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Liberating Christmas from Christianity

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:43:47 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Episcopal priest makes interesting argument

There are some very good reasons why Christians should give up the fight to reassert ownership of Christmas and to stop resisting its so-called secularization.

Neither Christmas nor anything it stands for originated in the Jesus movement or in the early Christian Church.

In imperial Rome, the December 25 feast in honor of the Invincible Sun, Sol Invictus, was accompanied by the exchange of gifts, cutting of greens, lighting of candles, and public festivals commemorating new life.

In the 4th century, the Christian Church, having been adopted by the Emperor Constantine, was rather suddenly transformed from a persecuted minority into the official imperial religion of Rome. The Church responded by importing the Jesus' birth narratives of Matthew and Luke into the feast of Sol Invictus and erased every reference to the pagan gods.

To liberate Christmas from the clutches of Christianity would demonstrate a generosity of spirit on the part of Christians

Tags: christmas

Happy Birthday, Arthur C. Clarke!

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:33:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

British sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke turns 90 on Dec. 16. Clarke penned the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was adapted into Stanley Kubrick's big-screen freaky fav.

Clarke is also the last surviving member of the "Big Three" of science fiction authors (the other two members of the geeky coterie were Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein).

Other fun facts (thank you, Wikipedia!): the command center of the Apollo 13 craft was named "2001" after the movie, Clarke had a whole friggin' asteroid AND a new species of dinosaur Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei named after him. Coolness.

And yes, you CAN sync Pink Floyd's Echoes to Dave's triptastic voyage scene at the end. Not that we've tried that or anything. But if we did, we'd say it rocks and that you should try it.)

Tags: arthur c. clarke, scifi, influence

Photographic Tribute to Gustav Klimt

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:56:51 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: Title: La esencia de Klimt
Magazine: Ae

Photographer- Moises González

Art Direction, digital art, illustrated and Styling - Kattaca (www.kattaca.com )
Make up artist - Yurema Villa (www.yuremavilla.es )
Hairdresser - Raul Zarco

Clip Source: www.behance.net

Tags: art, photography, photos, tribute, paintings, gustav klimt, collection, gallery

Huckabee: cover up for son's cruel deed reflects dad's ethics

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:05:31 GMT

clipped by: gingembre
clipper's remarks: Mike Huckabee allegedly covered up for his son David's cruelty to a dog. Do we want a person with Huckabee's lack of ethics in the White House?

A bit more from the article (but please read even more at the source):

"David Huckabee did not respond to requests for comment. (In April of this year, he was arrested—and paid a fine—when he forgot to remove a loaded gun from his carry-on luggage at Little Rock airport.) His father told NEWSWEEK THAT his son did not engage in "intentional torture." "There was a dog that apparently had mange and was absolutely, I guess, emaciated."A campaign official says David "regrets" the incident and notes that he later made Eagle Scout.

Congrats on attaining Eagle Scout rank, David.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

Dogged: An incident involving his son David could hurt Huckabee

As gains in the polls, the former governor is finding that his record in office is getting more scrutiny. One issue likely to get attention is his handling of a sensitive family matter: allegations that one of his sons was involved in the hanging of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. The incident led to the dismissal of David Huckabee, then 17, from his job as a counselor at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Ark. It also prompted the local prosecuting attorney— bombarded with complaints generated by a national animal-rights group—to write a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether David and another teenager had violated state animal-cruelty laws. The state police never granted the request

"Without question, [Huckabee] was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son," says I. C. Smith, the former FBI chief in Little Rock

Tags: ethics, politics, 2008 election, cruelty to animals

Procrastination: The thief of time

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:21:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "I love deadlines, I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

DOUGLAS ADAMS did everything humanly possible to avoid the daily drudgery of plonking down at his desk and pounding out his novel The Salmon of Doubt. The eccentric British writer soaked for hours in the bathtub, lollygagged away entire days in bed and dreamed up ever more fanciful excuses for his exasperated editor. When he died in 2001, he had spent a decade on the book without even a complete first draft to show for it. Adams, whose works include The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was a poster boy for procrastinators everywhere. "I love deadlines," he once quipped. "I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

We all struggle occasionally with the desire to postpone an unpleasant job, be it drawing up a will, studying for an exam or clearing the clutter from the basement. "Everyone has times when at the end of the day they don't know what they have done with it,"

"But procrastinators have these big black holes.

For some 15 to 20 per cent of us, the problem is serious

Tags: procrastination, time, life, postpone, deadlines

History: The Revenge of 9/11 ?

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 05:56:52 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: CIA. "It is fair to say that this $50 billion a year a intelligence organization, supposedly the most competent in the world, was amazingly unaware of the plans or derelict in delivering intelligence. It is fair to say the CIA was guilty of neglect, incompetence and/or active participation with the government and all the usual suspects in coordinating an effort to create 9/11. This in order to bring about a coup of our “democratic” government. As a result, this same cadre declared war on Afghanistan, part of their larger "War on Terror," only days later, without any further investigation to determine “whodunit,” railroading a fearful Congress into agreement."

Clip Source: onlinejournal.com

9/11

1973, President Salvador Allende of Chile, the world’s first democratically-elected Marxist president, died

in a coordinated revolt by army leaders

Pinochet’s regime in fact exercised its brutal muscle during his reign to torture and murder some 3,000 souls, jail 27,000 more without trial, and send thousands more fleeing the country for asylum

the Chilean coup was engineered by Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon and Richard Helms’ CIA. The CIA admitted as much on September 11, 1998, another coincidental 9/11

CIA funded, trained, and armed the Mujihadeen jihad, including Osama bin Laden

the CIA was guilty of neglect, incompetence and/or active participation with the government and all the usual suspects in coordinating an effort to create 9/11

911

“the assassination of Allende

British Mandate in Palestine

U.S. invasion of Honduras

defeat of the Ottoman armies before the gates of Vienna

1683

post World War II, a war in which America was seen as a liberator not an oppressor,

Truman

Eisenhower

ohn F K

Pinnochio's Girlfriend

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:56:51 GMT

clipped by: mickfinn

Clip Source: www.thehumorarchives.com

One night, Pinnochio's girlfriend says to him, "This stinks. Every time we make love I get splinters."

So Pinnochio goes to Gepetto to ask his advice. Gepetto says, "Sandpaper, my boy, that's all you need."

A few days later Gepetto runs into Pinnochio and says, "So how are you doing with the girls now?" Pinnochio says, "Who needs girls?"

Tags: humour

Pure Torture - By Tom Moe - "Hanoi Hilton" Survivor

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:42:16 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Maybe there is something to that old saying about pain purifying, but I would not prescribe the treatment."

Clip Source: www.nd.edu

I was hiding under a log. Doing my best to masquerade as North Vietnam terrain, I'd pulled branches on top of me, smeared mud on my face, and arranged leaves and other foliage to stick out of my clothes. I was 20 miles behind enemy lines, having parachuted out of my F-4C fighter aircraft when a weapon malfunction blew it, along with my wingman, to bits. So far my terrain act was working; a group of North Vietnamese soldiers had passed, unaware of my presence, within six feet of me.

Thus began a month-long, 100-mile journey to the "Hanoi Hilton" to begin my five years as a prisoner of war -- where I would get to know pain on a personal basis.

Captured in North Vietnam in January 1968, Thomas Moe was released in 1973. Two years later he earned a master's degree from Notre Dame, where he eventually served as professor of aerospace studies and commander of the Air Force ROTC program. He retired from the Air Force in fall 1995.