We cannot let any group, however devout, blackmail us into silence by their expressions of hurt feelings whenever they feel that we are getting close to the truth. That is what con artists do when their marks begin to get suspicious, and that is what children do when they can't have their way, and it should be beneath the dignity of any religious ( Read more... )

against the current of my passions, i'll start this thought on a note of understanding...four or five years ago, quite dissatisfied with the state of modern horror films, i began contemplating the ultimate horror film while serving barbeque to conservative virginians. it occurred to me at the time that horror cinema had grown stale as the world ( Read more... )

from where i live now, i can hear the subway roll across the bridge at regular intervals. i'm tired of writing, tired of walking, tired of playing, tired of lifting, tired of cars and trains, tired of sore muscles, tired of not sleeping, tired of not brushing my teeth and tired of sleeping in random places. but there's a kitchen that styas open ( Read more... )

now that mainstream christianity (not fundamentalist catholicism, so don't go on with this touting 'the passion of the christ' as a rebuttle to my qualms) knows how to grease the wheels of the market, it doesn't seem to need its old selling points. christianity used to thrive on the dark, on the evil, on the blood and guts, and the seductive ( Read more... )

this is a simple thing and so i will state it as simply as possible. election turnout in iraq today was so intense that the polling stations stayed open an extra hour. the sunnis, who had shunned the previous elections, turned out to vote in large numbers. a bomb had to be diffused at a polling station in fallujah. mortars went off within yards ( Read more... )

from yahoo! news ( Read more... )

of course religion isn't the same as civilization--unless you make it so, proclaim it so, and allow religion to direct every motion and artifact of that civilization. if this is the case, one might say that you have an anti-culture, or an anti-civilization. the clash between islam and christianity in nigeria provides an amazing petri dish for ( Read more... )

"we must be aware of the dangers that lie in our most generous wishes...when once we have made our fellow men the objects of our enlightened interest [we] go on to make them the objects of our pity, then of our wisdom, ultimately of our coercion." -lionel trilling ( Read more... )

aahahhhhhyawn. good afternoon. i'm tired of sleeping all day. i'm tired of not getting things done. i'm tired of running out of money. always, always, running out of money. this time was supposed to be different! i had a job. wasn't only depending on the loan checks for a living. then they put us all on hiatus while they revamped the site ( Read more... )

wow. nobody ever writes on livejournal anymore.