I abuse the blockquote html tag

At work, I am on the internet constantly and so I run into random articles, which often spark interesting thoughts at work. Here is a sample of some of the random things running amok in my head:

There's a website that advertises for a financial book based on Christian principles. It's called It's A Guy Thing: Achieving Authentic Wealth. Anyway, it starts out by quoting a scripture in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:19 -

"A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry; but money answers everything."

He then bases the argument that we should care about money because the scriptures say that money answers everything.

Well, financial responsibility certainly falls under the commandment of good stewardship, even over temporal material things. But the thing that gets my goat is that he totally twists this scripture out of context.

Ecclesiastes is misunderstood by a lot of people because whoever wrote it comes across as an extremely pessimistic man. He often talks about how humans are ultimately flawed and evil, and usually prefaces most of his statements with the phrase "under the sun," or in other words, "in mortality." In addition, he often repeats over and over "Vanity, vanity! All is vanity!" Money certainly falls under this catagory. So, is the Preacher excusing humans for their wickedness and shortsightedness? Certainly not; it flies in the face of the Gospel. What he's saying is essentially, "This is what the world says, but God expects more," which he sums up in the end with the famous scripture:

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

I don't mind if you base financial principles on the scriptures. That's fine by me. But when you're misinterpreting a scripture on your first paragraph, it makes me skeptical about your method of research. Maybe you just flipped through the topical guide for scriptures on money rather than reading the whole Bible?
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An interesting article on how atheists organize themselves a lot like religionists. Religion is almost second nature for people. Even when they're fighting against it.
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This post by a reader of an article made me laugh, about how San Francisco's mayor was rocked by scandals but still held confidence in his mostly Democratic citizens:

"Dems protect and re-elect their perverts. Republicans throw theirs out of office. Get the diff?"

Puts a new angle to the whole "OMG tEH REPUBLICANS HAVE SO MUCH SCANDAL!!!1" uproar they've hit recently.
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Excerpt from a TIME magazine article I found dated Monday, December 29, 1958 on a Christ Child doll marketed for Christmas:

"The Christ child doll has not been a conspicuous success, despite approval by both Protestant and Catholic authorities. A comparison shopper for Macy's in Kansas City reported excitely that 'the Jones store has marked Jesus Christ down 50%!' Explained Macy's K.C. Manager ruefully: 'I guess mothers just feel their children shouldn't be dragging the Lord across the floor.' "

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A big pet peeve of mine is when authors plaster their faces all over their books. Case in point: My Single Mom Life: Stories and Practical Lessons for Your Journey. There she is, the author, successful, dressed sharp with perfectly done hair smiling, barely looking over the age of 35. Are you sure you're a single mom? Not saying single moms can't be pretty or successful, but the vast majority of single moms thanklessly toil in a most exhausting way to provide futures for their children. She looks pretty chipper for dealing with such a difficult subject.

I'm sure single mom life is hard for her, but as one reviewer said:

"While I respect and appreciated many things that this author described about her own experience as a single mother, the heavy emphasis on religion, the reliance on a masculine form of divinity and the reference to the constant craving for a "hunky" male partner, particularly towards the end, left me feeling like this book was directed primarily at the white, high heeled, manicured, primarily Christian raised, middle class lifestyle type of mother...If something in this book resonates for white middle class women, great, the book is a success. But there remain thousands of women who do not fit in this group. Some of the serious issues that are often part of single mother hood and need real solutions, real acknowledgement, seem to be minimized or ignored. Dealing with abusive ex-partners who remain involved in the children's lives, dealing with the emotional upheaval of depression, experiences of anxiety, trying to secure medical care for oneself and ones children, trying to find and get to therapy or good counselling, legal costs, not dating for years, not dating at all, having to manage house hold repairs, sick children, a full time job, shift work, all of these things alone, they just aren't dealt with adequately. The isolation of living in a smaller community, and not jetting off to other cities and countries, the lack of family resources and few reliable men who have time to mentor a son, they are realities for many many women. This book falls short for these women."

It just seems to being doing single moms a diservice.
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What is the deal with Christian writers abusing capitalization? I understand that when you quote scripture, you want it to stand out, but in the internet, TYPING WITH ALL CAPS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF YELLING. So stop it.

When I come across a post like this:

"AMEN AMEN JESUS HAS WON THE VICTORY SO WE SHOULD FOLLOW IN HIS GRACE REMEMBER WE HAVE NO LIFE WE LIVE FOR HIM!!!!"

It makes me sad. I dunno if Christians as a demographic are just not internet savvy, but not only does this guy abuse the caps lock, but apparently, nobody taught him about any punctuation save the exclamation mark (how better to praise Jesus than by abusing grammar?).

Now, I agree with everything this poster says, but you really need to put it across better. This is why agnostics, atheists and in general people who frequent this series of tubes called the Interwebs look at us Christians and just say, "I am pro, you are noob. This is life. Deal."

It's embarassing.
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The media portrays Iraqis in a lot of ways, often times as ungrateful subjects, helpless victims, bloodthirsty terrorists or backwards fundamentalists. However, one article talks briefly on how they are intellectuals.

"It's an old disease in Iraq - people spend their money on books, not on food. Iraqi intellectuals are very poor because of it."

That warms my heart, for some reason.
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I used to watch Arthur all the time on PBS. Here is the transcript for one of my favorite eppisodes, The Ballad of Buster Baxter, complete with Art the moose's song. Sweet!
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The blog Treehugger seems interesting. I'll have to check it out sometime.
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Dan Lyons, an apparently angry blogger, criticizes the Protestant church with the following statement about radical, fundamentalist preachers:

"If Martin Luther and John Calvin could come back today and hear how their supposed followers are now interpreting the Bible, they'd burn all their heretical books and rush back to the monastery."

Ouch.
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This article suggests that Starbucks sponsors some city projects in Seattle, coming up with some pretty unique names for famous landmarks rennovated corporate style.
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Review by a customer on Amazon.com:

"There is no emotion, the plot is frustratingly simple, and it's hard to decide who's stupider - Ariel (a bland, unlikable character we are suposed to believe suddenly becomes a 'strong' - but equally boring and stupid - woman in less than 10 pages), or the author."

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Everyone keeps arguing about how to keep the Mexicans out. It seems the crux of the problem is that Mexico isn't as cool as the United States. So the obvious thing to do is not to build an expensive wall that the Mexicans will probably find a way around anyway, but to make Mexico cooler.

Seriously. Walls are ugly and attract things like graffiti, homeless peoples' urine and things like facism and communism and every other bad -ism out there. Instead, we should use the money to invest in Mexico. Build up economies and schools and stuff so that people in Mexico actually want to stay in Mexico.

Building a wall won't help at all. It's like a challenge. They're probably all thinking, "What is so cool in the United States that they had to build a wall around it to keep us out?"
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The author of the mildly famous "Ancient Mirror" series writes an article that promotes parents playing video games with their children. Now, I think that's great on a moderate basis. Playing Grand Turismo with your teenager to find a common ground to talk about important subjects is a good idea. However, I disagree with Jayel Gibson's idea of playing World of Warcraft as a family:

"Online versions of role-playing games include the extremely popular World of Warcraft, and long running EverQuest series. Online game play offers the chance to create and play as a family clan, regardless of where family members are physically located. Families may play together long after kids are grown and have children of their own."

That's just a bad idea. First off, World of Warcraft is not exactly a very interactive game on a personal basis. You are not face to face, and you chat rather than talk most of the time. Plus, when Jimmy fails to heal little Susan after she aggros one too many mobs and wipes the party, it can cause some serious familial fall-out. It's bad enough that you have parental pressure to be good at school and sports and in the social life. Imagine the guilt when your mom grounds you for not tanking well in a raid. Older children neglecting those "children of their own" they now have to take down dragons with mom and pops is probably not the best example you want to give to your children. And finally, it's a scientific fact* that playing in The Barrens or hanging out at Goldshire will cause your children to get teen pregnant and use hardcore drugs, or at least deduct a good 20-50 IQ points.

*Not really, but I'm pretty sure it's true.
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Apparently, one website feels Mac users love their computers so much it borders on unhealthy lust. After all, you get quotes from reviews like:

"I have right here in my hot little hands that actually aren't all that little and are only slightly warm at the moment a brand new lick-ready smooth-as-love Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Super Orgasm Deluxe Ultrahard Modern Computing Device Designed by God Herself Somewhere in the Deep Moist Vulva of Cupertino Yes Yes Don't Stop Oh My God Yes."

That's what she said! Dang it, it's not even worth it anymore when it's this easy.

However, when you're confronted by the strong advances of an Apple product, most geeks would break down. Lucky for me, I have a hot girlfriend. Therefore I don't need to bother with using these silly machines to find any sense of satisfaction. But even without a girlfriend, I doubt I'd need an Apple product to find pleasure in life, unlike Mac users who may or may not be compensating for something when they gush about how incredibly lick-a-licious their Apple this is.

That's what she said.