Off Topic

Trinidadian Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last WTC 9/11 survivor to be pulled from the rubble of the collapsed towers, has a story of miraculous survival, complete with her angel, Paul, who held her hand as she awaited rescue. In summary: [Genelle] was a Port Authority worker, working on the 64th floor of one of the WTC towers, on September 11, 2001 when she felt the building shake and heard the noise of the first impact. A look out the window showed papers floating in the sky, but it was not clear what had happened until she saw news reports on a TV in a conference room. Strange as it seems today, she and her co-workers were instructed to stay in the Read More ›

Today, let us reflect on Col. Rick Rescorla, the man who saw it coming TWICE, and then sacrificed his life saving over 2,700 lives on September 11, 2001: [youtube w9jUEp_l7cE] I cannot but pause and show a video still of the Col on that fateful day as he rallied his people, bullhorn in hand:   It is easy to be wise after the fact, but so hard to have foresight and persistence in the face of inevitable misunderstanding and skepticism from those who don’t see things that way — and who will too often blindly oppose and frustrate. So, it is important to learn from case studies of insight and foresight, lest we fall to the mad march of folly Read More ›

CNN’s live footage that morning: [youtube uT9jkBGFlr0] (More here.) END

Favorite atheist thinkers? Bertrand Russell, Nathaniel Branden, Fred Hoyle, Jack Trevors, TJ Rodgers. That said, have any of you met anyone who said, “once I stopped believing in God, I cleaned up my life and became a better person”? Yet I know of many who left their old life after becoming Christians. A pastor of church I once attended was an atheist drug dealer. His name was Lon Solomon: Lon’s life became a relentless search for meaning and purpose. He sought to fill the void he felt on the inside with fraternity life, partying, gambling, and he even developed a serious drinking problem. When all this failed to supply the inner peace he was seeking, Lon became deeply involved in Read More ›

One my scoundrel-hero-bankers of Wall Street, Goldman-Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein famously said: “we’re doing God’s work“, responding to criticism that his firm made huge profits from the demise of others and he paid himself fat bonuses. Well, in like manner “we’re doing God’s work” here at UD, benefiting from the demise of Darwinism. Novelists and writers have referred to Jamie Dimon (left) and Blankfein (right) along with other bankers as “Masters of the Universe”. Due to popular demand, I’m starting another off-topic thread in honor of BA77’s contributions to UD. Here is an off topic. Dawkins is under the impression that religious belief is mostly perpetuated through indoctrination. I don’t know about that because of people like Mitsuo Fuchida who Read More ›

Since BA77 likes posting so many off topic comments on so many threads, and because others probably want to talk about off topics, I’m creating the first official off topic thread at UD just for off topic comments. YAY! Here is my off topic, my pastor tried to get the congregation to stick around for 20 minutes longer than usual to take care of business matters requiring a vote. To give us incentive to remain, he said he’d pass around a copy of Cosmopolitan Magazine with a photo of his wife in it :shock:! Sure enough, she was in cosmopolitan magazine in the May 1965 issue. She was in a photo that featured former Congressman James Weaver, her dad…. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jdweaver.htm Read More ›

After some hesitation, I think it best to cross-post the following from my personal blog; trusting that even the militant will realise that there are some things that rise above whatever animus motivates them: _________ >>Given the extreme hostility and bullying, “out”- and- intimidate tactics that too often are associated with today’s online skeptical community (of which I am a target), I hesitated to bring up the following general prayer request. However, I have more reason to trust in the power of God in answer to fervent prayers than I have reason to be concerned on possible consequences at the hands of the vicious and twisted. (They, too, need prayer and a healthy dose of guilt leading to repentance and Read More ›

We have a jury system not because jurors are are necessarily wiser, more educated, or innately smarter than the alternatives (judges, kings, standing tribunals, viziers, etc.).  By and large they almost certainly are not.  We have juries because they are safer for those of us without power (the 99%, to use a phrase that has become all too hackneyed in such a short time) than the alternatives. The Zimmerman case is a classic example.  The prosecution was not based on the evidence against Zimmerman.  It was based on the politics of race.  The State Attorney should never have brought the case.  She had no hope of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman committed murder, but she was afraid to do the right thing.  The jury Read More ›

Off topic, but important as a service to UD’s readers. HERE. Pardon, I took some days before commenting, until I found some useful info beyond the media panic headlines. Notice the clip from Oracle’s advisory, the link to the FAQ and the further link on gory technical details. The bottomline is that over the past year Java has apparently been the vector used for 50% of hacking attacks, and Adobe reader has been used for 28%. Internet Explorer and Windows — the “traditional” targets of hobbyist hackers and those who hack for money from organised crime or spy agencies —  by contrast, have gone way down. At least, as percentages. Hacking is not going away, and we need to take Read More ›

While it is Christmas and we all hope to turn our attention to more pleasant matters, unfortunately there are some concerns that will not wait. So, pardon a few moments to address such. But first , let me wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. Now, in the past few days, Mr Arrington and I posted here and here at UD on the Newtown, CT school mass murder incident.  Over the past week, however, the incident has now been caught up in a global media firestorm. My attention has been drawn to an insightful remark by Mr Larry Correia, so I beg permission to take liberty to excerpt a personal blog post, on a sense of duty Read More ›

Yesterday was a hard day, even for those like me who were quite late to the news. We woke up here to the news on BBC — a Caribbean tradition — that someone in China had attacked a classroom with a knife of some kind and had slashed twenty-two children. This, in a country where there is a very harsh one child per family law, backed up by forced abortions etc. And, apparently, it is not the first such recent attack in that country. (Cf article in the Hartford Courant — and yes, that is tragically close to home.) Then, across the course of the day, news emerged of a similar attack in an elementary school in Newtown Connecticut, USA. Read More ›

Today is the 11th Anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Let us pause for a minute of silence, and remember. (My personal memorial is here.)