Left Behind

Don't get mad at me for this guys. There are some good posts on here and I don't want to obfuscate our most holy mission. In addition, Ransom, I don't want to take your play on delighting us all on the running Evangelical joke. Here is a joke, "A grasshopper walks into a bar and sits down on a stool to order a pint. The bartender says, "Hey, do you know that we have a drink named after you?" The grasshopper, perplexed, says, "You have a drink named 'Kevin?"

That is funny, this is funnier.

So we know about Left Behind and all the junk pop-theo/fiction out there. I am sure that you are like me and think that it is funny in a sort of laugh-at-a-well-meaning-fat-person sort of way. Well, not wanting to miss any commercial goodies, the boys of the series have come out with a game. "Left Behind, Eternal Forces." Awesome! Check leftbehindgames.com for more. Best part, they also had a gamin conference to bring kids in to play.... and witness to each other.

This game in particular is great. Dr. E. Michael Jones says the following: "In the new video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces, born-again Christians in post-apocalypse Manhattan use prayer and song to convert infidels or, if unsuccessful, blow them away with tanks and snipers. Says the reviewer for Focus on the Family: “Eternal Forces is the kind of game that mom and dad can actually play with Junior.”

Wow, another hit Christian video game sure to get kids into Jesus. Lets think of some others.

Well, there was the classic "Exodus." Here is a screenshot:
Who can forget "Bible Buffet"?
And my favorite: "Forgiveness, The First Chapter"

Ransom and Qahal, I now know what I will be getting your children for Christmas, you can thank me later. See you at Willow Creek on Sunday.

Like Jesus Camp on Human Growth Hormone

Okay, so maybe that's not the actual tag line of this movie. But it should be.

Not as Cool?

Apparently the Today show thinks that Pope Benedict XVI isn't quite as cool as his predecessor. They led off yesterday's broadcast with this segment. Somehow this is news. Rule #1) It isn't cool to talk about hell. Rule #2) It is cool to have Bob Dylan sing for you, and the current Holy Father wouldn't have allowed it to happen.

To the Today show I offer this. That's pretty darn cool. Maybe King is actually trying to set up a match between Fr. Pat Egan and the Pope. Imagine the amount of people that would pay to see that. You would make millions, King, millions.

And for those of you who believe in the Pentavirate run by the Gettys, the Rothchilds, the Queen, the Vatican and the Colonel, check out this latest development. For all we know they're putting an addictive chemical into this sandwich that will make us crave it fortnightly.

schooling at home

This post is for Mrs. Ransom. I assume she still checks the blog occassionally and I want her to read this. Some weeks my stupid job does not allow us much time to talk, so I'll just pass along the article for her to read. I realize that I run a risk here--I can already hear her saying, "If you have time to peruse the internet, then you have plenty of time," but part of my job is to be informed about what is going on, so I think I get a free pass with on-line periodicals (at least I didn't post her a YouTube video, then I would have been in real trouble).

So read up, wifey, I can't wait to talk about it with you someday.

I Don't Really Know What To Say

This is absolutely shocking. I guess in some backwards way this might be a sign of hope. I can't imagine any court holding that the child in this case is anything other than a person. Perhaps this defense will not only backfire, but will create a shockwave unhinging the weak foundation of Roe.

The End of Marty Haugen

Does this mean no more drums at church?

"In the course of her two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must not be lost. Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration. Consequently everything – texts, music, execution – ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons. Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the synod fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy."

Pope Benedict XVI has obviously never heard the Holy Spirit-inspired guitar solos at Christ the King in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

On Chipmunks

I had no idea that Chipmunks were so intelligent. Apparently getting rid of them is no small chore. Don't worry, this website is looking out for you.

First, don't be fooled by their appearance:

In most cases, the first signs of chipmunks are welcomed. These small animals are both cute and innocent looking. Most people like to watch them as they forage for food and move about in the yard. But don't let their harmless looks charm you. Chipmunk infestations can quickly grow out of control and once established, they can be difficult to remove!

Once you have accepted the danger they present, you have several options. Apparently chipmunks are incredibly selective animals, but they just can't say no to a helping of Trapper's Choice Pecan Paste:

Chipmunks are fussy and only seem to like tasty and selective foodstuff generally not available in a "bait" form.... Chipmunks are more finicky and may readily hoard bait placements for a later date.... [So if you want to poison them] you may try mixing it with bird seed, [but] it is very likely the local chipmunks will simply hoard your bait placements. If you want them to consume the product quickly, mix the Liquid Poison with TRAPPERS CHOICE PECAN PASTE. This paste is rich with nuts, oils and sugars. Chipmunks can not resist eating it immediately.

And don't try to insult their intelligence (or ability to evolve):

Although you may get an animal or two [with a rat trap], the rest of the population will quickly learn to avoid them.... [And] typically, the chipmunks which inherently are coy enough to escape pets reproduce and their offspring inherit these same qualities which allow them to survive as well.

But wait, lest you despair over their infestation, they are not invincible. Apparently they are very easy to trap... as long as you are using Trappers Choice Pecan Paste! Of course! But once you trap them:

You'll have to cart the animals at least 5 miles away before releasing them. Chipmunks can travel several miles so make sure you don't give them a chance to get back to your property.

And in case you hadn't thought of it yet:

Remember, you can also destroy them if you want to be completely sure they won't return.

Don't just kill them. Destroy them. There's an interesting approach.

(Portions of this post were contributed by Mrs. Qahal)

Goodbye, Chief

The drum has finally stopped beating for Chief Illiniwek. The fertility-dancing is over for the long established mascot. He will no longer entertain the throngs of college sports fanactics gathered to support the Fighting Illini. Instead, he will ride his stolen horse into the sunset of obscurity where he will pass away and be buried by Political Correctness.

But wait... perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye. The Chief certainly retired without much fanfare. Maybe the University is holding out for one last pagan ritual. I've heard rumors from certain people indicating that if the Fighting Illini pull off the impossible and win the NCAA men's basketball national championship, that the celebration will center, not on the basketball team, but on Chief Illiniwek.

First, a herd of buffalo will be released into the Georgia Dome. They will be recklessly slaughtered for their furs by the members of the opposing team. As this develops, if one were to look closely, a tear will gently fall from the Chief's left cheek. He will rush up to the dead buffalo, rip out one of their hearts and eat it as his sadness quickly changes into fury. He will engage the opposing team by throwing tomahawks and scalping them alive. After conquering the opposing team's starters, members of the white-man's bench will offer firewater and smokes as a sign of peace. Shortly thereafter, in a drunken stupor, Chief Illiniwek will abruptly light the Georgia Dome on fire (ironically symbolizing the torching of the prairie). Once the wreckage has been cleared, Atlanta can okay the building of the Chief Illiniwek Hotel and Casino where the dome once stood. That would be a most extravagant tribute fitting to mark the end of the Chief's reign. He who has been retired because his mere presence is offensive.

Maybe that would be true, if he evoked all that I just described. But he doesn't. He stands in front of fans who are more interested in watching the sport than the mascot. He claps, shouts, cheers and sweats. And that's it. What's the big deal?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Robots

I don't think we have had any posts about robots lately, and that is a shame. Thanks to this poorly thought out excuse for an article, that streak ends here. We start with Isaac Asimov's "three laws of robotics":

- A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm

- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law

- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

Problem solved ("I, Robot" excluded, of course), right? Only for the short sighted. Luckily the author and scientist does a little thinking outside the box (which is a prerequisite for scientists who are grappling with ethical issues regarding a future world of robot people):

These three laws might seem like a good way to keep robots from harming people. But to a roboticist they pose more problems than they solve. In fact, programming a real robot to follow the three laws would itself be very difficult.

For a start, the robot would need to be able to tell humans apart from similar-looking things such as chimpanzees, statues and humanoid robots.

This may be easy for us humans, but it is a very hard problem for robots, as anyone working in machine vision will tell you.

The author lacks clarity here (probably because he is writing nonsense), but this can either be taken one of two ways. First the problem could be that robots that are programmed to kill chimpanzees and destroy statutes would not be able to do their job because they would be confused about their targets. This seems to be a minor problem, and for someone advocating robot ethics, it is doubtful that chimp-exteriminating robots would be acceptable anyway. So I am going to assume the problem he describes is that a robot will not be able to distinguish whether a command comes from a monkey or a man. I guess when you are making up robot fantasy worlds it is easy to forget that a chimpanzee can not speak to a robot or program a robot. If evolution brings us to the point where super-intelligent chimpanzees are programming computers at the level of humans, we have bigger problems than the robots.

There are other important ethical issues raised here as well:

If robots can feel pain, should they be granted certain rights? If robots develop emotions, as some experts think they will, should they be allowed to marry humans? Should they be allowed to own property?

First suggestion, assuming you could program robots to feel pain, just don't do it! Problem solved. As for allowing robots to marry humans, again I think the author forget to think about what he was writing. I'll leave it for my two year old to explain the problems with this.

I know that this is at least the second post I have written where I disagreed with robot ethicists, but bear with me. I am trying to get all my thoughts out before the robot lawyers pass robot hate speech laws.

Have a happy Friday, or as the robots would say, "01010011 0011 1011."

Fly Me To The Moon

So I guess that Germany thinks they can make it to the moon. That's funny.

Mary, Protestants, and Quantum Physics

Here is a good little article on Evangelicals and the Mother of God. I particularly liked this quote from then-Cardinal Ratzinger:

The Christological affirmation of God’s Incarnation in Christ becomes necessarily a Marian affirmation, as de facto it was from the beginning. Conversely: only when it touches Mary and becomes Mariology is Christology itself as radical as the faith of the Church requires. The appearance of a truly Marian awareness serves as the touchstone indicating whether or not the Christological substance is fully present. Nestorianism involves the fabrication of a Christology from which the nativity and the mother are removed, a Christology without Mariological consequences. Precisely this operation, which surgically removes God so far from man that nativity and maternity-all of corporeality-remain in a different sphere, indicated unambiguously to the Christian consciousness that the discussion no longer concerned incarnation (becoming flesh), that the ?center of Christ’s mystery was endangered, if not already destroyed. Thus in Mariology Christology was defended.

The article also contains what, I think, is probably a protestant's major difficulty with Mariology (besides inculcated prejudices against things that are so explicitly Catholic):

Good Catholics know, of course, that Mary is not the object of worship or the kind of adoration given only to God (latria), but rather of veneration (doulia), albeit of a special kind (hyperdoulia). But this distinction often seems to get lost at the local level.

I leave it for the others to discuss, but a proper veneration of Mary alongside a proper adoration and worship of Jesus is often difficult for the young protestant armed only with a Bible (as well as the young Catholic flanked with both Bible and Cathechism) to distinguish. This criticism can not hold up to even a small amount of study or genuine curiousity, but I think that it is an immediate problem on the local level, as the author puts it.

The reason I leave it to the others to discuss anything more about this is because they are a lot smarter than me. I found this clip (with Max playing the part of Ransom and Quantum Physics playing the part of Theology) that sums up the Silent Planet quite well:

Some Good Stuff

I thought that today's readings were exceptional and here's a little tidbit from the 1st Reading:

Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25

Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the LORD.She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, and said: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand. As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you. Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O LORD, my God.

“And now, come to help me, an orphan. Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and those who are in league with him may perish. Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.”

That just sounds like a lawyer's kind of prayer if you ask me.

Social Control Update

Remember when people were hired for positions because they were the most qualified? Not anymore. I've been wondering how I could sue my way into either a job or some money, but I guess that I'm out of luck because I'm not black.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act makes it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race.

And nowhere in this article is there any discussion of evidence of racial discrimination nor of any particular cases where there are allegations of racial discrimination. There is also no mention whatsoever of the qualifications of these black applicants. Its a statistical conclusion and we're supposed to just assume that there's discrimination. We don't actually have to prove that, we can just trust that its the case, because I mean come on, there's got to be more than six qualified black coaches right? If that's the case why can't they actually prove it, with evidence. Show me the specific cases of actual discrimination. Don't make some lame statistical argument that has no place in court. Title VII has been allowed to stretch a bit too far from its 14th and 15th Amendment moorings.