"If Satan troubles us, Jesus Christ
You who are the lion of the grasslands
You whose claws are sharp
Will tear out his entrails
And leave them on the ground
For the flies to eat."
-- Afua Kuma, Christian songwriter and poet from Ghana
There may be some humor in the reading of that song, by Christians more used to a different type of CCM... (and maybe more used to thinking of Jesus as a "tame lion" or a velvet stuffed lion)... but there is also a lot of truth behind the metaphor...
What's the difference between a dirt floor and an "earthen" floor? Oh, and make sure you inflect your voice just right when saying "earthen". If you can't see the scintillating beauty of the emperor's new clothes, you're just an unsophisticated country-dweller who can't recognize chic when he sees it. (How to enlighten yourself? Read the New York Times every day.)
Favorite quote:
Some aficionados see a spiritual aspect to earthen floors, too. Mr. Rowell said his floor would help create a “sacred space.” Mr. Meyer agreed. “I think people are craving the earth,” he said. “They want to be more primal. How much more primal can you get than dirt?”
The immense crystalline irony of "western civilisation" in its most brilliant peaks groping for truth and reality and meaning, having abandoned the source of true life, God the Creator, and subsequently ending up blindly groveling on the floor, eating dirt and ashes. But it still considers itself beautiful, oh yes. Unending, our glorious evolution. Sublime, our brave new world.
The indigenous americans and for that matter still the poorest of the poor of all the earth have dirt floors. The time once was when (western, judeo-christian) civilization elevated itself (in a self-aware way) above the dirt. Now having lost its heritage and being forced to seek more and more stimulation in an desperate quest for meaning, it runs back to the animistic and architectural poverty of the primitive civilizations, like a wolf licking a frozen blood-covered knife, frantic with mixed pain and desire, bleeding to death but unable to pull away.
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This is ridiculous.
After finally setting up my breadmaker again and procuring all the ingredients, I rolled up my sleeves and put my prodigious breadmaking skills to work. (I've made plenty of loaves in the past... the typical size of the finished loaf is ~7 inches high).
I didn't have a good measuring cup or spoons, but that's never stopped me before. I threw in 'just the right amount' of ingredients, added "a little of this and a little of that" as the token randomness, and pushed the Start button.
Four hours later, my heart was crushed. Solid un-risen densities rivaling particle accelerator cores. On the bread scale at least. At least my puny 2.4 inch loaf smells good.
This six minute video is absolutely hilarious... especially if you've ever heard any of these arguments from an atheist or evolutionist. There's also a related piece of text, but the video is even funnier.
This really hits on many of the most important questions about God. Right at the beginning, the question is asked: "If there is a Dawkins, why hasn't he shown himself to me?"
There are lots of obvious answers - perhaps "because he's got better things to do with his time", etc. But personal subjective experience isn't the only type of evidence... maybe he's "shown himself" to other people...? Ah, but what if all those other people who claimed to have seen him are all lying? Or delusional?/hallucinating? Or merely spreading legends and hearsay?
The logic is almost exactly the same as the evidence for the Biblical Jesus and His miraculous life and resurrection... and once you have a miracle-working, resurrected, Messiah who teaches that God does exist and that He is in fact "one" with Him, the evidence for the existence of "God" begins to stack up quite substantially...
On the bus this morning, a very elderly man got on. Then a few stops later, a very elderly couple got on. Evidentially they knew each other, so they greeted each other (speaking slowly and deliberately, the way elderly folk do).
Then they began to discuss global warming.
It was hilarious. The one guy (very stuffy and overly seriously) began talking about the warming and the trends and the ice caps and his trip to Finland 10 years ago, and the other guy talked about the decade cycles and the statistical changes and the fact that "I'd rather not see that 33-inch snowfall again that we had back in '93...".
It's not the type of thing you'd expect to hear 80-year olds chatting about... 
For those of you who have heard of the recent incident with John Kerry saying disrespectful things about the US Armed Forces, here's a bit of humor:
Also, this article about current world demographic trends ( http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20061023_134898_134898 ) is really interesting! And the author is a splendid and gripping writer, too. Read it if you have a bit of time!
Does anyone else see an ironic/amusing parallel between the burgeoning "Space Elevator" project and the ancient Tower of Babel?
Also, goodbye Bob the Tomato... we will miss you.
You probably have your own answer to that question already. But this link ( http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/MediaBiasBasics.html ) has some nice polls and other data on the question. And at the end there is a GREAT collection of quotes, both from people who claim that the media is and isn't biased. And the summary quote at the end of the article is awesome.
In addition, for those of you who have heard of the faked picture scandal still developing from Reuters last week, here is some sadly-hilarious photo-commentary. http://keshertalk.com/archives/2006/08/more_picture_fr.php
Here is one of the best - 
Enjoy this funny little jab from Adbusters... in the spirit of the Demotivators...
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