vedana.net

One week, and the trip begins...

This article at the Washington Post, written by a Pakistani nuclear physicist, sums up _everything_. Well, maybe not everything, but at least the current world religious and political climate. An excerpt:

"Islam -- like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or any other religion -- is not about peace. Nor is it about war. Every religion is about absolute belief in its own superiority and the divine right to impose its version of truth upon others."

[via Cam]

Aunt Carol just forwarded this.

iPod. :)

Merry Christmas, all! I leave for New Zealand in less than two weeks; we've got a few stops along the way (New York City, London, Dusseldorf, Kuala Lumpur), and should arrive in Auckland around January 25th. Let the wanderlust commence!

SALT Online: "When religion is an important force in a society whose leaders have managed to maneuver their society into armed conflict with another society, then it is logical that religion be utilized to motivate individuals to fight, to maim, to kill."

Yesterday, at Mom and Jack's suggestion, I started reading "Choice Theory: a New Psychology of Personal Freedom," by Dr. William Glasser. Here's one of the many gems I've come across so far (p11):

"We also do not see how widespread misery really is because, again guided by common sense, a lot of us think that misery is caused mainly by poverty, laziness, or how the powerful treat the powerless. But in the affluent Western world, there is no shortage of miserable people who are well off, hardworking, and powerful. I have noticed that there is a high rate of divorce among successful academics, with successful professionals and business leaders close behind."

And another, from p13:

"Once any human problem occurs, for example, when marriages begin to fail, the couples rarely get back together. No matter how skilled the counselor, it is often impossible to save a marriage or a failing student. The answer lies in preventing these failures, not in looking for better ways to fix people who are failing."

Though the book focuses on four major types of relationships (husband-wife, parent-child, teacher-student and manager-worker), it's the tidbits regarding "significant other" relationships (quite confounding thus far!) that especially catch my eye. The other three don't trouble me in the slightest!

Expect more gems as I spot them. :)

Dan is up on the soapbox! "By the way, anthrax spores can germinate after 45 days in your lungs. So, if you took Cipro for 5 weeks and then stopped, all you really did was give yourself some nasty diarrhea." I guess med school is "learnin' him real good!" (that's my south-eastern Ohio dialect kicking in.)

I'm heading out for Oxford momentarily; perhaps I'll converse with God along the way.

I wonder how many of these I'll encounter in the Outback next year?

My sister just switched her major at Lake Forest College from Business to Communications. Excellent!

Common Dreams, The Last Colonial War: "The French thought that they were fighting the last battle of this kind. They had long ago conquered Algeria. They set up their farms and settlements in the most beautiful land in North Africa. And when the Algerians demanded independence, they called them 'terrorists' and they shot down their demonstrators and they tortured their guerrilla enemies and they murdered - in 'targeted killings' - their antagonists."

Sounds a bit like Israel/Palestine, hmm? [via Fares]

KPMG doesn't like being linked to, according to this page. Hah! [via Kottke]

$2000 for a Caddy, or $3000 for Ginger? Methinks I'll go with the Cadillac, but I don't have to make that call until 2003... ;)

I spent most of Sunday getting Gramps switched over to Mac OS X on my old PowerMac G3. Gone (alas) is Claris Emailer, in favor of Mail.app. Along with IE and Sherlock, the only other item in his Dock is AIM... Now that's simplicity!

I wonder if he should get the award for oldest (80 in July, 2001) Mac OS X user?