FlaSoxxJim

Sadly, this was forseen by the greatt 20th Century Prophet Joliet Jake Blues, when he looked into tthe future ande said, "What do you want for nothing.... RUBBER BISCUIT?!?"

Boooo all of that.

It's not so much that your knuckles are dragging along the ground, PA, it's the openness with which you profess your homophobia that boggles the mind. Then make sure to put the big "Hate and Fear Practiced Here" placcard up in front of your choice and everyone else can be forewarned and move on. Or... There is a genetic basis to it that expresses itself early in life. Why would a young child born with gay tendencies not behave in such a manner? Why are you looking to exclusively blame the developmental environment (the mother must have taken chemicals into her body or the parents screwed the kid up in some way...)? You did not even make ann allowance for a genetic comnponent to homosexuality in your question phased as above. There was a very good study published this year (I posted it here several months ago, and am too lazy to find it now), with very solid evidence for a physiological basis to homosexual leanings in men. Basically, gay men had certain involuntary reflexes (read: hardwired, NOT LEARNED) that paralelled those of straight women but NOT straight men. The search for evidence of a genetic basis for homosexually continues. If it is found and if it then continues to be substantiated over time, will you still treat it like it is either just a simple individual choice or a terrible childhood nurturing gone horribly wrong? That is what you call social progress. Not as sweeping or as universal as would be hoped, but progress nonetheless. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. A far more loving and tolerant Christian than yourself once noted that something may be normal even if it is not normative.

It's because WE have a soul and THEY don't, silly And, there is not an ink color green enough to convey the degree to which sarcasm is supposed to be dripping off of that one. btw, I think the whole haves versus have-note re the soul argument is probably also put in play regarding whatever savages du-jour we have in our sights... slaves, native Americans, Japanese in WWII, Muslims now. Basically, the sooner they all learn God like us and hates them (which is convenient, certainly), the better off we'll all be.

The whole 'when does life begin' argument is made unnecessarily dificult by adding the distinction "human" life to the question either implicitly or explicitly. Living cells are in play before the fertilization event but reasonably, nobody is out crying about the unrealized potential of as haploid gamet (good thing too, with a half-billion or so unused sperm with each discharge). But the fact remains that the unique genetic identity of every individual is already there - just housed in two distinct propagules until fertilization. So, then should it be fertilization that defines the dividing line between when the raw material of an incipient human is sacred? Well, if that were the case, then the Divine Agent (for those who concede one) is the single biggest baby killer of them all, as fully 1/2 of all successful fertilization evvents end in spontaneous abortion because something is just not quite right. Sometimes that is prior to implantation, sometimes it is in utero, but it usually occurs without the motther even knowing she had conceived... Well it wouldn't do for the Right to Lifers to give it up for a God who has so handily smoked the competition in the great abortion contest, so maybe there is some argument as to whether human life bigins at conception or sometime thereafter. Genetically there is no argument 1-celled fertilized ovum is identical to a zygote, blastula, gastrella, embryo, fetus... college freshman. Why thee Divine Agent would kill 50% of the successful fertilization events is, I surmise, chalked up to His Mysterious Ways, but it sure makes folks jumpy about what happens to the other half. The presence of a heartbeat, a nerve tube, sensory reflex, etc., are all arbitrary benchmarks on the way to a full term baby.

Happy Happy Happy!

OK, your turn to enlighten me, my Brother. Does cw's conviction that one can be saved by grace, and not by having to fawn over His Petty-Vengefulness, or having to offer it all up to Him? The view of a Divine Agent as being all merciful.... IF... if you accept that you are crap and will always be crap but if you fawn all over Him then maybe the Kingdom can be yours.... it's a crock. It's all the worst attributes of humanity wrapped in a foreshortened version of divinity. Gawd is gonna have a hissy fit if a person does phenomenally good deeds here on earth but doesn't find the Way through Him? Nope.

Let's just say I hope it ends up like the whole New Coke/Coke Classic fiasco, and in the end NewPA just kind of fades away and we all get to enjou PA Classic again. Everybody has to find their own way. But having lost a couple of good friends when the way became The Way.... My hope remains that they one day become Unborn Again and start thinking for themselves once more, but as the years pass I think it is less and less likely.

Wow, next to old Kirk, NewPA is downright upbeat. OK, back to what I seem to do best - pissing off the Big G... who seems a petty and vindictive sonovab**** if one cared to take the Cameron/Comfort view of things with a straight face. The one thing I have going for me though is I only bombed out on 8 of 10 Commandments on that little quiz. That's at least one better than the current President, who as good as murdered everybody his lies en route to Iraq have seen killed. I mean come on, if Gawd is going to play hardball and say lust is adultery, then I sure as heck believe that sending people to kill and be killed based on bulls*** and lies isn't going to score many points on the old Heavenly Ledger. But that's just me. Being a non-Christian, I find it somewhat hard to work up to out and out hipocrasy.

Just when you're convinced every "Christian" has excrement for brains, a John Bugay comes out and gives you hope. Then just as quickly, the stones being flung at the "false prophet" go whizzing over your head and you get right back to believing that earlier assessment. :puke

Thing is, 2 out of 3 on your list top mine as well. Brando (if that's who Brandon is) and Tex - can't say enough about them. I think Brando is probably one of the most brilliant and well-read people I've ever encountered and I wish he could have tined down his volatility enough to still be here. Then again, genius and passion usually go hand in hand so it's appropriate, I guess. Tex... well that's the glue that holds this corner of Soxtalk together right there. Juggs on the other hand... well, he's something else entirely.

It's far from eternal, from an trophic/energetic perspective. If you can convince somebody to bury you fresh without embalming, you certainly would provide caloric nutrition to an array of organisms for many months. The most refractory biomass would be slowly broken down for several years, and maybe a microflora could subsist on the marrow in your long bones for some time after that. (Now something massive like a whale carcass.... there are unique chemosynthetic communities being supported by them 50 years after they die and fall to the abyssal plain. Pretty dang cool. Now, from an atomic perspective, yeah it is about as eternal as the physical universe can muster (14 billion years give or take according to the latest research - eternal enough by human standards). Some stars sneezed, and here we are (and there we go, and so on and so forth) - that's the cliffnotes version of it.

It has been a while since you have said anything of relevance here as the kinder, gentler, but eerily less funny Poster-Formerly-Known-as-PA (I'm not entirely convinced you're not Juggernaut off his meds and back for a spell...). But you're on to something here... Anybody spouting New testament verses makes me want to friggin' puke...

Esteban looked GREAT, and got out of a couple jams, but you knew he was only going to hold on for so many innings. It made me ALMOST pull for the Yanks for a fleeting moment.

I should have a soft-spot in my heart for Kam's because it was the location for my first beer bong. But I pretty much hated that place (probably bad flashbacks from the beer bong), and went anywhere but there once I turned 21 and didn't have to frequent the bars that were more relaxed about carding.

Can't seem to pull yourself away from Chester Street, eh?? The perfect night for me at C-U was a couple beers while finishing up work at the Gyro joint on Green St. I used to work at, a couple pints Guinness across the street at Murphy's, taking in a set or two of one of the local bands at Mabels (before it sucked) or Nature's Table or Blind Pig (when they were still around), and finally a big honkin' churizo burrito (or a caslves' brain taco on a dare - not for the faint of heart/weak of stomach/or terminally hammered) at LaBamba's. Then a short stumble back to our great old rental house on High Street and hopefully a little inebriated some-getting from the girlfriend if I didn't make too much of an ass of myself that night... And the chances of making that 8am lecture the next morning.... not good. I don't even want to look at that weblink to see that most of those places aren't there anymore. Speaking of which... Is Deluxe bar and billiards joint still there?? Absolutely the best batter-fried fish sammiches ever, served every Friday.

That apocalypse billboard is great, Cheat!

Did you know that #2 was originally going to be 'drop that bong and vote,' but that was considered inappropriate in the end. (plus there would be too many cracked bongs from all the dropping...)

Have a good one... ... or two ..... or three... (*hic!*)

I don't like it. SI swimsuit editions arre fine, Maxim, FHM, etc., but National Geogeographic aagizine is a 100+ year old institution that should not be screwed with like that. This isn't some sort of joke, is it?

Beer? What's that??