Well, if Charles Bronson he did, he's just gone to meet him. See ya, Charles.
Strange, very strange:
ERIE, Pa. — Federal and local authorities are investigating the case of a pizza deliveryman who was killed when explosives strapped to his neck detonated after he robbed a bank.The Erie police department is investigating, while also using inappropriate colloquialisms:
Brian Douglas Wells, 46, answered a delivery call Thursday to a mysterious address in a remote area and ended up at about an hour later at a bank wearing a bomb.As the time bomb ticked tried in vain to convince police, who were waiting for the bomb squad to arrive, that he was forced into the crime, but died when the explosives detonated.
“We’re not ruling anything out, we’re investigating it hot and heavy all weekend,” McCabe said....Somehow I think that "hot and heavy" and a man getting blown to pieces should only go together in the mind of a Palestinian terrorist who creams himself right as he goes off to see his virgins.
Consider me one of those that doesn't understand the current controversy over releasing transcripts of the emergency calls made on 9-11. I realize, of course, that many people find the sounds and images of that day to be too horrid to listen to or watch, but that choice should lie with the people.
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Or something like that. Here's my Official Battle CryTM anyway.
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As some of you regular visitors probably know, Vicky came out to Denver about a month ago to see what life out here was like and to see about getting established so that she and Matt could consider relocating to our fair city. Well, as of this morning, she's headed back to Arkansas. It's difficult to leave home and familiar things behind in order to start something new in a strange place, so I can't say I fault her for feeling drawn back to Fayetteville. Maybe in the months ahead they'll look at coming our way again. I hope so.
Vicky and I had become good online friends thanks to our being victims of a kooky lefty troll of the highest order at the same time, and when she arrived here, one o'clock in the morning after driving some thirteen hours, it was like meeting an old friend after being apart for ages. We got along great and had a fun month hanging out - so, admittedly, I'm being a bit selfish when I say I hope they decide to come back to Denver.
Especially because she improvised a pretty mean tuna salad sandwich and potato salad. Hey, sue me, I love food!
I feel like I found a dear friend only to lose her again; silly, I know, given this age of instant communications, but I imagine it's like any other time someone exits the stage of your life and you watch their car make that final turn and drive out of sight - leaves you, at least temporarily, feeling a little empty. I value friendship very highly (even more than money and beer - no lie!) and I'm the kind to only form close bonds with a few others at any given time, so I'm curious to see what other acts this play holds.
I'm sure a day with The Crimson Tide and Mr. Fat Tire will help, though. Roll Tide! And "mmmm, beer!"
I will take a moment to say that for those who think blogging is a waste of time, they couldn't be more wrong. I have met many great people through this goofy website of mine, along with the obligatory idiots and trolls (and if you have to ask which you are, then you probably don't want to know). When I lost my job, you folks came out to help and support us - left me in awe, it did. And when I landed my new job, you celebrated with me and for me. I think, just short of massive amounts of free porn, that's about all a guy could ask for from this internet thing.
Thanks to all of you - and best of luck to Matt and Vicky.
My background check came out clean, so I begin my new job on September 15. Two more weeks of paid vacation until then! Yay!
Update: As long as I'm being my own personal cheering section, I should add that this means that my purchase of a swanky HDTV widescreen television is a go, and that in the Spring I'll be putting in my deck with hot tub. That is, of course, if the new job goes well. So, my local blogger friends, let there be parties - in the Spring.
Just a friendly reminder of the compassion and love that is Shariah law:
Tears of fright in her eyes, a 32-year-old Nigerian single mother cuddled and nursed her young daughter in a sweltering Islamic appeals court Wednesday as lawyers pleaded she be spared death by stoning for bearing the child out of wedlock...Awww, well, isn't that just absolutely the sweetest concession for them to make. Let's wait until the baby is old enough to appreciate watching its mother senselessly slaughtered! Hooray!An Islamic court convicted Lawal in March 2002 following the birth of her baby, more than two years after Lawal and her husband divorced.
Judges ordered her buried up to her neck in sand and stoned. While appeals continue, courts have ordered Lawal's execution postponed until her child -- now nearly 2 -- is weaned.
Attention multiculturalists: some cultures are, indeed, better than others. We have superstitious idiots falling down in prayer around a big rock monument; they have superstitious idiots cracking open the heads of innocent women with rocks. I know which idiocy I favor, given the choice (and, of course, the same people in the US who find such acts revolting often are strangely silent on the Biblical command to kill homosexuals and smart-aleck children; do as I say, not as I do, I suppose).
Defense lawyer Aminu Musa Yawuri urged judges to acquit Lawal, arguing that an earlier confession was invalid because no one had explained to Lawal -- a poor, uneducated woman from a farming family -- the nature of the offense or the punishment.On the flip side, maybe superstitious idiocy can save this woman's life. Hooray for ignorance!Yawuri also contended that under some interpretations of Shariah law, babies can remain in gestation in their mother's womb for up to five years, making it possible under Islam that her ex-husband could have fathered the child.
No fair looking down your pants or shirt, either!
ZombyBoy bring us this algorithmic doodad that supposes it can predict your gender based on your writing. I've heard of programs being used to determine if a piece is copied from another source, but not for determining gender.
Apparently with good reason - it guessed me a female once and a male once, and the overall results seem to indicate it is right 50% of the time. Yeah, big whoop, so is flipping a coin.
Yawn.
In case you're wondering why Mars seems to be the size of a dinnerplate in the night sky, it's because it's closer than it's been since 57,616 BC. For perspective, the last time Mars was this close, being a Neanderthal was still a valid alternative lifestyle.
When an idiot is the victim of an idiotic policy, who do you side with?
or THAT'S MR. MOODRING TO YOU, ROCCA!
or THAT PARTICULARLY BAD 70S SHOW
Just a frivolous mini-rant: nostalgia shows are to me what grains of rice are to a vampire- I have to stop and look at every one if I'm flipping channels. VH1's I LOVE THE 80S I particularly liked since that's the decade I went from adolescent to young adult and though I was listening to the music of the 30s/40s I was enough of a TV junkie that I loved the references.
However, I LOVE THE 70S is a bastard brother born of a particularly unclean Kalmuk serving woman and it must be driven into the desert.
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Continuing in the fine tradition of the last several years, there's more evidence that the French government is either stupid or complicit.
Shameful.
Sorry, I just liked this headline:
Big Shiite demonstration outside coalition headquarters, U.S. death toll stands at 276.
Of course, the protests of conservative Christians in Montgomery will probably be about as effective as the idiotic nonsense carried out by the far left anti-war kookage a few months ago. At least no one will have to wash vomit off the sidewalks, or douse the Court building with 982 cans of Lysol to kill the body odor.
About 100 demonstrators prayed Monday outside the Alabama Judicial Building, keeping up their opposition to a federal court order to remove a 5,300-pound stone representation of the Ten Commandments from the building's rotunda.They're praying, but then they say God is going to do whatever God wants to do, because everything is God's will anyway. Sorry, just taking a moment to point out how absurd the concept of requesting divine intervention is in light of the other beliefs.
Many of the monument supporters spent the night in sleeping bags on a plaza outside the building and nearby steps, and one scaled lattice work on the side of the building and spent the night on a ledge. The unidentified man climbed down after daybreak.That's, uh, some civil disobedience there, dude. At least they aren't going around breaking things. It makes me a lot more empathetic toward their beliefs, but I still think they are misguided midgets of mental stature.
Whenever workers come to remove the monument, supporters of Moore intend to keep it from going anywhere by locking hands and dropping to their knees.'Cause you see, since God can't be bothered to show up and handle things, they have to - it's almost like they know that praying about it is useless. Ah, the joy of discordant philosophies. At which point:
Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."In a lifetime, that's a lot of impossible things to believe!"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Actually, though, I heard on the news today that organizers are asking the protesters to follow the instructions of police and to make the protest peaceful. We'll see how that goes. Given that the crowd isn't populated by a bunch of socialist or commie wackos who fear the mighty, mighty showerhead, I suspect the monument will be removed without much trouble.
Silly superstition claims another victim:
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- A pastor said Saturday that church leaders were trying to heal an autistic 8-year-old boy when he inexplicably stopped breathing and died during a prayer service Friday night.You know, I bet that boy wouldn't have had autism if we only had the Ten Commandments in our schools.During the hourlong session, the boy's feet and hands were restrained by his mother and other church members who prayed intensely for his violent tendencies to cease, the pastor's wife said.
OK, so it's really "Deja Allah:"
Canadian police arrested 19 men last week in a case that, according to court documents obtained by a newspaper, has eerie parallels to the preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States...Interesting at the very least.The Toronto Star newspaper said the men were arrested after a "pattern of suspicious behavior" which featured one man taking flight lessons that took him directly over an Ontario nuclear power plant.
In court documents obtained by the newspaper, the student pilot was described as "unmotivated" and he raised suspicion because he has trained for nearly three years to obtain a commercial pilots license that normally takes only a year.
"He often brings with him an unknown male as a passenger," the document read.
Convicted child molester, and former Roman Catholic priest, John Geoghan has been killed in prison. I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon and say good riddance (although I don't think he'll be missed), but it's not surprising. It is my understanding that inmates don't take kindly to those who abuse children (or, in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, who eat them).
His death aside, I did find one quote in the story particularly interesting, especially in light of the "it's the queers in the clergy!" line of argumentation we so often hear:
A psychiatrist testified that Geoghan acknowledged having sexual fantasies about children.While it isn't explicitly stated, using "women and boys" in the same sentence does indicate a similarity in fantasy subject matter between the two. I realize, of course, that this will do nothing to even spur the interest of those who link homosexuality with pedophelia despite any evidence to the contrary."We discussed his ability to control his sexual fantasies and his sexual feelings about women and boys," testified Dr. Edward Messner, a Boston-based psychiatrist who said he treated Geoghan between December 1994 and July 1996.
Just sayin' is all.
* Warm wishes and happy happy thoughts to the first person to identify the source of the title of this post
Plenty of people are saying that the Ten Commandments are "good laws," and that they should be allowed to stay in the Alabama case. They claim that some of them are secular (and, indeed, they are), and that we should just overlook the religious ones (sorry, but no). They claim they are historical in nature and don't create a situation in which the state is endorsing religion.
Unfortunately, Judge Moore says otherwise:
Asked on CNN whether he would support an Islamic monument to the Koran in the rotunda of the federal building, Moore replied, "This nation was founded upon the laws of God, not upon the Koran. That's clear in the Declaration (of Independence), so it wouldn't fit history and it wouldn't fit law."Not an establishment of religion, you say?
I say you're an idiot.
Good riddance to the monument and, hopefully, to Judge Moore.
"Big 10" Roy has been temporarily suspended and removed from office pending an investigation by the Judicial Inquiry Commission. Yee-hah!
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As soon as I receive and sign the offer letter, I shall once again be gainfully employed. It looks to be a great job with a company that, the more I learn about them, the more I like them, especially their philanthropic side (I know, sounds odd coming from me). I told Nicky that I was contemplating a change of jobs to one in which I could actively give something back to the community, and this job appears to combine that with the need for business acumen, so it came along at the right time for me. Assuming my criminal background check comes out clean (and I have no reason to think it should not), then all is well in Andyland.
I imagine blogging will be light once I start work, as there will be much to do and learn, and until I understand the culture there, I don't want to jeopardize a good thing. So, I might become one of the early-in-the-morn and late-at-night blogger types. Please do stick around.
Thanks again to all of you for your support and help during what was a fairly stressful period - I'm glad it didn't last long!
Just noticed that I am getting rejected e-mail messages for e-mails that I never sent, apparently due to a virus being attached to the e-mails in question. I'm up to date on my virus definitions, have installed the MS updates as necessary, so I'm inclined to think someone out there is infected and it has pulled my e-mail from their address book to use as the "from" address. So, naturally, any rejects are bouncing to me directly.
If you get an e-mail from me with the subject line of "Approved," don't open it - delete it immediately. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on my virus definitions and PC behavior just in case my machine is the unwitting victim of some idiot.
The tides of unemployment could be turning. Soon. Very soon. Will keep you posted. Wish me luck.
On the other hand, it's been a nice vacation of sorts, getting to be Mr. Mom a couple of times a week, hanging out with friends without regard for the alarm clock the next morning, and catching up on the backlog of books I'm trying to read.
Which books? Glad you asked:
Eight residents, at least, have mental functions other than those provided by the brain stem:
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (CNN) -- Alabama's state Supreme Court justices overruled their chief justice on Thursday and ordered that a Ten Commandments monument be removed from its public site in the Alabama Judicial Building."The refusal of officers of this court to obey a binding order of a federal court of competent jurisdiction would impair the authority and ability of all of the courts of this state to enforce their judgments," the eight associate justices ruled.
Eleven have been arrested so far in the little 'Judge Roy Moore's Last Sharia West of the Chattahoochie' showdown. Needless to say, hizzonner ain't among them.
And for those who truly love godawful doggerel-iffic verses, get ready to make a right turn going 90 mph down Lucky St., cause here is the Mother Lode.
(A handful of love to the first person who correctly answers which 20 year old movie the title of this thread came from, incidentally.)
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, that is.
Between 3,500 and 10,000 people from as far away as California trekked to Montgomery Saturday to support Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and his 5,300-pound Ten Commandments display in the judicial building's rotunda.You'd think that if the Ten Commandments were the bedrock of our law - its undeniable underpinnings, its divinely-inspired claim to righteousness - that they could get more than 10,000 people to show up for the rally. Hell, the Alabama vs Auburn Iron Bowl football game each year brings in 80,000 people from around the state, region, and country. Grid Iron uber Yahweh!
And where is God in all this? I notice he's conspicuously absent, instead relying on these yahoos to do something he could do with barely a blink of one of his omniscient eyes. Perhaps he's ashamed of them too.
"When God gives you a champion, get behind him," said Jerry Falwell, one of the speakers at the rally.Falwell was quick to point out that he didn't literally mean to get behind him, because heaven forbid anyone think you're a homosexual.
"We may have to visit [Moore] in jail someday. Like Martin Luther King and his army of a generation ago, we shall overcome."First PETA compares chicken slaughter to the holocaust, now Falwell is comparing defending a piece of rock to the battle for civil rights in America. Sorry, Jerry, but I don't see Americans United rounding up a posse here and there to scare, maim, and kill Christians or stopping them from participating fully in public life. In fact, if memory serves, some of the most adamant anti-civil rights folks were "good Christians" in the South...but I digress.
Moore spoke mainly in poems he'd written, with such lines as "In houses and schools across the land, it's time for Christians to take a stand."In another masterwork of verse, he rhymed "life" with "strife," sending shockwaves throughout the poetry community with his daring originality.
"It's not about me," he said. "I will pass away as every politician and every pastor, but the laws of God will remain forever."Oh, it's definitely about you, Roy. You're the one who campaigned as the "Ten Commandments Judge." You're the one continually making an issue of this. You're the one who thinks that your God and his laws are so feeble that removing a monument to them will be the undoing of life as we know it.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson was cast as the chief villain at yesterday's rally. He has ordered Moore to remove the monument by Wednesday. Moore has petitioned the Supreme Court for a stay of that order.Keyes, aside from making ridiculous comparisons between the Constitutional separation of church and state and religious persecution (something Christians have a lot of experience carrying out), was also unable to explain why his prayers to win the Presidency have never been answered."Judge Thompson has violated his oath of office by disregarding the constitution by attempting to usurp an elected judge of the state of Alabama," said Conservative Caucus head Howard Phillips, calling for Thompson's resignation. "That's why we hold them in contempt."
Alan Keyes (like Phillips, a former presidential candidate) attacked Thompson's ruling as a "lawless act" that's part of an effort to tell Americans they have no right to live in communities "with laws that reflect our beliefs… . What we are faced with now is an effort to set the stage for religious persecution."
Vision America President Rick Scarborough summed up the feelings of the supporters, many of whom said they'd support civil disobedience in support of the Commandments display if the Supreme Court doesn't issue the stay. "We're here because we believe our God has been insulted," he said. "Judicial tyranny has drawn a line in the sand. We will not go any further in expurgating God from our culture."Once again, more evidence that the God of old who could rain fire and brimstone on cities is too impotent a diety to stand up for himself in the here and now. It's almost like he doesn't exist, isn't it?
As for expurgating God, I think he just insulted his Lord, for "to expurgate" is to purify by removing offensive or wrong things. Look out for that lightning bolt!
Oh, and maybe you should learn the difference between removing God from government, and removing him from the culture. Last I checked, Christians were still the majority, with thousands of churches around the land, and even an entire network dedicated to spreading lies and misinformation the TruthTM to those with open hearts and wallets.
(thanks to Josh Claybourn for the link to the story)
Marty Ingels. (And you thought it'd be Al Franken or Ben Affleck, didn't you? I see what you was thinkin'....)
Last month Ingels, the former Catskill comic turned multimillionaire super-agent who is probably best known for the books on how to have a successful marriage that he writes with his perpetually estranged wife (Academy Award winner Shirley Jones), used a false name, dialed into the radio program of L.A. shock jock Tom Leykis, and was hung up on when he disagreed with Leykis and mentioned that he is 67 years old. Ingels has filed a lawsuit claiming loss of dignity, public humiliation and age discrimination against s Leykis. (Say what you want about Ingels, but you watch what you say and do to his pseudonym.)
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1. Don't know what to get for the guy or gal who has everything? That's simple- a phone call from Fred "Rerun" Berry and or Lorenzo Lamas! Only $19.95 will get you a full fifteen seconds of soul-baring conversation.
2. If you love Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and blasphemous comedy, check out Betty Bowers site. (Yes, Betty Bowers is a parody site.)
Don't forget, kids, that tomorrow is the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash II.V! All kinds of bloggers are invited, so don't worry if you're a politico or a techie, straight or gay, black or white, alien or human. Aliens, however, are asked not to eat the other guests and to not conduct horrible biological experiments on them with a variety of cold probing instruments. Thank you.
Get all the details on the event right here.
Matt Moore's "sexiest female blogger" contest is well underway, with contestants around the blogosphere begging their readers to find ways to vote multiple times, sometimes bribing them with offers of nudity or strange, sexual favors performed in underground S&M clubs.
Sure, sure, not as catchy as the Friday Five, the Tuesday Two, or the Monday Million, but still....
It goes quite well, thank you for asking. I've had a number of leads and an interview here and there, with one that might pan out into something that would be a win-win situation for all involved. You can't tell I'm in the consulting field, can you?
Once upon a time, I favored a flat tax alone, but now I can see combining that with a consumption tax (such that the use of resources is a flat tax rather than progressively based on wealth, resource consumption in general, or alien invasion).
Blunted it? Nah, I'm still a right cynical bastard, but my time for such has grown shorter. Fiona is the most important thing in the world to me and there's nothing I wouldn't do for her, so she will always, from May 2nd onward, be of the utmost importance in my life. While I love to blog, and appreciate the readers, my beautiful daughter wins out everytime.
I'm sure as she ages and learns the word "No," I'll blog about the hell that is parenthood. Stay tuned.
Son, I was a fairly devout Catholic for some 18 years, a doubting Thomas type for 4 years (although Jesus never saw fit to meet me for a beer and show me his wounds), and an atheist ever since. There might be a god out there, but there's nary a shred of evidence to support any current ideas of such, so it strikes me as a grand waste of time.
I have an interesting story about God and sleep paralysis, but that's for another time.
For assorted reasons of varying import, "Black" by Pearl Jam, "Say Anything" by Cameron Crowe, "The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan (open to much change), and - damnit - beer. Good beer. None of the crap beer most of you folks order.
Han Solo, except in the modified version of Star Wars where Greedo fires first.
Well, that was fun!
Today's Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser has this story:
An army of Christian soldiers is marching on Montgomery from all directions to wage what many of them believe is a pivotal battle in American history.Coincidentally, many of them also believe that the South will rise again and are equally wrong on all counts.
They are coming to stand and fight beside Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and protect the Ten Commandments monument he has planted as a touchstone in the rotunda of the state Judicial Building.I think this is a fine time for them to ask "What Would Jesus Do?" After all, you don't see him riding into town on a white steed with some flaming sword declaring that they dare not remove the monument to Papa's Rules, do you? You'd think if God could smote cities and flood planets, he could protect a chunk of rock with maybe just a passing thought.
Christians have slumbered as federal judges excised God from his rightful place in American public life, ushering in a 40-year era of steady moral decline, according to the Rev. Rick Scarborough and other religious leaders. Gay rights, violence, sex, drugs and any number of real and perceived evils have plagued the nation since the courts removed prayer from schools in 1961.Aye, right Reverend, how the world has changed! Why, in 1960 there were no gay people, no violence (except for smoting of cities and planetary floods and turning people to salt), no sex (we did it the old fashioned divine-insemination way I guess), and no drugs (water into wine anyone?). Earth was a planetary Nirvana, and removing prayer from the schools was the equivalent of Kurt Cobain's head being separated from his body by a shotgun.
"Judge Moore wants this as a controversy," said George Olsson of Montgomery. "He is using, he is abusing the Ten Commandments. He has been abusing it since he first started, and it's actually a shame that it has gone to this extent. The only thing I can say is I wish lightning would strike the rock."Patriotism is not the only refuge for a scoundrel; religious fervor works just as well in some parts.
"There is a simple assertion, and I would agree with it, that to remove the Ten Commandments is symbolic of removing God as the acknowledged author of our laws. After all, where do the laws come from?" said the Rev. Jay Wolf....Rev. Wolf, get thee to a civics class where one might learn from where our laws arise.
The rally is likely to draw national media coverage. C-SPAN will provide live coverage, Scarborough said, and CNN is planning multiple reports leading up to the rally.Yup, nothing like watching the South look back-assward again so that the rest of the country can pat itself on the back and say "Thank God we're not like them. Those poor, poor people."The cable network's executive producers "think there is enormous national interest in this story," said Linda Sathers, a senior producer at CNN who is working on a feature about the historical context of the issue in Alabama.
AVIDD organized a similar rally last year with hopes of attracting thousands, but only 60 to 70 showed up, Wilson said. While Thompson's removal order has forced the issue to critical mass, Wilson said he is not convinced the crowd will meet organizers' ambitionsexpectations.I just wanted to quote a paragraph that used the fabulous, made-up word "ambitionsexpectations." Sounds naughty. I like it. I'll use it.
Rabbi David Baylinson, adjunct assistant professor of religion at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, said such rigorous debate surrounding the Ten Commandments monument is not surprising.Ah, a voice of reason. Those damnable, dirty Jews!"The area in which we live in is a great faith-based area, and therefore the issue of the Ten Commandments may have inflamed more people than perhaps any other area," Baylinson said.
"However, the mere fact that (Christian groups) are marching to Montgomery only underlines the fact that the Ten Commandments are a religious symbol and do not belong in the public building," Baylinson said.
Montgomery resident Danita Rivers, however, said she believes the monument belongs in the Judicial Building.She continued to state that she had completely missed the irony in putting up signs saying "God Bless America" while religious nuts were also claiming that 9/11 was God's judgement of our nation. However, I'm not one to expect internal consistency from a religion, or even more specifically, its adherents."I didn't have a problem with it being there in the rotunda at all. We need the things of God to be more visible in these types of places," said Rivers, who attends Fresh Anointing International Church. "Nobody had a problem on Sept. 11, when the towers were attacked. We had 'God Bless America' everywhere."
Grab your popcorn and beer, kids - this should be good.
Laurence, he who used to post here but has denied us his blog-love for some time now, probably not wanting to overshadow my current status as "job seeker," has pissed off an entire cadre of illiterates!
Fight the power!
The Heat Miser wants Vicky to LOSE in his contest for Sexiest Female Blogger.
This can't be allowed to stand. Boo hiss on the Heat Miser!
..., then it was oral action, now it's Jack van Impe's end-times prophecy showing up in the Oval Office.
I am not sure whether he knows all of the prophecies and how deep of a student he has been in God's Word, but I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I’ve spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it’s in his hands.If true, our President is being guided by the voice of a televangelist (whose goblin-like appearance is second only to that of Pat Robertson) and his incessantly fawning wife with the sincerely silly name (Rexella: a cross between your childhood dog and a terrible lizard).He will know exactly what is going to happen in the Middle East and what part he will have under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. So, it's a tremendous time to be alive.
I've been asked here, there, and not really everywhere why - as an atheist - I am so concerned with the theistic beliefs of those around me. It should be stunningly obvious: even superstitious adults get to vote (and sometimes they even grow up to be Mr. President!). And do you want to see what an America dominated by superstition looks like?
Here you go. Scary, scary stuff.
Found via Josh Claybourn.
Today's weirdest celebrity news: DNA testing has allegedly proven that alleged singer and actress Courtney Love is the granddaughter of superstar turned icon Marlon Brando. Love's mother was Brando's lovechild, born when he was a 20 year old struggling actor- this is obviously the result of a well planned Bene Gesserit youthful seduction (which could explain the levitators around Marlon's girth of late).
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Though I'm busier than an appropriate euphemism of late, every so often you read a book that you just have to talk about. I’ve read two by the same author this week:
Under the Banner of Heaven and
Into the Wild, both by Jon Krakauer. (I also read
Da Vinci Code, which sucked like a Hoover Upright with an outboard motor.) I'm not exactly the first to make it to any of these (Into the Wild in fact is a cult classic), but still thought I'd share.
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Technically, it's been the discussion of the last few days. Who would have thought that an inflammatory post about the Catholic church would stir up such strong feelings (ok, guilty as charged). I am, however, quite pleased with the ensuing discussion, particularly with some of the newest contributions (being that they, to me, ask questions that need to be answered before the Church is off the hook for its recent behavior).*
* Uh huh, I know, the "Church" is not the bad, bad people doing bad, bad things, and Enron technically was just an entity on paper.
...in the style of James Lileks.
Found via a link from another link at Single Out West.
Attempting to display just how he has the ear of the Big Guy upstairs, Pope John Paul II prayed for an end to the European heatwave:
PARIS -- Pope John Paul II on Sunday prayed for much-needed rain and relief from the punishing heat wave that has smothered large parts of the continent for two weeks, as temperatures in Britain shattered an all-time record.God (aka the Alpha, the Omega, and even the Epsilon), however, was busy on vacation and failed to hear the plea:"I invite you to join my prayer for the victims of this calamity and I urge you to fervently pray to the Lord to give the parched earth a bit of cool rain," the pontiff said in a mass at his summer residence in Castelgandolfo south of Rome.
But there was little relief in sight as new wildfires broke out late Sunday in Portugal and Spain, forcing nearly 1,000 residents to flee their homes. The fires and the heat have killed more than 40 people across the