Posts Tagged ‘pet peeves’

An inherent truth

Posted: January 17, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

The Wall Street Journal’s review of the the Nation’s magazine The Nation’s guide to the Nation delivers some comedy that I suspect the book doesn’t intend. But there is one part of the review that hits a particular nail on the head:

The Nation guide recommends a bookstore in Madison, Wis., by saying: “George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld do not want you to shop at Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative.” Yeah, remember that clerk, Dylan, the guy who was named Rainbow employee of the month last June? He’s in Gitmo now.

Gird Yourself for Exciting Yet Imaginary Battles! As far as The Nation is concerned, just about every progressive bookstore, musician, theater troupe and mime is committed to fighting the stranglehold of censorship. Except, well, they don’t actually get censored, so it’s like they’re committed to fighting the stranglehold of Klingons.

That line encompasses everything about the left and oppression these days. Over and over they talk about speaking truth to power and how there were censored by the Bush administration except that they don’t challenge any power that might actually strike back. Those days a long gone. Maybe they are referring to the violence inherent in the system.

“committed to fighting the stranglehold of Klingons.” Marvelous!

Is she outraged by the tooth fairy?

Posted: January 16, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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This article concerning the God probably doesn’t exist ads is interesting but there is one line that hits one of my pet peeves.

Sherine says she conceived the ads after visiting the fundamentalist website of Christians who sponsored the pro-God bus ads last year.

She was shocked to hear that in their interpretation of the Bible, unbelievers would “burn in a lake of fire.” Sherine rejected such an outcome for her Parsi grandmother,

This is silly silly silly. If she is convinced that God doesn’t exist then why be worried about what somebody else thinks? Someone’s opinion can’t make someone burn.

I think it is actually telling. I think it isn’t a question of trying to convince others, I think it is a question of trying to convince oneself. I think that one of the reasons why you see atheists so adamant concerning beliefs that they consider fantasy is the gut fear of the alternative, yet it is only the Christian alternative that produces this fear, and not other religious traditions. I think that is telling and will be touching on that in later posts.

Lets bottom line it. If God doesn’t exist, no exultation, no pronouncement and no statement of belief will make him exist. So no series of actions following creeds will make a difference after death.

If God exists in general and Christianity in particular is correct no amount of billboards or talk shows will change it. Nor will the consequences of belief, actions or non-belief be avoided. Those consequences may not be what some denominations believe but given the above they will exist.

That is reason.

Via Hot air.

More Cnn Questions, still waiting for answers

Posted: January 10, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
Tags: , ,

The list of people questioning the CNN story we mentioned here and here are growing.

The Volokh Conspiracy:

Indeed, not only is there no crater in the roof, but lawn furniture and clothes hanging out to dry on a line are right there in the background, undisturbed. Given that CNN’s own staff can’t vouch for the video first-hand, and that very serious questions have been raised about its credibility, I don’t see why CNN would want to double-down on this one.

Reihl World View:

At the very least it seems it might be an attempt by someone to alter the time-line of events and that a Channel 4 report actually pointed out that the family stayed home for some time and waited for the camera man / brother before taking the boy to the hospital.

In the third video (bottom) – of CNN’s full report – it claims the boy was taken home after the hospital – see 47 seconds in.

But in the second version posted from the UK’s channel 4, they use the same footage to suggest the boy “might” already be dead. That would mean the living room video was shot before taking the boy to the hospital – see 55 seconds in of that video. And at 2:20 in, the video actually says they drove from the hospital directly to the cemetery. That supports the living room video being shot after waiting for the cameraman to come off the road to the home. Why wouldn’t they have taken the boy to the hospital immediately?

Also in the first edited CNN video posted by Charles it clearly states that after the hospital the boy was “taken home” – possibly the same footage but it drives home the point. See 1 minute in of the top video at lgf link. And that language goes with the very same footage from the living room also in the other videos.

This is likely going to keep up until something gives.

Steyn’s Documents it

Posted: January 10, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , ,

I’m still waiting for that explaination concerning the left and Israel and the Jews meanwhile Mark Steyn makes a list:

In Paris, the state-owned TV network France-2 broadcasts film of dozens of dead Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year’s Day. The channel subsequently admits that, in fact, the footage is not from January 1st 2009 but from 2005, and, while the corpses are certainly Palestinian, they were killed when a truck loaded with Hamas explosives detonated prematurely while leaving the Jabaliya refugee camp in another of those unfortunate work-related accidents to which Gaza is sadly prone. Conceding that the Palestinians supposedly killed by Israel were, alas, killed by Hamas, France-2 says the footage was broadcast “accidentally.”

In Toulouse, a synagogue is firebombed; in Bordeaux, two kosher butchers are attacked; at the Auber RER train station, a Jewish man is savagely assaulted by 20 youths taunting, “Palestine will kill the Jews;” in Villiers-le-Bel, a Jewish schoolgirl is brutally beaten by a gang jeering, “Jews must die.”

In Helsingborg, the congregation at a Swedish synagogue takes shelter as a window is broken and burning cloths thrown in; in Odense, principal Olav Nielsen announces that he will no longer admit Jewish children to the local school after a Dane of Lebanese extraction goes to the shopping mall and shoots two men working at the Dead Sea Products store; in Brussels, a Molotov cocktail is hurled at a Belgian synagogue; in Antwerp, lit rags are pushed through the mail flap of a Jewish home; and, across the Channel, “youths” attempt to burn the Brondesbury Park Synagogue.

In London, the police advise British Jews to review their security procedures because of potential revenge attacks. The Sun reports “fears” that “Islamic extremists” are drawing up a “hit list” of prominent Jews, including the Foreign Secretary, Amy Winehouse’s record producer, and the late Princess of Wales’s divorce lawyer. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Islamic non-extremists from the British Muslim Forum, the Islamic Foundation and other impeccably respectable “moderate” groups have warned the government that the Israelis’ “disproportionate force” in Gaza risks inflaming British Muslims, “reviving extremist groups,” and provoking “UK terrorist attacks” — not against Amy Winehouse’s record producer and other sinister members of the International Jewish Conspiracy but against targets of, ah, more general interest.

Still waiting for the protests from the left on this stuff.

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