The Eternal Gaijin

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Choirmaster jailed for abusing children | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited Powered by ScribeFire .

It's hard to stay away from this... CNS STORY: Vatican commission: Limbo reflects 'restrictive view of salvation' After several years of study, the Vatican's International Theological Commission said there are good reasons to hope that babies who die without being baptized go to heaven. Apparently there's a feeling that the traditions that have developed in theology about coming to G*d through Christ and the teachings of the church 'seemed to reflect an "unduly restrictive view of salvation."' Umm, okay. The church continues to teach that, because of original sin, baptism is the ordinary way of salvation for all people and urges parents to baptize infants, the document said. It's the ordinary way, but now not the only way. Another good way is to die in childbirth. Or a car accident on the way home from the funeral. That's when God steps in and says, "Original sin? Naah, didn't really mean it. Sure you're tainted, but not taint...

Believe it or not, this isn't about the Bush administration whipping out the blamethrower to deflect criticism from the bollocks up of the week. This link is keeping track of the blame being thrown around for the Virginia Tech shootings: Cynical-C Blog - » The Blame Game Powered by ScribeFire .

Japanese businessman acquitted over Lucie Blackman murder | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited Powered by ScribeFire .

Joji Obara was acquitted in the death of Lucie Blackman almost 7 years ago. For those who don't remember, and I do as she went missing on my wedding day, Lucie Blackman was a former flight attendant who was working at a hostess club in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district. She was murdered, dismembered and buried in a cave in Kamakura encased in concrete. The police investigated the cave and didn't find her but months later returned and walked far enough in to find the body. There is no doubt that Obara killed Blackman, but there may be doubt about the level of evidence required for him to be convicted in a court. He has been convicted on several other charges, however. There's no way to know how much or how little satisfaction this result brings to the family. BBC NEWS | UK | Obara acquitted over Lucie death Powered by ScribeFire .

-- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

An appeal by Pensacola creationist Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo Hovind, seeking acquittal on tax-fraud charges was denied. U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers upheld the Hovinds' November 2006 conviction on 44 counts of bank-structuring -- the withdrawal of bank funds under the $10,000 threshold that triggers bank reports to the Internal Revenue Service. Not feeling sorry for him yet. Still no. Still not. Oooo...how long can I keep that up? Local briefs | Local News | pnj.com Powered by ScribeFire .

Jujitsu on Bobbies, and the second last sentence in the last paragraph is incredibly good. There is also a link to a history of women in judo. Women can be forgotten in the history of martial arts and are notable by their absence to the history of karate. It’s because they have access to witchcraft and stuff at Pandagon Powered by ScribeFire .

I like the Economist. It's a very rational magazine. It makes compelling arguments, even if I don't always agree with its conclusions. Its commentary is informed; its articles are thorough. It's also not completely immune to the little snarky puns that run rampant in all the other British media. Also it's nice to see a publication that doesn't have any bylines. This article ( Evolution and religion | In the beginning | Economist.com ) gives a good run-down of the spread of creationism in the rest of the world. The article covers Adnan Oktar and his Atlas of Creation. I wonder if it's as bad and incoherent as "The First Scientific Proof of God: Reveals God's Intelligent Design and a Modern Creation Theory" (review here ). Lord knows Oktar's reputation is of a similar vein: In the more prosperous parts of the historically Christian world, Mr Oktar's flamboyant style would be unappealing, even to religious believers. Among mainstream Catholics...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/12/lost_documents/index.html -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Keith Olbermann has a good outline of the Bush Whitehouse's tendency to lose stuff: http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-Bush-MissingDocs.mov He's trying to shape himself into a new Edward R. Murrow and doing a pretty decent job of if, even appropriating Murrow's "Good Night and Good Luck" line. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

There are some things you can't take early in the morning. Westboro Baptist is at it again . They're planning on protesting at the Virginia Tech funerals. Apparently there's a whole "Sodom and Gomorrah" aspect to the shootings that the MSM has been overlooking. And that's another one for the ghoul/vulture list. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

The Virginia shootings have brought out all sort of despicable whackadoodles. Over at Canadian Cynic there's a nice dissection of the whole "Where were the Real Men<TM>?" meme that's floating around the 'wankersphere.' Read it at: Canadian Cynic: The courage of idiots Powered by ScribeFire .

I'm not sure if it's the nature of the work or what but there seems to be a bit too much woo in archaeology. Case in point: Cambridge historian Paul Daw is brining divining rods to help identify stone circles in Cumbria. Cambridge Not the worst school on the planet. (Link: http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/leisure/viewarticle.aspx?id=486351 ) [quote]Mr Daw said: “My main purpose will be to try and obtain verification that the three stone circles I believe I have found on Bleaberry Haws are in fact stone circles.[/quote]Okay, how is it that the guy hasn't figured out that there's no there there when it comes to divining? Somebody send him the link to the forums and anything on Wikipedia about 'ideomotor.' [quote]Describing how the mystery of the twitching and moving divining rods seems to reveal what lies hidden in the ground, Mr Daw said: “My first attempt at using the divining rods was at the Druids stone circle on Birkrigg Common. “My notes record ‘Mild sensati...

This is the video version of Bill Maher's rant against Regent University Law School and other ills of the Bush Administration that I posted a link to the other day. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

I think this is the repugnant little homunculus that P.Zed Myers flagged up the other day in the wake of the shootings in the US. How do you even make the statements she does? Read Reason's take and debunking here: Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Debbie Does Malice Ulitmately, the US needs to have a debate over whether the opening phrase of the 2nd Amendment ("a well regulated militia") is a sufficient condition or a necessary condition of the right to bear arms. They need a serious debate over public safety, from each other rather than some updated foreign threat. Powered by ScribeFire .

It's hard to describe the walk up from Okamoto Station to our house. Steep. Basically the hill is varying grades of steep to steeper so we've got a walk of about 15 minutes up and about 8 minutes down, which illustrates the degree of work getting up. So far I've found it to be good exercise although it's a disincentive to going and picking up one little thing from the store. I'll show you what I mean... Coming out of Okamoto Station: So you turn to the right and walk down the street to the level crossing. Then the hill starts: The bridge on the right is where the inoshishi can be seen from time to time. None of this has been the steep bit. Moving on. This shrine is one-third of the way down the hill, but only one third of the way up: So here we go into the steeper bit... Now comes the part that's really difficult. This is where you really earn your beer when you get home. And there's the dog waiting for me to come back with a bit of kibble. Keep in mind, I s...

A long time ago, as a student, I worked at National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa for a couple of summers. There was some political controversy or another was kicking around in the atmosphere when I was talking to one of the majors in the section I was working in. At that point the point came around that the government didn't represent the needs of the average person. Now I've always maintained that people chuck that sort of phrase around to make a divisive point and try to disenfranchise others from the discussion. I went a little ad absurdum at that point. Who were these average people? Farmers (what 2% of the population)? University educated? University un-educated? Civil Servants? Mechanics? Shitkickers from Kansas? Everyone is part of a group that isn't average to members of other groups. Bill Maher has a rant that is a wonderful defense of the elites, or maybe mere competence. Read it here: Say it loud: I'm elite and proud! | Salon.com Powered by ScribeFire .

Here's the Fark headline : Almost half of Baby Boomers believe in creationism, while nearly two-thirds of GenNexters embrace evolution. Which, if you think about it, is proof that evolution actually works The next level link is a portrait of Gen Next (who are they? Y? Gen Zed? Do we cycle back to A soon?) 63% - Gen Nexters Embrace Evolution - Yahoo! News powered by performancing firefox

Just like raccoons in Canada and foxes in southern London we have an annoying animal in Kobe. Inoshishi Wild Boars. You can't get away from them. And you can't do anything about them (They're protected.) In the area we've got about 5 adults and 7 kids, although the numbers are in some dispute. And they're as ill tempered as they are ugly. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

-- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

The new house has a great view, about 270 degrees from Kobe over to the edge of Osaka with a view out to Wakayama when it's clear. I'll post a night view when I get a chance. And get one recorded. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Let's face it, the UK is the ultimate surveillance society at the moment. Personal freedom and privacy is in the past. Phil Plait noted the irony of the number of CCTV cameras near George Orwell's house. (Link: Bad Astronomy Blog » Irony: 1984 - 2007 ) At the risk of just 'Me too'-ing this, I've been banging that drum for a while, although I've only had a couple of posts on it. However, if you've been standing next to me for the last few years you've heard more than you want to about this. powered by performancing firefox

There were several different messiahs around the time of Jesus. Leave aside the questions of the historical Jesus for the time being. This is a good doc from National Geographic talking about several of them. Hooray for YouTube. On a related note, Mr Deity is not available through iTunes as a video podcast. Hooray. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Maclean's magazine (the Canadian Newsweek) asks the question "Is God Poison?" (link: Macleans.ca | Is God poison? ). And the only real answer is "Basically." In the problems of the world there is a lot of evidence that problems credited with religious origins would have been there without religion (Northern Ireland anyone?) but that the religious overtones exacerbated the whole deal. On the other hand, there are Christians, Jews and Hindus in the Middle East subject to the same socio-economic pressures as the Arabs, yet they are not the terrorists. Religion seems to be the mystery ingredient. Clearly it takes more than religion to make big problems in the world, but with religion it's easier to take a problem and grow it. Face it, if religion just up and died tomorrow the problems of the world wouldn't go away. But they might be made a bit more manageable. It might be possible to open the door on actual solutions. powered by performancing firefox

Stephen Pinker has an article at the following link: Edge 206 outlining how the world is actually less violent today than in times gone by. Although there may be short upticks here and there the fact will remain that since the start of the 20th Century the world has become safer. (Not everywhere, not all the time, just generally) It's a drum I bang a lot but it is a good point to remember when you're checking out the mugging section of your local paper. powered by performancing firefox

P. Zed Myers has a great link to a comedian's thoughts on ID Pharyngula: The History of Creationist Thought powered by performancing firefox

So what to say about this. Along about a year ago, I posted a bit of info on Brian Alters and his struggles for grant money in Canada as he hadn't proven evolution. (Ever consider showing these critics a fossil, saying "Fossil," and hitting them in the forehead with it?) Looks like it's still going on...check out the link TheStar.com - Life - Creationism debate continues to evolve powered by performancing firefox

Dude, WTF? http://richarddawkins.net/article,798,n,n -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."

Managed to catch 2 friends on the phone this weekend. First is Friend MDC and former co-worker Friend GD. Both are still in Tokyo on very different life paths. Friend MDC is a bit flaky at times; a good soul buffeted by the complexities of navigating life. Friend GD has reluctantly been promoted and is now gaining further responsibility (and money). I f I'd stuck around that would have been me 4 years ago, I like to think. There's an uneasy comfort that comes from knowing that certain friends will continue a cycle and others will continue a trajectory. All this comes as the wife and I are preparing for some guests this weekend. Friend HB is coming down with his wife from Yokohama and Friend KP is dropping by from Ol' Blighty. Should be a raucous weekend. -- From: The Eternal Gaijin Lost Somewhere in Kobe, Japan "Words Cannot Describe What I Am About To Tell You."