Some early Christmas presents for you all

A couple thoughts from my First Amendment professor's end-of-semester lecture. Let me know if you find them as thought-provoking as I did:

• How would you change the way you live your life if you knew that you would receive $5,000,000 a year for the rest of your life?
• For the rest of your life, you will never again be as free as you are right now as a college student.
  

I love the way this is described: The Aids Healthcare Foundation is trying to make sure that all films which "demonstrate unprotected exchange of bodily fluids" are required to protect their actors/actresses from AIDS...

This little post at a site called "The League of Ordinary Gentlemen" may describe a little of why I really do enjoy "The Office:"
"Of course, just like most of us don’t have the body types of movie-stars, most of us will also not be millionaires or celebrities. Most of us will only ever achieve moderate financial success. Most of us will only be content with our work. We will dislike many of our bosses and co-workers and will have to learn to live with them as best we can, just like we learn to live with our imperfect families. Are we all just under-achievers then?...Really, all the characters are in one way or another. I think the show is about hope more than it is about despair. It is about how we achieve something good in our lives beyond our work and career."

In this difficult economics times, it's nice to know there's one industry that's still growing: USA Today reports that "Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted."

I've seen videos like this before, but it never hurts to see it again. The American Museum of National History presents: The Universe, as we know it.

If you haven't been reading Ross Douthat regularly, you should. Here's his take on James Cameron's Avatar.

And this has been making the rounds recently, but if you haven't heard what English sounds like to foreign speakers, it's pretty amusing.

Quote of the month:

Courtesy of David Brooks's piece "Cellphones, Texts and Lovers" in today's NYT:

• "In today’s world, the choice of a Prius can be a more sanctified act that the choice of an erotic partner."

And he's absolutely right.

XKCD has too much time on its/their(?) hands, but the result is pretty epic: Movie Narrative Charts.

Also, I came across this letter in the National Archives museum and thought it was amazing. Read it and laugh at how some things never change: "If you do we shall just about die."

This lady used to give me toys at church...

"SEATTLE JOURNAL: A Holdout Against Developers Leaves a Legacy" 

Also, I've decided to use some of my $15 iTunes gift card to buy the movie "Mean Girls." There are a couple cliche parts and it's a little weird to see Lindsay Lohan back when she was normal, but overall I really really liked it :) Good messages, funny, and just a good movie.

Hello world

This is mainly to be used as a repository for my own benefit to store links, articles, facts, trains of thought, and whatever philosophical, societal, cultural, or political tirades I feel the need to express at the time. 

For example, this article by Nicholas Kristof of the NYT, published a couple days before Christmas, comes to the same conclusion from a Progressive standpoint that I could have intuited for years: Namely, that liberals are ready to talk a big game about government taking your money away to fund charity and social programs precisely because they are so loathe to give up any of their own wealth voluntarily. "Bleeding Heart Tightwads."

Also, I have consistently regarded Dinesh D'Souza as one of my personal favorite writers to pay attention to, and this 2006 article from the San Francisco Chronicle is a pretty good introduction to one of his major themes. "God Knows Why Faith Is Thriving." 

I saw "It's a Wonderful Life" today for the first time, and really liked it, particularly the note at the end: "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends."

Also, while listening to the homily in Mass, I liked my tangent of thinking of God as a limit concept, and offered the poor analogy of a light being refracted in infinitesimally many ways through the manifestations of grace. More work to be done here.

Enjoy future posts, everyone, and Merry Christmas.