Sometimes, This is How I Feel

I'm not always sure what I'm doing is art.

Credit goes to Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre.

The Only Difference Between Men and Boys

Cross-posted on Air Theremin

For your edification, Nicholas Ozment explains.

This work of short fiction is one of many posted on Every Day Fiction: "Short fiction in your inbox, daily!"

It's a cool concept, and I think I'm going to sign up. Who knows how many good stories I could discover that way?

Lies That are True

Whatever happened to Jeffery Harrell?

He used to have a great page of stories online and a blog, both of which appear to be AWOL.

His book is here - and I may buy it, because the stories are wonderful.

This appears to be his twitter - which offers no clues to his site's disappearance.

If I can't get some information on the site, I'll have to take it off of my blogroll. Sad face.

Hell

First off, hello again! I have been fairly busy and have not blogged here in some time, especially given my new status as a blogger at Air Theremin.

I've been having some conversations recently about religion, and a new opinion has blossomed from these talks.

If your religion features a hell, it is the most important thing about your beliefs.

We can talk for hours about loving thy neighbor and turning the other cheek and, eventually, basking in the presence of god; None of these things approach the importance of avoiding eternal agony.

How can you claim a peaceful religion if any sin or collection of sins committed over the course of one mortal life can be (and will be) punished by a sentence of perpetual, unending pain?

Furthermore, if you accept the existence of hell as true, what could be more important in your life than avoiding it? Yeah, paradise sounds good, but I'll settle for avoiding eternal torment.

Interestingly, this change in my thoughts has been accompanied by an increase in my understanding of Evangelicals and a proportional decrease in my approval of religious moderates.

If you believe, truly believe that your secular friend's soul is in danger - that if she does not accept Jesus Christ as her savior, she will burn in agony forever, then I would expect you to do everything you can to aid her salvation, up to and including alienating her as a friend.

What is your friendship compared with saving her from hellfire?

Which is why my opinion of moderates has also changed. You hear a lot of talk of tolerance, but is that really the best way to frame what is going on? Moderates tolerate your beliefs, but what does that say about any who believe in hell? That keeping social interaction smooth is more important to them than attempting to help someone avoid infinite suffering? If even one person could be helped to avoid such a ghastly fate, wouldn't the price in social capital be worth it?


So, those of you who believe hell exists - are you tolerant? Do you care so little for your fellow man? Or, deep inside, do you think that maybe hell doesn't exist after all?

Air Theremin

I've been invited to blog with the folks at Air Theremin. They've got a nice little community going on, and I've accepted. You should check out the blog.

I plan to keep blogging here, but some of the stuff will be cross-posts.

-S

All The Books in the World

A good graphic work here.

I've been getting more into comics and graphic novels, and this story was touching enough to share, if a little simple, a little flat.

-S

Women From Words

I don't know what to call this - flash fiction perhaps?

Regardless, I was fairly disinterested to start, but found myself drawn in by c.vance's personification of each author's prose.

There were definitely bits that didn't fit, but overall I was impressed - or at least impressed enough to go back and browse the fare at Word Riot.

-S

Taxes

I'm not generally a political blogger, but I've seen a particular lie repeated over and over as of late.

McCain has an ad out claiming that Obama is going to be a tax and spend liberal, with huge deficits. To be fair, neither candidate is going to balance the budget, despite the implication of the McCain ad.

This chart, published in the Washington Post, breaks down both of their tax plans.



Go back and look at it again - and pay special attention to the three bars that amount to 60% of the population. Not one of those income brackets gets even a 1% tax cut from McCain, while they all get between 2.4% and 5.5% from Obama.

So, it's your call whose plan you like better, just don't buy the lies.

-S

Little Brother Update

I'm well into Little Brother now (I don't know exactly how far), and I admit to being somewhat underwhelmed at first. Hype can do that. The introduction is definitely not the strongest feature of the story, and I have some critiques about everything I've read so far, but...

Well, let me give you some background.
If you speak to me while I am reading, I may be grumpy. The grumpier I am when I respond to you, the more engaging the novel you've distracted me from.

I was pretty grumpy when my Little Brother reading session was interrupted.

So. When I put out a review griping about all the things wrong with the book (which I probably will), remember that I quite enjoyed reading it.

Doctorow, Finally

I'm finally reading one of Cory Doctorow's novels, Little Brother. Anyone who has been paying attention to web fiction knows of Doctorow, and I'll soon be joining those of you who have read his work.