Archive for April, 2009

A movie has to be incomprehensibly shit to star George Clooney and still bore you to tears.
Your Correspondent, If it had been an act of God, I’d lose my faith

Blasphemy Law in Ireland

Article 40, clause 6, point 1 of the superb little blue book we call the Constitution states:
The State guarantees liberty for the exercise of the following rights, subject to public order and morality:
[...]

Christianity and Paganism

In comments a while back a chap called Moonsray challenged my assertion that 1st Century Judaism, while being a spectrum of wide beliefs can be appropriately seen as radically monotheistic. S/He counted, that Jews were not strict monotheists and that “Paul and the other early Christians plainly were not generally-strict-monotheistic-intolerant-of-syncretism Jews”.
We joke around Maynooth that [...]

One Line Review: Amadeus

When your life is busy you sometimes have to watch movies over a couple of sessions and only the absolute best films sustain such interruption to have the kind of huge impact Amadeus had on me.
Your Correspondent, Goes to Tim Keller for all his movie recommendations

On The Hollowness Of Idols

The Serapeum was one of the grandest temples in all of Alexandria.  The arms of the statue of Serapis reached the temple walls on either side. A soldier, described by the great historian Gibbon as “intrepid” struck a blow to the cheek of the statue. The belief was that should “any impious hand should dare [...]

In 1897 the New York Times reported on the scourge of music piracy that was threatening the recording industry. The post office was the Pirate Bay of yesteryear. Shut those dangerous postmen down I say. First inspiring insipid Kevin Costner movies. Now revealed as the first information terrorists!
Speaking of pirates, the pirate bay was down [...]

One Line Review: In The Loop

The greatest compliment you can pay In The Loop is that the fact that it stars our pre-pubescent Venus, Anna Chlumsky, is not the best thing about it.
Your Correspondent, Still thinks the Temptations are the coolest of Motown

American Torture Thoughts

The leaked torture memos describe the intention of some of the interrogation methods at one point to bring about learned helplessness. This is a method developed by Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. Back in the 1960’s he:
conducted experiments on caged dogs, in which they used electric charges to shock them randomly. He discovered [...]

It is becoming a habit of mine, to quote Breda O’Brien’s Saturday column in the Irish Times. This weekend she was discussing the Sisters of Charity report into sex trafficking in Ireland: Globalisation, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution: the experiences of migrant women in Ireland. 61% of men who purchase sex are married or in relationships. [...]

Although I am able to compete with any brainy-nerdy-white-man-western Christian in terms of their thoughtful singer/songwriters in my mp3 collection, I have always preferred music that can make a noise. Reckoning by R.E.M. is far superior to Automatic for the People. Actually, Reckoning tops everything.
But I have realised by looking at my archives that in [...]




 

April 2009
M T W T F S S
« Mar   May »
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  

Now Reading

Planned books:

Current books:

  • Mark as Story Second Edition

    Mark as Story Second Edition by David Rhoads

  • Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

    Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters by Timothy Keller

  • The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

    The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama

  • The Time Machine (Penguin Classics)

    The Time Machine (Penguin Classics) by H.G. Wells

Recent books:

View full Library