The Blog with No Name

I have some questions I’d like to have some input on. I know it may seem like some rather trite and unanswerable questions, but I’m interested in what my readers think and see if they can help me out any with some of my own thoughts. Here are the questions:

Does a human being have a soul? Why do you believe this?

And a bonus question for theists: Do you feel your theological/religious beliefs compel you believe in a soul? If so, why?

For the purposes of the discussion, let’s roughly define the soul as an immaterial component of a human being that is where the individual’s identity, emotions, and creativity reside. If you don’t like this definition, be sure to state your superior definition.

Feel free to be very expansive with your reasoning. Go crazy with the comments (I’ll do light editing if there are some obvious typos). If you’d like to keep your response private, feel free to email it to me.

I’ve been on a Queen kick the past two days. My meager collection of Queen contains only 10 songs, but they’re all good. I just can’t get enough of “Fat Bottomed Girls.” They make the rockin’ world go ’round. That’s a good thing. Of course I got the other hits: Another One Bites the Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody, Stone Cold Crazy, We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, etc. Anyway, it just goes to show that even though you hated something in the past it doesn’t mean you won’t like it in the future.

Isn’t it interesting how you can take two good things, combine them together, and get a bad thing? For example, right now I’m drinking Pyramid’s seasonal brew, Snow Cap (7%!), which is a good thing. I’m also eating Safeway’s General Tso’s chicken, which is also a good thing. However, in combination, it’s a bad thing. The taste combination is just awful. Fortunately I’m the hardy type who muscles through the bad times just as easily as the good times. I suppose this lesson can be applied to other more important things, but this was the most salient example for me.

I’m going down to LA this weekend for a very nerdy thing and to see some friends. Posting will probably be non-existent. Take it easy, everybody!

Miers withdraws. Probably for the better.

White Sox win the World Series. The Red Sox won it the first time in 86 years last year, and now the White Sox win it for the first time in 88 years. And you’re telling me baseball isn’t rigged . . . riiight.

I’ve been slowly watching the History Channel’s documentary on Churchill (thank you, Netflix!) over the past week or so, and I’ve several observations.

First, I always imagined Churchill to be a grand orator. Indeed, he has written some of the most powerful and moving speeches of the 20th century. However, his oratory style was often slow, almost plodding, and had many small pauses. Additionally, I imagined him to be much more fiery and, for lack of a better word, emotional while on the stump. He was neither. I hate to say it, but I think I would have been bored if I had to sit through one of his speeches. They seem to make better reading. For example, one of his famous lines is this: “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” A very stirring quote. When I read this, I imagine how I would give it in a speech, and, let me tell you, it would sound great. Starting off with a firm and steady voice, I would crescendo with the mention of each battlefield, and reaching the climax with a strong voice and the cadence of a war drum beating the call for battle. But when Chruchill gave this line it was really rather monotone and boring. Quite a let down, to be sure.

Second, once again, I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarities between President Bush and Churchill when it came to recognizing an evil and trying to stir a country into an offensive posture. I’m not saying Bush is Churchillian, I’m just saying both men were put in quite similar situations and both had and have trouble getting the country to agree with him. Though, it’s interesting that Churchill was very obstinate and arrogant; something Bush is often accused of as well.

Third, after the European conflict was ended, Churchill was up for election again. As we all know, Churchill lost that election (more thoughts on that election momentarily), but it’s interesting to find out a couple of possible reasons why he may have lost that election. One is the British servicemen, still deployed throughout the Continent, thought they would be demobilized sooner if Churchill wasn’t in power. This seems like a plausible assumption considering Churchill was quite the warmonger (in all the best sense) and was extremely wary of Stalin’s enormous armies. The documentary also mentioned the servicemen thought they would get more cigarettes if Churchill wasn’t in power, and they needed more smokes. I’m not sure what the connection with Churchill and the scarcity of cigarettes was (maybe he was using up all the tobacco for his cigars?), but there it is. Another facsinating reason that may have contributed to his fall from power was one fateful speech he gave in which he compared his opponents (the socialist-leaning Labour party) to the fascist Nazis who were just crushed. Does this comparison sound familiar? Here’s one line from the speech: “Socialism is in its essence an attack not only upon British enterprise but upon the right of an ordinary man or woman to breath freely without having a harsh, clumsy, tyrannical hand clapped across their mouths and nostrils. No socialist system can be established without a political police. They would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo.” It was an outrageous and shocking claim 60 years ago, and it still is now. I guess those crazy liberals out there are Churchillian too . . .

A final thought, and I’ll try to keep it brief, concerns Churchill’s electoral defeat. Here was a man who had personally sacrificed, scraped, fought, and tore for his country to defeat a most evil and powerful foe, and, at the end of the war, instead of rewarding him with a victory at the ballot box, they removed him from power. They kicked him out. “Thank you,” they said, “for keeping us alive. Now off you go.” I can not imagine how I would feel after something like that. I suppose I’d be brimming with vicious bitterness and disgust. Fortunately for Winston, he had an Italian villa to enjoy, took up painting, and recovered remarkably quickly.

I have written other thoughts on Churchill here and here.

While a couple of my friends were off on vacay in Italy (jealous!), I got to ferret-sit their cute ferret, Merlin! It took me a while to get some good pics of him, but here are the best:

More after the jump!
(more…)

I’ve blogged about about the Nano’s susceptibility to scratches. Unfortunately for Apple, some dude had enough of it and filed a class-action suit against Apple.

Jason Tomczak has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple Computer on behalf of all iPod nano owners, demanding that customers get their money back as well as a share of the company’s profits on the music player’s sales.”

Squirt definitely has his share of scratches, but most of them aren’t that bad. I can imagine that in a few more months it will be out of control. I do need to get a cover of some sort. That would be the prudent thing. And I’m all about prudence.

So. . .posting is going to continue to remain light the rest of this week and weekend. I’ve been keeping pretty busy with work and social activities. I usually have something going on every day from Thursday to Sunday, which is nice. Also, I’m putting in long hours at work (today I put in 13 hours), so I’m pretty drained afterwards.

I’m still amazed when I meet somebody who is a perpetual jerk. I just do not understand people like that. Today, I watched my co-worker try to help this older woman who was just a witch even though he was just asking if she needed help. She was wandering around in a building looking lost. When my co-worker asked if she needed help, she ignored him until he asked a second time and then gave a really snippy response. I wanted to slap her so bad. I had never seen the woman before, so maybe she was just having a bad day, but I really doubt it after hearing some other things she said. However, there are other people with whom I come in contact fairly often who are always pissed at something. In my mind, people like that are so foreign to me. I just can’t comprehend having a disposition such as that. Shape up or ship out, people.

Anyway, see you, space cowboys. . .

I’ve added a very simple feature to comments that should help me eliminate comment spam. You’ll know what to do when you see it. It is sensitive to capital letters. I’ll be adding a more clever question soon.

UPDATE: Well, that feature did exactly nothing to stem the tide of spam.

Coolest pumpkin carvings ever! Be sure to check out the pictures of the carvings as they are lit. Of course, after seeing this, I’ll never be satisfied with my jack-o-lanterns. (via The Tangent Universe [Twilight Zone theme]!)

I guess . . . well, I don’t know what to think right now. Apple announced today the video iPod. While, I thought this might be inevitable, I also thought this wasn’t going to happen any time soon. I’ll let Apple’s copywriters to do the work for me:

Time for the world’s best music player to take the stage for another encore. In 30GB and 60GB models that hold up to 15,000 songs, full-color album art and up to 25,000 photos, the new iPod makes the most of your music and more. Yeah, you’ve heard that tune before. Only now, you can watch it, too. With support for up to 150 hours of video and a 2.5-inch color display, the new iPod lets you take music videos and TV shows on the road.

Maybe I’m just a little miffed that Apple releases this only a month after I picked up Squirt or maybe I just don’t find much appeal in having a portable video player like this. When I’m using my iPod, my eyes are doing important things like looking where I’m going, reading good books, and checking out hot ladies. I can’t be distacted by a tiny video. Besides, I really don’t give a rip about music videos and 99% of TV shows (though iTunes 6 is carrying the completely excellent show Lost for only $2 for each commercial-free episode). So, most of the current material available I don’t care about, but what about movies, downloaded videos, and good TV shows? As for movies, there’s no way I’m going to watch a whole darn movie on that small screen, and can we say “sore neck”? Imagine squinting down at that 2.5″ screen for 2 hours. Ouch. Now, let’s say I downloaded a really sweet video off the Interweb, and I want to show it to all my homies. I could just throw it on my iPod and have them squint at the 2.5″ screen . . .but only if the video is already properly encoded to the proper size and file format (.m4v, .mp4 and .mov). Unfortunately, most really sweet videos off the Interweb are not in these formats and re-encoding stuff can be a major pain. Finally, as far as good TV shows go, well, I’d rather just buy the DVD sets which is more universal, higher quality, and will have extras. So, I guess the bottomline is this: the iPod video is neat, but I’m not interested. Compare this reaction to my gushy reaction to the iPod nano. Man, the nano got my nerd juices flowing . . .

Also, Apple announced today the new iMac G5 with built-in iSight video camera and Front Row. It looks like a great addition to any dorm room.

My older brother now has a blog. Now, if Tom will just start blogging, we will have reached the trifecta. Looks like Drew is going to use his blog to keep caring souls abreast of his situation. Blogs are quite useful in this way. For example it keeps the ole’ parental figures at least somewhat aware of what’s going on in my life. The only drawback is that if I don’t make a post, my mom starts fretting and has to email me. Which reminds me: Hi, Mom! I’m alive but that Safeway gift card doesn’t work!

Drew is currently applying to residency programs as he enters his final year of med school, so it’ll be a good way to keep in touch with him in this transitional phase of his life.

Things are definitely getting heated up in the power struggle over the Internet. I’m getting heated up too.

The US has got an image problem when it comes to the internet.

It is seen as arrogant and determined to remain the sheriff of the world wide web, regardless of whatever the rest of the world may think.

It has even lost the support of the European Union. It stands alone as the divisive battle over who runs the internet heads for a showdown at a key UN summit in Tunisia next month.

The stakes are high, with the European Commissioner responsible for the net, Viviane Reding, warning of a potential web meltdown.

“The US is absolutely isolated and that is dangerous,” she said during a briefing with journalists in London.

“Imagine the Brazilians or the Chinese doing their own internet. That would be the end of the story.

We have an image problem? While the freakin’ UN and EU are doing what? Cowtowing to the likes of China, Iran, and 3rd-world African nations?

In the face of opposition from countries such as China, Iran and Brazil, and several African nations, the US is now isolated ahead of November’s UN summit.

China?! China has say in this?! They’re an economic powerhouse only by virtue of their size and they actively and continuously engage in oppressing their people and limiting access to the Internet! And Iran?! Why should anybody give two cents what the hell Iran thinks about this?

Oh, and it gets better! The EU proposes essentially breaking the Internet and its worldwide cohesiveness and what do they propose?

The EU does not intend to scrap I[CANN]. It would continue in its current technical role.

Instead Europe is suggesting a way of allowing countries to express their position on internet issues, though the details on how this would happen are vague.

“We have no intention to regulate the internet,” said Commissioner Reding, reassuring the US that the EU was not proposing setting up a new global body.

Rather she talked of a “model of cooperation”, of an international forum to discuss the internet.

Yes, you intend on breaking the Internet, and you remain vague about how you want to fix it. You want to break the Internet so you have a chance to discuss things? Brilliant. Freakin’ brilliant. And I find rich irony in the fact that some EU bureaucrat claims they have “no intention to regulate the internet.” Yeah, the EU, the king of regulation and bureaucracy doesn’t want to regulate. The smell of BS is almost overwhelming.

Yes, I’m pissed about this.

Here is a short op-ed from the WSJ that is a little bit less apoplectic. Worth the short read.

A picture is worth a thousand words . . . unless the words are mine, and then it’s only a poor substitute. (via Guns and Butter)

Cox and Forkum have a cartoon quite similar.

A quick skim through my RSS feeds already popped this up twice. Well done piece of political satire about conservative fears concerning Miers. It opens:

Friends, Americans, bloggers, lend me your ears
I come to bury Miers, not to confirm her.
The evil that Justices do lives after them;
The good is oft preserved by rejecting their nominations;
So let it be with Miers.

Fun read.