Currently Watching Tears of the Sun (Special Edition) By Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser, Eamonn Walker, Johnny Messner see related

A Closer Look at the Statistics

If you've ever been to a Baptist church, you've heard the preacher say something like this:

"A recent poll found that 50% of marriages fail today, and that statistic is slightly higher among Christians. Shame on you guys! We who know divorce is wrong do it more than the pagans. Why aren't you working harder to make your marriages work?"

It took me a while to realize this, but that is not the correct way to interpret that stat.

50% of marriages fail, and, say, 55% of Christian marriages fail. That means that, on the whole, Christians are 5% worse at marriage than unbelievers. Where the pastor goes wrong is by assuming that the reason Christian marriages are failing is because people aren't doing it right, that they aren't following the rules, that they are, in essence, not being Christian in the way they pursue relationships.  There is no evidence of that.

When you take two groups and compare them without any further analysis, you have to assume that they are both characteristic of whatever category you have lumped them into. In other words, if you call a group "Christian," you are saying that they act like Christians. Otherwise calling them Christian would be a misnomer, and your statistics would be inaccurate. So if the pastor is just talking about lapsed Christians, he's not really talking about Christians. He's saying that unbelievers and people who act like them fail at keeping their marriages intact.

If he's talking about real Christians, it gets a lot more interesting. Because now he's saying that Christians who follow the rules divorce as much as pagans who don't follow any rules (although "pagan" is overbroad and, in the pastor's eyes, probably means everybody who's not a Christian, from atheists to Muslims). Which means that consistent Christians who marry fail to stay married more often than the rest of the world.

The statistics seem to be saying that the Christian way doesn't guarantee a successful marriage any more than the "worldly" way does. In fact, the worldly way seems to be working a little better.

Just looking at the blind stats, we have no room to brag.

Blockheadedness in Baseball Reporting

During the broadcast of Game 1 of the World Series on FOX, esteemed baseball commentator Joe Buck was heard to remark:

"The Rockies had to beat the Cubs and the Diamondbacks to advance to the World Series.  The Cubs were overrated and the Diamondbacks were not a good team."

The effing nerve.

First of all, the Rockies never played the Cubs this postseason.  They played the Phillies.  Joe Buck, you're a dumbass.

The Diamondbacks, however, did play the Cubs.  More specifically, they swept them in three games and outscored them 16-6.  Yes, after that the Diamondbacks did in turn get swept by the Rockies.  But that was in the NLCS.  In other words, by the time somebody shut down the D-backs, they were already one of the top four teams in baseball.  Out of thirty.

And shall we talk about the regular season?  The one where the Diamondbacks posted the best record in the National League?  Where they were led by the 2007 NL Manager of the Year?  Where they sent three players to the All-Star Game?  Yeah, let's talk.  The only difference between the Diamondbacks and the Rockies in 2007 was that the Diamondbacks didn't win 20 of their 90 wins in the months of September and October.  They were actually in contention the entire season.

In short, unless FOX intends to be completely laughed outta western civilization, they better get some commentators who know what the F they're talking about.

Joe Buck, go to hell.

Currently Listening Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 By Van Halen see related

Fame and Fortune Await

OK, I get it people.  You can't become a featured blog unless you write something about love, romance, dating, happiness, bunnies, and rainbows.  We can work with this.

So, in honor of Xanga and its insistence on bringing out the Dr. Phil in everybody, I present, no diagrams, no whaddya-think postmodern lovefests, but 2 cents worth of total BS.  It'll never work.

Token Post on Love

by Jeremy Croft

(written, of course, in a manly style.  Which is to say, outlined.)

1. I'm a guy.  I like girls.  They're beautiful, and pretty, and they have nice breath.

2. I want a girl.  Sometime.  It's not like I'll die if I don't get one now, but I'm enough of a man to admit that a girl would make me happy.

3. This is how I intend to get a girl.  I'm going to look around, find one I like, and ask her out.  If she says yes, I'm going to treat her like a queen and buy things for her and hold her while we watch sunsets.  If she says no, I'm going to give her some time and then ask again and if she still says no, I'm going to find another girl.

4. When I find a girl who I really like and who really likes me, I'm going to marry her and live with her until I die.

Wow.  The crazy ideas I come up with.

Currently Listening No Shoes No Shirt No Problems (Bonus Track) By Kenny Chesney see related

Why Man Law Sucks

I have come to the conclusion that Man Law sucks.  It took me a while to get this, as I used to be a wholehearted proponent of the concept.  However, Man Law is illegitimate, a bastard creation of insecure males.  In order to prove this, I will go Nietzschean.  Bear with me.

Man Law is the creation of a slave class, just like Christianity according to Nietzsche (which, I contend, is not real Christianity, but that is another question).  It was created by those who are slaves to their passions: their desire for drink, sex, violence, and stupidity.  In order to triumph over those who have learned to control their passions, who are in subjection to the true law, and who are thus free, successful, and true men, they have invented an artificial law that justifies them, by which they call good evil and evil good.  Thus, they have formed a bond that originates from their common love of vice.  From the false shelter of this fold, they attempt to dissuade the true men from their responsible and balanced course by means of peer pressure.  They try to stop righteous behavior because it reproaches their unrighteous behavior.  They are insecure, but there is security in numbers of insecure people.

I marvel that I did not get this sooner, but then again, I am a man.  My breaches of common sense and common decency in the name of Man Law are too numerous to count.  I have been incredibly stupid.

I no longer pledge allegiance to Man Law.  Instead, my convictions and principles rest on Christ and the true law of the natural order, which are his dictates and the realities of what we humans have taken to calling "natural law."  Man Law enshrines selfishness as proper behavior, when it actually makes us reprehensible, disgusting creatures that repel women and children, the very people whom God has created with a desire for real men in their lives.  If we are failing, insulting, and disgusting the people who need us most, we are nothing but selfish beasts who glory in depravity.

Currently Listening Rumor Has It By Reba McEntire Fancy see related

So...

...who are we really?  Are we the people we appear to be when we have accustomed ourselves to the demands of life at Patrick Henry College, walking around with only a tacit nod for everybody we pass because we have priorities and socialization is NOT one of them, being a good kid (at least publicly) so we don't undermine the authority of the administrators (although we fail to understand how they acquired their petty little aura of greatness, as well as why it somehow, maddeningly, gets inside our heads)?

Or are we really the people that come out when the last final ends and, suddenly, we are simply people again?  No more brain trust, no more spiritual community, no more need to prop up the system, just friends living their lives.  What we do when we truly have a choice: this shows who we really are.  We can fall into an operational groove, do what's necessary, but when we settle down and do what we feel like because, for once, we actually can, something happens.

Conversely, how much time in life will actually be spent this way?  When will we not have responsibilities, priorities, adjustments to make, tongues to bite for the greater good, etc?  Integrating the two is daunting; I had a hell of a time of it all year, and now that it's all over, it seems that the sun has come out again; I am now basking in the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's a great feeling, especially since I kept telling myself all year that life would stabilize after PHC and not to freak out or let it get inside my head, even if I felt like I was failing, and now I feel tremendously vindicated cuz it worked.  I think; it just has to keep working.

Essentially, life is good right now.  Really good.