drtdrums

Thanks for letting me know. It isn’t there, but if that’s what you read, all I can do is apologize.

I’m probably making points that have already been made but I have a limited time, so less reading and more posting for now. There is no way to invalidate the existence or character of a supernatural entity using methodologically natural claims. Put another way, Science only deals with the material realm and is incapable of climbing the ladder past that point into the metaphysical. It’s not as if any “normal” Christian argues that God is a sky-fairy who exists in this sphere of time/space. Some people decide materialism is all there is, and if that’s you, it’s a logically tenable position AS LONG AS you know what you are FORCED to give up (objective morality, free will, etc) and do so. There’s always an answer for Theists (particularly of the Christian stripe) for any and all criticisms that come from the critical camp. Generally speaking, those answers are useful for theists and not very useful for non/a/anti theists. I find non-theists to generally fall into two camps: 1) You don’t care. 2) You care, but object due to emotional or psychological traumas. It has never been my experience that militant atheists are militant because of intellectual objections. The worst intellectual atheists think of theists is, “You poor fools.” I think this is probably because anyone who understands these issues at all and concludes there is no God must end up like Nietzsche, mourning the loss for the sake of our civilization. The militant atheists are the ones (in my experience) harmed by theists, or by God not showing up when they lost a sick mother or child. They don’t give a damn what intellectual answers are given. None will ever suffice because it wasn’t their intellect that was wounded. It’s been helpful to me to remember this, and to do all I can in my foolishness to help salve the emotional wound; whether they wind up believing in God is a matter between them and God. My occupation in this spiritual warfare is to help, to heal, and to listen where I can. Because of this, my zeal for arguing to convert has been quenched. We’re all walking wounded; some of us are just bleeding out faster than the rest.

I’m a convert from Evangelicalism to Orthodox Christianity. The full path was Evangelical (Southern Baptist) > Agnostic leaning to atheist > non-denom > Orthodox. I’m sure the story is more interesting in my own head. When I found Orthodoxy, I realized I was home. The different lens through which Christ is viewed colors all aspects of the faith differently and, in my case, caused them to snap into three dimensions. I am utterly fascinated by the depths of the historical Church. Despite being the second largest church in the world (the RCC is the largest), only around 1% of the US is Orthodox (if that; our numbers are about the same as Islam). Eastern Europe and the Middle East are where most of us are found now.

I watched the first couple episodes. I was nearly finished 20 minutes in but hung around. Got WAAAAY better. Anyone who picks it up, keep that in mind. The first episode is a freaking slog for a long while but it changes quickly.

I guess I'm really in the minority on Iron Fist. I liked it as much as Luke Cage and DD S2. Daredevil S1 is one of the best seasons of TV I've seen in any genre in a decade, so of course I like it more. Objectively it's worse than Cage or DD, but still pretty OK. There was nothing that stole my enjoyment like, say, Amell's lack of acting chops in Arrow. The main thing professional critics are killing it for appears to be that Danny Rand is a white dude who beats up Asian people using martial arts. I read 5 random negative reviews at RT and all 5 griped on that point in a major way. Major eye roller for me. Seems all 5 also missed the fact that that's precisely the point of the Rand character (West meets East, etc). At the the end of the day it was worth it, it was enjoyable, and I had no problems with the lead. Dude is in excellent shape for a kung fu practitioner (srsly, if like 5'10" 185 8% body fat isn't "fighting shape" then god help us all). Only had a couple moments I thought the director should have revisited for a better performance. Of course maybe I'm letting him off the hook too easily because of how the Rand character is supposed to (I thought?) seem socially awkward. The takeout scene is a perfect example. The few positive reviews at RT said a lot I agree with. The gist is "It's good enough, but not mind blowing." Totally agree. It's a solid B.

"Those Who Can't" on TRU/Hulu. Laughing my ass off. Teachers gone Animal House.

We should totally let Canada in on this "stop the anthem before events" idea. I know patriot-shaming isn't a uniquely American pursuit, but it certainly seems that way some days.

There are men wearing his same uniform who are far more aware of the struggle than he is, who have lived through it and overcome it. They're standing. Of course, they're also playing. I don't think it's a coincidence that Kaepernick is attempting to gain political/social relevance now that it is clear his football relevance has ended.

Super psyched now! Just reached the end of Stranger Things so I'm in need.

If you dug it more than Kabaneri I'll definitely check out. KotIF is one of the best SHOWS I've seen in forever.

I'm really enjoying a drama-free camp, I gotta say.

They also ran the read option in preseason. We've got to keep things in perspective. So far what we know about him is exactly what we already knew - he throws a pretty deep ball. The Barnidge throw was a nice high-difficulty throw, though. We've gotta give him that. On the other hand we have Osaka and the 0-16 Lions looking like world beaters in the preseason.

Sorry, I should have seen this sooner. Amazon Prime has Kabaneri. Holy. Crap. Amazing. Attack on Titan is also pretty great. I strongly prefer Kabaneri though. If you get through those two let me know. There are more \m/...(>.<)…\m/

That was a fake account. Accurate, but fake.

Warning: transcript includes EXTREMELY vulgar language. Ladies and gentlemen: the best courtroom transcript of all time: http://m.imgur.com/a/skffp The Court: I — I am finding — I’m finding you in contempt of court. Mr. Allen: I don’t care. The Court: I know you don’t. And I sentence you to twenty days for that. And if you say anything else, I’m going to add twenty days for everything you say. Mr. Allen: **** you. The Court: Forty days. Mr. Allen: **** you again. The Court: Sixty. Mr. Allen: Go **** yourself. The Court: A year. Mr. Allen: Your mama. The Court: Ten years. Mr. Allen: Suck my ****. The Court: You know something, this is going to be an interesting trial.