Micronaut Resurrection?

With a special nod to my ability to fixate on things, I found an interesting interview about Micronauts in 2006 by a fellow at SOTA (State of the Art) Games. It seems they are considering re-releasing the old micronaut series in a new 6" poseable figure. Above is a picture of the Space Glider Prototype from a toy convention.

I am definitely heading for a divorce if I allow myself the luxury of going Micronaut Maniacal.

Was Yeshua really Yeshua?

(advanced apologies to Antiphon for the length of this post)

Is Yeshua Krishna?

1. Yeshua and Krishna were called both a God and the Son of God.
2. Both was sent from heaven to earth in the form of a man.
3. Both were called Savior, and the second person of the Trinity.
4. His adoptive human father was a carpenter.
5. A spirit or ghost was their actual father.
6. Krishna and Jesus were of royal descent.
7. Both were visited at birth by wise men and shepherds, guided by a star.
8. Angels in both cases issued a warning that the local dictator planned to kill the baby and had issued a decree for his assassination. The parents fled. Mary and Joseph stayed in Muturea; Krishna's parents stayed in Mathura.
9. Both Yeshua and Krishna withdrew to the wilderness as adults, and fasted.
10. Both were identified as "the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head."
11. Jesus was called "the lion of the tribe of Judah." Krishna was called "the lion of the tribe of Saki."
12. Both claimed: "I am the Resurrection."
13. Both referred to themselves having existed before their birth on earth.
14. Both were "without sin."
15. Both were god-men: being considered both human and divine.
16. They were both considered omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
17. Both performed many miracles, including the healing of disease. One of the first miracles that both performed was to make a leper whole. Each cured "all manner of diseases."
18. Both cast out indwelling demons, and raised the dead.
19. Both selected disciples to spread his teachings.
20. Both were meek, and merciful. Both were criticized for associating with sinners.
21. Both encountered a Gentile woman at a well.
22. Both celebrated a last supper. Both forgave his enemies.
23. Both descended into Hell, and were resurrected. Many people witnessed their ascensions into heaven.
- Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jckr1.htm

Is Yeshua Horus?

(1) It is written that both Horus and Jesus existed before their incarnations.
(2) Horus was born of the virgin Isis on December 25th in a cave/manger.
(3) Horus' birth was announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men.
(4) The infant Horus was carried out of Egypt to escape the wrath of Typhon. The infant Jesus was carried into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. Concerning the infant Jesus, the New Testament states the following prophecy: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." (Matt. 2:15)
(5) He was a child teacher in the temple and was baptized by “Anup the Baptizer” when he was thirty years old.
(6) He had twelve disciples and performed miracles such as feeding bread to the multitude and walking on water.
(7) He raised one man, El-Azar-us, from the dead.
(8) He transfigured on a mount.
(9) He also had titles such as the "way, the truth, the light, the Messiah, God's anointed Son, the Son of Man, the good shepherd, the lamb of God, the Word, the Morning Star, the light of the world.”
(10) He was "the Fisher," and was associated with the lamb, lion and fish ("Ichthys").
(11) Horus's personal epithet was "Iusa," the "ever-becoming son" of "Ptah," the "Father."
(12) Horus was called "KRST," or "Anointed One.”
(13) He was crucified, buried in a tomb and resurrected.
(14) The adoration of the Virgin and Child is connected with both the adoration of Isis and the infant Horus and the adoration of Mary and infant Jesus. In the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis, the original "Madonna and Child."
(15) Concerning the writing of the Gnostics, C. W. King, a noted English author, says: "To this period belongs a beautiful sard in my collection, representing Serapis,...whilst before him stands Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a wheatsheaf, with the legend: 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very term applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form, her symbols, rites, and ceremonies" (Gnostics and Their Remains, p. 71).
(16) Osiris, Isis, and Horus are the principal trinity of the Egyptian religions. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Christian trinity. Dr. Inman affirms the Egyptian roots of the Christian trinity "The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as surely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence of a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and virgins, intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of faith which deface the greater part of modern religions" (Ancient Pagan and Modem Christian Symbolism, p. 13).
(17) Dr. Draper says: "For thirty centuries the Egyptians had been familiar with the conception of a triune God. There was hardly a city of any note without its particular triads. Here it was Amum, Maut, and Khonso; there Osiris, Isis, and Horus" (Intellectual Development, Vol. I, p. 191).
(18) Dr. Draper stated: "Views of the Trinity, in accordance with Egyptian tradition, were established. Not only was the adoration of Isis under a new name restored, but even her image standing on the crescent moon reappeared. The well-known effigy of that goddess, with the infant Horus in her arms, has descended to our days in the beautiful artistic creations of the Madonna and Child." (Conflict, p. 48).
(19) Mrs. Besant believes that Christianity has its main roots in Egypt: "It grew out of Egypt; its gospels came from thence [Alexandria]; its ceremonies were learned there; its Virgin is Isis; its Christ, Osiris and Horus."
(20) There are two stories connected with Horus that is analogous to stories found in the Old Testament. The hiding of the infant Horus in a marsh by his mother undoubtedly parallels the story of the hiding of the infant Moses in a marsh by his mother. When Horus died, Isis implored Ra, the sun, to restore him to life. Ra stopped his ship in mid-heaven and sent down Thoth, the moon, to bring him back to life. The stopping of the sun and moon by Isis recalls the myth of the stopping of the sun and moon by Joshua.

Is Yeshua Mithras?

(1) Mithra was born on December 25th as an offspring of the Sun. Next to the gods Ormuzd and Ahrimanes, Mithra held the highest rank among the gods of ancient Persia. He was represented as a beautiful youth and a Mediator. Reverend J. W. Lake states: "Mithras is spiritual light contending with spiritual darkness, and through his labors the kingdom of darkness shall be lit with heaven's own light; the Eternal will receive all things back into his favor, the world will be redeemed to God. The impure are to be purified, and the evil made good, through the mediation of Mithras, the reconciler of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Mithras is the Good, his name is Love. In relation to the Eternal he is the source of grace, in relation to man he is the life-giver and mediator" (Plato, Philo, and Paul, p. 15).
(2) He was considered a great traveling teacher and masters. He had twelve companions as Jesus had twelve disciples. Mithras also performed miracles.
(3) Mithra was called "the good shepherd,” "the way, the truth and the light,” “redeemer,” “savior,” “Messiah." He was identified with both the lion and the lamb.
(4) The International Encyclopedia states: "Mithras seems to have owed his prominence to the belief that he was the source of life, and could also redeem the souls of the dead into the better world ... The ceremonies included a sort of baptism to remove sins, anointing, and a sacred meal of bread and water, while a consecrated wine, believed to possess wonderful power, played a prominent part."
(5) Chambers Encyclopedia says: "The most important of his many festivals was his birthday, celebrated on the 25th of December, the day subsequently fixed -- against all evidence -- as the birthday of Christ. The worship of Mithras early found its way into Rome, and the mysteries of Mithras, which fell in the spring equinox, were famous even among the many Roman festivals. The ceremonies observed in the initiation to these mysteries -- symbolical of the struggle between Ahriman and Ormuzd (the Good and the Evil) -- were of the most extraordinary and to a certain degree even dangerous character. Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting of flour and water, to be drunk with the utterance of sacred formulas, were among the inauguration acts."
(6) Prof. Franz Cumont, of the University of Ghent, writes as follows concerning the religion of Mithra and the religion of Christ: "The sectaries of the Persian god, like the Christians', purified themselves by baptism, received by a species of confirmation the power necessary to combat the spirit of evil; and expected from a Lord's supper salvation of body and soul. Like the latter, they also held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the 25th of December.... They both preached a categorical system of ethics, regarded asceticism as meritorious and counted among their principal virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones, situated in the upper regions, and of a Hell, peopled by demons, situated in the bowels of the earth. They both placed a flood at the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their condition, a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe" (The Mysteries of Mithras, pp. 190, 191).
(7) Reverend Charles Biggs stated: "The disciples of Mithra formed an organized church, with a developed hierarchy. They possessed the ideas of Mediation, Atonement, and a Savior, who is human and yet divine, and not only the idea, but a doctrine of the future life. They had a Eucharist, and a Baptism, and other curious analogies might be pointed out between their system and the church of Christ (The Christian Platonists, p. 240).
(8) In the catacombs at Rome was preserved a relic of the old Mithraic worship. It was a picture of the infant Mithra seated in the lap of his virgin mother, while on their knees before him were Persian Magi adoring him and offering gifts.
(9) He was buried in a tomb and after three days he rose again. His resurrection was celebrated every year.
(10) McClintock and Strong wrote: "In modern times Christian writers have been induced to look favorably upon the assertion that some of our ecclesiastical usages (e.g., the institution of the Christmas festival) originated in the cultus of Mithraism. Some writers who refuse to accept the Christian religion as of supernatural origin, have even gone so far as to institute a close comparison with the founder of Christianity; and Dupuis and others, going even beyond this, have not hesitated to pronounce the Gospel simply a branch of Mithraism" (Art. "Mithra").
(11) Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected. His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day." The Mithra religion had a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
(12) The Christian Father Manes, founder of the heretical sect known as Manicheans, believed that Christ and Mithra were one. His teaching, according to Mosheim, was as follows: "Christ is that glorious intelligence which the Persians called Mithras ... His residence is in the sun" (Ecclesiastical History, 3rd century, Part 2, ch. 5).
"I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths." - Mithraic saying
"I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright morning star." - Jesus, (Rev. 22:16)

Is Yeshua Buddha?

(1) Buddha was born of the virgin Mahamaya, who was considered the "Queen of Heaven." Dean Milman, in his "History of Christianity," stated that "Buddha, according to a tradition known in the West, was born of a virgin" (Vol. I, p. 99, note). Mary and Mahamaya all gave birth to their children among strangers. He was visited by wise men who recognized the divinity of the child. He was of royal descent and his birth was announced by a star.
(2) Werner's Encyclopedia, in its article on Buddha speaks of "the marvelous stories which gathered round the belief in his voluntary incarnation, the miracles at his birth, the prophecies of the aged saint at his formal presentation to his father, and how nature altered her course to keep a shadow over his cradle, whilst the sages from afar came and worshiped him."
(3) Both Jesus and Buddha were presented in the temple as infants for baptism. The hymns uttered at both annunciations resemble each other.
(4) Both in childhood discoursed before teachers.
(5) Jesus and Buddha were considered to be divine beings. Buddha is regarded by the Hindus as the ninth incarnation of the deity Vishnu, following Krishna. But Buddha started a new religion which did not emphasize "gods," but rather how people can become "awakened" or "enlightened" to liberate themselves from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth."
(6) The mission of both Buddha and Jesus was proclaimed by a voice from heaven.
(7) Both fasted in the wilderness and were tempted. Supernatural beings ministered to each of them.
(8) Both called their disciples with the command, "Follow me." Both sent out disciples to spread their teachings. Both performed miracles and wonders, healed the sick, fed five hundred men from a "small basket of cakes," and walked on the water.
(9) Buddha was "about 30 years old" when he began his ministry. He fasted "seven times seven nights and days." He had a "band of disciples" who accompanied him. He traveled from place to place and "preached to large multitudes." Bishop Bigandet calls his first sermon the "Sermon on the Mount." At his Renunciation "he forsook father and mother, wife and child." His mission was "to establish the kingdom of righteousness." "Buddha," says Max Mueller, "promised salvation to all; and he commanded his disciples to preach his doctrine in all places and to all men." "Self-conquest and universal charity" are the fundamental principles of his religion. He enjoined humanity, and commanded his followers to conceal their charities. "Return good for evil"; "overcome anger with love"; "love your enemies," were some of his precepts.
(10) Buddha formulated the following commandments. "Not to kill; not to steal; not to lie; not to commit adultery; not to use strong drink." This is a similar teaching attributed to Jesus: "Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother." (Luke 18:20) Christ ignored the literal interpretation of Moses and emphasized a spiritualized interpretation of the whole law taken as a whole which is to practice unconditional love. This is similar to what Buddha did with the current teachings of those days.
(11) Buddha preached on the "Holy Hill." Jesus delivered his sermon on the Mount. The phraseology of the sermons of Buddha and the sermon of Jesus is the same in many instances. Both Buddha and Jesus compared themselves to husbandmen sowing seed. The parable of the prodigal son is found in both Buddhist and Christian scriptures. So is the account of the man born blind. Both use the mustard seed as a simile for smallness. Buddha taught: "Perishable is the city built of sand." Jesus taught: "a foolish man builds his house upon the sand." Both speak of "the rain which falls on the just and on the unjust."
(12) A converted courtesan, Mary Magdalene, followed Jesus. A converted courtesan, Ambapali, followed Buddha.
(13) It is said that he crushed a serpent's head. This is also a Messianic prophecy described in Genesis in the Garden of Eden.
(14) He abolished idolatry, was a "sower of the word," and preached "the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness."
(15) He taught chastity, temperance, tolerance, compassion, love, and the equality of all.
(16) The story of the ruler, Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, has its parallel in the story of the rich man who came to Buddha by night.
(17) Both proclaimed kingdoms not of this world. The eternal life promised by Christ corresponds to the eternal peace, Nirvana, promised by Buddha.
(18) Both were transfigured on a mount.
(19) Both made triumphal entries, Christ into Jerusalem, and Buddha into Rajagriba.
(20) Buddha was considered the "good shepherd,” the "carpenter,” the "infinite and everlasting." Buddha was called the "savior of the world,” "light of the world," “Supreme Being,” and the “eternal one.”
(21) There is a legend of a traitor connected with each.
(22) Buddha is to return to earth again to restore the world to order and happiness.
(23) He is the judge of the dead.
(24) Buddha commanded his disciples to preach his gospel to all men. Christ commanded his disciples to do the same. In obedience to these commands the world was filled with missionaries, and largely as the result of this the adherents of these religious systems outnumber those of all others combined.
(25) Shortly after Buddha died, two sects of Buddhism were formed. After 400 years there were twenty different sects of Buddhism. Today there are many more. Over the millennia, the teachings of both Jesus and Buddha has spawned many different sects. Each is an attempt to keep the teachings alive under new circumstances. In 1947 in Egypt, early Christian documents were discovered which were hidden for thousands of years at the time when orders from the Church called for all heretical documents to be destroyed. One of those documents was the Gospel of Thomas which is considered by scholars to be the earliest gospel ever written and the most reliable. The Gospel of Thomas resonates with a type of Christianity that remarkably resembles Buddhism. It describes Jesus teaching the disciples how to become liberated from reincarnation. The writings of early Christianity discovered in 1947, show that early Christianity contained much more diversity of viewpoint and practice than later Christians acknowledged or even imagined. Because these teachings were smothered, many Christians today are adamant that the only path to God is via the personality of Jesus and this was considered the orthodox formula.
(26) Connected with the triumphs of these two religions there is a historical correlation worthy of mentioning. About three centuries after Buddha's death, Asoka the Great, emperor of India, converted to the Buddhist faith and made Buddhism the state religion of the empire of India at that time. This emperor did more than any other person to secure Buddhism's supremacy in the East. In the same way, about three centuries after the death of Jesus, Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome, became a convert to the Christian faith and made it the state religion of his empire. Because of this, Christianity reigned supreme in the West.
(27) Remuset says: "Buddhism has been called the Christianity of the East." It would be more appropriate to call Christianity the Buddhism of the West. Buddha, and not Christ, was "The Light of Asia." At this torch Christians lighted their taper and called it "The Light of the World."
(28) Catholic Bishop Bigandet, one of the leading Christian writers on Buddhism wrote: "In reading the particulars of the life of Buddha it is impossible not to feel reminded of many circumstances relating to our Savior's life as sketched by the evangelists. It may be said in favor of Buddhism that no philosophic-religious system has ever upheld to an equal degree the notions of a savior and deliverer, and the necessity of his mission for procuring the salvation of man."
(29) Bishop Jean Paul Hilaire wrote: "He [Buddha] requires humility, disregard of worldly wealth, patience and resignation in adversity, love to enemies ... non-resistance to evil, confession of sins and conversion."
(30) Paul Ambroise Bigandet, the Catholic Bishop of Ramatha, wrote: "There are many moral precepts equally commanded and enforced in common by both creeds. It will not be rash to assert that most of the moral truths prescribed in the gospel are to be met with in the Buddhistic scriptures."
(31) The rituals and religious structure of Catholicism resembles to a remarkable degree after those of Northern Buddhism (Lamaism) which the Encyclopedia Britannica states: "Lamaisnu with its shaven priests, its bells and rosaries, its images and holy water, its popes and bishops, its abbots and monks of many grades, its processions and feast days, its confessional and purgatory, and its worship of the double Virgin, so strongly resembles Romanism that the first Catholic missionaries thought it must be an imitation by the devil of the religion of Christ." The central object in every Buddhist temple is an image of Buddha The central object in every Catholic church is an image of Christ. Holy relics and the veneration of saints are prominent in both.


Given that there are some very serious questions as to whether Nazareth and a Charismatic Jew existed in the right time and place during the first century - and given the abundance of parallels between the mythical life of Yeshua as compared to other Mythological Figure-heads, it doesn't seem like that large a stretch to question the veracity or the accuracy of accounts of Yeshua's life.

St. Augustine - Smart Person for a 5th Century Religious Figure

Quote 1:
We must be on our guard against giving interpretations which are hazardous or opposed to science, and so exposing the word of God to the ridicule of unbelievers. --Saint Augustine, De genesi ad litteram libri duodecim (The Literal Meaning of Genesis) (415), I, nos. 19, 21, 39

Quote 2:
Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. ... Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion. [1 Timothy 1:7] --Saint Augustine, De genesi ad litteram libri duodecim (The Literal Meaning of Genesis) (415), from J. H. Taylor, transl., Ancient Christian Writers, Newman Press, 1982, volume 41.

I can't count how many times I've witnessed Deists fall into the traps Augustine of Hippo outlines in the above quotations. Pretty savvy prediction for a berber.

Planet discovered with Earth-Like Qualities

from : http://www.badastronomy.com/

The European Southern Observatory is reporting that they have found the most Earthlike planet yet orbiting another star. It has about 1.5 times the Earth’s diameter, and five times its mass. This makes it the smallest extrasolar planet yet found (two other planets have already been found orbiting that star, with 15 and 8 times Earth’s mass).

This is amazing enough! But it gets far, far better. The parent star, Gliese 581, is a red dwarf, meaning it’s smaller and cooler than the Sun. The as-yet unnamed planet orbits this star much closer than the Earth does the Sun; it stays about 11 million kilometers (6.7 million miles) from its star, while the Earth is 150 million km (93 million miles) from the Sun.

But remember, Gliese 581 is cooler than the Sun, so at this distance the planet would actually be very temperate: models show it would be between 0 and 40 Celsius! If that doesn’t grab you, then consider this:

That is warm enough for water to be a liquid.

So what we may have here is a terrestrial planet with liquid water on its surface.

Totally cool. One conceptual step closer to the possibility of a habitable galactic neighborhood? 2.5 earth g's and watery. How many Sci Fi authors are revving up their remingtons as we speak?

Insider Fan Joke of the Day.

Twenty-First Century Life: Georgia

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/23/turner.prom/index.html

Students attend school's first integrated prom

POSTED: 5:33 p.m. EDT, April 23, 2007

By Kristi Keck
CNN

ASHBURN, Georgia (CNN) -- Students of Turner County High School started what they hope will become a new tradition: Black and white students attended the prom together for the first time on Saturday.

In previous years, parents had organized private, segregated dances for students of the school in rural Ashburn, Georgia, 160 miles south of Atlanta.

"Whites always come to this one and blacks always go to this one," said Lacey Adkinson, a 14-year-old freshman at the school of 455 students -- 55 percent black, 43 percent white.

"It's always been a tradition since my daddy was in school to have the segregated ones, and this year we're finally getting to try something new," she said.

Adkinson's sister, Mindy Bryan, attended a segregated prom in 2001.

Seriously folks! This is the twentyfirst century and we still have segregation issues in the US South? I want to say there are some seriously backwards people riding on our planet, but that wouldn't be politically correct now, would it?

Micronauts Redux

Call me sentimental. Call me dumb. I bought a collectors set of 4 unopened micronaut figures on ebay for about $20. Don't tell my wife!

Iraq for Sale or Hire?

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster - in Legoland

This is awesome.
And by awesome, I mean Totally Sweet!

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/lego/fsm/

Mourning Kurt Wise's Mind

American Geologist Kurt Wise:
To Quote Richard Dawkins (and Kurt Wise) from The God Delusion (p 284-285, in hardcover):

"He took a bible and went right through it , literally cutting out every verse that would have to go if the scientific world-view were true. At the end of this ruthlessly honest and labour-intensive exercise, there was so little left of his bible that,

‘…try as I might, and even with the benefit of intact margins throughout the pages of Scripture, I found it impossible to pick up the Bible without it being rent in two. I had to make a decision between evolution and Scripture. Either the Scripture was true and evolution was wrong or evolution was true and I must toss out the Bible...It was there that night that I accepted the Word of God and rejected all that would ever counter it, including evolution. With that, in great sorrow, I tossed into the fire all my dreams and hopes in science.’ "

So here we have a person who spends literally years and tens of thousands of dollars getting what could be argued as amongst the finest of educations available in the modern world…and when faced with what he perceives as a fundamental incompatibility between the tenets of his fundamental Christian upbringing, and his science education, he is compelled to abandon…..reason in exchange for faith.

Its sad. But is it unexpected. Humanity is a species of story tellers. We tell stories to entertain ourselves. We tell stories to explain the mysteries of the universe. We tell stories constantly and infinitum. Is it a surprise that we could adopt a dogmatic belief in our stories and pass these back on to further generations…resulting in the sad situation faced by Kurt Wise?

Is this an example of credulity of thought? Is it an example of inflexibility of mind? Is it simply an example of faith prevailing over reason? What really rankles me is that this man abandoned a fine education in science for faith, and that in some circles this act would be viewed as laudable rather than laughable.

When will we stop believing in our self-created bed-time stories and abandon this irrational need for a protector sky-daddy to keep away the bogey-men of the universe?

My Lousy Trip to the Dominican Republic...

The View from our suite balcony. We were about 30 steps from the Pool Bar.

My Feet meeting the Caribbean Sea.

My Feet looking over the Caribbean Sea.

There was a stunning variety of wildlife roaming freely about the grounds.

The Beach was remarkably beautiful.

Wish I had another 2 weeks out there.

Dominican Republic - Punta Cana Trip!

Its one day before we leave for beautiful Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Nic and I are going to be staying at the Bavaro Princess Resort and Spa for a week. It is a 5 Star, all inclusive resort on the S. E. beach of the Dominican.

We are traveling with her Folks, and her brother, Andre, and his Girlfriend Kate. We will each have a villa suite to ourselves. The suites look really comfortable and cozy.

This will be the most extravegant trip we've ever taken, and frankly will be my first trip to any place remotely tropical. I'm really quite looking forward to it. The Villas look really nice. Each has its own balcony, living area, kitchenette, and king-sized bed.

The beach, of course, promises to be spectacular in every way. We have plans to go on a 'swim with the dolphins' excursion, and possibly a Manatee-World excursion where we may get to ineract with manatee's?

I'm not sad at all to say that I'll not be posting on this blog for a week or so as we'll be so far away from the internet, and so not interested in internet related things that it just won't even cross our mind. We'll post more actual "not stock" photos of our experiences when we return.

Bueno!

Micronaughts?

Straight out of ThinkGeek.com, these Acrobots remind me of a childhood toy I once had. Micronaughts were little robot men with all kinds of outlandish vehicles which "transformed" through creative assembly of various parts.

I remember fondly days spent playing with these toys. I had motorized elevator lifts, and faction "wars" and all kinds of hyper-imaginative fun with them. I even had friends come over to play Micronaught wars with me.

Ah the good old days....

I want a couple just for the sense of familiarity from my childhood toys. Hmmmm....I wonder if micronaughts still exist somewhere in the world of e-bay. Wouldn't my wife just love it if I ordered up some Collectors Item "Micronaught Super-Deluxe Dreadnaught Battle Cruiser" to display in the home theater?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/6748/

Supermarket 2.0 - Social Networking Convenience Store

glumbert.com - Supermarket 2.0

Now that's one-stop-shopping!

Sam Harris vs Rick Warren Cage Match...

From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/

Sample:
WARREN: Sam makes all kinds of assertions based on his presuppositions. I'm willing to admit my presuppositions: there are clues to God. I talk to God every day. He talks to me.

HARRIS: What does that actually mean?

WARREN: One of the great evidences of God is answered prayer. I have a friend, a Canadian friend, who has an immigration issue. He's an intern at this church, and so I said, "God, I need you to help me with this," as I went out for my evening walk. As I was walking I met a woman. She said, "I'm an immigration attorney; I'd be happy to take this case." Now, if that happened once in my life I'd say, "That is a coincidence." If it happened tens of thousands of times, that is not a coincidence.

There must have been times in your ministry when you've prayed for someone to be delivered from disease who is not—say, a little girl with cancer.

WARREN: Oh, absolutely.

HARRIS: So, parse that. God gave you an immigration attorney, but God killed a little girl.

------------------------------------------------------
My opinion:

There are some very primary examples of compartmentalization and argumentative detours in this article. Harris seems willing to butt-heads directly with the issue, but Warren appears to think very tangentially and seems to have no problems going off into a segue that is only loosely related to the question at hand.

The above sample seems to illustrate the basic compartmentalization of the faith-thinker, who sees god as omni-benevolent and is able, within this compartment, to write off the horrible stuff as 'mysterious' or 'unfathomable to imperect-humanity'.

I think Harris does well to sum it up with the statement:

HARRIS: I don't want to pretend to be certain about anything I'm not certain about.