Always Jason

I learned on The History Channel today that Florida death row inmates are not allowed to have tobacco. The reason: smoking is a health hazard.

We sure wouldn’t want those inmates dying early.

Michael Moore thinks America is a bad place.

This past weekend, the LA Times published a (negative) opinion piece by Moore which James Lileks thoroughly debunks.

One of the examples that Moore uses in claiming America is a bad place and that people who display the flag are evil is this 1976 photo showing a white man using a flag pole to attack a black man. Lileks points out that as usual, Moore doesn’t state the full story.

The full story points out that Booker T. Washington was right in his autobiography Up From Slavery when he says that racism is more harmful to the racist than to the one he attacks.

What Moore doesn’t say is where the two men in the photograph are today. The attacker’s name is James Rakes. In 2001, he was working as a laborer on the Big Dig highway project in Boston.

The man who was attacked is Ted Landsmark. At the time of the attack, Landsmark had already earned a BA in political science. Since then, he has been the dean
of graduate and continuing education at the Massachusetts College of Art. He also served as the director of Boston’s Office of Community Partnerships and is is currently the president and CEO of the Boston Architectural Center. In the meantime, he also completed a Ph.D. at Boston University.

Moore thinks this is a horrible country. I think it a great country. Only in this country did Ted Landsmark have the opportunity achieve the success he has gained. James Rakes reaped the rewards his actions and attitudes have inevitably led him to. What’s wrong with that?

A few weeks ago, Honeybun and I went to our favorite Chinese food restaurant. Well, my favorite. She doesn’t like Chinese food. At the end we opened our fortune cookies. I forget what mine said, but hers sounded ominous:
“You will soon be crossing the great waters.”

That doesn’t sound promising. Crossing A great water sounds like it could be fun. Crossing THE great waters sounds like a final destination.

OK. So one rogue fortune cookie shouldn’t get you down. Then this past Sunday we went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a family reunion with my Dad’s family. For lunch we went to another Chinese restaurant. At the end of the meal, Honeybun opened her fortune cookie and it said, “You will soon be crossing the great waters.” The same damn fortune!

What sick bastard puts that in a fortune cookie…..twice!

Stupid fortune cookies.

A new type of ultrasound scan shows how complex a fetus has developed as early as 12 weeks.

From the article:
From 12 weeks, unborn babies can stretch, kick and leap around the womb – well before the mother can feel movement

From 18 weeks, they can open their eyes although most doctors thought eyelids were fused until 26 weeks

From 26 weeks, they appear to exhibit a whole range of typical baby behaviour and moods, including scratching, smiling, crying, hiccuping, and sucking.
Until recently it was thought that smiling did not start until six weeks after birth.

Wow. Check out the link to see images from the scans. This scan confirms that an child in the womb is more than a collection of tissue. I think it proves the pro-life argument; it’s not a choice, it’s a baby.

Secular thought likes the idea that good an evil are different sides of the same coin. There cannot be one without the other.

Some go even further by trying to claim there is a neutral state (this thought is even explored in popular roleplaying games). I’ve never bought this idea myself. Neutrality is essentially exclusively self-serving. History has shown that path quickly leads to evil.

So getting back to Good and Evil, I’ve never believed that argument that there cannot be one without the other but I haven’t been able to put my thoughts together on the reason. I saw a comment on a post today at the evangelical outpost. Yes, evil is defined by good, but good is not defined by evil.

David Scott said:
It is certainly theoretically possible for everything to be good-to have a perfect life, to love and be loved by everyone… Good is not defined by evil because good is its own quality-the imitation of God and following His law, in the most distilled view.

Of course that is the Christian world view. The secularist has to reject God and therefore may be blind to the independent nature of Good. True, Evil is not being good. But Good is still good without the presence of evil.

Last week a hail storm hit the Denver area. Our Explorer was nailed. Just got the word from the insurance company today – it’s totalled.

If anyone is in the market for a severely hail damaged Ford Explorer (I now refer to it as “dimple red”) I’m sure the insurance company will give you a deal.

So I haven’t been posting lately. I’ve been busy. Well, not really.

We hosted a barbeque on Sunday. Thirty eight people showed up. Good times.

What else….got a new dog. A yellow lab to keep our black lab company. Labs are destructive as puppies. Everything is a chew toy.

I’m currently reading an advanced reader copy of Horizon Storms by Kevin Anderson which will be available in July in hardcover. It’s science fiction but a fun read. I should be interviewing the author early next month for enworld.org.

That’s all for now.

I’m trying to start a freelance writing business. I even have an assignment already (Thanks Gabby).

The problem is, I don’t have a name for my business. So, I’m taking nominations for a good writing business name. Any suggestions?

Michael Berg is the father of Nicholas Berg, the man whose head was cut off on videotape by Islamic terrorists in Iraq.

The Guardian published an article by Michael Berg that is amazing for it lack of moral judgment. Normally, I pass on political statements made by grieving families. This one is beyond belief.

People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son’s tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: “Don’t you blame the five men who killed him?” I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration, but I am wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary man my son was. I take comfort that when they did the awful thing they did, they weren’t quite as in to it as they might have been. I am sure that they came to admire him.

I am sure that the one who wielded the knife felt Nick’s breath on his hand and knew that he had a real human being there. I am sure that the others looked into my son’s eyes and got at least a glimmer of what the rest of the world sees. And I am sure that these murderers, for just a brief moment, did not like what they were doing.

George Bush never looked into my son’s eyes. George Bush doesn’t know my son, and he is the worse for it. George Bush, though a father himself, cannot feel my pain, or that of my family, or of the world that grieves for Nick, because he is a policymaker, and he doesn’t have to bear the consequences of his acts. George Bush can see neither the heart of Nick nor that of the American people, let alone that of the Iraqi people his policies are killing daily.

OK, let me get this straight. The man who brutally cut off his son’s head knew Nick’s humanity. While the terrorist was sawing through flesh, tendons, and bone while Nick was wailing in pain and terror, he saw a human. This was not a quick painless death. I have heard the audio. This was the most brutal event I have ever witnessed. If the terrorist saw a human, wouldn’t he have stopped the slaughter? And Michael Berg says President Bush has more blame?

Berg goes on to praise his son for being a peacemaker while implying President Bush is not. The President does not have troops in Iraq at this point to make war. President Bush has asked Congress for billions of dollars to set up a stable Iraq. The United States is supplying power and water, it has opened schools, it has set up local elections, it is building infrastructure. Is this not the actions of a peaceful nation?

Michael Berg has demonstrated the consequences of moral bankruptcy. He blames a man who is trying to bring peace to another nation while calling the men who literally slaughtered his son “human”. We are doomed when the terrorists are considered human while brutally murdering our citizens while the real peacemakers are considered evil.

No blogging in the last week because I was trying not to get pneumonia. Still coughing but I’m back to work.

I took the GRE test to get into grad school today. I scored 640 on the verbal portion and 620 on the quantative. The program I’m trying to get into looks for an average score of 560.

Imagine how I would have done if I had studied.