George Aar

Laleo. Do I ever wonder about these things? Well, no, I'm a completely unique individual who, unlike every other human who has ever existed, NEVER has considered any of that stuff. ;) Sure, I've considered it. I have just found that religion is entirely inadequate in explaining any of it. Religion doesn't encourage thoughtful investigation or questioning. On the contrary, it's quite the norm for the religiously disposed to cop a "My way or the highway" attitude. So if you have burning questions like "Why does God allow evil to exist?" or even "Why did my favorite aunt Julie die?, rather than delving into it and honestly searching out how that could be, we get spin or dodge. "God HAS to in order to be just." or "Well, it's all according to God's plan. We can't know the mind of the Almighty", and such. Like I said, entirely inadequate, well, for me anyway... And as for whether "evil" exists or not, well, like Oak said, I think we need to define our terms. Is it evil for a lion to cripple a gazelle and eat it alive? Maybe so, if you're a gazelle. Is it evil for a cornice to fall off of a building a smash a child into pulp? How about for an horribly abused child to grow up to be a horrible abuser himself? How DO you place the blame? Maybe you can just declare it all "Evil" and then feel perfectly justified in doing whatever you like about it. Personally I find the term to be of little use...

Keeds, I wish you could read it in the original! Well, the Snopes original anyway: http://snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp I always get uneasy about the veracity of such stories when they have such a neat and tidy, sitcom sortof ending. Real life seldom (does it ever?) works out so cleverly...

Roy, Just a little FYI: Hurricanes don't hit Tokyo, Typhoons do (pacific storms of hurricane force are called that). BTW, two typhoons hit Tokyo this past year (don't know their strength, but one tore things up pretty good) And, there is no such thing as a Category 6, or 7, or 8 hurricane. Category 5 is as high as the rating goes, no matter how much higher the wind speed. And regarding the meteorites doing in the "Old, great city", uh, could you be any more vague? (Likewise with the "fires in South America"!) This is precisely how dweebs like Jeanne Dixon and her ilk garner a following. Make a vague prediction of a plausible event, and when anything happens that even sorta resembles it, BINGO!, a prediction has COME TRUE! Sorry, no sale. Either get really specific or don't play, O.K.? regards,

I'm just now reading Sagan's "A Demon-Haunted World". I'd avoided Sagan for quite awhile due to his goofy on-air persona that he displayed in PBS's televised version of "Cosmos" several years ago. My bad. He was an formidable intellect. And AD-HW is a highly recommended read for anyone with a mind to understand science and the scientific perspective. He really takes pseudo-science and superstition to task for a lot of what they propound. A really interesting read...

Rightly divided? (BTW, the term - all by itself - just gives me the creeps) Nah, I don't think so. Much more likely it's a simple parlor trick. Unfortunately, it's one that allowed us to be swindled out of a good portion of our lives, due to it's seeming veracity. That's the problem with letting down one's guard with regard to "spiritual" matters. A skeptical mindset is our only hope...

"what is your favorite country song and artist, if you have any??" Sorry, I don't share your taste with regards to music. C&W is somewhat akin to noise pollution, IMHO. I'd put it right up there with "Rap" and "New Age", as in "ewww". There's jazz and there's noise, and not much else in my world, I'm afraid... Oh, but hey, Happy Birthday anyway!

Spotted Owl actually tastes more like Bald Eagle, or maybe a bit like Whooping Crane...

"How many of you still operate something you learned in the TWI?" Well, I can still be as judgemental, rude, and uncaring as ever, but it's a little harder for me to pull off the self-righteousness and holier-than-thou attitude...

For those uninclined to follow the link I posted, here's the conclusion (courtesy "The Skeptic's Dictionary"): "Mathematician David Thomas did an ELS (the supposed "code" Drosnin wrote about) on Genesis and found the words "code" and "bogus" close together not once but 60 times. What are the odds of that happening? Thomas also did an ELS analysis on Drosnin's Bible Code II: The Countdown (2002) and found the message "The Bible Code is a silly, dumb, fake, false, evil, nasty, dismal fraud and snake-oil hoax."* Does this mean that God put in a code to reveal that there is no code?"

"The other side of the Yitzak Rabin story is that Drosnin found a code that predicted the assassination of his successor, Netenyahu. As he did with Rabin, he took the information to Netenyahu, who claimed not to believe it. But he did alter his travel plans, postponing a trip to....Syria I think. Which may have saved his life." Well, then the prophecy wasn't correct, was it?

"Was Rhoda the one who played the organ?" We're talking about the musical instrument, right?

Gotta be Peter Lorre. Him and Greenstreet were the perfect pair to back up Bogey. Though I'm a die-hard Bogey fan, he did his share of clunkers. "The Big Sleep" would fall into that category IMHO (I've seen it several times and still can't figure out what the hey is going on - of course, neither did the screenwriters!), "Trouble in the North Atlantic" (a really trite wartime propoganda pic), and "Key Largo" were also all abysmal, if you ask me. Never figured out the fondness for "Key Largo" it's just so poorly done on every level. My favorite Bogey flic has still got to be "Casablanca" (yeah, no surprise there), but "The Harder They Fall" and "The Caine Mutiny" rank pretty high with me as well...

Sudo, I'm gonna take a guess that this is from "The Harder They Fall"? Dunno fer sure, just seems right, though it wasn't a hard movie to figure out, so maybe I'm wrong. I'm so confused! (it must be the Chatty Kathy influence) Wait a minute. Isn't that the closing line to "The Maltese Falcon"? I'll have another guess ready in a bit...

krysilis, Now that I'm seriously looking at other women again, I've got to say, though I've been a perennial T&A kinda guy, it's more what the woman's not packing around that I find attractive (at least at the age I'm at now). Morbid obesity is definitely a turnoff for me. Personally, I find a woman's hands to be one of the most attractive things about her. I can't even tell you why that is, but it is...

Jerry, You might want to take a look at this - somewhat more skeptical - review of Drosnin's work: http://skepdic.com/bibcode.html I particularly liked the predictions they garnered from "Moby Dick" and the further Biblical analysis at the end of the article.

Belle, "What's it like to have to pee in front of everyone else in the bathroom?" Like Ron said, never even give it a thought. "How hard is it to keep from looking around given men's general concern about size?" Not difficult at all. Again, never even give it a thought. And, maybe teenagers get real concerned with "size", but, after having been in enough locker rooms, you realize everybody is about the same size anyway (well, except for Galen, who has a special endowment apparently), so... so what? It's just not on the radar... "What's it like to grow up not being able to be modest if a guy plays sports?" I couldn't tell you that one either. I don't have the sports gene. I just don't give a %&*$. Never did... "What's it like to want to act in theater, dance or do other things considered less than masculine in the eyes of some narrow minded members of society?" I REALLY couldn't tell you anything about that one either. Never been an issue - ever...

Well, as they say, death is nature's way of telling us to slow down. Yeah, and if there's pie-in-the-sky after that, I'll be overjoyed. Just not banking on it...

Rick, I know the album was "Music From Big Pink", but what group do people confuse with this one? Sushi, The singer is Tom Waits but I don't know as I ever heard that one before. You gotta love his lyrics, but his performance is definitely an acquired taste...

Well, I'll try to give some insight into the tremendously convoluted workings of the male mind (at least from my perspective). When we're hungry we often think something like "Gee, I'd like to get something to eat". If we're tired, a common thought would be "Gosh, I'd sure like to get some rest". If we're horny, the thought process would be something along the lines of "Boy, I'd sure like to get laid". If we're short of cash, the predominant thought would be something like "Wow, I need to make some money!" And so on... Yeah, we're a complicated lot, that's fer sure... And as far as sitting "on" them, trust me, we don't do that - EVER!

When I was in Cambodia last year this was all that was on the news. The stories always developed the same way too. First they'd say that the flu had been discovered in some country's chicken population, then the health minister of that country would make a statement that there was no cause for alarm, everything was under control, they'd caught the outbreak in time and everything was going to be just fine. The next day they'd say that, well they would have to exterminate a few more birds, but not to worry. Then, the day after that they'd say that, actually, everything was totally out of their control and that they'd be destroying and burning every bird in the country immediately. Then they'd start talking about the humans who'd died as a result of contact with the birds, then say that it was an isolated incident and not to worry. Then more people would die, and then they'd just quit talking altogether. I saw it happen in China, then Thailand, then Viet Nam, then Indonesia. After that I came back home - and heard not another word. Comforting...

Let me get this straight. This is what we get after we have a national day of prayer? I don't know what you guys are praying for, but quit it!

Gosh, life can really be cruel at times, can't it? :D--> (have a Pina Colada* for me, O.K?) *It's gotta have the umbrella in it!

Well, without the ready access of the women of WayWorld, I'm sure he's probably spending a considerable amount of time shaving the palms of his hands...

You got me there Ron. I just can't explain it. It must be a miracle 'er something...

Bull$&it! http://www.snopes.com/toxins/water.htm