Awesome! Cheese Quotes!

TITLE: PAGANS LOVE PINE CONES AND USE THEM IN THEIR ART

It has a picture of "The largest pine cone in the world at Vatican Square in the Court of the Pine Cone." Apparently we worship pine cones now.

Jeanetta: "the alligator god is gonna be pissed"

In Feeding-Tube Case, Many Neurologists Back Courts: "He added that keeping Mrs. Schiavo alive artificially could be a burden on her.
For many terminally ill patients, he pointed out, 'food is an absolute burden — it increases secretions and makes them uncomfortable.' "

Bah! If she is in a minimally conscious state she's no more terminal than I am. If she is in a permanently vegatative state then she can't feel pain.

David Gelernter is great.

Having has the song "Summer Girls" by LFO stuck in my head for days, I completely sympathize with this rant. Yes, I know how sick this is. It's completely Ira Glass's fault, because of the TAL story, A Teenager's Guide to God, which I referenced earlier.

I by no means endorse everything he does, but this picture of David Sedaris is so awesome.

So it isn't important, but it is irritating that Amazon.com repeatedly puts up letters from Jeff Bezos on their frontpage when implementing a new feature telling us, "Starting today...," that are undated and that they leave up there for more than a day.

The lunatic in the pew - Alice McDermott

"As a fiction writer, I am not interested in conversion, transubstantiation, the mystical body of Christ, the infallibility of the pope, Aquinas, or Augustine."

Wow, the only way this can be true is if you don't know about these things, haven't lived these truths.

Squirrel Tag from The Onion, via The Corner

See Also: Running After Antelope and Squirrel Cop from TAL.

Unbelievably, Amazon.com is selling Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers... as a package deal. These are both cinematic triumphs, but watching them back to back, or even in the same week, would be impossible. Each left me emotionally drained. I walked out of We Were Soldiers... the first time I saw it and out of Black Hawk Down when I tried to watch it a second time.

Despite the odd title and placement, this is a great article on what it means to be a Red Sox fan. Salon.com Technology | Ask the pilot

PressThink: What's Radical About the Weblog Form in Journalism?

The gift economy is also something mentioned by Peter Maurin. In one of the Easy Essays he mentions how there are lots of jobs to be done, but not a lot of pay to be had; then he notes that people don't need to be paid to do a job, they can offer their services as a gift.

In fact, I will reproduce the entire essay here, since they are not copyrighted:

"Three Ways To Make A Living" by Peter Maurin:

Mirabeau says:

     "There are only three ways

     to make a living:

     Stealing, begging, working."



Stealing is against the law of God

     and against the law of men.



Begging is against the law of men,

     but not against the law of God.



Working is neither against the law of God

     nor against the law of men.



But they say

     that there is no work to do.



There is plenty of work to do,

     but no wages.



But people do not need

     to work for wages.



They can offer their services

     as a gift.

End Daylight Saving Time This is interesting. I have to think about it more though.

AP - Scalia cheers conservatives' anniversary, ridicules gay ruling We expected Scalia to endorse the ruling? He dissented at the time.

Sheep shed ship for shore, for sure - United Press International: This is why UPI is my favorite wire service.

There is a whole directory of photos of my Notre Dame rooms here. Some of the the photos are a bit blurry. If you want better pictures, feel free to come and visit and take some! Mwhahahahah.

Mwhahahahah, I found out I had an old picture of T-force and the Tiffster on the camera.

In a continued teaser for pictures my new rooms, here is the only picture I have of my old room at the University of Rochester.

National Catholic Register--"Induction Procedures Raise Moral Dilema"

To say the least! This is very problematic. I hope Bishop Wassel decides correctly and takes a stand.

Sheryl McCarthy-"However Hard, Terri Schiavo Has to Be Let Go" This article is insane. It's also very honest. It says, yes, we're killing her and we're OK with that. Which is insane.

"What's happening in Florida resembles the vigils we often see prior to an execution. This isn't an execution though. This is the rational ending to a human being who all the medical evidence says can no longer meaningfully participate in or appreciate life."

A RATIONAL ENDING!!!! The stakes are so high, ending someone's life, that it's not rational to "end" someone based on "all the medical evidence" becuase the fact of the matter is, that "all the medical evidence" is in dispute by others with their own "medical evidence". McCarthy says:

"Her parents understandably are clinging to the hope that one day their daughter can be revived and can be taught to eat and swallow on her own. There have been cases where people emerged from comas after 19 years and progressively got better."

Idioten! If they are "understandably" clinging to that hope and there are such cases, then why should we kill her?

"This doesn't mean that as a society we condone murdering people because they're severely physically handicapped or mentally incompetent. Each individual case has to be decided according to its facts."

No...we don't support a policy of killing the mentally incompetent, just a policy of letting the courts decide whether to kill the incompetent.

"But while the Schindlers' supporters may rally in support of life and against what they charge is "judicial murder," Terri Schiavo's existence bears no resemblance to life as we know it. She's in a form of limbo, and ought to be allowed to pass peacefully from it."

No resemblance? None at all? Really? And if you really believe in killing her, why don't you kill her, instead of prolonging the expense of keeping her in a hospice? Is it perhaps because. in fact, her "existence" does bear some resemblance to "life as we know it" and you are therefore uncomfortable with ending it?

My first "fisking" and it feels darn good.