Linkin Verbz help form complete sentences.#

Adam Gessaman posts some really funny "Post-mortem" blog posts.#

Chip Gibbons writes about Heaven. Which I talked in reference to something John M. Scalzi said.#

To kids, heaven is like a huge Toys R Us. To many adults it's pretty much the same, only the toys are adult sex toys. I'm reminded of Freud's take on religion.

To Christians, Heaven is a place where everybody is a Christian, to Muslims a place where everybody is Muslim. That's the funny thing about Heaven; it's unattainable here on earth which is why we call it Heaven, a place above or removed from the realities of earth. People thinking about Heaven are daydreaming about what they want; the Heaven concept is like a Rorschach Inkblot.

I am reminded of an alternative vision of Hell. A place where you can get everything and anything you desire for all eternity without end. The problem is that because you desire earthly things your thirst is never quenched and your passions ravage your body rather than seeking solace in reflection of God. I forget where I read it, so I can't credit it.

Andrew Grumet on distracting yourself.#

Inside, I noticed a lone wallet sitting on a bench by the pool. I guessed that it belonged to one of the dads in the class preceding ours, still in the pool with his toddler (which it did). It made me think of Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia, the part where he relates his theory of deferred anxiety. It works like this: the trick to facing a source of major anxiety is to distract yourself with a source of mundane anxiety. Gray retells how he psyched himself up to go swimming in the ocean while on location filming The Killing Fields. To overcome his terror of drowning, he left his wallet out in the open on the beach. That way, he could worry about the wallet getting stolen.

Going on the kick of the last two quotes, religion is a way of distracting ourselves from the hardships of life. Rather than worrying about being good to one another or being happy on Earth, we can worry about where will be placed in the "after-life." This distraction of reality was captured by power structures who sought to abuse the drugged masses.

Julie Leung writes about a "Instrument Petting Zoo."#

Activities before the concert encouraged the children's interest in music. There was an Instrument Petting Zoo where the girls got to see cellos, violins, and a table of drums. Michaela touched a flute. There were also horns, clarinet and saxophone, plenty to see, but a bit overwhelming for our daughters in noise and crowd. One station offered simple science experiments such as blowing through a comb with waxed paper or twanging rubber band strings on boxes. A treasure chest display invited children to write down questions for the conductor to answer. Each girl also got her choice of a Trading Card, like sports cards, one made for each member of the orchestra. Abigail and Michaela both chose Elizabeth Stoyanovich's card: she's the Conductor and also our neighbor.

How can I relate this to Heaven, Hell, or distractions?

Well, there is a weak reference between music being a distraction as a well as music being a way to exalt God. Hmm... I'll to better next time.

Dave Pollard is funny, but not God.#

So what's the answer? Is Google deliberately omitting How to Save the World hits because I'm so prolific and perhaps drawing traffic away from other sources -- was I too successful in getting Google traffic and hence "cut off"? Or this there a more innocent, technical explanation. I offer a modest reward, plus deepest thanks and publicity for your brilliance, to the first person who can solve the mystery.

If Google were God, then Dave Pollard would be in Hell because he has been cut off from God for eternity. Possibly because he a usurper, trying to Save the World, which is the role that God plays? Hah, this is fun.

Tyler Cowen links to an explanation on how homing pigeons navigate.#

Researchers at Oxford University spent 10 years studying homing pigeons using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and were stunned to find the birds often don't navigate by taking bearing from the sun.

Instead they fly along motorways, turn at junctions and even go around roundabouts, adding miles to their journeys, British newspapers reported.

"It is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass, and then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at the roundabout," he said.

God is evicted from another gap.

Don Park has some interesting ideas about how blogging can be utilized from beyond the grave.#

Rewinding a blog back in time

I thought it might be neat to have a blog that moves backward in time with posts sorted in reverse order. So when I die, my blog will show posts from the day before I died and then the day before that and so on. There will be blog comments by visitors before and after I died. There are problems with this idea but is worth savoring to look for hidden passages to new ideas.

Obviously related to Heaven and Hell in some world view and inspired the posting from Adam Gessaman.

Dave Winer links to The Holy Bible as RSS.#

Tyler Cowen writes about the NFL's prohibition on high school students.#

Why might a professional sports league seek to prohibit such draft picks? First, the prohibition is part of an overall bargain with a players' union. Players' unions are composed of insiders, people already in the professional sport. By banning high school players, the league extends the career of the median established player. Apparently this is a cheaper concession than paying those players more money. In essence the players' union is redistributing money from the superstars to the average players. The very best players lose a few years off the beginning of their careers. But a comparable long-run penalty need not fall on the good (but not exceptional) high school players. Once they are drafted, they will enjoy a longer career than otherwise. The superstars, in contrast, can stick around with or without competition from high school players.

Julie Leung writes about how she taught Ted how to programme.#

So one day I was writing my program there in the Sun Room. I don't even remember which one it was, whether it was the tennis game or the airline reservation one or what. But I was feeling a bit ill. Under the weather. An unhappy hacker. And I thought I'd make my variable names reflect my feelings. So I named them "cold" "flu" "sick".

Ted happened to stop by that day and see what I was writing. He laughed at my creative coding, explaining to me that I had to use standard variable names. Ones that fit with the purpose of the program.

What fun was that?! I blew him off(a pattern in the early phase of our relationship), handed my program in anyways and got marked down for my variable names. Then and there I had a revelation. Then and there I realized I had gotten a bit confused: I should have registered for courses in the creative writing department instead.

Chai Tea Latte advises the males who take her out: You are not as Hot and Sexy as you think you are.#

1. If you say you plan to do something with me and can't make it, e-mail or call or at least send out telepathic messages indicating that you tried your best to make it and could not due to the fact that you are trapped under a piece of furniture in a freak furniture accident and are even now withering away with hurt and worry that your freak accident has denied you the pleasure of my company.

2. You are not as hot as you think you are.

3. If I call you for dinner or a movie it is because I don't have plans. It is not part of some elaborate scheme to trap you into any type of relationship, I assure you. Because.

4. You are not as hot as you think you are.

Richard and I like public transit. Although, in the winter I don't ride it much because I have to walk about 30 minutes to get to the bus stop. I need to find a warmer winter costume.#

Ryan Overbey links to the President's lies on Meet the Press.#

Russert let the President get away with these lies. Surely he had this kind of data- press clippings, news reports from the past two years. Surely he could have challenged the President during the interview. But he did not. This interview is a snapshot of everything that is wrong with professional journalism today- in the effort to appear balanced and fair the journalist has no desire to tell the truth, to hold people accountable for their words and actions.

Is there any integrity left in this profession? I'd love to see some examples. Enlighten me, please. Where are the journalists who have a sense of responsibility to their audience, who say, "Mr. President, that's not true"?

Tony Pierce and the fine ladies who cut his hair.#

beatiful brown skinned girl came over the other night, and i dont remember exactly what we ended up doing but i remember that at the begining i was playing madden 2004 getting my ass kicked by the All Raiders and at the end of it was 24 hours later and i was bald (pictured). yes i have a lil mole.

somewhere in the middle of it she was cold so i turned on the space heater and brought the boom box in the room and she thought she had a minute or two for me to decide on the all important question of what cd i was going to put in there but ah-ha i fooled her and jumped her and we went at it in the silence so that the neighbors could hear everything.

Michael Feldman quotes about Janet the Jackson.#

Did anone else notice that they forced Vividblurry.com to take down the Money Shots of Janet Jackson's breast. My God, woman, you bared that breast in front of the largest television audience of the year, 100,000 screaming fans live and 15,000 members of the Press and Photographers, and now you want to keep the pictures off the Internet? At 39, on the downside of a career that was derivative at best, you should be thankful that ANYONE wants to see your titties anymore!

Ryan Overbey is a babe in velour.#

Richard "Money-Makin' Money-Makin' Getting Yo Booty Shakin'" Gwai Lo links to Todd who writes about tolerance and acceptance.#

My take on tolerance is that Jay's description of it is spot on, but I disagree with the conclusion that tolerance isn't a good thing. I don't expect everyone to change their minds in order for me to live in peace. In fact, the absolute requirement of belief is the thing that I find most distressing about Christianity. It doesn't matter what you do in life, they say, as long as you believe, you will be alright. As soon as we buy into thinking that "the sin is in the thought" we buy into all manner of Orwellian Thought Crimes and a severe affront to freedom to think for oneself.

It's all well and good to try and change someone's mind about something, but don't expect or require them to agree with you. All we can really expect, if we want to live together, is that we can coexist amid disagreement. The best way to do that is to encourage tolerance not as an ideal, but as a necessary compromise that let's us have freedom of thought and the ability to live as we wish so long as that lifestyle doesn't prevent others from doing the same.

Note: In the original piece, I said "The sin is in the thought, not the act." But this comment must be read in the great context of my proposal that Christianity supports a theory of there being No Spiritual Authority Greater Than God.

With this context you will see that I don't think one can accurately measure "thought crimes" and thus supposing that "the sin is in the thought, not the act" is not a problem.

With that in mind, I do think tolerance can be necessary but only when framed as suppressing a desire to hurt if you can't accept. It should be a fall back, not a first goal.

And yes. What is comes down to is Liberty: Live your life as freely as possible anyway you want without hurting another's Life, Liberty, or Property.

Light me up... I'm ready.#

Gary North writes about the truth behind the Constitutional Convention and Shays' Rebellion.#

The Constitutional Convention did not take place because of a democratic movement of the people. The people were generally uninterested in national politics and jealous of a transfer of sovereignty to the central government. This outlook was not shared by the men who became the Constitution's Framers and then, retroactively, the Founders. Yet what they did was illegal. It was far more illegal than what Daniel Shays did. What is more, they knew they were acting illegally.

Shays' Rebellion provided an opportunity for a majority of a group of 55 men, more than half of whom were lawyers, to break the law of the land and get away with it. This is not how historians of the Constitution have treated the Convention in Philadelphia. This fact provides additional support for the ancient rule of historiography, indeed, its only known rule: the victors write the textbooks.

Read for details.

MC Hawking is making a real cd - "A Brief History of Rhyme." Click for awesome cover art.#

Oliver Willis on President Bush on Meet the Press.#

What a horrible performance on Meet The Press. Bush reminds me of the kid who never paid attention during class but crammed the night before and memorized pieces of the material. Then, when he was actually asked the questions he just spews off the bits he memorized, no matter if they are actually applicable or not.

"I know I'm getting repetitive" You bet, buddy.

Julie Leung write about vegetarianism and marriage.#

Ted and I started dating later that fall. The man is a carnivore. He was raised to love meat. A meal without meat isn't much of a meal for him.

We started to get serious. And I started to see that my feelings for vegetarianism were only infatuation compared to my love for Ted. It would take a lot to change his appetite. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, trying to convert Ted to a meatless life would create severe digestive dysfunction and major emotional malfunction.

[...]

So I never became a vegetarian. Instead I became Mrs. Leung.

This is interesting because I've had the experience that many of my girlfriends have taken up vegetarianism (or tried veganism) after hanging out with me. I'm not sure if they do it because they want to avoid food battles or because my explanation of my beliefs sways them. Hmm?

Julie also writes that her and Ted made the decision not to own a TV when they got married. I think that's great and plan on doing it when I finally find The One. Currently I watch movies, but would like to cut back--lately it's been reading books and cuddling, which I like better.

In the comments to Julie's post, Paul writes:

You point out good reasons why I turn the conversation away from the fact that we're vegetarians and we don't watch TV . . . it's boring for us and the other person, and really, it's not that important. All of us should be far more than the sum of what food choices we make or TV shows we watch.

I agree with this a great deal. This is why I am never the first to bring up my diet unless I have to (ie unless someone says, "Would you like some meat?" In which I tried to say "No" not "No, I'm a vegan and I think you suck, bleh!"

I hate it when my finger slips and I delete an email and can't undo it back because Mail.app is weird. I didn't delete the message of anyone who reads this though, so worry not.#