Tuesday, January 31, 2006

An Afternoon Treat

Doo doo doo doo do doo, doo waaaaaaaah.

It doesn't matter what comes.
Fresh goes better in life.
With Mentos fresh and full of life.
Nothing gets to you.
Staying fresh. Staying cool,
with Mentos fresh and full of life.
Fresh goes better, Mentos freshness.
Fresh goes better with Mentos fresh and full of life.

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Such a daring ploy. They're not Mintos. No, my friend, that would be trite. They're Mentos.

I've since learned the chords to this song and am accepting Paypal donations to Richard.siy@gmail.com to finance the recording requipment and software necessary to create enough remixes for the Freshmaker to DJ an entire Chi Phi party. Thanks in advance.

Love,

Richard

Here we go.

The lady whose office is directly across from mine is cool - she really is. Unfortunately for her she is from Pittsburgh, and natch, a Steelers fan. For the past week I have had to endure this belching out of her office, at least four times a day.

Did I mention that she has has really loud speakers?

I think I might kill myself.

And just because I want to share my pain and misery with all of you, you are hereby ordered to check it out. Make sure you listen to the whole thing. I triple dog dare you.

You will definitely regret it.

Oh, how I despise the Steelers.

UPDATE: I'm going to keep a tally, just for the record.

Tuesday
6:45 AM
7:56 AM
9:42 AM
12:32 PM
2:23 PM
3:51 PM

Wednesday
7:17 AM
9:53 AM
9:57 AM
10:08 AM - she's on a roll this morning
2:06 PM

Thursday
7:44 AM
9:57 AM
1:03 PM
1:36 PM

Friday
7:04 AM
8:21 AM

Monday, January 30, 2006

A Refined Taste in Music

I recognize that my ability to absorb celebrity gossip is regrettably much greater than my ability to absorb things like history and social theory, but when it comes to bastards like Kevin Federline, I wallow in schadenfraude with a hand down my pants and catalog every minute of it.

Ok, so Exhibit A:

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Click the link. For the love of God. Now, Kevin Federline may be a comic genius who's pulling some transcendent Andy Kaufman shit on us, but we all know he isn't. That's really him. He really does all this stuff with no sense of irony. I could go a on a rant about how earning his living entails trying not to piss of his meal ticket while sneaking off to the ATM, but watching that video is exponentially more entertaining. I'm making the prediction that Popozao makes it into colloquial English, just like "jump the couch," for the manifestations of a total divorce from reality. I love it.

And what person worth over $100 million dollars allows themselves or their spouse to bank at Wells Fargo? I bank at Wells Fargo. I'm a fucking college student. I think Britney Spears can create a minimum balance large enough to have a pretty high interest rate checking account. Or use Paypal's Money Market (that shit's earning 4.3% and you can get 1% cashback with a Paypal debit card, check it out).

Sorry. Anyways, Exhibit B:



Conan O'brien makes me put my hands down my pants too. Like the other members of the Triumvirate, I flog my dolphin gleefully whilst enjoying a good belly-laugh, extending the pleasure south down my Happy Trail-less trunk. If I make a robot, it will have James Lipton's sense of humor, meaning, it will have no sense of humor but be a great comic foil nonetheless. Beholding my creation, I could only say, "That's fire."

Hey, Bush gets one.

I'll admit it: I'm in a bit of a blogging funk.

Call it laziness, but for today I have to revert to that most awful form of blogging - updating you on the mundane details of my life.

Consider this the State of my Union... with, uhh... myself.

Movies:

As evidenced by my Netflix queue, I'm trying to wade my way through a few classics. Most recently, I watched "A Face in the Crowd." Totally, totally outstanding. I am really digging Elia Kazan as of late, plus Andy Griffith puts on an unforgettable performance as Lonesome Rhodes. I've had "Metropolis" on top of my DVD player for about 3 weeks now and have started it no less than 4 times, but as much as I hate to admit it, I just can't get into it.

Next three headed this way - "Citizen Kane," "Gentleman's Agreement," and "Angels With Dirty Faces." Score.

Ipod:

What's in the ol' Ipod these days, you ask? I already told you about the Haggard album, Chicago Wind. Other albums in heavy rotation are Old Crow Medicine Show - OCMS, Reckless Kelly - Wicked, Twisted Road, Neil Young - Greatest Hits (holla), and Shooter Jennings - Put the O Back in Country. Giz will probably throw up a little at the sound of all those.

I'm also addicted to the Vatican Radio podcast of 105Live. It reminds me of NPR, which I also enjoy, but it is about ten times better. Maybe fifteen. Also, once a week, they have a segment called "The Latin Lover," during which the hostess chats with the pope's personal Latinist about Roman and modern culture, and everything in between. The guy is an absolute joy to listen to with his gruff old voice, and since I am studying Latin right now, I find value in the things he has to say.

Books:

Currently, it's St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics. This is not a light read by any stretch of the imagination, but the payoff is unbelievable. It is basically selected readings from the Summa Contra Gentiles, Summa Theologiae, and De Regimine Principum targetted towards - you guessed it - politics and ethics. Also included are sections with "Backgrounds and Sources," "Interpretations," and "Contemporary Problems In Thomistic Ethics." Each are worth their weight in gold. Aquinas was such a fucking giant - I love him.

These are the other books I'm working my way through right now:

It remains to be seen what sort of God-awful accent this self-taught student has developed up to this point, but hopefully I'll meet someone with whom to converse pretty soon. Besides, I gotta get some guidance on the abstract ablative. What the hell is that all about?!?

Anyway, other than raising a kid, watching sports, and staying in a constant state of drunk, that's my life in a nutshell at this point in time. Tune in next year for the update.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Speaking of Abortions...

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Actually, this has nothing to do with abortions, just as none of my posts really have anything to do with contemporary moral, political, or philosophical issues. Admittedly, I may have already blown this post's load (the Abbey road pic is definately one of the best), but you should check out these anchronistic Photoshops anyway.

The Segway pic reminded me of the tall-glass-of-water security guard my brother and I spotted segwaying about the Galleria food court. We, as a unit of similar genetics, pondered the practicality of his mode of transport. I know those things have a straight-a-way speed of about 15 m.p.h., which is a full sprint for a healthy guy , but still there's something about the pretentious and ostentatious laziness of those machines that immediately categorizes a rider/operator/driver/leaner as, oh, I don't know, a duckbuttered douchebag. Were I chased, I'd hit the stairs/escalator up (or down for comic effect) with my snarfled Emporio Armani and chortle. Like a fat man. He was wearing a helmet, though. So, pretty sure he was ready for a rough chase filmed with fast cuts and a jiggling camera, I tended to my nachos and left my dreams of couture-crime forever.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Coincidence and satire

Chris Penn was found dead on Tuesday night. I normally wouldn't mention something like this, but I have a personal connection to the story. You see, I spent that very Tuesday night watching none other than Reservoir Dogs, completely oblivious to situation. Of all the movies to pick from and of all the nights to pick THAT one... Holy shit, what are the odds?

----------------

Greg Gutfeld has written an absolutely marvelous little piece of satire in honor of the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Seriously, it is one of the wittiest things I've read in a good, long while. Borrowing from a commentor's analysis: "his genius lies in his efficient use of simplicity... Indeed Greg doesn't make any grand arguments on his own, but the way he puts his opponents' arguments together becomes a very powerful and eloquent argument itself."

And yeah, after you've enjoyed the piece itself, make sure you read the comments from all the HuffPo regulars. What's that, you're unacquained with HuffPo? Ah, even better. Then let this serve as a not so congenial introduction to the ever so tolerant progressive crew.

You gotta love those people - they're just so darn CUTE when they're angry!

UPDATE! UPDATE!

Says Gutfeld:

"Judging from my last post, there are a lot of people here who take abortion VERY seriously - so seriously in fact that they worry me. I think what's needed are a few "belly" laughs to ease the tension!

So, in honor of National Abortion Week, here are some cute jokes to tell your kids!

or Nonkids!"
THEY ARE HILARIOUS!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Coast to coast in four minutes

Grab a joint, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Deadspin is funny

From Deadspin, regarding Rocky VI:

We're still unclear of the plot of the new movie, though we know Antonio Tarver is playing someone named "Mason Dixon." We were discussing the movie with some friends this weekend, though, and, if this isn't too Simmons of us, we had an idea. We think it should be like Rocky IV, except instead of a Russian foe, it should be a fundamentalist Muslim. (Think a 76 percent less racist Glass Tiger.) At the end, when Rocky wins, he gives the exact same speech he did at the end of that movie, except it's broadcast over Al-Jazeera. World peace results.
Link.

Here is an alternate storyline. After Rocky IV, the Russians secretly cryogenically froze Ivan Drago. In the near future, his genetic material is used to create an army of super-beings. Vladimir Putin, in a fit of insanity, uses the army of Dragos to invade nearby Turkmenistan, and establishes what becomes the homebase for all evil in the world. The army of Dragos, who are also super-intelligent, devise a new, unimaginable weapon of mass destruction.

This aggression will not stand. Rocky, who himself has benefitted from gene therapy (remember the "brain damage" he was coping with in part V? No more, my friends...) is recruited by the CIA to singlehandedly infiltrate the base, destroy the army of Dragos, and assassinate Putin. He accepts and sets out on his mission, but is almost immediately captured. The sick and twisted Russian gives him a chance at survival, however. If he can defeat the army of Dragos in the ring, one at a time, using only one hand... okay, this is getting out hand.

The new Rocky is going to suck.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Dude, nice memes

I would consider myself an initiated novice as to the work of Richard Dawkins. I've read The Extended Phenotype once, The Blind Watchmaker a couple times, and The Selfish Gene no less than 4 times cover to cover. I have a tremendous admiration for his work as a scientist. I will never forget the first time I read The Selfish Gene; I still feel like I see the world with a new pair of glasses now, it was that life-changing. Still, it is a constant source of wonder to me that a man, so steeped in genius, can be so absolutely and unabashedly narrow-minded concerning the subject of religion, or even the existence of God.

Not only is Dawkins a dogmatic Evolutionist, but, as a natural extension, he is also a full-blown, in your face atheist. Now, as Chesterton pointed out, the problem when people don't believe in God is not that they believe nothing, it is that they believe anything. Dawkins, unfortunately, believes that religion, and Christianity in particular, is "The Root of All Evil." Such is the name of a two-part series he recently co-wrote and hosted on UK Channel 4, and is coincidentally the theme of his next book, The God Delusion.

Those of you familiar with his writings or ideas have probably come across the term "meme," one that he himself coined to mean "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." Think of it as the mental equivalent of a gene. Like a gene it is subject to mutation, crossover, and adaptation. Dawkins considers religion a meme, and a bad one at that. The message he wants to get across in the show? That "all religion represents a danger to our society and future."

Poor, poor man.

Although no response is ever adequate for changing a mind so firmly entrenched in its own ignorance, Roger Scruton, one of the great living conservative intellectuals, has formulated a pretty good one, nonetheless, which reaches a glorious climax:

Religions survive and flourish because they are a call to membership — they provide customs, beliefs and rituals that unite the generations in a shared way of life, and implant the seeds of mutual respect. Like every form of social life, they are inflamed at the edges, where they compete for territory with other faiths. To blame religion for the wars conducted in its name, however, is like blaming love for the Trojan war. All human motives, even the most noble, will feed the flames of conflict when subsumed by the ‘territorial imperative’ — this too Darwin teaches us, and Dawkins surely must have noticed it. Take religion away, as the Nazis and the communists did, and you do nothing to suppress the pursuit of Lebensraum. You simply remove the principal source of mercy in the ordinary human heart and so make war pitiless; atheism found its proof at Stalingrad.
The real irony of the situation is that the false dichotomy drawn between faith and reason is a meme in itself - a purely modern one, at that. I guess in the end, when religion and humble science trump/outlive intolerant secularism, Dawkins will still be justified after all, in that the structure of his theory (though not his interpretation of its implications) will still be holding a lot of water. Are you a fan of irony?

Friday, January 20, 2006

Very, very, very cool

I just found this. Must buy? I think so...

Go Maroul.

And because content counts...

There. Burnt Orange Nation rates Regional Fan Bases. That's substantial, right? Guess who has the bestest fans...

Feliz Cumpleaños a Ti

Today, Elliot, the fruit of my loins and heir to my empire, is officially one year old. He is so the man.

Fatherhood is a beautiful thing. It is sometimes overwhelming and often difficult to comprehend that an entire life has been entrusted to me, or that my entire existence has been redefined and refocused around another person. Still, no matter how mind-blowing the reality of the situation is, I love every second of it, and I love him beyond words.

Happy birthday, little buddy; I'm proud of you.

Now, let's get drunk. Have a great weekend, everybody.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Three plugs, and I'm out.

I'm sure most of you have heard this already, but Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Full Frontal, Traffic) is releasing his new film, Bubble, in theaters, on DVD, and on pay-per-view all at once. This is obviously a wonderful idea, and even if the movie ends up sucking, we should all either buy it or rent it immediately to support the structure break from the current movie industry oligopoly.

Also, the newest Merle album, Chicago Wind, is amazing. It is most definitely not his patent brand of honky tonk, but his songwriting is as stellar as ever, and I rather enjoy the softer, more Americana feel. He is at times political, without being obnoxious - an avenue many contemporary artists have dire need to explore. Download either the title track, "What I've Been Meaning to Say," or "Some Of Us Fly" for a taste of goodness.

And finally, on the same note, for those of you who are stuck at a computer all day at work like myself and need something to listen to, I highly recommend KHYI. I'm not sure how many locally owned country stations there are in Texas anymore, but "The Range" is by and away the best. (KVET, its only competition in the state, and my other fav, is Clear Channel.) Broadcasting out of Plano, they are a bastion of true-blue, gutsy country. Check it out.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

What I missed.

Since I was without media most of last week, I've been trying to play catch up on the second half of the Alito confirmation hearings. Looks like I didn't miss much. Ol' Teddy made Mrs. Alito cry? Sounds about right - I told you it would be a total smear campaign. The Judge has this one in the bag.

The Senate Dems in these hearings become such caricatures of themselves that there are only two possible ways to stomach them: either with a shot of humor or a laxative. The ever brilliant Peggy Noonan chooses the former in a wonderful op-ed piece that first appeared last week. Read it, and I guarantee that you'll at least smile, if not laugh out loud on multiple occasions.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

You win some, you lose some.

Morning came.

And with it, success!



Okay, so maybe we caught as many mudpuppies as we did fish, but still, we celebrated.



Frankie did not survive the night.

The rest of the long weekend continued in similar fashion, reaching what seemed to be a glorious apex on Saturday night, when all of a sudden, the plane crashed into the mountain.

Giz may or may not have sustained head trauma.

Sunday was spent as a day of mourning. Then we left.

Disregarding both the fact that Frankie's brand new truck is now three-legged and that Giz didn't get laid, the trip was totally excellent. Thank you, Francis, for having us. You have a special place in our hearts.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Loon call!

We are so back. The trip was, in large part, a success. Highlights:

Train ride from NYC up to Portland. Note our legitimacy. It was but fleeting.


Then Frankie picked us up from the station, and we headed to camp.


Drinking commenced, and, in typical fashion, was the only constant all weekend. Molson and Canadian Mist - just like the natives do it.


The next order of business was to hit the ice and set the traps.



And we wait. Cards, booze, and sardines.

But did we catch anything, and what was the final outcome of the trip? Tune in tomorrow night to find out, mostly because this takes forever to do, and I am up way past my bedtime. Buenas noches.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Gone fishin'

Giz and I are headed up to Maine to hang out with Frankie and ice fish and whatnot. Rest assured, the entire trip will be photo-documented.

I'm not flying back until Monday, so I bid you all a fair weekend.

Monday, January 09, 2006

How They Got Here, Part One

"donkey fuck"
"amateur porn"
"donkey punch sex"
"girls gone wild"
"floppy titties"
"tranny shemale 'first time'"
"13 year old titties"
"donkey fuck floppy"

Totalling 12 unique visitor hits since Jan 1.

We win.

Fun week begins... NOW!

It's that special time again. Confirmation hearings for good ol' Alito begin today at 11:00 CT. You can watch them here or via C-SPAN. Today is just opening statement day, but it will set the tone for the rest of the week.

The Democratic newswire, aka the Washington Post, says Dems are going to try and torch him over his abortion opinions. Duh. Just like the Roberts hearings, a woman's right to murder her unborn child will be a rally point for the naysayers. But then again, also as in the case of the Roberts hearings, the fact will be made manifest that Bush has nominated a man who is both highly competent and highly qualified [MUST READ]. He should emerge from this week's smear campaign unscathed, and but a step away from the SCOTUS bench.

P.S.

Thanks, VY, for everything.

P.S.S.

NOW, you can start talking about the draft.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Croce had it right:

"You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind..."

I am still in a state of euphoria. I haven't heard from Giz since Wednesday night, which leads me to believe that he ended himself after the single greatest night of our lives. Gotta go out on a high note, right?

The one thing that is bringing my mood down is any and all sports-related media. I am really disgusted by the pack of wolves that came out IMMEDIATELY after this game ended, licking their chops, and drooling over Vince. Hey, assholes, you're showing up to the party a little late; he was this good all season. Probably makes you think twice about using the Disney Sports Channel as your primary news source.

I'll cut you a deal - just try and go the rest of the week without the Reggie vs. Vince draft drivel, and then you can speculate all you want. Seriously, you gotta give us at least that much time to enjoy the victory before you taint everything with your dirty, dirty money.

---------------------

I finally watched the band video over there all the way to the end, so I figured out which game it's from. K-State, 2003, when Ell Roberson tried to do it dirty to us. Great game.

---------------------

Not sure how many of you follow and/or are interested in the whole evolution business, but there is a brilliant related article by the impeccable Schönborn in the latest issue of First Things.

Back story first.

Last summer, he wrote this article for the New York Times, of which the money quote was this:

Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection - is not. Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.
This opinion piece was not meant as a formal defense of Intelligent Design, however. Inspired as a reaction against those dogmatic materialists who had hijacked papal quotes as evidence that their beliefs are accepted by the Church (e.g. John Paul the Great, that evolution is "more than just a hypothesis"), Schönborn not only set the record straight about official Catholic teaching, but he managed to do so in the context of an argument for the existence of a Creator.

As we shall see, many people misunderstood the argument itself. Inevitably, there was a firestorm of reaction from all sides. [Aside: Of course, as is often the case, because it came from a Catholic official, his opinions were taken by the ignorant masses to be somehow doctrinal or dogmatic, of which they were neither. The Church, 999 times out of 1000, will avoid choosing sides in scientific disputes.]

For example, Barr published a critique of Schönborn in October. Schönborn's error, he said, was one of definition. In defining neo-Darwinism as "an unguided, unplanned process or random variation," he had "slipped into the definition of a scientific theory... words... fraught with theological meaning." Barr goes on to argue that "random" and "unguided" are not necessarily synonymous in a scientific context, and that, more importantly, "random" and "divine causality" are not mutually exclusive terms. In other words, it is not difficult to reconcile a seemingly random world with the eternally active hand of Divine Providence.

Barr is correct. But as Schönborn notes in turn, Barr and many others have misunderstood the argument.

[M]y argument was based on the natural ability of the human intellect to grasp the intelligible realities that populate the natural world, including most clearly and evidently the world of living substances, living beings. Nothing is intelligible—nothing can be grasped in its essence by our intellects—without first being ordered by a creative intellect. The possibility of modern science is fundamentally grounded on the reality of an underlying creative intellect that makes the natural world what it is. The natural world is nothing less than a mediation between minds: the unlimited mind of the Creator and our limited human minds. Res ergo naturalis inter duos intellectus constituta—"The natural thing is constituted between two intellects," in the words of St. Thomas. In short, my argument was based on careful examination of the evidence of everyday experience; in other words, on philosophy.
For Schönborn, Barr's delicate, albeit defendable, position on Darwinism is only half-honest. Barr failed to shed light on the fact that the overwhelming majority of neo-Darwinian scientists don't see the issue as a delicate one at all, but instead use it to put forth their own unforgiving, theological assertions about the non-existence of a Creator. Schönborn agrees that while "there is a difference between a modest science of Darwinism and the broader metaphysical claims frequently made on its behalf," neo-Darwinism (with its interpretation of the words "chance," "random," etc. in an evolutionary context) is fully supportive of the notion of an unguided and unplanned universe.

These assertions are precisely those ignored by materialists in the evolutionary debate. Though I don't agree with their theory, I often sympathize with the proponents of Intelligent Design who try to get their views published in textbooks, or get qualifying stickers on books that make it clear that "Evolution is a theory" or attempt other such activities. It is only a natural response to the injustice done them, when one theory is allowed not only more exposure, but is also used to purport such odious theological claims as "we are nothing but particles in motion," or, more succinctly, "we have no Creator."

Back to the story, Schönborn goes on to masterfully expose the fallacy of modern science, which is a belief "that a complete description of the efficient and material causal history of an entity is a complete explanation of the entity itself—in other words, that an understanding of how something came to be is the same as understanding what it is." In this context, Barr's position becomes weaker and weaker. What seems possible - that true neo-Darwinism and a belief in final and formal causes are reconcilable - is, in fact, an ideal not attainable in the modern era.

If, then, science has been reduced to positivism and ideology, what have we to fall back on? The answer is precisely what Schönborn bases his argument on in the first place. Philosophy. While we should not be content to let science fall to the wayside and be cannibalized by ideologies antithetical to the human spirit and its sense of hope, neither must we allow it at any time to step outside it jurisdiction, and be the sole basis for teleological claims. It is the job of philosophy to interpret science's findings - not science's. I think I hinted at that earlier this week, but the point is probably worth repeating.

Anyway, the article is amazing. Give it a read.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Words fall short...



Wednesday, January 04, 2006

The wait is over.

What a classic.

Will our game follow suit, and place the weight of the world on the shoulders of David Pino? Mangum had the game-winner this time last year...

I just shat.

Everyone and their mother has a set of "keys to the game" or wildcards or overlooked variables or what the hell ever that will be the gamebreaker. I say fuck all that. There is one, and only one, key to this game: EMOTION.

Repeat that word; make it your mantra for the day.

Who wants it more? There's your difference maker.

My only regret about tonight is that I won't be able to hear Craig Way go completely ape-shit after we win.

Texas, 31-21 Jamaal Charles MVP.

Hook 'em, and God bless Texas.


Update Via Giz: Texas wins 42 - 30.


Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Check it out.

I just started crying.

Diagnoses

Horns win by double digits against a top 5 team, on the road. I should be ecstatic, but I can't get over our turnover rate, or for that matter our turnover to assist ratio, especially from the frontcourt. Gibson, Abrams, Paulino, and Tucker have a collective ratio of 151-127 (A-TO). And really, it's only that good because Paulino is 43-21. Without him, the other three are a sad 108-106 - effectively one to one. It's really painful to watch. Also, I know it would fuck up the rotation a bit, but can we please move P.J. back down to the 4 spot? The man was born to post up. Set him and Lamarcus on the blocks and let them get to work. Please. These are the two must-fix issues on my list. I'll call Rick tomorrow and let him know.

-------------------

I was out at lunch a few weeks back with a couple guys I work with. For some reason, everyone was in pretentious mode and decided the conversation would measure just how cultured each of us were. The majority of the first half was a name slinging contest of hipster Midtown restaurants. Blah. I sat through and listened to them list off one after another. Eventually, talk shifted to reading lists. Ahh, I win.

"Vince, what do you like to read?"

"Well, I go through phases. History, popular science, literature, science-fiction and fantasy. I always seem to return to theology and philosophy, though."

"Wow, theology and philosophy? Aren't those contradictory tastes?"

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech.

Where to begin with a question like that? It is a constant source of amazement to me that people so easily brush off the idea that a common truth can be reached from two different starting points. Such is the nature of the explorations of both theology and philosophy, yet whence was this truism lost? Probably at about the same time that Pilate's question was left on the table for atheists, post-modernists, and deconstructionists (synonyms?) to dissect and destroy, and that truth as a reality was abandoned to the wind.

The effective definition of a word is a powerful thing. When modern philosophy is defined and studied in such a way as to exclude God, as both a premise and possible conclusion, the effects are far-reaching. So are we presented with the modern pseudo-dilemma of reconciling science and religion. Science - that great lens of the metaphysical - has always been intimately connected with philosophy. An analagous claim can be made regarding theology and religion. Tragically, as a result of a steady decoupling of God from his created world over the past few centuries, we are left with science in its modern incarnation - as hollow a thing as the philosophy that drives it.

Monday, January 02, 2006

And we wait...

Read.

I've been trying to play down the hype in my mind. It's more a mental defense mechanism than anything - otherwise, I'd be having a nervous breakdown right now. Thank God, I have today off to distract myself with other bowl games and beer. The next two days at work are going to be the really rough ones...

How weird is it to hear the Fox Sports football music during a college game? And good gravy, the Bama defense is ridicugood.

Also, if you are home today, make sure you at least keep the Texas-Memphis game in PIP. 12:30, ESPN. It's our chance to actually show up and play on the national stage for the first time this season. Hook 'em.