Sunday, October 28, 2007
Hitchens gone off the deep end
I stopped reading Pharyngula months ago, but once in a while a link to it pops up. Such as this one discussing the recent Freedom from Religion Convention.
Then it was Hitchens at his most bellicose. He told us what the most serious threat to the West was (and you know this line already): it was Islam. Then he accused the audience of being soft on Islam, of being the kind of vague atheists who refuse to see the threat for what it was, a clash of civilizations, and of being too weak to do what was necessary, which was to spill blood to defeat the enemy. Along the way he told us who his choice for president was right now — Rudy Giuliani — and that Obama was a fool, Clinton was a pandering closet fundamentalist, and that he was less than thrilled about all the support among the FFRF for the Democratic party. We cannot afford to allow the Iranian theocracy to arm itself with nuclear weapons (something I entirely sympathize with), and that the only solution is to go in there with bombs and marines and blow it all up. The way to win the war is to kill so many Moslems that they begin to question whether they can bear the mounting casualties.
I get it. Hitchens isn’t an atheist, he’s an agent provocateur for the Military Industrial Complex. And an embarrassment.
I don’t buy it…
Muslims tell Christians: ‘Make peace with us or survival of world is at stake’
Prominent Muslim scholars are warning that the “survival of the world” is at stake if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other.
In an unprecedented open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam, the Muslims plead with Christian leaders “to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions.”
I call bullshit.
Isn’t Islam the religion of peace? The survival of the world is at stake because two large groups of the world’s population can’t agree on which myth is more mythical? Please run this by me again, because I don’t get it.
The world faces many problems, but sorting out theological differences doesn’t defuse the risk posed by either political whackjobs steeped in a sheepherder mentality who conveniently use religion as a (willing?) tool or empire-builders who can’t figure out that it’s cheaper and more efficient to research alternative energy and energy efficiency rather than invade and occupy nations who sit on top of dwindling oil reserves.
why indeed
Why don’t parents like to play with their kids?
It depends. Some (most?) of the kid’s play is mind-numbingly boring, particularly the free-form play where the rugrats make things up as they go. I’d rather they keep themselves occupied. I don’t mind games that involve physical activity all that much and I wouldn’t mind a bit of dungeon crawling. I guess that’s another way of saying that I don’t mind if the kids play my games, but I’m not too fond of playing theirs.
and all I really want to do is collapse with a good book.
I bet every parent knows that feeling all too well.
Friday, October 26, 2007
happy halloween
I tried to post this in the shoutbox the other day, but there must be something about the link name that it didn’t like.
Anyway, if you want to avoid doing real work for a while ....
http://www.dedge.com/flash/hangman/hangman.swf
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
flu vaccine
First vaccine factory ready for flu pandemic
A new type of factory that speeds up production of influenza vaccine was completed Tuesday in Germany as the world prepares to cope with a pandemic that might kill hundreds of millions of people.
The cell-culture-derived vaccine from the plant, built by Switzerland’s Novartis AG at Marburg, Germany, is manufactured without using eggs, the usual medium for mass-producing flu vaccine.
Instead, cells that derive from a long-dead and nameless dog will be used. US scientists isolated the cells about 50 years ago from the kidney of a cocker spaniel and have been been reproducing them ever since. They are ideal as a host for influenza viruses.
So you don’t have to sign a waiver that you’re not allergic to egg anymore. Instead, they’ll ask you if you ever had a problem eating dog kidneys.
a beautiful rant
Buffer the Children, and Imperil Common Sense
It is not unusual to walk down the sidewalks of Manhattan and have to dodge a parent pushing a small child on a tiny plastic tricycle. Although the parent is in full control of both speed and navigation, that child is almost always wearing protective bike gear, including a helmet.
Nuts. A few bumps here and there build character and teach valuable lessons.
A child is now the equivalent of a minor royal who should be coddled, revered and praised at all times. To put a child in the position of possibly skinning a knee is unacceptable. To risk bruising a child’s delicate ego is an abomination. To make a child cry—and capture it on tape—could signal the end of civilized society.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Parents are in a difficult position as they navigate popular culture and try to keep their children from being prematurely exposed to sex or violence. But now that children have infiltrated all areas of society—pushed into expensive restaurants, fancy boutiques, bars, Saturday night movies and everywhere else in their ergonomically correct double-wide strollers—vigilance that once applied only to Saturday morning cartoons and play dates now has to be enforced everywhere. An activist group, Kidsafefilms.org, complained recently to airlines that many in-flight films, though edited for content, remain inappropriate for children. Offending films listed on the group’s Web site include “Spider-Man 3,” “Casino Royale” and “King Kong.” No matter that the vast majority of airline passengers are over the age of 18. Should airline films be edited to the standards of a 6-year-old?
Fuck, no.
And not to forget, these precious kids grow up with an overinflated sense of entitlement into a world that doesn’t really give a damn about them. Nice going.
more religious weirdness
In the interest of equal-opportunity criticism, two stories from Israel:
Cremation: Israel’s Latest Religious War
A problem for Israel’s farmers: The seven-year hitch
The first one is more or less humorous unless you’re friends or family of the deceased.
The charred hut and blackened chimney are all that remain of what was one of Israel’s best-kept secrets.
It was the Jewish state’s first and only crematorium. But more than that, it was a symbol. To secular Jews it meant the right to choose one’s own exit from this world. To religious Jews it was a violation of Jewish law, which requires that the dead be buried intact. And it struck a raw nerve on both sides, conjuring up images of the Holocaust ovens.
The crematorium burned down on Aug. 22, a day after ultra-Orthodox activists discovered and publicized its location. Police suspect arson, and although no arrests have been made, the affair has become the latest episode in the religious wars that have dogged Israel since its creation.
I can see that cremation is a touchy subject in Israel, but it’s not the business of the ultra-Orthodox wankers to decide how anybody wants his or her remains disposed of. Chances are that true to form, some religious nuts burned down the facility—are there any positive values religious zealots (read: thugs) embrace?
The second story is not amusing at all. There’s not a pie the zealots don’t want their fingers in and apparently agriculture is one of them. Quite frankly, I view this whole kosher business as moronic. If you have to, don’t cook a lamb in the milk of its mother. Period, end of story, done, and get over the neurosis of how far you can extrapolate.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
quo vadis?
I haven’t posted here in a while and it’ll probably stay that way.
It was a mistake to use Google Reader and trawl all kinds of sites for things to write about. To put it bluntly, there’s too much that pisses me off. And as far as the remainder is concerned, I simply can’t keep up. There’s little point to post articles having little more substance than “here, read this”, which is why I started the block labeled “Reading List” on the left side—it’s for stuff that I find worth a read for some reason or other. After some thought, I figured I might as well build a clone of digg and pull the reading list from there. Don’t bother looking for it just yet, it’s not nearly ready…
Rather than dumping everything into this site, I’ve begun using a few more sites I’ve had as spares. One for commentary about religion, one for articles about Germany, and one for politics. If the latter site gets a dozen posts in a year, it’ll be plenty. For all the sites, I’m about to apply a simple rule: If I can’t add more commentary than what I quote, it’s not worth an article and it’ll go to the digg clone. I’ve also long neglected my technical sites and it’s time to give them some attention and not to forget about our family site, which could use another overhaul.
I suppose it’s more fun toying with Expression Engine than writing articles… For all the sites, it’ll be amusing and probably frustrating to customize all the specialty templates and profile pages. And to add some JQuery to liven things up. Apropos, all sites could stand a redesign of the navigation struucture. At least one site is a good match to try to “comment in forum” trick. And so on.
I’ll still write here, but the posting frequency will slow way down.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Elwed at Peace?
I haven’t been around to visit the site in awhile. Nevertheless, the lack of entries by Elwed ranting is noteworthy in and of itself. Elwed, has your inner child found a sense of peace and harmony? ;)
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