George Aar

T-bone, Re:"What’s your thoughts on critical thinking?" My thoughts are that it's not practiced much, either here at the cafe or in the outside world. Knee-jerk responses, 10-second sound bites, and a-priori assumptions will do just fine for most it seems. Why should we endulge in something that requires effort, when we can just subscribe to predigested aphorisms?

How fast was your house going when it hit that car?

Well, the bar-be-que is better and you can get fresh fruit too!

Well, I thought it was kinda cute up until the revisionist emailer took over. It seems there must be a cadre of frustrated, dweebish little Republicans hiding behind their computers, feverishly cranking out mediocre diatribes against supposed ills of our society. You'd think at least they could take the time to keep the writing consistant with the original author's, or - horrors!- claim ownership of their pathetic little screeds themselves. The only constants in all of such drivel that I get emailed to me is that it's so small in it's thinking, so ignorant in their view of history, and - most damning IMHO - so UNfunny...

Imagine for a moment that you live 5000 years ago. You have no knowledge of the sciences of biology, chemistry, or modern medicine. Certainly no real understanding of germs or viral infections and the like. And life is short, brutal, and unforgiving. What do you think you might do? Would superstition maybe play a key role in your day to day living? Wouldn't you try to appease the "gods" that are "out there" so as to maybe live for another day or two? And if you were going to cook up some sort of faith to believe in, something that would give you a sense of wellbeing, even when your senses tell you different, wouldn't it look a lot like what we call "Christianity" today? Or maybe Judaism, or Islam, or Hinduism, or...?

She no longer speaks. Well, after 128 years, whatta ya got left to say?

Well, at least it went for a worthy cause...

Yes, the improbability of your meeting with Loy and the denizens of Greasespot, once again highlights the power of sychronicity. Gosh...

I hardly ever pray when I kneel...

Can you get back to me on that in a couple of years?

I don't know fer shure, Kathy, but I thought it was simply about Vincent van Gogh. A tribute of sorts to his, uh, genius? I dunno. The "Starry Night" refrain was taken from the title of one of his more famous paintings.

That's "Vincent", ne?

As with any Tarantino movie I've seen, I just don't get it. I find nothing whatever to recommend this movie. Pointless, ugly, empty, interrupted by periods of empty pointlessness. Same as the other crap he's turned out. How does this guy keep a job?

Re: "I've got a theory... all this fascination with Southern redneck started soon after the CB radio craze of the middle 70's. Heck, even *I* got a CB radio and learned to "ratchet jaw" on the thing. Then they came out with those Smokey And The Bandit movies and first thing you know we've got Boss Hog wannabes and General Lee clones all over the place" Uh, Sudo, I think this might have been a peculiarly Southern phenomenon. I never noticed any such gravitation towards Southern Redneck sensibliities in my neighborhood. Even CB radio was referred to as "Chicken Band" amongst the folks I knew. There was a pronounced shifting of musical tastes towards the C&W end of the spectrum about this time, though. A trend which I rue to this day. Gawd, that stuff is awful...

JWitt, Re:"George you wouldn't be a cynic by any chance would you?" Well, I'm not entirely cynicism-free. But I prefer the title I hold currently "curmudgeon", and I'm working my way up to "cranky old bastard"...

I've found a solution in my life that works GREAT for me. I don't go to church, try not to hang out with religious zealots, and try never to even think about superstitious claptrap. What IS that point, afterall? Anyway, like I said, it works for me...

At the risk of sounding like the a-hole lots of folks think I am, Your post presupposes a number of things, ie: That it's possible to change the organization by the efforts of a few of it's members That there still are "corps" around that care about the outfit enough to try And - not the least important - that the whole pathetic, ill-conceived, debased institution is anything worth "saving" at all. Personally, I'm not convinced of any of those points...

I'm looking forward to meeting Spiderman there...

This is where the fundy's really get their exercise. They have to spin an incredible amount to make Genesis line up with real life. Maybe, if you really want to keep your faith in THE BIBLE, you could simply accept the records in Genesis - as Mo seems to do - as simply allegorical. There's no way in hell you're ever going to come up with a plausible way to get every animal on earth into a boat (a boat many times larger than the largest wooden boat ever built, BTW, and there are HUGE structural issues that come into play that somehow don't get mentioned in the biblical account), then FEED them all, care for them all, keep the carnivores from eating the herbivores, clean up the manure for what? 10 or 12 months? And this is supposedly done by EIGHT people? THEN you have to get all those critters back to where they live, the three-toed sloths have to do the backstroke across the Atlantic, the penquins to Antarctica, and the Armadillos to Texas. It's utterly absurd. And I'm not even getting into the whole concept of the event - that a "loving" heavenly father would drown the vast majority of his creation! The other "science" of The Bible is often equally flawed, IMNSHO. So my advice would be, if you're still want to remain in the ranks of Christianity, religate these accounts to being parables or morality tales, and not factual. Life will be much easier for you... Oh, and for your added reading enjoyment: http://www.catalaw.com/detox/detox.shtml?results

43, but a load of crap IMNSHO. It didn't mention how diplomatic I am...

Well, you've found me out. I've been hiding behind my personna of a fat, ugly, old, bald man long enough. It's time to drop the facade and confess - I'm actually Rob Lowe. There, I've said it...

I'm sorry, I think you're mistaken. I think WayWorld was always very strong on "sin". I'd say they actually excelled at it...

And to clarify once again my postition: I am an agnositc. It's not a squishy, not-quite-sure-of-myself position. It's a place I've arrived in my head. I think it's the only logical thing to be. There is no definitive evidence of a god or gods, unless you want to make the a-priori assumbtion that "Well, there's all this stuff, therefore - GOD!" Pretty lame reasoning, though, IMHO. But to claim atheism would indicate a certainty that I simply don't believe it's possible to have - logically. Certainly if a being was wise and powerful enough to create the entire universe, how tough would it be to keep himself undetectable by His creation? Not very, I would think. Hence, agnosticism makes sense to me, atheism, not so much...

I don't think I have any anger towards WayWorld and all it's minions anymore. I talked all that out years ago on WayDale and with former Wayfers. Today, I find the organization and all the lackies associated with it to be simply a band of pathetically deluded dips$%ts. Maybe I should regard them with a tad more respect, seeing that - in a larger view - we're all imperfect souls that share a common fate. But I don't. Sorry. Likewise with the folks that frequent this site and adamantly hold to obviously specious logic regarding VPW and his dogma. I have a vastly diminished view of them because of it. Just as I do of those that want to believe in U.F.O.s, or the healing waters of Lourdes, or the efficaciousness of crystal therapy or therapeutic touch. I can still like the folks, still have pleasant conversation with them and all, but I have serious reservations about their ability to think clearly. And sometimes I take guilty pleasure in pointing that out. Maybe I shouldn't? I dunno...

I'm thinking more along the lines of "The Humdrum Blues"...