X. Benedict

Very sad news for a good man and a good family.

The only equal to TO's egocentric universe is Irvin's egocentric Gallaxy

Or at least as not for that sorry SOB

Come here, Goddie, now sit. Good boy.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled musings about what Lana wears to bed by this special announcement from the emergency broadcast system, in the event somebody goes over the line discussing what Lana wears to bed, this system will automatically notify the community. Thank you. We now return to your regularly scheduled musings about what Lana wears to bed.

I believe in God. It's all of you I'm having doubts about.

I wonder if Crayonz has any perspective on what the $1 coins will mean for the Canadian ballet.

Last night I had the privilege to have a few drinks with a veteran from Korea at Chosin. He told me 56 years ago this week he killed 5 men and that he was in the 31st (or 33rd?) infantry battalion. He said he never once talked about it while his wife was alive, but never felt guilty about it either. He said he didn't so much remember shooting them as the moments afterwards. He said that he felt overwhelmed by how solemn he felt and respectful. I was riveted by his story. Nothing very friendly about that week.

and by voting for him.

I don't want to start the Creationism/ Evolution thing again, but isn't there something a little comical about the passionate retort: I didn't come from monkeys (I came from dust)!

Amen.

Thanks Wacka. To appease don't you first have to make concessions? Exactly what concessions has anybody proposed to anyone. What demands has anyone suggested meeting? Perhaps by appeasement you mean some program of weakness and meeting conditions of an enemy in lieu of military action. What conditions are we talking about that would equal appeasement? If you tell me what the hell Appeasement means in this modern context I will swear to Jesus that I will never forget Nevil Chamberlain.

Maybe the alternate jersey will be a blower.

Hell, who wouldn't want to be the first in the neighborhood to hold a shiny Quayle, Mondale, or Agnew.

It is probably the most classically liberal program ever. The belief that an entire region could be democratized, and it would spread with a democratizing domino theory to other regions is probably the most stunning case of liberal optimism ever. Darin is right.

I am actually toying with a new constitutional amendment. It works like this - Congress must work 365 days a year and the President is only allowed to work one day a year when he must veto everything. I must have woken up libertarian this morning or something.

I think this is absolutely right. (and nice use of Horsehockey. )

The Left, eh? Much better to be on the Right which has totally abandoned traditional American pragmatism marching lock step to the tune of "We will not Appease" with the grand !@#$ing idea that we can reform the "culture thing" by chewing up said culture and shitting democracy. Folly.

I don't think there is necessarily a contradiction. The genesis of Muhammed's community was in stark opposition to the dominant culture of Mecca, his original community is said to include women, junior sons, and those outside of the tribute economy of Mecca. I am no islamist expert, but the early community of islam would fit into the context of being a social revolution even in secular terms apart from any Revelation that the Guy-not-to-be-cartooned experienced.

Shouldn't there be a goal at the end of that sequence?

Amen, Brother.

It happens. But isolationism is also a characteristic of American religious thought, and many types of Buddhism. Religion is contextual - whether it is used for propaganda or restraint.

It seems to me that hatred of religion is a pathology almost as dangerous as simplistic notions of God. Nearly every stream of religion (not every denomination, however) - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc. began as a counter to violence or the injustice of its day, and in some way practiced (and still do) their own brand of social justice or compassion for the dispossessed. Blaming wars on Religion - or claiming that Religion is the main cause of war seems to ignore that for the last 2 millennium the tribe, ethnicity, or nation state has had a much more cohesive role to play in conflicts than religion. Religion's role in the propagation of war, however can't be ignored either. God is invoked on every side of every conflict - but to what end? Rarely have doctrinal issues been a casus belli in most enduring conflicts, but sectarian differences often break down on religious lines. Counterbalancing any radical or fundamentalist stream in most religions is a mystical tradition that eschews literal understandings. Sensibilities, that one could call religious seem to mitigate options for total war in the same way Koresh prevents me from gloating after I skull !@#$ my enemies.

They are just more likely to visit the Josefov museum in Prague. So hard to count when they are on vacation.

Stats don't lie.