COMensarations
Friday, March 31, 2006
The ‘Power’ of Prayer II
Scott ’ScrappleFace‘ Ott, with his usual sardonic wit, has a different take on the study I reported below.
The last paragraph is a ‘killer’, if you remember your Sunday School Bible lessons of the old part of that Book.
The ‘Power’ of Prayer
It wasn’t quite what they were expecting.
A recently released report of an experiment run to test the power of prayer in helping people recover from coronary problems says it didn’t help.
Indeed, the report said it had a negative effect....
As the Dust Settles
The FBI’s complicancy....er....complacency and 9/11.
If this report is accurate, then a lot of the blood shed by 2795 Americans and other foreign visitors on 9/11, is on the hands of CURRENT FBI Director Mueller, former head of the FBI’s International Terrorism Operations Section Michael Rolince, and FBI headquarters agent Mike Maltbie, who, collectively, squashed all of FBI agent Harry Samit’s desparate efforts to alert the somnambulant agency to a dire threat he had uncovered.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Compare & Contrast I
A rather simple technique.....
...of gauging a religion is compare and contrast it against another religion.
I think I’m going to start doing just that with some of the more poigant aspects....
Monday, March 27, 2006
One Way to Solve the Illegal Immigration Problem
Warning: Some of you will find this a crackpot idea. But you may be amused by it, anyway.
I know how to solve the illegal immigration problem, or 90% of it anyway. Mexico and the United States should combine into one country. All the “illegal” immigrants who are citizens of Mexico automatically become citizens of the Greater United States of North America.
Naturally, there are pros and cons. On the con side, the U.S. gets a bunch more seaports and airports to keep track of. However, it’s not like there aren’t people who could be transferred from the smaller Border Patrol. Mexico will probably end up with the FDA’s overly expensive and lengthy testing protocols. Plus there will be many of the problems Germany has experienced with its reunification. (However, I don’t think Mexico is as bad off as East Germany was and I think that culturally, both countries are much better equipped to deal with problems than the two Germanys were.)
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Watching History Repeat Itself….Once Again
Or, object lessons for Christians.
Reports are coming forward that the Iraqi terrorists are on the proverbial run.
According to StrategyPage, the Shia and Kurds are getting some of their own back at the Sunni Ba’athist dead end kids and their foreign aid supporters.
Deaths from revenge killings now exceed those from terrorist or anti-government activity. Al Qaeda is beaten, and running for cover. The Sunni Arab groups that financed thousands of attacks against the government and coalition groups, are now battling each other, al Qaeda, and Shia death squads.
This is an interesting report. If true, appears the Maoist axiom of guerrillas surviving by swimming in a big pond is working to the terrorists disadvantage. That killing the Shia in droves is having a backlash that is whipping them out of the water and onto the dry land. Their ‘pond’ is shrinking. And the other fishes are mutating into piranha.
Shell Games in the Sand I
Where are the Iraqi WMDs?
An associate of mine and I have been going around on the ‘mystery’ of where Saddam Hussein’s fabulous Weapons of Mass Distruction (WMDs) are at since they have not been found, en masse, in Iraq since the overthrow of the tyrant.
Please correct me if I’m wrong here, compadre, but as I understand it your opinion is that there were no such things in Iraq.
The question I have about that poisition is whether you mean there NEVER were any such things? Or that there were none in Iraq at the time we overran it?
It would be good to sort that position out before we continue the discussion.
Reason to Celebrate?
Muslims take a step towards the 21st Century.
According to reports, Afghani religious courts have dismissed charges against Abdul Rahman, an Afghan citizen who converted from Islam to Christianity over 16 years ago. According to the Koran, such an apostate is supposed to be executed. In my personal opinion, this is not an indicator of a religion that has high self-esteem.
What I found intersting was that he had actually NOT been tried, convicted and executed under the Taliban regime. It seemed to me that this was an effort to cause affront to the current government.
The challenge for this man now is to remain in Afghanistan, as I suspect that they’ll attempt to murder him anyway, if they can get their hands on him.
New Feature — Polls
Having fun with opinions.
I’ve just implemented a new feature available for this blogging software, on-line, non-scientific polls.
We’ll be trying to figure out how to use these things more effectively over the next few days and offer people ways to enhance their ability to express themselves. That includes allowing co-authors to provide polls themselves.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Pizza! Pizza!
Where is the GOOD stuff?
Glenn ‘the Blogfather’ Reynolds is mussing about Bill Quick’s mussing about pizza.
In my opinion, good food is like ‘gold’, i.e., it’s where you find it. That applies to pizza....
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Too Cute
How to destroy the opposition.
James ‘Best of the Web Today’ Taranto points out a superb cartoon by Jim Borgman.
I just hope the guy in the turban isn’t mistaken by the Cartoon Jihadi as Mohammed.
Whiners & Losers
A Berkeley researcher thinks that if you were a whiner in nursery school, you’re a conservative whiner today.
According to a report via Drudge, the observant individual can spot a conservative in nursery school.
Somehow, I think they are ‘projecting’....
Lego of the UN
Herr Goebbels is alive and well. And working for the UN’s High Commission for Human Rights.
Charles ’Little Green Footballs‘ Johnson is all over the UN’s latest efforts at mass discrimination.
However, as usual, the (il)liberals there, i.e., those adamently opposed to freedom of expression or a free press, are ‘projecting’.
And the cretinous ‘spokeswhatever’ who said....
“The poster is in no way a comment on the specific situation in Denmark or on Lego,” a spokesperson said. “It is unfortunate that the poster has been interpreted as such.”
...isn’t fooling anyone who has more than two synapses to rub together.
I think it’s time for another cut-back in our funding of that egregious organization.
UPDATE The Blogosphere Gets Results [231043 Mar 06]: According to Michelle Malkin, the UN has removed the poster from their web-site. This, apparently, shortly after it became a hot item in the blogosphere.
The question I have is have they fired the cretins in their PR department? If so, for what reason? Incompetence? If not, when will we see the next offensive poster ‘allegedly’ supporting the Four Freedoms as depicted by Norman Rockwell? Oh....wait....I’m not sure the UN supports those freedoms.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
A Strange Disability
Intelligence as a disability? C’mon!
When I first heard some psychologist or similar claim that intelligence was a disability, I thought it was another example of something taken way too far. But when I looked back on my experiences, I could see some arguments to support it.
Now, I suppose this could be a touchy subject for a Mensa-related website. It sounds like so much whining. I suppose wealth is a disability, too? Someone chimes in. Or talent? Maybe Renoir was handicapped? Mozart certainly was, right? Well, especially in our society, where deficits are elevated, equalization celebrated, this might not be such a crazy idea.
My father used to tell me about an SF story he read as a child in the 50’s, where intelligent and talented people were “equalized” by putting a device in their ear that buzzed all the time. (Apparently this is not a new idea, either.)
When I was in public school, it was not a crime to have special classes for the gifted. It was a godsend. I was accidentally placed in the wrong class at the beginning of one year, and I saw the reason it was so - I very quickly lost my focus and attention from the slow pace, the endless going over of the subject matter. It’s not to say that the other class members and I didn’t get along, it’s just that math was a very different subject for me than for them.
I know someone who has always been told by her family that she’s not that intelligent. People do that. My parents are very intelligent, but they did that to me too. There are various reasons. Theirs, as far as I can tell, was narcissism. There is apparently a lot of that afoot, so it may be a common reason. Anyway, she plowed her way through a top school with excellent grades, in spite of the fact that she can barely see. She’s legally blind, and then some. When I met her, the first thing I noticed was that her adaptations were a clear sign of her abilities. She takes whatever sensory input she gets, and synthesizes it to make up for what she’s missing. She often “sees” more than I do. She went to graduate school, in human services, and that’s where the trouble began. It was reputed to be an excellent school, but the proof is always in the pudding. Classes were not living up to the expectation, and she was required to intern as well, which was also a dud. Until her most recent one. I believe that this instructor was also intelligent, and probably had the same shaming as a child for her talents. Women especially did, years ago. In any case, my fiancee kept coming home worn out and depressed, and neither of us could really figure out what was wrong. It was not until things got a lot worse that I realized that one of the problems was clearly that she was very intelligent, and an affront to her instructor. Jealousy! Or, as they say in psychology, Narcissistic Envy. Another Golden Child to compete with her instructor. And with the power, she could use other techniques to put the “buzz in her ear.” Criticism. Shame. Crazymaking. It turns out the school tacitly seems to support that view, and I believe may regularly call out students who are “too smart for their own good” for punishment. I guess there are two ways to rise to the top - to excel, or to push everybody else down. And so it goes. In that kind of environment, intelligence is a handicap, something to be ashamed of, and something to not talk too loudly about in public. Good God.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Be Prepared II
A Summer book reading list.
Books are great things to learn from. Even some of the fictional material can be highly useful. Especially if the writer has a technological or historical accuracy gene that is dominant.
Here are some things I recommend, if you have a mind to know what might happen if the bird flu jumps to humans....