Get Cynical

From TheBostonChannel:

WAKEFIELD, Mass. — The pastor has banned Potter. Lord Voldemort has found an ally.

While Harry Potter may have survived Voldemort’s killing curse, he has been defeated by the head of a Catholic school in a Boston suburb.

All of J.K. Rowling’s wildly popular books have been taken off the library shelves at St. Joseph’s school in Wakefield, Mass., by Rev. Ron Barker who believed their themes of sorcery and witchcraft do not belong in a Catholic setting.

“I’m in the business of Jesus and this is the enemy camp,” Barker said. “It has sorcery spells and it’s not appropriate.”

The book banning is the first time Harry Potter has been removed from a school in Massachusetts, according to the American Library Association. Seventeen other states have seen attempts to ban the books, since Rowling published “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 1998.

What movie character would you consider to be your alter ego?

Call me Walter Sobchak.

(Thanks to Radmila from My2SecondShelfLife for this question)

Ewwwwwww. I hate Boboli crust. (And what’s up with the pistol in the last picture?)

Nighttime photography.

Our newly expanded gallery features night photographers (from as far
afield as Spain . . . and Seattle!) who have done outstanding work in this
field. Some, including Bay Area Educator/Mentor Steve Harper participated
in the original exhibit, The Nocturnes (1991, curated by our own Tim
Baskerville), some are professional or commercial photographers, some
are exhibiting artists, and some are amateurs with a serious nocturnal
photography habit. All have a profound love of the nocturne, and take their
work very seriously.

There are some logo remakes that should be praised, and there are some that should be hazed.

When it comes to re-branding a corporate identity, you would imagine that the CEO would take great care in making such a decision. In some cases, this is not true. In fact, there are many cases where you begin to question the sobriety of those in charge when they decided to remake their brand.

Let’s start off with the logo redesign that sparked my desire to write this.

It’s about that time in a tragedy where people start taking advantage of the press coverage to push their agendas. So it’s time to play the Blame Game. I just did a quick search this morning to find who or what people were blaming for the San Diego fires and came up with a less than comprehensive list. Feel free to add to it by emailing me or commenting on things I’ve missed and I’ll update the list.

Blame Global Warming.

Blame the Environmental Pressure Groups forbidding California homeowners from clearing flammable brush around their land.

Blame Al Quaeda

Blame the gays.

Blame the people who hate America.

Blame Iraq.

Blame the bureaucracy.

Blame the “litigious environmentalists” for “standing in the way” of Bush’s Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI).

If we wish to reform the world we must rely on truth, on fact, on reason. We must teach men that they are good or bad for themselves, that others cannot be good or bad for them, that they cannot be charged with the crimes, or credited with the virtues of others. We must discard the doctrine of the atonement, because it is absurd and immoral. We are not accountable for the sins of “Adam” and the virtues of Christ cannot be transferred to us. There can be no vicarious virtue, no vicarious vice. Why should the sufferings of the innocent atone for the crimes of the guilty. According to the doctrine of the atonement right and wrong do not exist in the nature of things, but in the arbitrary will of the Infinite. This is a subversion of all ideas of justice and mercy.

Robert Green Ingersoll – “Myth and Miracle”(1885)