I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom. When I was ten, I asked my parents to subscribe to a weekly magazine that was publishing comic-strip versions of the great classics of literature. My father, not because he was stingy, but because he was suspicious of comic strips, tried to beg off. “The purpose of this magazine,’ I pontificated, quoting the add, ‘is to educate the reader in an entertaining way.” (more…)

I would have preferred ‘Virginia Tech tragedy’ over ‘Virginia Tech Massacre’, which the media so astutely adopted after the horrid events last Monday. A massacre occurred, but this subtle distinction between descriptions shouldn’t be overlooked. The news stations opted for shock-value of a bad sort. The religiosity, media frenzy, uproar of age old debates on gun-control, privacy issues, and treatment of mentally ill persons followed accordingly. And in the aftermath, fanaticism rears its ugly head, as everyone attempts to reduce the events to two-dimensional explanations, illusions of grandeur brought to you by every expert expressing their conclusions while bias to their science, in a shrewd attempt to naively isolate the cause and offer their prescription. (more…)

According to The Prospect/FP, Umberto Eco was voted the 2nd greatest, living public intellectual. He is a medievalist and novelist. His novels include The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum. I’ve been meaning to reader the latter for quite some time now. Anyway, below is a an excerpt by Umberto Eco I found interesting. (more…)

I thought I might address this in lieu of Gore’s recent congressional testimony. This video below exemplifies his opposition’s stance.

Countless experts. Conflicting conclusions. But then, I am pro-choice and in favor of same-sex marriages so I should remain loyal to those dang crazy ecoliberals vomiting their dang blasphemous rhetoric. Isn’t it clear? The global warming movement is communism dressed in green and it’s imperative we create a united, bipartisan front against this disastrous hoax.

Hmm, (more…)

If I claimed to be Spider-Man would you believe me? What if I successfully convinced 98% of the world I could sling web but showed no proof of my abilities. Would you then agree that I am Spider-Man? You would probably require evidence. I tell you to have a little faith.

Galileo questioned why God would give us our senses and reason then want us to abandon their use, by giving us some other means the information that we could gain through them. I know that you feel that somewhere deep down in your heart you believe something must exist to explain for the complexity and beauty of everything around you. Yet at one time, hurricanes were the results of angering the Greek God Poseidon. I know this doesn’t seem like an appropriate analogy, the very fact I make the association may seem to you demeaning. Religious faith, a belief in an omnipotent presence and an afterlife is a rather taboo subject matter. Nevertheless, the double-standard it presents us is in no way subtle. (more…)

God speaks through Fox News….our last line of defense against atheist tyranny. I wonder what sort of mental manipulation these atheist conjured up to deceive these innocent kids into speaking in tongues. Next thing you know they’ll denounce Poisedon’s existence after the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. If you want to be a half-decent parent then listen closely. The next time your kid asks you why its thundering outside, tell him Gods angry. Then when he asks why Gods angry, tell him its something he did.

On a much more genuine note…both these guys scare the living daylights out of me.

“The being we call god is merely a pawn working for a powerful and rational force in some far-off galaxy. This force is trying to weed out people who are irrational by seeing who would be stupid enough to believe in his god illusion so easily. Those that believe in this illusion, he will send to eternal damnation and he will deliver the rational beings, those who stoically refused to believe in a god, to heaven.”
- Nicholas Yee

Rook to F9, Check. United States foreign policy experts implement strategic sanctions on North Korea by depriving them of life’s essentials, cognac and designer clothes. Critics of US foreign policy have cited these recent sanctions as examples of United States complete disregard for the recreational entertainment of North Korea’s elite.   In an effort to frustrate North Korea’s gracefully petite leader Kim Jong-Il into concession, the US is assured multilateral talks will continue. United States ’show-no-mercy’ tactics will eliminate popular North Korean past-times such as jamming out to an Ipod while jet-skiing the Pacific blue. The uproar against recent US coercion methods is justified, since without luxuries we are no better than barbaric cattle lost blindly in the Sahara desert. This begs the question, if Kim Jong-Il was placed into a glass container with an extremely small circular opening, could he in fact escape?