Entry 879, on 2008-10-30 at 20:40:29 (Rating 4, Comments)
There were away too many interesting issues around for me to choose just one today, so I present, for your enjoyment and edification, a collection of rants on various topics guaranteed to provoke controversy.
First politics. I read at the Herald web site today that CEOs almost unanimously rate John Key ahead of Helen Clark as the best potential prime minister. Well that eliminates Key as a person worth voting for, because if CEOs like him then he must be bad for the vast majority of us. I guess I'll be looking elsewhere for leadership. According to the survey at pundit.co.nz I should be voting for the Progressives so why not? Seems like a good choice to me. As far as I know, not many CEOs are likely to support that choice so it must be good!
OK, how about religion? The end of the world and the second coming of Jesus (that's doubly amusing because it assumes he was even here the first time, which is very doubtful) seems like an interesting topic. Plus the conclusion I came to yesterday that because skeptics (specifically the Skeptic's Guide podcast but I'll take the liberty of extending that to skeptics in general) don't generally ridicule religious belief much then I should do more of it to make up.
The re-appearance of Jesus is something that many Christians take seriously. I have commented on many occasions that I think there is good evidence to show he never existed the first time but let's let that tiny detail pass for now. So should Jesus come back and when?
There is the famous passage in Matthew 24:34 (its also in Mark 13:30 and Luke 21:32 but not in John... go figure!) which seems to clearly suggest that he would return before the end of the life of those people there at the time. Assuming they were likely to have lived another 50 years that means he's already almost 2000 years overdue. Well he's a busy man (or is he a man, some Christian's think he is and some don't, its so hard to know) so I suppose we should give him a bit of extra time.
There's a character in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who is a great saviour to his followers and who is expected by them to return at any time. The followers are so dedicated that they still haven't given up after billions of years. Maybe Jesus is like that. He might be really testing his followers. Why, I have no idea. In HGG the person returns but just seconds before the Universe was about to end anyway, so his message is lost. I hope Jesus doesn't leave it that long!
I can't complete a rant without briefly dissing Microsoft. I read a bit about the new Windows 7 today and all the signs are that my initial impressions were right: it is just Vista with a few tweaks and other trivial mods to make it look a bit different.
If you want a real laugh have a look at Apple's latest ads (they are on YouTube). One portrays PC with a red "buzzer" button. Every time Mac mentions "Vista" PC presses the buzzer to drown out the word. Microsoft are so embarrassed by their latest creation they don't even want to hear its name (which is why its no longer mentioned in Microsoft ads).
The second ad is even more amusing and to the point. It shows PC sitting at a table and sorting through a big pile of money. He puts a big chunk of it into the advertising pile, then a small part into the "fixing Vista" pile. When Mac asks him if he thinks that small amount is really enough to fix Vista he says something like "you're right" and pushes the whole lot into the advertising pile. Brilliant and so true, although I think the culture of corporate arrogance at Microsoft is their major problem, not lack of money.
Yes, I know, I shouldn't like advertising because its designed to warp our minds and make us do things that we really don't want to, but I really just can't help it. These two are classics. They're best since the PC home movie ad in my opinion (look it up).
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