Happiness For Blessing

Christianity
This feature story, like the people in it, is conflicted. Sure, Christians are supposed to forgive, but to what extent? Also, are you a profiteer if you're a convicted murderer and you use your testimony to draw people to your mega-church?

Sports
One spring evening about two years ago in Clyde, Texas, I found myself in a very scary situation. I was umpiring a little league game, and a comebacker up the middle hit the pitcher square in the chest. It was a solid 10 seconds (or was it? The way time moves in these situations, it was hard to tell) before the kid caught his breath. I had heard all kinds of arguments against children using metal bats, but had never before been forced to deal with it on a personal level. We used metal bats as kids, and nothing ever happened to any of us. My experience as an umpire forced me to reevaluate my stance. These bat companies are increasingly making metal bats more dangerous for anybody of any age to use - better for performance, yes, but also more dangerous. The issue is examined more deeply here. A couple days after finding that article, I came across one that makes a similar case against maple bats in the MLB.

Some thoughts about literature and baseball. A great read if you love either. Lots of stuff for Rangers fans in there.

Film
A no-frills (some might argue no-substance) preview of this summer's upcoming movies.

TV
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (the creators and head writers of Lost) answer questions about the direction of the show. Lindelof: "I think our hope is that looking back on the entire run of the show, that people remember the EXPERIENCE of watching it — what it actually felt like to be mystified and frustrated and surprised — as opposed to just where it landed storywise." Um, Damon? I'm worried about where it ends up storywise.

The Written Word
Walter Benn Michaels apparently espouses a fairly narrow-minded view about setting in contemporary fiction. Still, it sparks an interesting debate.

Games
This tone matrix doesn't fit the technical definition of "game," but it's fun to play with, so it counts.

Technology
Jason Kottke weighs in on the ever-growing Twitter debate. If you've decided to side with Jason, here's how to get started.

The New York Times profiles a team that's trying to beat the land speed record. Pretty cool.

Dallas
The new Parkland is going to be green.

Texas
Rick Perry started a controversy a couple of weeks ago when he "asserted Texas' right to secede." (Aside: Two years ago, Perry was calling Bush-haters "unpatriotic." Really?) Turns out, he was wrong.

U.S. Politics
It's kind of hard to believe, but the waterboarding debate has resurfaced. I don't see how anybody can say this is not torture. The act suffocates the detainee and simulates drowning. Nevertheless, there is a contingent that supports the use of it in the name of national security. I don't understand this. If another nation violated the Geneva Convention so blatantly and then tried to justify it by redefining the act through dubious memos, we would probably carpet bomb that nation anyway. Lest we get too serious, here is a light-hearted (or perhaps heavily sarcastic? Let's opt for that) look at a recent DOJ memo:


We can't separate pain and suffering? The justification machine is running on all cylinders.

Sean Hannity has offered to be waterboarded to prove that it's not torture. The Huffington Post says here that Keith Olbermann has "called his bluff" and offered to pay $1000 to charity for each second he can last. I wouldn't go as far as HuffPo goes in its praise of Olbermann - this is just one blowhard trying to outshout another blowhard - but he raises a good point. This debate is serious, and it sure seems like one side is just trying to justify it so their former leader won't look so bad. Lost in all this is the fact that neither one of them has actually done what they say they're willing to do. These days, I guess it takes a Playboy reporter to do the real journalism. This clip has some language, but power through. It's worth it.



I found what the soldier said interesting - waterboarding isn't torture because it "invokes an existing fear of drowning." I have a fear of being whipped to death. If you whip me almost to the point of death, is that torture?

Finally, this story just came out about a soldier who killed herself after refusing to participate in torture in Iraq.

Switching gears: The Hurricane Katrina flooding trial against the Army Corps of Engineers has begun.

World News
Front page photos rarely startle me, but this one from Friday made me look twice for some reason:



The U.S. has declared a public health emergency. Three cases have been identified (sort of) in Dallas.

The Economy
Some time last week, the front page of the Dallas Morning News started to look a little bit more optimistic. Headlines wondered aloud if the economy could be starting to turn. Not so fast, says The Economist. Recommend that you skip this if you're already the slightest bit depressed.

Humor
I've always been dissatisfied with the idea that Paper covers Rock. Following a very lame flip of a "coin" to make a decision this morning, Ira, Jodi, and I spent some significant (read: way too much) time trying to unpack exactly what kind of covering Paper is doing that defeats Rock so. Unable to come up with a satisfactory explanation, we turned to Wikipedia. The official answer? Um, nobody knows. Finding this to be a terrible oversight (who decided on these three "weapons," anyway?), we have now begun a quest to find the perfect rochambeau. Luckily, the same Wikipedia page is a great starting point. Jodi is partial to the "cat-tinfoil-microwave" variation, while I want to further explore the "earwig-human-elephant" variant. Also contained within the article is a hilarious idea that fire and water be added to the original three, with the caveat that "a player may only throw (fire) once in his entire lifetime." What say you, readers? Any good RPS alternatives?

Video of the Week

One of the best of these kind of videos I've seen.



Movie Trailer of the Week

I haven't seen Earth yet, but I'm already pumped for Oceans. Release date: Earth Day 2010.



Image of the Week

Check out this heart-breaking gallery.