I Got Nothing

It has long been my experience that those who have spent the least of time considering an issue tend to feel the most certain about it. One, such as myself, who looks at a thing from all angles tends to find that important issues are contentious for good reason. Capital-T-Truth is an elusive thing, and the moment you stop searching for it, thinking you've found it, is the moment you move from confusion to delusion.

Vigilantes of Love: Blister Soul - 1995

 I’ve long been fascinated by the character of Salieri, as depicted in the movie Amadeus.  His defining characteristic was that his only real skill was in recognizing the genius of his betters, and I’ve long identified that.  Despite having no real musical talent of my own, I believe that I have managed to stumble across quite a few treasures that the rest of the world has, in large part, ignored.  And so, I unleash my long suppressed music critic with the first of (possibly) many “Salieri Sessions”.  I give you “Blister Soul”.

Blood for Words

So, a couple days ago, the Pope makes this ill-advised reference to a medieval Byzantine emperor's comments in a speach on the topic of religious tolerance and it's importance.  The quote is immediately taken out of context by Islamists everywhere and spread among their drones. Muslims worldwide are deeply offended by the suggestion that their's is a religion of violence.To express their outrage at the baseless accusation, Muslims began marching and chanting and protesting.  And burning Christian churches.  And murdering a nun.  And threatening to kill more.

We shall break the cross and spill the wine. ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome. ... God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen.

-the Mujahideen Shura Council

I bet that will keep the Pope from insinuating they're violent.

PDFs Don't Have To Bite

You ever get a PDF attachment from someone?  You double-click it and, if you don't have a reader installed, you have to got to Adobe and download it and takes forever.  It's, like, 50 megs and tries to install their crappy download tool, and a few spy-ware apps and asks you if you've found God and other intrusive junk.  Then you have launch that hog, and it spends the rest of your natural born life loading libraries before it finally displays your document.  Every other time you load it, it tries to get you to upgrade to their latest version with no appreciable difference other than your own creeping senility.  But there is another way.

Enough is Enough

As I’ve noted in previous essay’s, I’m not a big fan of superfluous junk. Everything you own owns a little bit of you, and too much of a good thing is, well, a bad thing. That’s why I was rather pleased to find that there was an actual movement around the practice of chucking useless detritus.

Checking My Basic Premises

As part of an exercise with a debating partner of mine, I have attempted to distill my beliefs down to their most basic components. The goal here is to define the well spring of my philosophy, which can then act as constant reference for all else I might come to believe. After all, if I can’t stay faithful to my own beliefs, then I’m just reacting to the noise around me.

Happy Memorial Day, Kid

Way back when Christ was a corporal, I put in some time working for my Uncle Sam.  I was a ground pounder, a wind dummy, and a bullet catcher.  It was hard work, but it was also great fun, and I made some of the best friends of my life.  This is about a guy I barely knew.