Scottish Nous

Infernal Wind

Yet another high wind warning from the NWS.  Yay.  The wind here just will not go away.  So far today we've hit 68 MPH in Boulder, but it's predicted that gusts will reach into the 90's again.  Let me tell you that it's a lot of fun trying to sleep with a hellish wind screaming, roaring and whistling around one's apartment building.  If anything is proof that god doesn't love us, this is it.

Damnitall!!

It's a dark day in Colorado.  The department soccer team lost the intramural championships after a grueling season filled with sweat and tears - a season in which yours truly scored not one, but two goals, both of which counted for the opposing teams.  The second goal I scored on my own team broke the 2-2 tie in the last few minutes of today's championship game and yielded up the much coveted grand prize t-shirts.

It happened thusly.   In the last few minutes of the game, the opposing team gained a throw-in close to our own goal line.  Covering the center of the box and some ways out, hoping to grab a lazily lofted ball before the expected header attempt, I was surprised when the ball was thrown low and into the corner of the goal!  (This appeared to be an attempt to score.)    I immediately dived for it, but being out of range for that sort of bizaree stunt, I only managed to graze it with the tips of my fingers as it slid past my hand and into the netting.  Now, as it turns out, a fact I learned after the play and just verified here, one cannot score directly from a throw-in.  That is, had I let the ball fly unimpeded into the goal, no point would have been awarded to our opponents.  But the ball did not fly directly into the goal, and the whistle signalled the end of the game one minute later.  Woe is me.

Piscean Spongiform Encephalopathy

Here's some more anecdotal evidence for vegetarianism.  I'm currently something like a 75% vegetarian.  I will never give up fish, and I'll not sure I'll ever be able to give up milk either.  The linked article mentions milk, so I'll send you to this interesting article on the "wholesomeness" of milk if you want to follow up.  Within the year, I expect to transition to a 100% lacto-ovo-piscean pseudo-vegetarian.  This switch will not suffice to relieve all my moral distress, but part of being human may involve learning to cope with one's immorality.  I'm speculating wildly here, but this could be a major function of the the Christ-belief.  If you're a religious studies student, that would make a good paper topic.  [Hat tip to fellow graduate student Julie for the first linked article.]

The Poetry of Matt Pacetti

I was cleaning off my desktop when I ran across a friend's poem I'd meant to post some time ago.  Matt majored in philosophy, but has (unfortunately for the discipline) since decided to pursue a graduate degree in English Lit. and Education.  Here's the poem (untitled, dated 7/9/04) for your enjoyment:

"What is she?/What is she now? - A sufferer for my sins." -Lord Byron

With groans and tears I hid my face in shame;
she to whom no guilt would afix stood by.

I loathed myself, my birthdate, and my name,
that by my injury she should now cry

and feel so keenly the wrath due my stains
and should break under a burden I owe

and taste the bitter chalice mine to drain
and for my fall acute lonelines know.

Bent with sorrow I unconsoled lament,
at what a mighty course was diverted.

what was defiled by one sad cursed moment
a dark instant that all hope deserted.

For us both my pain redoubles again
that we ache for what was alone my sin.

Our Capacity for Evil

Through an inhuman act of savage barbarism, a group of islamofascist slaves who writhe and squirm in a senseless mental delirium induced by the remarkable psychological power the idea their nonexistent demon god possesses over their underdeveloped animalistic brains proves once again that humans are capable of the most sophisticated and refined sort of cruelty imaginable.  Yet it's not appropriate to compare these frenzied slaves of religious extremism to the lower beasts, nor to call their particular variant of cruelty "bestial cruelty", since as Dostoevsky points out so eloquently, this is an insult to the innocent animals who are incapable of such artistic wickedness. 

And just how different from these hordes of fiendish monsters are we?  We're humans too, with the same genetic code and brains bequeathed by common ancestors.  Who amongst us hasn't let flash through our minds the momentarily joyous thought of the slow and painful torture, both mental and physical, that we might like to see inflicted on these killers upon their capture in revenge?  I'm unhappy to admit that I have.  Myself, a member of one more group of humans who encourage the uneducated and destitute to "better their lives" by picking up a machine gun, training to crawl under barbed wire on their bellies, and mentally prepare themselves to massacre others on command.  It's not pleasant to realize just how human we are on this sad day.  I like this quote by Tony Blair:

Our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism upon the world.

But we need to take the lesson of our humanity seriously and carefully consider just what our values and way of life are, as well as just how we should best go about defending them.  I find it most pitiful that some of the better evidences that there is no God come at so high a price from those who think they are acting in its name.  When will we learn to value our fellow man above God?