wbb, in comments over at LP, summarised most neatly what is also pretty much my stance on evaluating faith traditions:
Of course there’s stuff to like in Buddhism as there obviously is, too, in Christianity or other Pre-enlightenment philosophies. But the lived experience, rather than contents of the official user’s manual, and the uses these instutionalised belief systems are put to, in controlling
From the International Herald Tribune:
The country’s Sunni-Shiite bloodletting is driving many Iraqis to bury the very essence of their identity: their names.
To have to hide one’s name is considered deeply shameful. But with sectarian violence surging, Iraqis fear that the name on an identification card, passport or other document could become an instant death sentence if seen by the wrong people.
A great post over at Unfogged, which lists “guidelines for avoiding actively irritating women who are discussing feminist concerns” including every feminist’s unfavourite:
6) Don’t say, “Men have problems too! Women are always doing mean things to men! [stamps foot] And we don’t complain about it as much!”
Feminists love to talk about the ways men are ill-served by the current arrangement. But if you’re one of the guys who
‘cos the tigling was having her debut performance there – as a member of the Sydney Region Combined Schools Chorus.
It was a fabulous showcase of public music education and the talented youngsters in our schools. Of special note were a 10 year old classical pianist and a 15 year old jazz trumpeter, both of whom probably have glittering careers awaiting them.
She was so excited and
Autism risk linked to older fathers – study:
Children fathered by men at age 40 and older have a higher risk of developing autism, possibly because of mutations or other genetic changes, according to new research.
The study “provides the first convincing evidence that advanced paternal age is a risk factor for autism spectrum disorder,” said the authors
This is well worth reading for people who haven’t yet inculcated habits that mean they can’t easily be identified online: Death by Google Calendar: how I identified you to rob you.
I am not picking on this woman but I needed to show a real example. There are tons of public calendars far more revealing than this one. In literally 20 minutes, I now know the name, address, phone number and schedule of this woman. If I can do it, you can be damn sure the real bad guys can. Please be smarter about what you share online. If given a choice, choose the private setting. If you are not given a choice, either choose a new calendar or talk in some code that only you understand. I guess I just don’t understand why people set themselves up to become victims.
Steve Irwin was the finest kind of drongo – a genuine ocker mug lair, with a tremendous enthusiasm and generosity. I’d only just started to admire Steve Irwin (after finding his ockerism embarrassing) recently since I learned how much of his TV wealth he has plowed back into conservation and animal welfare projects generally.
I’m appalled at his sudden death while wondering whether this time he took just a few
This movie didn’t do very well. Partly because this movie poster promised a lot more Conan/Arnie than was there (so the word of mouth was ‘what a ripoff’) and partly because they didn’t give Brigitte Nielsen exactly the costume the fans were expecting, which was more along the lines of this eminently practical warrior garb – the chainmail bikini:
Thanks to Matilda and Vicki letting me know that comments were broken on the entry below, I have now fixed the problem (which was a couple of left-over [/br] tags from when I wrote the piece up initially as a draft email, which is my lazy wont).
Hoyden About Town 