Vagabond Saint

The Middle Ground Laws

2009-08-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

The loudest members of a group do not necessarily represent its constituents. Loudness itself indicates extremity.
Unity and diversity can coexist in the absense of categories. A middle ground state is marked by such a coexistence.
A middle ground state is achieved when a population embraces its diversity and forgoes categorization.
A member of a group who does not in some way disagree with the consensus of that group cannot add to its diversity.
Categories poorly describe the human race because they greatly diminish diversity and often lead to stereotyping.

Not an Athiest

2009-08-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

"I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understanding these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."

-- Albert Einstein

Verbal Pet Peeves

2009-08-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Irregardless

Primarily, this is not a word! Some dictionaries have added it, but with extreme caveats. Secondarily, it does not mean what people intend it to. Regardless means without regard or careless. It is most often used to indicate the aforementioned condition is irrelevant and need not be considered. Irregardless would therefore indicate the opposite or negation of regardless, but people use it to mean the same thing.

Ideal (instead of Idea)

I've not heard this often, but I do. When I hear something like "I have an ideal" from a coworker, I often say "its good to have high standards. Now get back to work." I always get blank stares.

Where is it at?

Not only is this a hanging preposition, it is a redundant hanging preposition. Why can't you just say "where is it" instead of instead of mutilating the English language with your waste of words?

Politics

2009-06-02T10:11:00.001-07:00

Individuals are smart, brilliant even, but collectively we are pretty stupid.

Advantage of Theism in Maintaining a Civil System

2009-05-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

If a system cannot legislate morality, that system is doomed to anarchy. Without right and wrong, there is no need for justice.

Morality distinguishes right from wrong in a specific context.

Morality requires a context. It itself is not one. As such, a system must define a context or succumb to systemic decay and end in anarchy.

Modernism attempts to define its context a posteriori, but morality requires a margin of a priori context. Without external intervention such as a command architecture (as in communism) or propaganda, such a system will decay toward anarchy.

Relativism attempts to employ all contexts. A system can employ manifold contexts, but conflicts must be resolved by a more general context. Relativism presumes that no general context exists to resolve conflicts. Therefore, without external intervention, such a system will decay toward anarchy.

Theism suggests a single ultimate context for morality. Such a context allows a system to avoid decay.

A Spurious Corelation

2009-05-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

There is a disturbing correlation in America today between wealth and skin color. The correlation is true by the numbers, but I believe it is completely phenomenological. I believe that we should not think of giving aid to minorities any more. The word minority is pejorative and I believe exceedingly racist (see more here). Instead, we should provide aid to poor people regardless of their skin color.

I wish I could get people to see that the left is NOT really for minorities, and the right is NOT really for the Christians. The right and the left are for one thing and one thing only: your vote. They could care less about you the voter. You are just a number to them reguardless of what they say.

It is not a conspiracy, it is a mathematical reality. It works like this. In a system where people do not vote smart (see more here), the only candidates who get elected are those who model themselves after the collective. The inflamitory properties of the candidates are exagerated and the gap grows greater between the arbitrary sides. This is why we have two major political parties. The two party system is maintained by this polerization which is fueled by the "stupid voting" that has been going on for far too long. In reality there shouldn't be two political parties there should be a hundreds of millions of them.

Don't you see American. When it comes to your vote, You are not black, or Asian, or Hispanic. You are not a Depublican or Remocrat. You are an American! Act like one. Put away all of this hand wringing and childish devicivness. It is time for us to be one people. Only then can we seek to be one world.

Please, end the tyranical reign of political parties. Vote smart in 2010.

I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am an American.

Apherism # 653

2009-01-31T08:30:00.001-08:00

He who does not try cannot succeed. He who does not fail will not learn.

Prize of Old

2008-12-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

The echoing canyons of time,
Neither being still nor moved,
Recall to mind a past as sure,
The Lord God yet has proved.

The light opens on vast expanse,
The story yet to be told,
Of love so great and powerful,
Repaid with incense and gold.

The land of Bethlehem did wait,
In shallow night they sleep,
When host of angles broke the sky,
O'er frightened man and sheep.

Three wise men road from far away,
And brought their gifts so rare,
But rarer still and wondrous is,
The cross Lord Jesus bared.

The prize of old, salvation's tale.
Was told by our saving king.
The gates of heavens splendor and,
The songs that saved ones sing.

Of New Meditation

2008-12-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

I have discovered a marvelous new form of meditation that calms even the mighty tempest of my sleepless mind. That of reading; and not reading alone but reading the great works of the near antiquity: Descartes, Poincare, and Leibniz. Even the great canon of Doyle raises my mediation to new heights will giving me a clarity of thought and the peace of relaxation and even-mindedness.
I sit and sip black gold and imbibe the very requiem of antiquity whereby the most puerile of prose rivals the most elegant contemporary poetry, and the most common-place of pre-modern thought portrayed far more of the beauty of creation than that of the most ascended post-modern thinker. Perhaps truth itself capitalized is lost to the annals of time, but thankfully the works of the great thinkers of old still frame the bastion of modern thought. The prodigal still has leave to return.

Truth

2008-11-06T17:05:00.001-08:00

It is not about being right, it is about Truth. Truth does not judge; Truth redeems. Truth does not tolerate; Truth loves. Truth does not evangelize; Truth transforms.

Charlie Jones as G. K. Chesterton

2008-11-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

Apherism # 652

2008-10-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

I do not have to agree with you to be on your side.

Apherism # 651

2008-10-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

Without money, no one would be poor.

Apherism # 650

2008-10-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Just as much prejudice can exists in acclaim as in insult.

Fear Not

2008-09-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Brothers, we have nothing to fear. Take me at more than the cliche taste that you have in your mouth right now. We have nothing to fear. The economy be damned! We are sons the most high . The world may go to hell all around us but we won't. We are destined for prosperity beyond that which the legislature can ordain. The appropriate response in times like these is not fear. It is praise and it is faith. We will not be lost. The sun will not go down. The sun will rise. The son has risen. And he will return!

The world can take away our houses, our futures, and even our lives, but they cannot take away our God

Victory

2008-08-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

My brothers, we are not the winning team in some game,
We are the victorious nation of a war.
The war is over.
Our side won just under 2000 years ago.
Our task now is to work to free the hostages.
They are used by the enemy,
But they are not the enemy.
The enemy is defeated, now!
He is readying to kill all of his POW's and,
Destroy his own country;
One last attack-- an implosion of selfish despair.
He is lost, but his followers are not.
Lord help us free them.
Help them see their pseudo-freedom,
Show them that it is not real.
They are puppets,
Cut their strings.

Apherism # 649

2008-07-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Normalcy is an illusion, a cocoon of comfort used by those who can conceal their dysfunction.

Apherism # 648

2008-07-18T14:06:00.001-07:00

Be not labeled by the flesh. Nor be restricted by it. It is forever dying, you shall forever live.

Apherism # 647

2008-07-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Apart from God, there is only illusion or despair.

Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit

2008-06-20T11:32:00.001-07:00

The Ever Broken Heart

2008-06-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

The milk spoils;
Existence grows and gains entropy.
The nature of the universe is to decay,
Just as the nature of the soul is to despair.
A broken heart cannot decay,
A sheltered man cannot delight.
Security only brings destruction.
Lord may my heart ever be broken,
If it cannot be whole.
May I have courage,
May I always delight.

Idiot Sues What?

2008-06-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

CD's I have legitimately purchased because of listening to music on podcasts:

Coldplay: X&Y
Muse: Black Holes & Revelations
Muse: Origin of Symmetry
Radiohead: Kid A
Radiohead: Ok Computer
Radiohead: In Rainbows
U2: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Soul Coughing: Irresistible Bliss
Eric Angus Whyte: Always Home
Crystal Method: Vegas
Crystal Method: Legend of Boom
Crystal Method: Community Service II
Jonathan Coulton: Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow **
Gasoline Heart: What Now **
Gasoline Heart: You Know Who You Are **
Wolfmother: Wolfmother
30 Seconds to Mars *

So go right ahead RIAA. Go ahead and shoot yourself in the foot. I don't care.

Idiots!

* OK, so I haven't bought them yet, but I will. Know it!
** Ha ha, that ones not yours! :p

I'm Back

2008-05-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

I've been slumming in the valley of the shadow of death. Its cold there and very lonely. But the Lion of Judah, he's brought me back to the green pastures of His father's kingdom. After a great deal of tears and realizing, I've been reborn. For I doubt anyone's experience of God if it doesn't lead him to struck down on His knees realizing he is at the same time nothing and everything. I am new! I am Free!

Taste and see,
Reborn be.

Penetrated

2008-04-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

Imagine God in heaven,
In whatever form you give him;
He turns and looks in your direction,
And you only stand there,
Penetrated.

Singular Self

2008-04-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

At the heart of the mind there is a singularity. I call it the self, but perhaps even selfness is an abstraction from it. If you strip away all of the layers of what we call the self: all memory, all reason, all emotion, you are left with this singularity. It is a singularity that is indivisible yet unidentifiable and indistinguishable from any other such entity. When you strip the flesh of self away, you are left with an indistinct eye that can never be destroyed; always experiencing but never being.