You wanna know how big a geek I am?
Have fun!
Labels: computers, Drek is Amused, laziness, video games
Or, the thoughts of several frustrated intellectuals on Sociology, Gaming, Science, Politics, Science Fiction, Religion, and whatever the hell else strikes their fancy. There is absolutely no reason why you should read this blog. None. Seriously. Go hit your back button. It's up in the upper left-hand corner of your browser... it says "Back." Don't say we didn't warn you.
Labels: computers, Drek is Amused, laziness, video games
For this one, I have realized the world in which the authors live: it is a world in which Hattie's only two options for sex are named Rayford and Buck, but it's not a porn movie.
Carpathia smiled. "Like anyone from Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, I am amazed at your technology. I-"
"But isn't it true, sir, that your roots are actually in Western Europe? Though you were born in Romania, are you not by heritage actually Italian?" [Wallace Theodore, the interviewer, asked]
"That is true, as it is true of many native Romanians. Thus the name of our country."
"But is it not true that you [Carpathia] just came from a photo session with People magazine?" [Theodore asked]
"Yes, but I-"
"And is it not also true that they have already named you their new Sexiest Man Alive?" [emphasis original]
"I do not consider myself sexy. I am on a crusade to see the peoples of the world come together. I do not seek a position of power or authority. I simply ask to be heard. I hope my message comes through in the article in the magazine as well." [Carpathia explained]
"How do you [Carpathia] respond to those who say you skirted protocol and that your elevation to the presidency in Romania was partially effected by strong-arm tactics?"
"I [Carpathia] would say that that is the perfect way to attack a pacifist, one who is committed to disarmament not only in Romania and the rest of Europe but also globally."
"So you deny having a business rival murdered seven years ago and using intimidation and powerful friends in America to usurp the president's authority in Romania?"
Marge's husband growled, "This Roman kid is light on his feet."
"Romanian," Marge corrected.
"I heard him say he's a full-blood Eye-talian," her husband said. Marge winked at Steve and Buck.
"I [Carpathia] did not feel it was my place to suggest such changes [to the U.N.] when I was a guest; however, I have no hesitation in this context. I am a proponent of disarmament. That is no secret. While I am impressed with the wide-ranging capabilities, plans, and programs of the United Nations, I do believe, with a few minor adjustments and the cooperation of its members, it can be all it was meant to be. We can truly become a global community."
"I respect the proprietary nature of the original five [permanent members]. I propose choosing another five, just one each from the five different regions of the world. Drop the temporary members. Then you would have ten permanent members of the Security Council, but the rest of my plan is revolutionary. Currently the five permanent members have veto power. Votes on procedure require a nine-vote majority; including all five permanent members. I propose a tougher system. I propose unanimity."
"It [Carpathia's plan] sounds like a nightmare." [the reporter observed]
"But it would work, and here is why. A nightmare is what happened to us last week. The time is right for the peoples of the world to rise up and insist that their governments disarm and destroy all but ten percent of their weapons. That ten percent would be, in effect, donated to the United Nations so it could return to its rightful place as a global peacekeeping body, with the authority and the power and the equipment to do the job." [Carpathia replied]
He [Carpathia] said that the original veto power of the permanent members had hampered military peace efforts, such as in Korea and during the Cold War. [emphasis added]
"Sir, where did you get your encyclopedic knowledge of the U.N. and world affairs?" [the reporter asked]
"What is your [Carpathia's] personal goal? A leadership role in the European Common Market?" [the reporter asked]
"Romania is not even a member, as you know. But no, I have no personal goal of leadership, except as a voice. We must disarm, we must empower the United Nations, we must move to one currency, and we must become a global village."
Chloe smiled. "So you're not going to start comparing him with the liar the pastor's tape warned us of, somebody from Europe who tries to take over the world?"
"Hardly," Rayford said. "There's nothing evil or self-seeking about this guy. Something tells me the deceiver the pastor talked about would be a little more obvious."
"But," Chloe said, "if he's a deceiver, maybe he's a good one."
That was a relief to Rayford. So Hattie wasn't afraid to talk about two younger guys she was clearly interested in seeing, or at least meeting. He was sure she wasn't just saying it to test his level of interest. Surely she knew he wasn't interested in anyone with his wife so recently gone. Rayford wondered whether he should follow through on his plan to be honest with her about his past feelings for her. Maybe he should just jump right into urging that she watch the pastor's videotape.
"Hattie, what are you saying?" [Rayford asked]
"Only that you enjoyed running around with me in private, pretending like something was going on."
"I'll admit that."
"And I do feel bad about your wife, Rayford, I really do. You're probably feeling guilty, even though we never did anything to feel guilty about. But don't cast me aside before you have a chance to get over your loss and start living again."
"If I [Hattie] had ever thought there was really a chance with you, I'd have pursued it, believe me."
Rayford was taken aback. His fears and assumptions were correct, but now he felt defensive. "You never thought there was a chance?"
"You hardly gave me any indication. For all I knew, you thought I was a cute kid, way too young, fun to be with, but don't touch." [Hattie answered]
"There's some truth to that." [Rayford said]
"Well, I [Rayford] know what the disappearances were all about, all right? I know what they meant, and I want to help you find the truth."
Hattie was dead silent for a long moment. "You haven't become some kind of fanatic, have you?"
Rayford had to think about that one. The answer was yes, he most certainly had, but he wasn't going to say that. "You know me better than that."
Labels: Left Behind
He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood.
"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children," said Marshall, a Republican.
"In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."
...
"Looking at it from a cultural, historical perspective, this organization should be called 'Planned Barrenhood' because they have nothing to do with families, they have nothing to do with responsibility," Marshall said.
I believe in a woman’s right to choose, in general for others and in this case for me. Abortion doesn’t have to be justified and it doesn’t have to fit your neighbor’s or coworker’s opinions of a “good enough reason.”
I think “I don’t want to be pregnant” is one of the best reasons there is for having an abortion (along with “I don’t want to be a parent” and “I’ll probably die”).
...
The doctors and nurses I’ve met have all been incredible. Every other woman in the lobby was either there for an abortion or there with a friend getting one. And not one of us was crying. I think that’s the lie I’d heard most often — that I would feel horrible about this decision.
I am helping dozens, if not more, girls and women (and boys and men) realize that abortion is an acceptable choice. It is not shameful and it need not be a secret.
Labels: abortion, Drek is Solemn, news, religion, things I probably shouldn't write about
Nebraska could reshape national abortion policy if lawmakers embrace a proposal to ban almost all abortions after a fetus reaches 20 weeks.
...
“I think National Right to Life wants to see something go to the Supreme Court that would provide more protection to the unborn child,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, a lobbyist for the organization.
A new Nebraska legislative proposal could provide that opportunity.
Legislative Bill 1103 would ban abortions after 20 weeks unless the procedure would save a woman's life or “avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
She contends, and some experts agree, that a fetus can experience pain at 20 weeks.
“What I would like to bring to the attention of the court is, there is another line,” Balch said. “This new knowledge is something the court has not looked at before and should look at.”
Considerable disagreement remains, however, about when a fetus can sense pain.
In a review of fetal pain literature in 2005, University of California-San Francisco physicians reported that “fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester,” or about 27 weeks into the pregnancy.
...
Even if the court changed course and accepted the 20-week standard, the bill could be doomed by a second major matter, said Laurel Marsh, executive director of ACLU Nebraska.
“Our contention is that it still is unconstitutional because it has no mental health exception,” she said.
LB 1103 would set the most narrow health exception in the country by allowing abortions only for threats of “physical” impairment to a woman.
The definition seeks to close what many abortion opponents consider a major loophole in existing law. The court made it clear in 1973 and again in 1992 that the health of a woman includes psychological factors.
Labels: abortion, conservatives, Drek is Annoyed, news
“There’s nothing in biology in this system: no proteins, no cells, no biological matter. We just provide them with the building blocks,” said molecular biologist Gerald Joyce of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.
“They’re just molecules, so they do what they do until they run out of substrate. And this will go for ever – it’s an immortal molecule, if you like,” he told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.
Since he and colleague Tracey Lincoln first succeeded in creating this artificial genetic system that can undergo self-sustained replication and evolution last year, the molecules have changed dramatically as they evolve better and better solutions.
The researchers began with ribozymes known to occur naturally, and put these in a growth medium, heated them and allowed the ribozymes to replicate until they had exhausted their fuel – usually within an hour.
The team then extracted a random subset, and put them in a new medium: ribozymes then competed with each other to consume as much of the medium as possible.
Eventually more successful ribozymes came to dominate the culture, and as the process continued, the ribozymes – undergoing evolution - grew in complexity, blindly finding solutions that made them more successful.
“The key thing is it replicates itself, and passes information from parent to progeny down the line,” Joyce told Cosmos Online.
Labels: biology, creationism, Drek is Amazed, evolution, news, science
A pilot on Thursday crashed his small plane into a building in Austin that houses Internal Revenue Service offices, igniting a huge fire that seriously injured at least two federal employees and sent dozens of others fleeing for their lives.
...
Federal authorities and public records identified the pilot as A. Joseph Stack, 53, the owner of a Piper Cherokee that took off from an airport in Georgetown, Tex., at 9:40 a.m. Central time and crashed into the building in nearby Austin shortly afterward. (Initial reports from federal and local authorities identified him as Joseph Andrew Stack.)
A purported suicide note left on a Web site registered to software engineer Joe Stack of San Marcos, Tex., spoke of a "storm raging in my head" and said that "desperate times call for desperate measures."
In the self-described "rant," the writer railed about financial failures over two decades and run-ins with the IRS and his tax accountant. "I am finally ready to stop this insanity," he wrote near the end of the message. "Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well." The posting, dated Thursday, was signed: "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."
Labels: Drek is Solemn, news, terrorism
"...and said she could come three nights later, on Thursday."
And only if she brought two vibrators - one for Rayford.
"So who's that?" Steve called out as Buck hesitated near the bathroom door, wanting to hear all the messages before getting into the shower.
"Just a girl," he said.
"Nice?"
"Better than nice. Gorgeous."
"Better call her back."
"These messages aren't binding, are they? I don't have to act on them just because I heard them, do I?" [Buck asked]
He [Bruce Barnes] shook his head when he heard about the break-in. "It's becoming epidemic," he said. "It's as if the inner city has moved to the suburbs. We're no safer here anymore."
He [Rayford] wanted to tell Bruce to keep praying, that she must still be thinking about things. Maybe the invasion of the house had made her feel vulnerable. Maybe she was getting the point that the world was much more dangerous now, that there were no guarantees, that her own time could be short.
While they [Rayford and Chloe] were out, Rayford bought items that needed to be replaced right away, including a TV...
Most important, he [Rayford] armed the security system.
"Things are getting so strange," she [Hattie] said. "You know I have a sister who works in a pregnancy clinic."
"Uh-huh," Rayford said. "You've mentioned it."
"They do family planning and counseling and referrals for terminating pregnancies."
"Right."
"And they're set up to do abortions there."
Hattie seemed to be waiting for some signal of affirmation or acknowledgment that he was listening. Rayford grew impatient and remained silent.
"Anyway," she said, "I won't keep you. But my sister told me they have zero business."
"Well, that would make sense, given the disappearances of unborn babies." [Rayford replied]
"My sister didn't sound too happy about that."
"Hattie, I imagine everyone's horrified by that. Parents are grieving all over the world."
"But the women my sister and her people were counseling wanted abortions." [emphasis original]
Rayford groped for a pertinent response. "Yes, so maybe those women are grateful they didn't have to go through with the abortion itself."
"Maybe, but my sister and her bosses and the rest of the staff are out of work now until people start getting pregnant again."
"I get it. It's a money thing."
"They have to work. They have expenses and families."
"And aside from abortion counseling and abortions, they have nothing to do?"
"Nothing. Isn't that awful? I mean, whatever happened put my sister and a lot of people like her out of business, and nobody really knows yet whether anyone will be able to get pregnant again."
Rayford had to admit he had never found Hattie guilty of brilliance, but now he wished he could look into her eyes. "Hattie, um, I don't know how to ask this. But are you saying your sister is hoping women can get pregnant again so they'll need abortions and she can keep working?"
"Well, sure. What is she going to do otherwise? Counseling jobs in other fields are pretty hard to come by, you know."
He nodded, feeling stupid, knowing she couldn't see him. What kind of lunacy was this? He shouldn't waste his energy arguing with someone who clearly didn't have a clue, but he couldn't help himself.
"I [Rayford] guess I always thought clinics like the one where your sister works considered these unwanted pregnancies a nuisance. Shouldn't they be glad if such problems disappear, and even happier- except for the small complication that the human race will eventually cease to exist- if pregnancies never happen again?"
The irony was lost on her. [emphasis added]
"They need unwanted pregnancies because that's their business." [Hattie added]
"Sort of like doctors wanting people to be sick or injured so they have something to do?"
"Now you've got it, Rayford."
Labels: Left Behind
In the Dark of the Night, Sex City is in panic because of the terrible SPERMINATOR whose sole mission is to infect all citizens with various sexually transmitted infections.
Who do you call? THE SEX SQUAD! An elite team of superheroes dedicated to keeping the citizens of Sex City safe from STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections). It's up to you to help the Sex Squad stop The Sperminator and save Sex City. [emphasis original]
Labels: disease, Drek is Amused, medicine, sex, video games
Labels: Drek is Amused, hoax, pseudoscience, vaccines
WHY IS IT AUTOMATICALLY ASSUMED THAT CHRISTIANS WERE INVOLVED IN THIS?!??!
ROMAN CATHOLICS ALSO USE THE CROSS AS A SYMBOL!!!! [emphasis original]
Labels: blogging, Drek is Serious, humor, religion
"then return to Rayford and Chloe, who have gotten into all sorts of trouble since we last checked in."
Really don't want think about that. This is what happens when you let your daughter drive stick.
By the time of the evening network news, a new international star had been born. He even had a nickname: Saint Nick.
He [Carpathia] had carefully avoided specific talk of global disarmament. His was a message of love and peace and understanding and brotherhood, and to quit fighting seemed to go without saying.
"Until he proves otherwise, I'm [Buck] just going to trust Nicolae Carpathia."
"Hmph," Steve said.
"What?"
"It's just that usually you work the other way around. You distrust someone until they prove otherwise."
"Well, it's a new world, Steve. Nothing's the same as it was last week, is it?"
Rayford pulled into his driveway with a sack of groceries on the seat beside him. He had gotten hold of Hattie Durham, who wanted to keep him on the phone talking until he begged off. She was delighted with the dinner invitation and said she could come three nights later, on Thursday.
Rayford guessed he was half an hour behind Chloe, and he was impressed that she had left the garage door open for him. When he found the door locked between the garage and the house, however, he was concerned. He knocked. No answer.
Rayford walked around the Jeep at the end. Raymie's stuff was missing! His bike. His four-wheeler. What was this?
Rayford jogged to the front door. The window of the storm door was broken and the door hung on one hinge. The main door had been kicked in. No small feat, as the door was huge and heavy with a dead bolt. The entire frame had been obliterated and lay in pieces on the floor of the entryway. Rayford rushed in, calling for Chloe.
"Oh, Daddy!" she said, crying. "Are you all right? I came in through the garage and saw all that stuff missing. I thought maybe they'd come back, so I locked the door to the garage and was going to lock the front, but I saw the glass and wood and everything, so I ran out the back. I'm three doors down now."
"This kind of crime is up two hundred percent here in the last week alone," the officer said. "The bad guys know we don't have the time or manpower to do a blessed thing about it."
Rayford embraced Chloe, who was still shaking. "Can you do me a favor, Dad?" she said.
"Anything."
"I want another copy of that video, the one from the pastor."
"I'll call Bruce, and we'll pick one up tonight."
Suddenly Chloe laughed.
"Now this is funny?" Rayford said.
"I just had a thought," she said, smiling through her tears. "What if the burglars watch that tape?"
Labels: Left Behind
Wiccan cadets and officers on the Colorado Springs base have been convening for over a decade, but the school will officially dedicate a newly built circle of stones on about March 10, putting the outdoor sanctuary on an equal footing with the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels on the base.
"When I first arrived here, Earth-centered cadets didn't have anywhere to call home," said Sgt. Robert Longcrier, the lay leader of the neo-pagan groups on base.
"Now, they meet every Monday night, they get to go on retreats, and they have a stone circle."
The Air Force Academy, stung several years ago by accusations of Christian bias, has built a new outdoor worship area for pagans and other practitioners of Earth-based religions.
But its opening, heralded as a sign of a more tolerant religious climate at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., was marred by the discovery two weeks ago of a large wooden cross placed there.
...
In 2004, an academy survey found that many cadets felt that evangelical Christians were imposing their views and harassing non-Christians at the school.
The following year, an Air Force task force determined that there was no overt discrimination but the academy had failed to accommodate the religious needs of some cadets. Since then, the academy has worked to change that, Van Winkle said.
Labels: Drek is Annoyed, news, religion
Labels: Drek is Amused, humor, laziness, religion, YouTube
Do I take care of you, or what?" [Steve asked, grinning seductively]
"Unbelievable," Buck said. "How much time do we have?"
"A little over an hour," Steve said, rising...
Oh, c'mon.
Chloe hesitated. "It's eerie in there when you're by yourself isn't it?" she said.
"A little. But we've got to get used to it."
"You're right," she said quickly. "They're gone. And I don't believe in ghosts. I'll be fine. But don't be too long."
At the post-U.N.-appearance press conference for Nicolae Carpathia of Romania, Buck briefly found himself the center of attention. Someone recognized him and expressed surprise and pleasure that he was alive.
Carpathia spoke in the same impassioned and articulate tones he had used in his speech. Buck wondered if this was always the same, in public or private. Whatever else he brought to the world scene, he had a mastery of spoken communication second to none.
Carpathia went on to discuss the various peacekeeping military actions the U.N. had taken since the Korean conflict of the 1950s. "As you know," he said, speaking again of things long before he was born,
"I [Carpathia] have asked Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig of Israel to work with a team to try to make sense of this great tragedy and allow us to take steps toward preventing anything similar from ever happening again."
"Dr. Rosenzweig and his team of renowned scholars is close to the discovery of an atmospheric phenomenon that may have caused the vanishing of so many people instantaneously."
"Dr. Rosenzweig believes that some confluence of electromagnetism in the atmosphere, combined with an as yet unknown or unexplained atomic ionization from the nuclear power and weaponry throughout the world, could have been ignited or triggered- perhaps by a natural cause like lightning, or even by an intelligent life-form that discovered this possibility before we did- and caused this instant action throughout the world." [Carpathia added]
"How is that different from the idea of aliens from outer space zapping everybody?" [a reporter asked]
"It is not wholly different," Carpathia conceded, "but I am more inclined to believe in the natural theory, that lightning reacted with some subatomic field."
"At this point they [Rosenzweig's team] are postulating that certain people's electricity made them more likely to be affected. That would account for all the children and babies and even fetal material that vanished. Their electromagnetism was not developed to the point where it could resist whatever happened." [Carpathia answered]
"What do you say to people who believe this was the work of God, that he raptured his church?" [a reporter asked]
Carpathia smiled compassionately. "Let me be careful to say that I do not and will not criticize any sincere person's belief system. That is the basis for true harmony and brotherhood, peace and respect among people."
"I [Carpathia] do not accept that theory because I know many, many more people who should be gone if the righteous were taken to heaven. If there is a God, I respectfully submit that this is not the capricious way in which he would operate. By the same token, you will not hear me express any disrespect for those who disagree."
Labels: Left Behind