Before I go...

Yeah, judeochristian beliefs still make no sense to me. I think I may finally be making progress with Job - which is good, and more on that later tonight after seminar - but Jesus is still freaking me out. In a big way.

How did no one think that this stuff was weird? I'd get mega-freaked after the first time he fed a gajillion people from two loaves of bread, myself.

Presenting, our allies

Man, I love our country. So do a lot of people: just look at our list of allies. They're great, great nations. Sure, some of the have a few small issues - like our Iraqi allies, who A) several years later still have no power or water in many places and B) have an unfortunate tendency to express their desire for us to get the hell out of their nation by killing our soldiers.

But this isn't about the undying wonder of our Iraqi allies. No, I'd like to point out a wonderful little blurb about our buddies the Saudis. It seems that they've sentenced a fourteen-year-old boy to death.

Although he was 13 at the time of the murder, the court treated him as an adult, based on its assessment of the coarseness of his voice and his pubic hair

I'm just so proud to call them allies. Really. I mean, I thought nothing could be the part where the vast majority of the hijackers on September 11 were Saudi (so naturally we proceeded to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, neither of which are, in fact, Saudi Arabia). But now - man, I just love those Saudis.

Go America. Go Saudi Arabia. Go Coalition of the Willing.

Hell on two wheels

There's a certain balanced beauty to riding your bike through the streets of Santa Fe. On one hand - at least if you're coming from the St. John's campus - pretty much anywhere you want to go is going to be in the same direction: down. Start on the road in front of the upper dorms, pedal a couple times, and just glide.

On the other hand, it's almost too easy. It's something like two miles from campus to the plaza area, which convienantly (for me, anyway) holds a combination of a bank, overpriced Indian/southwestern trinkets, the public library, and any number of places to get a tasty and overpriced treat. The more astute members of my audience may note that one of those does not entirely fit with the others - it's the library, which is in fact free. No, actually it's the overpriced trinkets, which I generally pay little heed to, for several reasons. One, that would just make me feel like a tourist, which I am not. Santa Fe has three and a half types of people: Natives, who are all crazy in a sort of mellow, retired-and-wealthy hippy way; Tourists, who are all crazy in a sort of touristy "ooh look mellow retired hippies!" way; and students A (CSF students, who are all...art majors or something), and students B (Johnnies, who are more or less reviled.) Anyway, I'm not a tourist, so I can't be seen browsing the Indian market. Nor do I have the financial means to buy anything there, so it's really a moot point regardless. To go back to the actual topic of this paragraph: It's almost too easy to ride that far. You can easily maintain a brisk enough pace that you will inevitably run a stop-sign, causing a couple bearded Hispanic guys in a white diesel pickup to honk at you.

On the other other hand, going off campus on a bike means that - at least for those of us un-car-having souls - you get a reprieve from your fellow Johnnies. I love this school and therefore, the students, however, there are a mere four hundred some of us and when you've spent the past week literally being kept awake at night trying to figure out either what the hell the book of Job is all about, or what on earth Kepler was talking about with his oar analogy, it's nice to escape a bit.

On the other x3 hand, every other driver in Santa Fe is drunk. Race does not factor into this, simply mere presence on Santa Fe roads. Either that, or they're blind. Regardless, recklessly crazy swervy driving is apparently the city pasttime.

I very rarely ride back from the plaza, though. Those two miles aren't anywhere near as much fun when you're going uphill. I pretend I'm justified by saying that it'll irritate my knees - which is true - but really I'm just kind of lazy, and I'd rather sacrifice a buck to take the bus back up.

It would be kind of cool if you could shift gravity to pull you uphill, though. I think I should figure that one out, right after I decode the bible.

And, for a markedly different spin, a Guardian article on Miers' withdrawal.

I must say: I like the Guardian a lot, perhaps because their bias agrees with mine. But, man: I get a totally different feel from this than anything similar in the Times article.

Her withdrawal is a huge embarrassment to the Bush administration, which was also bracing itself today for possible indictments against senior aides arising from the investigation into the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name.

This woke me up

One by one, the bricks of the Bush administration begin to fall. Now his nominee publicly wants nothing to do with him.

There are no words

No words exist to express my utter disgust with America today.

To begin with, there have been 44 deaths of detainees in military compounds in Afghanistan and Iraq. The ACLU has released a review of the facts, and it looks like 21 of those deaths would be classified as homocides.

According to the documents, 21 of the 44 deaths were homicides. Eight of the homicides appear to have resulted from abusive techniques used on detainees, in some instances, by the CIA, Navy Seals and Military Intelligence personnel. The autopsy reports list deaths by “strangulation,” “asphyxiation” and “blunt force injuries.” An overwhelming majority of the so-called “natural deaths” were attributed to “Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.”

Yeah. All those renegade fighters who are living in caves and existing on diets of rice and beans? Heart disease, definitely. Just like all of us obese, McD's chomping Americans. But - fine, I'll be a good little American and accept that unquestioningly, though.

But the autopsies where the cause of death was determined to be blunt force injuries and asphyxiation? Blunt force trauma does not occur naturally. Something did that intentionally. Let's face it: The majority of humans - especially revolutionary, living in hiding types - are pretty damn hearty. It's not going to be like "Oops, I accidentally smacked him too hard in the face and now he's dead," it's going to be like, "I just bludgeoned him to death, but that's OK because I'm American."

If that's not cheery enough news for you, then there's this article from the Times Online. The first two paragraphs interest me:

IT USED to be easy to meet American soldiers in Baghdad. You would drive up to them as they did a patrol in the street or manned a checkpoint or even shopped for cheap televisions, and strike up a conversation.

Try doing that now and you can order your body bag in advance. Every humvee has a sign fixed to its back warning that any attempts to approach closer than 100 yards will mean the gunner on the roof will open fire. Civilian cars scatter before US patrols like jittery deer before a wolf.

So, it's no longer taboo to shoot civilians: nay, it's policy. Note to American armed forces authorities: This is not a good way to win public opinion. Nor is it a good way to win a war. Actually - hey, aren't they supposed to be our allies? Granted, allies in the sense of "We invaded your country, took over, and are now shooting you for absolutely no reason, other than the fact that our troops are too bloody idiotic to do their jobs properly, and take a malicious glee in the cold-blooded slaughter sanctioned by the American government."

Rounding off the good news, 2,000 American troops have now died in Iraq.

This is very tragic, mostly because not a single one of them had to die, and not a single one of their deaths has achieved any sort of higher goal. I have more respect and sympathy for those who died in WWII: there, at least, there was a definite bad guy who had already slaughtered millions and was looking to continue doing so on a regular basis, and an even greater scale.

I have even more respect and sympathy for the 26690 to 30051 civilians in Iraq who have been murdered by the American forces. They are the innocents and they are the ones we should care about. American troops are A) cheerily participating in an illegal occupation, and B) volunteers. They signed up knowing that they may well get sent into some sort of dangerous situation. No Iraqi civilian volunteered - for what? To be Iraqi? To be in the wrong place at the wrong time? The wrong religion? The wrong skin tone?

I'm not saying that I don't care about the troops: I do. I'm not saying that every single one of those two thousand deaths isn't tragic: it is.

I'm just saying that there's over ten times that number who didn't sign up for this. They're the real victims here.

Our national standard is really quite high.

The new superintendant of the Air Force Academy, John Regni, has announced he wants to make the Academy safe - doing away with all those pesky rapes and incidents of grotesque violations of the first amendment of the US Constitution.

Man, sign me up - they're hoping to do away with rape on campus!

Also:

Man, I'm really disliking Harriet Miers. Her nomination has now made me agree with quotes from both Ann Coulter and Arlen Specter.

That's just wrong and gross and not the natural order of things at all.

Read between the lines

My paraphrasing of what Bush says: No, I don't want you to make an informed decision. I'd much rather you be a slobbering ignorant jerk like the vast majority of this country - representative government and all that - and just mindlessly agree with what I say. How dare you try to question me!

Oh, this pisses me off.

I don't understand

I just went to the vending machine in upper commons. I hit the Diet Pepsi button, and, as expected, it didn't work. So I hit the first button for regular Pepsi. Sold out. I hit the second button. I retrieve...a bottle of Vanilla Pepsi. And a bottle of regular Pepsi. Eh, I won't complain about a 2-for-1.

In other news: Job has still been beat up by God. Why? I don't know. But in verse 1.21 ("The lord giveth, and the lord taketh away..."), the Greek contains the verb κυριος, which according to my lexicon, means "To have authority over".

Huh. So, the Lord specifically has authority over Job, enough to destroy his life?

Who gave God this authority - how does he have it? Is it just because he's God and created man, ergo, he's the ultimate authority? Is it because he's just that powerful and man is helpless against him?

Or, perhaps, is it man's faith in God that gives him this authority?

Oops, again

Yet another victory in our Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism! We not only killed a bunch of them darn "enemy combatants," but showed utter disrespect for their culture and their existance as humans by burning their bodies and using it as psychological warfare! But hey, who needs that Geneva Convention?

Hey, remember about two years ago, when a bunch of Americans in Iraq were killed and burned, and it was the most heinous thing that the Iraqis could have possibly done? Hm. Interesting, that parallel there.

I can't begin to imagine where our troops get it in their heads that this morally dispicable behavior is in any way acceptable - I mean, our government is of course a bastion of upright morality.

Oh, God.

I'm thinking about my seminar essay a lot, which means I'm thinking about Job and Jonah a lot. They both fascinate me, and I think I'm beginning to figure out why.

One of the common threads between the two books, in my opinion, is that on some level they're about obedience to god. They give entirely different messages about it: Job is all sorts of pious, and gets temporarily screwed over for it. Jonah is (presumably, as he's a prophet) pious at one point, but then disobeys god, and we don't know how his life ends up. I think he at least survives, but there's not really anything in the text to say so. It just ends, like that, and we don't get any closure. Whether or not that's significant - that Jonah doesn't get closure while Job does - I can't say. Is it supposed to tell us something about how we should act towards disobeying God? A warning? I don't know.

I think I'm going to write about Job only, though, and I think my main premise is going to be that it's a cheap cop-out and doesn't tell us crap about anything but the nature of God. God, for his part, has pretty much given up on us by Job's time. Job suffers. There's no logical reason for it, there's no explanation, and the text tells us this. There's nothing rational about it: we get a big long spiel in which God says, "Hey, I kick ass, so shut up, Job, and stop bitching at me. I can do whatever I want."

I don't know - maybe that's an explanation there? That god does whatever he wants to and the well-being of humans doesn't really matter to him? I can see how that would kind of depress a lot of people who are theists, since I understand the appeal of telling yourself that there's a god. On the other hand, maybe it's the best explanation there is.

A critique

I'm a fan of Yahoo! News, let me say that right off the bat. I don't quite like it as much for actual news as Google's service, but they have an impressive selection of opinion columns, plus, the 'most popular' box constantly reaffirms my faith that Americans as a general populace are frightening indeed. I quote: "Troops relaxing with musical pillow." "Ashton Kutcher producing sitcom pilot." *sigh*

Regardless, though, I just today realized something interesting about Yahoo's main news page. Ever since they revamped it some time ago, you access the different categories via tabs at the top of the page: U.S., Business, World, Entertainment, Sports, Tech, Politics, Science, Health, Most Popular.

For the most part, I understand the way they're divided up - that's the general nation-wide standard. But...wait a second, now. National news - got it. Business, followed by World: I personally think that, since the tabs seem to be in some sort of order and not random, that 'World' should come first, but the stock market is pretty important. US, Business, World...uh, entertainment? Sports? Then politics?

Why is politics even it's own category? A quick skimming reveals that it is entirely US politics: there may be a few dabbles into international policy issues, but it's all the Supreme Court and American congress.

Regretfully Yahoo! has yet to ask my opinion on their layout, but I personally think that this is just one of the symptoms of the overwhelming problem of Americans being willfully ignorant. Sure, give us AP articles about an interesting murder case in New York, or the latest "Holy you mean the get hurricanes in Florida! Poor retired folks!" story. But don't ask us to read about the real issues. Don't ask me to care about Harriet Mier's true stance on issues, or about our plan in Iraq, or even for that matter the fighting that is still going on in Afghanistan - we're not just screwing up Iraq. And forget about even thinking anything but the government-sponsored propeganda about how things are going across the mideast: as a Patriotic American, I refuse to listen to that.

Oh, and by the way: that freedom we're fighting for on behalf of the Iraqi people - you know, defending their rights in a way that looks suspiciously like a bunch of hooligans slaughtering innocent civilians in a foreign country, at our government's request? About those rights like freedom of speech - they don't so much apply to our own soldiers.

Oh, it's true all right.

They say that college, of course, changes people. This I don't disagree with. I think that some people would say that St. John's changes people perhaps a bit more than a more conventional college: for better or for worse, the combination of the people and the program does something to you. It gets in your head, and there is a definite, tangible change, beyond simply 'grow up and mature between the ages of 18 and 22'.

Example: I just had to do some bookshelf-shuffling. Why? Well, because we don't have enough shelf space because they somehow think that our dinky little three-shelf units will be sufficient, just like having a measly four electrical sockets is enough, and one shower is enough. But I digress. I got back from the library and had to make more room on my bottom shelf, which of course is the "I will likely want to grab this book while sitting at my desk doing homework" shelf. And I realized that dear sweet heaven I've become an unrepentant geek. Amongst the Greek reference books, notebooks, and obscure astronomy texts (note: the Kepler text we're using is neon orange. If I went to high school with you, think C-wing orange), I now have the following: four bibles (King James version, Revised Standard version, the Tanakh, and the "Biblia Sacre: Hebraica et Graeca". Also, the Anchor Bible's seperately-bound copies of both the book of Jonah and Job. Also, a "First Hebrew Primer for Adults", so that I can perhaps benefit from Biblia Sacra: Hebraica et Graeca (part of the introduction of said bible appears to be in German).
All said, I'm very feeling right now like I should just do my seminar essay on Plutarch. Less interesting, but far less intimidating.

Meltdown!

Thankfully, it wasn't nuclear, but a recent press briefing with Scott McClellan was just...tragic, in a comedic sort of way. You can watch it - and the already-infamous Utterly Staged and Pre-Scripted Photo-Op - here, and enjoy it for yourself.

What?!

"Part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion," says President Bush.

Okay. This, I understand. Ms. Miers has every right to be religious.

However if she is appointed to the Supreme Court, then she does not have the right to use her personal religious beliefs to shape national law. I'm assuming that both she and President Bush have read the Constitution, but I can see that I might be wrong.

Religion has no place on the Supreme Court or anywhere in government. Great, she's religious: that's about as relevant as her height is to her ability to do the job. This is not a Christian country. People are free to live their lives by Christian ideals, but I'm going to insist that the government keep their Jesus out of my life.

I'm not afraid of Jesus - he's great. It's his fan club that scares me.

A public service announcement

Despite what the media may want you to think, we are not all going to die of the avian flu this year. If we do, it's going to be in the same way that we were all going to die of West Nile Virus a few summers ago.

I think that the world in general (and definitely America) needs to drastically reduce it's collective intake of caffiene and/or stupidity.

Free Ice Cream!

That's what today was all about for me. Entirely 100% free ice cream sundaes. All ice cream, all free, all the time.

Or, not.

Okay, fine. Most of my day went thusly: iron out when I'm (finally!) starting work, struggle through a few more lines of Homer, try to figure out the Phaeaceans, consider Kepler, muse over music, and analyze the Aeneid. (I'm sorry, the alliteration took over my brain. Forgive me.) But, since Monday, there've been signs up all over campus advertising free ice cream sundaes on the placita Wednesday afternoon, because a bunch of townies want to show their support for us.

Um? O...kay....

I was hesitant, mostly because I'm from New Jersey and therefore anything even resembling human decency is somewhat foreign to me. But, really, I was confused. For one, I was under the belief that the majority of Santa Feans sort of acknowledge our existance as Johnnies. At best they tolerate us and view us with good-natured amusement: "Hee, silly kids and their books." At worst, they think we're a bunch of spoiled brats who sit up on a mountain and read. All of that should be taken with a grain of salt, as I also (still) believe that the amount of time an average Santa Fean spends thinking about St. John's is about 6/10ths of a second.

But: hey, free ice cream! I can be convinced to go most anywhere within a three-mile radius simply by the promise of free food, and there are major bonus points for unhealthy food. Therefore, I went. Also, when I walked out of my math class there was already a line stretching from the tables by the fish pond, up two flights of stairs, almost to the grassy knoll. So I literally walked into it.

Anyway, apparently, it was sponsored by the Philos Society, which at most other schools would most likely be known simply as "Friends of," as in, "Friends of St. John's". They're a bunch of townies who (I think) have all donated money. Furthermore, they're supporters of the program, attend community seminar days, and generally think we're all right. So, basically, they're the closest we have to cheerleaders, and people who go to community seminars are so much more appropriate to St. John's than little flippy skirts and pom-poms would be. They apparently are interested in seeing what all this money they've donated is going towards - or, as I was corrected, are generally interested in the college. Either way, they asked us to fill out a form with contact info and a space for interests, hobbies, and interesting facts about ourselves and give it to the nice man.

I did so for several reasons. For one, they gave me not only free ice cream, but true sundaes, with bananas, chocolate and caramel sauce, whipped cream, cherries, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and so forth, so I'm totally sold on tis Philos Society deal. Furthermore, there was a sign telling us that if we fill out the form we may very well get, say, a home-cooked meal out of it, or even some manner of Off Campus, into that mysterious but oft-mentioned Non-College Environment, the Land of Not Up On The Mountain. An added bonus of the whole thing was that it gave me an opportunity to tell a friend she'd been promoted to being a table, which was fun.

In conclusion: these people are definitely clever enough for me to fully approve of them in general. They were wearing St. John's aprons, which was kind of cool, if only because "orange aprons" is a fun phrase. Beyond the cosmetic pettiness: They're trying to get college students' attention, so what do they do? Free ice cream, with a sign promising "give us your phone number, and you may very well get treated to further non-cafeteria food!"

Smart cookies, indeed.

Things I did not know, part

A BBC article is talking about America's internet-related image problem. We're percieved as being hellbent on maintaining total control over the net.

Whoa. We are?

This is one of those few stories from a non-US source that completely broadsides me: The world really thinks that? Even more unsettling, it's a BBC story, which is generally less biased than most sources, at least when it comes to stuff about the US. So, apparently, there's at least something of a feeling that in that "non-America" place out there, that America wants to keep an iron grip on the net.

Interesting.

Why am I still thinking about this?

I can't seem to make myself let go of the Air Force Academy thing. Part of a comment from my last post on it:

the reason they have that 'odd looking chapel' and so on stuff is because of the part of the constitution that says "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (religion)... because of the nature of the academies and the military in general, not having an outlet for religious practice ON the base would limit people from practicing it, because many time duty and other restrictions keeps them on base
that's why that's there...

~air force academy grad

At first glance, this is a completely sound argument. I'm well aware that there are huge restrictions, both in terms of military responsibilities/privilages and the number of hours in a day, that could quite easily restrict the cadets and staff from being able to go to religious services off-campus. Fair enough: I'll be the first to say that everyone has a right to whatever manner of religious worship they want.

But. (You knew there was a 'but' coming, didn't you?) But the problem is that being in the military is a choice. We have an entirely volunteer military, and I personally wouldn't want it any other way. Attending the Academy, joining the Army, whatever - it's all entirely voluntary. I know for a fact that not only are freshman at the Academy provided with ample opportunities to leave the Academy, but one could even say that they are encouraged to do so, through means such as "basic training". No one is forcing them to be there, and none of the staff have been forced to be their either. It's completely voluntary.

And, as everyone is well aware, when you join the military you take the good with the bad. On the one hand, you're pretty much assured a job and someplace to live. On the other hand, that might be "trying to convince Iraqis that you don't deserve to die" and "A tent on the outskirts of Baghdad". It's a package deal: if you want to be in the military, you take the good and the bad together. That's just how life works - choices, and constantly needing to decide if Perk A is worth Drawback B.

I'm not convinced that the issue of religion at the Academy is in any way different from the above example. You want to go to a well-regarded tech school, be guarenteed on-campus housing, get a $30k/year education completely free at taxpayer expense - indeed, even get paid for getting that education - and so on? Great. You need to meet these admissions criteria, take an oath, wear a uniform, go through boot camp, and so on. I don't see 'if you want to sit in church, go off federal ground to do so' to be too ridiculous. If you don't have enough time to do so or can't get off campus - so be it. I'm not saying that they should ban, say, having a bible in your room, or a rosary, or anything like that. Practice religion on your own: fine. Practice religion at the expense of taxpayers: Not fine.

Anyway, if the military can ban people from revealing their sexuality if it's anything other than "strictly hetero", then I say they can tell them to take their church off government property.

American media sucks

Example number eight gajillion and three.

Upsetting and suspect: Bush's newest Supreme Court nominee used to be his personal attorney.

Not upsetting and suspect: Said nominee once exchanged birthday cards with Bush.

Aarrgh.

Also: Random approval poll. 21 percent?!?!?! At least he's got a whopping 33% of 'White Evangelicals'...

New Mexico weather is odd

I'd just like to say that I got woken up at 7:30 this morning.

By a thunder storm.

A meteorological event that, generally speaking, does not happen in the wee hours of the morning.
Nor, for that matter, are they generally accompanied by gusts of wind that were nearly shaking the solidly-built cinderblock dorms, nor by half-hour long torrential downpours of hail.

I could have gotten out of bed then and started my day early, but there are very few things that have made me feel as glad to be nice and cuddled under my warm fleece blankets.

Don't do WHAT?

So, New York's police continue their infringement upon the rights of NYC's commuters, and I wonder what part of the fourth amendment they don't understand. The part about 'probable cause', apparently, because Scott McClellan is publically doubting the credibility of the "threat" to the subway system. If I had a TV, I would totally even buy into premium cable to watch some sort of death-match throwdown debate between McClellan and Bloomberg.

Interestingly, Bush has not agreed with McClellan here, as he refuses to voice doubt about Bloomberg's decision. This, I think, is very intersting indeed, as it raises the question of who, exactly, McClellan is speaking for.

And from that linked article, apparently NY Police have been encouraging people not to carry bags or briefcases and things of that nature on the subway with them.

Yeah. You couple million commuters per day that use those subways? Just leave your briefcase or bookbag at home. Just...don't bring anything with you to work or school or home or wherever you may be going. Your productivity may suffer, but it's worth it, because it makes it easier for us to violate your rights as a general populace, when we search your bags with absolutely no probable cause for any sort of suspicion! It's a noble sacrifice, and I'm sure your boss will understand.

Man, if I were back on the East Coast, I'd totally go to Radio Shack, buy up a crapload of batteries, wires, a timer or two, a bunch of metal junk. Preferably with sharp edges. Then I'd dump it all in a big ol' backpack (perhaps along with, say, a copy of the constitution and some anti-war, anti-Bush literature), and go for a cruise through the subway system. Search this, you Bill of Rights destroyers.

A slice of life...

From Astronomia Nova, by Johannes Kepler. Translated by William H. Donahue.

How many mathematicians are there who put up with the trouble of working through the Conics of Apollonius of Pergia?

From page 2 of the introduction in the Green Lion Press edition.

Next up on the St. John's math curriculum, once we work through Kepler? Apollonius's Conics.

Into the wild blue yonder...

Last night, I linked to this story about the Air Force Academy getting sued. A Jewish New Mexico veteran, who had one son graduate from the Academy in 2004 and another who's in his junior year there, has filed the suit, claiming that the Academy is forcing evangelical Christian viewpoints on the cadets, and harrassing non-Christian cadets.

First of all: I don't doubt the claims. I can't, obviously, give any sort of definite guess about how severe the situation is, and whether it's as bad as, worse, or better than Weinstein (the veteran) is saying. Regardless, there are certain facts that can't be argued against. The majority of people in this country are Christian, and this is more evident in the military than in other circles. The military tends to attract 'gung-ho' people who are likely to feel strongly about their views, regardless of topic. Judaism is a minority in both American society as a whole, and the military. Ergo, there's going to be some degree of bias: that's what happens when a majority meets a minority. 99.9% of the students, faculty, and administration of the Academy could be wonderful, loving, open people who are more than willing to embrace difference and such. But there's still going to be that .1%. Personally, I'm willing to say that anyone who claims otherwise - who claims that there's no discrimination in a situation like that - has never been the minority.

Now then. In a comment last night, Ouroboros said:

You realize that almost all the accusations that guy made were a steaming pile of you-know-what. Complaining about a poster that says "I am a member of Team Jesus?" Corny? Definitely. Discrimination? Come on!

Also, I hate to say it because it ticks people off, but I don't think it's discrimination if you're right.

Firstly: The banner in question said, "I am a Christian first and last...I am a member of team Jesus Christ." I object to the first part because, as I said above: It's probably not true. I can't say for certain, but I know that there are (obviously) a number of non-Christian cadets there. And I object to it in general, as a matter of principle, because the Academy is a government-run institution. They are funded entirely by American tax dollars. Cadets pay no tuition: indeed, they get paid for going to school. The Academy is wholly a military-run (ergo, governmentally-run) institution. Using a government-owned server and e-mail account (on computers that are, technically speaking, government property) to send bible verses is, quite simply, inappropriate from a constitutional point of view.

Therefore, religion of any variety, in my opinion, has absolutely no place on that campus. However, if they decided to, say, have a huge and odd-looking chapel there, quasi-mandatory prayer services, and so on, then they must at least be a universal, non-denominational, and not specifically Christian prayer: "Yay God, etc." Once you mention Jesus, once you mention anything that makes it in any way specific to a certain religion, then you're on very shaky ground. The federal government is in charge, and the federal government is (by the Constitution, and widely-accepted legal interpretation of) not, in any circumstances, allowed to limit religious freedoms in any way, establish a national religion, or give preference (be it by monetary funding or any other way) to any religion.

So, sure, a banner in a locker room may not itself be hugely inflammatory, but it is in principle. We've done enough to chip away at the Constitution: let's not let it spread any further than it already has.

This is sad

God talks to Bush. Shrub listens.

The sad thing is that people actually take it seriously, enough for the White House to feel the need to deny it.

Hmm. A lot of "Islamofascists" (where'd that term come from, anyway? I'm going to start referring to the Christian Craz-er, Christian Right as "Christofascists".) do things because God has, in some way, told them to. Serial killers often think God wants them to do what they do.

Well, birds of a feather, and whatnot. The military follows the lead of the Commander in Chief...

This puts me in one of my "I want nothing more than to trade my American citizenship and identity for the Canadian equivilant" moods in a serious way.

A bizarre dream

I slept for about twenty hours yesterday. I woke up as normal and managed to stagger to Greek, but mostly spent that hour-and-a-half waiting for it to be over so I could go and pass out in bed again. It wasn't so much that I blew off my other classes in favor of sleep; it was that all going to class would accomplish would be the spread of my germs all over, and I'd be miserable.

So, anyway, I spent almost all of yesterday alternatively miserable, or dead to the world, doped up on (amongst other things) Benadryl. Technically, it's Wal-Mart brand and not literally Benadryl, because the generic is the exact same drug, but about three bucks cheaper. In addition to drastically reducing the chance of choking to death on my own bodily excretions (a serious threat in my state yesterday, not as severe today), it also tends to put me to sleep.

At some point last night - I think it was night, though it might have been mid-afternoon for all I know - I dreamt. I was back at West, still in my senior year, and we were taking IB exams. We were in the cafeteria, and it was pre-repainting, so all the murals were still there.

I had finished whatever exam I'd been taking, and one of my good friends and I were on our way out. My science teacher from freshman year stopped me, brandishing a stack of papers at me. "Your philosophy exam is seventeen pages long!" she admonished. "Everyone else's is only five!" My friend turned and gave me a look, which I was often on the receiving end of when handing in essays in high school. My former teacher continued: "You've got to fix this! You won't get a good grade with seventeen pages of philosophy!"

"Why?" I asked. She didn't respond, just tried to give me the papers back. Finally, she sighed, exasperated, and said, "The examiners won't like this. It's too American. Look, you even drew an American flag." And, sure enough, I had sketched a wee American flag on the cover sheet.

"But will they grade it at all?" I asked.

"Yes, but you'll get a terrible grade. The French won't like it at all."

I looked at the clock, and it was five-thirty. "But I need to leave by six," I said. "I don't really care. I never took French." My friend smacked me in the arm, said her boyfriend was waiting for her, and we left.

That's all I remember clearly - there's something vague about walking down the hall with a can of paint, which was most likely radioactive tangerine colored (and anyone from West could probably figure out that much). I don't know. It was strange.

Intelligent design, my ass

I've finally lost the battle with the Head Cold From Hell I've been fighting off lately, and feel pretty lousy. I think I slept through the worst of it - yesterday, in which I slept all day. Still feel bad, though, so, ugh. When I feel up to it, I'll share another Wacky Educational Dream I had last night.

Anyway. All those supporters of Intelligent Design: this human body is ill enough (and has had enough knee problems) to say that there is nothing intelligent about the way we're designed.