Soul-Devouring Worry
¤ Parents and part time jobs.

Life's Too Short For:
¤ Being eternally amused by kitty-based antics.

Curse of the Day:
¤ May you no longer savor pizza as you once did.

Phrase of the Moment:
¤ Phrase: "The"
¤ Usage: "Let's go shop for The sex toys."
¤ Synonyms: N/A
¤ Deviations: None.
¤ Origin: Unknown.
¤ Notes: This one is all in the usage. While there's nothing unusual about saying "the noun," what makes it funny is that we use it constantly, and inappropriately, such as before proper nouns.  "I hate that new commercial for The McDonald's." for instance.  It's a sort of mock emphasis and formality and official-ness that spices up uneventful things.

Sadly, it's also a very verbal thing that doesn't translate very well into text; such as this description. -- October 13, 2003

I'd write more but it's late and I'm trying to cut down on the length of these somewhat, or at least the time I spent writing them, since I have a lot of other work I need to do.  I did way too much on D2 site stuff the last couple of days, spending several hours formatting a ridiculously-long guest article, and also updating the FotD archives, adding some new FAQ questions, and more.  Not that that stuff was bad to do, but when they're coming at the expense time I could have spent doing things that I actually want in my future...

Anyway, here's some news, before I descend entirely into self-lamentation.

¤ Amusing story of the "Why are they imprisoning him when he deserves a medal?" type.

The hairdresser, her assistant and "the doctor", who operated from the same premises, were reportedly overpowered and tied up before the group, all thought to be in their 20s and 30s, ransacked the apartment. Disappointed by their meagre booty, the attackers allegedly threatened to rape the two women unless they told them where the rest of their money was hidden. At this point the doctor managed to free himself, seize a knife from one of the aggressors and deliver a series of lethal stab wounds.

Investigators found the body of one man, who had been stabbed in the heart, sprawled on the staircase and another man bleeding to death in the street from a wound to his leg. A third man is recovering in hospital from a punctured lung. The doctor was found crouching in the entrance to the building with cuts to his shoulder, face and hands.

Investigators are trying to determine whether he inflicted the injuries while defending himself inside the apartment, or hunted down the burglars after they had fled.

There were four burglars, so apparently one of them got away.  I can't imagine why they are worrying about whether the victim is guilty of anything or not; when they should be hunting down the fourth criminal attacker.  In my court, if you are innocent and law-abiding and someone tries to kill you, or enters your home and ties you up and steals your shit and threatens to hurt you or your family, they deserve death. I don't care if it takes you five years to track them down and take your revenge, you are entitled to any measures you feel are necessary to teach them a lesson.

Now in this case, I could see if the "doctor" got untied and pulled a gun and the four attackers were surrendering, or trying to run, and he chased them down and gunned them down.  I mean he might have had to do that out in public, where a bullet could miss the target, or pass through one of their bodies and that would endanger innocent people.  In that case I might penalize him for unsafe handling of a firearm, or noise pollution, or something like that.

But in this case, a knife fight to the death with potentially murderous and raping attackers... he's a hero, in my world.  The four attackers were dangerous criminals, as far as he knew.  They might have killed other people during their past crimes, they might kill in future crimes, and hell, for all you know they might come back and kill you tomorrow if they escape.  A person threatens you with a weapon, you have to assume the worst case scenario, and react accordingly.

And yes, it's very easy for me to say this here, in my safe little condo with Malaya and the two kitties.  But I just hope I'd be man enough to do what had to be done to make the community a safer place, if I were ever put into that sort of situation.

¤ Interesting article that Malaya sent to me this morning is now one of the most popular on Yahoo.  It's about the steady decline of organized religion in Europe, and some possible reasons why.  Unlike the usual wire service article, it's more than about 500 words long, and really goes into detail about things, with facts, figures, and analysis.

Christianity has boomed in the developing world, competing successfully with Islam, deepening its influence and possibly finding its future there. But Europe already seems more and more like a series of tourist-trod monuments to Christianity's past. Hardly a month goes by when the pope does not publicly bemoan that fact, beseeching Europeans to rediscover the faith.

Their estrangement has deep implications, including the prospect of schisms in intercontinental churches and political frictions within and between countries.

The secularization of Europe, according to some political analysts, is one of the forces pushing it apart from the United States, where religion plays a potent role in politics and society, shaping many Americans' views of the world.

Americans are widely regarded as more comfortable with notions of good and evil, right and wrong, than Europeans, who often see such views as reckless.

In France, which is predominantly Catholic but emphatically secular, about one in 20 people attends a religious service every week, compared with about one in three in the United States.

For people such as myself, who have long since thrown off any need for religion, this sort of thing seems logical and inevitable. As man grows more and more able to explain things that used to be unexplainable and mysterious, and society evolves further and further away from how it used to be, back when the various ancient holy writings were put to paper, why should we continue to cling to ancient superstitions?  Poor people in third world nations do, since they are primitives in terms of education and society, and require simple solutions to complicated problems.  They want people to tell them how to think and what to do, since their own lives are so desperate, and fairy tales about eternal rewards in the afterlife are about all they have to look forward to as they struggle to survive day to day.

For me, the wonder isn't that Europe has moved beyond needing religion, it's that the US hasn't.  The US used to be the world leader in so many areas, and while we still have the largest economy and most powerful military and most influential culture, for some reason the whole age of myth still lingers over the national discourse.

I feel (with basically nothing to back my feeling up) that far, far fewer Americans really give a shit about their church or religion in general than the surveys say do.  There is a small core group of people who really are religious, but they wield undue influence on a national level, and keep the whole concept of "you should be religious" alive.  This leads the vast majority, who are fence-sitters, to feel guilty about not really being religious anymore and to say that they are more devout than they really are.  Other fence sitters hear that, and think they should pretend to be religious since it's bad to not be, and so on.  It sort of self-perpetuates a misleading public front.

How or if this will change is open to debate.  I think it will, eventually, but that it will take role models and courageous people.  To draw a poor parallel, homosexuality didn't really become acceptable until there were more and more famous people willing to admit to being gay, and more and more average people who let it be known that they were gay.  Once the majority saw that there were plenty of normal gays, they got over their homophobia.  Or most of it, anyway.

The difference is that aside from those amusing Darwin Jesus Fish stickers, how does a normal person show their non-religious nature, so as to encourage others who may not have quite evolved to their level of free thought? There are lots of atheist celebrities, but very few of them make any effort to publicize this, and when it comes to politics it's even harder to be open about not walking the path of Jesus, at least in the US. So long as the illusion persists that morality and righteousness and decency are somehow tied in to being religious, almost all politicians (who are a gutless breed, for the most part) will feel a need to pretend to be devout in order to not offend voters.

I seem to lack a solution or conclusion to this topic.  It doesn't make me want to move to Europe or NZ or Oz (at least no more than I already wanted to), all of which are far less religious than the US, mostly since the supposed religious nature of the US virtually never enters into my life.  I think judges who put up Ten Commandments statues in courthouses and Christians who harass their schools about not pushing mandatory prayer on the children are idiots, and an embarrassment to America in the 21st Century.  But since none of that really touches my life, it's relatively easy to ignore.  I'm pretty charitable about the whole thing; I think religious people are deluded and wasting a lot of time and mental energy on fantasies that society should have long since outgrown, but if that's what they need to get them through the day, oh well.  I'm not of the "angry atheist" mentality anymore, where I feel like I've just thrown off the shackles of superstition, and that everyone else should do so as well, or it's like a personal insult to me.  I just figure that as I came through my superstitious leanings on my own, I should leave other people alone to get through them as well.

Of course this is exactly the opposite technique of most religions, where the faithful are urged to attempt to convert the non-believing, and rein in the straying flock.  Which probably explains why there are 50,000 nutty religious cults on earth, and approximately zero atheist ones.

¤ Newsweek has a big cover story on poor downtrodden Rush Limbaugh this week, by Evan Thomas.  The article is sympathetic and sensitive and understanding, all traits that Rush himself never showed towards any other person in his current situation. Some bloggers aren't real happy about the tone of Newsweek's big wet kiss, and this one in particular is an enjoyable read, as they parse the wording and tone of the article into a sort of Rush-speak.  I'll quote a few of the entries.

Evan Thomas of Newsweek says:		UggaBugga responds:
Her motive remained murky ...		Bullshit. 100% top-grade bullshit. She was worried about taking the rap should Limbaugh get caught. That was in the news reports, Evan.
Journalists who have spent time with Limbaugh have been struck by the contrast between Rush the Radio Know-It-All and the private, ill-at-ease Limbaugh.		Yep, we should all reach out and comfort a multi-millionaire who complains when moms on welfare have "luxuries" like a microvave oven. (We vividly remember that rant from a while back.)
Limbaugh’s dependence on painkillers began after an unsuccessful back surgery in the late ’90s.		Prove it.

In other Rush the Junkie news, there's a damn funny editorial in a St. Louis paper that channels Rush, as he would have talked if Bill Clinton had been the one to come out with a pill popping addiction. I haven't listened to that much Rush in my life, but it sounds pretty dead on to me.  The whole nasty innuendo and insinuation without really coming out and saying something is a vintage Rush smear tactic.

"I know what liberals are going to say: 'This is a time for compassion.' Let me be very clear about this, folks. I have compassion. But my compassion is for all the people who believed in the guy. He was their shining star. He could do no wrong. But you know something? I probably don't have to worry. Because his followers are going to still believe in him. That's the thing about liberals! You can't convince them! You can show them the facts. You can say, 'Look, here is what he really said, and here is what he really did,' but they don't want to know the truth. That's the big difference between them and us. Liberals are afraid of the truth."

Need further evidence to support my frequent "candles are a goddamned rip off" argument?  Check these out.  $20 for candles with a little mold of an animal attached to them.  How do I know they're a rip off?  They have one with a tiger on it that's identical to these at a TJ Maxx not too far from our condo, and it's $6.

Of course being as it's a white tiger, I immediately dubbed it the "Sigfried and Roy memorial candle" which cracked Malaya up.  She's not as cruel and twisted as me, but she is very good at appreciating my cruel and twisted jokes. Which is more than I can say about most people.

I also liked this comment, from Mike:

Fantastic! Truly I think all us guys would still be sitting around in caves if it were up to us (and our lives were not actually controlled by women). Another way for you to get some recognition, and some practice, would be by getting a short story printed in a sci-fi or fantasy magazine.

Don't let my idea distract you though. Publishing and distributing a small run book is going to be a fantastic experience for you. You'll learn a lot about the finances of the business as well as how to turn a "story" into a book. I do not know the numbers myself, but I bet you that the actual cost of this will be higher than whatever $ amount you have in your head right now.

He's right about the women motivating men part; my biggest pusher to get something finished and published was always my mom, at least until I hooked up with Malaya.  Now you could point out that both are women who love me and want the best for me, and you'd be correct, but hey, who else but people who care about you are going to take the time to encourage you to be the best you can be?

As for the financial issue that Mike mentions, I have no idea, but I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful girlfriend who is very interested in financial wheelings and dealings and likes to research things and comparison shop.  I hate doing that sort of thing, so it's nice that Malaya compliments my weak spot so well.

As for the actual work involved in editing old stories and writing new ones, I got through a couple of old ones yesterday and today, and they weren't bad.  All I have done with them thus far is read over them and put them into a readable format, but I can see them being publicly presentable with a bit of editing.

Dusty was far more adventurous, and got up close enough to get a good look, and he would have gotten a good sniff as well if he'd been like, Pinocchio Kitty.  Neither he nor Jinx showed any consideration for attacking the snake, or being scared of it; there wasn't any hissing or back arching or anything.  They just knew it was something weird and alive, and were fascinated, but wanted to stay well back from the creature.

As for the snake, it showed no awareness of anything in the room at any time, beyond the actual surface it's belly was in contact with.  But then snakes aren't all that bright. I had gotten it out to wash it off and clean out its tank, and while waiting for the aquarium to dry so I could put a layer of newspaper back into it I brought Snakers inside and wore him for a bit.  Malaya held him some also, but soon grew bored with his motionlessness, so I put him down on top of the scratching post, figuring he'd crawl down it pretty quickly and I'd have to pick him up before he vanished beneath the couch or something.  That's usually the way of things.

This went on for about half an hour, and there is no payoff or conclusion; it was just a couple of cats looking at a snake who was oblivious to the whole thing.  The cats are far too large for the snake to even consider trying to eat, and the snake was far too weird and curious for the cats to consider getting anywhere near.  Dusty was quite nervous the whole time, despite his fascination.

This last shot was taken fairly early on, but I'm posting it last since it's the best of the lot. Look at those eyes on the Dusters.

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