HAPPY…oh, wait.
So I missed Rant Day. Blah. Oh well. I was working. Yes, you heard me right. I was working. And not with food. Greasy, heavy, cold metal and dangerous power tools.
Sweet.
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Say no more, mon amour. [Happy Rex Manning Day]
JOE:
You all having fun? I hope so. Don’t let me stop you, keep dancin’. But you better do it now because by next week this is gonna be a Music Town and I don’t think they allow dancing in Music Town.
Something nice to say
She did a lot of things wrong. They did. The first twenty-four years of child rearing were more experiments than anything. Preliminary trial runs for practice. But, so it would be, I assume, for any young new parents. I do not agree with everything they did and I will not agree with everything they did. What was wrong was wrong. What was tragically wrong was tragically wrong. But what was right was absolutely right. And no amount of thanks can be given for that. There is nothing nobler than to give your life to take responsibility for another’s.
We’ll move on from here
Well, once again, rant day has come and, as in the old’n days, I have found myself completely unprepared. Nothing to write. However, I am a Blog Mad member. “What’s Blog Mad?” you ask. No you don’t, because you don’t care. So I’m not telling you. Suffice it to say, in the course of my membership there, I have found many many blogs worth reading. Some I read daily, others whenever I have absolutely nothing better to do.
While scouring the web for anything new to read that was not about Baseball, Iraq, kittens, Lebanon, or someone’s nasty breakfast, I came across a blog that every Christian should subscribe to. Cerulean Sanctum is a blog created by a man named Dan Edelen. Now, I have only briefly skimmed through Dan’s older posts; but I am utterly convinced that the man is a prophet.
That, however, is not the concern of this rant. Dan posted concerning the chopping and subsequent raping of the Bible. In his post, Chapter, Verse Blog, Dan goes on about the way cut and paste reading and wielding of the Bible causes a Rock, Paper, Scissors style circle of contradicting heresy. He then cites Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church in a short excerpt that everyone should read titled The Bible is not a Jigsaw Puzzle. The excerpt is basically the same sort of Atomic Mind Bomb that Dan’s post is, but from a different perspective.
Still, none of what I have said so far is what this rant is about. So I’ll, as our old friend Monty would say, “Get on with it!” Throughout history, well-meaning people have said and done things which were taken to the extreme by their followers and made into foundational principles which, in turn, were made into platforms for revolution and reformation. Those platforms were then taken by the followers of those first followers and were made absolute and sovereign law, designating all aspects of reality. These people even went so far as to use said platforms to redefine their own sources.
We can take a look at many examples. The Pentecostals, who took a movement to readmit truth into the church and made a church out of it or the Roman Catholics, who decided that order and purpose were best served cold with a side of stagnation and a tall glass of self righteousness on the rocks. Teachers spoke of the brotherhood of humanity prompting African Americans to a black supremacist since of brotherhood. One called Anointed spoke of perpetual forgiveness and the honor that is in martyrdom. His followers wasted no time in throwing themselves in the face of death and had to be reprimanded by one of their most popular leaders just be convinced to live. YHWH tells His people of His plan for them and they begin to worship the plan and ignore Him altogether.
What can we take from this? Stop basing your lives on wacked out philosophies! Sure, these philosophies are, for the most part, based on valid premises. Then take those premises! If I presented you with the best three course meal you ever had, you might like it. If I presented portions of the ingredients all blended together as one meal, you would gag at its very sight. So it is with the blasphemy spewing from the pulpit like vomit from a hung over freshman. And I do gag. Church, camp, TBN, friends, books, I don’t care.
The worst part is not that these heresies exist. It is not even that people believe them. That most of the western world believe them is not even the most sickening aspect. No. It is that these beliefs have engrained themselves so deeply in our culture and in our doctrines and in our philosophies that people actually consider the beliefs a part of themselves. Oh, they would not admit it. Nor do they even realize it. They have been brainwashed so completely that they consider an attack on these doctrines an attack on their very being.
So where are the few and the proud left? What can those who read the Bible with, at the risk of sounding cliché and New Age, an open mind do? Pretty much, we can complain. Complain and hope someone listens. We could try preaching the truth, but we live in a very majority rules culture. No one listens to the minority. After all, a prophet is not without honor but in His own country and among his own brethren.
Don’t forget to read Chapter, Verse Blog and The Bible is not a Jigsaw Puzzle. Bottom line, if you believe that the Bible is the word of God, either in part or in whole, you must read.
It’s only a hologram
When Monty Python and Star Trec combine, geeks get happy.
And there was much rejoicing.
Yay!
Jaime, King of Developers
I’ve just spent the last hour and a half or so adding an aside section to my sidebar (as well as cleaning up the main entries code a bit because it was downright ugly!). Now I can post all of those little tidbits of info that I wanted to post before but didn’t because it wasn’t important enough to take away from the main entries. Enjoy (I know I will)!
(for now, Xanga readers will have to deal with these being crossposted as there is no way to opt out of crossposting to Xanga per post)
The Truthiness of Wikiality {Wikipedia puts StephenColbert on notice}
In his continuing quest for truthiness, Stephen Colbert may very well have incurred the wrath of the world’s largest online sorta-encyclopedia.
Then again, maybe he didn’t.
Confused? Well, so is pretty much everyone involved in this rather sordid case of Internet vandalism/ social experimentation, but in the spirit of, well, more truthiness, we’ll try to explain.
“The Colbert Report” is the tongue-in-cheek Comedy Central news show that features the titular humorist spouting off on a variety of political topics in a highly stylized, Bill O’Reilly-esque manner. On Monday’s episode, Colbert praised Wikipedia, the online resource that can be read and edited by anyone with access to a computer, for promoting what he termed “Wikiality” — a sort of pseudo-reality that exists when you make something up and enough people agree with you.
“I’m no fan of reality, and I’m no fan of encyclopedias,” Colbert opined. “I’ve said it before: Who is [Encyclopaedia] Britannica to tell me George Washington had slaves? If I want to say George Washington didn’t have slaves, that’s my right. And now, thanks to Wikipedia, it’s also a fact.”
While he was speaking, Colbert was also typing away on a laptop computer, apparently editing the Wikipedia entry on George Washington to read, “In conclusion, George Washington did not own slaves.”
He also apparently edited the Wiki entry on his own program, replacing a lengthy section on his reference to Oregon as both “the Canada of California” and “Washington’s Mexico” with “Oregon is Idaho’s Portugal” — an example, he said, of Wikiality.
“[On Wikipedia], any user can change any entry,” he said. “Now ‘Oregon is Idaho’s Portugal’ is the opinion I have always held. You can look it up.”
The thing is, Colbert was actually making the changes — or, at least, someone with the username StephenColbert was. The edits are seen on Wikipedia.com here and here, and they were both made around 6:35 p.m. ET, when “The Colbert Report” tapes in New York.
–Read more here: Can Wikipedia Handle Stephen Colbert’s Truthiness?
Happy Rex Manning Day!!!
“No, we mustn’t dwell. No, not today. We can’t …. Not on Rex Manning Day.”
Let’s try this FFAF thing again [Free For All Friday]
It’s late. I know. But better late than never, right?
Iiiiit’s Fridaaaaay!
Know what that means? No, you don’t, because I have never done this before. So I, being the generous kind of guy that I am, will tell you exactly what it means. It means that all of the two or three people who actually read this blog can post whatever they want. That’s right. Rant, rave, complain, comment, critique, review, praise, or just blab. I don’t care.
Only a couple of rules. If you are registered, you can post new posts. All posts must be under the “Free For All Friday” category. You may post under any category you wish in addition to that one, but that must be one of the categories. No pages, only posts. If you are not registered, you may register.
If you do not wish to register (why, I don’t know), you may add your posts as comments to this post (of course, you can still comment on any other post just as usual). Finally, the subjects of all posts (or the first line of all commented posts) must begin with “[F.F.A.F.]” (minus the quotes) because there is no telling what you people will post and I’m not taking credit for some of it.
That’s it. Post away!
MAS Appeal [Happy Rant Day!]
Well, it’s rant day, so I figured I would give you all a rant. Such would seem to be a natural decision; no? My rant is in the form of a poem that I wrote earlier this week titled MAS Appeal. Enjoy
MAS Appeal
So many spines from which to unplug wires. So many batteries to amputate and hearts to reinsert. So many eyes to open. So many dead to awaken. Can it even be done?
She is uncharted territory. Yet the acid rains of popular doctrine have fallen on her, propagating blasphemous poison into her precious soil. She soaks up every bit. Her soil, soft and easily permeated. Her trees’ roots, willing to leave no mineral unsiphoned. Fortunately, it seems that her trees have not had enough exposure to clear weather, hot sun, sky free from the “protection” of thick dark clouds. Their roots have failed to take hold and their branches have failed to grow. This would seem to make light my job of administering the anecdote to lies. The only problem is that I am allergic to rain water. And in her world, it rains all day.
She is an untainted canvas. Burned by the light of those so high above her, darkened a bit, but still quite workable when faced with the brush of a skilled artist. There she stands high on her easel, taunting me, calling. She calls, “Come and make something. Draw something. Something. Anything.” Every aspect of me is dying to acquiesce, but it seems that she only exists to tease. I am to see her only in passing, to admire her simple elegant beauty, the potential she possesses to be a great work, only to return again when I have forgotten my zeal and to have my passions reignited, reawakening dreams which, I fear, will never be realized. For I am allergic to the sun. And there she stands, slowly but surely burning away.