Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 159 Editor's Choice: 9
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Great Essay
[Read the article: "Beowulf" vs. "The Lord of the Rings"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'll probably end up seeing the movie, although my hopes for it are pretty low.
For my money, 13th Warrior is still the Beowulf movie to beat (although I haven't seen Beowulf and Grendel yet). 13th W. did many things right, as far as capturing the spirit of the original work. It wallows in foreignness- Ibn Al Fadan is himself from a foriegn culture (the Middle East during the European Dark Ages), who finds himself caught up in the affairs of yet more outlandish foreigners (Beowulf and his band), who are trying to confront yet another foreign entity- the neaderthals.
I'm not sure if you could ever really make a true adaptation of the original poem. As I remember it, it starts in Hrothgar's grandfather's life, and then a bunch of stuff happens, and then the hall is built, and then the monster comes, and then Beowulf comes, and then we follow Beowulf to the end of his life. There was also a lot of introducing oneself in light of the various conflicts and border clashes that dominated the time.
So, it's a tall order.
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Hillary Clinton must be in a nightmare-
[Read the article: Hostages taken at Clinton office]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]- of secret service, police, and political advisors right now.
That must suck.
Hope nobody gets shot/blown up.
And, as I've said before: Hillary Clinton in '08.
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Cut the ties
[Read the article: I secretly hate myself]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let me add my voice to the chorus of people telling you that you should cut ties with your parents.
What you do is set up an account for their use in their twilight years and have a little money automatically deducted from each paycheck and put into that account. They get the money in 20 years or whatever. Social contract/adopting you/presents/college? Got 'em covered!
The last communication you have with them is that you tell them about the account and that you are done with them. No calls, no visits, you will not attend their funerals, you will not attend any other family functions where they may be. Line in the sand.
I would also recommend you look into some books about sociopaths. Most people associate that word with psychopath or the Hitlers and Stalins of the world. In fact, most sociopaths are-- and I'm going to all caps this to drive the point home-- EXACTLY LIKE YOUR MOTHER. Your father is most likely not a sociopath, but at this point he's damaged goods beyond repair. In fact, he most likely let your mother abuse you to take the relentless heat off of him.
Cutting ties with your parents is easy enough. They ruined your childhood, they thrive on ruining your adulthood. By cutting ties you will take control, you will make the Big Decision.
What will be difficult about this endeavor is all the other people who will be shocked at what you've done. Like all good hollow men, your mother has never done anything overt, she's never crossed the line into physcial or sexual abust-- the things that would allow you to flee with sympathy from others. You will get almost NO sympathy from others for this course of action. It will most likely be very annoying for the first year or so.
Right now there is no pop culture model for dealing with the sociopath parent. That's what makes this so hard. Maybe the grandmother out of "That 70s Show", maybe the Cotton-Finally-Dies episode of "King of the Hill" is about as close as you can get. Almost every other family drama pretty much ends with the parent being affectionatly misguided. So that's what makes it such an uphill battle against the third parties of your life who just don't get it.
That's annoying, but you've already been through much worse.
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Haught will have to do better than this-
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]-if he wants to actually change anybody's mind. But, as I 've said before, I don't think changing minds is really what this is about. What the dozens of books coming from the believers refuting Dawkins, Hitches, Harris, and the others are about is keeping butts in seats. A little literary slieght of hand to keep the faithful faithful and not thinking too hard about these issues.
A few things jump out at me, most of which have already been stated by people far more knowledgable and eloquent than I am:
That the "new atheism" isn't really new. Well, duh. When something is right it is right. It doesn't have to be "new" or even particularly modified.
If Dawkins lampoons a cartoonish type of believer, does that mean that Ted Haggard and the millions of people who watch and follow him aren't in the majority? Or perhaps Haught's "faith" is what is in the minority?
All this "athiesim leads to emptiness and nihlism" stuff. I guess it may lead to nihlism to a believer who can’t admit that he was wrong. It’s the religious who keep saying that life is meaningless- and what they mean is “life without my delusion is meaningless”, or “my way or the highway”.
The mutatins are random, natural selection is not. Get it right (although Paulson gets this wrong, but Haught doesn't bother to correct him on it).
“Layered Explinations” Cop out!
Re: science as dogma. Sure. You win. It’s a kind of dogma- the kind that works and you can prove.
What is this “truth” he keeps speaking of? The believers always talk about "truth", which is what, exactly?
Humans as natures most important development- utter horseshit! Geez, give a monkey a brain and he thinks he's the center of the universe.
I do have to give props to Haught for recognizing crap (ID) when he sees it, but his end goal is to make his god innaccessable to science and/or to kind of weaken the endeavors of science from within.
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Droogoy, Lynx
[Read the article: The atheist delusion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you're still following this thread, would you be willing to contact me regarding global warming? I saw your comments on the "Desperate Scientists" article, but the thread was closed by the time I got to it. Maybe you can help me fill in some of the gaps of my knowledge.
Contact me at auntieentity@hotmail.com
Thanks!