B: It's like a milkshake???

After 6 years of raging against the machine and what not, I think Mandy and I are suffering from outrage overload. I am simply exhausted with how totally corrupt our government and this war are, and discouraged that the majority of americans are just starting to lose faith in the current administration. I'm done for awhile. Round here it will just be quaint news items, pictures of doggies knitting and fish, and the occasional great quote. And of course off topic rants about things of a non-political nature.

On that note did anybody hear the full recording of the now famous speach that Mayor Nagin (New Orleans) made about "...keeping New Orleans chocolate"? To me the most outrageous thing was not the racism of his statements (I can just imagine the public outrage if some mayor of a major metropolitan area made a speech vowing to "Keep Seattle vanilla!"), but the fact that nobody said anything about the part when he stated that the hurricane was punishment from God for the war in Iraq, and black people's sins. You expect this from Pat Robertson, but an elected official?! I simply can not fathom people that would continue to worship a god that they believe punishes people with huricanes. It is yet another example of how intangible the idea of omnipotency is to some people.

I had a great philosophy teacher who laid out in a really organized manner the central problem with defining an omnipotent deity. I can't begin to do it justice, but the central theme was that if a deity is truly omnipotent then there is no free will unless it is allowed by the deity. If the free will is allowed by the deity then that deity must also be capable of forseeing the outcome of those actions (which creates a weakened form of free will). If the deity allows things which were forseeable to occur, then the deity must have wanted those things to happen or just doesn't care. The omnipotent deity which exists beyond the boundaries of the universe, creator of all existent, the beginning and the end, the origin of all contiousness is: a) a being which can not be fathomed, defined in a book, or even really related to in any way by man and is therefore beyond all definition, and b) a being that probably couldn't give a damn (and thusly doesn't bother to punish people with huricanes). If on the other hand God can not control free will, or is limited by space and time, then he is not omnipotent, he must then exists within the Universe. He would then be a superior, but not supreme being and thus God must have a creator outside of the universe. That is just a demoralizing concept that you worship some vice management level god that is relatively powerless except to occasionally author a minor miracle or whip up a hurricane to punish the chocolate city. The conclusions must be therefore that either God is weak and not supreme, supreme and doesn't care, or supreme and allowed all thing which have happened to happen. If you believe god haphazardly hits broad swaths of the nation with a hurricane like a drunk driver taking out his neighbors fence, rather than specifically targetting President Bush, or absentee fathers, or abortion doctors or whatever other absurd percieved sin you can muster up then you clearly believe in one fucked up deity. Hope that works out for you.

Anyways, here's a Friday puppy! As always up for adoption here locally.