Nuadha's Tale

Ignorance can be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. -Thomas Jefferson

Monday, March 22, 2004

Quote
'The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.

'I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.'

'He came back at me and said, 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report.'

-Former White House terrorism adviser Richard Clarke

fbbfb
Complete sincerity: You believe in being
straightforward with others, and you expect the
same from them. People would consider you a
good listener, and one who is calm and mostly
serious.


Which Characteristic From the Samurai Code Matches You Best? (You may find out your best trait)
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I'm A 1960s Geek
You're pretty quirky and weird but we know you're smart and love you anyway!
find your geek decade at spacefem.com

Friday, March 19, 2004

Margaret Cho on Jesus Christ
I just read this great piece that Margaret Cho wrote on her blog about The Passion of Christ, Catholics, and why the saviour supports gay marriage.

I've always had a problem with the way most Christians see Jesus Christ, but every once and a while I read or hear someone that makes me think "this person sees Christ as I do." I remember when I was in elementary school, I went to some Sunday School for a while. I really got into it and even asked my parents for my own bible for Christmas that year. (I still have that bible. It's a red letter King James bible with a fake leather cover. I've owned a few others, but that has always been my favorite.) I remember starting to read the old testament and thinking that is was boring and that god seemed like a bit of a prick. Then I read in the beginning of the book where it explained that the words of Jesus Christ were in red for easy finding. Well, that was why I wanted a bible. I wanted to know about Jesus, not some faceless entity that would ask someone to sacrifice his own son as a test (which is pretty twisted, no matter how you look at it). I wanted to read these teachings of love that I kept hearing about.

...and I read all of Jesus's words. Jesus did teach love and had all sorts of wonderful things to say. I remembering laying in bed, reading this man's words and thinking here was a man I would like to be like.

Going back to that church and sunday school after that, I felt more distant from them. They focused on all these other things, not Christ's message of love. They focused on those horrible old testament stories and how much to tithe. Constantly, the pastor seemed set to make us feel guilty. Christ hadn't made me feel guilty, why did the church. It was always about how we weren't doing enough to spread the word, giving enough in the offering plates or how the world was a horrible and sinful place. He would sermon about some horrible sin that was rampant in the world and through the whole time, there was little to nothing about love. Sure, he would say things like "we need to spread Christ's message of love" and that "God loves you, " but then would follow up with telling us how we could all end up burning in hell.

I began to feel less and less connected to Christianity. I tried several times to attend different churches but the spark was never there.

Years later, I found the teachings of Buddha and found that same feeling I had felt when reading Jesus's teachings. At the time, I was studying Wicca and a lot of new age religions. I had determined that god's message was in all the religions in some way and was determined to find those teachings. Reading Buddha, I found another someone who understood how to love and taught us all how to live that way. Then, what really began to appeal me bout Buddhism and why I ended up self-identifying with Buddhism was the lack of "clutter." Buddha's message and his path to enlightenment was like Jesus's, but it seemed simpler, more straight-forward without all the attached dogma from old religions. (I have since learned a lot about all the extra Buddhist stuff that has been added to the religion over the years but when I originally read about Buddhism it did not include all the mythology and only included the Buddha's instructions.)

It wasn't until a few years ago, when I read Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh that I reconnected on some level with Christ's teachings and remembered that feeling about Christ that the the church had driven out of me over the years. Christ is about love and its really a very simple, beautiful message. It sucks that I forgot it over the years.

(EDIT- Now that I think about it, I guess it shouldn't be a suprise that Margaret Cho, coming from a Christian/Buddhist background, has a similiar view of Christ as me.)

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Quiz




You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.



Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Finally some good political news...
Too bad its in Spain.

Friday, March 12, 2004

Your True Nature by llScorpiusll
Username
The quality that most appeals to you:Sense of Humour
In a survival situation, you:Cleverly trick your attacker
Your hidden talent is:Courage
Your gift is:Physical beauty
In groups, you:Perfer to act as security
Your best quality is:Your protectiveness
Your weakness is:Your passivity
Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Astrology Quiz
According to our analysis, you are a Taurus, April 20 to May 20. But you are certainly not a Aries, Mar 21 to April 19.
You claim to be a Taurus, and, as expected, the miraculous powers of astrology have proven themselves.


The Reverse Astrology Quiz
(Link via the Ferrett)

There wasn't much doubt. I don't know how much faith I'd give Astrology, but according to my charts, I'm a double-Taurus (Sun and Moon signs) and have always exactly fit the description of a Taurus personality.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

The Man Who Saved the World
This is the true story of a man who saved the world from nuclear destruction....

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Literary Quiz
You're a literary minded as the Bard himself!
You are a complete literary geek, from knowing the
classics (even the not-so-well-known classics
and tidbits about them) to knowing devices used
in writing, when someone has a question about
literature, they can bring it to you and rest
assured; you know the answers.


How much of a literary geek are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Monday, March 08, 2004

Ban Ferrets!
Get Fuzzy explores the meaning of the constitution. (Link via The Ferrett)

Monday, March 01, 2004

Good news!
LONDON (Reuters) - The Global Capitalist System fades into memory as people all over the world realise it was all a big horrible scam anyway.
More here!

(Thanks to LM for the link.)

Oscar Movies Meme
(Via MacGeek)

Movies I have seen are in bold (usually with comments and rating after them)

1927/28 - Wings
1927/28 - Sunrise
1928/29 - The Broadway Melody
1929/30 - All Quiet on the Western Front
1930/31 - Cimarron
1921/32 - Grand Hotel
1932/33 - Cavalcade
1934 - It Happened One Night
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld
1937 - The Life of Emile Zola
1938 - You Can't Take It With You
1939 - Gone With the Wind
1940 - Rebecca
1941 - How Green Was My Valley
1942 - Mrs. Miniver
1943 - Casablanca (One of my three all-time favorite movies. 5 out of 5 stars.)
1944 - Going My Way
1945 - The Lost Weekend
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 - Gentleman's Agreemant
1948 - Hamlet (4)
1949 - All the King's Men
1950 - All About Eve
1951 - An American in Paris
1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 - From Here to Eternity
1954 - On the Waterfront (I've seen parts of it but not the whole movie.)
1955 - Marty
1956 - Around the World in 80 Days
1957 - The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 - Gigi
1959 - Ben-Hur
1960 - The Apartment
1961 - West Side Story (I don't like a lot of musicals, but this is my favorite musical. 4.5.)
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia
1963 - Tom Jones
1964 - My Fair Lady
1965 - The Sound of Music (3)
1966 - A Man For All Seasons
1967 - In the Heat of the Night
1968 - Oliver! (3)
1969 - Midnight Cowboy
1970 - Patton
1971 - The French Connection
1972 - The Godfather (4)
1973 - The Sting
1974 - The Godfather Part II
1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 - Rocky (3.5)
1977 - Annie Hall
1978 - The Deer Hunter
1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 - Ordinary People
1981 - Chariots of Fire
1982 - Gandhi (5 out of 5 stars)
1983 - Terms of Endearment (Didn't like it. 2 out of 5 stars)
1984 - Amadeus (Not a comedy! 4.5 out of 5 stars)
1985 - Out of Africa
1986 - Platoon (4 out of 5 stars)
1987 - The Last Emperor (4.5)
1988 - Rain Man (4)
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy
1990 - Dances With Wolves (4.5. One of those movies I can watch again and again. Can you believe this is a Kevin Costner movie?)
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs (4)
1992 - Unforgiven (5)
1993 - Schindler's List (5)
1994 - Forrest Gump (3.5)
1995 - Braveheart (5)
1996 - The English Patient
1997 - Titanic
1998 - Shakespeare in Love (4.5)
1999 - American Beauty (4.5)
2000 - Gladiator (3.5)
2001 - A Beautiful Mind
2002 - Chicago
2003- Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (4.5)

Note- Besides Casablanca, my other favorite movies are Bladerunner and Excalibur.