blastum's blog

The New York Times notes that the price of an Iraqi life, taken by a private, drunken security guard in a high-profile murder, is $15,000 (note that the typical Iraqi life appears to be worth $3000). It is interesting to note that a higher price was considered but dismissed because Iraqis might be prepared to get themselves killed for money. I kid you not).

In other news, a sexual harassment case has netted $11.6 million. It is interesting to note that no suggestion has been made that women will have themselves harassed for money.

Keep your priorities straight.

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. (Gen 9:5)

It was a standard cop-show plot. The bad guys merely had to stick to their story for the alibi to stick. The cops hammered at the bad guys, but the bad guys had a preternatural loyalty to one another and could not be broken. Until an appeal to mistrust finally broke the bond of loyalty and turned it to hate.

This won't happen to us.

Chuck died a few years back. Somebody writes to the mailing list

"Just wanted to remember you Chuck, take it easy wherever you are."

Grrrr.

A while back, tcblack's challenged us with a post on modesty, pornography, and sin, particularly with Job 31:1 - "I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?" Since I am quite aware of what it means to gaze at a virgin, I resolved not to be a lecher, a dirty old man. I would not gaze at the virgin. I would be chaste. And so I am here to report:

Abject failure.

These things did Thomas count as real:
  The warmth of blood, the chill of steel,
  The grain of wood, the heft of stone,
  The last frail twitch of flesh and bone.