Unstructured Outing

Old and busted: Snape kills Dumbledore.

New hotness: Dumbledore is gay.

Another Take on Archetypes

FYI, 10 Zen Monkeys have put together their own take on the subject in the form of a list of ten male archetypes. Rather than using classic archetypes, they use cultural icons such as John Wayne and Harry Potter on a sliding scale from most traditionally masculine to the most "sensitive".

A Few Thoughts

I know that I've been very quiet and I'm sure that my "three" readers are probably wondering what the heck has happened to me. I'm sorry to say that I've just been very busy and haven't had the mental energy to blog. I assure you that this isn't a permanent state, however. I have some ideas for essays that I want to write but I also want to be sure to get them the focus of my attention when I do write them.

In the meanwhile, here's an essay by one of the professors at Virgina Tech who's rebutting Dinesh D'Souza, who took the aftermath of the Virgina Tech tragedy as an opportunity to bash atheists. If there's one thing that makes me mad, it's when people spin tragedy in the name of agenda. I don't care if that agenda is gun control (pro andcon), anti-video game legislation, immigration, or secularism... all of which were wrapped around the shooting before the bodies were even in the ground. While I don't think that this is the time or place for a debate, this persons reply is eloquent and heartfelt and I think that it puts a nasty piece of public ugliness in its place.

People like Dinesh D'Souza have an axe to grind and they love nothing more than an excuse to grind that axe in public. They are attention whores of the worst order and I think that there must be something inside them that becomes thrilled when things like this shooting happen because it gives them one more chance to try to wedge themselves into the spotlight. While there is a part of me that feels that the best reply is silence there is the risk that silence equates to assent. This anonymous professor, who doesn't even care to put his name forward, challenges the D'Souzan vultures of the world with something better: the simple rebuke of shame.

Merry XBox... or summtin' like that

I assume that, by now, all of you are aware that I've been waging war on Christmas.

Honestly, it came as something of a surprise to me. All these years I just considered Christmas to be another one of those Holidays that people celebrate as they will whether or not they think about what it's supposed to represent (a bit like Memorial Day which, contrary to most people's impressions, isn't a celebration of three day weekends and barbecues).

Yes, I was aware that, for a fair number of people, the day had religious significance. That never especially bothered me since the actual parts that interested me, such as gift giving, the Christmas tree, and so forth, weren't closely tied to religion (unless you want to go back to the ancient pagans, at least). It seemed like a perfectly reasonable sort of arrangement.

Lately though, I've been told (mainly by Fox news) that the forces of secularism (which is where I get drafted into this nonsense) have been trying to destroy the Christian version of Christmas. I assumed that this had to do with nativity chreches since that's long been the seasonal point of contention between secularists (and Jews, and Jehovas Witnesses, and Christian liberals, etc) and the self-appointed defenders of Christianity.

Honestly, though, I had thought that the courts had done a fairly decent job of working that controversy out with a general prescription that says that you can't put displays on public land that are solely for the promotion of a religion but, if you want to have a nativity, it could be fine if you place it in the general context of a secular celebration of the season. It's one of those compromise solutions that doesn't make anyone quite happy, which is often the nature of a good compromise.

It turns out that's not what Fox is on about, though. And least not entirely, since they do mention the whole creche controversy as being part of the War on Christmas. It seems that what really steams their stockings is the phrase "happy holidays". Although I've never really been conscious about what sort of semi-sincere seasonal greetings I've been offering, I'm sure that I have said the dreaded double-H every now and again (thus waging war on Christmas). Heck, I'm pretty sure that I've even suggested that people have a good Solstice now and again. Of course the fact that I am, indeed, an atheist automatically makes me one of the warriors in the battle. Even when I do say "merry Christmas" it can be assumed that I am merely trying to infiltrate my way into the ranks of the good and decent so that I may further subvert them.

So, since it's apparent that I am, in fact, waging war against Christmas, I would like to beg a favor of the government. In keeping with the tradition of all the other wars on things (drugs, terrorism, jaywalkers, etc), I think that it would only be fair to grant me unlimited powers of search and seizure, the ability to arbitrarily arrest and detain people without oversight, and the ability to surveyal my enemies (real and imagined) without restriction. Seems only far.

So heads up, Christian America! I'll know when you are sleeping, I'll know when you're awake...

(And a very happy set of holidays, however you may celebrate them [or not], to all my loyal readers. Do take care.)

Masstige

I've been a happy customer of Netflix for some time now and have been very pleased with their rental model. It didn't really occur to me that the same idea could be applied to other products (which is why I'm not a millionaire, I suppose). Others haven't been quite so slow to see the possibilities, however.

One of the most interesting varients of this idea comes from a company called Bag Borrow or Steal. What they do is rent luxury purses out to (I would presume mostly) women with such popular high-end labels as Prada, Chanel and Burberry. The idea is essentially the same as Nexflix: you pay a monthly membership fee, you can keep your purse as long as you like, and exchange them as often as you like for new ones. Apparently the idea has been successful enough to spawn a competitor company called Bags to Riches using a similar methodology.

NPR reports that the idea of renting out luxury goods, including such items as antique jewellry, has proven to have popular appeal. They said that this was part of an overall idea with the truly awful name of masstige, meaning prestige items for the masses, which nearly seems an oxymoron since the very thing that used to make something a luxury was its relative unaffordability.

The New Thing

Have you seen the New Thing?

It's waiting on your desk,
Lurking in your car,
Hiding between the glossy pages
Of your favorite Sunday magazine.

Have you tried it?
Have you tasted it?
Do you know the feel of it
As it makes New Love
Between, around,
Inside of you?

Poor soul.

Don't you know,
Haven't you been told,
What's good for you yet?

Don't worry though,
It will find you
Before you remember
That you’ve been waiting for it
All your sorry life.