Stormbringer's Thunder

On a weekend when the world remembers the 9/11 that made that date infamous, many questions remain unanswered. My concern is that there are answers that remain unquestioned. Coexist. This sounds so terribly profound and noble. Even the graphic is inspiring. In one word we have Rodney King’s plea from a decade earlier – “Can’t we all just get along?” Well, I suppose that depends what you mean. Can we accept one another as humans with inherent value? – I would hope so. Can we tolerate viewpoints and lifestyles different from our own? – We should. Can we live out our own beliefs without injuring or belittling others in the name of our beliefs? – Most of us do, except for the occasional misguided zealot. Can we accept that we are all climbing the same mountain, even though we may be choosing separate paths? – No. This is where we must part company. The term for this sentiment is religious pluralism. It means ‘ acceptance of all religious paths as equally valid, promoting coexiste

Christianity seems to be frightening more people these days. The most recent flurry of alarm has been over "dominionism," as represented in a New Yorker article by Ryan Lizza. It has been more than thoroughly debunked, but still it seems to represent something more than politics. People are afraid of Christianity. In fact for multiple reasons, many people are saying Christianity is bad, evil, harmful. This post is the first in a series examining reasons for Christianity's bad reputation. In memory of 9/11, I begin with "Guilt by Association." It goes like this. Islam is a religion. Some Muslims attacked us on 9/11 in the name of their God and their religion. Therefore religion is bad. Christianity is a religion. Therefore Christianity is bad. The logic is laughable. Compare this, which is in near-identical form: Rodents are four-legged animals. Mice are rodents and can make a mess in your attic. Therefore rodents are bad. Dogs are four-legged animals. Therefore

No introduction, here's the text: Attitude Adjustment How did 9/11 change America’s attitude toward religion? A   recent post   on CNN’s Belief Blog says: “Before 9/11, many atheists kept a low profile. Something changed, though, after 9/11. They got loud… Criticism of all religion, not just fanatical cults, was no longer taboo after 9/11.” Indeed. Around the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, American Atheists hit the nightly news by suing to remove a steel cross from the September 11 memorial, even as others were calling it a national monument and a symbol of hope. Still, many atheists say 9/11 is a perfect example of why religion itself is evil. Is Religion Evil? Reminds me of reading Sam Harris’   The End of Faith   years ago. I remember when he started to get popular by insisting that religion itself is dangerous and evil. Although he’s got a lot of fans, a   Religion Dispatches   article recently called him “more charismatic than credentialled” as a speaker. In the sa

Kingston, New York, had been my home for about seventeen months. I was working in the warehouse with my foreman, getting the day's rounds planned. Another guy came over to us and asked if we knew what was happening. No, we did not have a radio on. He proceeded to tell us that planes had hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I was waiting for a punch line, because this guy told tacky jokes. When he told us that it was no joke, I ran to the nearest computer and got online. I saw images of the smoking World Trade Center. Two things chilled me. First, the attack on the Pentagon made me realize that this was more ambitious than other attacks, and that the enemy was arrogant and stupid enough to take on the power of the United States military. The other thing that chilled me was when the Internet went down. At the time, I thought it was more than just overload and signal problems, but communications were not destroyed after all. I did not grasp the physical enormity of the Worl

In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the biggest security threat to Canada a decade after 9/11 is Islamic terrorism. In a wide-ranging interview with CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge that will air in its entirety on The National Thursday night, Harper says Canada is safer than it was on Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda attacked the U.S., but that "the major threat is still Islamicism." "There are other threats out there, but that is the one that I can tell you occupies the security apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats," Harper said. Harper cautioned that terrorist threats can "come out of the blue" from a different source, such as the recent Norway attacks, where a lone gunman who hated Muslims killed 77 people. But Harper said terrorism by Islamic radicals is still the top threat, though a "diffuse" one. For the rest of "Harper says 'Islamicism&#

Buona sera.  I just had to throw this one at you. Catch! There are several drawbacks to picking the "Stormbringer" moniker. One is that people who are unaware that the world existed and had history before they were born, such as the origins of the name itself . Another problem is that quite a few people use it (notice the URL here, I had to add numbers to the name). One Stormbringer is a purveyor of, uh, "adult" material. I've had quite a few people hit this site looking for his stuff. What I found amusing is that someone is looking for the naughty bits from a public library in Brooklyn! Although it says "stories by stormbringer", I don't write stories, I've had many hits from people searching for "a bit of the other", and I know this horndog was trying to find this stuff to read in a public place. Come on, do it at home in the dark or something.