Thesis

Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director. Casablanca is my favorite movie. But I’ve only seen two flawless films, both by Frances Ford Coppola:  one, The Godfather; and two, Apocalypse Now.

Hydrogen house

Check out a slide show from Scientific American about a guy who runs his entire house and car on hydrogen produced by solar power.*

Three things I’d like to know:

1. Startup cost
2. Time to recuperation of startup cost
3. Safety of an aluminum intensive car

I’m guessing that the startup cost would make such a system prohibitive for most people (not to mention the fact that most people aren’t engineers with the know-how to set up and maintain such a system themselves). Other problems include having enough room, and willingness to have eyesores in one’s backyard.

Still, fair play to the hydrogen guy.

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*-He uses solar power for the house, then stores the extra energy by using it to produce hydrogen for hydrogen powered engines.

Michel Monday: Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You

[Michel Mondays were instantiated and explained here.]

Ridiculous ‘Riting

“Robert Weber devised approval voting partly to solve the problem of clones. Not everyone is sure it does, when voters are poorly informed or irrational.” – William Poundsone on p. 243 of Gaming the Vote

What a pointless comma.

Injured Cardinals

From the mlb.com story, “Izturis’ injury puts Cards in a quandary“:

“A team that already has nine players on the disabled list left Fenway Park on Friday night pondering whether to make it 10.”

And that includes Albert Pujols plus five starter or swing pitchers, three of which are the ace, second, and third starters. Plus our closer has all of a sudden lost the ability to pitch well and is no longer closing.

Let’s see anyone else go 43-32 with that handicap!

Links

I’ve been trying find a way to work this into a post, but I’ve got nothing. So, a couple of links:

• Here is the Amazon page for a book I haven’t read, but whose title I love: Makers and Takers: Why Conservatives Work Harder, Feel Happier, Have Closer Families, Take Fewer Drugs, Give More Generously, Value Honesty More, Are Less Materialistic and Envious, Whine Less… And Even Hug Their Children More Than Liberals.
• And here is an article by the author outlining some of the subject. A favorite paragraph:

“The honesty gap is also not a result of “bad people” becoming liberals and “good people” becoming conservatives. In my mind, a more likely explanation is bad ideas. Modern liberalism is infused with idea that truth is relative. Surveys consistently show this. And if truth is relative, it also must follow that honesty is subjective.”

Philosophy has consequences.

Thesis

The best response to someone who says that America is now less safe because of either the War on Terror or the War in Iraq, is to ask how many terrorist attacks there have been against America since either war began. (Hint:  It’s a digit, and it’s round.)

Bonus:  This question is even more effective when followed up by asking the number of terrorist attacks committed during the second term of the president before the current one. (I can think of three off the top of my head:  the USS Cole and two embassy bombings.)

Thesis

There are many rhetorical devices that offend and alienate all but those already convinced of the orator’s position; speaking as though one were the opposition (play-acting both sides of the argument) is perhaps the surest.

Yea America… still.

Remember how I pointed out that France doesn’t really have free speech? Yeah, Canada doesn’t really either.

“Right to life” versus a Christian politic

I have some very wonderful friends from college who keep in pretty close contact, not uncommonly in the form of email debates. Recently one of these flared up over the question of whether a Christian may ever, in good conscience, vote for a candidate who is not pro-life (I take the “mere pro-life” position to be opposition to abortion in any case that does not involve rape or a threat to the life of the mother*).

A couple of friends brought out the need for Christians to operate according to a Kingdom politic as opposed to a worldly one. They goals of these two may often intercept, but that does not mean that the politics are the same.

An excellent example of such a politic was given by a good friend in the following email. It is a fantastic reminder that choosing a (political) position and then feeling smug is the easy way; Christ, whom we serve, never did seem to go in for the easy way.

Friends,

I have spent a good long while in prayer and meditation of late on the issue of abortion. No matter how I look at it, no matter what hypothetical conditions I impose in my thought, I cannot come up with a scenario in which it is right to support any pro-choice candidate.

I also maintain a somewhat ignorant neutrality on the issue. I see myself confronted respectively on the left with the party of oppressive lust and on the [right] with the party of oppressive greed, both of which dull my fervor and desire for participation. The whole situation reminds me that the idea of sin in the Bible is “missing the mark.” Nothing but the holy path can be supported. Whether one candidate is worse than the other has nothing to do with our calling.

I believe that voting is in many ways our society’s “opiate of the masses”.

A truly “pro-life position” means unswerving support for the widow and orphan. It means selling our excess that the poor and needy have all that they need. It means calling out the rhetoric of abortion for the lies that they are. In the early days of our faith, the saints took the abandoned children from the river banks. Will you do the same, friends? Will you live on less money and adopt that those who kill children as they exit the womb will have no excuse on the last day? I do mean to wax lyrical here, but I do so with the firm knowledge that the killing of innocents is happening while I, for one, have lived in relative luxury. I’m praying about how to get out of this nasty guilt. There must be a more beautiful way.

I’m sorry if this rubs some of you the wrong way. I know that some of you support Obama. I don’t mean to offend you. But know the psychological weight that abortion is on me and those who agree with me. The pro-choice person should realize that he is asking millions to sit by and do nothing while what we believe is murder continues.

I think I’m done with this for now. There is so much to say. Brothers, I beg you, forsake luxury and give to the poor in this time when their children are being killed wholesale.

Grace and Peace,
K

Yes, unborn persons have a right to life, but in love we are called to give persons (neighbors, was Jesus’ word) more than what they have a right to.

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*Though I think that an appropriate understanding of the reasons for being pro-life leaves no room for abortion without threat to the mother, including cases of rape.

Thesis

George W. Bush has long since moved into the category of Richard M. Nixon–a president so caricatured that it will be at least another century before there is a reasonable general assessment of his quality as the Chief Executive.

Michel Monday: Björk – Bachelorette

[Michel Mondays were instantiated and explained here.]

This is my other favorite video, along with Sugar Water.

Yea America.

I’m cynical and pessimistic about a lot of things, including a lot of things about the United States. But it just takes a moment of looking at other countries to realize how lucky I am. For instance France doesn’t have (real) freedom of speech. Just ask Bridgitte Bardot.

Michel Monday: Beck – Deadweight

[Michel Mondays were instantiated and explained here.]

The video to Beck’s contribution to the soundtrack of A Life Less Ordinary.