Well, it appears it's finally happened: A friend (WHOSE BEING AWFULLY SLOW ABOUT RESCUING FIONA FROM HER TOWER!) and I are both unable to log into facebook as of this morning. I guess I had it coming, as you'll see below. I've mentioned before what a word-warrior I am on the web. Today I've included a mild example for today. I'll include one of the more fiery ones tomorrow. I'm curious, though. Tell me how your facebook account is behaving today.
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17:33 EDT
You can probably guess how I feel about abortion, but it never really landed on my radar. I'd never known anyone who'd had an abortion. I never really noticed any news about it other than the debate. Then, one day, while driving back to the hotel from work in Houston in 2002 (probably still sensitized by 9/11), I heard a gruesomely detailed report about partial-birth abortion on the radio. I had to stop the car. I staggered around a bit. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. I had some repenting to do. It was time to get in the game. It's been a pretty sensitive subject for me ever since. And, with that qualifer, I offer you this:
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16:12 EDT
Science (so-called) is probably my favorite subject after religion. I told you before about my first physics teacher, Mr. Fletcher, back in 1973 at Fort Walton Beach High, my brush with NASA (among other things), and even my 'computer science' career. So, don't be surprised to see me post a lot of science-related articles. Just know that I'm also a huge critic of what my late friend, Anthony E. Larson, referred to as The Church of Orthodox Science. As such, you'll get a lot of information from me like this one below, about academic fraud, the flaws in the 'scientific method' (peer review?!), fraudulent research, faked data (the GW guys REALLY push the envelope here), and even bogus press releases (ever read the one announcing the 'discovery' of the Higgs Boson?). So, anyway, I think you'll learn a lot from this, and should pay close attention to it, and always keep it in mind. As I always taught my kids, always remember to replace know with think every time you hear anyone say something like, "We know that [insert favorite theory here]".
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11:53 EDT
I've said many times that all religions descend like a family tree from the ancient (of days?), root religion, the religion of Adam. What's changed them is mostly the lack of divine guidance as the languages imposed their same corruption upon their names and terms as it did on the rest of their communication. But, wherever we find a kings list, we find a first great king whose name means Man. Here, it's Manu. It Egypt, it's Menne. There are others I've forgotten, but I'll come back to this theme in time.
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17:20 EDT
As with so many things I was taught as a child, the metric system is NOT really 'scientific', and the empirical system is not really arbitrary. It may actually be more 'scientific' than the metric system.
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11:25 EDT
I was recently prompted to remind myself of this little-known piece of our history.
I spent nine years in Denver. I flew through that airport dozens of times, but never saw any of those murals, gargoyles, or the dedication marker.
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10:34 EDT
We truly are angels trapped in temples of flesh, tabernacles that defy our true gender. Even after taking a rib from Adam and making Eve, God said they two shall be one flesh, and HE called THEIR name ADAM ... ONE FLESH. Right up until Eve ate the fruit.
Stupid Eve.
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10:26 EDT
You've heard about the new Corvette, haven't you? MID-ENGINE! Finally! They promised this 45 years ago with the 'four-rotor'.
Sigh. I've always wanted a Corvette, but I know, I'll never have one.
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10:17 EDT
Democrats have ranted for 2 years about foreign interference in our elections, but now they're voting to let non-citizens vote?! Didn't Joseph Smith predict the end of the Democrat party to Mosiah Hancock? I think we're about to see that prophecy's fulfillment, too.
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09:30 EDT
Hhere's one of those arguments. Someone accused a friend of not knowing what he was talking about, as I recall, so I decided to take a gentle approach.
"We often don't know what we're talking about. Nibley complained about this a lot, even saying that the word, spiritual, was the most abused in the LDS vocabulary. So it's always good to get some alternative perspectives and insights, especially where the corruption of our language is concerned, even more especially where that understanding runs afoul of the legal precision of scriptural wording.
"I think it was John Taylor who once said that, after writing down something Joseph had said, Joseph had to have him correct it several times, whereupon brother Taylor concluded that the things of the spirit are not easily conveyed in the human languages.
"I would modify that slightly by saying that, what Joseph, or any prophet for that matter, says is uttered in words carefully chosen, perhaps even using words deliberately chosen by the spirit in order to convey a meaning that is legally precise, and necessarily so because, it is out of these books that we will be judged.
"So, getting every little word and phrase down perfectly is essential. And adding or changing words is absolutely anathema. As the Lord himself said, "... every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
"Or, as Paul and others repeatedly put it, "What is more or less than this is not of God."
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08:08 EDT
If, like me, you thought there was something suspicious about Alexandria Occasional-Cortex's sudden political rise, you may find this enormously enlightening.
