Women hate buying a car. And the problem is the same as with men in general:
They act like they want a relationship. But really, they're just trying to screw you.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Ethical questions raised by Harry Potter
In the second novel, Harry Potter is faced with the task of transforming a pair of bunnies into slippers.
My question is: if he is successful, has he killed them?
This leads to additional questions:
If he does kill them, is it appropriate to use live animals in the classroom?
If he doesn't kill them, are they still alive?
Can shoes that are made of animals still be considered alive?
Are they any different than Muggle-made slippers if you can't tell them apart?
If you return the slippers to rabbit-form, and you changed Muggle slippers into rabbits too, would one set of rabbits be alive and the other set only simulating aliveness, would both sets be alive or would both sets be simulating aliveness?
If there is a difference, what gives them this difference?
If there isn't a difference, why would it be wrong to treat a pair of rabbits like slippers right now (lock them in a closet without food and water for a week)?
My question is: if he is successful, has he killed them?
This leads to additional questions:
If he does kill them, is it appropriate to use live animals in the classroom?
If he doesn't kill them, are they still alive?
Can shoes that are made of animals still be considered alive?
Are they any different than Muggle-made slippers if you can't tell them apart?
If you return the slippers to rabbit-form, and you changed Muggle slippers into rabbits too, would one set of rabbits be alive and the other set only simulating aliveness, would both sets be alive or would both sets be simulating aliveness?
If there is a difference, what gives them this difference?
If there isn't a difference, why would it be wrong to treat a pair of rabbits like slippers right now (lock them in a closet without food and water for a week)?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
You can choose your friends...
MSNBC reports that Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, revealed Tuesday that her husband and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois — who wants to be the nation’s first black president — are eighth cousins. She said she discovered the two were related while researching her ancestry for her latest book, “Blue Skies, No Fences,” a memoir about growing up in Wyoming. “Every family has a black sheep,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton told The Associated Press.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Smelling the Roses
One of the things I love about Sundays is that you have time to putter around and be domestic...play hausfrau.
Since it's been raining, this morning was wonderful. Cool, misty and relaxing. I like to take time in the morning to treasure a cat, so I made a cup of tea (a beautiful display tea that a friend got for me in China). Alma chose to take advantage of the situation, and continued to hang out as I puttered around the front flower bed and my tiny vegetable garden. It's one of the more enjoyable aspects of working outside - I usually have somebody or another hanging out with me in that casual cat way.
One of the saddest parts of being grown-up is that my main interaction with roses has nothing to do with appreciating their beauty or smell. Instead, they've become another responsibility. Every weekend I must dead-head my pink shrub roses. Then I compost the blossoms. Which seems sacrilegious. But what else can I do with mounds of dead and drying blossoms I prune each week?
On another note, yesterday, I went to Borders because I wanted to pick up a couple gift books (I buy all of mine used). On the discount table in front, I saw "Heimskringla or The Lives of the Norse Kings." Now that's just one of those random things one is meant to buy, if you know what I mean.
The Old Norse were amusingly different, for example, "It once happened when Odin was gone far away and had been a long time from home that his people thought he would not come back. Then his brothers took it upon themselves to divide his goods in succcession to him, but they both took to wife his spouse Frigga. But a little later Odin came home and once more took his wife to himself." There was also Fjolnir, who drowned in a beer vat.
Odin himself was a bit of a trip: "It was said that he talked so glibly and shrewdly that all who heard him must needs take his tale to be wholly true." Which explains the part about him talking to the dead, foreseeing the future and changing into animals and wandering around. Though they don't go into it in the book, I think he also may be the first person to sell the Brooklyn Bridge. He was also able to convince his followers that he was a god. So, now we know where the plot for "The Man Who Would Be King" came from. Though Odin died in his bed since he was a better shuckster than Daniel Dravot, and didn't drink as much beer as Fjolnir.
After Odin, came Niord, who was a political prisoner at the time(or rather a hostage, which was actually more of an ambassador). Anyway, there is no mention of Odin's sons - odd, no? Niord had a son and a daughter: Frey and Freya, who each successively became a ruler/god. After Freya's rule, "...they called all their noble women by her name, even as they are now called fruer; so every woman is called Freya (Frue) who rules over her own property, but she is called house-freya (husfrue), who has a household. I wonder what Freya did with her dead rose blossoms?
Since it's been raining, this morning was wonderful. Cool, misty and relaxing. I like to take time in the morning to treasure a cat, so I made a cup of tea (a beautiful display tea that a friend got for me in China). Alma chose to take advantage of the situation, and continued to hang out as I puttered around the front flower bed and my tiny vegetable garden. It's one of the more enjoyable aspects of working outside - I usually have somebody or another hanging out with me in that casual cat way.
One of the saddest parts of being grown-up is that my main interaction with roses has nothing to do with appreciating their beauty or smell. Instead, they've become another responsibility. Every weekend I must dead-head my pink shrub roses. Then I compost the blossoms. Which seems sacrilegious. But what else can I do with mounds of dead and drying blossoms I prune each week?
On another note, yesterday, I went to Borders because I wanted to pick up a couple gift books (I buy all of mine used). On the discount table in front, I saw "Heimskringla or The Lives of the Norse Kings." Now that's just one of those random things one is meant to buy, if you know what I mean.
The Old Norse were amusingly different, for example, "It once happened when Odin was gone far away and had been a long time from home that his people thought he would not come back. Then his brothers took it upon themselves to divide his goods in succcession to him, but they both took to wife his spouse Frigga. But a little later Odin came home and once more took his wife to himself." There was also Fjolnir, who drowned in a beer vat.
Odin himself was a bit of a trip: "It was said that he talked so glibly and shrewdly that all who heard him must needs take his tale to be wholly true." Which explains the part about him talking to the dead, foreseeing the future and changing into animals and wandering around. Though they don't go into it in the book, I think he also may be the first person to sell the Brooklyn Bridge. He was also able to convince his followers that he was a god. So, now we know where the plot for "The Man Who Would Be King" came from. Though Odin died in his bed since he was a better shuckster than Daniel Dravot, and didn't drink as much beer as Fjolnir.
After Odin, came Niord, who was a political prisoner at the time(or rather a hostage, which was actually more of an ambassador). Anyway, there is no mention of Odin's sons - odd, no? Niord had a son and a daughter: Frey and Freya, who each successively became a ruler/god. After Freya's rule, "...they called all their noble women by her name, even as they are now called fruer; so every woman is called Freya (Frue) who rules over her own property, but she is called house-freya (husfrue), who has a household. I wonder what Freya did with her dead rose blossoms?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Lists of Books (updated)
5 most depressing books:
1) Ethan Fromme - Edith Wharton
2) Sex and the City - Candace Bushnell
3) The Rise and Fall of Courtesans - Balzac
4) Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
5)
5 recommendations:
1) The Joy Luck Club
2) Darwin's Radio (new recommendation)
3) Wildly Sophisticated
4) Now, Discover Your Strengths
5) Cyteen
10 favorite authors:
1) C.J. Cherryh
2) J.R.R. Tolkien
3) Tolstoy
4) Thackeray
5) Greg Bear
6) Amy Tan
7) Louisa May Alcott
9) James Tiptree
10) James Herriot
5 books I most want to read:
1) Mrs. Edgeworth's Tales
2) The New Testament
3) Adam Smith
4) Peter Pan
5) The Secret Garden
10 childhood favorites (junior high or earlier):
1) Pigman by Zindel
2) Arm of the Starfish by L'Engle
3) I am Not a Short Adult
4) Lord of the Rings Trilogy
5) Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West
6) Narnia Series
7) Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
8) Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys
9) Macbeth
10) Angus and the Cat
6 great quotes:
1) Sex and the City - Candace Bushnell
"Who was that man you were kissing in the cab?" Skipper asked.
"Just another man I either don't want or can't have," Samantha said. "Like you."
"But you can have me," Skipper said. "I'm available."
"Exactly," Sam said.
2) The Prince and Pauper - Mark Twain
A sounding blow upon the prince's shoulder from Canty's broad palm sent him staggering into goodwife Canty's arms, who clasped him to her breast and sheltered him from a pelting rain of cuffs and slaps by interposing her own person. The frightened girls retreated to their corner; but the grandmother stepped eagerly forward to assist her son. The prince sprang away from Mrs. Canty, exclaiming:
"Thou shalt not suffer for me, madam. Let these swine do their will upon me alone."
This speech infuriated the swine to such a degree that they set about their work without waste of time.
3) The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
I imagined two people without words, unable to speak to each other. I imagined the need: The color of the sky that meant "storm." The smell of fire that meant "Flee." The sound of a tiger about to pounce. Who would worry about such things?
And then I realized what the first word must have been: ma, the sound of a baby smacking its lips in search of her mother's breast. For a long time that was the only word the baby needed. Ma, ma, ma. Then the mother decided that was her name and she began to speak, too. She taught the baby to be careful: sky, fire, tiger.
4) The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
There were also fine points of chess etiquette. Keep captured men in neat rows, as well-tended prisoners. Never announce "Check" with vanity, lest someone with an unseen sword slit your throat. Never hurl pieces into the sandbox after you have lost a game, because then you must find them again, by yourself, after apologizing to all around you.
5) Chanur's Home-Coming - C.J. Cherryh
For the first time panic hit her, real fear. This was the hero-stuff, being number one charging up the stairs into that mess. It was where her rashness and the possession of that illegal AP had put her. "Hyyaaaah! she yelled in raw terror, and rushed the stairs, because running screaming the other way was too humiliating.
6) Vitals - Greg Bear
I was hoping for Eden. Prince Hal Cousins, scientist, supreme egotist, prime believer in the material world, frightened of the dark and no friend of God, was about to pay a visit to the most primitive ecologies, searching for the fountain of youth. I was on a pilgrimage back to where the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil had taught us how to die. I planned to reclaim that fruit and run some tests.
1) Ethan Fromme - Edith Wharton
2) Sex and the City - Candace Bushnell
3) The Rise and Fall of Courtesans - Balzac
4) Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
5)
5 recommendations:
1) The Joy Luck Club
2) Darwin's Radio (new recommendation)
3) Wildly Sophisticated
4) Now, Discover Your Strengths
5) Cyteen
10 favorite authors:
1) C.J. Cherryh
2) J.R.R. Tolkien
3) Tolstoy
4) Thackeray
5) Greg Bear
6) Amy Tan
7) Louisa May Alcott
9) James Tiptree
10) James Herriot
5 books I most want to read:
1) Mrs. Edgeworth's Tales
2) The New Testament
3) Adam Smith
4) Peter Pan
5) The Secret Garden
10 childhood favorites (junior high or earlier):
1) Pigman by Zindel
2) Arm of the Starfish by L'Engle
3) I am Not a Short Adult
4) Lord of the Rings Trilogy
5) Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West
6) Narnia Series
7) Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
8) Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys
9) Macbeth
10) Angus and the Cat
6 great quotes:
1) Sex and the City - Candace Bushnell
"Who was that man you were kissing in the cab?" Skipper asked.
"Just another man I either don't want or can't have," Samantha said. "Like you."
"But you can have me," Skipper said. "I'm available."
"Exactly," Sam said.
2) The Prince and Pauper - Mark Twain
A sounding blow upon the prince's shoulder from Canty's broad palm sent him staggering into goodwife Canty's arms, who clasped him to her breast and sheltered him from a pelting rain of cuffs and slaps by interposing her own person. The frightened girls retreated to their corner; but the grandmother stepped eagerly forward to assist her son. The prince sprang away from Mrs. Canty, exclaiming:
"Thou shalt not suffer for me, madam. Let these swine do their will upon me alone."
This speech infuriated the swine to such a degree that they set about their work without waste of time.
3) The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
I imagined two people without words, unable to speak to each other. I imagined the need: The color of the sky that meant "storm." The smell of fire that meant "Flee." The sound of a tiger about to pounce. Who would worry about such things?
And then I realized what the first word must have been: ma, the sound of a baby smacking its lips in search of her mother's breast. For a long time that was the only word the baby needed. Ma, ma, ma. Then the mother decided that was her name and she began to speak, too. She taught the baby to be careful: sky, fire, tiger.
4) The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
There were also fine points of chess etiquette. Keep captured men in neat rows, as well-tended prisoners. Never announce "Check" with vanity, lest someone with an unseen sword slit your throat. Never hurl pieces into the sandbox after you have lost a game, because then you must find them again, by yourself, after apologizing to all around you.
5) Chanur's Home-Coming - C.J. Cherryh
For the first time panic hit her, real fear. This was the hero-stuff, being number one charging up the stairs into that mess. It was where her rashness and the possession of that illegal AP had put her. "Hyyaaaah! she yelled in raw terror, and rushed the stairs, because running screaming the other way was too humiliating.
6) Vitals - Greg Bear
I was hoping for Eden. Prince Hal Cousins, scientist, supreme egotist, prime believer in the material world, frightened of the dark and no friend of God, was about to pay a visit to the most primitive ecologies, searching for the fountain of youth. I was on a pilgrimage back to where the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil had taught us how to die. I planned to reclaim that fruit and run some tests.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Take time to smell the flowers
Parsley flowers are about as exciting as witch hazel flowers.
Except, with witch hazel, you can do a really cool close-up.
Except, with witch hazel, you can do a really cool close-up.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Please, eat the flowers!
Last year, I bought some hard neck garlic from Pinetree Garden Seeds. I immediately planted up two squares in my square foot garden – then sat on my butt until the rest of it sprouted before I double dug my stone planter and stuck the rest of it into the ground.
Now, the thing is, garlic bulbs are the frosting on the cake. What I really need (on the addict level) are the young garlic flowers. They have the BEST, most delicate, chivey-oniony-garlic flavor! Really easy to cook with too.
So, I’ve been inspecting my garlic almost daily in fading anticipation over the past couple of months. Today, finally, the first flower has appeared. Yummy!!
Now, the thing is, garlic bulbs are the frosting on the cake. What I really need (on the addict level) are the young garlic flowers. They have the BEST, most delicate, chivey-oniony-garlic flavor! Really easy to cook with too.
So, I’ve been inspecting my garlic almost daily in fading anticipation over the past couple of months. Today, finally, the first flower has appeared. Yummy!!
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Bush tours town devastated by tornado
In a moment of confusion, he declares "Mission Accomplished!"
For the real story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush
For the real story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush
Sunday, April 29, 2007
D-day
March 28th. That's the day it begins.
About March 25th, I noticed the Virginia Creeper leafing out. My jonquils were blooming, the ferns were coming up and I might have missed a dogtooth violet bloom from the corms I planted last year.
A few days later, I thought, "Hey, Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy are really similar plants!" and a chill passed over me. I put on my Poison Ivy eyes and, sure enough, at my feet were the first tendrils of a new vine. Brush-B-Gon time in my back yard. I have this great jug with a super-squirter attachement
So, for the past few weeks, I've been doing a poison ivy walk through my back yard. Especially the area I named "Poison Ivy Corner" a couple years ago, and where I have my deciduous azaleas now. When I spray that area of my yard, the three, golden Chows across the fence go into a frenzy. One sneaks around and stares at me, one barks, and one comes right up to the fence and whimpers for affection. I usually reach through and pat him on the nose, before continuing to spray any P.I. along the fence line. Last time I did that, he sniffed where I had just doused some P.I. He looked at me, then did a little drenching of his own.
Funny, that IS what it would like to a dog, but I never thought of it that way.
About March 25th, I noticed the Virginia Creeper leafing out. My jonquils were blooming, the ferns were coming up and I might have missed a dogtooth violet bloom from the corms I planted last year.
A few days later, I thought, "Hey, Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy are really similar plants!" and a chill passed over me. I put on my Poison Ivy eyes and, sure enough, at my feet were the first tendrils of a new vine. Brush-B-Gon time in my back yard. I have this great jug with a super-squirter attachement
So, for the past few weeks, I've been doing a poison ivy walk through my back yard. Especially the area I named "Poison Ivy Corner" a couple years ago, and where I have my deciduous azaleas now. When I spray that area of my yard, the three, golden Chows across the fence go into a frenzy. One sneaks around and stares at me, one barks, and one comes right up to the fence and whimpers for affection. I usually reach through and pat him on the nose, before continuing to spray any P.I. along the fence line. Last time I did that, he sniffed where I had just doused some P.I. He looked at me, then did a little drenching of his own.
Funny, that IS what it would like to a dog, but I never thought of it that way.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I "Love" New York
The New York Times calls The Nanny Diaries "Diabolically funny."
This makes me think that either
1-The New York Times book reviewer partakes of crack cocaine, or,
2-They only read the first chapter.
Yes, this book has some hysterically funny lines:
This makes me think that either
1-The New York Times book reviewer partakes of crack cocaine, or,
2-They only read the first chapter.
Yes, this book has some hysterically funny lines:
- Speaking of the nanny interview: No other event epitomized the job as perfectly, and it always began and ended in an elevator nicer than most New Yorkers' apartments.
- After listing a child's endless food restrictions: This is Phase I of bringing me in the fold, of creating the illusion of collusion: "We're in this together! Little Elspeth is our joint project! And we're going to feed her nothing but mung beans!"
Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Kraus just get better. I'd include more quotes, but it's the kind of book that takes a short essay to explain why you just snorted milk through your nose.
But then, you see, there's the plot.
The quick and stupid way to describe it is The Devil Wears Prada, with the increasingly psychotic boss woman, meets Sex in the City, where every woman is desperately trying to hook "Mr.Big," only to have him wriggle away for the next younger, thinner, sexier version.
Except, here, there's this heartbreakingly real four-year-old boy getting crushed by his parents' blindness to anything but power and status. All he wants for Christmas is a tree to decorate for Christmas and a Dad to hang the ornaments on the top branches. But his mom hired a professional ornament hanger and his daddy is . . . somewhere . . .working . . . .
His part-time nanny does her best to help him fulfill his needs, while the pit at the bottom of your stomach tells you it's not going to get any better. At the beginning of the novel, Nannie's mom tells her, ". . . I don't want you graduating on Valium because some woman with more money than she knows what to do with left you her kid while she ran off to Cannes." By the end, you believe that would have been the best case scenario.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Ha! I'm sooo smart.
Slate magazine has a reader discussion forum called "The Fray." One cool feature of The Fray is that Slate editors select certain comments as "Fray editor's picks." Thus, you can select to view only Fray editor's picks and see those comments that are on-topic, insightful and original.
One of my comments was FINALLY picked by the Fray editors.
Here's the article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2161163/fr/flyout
and here's my response:
Is Dove feminist?
I don't think that woman are purchasing Dove products because they think that Dove is a feminist organization. I think that they are purchasing the products because Dove's marketing message has a powerful emotional appeal to many women. The marketing allows women to express their personal values.
In the same way, people don't buy Hallmark cards because the company "cares enough to send the very best." As a matter of fact, mailing a mass-produced card with a standard sentiment is a poor expression of personal feeling. In spite of this, Hallmark has succesfully marketed their cards as the highest quality demonstration of love and caring. People respond to this marketing message as a way of fulfilling their emotional, cultural and social needs, not because the company intrinsically possesses those values.
One of my comments was FINALLY picked by the Fray editors.
Here's the article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2161163/fr/flyout
and here's my response:
Is Dove feminist?
I don't think that woman are purchasing Dove products because they think that Dove is a feminist organization. I think that they are purchasing the products because Dove's marketing message has a powerful emotional appeal to many women. The marketing allows women to express their personal values.
In the same way, people don't buy Hallmark cards because the company "cares enough to send the very best." As a matter of fact, mailing a mass-produced card with a standard sentiment is a poor expression of personal feeling. In spite of this, Hallmark has succesfully marketed their cards as the highest quality demonstration of love and caring. People respond to this marketing message as a way of fulfilling their emotional, cultural and social needs, not because the company intrinsically possesses those values.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
WWJD?
I've "tried to read the Bible" several times, but always started with Genesis. And got bored in Kings.
This time, I'm going straight to the Gospels, which are very cool. From what I can see (half-way through Matthew), Jesus wasn't very much of a "holier than thou" stick-in-the-mud. He really seems to be saying "These are the rules. Give 'em your best shot, believe in God and you'll be ok." There are also a few areas that I need to think about some more. I've also ordered the Thomas Jefferson version of the Gospels to see if they offer additional enlightenment.
How to go to heaven according to Jesus:
Matthew 5:20 "Except that your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kindom of heaven." Of course, in Matthew 3:9, John the Baptist states that the Pharisees are a "generation of vipers" so this isn't a particularly high bar. Or is it?
Per answers.com, a Pharisee is a member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and written form. This means that THEY were very much "holier than thou" sticks-in-the-mud. So we're supposed to do better than that. Shaking in your boots yet?
Don't worry, Jesus finds many opportunities to explain himself. Essentially, what we have are the 10 Commandments. They are the Law. And we need to follow the spirit of the law, not just the letter. Thus, it's not enough to say that "I didn't commit what I thought of as adultery, 'cause there was no penial/vaginal penetration." Congress and God are different. As are the Presidency and God, but that's a different topic.
(BTW, according to a Wikipedia article, I find the LDS interpretation of the Commandments to be the most functional and reasonable, especially since Jesus was pretty clear on the necessity of supporting one's actual, physical parents and not acting like your support is a gift, Matthew 15:4. The Jewish version upholds Jesus's concept of supporting one's parents too and is the easiest to follow, except for the interpretation of the last Commandment. Though that's also pretty consistent with Jesus. Matthew 6:25-34)
On the other hand, petty, routine acts of ritual observance are spurned. God isn't down with going to church on Sunday, then spending the rest of the week avoiding your mother's phone calls. As a matter of fact, Jesus even commutes the 4th Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. He states that you shouldn't take this to ridiculous lengths but should do reasonable things on the Sabbath, such as healing people and saving sheep. (Matthew 12:10-12)
So it's not all that hard to be better than a Pharisee. You don't need to know all of the ins and outs of religious thought. You don't need to live in utter purity all of the days of your life. You just need to live up to the spirit of the 10 Commandments.
This time, I'm going straight to the Gospels, which are very cool. From what I can see (half-way through Matthew), Jesus wasn't very much of a "holier than thou" stick-in-the-mud. He really seems to be saying "These are the rules. Give 'em your best shot, believe in God and you'll be ok." There are also a few areas that I need to think about some more. I've also ordered the Thomas Jefferson version of the Gospels to see if they offer additional enlightenment.
How to go to heaven according to Jesus:
Matthew 5:20 "Except that your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kindom of heaven." Of course, in Matthew 3:9, John the Baptist states that the Pharisees are a "generation of vipers" so this isn't a particularly high bar. Or is it?
Per answers.com, a Pharisee is a member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and written form. This means that THEY were very much "holier than thou" sticks-in-the-mud. So we're supposed to do better than that. Shaking in your boots yet?
Don't worry, Jesus finds many opportunities to explain himself. Essentially, what we have are the 10 Commandments. They are the Law. And we need to follow the spirit of the law, not just the letter. Thus, it's not enough to say that "I didn't commit what I thought of as adultery, 'cause there was no penial/vaginal penetration." Congress and God are different. As are the Presidency and God, but that's a different topic.
(BTW, according to a Wikipedia article, I find the LDS interpretation of the Commandments to be the most functional and reasonable, especially since Jesus was pretty clear on the necessity of supporting one's actual, physical parents and not acting like your support is a gift, Matthew 15:4. The Jewish version upholds Jesus's concept of supporting one's parents too and is the easiest to follow, except for the interpretation of the last Commandment. Though that's also pretty consistent with Jesus. Matthew 6:25-34)
On the other hand, petty, routine acts of ritual observance are spurned. God isn't down with going to church on Sunday, then spending the rest of the week avoiding your mother's phone calls. As a matter of fact, Jesus even commutes the 4th Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. He states that you shouldn't take this to ridiculous lengths but should do reasonable things on the Sabbath, such as healing people and saving sheep. (Matthew 12:10-12)
So it's not all that hard to be better than a Pharisee. You don't need to know all of the ins and outs of religious thought. You don't need to live in utter purity all of the days of your life. You just need to live up to the spirit of the 10 Commandments.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
5 most annoying main characters in fiction
We'll call this the "smack 'em up 'longside the head" category.
1) Madame Bovery. At one point her mother-in-law said something like "she needs to have kids and stop thinking about herself." And, ya know, her mil was right!
Madame Bovery - Gustave Flaubert
2) Claudia Parr. She and her husband get in a fight. He tells her, "Fuck you." She tells him "Fuck you." She packs, gets a taxi, goes to live at a friends and gets a lawyer. Then she spends the rest of the book whining about why her husband left her.
Baby Proof - Emily Giffin
3) Tiny Tim. Need I say more?
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
4) Ayla from Clan of the Cave Bears. She doesn't get really annoying until the third book. She and her non-monogamous, but strangely faithful, partner invent everything that's ever been created. From needles and thread to the domestication of animals. I think they invent the internet in the sixth book. Enough already.
The Mammoth Hunters - Jean Auel
5) Tatiana. She's so dumb you want to smack her. Really, really hard.
Now and Forever - Elizabeth Doyle
1) Madame Bovery. At one point her mother-in-law said something like "she needs to have kids and stop thinking about herself." And, ya know, her mil was right!
Madame Bovery - Gustave Flaubert
2) Claudia Parr. She and her husband get in a fight. He tells her, "Fuck you." She tells him "Fuck you." She packs, gets a taxi, goes to live at a friends and gets a lawyer. Then she spends the rest of the book whining about why her husband left her.
Baby Proof - Emily Giffin
3) Tiny Tim. Need I say more?
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
4) Ayla from Clan of the Cave Bears. She doesn't get really annoying until the third book. She and her non-monogamous, but strangely faithful, partner invent everything that's ever been created. From needles and thread to the domestication of animals. I think they invent the internet in the sixth book. Enough already.
The Mammoth Hunters - Jean Auel
5) Tatiana. She's so dumb you want to smack her. Really, really hard.
Now and Forever - Elizabeth Doyle
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