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Someone should come up with a movie called The Compassion of Christ. Then maybe we'd get some compelling Christian debate in this country.

(inspired by this post in philosophy)

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The Tablers will remember a thread on the mailing list a few years back about the art exhibit with the goldfish in the blenders, yes?

Well, the artist is at it again. Thanks for the heads-up, arjuna.

(And I just brought that art exhibit up in conversation today. I swear to God! I love coincidences.)

Artist dyes iceberg red in Greenland

Come on. This isn't history repeating, is it?

Documents on FBI's surveillance of Kerry stolen

FBI documents detailing government surveillance of John Kerry in the early 1970s have been stolen from the home of a historian in a suburb of San Francisco, California.

Gerald Nicosia, who spent more than a decade collecting the information, told CNN in a telephone interview that three of 14 boxes of documents plus a number of loose folders -- hundreds of pages -- were stolen Thursday afternoon.

"It was a very clean burglary. They didn't break any glass. They didn't take anything like cameras sitting by. It was a very professional job," Nicosia said.

[...] Nicosia reported the theft Friday to the Twin Cities Police Department, which covers Larkspur and Corte Madera in Marin County, where he lives. The police report found no sign of forced entry.

Nicosia, author of "Home At War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement," had obtained about 20,000 pages of FBI documents through Freedom of Information Act requests.

The documents center on FBI surveillance of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), which Kerry represented as national spokesman. In April 1971, the decorated veteran testified in televised hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and led a large protest of veterans in the capital.

Nicosia estimated that 20 percent of his documents are missing.

"It's heartbreaking, after 11 years trying to get them," he said.

a comment I made in quility's journal

It's my contention that a myth should not be misinterpreted as history. The Bible exists, and the Old Testament was written about people who existed in Jewish history. But the evidence that Yeshua existed is shaky at best. The four gospels were not written at the time of Yeshua's supposed existence; the authorship of them is even in dispute. Then there's the whole political process as to which books were considered gospel in the first place.

The dying and resurrected man is a powerful recurring image in mythologies ancient and modern. The ghost of that idea remains in the Christian rite of baptism, but the symbolic meaning seems to have been forgotten or not effectively transmitted through the ages. The Gnostic in me says that the resurrection occurs in this life; death must be resolved in this life. Baptism isn't just recognizing that Jesus is one's Savior (as a lot of Protestant churches emphasize). To be baptized is to understand death as an illusion; repentance at that understanding occurs (known in the Greek as metanoia), and it is at that point that one becomes a Christian, or Christlike.

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Slow brainwaves 'cause seizures'

Doctors have known for many years that sleep can trigger epileptic seizures. However, they have been unable to explain exactly why this happens.

Previous studies have suggested it may be linked to very slow electrical activity in the brain.

However, scientists have been unable to confirm this theory, largely because they were unable to detect very slow brain waves using conventional machines.

But now scientists at the University of Helsinki and the University of Washington have developed a highly sensitive electroencephalography (EEG) machine to pick up these waves.

They carried out tests on each of the 16 volunteers while they were asleep over the course of nine days.

They found that brain activity slowed considerably in those with epilepsy. But they also found that this was quickly followed by sharp bursts in brain activity.

These sharp bursts, which are known as interictal epileptic events, are a characteristic of epilepsy.

The scientists said further research is needed to examine this link.

Well, this is scary.

Over the last six years I have interviewed many mujahideen, and one of the most chilling things they have told me is that jihad becomes addictive. To support a jihadi habit, nearly any action becomes acceptable, including cooperating with enemy terrorist groups and criminal rings, killing innocent Muslims or attacking friendly forces.

Errors in Fighting Al Qaeda Have Worsened the Danger

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He who controls the calendar controls history.

Call me an April fool.

Doesn't it just make sense that the new year should start when people feel the best about the change of the seasons?

What if we just moved the beginning of the new year to April 1st? Sure, some months' names won't make sense anymore. But at least the calendar month order and astrology sign order would be in alignment.