Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. THEATER MASSACRE

The facts are still rolling in, so there's not much I can say about this tragedy except that I expect the Obama administration to use this to push for an assault weapons ban. Other people will try and analyze the situation from a hundred different angles to make some sense of it. In the end, there is only one real explanation for what happened in Colorado. Evil exists. Or as Michael Caine put it in The Dark Knight, "Some men just want to watch the world burn."

2. CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS

Being married to a Catholic exposes you to things you never knew before especially if you grew up Protestant. One of the things that has intrigued me has been the writings and work of a guy named Scott Hahn. Hahn was a former Reformed seminary professor and pastor who converted to the Catholic Church after a long and intense study of Scripture. The conclusions that he drew were that the Catholic Church rests on firm biblical grounds in its doctrine and teachings. My personal belief was that Hahn merely deluded himself because he wanted to get with the Catholics for whatever reason. But I've read those verses and remember some from my seminary days that caused me some grief. Needless to say, it was a revelation. Hahn is right. The Catholic Church is truer to the first century church than anything that came after the Protestant Reformation. This doesn't mean I am going to become a Catholic since I am currently an atheist. But it is sort of like discovering a decade later that one of your ex-girlfriends from long ago was cheating on you. It is surprising but trivial.

My historical understanding of the Reformation has changed considerably. I now see Luther and Calvin and the rest as not people returning to a truer understanding of the Christian faith than as a bunch of people who wanted nothing else except to overthrow the authority of the Church. The doctrines of sola fide, sola sciptura, and other points of theology aren’t scriptural at all, but they do have the curious quality of delegitimizing the Catholic Church. Basically, Protestants wanted the freedom to do their own thing, and it shows in the hundred denominations and sects in Protestantism who seem to have only one thing in common which is a disdain for Roman Catholicism.


3. iPOD CLASSIC


I find it interesting that iPod Classic remains a top seller for Apple. Granted, the iPod touch sells more, but I can say I hate my touch device now. I wish I had bought the Classic. The reason is because the Classic is the perfect music player. It is simple, holds a shit ton of media, and never goes out of date. Meanwhile, my Touch is outdated and won't run half the apps I had loaded on the thing. What a fucking waste.


There is a tech lesson in this somewhere, but I don't know what it is except to reiterate that I think touch devices are a fad. That is a bold statement considering that half of the phone market today is smartphones. Here are some articles I find interesting:


The Stubborn Pride of Dumbphone Owners

A Smartphone Future? But Not Yet

The 80's Called and They Want Their Cellphones Back

I don't consider myself a Luddite, but I look at the people that own cellphones. Most of them don't read and can't afford the phones. They are simply toys, and the cellphone companies are now akin to payday lenders exploiting the ignorance of people with bad habits who should know better.

4. ODDS AND ENDS

-The only thing that Mitt Romney wants to hide on those tax returns is that he made a lot of money while paying very little in taxes.

-If you want an AR-15, you better buy it now.

-Brian Ross is an idiot. Fire that guy.

-Superman is boring. We want heroes, but they can't be invincible.

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