Sheehan: She Doesn't Get It

I've tried to avoid commenting on Cindy Sheehan, because I just don't find her that interesting. To the extent she is a mere anti-war protester, I say let her say what she wants to say. I think she seems a bit off her rocker in her methods (there are anti-war protesters I find far more respectable), but I really couldn't care less.

Now, however, Ms. Sheehan seems to have decided that New Orleans needs her help to become unoccupied. What exactly is she hoping to accomplish with this? Allow anarchy to overtake a U.S. city for months on end? This is the first time I've heard someone indicate having military in the city's ruins is a bad thing — hasn't everyone been complaining they did not get there soon enough?

“I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I don't care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. The only way America will become more secure is if we have a new administration that cares about Americans even if they don't fall into the top two percent of the wealthiest.”

I'm sorry, but this is non-sensical. If this is the kind of stuff she is going to spout, then it is time for everyone to go home and ignore her, because I don't think there is anyway to make sense of it. Even if she feels the president should resign, it makes no sense to say we ought to leave a vacuum of power in New Orleans! She acts as if New Orleans is some foreign country instead of one of our own cities.

This person is truly mad and the best thing everyone can do for her is to ignore her.

Song o' the Day: Big Yellow Taxi

They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parkin' lot.

—Joni Mitchell

It's a long story of why I'm posting this, don't ask. Really — it isn't that interesting. But, now that the song is stuck in my head, I figured I might as well share the joy.

Working Out the Bugs

SAFARI 2 is fairly stable from your point of view, but the backend is still a bit of a mess due to two transitional factors and one other factor:

1. It still is recovering from the switch to MySQL from a plain text “flat file” database.
2. It still has the remnants of the old issue-based organizing structure.
3. I knew a lot less about Perl when I started writing thing thing in 1999 than I do now, six and a half years later.

I promised Ed a copy of SAFARI for his blog, and I have several other sites that need it as well, so I've been trying to hack away at the final bits of basic administration interface bugs. There are infrastructure problems still, but so long as I get it so that there is a stable database format and a usable article posting interface, I can worry about the rest even after I start doing multiple deployments of the code base.

Just a bit more work, I think. There are some features I'd like to add, but I'm trying to distinguish between “must have” features and “I want” features. I am also trying to distinguish between ones that will require reorganizing the system and ones that I can plan for now and easily “snap in” later.

Hopefully, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sunday Lunch, On Tuesday: Pies

Another Sunday Lunch from Michael. Yes, I am two days late, but that still isn't as late as I am on the July PhotoQuest.

1. What is your favorite fruit pie?
Well, I'm not a big fruit pie person, presuming that by that you mean meringue-less fruit pies. My mother made a very good blueberry pie for the Fourth of July, though. Maybe I'll go with that. It is cheating, however, since it is meant to be served with whipped cream on top, hence making it somewhat of a cream pie.

2. Is the Boston Cream Pie, a pie? Defend your position.
I plead ignorance.

3. What is your favorite custard , cream pie or pudding pie?
Lemon, followed by banana, followed by chocolate silk.

4. What other desert item do you like with your pie?
Depends: on a fruit pie, you must have ice cream. On a cream pie, just meringue or whipped cream.

5. Who makes the best pie?
My mother. And, no, she does not read my blog, so I am being honest. Really. If you mean pies purchased some place, I'd say the Hen House (in Michael's neck of the woods) is my favorite.

She'll Not Be Comin', but Moses Is

Ok, call me strange. I've got a quiz in Old Testament class today and one of the questions was why Moses broke the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. That's easy enough, right? Well, I answer it, noting that the scene involves Moses coming down the mountain. That was my fatal mistake. Soon, I had a new variation of “She'll Be Comin' Down the Mountain” in my head. I present it for your perusal. Yes, there is no doubt, I am strange.

VERSE 1
He'll be comin' down the mountain, when he comes,
He'll be comin' down the mountain, when he comes,
He'll be comin' down the mountain,
He'll be comin' down the mountain,
He'll be comin' down the mountain, when he comes.

VERSE 2
He'll be breakin' two white tablets, when he comes,
He'll be breakin' two white tablets, when he comes,
He'll be breakin' two white tablets,
He'll be breakin' two white tablets,
He'll be breakin' two white tablets, when he comes.

VERSE 3
O, we'll all be in trouble, when he comes,
O, we'll all be in trouble, when he comes,
O, we'll all be in trouble,
O, we'll all be in trouble,
O, we'll all be in trouble, when he comes.

VERSE 4
O, he'll destroy the gold calf, when he comes,
O, he'll destroy the gold calf, when he comes,
O, he'll destroy the gold calf,
O, he'll destroy the gold calf,
O, he'll destroy the gold calf, when he comes.

VERSE 5
And, we'll all drink gold an' water, when he comes,
And, we'll all drink gold an' water, when he comes,
And, we'll all drink gold an' water,
And, we'll all drink gold an' water,
And, we'll all drink gold an' water, when he comes.

Chicken on a Honey Wheat Bun

That must be the new “big thing.” On Friday, I finally tried one of McDonald's new deluxe chicken sandwiches. They are really on the pricey side, for the venue, at least, but I was pleased with my “Classic” chicken sandwich. It rang in at $3.29, including a nice grilled chicken fillet, lettuce, tomato, mayo and a “deluxe” honey wheat roll.

Today, I tried one of White Castle's new chicken sandwiches, which — surprisingly enough — also are on a honey wheat roll. The home of the crave gives you a very nice honey chipotle sauce on top of the chicken, as well. It was a tasty little sandwich, and combined with a few slyders, I was well satisfied. Price wise, unfortunately, the little White Castle chicken rings in at $1.49. Given the size, you'd probably need to spend $4.50 to approach the amount of chicken in the $3.29 sandwich from McDonald's. I'll stick to burgers next time, I think). That is only $0.69 for the Jalapeno cheese variety.

Oh, The Wells Fargo Wagon... Brought Books!

I needed to order some books for my Contemporary Moral Theory course and while I was at it, I ordered some books I just wanted to read as well. Here's what came today via the Wells Fargo Wagon UPS:

• Already Purchased Elsewhere: Writings on an Ethical Life by Peter Singer. I bought this one a few weeks ago. I've read most of the selections required for the course already. Singer is probably the best known living philosopher, the professor of bio-ethics at Princeton, and a general nut case. I mean that in the most respectful way possible. While he advocates policies such as infanticide and euthanasia, I respect the fact that he reaches these policies by taking the philosophy that many secularist people claim to adhere to (which is really just a form of utilitarianism) and following it where it goes without a lot of bias. I don't like his conclusions, but I agree with him that if you accept actions such as abortion, it is hard to argue against more controversial ideas such as infanticide.
• A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. This book is going to represent Kantian Morality in the course.
• After Virtue by Alasdair McIntyre: This book will be the champion of Aristotelian philosophy for the course. (In other words, he's the Good Guy!)
• Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek by Bruce Metzger: I've managed without it so far, but my Greek instructor advised me that now would be a good time to pick up a copy of this, so I piggy-backed it on the philosophy order.

• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Trans. John Ciardi): This translation of the Comedy got good marks from a number of highly respectable poets, such as Archibald MacLeish. I've never read all of Purgatorio and Paradiso so now is my chance. This edition looks to have very nice, extensive notes. T.S. Eliot said that there were not three literary greats — that Shakespeare and Dante are too far above the rest. I'm not sure I'd go that far, there are others, like Aeschylus and Homer that ought not be forgotten, but his point is well taken.
• Babylon Rising: The Secret on Ararat by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips: I read the first book in this series last year and I want to know what happens next. It might not be the best written series in the world, but it is good enough to read a bit more.
• Impeachable Offense (Left Behind: End of State) by Neesa Hart: I can't say I respect the Left Behind machine any more for releasing spin off series, but here's another book I read the first one of, which was fairly decent, and now I want to see what happens next.
• The Rising: Before They Were Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins: The first prequel to Left Behind. Yeah, the series has gone on too long, but I understand the prequel is suppose to be pretty good, and I've gone this far, I might as well finish what I started.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: I've never read the whole book, but I've read parts long ago. It did not do anything for me, but a good friend of mine was telling me how this was surely the best book in English literature, so I thought it was well past time I read the whole thing and gave it a fair chance. I respect the said friend's taste very much, although I remain skeptical until proven wrong on this one.

And, for now, that is that. I have a few more philosophy books I'll need to order within a few weeks, but those listed in the first section should keep me on track through October, I believe.

It is (Almost) Finished

Well, it has taken far more time than I originally planned to spend on it (especially since I have work to do), but for a combination of reasons, I pressed ahead and have pretty much finished my play, now christened Deafening Silence. The play itself weighs in at five acts spanning 23 pages, not counting the preface or post-play analysis pieces I've been working on. It isn't perfect, but it turned out better than I expected.

The big question is what to do with it now that it is mostly finished. And, I cannot say I'm exactly sure. I can say this much: I plan to give a nicely printed copy to the person to whom it is dedicated and that may be as far as Deafening Silence goes for now.

I'd still be more than happy to gain some more “beta testers” for the script, should anyone have failed to comment in my last post on the subject but is still interested.

Sunday Lunch: Soda

Michael has again provided a Sunday Lunch meme to respond to.

1. What is your favorite soda?
Coca-Cola. I also like Dr. Pepper on occasion and have lately been drinking Full Throttle (and energy drink/soda) every-so-often.

2. How many or how much soda do you drink a day?
Rarely any. I might drink a couple of sodas a week. I use to drink about six liters per week at home, and usually would get soda when eating out, but over the past year or so I've pretty much eliminated soda from my diet.

As a side note, combining this with slightly improved eating habits (I order a salad on occasion and also try not to overstuff myself to the extent that I use to) and ten minutes or so of exercise daily has really paid off (with the help of prayers for increased will power to do those things). I've lost about 50 pounds (22 kg) going from about 270-275 lbs. (122-124 kg) to 220 lbs. (99 kg), as of this week, in a bit less than a year. That's taken me from a body mass of 35ish (considered obese) to 28ish (overweight), which might not be perfect, but puts me in a lot better proportions than I've been in since grade school. Soda's OK, but I'm glad I've reduced my intake.

3. Do you drink it with a meal?
No. At the moment, it is most likely that I will drink a Full Throttle in the afternoon when I have a bit of a headache and need an energy boost.

4. What is the weirdest soda you have drank?
I do not drink weird sodas. Although if you mean just plain bad, I'd pick something like Vanilla Coke, which really didn't agree with me for some reason.

5. Do you think it should be sold in schools at lunch time or ant other time?
I think that's fine, although it'd be good to offer reasonable alternatives too.

And, I'll add this question: 6. What do you refer to soda/pop/coke/sodie as?
Soda, plan and simple.

New Semester Overview

Well, last week (the week of August 22) marked the beginning of the school semester for Lindenwood. This semester, I'm taking some interesting courses, which I thought I'd put some initial thoughts about here.

• Victorian Lit — Probably of the classes I signed up for, this was the one I was least looking forward to. That doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to it at all, but this period just doesn't usually get me that excited. I'm a classical kinda guy.
• Modern Drama — Contrary to what my pastor though, who got all excited, this is not a course wherein I will be trying my hand at acting. It is actually simply a lit class on modern dramatical works. To provide perspective, I guess in case some in the class weren't familiar with classical drama, we took an immediate detour to Oedipus Rex (I like Oedipus, although I was disappointed we didn't do something from Aeschylus instead of Sophocles).
• Economics and the Environment — This course does absolutely nothing for me, so I'm doing it as my sixth class (for a total of 18 credit hours). I'm taking the class because the professor is a friend, he invited me to take it and I find economics thoroughly interesting. We're going to be looking at how to apply economic principles to regulation of the environment, a really important topic. This also reaches into topical areas such as oil prices. As the class is small (11 students) and mostly by invitation, it is going to be a seminar style setting.
• Old Testament — This course applies the historical/critical method to the Old Testament. So far, application of the Wellhausen (JEDP) Documentary Hypothesis has raised the ire of Christian Ministries Studies students taking the class, but that — admittedly — makes the class even more interesting, since debates always help tease out details. We'll be reading most, but not all the Old Testament in the process.
• New Testament Greek II — This course is interesting because I am the only student in it. The rest of the students from Greek I decided not to pursue the work any further. Because of this, we are not meeting at LU; instead we are meeting at my instructor's old place of work, Covenant Theological Seminary. CTS has kindly granted the use of one of their rooms, since my instructor is an alum as well as a former employee.
• Modern Moral Theory — This course is an independent study I added so that I could take the econ class without falling behind schedule. The professor designed the syllabus for my interests. We're going to look at utilitarian, Kantian, Aristotelean/Thomist and Protestant ethical theories. So far, I'm digging into the ever controversial utilitarian Peter Singer, of Princeton University; if you have not actually read his work, you ought to. I don't agree with it, but behind his inflaming opinions, he is essentially only applying the logical conclusions of a secularist world view.

At the urging of a friend, I almost opted to try Chinese, but as interesting as it sounded, I decided “for fun,” economics was a better choice.