Sophs and Varsity Win!
Hey Varsity, how about a win I can actually watch at Kingston next week? Do it for the 'rents!

YUCK!!!
Being sick sucks. Just my observation. especially when i havent talked to a single human being all day, cept for the doctor, and a few people online. Oh well. I will just sit here and download music, while I am listening to good music like Soft Cell's "Tainted Love", and other greats like Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver". Don't let me forget Starship's "Nothing Is Gonna Stop Us Now" Yes indeed, being sick on the weekend blows....

Microsoft: Xbox
Microsoft has a pretty solid track record of introducing a new device or system, which fails miserably, and then coming back a year or two later with an improved system, and dominates the market with it (latest would be Pocket PC, I love mine, palm blows). So I would not be surprised if the Xbox wasn't the best system on the market, but I also have a feeling that it's only phase one. Perhaps the next one will be the .net box, and it'll try to sell us crappy Microsoft services while we play it, haha. Verily Microsoft will succeed in the market, just not on the first attempt if Adam's observations prove true.

Badd Girlz
What's wrong Badd Girlz? Did you get tired of acting like idiots? Did you get tired of no one laughing at the one joke you dragged out far too long? Yeah, thought so.

Xbox
I went TPM DVD hunting today (to no avail), and was wandering around Target when I noticed that they had redone their end display for the video game area. As I wandered closer, I noticed two black controllers sticking out; but each one was different. One was a PlayStation2 controller... the other... the massive Xbox controller. I placed the enormous device in my hand, and noted it to be rather comfortable. Since it was supported, I don't know how heavy it was, but it's massive. However, like I said, it is comfy and fairly well designed. The four main buttons are smooth and fairly well placed (although it's important to note that I have long fingers)... and the upper two are obviously more of "option" buttons, not really to be used for actions. They are nice to have there though. The analog sticks are both smaller than they look, and the D-Pad is indeed smooth and the comfiest seen in quite some time. It's really not a bad controller, but I wish the analog stick had more resistance and maybe was a bit bigger, but I'm sure we'll get used to it.

There was a demo running of NFL Fever 2002, but since I've heard very bad things about it, I decided not to watch it, and to hit start and see what it had to offer. Up popped a menu that was crawling with a huge list of games. As I moved through them, I noticed that every single one of them was a non-interactive demo... in other words, stuff you can watch but not play. Out of the 25 plus games listed, only one, Munch's Odyssee was playable. For a system that launches in one month, that's a really, really, really bad sign that only one game is to the point of playability. Hell, Rogue Squadron 2 for the GameCube is already golden, as is Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and Super Monkey Ball. I started up Munch. There was an initial load screen of 30 seconds, plus another at least one minute load screen that didn't even say "loading". I thought load times were a thing of the past? They are on GameCube, I've seen movies, but this was ridiculous. I don't remember load times like this since Sega CD!

Once it finally loaded, I started wandering around, and the analog control was decent, but a little wobbly for my taste. It reminded me of the first time I played Mario 64. I picked up these odd green things, when the game seemingly froze for like 3 seconds, only for a screen to finally pop up and tell me to collect more. Great... the whole demo was a hand-holding walkthrough that was utterly ridiculous. I got no taste of the real game. The frame rate didn't even seem to be a full 60 FPS, more like 45 or so. The graphics were crisp, but nothing really blew me away... in fact, this could've been accomplished on the Dreamcast, in my humble opinion, with a minimal loss of detail. Admittedly, the demo offered little to no taste of the actual game, but if it's like this dumbassed demo, Microsoft has a huge uphill battle. If their marquee title sucks serious ass like this, they are screwed. Nintendo has a line-up of great games ready for launch day, and it looks like ol' MS isn't even gonna have everything ready.

Target did have a TV and spot staked out for their GameCube demo unit when it arrives. Now that's something I'm looking forward too!

Zach, Matt: Calm Down!
I was merely pointing out, (using HUMOR) that Bush is ARGUABLY (with ability to cite specific incidents) one of the stupidest presidents in history (by example), and that when he is nervous like that, it's nothing to cause alarm. Settle down, besides, there's always room to debate and such, blind support and faith in government taken to extremes will give you wonderful regimes like Nazi Germany, or Taliban controlled Afghanistan if you will. Additionally, concerns regarding Bush's intelligence are indeed of the HIGHEST relevance at this moment, he leads our country, would you like to know that he is making proper, well-educated decisions? As far as hypotheticals concerning what Gore or Nader WOULD or COULD be doing now, those are ENTIRELY irrelevant and without any factual base. I'm no supporter of either Gore or Nader, I voted for Bush in fact, but I don't ever think that he is the best man for the job (I think McCain was), and I question his every move, as should any clear-thinking individual. You have a duty at this time to support the nation, but it is also in the interest of your nation to question what our nation does, and evaluate with evidence what is going on. I will leave with one specific example where I question Bush's agenda... Bush makes claims that the US will not get into "Nation Building" after the mission in Afghanistan. However, our lack of guidance in building a stable Afghani government following the war with the USSR is one of the MAJOR conditions that led to the emergence of the Taliban group seizing power in Afghanistan. I question Bush's statements and his judgment on this issue, not because I'm being unpatriotic or mean-spirited, but because I have a desire for peace and stability in the region for years to come after this conflict, so as we may avert another terrorist tragedy.

Carnagge...
Wow all carnagge admins are gay. Those flaming faggots banned me for life. For those of you who dont know what carnagge is, its gay. It has to do with CS, and online games. Anyone who plays it constantly = mad gay.

I had recently signed up for the LAN, with no intention to go, but just to take up a spot, so that some nerd couldnt go and then unrsvp the day before. As I was about to unrsvp, when I found out that my IP had been blocked from the carnagge website, I was not able to access the website. Therefore I couldnt unrsvp. Any how... the dumb carnagge admin fags banned me for life. They are mad gay, its their fault I couldnt unrsvp.

I really hope some of them read this like -

HamonEggs
BlackRazor
LoneGunman
Rupture
Hellzpyro


all gay admins on the cr... and by the way,
[/2ahiki] rox0rz j00r box0rz

Re: Winetroup
Wow....I actually agree with Zakk on this one. Now is no time to be badgering Bush. Just think about what gore would be doing right now....or Nader, HAH. It makes me sick to think theres actually people in this great country who actually think peace would settle all this. He's is doing a marvelous job, as most of the posters on here would probably aggree with me. Oh yea, along with 90% of the county...........

The Tribe Has Spoken
I think Boran made the smart move tonight by kicking off Diane instead of Clearance. Obviously, Clearance is a big dude and will be able to help out in future challenges, and Diane was whiny, annoying, and sickly... she reminds me totally of Debb. This was actually a good first episode as far as first episodes go... obviously I'll be looking forward to separate reward and immunity challenges next week... but we had a pretty good fight for the first episode. I can understand why the rest of Boran was pissed, but I doubt Clearance was stupid enough to try and pull that crap of whipping out a can and trying to get Diane to eat it. I really think she asked for it and he only was responding to her request... then when the tribe returned... she saw they were pissed and tried to join up with their side by lying about the whole thing... did you catch her smirk? I'm glad it didn't work, she was weak and tried to get around it by taking advantage of Clearance... while that's Jerri-quality ruthlessness right there, it didn't pay off.

My prediction was half-right. Boran did have to make the first trek to tribal council

Tom is definately not going to win. I'll tell you that right now. I think he's way too brash and offensive and is just too open for most people. He'll end up speaking out, pissing everyone off, and getting kicked off... unless he gets a huge alliance following him around just like Jerri had Amber and Mitchell wrapped around her aspiring-actress ass.

Jessie was definately a hottie, as promised, but we didn't get to see much of her (or Samburu in general).

I really liked Frank. His "take-charge" attitude is needed more often than the rest of his tribe-mates realize, and he'll be a great asset. I see shades of Colby in him.

Brandon is definately a big flamer. Wow. I bet all the Samburu males wish they had butt plugs now.

I found myself liking Ethan more than I thought... he wasn't that bad of a guy and seemed to help out pretty well.

This looks like it'll be a lot harder to survive than the Outback. In the Outback, they had that nice beach and water and lots of greenery... here... it's absolutely desolate. I also liked the music better from the Outback. Oh well, this is still going to be a lot of fun to follow!

Re: Bush
That's laughable, Bush is always shaky, kinda how you'd feel if you were giving a book report over a book you never read, because you can't read. Haha.

Survivor 3: Africa
Survivor 3 from Africa is on tonight. Be sure to check out Channel 2--KGAN (our local CBS affiliate) for Survivor 3 at 7 PM our time tonight. President Bush will have the floor first with what will probably be another great speech, followed by Survivor 3. Be sure to watch!

Can't
That couldn't happen... Dialups are limited at 53 kb/s under absolutely ideal conditions (living inside your ISP's office). This means that 53/8 = 6.625 KB/s is the fastest you'd be able to average a file download speed, not 11.67. Your software could have been confused and miscalculated the first bits that came in and therefore upped the average, but the best way if you really wanted to figure it out is to watch your network activity, and set a stopwatch, then divide your file size by your timed download results, it cannot ever exceed 6.625 KB/s.

Just a pondering.....
Now, for starters I want to say that yes, I am still stuck in the stone age of dial-up (not by choice). Many would agree that on dial-up 4k/sec download time is good rate. Doesn't touch cable, we all know that, but for dial-up it's good. I am downloading music files through FTP, and Michael Jackson's "Black or White" just got finished. I downloaded it in a meer 4 minutes!!!!!! According to the file size divided by time, thats freakin averaging 11.67k/sec on dial-up!!! Now, I just want someone out there to tell me how in the sam hell that happened??????

Michael Jackson - You Rock My World
I disagree completely with Matt and Adam on this song. I think it's entirely unoriginal, very manufactured. There is nothing revolutionary or particularly outstanding about this song at all, it just sounds like all the other pop music, it just happens to have Michael singing. Some may argue that the video makes it stand out; I just watched it, while it was quite the production, we should at least expect that level from someone that has hundreds of millions of dollars and record companies at his fingertips. Overall I'd give this effort 1 star out of 5.

Sigh
Life can really suck... It's amazing how far one's mood can shift from a Sunday to a Wednesday.

The Tribe Will Speak
Survivor 3: Africa begins tomorrow! I'm really giddy with excitement, be sure not to miss Survivor 3 on Thursday at 7 PM our time, on channel 2 (KGAN/CBS). I'm predicting the Boran tribe will lose the first immunity challenge and that Ethan will be the fellow receiving the first boot. He's a soccer freak and I hate soccer. I bet anyone else would too if he tries to tell them to kick the damned water bottles to the tribal camp.

I have a moral question for you. This is an imaginary situation, but I think
it is interesting to decide what one would do.

The situation: You are in the Middle East, and there is a huge flood in
progress. Many homes have been lost, water supplies compromised and
structures destroyed. Let's say that you're a photographer and getting still
photos for a news service, traveling alone, looking for particularly
poignant scenes. You come across Osama Bin Laden, who has been swept away by
the flood waters. He is barely hanging on to a tree limb and is about to go
under. You can either put down your camera and save him, or take a Pulitzer
Prize winning photograph of him as he loses his grip on the limb.

So, here's the question and think carefully before you answer the question:






Which lens would you use?

Wow
That's a helluva an article Mike. Who's it by? Aside from scientific evidence, it was because of fundamentalists, and fucks like Jerry Fallwell that I became an atheist two years ago. I could talk for hours about religion and why I think it's flawed, but that article sums it up pretty well.

Michael Jackson
All I have to say is that Michael Jackson is a music genius. He knows just when to release big hits, right whent he music industry is at a low, Michael comes through and delivers. His new video/short film "You Rock My World" is right up there with "Thriller". It is truly a Musical Masterpiece!!!!!!! MICHAEL ROCKS THE WORLD!!!!!!!

Long Article
I hope you guys don't mind the length of this article, and Adam, if you find that it's disruptive to the layout of the page, go ahead and delete it, but I think this article is extremely relevant, and I was impressed by the author's willingness to cut through some PC crap and look at other possibilities, even though he seems a tad naive at points, he seems to be on to something. If you guys don't know, I'm a very strong atheist, and I am really seeing, the more I study history, the strong negative influence of religion on almost every aspect of society in the long run. Anyway, have a look...

This Is a Religious War

September 11 was Only the Beginning

Perhaps the most admirable part of the response to the conflict that began on Sept. 11 has been a general reluctance to call it a religious war. Officials and commentators have rightly stressed that this is not a battle between the Muslim world and the West, that the murderers are not representative of Islam. President Bush went to the Islamic Center in Washington to reinforce the point. At prayer meetings across the United States and throughout the world, Muslim leaders have been included alongside Christians, Jews and Buddhists.

The only problem with this otherwise laudable effort is that it doesn't hold up under inspection. The religious dimension of this conflict is central to its meaning. The words of Osama bin Laden are saturated with religious argument and theological language. Whatever else the Taliban regime is in Afghanistan, it is fanatically religious. Although some Muslim leaders have criticized the terrorists, and even Saudi Arabia's rulers have distanced themselves from the militants, other Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere have not denounced these acts, have been conspicuously silent or have indeed celebrated them. The terrorists' strain of Islam is clearly not shared by most Muslims and is deeply unrepresentative of Islam's glorious, civilized and peaceful past. But it surely represents a part of Islam -- a radical, fundamentalist part -- that simply cannot be ignored or denied.

In that sense, this surely is a religious war -- but not of Islam versus Christianity and Judaism. Rather, it is a war of fundamentalism against faiths of all kinds that are at peace with freedom and modernity. This war even has far gentler echoes in America's own religious conflicts -- between newer, more virulent strands of Christian fundamentalism and mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism. These conflicts have ancient roots, but they seem to be gaining new force as modernity spreads and deepens. They are our new wars of religion -- and their victims are in all likelihood going to mount with each passing year.

Osama bin Laden himself couldn't be clearer about the religious underpinnings of his campaign of terror. In 1998, he told his followers, ''The call to wage war against America was made because America has spearheaded the crusade against the Islamic nation, sending tens of thousands of its troops to the land of the two holy mosques over and above its meddling in its affairs and its politics and its support of the oppressive, corrupt and tyrannical regime that is in control.'' Notice the use of the word ''crusade,'' an explicitly religious term, and one that simply ignores the fact that the last few major American interventions abroad -- in Kuwait, Somalia and the Balkans -- were all conducted in defense of Muslims.

Notice also that as bin Laden understands it, the ''crusade'' America is alleged to be leading is not against Arabs but against the Islamic nation, which spans many ethnicities. This nation knows no nation-states as they actually exist in the region --which is why this form of Islamic fundamentalism is also so worrying to the rulers of many Middle Eastern states. Notice also that bin Laden's beef is with American troops defiling the land of Saudi Arabia -- the land of the two holy mosques,'' in Mecca and Medina. In 1998, he also told followers that his terrorism was ''of the commendable kind, for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of Allah.'' He has a litany of grievances against Israel as well, but his concerns are not primarily territorial or procedural. ''Our religion is under attack,'' he said boldly. The attackers are Christians and Jews. When asked to sum up his message to the people of the West, bin Laden couldn't have been clearer: ''Our call is the call of Islam that was revealed to Muhammad. It is a call to all mankind. We have been entrusted with good cause to follow in the footsteps of the messenger and to communicate his message to all nations.''

This is a religious war against ''unbelief and unbelievers,'' in bin Laden's words. Are these cynical words designed merely to use Islam for nefarious ends? We cannot know the precise motives of bin Laden, but we can know that he would not use these words if he did not think they had salience among the people he wishes to inspire and provoke. This form of Islam is not restricted to bin Laden alone.

Its roots lie in an extreme and violent strain in Islam that emerged in the 18th century in opposition to what was seen by some Muslims as Ottoman decadence but has gained greater strength in the 20th. For the past two decades, this form of Islamic fundamentalism has racked the Middle East. It has targeted almost every regime in the region and, as it failed to make progress, has extended its hostility into the West. From the assassination of Anwar Sadat to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie to the decade long campaign of bin Laden to the destruction of ancient Buddhist statues and the hideous persecution of women and homosexuals by the Taliban to the World Trade Center massacre, there is a single line. That line is a fundamentalist, religious one. And it is an Islamic one.

Most interpreters of the Koran find no arguments in it for the murder of innocents. But it would be naive to ignore in Islam a deep thread of intolerance toward unbelievers, especially if those unbelievers are believed to be a threat to the Islamic world. There are many passages in the Koran urging mercy toward others, tolerance, respect for life and so on. But there are also passages as violent as this: ''And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush.'' And this: ''Believers! Wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbors, and let them find you rigorous.'' Bernard Lewis, the great scholar of Islam, writes of the dissonance within Islam: ''There is something in the religious culture of Islam which inspired, in even the humblest peasant or peddler, a dignity and a courtesy toward others never exceeded and rarely equaled in other civilizations. And yet, in moments of upheaval and disruption, when the deeper passions are stirred, this dignity and courtesy toward others can give way to an explosive mixture of rage and hatred which impels even the government of an ancient and civilized country -- even the spokesman of a great spiritual and ethical religion -- to espouse kidnapping and assassination, and try to find, in the life of their prophet, approval and indeed precedent for such actions.'' Since Muhammad was, unlike many other religious leaders, not simply a sage or a prophet but a ruler in his own right, this exploitation of his politics is not as great a stretch as some would argue.

This use of religion for extreme repression, and even terror, is not of course restricted to Islam. For most of its history, Christianity has had a worse record. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the bloody religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe saw far more blood spilled for religion's sake than the Muslim world did. And given how expressly nonviolent the teachings of the Gospels are, the perversion of Christianity in this respect was arguably greater than bin Laden's selective use of Islam. But it is there nonetheless. It seems almost as if there is something inherent in religious monotheism that lends itself to this kind of terrorist temptation. And our bland attempts to ignore this -- to speak of this violence as if it did not have religious roots -- is some kind of denial. We don't want to denigrate religion as such, and so we deny that religion is at the heart of this. But we would understand this conflict better, perhaps, if we first acknowledged that religion is responsible in some way, and then figured out how and why.

The first mistake is surely to condescend to fundamentalism. We may disagree with it, but it has attracted millions of adherents for centuries, and for a good reason. It elevates and comforts. It provides a sense of meaning and direction to those lost in a disorienting world. The blind recourse to texts embraced as literal truth, the injunction to follow the commandments of God before anything else, the subjugation of reason and judgment and even conscience to the dictates of dogma: these can be exhilarating and transformative. They have led human beings to perform extraordinary acts of both good and evil. And they have an internal logic to them. If you believe that there is an eternal afterlife and that endless indescribable torture awaits those who disobey God's law, then it requires no huge stretch of imagination to make sure that you not only conform to each diktat but that you also encourage and, if necessary, coerce others to do the same. The logic behind this is impeccable. Sin begets sin. The sin of others can corrupt you as well. The only solution is to construct a world in which such sin is outlawed and punished and constantly purged -- by force if necessary. It is not crazy to act this way if you believe these things strongly enough. In some ways, it's crazier to believe these things and not act this way.

In a world of absolute truth, in matters graver than life and death, there is no room for dissent and no room for theological doubt. Hence the reliance on literal interpretations of texts -- because interpretation can lead to error, and error can lead to damnation. Hence also the ancient Catholic insistence on absolute church authority. Without infallibility, there can be no guarantee of truth. Without such a guarantee, confusion can lead to hell.

Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor makes the case perhaps as well as anyone. In the story told by Ivan Karamazov in ''The Brothers Karamazov,'' Jesus returns to earth during the Spanish Inquisition. On a day when hundreds have been burned at the stake for heresy, Jesus performs miracles. Alarmed, the Inquisitor arrests Jesus and imprisons him with the intent of burning him at the stake as well. What follows is a conversation between the Inquisitor and Jesus. Except it isn't a conversation because Jesus says nothing. It is really a dialogue between two modes of religion, an exploration of the tension between the extraordinary, transcendent claims of religion and human beings' inability to live up to them, or even fully believe them.

According to the Inquisitor, Jesus' crime was revealing that salvation was possible but still allowing humans the freedom to refuse it. And this, to the Inquisitor, was a form of cruelty. When the truth involves the most important things imaginable --the meaning of life, the fate of one's eternal soul, the difference between good and evil -- it is not enough to premise it on the capacity of human choice. That is too great a burden. Choice leads to unbelief or distraction or negligence or despair. What human beings really need is the certainty of truth, and they need to see it reflected in everything around them -- in the cultures in which they live, enveloping them in a seamless fabric of faith that helps them resist the terror of choice and the abyss of unbelief. This need is what the Inquisitor calls the ''fundamental secret of human nature.'' He explains: ''These pitiful creatures are concerned not only to find what one or the other can worship, but to find something that all would believe in and worship; what is essential is that all may be together in it. This craving for community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity since the beginning of time.''

This is the voice of fundamentalism. Faith cannot exist alone in a single person. Indeed, faith needs others for it to survive -- and the more complete the culture of faith, the wider it is, and the more total its infiltration of the world, the better. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this today, but it is quite clear from the accounts of the Inquisition and, indeed, of the religious wars that continued to rage

in Europe for nearly three centuries, that many of the fanatics who burned human beings at the stake were acting out of what they genuinely thought were the best interests of the victims. With the power of the state, they used fire, as opposed to simple execution, because it was thought to be spiritually cleansing. A few minutes of hideous torture on earth were deemed a small price to pay for helping such souls avoid eternal torture in the afterlife. Moreover, the example of such government-sponsored executions helped create a culture in which certain truths were reinforced and in which it was easier for more weak people to find faith. The burden of this duty to uphold the faith lay on the men required to torture, persecute and murder the unfaithful. And many of them believed, as no doubt some Islamic fundamentalists believe, that they were acting out of mercy and godliness.

This is the authentic voice of the Taliban. It also finds itself replicated in secular form. What, after all, were the totalitarian societies of Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia if not an exact replica of this kind of fusion of politics and ultimate meaning? Under Lenin's and Stalin's rules, the imminence of salvation through revolutionary consciousness was in perpetual danger of being undermined by those too weak to have faith -- the bourgeois or the kulaks or the intellectuals. So they had to be liquidated or purged. Similarly, it is easy for us to dismiss the Nazis as evil, as they surely were. It is harder for us to understand that in some twisted fashion, they truly believed that they were creating a new dawn for humanity, a place where all the doubts that freedom brings could be dispelled in a rapture of racial purity and destiny. Hence the destruction of all dissidents and the Jews -- carried out by fire as the Inquisitors had before, an act of purification different merely in its scale, efficiency and Godlessness.

Perhaps the most important thing for us to realize today is that the defeat of each of these fundamentalisms required a long and arduous effort. The conflict with Islamic fundamentalism is likely to take as long. For unlike Europe's religious wars, which taught Christians the futility of fighting to the death over something beyond human understanding and so immune to any definitive resolution, there has been no such educative conflict in the Muslim world. Only Iran and Afghanistan have experienced the full horror of revolutionary fundamentalism, and only Iran has so far seen reason to moderate to some extent. From everything we see, the lessons Europe learned in its bloody history have yet to be absorbed within the Muslim world. There, as in 16th-century Europe, the promise of purity and salvation seems far more enticing than the mundane allure of mere peace. That means that we are not at the end of this conflict but in its very early stages.

America is not a neophyte in this struggle. The United States has seen several waves of religious fervor since its founding. But American evangelicalism has always kept its distance from governmental power. The

Christian separation between what is God's and what is Caesar's -- drawn from the Gospels -- helped restrain the fundamentalist temptation. The last few decades have proved an exception, however. As modernity advanced, and the certitudes of fundamentalist faith seemed mocked by an increasingly liberal society, evangelicals mobilized and entered politics. Their faith sharpened, their zeal intensified, the temptation to fuse political and religious authority beckoned more insistently.

Mercifully, violence has not been a significant feature of this trend -- but it has not been absent. The murders of abortion providers show what such zeal can lead to. And indeed, if people truly believe that abortion is the same as mass murder, then you can see the awful logic of the terrorism it has spawned. This is the same logic as bin Laden's. If faith is that strong, and it dictates a choice between action or eternal damnation, then violence can easily be justified. In retrospect, we should be amazed not that violence has occurred -- but that it hasn't occurred more often.

The critical link between Western and Middle Eastern fundamentalism is surely the pace of social change. If you take your beliefs from books written more than a thousand years ago, and you believe in these texts literally, then the appearance of the modern world must truly terrify. If you believe that women should be consigned to polygamous, concealed servitude, then Manhattan must appear like Gomorrah. If you believe that homosexuality is a crime punishable by death, as both fundamentalist Islam and the Bible dictate, then a world of same-sex marriage is surely Sodom. It is not a big step to argue that such centers of evil should be destroyed or undermined, as bin Laden does, or to believe that their destruction is somehow a consequence of their sin, as Jerry Falwell argued. Look again at Falwell's now infamous words in the wake of Sept. 11: ''I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the A.C.L.U., People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'''

And why wouldn't he believe that? He has subsequently apologized for the insensitivity of the remark but not for its theological underpinning. He cannot repudiate the theology -- because it is the essence of what he believes in and must believe in for his faith to remain alive.

The other critical aspect of this kind of faith is insecurity. American fundamentalists know they are losing the culture war. They are terrified of failure and of the Godless world they believe is about to engulf or crush them. They speak and think defensively. They talk about renewal, but in their private discourse they expect damnation for an America that has lost sight of the fundamentalist notion of God.

Similarly, Muslims know that the era of Islam's imperial triumph has long since gone. For many centuries, the civilization of Islam was the center of the world. It eclipsed Europe in the Dark Ages, fostered great learning and expanded territorially well into Europe and Asia. But it has all been downhill from there. From the collapse of the Ottoman Empire onward, it has been on the losing side of history. The response to this has been an intermittent flirtation with Westernization but far more emphatically a reaffirmation of the most irredentist and extreme forms of the culture under threat. Hence the odd phenomenon of Islamic extremism beginning in earnest only in the last 200 years.

With Islam, this has worse implications than for other cultures that have had rises and falls. For Islam's religious tolerance has always been premised on its own power. It was tolerant when it controlled the territory and called the shots. When it lost territory and saw itself eclipsed by the West in power and civilization, tolerance evaporated. To cite Lewis again on Islam: ''What is truly evil and unacceptable is the domination of infidels over true believers. For true believers to rule misbelievers is proper and natural, since this provides for the maintenance of the holy law and gives the misbelievers both the opportunity and the incentive to embrace the true faith. But for misbelievers to rule over true believers is blasphemous and unnatural, since it leads to the corruption of religion and morality in society and to the flouting or even the abrogation of God's law.''

Thus the horror at the establishment of the State of Israel, an infidel country in Muslim lands, a bitter reminder of the eclipse of Islam in the modern world. Thus also the revulsion at American bases in Saudi Arabia. While colonialism of different degrees is merely political oppression for some cultures, for Islam it was far worse. It was blasphemy that had to be avenged and countered.

I cannot help thinking of this defensiveness when I read stories of the suicide bombers sitting poolside in Florida or racking up a $48 vodka tab in an American restaurant. We tend to think that this assimilation into the West might bring Islamic fundamentalists around somewhat, temper their zeal. But in fact, the opposite is the case. The temptation of American and Western culture -- indeed, the very allure of such culture -- may well require a repression all the more brutal if it is to be overcome. The transmission of American culture into the heart of what bin Laden calls the Islamic nation requires only two responses -- capitulation to unbelief or a radical strike against it. There is little room in the fundamentalist psyche for a moderate accommodation. The very psychological dynamics that lead repressed homosexuals to be viciously homophobic or that entice sexually tempted preachers to inveigh against immorality are the very dynamics that lead vodka-drinking fundamentalists to steer planes into buildings. It is not designed to achieve anything, construct anything, argue anything. It is a violent acting out of internal conflict.

And America is the perfect arena for such acting out. For the question of religious fundamentalism was not only familiar to the founding fathers. In many ways, it was the central question that led to America's existence. The first American immigrants, after all, were refugees from the religious wars that engulfed England and that intensified under England's Taliban, Oliver Cromwell. One central influence on the founders' political thought was John Locke, the English liberal who wrote the now famous ''Letter on Toleration.'' In it, Locke argued that true salvation could not be a result of coercion, that faith had to be freely chosen to be genuine and that any other interpretation was counter to the Gospels. Following Locke, the founders established as a central element of the new American order a stark separation of church and state, ensuring that no single religion could use political means to enforce its own orthodoxies.

We cite this as a platitude today without absorbing or even realizing its radical nature in human history -- and the deep human predicament it was designed to solve. It was an attempt to answer the eternal human question of how to pursue the goal of religious salvation for ourselves and others and yet also maintain civil peace. What the founders and Locke were saying was that the ultimate claims of religion should simply not be allowed to interfere with political and religious freedom. They did this to preserve peace above all -- but also to preserve true religion itself.

The security against an American Taliban is therefore relatively simple: it's the Constitution. And the surprising consequence of this separation is not that it led to a collapse of religious faith in America -- as weak human beings found themselves unable to believe without social and political reinforcement Ñ but that it led to one of the most vibrantly religious civil societies on earth. No other country has achieved this. And it is this achievement that the Taliban and bin Laden have now decided to challenge. It is a living, tangible rebuke to everything they believe in.

That is why this coming conflict is indeed as momentous and as grave as the last major conflicts, against Nazism and Communism, and why it is not hyperbole to see it in these epic terms. What is at stake is yet another battle against a religion that is succumbing to the temptation Jesus refused in the desert -- to rule by force. The difference is that this conflict is against a more formidable enemy than Nazism or Communism. The secular totalitarianisms of the 20th century were, in President Bush's memorable words, ''discarded lies.'' They were fundamentalisms built on the very weak intellectual conceits of a master race and a Communist revolution.

But Islamic fundamentalism is based on a glorious civilization and a great faith. It can harness and co-opt and corrupt true and good believers if it has a propitious and toxic enough environment. It has a more powerful logic than either Stalin's or Hitler's Godless ideology, and it can serve as a focal point for all the other societies in the world, whose resentment of Western success and civilization comes more easily than the arduous task of accommodation to modernity. We have to somehow defeat this without defeating or even opposing a great religion that is nonetheless extremely inexperienced in the toleration of other ascendant and more powerful faiths. It is hard to underestimate the extreme delicacy and difficulty of this task.

In this sense, the symbol of this conflict should not be Old Glory, however stirring it is. What is really at issue here is the simple but immensely difficult principle of the separation of politics and religion. We are fighting not for our country as such or for our flag. We are fighting for the universal principles of our Constitution Ñ and the possibility of free religious faith it guarantees. We are fighting for religion against one of the deepest strains in religion there is. And not only our lives but our souls are at stake.

DVDs
I got Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on DVD today for my birthday. Damn that's a sweet movie.

And Nick, are you sure it's the Gourds? I was pretty sure it was Rusted Root.

Gin And Juice
Yet another funny rendition of the ever-so-popular song by Snoop Dogg, Gin And Juice. Get it here (right click the link and save as). I believe the narrator is the guy that does the movie previews.

And another thing that I would like to clarify, PHISH DIDN'T EVER COVER GIN AND JUICE. The MP3 that you probably have labeled as Phish - Gin And Juice, should be renamed as The Gourds - Gin And Juice. The Gourds are actually the people that remade that song, so get it right and don't let me ever hear you mention that the Phish sang a cover of Gin And Juice if you aren't expecting a boot to the face.

Austin Powers 3
Well, the title of Austin Powers 3 has been officially announced. Check this out: Austin Powers in Goldmember. :) For those uncultured swine unfamiliar with James Bond, it's a parody of the Bond movie Goldfinger. Mike Myers will be playing Austin, Dr. Evil, Fat Bastard, and Goldmember. Heather Graham will be reprising her role in saying incredibly stupid dialog while looking incredibly hot. Pierce Brosnan has been signed on to parody James Bond in the film. I hope it's funny.

The Godfather and TV Goodness
OK movie nerds, I too will join your ranks soon enough and add The Godfather set to my collection. I ordered it today on CDNOW with my discount, 5 discs for $50.46, I think that's value, unless I'm an idiot and you guys all got it for $20. Additionally, another of my big schtick's has been fulfilled... I am a big TV series collector, I currently have every episode of: South Park, Futurama, Seinfeld, The Family Guy, and as of today I have completed The Critic. I am currently working on Space Ghost Coast To Coast, rar!

Kinkos Is Dumb
I got a call from Kinkos today, this is how it went.

Unfamiliar Voice: Hello is Nick Basile there?
Me: Umm, yeah. Who's this?
Unfamiliar Voice: Yes, this is Kinkos, you had a document designed and printed here on October 4th correct?
Me: Yeah I think so.
Kinkos: Yes I'm calling so you can complete a survey that informs the company about your experience you had working with our store. It's automated.
Me: Uhh, do I get anything if I complete it?
Kinkos: No, it's just to get the customer's opinions on our workplace.
Me: Why would I want to complete a long automated phone survey if I don't get anything in return for my precious time?
Kinkos: Ummm, uhhhh, well.... It's just for the company's...
Me: That's great, but I don't really need to waste my time on a phone survey if I don't get anything for doing it. You see, I'm an extremely busy guy and I just can't go wasting my time for a pointless customer survey that I don't benifit from finishing. So there's my customer opinion right there.
Kinkos: Ummm, alright... sorry for bothering you...
Me: Peace out homie.
::click::

Best Water Fountains
Has anyone else noticed that in the groups of four waterfountains located around Washington High, that the third one in from the left is always the coldest and has the strongest stream at every group? That's just a little observation that I have come up with in my many experiences getting out of class to take an extended trip to hydrate myself. Would anyone argue with me that there is a better water fountain than the third one?

The Godfather
I bought The Godfather Collection today. I started watching The Godfather, and while I haven't seen much more than 20 minutes, I can already begin to see what a quality movie this is. The cinematography as well as performances are absolutely stunning. I can't wait to watch all 745 minutes of Cinema goodness I just purchased. wh00t!

DVD Tuesday
Ahh, what a great DVD Tuesday. Me and Adam buy DVD's on Tuesdays because that's when Best Buy has the new releases on the shelves. And since I have an available money flow, and no girl to spend it on, I like to waste my money buying electronics, movies and video games. Today I bought, Sleepy Hollow, The Patriot, The Knight's Tale. All three are really sweet movies that I have seen before or just caught a couple parts of. I started watching Sleepy Hallow for the October/Halloween spirit. This movie rocks, and I loooooove Tim Burton. He is the master of making the surroundings play a large part in the movie. Everyone can remember how striggety Gotham City was in Batman. And the town/village of Sleepy Hollow is just as sweet. The fog actually sets the dark mood and plays a part in the movie, especially when the headless horseman is coming in for his next romp. The best part about today was I got three great DVD's for just 60 dollars. Therefore I labeled myself as a DVD power shopper. Overall, very good movies for a very good night to sit home and watch all of them. ATTN: Fly bitches, feel free to come over to my house and watch movies with me in the dark while we get our freaktid on.

Sega Makes Sony Its Bitch
OMFG. I thought GT3 was a breathtakingly beautiful game... even more amazing once I bought my S-Video cable. Sega's currently developing Sega GT 2002 for the Xbox, which looks to be a huge contender to the Sony crown. The original Sega GT was a rather fun game... I enjoyed it thoroughly. Check out this screenshot...

MLB Playoffs
Please, dear God, do not let the Yankees go to the World Series. We've had enough.

Mob Movies
Mob movies are so much fun to watch. They are without question, one of my favorite types of movies. Goodfellas just absolutely rox0rs; I can't wait for the Special Edition DVD sometime next year (w00t!). Casino rocks too, I have that DVD, which is also probably going to be revisited for a Special Edition (hell yeah!). I must admit that I have never seen any of The Godfather movies, which makes me a pathetic loser (or wait, am I already?) =D. Anyhow, I fully plan on purchasing the trilogy tomorrow and checking them all out.

BDay
WHY AREN'T YOU OUT BUYING ME A BIRTHDAY PRESENT?????? IT'S TOMORROW FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!

Anyway....The Godfather ranks as one of my top favorite movies, though I think that Part 2 was sorta better. DeNiro was king in that movie. And, while people choose to forget that Part 3 exists, I still think it's a good movie, but nowhere near the calibre of 1 and 2.

Other good mafia movies: The Last Don, Donny Brasco, Goodfellas, Casino, A Bronx Tale, and Mean Streets

RE: Mrs. Robinson
Mike, don't you know that song is by Simon and Garfunkel? Maybe it's a cover, in fact I hope so, because that's just depressing Simon and Garfunkel could be mislabeled.

EDIT: I obtained it through Mike, and while it is a cover, it is definetly not Weezer.

The Godfather DVD Collection
The great trilogy is coming out on DVD tomorrow, I'm going to order it from Amazon. It's kind of expensive, but in all honesty, 1 and 2 worth the movie. People say 3 sucked, and it did, but it's still an alright mob movie if not compared to the rest of the trilogy.

Weezer - Mrs. Robinson
Whoa Whoa Whoa, heres to you Mrs. Robinson, what a great song. If you dont know what I'm talking about got get it!

Concerning Your Football Games
Hey, if you're bored at the football games, try this... Cheer against the cheerleaders, whatever they start cheering, do something else, and do it louder, NEVER do what they're trying to do. We did this when I was in high school, it was hilarious fun. You may not be cheering for your team, but who cares when you can laugh so hard at the shocked faces of the cheerleaders.

Badd Girlz Productions
Guys, this just isn't funny. It's so ridiculously lame... you have no idea how stupid you all look. Your resistance is token at best... realize that you can't floss on our level in terms of hits. We just came off a record breaking week, topping the week of September 11th... we had 908 unique visits that week and we just got 1,089 unique visits in our past week. Not only did our new look not decrease hittage, it increased it heavily, particularily considering there was no big-name news. Everyone speaking out against the new look must feel considerably stupid, as not only does it look more professional, but obviously, those running at lower resolutions are happy that they don't have to scroll left and right manually (what a pain!), and it increased visitations, not decreased it. You guys were as wrong as idiots predicting $5 a gallon for gas prices.

Take a look around BBP and you'll find quality, entertaining, fun writing that's just enjoyable to read on a daily basis. I know I personally visit several times daily just to see what my fellow writers have to say, and obviously, so do our readers. On BGP, I see nothing more than idiotic writings about "gutting those bigg boyz" and stupid pictures that maybe were funny the first day, but it's just getting old and stupid. The joke is not funny anymore.

I welcome competition, it's a great way to help us strive to improve the quality of our site, but I don't consider BGP any kind of competition, I consider it stupidity. Yes, we have rules. Yes, we have standards. Look where it's gotten us today... our popularily seems to increase on a daily basis as word of mouth continues and more and more look at BBP. We have quality content, you guys have nothing.

I'd actually rather see you guys try to compete with us as opposed to acting absolutely idiotic. In fact, if you guys create a new page with a respectable name and use a layout other than one exactly like ours, I'd gladly create a very large link to your page, with the expectation of one being established in return. At this point, don't expect any such linkage, except in this post for viewers not already familiar with your aborration to webpages everywhere.

I think it would be really great to see a site similar to ours come out of the wings with an all-female writing corps. In fact, if any females out there would be interested in making this happen, I'd be more than willing to help with the technical aspects behind the scenes to make it all possible.

Well, there's more inane ranting from myself. Sleep time.

Wowz0r
Zakk is at 8 days and 45 minutes on AOL Instant Messenger. That means for 8 days straight now, since late September 29th, Zakk has been on AIM and never has signed off. That's awesome. Add Phil Gretty to your buddy list and let's see how long he can go before @Home has a "burp"...

Our computer has been up for: 8 day(s), 6 hour(s), 51 minute(s), 7 second(s)...

WHS Football
When you guys won the first few games, people cared. People screamed their heads off. I seriously disagree with the argument that WHS fans have no spirit or aren't into it. It's too bad you can't see how crazy we get at the Soph games. We start chants, we scream, we love those guys! They play good football and every game is winnable, there's nothing that isn't achievable.

Something's happened to you guys, and it's not so much a clear-cut thing. After beating West, you guys proved you have the ability to defeat most MVC teams, and something's missing ever since the City High loss. I don't get it. I don't understand what it is. Something is seriously wrong, and I think it's too late to do anything about it. But it's not necessarily something so much football related or related to the mechanics of the game, as it is spirit or teamwork or something.

I mean, it's gotten to the point where I dread the varsity game. I go into it expecting you guys to lose. I'm not cheery or excited for it. You guys have a lot to do with that... must be your style of play... but your touchdowns are typically lucky fumbles or interceptions ran for TDs... your offense doesn't seem to score as much as your defense does. We get excited for smooth drives downfield followed by capitalization. You guys are decent at driving, but you suck in the red zone, and we lose interest. You get within the 20, and from the 50, we can't tell what's going on and really lose interest after 4 plays that do nothing.

This is really a meandering post, but it's hard to put the finger on what to say. There's something missing from Varsity, and it sux0rs. Fix it, damn you!

USA
Colon Powel is the MAN. I'm just glad he's on our side. Just thought I'd let ya'll know that

Jeff Game 2
Very true, Murphy. It's just so depressing, though, to watch my senior season get pissed away like that, and realize that no one cares.

RE: RE: RE: Jeff Game
The crowd was into the game when you guys were 2-0 but now you are 2-6 it is hard to cheer for a team like that. Unless of course you are a senior and those are your friends.

Re: Re: Jeff Game
"So in conclusion, maybe you guys should stop worrying about other stuff like the fans and school spirit and start concentrating on your own team's unity, practicing, and playing harder so you guys can win some games and get the crowd interested." - Nick B.
That's the problem, Nick. We have no control over what we do at practice; we can go as hard as we want, but if we're not doing the right stuff, it doesn't matter how hard we try. I can flap my arms until my heart explodes, but I'll never get off the ground. Also, perhaps if you'd pay attention to the games, you'd see that a lot of us are busting our butts out on the playing field. I'm not putting down your argument, necessarily. It's just that it's a little disheartening to hear your own crowd cheering when the other team makes a good play. Sigh... It's no fun sucking. I can kick Dollmeyer's ass as much as I want, but if we don't ever run to the left, it doesn't do much.

RE: Jeff Game (school spirit)
Personally, as a Sohpmore, I only care about the Sophmore teams and the Soph players on the varsity team. I come early and watch the Soph game, but when the Soph game is over and it's time for the Varsity squad to take the field, I don't really find myself caring about your game all too much. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but you guys suck (for reasons that I can't explain) and no one wants to watch a shitty team, much like the reason why I can't ever see my Bears play on Sundays, because no stations ever want to pick the game up. But, I do see our Senior class watching, much like I will next year and the year after that, when my friends and classmates are playing on the Varsity team. So in conclusion, maybe you guys should stop worrying about other stuff like the fans and school spirit and start concentrating on your own team's unity, practicing, and playing harder so you guys can win some games and get the crowd interested.

Title
Score, my title actually came out right! Whoo-hoo!

Jeff Game
Okay, my computer hates me, so the title is pro'ly messed up... But anyways. Y'know, I'm so sick of everything in football... The petty politics, the standing around for three and a half, four hours at practice, all that sort of crap. It'd all be worth it, though, if we could win. But we can't, though, and I have no clue why. Does anybody know? What the hell is going on? I make my blocks 95% of the time, what's happening? Can anyone see?
Oh, and on another note, as much as I hate to criticize our school, we have NO SCHOOL SPIRIT WHATSOEVER. I mean, our crowd is silent, and that doesn't help anything. I dunno, it's something pretty small to bitch about, but maybe if people in the stands gave a damn, the players might.