Against my better judgment I watched Saw VI today and while I certainly see the sense in the writers using the health insurance industry as fair game for the wrath of Jigsaw I still find the franchise's internal sense of moral philosophy very troubling and (with the sixth installment) very ironic...if Jigsaw (played by Tobin Bell) wants to judge the employer (and his employees) of a major health insurance company so savagely for making harsh decisions regarding people's health and whether their cases are worthy or not, isn't he sort of a hyprocrite?

Jigsaw's kind of the same way in dispensing his lethal medicine...setting up elaborate and unbelievably disgusting and gory ways for people (he thinks deserve to) die. He has, in previous installments and in this one, also passed judgment calls on people who abuse their bodies and their health (i.e. people who do drugs or smoke). While I think the original Saw (nasty and gratuituous death scenes aside!) had potential to be food for thought and a great conversation starter, I find the rest to just be one exercise after another in "how far can we go?"

..."nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"...


Kate Moss got into so much trouble for saying this a while back. It may not be politically correct or even right, but sometimes I fervently believe it's true. The few times in my life I've been able to abstain from food or cut back for a little bit, it's almost felt like being free from sin...and the self-esteem, the knowledge that you can conquer something so primitive as hunger feels like a revelation.

There is no easy way to diet or else losing weight would be a breeze, but I do find that this guy is a huge culprit in keeping me from sticking to my diet at times:


...well not this tv, in particular, but the combination of eating and tv at dinner time. I found once I stopped associating food with watching my favorite shows and started forcing myself to watch tv without having munchies on hand I lost more weight.

When I was in my 20s I could eat almost anything I wanted and stay at a reasonably respectable weight, but now in my early 40s I have to cut back more than half my food intake and exercise twice as hard. There's really no other choice...because the fear of getting fat (and knowing it could easily happen with each passing year) is just too overwhelming....as is the need to put all of your happiness into something that is so fleeting and but a taste on your lips.

Yesterday I downloaded the New York Zombies app to my iPod touch and....well....yikes!!!I like zombies and I like game apps, but this was too much for me, especially with headphones on. The gun sounds so real and the screen touch device you use to navigate rooms and get a visual on the living dead is too clumsy. And even though it's obviously pretend and just a game I felt horrible when I accidentally "killed" a living survivor* instead of a zombie (the Halloween edition comes with pumpkin-head zombies...very, very creepy!) I think I'll pass on this one and replace it with something more sunshiney!:)



*When you let a "living survivor" into your apartment so they can be safe, their "thank you" is oddly disconcerting, especially if they get in the way and you end up shooting them by mistake.

...An excellent letter to the editor regarding secular morality...

 I get so tired of the religious right thinking they're the only ones with a sense of decency so I really enjoyed reading this letter...


Monday, October 18, 2010

Michael Gerson rejects the idea of godless morality ["A moralist in atheist's clothing," op-ed, Oct. 15]. "Of course we can be good without God, but why the hell bother?" he wrote. "If there are no moral lines except the ones we draw ourselves, why not draw and redraw them in places most favorable to our interests?"

That atheists do lead moral lives and act selflessly, as Mr. Gerson admitted in the case of Christopher Hitchens, proved the error of the point.

The critique was further undermined by the fact that many of the moral prescriptions of Scripture guide almost no one today, from condoning slavery (Ephesians 6:5) to the murder of unruly children (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). This indicates that we bring a preexisting moral sense to these teachings, accepting those that agree with it and rejecting those that don't.

Without God, we'd simply allow this moral sense to guide our actions -- as most of us, atheists and theists alike, already do.
Aaron Ross Powell, Alexandria

One of the best things to hit my e-mail inbox each week is Amazon's free download newsletter with the latest on music releases and free downloads


A really great MP3 sampler (free!) is Projekt: Afar. Some wonderful stuff is on here including a haunting song that could have come out of the best part of 80s new wave: "The Ice Garden" by The Twilight Garden....

An incredible digital album with almost every one of the songs a winner, including "The Future" by The Limousines (who sound a lot like Passion Pit...which is a good thing!)



But the absolute best song on Experience Music is the super catchy sing-it-in-your-bathroom-while-you're-brushing-your-teeth...it sounds so bouncy and upbeat until you really hear the words:

I’m gonna let you down
Gonna toss you around
Gonna make you want everything you haven’t found
I’m gonna hold your hand
Then ask you to stand
Ten feet away

Oh it’s just like you said
I live in my head
I’m saving up all that I have ‘til I’m dead
It’s always the same
And never the same way

But oh if you don’t want me though
I’ll only want you more
I fall in love with hard to get
You know you’re just like me
A mystery with nothing more to see
A virtual reality

I’m in a love affair without a love song
I’m in the habit of having what I don’t want
I’m just a hologram
You can see but don’t touch me baby
Oh I bet you want me

I am taking up space I’m right out of place
I’m holding a half-hearted smile to your face
It’s pretty enough but watch out it fades away
Time is ticking so fast
Does anything last
Soon I will be just apart of your past
I’ll leave you with this
You hold on in blissful memories

Oh if you don’t want me though
I’ll only want you more
I fall in love with hard to get
You know you’re just like me
A mystery with nothing more to see
A virtual reality

I’m in a love affair without a love song
I’m in the habit of having what I don’t want
I’m just a hologram
You can see but don’t touch me baby
Oh I bet you want me now

Now that you can see
I’m not, not what you make of me

I’m in a love affair without a love song
I’m in the habit of having what I don’t want
I’m just a hologram
You can see but don’t touch me baby
Oh I bet you want me now
Talk about intimacy and commitment issues...a powerful pop song!!!