, that we could live like kings. "Save one paycheck Scott; just one paycheck. And we could live like kings in Vietnam for years."
I am going to either take the bus to work, bike to work on sunny days, or get a scooter. This gas price thing totally sucks. I just put $40 of gas in my van and that will last until Monday. 160 f'ing dollars a month for gas? I know our European bro's have been doing the 5 dollar shuffle for a while now but I'm an American damnit all!
So boyscouts can you name the top 3 oil producing nations?

1: Saudi Arabia clocks in at 8,711,00 a day
2: United States of America (What the fuck? I thought we didn't produce anything?) 8,054,000
3: Russia at 7,286,000

As you can see the reality is that the US is still a gigantic producer of oil. Of course we consume about 16,000,000 barrels a day so we end up importing 50%. The EU on the other hand produces a combined output of approx. 6,810,000 for all EU natioins.

The sad fact is that we have done nothing to prepare for this crap. Portland is far better off than most big cities. It has some pretty decent public transport.

We should be at $4.00 per gallon pretty soon, like with two years. So the idea of living tens of miles away from your place of work pretty much is rediculous.

Another Triumph for Television

As if to bolster my view that TV is to intellectual persuits what driving a 10 inch steel pike through your head is to the desire to have a good time, we have another great TV show for the ages.

Mansquito. Thats Man-skee-toe, like a man mixed with a mosquito. The tagline says it all "First they hunted for a cure, next they hunted a creature."

I could saw my own head off and still be able to write better movie material than this shit. Terry Shaivo could write better material than this shit. A Pumpkin could write better material.

So here is my story idea for the Sci-Fi channel: (copyright Scott Gregg 2005)

Shesnake: Hotty turns into a snake and terrorizes NYC.

Demonspeed: Street racing devil dudes vs. non devil dudes with Shesnake in cameo.

Reality Bites: About a reality TV that is posessed and attacks the people appearing on the show by causing them to mysterously explode..from within!

Numerator: Evil slime creature turns people into numbers.

Denominator: Pre-sequal to Numerator, same plot different day. Turn rubber suit inside out to get new monster.

Lost in Galactica: Billy Mummy is lost in the old set of Battle Star Galactic. Dr Smith, now totally CGI, helps him by being stupid.

Invasion of the plant snatchers: In this rehash the aliens take over unsuspecting plants and turn them into human beings.

Hurray for democracy!

We are selling Pakistan F-16s. The country that has threatened the democratic nation of India. The nation that is a dictatorship. The nation that is unstable and may wind up in civil war. The nation that bankrolled the Taliban. The nation that has sold nuclear weapons technology. But hey that doesn't matter since we are sowing the seeds of democracy. Oh wait, I just checked the bag and it isn't democracy seed, but fertilizer that we are spreading.

Review of all 3 Lord of the Rings Movies

This is the best trilogy ever made, edging out the original Star Wars trilogy by just a little bit. Outstanding storyline, solid characters, a world crafted so well that I am not sure how anyone could improve on it.
So you might ask what parts of the movie blow chunks? Well it is too weepy, and the humor is too forced. The only member of the fellowship to die is Boromir. And the only one of the major good guys to die in the film is King Theodan.
I think that all the crappy Middle Earth style movies along with the crappy lord of the rings animated movie really lowered my expectations about these films. I remember seeing publicity shots in 1999 and thinking "this is going to suck." Because nobody ever makes these films well.
Jackson has done a great job and the Return of the King definitely deserved the Best Picture award.
So the trilogy gets a 10.

Clarification of my position on dying

In my earlier blog I rambled on in a very semi-coherent way about Terri Shaivo etc. So here is some clarification.

I believe that life begins before conception, about 4 billion years before conception, and ends when your bodily processes stop.

We live in a world where we can keep a deadman alive almost indeffinitely. Terry Shaivo would have died the day her heart stopped if it had not been for amazing medical efforts. Listening to neurosurgens describe how the brain heals or does not heal it is clear to me now that Mrs Shaivo is brain dead. Her Cerebral Cortext is no longer present because it has atrophied away over the last 15 years. She wakes up, and goes to sleep since the brainstem is still alive. But nothing is above that. Her eyes may be active and respond to light etc, but there is nowhere for the signals to go after that. She can hear but there is nothing left to process the signals into anything meaningful.

So is our technology standing in the way of a death that should have happened years ago? No. The truth is that, though we use technology to lengthen lives, the quality of life is what truely matters and clearly in this case there is no life for Terry Shaivo. Her brain died years ago. But if we are not standing in the way of her dying then what are we doing? In my opinion we are simply doing what we are supposed to do, argue about life and death.

It is not good enough to simply claim to be a defender of life, the circumstances around that life count. We struggle to make life matter, last, and to pass life on. But we must also admit that we cannot stop God from taking us back to the dust when he chooses, in the manner he chooses. I do not believe that you can war against God to keep yourself alive anymore than you can war against God to end a life. When you go you go. And from a Christian standpoint, earthly life, though precious, is only a brief begining on a long long road. What is the right-to-life goon squad affraid of for Terry Shaivo? It would be nice to think that she already dwells in paradise, it's just that her broken body is still around on earth.

Death is just another part of existance. In the middleages and on into our own time Jews were called "Christ Killers" but wasn't the death of Jesus Christ for told? He new that he had to die. If you are Christian you have to believe that the Jews in those days, along with Rome, were acting out their part in the drama. God is in charge. It doesn't mean that we have no free will to choose. Our choices mean life last long or short. But even if I decide, on th spur of the moment, to jump off the top of the US Bank tower, that doesn't mean that my life and death is in my own hands. God is in charge.

In the end you are left with a sense that life and death is beyond anyones control. God will take Terry Shaivo away when it is her time. Not a moment before.

Jesus said that nothing we do here on Earth can add a moment to our lifespan. God is in charge. We struggle, do our best, fight death, save lives, but He is always in charge.

Mandate Shmandate

Scott's Poll-Crunch has a new number.
The Mandate Number. This number is based on Presidential poll numbers from Presidents that did infact have demonstratable mandates to do stuff. Like Frank Roosevelt.

The Mandate Bar is set at 70% approval

If a President wants to go on TV and tout a mandate from the American electorate he better have poll numbers like this. If not then all that talk is hot air only.

Using this number Bush had a mandate from Sept. 11th 2001 until about Christmas time of that year. After that his numbers plummeted to 43% in 2003 and have not really recovered. Clinton's outgoing poll numbers had Clinton at 65% approval after impeachment.

Bush Approval

I looked at 4 polls today.
CBS News: app: 43 dis:48 notsure:9 polled: 737
Pew Research: app: 45 dis:46 notsure:9 polled: 1500
Gallup/USA Today: app: 52 dis: notsure:4 44 polled: ?
Newsweek app:45 dis 48 notsure:7 polled: 1010
Time Mag: app:52 dis: 43 notsure:4 polled: 1000

Scott Poll-Crunch:
Approval: 47.4 Disapproval: 45.8 Not Sure:6.6

ROBOTS AND I ROBOT

Review of Robots:
I liked the film, it had good characters, predictable plot, no twists, nothing unexpected. However, like Shark Tales, Nemo, and Monsters Inc. it was entertaining. Is it Lord of the Rings? No. it did have an overt moral message that was beyond lovey dovey, and for that alone I give it a 7.

I Robot: For crying out loud people! Can't anyone do a good rendition of an Asimov story? Asimov is to sci-fi what Talkien is to middle earthlings. So much of what we take forgranted in that genre was layed down by Asimov. The Robot books, the Galactic Empire books, and the Foundatioin series is as rich and amazing as any fiction every written. So we have a hodge podge movie, slap-together from concepts layed out in Caves of Steel. But the robots end up being cartoonlike, the humans too stupid.

Instead of Peter Jackson rehashing King Kong he could be in preproduction on the Foundation Series. Instead we are left with Will Smith acting just like Will Smith and robots acting like cartoons.

I Robot gets a 5

Life

There have been three cases in the past couple of weeks that fortell a future of ethical and personal dilemas regarding life and when it ends. The cases involve people making decisions for human beings that cannot speak for themselves. And they are a biproduct of technology and our inability to know absolute right and wrong.
In the firsts case was a 5 month old baby who was born with a birth defect that made life impossible without a ventilator. In Texas a hospital may turn the ventilator off if it deams such life sustaining measure futile. The mother of the baby did not want the ventilator turned off but the courts sided with the hospital and the babys life was terminated by the actions of the hospital despite the wishes of the babys parents.
The second case is far more famous. That of Teri Shaivo. In this case the courts have decided that 15 years of vegitablehood is enough and now the woman should die.
These cases present an ethical, moral, as well as legal dilema. In both cases human beings are being gotten rid of when their continued existance becomes too problematic for their sustainers to put up with. I am not saying that Mr. Shaivo does not love his wife. In his view there is no hope. He may verywell be right.
In my opinion, and that is all it is, there is no moral argument you can make to kill either human. Shaivo cannot tell us if she is in pain or not. The 5 month old could not do this either. Any argument in favor of killing these to people, and that is what we are talking about, is non-ethical. You could not scentance a murderer to death by starvation, but that is the fate, by court order, that awaits Shaivo. Of course she is brain dead and has no cortex left to experience this or anything else.
In both cases the parents do not want the human to be allowed to die. This is the parental perogative. It is a hardwired response set down by millions of years of evolution. However if there was one shred of legal documentation to support the woman's wish not to be sustained in her condition I would support her dying. But not by starvation. Yet there is no document. Only a conversation retold by her husband.
The moral absolutists have raided this drama and will use it as a toothing stone to get more conservative judges, never mind that the ones who are siding with Mr. Shaivo have been Bush and Regan appointees.
The Shaivo case is replayed over and over again in hundreds of thousands of families every year. As anyone who has dealt with the wasting away of a family member knows, death though instant, takes its own sweet time to happen. That is why so many Americans want Congress and the lifer goon-squad to stay out of this. In my father's case we could have opted for more blood transfusions. This may have postponed his death a week or so, or perhaps not. We made a collective decision not to ask for another one. Not that it was even presented as an option. These cases usually play themselves out with more or less the acceptance of death on all sides.
The third case seems oceans apart from the first two. It the case of Apachey Company in Iraq and a nightime shooting incident that left two parents dead and their children orphaned. In a war zone people get killed. We rationalize the deaths of civilians as part of the terrible cost of war. Instead of calling it what it is, murder. Family is trying to beat it home before curfew and runs into an American patrol. Patrol opens fire on car and people die, kids scream, wounds ooze blood. The soldiers that killed the couple and orphaned an entire family were back on patrol the next night. They are supposed to put the hell of war "in a box". Well all these guys are gonig to come home with very evil boxes that will have to be opened at some point. Somehow I doubt that most will have the aid of counseling when those boxes open up and the screams of orphaned children come out. Conservatives who are carrying signs for Shaivo turn a blind eye to this bloody mess. The majority of Americans don't seem to give a damn about all the terrorists we are creating. "I want to kill all the Americans and drink their blood." Said the 14 yearold daughter of the killed parents.
We are all lousy at determining when people should die. That is why most religions tell us not to kill.

Happy Birthday to Operatin Iraqi Freedom

I have not beat up on Fox News since it's actions are so pathetically blatent that they speak for themselves but on this two year aniversary I will make an exception.
FN, the modernday holder of the Hurst prize for yellow journalism, was one of the biggest drum beaters for the war and the lame coverage. They had reporters embedded everywhere. As the 1st ID marched into Iraq, Fox would regularly trumpet the potential WMD sites that were being encountered. After a few months they too gave up on that line. Fox also liked to make things out to be pretty good in Iraq and all the gloom and doom was a product of liberal bais. They had this reporter give broadcasts from infront of these fountains, I guess to make things look like Disneyland.
And guys like O'Reilly, who I saw in person at the Rose Garden, were going around talking about how things weren't that bad and that things were "winding down". He actually used those very words the night I heard him speak. In the morning after that bit of spin, the UN headquarters was blown up and they were pulled out.
So where are the beating drums now? Looking at the Fox News.com site there is nothing marking two long years of bloody fighting in Iraq. If I were and American, and I am, I would find it insulting if a network didn't bother to acknowledge that fact.

So happy birthday Iraqi Freedom.
Happy birthday to the 1,696 families of those killed fighting on "our side"
Happy birthday to the 17,000+ families of those who were fighting on "the other side"
Happy birthday to the millions of refugees, the brutalised, the shell shocked, the depressed
Happy birthday to all the congressmen who never went to Iraq after sending others to fight and die
Happy birthday to Bush for spending 20 minutes in an Iraqi airport with a turkeyleg in his hand.
Happy birthday to all the pundits who lied to us
Happy birthday to all the terrorists that flooded into Iraq after we flooded in.
Happy birthday to all the Americans still dumb enough to think that this war was justified.
And happy birthday to all the American taxpayers who willing spent 160 billion of their own dollars to topple one man and create anarchy. But don't ask them to spend money on national health.

The Past

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Philip Morris also asks you to help fight inflation by purchasing only what you need. Purchase goods only at the lowest price you can find. Buy and hold war bonds. And keep your ration book paid in full. Only by working together can we win the war and bring our men home.

Blindness

I am tired of blind people. I am not refering to those who lack the ability to see clearly with their eyes. I am talking about people who, through their actions, cause harm, and sorrow to spread. They open their mouths and speak unkindness, their words are daggers, they cannot love for they do not know love when they see it. Their blindness to others causes them to find nothing in the world worth a smile. So they collapse inwardly, boiling in their own disolving bodies. Braking down like soup thats been cooked too long, canned in a pretty package, then consumed only to taste bland, brackish, uninteresting. They cling to every evil word and deed done to them, even if compounding the wrong in their own heads until the evil is vast and unbareable to behold. They use up what little feeling they have on anger, and fear. They are a sad lot.
I find myself hoping that someday they will have the scales wiped from their eyes. I hope they will see. But they will not see. They will go on in blindness until their lives are spent, wasted on twisting on their cross that they themselves have made; and then pass away to lie cold beneath untened brass name plates, in unvisited graveyards. And as the cold November rains come and soak the brittle leave that cake those forgotten tombs, what of all that wated effort to keep the wound alive? Are they off in some celestial plane weeping for that loss? Are they sitting amoungst each other, all piled ontop of by their countless fellows, prattling on about how wreched things are? Each being oblivious to the pain and feelings of the other. Or are they silent bones resting next to the silent bones of those who smiled at life, even when losing it by the hands of those who are blind.

TV Ratings

As I hardly ever watch network or cable TV I cannot actually rate the overall system. Judging only by the few snippits I do see, I would say that TV is a worthless time waster. I mainly use my TV to watch movies on either VHS or DVD. Today I had a moment and decided, what the heck lets see whats on the tube. First there is the bewildering number of channels and no easy way to know what is playing when. As I scanned the scrolling listing I saw, Matlock, and Cosby, Murder She Wrote, and CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, there were about 20 sports channels, and a host of movie channels showing current hits like All About Eve, and The Sting. I know TV production is expensive and time consuming but for crying out loud can't anyone produce a new series that doesn't include ignorant morons eating worms? I have heard lots of good things about the new Battlestar Galactic series. Pardon me while I stab a pencil into my forhead.
Channel surfing isn't even fun anymore since 90% of daytime and nightime programming are commercials. Here is a sample of what you surf through:
Exercise equipment
Exercise rutines
Fat reduction pills
Food preperation systems
Sexual enhancer pills
Hits from the 60's
So based on the aggregate of my limited TV time I give TV a 1. What a colossal waste of life to allow a minute of it to be spent looking at network/cable/satelite TV. I think that survivor is actually a very good program for the people who watch TV. It is perfect for the human who flushes his or her life down the shitter that is modern TV.

Changing Times etc.

I remember when I was a little kid and sick. My Mom would take me to Dr Chapel. We would wait in the waiting room with the other sick kids and their moms.
Reading the Newsweek article on the overworked mothers I was disgusted yet again to see such a total lack of connection to reality. Today when I took Trudy to the doctor for the second time this week, the place was packed with fathers and their kids. The only women in the picture were the doctors and nurses. It is such a cliche about how tough woman have it in America. The truth is that families have it tough. The men are just as stressed out as the women. They are far more connected to the raising of their children than their fathers ever were. My dad loved me but he never changed a diaper. He never took time off work to take care of a sick kid.
I actually relish taking care of my kids. They can be a pain in the neck and in lowwer regions, but that is the way it is. If people want to bitch about their children they should not have had them. And another fact is that women today have it much the same as the women of the past. My great grandmother worked 8 hours a day in bakery 6 days a week, and worked 4 hours each night in a laundry. All while raising 13 kids, and taking care of her husband who had his right arm shot off. So if women are complaining about taking their kids to daycare, and soccer, and cooking dinner in a microwave, and putting the laundry in an automated machine...well I am sure, some where in heaven there is playing the worlds smallest violin.

Another knife in the back of working Americans

"Those who can pay their bills should pay their bills. That's the American way," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

He was speaking about the restricting of bankruptcy protection to the working families of this nation. His hypocrasy is matched only by his in human cruelty. How has his party handled their own budget? By borrowing from the Chinese.

Another anti-Christian piece of legislation created by the anti-Christ Republicans

When I came to you naked you did not cloth me.
When I came to you hungry you offered me no food
When I was sick you offered me no comfort
When I was in prison you did not visit me

Republican response: Stop hanging around here you trouble-making jew boy. Who do you think you are..God? Say you look a bit like one of those ragheads, lets send you to Guantanimo, better yet let the Syrians have at you. All this property sharing and communal living makes us sick. You're probably a commi. And stop telling us what we have to do. We can decide what holy words to quote and wich ones to ignore. We're rich, and you don't have a place to rest your head. Why should we listen to a homeless freak like you. Your just a deadbeat. Your dad offered you a good career in carpentry and you skipped town on him and hung out with beggers, fishermen, and a whore. We can decide who gets to go to heaven and who should be sent to hell. We can decide who lives and who dies. You'll never amount to anything you pathetic jew boy.

Jesus: That wich you do not do to the least of my brothers you have not done to me. The judgment you have crafted and passed down on others will be the judgment that awaits you. Go to Hell.

Monty Pythons complete boxed DVD set

And now for something completely the same. I busted a gut again and again. This set is awsome. Lots of little things to amuse and inform, mainly amuse. Python rules! It rules because of its combination of intellectual prowess and total lack of seriousness. Compared with any modern day comedy Python still ranks #1 in topical hillarity. Much of its situation would still be beyond the pale on mainstream American TV. Only the Simpsons comes close to laughs at the expense of the holiest of holys. Python is so good and so ubiquitous that you can't really compare it to anything that has come after it. Since everything, from Second City, to SNL, to Mad TV, all trace their family tree back to Python.
Who else can reash the same skit, originally done in 1969, in 1999 and still get laughs?
"What I object to is all this sex on the teli..I mean...I keep falling off."

Dan Rather

Parental Advisory - Blog may contain harsh, but accurate, words

Dan Rather was a prick. He new the length of his Johnson and was unafraid of letting it dangle infront of other journalists. Since so much of American TV news is dominated by tiny peckered, prettyboys, waiting to have their tiny lizards stroked by Bush, and his masturbation machine, the departure of Rather was predictable.
Snapping back at Nixon or Bush Senior is a mark of self respect. Why would you praise a journalist if he/she spends all their career bent over giving head to all the power elite in the nation? I am sure CBS is looking for some dumbshit who looks good on the tube and is well connected in the Washington DC party scene.
Dan Rather is a toughguy and I am sure 60 Minutes will benefit with him back at it full time.
But what will happen when all the geriatrically challenged newsmen go? Who is gonig to replace those towers of "in your face journalism"?
By now there should be a whole host of 30-40 something killer journalists in the 60 minutes line up. Instead we have the one thousand, eighthundred and seventy five year old Wallace, who cut his teeth covering the 2nd Punic War. Or Andy Rooney who traded jibes with Homer while living at Ephesus in 325 BC. Rather was already middleaged when Cronkite was at his prime back in 1968. Remeber Rather getting banged up at the DNC convention? Probably not since we all were infants at the time, or not even born yet.
Modern TV seems to chew through "talent", for lack of a better word, in about as much time as it takes to chew a piece of gum. So who will ever gain the experience required to know what the hell they are talking about, and have what they are talking about be based in reality.
There are loads of conserva-nazis who are staunch believers in their nonsensical dribble. They will belch their narrowminded, non-reality, of otherworldly doggy dodo, until the drugs they're on require them to fix in the bathroom. Oh they will call a spade a spade alright. Mainly because they can't call a black person a nigger and get away with it. Fags, on the other hand, are fair game - for now.
So we are left with who? Wolf Blitzer and the like? For some reason I can't imagine Wolfy baby poking Bushy in the eye with his pointed questions and intellect.

What is up with boats?

I am sure there are lots of people who lack the required brain damage to wish to invest actual, proper, cash into a boat. Verily I am not one of them. Perhaps it was the head injuries as a child, or maybe it is an hereditary illness.
It is clear that not everyone likes boats because not everyone has them. To the person with the dain-bramage almost anykind of water craft is worthy of inspection. From the 16 foot scow to the 88 foot oceangoing tug (large scow) all are fare game for the boat-brain.
Pier99, is like a crack house to a junky, by the time I have spent an hour walking the peir I have a plan all set in my mind about buying a big boat. Of course the plan is not set in the real world. Atleast not yet.
Personally I like big Chris Craft cruisers. The kind that had their keels laid about the same time I decided to get born. There was this neat 1967 CC Cavelier, all laquered up, a giant wooden fix.
When I was a lad of around 20 I wanted to buy a boat big enough to live on. Nowdays that dream is alive and well but the requirments of such a vessal get in the way of me ever being able to afford the Christiansen Motor Yacht of my dreams.
Would me girls like the boat? Well...(rationalizations galore) of course they would.
I would pilot the vessal from Willamette falls, to Astoria, to the Dalles, and learn all sorts of crap about navigation, and other such stuff.
But then I look at all the boats in the marina and note that most look seldom used, and then remember that it is the brain damage that is responsible for all this.

Large Plume of ash seen over Mt St Helens.

I wanted to scoop all the other media on this.

A Discovery

In the days of Port-32, on Quentab VI, when Star Wars figures were Star Wars figures, and John's pool was the ocean on wich the Vader brothers fished, there was a bottle filled with old crap. This bottle contained a miniature canon, pennies, some SW figure parts, etc.

Well low and behold I have found that bottle. For years it contained the pool water from 1979 along with the stuff mentioned. Well the water has finally evaporated. But the stuff is still in it.

Sirach Chapter 9

A work will be praised for the skill of the craftsmen; so a people's leader is proved wise by his words. A babbler is feared in his city, and the man who is reckless in speech will be hated.

M & E

M&E is the best technical service in the history of the universe. M&E proves time and again that no question is too silly, nor lack of knowledge to catastrophic to flumex them. M&E is the best of the best of the best.

What is the point of all this factoidal knowledge

Here is an example of what I mean. There is space in my limited brain that contains "really important" information like this:

Teddy Roosevelt, as a child, suffered from asthma

I am sure that this is important, but couldn't I use that space for other information of a more practical nature?

We all have brains choked with trivialities galore. At the same time it seems like the stuff we really don't want to forget, like what date do we get our business taxes done, gets shoveled off to the brain's basement almost imeadiately.

Variable Annoyancometer and kids

The best thing about being a parent is that your children permanently adjust your brain so that it takes something really amazingly gigantic to annoy you. Not until you spend time with people who are not parents is the gross annoyance disparity thrown into sharp relief. You are reading a book and your child is bouncing a ball in the house, and at home you would just ignore it until something broke, and the something would have to be really special in order for even that to register. Put this event with people who do not have children and you notice the non-parents get the same look that Iraqi's have when they are checking to see if a suicide truck is headed their way. The person who said "children should be seen but not heard" must have been an alien not of this world in order to utter that with a straight face.

The problem lies deep in the early stages of parenthood. As a new parent you are schooled, via emersion, in all that is loud, uncontrollable, messy, disgusting, wet, and smelly. You are also schooled by the smile you little booger gives you, realizing that, for good or bad, this child thinks of you as his or her God. And whereas we adults can ignore God until we want something, the child has God to look at and scream at all day and all night. The god is quickly trained. And so it goes.

I have calculated that my wife and I have, between the two of us, changed my child's diapers approximately 4,380 times. For me I started this three hours after my daughter was born and finished 2.5 years latter. This has an effect. With dogs you throw them into the backyard and then scoop it up every once in a while. A cat gets a litter box and your neighbors flower bed.

I always get a kick out of movies that make such a big deal out of bowel movements in diapers. At first you are so overjoyed that the kid is born and ok that you change fifty diapers and you might as well be counting your gold bullion.

Then they figure stuff out and you don't have to do that anymore. And all of a sudden you feel, no pun intended, but kinda shitty. From there it just gets more complicated and time consuming. Babies are so much easier to deal with than children. Once they can do stuff on their own look out.

So I look on my non-parent friends with empathy if not sympathy, for though I can understand their annoyance with kids, I have long since passed the point of remembering what non-parenthood was like. I look at old photos and movies and wonder "What the hell did I do with all that free time?" I must have have done something for all those hours each day.

I think that all the sex ED classes are pretty lame since they talk about VD and AIDS and condoms, and other crap that teenagers can't relate to. These classes should start like this:

You know how much fun it is to baby-sit your nephew Bobby? And remember how glad you are to get paid and go home after three hours? Well imaging Bobby with you all the time, everyday, never out of your site, being Bobby. Then imagine that nobody is going to pay you squat for all that time. And imagine Bobby as a teenager getting drunk on his first date and puking all over the inside of your car. And then Imagine Bobby going to college and spending his money on strip clubs, and beer. Then imagine Bobby marrying a woman who you think should be committed. Then imagine those to having kids of their own then dumping them at your house everyday since both of them have to work and neither can afford daycare.

Still want to have sex?

I love my kids and whether they are bouncing balls, or needling each other, or playing nicely, I can, thanks to them, smile and slide on the ice.

The Pope

People who do not understand the role of Pope may ask why he doesn't retire. Bishops and priests retire. Popes die in office. As the holder of the office held by Peter, John Paul is bound to carry the office out to the bitter end. He is in the process of givinig his very life, all of it, in service to God. That is why the average bishop or cardinal does not really want to be Pope. It is a job that has no retirement possibility. John Paul can retire in heaven after faithfully following Christ's call to make desciples of all the nations. Whether you agree with him or not, it has to be acknowledged that Pope John Paul II has been one of the most charismatic, forceful, and respected leaders, not only that the Catholic Church has ever produced, but also that the modern world has seen. He is one of the giants of history.

Real question about 0 (zero)

Does zero exist? Better think hard on this. A concept that seem pretty straightforward now, was not so straightforward in ages past and with Quantem mechanics that can of worms has been reopened.

Can zero exist in a universe who's foundation is filled with uncertainty. The prinicple of uncertainty not only prohibits black-holes from being black, it also causes a problem with any type of singularity including the Big-Bang singularity. And it causes a problem of "0" since engergy seems not to be able to have a zero state. Since matter and engergy are different aspects of the same thing (e=mc2) matter cannot have a zero state.

In the past the argument was whether zero was an actuality or simply a philosophical construction. Surely you can zero-out a measuring device..right? Well if we accept uncertainty then absolutely zeroing anything out is impossible.

Creationist Talking Point Rebuke #4,275,410

Talking Point: The Speed of light has changed over time

Rebuke: In the dense bright distant past, about an hour after the Big Bang, the speed of light was probably slightly, overall, slower since the medium through which it moved was denser than today. But for the past 15 billion years, give or take a couple billion, the speed of light has been 300,000 kps. How do we know? Creationists love to claim that we cannot realy know about the distant past. The facts are that we use the laws of physics to determine how the past must have looked. These laws are not guesses. These laws allow us to build the modern world. They allow us to build cars, PCs, tanks, satelites, cell phones, broadcast televion stations, radios and microwave ovens, to name only a few. The internet itself is a product of modern physics. The laws of physics not only show us how to build and design things, they tell us how the universe has evolved to this point and they tell us what the probable future will be.

For instance in about 4 billion years our sun will have spent all its fuseable material and its atmosphere will have expanded to engulf the Earth. But not to worry since all life on Earth will have been long extinguished before that day since the flucuations in the suns output would have toasted the earth a billion years earlier.

Back to lights speed. It is constant. The speed of light coming from the head light of a train is the same as it is from a man holding a flashlight by the train tracks. I could go on like this spouting basic highschool physics but the creationist would still not believe. Their faith is so monumentally weak as to faint if the Bible is proven to be a book about faith rather than a book about history and science.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, The triune manifestation of the one God. And I read the Bible everyday. But if I am building a computer I do not consult the Good Book on what to do. If I am designing a 40 story office tower the bible is much practical help, other than telling me not to build the thing on sand.

For the biblical literalists there is NO age given for the universe. The creation date is NOT GIVEN. The location of Eden is NOT GIVEN. The location of Mount Sianai is NOT GIVEN. In short all the little bits of info that the non-faithful crave is not in the Bible. It doesn't have to be. The times and places are unimportant. It is what took place, not when, not by what amount, or even who.

Conservative Talking point rebuke #7,256

Talking point: The Hollywood elite is out of touch with mainstream America

Rebuke: Excuse me but Hollywood has made billions providing entertainment that the public wants. This doesn't mean that Hollywood is providing quality programing or movies. Mainstream America isn't too interested in quality. Ergo the relection of Bush.

Yale Lake

The pumice that resides on the shores of Yale lake seems to reflect more sunlight than it recieves. Light from that silver band around this lake adds to the clarity of the place. The deep black green of the Douglas fir that scales the steep mountains on either side of the Lewis River gorge, now Yale lake, add to that clarity.
When I was a child and camping on that lake shore I would watch as the logging trucks would travel down the oposite bank. It was a never ending train of trees to be turned into everything from houses and toilet paper, to crucifixes and coffins, and probably protestors signs who would protest such logging.
That was a long time ago now. And the hills are lush and green and the lake, my lake, my swimming pool, my friend, companion, and playmate, has not seemed to change. As I walked, alone, through the silent empty campground, passed the dock, over the shore where twenty eight years ago I skipped a rock off the back of my own brothers head, the spirit of a thousand children, skipping a thousand million stones, filled me soul. I could hear the talk of families, scampering of wet feet in the bushes. I could smell the 2 stroke oil mixing with gas in the powerboats, and the burning pitch on cut fir cooking hotdogs.
I know that somepeople like the outdoors and some people tolerate it and others just plain don't like it. Yale lake is not remote. The campground is not a "hardman" campground. And it isn't an escape either. To camp there is to come home. To return to the city is a Babylonian captivity. And always we seek to return to the promised land. Back to that lake, and its timeless connection to the act of being happy.
It is winter and the lake, like the black bear, is sleeping. But as the rays of sun strike those gleaming stones, are absorbed by the dark woods, and reflected off the cool water, it will awaken once more and I want to be there.

Hopeful-less

Possible Future:

Egypt, sporting a very young and educated population, has taken the Bangalor track. Using its educated youth, low wages, and central location, it has become the technological hub of Saharan Africa.
Dell, Sony, HP, Motorola, etc now have a major manufacturing presense in the land of the pharohs. Egyptian subcontracting firms, awash in techno-dollars, now vie for control of the increasingly liberal government. The days of Mubarak are over. As the industrial capital of North Africa, Egypt is also attempting to partener with other states such as Etheopia and Sudan for outsourcing of more menial jobs.
Recently the government of Lybia has also been openning its own industrial centers, with Fiat and GM locating new plants in Tripoli.
Yet dispite Egypt's success and Lybia's quest for wealth, the big news is in Palestine where the Isriali company Gilat, and Microsoft have partenered to create the next generation of telecommunications network utilizing Gilats's satelites and Microsoft's Networking. Producing consumer level, low cost satelite phones, and also satelite networkable blackberry and PDA devices.
10 years ago Palestine was in the news mainly because of the intifada. Now Palestine has one of the highest percapita GDP's in the world. Furthermore the increased economic connection between the former enemies has led to a stable and lasting peace that is the envy of those less fortunate places on the Earth such as the American Southwest where ethnic tensions are at an all time high.

The "Argh!" factor

I look in the mirror and..."Argh!"

Ecclesiastes Rocks

Much of popular culture has been influenced by the Bible. Biblical sayings and whole passages from the New and Old testements show up in all sort of places. Ecclesiastes has been used in the following ways.

In the mid sixties The Birds popularized Ecclesiastes in their song Turn Turn Turn, where virtually all the lyrics come from chapter 3.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; etc. etc. ect.

The group Kansas has their Dust in the Wind. Though the lyrics are not verbatim like they are in Turn Turn Turn, it pretty much matches the scripture. Kansas paraphrases the scripture where the writer says that the struggle of life is like "chasing after wind" And "All that is now has ever been" and again "what we make crumbles to the ground."

Even the saying "There is nothing new under the sun" comes from Ecclesiastes.

My mom asked me where the prophets are today. I tried to explain my view that prophets abound. And the prophets that preached refrom in ancient times were not understood to be prophets at the time. They were trouble makers and most were killed for what they said. I don't want to equate only music with modern prophetic teaching. People who urge us to conserve our planet so we don't kill the place off are prophets too. But there is something to be said for people who link their passion with those who have come before. And they are always the ones who leave a lasting mark. Isaiah did not speak out saying "I really think it would be a good idea to reform our lives and rededicate ourselves to truth, justice, and honoring God." There is much more power when he links the prophets of the past and does not speak for himself but says:

How the faithful city
         has become a whore!
         She that was full of justice,
     righteousness lodged in her--
         but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross,
         your wine is mixed with water.
Your princes are rebels
         and companions of thieves.
     Everyone loves a bribe
         and runs after gifts.
     They do not defend the orphan,
         and the widow's cause does not come before them.

Therefore says the Lord your God:
      I will pour out my wrath on my enemies,
         and avenge myself on my foes!
I will turn my hand against you;
         I will smelt away your dross as with lye
         and remove all your alloy.
And I will restore your judges as at the first,
         and your counselors as at the beginning.
     Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness,
         the faithful city.

Here is a bit of writing and you tell me if it could have come from a holy book:

Let them all pass all their dirty remarks
There is one question I'd really love to ask
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me
One love, one heart
As it was in the beginning
So shall it be in the end
Alright, "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right."
"Let's get together and feel all right."
One more thing
Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon
So when the Man comes there will be no, more doom
Have pity on those whose chances grow still thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation

Of course this is from the famous song One Love by Bob Marley and Curtis Mayfield. Yet Marley's words are an affirmation of the Lords rebuke through Isaiah. And in music like this I think there is a vitality that is lacking in most "religous" speach. I do not believe it is good enough to simply recite something. Modern prophets need to take the age-old calls to redirect mankind and apply their own lives, and times. Marley does this in many of his songs and that is why he, though dead, is still wildly popular in all over the world.

Next we have lyrics from Nazarath. A band of north englishmen who were the epitome of hard rock in the middle of the 1970's. If you listen to the sone "Son of a Bitch" or "Whisky Drinken Woman" you might not think that these guys were much into peace and love.

Please don’t judas me
Treat me as you like to be treated
Please don’t blacklist me
Leave me as you’d wish to find me
Don’t analyze me, sacrifice me
Please don’t judas me.

Please don’t chastise me
Show me just one shred of kindness
Try to help me see
Guide me in my eyes of blindness
Don’t despise me, categorize me
Please don’t judas me.

Popular music and culture has always been awash in Biblical and gospel references. Jesus told it like it was. He didn't design his sermons to sell. And he was unafraid of offending the establishment.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 

Rock on

Luxury

I am not sure of anything. It is not good to settle for being happy or content 51% of the time. We should all expect way more than that. Happiness is like anythinig elese, it has to be worked at. It just doesn't happen. And it is a worthy goal.

World War IV

The Fourth World War is now been going on for 3 years and 4 months. One can argue when the WWIV got started, but I will put the begining of it on 9/11/01.

So where are we at? There is a chilling article in The Atlantic Monthly written from the perspective of 2006, after the "2nd wave" of domestic attacks. It is a bit ironic that so much of what is in this article was spelled out by Porter Goss yesterday. Far from acting to dry up the breeding grounds for terroists we are making more of them.

Even if Iraq never happened we would still be facing a grim future. Iraq has plainly made a bad situation worse. And it really doesn't matter what happens inside Iraq. Democracy, Tyranny, Civil War, it really makes no difference because our enemy is our enemy and they are not going to have a "V-8" moment over this. Bin Laden and Zarcawi are not likely to simply go away. Their apocolyptic beliefs do not contain a world that includes Satan. To them we are Satan.

If we were to change our policies, and work on behalf of the real people of Arabia and north Africa things still would not improve for a long long time. And this too would not persuade the enemy to stop. The Bush administration, though talking tough and killing people, is killing and ruining the wrong target. We should have been spending 80 billion to take out leadership, infiltrate their networks, and kill their followers.

I will serve up another analogy. In May of 1864 Grant moved south into Virginia. The confederacy evacuated Richmond. Lee layed plans to defend the capital of the South. Instead Grants movements indicated that he didn't care if Richmond fell or not. Richmond was not the target, cities were not the target, the rebel government was not the target. Lee realised that it was his army that was the target. Grant understood a fundelmental aspect of war. There can be no real war without warriors; kill the warriors and even a rebel government is defenseless.

It isn't good enough to bring democracy to Iraq. In the long run it will help, however democracy will not disuade our enemy. They have no nation, or government, but they are warriors. Kill the warriors and there is no war. And we better get busy because they will kill us if we do not kill them.

Levels of Commitment and Newsweek

On the cover of Newsweek, last week, were two Iraqi insurgents. Reading the letters to the editor this week I found a kind of blindness that is very dangerous. Most letters were angry that Newsweek showed insurgents on the cover. One writer had a son in the Army and wanted know why NW was glorifying the insurgents instead of her son.

I think NW is right on the money with their cover and coverage. As the Super Power we tend to think that we corner the market on commitment to cause, ability to fight, and we can overcome anything.

The truth is that "American" thoughts on hegemony, power, and belief in manifest destiny are shared by every other culture on Earth. With the insurgents we have utterly failed to accurately understand our enemy. Until recently we have continued to belittle them, and believe that their vanquishing is just around the corner. Because of this lack of ability to read our enemy, the greatest army to be fielded in the history of the world is stalemated against a rag tag band 17,000 under supplied, overworked, poor people.

Newsweek does not glorify the insurgents. They only try to show us what we are facing.

In 1415, king Charles of France, ordered the largest army in Europe to crush a much smaller English force that had terroized the coast. The flower of French Chivalry, believing in the honor of knighthood, the glory of France, using the most technologically advanced battle systems, were destroyed by a bunch of vagabond archers commaded by Henry V. They failed to understand their enemy.

In 1941 Japan launched a pre-emptive strike on the US Pacific fleet and won an instant, painless, and great victory. For a year they devastated the allies in the Pacific. By 1945 their nation was in ruins and millions of Japanese were dead. They failed to understand their enemy.

In 1942 the German army was poised to conquer Russia. Moscow was only miles away. The mongloid Russian, cavemen to the Germans, were running. By 1945 the cavemen sat in their tanks ontop of Hitlers bunker while he put a bullet in his own head. He failed to understand his enemy.

The same could be said about Vietnam etc.

Does our enemy know us better than we know them? We have spent 80 billion dollars to defeat them and there are just as many insurgents now as their were in 2003. We crushed Fahlluja and made 200,000 people refugees, and general Richard Meyers has stated that we still face the same number of insurgents.

Fox News and the other non-news services have continuosly overestimated the number of "forign fighters" in Iraq. Meyers says that there are less than 1000 foreign figters facing our troops.

Media outlets serve no one by simply cheerleading. There have been lots of cheers go out to doomed armys from Darius' force that got slaughtered by Alexander, to the Warmach marchinig out to Russia, to the 7th Cavelry going after Sitting Bull, to the 7th Cavelry landinig in Vietnam.

General G.S. Patton, spent years reading what German tankers, cavelrymen, and soldiers wrote. By the time we unleashed his 3rd Army into Europe, Patton understood his enemy, greatly admired them, and destroyed them.

Bush finally admits the truth...again

While stumping for the continuation of the unPatriotic Act, President Bush told the truth about all his security measures. He said that people shouldn't be fooled by the "Illusion of security".

If the Patriot Act worked then would we not have real security instead of the illusion of Security? And if the Patriot Act provides only an illusion then why continue it? His speeches work well provided you do not actually listen to what he is saying.

Then the new CIA director comes to capital hill and says that our nation faces as many if not more threats from Al Queida as before. He also directly links the aciton in Iraq with an increased threat to the US. This directly contradicts the White House position that the action in Iraq has made the US safer. According to Director Goss we now face insurgancy-trainied jihadists that may come to the US to strike. So Iraq is on its way to democracy, maybe in twenty years, and the Jihadists are on their way here. Thanks GW!

Unlike many people I have no problem with how Bush talks. I have more trouble with what he, and his misanthrops are talking about. Whether he is talking about the continuation of freedom in America only if freedom happens abroad, or whether he is talking about the glory of turning over to private hands, the peoples power for governing their retirement, or speaking on the illusion of Security after creating the Department of Homeland Security, and the Intelligence Director of redundancy, one has to wonder if he really understands all the logical inconsistancies of his bullshit.

Still 51% of the sheeple eat it up. Of course this same crowd loves Survivor, and the Left Behind Series, and watches huge amounts of porn in hotels, and goes to church every Sunday, unless they are in a hotel watching Debbie Does Dallas part sxity nine. They will argue against evolution while eating steak from a genetically engineered cow, then give the leftovers to their genetically engineered tea-cup poodle. They will say that Quantem mechanics is nonsense and then watch Billy Graham on DVD. They will say that the world is going to end anyday now, while on their way to invest in more US bonds that wont mature for 20 years. The sheeple are like Bush in that they don't actually listen to what they are saying and how logically inconsistant they are. They will say they are pro life and then cheer as somebody gets executed. Many of them like to shoot things and cheer as we go blow people up, all while claiming they are a culture of life.

Bush is the perfect hypocrite for the perfect hypocrites.
Of course the leftwing, who claims to be the antidote for Bush and the Bushleague, is full of the same type of people. The left is as full of moral absolutists, and ethically challenged misanthrops as the right. Look at Ward Churchill and his stupid remarks about the dead of 911. Is he any different than that republican prick who said he was "outraged by the outrage" at Abu Gharaib? And then their are mentally challenged folks at Air America, Frankin not included, that spend as much time as they can pushing people to the right with stupid insults of Christians. They left sucks and if people are looking to them to counter Bush then they are doomed since the left and right are one in the same. If the left is so damn right where are they now? Where are the protests in WDC with millions of angry people? They are limp biscuits of canned rage just like Limpbutt and Michael Whiner (Savage).

We need some sanity and that is what a true progressive person can provide. Not ideologues that cannot bend even in the face of disaster, and retarded decision making. The progressive, unlike the convervative or the liberal, does not care what a policy leans toward. The progressive wants to craft policy based in reality and uses tools that work. If the tool looks liberal, they do not care, if the tool looks conservative, they do not care; they only care if it works. They are the ones who built this nation. The ultimate progressive document of this age is the Constitution. It does not suffer ideologues. That is why the left and right always bitch about it. That is why it works, it is a pragmatic document that makes the assumption that humans are not perfect and cannot be trusted with too much power. It also assumes mankind, though imperfect and pwoer-hungry, can be forced by accepted law, to govern himself and his baser instincts. Conservatives and Liberals both fail because they put too much faith in humanity. Conservatives put too much faith in money, and those that posess it. Corporations will enslave you if you let them. And liberals put too much faith in the kindness of strangers. Mankind will not just get along without the structure of law.

But we are still stuck with the hypocrite and his bushleague, and the hypocrites that oppose him. And while the hypocrites argue over the contents of their belly buttons, the world goes marrily onward. The EU is the worlds largest economy, and China is the largest consumer.

Hey liberals and conservative! Yes you! Grow up!

Reviewing The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, and did I mention it was done by M. Night Shyamalan?

And this movie is by M. Night Shyamalan, and M. Night Shyamalan was the man who wrote this story, and M. Night Shyamalan produced this movie, and M. Night Shyamalan directed this train wreck. Who the hell bequeathed to M. Night Shyamalan the status of Alfred Hitchcock of the 21st century? Just what has this dude done to merrit all top billing on the DVD. After all it is "M. Night Shyamalan's The Village" As a graphic designer I also find it curious that they icorporate "The Ring" graphic in the DVD jacket. I guess they want you to think that this movie was as scary and The Ring, lots of crappy films have that on their DVD jackets too. I saw The Ring and aside from two hairaising instances the film blew chunks.

This little movie takes you back to the good ol'days of the suspensin of disbelief. I figured that the "Elders" were bumping around in the dark to scare the town folk from seeing the real world. This M. Night Shyamalan better understand that the US may be full of trogs who love Bush but we aren't stupid enough not to figure this plot out pretty damn quick. Oh no I gave the twist away. I think M. Night Shyamalan should make a comedy. He seems to have the knack, it is just simmering beneath his preachy horror, psycho, blah-blah, movie making style.

Anyone who wants to be scared or surprised should not see this movie. However there is one redeeming feature to this film. M. Night Shyamalan might redeem himself if he were to say that this film is a metaphor for the modern USA. If he were to say that then I would think he kicks ass.

In this film, to protect the citizens, the government concocks a story that the woods are filled with murderous monsters, and then, when faced with the potential death of a citizen, sends a blind girl into the same forrest to get help. After she gets back the government votes to keep the lie alive so everyone in the village can live in a fantasy land. I think I read that in the 911 Commission report.

Alien vs Predator

I am sick of the pyramid getting such a downer of a bad rap in all these movies. And what is it about pyramids anyway? Oh yes I forgot, no human being would ever build something like that. Before I go into this movie proper, I need to say that I rented two movies tonigtht. AVP and The Village. I was glad that Sigorney Weaver was not in AVP. I then go and watch the Village and low-and-be-hold find out I rented Sigorney anyway.

AVP is better than Alien 3, the worst of the films. Not as good as Alien 2, about a tie with Alien 4, and not even in the same genre as Alien. A movies enjoyment factor hinges on what you expect and I expected a big stinking turd on a DVD. I found it very entertaining, as scary as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and almost 100% predictable. I actually think this movie is more intellectually honest than 3 and 4. There was no faked pretense about the bad guys. All the potential creepiness of walking around a frozen pyramid, 2000 feet under Antarctica, and swarming with two speices of killing machines, was rushed and blanded out with nonsense characters, and less than scare jack-in-the-box shots. The worst thing about the film was the 100% lack of character development. That is why, 3 hours after viewing the show, I cannot recall one name of any of the characters. Only Bishop.

The story was the worst type of hollywoodized clapt trap. The Predators come down and make like gods to the poor human shleps all so the humans can be used as incubators for the Aliens. This seems kinda out of character for the Predators. They live to hunt, their the NRA gone galactic. Why the hell would they waste time on all the duplicity and bureaucracy of native religions all of the Earth? It seems to me that they would be more likely to kill all the humans in a day or so, make a picknick out of it, then dump a can of aliens onto the earth and let them infest all the other animals. This plot was too much like the WWF. I was waiting for somebody to yell "hit him with the chair!"

Anyway I liked the movie and it had me chuckling and warmly smiling while useless non-characters got non-scarily, non-disgustingly wacked. And this movie wasn't even rated R. I bequeath unto AVP the ranking of 5.

Is the Bible the literal word of God? Yes.

When you join the church most demoninations want you to profess that the bible is the literal word of God. I have heard Christian pundits talk about the bible as the foundation of law, or the only word of God, etc. I wish to ask them this question:

When you ask me if the Bible is the literal word of God what Bible are you referring to?

The Hebrew Bible?
The Catholic Bible?
The Protestant Bible?

Each of these books are markedly different. The Hebrew bible does not contain any of the New Testement and is pretty much in chronological order. The Catholic Bible contains Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and I, II Machabees. The Protestant bible does not contain these books and is also a bit different in Daniel and Esther.

And what about the biblical stories in the Koran? The Koran, unlike the Hebrew Bible, contains the story of Jesus and even acknowledges his birth by the virgin Mary. The Koran also contains a bit more storyline about Jesus as a child.

We could really get all bent out of shape over differences in books. The truth, I think, is that all these books are part of the Story of mankind's awakening to his importance to this world. No other creature is like us, and no othe creature has the capability to destroy this world, or take life from this world and more it elsewhere. Some people read the ancient text to justify themselves to others or God. Some people read the text to poke holes in the inconsistancies, and there are many of them. I find the people who get the most out of such writings, are the people who read the text with an open mind, people who like to ask questions about the text, who do not blindly accept it the as the literal word of anyone. The Bible is the product of 3 thousand years of man walking with his God, sometimes humbly, sometimes imperiously.

To me the Bible does not need any suspension of disbelief. It is for me, and has been for others, a key to openning up a broader view of universe and myself in relation to it. It is a bit like the total-perspective vortex in Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, with a twist. In the story Zaphod goes into the vortex and comes out just fine. He says that it told him what he new all along that "I'm a really great guy!" Well the twist here is that the bible does reveal our importance to things, and at the same time shows us our utter insignificance too. The hairs on our head are each known to God, we carry an imortal bond to God, but we all will perish and return to dust; kings, beggars, rich, and poor, even prophets and Saviors are part of this cycle.

To me the litteral word of God is written accross the faces of all my friends, family, and the strangers I see on the street. It is in snow on Mt Hood, and in the ocean. It is everywhere and the Bible helps you unlock that knowledge. The Battle Hym of the Republic speaks of a firey gospel writ in burnished rows of steel, the rows of men with light glinting off muskets and bayonets. The word of God cannot be contained in a book or a million books. Newton, Einstine, and Plank were listeners to and prophets of the word of God. Mozart, Bernstein, and Bob Marely were prophets of God. Any man or woman that is not affraid to use their mortal mind and body to better the condition of the world, and thus have an eternal lasting impact on others, is a prophet.

What was the meaning of all the words of all the prophets of the Bible, and in our own times too? Reform your life, turn away of self indulgence, listen to those who went before you, love your neighbor as yourself, no one is unimportant, it is okay to love living, and sacrifice is also part of living to the fullest, in short to make the most of your time alive right now, for yourself and others.

Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven

I can't wait to see this epic film. We haven't had any crusader movies since the olden times. Now we have Scott and his epic. Looking at the characters to be played in this movie, things will be gim from the get-go and only get grimmer. Guy D Lusignan was a big prick. The Lusignans and the Angivens had a mutual hatred for each other and both families spent lots of time and cash waring in France.
Based on the characters alone I would say this film will end with the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin. Guy ended up ruling Cyprus.

Well shall see....