You are currently browsing the archives for January, 2011.
Annihilating Pascal’s Wager
I don’t have any problem with making a choice to believe in God. That is your own business. However, if you’re a Pascal’s Wagerer who believes in God because it’s some sort of theological safety net, you are participating in some serious ontological laziness. It seems fitting then, that I’m about to provide you with an internet video that will simply and eloquently rend that safety net into bits. That’ll teach you to forgo thinking for yourself.
Apples and oranges.
I’ve always felt the turning point in the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign was the moment when the sight of then-candidate Barack Obama after wrapping up the Democratic nomination was almost immediately contrasted with now-failed-candidate and angry man John McCain, in front of a sickening green background and performing to an audience which sounded more like a canned laugh track, giving a nasty, pitiful screed about the man who would trounce him in the election only a few months later. One man represented the best of what America would like to imagine itself as–intelligent, broad-minded, appealing to the better angels of our nature–and the other represented the impossibly tired bitterness of a rapidly disappearing part of our society. The choice, and thus result, was never more stark.
A Magical Land of Brain Death
Those of you familiar with the podcast, know my feelings on Disney. More than a land of magic, and reverie, and joy, it is a land of price-gouging, irrational exuberance, and toy-fetishism. Not to put too fine a point on it, Disney Propaganda can explain the specific psychoses of a huge number of American adults (largely women).
Given that, hearing about the inner workings of DisneyCorp, was an irresistible opportunity.
No one could have predicted…
Beyond expressing my sorrow for the lost and injured and all those affected by this tragedy, I have little to say about the horrific events in Arizona yesterday except one thing. Regular Mep readers / listeners will know all of us here put a high value on communication and the power of rhetoric; the two greatest speakers of the twentieth century (arguably) were Martin Luther King and Adolf Hitler, and I don’t think anyone needs a cheat sheet to determine which person pursued the good and which the evil. What yesterday conclusively, definitively proves is that rhetoric is not an unalloyed good. It is a neutral tool, and it has consequences.
Carina Carina
Good morning. Have the highest resolution photo ever taken of a nebula (specifically, this is the Carina Nebula.) Alright, you may now go about your business. Never mind the utter wonderment that is commonplace in our universe. Go get yourself a decaf latte that you might sit and properly worry about the scratched spoiler on your Honda Civic. It really matters. A lot.
Cinematic Depression Chaser
No commentary for you this evening on the Arizona political depravity egged on by vapid celebriticians. Suffice to say, it’s bad out there. And it will get worse before it gets better. No fretting about that now, though. It’s Saturday night. Have some Norweigan mountain ranges. Nobody has shit on them yet, as far as we know.