biosphere 2

"the replicant in decay"

via snadrs

three-time loser

the obama trifecta

from bad to worse to worse

This story needs no commentary:

TOKYO – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died at age 93.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his shipbuilding company on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city.

He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) to the southwest, which suffered a second U.S. atomic bomb attack three days later.

This detail does though:

Last month he was visited in the hospital by filmmaker James Cameron, director of "Titanic" and "Avatar," who is considering making a movie about the bombings, according to the Mainichi.

What then is the most accurate term for Mr. Cameron's desire to profit from the deaths of others: vulture, graverobber, or ghoul?

humans, bodies, & humans' bodies

via dustbury, again:

My personal philosophy is that I am the driver of my body-vehicle, not the vehicle itself. That’s what has made aging easier for me than it was before I really grasped that idea. Like a car, my body ages, but I, the driver inside, am the same age I ever was — I am ageless. My dreams brought this home to me this morning because in my dreams I am never any younger or older than about 30. That means something to me and, as I step into the final phase of my time on this planet, it’s a comfort.

I hadn’t thought about this before, but my own dream experience is similar: unless it’s spelled out early on that it’s the childhood version of me, there’s no real indication of my age in any of my dreams. Certainly the infirmities of age don’t play any role therein.

As for driver vs. vehicle, this sounds something like C. S. Lewis: “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” And there are worse things in life than sounding something like C. S. Lewis, whether or not you subscribe to Lewis’ particular faith.

Since I think about this kind of thing a lot (too much, probably), I'd agree with this view from both theological and personal viewpoints. As smart as my dad is, he doesn't seem to think about these things, which only now seems unfortunate as he struggles with the advancing weaknesses of Parkinson's...

year end review

on our annual corporate internal review system, it's difficult for me to fill in the "goals for next year" blank, because:

1) our company is being sold, so the review will (probably) never be seen again,

2) i have no company-related goals, and

3) i don't speak corporatese.

humans, nature, & human nature

dustbury vents (and i edit):

What is with this idiotic notion that Nature is good and Mankind is bad? Fact is, Nature is cruel, even demonstrably vicious, and Mankind is, uh, more kind than not. That's why Mankind has prospered and proliferated. DUH. Consider this: Christianity is the biggest ever departure from Nature. Its central premise is that we all matter. Odd. Wrong? Perhaps. But absolutely right in human terms. It has led to the extension of human thought, lifespans, and a kind of beauty and accomplishment no other culture has ever dreamed of. No other kind of human philosophy has produced such sheer gorgeousness. Now we are being asked to regard ourselves as vile, a scientifically verifiable pollution on the face of the earth, something akin to the AIDS virus...

We've been lulled into this delusion, I suspect, partly because we've been instructed to regard Nature as the repository of all beauty: anything we might produce ourselves must pale in comparison to the wonders of, well, just about anything that is recognized as life...

But this isn't the only bill of goods we've been sold:

In a world with few inescapable consequences, we bridle at the thousand tiny course corrections, the constant nudging that kept most of us on the straight and narrow path. We yawn at things that used to cause us a healthy sense of alarm. The "God of today" is a tolerant, undemanding, comfortable God who thinks we're all special just as we are... But somewhere deep down, I think we know better. I think we sense that we are glossing over the faint whiff of moral rot...

a new psalm

I've posted Psalm 107 for several Thanksgivings now (in several versions):

2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

But I read another Psalm last night that might become my annual New Year's post, the first half of Psalm 37:

1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.

2 For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.

7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

9 For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.

10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more;
And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.

11 But the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

12 The wicked plots against the righteous
And gnashes at him with his teeth.

13 The Lord laughs at him,
For He sees his day is coming.

14 The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow
To cast down the afflicted and the needy,
To slay those who are upright in conduct.

15 Their sword will enter their own heart,
And their bows will be broken.

16 Better is the little of the righteous
Than the abundance of many wicked.

17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
But the LORD sustains the righteous.

18 The LORD knows the days of the blameless,
And their inheritance will be forever.

19 They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have abundance.

20 But the wicked will perish;
And the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures,
They vanish--like smoke they vanish away.

and now, a serious resolution

"repudiate the coward’s history"

1-1-2010

My new year's resolution is 12 megapixels.

death to the dictator

again, iran's is one green movement worth supporting. too bad chairman zero is oblivious to their struggle.

south of several borders,

"the night before Christmas" changes a little...

Christmas morning

Most of us have heard the story of the birth of Jesus Christ into the world. The Gospels describe it in various ways, but sometimes its meanings get lost as we repeat it in our traditions. Recently I heard a sermon explaining the nativity story from Mary's point of view, but something else just hit me tonight - one metaphorical angle that I don't remember hearing before...

Jesus was born in a stable, and it wasn't like the glittery ceramic scenes which decorate many homes and churches this time of year. A crowded and messy stable. A stable filled with noisy, smelly animals that probably just finished a long hot day of work or travel. Animals that only hoped to avoid predators and the whip. Animals, that didn't know anything better than to eat, sleep, procreate, and die in their own filth.

Those animals represent the wretched and pathetic state we all were in before our blessed Lord saved us.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

snowing here

"melts on the ground, not in the air!"

update: i spoke too soon. the snow has already covered 80% of the grass, drifting up to 30 mm, and visibility is down to 5.2 × 10^-14 parsecs!

answer this

With the Obama-crats trying to take over everything in sight (GM, banks, the entire healthcare industry, etc...), shouldn't we at least be opposing them on the basis of anti-trust laws?

"nil"s bore

Distilling this argument to near-bumpersticker length: "Nietzsche was a hypocrite for believing the words "everything is meaningless" to have any meaning."

dfw 2020

Asking as a Fort Worth native, please please please do not hold the olympics in DFW. Some agree:

I understand why people want to hold the Olympics, but really all who benefits from it are IOC members who are bribed...err...lobbied, construction companies, and local elected officials...

Please Dallas don't mire us in a generation of debt just so we can pound our chest on TV for 3 or 4 weeks... Montreal just this week paid off their debt from the 1976 Olympics and that London is 8 billion dollars over their rainy day budget extension placed on top of the orginial budget figure... oh and that the final tally for China's Olympics was 40 billion USD.

www.chicagoansforrio.com

heh, indeed

now that's a hockey stick!

pantheists pan theists

One of many points about the "Avatar" movie:

(The protagonist race is) saved by their faith in Eywa, the "All Mother," described variously as a network of energy and the sum total of every living thing.

If this narrative arc sounds familiar, that’s because pantheism has been Hollywood’s religion of choice for a generation now... Kevin Costner discovered when he went dancing with wolves. It’s (in) Disney cartoons like "The Lion King" and "Pocahontas." And it’s the dogma of George Lucas’s Jedi, whose mystical Force "surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together."...

Today there are other forces that expand pantheism’s American appeal. We pine for what we’ve left behind, and divinizing the natural world is an obvious way to express unease about our hyper-technological society. The threat of global warming, meanwhile, has lent the cult of Nature qualities that every successful religion needs -- a crusading spirit, a rigorous set of ‘thou shalt nots,' and a piping-hot apocalypse.

Read the rest at NOFP

by the people, for the people

Instapundit linked to "Contract with America 2.0", but I'm linking it too so that it will get more exposure...

:)

wrap it up

lileks, on presents:

I understand why my father wanted to spend time between presents, savoring the warm glow of gratitude and pleasure before it was extinguished by curiosity, and the next box was ripped open.

I should note that we didn’t rip. We opened carefully. My mother saved the paper, ironed it, reused it; she also saved boxes. If you ripped brand-new perfect paper you could see a hint of pain behind her smile, and in retrospect I don’t know why we just didn’t go outside, find a dry patch of sidewalk and step repeatedly on a crack.

mom occasionally saved boxes, but rarely saved used wrapping paper. her mom was more likely to save boxes & cards; i don't remember dad's mom saving anything but the cards. seems like they all saved the bows though...

i also agree with his twitter entry that clarifies a vague feeling i had earlier this week:

The message behind "We Need a Little Christmas" is: forced rote gaiety will distract us from our looming sense of dread and depression.