For Christmas, I gave an ulcer to a doctor friend of mine. I gave his wife the common cold.

We'll steer clear of kissing disease I think.

Some debate on barlowfarms reminds me of this excerpt from my pastor's Window on the World on Just War and its applicability to Iraq (in January 2003)

The problem is that terrorist attacks are so unexpected. Just war theory was developed when armies still waged war in conventional ways. But terrorists do not play by the rules. Innocent victims are targeted, and there is no time for them or anyone else to act in self-defense. It is for precisely this reason that global terrorism is such a menacing evil. And it is also for this reason that a new and broader definition of just war may be needed. Charles Colson has argued—I think rightly—that "Christians can and should support a preemptive strike, if ordered by the appropriate magistrate to prevent an imminent attack."

But we should be careful not to reach this conclusion too quickly. It is risky to base our actions on what someone else might do. In the present situation, those who argue that America should go to war have a high burden of proof. Can they demonstrate a real connection between Saddam Hussein and global terrorism? Is there hard evidence that Iraq poses a credible threat of mass destruction? Can our armed forces deal with this threat while still maintaining the high standards of justice in war, such as avoiding civilian casualties?

I think that we can say there was evidence of a credible threat, even if we later discover the evidence was fallible.

Y'know what's wierd about stuff like this?

The assumption that mature trained pastors can't listen to anyone who they might have some areas of disagreement with and profit from hearing him, but that all conferences are instead stewes of heresy where their misbegotten offspring will spread forth.

A bunch of "movement men" can't help but see everything as part of a movement.

I used to read Comics much more regularly than I have been lately.

I kept up with Moore's ABC line for a while, until I decided he was not at the peak of his form anymore (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen still grabs me, though volume 2 was too risque). He's also irregular.

So since I stopped paying attention I discovered I missed:

The first two issues of JLA/Avengers (got #2 now, but can't find #1)
The first 5 issues of 16??, a Gaiman work for Marvel comics
The first two isues of Trinity, a Matt Wagner book dealing with Supes, Batman, and WW.

JLA/Avengers has been a hoot. I feel like I'm 15 reading it. Like, the older DC/Marvel crossovers (Teen Titans/Xmen!) assumed that the heroes were in the same universe, but didn't meet up yet. But since the JLA always did multi-world hopping stuff back in the day, (earth 2, etc) this crossover is also a crossover of the two universe, getting mixed up and merging in interestign ways. One badguy from each universe is involved in aplot that leads the universes to merge with each other. Confusion ensues...

What really made me smile was an exchange between Supes and Thor. Supes feels the heroes of Marvel Earth are too weak and ineffective, because they let bad things be (Dr. Doom ruling a country, etc). Captain America thinks the DC earth is a facist world where heroes run ordinary people. So Supes and Thor are fighting, and Thor is suprised to find Superman withstands him, the mightiest of Marvel earth. Superman says (struggling):

S-Sorry... Sorry to... disappoint... But in...my world, it looks like... the dials... go up to eleven!

I also was amused that Wonder Woman immediatly began whaling on the Marvel Hercules, since the DC Hercules was responsible for enslaving Queen Hippolyta.

Sweet Perez art.

Ok, enough geeking out for tonight.

Some de-geeking is brought to you in my current ebay auctions, by the way.

Hey. Now I'm up on CoolMiniOrNot

Andrew Sullivan is dissed in the Twenty Most Annoying Conservatives of 2003:

He's the 21st-century Stan Lee, except that he's a Republican who substitutes webloggers and George W. Bush for mutants and people exposed to radiation, and 'fisking' for fanciful tales of exploration and adventure.

If my wife ever returns to working as a museum registrar, maybe she can get a job at the Hokes Archives at the University of Tennessee.

They have one of the best collections of centaurs in the United States

The explosion of bears in New Jersey is remarked on in this op-ed

The animals have made a remarkable comeback, and they are not likely to quit breeding. There is no way to negotiate with them, and they cannot be regulated.

They also can't be reasoned with, and they don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear.

Carry your lunch in your hand, so you can give it to Yogi when he wants it and he won't maul you for your backpack.

UPDATE: makes me think of Deuteronomy 32:24 "I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust."

Son: "Mommy, will you play a killing game with me"

Mom: "Mommy doesn't like killing games"

Son: "But Daddy plays lots of killing games. Daddy likes killing games!"

Mom: "..."

He's talking about this one. Which didn't look like it involved killing to me.

Maybe it's time to dig out this book. If I recall it didn't really make that much of a difference to me growing up. Maybe the heiromater would chime in.

I guess this story belies the canard that during wartime the military ignores its rules about homosexuality.

David Brooks writes on the democratic spirit of the soldiers in Iraq:

At spontaneous moments, when order threatens to break down, the soldiers, aviators and marines jump in and coach the Iraqis on the customs and habits of democracy. They try to weave that fabric of civic trust that can't be written into law, but without which freedom becomes anarchy.

For example, in a New Yorker article, George Packer describes an incident in the life of Capt. John Prior. He was inside a gas station when a commotion erupted outside. A mob of people was furiously accusing a man of butting in line and stealing gasoline. Prior established that the man was merely a government inspector checking the quality of the fuel. Frazzled and exhausted, Prior took the chance to teach the mob a broader lesson: "The problem is that you people accuse each other without proof! That's the problem!"

Something tells me thet if that soldier said this over here is a different context, he'd be disciplined or sued.

NOW that's just wierd. One or two I could comprehend, but a dozen?

There is deep wrongness in the human psyche.