Perhaps the greatest achievement of Christianity is the uncanny ability to get people to believe some parts of the Bible are metaphorical (e.g., Genesis does not really say the Universe was made in 6 days) while they believe other parts are literally true (e.g., Jesus really did turn water into wine). It’s entirely arbitrary.
But I’m being dishonest. Christianity actually has no methodology. It has no way of determining how one thing is true and another is false. How could it? Theology is the best claim any religion can have, but even then it only works if everyone agrees on some basic premise (e.g., God exists). And even then there’s no way to be sure what to believe; theology is an arrogant form of literary criticism. Anyone who has bothered to make any interpretation of any novel with any amount of symbolism knows that without direct knowledge of what the author meant, it’s all a crap shoot. Some interpretations may be more sophisticated than others, but none can be certain. The Bible, another book written by people (in this case, the few literate members of an otherwise illiterate society), is no different. It contains no methodology, no defined ways of knowing. It can’t inform anyone of anything except by faith.
“Andrew Kurtz, 24, of New Brighton, one of the 18 men who take turns posing as pierogies in a crowd-pleasing race after the fifth inning of every game at PNC Park, was dismissed by the team Thursday because he posted disparaging remarks about the Pirates on his Facebook page …
“(His message was) aimed at team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell. It read: ‘Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.'”
They really did do him a favor. The Pirates haven’t been good in forever.
As everyone knows by now, Rep. Joe Barton apologized to BP for the $20b fund Obama strong armed from the company. The reason Obama was able to do this was because of the non-free market style economy the U.S. has which allows for the threat of greater, government-enforced penalties. Of course, the free market would be entirely flaccid in trying to wrest any real funds from BP. Thank goodness the U.S. has never had such an awful, awful system.
But Republicans and their sister Teabagging party wish we had a free market system. It sounds like liberty – despite the inevitability of monopolies, limited (if any) rights for workers, and no real enforcement of safety standards, retirement plans, or anything else that makes modern life comfortable. But it sure does sound swell. And that’s why they like it. It isn’t that it actually makes a majority of people happy or that it results in a strong economy. In fact, one of the few free market economies – Hong Kong – has only been able to experience any success because of the supporting structure of communist China. On their own, free markets will fail. If they don’t, the well-being of the people subjected to the whims of the few who become powerful will come under greater and greater strain over time.
But forget all that. It still sounds nice. Liberty! Boy, oh, boy! That’s why Rep. Barton made his apology.
What Obama managed to accomplish with BP runs counter to the free market principles the Republicans and Teabaggers support (until they need/want roads, schools, a place to put the homeless, a war on drugs, etc, etc). Rep. Barton is perfectly in line with the Republican Party on this one. Obviously they ran away screaming because of the political fallout of the situation, but if everything they’ve ever said was in the least sincere, then they hate that BP is being forced to pay.
While it’s common to believe that quacks don’t actually do any original research, Andreas Moritz and Christopher Maloney are bucking that old stereotype. Here we see their latest scientific endeavor.
I was angry with the NHL for helping Refuffalo against the Bruins. Fortunately, the Bruins still won their series because, well, Ryan Miller can’t do it all, even with the men in stripes helping his team. Then I was even more angry when Refadelphia was given the right to not take penalty minutes despite deserving them. But at least they lost to a better term in the end. And at home. Fuck you, Philly fans. You are the worst fans in sports. (You’re still number 2, New York.)
But none of that represented a fundamental problem with the NHL. This was an issue of terrible reffing in two series I watched closely. And, sure, the reffing was pretty bad throughout the playoffs besides where the Bruins were involved. It wasn’t as bad as the two Bruins series, but it was bad. But again, that isn’t typical. There isn’t a fundamental issue with the rules or reffing in general in the NHL. It’s still the most exciting sport there is.
And until now I thought soccer was on the exact other end of the spectrum. Take this video for instance.
I don’t care enough to look up the names of those involved, but basically the Nigerian player (green) went to kick the ball as the Greek (white) player picked it up after it went out of bounds. It was obviously just a reflex: “Hey, a soccer ball! Kick it!” It doesn’t appear he made much contact, if any, but that doesn’t matter. Soccer is filled with a bunch of divers, so the Greek player hammed it up, falling to the ground like he tore 11 ACLs. (Yes, 11.) This got the Nigerian player a Red Card, kicking him out of the game. And all because soccer is such a mamma’s boy sport.
If someone tries to get a call in hockey and overdoes it like that, he may well get the call, but he’ll also be given 2 minutes for diving. The NHL doesn’t accept this weak, hamming-it-up play that soccer embraces.
But as it turns out, that isn’t the other end of the spectrum. The NBA is nothing but feather-touch penalties. Brush a guy with the ball? Foul. Make contact with the ball and maybe touch a loose jersey? Foul. Look at a guy wrong? Foul. That’s all it was last night during the final 45 minutes of Game 7. (And by 45 minutes, I mean 7:30 minutes of actual clock time.)
It seemed like the entire game rested on who could make the most free throws. And in order to do that the NBA has made virtually everything a foul. Not that the players don’t embellish or ham it up. They do. But the NBA and people like David Stern (the worst commissioner in sports – don’t worry, Goodell, you’re a close number 2), hold most of the blame. And it is blame. Game 7 of the 2010 NBA finals was perhaps the worst sporting event I have ever watched, worse than the 2006 World Series where the ‘Champion’ Cardinals didn’t win anything (the Tigers just lost, is all).
NBA basketball is the antithesis of what a good sport, such as hockey, should be.
In the interest of full disclosure, everyone who reads this blog knows I’m a Boston/New England sports fan. But my interest in basketball, especially the NBA’s nancy-variety, is extremely limited. I wanted the Celtics to win by default, but I’m far from torn up over their loss. What bugs me more is that I wasted so much time watching such a terrible, terrible sport.
Thank goodness the U.S. is not a free market. If it was, there couldn’t be sufficient (or any, really) government pressure forcing BP to create a $20 billion fund. The threat of bad publicity alone is not enough to force such a company to give up so much money. (Though it might change its name again.)
The death penalty is an angry response by people who don’t know how to cope with their grief like adults. It’s only ever about revenge, one of the most petty acts available to humans. One of the family members of Ronnie Lee Gardner’s victims embodies this notion perfectly. (Gardner is soon to be put to death by firing squad for a man he murdered 25 years ago.)
Tami Stewart’s father, George “Nick” Kirk, was a bailiff who was shot and wounded in Gardner’s botched escape. Kirk suffered chronic health problems until his death in 1995 and became frustrated by the lack of justice Gardner’s years of appeals afforded him, Stewart said.
She said she’s not happy about the idea of Gardner’s death but believes it will bring her family some closure.
“I think at that moment, he will feel that fear that his victims felt,” Stewart said.
Well, there you go. If Gardner feels the same fear he caused in someone else, then all is well with the world, right? No? But surely something has been made better! No? Nothing?
Oh, wait, wait, wait. That’s right. Two wrongs still don’t make a right. It’s almost like what everyone teaches every child ignores those lessons when understandable but unjustifiable emotion takes over.
For the Sake of Science 