For my few readers who are familiar with my religious upbringing, it may interest you to know that I have done a major upgrade of my Non-Believer Former Members of the Worldwide Church of God page. It now uses WordPress, the same software I use for this blog.
Archive for December, 2005
Ex-WCG Site Major Upgrade
Thursday, December 29th, 2005Graphic Design Critique: Nation Flags
Wednesday, December 28th, 2005This person has taken it upon himself to critique each of the flags of the world by the quality of their graphic design, and assign each a grade.
Gambia gets the only A+. Gets props for, “Great design and colour choice. Also represents the geography of the country (without being a map).”
The ultimate failing grade goes to the Northern Marina Islands (“Appears to have been constructed from clip art. Truly awful.”)
The U.S. flag gets a ho hum C+. (“Too many stars: If one is good, fifty must be just right.”)
Although not receiving the lowest score, the flag of Turkmenistan must come in for a dishonorable mention for losing points in all the categories of: Eyewatering, Too many stars, Too busy, and Makes me nauseous. (“Only flag to both make eyes water and induce vomiting.”)
DarWIN! DarWIN! DarWIN!
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005DOVER “PANDA TRIAL” OVER. PANDAS PARTY, CREATIONISTS LICK WOUNDS
Judge Bars ‘Intelligent Design’ From Pa. Classes – New York Times
“A thousand opinions by a court that a particular scientific theory is invalid will not make that scientific theory invalid,” said Mr. Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a public interest firm that says it promotes Christian values. “It is going to be up to the scientists who are going to continue to do research in their labs that will ultimately determine that.”
Well, you creationist “scientists” can just go back to your churches— I mean “labs”— and pray for the miracle of solid science to back your cause. If you ever come up with something that qualifies, I’ll believe it. In the meantime— begone, dogs!
Wait… that demeans dogs. Sorry about that.
Link to PDF of full decision.
Book of Ironwolf: You will benefit more from applying the wisdom you already know than you will from learning more wisdom.
Monday, December 19th, 2005In 2002 I put the finishing touches on one revision of The Book of Ironwolf— my personal compendium of wisdom. In the preface I wrote:
…as almost any wise statement (however short) can become the subject of a full-length book, I also opt for brevity, avoiding long-winded expositions of why I think each point has value.
While I still believe brevity is a good thing, several years have now past and the time has come, I believe, to review the book for my own benefit and perhaps revise it again in the process. And, since we’re now in the Age of the Blog, what better way to review than to comment on my own writing? So this entry begins a series of commentaries on the Book of Ironwolf. I intend to keep the commentaries to short, personal reflections on the meaning and importance of the book’s entries. I am interested in your comments as well.
Incidentally, the numbers used on the book’s web page are only valid for the current version of the book, and will change as the result of any updates.
Without further ado…
When I first wrote the Book of Ironwolf, I was thinking deeply about the value of wisdom and doing a lot of reading on the subject. It occurred to me that the world would be a lot nicer place if people simply “practiced what they preached,” and that pretty much everything needed for human happiness was already known and much-discussed, at least insomuch as most people already have a great deal of wisdom and “common sense” under their belt. Unfortunately they often forget about it, or worse, deliberately choose to ignore it. I realized that all the studying I had done could easily be for naught if I didn’t apply at least the most important principles I had learned. Studying wisdom for its own sake ends up being a foolish waste of time if one doesn’t go out and live life wisely. I decided that it’s not even a matter a “practice what you preach,” but simply “apply what you know.” It struck me that the resulting statement is true “meta-wisdom,” i.e., wisdom about wisdom itself, and thus this item earned its opening spot as a caution to anyone who thinks they will gain benefit simply by reading the rest of the book.
Where is the wise one?
Where is the sage?
Who has the words of beauty?
Who will awaken us from sleep?
Who will perform their duty?—Bobby McFerrin, Soma So De La De Sase
Family Galleries
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005I’ve added family photo galleries to my site. I hope to update them at least once a year. 
I Support the Red Crystal
Thursday, December 8th, 2005No, I’m not kidding.
“The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement today welcomed the decision of the Diplomatic Conference held in Geneva to adopt a Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, creating an additional emblem alongside the red cross and red crescent.”
“The additional emblem, known as the red crystal, will provide a comprehensive and lasting solution to the emblem question. It will appear as a red frame in the shape of a square on edge, on a white background, and is free from any religious, political or other connotation.”
So, religious nuts are going to see this as another step towards the day when the black helicopters will be buzzing around openly, gunning down the faithful. Of course, then the white helicopters bearing the “Red Crystal” will be right behind them to tend their wounds using new-age spells, and then carry them off to insane asylums run by evil secular humanists.
OK, now I’m kidding.
…Or am I?
Easily-digested explanations and rationale here, here, and here.
