2008 Lenten Read-a-Thon Day 24

Hasmoneans! I can't remember my Hasmoneans!

New Complete Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston and edited by Paul L. Maier. Kregel Publications (Grand Rapids): 1999. ISBN: 0-8254-2924-2. 1142 pages. $24.99.

Well, here we are. Because of Leap Year, I actually have one more day to read than I had calculated. This might save my bacon.

We are now a little over halfway through Lent, and so, appropriately, I am now a little over halfway through Josephus. Not yet out of the Antiquities, I should have gotten through the death of Herod the Great (Book 17, Chapter 8) by the time my head hits the pillow tonight.

Much study does indeed weary the body. The push to get through this volume is beginning to wear on me, but it wouldn't be a challenge if I didn't pick a formidable work, would it?

It was tough getting through the Hasmonean Dynasty. Somewhere around Book 12, Josephus's major source is 1 Maccabees. As a work of history, 1 Maccabees is probably one of the best in the Bible, but it is also one of the driest and densest books in the Bible. Josephus's work keeps going in this vein after 1 Maccabees is finished. There are too many wars and rumors of wars, and too many people named John, Jonathan, Alexander, and Ptolemy. I can't keep it all straight.

Things get interesting again when we get to the Herods. In partcular, Josephus spends a good long time with the life of Herod the Great. The Herods were the ultimate dysfunctional family. The tree of this family didn't fork much, if you know what I mean, and they spent most of their time trying to assassinate each other. Herod the Great's favorite pastime was torturing people he suspected of plotting against him; after a long life, he eventually died in a hideous manner, the medical explanation of which is still open to some debate. Intestinal blockage is the only explanation I remember off-hand.

For our purposes, one of the most interesting stories of Herod the Great related in Josephus involves the tomb of Kings David and Solomon. According to Josephus, these two monarchs of the United Kingdom had a large and richly decorated sepulcher in Jerusalem. A certain Hasmonean, Hyrcanus, had previously opened the tomb and retrieved money in a time of need. Herod later despoiled the tomb himself; after entering it, he took out the lavish furniture he found there, but, upon an attempt to proceed further into the tomb and find the very bodies of David and Solomon, "two of his guards were killed, by a flame that burst out upon those that went in, as the report was" (Ant. 16.7.1 [16.182]).

What do we learn from this? Probably very little, as it is unlikely that such a rich tomb would have survived intact from the time of David until the first century, so whatever tomb was there probably wasn't really David and Solomon's. Also, this story in general appears fantastic and is likely only legendary.

Nonetheless, what we do learn from this is that ancient tombs full of rich treasures do indeed have booby traps, just as you have seen in the movies. Also, we learn that it is always the expendable workmen who fall prey to these booby traps and not the principal hero.

Ron Perlman + Thick Makeup + Action + Love Story = YES!!

This is the summer movie I'm looking forward to.

Okay, the first one was a disappointment, but still...

What's Wrong with Star Trek?

In yet another attempt to alienate a sizable number of our readers (alienate--what a fine word), I must pass along this fine little piece from io9. Entitled "The Worst Thing Star Trek Did to Science Fiction," it explains one of the many, many, many reasons Star Trek really kind of sucks. Yeah, you heard me.

There are many things that annoy us about science fiction: godlike beings, lazy time-travel paradoxes, actions that don't have consequences... but luckily, there's one thing that epitomizes all of them: the reset button. Whenever the unthinkable happens, you can be pretty sure science fiction will unthink it. Click through for the many evils of the reset button. [more...]

Actually, I like the original series, but the spin-offs suck bad. I see that one commenter on io9 is of the same opinion as myself: "Star Trek has sucked since they started having star ships with carpeting." Yeah, whose dumb idea was that? Spaceships should have exposed bulkheads and pipes and slime dripping off the walls.

So the Man in the Hat is Back...

...And I honestly can't say I'm looking forward to his return. I anticipate that this will be yet another example of how unlimited money and modern special effects can ruin an adventure film, courtesy of George Lucas.

Of course, that's not to say I won't be there. I've already oiled up my jacket and brushed off my hat.

On another note, I am unorthodox in my Indy fanboydom. I hold the obviously correct opinion that Temple of Doom is the best of the original trilogy. To those who believe The Last Crusade is best just because it has Sean Connery in it, let me refute you with the following things:

Short Round, mine cart chase, heart getting ripped out, weird chanting, rope bridge, three central characters named after dogs, PG-13 rating, monkey brains, lowering ceiling with spikes in it, volcano, human sacrifice involving a volcano, and (for the ladies) Harrison ford sans shirt. That ought to convince you.

Sigh. Yes, I'll be there for the new one. In costume. Probably at midnight. Maybe if I close my eyes and pretend it's entitled The Mummy Returns Yet Again, I can enjoy it....

Aaagh! It's the 25th Already!

Sorry all, this is a Josephus catch-up, so no post today.

My Rant Against Acronyms

I have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: I hate acronyms. My soul hateth them with an undying hatred.

Acronyms are by their very nature exclusive; they exclude everyone who doesn't know (or can't remember) what they stand for. There are two groups of people in particular who use acronyms to excess, and they are unfortunately the two groups in which I most often find myself: fanboys and Catholics.

Fanboys are by nature an exclusive group, so their use of acronyms is to some degree justifiable. Nonetheless, when in an Internet discussion forum, I always feel a little out of touch because, while everyone else is glibly tossing around LOTR or ToD, I'm sitting there struggling to remember that those stand for Lord of the Rings and Temple of Doom, respectively. That's why, on this blog, I try always to spell out movie and book titles and then shorten them only in non-acronym sorts of ways. I am, however, guilty of using sf (always lowercase and without periods) as a substitute for science fiction. This acronym is the standard one, appearing as it does in the fanboy magazine Locus. But from now on, I will try to spell it out first whenever I use it, or maybe I just won't use it at all: as Strong Bad would put it, I totally have time to say all the syllables.

Unlike fanboydom, Catholicism is not supposed to be an exclusive group. I realize that theology requires some specialized language that won't be readily accessible to the uninitiated, but do we have to make things worse by using acronyms? All the RCIA and CCD around here is about to drive me nuts.

Particularly irritating, whenever I see a priest's name in print, it is almost always followed by an obscure, indecipherable acronym, as in "Fr. Peter B. Phlogistion, M.O.B." or "Fr. Horatio K. Flaggelate, L.M.A.O." I have asked around, and so far it seems that absolutely nobody has a clue what those stand for. Sometimes, people like to put their degrees after their names, as in M.A. or M.Diddly,* but I have never heard of an F.O.B. degree.

Speaking of which, how many non-Catholics even know that Fr. stands for Father? In C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis's Screwtape Letters, the only named human character is a certain Fr. Spike,** an Anglican priest. When I first encountered that book as a middle school Baptist boy, I kept reading the name as "Friar Spike." I had no idea what Fr. stood for.

I couldn't even escape the acronyms if I went into schism, since our schismatics like to call themselves SSPX. I have never seen what that stands for*** because everyone who uses it assumes this incredibly obscure acronym is commonly known. They forget that, in any document, the phrase or title represented by an acronym is always to be written out the first time the acronym appears because somebody somewhere has never seen it before. Like me.

Aargh! My distaste for acronyms knows no bounds. Perhaps I should pray to the BVM to help me overcome my anger.

*From now on, I expect everyone who comments on this blog to address me as Mister Douglas Graham Damasus Davidson, M.A. Well, not really, but you can mark this as the historic moment in which I finally revealed my full name. Damasus, incidentally, is my confirmation name and the patron saint of archaeologists. Actually, commenters can call me anything they want as long as it is not the legendary Late For Dinner.

**Would anyone else be intimidated if he went to the confessional and saw the name "Fr. Spike" on the door?

***Supercilious Specialized Punk Xylophone being my best guess.

A Couple of Links

Readers have sent me a couple of things I need to pass on to you. Peter Gardner of Martian Monastery has sent us a link to the Orthodox rite chanted in time of attack by aliens. Seems like a handy ritual to me. In particular, I like this part:

With thy mighty arm destroy the army of aliens which now besetteth us, O Mistress, as the army of Sennecherib was destroyed.

Also, Simon Owens of the interestingly named Bloggasm has noticed our post on free online books. He has a more extensive article on why Tor is offering free books and what that might mean for online publishing.

The Dragon's Mailbag

Reading freaky e-mail so you don't have to.

When you post your e-mail address on the Internet for everyone to see, you never know what you'll get. Or rather, you know exactly what you'll get: you'll get messages promising free pharmeceuticals, secret techniques to improve your manhood, or millions and millions of dollars if you just release private account info. Sometimes, every rare once in a while, I even get legitimate e-mail from readers.

But then come those rare, delectible moments when somebody sends me something weird enough I get to make fun of it. This too is spam, but it's a special kind of spam.

So here it is, once again with my own snide comments inserted in brackets:

Learn to communicate with the Creator Father GOD, as [name removed] learned from his Jnana Yogi Guru over 10 years ago and has used the technique every since.

[Man, everything takes a technique these days. Remember the good old days when you could just kind of look upward and, you know, talk?]

How many times have you wondered what GOD would say about any given situation or happening? [I've frequently wondered what he would say about Crummy Church Signs.] How many times have you thought, “Why does GOD allow that to happen?” [Twice.] Or is GOD aware of me and what does HE think of me? [Once.] Or “Will HE let me go to heaven even though I have sinned?” [Three and a half.] There are so many things to ask and get answers for. Have these things crossed your mind?

[Now I wonder what God thinks of seeing his moniker in all caps. Is GOD in this e-mail standing in for the tetragrammaton or what?]

[Name removed] says, “I personally wanted many things answered in my life. I started my spiritual journey over 40 years ago and I never felt sure of the answers I was getting from Organized Religion. [That's why I practice disorganized, chaotic religion: you know, love your neighbor this week, shank him twixt the ribs the next--it's all up in the air!] I went along with it [which?] because I didn’t know any better and didn’t know where to go for the correct answers. Since I opened my mind to answers and asked GOD to show me the way, knowledge has flowed to me ever since and that was 40 years ago.”

[I don't trust organized religion. I much prefer whatever pops into my head!]

“In my desire to be an instrument of GOD and server mankind [somebody clearly needs to read "To Serve Man"], HE has blessed me with the ability to communicate directly HIM whenever I need to make an important decision. The more faith and confidence I have in the answers HE gives me the better I prosper as his instrument.”

[Gee, this sounds a lot like something I heard from an organized religion recently...except maybe for the "prosper" part, depending on what he means by that. I too have the ability to "communicate directly HIM" and I don't need any weird gimmicks; he doesn't even criticize my grammar.]

“The ability to communicate with GOD to me is priceless. [You're going to ask for money, aren't you?] The experience of helping beings to understand what life is really about makes my spirit complete. [The experience of creating a horcrux tears my spirit in half (sorry, had to).] Love, Truth, Peace, Non-Violence and Right Action is what brings mankind closer to GOD. [Yeah, you certainly won't here that from an organized religion...oh, wait.] I’m not asking you to join a religion or to change your way of worship [then what the heck do you want?], as long as they teach the above five basic teaching of the Creator Father GOD. [I see you listed truth in there; do you expect every organized religion, no matter its doctrine, to be capable of teaching that?] These are also the same teaching of the spiritual being that GOD sent to us in the past and that we find ourselves worshiping today.”

[I woke up this morning and, much to my surprise, found myself worshiping a spiritual being! Is he talking about Jesus? If so, why doesn't he come out and say it?]

“I try to live life without burning desires, but if I had one, it would be that all politicians and clergy would learn to communicate with GOD as I have. [This one is making my head spin. If he has no burning desires, how can he have a burning desire for...no, I give up.] I the meantime while you are learning to use the communication technique that I will teach you, you can ask GOD a question through me and I will pass along the answer to you that HE gives me or that I know from experience He will answer.”

[Mark that last sentence as the place where the e-mail took a turn for the creepy. The more I read, the more this sounds like an organized religion. Indeed, it sounds like the supremely organized religion, the sort popularly known as a "cult"*--the sort of do-everything-this-one-guy-says-or-else kind of religion.]

“There is so much more that I can teach you if you have the desire to know. I will give you the information on how to learn more and I will send you my CD or email the information you need to communicate with GOD. All I ask [here's the zinger] is that you send to my non-denominational non-profit organization, a love-faith offering to help cover the expense of mailing my cd to you.” The name of the organization is: Universal Service Dedicated to GOD. Send your name, address, and email address to: [information deleted]

Well, he's certainly not alone in claiming a unique ability to communicate with God. I saw an ad sometime back from someone who claimed he uncovered the original Urim and Thummin while kicking around Israel, and that you could pay him money for answers from God. Personally, I'd send money to him first--Urim and Thummin are way cooler than some yogic technique: according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were magic stones that lit on fire. Until you can beat that, Yogi, you won't be getting any love-faith offering out of me. Besides, I suspect you'll just use the money for the overhead costs of sending spam e-mails.

According to organized religion, or at least according to mine, absolutely anyone can talk to God with no secret technique and no fee. You can't beat that with a stick.

*I have to apologize to the Deej for my use of cult. He has before insisted that the word should only be used as a value-neutral term referring to a formal religious ritual or system, whereas those religions popularly called cults are better termed "new religious movements," but my use is justified by the dictionary, so there.

2008 Lenten Read-a-Thon Day 16

More Josephus than you can shake a stick at.

New Complete Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston and edited by Paul L. Maier. Kregel Publications (Grand Rapids): 1999. ISBN: 0-8254-2924-2. 1142 pages. $24.99.

In my copy of Josephus, I have just this morning completed Book 10, Chapter 7 of Jewish Antiquities, which falls on page 344, putting me slightly behind for our Lenten Read-a-Thon due to a flurry of writing I was engaged in over the last few days. I now must play catch-up.

So far in the Antiquities, Josephus has been using mostly biblical texts as his sources, but has drawn a few embellishments from other places, particularly Herodotus's History. Some embellishments are, as far as I know, of unknown origin. One of my favorites is in the story of King Uzziah. In the biblical text of 2 Chronicles 26, Uzziah goes into the Temple to burn incense and is stricken with leprosy for his presumption. The same story in Antiquities 9.10, however, is more dramatic: when Uzziah enters the Temple, an earthquake cracks the Temple's roof and sunlight shines through, striking Uzziah in the face and causing the leprosy. William Whiston mentions in a footnote that Zechariah 14.4-5 refers to an "earthquake in the days of Uzziah." It's likely that passage gave rise to the version of the story we find in Josephus.

Sometimes, Josephus alters details, probably because he would find them embarrassing if they were known to a gentile readership. One of these I most readily noticed was in the story of Samson. In Judges 14.5-9, Samson kills a lion and, upon returning to the carcass later, finds a beehive inside it. He eats some of the honey from the hive and also gives some to his parents without telling them where he got it. Josephus, apparently realizing that eating from an animal's torn carcass violates Jewish law, says instead that Samson only gave the honey to his Philistine wife and her relatives (Antiquities 5.8.5-6 [5.287-289]).

This incident with the lion and the honey gives rise to one of my favorites of Samson's exploits: in revenge for an insult from the Philistines, he captures 300 foxes, ties torches to their tails, and releases them in the Philistines' fields. I'm sure every energetic young boy has dreamed of doing something similar.

And that passage always reminds me of one of the odder verses in the Song of Songs, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes" (2.15). In his commentary in The HarperCollins Study Bible, Michael V. Fox suggests "foxes may be a metaphor for lusty youths, vineyards for nubile girls," and I suppose that's as good an explanation as any.

And the Song of Songs puts me in mind of an embarrassing incident that occurred a few years back when I was still a catechumen. I was hangin' with my Catholic homies when one of them came up to me and said, completely serious and apparently much shocked, "Did you know there's erotic poetry in the Bible?" How do you answer a question like that? I considered replying, "I've annotated mine," but eventually I just said, "Uh, yeah." When commentators note that Americans today are quite interested in religion but at the same time religiously ignorant, they ain't kiddin'.

Speaking of religious ignorance, the book description for the above-cited HarperCollins Study Bible claims that the revised edition of this Bible includes an essay on the "literary history of the Pentateuch (those books between the Old and New Testament that Catholics include in their Bible)." Man, if the editors of a study Bible don't know the difference between the Pentateuch and the Deuterocanon, I definitely don't want their Bible.

Speaking of the Bible, I notice Josephus has a habit of taking certain independent books and sticking them into the course of his narrative where he feels they belong. So, for example, the story of Jonah is inserted into the history of the Kings and the story of Ruth is inserted into the history of the Judges. Speaking of Ruth, an old acquaintance of mine who is author of an obscure little book entitled Notes from the Margins of an Old Preacher's Bible refers to Naomi as "the picture of a backslider" (p. 15), which I don't think is very nice. But also speaking of Ruth, you know who Ruth reminds me of? Kyoko Otonashi from Maison Ikkoku. But now I'm getting out of line.

Who else is reading? Where you at?

News from the Fish Bowl: Lunar Eclipse Tonight

Photo by Dazzie D

LUNAR ECLIPSE TONIGHT

As reported by Joe Rao with MSNBC, a total lunar eclipse tonight should be visible in North America and in several other places.

Lunar eclipses are important events. Aristotle used the shape of the Earth's shadow on the moon to argue that the Earth is round.

According to Max Frisch in his novel Homo Faber, the lunar eclipse is also a sign that you're going to be severely punished by the powers that be for sleeping with your own daughter, you weirdo.

According to the above cited article, the eclipse begins at 7:01 PM Mountain Time. Adjust accordingly. Those of you on the west coast may miss part of the show. Hawaiians will miss it entirely.

February Christian Science Fiction/Fantasy Blog Tour Day 1

Regular readers know I'm off fiction for now, so I can do little besides introduce this month's blog tour, which is the novel The Shadow and Night by Chris Walley.

The book's website is here.
The author's blog is here.

Your blog tour is here:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Marcus Goodyear
Rebecca Grabill
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Heather R. Hunt
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Pamela Morrisson
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachelle Sperling
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Our Lenten "Fast" Continues...

According to my latest issue of Intermountain Catholic, our local Catholic newspaper, Pope Benedict XVI says that, this year, Catholics should "fast from words and images."

Clearly, His Holiness reads The Sci Fi Catholic.

Catholic Blog Awards

A reader told me recently I should link to this. The Catholic Blog Awards is now accepting nominations for Catholic blogs in several categories.

Orson Scott Card says sf writers will receive only ire and detestation if they plug themselves for awards, and so even though self-promotion is more acceptable in the blogosphere, I will adhere to Card's advice and refrain from saying anything about the Catholic Blog Awards beyond this: I encourage you to go to the website, linked here, and nominate whatever Catholic blogs you like.

The Future Is...Now?

A week ago, I said I wanted to visit a futuristic metropolis. It slipped my mind that this future city exists, and it's called Dubai.

Free Books Online

Who wants free books? You look like you do. That girl over in the corner looks like she does. That guy in the back who's chewing gum and talking on his cell phone isn't paying attention, but he probably wants free books, too. I know I want free books.

You may notice on our sidebar a link to science fiction texts at Project Gutenberg, which collects public domain and Creative Commons-licensed texts on the Internet. In particular, I notice they have a link to Nick Mamatas's Move Under Ground. I strongly suggest you stop reading this post and start reading that novel, seeing as how it is much better written and has the potential capability of, like, totally blowing your mind.

Cory Doctorow makes his books available on the Internet and writes in Forbes that he believes it paradoxically causes them to sell better. Doctorow also notes that science fiction is more frequently copied illegally than any other form of literature and argues that anyone well-known enough to be ripped off is probably doing alright in sales and marketing. Snuffles, who is sitting across the room, has just pointed out that, back when anime was more obscure in the U.S., fans got the word out largely by ripping off their favorite shows and movies and passing them around.

Recently, the publishers Tor and HarperCollins have announced that many of the books they sell will be publicly available on the Internet. Tor appears to be doing this in a limited fashion and demands that people who get free books also get Tor's newsletter, as reported in FantasyBookSpot. Tor's website for the free book sign-up is here.

The Huffington Post has reported that HarperCollins, too, is making books available free online in the hopes that it will encourage people to buy those books. A visit to the HarperCollins website reveals that it's true. Doesn't look as though they're demanding newsletter subscriptions, either.

So what's the point of making books available online? Well, in the case of public domain texts, the copyrights have run out and the books are fair game, but as for the others, the publishers and writers are guessing--and Doctorow suggests they're guessing correctly--that many or most people would still rather read a book on paper than on a screen, so after seeing a chapter or two of a novel they might like, they're likely to buy the physical book.

Update: Jeff Miller of The Curt Jester has just pointed me to the Baen Free Library, which has plenty of Baen titles to choose from.

A Provocative Quote

I think I know what I'll be reading when I finish Josephus. Check out this quote from pages 5 and 6 of The Jung Cult by Richard Noll, an apparently controversial book:

It is indeed paradoxical that Western spirituality in the twentieth century has been so influenced--indeed, awakened--by a man [Nietzsche] who declared the death of God and who defined himself as the Antichrist. Yet, Nietzsche's "hammer" of questions has been taken up time and again in the modern age by spiritual seekers who felt their paths were blocked by the walls of convention and dogma, and who have felt compelled to initiate unconventional acts of personal salvation out of a yearning for new nectar to satiate a very old thirst.

When we survey the spiritual landscape of the Western world a century later we find that there is wide interest in a movement that has its origins among these late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Nietzschean currents. This is the international movement centered on the transcendental ideas and the idealized personality of Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), the Swiss psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and founder of the school of analytical psychology. Jung is best known today as Sigmund Freud's ungrateful disciple, breaking with his master in 1913 to go his own way and establish his own movement. The legend is additionally framed in the context of Jung's advocacy of the essential spiritual nature of human beings over the narrow, sexual view of Freud, who was by his own admission "a godless Jew." Those who read Jung and participate in the activities of the Jungian movement are often individuals seeking to increase their own sense of "spirituality."

Happy Valentine's Day

And so the day of love is here again, the day on which, according to legend, birds choose their mates and about three different saints named Valentine were martyred. Normally, I take Lucky to a movie or something on Valentine's Day, but I'm in the field now and I'm off movies for the time being, anyway.

Speaking of movies and Valentines, the critics have given a nice Valentine to The Spiderwick Chronicles. After a long string of miserable fantasy films for kids, it's nice to know that a good one has been released.

On the other hand, the critics turned up their noses at Jumper, which disappoints me; I had been looking forward to that one, even though I'm pretty sure a Nickelodeon special back in the early nineties had an identical premise.

News from the Fish Bowl

WHAT WOULD JESUS WEAR?

First on today's list of silly news stories is a new line of Jesus-themed cosmetics, "Lookin' Good for Jesus," which has been removed from stores in Singapore after Catholics complained, according to National Nine News.

Catholic customers have complained about the packaging and marketing of the products, saying it trivialised Christianity and was disrespectful.

The products, which are still available on the company's website, encourage you to "get tight with Christ", and include "Virtuous vanilla" lip balm, and bubble bath that makes "you feel like you're walking on water". [more...]

The products are just as sacrilegious, but not nearly as hilarious, as Jesus' advertisement for Budweiser.

SCIENCE FICTION RESOURCES ONLINE

Shocking news flash: science fiction resources are available on the Internet. You can read about it and see some of Ronald Hawkins's favorite sf websites at Reporter-Times.com.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY'S LIST OF "MOST REDEEMING" FILMS OF 2007

I'm unsure what it means for a film to be "redeeming"; perhaps a redeeming film is one that offers grace. Is attending a redeeming film therefore a sacrament? I'm confused.

(Yes, I know they explain it at Christianity Today, but I'm trying to be funny.)

At any rate, James Pawlak of Crusader Knight has kindly passed on a link to the blog Marquette Warrior, which has posted Christianity Today's link of most redeeming 2007 movies. Juno made number 3 and Into the Wild make number 6. No one here has seen any of the others.

ARCHBISHOP JOSE GOMEZ OPPOSES CLINTON RALLY AT CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

Michelle Roberts with the Associated Press writes:

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Archbishop Jose Gomez complained Wednesday about plans for a rally by Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, an abortion rights supporter, at a Catholic university.

The archbishop released a statement noting that Clinton and some other presidential candidates' support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research were not in line with Catholic values. The Rev. Pat Rodgers, an archdiocese spokesman, said Gomez was responding to telephone calls and e-mails from concerned Catholics. [more...]

For Catholics who may have forgotten basic moral rules regarding voting, here's a quick refresher: certain positions, such as support for abortion, homosexual marriage, or embryonic stem cell research, are so morally reprehensible that anyone who holds them is unfit for public office; a voter is morally culpable for his vote if he knowingly votes for such a candidate when a morally more acceptable candidate is also running. If all candidates are unfit, the voter may choose the candidate who he reasonably believes will do the least moral harm.

And for those who believe politics and religion should never mix, you need to learn to think consistently.

LIMAN VS. MIT

Doug Liman, director of the movie Jumper, recently met with scientists at MIT to discuss the physics of teleportation, as discussed by Alan Boyle at MSNBC:

Everyone knows Anakin Skywalker can't really teleport himself to the Great Pyramids of Egypt, even though Anakin ... er, Hayden Christensen ... does just that in the movie "Jumper," opening Thursday. But isn't it possible to go through a wormhole in the space-time continuum? Wellllll, maybe - if you've got a galactic black hole's worth of power. Such are the issues that come up when science meets fiction, at the movie theater as well as in the classroom.

When scientists met up with Christensen and the director of "Jumper" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last month, neither side knew what to expect. But the result wasn't at all like the battle between the Jumpers and the Paladins in the movie. Both sides came away with that most sought-after Hollywood ingredient: a happy ending. [more...]

The Dragon's Mailbag

Mail that makes you ask, what the heck?

I recently got an e-mail message that I have been unable to decipher. I suspect it wasn't originally written in English, and I'm unsure of what it's trying to say. It contains a website address that appears not to be a real website. I reproduce the message here, complete with my MSTing, in brackets.

Pilgrimage to Assisi Info

Why a Pilgrimage … in Italy?

[Why indeed? I can't think of a single reason a Catholic would make a pilgrimage to Italy.]

Saint Francis and Saint Anthony, the Seraphic Founder and the Learned Apostle (meo episcopus) of the Franciscan Order, are two great "figures" [not real figures, mind you, but the fake kind that need to go in quotation marks] who have stirred the perpetual engine [the what?] of humble and simple spirituality, a perpetual source for all people who are suffering from an existential aridity.

[If that engine is perpetual, why didn't they just let it run by itself instead of tweaking it?]

Thanks to these suppositions [Supposition: noun, a guess or assumption. Are Sts. Francis and Anthony suppositions?], the wish to offer a Pilgrimage was born [by and from whom?] aimed at fulfilling the new spiritual requirement. [I was unaware that pilgrimage was a spiritual requirement.] Differently from the past, it is a research of "movement" [a what?] where the pilgrim wants to explore in primis original experiences just to open himself to the compassion of that Love "that moves the sun and the other stars".

[If anyone can interpret that last sentence, please do; "the compassion of that Love" is driving me bonkers. And let's see if we can tuck that period inside the quotation mark where it belongs.]

Apparently the purpose of the pilgrim is to walk to Assisi, but in reality "he advances towards himself" to join the Divine within. [Apparently, apparently no longer needs to be set off by a comma when it opens a sentence.] The Pilgrimage to Assisi is not a recognised pilgrimage as you might suppose, but it is the fusion of many other short traditional pilgrimages, that already existed in the local sphere (See: Assisi, La Verna, Casella, Cerbaiolo, Montecasale, Montepaolo). [Oh, the local sphere. Suddenly, everything is clear.] These ways are linked to peculiar devotions and, lived in this spiritual dimension again, will give a new surge to the interior research, renewing the essence of Francisco’s doctrine. So it should be, not only the stones to testify to the stranger His Teaching [the Teaching in this e-mail is not only stranger, but strangest], but also the renewal of the original Franciscan fraternity along the pilgrimage and in the community of Assisi itself.

The town of Assisi will be raised as a "Landmark of Universal Reference" for all men of goodwill [that's great, but can we call it something less lame than "Landmark of Universal Reference"?], overcoming in this way any distinction of Culture and Belief in syntony with the Fundamental Principles of every True Religion.

[NAME REMOVED] for the www.caamminodiassisi.it

[Since both St. Francis and St. Anthony are Catholic saints with distinctly Catholic teaching, I fail to see how they can help overcome any distinction of culture or belief (why are those capitalized?). I've got news for whoever wrote this: you don't overcome distinctions of culture and belief. They exist whether you like it or not because people have now, and always will have, multiple cultures and opinions. You can ignore differences of culture and belief, but that only makes you ignorant; it can never make you more spiritual or more enlightened. And as for syntony, what is a fifty-cent word like that doing in a message like this?]

Oh yeah...

Other projects press. Will be back with more tomorrow.

Meme: A Week, a Month, a Year, Half Your Life

I just got tagged for a meme by Niall Mor of It's All Straw. Basically, according to the rules at The Scratching Post, I'm supposed to pick places I'd like to live for a week, a month, a year, and half my life, and explain why. Okay, here we go:

A Week

For a week, I'd like to visit one of those futuristic metropoli. Maybe the city in Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel, or perhaps the future Atlanta in Michael Bishop's Catacomb Years. Perhaps I'd see the sights of the city in Metropolis or Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis or perhaps even Blade Runner, which I understand is the best place to see attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...uh oh, going into trance again....

Ach! Ach! "Tenser," said the Tensor...okay, I'm back. Whew. I always go into a trance when I hear you-know-what. Anyway, why would I go to a metropolis? Obviously, for the hustle and bustle of the big city, for the interesting people, for the robots, and for the Marxist uprisings--could anything be more exciting? One thing is certain, though: I'd like to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Besides, they serve great food in the big city. It's called Soylent Green, and...you say it's what?

A Month


I would spend a month in The Land Before Time. I know what you're thinking--you're thinking my choice sucks, but I'd enjoy a month adventuring with cute dinosaurs with funny voices and if you're honest with yourself, so would you. Besides, if there's some kind of crossover or something, I understand I have a chance of meeting Racquel Welch in a fur bikini.

A Year


For a year, I want to visit The Valley from Bone by Jeff Smith. In fact, I'd like to visit for just about exactly one year. I'd hike through the western desert and arrive in late fall. After hanging with some talking animals during the winter, maybe in early spring I'd meet a beautiful young farm girl....

Half My Life


Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings