I need a name for my snake. What is a good name for a snake?

Theme song for today's battle: Megadeth's "Crush 'Em"

Enter the arena and hit the lights
Step up now you're in for a ride
This is war, ain't no fun and games
We get up, you go down in flames.

Last one standing wins the fight
Hear us scream and shout all night
Down on the floor and eat the grit
This is gonna hurt a little bit

Heads I win, tails you lose
Out of my way, I'm coming through
Roll the dice, dont think twice
And we crush - crush 'em!!


Stir the war machines! Notch arrow to sinew and go forth to meet thy fate, Christopher...

From RelapsedCatholic:

Fabrizio Quattrocchi, a 36-year-old security guard kidnapped in Iraq, undermined the terrorists with his defiance. In contrast to Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage who never let up begging Prime Minister Tony Blair for his life, Quattrocchi refused to be humiliated. "I will show you how an Italian dies!" he declared in the second before terrorists murdered him. Rather than kneel before his grave, he rose in defiance. Canadian columnist Mark Steyn observed, He ruined the movie for his killers. As a snuff video and recruitment tool, it was all but useless, so much so that the Arabic TV stations declined to show it."

(Emphasis mine.) AlJazeera makes me sick. What's even more disgusting is that AlJazeera has plans to make a US 24-hour news channel.

Over the counter Plan B is the perfect fix for our generation's ills.

What's more, the "next step" as described by what my mockingly be called "women's advocacy" groups is to remove the age restriction of 18 years on purchases of the Plan B pills.

The mind-blowing hypocrisy of trying to arrange things thusly would result in them not being old enough to score a pack of Marlboroughs at the gas station for that post-coital buzz.

So, the drinking and smoking following high school football games will still be illegal. But at least the emergency contraceptives that these super-responsible high school freshman will use will be legitimately purchased.

I mean, really, why worry about a twelve year old purchasing Plan B?

Interesting possibilities for extraction of embryonic stem cells without actually killing the embryos. (Here's the link.)

Gotta love the bonus cheap shot taken at "relgious types" at the end.

What's most stupid about it is the fact that the quote from the token idiot religious guy is disengenuously used by the author of this article. The guy wasn't even commenting on the science, but on the fact that after they got done extracting the blastomere, they discarded the human embryos. But do you think that stopped him from attempting to make the "religious type" look like he was dismissing the entirety of the discussion? Course not.

Learn to separate disparate arguments, moron.

Oh wait, nevermind - the author doesn't think human embryos are human (what are they? fish embryos?) and so has a vested interest in continuing to mock those who disagree with him. So it's obvious enough what happened. The sad fact, though, is that pop-science Wired news blog is highly read, and his article will probably make an (erroneous) impression on quite a few readers.

Everybody congratulate Matthew and Lindsey - they're engaged. :) Which means, you know, besides the fact that they'll get married, that there'll be a reception. And you know what happens at receptions, right? That's right: FREE EATS! And possibly free drinks!

Also, they've asked me to be their Best Man, and on top of being honored, I'm relieved, because I think that means that I'm for-sure going to be allowed to go to the wedding reception and get some free eats as well as a swank bouquet (spelling?) pinned on my suit and get to look all important.

In all seriousness, I'm happy for you guys! :) Here's to thousands of years of happiness ahead of you both! YEEEHAW!!

GIVEMEFUEL GIVEMEFIRE GIVEMETHATWHICHIDISIRE!!!

Want to be slapped by something unexpected?

Start downloading and listening to this song (11.6mb). It's Iron Maiden from the mid-90s.

I used to love Iron Maiden. Back in high school, I remember rambunctuous (sp?) trips to the movie theaters packed in either my old truck, or one of my friends' cars, with
ye old Maiden going full volume hot.

I used to think I was "hot shit" picking up some of the older Iron Maiden albums in the used and collectible music stores. Afterall, Eddie (Iron Maiden's "mascot") is this mummified, undead zombie guy, and the album covers always had him either sitting in an electric chair, holding a bag full of flaming skulls, shooting some kind of sci-fi ray gun or flying some sort of Gothic spaceship shooting out flames (for actual examples, look here), which is really super-cool and hardcore if you're in high school, I guess.

Anyway, I loved Iron Maiden back in high school just because of it's connotation - rowdy, wild, crazy rock music, whatever. Plus, nobody else was really into it, so it was a safe space for me to expand into and claim as being unique to me, or at least to me and some of my friends.

One of my old friends, John Wade, and I used to have this thing where one of us would yell, "IRON!!!" and hold up his forearm. Then the other person would yell, "MAIDEN!!!" and then we'd shover our arms together in an "X" shape. It was pretty cool. Come on, even now, sitting there reading this, you're thinking to yourself, whoa - that's cool! I know.

I was more into the general sound than the specifics of the music - like the not-so-original chord progressions, easy to predict drum rolls, straightforward 80s rock, etc - all of which was fine, but nothing to get really excited about. The coolest thing about it was that it was mine. And I had fun being into Iron Maiden because sometimes people didn't know much about Iron Maiden other than their most famous song is called "The Number of the Beast" and is about Satanic ritual, and then they might extend some kind of association to you from that. Oh, how mysterious this dude is! Kinda like how it's still sometimes cool to wear my one surviving Metallica tshirt. People look at you and don't really know what you're about right away. You can almost see their gears working, evaluating this big guy wearing a black 'Tallica shirt. It's not until after I give them my goofy smile that they know I'm a meek baffoon. Which is refreshing because everybody that knows me knows exactly who I am - what you see is what you get with me, I don't present you with complex mind games. One example of this might be that you probably know that I'm telling the truth right now. Anyway, I digress.

I never really listened to the lyrics, since they weren't really that important. And now, unless I'm completely mistaken (it sure doesn't strike me as being facetious or mocking), one of my old favorite songs from one of Maiden's mid-90s album "The X Factor" called The Sign of the Cross has some lyrics that certainly caught my attention now that I'm listening to them again a bit - anyhow, these lyrics are distinctly Catholic sounding, and very much acknowledging of what you could consider to be Christian values or a Christian ethos.


Eleven saintly shrouded men
Silhouettes stand against the sky
One in front with a cross held high
Come to wash my sins away

Standing alone in the wind and rain
Feeling the fear that is growing
Sensing the change in the tide again
Caught by the storm that is brewing
Feel the anxiety hold off the fear
Some of the doubt in the things you believe
Now that your faith will be put to the test
Nothing to do but await what is coming

Why then is God still protecting me
Even when I don't deserve it
Thought I am blessed with an inner strength
Some they would call it a penance
Why am I meant to face this alone
Asking the question time and again
Praying to God won't keep me alive
Inside my head feel the fear start to rise...

They'll be saying their prayers
when the moment comes
There'll be penance to pay when it's judgement day
And the guilty'll bleed when the moment comes
They'll be coming to claim,
to take your soul away

The sign of the cross
The name of the rose...
A fire in the sky
The sign of the cross

They'll be coming to bring the eternal flame
They'll be bringing us all immortality
Holding communion so the world be blessed
My creator, my God, will lay my soul to rest

Lost the love of heaven above
Chose the lust of the earth below
Eleven saintly shrouded men
Came to wash my sins away

Hmmm... talk of salvation, judgement, sin, guilt, penance, faith, Communion from IRON MAIDEN?!?!

What kinda of strange world is this? I thought I knew Iron Maiden and that they were the usual mix of hedonism and nihilistic self-glorifying rockers. Apparently I was mistaken.

Okay, so I've just done a little bit of amateur reading. That line about "The name of the rose..." might be a reference to a book of the same name (which was used as the basis for the movie with Sean Connery) written by an Italian professor, Umberto Eco, a semiologist (I think this is someone who studies the psychological role that signs and symbols play in human understanding).

"The name of the rose" is a phrase without - as far as I can tell - a specific meaning. There is no one "name of the rose" because, as we all know, a rose by any other name would be just as beautiful, so in this case an assigned word "rose" fails to be equal to the thing it describes. So the rose itself is a useful sign to indicate that words, names, rational constructs associated with it, are all arbitrary, and so there is no "name" of the rose. I think this is what is usually meant by bringing up the phrase "the name of the rose."

Could the Iron Maiden lyrics then be equating that general idea with the "sign" of the cross? Or saying that the Cross (represented by the "sign" of the Cross) is the fulfillment of all things - it is, in fact, the name of the rose - the name of beauty, of goodness, purity - all the things that are usually associated with the rose?

Put another way, the immortality and existence of the Messiah beyond and through the Cross of this world makes it able to be the name of the rose. One could consider the Old Testament to be our best try at the name for the rose - words describing the Law of Moses (God's law) but not God Himself, not the rose itself. With the New Testament, the most important part of which (the crux, if I can call it that (Latin pun intended)) is, in fact, the death and ressurection of the Christ, we have the very keys to salvation - Christ in us, or with us, or however you want to describe it. That's the most important thing - the real name of the rose, you could say. Or what Maiden might be saying. Whatever.

(Did I really just try to extrapolate theology from an Iron Maiden song?) EDIT: Actually, no I just got side-tracked into a discussion about what some authors mean when they bring up the idea of "the name of the rose"...

But even if this admittidly hurried and ram-scam evaluation of the "name of the rose" line is totally bunk, the more overt meaning of the lyrics still pretty much seem to
affirm some kind of religiosity of Maiden's singer and song-writer.

According to Wikipedia, the song "The Sign of the Cross" was first publicly debuted in Jerusalem. Meh, who knows.

Then there's another song on another Maiden album "Virtual XI" called "Lightning Strikes Twice," which I can't help but see as an allegory for returning to faith (the lightning striking twice...)

The lyrics are:

I feel the breeze on my face in expectance
Not very long before the storm reaches here
Off in the distance the lightning is flashing again
Feel something strong as the power draws near

Is it the rolling of thunder that scares you
Is it the crashing of clouds that hold fear
But all I know as I sit in a corner alone
It takes me back to my childhood again

And as I wait and I look for an answer
To all the things going round in my head
I ask myself could it be a disaster and when
It's maybe threatening to happen again

As the ominous light draws near
There's a lone dog howls in the park
All the people hurry inside
As a lightning flash lights dark
The storm is nearly here
Only God will know

You're sitting alone you watch
As the wind is blowing treetops
And the swaying rustling leaves
Plenty of time to perceive
As you wait for rain to fall
Only God knows
The whole sky glows

Maybe lightning strikes twice... (repeated...)

It's just weird that I never picked this up from the Iron Maiden music that I'd long listened to.

I think my new favorite book is CS Lewis' The Abolition of Man.

It's amazing how CS Lewis had the foresight that he did. I'd recommend it to just about anyone - it's a short read, but parts of it get a bit deep, and he makes some connected points, which means if you read it in 15 minute chunks you miss a lot of what he's saying because you forget about the context he's bring it up in. I had to reread a bunch of it for this, but yowza, is it worthwhile...

You have to laugh out loud when you see some of this stuff, but then you realize that world opinion is based largely on the pictures and bulleted headlines coming out of Lebanon, and then you maybe you frown and say, "Oh..."

Only cream and bastards rise.

Speaking of the English (from down below), here's some new info from there: link for 2005 British abortion stats.

186,416 total abortions in one year in a population of 50 million people will make a dent.

66% of those abortions were performed before 9 weeks.

Well, that's pretty young so it's probably (nay, let us say definately - afterall, we're killing something, which means there is no doubt, right?) not human anyway.

My snake does not yet have a name. Any ideas?

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:) How about Luther? Ack ack ack!

Apparently 25% of Muslims in England think the 7/7/05 London bus bombings were justified!

Moreover, 45% (almost half?!?!) think the US or Israel or both was behind the 9/11 attacks.

A third said they would rather have Islamofasciest Shiriah tribunals running the legal system rather than British law...

LINK

...

Given the hard data about childbirth in the UK (liberalized and selfish Englishmen and women not having kids, Islamic immigrants having tons of kids) can it be anything other than a matter of time before they get their way, destroying the democracy ironically with their own majority? Odd how a hyper-sexualized society like the one in England can have such a problem.

(Oh, yeah, I guess the problem isn't that they don't create their children, the problem is that they abort them...)

and another one.

More fake photography in Lebanon.

What the hell are you doing drinking from the Whites-only water fountain?

Dhimmitude.

Well, that'll pump a little epinephrine into the blood. GO, BABY, GO!!!

The Raving Athiest continues ask really interesting questions.

In this case he responds to a reader's comment about how personality can be altered by neurochemistry.

Where will it lead the Raving Athiest (whom many believe is falling ill with a terrible case of "Belief"? And will his athiest readership die from choking on all that frothing in the mouth as the Raving Athiest... well, as he puts it,

"will continue to believe in you as something more than the sum of your quarks. I have never seen your bodies but I know you by your thoughts. The words transmitted to my computer, seen through a screen darkly, are sufficient evidence of your existence. You will never convince me that you are just sparks emanating from gray matter; I would no more equate you with that than I would equate you with the sparks which transmit your words through my computer's memory. You may try to convince me otherwise, but your efforts will only further prove my point."

What's really freaky is that the example argument that the Raving Athiest uses near the beginning of his post that I link to is the foundation for deconstructionists views that separate meaning, value, and any sort of morality from the human being. The essence of the argument is that man is no longer sentient, no longer a being at all, even in adult form - so killing the unborn, which not yet capable of sentience, is a no-brainer (no pun intended). But that's only where it starts. When the divorce of being and existence from personhood and humanity is complete, there no longer exists an imperative that says life must be protected, any more than a cow or a bacterium churning happily through your stomach should be protected; these lives are sacrificed for our personal gain, say, to prevent infection of ourselves or to make a hamburger. In other words, life is reduced to matter, neurochemistry becomes our pathetic god, life is no longer anything other than some objective and ultimately meaningless drive that we are enslaved to.

At any rate, the ideas are fascinating, and the Raving Athiest needs any prayers that you guys would want to offer up for him. We've all been in his place in at least some measure - wondering about those ginormously huge transcendental questions: personhood, transcendental reality, etc etc etc.

"Disgusting" doesn't even come close to describing this guy:

LA Times op-ed piece on the Girls Gone Wild founder/producer Joe Francis. If you've got the 10 minutes, read it. It's pretty much thoroughly disgusting.

As an update from a post a while ago on the staged photos showing the victims in Lebanon of Israeli attacks (a girl is first shown dead, being loaded into an ambulance, then later being carried from rubble, then later somewhere else, with conflicting timestamps on the photos) - theres a lot still going on in terms of falsified photographic evidence and stories coming out of Lebanon.

Here are some of the recent highlights:

Reuters admits to altering a photo 1

2

and 3

Proud new owner of a ball python. :)

All you hear about on the news is how hot it is, and about Mel Gibson.

Is it news that it gets really hot in the summer and that moviestars are morons.

Oh GOD! Ohhhhhh!

You need to watch this if you can.

In the name of Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, Allah, and his Prophet, Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

Some of the photos of "all the Lebanese killed nere Qana" which the media have been going crazy on (as an example of Israel's horribleness), may have been faked:

For example, the Web site draws attention to a photo by AP’s Lefteris Pitarakis time stamped 7:21 a.m., showing a dead girl in an ambulance. Another picture, stamped 10:25 a.m. and taken by AP’s Mohammed Zaatari, shows the same girl being loaded onto the ambulance. In a third, by AP photographer Nasser Nasser and stamped 10:44 a.m., a rescue worker carries the girl with no ambulance nearby.

Linkzorz.

Who wants to come to the KMFDM concernt in mid-October? It's going to be flat out killer.

I think Donahue might have a point.

I awoke this morning to find that I had amassed in ethereal and concentrated form in the South West tropics overnight, manifesting my awesome powers as Tropical Stome Chris.

PH34R M3!!!