On the subject of churches

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

You know, the thing that bugged me about people getting upset about Barak Obama's politically active pastor (in the classic and in my opinion patriotic American sense of “distrust the government”) at a so-called “Black Church” while simultaneously ignoring the fact that McCain goes to a truly nutty apocalyptic death cult White Church is that Black Churches are super cool… I also think that this style of church is much more than Christianity (which I'm no fan of) — it's a vessel for social consciousness, and I think that's something that “Jesus” (mythical or not) would definitely prefer to “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran“.

Oh yeah, and this was on the news…

Does that mean I get my soul back?

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Family Portrait Finished

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

This painting is finished off and hanging in my hallway now. You can click to zoom in. The panels, clockwise from top-left are:

  1. The sun and moon.
  2. The house that we all built ourselves.
  3. Me, Caitlin, and Nefarious.
  4. A princess being scared by a werewolf (not sure how this fits into the story).

family-portrait.jpg

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Misadventure

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

I'm not quite sure exactly how I achieved it, but I managed to slam my head in a car door this evening and gave myself a concussion (to say nothing of a huge bruise on my temple that made it hard to eat because it hurts to open my mouth). Yowch. I'm OK, but I'm going to put off posting stuff to ModBlog until tomorrow morning if I don't die in my sleep, haha (not likely)…

I put some wires on paintings today and hung them up around the house, and last night I finished off another… Now BB9 and wondering if McCain can get elected and kick-off the apocalypse.

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Pollution vs Cancer

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

So there were two “map” stories on Digg recently; first one that showed the breakdown of colon cancer by state, and then one that mapped CO2 emissions… As you can see below, and as I'm sure is no surprise, they line up pretty closely. I have no doubt that you could line up any number of similarly unpleasant stats and draw a variety of conclusions, but the underlying reality is pretty clear no matter how you look at it — living in polluted, populated, industrialized environments is extremely unhealthy.

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Woodpecker

Monday, April 7, 2008

You know, usually the “green homes” that hit the mainstream blogs are pretty questionable — green, yes, but generally outrageously expensive. Part of what interests me about many of the technologies inside the “green” space is that they can be done without a mortgage on minimal savings and income. That's why I was quite happy to see this list of green homes which is pretty good throughout, and includes primarily methods than a person on a “drop out, tune in” life could achieve.

The only problem with these building methods is that there are less and less places that will legally let you build them. Building codes are both a way for lawyers to draw borders for lawsuit eligibility, and a way for “professionals” — corporate builders — to use the muscle of the legal system to restrict the right of people to build their own shelter on their own land… I don't think a building code has ever worked in the favor of someone looking to build their own green house.

Anyway, tons of birds out today on our two-plus hour hike… I'm really tired! I think I'm going to finish off the painting I recently posted, and crash out…

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