Hollywood versus reality

Aw geeze! I just saw the trailer for "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. I'm honestly astonished that it appears to be even more anti-Catholic than "The DaVinci Code" was. You hear the words "the truth" thrown around in the trailer alot, which is so ironic given the flimsy plots of all of Dan Brown's books.

It looks like it will present itself as some sort of heroic movie pushing the question of science versus religion driving the two things into a strict either/or situation rather than seeing their compatibility.

The plot of the story is just completely absurd. The whole irony is that people will get pulled into the whole "religion versus science" debate and have doubts about religion, yet will fail to miss all the poor science and non sequitur moments in the actual plot of the book.

This will be the new controversial film of the year because you can tell the studio is going to hype this with all the advertising they can. Of course the other irony is that the movie will try to tell people not to have blind faith regarding religion, but obviously if they are going to see the movie, they will have proven that they have blind faith about the advertising. Sadly, this film will be a blockbuster, mainly because of the advertising, not because of the content. Don't believe me, just look at what happened with "The DaVinci Code." The media and controversy surrounding it made it a blockbuster, but the critics and most moviegoers said the movie was lame. I'm sure this time the studios have hired actual writers to clean the script up. And people say that those who follow religion are just dumb sheep. Ugh.

I would say that this is the perfect time for the Church to emphasize more the compatibility of scienc and religion, as it always has.

For instance, do you know where the theory of the Big Bang came from? A Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre.

Hopefully Amy Welborn is writing a new book as we speak. LOL.

RS

What is it with the Italian church?

If you think the United States is the only place where weird things happen in the Church, you're wrong.

Having lived in Italy, I can tell you that there are just as many problems there too. Much of the recent art and archetecture are horrid. Just look at the new Basilica that was built for Saint Padre Pio at San Giovanni Rotondo. To paraphrase Saint Therese of Lisieux "there is nothing about [it] that pleases me."

Over the past month I have come across a few things that make me just roll my eyes and wonder "what in the heck were they thinking?!"

Italian Nuns set up inflatable church to save the souls of beach bums.

A priest was going to have an online beauty pageant for nuns (but thankfully he cancelled it).

Heavy metal monk.

It always reminds me of the story of when Napoleon invaded Italy. He told a Cardinal he was going to destroy the Church. The Cardinal just laughed at him and said, "if the popes and bishops and priests of the Church haven't done it yet, what makes you think you can?"

I pick on Italy, because I do love the country, and I have higher expectations for it.

RS

Made it through the "war."

I don't think it's Thursday anymore in any part of the world, so I guess we made it.

I guess Sarah Connor saved us from Skynet and the terminators again.


RS

Happy Nuclear War Day

I love Texas, but sometimes we do compete with Idaho in having nut jobs holed up in our states:



He's twice predicted nuclear war in the past, which didn't come to pass. I guess he thinks third time's the charm. Come on, dude, nuclear armageddon is so 1980's.

RS

I'm a contributor

I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed, but I helped contribute to The Crescat's "Ugly Vestment Contest." The searching was VERY painful on the eyes. Man can be quite creative, but it's sad when that creativity is used for evil purposes.
(Thanks to those who helped me with a couple of submissions.)

Let's just say it's sad when this is a rather conservative vestment compared to the ones in the contest:


'Nuff said?

There are three categories:

1) Men's Vestments

2) Ladies Vestments

3) Stoles and Mitres

So go vote at The Crescat blog.

RS

Comparison of Religions - Ecological Extremists

I usually don't like to post on current events, because it can become so overwhelming to keep up, but this story was just so absolutely absurd.

"... Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet.

Incredibly, so determined was she that the terrible "mistake" of pregnancy should never happen again, that she begged the doctor who performed the abortion to sterilise her at the same time.

He refused, but Toni - who works for an environmental charity - "relentlessly hunted down a doctor who would perform the irreversible surgery.

Finally, eight years ago, Toni got her way.

At the age of 27 this young woman at the height of her reproductive years was sterilised to "protect the planet".

Incredibly, instead of mourning the loss of a family that never was, her boyfriend (now husband) presented her with a congratulations card.

While some might think it strange to celebrate the reversal of nature and denial of motherhood, Toni relishes her decision with an almost religious zeal.

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," says Toni, 35."

Read the whole story here:

Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly

I think there may be some Divine Providenc in this though. It might be better that she not pro-create, and at least she won't be having abortions herself anymore.

I thought ecologists wanted to help preserve the planet for future generations, not kill future generations to preserve the planet. Ultimately, it's kind of pointless since the sun is going to engulf the planet several epochs from now anyway (maybe we should kill the sun too, the evil planet engulfer!)

But it makes you wonder, why she thinks she should live and use up so many resources if she REALLY believes what she does. Or why she doesn't just kill people -- oh wait, she's already done that once already. But what if she takes it a step further to just killing anybody? People with priorities this out of whack could be EXTREMELY dangerous to society.

RS

OK, maybe my commute isn't so bad.

EDIT-Video had dead link, it should be viewable now (sound might be a bit loud).

Getting across a metropolitan area is rather stressful (and dangerous at times) [EDIT-even when your alternator goes out on your truck like what happened the next day from this post], but I guess my commute isn't this bad:



RS

levart emiT

"What's really going to bake your noodle later on is would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?"

A BBC "special" on Time Travel.



It still begs the question, if time travel will work, can't we say it already has worked?

Kind of weird documentary, especially at the ending.

The "computing" section I find to be full of illogical assumptions. Of course I guess dealing with time travel does open up lots of illogical questions. I would still think that even though computing is increasing, you will hit a wall or plateau at which you are stuck. Maybe quantum computing will prove that wrong, although I read that it can only be used to solve certain types of problems.

Funny how scientists spend their whole lives studying "reality" but end up only looking at the physical reality. Although I enjoy science, I don't worship it. It is merely a tool.

I once heard the statement, "'no statements are true unless they can be proven scientifically' cannot be scientifically proven." Interesting.

The "best" explaination I've ever heard is here:

"One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history—the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.

The major problem is simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be descibed differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is futher complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.

Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later editions of the book all pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be."

So, yes, I know, this post was odd too. I guess my phone cord was too tight around my forehead, and my electromagnet was getting hot and distracting me. Oh well, back to reality. And for some reason I crave pizza.

RS

Ginormous News

picture featuring a "ginormous" burger (among other things)
Merriam-Webster has added the word "ginormous" to its dictionary, as well as about 100 other words.

It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster. Along with embracing the adjective that combines "gigantic" and "enormous," the dictionary publishers also got into Bollywood, sudoku and speed dating.
...
There's "crunk," a style of Southern rap music; the abbreviated "DVR," for digital video recorder; and "IED," shorthand for the improvised explosive devices that have become common in the war in Iraq.

If it sounds as though Merriam-Webster is dropping its buttoned-down image with too much talk of "smackdowns" (contests in entertainment wrestling) and "telenovelas" (Latin-American soap operas), consider it also is adding "gray literature" (hard-to-get written material) and "microgreen" (a shoot of a standard salad plant.)

No matter how odd some of the words might seem, the dictionary editors say each has the promise of sticking around in the American vocabulary.

Unfortunately, "embiggen" hasn't made it yet.

You can read the whole article here:

New dictionary includes "ginormous"

RS

Invasion of the Caterpillars!

I've lived in this area since 1991. Usually by the beginning of May it is very dry, all plant life is brown or faded green, and it doesn't rain except for a rare afternoon heating cloudbursts.

However, this year has been really odd. It is already the last week of June and we have only had a few days I would consider "hot." It has also rained ... and rained, and rained, and rained. All the lakes are practically full, and everything is a nice lush green.
(Global warming my furry ---)
Anyway, I guess this has also made conditions ripe for the infestation tree eating caterpillars.

This is getting freaky. I feel like I am in the opening part of a bad 50's horror movie.

A couple of weeks I noticed a tree outside of my apartment had what looked like some webs on it. Eventually the tree was covered in these.

(You can click on any picture to enlarge)

Upon closer inspection inside the webs were a lot of caterpillars eating the leaves. For awhile, I only saw them on the leaves in the trees. However, lately, I've been seeing more and more caterpillars on the ground. At first it was just one or two I woudl see as I went to my car, but lately, they are everywhere on the ground under the covered parking. There are at least 10 in the picture below.


They're not just on the ground now, they are everywhere. They are all over my windows.


They are already all over my door too! Everytime I open my door, I have to flick a few off the door frame or door. I think they made a bridge from that tree which you can see on the left side of the picture. ARE THEY AFTER ME?! :o


I hope they are not poisonous or ... grizzlyniverous!

But looking at my door ... what's this?! :0
A security breach!


And right near the door ... ONE HAS GOTTEN IN!


AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!
AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!
I hope they don't turn from caterpillars into cats, or I might be up a tree.


So if you hear of a sacristan in Texas being eaten alive by caterpillars, you'll know it was me, and you'd better call the president to send in the military.

:)

RS

Removing Franciscans of the Renewal link

I am removing the link to the Franciscans of the Renewal from my "Men's Religious" list on the sidebar.
I do this because they are advertising a pilgrimage to Medjugorje by one of their own friars. This is advertised on the events page of the official page of the Fransicans of the Renewal and has a link to the details.

Since this "apparition" has been shown to be nothing of supernatual origin by the Church and has been rife with disobedience to the Church in the local bishop, I will have nothing to do with it. There are plenty of real apparitions which have been approved by the Church as authentic.

This is disappointing to me as most of the CFR's I have met are great priests and brothers. However, if the Order is going to promote false apparitions, I cannot support them except by my prayers for their conversion.

EDIT - adding a link with official Church rulings on Medjugorje

Medjugorje: Just the Facts

If it were Mary, there'd be no problem, but if it isn't (and the Church has said it isn't), what (or who) are you following? Scam artists or something more diabolical?

RS

My weekend.

So, yeah, this picture accurately describes my weekend.


My weekend made about as much sense.

RS

Violent Commercial or Wimpy Canadians

I admit that I can watch a movie with violence and not be bothered by it. However, this commercial was actually banned in Canada as being "too violent."

It's a pillow fight for goodness sake!



I mean, this was banned in the country that loves hockey, one of the fastest, bang-em-up sports in the world.

I don't find Canadians wimpy at all, like I said they gave us hockey! Unless the majority of them agree with the Television Bureau of Canada, then I find that wimpy, eh?

RS

You can get just about anything on the internet.

Ooh, the theological implications of this stunt.

WIN MY SOUL

With what I have seen on the web, I would bet Satan surfs the internet. If Esau sold his birthrite so easily ... (when he really didn't mean it, right?), this guy better be careful.

RS