Stormbringer's Thunder

The same thing I've told you about before . They want to settle an estate in the UK, but do not even put my name in the e-mail. The headers indicate "Yahoo" for the mailer, not what is written in the letter. Nothing wrong with Yahoo Mail, but established legal firms do not use free Web mail services. For people who are not regular readers, this is a scam. If you get a letter like this, delete it. What is funny is at the very end, they have the "misuse of this letter may be illegal" tag line, when the entire thing that was sent to me is illegal. Ha!   I put in extra line breaks to make the letter fit: From: Mrs Kathy McGowan AGGS Consultants Service Ltd. This is a confidential message from AGGS Consultants: private consulting firm in London,  United Kingdom. I have been directed to contact you with regards to ongoing investigations involving a  deceased client of Royal Bank of Scotland. The client, who shared the same last name with you,  died intestate so...

Buon giorno. This has been fermenting in my mind for quite a while, and finally got tapped and poured out.  Do you know what a " reserved word " is? Normally, it's computer jargon for, "Don't go there, girlfriend". Ever try to name a file and get a "reserved word" error? You cannot use certain words in your file name because they belong to the computer system or application. I've taken the expression and used it in other ways. F'rinstance, a high school clique starts bandying a word about in their enthusiasm. Normie Nerdley tries to get in on the fun and uses the word along with them. Silence and death stares ensue. He did not earn the right to use that word with them, it was like a reserved word for that clique. The most common example I can think of is the word "nigger". (Yes, I still have free speech and the Politically Correct Police haven't caught up to me, so let me get on with my example. It's not like I'm...

"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He's also concerned to prove that there's no valid reason why he should personally not do just what he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously a liberation from a certain political and economic system and a liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom." —Aldous Huxley, in Confessions of a Professed Atheist Another "I told you so!" for me. Several times, I have pointed out to atheists that the cornerstone of their religion is evolution. If there is no Cr...

An interesting article by Vox Popoli about the so-called "New Atheists" (elsewhere, he says that they're a "spent intellectual force"). Read him and cry to Richard "Daffy" Dawkins.

Buon giorno. Less reading, more listening today, too. (I wanted to do an article about Open ID, but that will have to wait.) Rev. Matt Slick of CARM was interviewing Dr. Gary Habermas on his show "Faith and Reason" ( full podcast is here , and quite interesting). One thing that caught my attention supports my own belief about people with certain belief systems that ask questions about God, the Bible, Jesus, Christianity &c. Are the inquiries sincere? Give two minutes and hear what these two apologists have to say:

Buona sera. Since the last couple of articles were rather lengthy, I'm going to keep it short today. Here is a short (1 minute 12 seconds) audio from Charles Stanley. This was at the end of the podcast for October 2, 2010. It's about being a perfectionist, and how that is actually destructive. It's worth a listen:

Buona sera. I intensely dislike indulging trolls, drug users, the criminally insane and other lowlifes. Today, I will make an exception of sorts. Lemme 'splain how this works. This is my Weblog, by the grace of God and the generosity of Google Corporation. I'm willing to entertain some suggestions on content and how I operate the thing, but I do not not consider people's demands. If it makes me a bad man because I don't do things according to your imagined rules, so be it. I believe in Internet safety and privacy (although nothing is completely secret ), and have posted warnings several times on and about Facebook regarding safety and identity theft. We all know that there are nutcases out there, and it seems like common sense to avoid casually using your name, date of birth and other personally identifying items. Some people have said, "I have the courage to use my real name". What, do you want a medal, Zeke? As far as I'm concerned yo...