Letters to the Editor
Tobbar
Published Letters: 159 Editor's Choice: 9
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Ratchet it up!
[Read the article: Swift-boat this]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Allen: "The Allen campaign responded by saying that it never meant to question Webb's patriotism."
Webb: "You're God damn right you're not questioning my patriotism, Felix."
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Why we like Miranda-
[Read the article: Sympathy for the she-devil]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As I've admitted in the past- in spite of the fact that they are, technically, the 'Bad Guys', I and a number of my friends find ourselves rooting for the Evil Queen. MOstly 'cause they are far more interesting than the good guys.
Really, who didn't thrill when the Snow Queen rode out in that triple-polar-bear-powered chariot in Chronicles of Narnia? Shivers!
And the Evil Queen from Mirrormask runs a very efficient evil staff meeting, you have to admit. Plus, you know, she's queen.
And, of course, Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, while not specifically 'evil' was not specifically 'very helpful', or perhaps it would be better to say 'she likes to fuck with people's heads.'
Galadriel: "One of your members of your fellowship may be about to turn against you. Is it you? You? How about you? Hah! I'm not telling who! PUt that between two pieces of Lembas and chew it!"
Galadriel: "Oh, don't mind me... just out at 3:00am looking in my magic future-revealing mirror. Sayyyy, you wouldn't want to look, would you?"
Frodo: "Does it really show the future?"
Galadriel: "Mayyybe."
And takin' it back to '88, Queen Bavmorda was the best thing about Willow. No rings to rule them all, no painfully obvious Achille's heel. YOu want magic? How about I turn your army into pigs- that magic enough for you, sport?
Shivers!
Takin' it back further, who can forget the Evil Queen from Heavy Metal. You know, the one who went after the Loc Nar without bothering to put on a freakin' shirt. Whose own minions shrugged and said, "She's queen... she can do what she wants."
Of course, we can't let the evil queen win in fantasy movies, so the closest we get is TDWP.
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What a coincidence!
[Read the article: The disbeliever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just finished THE END OF FAITH on Wednesday night and dis a quick re-read of Salon's review of it (and found the review terribly skewed).
Anway, as always, let me state that there is no god, there is no soul, there is no afterlife. And, dear reader, I specifically mean YOUR god, YOUR soul, and YOUR afterlife.
Lose a little family? Unless you're looking at a picture of them you are not going to see them again. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
Bothersome? Feel free to cry yourself to sleep and get over it, or at least stop talking to and about your imaginary friends to me.
It is, of course, the lie of the afterlife- that you can cheat death- that powers all of this foolishness. Crazy, isn't it, that people can live lives of utter self-inflected misery all because they believe in an afterworld of paradise that doesn't exist. What a tragic waste. Waste, I say!
What else do I usually say... the standard line about religion being a parasite, feeding off of and weakening an otherwise healthy society. There's usually soemthing about good people doing good works in spite of their religeious beliefs, not because of them.
Oh, and I'm confident that the various sciences will give us good explinations for it all. Why we seem to have a Jebbus believen' gene, and how that gene's expression may have helped some early human sort deal with the constant stress of confrontatin with the unknown that comes with a questioning mind, and how that behaviour could have given a slight edge to the bonding of a group of said sorta humans and thus increase survival of offspring, blah blah blah.
Or not. And you know what, that would be fine 'cause I'm the one who has to know the (T)ruth! I'm happy realizing that confrotning unknows (and they can be pretty scary) is part of our limited time on this earth. And that once that time ends, so do we.
I am also moved to preach the prophecy of the MRI. The MRI (along with a host of other tools and scientific disciplines) is gonna change EVERYTHING. Someday we really will know who is naughty and who is nice. Someday we'll get someone in an MRI who has a transcendental experience and have empircal evidence of what actually happens inside your melon that causes it. And thence, likely, a recipe to follow to up the odds that you can teach someone else to have one, too. Someday we'll be dropping freckle faced 18 year olds into MRS and running some tests before we drop 'em into some third world hell-hole to kill and risk being killed, then we'll drop 'em back into the MRI and get evidence of the truism that, what do you know, war really does change people.
It will be a terrifying time, putting to rest the idea of souls and maybe even free will itself. Do we use the newfound knowledge to weed out the sociopaths? Can I help?
Anyway, for the all folks o' faith that made it this far. Drop it. Drop! It! Just like you would any other filthy habit.