Oliver's tips on debating

Oliver offers some sage advice on debating.

Permalink | Comments? | id 4739

17:36 (utc-5)

 

Mozilla (Firefox) Sidebars

Now that I've written a kick-ass bookmark script I want to make it fit in my browser sidebar -- partly for the ease of use and partly so that I don't leave referrers everywhere I visit.

So, here's the Mozilla documentation on how to make sidebars, though it seems old and I'm wondering if it's out of date.

Update: Firefox lets you use any web page you have bookmarked as a sidebar panel, but it makes all links open in the main browser window. I'd like to make some open in the sidebar and others open in the main browser window. I can use target="_content" on links I want to open in the main browser window, but what do I use for links I want to open in the sidebar?

Permalink | 3 Comments | Tags: Programming | id 4738

17:14 (utc-5)
edited: 18:14 (utc-5)

 

Advanced PHP Programming book

Sterling offers high praise for George Schlossnagle's new book, Advanced PHP Programming. Cool! I'll have to check it out next time I'm at B&N.

I didn't think any book could teach me much of anything about PHP I didn't already know, but Sterling gives it such high praise, and calls it "a classic on how to solve the web problem" which really is different than just coding PHP, that I definitely want to check it out.

Congrats George!

Permalink | Comments? | Tags: Programming | id 4737

16:45 (utc-5)
edited: 16:48 (utc-5)

 

The Passion...

I saw Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, on Wednesday, and I didn't like it. I didn't write about it then because I wanted to dwell on it for a bit, but the more time went by the more I disliked it. Most of it was just watching Jesus get beat up for an hour and a half. Earlier that day I had heard someone who had seen the movie being interviewed on the radio who was sobbing and saying things like "I mean (sob), I knew about Jesus, but (sob) I didn't know he went through all that (sob sob)". While I was watching the movie everyone around me seemed to be crying. I thought what was on screen was pretty much what you'd expect if you've read the Bible and have even a tiny bit of imagination. A few months ago I read a very graphic first-hand account of a woman being stoned in Iran for alleged adultery. To me, that was much more disturbing than The Passion was.

However, I thought the first 20 minutes or so was excellent, and contained some very neat cinematography. By far my favorite scene in the movie was towards the beginning, after Jesus had been arrested, when Mary and the woman with her (who I guess was Mary Magdalene) made a reference to Passover and I recognized the Hebrew. Man that was awesome... I teared up a bit there, but not for the rest of the movie.

One thing a friend mentioned that I didn't quite put my finger on until he said it was that Jesus was too handsome. The real Jesus was ordinary-looking, but the guy in the movie was very handsome and had a well-groomed beard that looked like it belonged in a Braun electric shaver commercial. All in all, I didn't really believe while watching this movie that I was watching Jesus, so it had even less effect on me.

Some other comments:

• I thought it was interesting, given that it was coming from a Catholic, that the movie made it clear that Jesus had a brother, when Catholic doctrine says that Mary was a virgin her whole life. As a friend said to me, "if that was the case, I'd say Joe would have grounds for divorce", and I agree!
• Jesus crushing the snake was a reference to Genesis 3:15.
• When Judas hanged himself, there was a carcass next to him with flies all over it. Beelzebub means "lord of the flies".
• It didn't get dark enough when the sky was supposed to get dark. It just got cloudy, like it was going to rain.
• My biggest complaint with the movie is that the resurrection, while as important as the crucifixion, was relegated to being a segue to the credits! After the movie I thought "Wait, you're not done yet... I want to see the rest of the Bible!", including Jesus appearing to Mary and the disciples, Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, etc. They spent so much time on the crucifixion that there was no time for anything else. Update: I forgot to mention... this is consistent with the Roman Catholic propensity to focus on Christ crucified, rather on Christ as risen. The biggest example of this is that the crucifix still has "Jesus" hanging dead on it, which kind of misses the point of the Gospel.

Update: I know that the movie was just supposed to be about Jesus's crucifixion, and not about the rest of the Bible. I meant the comment above about wanting to see more mostly as a compliment and only partly as a criticism. The movie was well done, and I would have liked to see their version of the rest of the New Testament.

Permalink | 22 Comments | id 4736

14:30 (utc-5)
edited: 15:50 (utc-5)

 

Gun control and affirmative action

I was thinking on the way home that it's strange that people who would support affirmative action would be against people being able to carry guns. Bear with me...

The very idea of affirmative action is that we should try to consciously and institutionally compensate for societal inequality. If whatever minority group has a disadvantage in some area, whether it's in the job market, college admissions, or football coaching, affirmative action is the idea that they should be discriminated for, or given an unfair advantage, in order to offset some other (perceived) unfairness. So, affirmative action is meant to equalize a previously unequal situation, in this case due to societal inequalities.

Now, I'm about 5'2", and a little over 110 pounds. I have black belt in Tae Kwon Do, though I'm honestly not that good, and regardless, it'd be hopeless if some 300 pound guy named Bubba had a beef with me and chose to act on it. On the other hand, if Bubba and his friend Al wanted to rob/murder/kidnap/rape me (pick one or more), and I happened to have a handgun, I'd have a much better chance of keeping my life and property than I would if my only weapon against them was a karate chop. So, like affirmative action, having a weapon such as a gun equalizes a previously unfair and unequal situation. Unlike affirmative action, having a powerful weapon to defend yourself corrects an inherent inequality (primarily size, but also, in this example, number).

So it would seem that equalizing in self-defense would be an even greater imperative than equalizing in job opportunities, because the former corrects inherent inequalities while the latter corrects only perceived societal inequalities, because self-defense itself is a more inherent right than getting a particular job or being accepted to a particular school, and most importantly, because so much more is at stake.

This is why I look at the handgun as the best tool for self-defense ever invented, and I believe the gun is clearly a good invention. Liberals often claim to be for "the little guy", yet by being against gun ownership and carry, they prevent that little guy from defending himself against bodily harm from those stronger and greater in number than himself. So, to be for affirmative action and against the right to own and carry handguns seems like an inconsistency to me, similar to the inconsistency of being for abortion, which kills innocent babies, but against the death penalty, which kills convicted killers (rapists, etc.)

Permalink | 13 Comments | Tags: Opinions/Politics | id 4735

13:05 (utc-5)
edited: 13:08 (utc-5)

 

wxWindows changing its name to wxWidgets!

Great googly moogly, name changes all over the place. First FireFox, and now wxWindows! It seems Microsoft approached the wxWindows team about their name, and the wxWindows team gave it up and renamed the project wxWidgets.

Permalink | 1 Comment | id 4734

00:50 (utc-5)