Please don't impale the president, mr. president!

I'm not sure if this is a true story, but it is pretty funny.

Rhode Island Trip

The weather was near perfect on Wednesday and Thursday. It had just stopped snowing the day before our arrival. The sun was out and everything was beautiful. On Wednesday, I explored parts of Providence myself while Allie was at Day 1 of her meeting. I found some interesting places. I had intended to go to a particular museum, but I got there only to discover visitation was by appointment only. So, I walked around a nearby small town like downtownish area for a little while before roaming around town again.
Thursday, I went to the Newport area, while Allie was in Day 2 of her meeting. It is beautiful and very quiet. I made a sincere effort to get lost, but never was really ever able to lose track of where I was. I drove along this road that has many old mansions and properties. Oddly enough, the road was called “Ocean View”, but would’ve been better named “Mansions View”. There was only one short stretch of ocean within site of the road. Funny how things are so misnamed in Rhode Island. I ended up having clam chowder for lunch at this one rest’rant at Bowen Wharf. It was a seasoned and well flavored type. It was apparently award winning, and I agree that it was very good.
That night we had diner at Providence Prime at Federal Hill. It was a high class rest’rant with really good food. I was a little disappointed by my lobster, but over all, the food and experience was great. We had a new waitress who was very attentive and helpful.
Friday rained, and hard. A winter storm ran through town, but it was over by the end of the day. We drove into Connecticut to an Indian Casino called Foxwoods. Foxwoods is as big as many of the Vegas Casinos, and it’s in the middle of nowhere.
On Saturday, we drove up to Boston and spent the day at the Prudential Tower and Quincy Market. This allowed us to see Boston from way up high, and down in the basement, in a manner of speaking. Shopping at Quincy was unique. Normally, all across the U.S., shopping is pretty much a homogeneous experience everywhere, but at Quincy, it actually felt like we where visiting some place special. This one place there was called The Oyster Bar, and that’s pretty much was it was. Their clam chowder was good.
We drove back to Rhode Island. That evening we had an excellent dinner at Legal Seafood. The whole point for me to come to New England was to experience the much raved about seafood. Legal Seafood by itself was enough to make my experience complete. Lobster was perfect, and so was the clam chowder and Clam Bake.
On Sunday, we visited a local zoo. It was tiny as most local zoos are. That evening we just relaxed as we had a long day of travel ahead of us on Monday. The snow just started to fall minutes before we boarded our plane in Rhode Island Monday afternoon.
Boy was Monday a long day. I really dislike travelling through JFK. It is as though JFK was designed by a Los Angeles Traffic Civil Engineer. Planes can literal spend an hour on the tarmac driving around like cars moving through city streets. The flight was over 6 hours long (not including JFK time) with no meal service.
Well, it was worth it though. I’m glad I got a chance to briefly explore southern New England.

I'm in Rhode Island. It's not really known for its roads, nor its it an
island. That's not all. I just drove the lenght of road called "Ocean
View". You guessed it. There is no view of the ocean, except for a small
area somewhere halfway.
I found this one point called Forty Steps, whick is a stone stairway down
to a small bit of rocky shore. At the bottom, I found a drainage pipe that
was relaeasing some lowing green ooze into the ocean. I'm not even kidding.
Mosr of the shorine along Ocean View is walled, so there's not many places
to actually get to the ocean. I guess one is excepted to just enjoy nature
from their car.
Right now, I'm at Firt Beach next to what appears to be an assasinated
Gull.
Ok, it's not all that bad, but I'll get into that larer.
___
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New England Trip

February 27, 2007 to March 5, 2007 

Alice and I visited New England, including Boston, MA, Providence, RI, Newport, RI, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Cheers Boston. (Original post/backup link)

Jesus is Alive!

The rediscovery of Jesus' family tomb has sparked a lot of debate. No one has seen all of the evidence yet, yet everyone is piping up with criticisms. So far, none of the criticisms have been scientific in nature. "Jesus family was too poor for a tomb of such luxury". Umm, for starters, there is no statement in the bible about Jesus' wealth! In fact, it is unlikely that anyone with so much influence was poor! How unscientific can one get? It's just funny how everyone is panicking.

Hey Christians, your god was just a man! Not even all Christians look to Jesus as a god. Certainly, he had a life prior to the age of about 34, when we started preaching openly. So, there's nothing odd about him having a family. In fact, there's nothing odd about his family being hidden from history! Perhaps the story of Jesus' death and lack of mention of his family is due to the fact that his followers were trying to protect them from the Roman Empire. Or perhaps the politics within the Christian Church were at play, as groups fought for control of the faith. Maybe Jesus lineage lost power in the group once he died, so their record was expunged to justify the resulting power shift. This sort of activity is evident from within the text of the New Testament. There is obvious tells about the rise and fall of apostles and other leaders within the Church in power struggles where the victor was not necessarily even familiar with Jesus (for example, St. Paul). After all, the Council of Nicaea was commissioned by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine. If an outsider held that much say over the faith, how much more was the faith in flux from within?

So, do I believe these remains belong to Jesus and his family? No, I don't hold a belief about such things. Do I think there is a possibility that these remains are of Jesus? Yeah. In fact, I think it is likely.

Every House Has a Maker

Did a god make our world? I must admit that I know that every house has a maker. A lot of work goes into making a house. A house is built by humans, using processes developed by humans, with materials discovered and formed by humans. We make houses to serve as shelter for our population. What does this say about how Earth came into being? 

Well in nature, we do not see such an effort being made. In nature, everything is random. Houses don’t just come into being by themselves. 

If this Earth was created by a nurturing and carrying god, one of the main things one should expect is that all of humanity's corporeal needs are directly addressed. For example, if an average person today was dropped into the middle of the wilderness without supplies, most persons would not be able to survive. Another example, people who raise animals feed their animals, groom them, raise them, protect them, provide companionship to them, and even clean up after their dirty business. Imagine what would happen if a cat owner didn’t clean the litter box. Yuk! 

Yet, this world doesn’t do any of that for us. We have to find our own food. We have to cook our own meals. We have to build the houses in which we live and the cars we drive. We even have to wipe our own asses. 

Bottom line, where there is a house, there is indeed a maker. Where there is no house, there is certainly no maker.