Have Spacesuit, Will Travel

Moved to Xanga

2005-11-11T14:45:00.000-06:00

Well, I've decided to pick this blogging thing up again, so call this a bread-crumb trail for anybody trying to look me up these days.

Even A Geek Needs A Breather

2005-08-15T09:53:00.000-05:00

I can really identify with this article. I spend 8 hours a day dealing with technology and everybody else's problems. By the time 5:00 rolls around, I'm ready to set my computer on fire. Maybe I'll come out of it in a few weeks and get back to business as usual.

Trinity and the Immaculate Conception

2005-07-05T21:48:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer:Believe it or not, this post has nothing to do with religion, but the same old irreverence applies.

That being said, I'm going to tell you about a little 4th of July miracle that happened in this house.

It all started when we adopted a 3-legged cat. What POSSIBLE use could one contrive for Hopalong Kitty? I guess she's more useful than a robot cat, but I guess she would be a good candidate for a cyborg kitty. Her given name was Elvira (lame) but we decided to re-name her Trinity on account of the three legs.

We figured out she was pregnant about a week ago. All the telltale signs had me putting my fingers in my ears and screaming "LALALALALALLALALALALALALALALA!" but no amount of denial or fear of babies would stop what was already occuring. What was MORE odd was that she has not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES been exposed to a male cat while in our care. We were even told when we got her a couple of months ago that she was fixed. That left me with two possible conclusions:

A)She was already pregnant when we got her.
B)Immaculate conception

Fuck. Not only did we have NO NEED to add another cat to our already happy and well-adjusted two-cat family (females), but now we have the god-damned Virgin Mary to deal with. Not only that, but I have pedophobia (not to be confused with pedophilia), human or otherwise. Luckily, there's a 4-step hypnosis program that should take care of my fear of kittens. None of my childhood pets were allowed to give birth...they were fixed as soon as they were old enough.

This was a responsible decision on the part of my parents, but definitely not good for my development. I even managed to be absent the day they showed The Miracle of Life in Health class. I have terribly retarded mental development when it comes to children, much to the confusion and dismay of my wife.

Trinity went into labor on the 4th of July. Thankfully we had no plans and were home all day, so we got to be in on the whole process. Trinity had 5 kittens, one of them didn't make it, so the official head count was 4. She's been a caring, loving mother and we're certain the kittens are going to be well-fed and healthy.

We've decided to keep one and name it Jesus.

I don't know that it's really sunk in or that this crash course in birthing will prepare me in any way for children or that Trinity's Immaculate Conception has bolstered a belief in any diety, but it didn't hurt.

Introducing Gundam Prototype Unit 3 (GP03)

2005-06-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

So I bought a motorcycle. Here are some thoughts after my first week and a half of riding:

The Ninja 250R is a very capable bike. I have no comparison at present, this is just my opinion on the everyday usefulness (and pleasure) of riding. I've commuted down quiet small-town streets and endured rush-hour traffic, increasing my familiarity with the basic controls and control input combinations in less-than-friendly conditions. I've nearly been creamed by a "cager" (car-driver) on two occasions. I've swept down country 2-lane and got to experience the bike's managability at speed. I've "got my lean on" with seductive local twisty roads and grown to appreciate the physics at work when one is riding on two wheels...countersteering, throttle discipline, looking ahead to what's around the bend, and shifting one's weight and putting Sir Isaac Newton in the driver's seat.

Curiously, as the word gets out I have a bike, the frequency at which I am present when a distant relative's plumber's girlfriend's hairdresser's brother's recent motorcycle accident is discussed has increased tremendously. Then there's the uneasy glances where your comrades contemplate your early demise and you KNOW they're doing it. Then when you start asking questions, like "Were they drinking?" or "Were they wearing a helmet?" or "How long had they been riding and what were they on?" are met with blank stares. What do they expect? A sudden conversion, some kind of grim realization that if I bite it I'll be served up at the Roadkill Cafe, Soilent Squid-style? Yeah, I think about it. Yeah, I know the odds aren't in my favor. So? Now when someone starts in with a story I ask if it involves an accident. Then I promptly tell them to shut the hell up.

I control what facets are under my control and don't worry about the rest. As usual, there's a Heinlein quote for every occasion, and I find myself repeating this one often:

Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament - it is possible to be both. How? By never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can't avoid. This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.
--Lazarus Long

Riding a motorcycle is partly counter-intuitive. One does not want to grab the front brake in a panic stop because you'll likely lose steering control and/or drop the bike on its side. One does not want to lock the rear brake in a stop because it'll fishtail, or worse, if you LET OFF the rear brake in a lock-up your rear wheel will gain immediate traction while not in line with the front wheel and the rider will be catapulted over the handlebars in true Medieval crossbow fashion with expected results. NOT accelerating DURING A COMPLETE TURN will cause the bike to become unstable or worse, not turn, and you become a permanent fixture in the form of a tiny cross (or whatever athiests do instead) by the roadside to mark (quite unnecessarily) the crater you created on impact. The oddest thing is the way the wind tugs at your helmet at speed...that's gotta be the most disorienting thing about riding fast. Serious contemplation of the physics involved is mandatory, if you're an over-analytical geek like me.

But I try not to think about it. :)

Motorcycling isn't THAT difficult to do. If you can play video games, you can acclimate yourself to a new set of controls. It's difficult to do WELL. A trained monkey can twist a throttle. A good rider is one that carefully weighs risks, can stay within their skill level with respect to the bikes they ride and the way they ride them, can recognize the difference between what the bike's capabilities are and what the RIDER'S capabilities are, knows how to not put anyone at unnecessary risk, and can avoid getting caught by local law enforcement when they want to push the envelope.

This entire past week has been a very Zen experience, especially out on the country 2-lanes by myself. Riding with my buddy Jon is fun, but nothing beats the experience of riding alone. Pre-ride jitters are growing less intense. I'm starting to get my braking distances down. Shifting has become smoother. The initial uneasiness is starting to pass.

I can't wait til next weekend.

Adam's Law

2005-06-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

My friend Adam, whose birthday was fucked up by the notorious Osama Bin Laden, informed me of a new sociological law he discovered while on jury duty.

Most of us know the world is full of morons, doofuses, and idiots. When ten out of twelve of the people on the jury (which is supposed to be a random sample of people in our area) turned out to be complete morons, Adam did the math. 10/12 = 87.5%

I've always known the percentage of morons in a given area was high, but now I have mathematical proof to support my claims. Now that science has given us an answer, Adam's Law is as follows: "87.5% of the world's population are complete fucking morons."

That is all. Isn't science fun?!

Disclaimer: Present company excluded. :)

Adam's Birthday

2005-06-09T16:08:00.000-05:00

Since Adam is now a famous scientist, I figured I'd let him tell his own story about his birthday:

My biggest fear regarding my birthday after the destruction of the World Trade Towers was the kind of attitude that other people would display on the anniversary(s) of such a tragic event. I don't want to sound like the most self-centered person alive or anything, but I was ultimately more concerned with whether people would be receptive to having a good time on my birthday than I was with any of the loss of life, scarring of a national psyche, or any of that kind of stuff. September 11 was my birthday for over two decades before it became famous for anything else. Since I'm one of the most unpatriotic people that I know I was much more interested in how people's perceptions of that date would affect their willingness to celebrate the date of my birth than anything else.

In hindsight, my fears have been largely unfounded. Television, radio, internet, and various forms of print media have all done their part to relive the horrific aspects of terrorism in the name of ratings/subscriptions, but I've found that the people that I come into contact with on a regular basis are far less fixated on remaining sorrowfull than they are with getting on with their lives. By avoiding major media outlets on my birthday I've been able to enjoy them, in large part because of the fact that people (or at least people that I know) DON'T sulk about the significance of the date to excess.

If nothing else the tragedy of September 11, 2001 has shown me that people are more positive in nature and more able to move on after terrible events than my sometimes pessimistic view of humanity would have allowed for.

Submitted by: Adam

Techincal difficulties?!

2005-05-26T09:54:00.000-05:00

Test

A Reply To A Dear Friend

2005-05-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

...even if that friend exists (to me) only in electronic form:

My original post over at Homer's Brain after learning that Homer was dropping out (?) of the blogging game:

I'm in the same predicament--too much going on in real life, and nobody to share my rambling thoughts with.

I've taken up a real fatalist view on life recently. I've scoured the Internet looking for like-minded individuals, but I must have a fairly unique (and not necessarily in a good way) collection of views, because they're not out there. Redeeming in a way, yet disappointing in another.

Even following historical and religious topics hasn't been as much fun. It seems to me a "Middle Way", to borrow a Buddhist term, is out there. It's right in front of our faces, but we keep making the same mistakes over and over again; the same prejudices, the same biases. Nobody is really looking to improve their point of view through reading and education, it's more like they're just looking for ways to prop up their preconceived notions about the world.

The shouting match between the two political parties leaves no room for intellectuals and moderates. The people that really shine are the puppets who froth at the mouth while parroting the party's talking points. It's pointless to pick a side because as soon as you align yourself with one party, your singular voice (of reason?) is drowned out by the vicious demonization of the other side.

I am equally disgusted by it and have resolved to blog only very infrequently if at all. Some bloggers try and fool themselves by saying "I'm only doing it for myself--it's my creative outlet" which may be true for a few, but the majority want to be heard, their ideas debated and analyzed for the entertainment of both author and reader alike. So if you're not being read, what's the point, where's the motivation?

On a lighter note, life is good on the home front. I'm settling into my mid-twenties quite well, chasing that dollar and finding comfort in things familiar. However, I'm going to do something supremely irresponsible--I'm going to sell my car and buy a motorcycle before I get too old to be totally irrational.

I wish you and your family the best in your journey, Homer. It was fun getting to know you. Maybe by 2008 we'll both be ready to come out of semi-retirement for the election season.

Sincerely,
Justin

------------------------

Friend's original email (not Homer, another guy):

I have to say that I read the latest entry over at Homer's Brain and was saddened by your comments. Not that I don't agree with them but only because it seemed as though you were defeated or just really exhausted. (perhaps it was the context which I read) I'd like to think that you and I agree more than we disagree on most issues but you are right we are only two voices in a sea of fox/ NBC regurgitation. You are right that people don't want to change their point of view or better themselves when regarding their political views. Even if you and they both know that you research the facts and they base everything on what Rush or Dan Rather tell them to believe. I've recently moved to Chicago and the libs up here are as bad as the rePubs back in OK. I try to maintain my polite behavior, as you would have it but on a couple of occasions, I have become highly agressive in some conversations. What's worse is the fact that they are family... I'm to the point when someone tries to start a political conversation I ask them if they can name 5 (just 5 either side of the aisle) senators. If they can not, I politely tell them that my therapist said I can't have political conversations. It saves me the rage when dealing with the proles...

Keep in touch buddy! Stay safe on the moto bike!

----------------------

And my response:

I think Homer's announcement that he was leaving just caught me on a bad day. I hear he's guest-blogging over at Jake McKee's site on occasion now, so you may see me trolling around there in the near future. I must confess I re-read my statements over at homersbrain and found I still agreed with the jist of what I was talking about. Taking that quiz over at Cam's site kinda brought it back--apparently according to Farrah's quiz she posted, I'm a "Disaffected". I still think the majority of what it said was BS, but the part about being cynical (perhaps overly so) and the fact that Disaffecteds make up only about 10% of the voting population rang true. It's easy to be that way when you see REAL problems out there and REAL people suffering while our elected representatives bicker over only the most irrevalant of topics. I've been reminded too often recently of the wisdom in the writings of Mr. Samuel Langhorn Clements---now THAT guy was a cynic.

I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.
- Mark Twain in Eruption

Classes are over at the college (20th Century Asia this past semester was a rea eye-opener) and I've taken up my summer reading list. I've already devoured the first two books of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series: The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three, which is Mr. King's ode to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings saga. I'm going to finish the other 4 books and pick up Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, which I've already heard in truncated Audiobook form. No other writings, religious texts, or great secrets have inspired me to have faith (GASP!) the human race will indeed surpass this technological adolescense and overcome the barriers inherent in getting off this rock like Pale Blue Dot has. It's a brief history of the struggles of the human race, the effect of religious doctrine in the age of reason, and the difficulties and rewards of taking that One Giant Leap For Mankind. Also, if I can get around to it, I'm going to pick up Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human Race before Fall semester starts.

I agree that we see eye-to-eye on more topics than we differ. It's one reason why I've felt compelled to keep up with your doings and try to stay in touch. I noticed you dropped off the radar there for a while, too, no doubt due to your recent uprooting. It pleases me immensely to know you are both alive and well, even if it is smack dab in the middle of Liberalsville on the corner of Gunless St. and Overpopulated Ave. I can relate to the holding your tongue in polite conversation: A space-cadet gun-toting atheistic Social Darwinist doesn't integrate well into East Texas society, either. Best of luck to you on that front.

On a more personal note, I've sold my Prelude :( I cared for that car more than any other machine I've ever owned to present date. The hunt is on now for a motorcycle that suits my beginner's needs (no 1300cc sportbikes for me right now, thank you). I ordered riding gear (helmet, gloves, armored jacket, and boots) just yesterday, and am signed up for a Motorcycle Safety Foundation class at the end of this month. Maybe with the extra precautions I can beat the odds that are stacked against me as a new rider. I happen to consider myself a SUPERB cage (bike community slang for automobile) driver, and once I get a two-wheeled machine I can call my own, I know I'll integrate my mind with its controls as well as I did my dearly-missed Honda. It'll be a great adventure, indeed.

As my melodramatic writings (and short email novels) often do, I'll wish you long days and pleasant nights and leave you with one of the more memorable quotes from The Gunslinger:

God pisses down the back of your neck everyday, but he only drowns you once.

Take care,
Justin

The New Pope!

2005-04-19T14:28:00.000-05:00

(feigning shock and elation) Awesome. We've traded King Cocks of the most corrupt, worthless international pyramid scheme of anti-scientific powermongers bent on the continual subjugation of mankind to a make-believe Sky Fairy whose manners and ideals no better than yours or mine.

I'll save my little dance for when we quit believing some old fart with a magic pointy hat is the conduit to the wisdom of the universe.

*sigh*

---
UPDATE:

I'm just saying if someone's going to call an entity God he ought to be somebody worth looking up to, not someone who throws hissy fits and destroys stuff when he (sorry, He) gets mad. Or contradicts himself literally and philosophically at every turn.

I don't know how we got here, and nobody else does, either, so why make up such a dumb story as Creation (which is really a variation on several other earlier pagan creation stories)? At least evolution makes decent sense at an intellectual level, and has the least number of unfounded assumptions. If there is a God, he would have done it way cooler, like, with lazers and robots anyway.

When you die, that's it--whether you believe God flicked a booger and created the world or cosmic dust bunnies humped each other in space...you still die. You don't climb up Heaven's Chimney or drink from the Razzleberry Fountain In The Sky. These are man-made constructs of our subconscious because we don't want to confront death. Religion's a poor coping mechanism at best, and an unrestrained inflicter of misery and poverty at worst.

...hence the and-don't-even-get-me-started-about-some-guy-who-is-now-god's-infallable-representative-on-earth-not-by-a-booming-voice-from-the-sky-but-democratically-elected-by-a-bunch-of-other-morons tone in the post earlier...but then if you're reading this, you probably expected that.

Man Controls Artificial Limb By Thought Alone

2005-03-31T15:37:00.000-06:00

Need I say more?

Bring on the Robots!

Bring on the techno music!

Viva la revolucion!

Social Security

2005-03-09T18:18:00.000-06:00

I've been listening to Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot on audiobook again. The first couple of chapters are a short history lesson on the creation of the Earth, how man spread to the various continents, and the continual evolution of the way man viewes the cosmos in total. Religious implications included. :)

(give or take)

The Universe is 15,000,000,000 years old,
the Earth is 5,000,000,000 years old,
humans have been around 2,000,000 years,
we only have about 7,000 years of "recorded" history,
electricity was discovered 250 years ago,

and I'm probably going to live about 77 years.

In the midst of all the partisan debate I hear about Social Security, I had a thought today: The reason we're having trouble with the Social Security program is because we have a larger older population. People are evolving and bending both nature and machinery to our will in order to live longer.

And that's fucking great.

Jury Selected in Mel Gibson Stalking Case

2005-03-03T16:43:00.000-06:00

Hey, you make a movie stirring up the religious nutcases and you get pissed when someone wants to spend all their time praying with you like you're some kind of prophet?

You brought it on yourself, buddy.

Radio Communication From Space

2005-03-03T16:42:00.000-06:00

Scientists are not sure about this one. But the properties of the transmission are certainly outside of the norm. One can hope, right? ^_^

Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot

2005-02-24T10:22:00.000-06:00

I've been listening to Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot on audiobook while I'm doing data entry at work. One passage on religion struck me as great writing and I thought I'd share it with you:

This is the anguished cry of the infant when the parent does not come, but most people eventually come to grips with reality and with the painful absence of parents who will absolutely guarantee that no harm befalls the little ones so long as they do what they are told. Eventually, most people find ways to accomodate the universe, especially when given the tools to think straight. All that we pass on to our children in the scientific age, Appleyard complains, "is the conviction that nothing is true, final, or enduring, including the culture from which they sprang."

How right he is about the inadequacy of our legacy. But would it be enriched by adding baseless certainties? He scorns, "the pious hope that science and religion are independent realms which can easily be separated." Instead, he says, "science as it is now is absolutely not compatible with religion." But isn't Appleyard really saying that some religions now find it difficult to make unchallenged pronouncements on the nature of the world that are straight-out false?

We recognize that even revered religious leaders, the products of their time as we are of ours, may have made mistakes. Religions contradict one another on small matters such as whether we should put on a hat or take one off on entering a house of worship or whether we should eat beef and eschew pork, or the other way around; all the way to the most central issues such as whether there are no gods, one god or many gods.

Science has brought many of us to that state in which Nathaniel Hawthorne found Hermann Melville--"He can neither believe," Hawthorne said, "nor be comfortable in his unbelief." Or Zhazha Guso [sp ???], "they had not persuaded me, but they had troubled me. Their arguments had shaken me without ever convincing me. It is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires."

Great stuff. I think the first book I pick up this summer will be something by Mr. Sagan.

The Gospel of Thomas (or: An Uncommonly Non-skeptical Post On Religion)

2005-02-07T10:58:00.000-06:00

I watched one of the coolest shows on the History Channel last night when I should have been sleeping. It was about who wrote the Christian Bible, when they were written, and when they became part of the biblical canon or when they were omitted.

Being the skeptic I am, I've always found a certain kinship with Thomas, one of the twelve who vocally doubted Jesus' return and didn't believe when he was revealed to him. According to the story, it took Thomas placing his fingers in the holes in Jesus' hands before he believed.

I was surprised to hear ol' Thomas wrote one of them-thar books himself. Can't find it in your Bible?...there's a reason for that--it was omitted from the biblical canon a long, long time ago. Apparently the only tome that contains it is an Egyptian text complied by the Gnostic sect some 1500 or so years ago.

So I "aked the Robot" [looked it up on the Internet-it's all out there] and found the Gospel of Thomas. It's oddly cryptic at best, hard to follow, and incomplete, though it states some things Jesus supposedly said that other texts do not contain and includes others stated in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-more easily recognized texts we all know that lends an air of legitimacy and consistency. There's a lot of really simple, brutally honest wisdom contained therein. Think Mark Twain writing a book of the Bible.

Some of the quotes, generally called the 114 "sayings" rather than documented as books and verses, are pretty cool. My favorites [any commentary I make will be in brackets and be preceeded with a "MSPX"]:

-----
21: For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions.

As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. [MSPX: Watch your six! Carry a big stick! And, in the debate over whether deadly force is warranted to protect property, God comes down on the side of the shooter.]

42: Jesus said, "Be passersby." [MSPX: Don't attract attention to yourself--walk softly...]

35: Jesus said, "One can't enter a strong person's house and take it by force without tying his hands. Then one can loot his house." [MSPX: Uh...from my cold, dead hands? :)]

47: Jesus said, "A person cannot mount two horses or bend two bows." [MSPX: IOW, loan your buddy an extra gun when the SHTF. At least that's what it says to me.]

32: Jesus said, "A city built on a high hill and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden." [MSPX: Jesus' commentary on open versus concealed carry. :)]

60: ...He said to them, "So also with you, seek for yourselves a place for rest, or you might become a carcass and be eaten." [MSPX: GET SOME SLEEP! Or you may get whacked when you're sleepy and unaware.]
-----

Some others I found interesting:

-----
3: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty." [MSPX: Very Buddhist in flavor--the whole "the answer {God, salvation, truth, whatever} is within you" thing.]

113: His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"

"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."

17: Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."

18: The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?"

Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.

Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death." [MSPX: Another couple of verses oddly Zen in flavor.]

14: "...what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you." [MSPX: I think this is talking about how silly strict Jewish dietary laws are]

16: Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to casy [sic] peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. [MSPX: Maybe the anti-religious have a point here about religion causing more harm than it resolves...according to Thomas, Jesus just said so in so many words]

22: Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]." [MSPX: Yin-yang. Two parts of a whole. Cause and effect cycles that are unendingly repetitive. Is this suggesting when we are able to create and improve on the human form, we will become God?]

28: Jesus said, "I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.

But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways." [MSPX: Monks in any religion say chasing material things and pleasures of the flesh will get you nowhere. Oh, and drunk and stupid are no way to go through life. :)]

34: Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a bind person, both of them will fall into a hole." [MSPX: Hehe.]

37: His disciples said, "When will you appear to us, and when will we see you?"

Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid." [MSPX: Is Jesus encouraging us to get nekkid?]

49: Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will return there again." [MSPX: Reincarnation?]

70: Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."

72: A [person said] to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."

He said to the person, "Mister, who made me a divider?"

He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I'm not a divider, am I?" [MSPX: Jesus--the original "Uniter, not a Divider"]

81: Jesus said, "Let one who has become wealthy reign, and let one who has power renounce." [MSPX: Jesus was decidedly a capitalist.]

110 Jesus said, "Let one who has found the world, and has become wealthy, renounce the world." [MSPX: Or not.]

103: Jesus said, "Congratulations to those who know where the rebels are going to attack. [They] can get going, collect their imperial resources, and be prepared before the rebels arrive." [MSPX: Jesus apparently knew all about terrorists.]
-----

So there, I saved you from having to read ALL of it. :)

All in all, Thomas delves into the duality of man and the environment itself. Some of the sayings have a definite Buddhist flavor to them, though I doubt they were inspired by any of the Buddha's teachings. Not because they didn't preceed the writings of Thomas, but because it's doubtful anyone in the Middle East had exposure to Asian writings in that era...it wasn't exactly the Information Age.

All in all, I've come to the conclusion that the Bible, if taken at face value as a text compiled by dozens of authors with ideas likely borrowed from both Jewish and Pagan stories, translated an inordinate number of times, and having gone through the many rigors canonization of a religious text is prone to, it's still a good story. It's kind of a shame the majority of Christians haven't had exposure to texts contained in the Catholic bible and the so-called Apocrypha. Odd as some of the verses may be, I think some of it might be useful to people of faith.

Burnout has set in...

2005-02-03T15:39:00.000-06:00

so I'm going to take a couple of weeks off blogging. Later!

Michael Newdow Is At It Again...

2005-01-21T11:21:00.000-06:00

and I, for one, salute him. All the fundies want to make such a stink about him trying to take away peoples' religious freedom, or make the US an athiest nation, but I see it differently.

Michael Newdow just wants things to be neutral. He's probably the greatest fighter for religious NEUTRALITY and FREEDOM in recent years. He just wants government to govern and stay out of the religion business. I always like to note how religious fundamentalist governments have done SO well, like Iran or Afghanistan, or how about the local government in Massachusetts in the 1600s.

Fundies can say that, "Oh, an Islamic prayer at a president's inaguration would be just fine" because they know they'll probably NEVER live to see it themselves. It's like making a bet with someone that they can't throw a rock and hit a pin 100 ft. away. They can afford to talk big about how "tolerant" they are because they know they'll never get called on their bluff.

People say this country was founded on religious principles, which with I agree only in part. There are a great many laws stated in the Christian bible that are natural laws anyways and shouldn't require religious faith to recognize their validity. However, the illogical argument that the religiously oppressed in Europe came to America to set up an equally oppressive religion-driven government is ridiculous.

My thanks to you, Michael Newdow, for fighting for the real principles this great nation was founded upon.

Rusti, if you're out there in cyberspace...

2005-01-21T10:19:00.000-06:00

This is a great article written by Janis Cortese about the basics of handguns, calibers, and self-defense. It'll get you up to date on terminology, too. This will give you a good primer to work from when choosing your first handgun, and since it's written from a woman's perspective probably easier to understand versus my ramblings (though I can probably answer most questions you have as well, just not as succinctly).

If you want to look at some guns and get an idea on price, check out GunBroker.com and AuctionArms.com.

As you probably already know, I have several guns and would be glad to take you to the range to try some out whenever you get a weekend day off. Nothing puts a smile on my face like introducing new people to the world of firearms and personal responsibility!

Nuke Alert

2005-01-20T13:38:00.000-06:00

...no, not NOW. Unlock the two-ton steel door and quit salivating over the dog. You've only been in that bunker an hour.

Does anybody REALLY think a geiger counter keychain is going to save them from a nuclear disaster? The only warning you're going to get in a nuclear attack is a sunburn worse than an hour-long session in a tanning bed in about 2 seconds unless you're wearing SPF 1000.

Capitalism, fear-mongering, and fuzzy logic at its best.

My Best To You, Comrades.

2005-01-20T11:40:00.000-06:00

China is sending up its second manned space flight this year in September or October.

No real commentary here, just a "good on 'ya" to China for doing their part in helping mankind get off this rock.

For Me But Not For Thee

2005-01-20T11:31:00.000-06:00

Michael Moore's bodyguard was arrested in a NY airport for trying to declare a firearm at the counter.

Perhaps it would have been good to peruse NRA-ILA's New York laws page before entering a state that doesn't recognize his 2nd Amendment rights his employer has fought so hard against.

He could have even talked to the friendly people over at Packing.org and checked into their NY state page.

Maybe he'll get to ponder the irony of the situation at Rikers Island.

Airbus A380 Revealed as Largest Passenger Jet

2005-01-20T09:12:00.000-06:00

Just what we need; the fucking French helping to develop bigger planes to fly into our buildings.

With friends like these...

24 Usable Hours In Each Day

2005-01-19T11:04:00.000-06:00

A Ukrainian man hasn't slept in two decades. Medical doctors say there's nothing wrong with him.

I've got a solution:

Take some Ambien.
Read the CBS report on Rathergate.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Text-to-Binary (and binary-to-text) Translator...

2005-01-13T15:53:00.000-06:00

...or rather:

01010100011001010111100001110100001011010111
01000110111100101101010000100110100101101
1100110000101110010011110010010000000101000011
000010110111001100100001000000110001001
1010010110111001100001011100100111100100101101
011101000110111100101101011101000110010
1011110000111010000101001001000000101010001110
010011000010110111001110011011011000110
0001011101000110111101110010

So I'm going to write a post in binary...

0101011101101000011110010010000001100
100011011110110010101110011011011100110000001110
10000100000011000010110111001111001011000
10011011110110010001111001001000000110001001
101111011101000110100001100101011100100010
0000011101000110111100100000011100000110111
1011100110111010000100000011000110110111101
101101011011010110010101101110011101000111
001100111111001000000010000001000001011011
0100100000010010010010000001110100011010000
110000101110100001000000110001001101111011
1001001101001011011100110011100101100001000
0001101111011100100010000001101001011100110
010000001101001011101000010000001110100011
011110110111100100000011011010111010101100
0110110100000100000011011110110011000100000
011000010010000001110000011000010110100101
1011100010000001101001011011100010000001110
1000110100001100101001000000110000101110011
011100110010000001110100011011110010000001
1001110110010101110100001000000110000100100
000011000100110110001101111011001110110011
101100101011100100010000001100001011000110
1100011011011110111010101101110011101000011
111100100000001000000100100100100000011011
0101100101011000010110111000101100001000000
110100101110100011000000111001100100000011
0011001110101011011100010000001110100011011
110010000001100100011011110010000001101010
0111010101110011011101000010000001100110011
0111101110010001000000110110101111001011100
110110010101101100011001100010000001100001
011011100110010000100000011000010110110001
1011000010110000100000011000100111010101110
100001000000100100100100000011011100110010
1011001010110010000100000011000100110000101
110100011101000110110001100101001000000111
0111011010010111010001101000001000000110010
101110110011010010110110000100000011000110
1110010011000010110001101101011001000000111
101001101111011011010110001001101001011001
0100100000011100100110111101100010011011110
111010000100000011011010110111101101110011
0101101101001011001010111001100100000001010
0001101001011011100010000001110000011011110
110110001101001011101000110010100100000011
1010001100101011110000111010000100000011000
110110111101101110011101100110010101110010
011100110110000101110100011010010110111101
1011100010100100100000011101000110111100100
0000111001001100101011000010110110001101100
011110010010000001100110011001010110010101
1011000010000001110011011000010111010001101
001011100110110011001101001011001010110010
000101110

...and leave it for you assholes to decode. Have fun!

Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Prince Harry?

2005-01-13T11:36:00.000-06:00

Prince Harry dressed up in a Nazi uniform for a costume party last weekend. It has Brits and Jews everywhere in an uproar. I could see the horrified looks if he dressed up like Hitler, Eichmann, Hess, or Himmler, but he was dressed as Gen. Rommel. Probably one of the least-controversial Nazi leaders. Seriously, though, it WAS probably in bad taste.

His brother William dressed up like a lion for the same party...But lions have killed probably many more people than the Nazis in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. I think it is Prince William who should apologize. Think of all the people throughout the millenia who have lost family members to those prowlers in the night. Be more sensitive, people!

Should nobody dress up like Ghengis Kahn or Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden, or any other mass-murdering fuckhead for a costume party? Should Christians be offended when people dress up in Roman togas? Aren't they all in bad taste?