I can’t find this acoustic version anywhere but on 6×8 of Buffy. So this is for the music, not the show.
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There is a certain kind of heresy to which it is important to respond that, no matter what you achieve through your best efforts, you cannot be good enough to earn a place in heaven.
But for most of history and most of the human race, as any parent with more than one child knows, the issue is not whether anyone can be good enough. The issue is that people think that evil is good. They think that they are supposed to behave in certain ways involving boasting and rivalry and a demand for immediate recompense for any slight against them.
So for most of history and most of the human race, the simple story of how God acts in human circumstances, and his instructions to embrace new ideals of peace and reconciliation, is amazingly good news.
Exclusive: Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy
Philip Atkinson
Author: Philip Atkinson
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: August 3, 2007
They removed the article but you can read it here. An excerpt.
By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government.
However, President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.
When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended.
Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.
If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege [sic] while terrifying American enemies.
FSM has removed the article. As you’ll see by looking at their media relations, they are given a mainstream voice.
(It looks like thy have purged the other essays by Atkinson from their site.)
I thought this anecdote was hysterical. I’ve actually compared April to a certain blogger I won’t name who, apparently, makes a substantial household income from blogging. (The one whose blog became a synonym for getting fired for what you blog about.) By making the comparison I was referring to her humor, honesty, and unflinching way of talking about household issues.
But obviously, if she is going to second-guess herself over a little word like this, the comparison breaks down in other ways.
I found this post by a self-confessed Asperger’s sufferer really interesting, though I’m not sure I understand it all. Here’s a snip:
I believe it runs in my family somehow, but I got all the negative aspects of it. My oldest brother has an extremely high IQ, my youngest brother has an incredible capacity for creativity. My middle brother has a unique ability to spot anything different that most human eyes overlook. For example, standing in a yard of clover, he will find every 4-leaf clover there is to find in record time. Me? what did I get? The famous autistic traits of inability to connect to others and obsessive compulsive disorder. Break my routine and I throw a fit. Take me to a public place and I spaz out. My family chalked it up to extreme shyness. Some doctors said it was depression or ADD. I’ve even been asked repeatedly if I’ve ever been abused. Even when my elementary school teacher showed concern because I was more involved with organizing the pencils on my desk in a certain order than I was with participating in class, my parents chose to ignore the signs, whether out of fear or ignorance I dont know. Even if they hadn’t ignored the signs, what could they really do? What I do know is that, yes, I love my family very much. However, I do not have a connected feeling with anyone on the planet.
She ends by endorsing a possible cure or therapy for allergy-related autism.
They are encouraging your kids not to eat. There are more than 8,000 YouTube videos telling young girls that skinny is the way to go, and giving them some disturbing role models. Do people really pay attention to these so-called ‘Thinspos’ – short for Thinspiration videos?
The Negative: Every kid is with some passing insane idea is one google click away from a ready-made support group to encourage it.
The Positive: This should be easier for parents to monitor.