Mac sales ‘defy all logic,’ says analyst | Mac | Macworld:
“Apple could grab more market share if it lowered prices, but O’Donnell wasn’t holding his breath. ‘The talk on the street is a $799 notebook,’ he said, referring to persistent rumors that Apple will introduce a lower-priced MacBook this year. ‘But I don’t think they care about prices. They’re all about making profit.’”
(Via MacWorld.)
I have a good friend who is a staunch materialist and enjoy a little back and forth with him about God. We don’t debate since that’s of little value. But in the course of our discussions I’m struck by how religious the arguments for atheism are and how absolute their proponents’ faith is in only what can see, hear, and touch.
I say faith because that is by definition belief in something impossible to prove. You simply can’t prove a negative without, dare I say it, the infinite knowledge of God. (Props to Professor Michael Eric Dyson for challenging me on my fideistic acceptance of materialism.) But that’s not the only reason why I call it faith.
The sheer arrogance of the likes of Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins is reminiscent of the Magesterium in times past and, to my regret, not so distant past. We know The Truth while the rest of the world is either deluded, stupid, or both. It’s implicit in the ideology. Even well meaning folks can’t seem to avoid it. One of the coolest people on this planet I know asked me “Why do you believe in God, Rob, you’re so intelligent?” out of genuine curiosity. Except for his atheism, he is the opposite of Dick Dawkins. (Yes, I mean the pun). At Bible study/Church school, we are going through adult catechism over the next year. It’s amazing how the ethos is identical insofar as the tendency of all too many to look down on the beliefs of others.
I love Truth and work hard at finding it but I’m not so prideful to claim it as my own. I have to be, like a good scientist would be, willing to accept that tomorrow’s discovery will turn my world upside down else I have no faith, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And on that note:
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.
–Albert Einstein
Amen.
Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today. The Rebs quickly criticized it in the same spirit of us losing the 2016 Olympics. Then comes this from the Dems:
“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” wrote DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.”
I’m not one to cheer the Dems but I clapped…hard…when I read that.
Democrat stands ground after ‘die quickly’ health care remark – CNN.com:
“Citing a Harvard University study released this month that said 44,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance, Grayson called on Democrats and Republicans ‘to do our jobs for the sake of those dying people and their families.’
‘I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America,’ he said.”
(Via CNN.)
Payback it is a …
Technorati Tags:
healthcare reform, politics
MSNBC’s Ratigan battles McCaughey – Ben Smith – POLITICO.com:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
(Via Politico.com.)
McCaughey gets her rear end handed to her. This is what happens when someone demands an actual answer to a question.
Technorati Tags:
healthcare reform
The Limits Of Compassion – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“I am aware of all the socio-economic forces at work they make black communities more subject to violence. I’m in all for trying to ameliorate those forces. In the meantime, I’m all for doing whatever it takes to protect the rest of us–particularly young black kids–from hooliganism. “
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
That’s pretty much the black position. Both-and vs. either-or. But I don’t think there is a limit to compassion, it’s a sense of justice. These cats need to be punished for doing something wrong and unnecessary.
“But the USB-IF didn’t quite see things that way. ‘In the view of the USB-IF, Palm’s allegation (if true) does not establish that Apple is using its Vendor ID (VID) contrary to the USB-IF’s policies,’ the group said. ‘Therefore, under present USB-IF policies, the USB-IF does not consider the alleged use, without more, to be ‘improper.’’
Ugly news for Palm, and it only gets worse–because the USB-IF goes on to suggest that Palm itself is violating its Membership Agreement by using Apple’s vendor ID number to disguise the Pre as an Apple device.”
(Via Digital Daily.)
Dumb.
Connecting The Dots – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“There’s a lot at work here: 1.) Race-baiters have, for the past few decades, repeatedly outfoxed anti-racists. Beck and Cornyn know how to walk up to the line. Carter is from a generation of liberals who never understood why people didn’t agree them about Willie Horton. Thus Carter doesn’t insinuate, he doesn’t calibrate, he just speaks, political effects be damned. 2.) The dominant school of journalism holds that it’s safer to talk about the effect of talking about race on Obama, rather than actually talking about its effects, period. That’s true for most things though–reporters are generally more interested in gamesmanship, than issues. 3.) A lot of reporters take Beck and Cornyn’s race-baiting is taken as a given. I’ll be shocked if anyone asks Cornyn about this. I don’t think they much care.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coats.)
Technorati Tags:
obama, race, race-baiting, glenn beck
Finishing up a late night with a good book on Catholic apologetics.
Faith and reason are interdependent. One of the great secrets of the universe is that reason leans on faith every but as faith leans on reason. Rightly did St. Augustine say, “I believe that I may understand.” It’s not that people who lack Christian faith cannot know anything. But anyone who knows anything must first put faith in principles that are tacit, unproven, and unprovable. We have good reasons to believe such things. But we don’t have proof. We believe that we may understand.
I have been disturbed lately by the apparent lack in basic common sense in our public discourse. In other words, shit is getting real crazy lately. Between people disputing demonstrable facts and holding positions they undermine in defending said positions, it’s like we are debating reality. I’m going to put up a fuller post soon as I think on this a bit more.
