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"Theodicy" Part 1: Carl's Choice "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."Watch and comment on Part 1. (Part 1 introduces Carl, the main antagonist in the story.) Since the death of his fiancée, Carl has become a drop out, heavy drug user and, most recently, a homeless street performer in Washington, D.C. Recovery seems possible after he saves the life of a congressman's relative and gains access to her wealth, but hidden enemies and his own inner turmoil threaten to drag him to new lows.

Can't resist it - I was raised on American culture and am all the happier for it. It formed me culturally and made me what I am. Since I come into contact with Americans professionally on a frequent basis, it's always a great pleasure to have 'common ground', so to speak. Today I started reading 'Moby-Dick' for the fifth time. And believe me, I do have an exceptional memory. But this book is so rich that you can spend a lifetime with it and still miss out on some things. The pretty pragmatic, relativistic Ishmael embarks on a boat trip...

Below are some of interviews from radio station WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. The talk show host's name is Jim Vicevich, and his show runs from 10 AM until Rush limbaugh. These are from 2 separate interviews.

I'm trying to figure out of the dark figure to the left of the Iranian president is his wife, or one of those "shadow people" that I keep reading about on the paranormal websites......

Hi you music buffs out there - this time I want your views on one of the very greatest and most singular American guitarists. John Fahey. A self-made man if there ever was one, and superbly intelligent and poetic to boot. In the 1960s he started out with a self-financed private pressing LP about a fictitious blues legend, Blind Joe Death. There were 50 or 100 copies extant, depending on whom you consult. Needless to say it's the proverbial collector's item nowadays. Then a stream of great, contemplative, adventurous albums followed, many of them accompanied by fantastic, albeit spurious personal...

Most purists would agree the standards applied to the field of journalism have declined during recent years. From tawdry periodicals to the proliferation of the Internet, the art of the written word has been spread thin. At one time, there were hard and fast rules adhered to by reporters, columnists and authors which gave the practice of journalism continuity. Today, as in other professional and artistic forms, rules no longer seem to matter and with this new paradigm has come a devolution of journalistic standards. A case in point regarding how the lines between journalism and gossip have become blurred...

It is Sunday and I am in the mood to probe the interest at FR for one of America's all time greatest artists and more specifically, classical composers: Charles Ives. I learned about him via composer, lyricist, and Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks (also a true American original). And my love has, since it began in 1990 or thereabouts, never diminished). I have all of his recorded works and would not want to single out one masterpiece, they're all great, with the possible exception of the First Symphony (mainly because there's still too much Schumann and Brahms in there,...

Need photo shop help! I want to take the text off the top of this image and insert: "Today's gas price is brought to you by the democrat party"

For a movie called "The Happening" not much happens. M. Night Shyamalan effectively delivers the usual broody air of foreboding that has been a trademark of his hits ("The Sixth Sense" and "Signs") and misses ("Lady in the Water" and "Unbreakable"). And this fear-mongering story of an airborne toxin that causes victims to snuff themselves in nasty ways shoving hairpins into their throats, hurling themselves en masse off a high rise, the like induces plenty of seat-squirming. The shock value wears off quickly, though, and writer-director Shyamalan strands us (along with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) in an ultimately boring...

I returned from vacation this morning and just had to share this with you guys. The first leg of our trip was a visit to beautiful Savannah, GA. While trying to get my bearings upon our arrival, I made a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood that ... I would not normally visit. However, we spotted this interesting sight and I made it a point to get a shot of it while leaving this area. This is located at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd and Victory. Now, some might simply see this as just...

Naomi Campbell, one of the most famous and beautiful women in the world, and known for her Intemperate behavior, will be immortalized in sculpture. She has been posing for photographer Nick Knight, who is using three-dimensional scanners to create the sculptures...

"JOB INTERVIEWER Now, here's the question you must promise on your life never to repeat to another living soul. RACHAEL Promise. JOB INTERVIEWER What if we asked you to seduce a powerful man to extract valuable information? RACHAEL I laughed to conceal my irritation: Did he really want to make me his undercover call girl? I wanted to complain to a labor lawyer and string his P.R. firm up by the balls, but I knew I lacked the proof and I had promised secrecy on my life twice. JOB INTERVIEWER Don't misunderstand me. I'm not asking you to have sex...

The afterglow didn’t last long, however. The proverbial ‘red flags’ soon began to appear. The volume of complaints from authors steadily grew; the production backlog became the elephant in the room, and uncertainty over company funds became fodder for water cooler chat. Then on August 31, 1997, an event occurred that signaled the beginning of the end.....

With a white mop of hair, crisp button-down shirt and tie, fake eyelashes aside, Marc Jacobs is transformed into fabled pop art Andy Warhol in Interview magazine’s June-July double issue.

Fiction (short film) Detective Milton Comeaux investigates a double murder involving an academy award winning actor. Please rate and comment. Has anyone here ever heard of LisaNova?

I've been watching Lost In Space reruns over at hulu.com recently, and it's been quite an enjoyable time. In fact, in many ways I enjoy the show now more than I did as a child, which was a lot. A a child, I loved watching the original Star Trek, of course — and I still do — but I have to admit that in my early childhood I found a great deal of it to be baffling and or slightly scary. Lost In Space, however, was my favorite — the show I'd fight my little brother to see. It was...

Horror novelist Stephen King talking to High School students had this to say about literacy: "The fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got, the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's not as bright." Now literacy is critically important and I applaud efforts to get people to read. But it’s the example he uses that is offensive. He assumes that people who go into the military do so because they have no other choices and because they are illiterate. This is clearly not true. If...

Well, actually, maybe it would’ve been an “important” endorsement 25 years ago? This is video of James Duke Mason, son of 1980’s pop sensation Belinda Carlisle and former Reagan administration official Morgan Mason (who is the son of legendary actor James Mason) — telling the world that his Mom Belinda is endorsing Hillary Clinton! Heaven IS a Place on Earth, Hillary!

You can't replace Pookie's Toons, but here's a collection of some of my own recent ONLINE COPYRIGHT FREE cartoons and paintings. Enjoy: my cartoon is way too inappropriate to ever see syndication. I've pretty much become Catholic oriented and non-partisan now, although I turn out enough conservative-friendly stuff to put together a thread here every month or so. Again, you can't replace Today's Toons, but it's something. Revision of a cartoon from 2005, in response to the recent story about Planned Parenthood clinics saying they accept race-targeted abortion donations. My 'Memories Of Barack Obama's Breakfast' oil painting, which made the...

Watch this amazing video of an elephant painting a portrait of another elephant. This is the most amazing thing I have seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE This may cause humans to reevaluate the way we view other species.....!!

http://cubo.cc/

McCain and Soros plotting against Iran in a 3D animated movie produced by the Iranian intelligence services.

Iranian-born Ehsan Jami, former Labour Party politician and founder of the Committee of ex-Muslims, has announced he will publish an Islam-critic cartoon movie called "The Life of Muhammad". Ehsan Jami decided to reject Islam after the 9/11 terror attacks. Since then he has defended the right of religious freedom, with the usual consequences: Ehsan Jami, the committee’s founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack. The threats are taken...

HBO's Crabby Abby "..My Wife who had always encouraged and animated me, in all antecedent dangers and perplexities, did not fail me on this Occasion..." -- John Adams, Autobiography, on the news of his leaving for France. Memo to Laura Linney, HBO: Abigail Adams was smart, well-read, loving, devout, and certainly forthright. She was not, however, a peevish, brooding feminist bore. America's Second First Lady, at the outset, is quite capable of speaking for herself; you can read everything she ever wrote here, but somehow you get the feeling Ms. Linney's shooting schedule didn't allow for a reading light in...

Livejournal is making some much needed updates to their policies and they put them up for public comment. Check it out.. or better yet, take a look at the commentary. It seems to delve more into "how much can I get away with before it is child porn" than anything intelligent.

Grand Haven at night

Thanks Doug for the great Image. I asked the Freepers for help and it took about 2 hours to get what I needed. You guys rock or as they say in China "Lock." Please come on over to the site and see the new logo.

I am a horrible artist. I was wondering if anyone out there would be willing to try and make a cute little logo for my wife and I. It will be for the blog and I can not pay you. VERY VERY difficult to send RMB to the U.S. However, I would sing your praises. Looking for something with a cute little white devil and a cute little red angel. If anyone can help please let me know

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I can't believe it's been a quarter of a century. Twenty-five years ago today, February 4, 1983, we were jolted by very sad news: Karen Carpenter, one of the great voices of a generation, had died at 32. She had anorexia, perhaps stemming in part from a review of a performance of The Carpenters, the band she and her brother Richard led, at the Hollywood Bowl in which she was described as "the chubby little sister." Karen Carpenter touched many lives with her haunting vocals. Her voice has been compared to some of the great singers. Those who have never...

I have posted 250 video recipes by a lot of great chefs here in Las Vegas, they are free to enjoy, so get cooking Freepers!

There's a video making the rounds that everyone should see. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it already, but some of you may not have and it really is a well-written rocking song. Its on my blog, it's on the UCV blog, CathouseChat has it on hers.

The Daily BIKINI Start Page Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 - Home Page - More Daily Pages - Thanks for using my site. Bruce

A quest to discover the forgotten churches of Russia's rural heartlands takes Robin Stummer to a place where time flows backwards Mist and vodka - not bad travelling companions for a journey into a slice of rural Russia that isn't so much frozen in time, as sucked back into it. That this haunted, haunting flat expanse of forest, wetlands and meadow is only a few hours from the flash-cash mayhem of 21st-century Moscow merely adds to the unreality. Soviet and imperial bureaucrats alike failed to name this distinctive region, organised tourism never really arrived, road signs were, and are, virtually...

Hillary Clinton should take notes from Mr. Fred Thompson here on how to answer tough questions. One admirable trait of Fred’s is that he has never pretended to be on both sides of any issue during this election. He has always claimed a federalist view on social issues, and he’s been consistent. I am one of the most social conservative bloggers around, and I agree that most of the solution is with the people. I agree that these decisions should be made by the families and the State representing the views of its majority. Most likely, the only way abortion...

J. B. Spins sends a review of "Celia: The life of Cuban refugee Celia Cruz." J.B. adds, "If you're in New York, I can recommend the Celia Cruz musical now playing Off-Broadway. It does not sugar coat her feelings for the Castro regime at all, and their renditions of her music is definitely spirited." To its credit, Celia the musical deals with the realities of the Castro regime and Cruz’s resulting exile directly and forthrightly. The book by Carmen Rivera & Candido Tirado makes it clear there would be no artistic freedom in Cuba after 1959. We see the corruption...

Katie Couric To Report From Iraq NEW YORK (AP) - Katie Couric plans to leave Wednesday for an ambitious reporting trip to Iraq —the CBS anchor's first time in the war zone—in anticipation of a crucial military report on progress of the American effort. Since Couric took over the anchor position at CBS Evening News, ratings have plummeted, leading to speculation she would be fired but for her long-term contract. "I'm not going anywhere, I don't care what the ratings do," the spunky Couric remarked when recently questioned about the newscast's rocket-sled ride to ratings Hell. Reportedly, CBS is sending...

SAN DIEGO — Painter Odile Crick, whose most famous drawing was a graceful sketch of the double-helix structure of DNA, has died. Crick died July 5 at her home in La Jolla, said her stepson, Michael Crick. She was 86 and had cancer. Crick's illustration of the double helix appeared in a seminal paper by her husband, Francis Crick, and James Watson in an April 1953 issue of the journal Nature.

A rant or two about current events. How about those Clintons complaining about presidential pardons? Nerve? Audacity? Chutzpah? I'm sick of all this "save the earth" nonsense and I've got stories from the 60's plus sensible ways to protect our precious environment without need of rock bands or Madonna. Finally, a review of my new VuPoint camera and some video of Kaitlyn Mae laffing and with an ugly face.

A few days ago, I suggested that misfits (meaning clever, unfocussed people who don't find a secure place in society) often develop into pretend entrepreneurs in the U.S., and cited a few examples of people I know in this "line of work." Now to the European version, the unemployed intellectual. Where do they come from? Here's my theory. You're a young Frenchman, somewhat like Mr. Dhelft, who we met a few days ago. You dawdle leisurely through university, studying whatever catches your fancy: art history, Chinese calligraphy, recorder, or (as Mr. Dhelft, and thousands like him, did) sociology. There's no...

New Kodak camera technology could make dark, blurry photos as thing of the past Eastman Kodak Company today announced what it considers a “groundbreaking advancement” in image sensor technology that will help reduce the accidental taking of dark and blurry digital photos. Kodak claims its new sensor technology provides a two- to four-fold increase in sensitivity to light (from one to two photographic stops) compared to current sensor designs. “This represents a new generation of image sensor technology and addresses one of the great challenges facing our industry – how to capture crisp, clear digital images in a poorly lit...

Incredible. A humble quiet phone salesman takes the stage at “Britain’s got Talent” and announces he wants to sing opera. The judges look skeptical to put it mildly. Then he sings

One of the differences between Michael Moore's forthcoming "SiCKO" and his previous films, he writes in the publicity materials, is that "there's not one character or company to hate in SiCKO," which I caught at a screening yesterday. And indeed, most of the politicians appear as anonymous figures in suits, with price tags indicating their contributions from the drug industry. Billy Tauzin, predictably, takes a bit of a beating. And so, less predictably, does Hillary Clinton. Moore's brief political history of American health care policy at first seems to lavish praise on Clinton, if with a satirical, and gendered, edge....

Proving once again that there's nothing new under the Sun, the Metropolitan Opera wound down its 2006/2007 season with a spectacular production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Orpheus myth, here's a quick synopsis: Orfeo is mourning the death of his young wife, Euridice. But he sends everyone away because his grief is so overwhelming even their sincere and heartfelt support sinks him deeper into despair. Then along comes Cupid, yeah Cupid, suspended from a wire no less, who tells him that all he has to do is follow his...

Over the weekend, I logged onto one of my favorite websites, Go Fug Yourself, to get their take on the most important celebutante-related gossip of the weekend: Paris Hilton being sentenced to 45 days in jail. Sure enough, their top post began with the following: "Karma is a bitch. And so is Paris Hilton." Oh, Paris. We all love to hate you. Every article about you is usually run with a caveat about how you're famous for nothing, how you're an example of everything that's wrong with America today, and how if we just stopped paying attention, you'd slink away...

The fabulous Stevie Nicks paid another visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. on Monday. The Fleetwood Mac legend spent time with wounded soldiers and gave them iPods. Rock on!

Someone sent these pics to me in an e-mail.. I don't know where they originated to give credit if anyone knows please let me know... enjoy !!

This is an extraordinarily well made movie about United 93 ..and the incredible heroes, who prevented even worse loss and destruction on that horrible day. HBO

I have been reading up on Vincent Van Gogh to prepare to give a short Art Literacy lesson at my children's school. I will read from a script, but I do a better job if I have read more than the script, beforehand. The constructivist ethos of our Art Literacy program is to give children as much freedom as possible in achieving the production goal that follows each lesson. In this case, the goal for each child will be to paint a sunflower and show its texture by using specially thickened paint and a palette knife. Vincent used a lot...

My video tribute to America, coming from an European. God bless you all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-w116jnL7Y