I will be in the Cincinnati area this weekend for fun and business. My only dilemma is to decide whether to spend the time and money to actually visit this edifice of counterknowledge? I've written about this place on D.I. since before it was completed. (List of mentions of it…
At Daylight Atheism, Ebonmuse puts Rand's theory of objectivism under a bright analytical light and finds it wanting: Since Objectivists reject all notions of a social safety net, it's natural to ask what would happen to the poor and needy in an Objectivist society. This is Ayn Rand's answer: "If…
Today is Easter. Colorful eggs (pagan tradition), bunnies and chicks (pagan symbols), and consuming dangerous levels of foamy sweetener in scary yellow bites (Peeps™). Let's not forget the "meaning behind it": The anniversary of yet another demi-god risen from the dead. I enjoy this take on that subject. Anyway, why…
After considerable thought, I hereby offer my predictions for the 2008 Major League Baseball season. Unlike other prognosticators, I guarantee my predictions. Therefore, feel free to bet large amounts of money that each of the following will occur, for certain, during the 2008 MBL season:
…Unabashed optimism will surround the ritual of spring training.
Thousands of dignitaries and celebrities will show up at Opening Day baseball games to be seen.
Columnists will crank out thousands of articles on baseball, each of them suggesting that following Major League Baseball is important to the overall scheme of life.
Some young relatively unknown baseball players will impress the fans this year.
Some of the high-priced veterans will not do as well as the fans hoped and the fans will grumble, many of them expressing their displeasure at length on sports radio call-in shows, arguing that those players are washed up, on drugs, too old or slackers.
Millions of fans will go to the baseball stadiums, willingly paying thousands of dollars to attend baseball games and to buy outrageously over-priced beer and nachos (at least $170 for a family of four). Thousands of these fans will be named Daniel, Robert, Michael, James, Mary, Susan, Karen, Linda or Donna.
During each MLB game, the fans will be subjected to an unending stream of advertising in the form of videos, posters and PA announcements.
Each team will play about 162 games, totaling about 2,500 games. [Note: Scientists have calculated that each team should play
I enjoy chatting with Martian anthropologists. They visit Earth without preconceptions and they ask obvious questions.
Recently, I encountered a Martian anthropologist who was struggling to understand what Easter was all about. I tried to explain it in simple terms. I first tried to tell the Martian Anthropologist (I think it was a “she,” so I’ll use the feminine pronoun) about Good Friday. I told her that a magic fellow named Jesus dies every year on Good Friday and the Christians get all glum, even though He doesn’t really die every year, and we’re not entirely sure that there was a Jesus or that he was truly magic.
I paused, then explained further. I told her that Catholics are my favorite kind of Christians because I was raised Catholic and because they strive so hard to not eat meat on Good Friday. She asked why they didn’t eat meat and I said I didn’t know, especially since they eat fish and fish seems to be meat. At church, it gets even stranger, I explained. Catholics eat bread that they claim was “transubstantiated” into the actual body of Jesus (even though it still looks and tastes like bread. The ironic twist is that this bread is supposedly meat and the Catholics eat it on Good Friday, even though they promise not to eat meat on Good Friday.
Then, every year on Easter Sunday Jesus is said to rise from the dead and save us, even though we weren’t the one’s …
