Posts by D. H. McKee

Need A Star Wars Name?

June 27, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Gaming

Now that Star Wars Galaxies is shipping, you're going to need a name for all your characters. Since you can't use regular human names, like "Joe Smith", or joke names, like "Chewintobacca" or "Oggie Ben Doggie", this is the site for you.
"Welcome to the SWGS Random Name Generator, now powered by PHP! To start generating names, choose a species from the menu to the left, select the number of names you want, then hit submit.
"If you would like to see the basis I used for creating the names, read our naming guide. In it, you can find ways of creating your own Star Wars names, and see the various naming patterns found amongst the eight playable species of SWG."
[boba.jpg]

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Luke 14:26

June 17, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Skeptic

This hypocritical Biblical quotation refers to the words of Jesus in Luke 14:26: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

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What The Christian Fundamentalist Doesn’t Want You To Know

June 17, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Skeptic

Interesting Essay:
"One of the bedrock beliefs of most Christian fundamentalists is in the inerrancy of their scripture, the Bible. Indeed, if it can be shown that the English-language Bible that I can obtain at my local bookseller (usually the defined as the King James Version) is absolutely inerrant, their case that it is the word of God would be greatly strengthened.
"But, if, on the other hand, it can be shown that there are clearly and unquestionably errors in the Bible, from whatever source, then the position of the fundamentalist is greatly weakened, and if it is based on inerrancy of the Bible, disproven.
"The purpose of this essay is to make the latter case, i.e., that when the Bible is examined with dispassion and with objectivity, it soon becomes obvious that it is so hopelessly riddled with errors, impossibilities and contradictions that it is essentially ludicrous to make the claim that it is inerrant."

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Atheism on the Rise

June 17, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Religion, Skeptic

A new study indicates significant shifts in the nation's religious composition, with mainstream faith groups stagnating, and the numbers of those who profess no religion on the rise. The American Religious Identification Survey 2001 was carried out under the auspices of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and is considered a follow-up study of a 1990 census. The poll utilized a sample of over 50,000 randomly selected respondents, and was described as "the most comprehensive portrait of religious identification in the U.S. today." It revealed, for instance, that while the numbers of Roman Catholics increased since 1990 from 46 million to nearly 50.8 million, their percentage of the population fell nearly two points. Protestants and other non-Catholic groups remain the majority, but their proportion slipped sharply from 60% to 52%. And those identifying with a non-Christian religion jumped from 5.8 million to 7.7 million, but reflected only 3.7% of the population. The survey and news reports about the study, though, noted that one of the most significant findings involved growth in that segment of the adult population "identifying with no religion." In 1990, 14.3 million or roughly 8% identified with this category. The new ARIS count now shows that the non-believer population has grown to 29.4 million, roughly 14.1% of the American community.

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Lots of Americans Ignorant about Iraq War

June 17, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Skeptic

A third of the American public believes U.S. forces have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. Twenty-two percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons.
But such weapons have not been found in Iraq and were not used.
Before the war, half of those polled in a survey said Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. But most of the Sept. 11 terrorists were Saudis; none was an Iraqi.
The results startled even the pollsters who conducted and analyzed the surveys. How could so many people be so wrong about information that has dominated news coverage for almost two years?

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Opinions Clash in Debate About Science Literacy

June 17, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Sci-Tech

Scientists consistently worry that the public just doesn't know enough about science, and that this general lack of public understanding carries with it dreadful consequences, jeopardizing everything from government financing of research to social progress. Recent controversies in the U.S. and Europe over therapeutic cloning and agricultural biotechnology have brought fresh concerns from the scientific community. Many scientists assume, for example, that if the public knew more about human genetic engineering, then any moral or religious reservations about cloning-for-medical-research might be tempered. Or, if the public better understood the science behind the genetic modification of crops, then few would take seriously the hyperbolized risks associated with the technology.

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Captain Kirk vs. Han Solo

June 13, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Humour

Kirk's tale is interrupted by derisive laughter from a nearby table. "A likely story," says the man lounging there, his boots resting on the tabletop, a sneer on his lips. "That kind of big talk may impress people where you come from, pal, but it wouldn't last ten seconds in Mos Eisley. And it's not doing so good here, either."

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Darth Vader’s my Hero

June 13, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Geek

I saw this post today, and I laughed my ass off. It’s so true. This guy’s about my age, and...

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Bachelorettes Mistake Police Officer for Stripper

June 9, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Sex

A police officer arriving at a bachelorette party because of a noise complaint was mistaken as the entertainment.
The partygoers thought Gainesville Police Officer Jamie Hope was the stripper, and they didn't realize he was legitimate until he drove away with the bride-to-be in handcuffs.

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Euro tour convinces PM on Iraq decision

June 9, 2003 D. H. McKee
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Can-con

Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien, who returns to Parliament today after a two-week swing through Europe, left here more convinced than ever that he made the right decision to steer clear of the United States-led war in Iraq.
While refusing to say so publicly, the Prime Minister and his advisers are relieved the Liberals kept Canada out of a military adventure that is shaping up in the U.S. and Britain as potentially the biggest political scandal in decades.
During the past two weeks, as Chr�tien met with world leaders in Greece, Russia and France, the failure of the U.S. and its allies to find evidence to justify their invasion of Iraq emerged as a potential source of lasting damage for U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In both countries, there are continuing revelations about questionable intelligence used to justify claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had to be removed by military force because he was hoarding chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

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