Do you like Peter Gabriel? Please consider buying my copy of Submerge, a rare double long-playing 33 1/3 RPM record set. Or just enjoy some funny pictures of Peter Gabriel for free.
Archive > August 2003
Sid Deutsch published an essay titled Suicide Bombers and Their Deity in the Spring 2002 issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. The essay addresses the incompatability of science (an understanding of reality based on empirical evidence) and religion (an understanding of reality based on revelation). “With so many scientist and humanist groups that hold on to a deity, little wonder that the average person believes in ‘creationism, unidentified flying objects, extrasensory perception, ectoplasm,’ and the like, and we have an extreme form of religious fanaticism consisting of suicide bombers. Bombers come in many different flavors, with various backgrounds and deities; regardless of how they germinated, however, we in the West will not let the bombers get away with the plea that they are only carrying out the orders of their deity. There is no scientific basis for a deity that is serving ‘pie in the sky,’ or anywhere else. We are programmed to hunt down the bombers because they are the enemies of freedom, democracy, and all of the many wonderful values upon which our civilization is built.” Editor Prof. P. Aarne Vesilind of Bucknell University stated the essay “drew an unprecedented response from our readers” and the Fall 2002 edition of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine included some of those response and replies from Mr. Deutsch.
Since the publication of these essays, Prof. Vesilind has been fired from his job and a recently-published index of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine does not include any reference to Mr. Deutsche’s essay nor the replies to the essay. An online table of contents of the magazine, however, does include mention of at least the first essay in question. Draw your own conclusions.
Jack Van Impe believes that if a particular patch of land is occupied by a particular group of people then a magic spell will happen and mosters will come out of the sky, killing almost everyone and taking the remaining few to another world. That is to say, Jack Van Impe is an evangelical, pro-Israel Christian. He also claims to be an advisor to President Bush. On Aug 13, 2003, one of his readers asked “Do you think that President Bush, apparently a Christian man, believes and knows he is involved in prophetic events concerning the Middle East and final battle between good and evil?” His reply: “I believe he is a wonderful man. I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I’ve spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it’s in his hands. He will know exactly what is going to happen in the Middle East and what part he will have under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. So, it’s a tremendous time to be alive.” Reported in MSNBC, cached in google. And it’s a good thing it is cached at google, because the original post is missing from the Jack Van Impe Web page. If it disappears from google, you can get a cache of google’s cache at pleasant.
Is President Bush asking the right people for advice in public policy?
Runequest was a role playing game I enjoyed in the 1980s. The original owners of the game, Chaosium, sold it to Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill intended to issue a revised version called Runequest Slayers but never did. However, the author of Runequest Slayers has kindly placed the game online for free. There was another version (the ‘fourth edition’) of Runequest that also was never quite finished and definitely never published. It is also online for free. If those aren’t enough Runequest links for you, try these.
Trevor Blake: Delightful Taunts from a Child
More delightful taunts from a child… “You bad stranger! I’m going to hit your butt and make your guts broken! Diarrhea in your panties right now! I dare you, so that means you have to! I’ve given you all the pretend tea you’re going to get and that’s none! You are not innocent! You are dead because I said you were dead! Pooper! Don’t move or talk! I can see those veins! You go to jail! I’m not going to stop telling you to do things! See that building over there – it’s as small as your face!”
If you think about aiding the Taliban, but don’t really do it, then you go to prison for seven to twenty years as a terrorist. But if you think about giving the Taliban forty-three million dollars and then you really do give the Taliban forty-three million dollars, you get to be President of the United States. “Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998.” And that was written when? May 2001, a few months before September 11th, 2001, when Osama bin Laden entered the news once again.
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act states “No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution, unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person, assembly, or institution.” If you want to build a mega-church in a historic district, the government has to prove itself right instead of you wrong to prevent you from doing it. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act failed to be enacted into law at least one and perhaps twice, so the US Senate entered a state of “suspended rules” to pass it without the niceties of review and debate. I’m wondering if Native Americans can take advantage of this law. But one thing is for sure – if you are an atheist then you will not recieve any of the benefits of this law. One law for religion, another for atheist. Fair?
More PETA kookery… Jeanne Daniels owns the Tarrytown Shopping Center in Austin, TX, and is a supporter of “animal rights” (according to the Austin American Statesman). And so even though the mall is infested with ants, none of the ants may be killed – they must instead be “moved.” No one in the mall is allowed to sell leather products. “At least three businesses — two restaurants and a grocery/deli — have left the mall over the past few years because they were selling meat and Daniels wouldn’t allow it.” One soon-to-be former tenent says “This has become such an uncomfortable place for humans that the shopping center is facing a downturn of sorts.” But this isn’t the first time Jeanne Daniels has made the news. Previously she bought a $90,000 2001 model black Mercedes-Benz CL 500, then spent about $5,000 having the leather seats removed. The seats were given to members of PETA, who (wearing cow costumes) hand-delivered them to Mercedes-Benz in Michigan and Germany. Koo-koo! Koo-koo!
Das Kapital by Karl Marx told in lithographs by Hugo Gellert, circa 1933.
On Wednesday night, Col. David Hogg and his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: “If you want your family released, turn yourself in.” Such tactics are justified, he said, because, “It’s an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info.” They would have been released in due course, he added later. The tactic worked. On Friday, Hogg said, the lieutenant general appeared at the front gate of the U.S. base and surrendered.
This country has gone wrong.
Supposedly, these blogs link to pleasant. But I can’t find any evidence of this being so. Nonetheless, a curious mix. Just like you!
