Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

This update may or may not be coherent, since my latest set of symptoms (beginning yesterday morning) includes a numbness and tingling in my face and hands (doctor checked my vitals yesterday, said pulse and blood-pressure are fine, so most likely a reaction to the medications I've been on and the severe lack of sleep in the past two weeks). At any rate, the result is that until further notice, it's very difficult to use my fingers with any dexterity or strength. Just typing seems exhausting at the moment, but I wanted to share a few thoughts from my sister, while they were fresh and uppermost in my mind. [some spoilers for movie "Paycheck" at the very end.] ( Read more... )

Interesting thought, no? I wonder if or how shows like "Angel" and "Buffy" (where the rewards for doing the right thing and saving the world are often intangible or actually lead to more suffering and hardship for the hero in the future) buck that trend? Did this season of "Angel" -- where the A.I. team suddenly had all the rewards of success in terms of money and prestige and power over the lives of underlings -- attempt to subvert our national preoccupation with TMPR (by showing that that way lies the road to hellishness of all sorts), or is it in some sense buying into it, giving the public what they want, the fun of seeing the heroes get the goodies?

Just an interesting article (very brief, very readable and cogent -- accessible even to us non-archaeology buffs) on what the archaeological evidence suggests about crucifixions, etc., in the first century C.E., vs. what's depicted on film in "The Passion of the Christ." The full article is available in pdf from this web-address:

http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10243