Yippee! Another not so miraculous miracle

A little girl falls 100 feet to a hard floor in a horrific accident. Absolutely terrible.

She suffered multiple injuries including a broken arm and leg, a ruptured spleen and liver, fractured ribs, a cracked skull and a brain hemorrhage.

Now, I could be wrong, but to me, a "miracle" would have been if the girl slowly floated to the ground and was deposited ever so lovingly, standing, onto the hard floor, completely sound. That's a good miracle!

Of course, she was so severely injured that Doctors didn't think she'd survive the night. Fortunately, she did and, with the help of modern medicine and good care by trained and educated doctors, seven months later she is walking with a walker and is starting school. Great.

But a miracle? If she was walking the next day and her broken limbs and organs were 100% healed, I would definitely call that a miracle. But that's just my "reality-based" standards.

Calling this a miracle is a disservice to all those who took care of this little girl and worked long and hard on her recovery. It's also a disservice to the word "miracle".

Par for the course

Anticipating child abuse by priests within the Catholic church, Pope John XXIII issued a directive in 1962 to all Bishops on how to deal with it. What a shock, the welfare of the children wasn't on their radar. Their concern was all for covering up the abuse.

The Vatican instructed Catholic bishops around the world to cover up cases of sexual abuse or risk being thrown out of the Church.

The Observer has obtained a 40-year-old confidential document from the secret Vatican archive which lawyers are calling a 'blueprint for deception and concealment'. One British lawyer acting for Church child abuse victims has described it as 'explosive'.

The 69-page Latin document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII was sent to every bishop in the world. The instructions outline a policy of 'strictest' secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and threatens those who speak out with excommunication.

They also call for the victim to take an oath of secrecy at the time of making a complaint to Church officials. It states that the instructions are to 'be diligently stored in the secret archives of the Curia [Vatican] as strictly confidential. Nor is it to be published nor added to with any commentaries.'

We have since seen direct evidence of the implementation of this policy and how it resulted in thousands of victims over decades.

Scumbags.

Friday, November 28, 2008

I have to work tomorrow. Crap.

"Black Friday" indeed.

The Moment

I'm the host of a local game night that meets in the cafe area of the local Borders Bookstore. We usually take up two to four of the cafe tables and play our games right there, amidst the coffee-drinking, book-buying public.

Because of this, I regularly meet people who have no idea what kind of games we're playing. Their experience is limited to Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Clue and maybe Risk so our games are a completely new world to them. Many just can't imagine, based on their own experience, that games can be fun, challenging, exciting, tense, and exhilarating. The people who dismiss the whole idea usually have convinced themselves that games just "aren't for me."

I am sure that many of these people would love many of the games we play. Since today is a family holiday in America, let's take a look at a category of games that I generally don't enjoy, "Party games". I've spent many enjoyable hours playing Wits & Wagers, a trivia game where you don't need to know any trivia, you just need to bet on which player you think does know the answer, and Ca$h 'n Gun$, where players are "Reservoir Dogs" characters splitting up the loot -- everyone simultaneously points their gun at another player and you either flee, missing out on the split, or stay, hoping that the person pointing at you haven't decided to use one of their three bullets on you. There are even some non-party games that can be played with a group that provide hours of enjoyment. I'm thinking of Bang!, Wings of War, Fearsome Floors, Formula De, 6 Nimmt. I could list dozens.

For me, when I play a game, one of the things I enjoy in a game is when it has what I call "The Moment".

What is this "Moment" of which I speak? For me, it's the delicious tension (yes, I know using the word "delicious" to describe an emotion is pretty effeminate), while you wait for your turn, hoping against hope that no one messes up your carefully laid plans. I find that the moment happens most in resource management games where I'm competing against the other players for limited resources or actions. Two good examples are Power Grid and Agricola.

Let's look at Power Grid. "The Moment" occurs on the penultimate turn of the game. I've bought the resources I need to power my plants to maximum capacity. I have a stash of money that (quite often) just happens to be exactly the amount I need to connect to three more cities and win the game. Now, all that's left is to wait while every other player takes their turn. I've calculated it out and it seems unlikely that anyone will take the cities I need, but there's no way to be sure.

The tension as the turn makes its way around the table is incredible. Do I engage in small talk, hoping to distract the other players from seeing my upcoming game-winning move? Or would that give away what I'm doing? When the turn makes it back to me and my plans are unspoiled, it's fantastic. Likewise, the sting of defeat is greatest when I'm tripped up right on the threshold of victory.

These types of moments occur in many of the games I play and I consider them one of the marks of a great game. Consider Monopoly. Does it have anything comparable? Nope. Once you've acquired your properties, made your deals and built your homes, all that's left is rolling of the dice, waiting for someone to roll badly and give you the game. The game is effectively over, you're just waiting to see who won.

In Agricola, you can gather a full fifteen wood, have a huge herd of animals standing by, and just as you're about to take the "Build Fences" action, build a huge stockade and use the Lasso to pull the ten sheep into your new pastures, the player before you takes the sheep and has a big barbecue. Or, he takes the "Build Fences" action and builds a tiny little pasture out of four wood. Both actions completely screw you over. Beautiful.

"The Moment" happens to be my favorite thing to experience in a game. It's one of the things that makes gaming so much fun.

The Horror of Mumbai

The ongoing situation in Mumbai is horrific. Teams of gunmen attacking simultaneously in ten different locations killing scores of people. In the early twenty-first century, random violence against innocents has become the de rigeur method of political coercion. I really look forward to the day when we've all grown beyond this need for violence.

The thing that struck me most about the Mumbai situation, though, is something I've wondered about for years; why we here in America haven't experienced something similar since 9/11. Al Qaeda was able to get 19 guys onto planes to hijack and crash them. How hard could it be to get 19 more guys into American malls with a few assault rifles? Pretty clearly, such an attack would've sent us straight to a police state. We would have completely freaked out and with the Bush Administration doing everything they could to make us expect such a scenario, there's little doubt we would've kissed more civil liberties goodbye in an attempt to be more secure.

I'm sure the answer is very complex. Yes, our intelligence and security services have likely broken up a decent number of actual threats. Yes, our attacks in Afghanistan did severely hurt Al Qaeda. But I'm sure a great deal of the answer is that it's just not that easy a thing to do. My expectation of such an attack is attributable to the Bush Administration's culture of fear, way overblowing the possibility of such a thing happening.

Either way, I'm very sad for India right now, certainly glad such an attack hasn't happened here and I hope it never happens again, anywhere. But of course, it will, us being humans and all.

Ignorance answered

PZ points out this ridiculous, ignorant opinion piece.

Thanksgiving must be a terrible time for atheists . . .

Check out the comments afterwards. Not shrill, insulting or angry. Just standing up to ignorance. Bravo.

Hoooouuuussse!

I resisted watching House for a long time. I'm not much into medical dramas and House hadn't grabbed my attention. That is, until Rachel started watching it. It's a good show so, of course, once I started watching it, I kept watching. I don't find it must-see every week like Galactica or Pushing Daisies, but Dr. House is an interesting character and a "positive" portrayal of an atheist and so a rarity on television.

What really gets me, though, is how doggone certain House is for every diagnosis. Some poor schlub of a patient with bizarre symptoms ends up in his hospital and House and his team of diagnosticians try theory after theory on him until, just before the end of the show, they figure it out. But for each of the ten diagnoses made during the hour, House is absolutely sure that his current theory is correct. That is, until there's a sudden reversal that nearly kills the patient. Then it's on to the next theory.

I understand that the methods shown are probably a decent simulation of actual diagnostic medicine, and that doesn't bother me. It's just House's inexplicable, unflappable certainty when he's actually wrong 9 out of 10 times. You'd think that a little doubt might soak in.

In that way, House is just like a cold reader. He keeps trying until he finally gets a hit.

Tell it like it is

Thanks to the Bad Astronomer for pointing out this clip from comedian Louis CK on Conan. What he's saying is funny and true and now I feel really, really old.

Good, Horatio, Good!

Wow. An unbelievable transformation of SNL's former castmate, Horatio Sanz. Really amazing.



In recognition of his achievement, here's one of my favorite skits featuring Horatio.

Jingleheimer Junction

Bad, Madonna, Bad!

Newly separated, soon-to-be-divorced Madonna out for a night on the town. Apparently being worth hundreds of million dollars doesn't always guarantee a good outfit.

She's obviously pitching to attract some unattached gardeners.

Next up: Obama's New Favorite McDonald's

What a shame that an issue of such actual irrelevance has the potential to cause such controversy.

Can the Obamas Choose a New Church?

Wouldn't it be great if no choice had to be made and the First Family could focus on governing rather than which superstition to endorse?

In which I just rent my garment

Awful, awful, news.  ABC has cancelled one of the BEST SHOWS ON TELEVISION, Pushing Daisies. 

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!!!!!!!

Besides being sweet, funny, quirky, well-written, well-acted, touching, mysterious and just amazing, the show has ongoing storylines with Stephen Root and Paul Reubens, for Zod’s sake.  How can you bail when you have Stephen Root and Paul Reubens?!?

They’ll air the remaining episodes, but the 13^th of the season and final for the series will end in a cliffhanger.  I am so depressed.

Heart-warming scene interrupted

During the holidays, it's no surprise to see tender, emotional stories on local television news. What we have here, however, is a wonderful holiday scene ruined. Yes, it was wonderful until Sarah Palin showed up and started flapping her gums.



Obviously she's oblivious to what's going on behind her, but what about the guy? He knows he's on television. I think he must've been getting a kick out of it. A little gruesomen, guerilla theatre.

Of course the surrealness of her last words just give the whole scene that last push over the top. Ah, Sarah . . . what will we do without you?

I can't wait to find out.

Huckabee takes a bold stand against those privileged gays

Ah, you crazy man. How I've missed you.

Said Huckabee [on The View]: "People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that's not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when were talking about a redefinition of an institution, that's different than individual civil rights. Were never going to convince each other...But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge."

Oh, oh, oh! Can I take a shot at this? I think I can make sense of this in three tries.

Number one: "Redefinition of an institution, that's different than individual civil rights." Very interesting. Let's test this by looking at another venerable American institution. Umm . . . Oh, I've got one! Let’s take the institution of slavery. I’m fascinated to hear that it wasn’t an individual civil rights issue. Hmm, doesn't seem to work Mike.

Number two. The apparent standard for civil rights abuse in Huckabeeland is that there must be violence against those who are being repressed. So outlawing other religions or squelching freedom of the press is okay, so long as no one's head is being cracked. That doesn't really seem to work either.

Number three. In Huckabeeland, gays lives are violence-free, presumably full of pink unicorns and daffodils. No, I can't even try to make sense of this one. On what planet does Huckabee live where there is no violence against gays? Obviously one with non-violent suppression of the press.

You win, Mike. I can't make sense of it. Thanks for reminding us all why you're a complete asshat.

Teenage boys have known this for decades

Hitler had only one testicle.

All I can say is, DUH.

A very special post

For the superstitious amongst you, this will be a very alarming post. My 666th post, to be exact. Yes, it's the sign of the Antichrist. And, as we all know, any time anyone uses this number, Jesus cries.

When I was a teen, I totally believed in all that. I was just waiting for the Dome of the Rock to be blown up, signaling the end times. It was all very exciting to think about. Of course, little did I know I'd be ushering in Armageddon with this very blog! And you, my unwitting readers (I assume everyone who reads this is unwitting because the alternative is just too sad to contemplate), are a huge part of it. It is you who have enabled me to trigger the end times! And, as you will see, the timely election of Barack Hussein Obama was no accident, believe you me. All is going perfectly to plan.

So hang on to your hats, it's going to be a rough ride. Muwahahahahahahahhahaha ::cough:: ::cough:: Muwah-- Muwah--

Oh, never mind.

Oof!

If you haven’t yet felt the sting of the current economy, I have a really good example to demonstrate how bad things have gotten. I’ve been contributing to the government retirement fund, the Thrift-Savings plan, for about 18 years now. You can choose how the money is invested, either safe but low-interest government bonds or risky but potentially high-yielding stock funds. Long term, the stock fund will pay out much more, so that’s where most of my money goes.

Since the economy tanked a couple of months ago, the value of my fund has dropped, gulp, $50,000. Were I retiring tomorrow, I’d be $50k poorer. I can’t transfer the money into the bonds fund, or I’ll miss the potential huge gains of a market recovery. The “good news” is that I’m not retiring any time soon so I’ll be around when the fund eventually recovers.

At the moment, since I can’t actually get the money, the retirement fund seems rather ethereal, but, man, the loss of $50,000 is not something you ever want to see.

Ode to Fall

I love the Fall. I prefer the cooler weather, love wearing a jacket, the holidays are varied and numerous and the traditional Fall activities are among my favorites. This has been a strange season, though. We've been so busy we haven't had time to do many of the things we usually do.

We didn't go to the Renaissance Festival. We didn't go to a local farm for the Fall festival to get a pumpkin. We didn't make it to a Drive-In movie. We didn't even have time to carve a pumpkin for Halloween! I don't remember the last time we missed pumpkin carving. It may have been the first time since we've had kids.

We did manage to get our annual Haunted Forest up and running. We added a second fog machine and got a big scary skeleton who really scared the crap out of at least one five year old girl. Sadly, it really seems like we're getting fewer and fewer trick or treaters each year despite our increasingly awesome efforts. We may have to bring in a cute cousin to boost our ratings.

(Click the pics below to embiggen)

I thought the media was supposed to be liberal?

This is interesting.

In 2006, Media Matters conducted a study on Sunday political talk shows, finding that “Republicans and conservatives have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows — in some cases, dramatically so.” From 2001 to 2005, conservative guests outnumbered progressives “by 58 percent to 42 percent.”

It could be because the shows look for guests more to the party in power, so this could change. Or they could be counting Fox News which would definitely slant the numbers.

If not for Harry Potter, I'd never know how best to buy a wand and an owl

Following a similar effort in London, humanists in the U.S. are buying atheism ads which just started running on DC Metrobuses.

Note that the ad doesn't insult any religion. It just asks a question and suggests that humans can be good without religion.

Not surprisingly, some Christians just don't get it.

"It's a stupid ad," he [AFA president Tim Wildmon] said. "How do we define 'good' if we don't believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what's good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what's good, it's going to be a crazy world."

Uh, gee, guy, but millions of atheists around the world manage to "define good" every day without believing in any god. Not to mention people who worship different gods or have other conceptions of god. It's really not that hard a thing to do. But if you really need some book to tell you not to kill other people, then I guess I'm glad you have the book.

And, in a move that will surprise no one, Fox News is defining this as part of the annual "assault on Christmas". With all this assaulting every year, you'd think Christmas would be in trouble, wouldn't you?

Um . . .?

Below is the just revealed first image of J.J. Abrams' new U.S.S. Enterprise. Looks like a mash between the original Enterprise and the refitted Motion Picture Enterprise. Not sure if I like it or not.

I'm Back, Baby!

For the past week our computer has been down, victim to a hard drive crash. I've got everything back together now and except for a few lost drivers, since found, it went pretty well. I still have to replace the power supply but that's a different matter.

Huzzah!!

How generous of him to only ask for 40%

This story has me totally baffled.

A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.

Basically, the contractor is hired for a job and while busting up her walls, finds two boxes with $182,000 inside. But then it gets weird.

The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.

I can't figure out why he would think he should get any of the money. She owns the house so the money is hers.

But how to share? She offered 10 percent. He wanted 40 percent. From there things went sour.

She generously offered him $18,200 but he wanted four times as much? What the heck? There must be more to this story because none of it was rightly his. Of course, during their quibbling, the descendants of the guy who left the money in the wall 80 years ago found out about it and now also had to be cut into the deal. Very weird.

And, to top it off, he thinks he did the right thing.

He's often asked why he didn't keep his mouth shut and pocket the money. He says he wasn't raised that way.

Had I been in that situation, there would be no question that all of the money would go to the woman who owned the house. I can't see how I would be entitled to a single penny.

I guess I was just raised that way.

Goodbye, Cafe Deli

For around 15 years, a friend of mine and I have eaten lunch about once a week at a Vietnamese place in Chinatown called Cafe Deli. It pretty much is the definition of a "hole in the wall" eatery, but the people were wonderfully nice and the food was awesome. I particularly liked their curry chicken which was tender dark chicken just drowned in a delicious orange curry. We were introduced to the restaurant by our late friend, Dan.

Alas, Cafe Deli closed its doors on October 31. DC's Chinatown is still in the middle of a decade-long development boom and the land values have likely skyrocketed. All of the old buildings are being torn down and new ones are being built. Cafe Deli could no longer afford the rent.

Thanks, Cafe Deli. We'll miss you.

The Republicans eat their young

I have to say, despite hating pretty much everything she stands for and being utterly repulsed by her smarmy, no-nothing smugness during the election, I'm starting to feel sorry for Sarah Palin.

She is too ambitious to have refused an invitation she absolutely should have declined and now she's paying the price. Republican operatives, desperate to shift the blame for losing the election, have been spilling the beans about how shallow and ill-informed she actually is. She's getting hammered pretty badly. I will admit to a certain schadenfreude about the whole thing.

That's not to say I don't continue to hope we never hear from her again. In some circles of the Republican party, she is right now their number one choice for the 2012 nomination. Yikes. I'm torn between laughing at how goofy you'd have to be for thinking she's a viable candidate or could ever be an effective chief executive and sheer terror at the outside possibility that she'd succeed in being elected.

CNN: Get a dictionary

CNN’s little digital imaging trick they premiered on election night to have far-flung correspondents seem to appear in the studio a la Princess Leia has been dubbed by CNN as a “hologram”.  Sorry, CNN, it’s not.  It was a combination of green screen technology and a circle of cameras with lots of computer control.  If it had been a hologram, Wolf Blitzer would have been able to see the correspondents standing in front of him.  

I appreciate you guys pushing the envelope, and it was certainly cool.  But when you call it something it isn’t, it undermines your overall credibility as a news source.  I would think that’s Journalism 101.  Have the Bush years brought you so low?

Inspirational

One thing that I really hope McCain supporters can understand, if not now, eventually, is how electing Sen. Obama has been a life-changing moment for millions of Americans. It really is a transformational event.

I work near the Newseum in downtown DC. Every day, the Nesweum displays the front pages of about 50 US and foreign newspapers in cases along their entrance. Today, all day, there were large crowds of people checking out the newspapers, taking pictures and video. I've never seen anything like it.

Here are a few shots I took with my Blackberry.

History will look back on this as a black day

Usually, state Constitutional amendments are enacted to expand civil rights. Unfortunately, after some confusion, it looks like California voters have gone the opposite route and written discrimination directly into the California constitution by banning gay marriage. The legal status of thousands of married couples is now threatened.

Allowing gays to marry harms no one. NO ONE. They deserve the same rights that heterosexuals have to marry the person they love. Of course the charge to deny them their rights was lead by those with a “monopoly on morality,” the religious. Rather than lead to the future, California has set civil rights back years.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, Arkansas now prohibits same-sex couples from adopting. The people of Arkansas would rather that a child remain an orphan than have two loving parents of the same sex. It’s such a crime to be gay, Arkansas voters would rather a child live out a life unloved and unwanted than give gays the chance to save him from a life of despair.

Fracking Brilliant

Here it is, the historic election we've waited long years for and my stupid computer crashes!! AAARGH!!

I will sporadically be posting from the backup computer.

In the meantime, WOO HOO!! The election looks good!

And the world gets a little darker . . .

David Tennant gives up Doctor Who.