My Apologies…

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone (ANYONE???) who reads my blog, for endorsing Mike Huckabee earlier. Several apparently believable sources had advocated him, and there wasn’t much information available on the internet regarding the candidates (at least that I could find). I acted on the best information available.
That said, I am not withdrawing my support for Governor Huckabee because he is weak on border security, or is increasing socialist in his rhetoric. I am withdrawing my support because he has advocated theocratic legislation (in the U. S. Constitution!) and because he has started to entertain conspiracy theories.

2007 Book List

Earlier this year, a survey was done indicating that liberals read more books than conservatives (a whopping 9 vs. 8). As I consider myself a conservative as much as libertarian, I posting my reading list for 2007. Yes, some of it is fluffy fiction… but it’s a damned sight more than nine, and it’s been an average year for me.

The Little Book of Value Investing
The Little Book That Beats the Market
The Paleo Diet for Athletes
The Paleo Diet
Complete Krav Maga
Storm Front
Grave Peril
Full Moon
Death Mask
Blood Rites
Summer Knight
Proven Guilty
Dead Beat
Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right
100 People Who are Screwing Up America
Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity
Godless: The Church of Liberalism
The God Theory
The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
U. S. Marine Corps Pistol Marksmanship
U. S. Marine Corps Rifle Marksmanship
A Field Guide to Left-Wing Wackos: And What to Do About Them
Fight Back: Counterterrorism, Liddy-Style
The Field

Are we really all connected?

So, I’ve been playing around on MySpace lately, and I’ve come across a group of Gnostics. I’ve been enjoying some good conversation with them, and I’ve had several opportunities to impart my wisdom.
In one particular exchange, the question was asked, “Are we really all connected?”
The immediate answer, of course, was, “Yes, we are all connected. See how wise we are!” (Okay, I’m paraphrasing. But I was having a serious flashback to the scene in The Life of Brian when the gigantic crowd is chanting “YES! WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS!”)
I posted that we are NOT connected (“I’m not!” cries the lone voice from the crowd). Connection demands separation–for you to be connected to me, you and I have to be different things. We are, in fact, all part of a single, undivided whole.
“NO!” came the soon-to-be-paraphrased war cry. “Supraconsciousness! Quarks! The balance of light and darkness! We are WISE, dammit!”
And so, after ruminating for a time, I presented the following analogy:
—–
“Let us imagine that we are both apples, on the same branch of an apple tree. You see that I am an apple HERE, and you are an apple THERE. Then, one day, you look around and discover the tree.

‘AHA!’ you say,’we are all CONNECTED. See there, you and I are both attached to the limb of this tree. We both draw our nourishment from the same roots; our energy from the same leaves. A blight on that limb way over there will surely affect us as well. I am wise; I have achieved the true Gnosis.’

Well, you haven’t.

The tree, in this analogy, represents the physical universe. Humans are connected to each other in the universe in many ways: by quanta, by gravity, by society, by genetics. For the Gnostic, however, the physical universe is kenoma: it is illusion, a falsity. The true reality is the Pleroma: the truth over which the veil of kenoma has been drawn. The Pleroma is the realm of God, where all exists as undifferentiated spirit.

‘So where then,’ you might well ask, ‘IS the Pleroma in your story, if it is not the tree which connects us?’

The Pleroma is the seed from which the apple tree sprouted. To achieve Gnosis, you must return to the original seed. Now, ponder: when we were POTENTIAL apples, before the seed ever sprouted–were we connected, or were we part of an undifferentiated unity?

Saturday Before Christmas

Oddly, not much is happening today. I’m really looking forward to having some time off before I start my triple drills (regular, OCS, Kosovo training…).

I watched I am Legend two days ago. It was far and away Will Smith’s best acting, EVER–but despite that, and despite the fact that it was the highest-budget movie of the year, it was still really just a rental movie. On a related note, Anne Hathaway will be in a new Get Smart movie, proving once again my theory that Hollywood has completely run out of original ideas.

The Buzz on "Cloverfield"

I read some reviews of the Cloverfield clips which have been released so far. A lot of people seem negative, because they are afraid that Abrams is trying to make his “giant monster movie” into a 9/11 analogy. It should be noted, however, that the original “giant monster movie”, Gojira, was actually an analogy for the U.S.’s drop of atomic bombs on Japan during WWII.

So, if it DOES become a war analogy, it may be a better interpretation of Gojira than the 1998 Mattheew Broderick version. Of course, the new Chipmunks movie is probably a better interpretation of Gojira than the Matthew Broderick version…

Another Reason to Home School

A Florida elementary school girl has been arrested on felony weapons charge for eating her lunch. The girl brought a steak knife from home to cut her food–she never brandished it or threatened anyone. A school official reported it to the local sherriff’s office, who took the girl away in a marked patrol car. All parties involved in this deeply repulive fiasco are claiming to have had “no choice” in their actions.
This is yet another omen of the death of the American government-run school. We need to enact school vouchers nation-wide immediately; home-school until then!!

http://www.wftv.com/news/14858405/detail.html