Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Fire is cool

Hit the title link to see a fun toy that someone should get me. :)

Religious Rebublicans need a reality check

Expanding on the the theme from yesterday, hit the title link to see a handy and amusing list of some odd stuff coming out of the mouths of those current in power of the Republican party.

And, for the record, I'm a moderate independent, with no party ties. I've voted for Republicans, Democrats, and even a Libertarian. But, lately, the Republicans seem content to let people like Pat Robertson dictate their policy. The Christian Coalition wouldn't know real faith if it hit them in the face. Their intolerant, backward thinking ways mixing with regular fiscal conservative thinking (Global warming is junk science, but creationism should be taught as a legitimate alternative to the "untested" theory of evolution? Horseshit) is holding our development as a civilization back!

Every REAL conservative (moderate by today's definition) should know that a liberal idea always wins over time. Look at civil rights or woman's suffrage. Sure, conservatives didn't like those, but then gradually, it normal to have woman's suffrage or civil rights for all. It is okay to want to go slow to new ideas, or be fiscally conservative, but it is easy to get stuck down in the intolerant space of being conservative.

Now, if we could only get some good presidential candidates and some instant runoff voting, then we might have a real debate in this country. A good start would be the Democrats actually standing up to the Republicans with alternate ideas instead of just telling everyone that the Republicans and their ideas suck.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Where's a theology professor when you need one?

The linked article is talking about the current issues in the Florida right to die case. One passage in particular bears notice:

"During the hearing, David Gibbs, an attorney for the parents, said that forcing Schiavo to die by starvation and dehydration would be "a mortal sin" under her Roman Catholic beliefs."

That kind of stuck out. I'm a Roman Catholic, and I know lots about Catholic theology. The reason this stuck out was because it is false.

I can only assume Mr. Gibbs is talking about how suicide is a mortal sin - and if you have a mortal sin on your soul when you die, you go to hell. Now, there are two components to a mortal sin. The first is that it has to be a serious matter - and suicide satisifies that.

Of course, Mr. Gibbs doesn't mention the other part. He doesn't mention that for anything to be a sin, there has to be choice involved. A human being's soul (according to Roman Catholic dogma) is made up of two parts - the intellect and the free will. They cannot function without each other. The woman in question is in a permanent vegetative state. She cannot express any will - she has none - she is already gone. She therefore can't "choose" anything - so she can't commit suicide, or any other sin.

Come on people, you learn this stuff in Sunday School.

Oh, and we'll leave out why Congress and the President need to fucking stay the hell away from this issue. Luckily, federal judges seem to be operating at a bit smarter level. Hopefully that will continue. I know I'd personally hate to have Congress trying to dictate my cases to me as I'm hearing them if I were a judge.

Of course, if I were a judge, this would be over a long time ago.

Friday, March 18, 2005

On the last post...

Just as a followup - I don't agree with everything those people said at the "GDC Rant". I just thought it was interesting. When I said "they talk about issues that need to be solved" I simply mean that they need closure - whether or not it warrants drastic action is up for debate.

That said, I wouldn't want to do anything else, aside from possibly being a federal judge. I think that would be very interesting given the right cases. But, aside from that, I wouldn't want to do anything else professionally, even given some of the problems the industry has. Every industry has problems. Not all industries are a showcase for some of the best creative talent in the world.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

GDC Panels Are Cool

Anybody at all interested in the gaming industry should read this. It is a very frank panel from GDC that discusses a lot of the issues facing the industry that really need to get solved for us to get anywhere in the future. The comment about the gaming industry being close minded to developments in software engineering outside gaming is particularly good.