Go and watch it. So good. The Da Vinci Code was good too.

Saw United 93 last night with my brother and his girlfriend. Man, that was a sad movie. Also kind of predictable; everyone already knows the plot. But one thing really stuck out at me. All the characters prayed before they did something huge. They prayed before leaving the hotel to begin a day of terror. They prayed before stabbing a few people and hijacking the aircraft. They prayed before rushing the terrorists and killing them. To me it was saying faith is a powerful motivator. Prayer gave them strength and sustained them.
Here I could make a passionate call to Christians and Muslims to reconcile their differences before it's too late, but I won't. Damn fundamentalists for hijacking the faith of countless millions. When you're so sure you're right that you'll kill yourself and everyone around you, the terrorists have already won. I pray that everyone guard their heart and keep watch at your church, mosque, synagogue, coven, shrine, etc.
Tonight I'm going out with a friend who is recently back from Iraq. Here's to a night of beer and women. or something ;)

I commend Christian churches for their charity work this last year. Hurricane season really caught America off-guard, and American churches did the best job getting aid where it needed to go. Seeing active charity only strengthened my belief that faith can be a powerful force of good.
A friend recently pointed me to Christ and Culture. I don't know the author, but it's clear he's very intelligent. His recent post (the one Joe wanted me to see) is on churches splitting because they disagree about homosexuality.
Homosexuality. Such a clinical word, don't you think? Same-sex attraction and gay sex are human universals; gay men and women have lived in every part of the globe, in every culture and society, since the dawn of history and before. The same goes for hundreds of other animal species. It's perfectly natural, if you take my meaning.
Lots of people who read the Bible literally believe that homosexuality is unnatural. While it makes me sad, that's fine with me. Just please let the churches get some real work done. Rather than campaigning to end same-sex marriage and gay adoption rights, American churches could save a lot of time and effort by focusing their creative and practical energies on charity work, because they're good at that. Hurricane season starts in three weeks.

So I've finally caved. Today I went to a large clothing store in the mall to buy some new underroos. That's all. Two unintentional pairs of shorts and three unforeseen, unplanned polo shirts later, I came down from my shopping high. I was buzzing like a bee on drugs. Popular culture has sucked me in and influenced my buying new and fashionable stuff. In my defense it's been years since I've bought clothes for myself, and I've lost twenty-five pounds in six months, so almost none of my clothes fit properly. And those shirts just looked so fine. Now on to more meaningful yet less relavant stuff...
Have you noticed how snowfall melts? At first the process is very slow and gradual. The texture of the snow changes. If it's warm enough, ice melts into water and the fluid follows gravity's call. As water runs off, the structure holding up the layers of accumulated snow gets weaker. A collapse happens eventually because weakened older snow that was supporting the upper layers gives in under the weight of newer snow. The collapse can be seen as the avalanche from a glacier, icebergs from an iceshelf, or on a less violent scale, the edge of a shoveled driveway. Walking home to my dorm one day I saw the effects of snow melt and it reminded me of "punctuated equilibrium" in the theory of evolution. Constant pressure can cause both subtle and violent change, depending on what and when you're watching.
I have some other thoughts a-brewing right now, but they'll carry new post because they're mildly controversial.