The Easy Distraction

Because I was told to do this by Mary over at Catholic Girl Talk:

1. Total Number of Books I've Owned: I have no idea, but I'm going to guess somewhere around 250. A pretty conservative estimate I think, considering the number of books I read for literature class each year in high school. Also, when I was younger, frequent trips to the library were the name of the game.

2. Last Book I Bought: Lately I've just been borrowing books from the Catholic Student Center on campus, but let's see...the last book I bought was The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis. It was excellent, and is currently on loan to one of this blog's very few devoted readers.

3. Last Book I Read: The last book I finished might also be The Screwtape Letters. I could be wrong, though. Currently on my plate, however, are More Guns, Less Crime, by John R. Lott, Jr.; The Lamb's Supper, by Scott Hahn; and A Random Walk Down Wall Street, by Burton G. Malkiel.

4. Five Books (or Sets of Books) That Mean a Lot to Me: I assume The Bible and The Catechism are off-limits, so:

- Go Dog, Go: This was the first book I read on my own. Nothing fancy, but hey, you have to start somewhere.

- Orthodoxy: If you haven't read this amazing book, by G. K. Chesterton, let me know. I will lend it to you. Everyone should read it. If you borrow my copy, it already has a few of the best parts pagemarked with post-it notes, so that's a plus.

- Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters: I'm sure that all of C. S. Lewis' work is worth reading, but these two are especially important. Rarely have I read books and felt so strongly that they were written specifically about me.

- Calvin and Hobbes: This comic strip, by Bill Watterson, has absolutely no equal. It's funny and intelligent, and I love it. I have a copy of every Calvin and Hobbes book ever published, which I still read from time to time. I've always meant to write an article (or a book, if I'm feeling ambitious) about the important life-lessons contained on those pages, but, not surprisingly, haven't yet gotten around to it.

- Three Philosophies of Life: This is the only Peter Kreeft book I've read so far, but it's excellent. It basically examines life philosophically from three Biblical perspectives: Ecclesiastes - Life as Vanity; Job - Life as Suffering; Song of Songs - Life as Love. This book contains my favorite discussion about the existence of evil in the world. Currently it's on loan to a friend of mine, but when I get it back, anyone is welcome to borrow it.

Disclaimer: With the exception of Go Dog, Go and Calvin and Hobbes, I read all of these books within the last year or so. I think, not surprisingly, I have a bias towards the more recent books, and I imagine I'm not alone. A few great books I've read that didn't make the top 5: The Sea-Wolf (Jack London), The Aeneid (by Virgil, in Latin and English), Hamlet (if you don't know, I'm not telling you), Beowulf (by who knows who?), Norton Anthology of British Literature (various authors), How Did They Die? (Norman and Betty Donaldson), Ordinary Americans (Linda R. Monk - editor)....and on and on and on and on. If anyone wants to borrow any of these, I still have copies of most of them, so let me know.

5. Tag 5 People to Have Them Do This: Well, every blogger I know has either aleady done this or already been tagged, so I'll go another route. Readers, please post a comment with your responses to any or all of these. I'd love to hear about your book lives, and see what you think of mine. Thanks.

I've seen a couple commercials tonight for this new anti-wrinkle cream. For men. Male readers of this blog (all two of you): would you ever use such a thing? I hope not. It's weird. Men don't use anti-wrinkle cream. For one, it's for girls. For two, shaving exfoliates your face, and is generally all the skin care any real man would ever need.

Too many sissies in this world...

Sunscreen may cause skin cancer.

Is there anything (besides God and the people and things that help you on your path to Him) that isn't bad for you in some way? I mean, c'mon. I also heard about this on TV news, but they attributed the study to some guy at Harvard, which was strange.

It makes sense, though, that you shouldn't overuse sunscreen. Besides the fact that it contains some potentially harmful chemicals, it also prevents your body from using the sun to produce vitamin D, which helps prevent disease.

At least now I have a good reason for hating sunscreen ("I hate the smell" and "I hate how it feels" don't work too well as excuses for protecting yourself). Condolences to all the girls out there though, who now have even less a chance of ever rubbing sunscreen on my shoulders...

Human embryo cloned for the first time...

Yikes.

I went with friends to see a 10:30 showing of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith tonight. Even though I told myself not to get my hopes up (due to the upsetting nature of Episodes I and II), I went in expecting a good movie. And I wasn't disappointed. The dialogue was still a little iffy, but the action sequences were awesome and the plot was very enjoyable.

I also found the "subtle" political messages very interesting. For a better description of them than I could give, I recommend visiting Catholicae Testudines. They don't have too much up about it yet, but since two of its three authors were at the theater with me tonight, I predict they will soon. And their posts are always quality.

Another thing: If you've ever seen the Jedi as religious figures, after this movie you will more fully understand why the Catholic Church doesn't allow priests to marry.

Since I don't want to spoil the movie for you, I won't say anything more, except that I highly recommend seeing it.

What is this world coming to? The April 25, 2005 edition of The Windsor Star (an Ontario newspaper) contained a story about Waddah Mustapha, a hairstylist who was recently awarded the equivalent of US$270,000 for damages he suffered due to the discovery of a fly in an unopened bottle of water. Apparently, due to this horrific episode, he and his wife vomited, and he "required extensive psychotherapy for nightmares, loss of sense of humor, increased argumentativeness, lack of desire to shower regularly, and constipation." Can you believe that? And just imagine what he would've won if he'd actually opened the bottle, or drank out of it? What a huge, huge loser. He's either a liar and an opportunist, or the biggest sissy I've ever heard of.

If I had been the judge in that case, I'd have ruled against Mustapha and punished him by making him eat one fly for every dollar he sought in damages.

P.S. - Unfortunately, you have to pay to see the entire article, which is why I didn't post a link. Oh well. Take my word for it, I wouldn't make this stuff up.

Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs

A Death Star may still be a long way off, but these ideas are still pretty high-tech (read: cool). Lest you doubt my analysis:

"In April, the Air Force launched the XSS-11, an experimental microsatellite with the technical ability to disrupt other nations' military reconnaissance and communications satellites. <>Another Air Force space program, nicknamed Rods From God, aims to hurl cylinders of tungsten, titanium or uranium from the edge of space to destroy targets on the ground, striking at speeds of about 7,200 miles an hour with the force of a small nuclear weapon. A third program would bounce laser beams off mirrors hung from space satellites or huge high-altitude blimps, redirecting the lethal rays down to targets around the world. A fourth seeks to turn radio waves into weapons whose powers could range 'from tap on the shoulder to toast,' in the words of an Air Force plan."

In my opinion, these beat missile silos on Earth any day of the week.

In a very Star Wars-esque manner, General Lance Lord, leader of the Air Force Space command, remarked that "Space superiority...is our destiny," he told an Air Force conference in September. "Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future."

The Air Force defines space superiority as "freedom to attack as well as freedom from attack" in space.

There are, of course, obvious moral implications when dealing with weapons, especially ones as powerful as these. I won't get into that here (although you are free to comment on it), but let it suffice to say that, in general, I believe the moral issues have more to do with how weapons are used, not with the weapons themselves. After all (to slightly modify the phrase), "[Huge laser, nuclear, radio wave, etc. weapons launched from space] don't kill people, people kill people." And for another cliché: "The best offense is a good defense."

After watching The Best Simpsons Ever on Sunday night, I started thinking more about how religion is depicted in the show. Although you'd be crazy to say the show is about religion, you'd have to be blind not to notice the religion references prevalent in so many episodes.

This article does a great job of outlining religion in Springfield (I'd call it an essay, but then you might not read it). It's not perfect, and I don't agree with everything it says exactly, but it's more thorough than anything I'd come up with. So take a look, please, and tell me what you think.

"Once you go Vatican, you never go back again." - Homer, explaining to Marge his newly discovered love of the Catholic Church

I've long felt that DeMatha Catholic High School is the best school in the nation. Most people, however, are unfortunately unfamiliar with it, with most of their knowledge about it coming from the news (local and national) or from sports announcers (who often point out to viewers/listeners which college and professional athletes graduated from DeMatha - often a daunting task, since there are so many).

You don't have to just take my word for it anymore, though. Sports Illustrated, the sports magazine that everyone knows, has composed a list of the top 25 High School Athletic Programs. Note: You'll still have to rely on me to tell you about DeMatha's excellence in other categories, and I'm sure I'll still mention how great we are at sports, but read it anyway.

I wasn't too happy about being ranked #2 out of 38,000, initially. But after looking at it, I realized that it was an acceptable ranking. The #1 school, after all, has four times as many students and has been around more than twice as long as DeMatha. Besides, they never had Morgan Wootten, the Greatest Coach of All Time (and a darn good teacher, too). Not to mention the fact that we dominate "[d]espite lackluster facilities -- the wrestling team practices in an old auto warehouse, and the football team is forced to play games at a nearby school." Note: This will soon be changing, due to the acquisition of new property by DeMatha which, last I heard, was going to be converted into football fields, a new gym, a math/science building, and some other good stuff. Just think how awesome we'll be then. Oh man.

So: donate money to DeMatha to get that new property developed. Then send your sons there.

"Remember...You are a gentleman and a scholar."

Of course we all already know that abortion is a great evil and unacceptable for any reason, but a recent French study has just given us another reason to hate it (and a reason to like France?). The study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, provides conclusive evidence of a link between abortion and premature birth in the future pregnancies. Dr. Moreau, the leader of the study, sums it up by noting that "[t]he results suggest that induced abortion can damage the cervix in some way that makes a premature birth more likely in subsequent pregnancies." In fact, women who have abortions are 1.7 times more likely to give birth to a baby at less than 28 weeks' gestation. Babies born at that point in the pregnancy often die soon after birth, and many that survive suffer disabilities.

To me, this information alone seems like enough to turn people away from abortion. Pro-lifers are hoping that this is the case. In response to the study, they are pushing for a policy that requires women to be told that having an abortion could put future babies at risk (past studies have been inconclusive, so women are currently not warned of this danger).

I doubt this study will get much coverage in the mainstream media, so please spread it around if you can. Thanks.

Yesterday I saw the new movie Kingdom of Heaven. It was better than I expected, but my expectations were pretty low. I guess I was glad I went, but I don't think I'd pay to see it again. However, I did learn a few things.

I learned that Catholic priests are generally not very good people. They're greedy, selfish, and all around bad guys. And they just get worse the higher in the hierarchy they climb.

I also learned that Christians in general aren't anything special. Besides being war-mongers and fornicators, they're also thieves and liars. They're pretty much the definition of hypocrisy. And the best Christians are the ones that don't fully believe in Christianity.

Before seeing this movie, I also didn't know that Muslims are much better people, on the whole, than Christians. They're just, holy, and tolerant. They're also merciful. Forget the saints...Saladin (the Muslim leader) is my new patron.

*Sigh*...what an awful movie.

In case you didn't know about them already, I thought I should point out a couple blogs you might be interested in. They're both updated more than mine, with posts that are more intelligent and better written.

Catholicae Testudines is the blog that inspired me to start this one. It's funny. It's smart. It's applicable to everyday life. It's faithful to the Catholic Church. It's pretty much everything you could ever want from a blog. If you don't read it, you're missing out.

Catholic Girl Talk is another one I read a lot. Although I'm not personally a girl, I am a big fan of them, so seeing what they have to say is often interesting and insightful. Mary does a great job keeping the blog up to date (which is amazing considering her responsibilities at The Diamondback and as a student who actually does work). The other two girls could probably post a little more often, but seeing their names at the top of the page is pretty fun.

So there you have it. If mine is the only blog you read, adding those two to your list should give you about a 1200% increase in available blog. Enjoy.

I suspect that very few of you have heard this song. To my knowledge it was never widely played on the radio (if it was played at all). That's okay. That's what I'm here for.

The song is The Man Comes Around." It's from the Johnny Cash CD American IV: The Man Comes Around, released in 2002. Hurt, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Danny Boy, and Desperado are some of the other great songs on this CD. If you want to borrow it, just ask. (Story: I first heard this CD being played in CDepot. After hearing a few of the songs on it, I decided it was awesome and bought it. The girl at the counter was really happy, because that meant she could take it out of the CD player and put on something else. But what does she know?)

Side note: Those of you who know of Johnny Cash probably never considered him to be very religious. I didn't either, until fairly recently, when I bought two of his CDs (American IV and God). Apparently later in his life he had something of a conversion. "I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love of my God," he wrote in the CD insert. Not only that, one of the pictures is a close-up of his hand, and he's wearing a ring with a Crucifix.

Anyway, back to the song. According to the insert with the CD, Johnny Cash based this song loosely on the book of Revelation, with other Biblical references scattered throughout. "I must have written three dozen pages of lyrics, then painfully weeded it down to the song you have here." Wow. Three dozen? The finished song only takes 3 or 4 minutes to sing. "Eventually I shuffled my papers, so to speak, drew out four or five pages, and wrote my lyrics." That's impressive, I think. I really wish I could see those original thirty-six pages, though. But anyway, take a look at the lyrics and hear the song here.

This post comes with homework. If you think you're up to it, in addition to your regular comments, leave a comment pointing out to everyone where different lines from the song come from in the Bible. It'll be fun. I promise. I'll even start you off:

1. I think the stuff about "the whirlwind in the thorn tree" is from Psalm 58. Johnny Cash must have a different translation than I do, but I think it fits with the themes in his song.

2. The casting of the golden crowns is from Revelations 4: 10.

3. The virgins trimming their wicks part is from Matthew 25, the Parable of the Ten Virgins.

Okay, so I know I took the easy ones, but you're all much smarter than me. You're up to the challenge. Go for the gusto.

Planned Parenthood's newest brilliant idea...

Rather than go through all the hassle of having to get a prescription, driving to the pharmacy, filling out paperwork, etc., now you can just go to Planned Parenthood, fill out a "short application," and receive a free box of Emergency Contraception.

What is wrong with these people? Aside from the obvious moral issues with Emercency Contraception, what about risks, or side effects, or dangerous interactions with other drugs? Isn't the point of making a drug presecription so that a doctor can make sure it's safe for you to take? So you won't get sick or die? I guess the people at Planned Parenthood don't care about that. It's almost as if they don't value human life at all. Oh wait...I guess we shouldn't be surprised when people who kill children for a living disregard women's health.

Surely this is illegal. Think the police will do anything? Post comments, please, and let me know if you hear of any developments.

I was reading reviews of Mere Christianity on Amazon.com today and came across this gem from a guy who rated the book one out of five stars.

"[I]f one is secure in one's faith, why preach?"

Hmm. Can anyone out there possibly conceive of a reason why someone with faith might want to share it with others? Maybe so that they can have faith, too? Maybe so that they can be part of the same joy and peace that God freely gives to anyone who asks?

Rather than listen to some quack on Amazon.com, let's go straight to the source: "Therefore go, and make disciples of all nations." (Matthew 28:19)

Regardless of what that guy says, Mere Christianity is an excellent book. If you want to read it, feel free to borrow my copy.

This kind of thing really freaks me out.

Before continuing to read this post, click on the link and at least see what I'm talking about.

It's not that I'm against medical advancement. It's that human/animal hybrids are scary. Sure, the researchers say they're just looking for ways to grow human organs in animals (for use in transplants), but how long until some idiot scientist with an ego too big for his lab coat decides to take it to the next level? According to this article, they're already making mice with partially (1%) human brains. The researchers say they have no plans to make "mostly human mouse brains," but want to get clearance just in case. Don't worry, though: any animals displaying human-like behavior will be immediately killed (probably so they won't sue the scientists...just imagine how angry you'd be if you were trapped in a mouse or a sheep body).

You may have heard of something like this before... Maybe if we change the setting from mainland college laboratories to an island in the middle of the ocean, and if we pretend the reporter who wrote this article landed on that island after a shipwreck... Oh yeah! I remember! It's nearly exactly like The Island Of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells.

That link you don't have to click on, but you can if you want.

Now, I realize that these experiments will likely never get to the level of Dr. Moreau's. But they still bother me. Stem cells, gene manipulation, etc. Freaky business. Please comment on this post (especially you, Alex, if you have time, on the religious aspects of such research).