(no subject)

Warning: I am sleep-deprived. When I am sleep-deprived and can't sleep because (for instance) I'm at work, I make a lot of posts.

Eric was hanging out with his gaming posse last night, so I was on my own. I cooked up an artichoke and figured I'd work on the UTrad website and the last 2 Pagan classes that are coming up Sunday. Sadly it was not to be, though, because there was a Star Trek: Next Gen I'd never seen before, then Good Eats had a new episode, then I decided to go for a walk.

In contemptuous defiance of the warnings about 'getting used to walking barefoot' that came with my new toe shoes, I decided to wear them for the Ganymede-Europa loop around our neighborhood that's about a mile and a half walk. The reasons why this was stupid were many. First, they were new shoes. Even if they were neat-o funky extra-comfortable new shoes, they were still new shoes and I hadn't done even any minimal breaking in. Next, as it is true that they are like walking barefoot it occurred to me later- I would not walk a mile and a half on suburban concrete sidewalks in bare feet, so why would I do this in shoes that simulate that? Third, I am not a lightweight, and I also have remnants of a screwed-up gait as a result of deformities from my childhood. It almost required surgery, I'm told, but they were able to correct it by catching it early enough and making me wear frighteningly unattractive orthopedic shoes. I don't think about this much because I don't notice it (it's just how I've always been), but if you look at the bottoms of my older shoes you do see an odd, asymmetric wear pattern. So, I have blisters on my feet today. Ow. I should have stuck to 'bouldering' (an actual sport, apparently) like the manual suggested. They're still cool shoes.

Then I screwed around 'til Eric got home, and talked and watched the Good Eats again with him (they repeated it at midnight). Result- sleep-deprived.

(no subject)

I'm fond of the saying that all paths lead to the truth, some just take longer than others. I like to look for similarities among religions. You know, why can't we all just get along and all that. Then there's guys like this, who suffer my wrath. Ooh, what a smug asshole.

Comparing Christianity & The New Paganism

Stuff that stuck out:

-the notion that it seems to be a competition with this guy. "Christianity is bigger than paganism." And being the biggest is a goal?

-slamming paganism because it's infused with a Western sense of arrogance. This of course right on the heels of bragging about Christianity being bigger. He says pagans are not reverent. He's full of shit. I'm plenty reverent. I think he's confusing reverence with abasing yourself.

-"Another word for the new paganism is humanism, the religion that will not lift up its head to the heavens but stuffs the heavens into its head." This guy is hostile to the notion of immanence, that God can be within. "Jesus says: I am the light which is on them all. I am the All, and the All has gone out from me and the All has come back to me. Cleave the wood: I am there; lift the stone and thou shalt find me there!" So God's in rocks and wood, but surely he's not within us. Oh, no. It's immanence versus trancendence for him. Most pagans I know, incidentally, believe the Divine is both. It's not that far-out an idea.

-He bashes on moral relativism. Because, if we can't claim God decreed it, we can have no morals at all. Slippery slope bullshit.

-"A third ingredient of the old paganism but not of the new is awe at something transcendent, the sense of worship and mystery." Bullshit. See above re. reverence. He's confusing it with abasement, and with fear- he develops this more later in the article. That's my biggest bitch about his whole outlook (and Kirk Cameron's site, as well), the idea that it's not a really good belief system unless you're scared shitless of your god. Bullshit! "The shock is gone," he mourns, as if that's what defines his relationship with his god. Sad.

-And just to make sure you remember that this is a competition, he closes with this gem: "Because God, who spoke the first word, always gets the last word." Nice. @@

While we're at it...

If you missed Jon Stewart spanking Bill Bennett over gay marrage, here's your chance...

spank! spank! spank!

Stewart: So why not encourage gay people to join in in that family arrangement if that is what provides stability to a society?

Bennett: Well I think if gay... gay people are already members of families...

Stewart: What? (almost spitting out his drink)

Bennett: They’re sons and they’re daughters...

Stewart: So that’s where the buck stops, that’s the gay ceiling.

Bennett: Look, it’s a debate about whether you think marriage is between a man and a women.

Stewart: I disagree, I think it’s a debate about whether you think gay people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.

I love it!

(no subject)

So, we're watching the first evar Babylon 5 movie thing. I've never seen it before. They had this Asian chick, and after she was all space-shippy she went to her scroll-and-bamboo decorated quarters and played the flute. They might as well have put a big flashing sign over her head that said 'LOOK! SHE'S ASIAN!' So I made a snort of disgust and said "That's such a stereotype! She should be playing the bagpipes!"- the bagpipes being the least Asian instrument I could think of off the top of my head. Then Eric does me one better and says "...or the banjo." Yeah, I know Asians have something like a banjo, but of course we're imagining the banjo, and her playing 'Turkey in the Straw' or somesuch.