Did they jump the shark with last night’s episode? What the hell did that have to do with anything?

In a Palestinian election, Hamas has won. I think it’s the best thing that could happen for the peace process.

Israel says that it could not accept a situation in which Hamas is part of the Palestinian Authority. They may want to rethink that…

Hamas had been dedicated to the destruction of Israel. But destroying ones enemy and building up your own people are two very different things.

Now Hamas will be responsible for creating jobs, building hospitals, and bettering education. They will be responsible for keeping people safe.

Also, the bombings will stop. How can the people in control of government bomb their own people? If they do, the people of Palestine will revolt against them.

Once revolutionaries turn into government dignitaries, they learn that bombs and logos don’t change the world. Only hard work and compromise will.

Marriage can be an odd thing, really. But after awhile it seems that marriage becomes an excuse to show off your worst side to your spouse.

When people are at work, engaged at their career, they try to be their best. Or at least I do. I want to be the smart person in the room. The person with the answers. The person that can drive the project to successful completion.

But some days are just hard. You get frustrated and angry at the people you work around. But you don’t release it, keeping in mind one must be “professional” whilst at work.

So what do you do? You take it home. You get home and feel “safe” so you complain to your spouse about your stupid co-workers and that stupid supplier that just can’t get it right.

We even dress better at work, then come home and change into grungy, or rather “comfortable” clothes.

In the meantime, your spouse has the opposite experience. They go to work, a building of people trying to put forward the best side. Then they come home to you – complaining, tired, hungry. Literally, you at your worst.

A comedian, I can’t remember who now, once said, “I thought people got married because they could no longer hold in their gas.” You wouldn’t fart on a date.

Is that what people want to come home to? A complaining, tired, farting spouse?

At some point, that has to take a toll on the relationship. At what point are you just failing to measure up to the better dressed, smart people at work your spouse see’s everyday?

A little while ago I asked for suggestions for the best email program. Now I’m at it again, this time with RSS Feed readers.

I’ve been using Live Bookmarks in Firefox to house all of my feeds, but it is somewhat limiting. You can’t, for example, see an excerpt of an entry, only the title.

I am currently trying the trial version of FeedDemon. But at $30, it’s a bit expensive, considering there are many, many free ones on the market.

(By the way, there doesn’t seem to be a way to alphabetize feeds. I like my in alpha order, and when I add a new one, it would be nice if it would sort that way, instead of just adding to the bottom.)

So, let me hear it. What RSS feed reader is tops?

Some people think homosexuality can be cured. They think it is a medical condition, and thusly, can be cured like a sickness.

If it is a medical condition, then why is there are no medication that lists homosexuality as a side-effect? Nearly every condition known is also a side-effect of some prescription drug.

There has been lots of press given to the new study that suggests having a TV in the bedroom cuts a couple’s sex life in half. See here, for example.

What the report doesn’t specify is, did the TV cut a couples sex life in half, or where they already not having sex, so they decided to put a TV in the bedroom?

Chicken, egg… does it matter?

Do you know what segregation means?

I’m not talking about the dictionary meaning, or the meaning you learned in grade school. Do you know what segregation really is?

Most of us have only witnessed true, living segregation in history books.

RememberSegregation.org tries to show us what segregation must have really been like.

The home page is divided into two parts, one side for “White Visitors” the other side for “Colored Visitors.”

It was shocking the first time I saw it. You know what is more shocking? There was a time when such division wasn’t shocking at all.

Never forget.

So, I’m reading a new paperback and what do you think pulls me from my immersion in another world? A commercial. In the book! A cardstock postcard advertising something for someone that I obviously need to have.

I’m accustomed to ads interrupting television. I’m even accustomed to them online, though I still don’t like them. But one place, I doubt I will ever get accustomed to ads is in the ‘middle’ of a book. At the beginning or the end would be acceptable. In fact, it would be much like going to the theatre for a movie. But to stop that movie or book, both of which allow the watcher or reader to slip into another world until the end or, hopefully, an interruption created only by that individual, is in bad taste.

I will, in the future, be forced to either pay closer attention and not buy books with such dream world alarm clocks or rip them out before I even start reading. Of course, now that I’ve typed the words in that previous sentence, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal to avoid potential ads. But the question is: should I even have to?

Last night I was watching a documentary on the Shroud of Turin. I had two issues with it.

First, several scientists were trying to prove the Shroud was the burial cloth of Jesus. But, if they were real scientists, they would simple gather data and let the data tell them more about the cloth. But these “scientists” were clearly trying to find evidence to support their point-of-view.

When the carbon dating came back that the Shroud was medieval, and not from the time of Christ, they begin speculating on reasons why the carbon dating was wrong. That seemed to be opposite of what any respectable scientist would do.

Second, it crossed my mind that maybe Jesus wants to keep a secret.

I never understood why people were so determined to find total evidence of his existence and proof of miracles – either miracles reportedly of Jesus, or miracles in general.

Religion is supposed to be a choice. If there is a mountain of evidence, where is the choice? I recall from my religious school, bible class days of God wanting humanity to have a choice.

If not, God could have smote Satan in the Garden of Eden. The story of the Garden is not the story of a true garden, or of the first human, but an allegory that says, we have a choice to do what we wish, but making bad choices has consequences.

On a side note, the bible itself refutes the Shroud of Turin. The bible says Jesus was buried with one cloth wrapped around his body, and another wrapped around his head. Not a single long cloth, which is what the Shroud is.

Isn’t the point of any religion, regardless of which one, to find inspiration from within and not from provable validation? That’s why it’s called “faith,” right?

After winning the school’s first NCAA Football National Championship in 35 years, University of Texas football coach Mack Brown asked his new champions to keep the title in perspective. “I don’t want this,”he told the Longhorns after the Rose Bowl, “to be the best thing that ever happens in your life.”