Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Well, tomorrow is my sister's birthday. It's also supposed to be the end of the world. That being the case, I've decided to put off doing my timesheets until Monday. Just in case. To be a bit more specific, tomorrow is Judgement Day (according to those in the know), a.k.a, the Rapture, when around 3 million of the Elect will be taken up to heaven, leaving the rest of us behind...just like in those "Left Behind" novels. It's always struck me as a bit presumptuous to assume one is part of the Elect. I'm actually sort of looking forward to seeing someone with one of those " In Case of the Rapture, This Car Will Be Unmanned ," bumper stickers driving around on the day after, so I can say, "Hey, asshole, what happened? Soul Train pull out of the station without you?" Now, I'll be the first to admit I won't be on that first flight out. No doubt I'll be undergoing some torment of the damned, but at least I'll be rid of ...

For some years I worked in advertising. Among the many blots on my soul was the fact that I pimped Christmas and the Baby Jesus to sell worthless shit. Now I discover, thanks to Bill O'Reilly, I was doing the Lord's Work. Now that it's December, Fox News and its various reptilian talking heads are once again hard at work promoting the War On Christmas . Bill O'Reilly kicked off this holiday tradition a few years back. It's like the Right Wing's Charlie Brown Christmas -- they trot it out every year since they know it's a surefire ratings booster. It's most visible form is flogging various retailers who choose to say "Holiday Sale" instead of "Christmas Sale." This strikes me as odd. I have a hard time seeing how using the label "Christmas" as a marketing tie-in is promoting the beliefs of Christendom. If anything, it serves to further secularize a Holiday/HolyDay already weighted down with a vast collection of warmed over ...

This just in, courtesy of Slashdot . Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary right here in Fort Worth, is offering courses in "Intelligent Design," which require, as part of the classwork, that students make 10 posts to "hostile" websites. Slashdot correctly characterizes this as " trolling ." The courses are taught by William Dembski , a "research professor in philosophy" at the Seminary. Read the Wikipedia article on Dembski -- it's quite revealing. Before joining SWBTS, Dembski suckled at the teat of the Discovery Institute , a well-known anti-evolution think tank. Can you even call a place like that a "think tank?" Mathematician David H. Wolpert has described Dembski's work as "written in jello." How do you research philosophy? This sure as hell isn't science. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary , once a respected institution, furthers its journey to complete laughing stock and public embarra...

I was out shopping for plants today with my wife and while wandering the aisles of Mike's Gardenland, chanced upon a couple of shelves of collectible figurines. You know - the sort of kitschy shit that fills yard sale tables as soon as the weather warms up. Adorable children, sad clowns, blonde Nordic-looking angels. Then I saw this: Jesus with a haircut. Gone is that old hippie look and all the peace and love shit that goes with it. Now he's got a nice razor cut with a shampoo and blow-dry thrown in for good measure. His beard got a trim, too -- not so scruffy. The look suggests he gave up on being a trouble-maker and decided to concentrate on the carpentry business -- maybe even expand into general contracting. I bet he'd be driving a pickup if he could. All he needs to do now is lose those sandals and get a pair of cowboy boots.