Recent Comments

1. about 5 hours ago on Baldo

   It’s a problem if you also like the Jamaican place across the street, and the Thai place down the block, and two Japanese places, and a Korean place (that is worth the drive), and the new Mexican place, and a great Italian place, and Chinese take-out, and…

   Man does not live by empanadas alone.

2. about 5 hours ago on Wallace the Brave

   (And I suspect I knew that when I posted my less-than-random comment.)

3. about 9 hours ago on Brewster Rockit

   If you provide your real job description the survey will be less than confidential.

4. about 9 hours ago on Dick Tracy

   Bob Oscar Plenty was a nasty villain when he first appeared in the strip 90± years ago. One of the Tracy villains who managed not to die for his crimes he was an interesting enough character to come back, softened, into a supporting role. He eventually married the ugly Gravel Gertie… Gertie was never really evil, but man-hungry and had helped hide a Tracy foe (the Brow?) in hopes of catching one. (He had temporarily lost his sight). They had a beautiful daughter (now married to Junior) and a new ugly son. His recurring role is largely comedy relief.

5. about 9 hours ago on La Cucaracha

   The intelligence is artificial. The stupidity is real.

6. about 9 hours ago on Wallace the Brave

   They remind me of a song by Men without Hats.

7. about 9 hours ago on Loose Parts

   I’m unfamiliar with rat hierarchy. I would think he’d have exciting stories about his ports of call and sinking ships he had abandoned. She makes him sound lower than a sewer rat.

8. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

   I can give you all sorts of vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean much. Those were all common words found in everyday speech. (Like finding words that doctors used in the vocabulary of Acts and concluding the author must of been a physician. They mean nothing. Those were ‘medical’ terms everyone spoke in everyday speech.) The question becomes are they used in a way which parallels how they were used in the conversation of the philosophers of the era, and Paul’s usage finds many parallels in the language / concepts of the Stoics – the most popular philosophy of the day. The fact that so many of the early Christian teachers were professional philosophers shows that Christianity in the early centuries was more of a philosophy (how you live) than a religion (ritual performance regardless of belief) Don’t confuse modern philosophy with ancient philosophy. It used to be a practical matter rather than pointless hair-splitting.

   Justin Martyr, Quadratus, Aristidies, Clement of Alexandria, Pantaneus, Origen of Alexandria, Lactantius, Tertullian (also a lawyer), Didymus the Blind, etc. etc. were philosophers. Philosophy deals with the nature of truth, and how to live your life (at least as philosophy was understood at the time). Modern philosophy… Meh. Had to read a book for a class which argues words have no meaning. Then why did author bother to write the d@mn thing if words have no meaning? Maybe his book was giving an example

9. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

   Theory too oft’ has very little to do with reality. Saying something should be a false dichotomy doesn’t change the fact that from a very early period the idea that it was fine to sin, as long as you did the appropriate confession / penance, was around.

10. 1 day ago on Baldo

    We have a Peruvian empanada take-out place a couple miles away. The problem is that everything on the menu sounds good.