True Love Sacrifices

When Marine Lance Cpl. David Battle learned he’d either have to sacrifice his ring finger or the wedding band he wore, he told doctors at a field hospital in Iraq to cut off the finger.

Marine Chooses Wedding Ring Over Finger

Homosexuals Have the “Get Out of Jail Free” Card?

At what point are homosexual activists held to the same laws as everyone else? When there is videotape footage, that’s when. Peaceable assembly is an early constitutional right, right?

Punk Isn’t Anti-Everything

Despite your preconceptions, the punk lifestyle isn’t anti-everything. It’s anti-”something-very-specific.” But even within, there is a recent divide, with punk-on-punk violence sure to be looming. Interesting read. [via Thunderstruck]

Odds: How Will You Die?

Our good friends over at AOL certainly have a knack for headlines, no? Who wouldn’t want to read The Odds of Dying? But a soothsayer Mr. Britt is not, he merely cites some census info. Since we all know we’re going to go someday, what’s the appropriate response?

A) Eat, drink for tomorrow we die.
B) Be good and cross our fingers.
C) Investigate all the options and make an informed choice with a portion of faith.

Too many of us choose “A” and not enough “C”. Which kind of person are you?

Movie: Mystic River

What makes a movie great? Assuredly each person has at least slightly different criteria. For me, a movie can’t be considered great if you leave the theatre saying, “I can’t believe how unfair that was!”

Injustice has always been a sore spot with me. So to have an innocent person stabbed, shot and tossed in the river while that killer gets to walk, I’m sorry, I just can’t be a fan. Sure, it kept my attention throughout, but so did Pitch Black and you didn’t hear that film called at Oscar time. Eastwood is the latest Hollywood darling so from here on out, expect all of his films to get glowing reviews.

5 out of 10

Micropayments for PHP

Without getting too technical, micropayments mean paying a little bit to get a little bit. They have to be quick and easy or people won’t do it. TKPal is a little bit of script (for people using PHP to build their sites) that can allow you to begin accepting micropayments. The questionable piece is that TypeKey is mandatory. I’m not a big fan of forcing people to register with any single entity in order to gain access, but who I am? You be the judge. [via kottke]

CBS Ousts 4 Execs

It’s always interesting when people get caught in a lie. Generally, the result is more lying, followed by still more lying to cover the aforementioned lying. CBS how now moved on to the chain stopper and cut their losses. Today we hear, from CBSnews.com no less, that they’ve given the ole heave-hoe to 4 of their own. (Rather had already been planning his royal exit.)

Is this enough? Do we need to have another layer of media to police the top-tier groups? What about the damage already done by their intentional untruths? Ahh… the information age. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Movie: Eternal Sunshine

Certainly one of the most inventive and clever movies since Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind approaches troubled relationships with a kind of high-tech eraser. In a fit of anger Clementine decides to erase Joel from her memory banks. He’s naturally hurt and wants to reciprocate. Then it just gets plain crazy while they both try to salvage memories as they’re being deleted. Quite surreal.

The dialog, while reasonably inane considering the two “characters” we’re watching, did wear on my moral sensibilities with their constant use of profanity. The movie would also drag unnecessarily in spots, but the concept was so engaging I just yelled at my TV to “Get on with it!”

Carey is suprisingly not himself, which is high praise for his acting acumen. Winslet is annoying and abrasive, likely as prescribed. The side stories were meant to add depth but weren’t believable. What can you do?

I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

Pro Gamer, For Real

$80k/year, doing something you love for a living, thousands of beautiful, screaming fans, er… ok, maybe not the fans, but Zyos is living the dream. But to be fair, team Domination (with the Ogre twins) is still cleaning his clock. And yes, I’ve played Halo before. [via ASV]

Netflix Gets Prolific

Hacking NetFlix is reporting that members can now use Profiles to manage their movie cues. I’ve been rattling on for years that Amazon should do this kind of thing with their Wish Lists, you know, public or private, name them, etc. Would be simple technically. I think they should hire me.

Kentucky vs. Kansas

Big game between two of the titans of college basketball. #2 Kansas (10-0) is without their star Simien and traveling to Rupp in only their 2nd road trip of the season but should hold their own against a young Wildcat (10-1) team. Odds are UK – 4.

Bluetooth is Taking Over

Gotta love where all this wireless will take us! Except, of course, if those invisible rays bouncing everywhere turn out to be killing us.

Baseball Bat Abortion

Is this 16-year-old boy guilty in the eyes of the law because he lacks a medical degree? Or was it because his procedure was not sanctioned by the AMA? Or because he actually killed an unborn baby?

Islam, Religion of Peace?

Even in this, the information age, there’s a great deal that the average American knows nothing about. One thing that has been hidden from us the persistent violence directed at Christians across the globe, primarily by people in the name of Islam. Here’s just one real-world example. The Muslim National Islamic Front government in Sudan has sanctioned slavery of all non-Islams. Read about how Joseph was crucified and left for dead, only to escape and tell this horrific tale.

Why Did God Allow the Tsunamis?

It’s a very reasonable question. I’m sure we all have thought about it at one point or another. No one knows for sure, but Ralph Dettwiler has a very inciteful viewpoint posted here.