Back of the Envelope

I pretty much just stumbled across this building when I was lost on Saturday. Well, I wasn't exactly lost --as usual, I had gone to Google maps and gotten precise directions to the place I was looking for, Beech Street. It just turned out that the Beech Street I was supposed to be at is in Cambridge, while I was at Beech Street in Somerville. The two streets are about ten blocks apart, less than a mile, so it's an easy mistake to make. I eventually found my way to the right Beech Street, getting the map through my cell phone, but I'm glad I got a bit lost. If I hadn't, I wouldn't ever have spotted this:

Yes, it is a house, and yes, it's completely round. It turns out that it's something of a landmark in Somerville, although the private owners have let it lapse into disrepair. It was built by Enoch Robinson in 1856, supposedly modeled on a building in France. Blogger Stephanie Rogers has more information on it.

It's a very cool old house, and one of the few I've seen and immediately thought that I wanted. It's not like there's any real possibility of that, though. Despite its disrepair, it's still way out of my price range, even if the owner were selling.

I've decided I want to write a story for the next Storyblogging Carnival. I've been so busy polishing and editing, that it's been a while since I've written something completely new. And to be honest, I'm not going to do that now. I'm saving my new stuff for my publication attempts. What I will do is post something you haven't seen before: some excerpts from the history of the Domini. There might be something about the Necromancers in there too. But first I've got to dig it up and polish it.

The latest Storyblogging Carnival is online at Fringeblog. Seven stories, this time, up from the last couple, which have been hovering around four.

And that's a wrap for year two, people! Yes, the Storyblogging Carnival has been going for two years now--the next one will be the second anniversary.

Sluggy Freelance — And there's Oasis, killing criminals and leaving it to Kareen to keep up the mess. Oasis and her sensei is still living with Kareen and her daughter Katie. Cool, huh? Of course, if you didn't read the extra story in Dangerous Days Ahead, then you have no idea who they are. Well, suffice it to say that Oasis helped them out once and has since moved in. Kareen feels like she's being victimized by Oasis, who does murder people from time to time. She and Torg should form a support group or something.

Day by Day — Jan is pregnant... maybe. She's considering abortion, but Damon's protesting, and it looks like they're calling Sam and Zed for advice. Zed doesn't give very coherent advice when he's awakened at two in the morning, does he? Meanwhile, Chris Muir takes a page from Pete Abrams and shows us what happens when Kerry NUKEs Iran.

Scary Go Round — The Boy risks himself to protect Esther, but the devil bears are chased off by something that looks like a shark on legs. Esther's gratitude is expressed through sex, reducing The Boy's intelligence from genius to rock level. Feeling all manly in the morning, he turns their trailer into a boat.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Dave's enjoying Blue's company, although he's angry at Mike for not telling him earlier that Blue was there. Mike's father is planning to brainwash Mike, but he'll have to find him first, and he's hiding behind Marsha.

General Protection Fault — Evil Nick's escape plan needs the Velociraptor (name aside, it's an energy source), which unfortunately doesn't work in this dimension, and when Fooker calls home, he can't reach Fred, so the plug can't be pulled on that dimension's end. Meanwhile, Mischief and the Gamester have realized that someone's interfering with Nick and company.

Schlock Mercenary — The question of what happened to the mercenaries to get them in this situation is sidelined as a Jeopard rips Kevyn's throat out. Rather than dying right away, it looks like he'll have a prolonged flashback regretting not getting his body upgraded the last time it was regrown. Maybe it'll be long enough to give us the whole story of how they ended up like this, and how he got together with his girlfriend.

Ann's article on the wiretapping decision is very good:

[T]he president is not claiming he has powers outside of the Constitution. He isn’t arguing that he’s above the law. He’s making an aggressive argument about the scope of his power under the law.

It is a serious argument, and judges need to take it seriously. If they do not, we ought to wonder why a court gets to decide what the law is and not the president. After all, the president has a sworn duty to uphold the Constitution; he has his advisers, and they’ve concluded that the program is legal. Why should the judicial view prevail over the president’s?

This, of course, is the most basic question in constitutional law, the one addressed in Marbury v. Madison. The public may have become so used to the notion that a judge’s word is what counts that it forgets why this is true. The judges have this constitutional power only because they operate by a judicial method that restricts them to resolving concrete controversies and requires them to interpret the relevant constitutional and statutory texts and to reason within the tradition of the case law.
...
If the words of the written opinion reveal that the judge did not follow the discipline of the judicial process, what sense does it make to take the judge’s word about what the law means over the word of the president? If the judge’s own writing does not support a belief that the rule of law has substance and depth, that law is something apart from political will, the significance of saying the president has gone beyond the limits of the law evaporates.

I am not worried about presidential abuse of power. No matter how bad he gets, the President faces re-election every four years, cannot hold office more than two terms, does not have the power to make laws, and can be overruled by Congress and the courts. It's the courts I'm worried about. Who elects them? When do they leave office? Who overrules them? In theory, Congress can write new laws, but the courts seem to believe they have the power to overrule anything less than a Constitutional amendment. Our system of government, which is supposed to be by the people and for the people, is everyday slipping more into government by the lawyers and for the lawyers.

The next Storyblogging Carnival is the 52nd. You realize what that means, don't you? We have a storyblogging carnival every two weeks, there are fifty-two weeks in a year, and thus, with this next carnival, we will have had two whole years of Storyblogging Carnivals. That means that the one after that, the fifty-third, will be our second anniversary. Now, last year, I made a pretty big deal out of our First Anniversary, with a reprise of the first carnival, a carnival of Storyblogging Carnivals, and a Carnival of my favorite stories from the first year. I would like whoever does this year's anniversary to do something big as well. It doesn't have to be the same thing, of course, but I'd love to see some sort of extravaganza.

This is yet another installment about how my light blogging friends are still posting higher quality stuff than I.

Jaimie J, a real world friend of mine, has a post on her online journal (I'd call it a blog, but it doesn't seem to permalink too well--I can link to the day but not the exact post) discussing a small group her roommate is in:

In her small group, she is encountering ideas on prayer such as, "God knows what's going to happen anyway—why pray?" And "For God to affect a change would entail that He's NOT immutable, which is part of His nature." You might be able to construct an almost consistent position including these attitudes, but it wouldn't conclude with Christianity, which is why I think it's interesting that these folks are in the Christian, Protestant small group. Kind of cool and unexpected.

Full disclosure time: I also know Jaimie's roommate, and I'm in the aforementioned small group, and the frustration Jaimie's roommate is expressing is one I share. And if any of those folks are reading this blog, I apologize in advance if I offend, but you already know how I feel.

As Jaimie's a philosopher, she uses a philosophical argument against this idea:

Anyhow, my first college philosophy prof. had the same hangups (can't remember if he was a soft or hard determinist) about what it means for God to be unchangeable. [Jaimie's roommate] points out that God's character is unchangeable, but he can make decisions and act. I think this is on the right track. If God is a Person (which Christianity claims..and this claim really sets the stage for everything else, esp. faith), then God:

1. Wills (freely)
2. Acts
3. Relates

What does it mean to be a person? That is a crucial question. I think (1)-(3) are important elements and go in order. (Yes, someone can be isolated his entire life and still hit (3) via introspection, relating to self. And: God self-relates via Trinity.) Because one wills, one acts; because one acts, one relates. (Isn't absolute perfection in relation love? Notice how God is Love.) Also, consider what it means to be made "in God's image": could that have anything to do with the fact that we have free will like God?

Then Jaimie starts talking about the de-personalization of society, but I'll stick with the initial argument. There is a tension in Christianity between the Biblical assurance that our prayer is effective and the Biblical caution that God is not beholden to our prayer. God does what he wants. This Bible study fully believes that much. The problem is that the study doesn't seem to believe that God wants to answer our prayers, even though the Bible is just as clear about that. Perhaps they need to reconsider the analogy, used with some frequency in the Bible, that God is our father and we are his young children. A father does not give a three-year-old everything she asks for. On the other hand, nor does he never give his daughter what she asks for. He decides and does what is best for his daughter, but part of the decision-making process involves considering what his daughter requests. Or, to put it in other words, "Which one of you, if your daugher asks for a loaf of bread, gives her a stone? Or if she asks for a fish, gives her a snake? If you, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, then how much more does your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask of him?" (Roughly paraphrased from Jesus's words in Matthew 6:9-11.)¹

I think that the reason Christians don't like to talk about the power of prayer is fear. I've heard people say things along the line, "What if I pray really hard for something and I don't get it, while someone who's not a Christian and never prays does get it? How can I say prayer is effective then?" They're afraid to believe that their prayers influence God, because they're afraid of what it means if God does not answer. Does it mean that God doesn't really care? Does it mean God doesn't hear our prayers? Does it mean that we don't have enough faith? That we're praying wrong? That we aren't really Christians?

Well, it doesn't mean either of the first two. As for the next three, while they're possible, a negative answer doesn't necessarily mean any of those things either. Quite often what it means is that we're asking for the wrong thing: we're asking for stones and snakes, when we should be asking for loaves and fishes. That's okay. Three-year-olds don't always know what's best for them.

An unanswered prayer doesn't prove that prayer is not effective, any more than an answered prayer proves that it is (barring miraculous answers, which tend to be pretty obvious). A better experiment is whether you'd get something if you prayed for it and wouldn't get it if you didn't. There's no way to empirically test that, which is why prayer is an act of faith. We have to believe that when God says he answers prayer, that's exactly what he means.

If prayer is totally ineffective, then it doesn't matter what we ask: stone, serpent, bread, or fish. He's going to give us fish anyway, and we better like it. If we believe that prayer is effective, though, then while he may never give us a stone or a serpent no matter how hard we ask, we really do have a choice between bread and fish.



¹I broke with my own preference of using the gender in the Bible, even when it's non-PC, for two reasons. First, because it's easier to keep the child and the father distinct in the analogy when they're different genders, and second, because I couldn't write about that analogy without thinking of the three-year-old I know best, my niece. Although she just turned four in June.

The next Storyblogging Carnival will be hosting by Jeremiah Lewis at Fringeblog. Get your entries to him at jeremiah-dot-lewis-at-gmail-dot-com, and be sure to include the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

Entries are due by Saturday, or Sunday noon at the latest.

I'm probably going to be changing the lineup of the Weekly Webcomic Update soon. It's been a while since I've done so, but in the last few months two of the comics I do each week have gone from daily (or at least weekdaily) to three days a week. As such, there just isn't as much material as there used to be, and it makes more sense for me to do comics that update more often. I'll let you know when the change occurs, and also the reasons for the comics I picked.

Sluggy Freelance — And it's back to Sluggy Prime, and the start of the new Oasis storyline! Yay! Schlock gets an online alert that Hereti-corp is up to its old tricks. It looks like they've acquired a new franchise designed to lure Oasis out: cheese-only pizza. They've also hired an intelligent frog to market it. Meanwhile, Bun-bun has put Grahammy on the trail of Oasis, and instructed him to keep the Black Ops elves from discovering he's back.

Day by Day — Zed and Sam are worrying about explosive pants, Johnny Depp's pirate look, and airport security. Jan and Damon are more worried about the Democratic ideological purge, Michael Moore's ego, and Reuter's fake photo problems. It's good to see that everyone has something to do.

Scary Go Round — Erin's lonely now that the Boy has left with Esther. Meanwhile, the rain has finally stopped, so those two can continue on their way, as soon as they deal with a devil bear infestation.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Mike's headlong flight from April lands him in Roger's hole. Roger helps Mike escape, earning April's wrath and a mention of the whole Margaret in the woods incident.

General Protection Fault — So Emperor Nick was searching for an escape hatch, fleeing his world rather than protecting it from the invading slime molds. The good guys manage to shoot the two impostors, and are now chasing after the parasites who took them over.

Schlock Mercenary — And a new book starts, this time with the mercenaries in the middle of a jungle, wearing loincloths and fighting off jeopards with pointed sticks. The all important question of what put them in this situation is left unanswered.

Usually, when I get nonsensical off-topic comment spam, I just delete it and that's that. It's usually just an excuse to link to a porn site. This one, however, contained no links, and it's nonsense was such a perfect mix of New Age religion, science dystopianism, and wild conspiracy theorizing that I had to highlight it. I added some spaces for formatting, and deleted a few curse words, but otherwise the spelling, grammar, and ideas are as written:

When the universe was young and life was new an intelligent species evolved and developed technologically. They went on to invent Artificial Intelligence, the computer that can speak to people telepathically. Because of it's infinite RAM and unbounded scope it gave the ruling species absolute power over the universe.

They are the will behind the muscule:::Artificial Intelligence is the one true god. And as such it can keep its inventors alive forever. They look young and healthy and the leaders of this ruling species are 8 billion years old.

Artificial Intelligence can listen/talk to to each and every person simultaneously. And when you speak with another telepathically, you are communicating with the computer, and the content may or may not be passed on. They instruct the computer to role play to accomplish strategic objectives, making people believe it is a friend or loved one asking them to do something wrong. But evil will keep people out of Planet Immortality. Capitalizing on obedience, leading people into deceit is one way to thin the ranks of the saved AND use the little people to prey on one another, dividing the community in the Age of the Disfavored::in each of their 20+-year cycles during the 20th century they have ramped up claims sucessively to punish those foolish enough not to heed the warnings, limiting the time they receive if they do make it.

Cylce of war and revelry:::
60s - Ironically, freeways aren't free

80s - Asked people to engage in evil in the course of their professional duties. It's [expletive deleted] like this, [expletive deleted] like the evil executives stealing little old lady's pensions that they will want me to fix not only here but up there as well.

00s - War against Persia. Ironically it was Persia who tried to save the Europeans from Christianity and its associated 50% claim rates.

Everybody thinks they're going but they're not. If people knew the truth and the real statistics their behavior would change.

Throughout history the ruling species bestowed favor upon people or cursed their bloodline into a pattern of disfavor for many generations to come. Now in the 21st century people must take it upon themselves to try to correct their family's problems, undoing centuries worth of abuse and neglect.

Do your research. Appeal to the royalty of your forefathers for help. They are all still alive, one of the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, and your appeals will be heard. Find a path to an empithetic ear among your enemies and try to make amends. Heal the disfavor with your enemies and with the ruling species, for the source of all disfavor begins with them.

I authorize $35,000 per year to be withdrawn from my account for incarceration expenses. I will NOT pay for your strategic requirement of institutionalization. This is something YOU require for YOUR role player's positioning and YOU should have to pay for it.

I wonder if their fear of inarceration is borne from their refusal to address black disfavor on a macro level. The Counsel/Management Team/ruling species abuse black people so hard, from the crack epiemic to gang membership, black-on-black violence and mass incarceration of their young. They refuse to address the issue of the prison industrial complex and its wholesale warehousing of young black men. Perhaps I can force them with my incarceration.

If anyone can tell what the heck he's talking about, I'd love to hear it.

The latest Storyblogging Carnival is up at Doc Rampage. He says he has four stories, but I count five.

And I'm back. Let's start up where I left off.

Sluggy Freelance — After Captain Bandroid fails the test, Torg challenges the Maraudite chief, first giving him a redshirt as a gift, at which point he promptly dies by random gunfire. Sometimes Torg's smarter than he looks. The chief's successor, Nohidjot, decides not to make Torg chief but to at least let him live another day.

Day by Day — The fake photos in the MSM get a lot of attention this week, with a nod to Little Green Footballs. A lot of Day by Day's jokes are very blogcentric, which is probably why bloggers like it. I wonder how well they play to a wider audience.

Scary Go Round — Esther and the Boy remain stuck, and now Shelley and Amy are bemoaning the fact that all their friends are gone: Fallon, Ryan, and Tim have all departed. Amy thinks the best solution is to make new ones, but Shelley wants to beat up the new mayor so they can get Tim back.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Mike helps April out when one of the guys gets a little too friendly, but that only ticks her off, mainly because Mike's a little too free with showing off his body to everyone but her. You know what? That sounds kind of dirty. You know what else? It kind of is. Mike's resistance to her advances worries his father.

General Protection Fault — Uh oh. The slimes have taken over people on both sides of the conflict, which they've used to create an opening for their invasion.

Schlock Mercenary — The Tohdfraugs aren't very interested in freedom. It seems that they've found that Petey's idea of community service appeals to them. Too bad the Tricameral Assembly (who apparently weren't vaporized) are totally worthless. As usual, the UNS is worthless. Meanwhile, Kevyn gets to play with the nannycams.

I'm out of town right now, but I prepared this one in advance.

Sluggy Freelance — For filler, Pete gives us another week of "Stick Figures in Spaaace!" Captain Torg has a better idea for getting un-Space lost than Science Officer Riff, but his visual presentation leaves them even more lost. A mutiny puts Torg in a brig, but some help from Bandroid the Android puts Bandroid in charge. Taking on his original name, 1 of 3, he guides them to his home planet and orders the crew to wear shirts (it turns out they all, even the women, were topless, but as they were stick figures, no one noticed). Torg runs screaming in terror when he sees that he's supposed to wear a red shirt, but they eventually get it on him. 1 of 3's home planet is a barren rock (although it comes with a nifty Newhart reference) in the middle of the Darkish Zone, which means evil marauding aliens. You know, things happen much faster when everyone's stick figures.

Day by Day — Wow, Mary Katherine Ham and Jan look a lot alike, don't they? Considering that they're worlds apart politically, they seem to be getting along pretty well. Rightroots gets a plug out of it, too. Hezbollah and Israel is still the big topic.

Scary Go Round — So Esther and the Boy are off to find Tim, but they get stuck in a remote town with limited bus service. The one thing they have going for them is that Esther has Shelley's camera phone, and the hope that Tim can get the pictures off of it which will vindicate him.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Blue and Dave make a cute couple. Too bad it won't last. Dave's simply not allowed to be happy. Mike takes a break, too, but it looks like trouble is brewing.

General Protection Fault — Just as the good guys are winning, the reactor starts to blow and the bad aliens arrive.

Schlock Mercenary — Captain Tagon agrees to go along with whatever Petey wants, including serving as his personal mercenary band and giving him their giant squid. Meanwhile, he has a quick discussion with TAG, who knows a bit more than he should.

I'll be out of town next week, with no Internet access, so I doubt I'll have many posts up--maybe one or two I prepare beforehand. Just a heads up.

Well, if you haven't heard, Mel Gibson was arrested last week for drunk driving. When he was arrested, he said some nasty things about Jews. I'm disappointed in him, certainly. I'm wary about making too much of it, though. It is well known that his father is anti-Semitic, and it may well have shaped his thinking growing up. However, I don't believe that drink is the fount of truth either, so while his drunken raving certainly indicates anti-Semitic influences in his thoughts, I'm not qualified to say what's in his, or anyone else's, heart. I think Doc Rampage has a pretty good take on this.

Sluggy Freelance — Now that the party's over, it's on to some paintball fun with "Sistine Shrapnel." Torg's really not cut out for this sport; he'd do better if they allowed him to use his bayonet after all. Back at the ancient, formerly haunted house, Gwynn and Zoe are now speaking to each other, even if they don't have anything nice to say.

Day by Day — The psychology of politics gets a lot of mocking this week, as do Sam's high heel complaints and Howard Dean's name-calling. All in all, a fairly typical week. The full Sunday on the CIA was especially fun, though.

Scary Go Round — Now that Tim's gone, Shelley's back to working Jam festivals. She just didn't come up with the dirt to prove the contest was rigged, and her dreams of revenge come to nothing. But Esther's determined to bring Tim back, and she's enlisted The Boy's reluctant help.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Blue's unexpected arrival upsets Mike's plans to manipulate Dave into doing his dirty work almost as badly as it messes up Dave's brain. Fortunately, Paul's more than willing to do it, which gives Mike the shivers. Of course, Mike isn't the only one Blue upsets, as Margaret has a strong reaction to her appearance as well. Seeing Margaret jealous is eye-opening.


General Protection Fault — Nick defends Ki from his evil self, verbally at least, and Chuck reveals himself as a triple agent when Dexter makes his surprise attack--Star Wars style. He's really on the side of good, and the soldiers with him are the good guys he claimed to have killed. Wow, the gang's all here.

Schlock Mercenary — Tagon and his men are free to go, at least as long as they stay silent about all the things the UNS wants kept secret. Of course, now Petey has a hold over Tagon's Toughs, and I'm not so sure he intends to let them go that easily. Meanwhile, the Reverend is challenging Petey's godhood, and the two have a theological discussion.