Eric Karns

Thanks for the forward Gregor! Good find.

Ryan forwarded me an interesting interview of the evolutionary theorist and Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins. I liked what Mr. Dawkins had to say in the interview so I ‘youtubed’ his name and found an even more interesting video snippet of one of his recent documentaries. What is so fascinating about these clips is not neccesarily that Richard Dawkins is a highly intelligent atheist, but how he shows the world the irony of world religion’s and their violence.

So I went out and bought Richard Dawkins’ new book ‘The God Delusion’ in which he writes in greater detail about religion and violence. One passage that was particularly eye-opening concerned the recent Danish cartoons that mocked Islam and sparked violent protests and murders around the world by radical Muslims. As it turns out, the original 9 or 10 cartoons were created by 9 or 10 different artists, and the muslim cleric who was living in Denmark (seeking refuge) decided to take those cartoons, add 3 of his own, much more offensive cartoons and spread them around the muslim world. He then put up $1,000,000 (which he doesn’t have) for the death of the Danish artists.

And if you want to see more, this one is REALLY good. Richard Dawkins confronting the American Evangelical minisiter Ted Haggard (who looks to have more than a few loose screws)…

As per my usual routine yesterday was unlike any other; on my way to lunch I had my radio tuned to NPR. During the lunch hour most days is an hour long segment called ‘The Intersection’ which deals with local issues. Yesterday’s program was especially interesting - click below for a snippet I downloaded from ‘The Intersection’s’ website dealing with the need for a local forensics lab, it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser.

P.S. I’ve edited the track for ‘emphasis’, LOL!

Here are some cool party photos from Bob & Diane’s 28th Anniversary Party! Use the blue buttons on the bottom right side of the webpage… (this page might take a couple minutes to load…

This past weekend, my sister, Pete and I threw a surprise Anniversary Party for my parents’ 28th Anniversary. Being that it was a SURPRISE party the stress of keeping it a surprise almost killed me. But, it went off without a hitch and they were indeed surprised!

We had the whole lower-level of the house decked out in party gear, streamers, balloons, the works! And my sister had the awesome idea of presenting them with an enlarged photo of their wedding, printed on canvas and framed - and it really turned out beautifully! Jessica also had a photo put on the cake, which was a photo of my parents feeding each other cake back on their wedding day in 1978. It wouldn’t have went as well as it did if it weren’t for the help of Pete who did an awesome job psyching my parents out, keeping Jessie calm, decorating the party and DJ’ing as well!

I might also add, that as the night wore on, many a keg stand was had and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw my aunt Mary doing a keg stand herself!!! Way to go Aunt Mary!!!!

I’m finally wrapping up Paul Johnson’s 976 page epic survey ‘A History of the American People’ which is probably the best overview of American history I have ever read. Paul Johnson is a British author whose insight and interpretation of American history is extremely fascinating, genuinely positive in tone and fluidly written.

I had originally picked up this book so that I could better understand why our country has evolved into such political catastrophe. Although there isn’t a single answer to that question, the one thing I have gleaned from our history is that we became great because of our resources, ingenuity, work ethic, positive outlook and most importantly our early system of light-handed governing. It seems to me that since F.D.R.’s reign, American governance has fallen steeply into an ugly, over-meddling and arrogant system.

Sadly, Americans today have a short perspective on our own history and so our society continues to devolve. We need to know where we came from and how we got here if we ever want to fix our country.

Well, it was fun-filled and action-packed. From partying at douglas wiongy’s to golfing and fishing - I pretty much didn’t want Tuesday to rear it’s ugly head.

It was Mary’s first time golfing and I have to say she is a natural born golfer! She drives the ball perfectly straight every time, and anywhere from 75 to 125 yards with her 9 iron! Here’s a quick video of Mary hitting a golf ball off the driving range.