Flightplan

We just finished watching Flightplan, Jodie Foster's new flick. It's all-round pretty good, very watchable, well worth wasting an evening to watch.

And it's especially nice to see Sean Bean make it to the end of a movie without getting killed. Nice job, Sean, we knew you had it in you.

Doombreed rating: ****1/2

Life's full of these little disappointments

One if the major drawbacks of being an atheist is that we lack the smugness of other religious positions.

See, if one is a Christian, one can observe other religious positions with a feeling that, come death, they will find out the folly of their ways. When they find themselves face to face with God, being judged, they will realise their mistake. And the same can be said for other religions, whether one believes in Allah's divine judgment, or in the grace of Yaweh, or in the inevitability of another turn on the wheel of life.

But atheists have no such position to look forward to. After all, when you die, you die. There's no "you" left to realise that you were wrong. It's over, done, finito.

The Christian that dies, in the "sure and certain hope of resurrection" (and it doesn't take a genius to see the contradiction in that quote), will never see their error, because there is no "they" to see it.

Just random meanderings from an atheist who likes to look on the ironic side of life a little too much.

A giant leap for blogkind

I've just laid my hands on an AlphaSmart Pro, so I'm writing this from the comfort of my sofa, and later on I'll hook it up to the computer and upload the text.

This is going to make blogging much more "real time."

Which is completely pointless, yet fun.

Bleh

It's late Sunday night and I have to be up at 0615 to go to work tomorrow. Oh what fun. So, just to be quick, here's a link. A link that might make you laugh. A link that will waste perfectly good time. Which you should be spending doing important things. Like working. Who'm I kidding? Go look.

And, despite the title, the link is suitable for work.

SPANK THE MONKEY!!!

Okay, seeing as you've been good, here's another link. And this one is bloody and a bit tastless, but no nudity or anything like that:

BLOODY PINGU THROW!!!

Now go play.

More garbage from the anti-choice mob

The right, who have, with Alito's nomination still unconfirmed, been unable - yet - to stack the Supreme Court with enough of their ilk to overturn Roe v Wade (the 60's landmark Supreme Court case which acknowledged a woman's right to control her body in the area of abortions) have many other irons in the fire. Their latest piece of idiocy is that pharmacists are allowed, in most states, to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control or emergency "morning-after" pills, if doing so goes against their religious beliefs.

What a crock. What next? "Police Officer refuses to arrest a fellow Christian"? "Firefighter refuses to rescue Moslems from blazing building"? "Paramedic refuses to give mouth-to-mouth to Jew"? "Doctor refuses to resuscitate Atheist"? How about "video store employee refuses to serve black customer"? Sound so reasonable now?

No, of course not. But pharmacists want "the right to choose".

Hey, you already have the right to choose. Choose to fill the prescription or choose to find a new job. It's that simple.

Friday Rodent Blogging

Imo, who has, apparently, read (or chewed, at least) a book on the art of camouflage.

Hate in the guise of charity

News of a French group - called Bloc Identitaire - reaches my ears (or, rather, eyes) which is rushing out to provide hot soup to the nation's homeless whilst the continent is in the grip of the worst winter in decades.

Nice.

Except they're giving out soup made from pork. Now, if this was a mistake, it'd be bad. But it's deliberate. It's deliberately done because Block Identitaire is a far-right white-supremacist group who knows that both Moslems and Jews are forbidden from eating pork. And they're not even trying to play innocent, they openly admit it.

Don't get me wrong, Bloc Identitaire has the right to be narrow-minded, ignorant, bigoted arseholes if they wish. That is their prerogative. But their ignorance may be their undoing in the case of Moslems. See, the Koran prohibits the eating of pork, but says "But if one is forced by necessity, without willful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits, then Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

So, a homeless Moslem, in a situation where it's eat pork or die, is allowed to eat.

Shoulda researched that better, hmmm?

Thumbs up for HRH Henry

So, the news has broken that Prince Henry, he of the "younger son of the future King" fame, is to join the Household Cavalry. At first glance, the Household Cavalry - who most people consider to be simply the Life Guards (the guys with all the shiny on horses outside Buckingham Palace) - seems like a typical, cushy, never-see-action choice appropriate to a young member of the Royal Family. But don't get smug, because he's actually going to join The Blues And Royals, a unit that is most definitely a combat unit.

As well as boasting a history going back to the 17th century, they've seen action all over the globe, most recently in The Falkland Islands, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq. And in the modern world where massive MBTs and anti-tank weapons bristle just about everywhere, it takes some guts to hurtle around in, what is basically, a tin box on tracks like the Scimitar or Spartan.

Maybe Harry is more his mother's son than it might first appear, or maybe it's the influence of having an ex-SAS officer as personal secretary, but both Harry and his brother are shaping up okay. This bodes well for a future without an English President.

(In case anyone didn't get it, Doombreed is a die-hard Royalist.)

Underworld Evolution

WOW. Mrs Doombreed and I went to see Underworld Evolution today, and it was amazing. It's one of those rare sequels that lives up to the original. The storyline is excellent, the action scenes as violent and fluid as ever, the ongoing revelation of Selene's backstory is intriguing, the history and origin of the vampire/lycan feud is explained in greater detail, and Kate Beckinsale looks sexier than ever in that outfit.

Doombreed rating: *****

Warning: potential spoiler below:






My only problem with the plot lies here:

If you wanted to lock up an immortal being "for all eternity" (direct quite from the movie) why would you create a key for the prison you put him in, no matter how ornate or devious? I mean, "all eternity" kinda implies you never want him released, so why would you even bother with a key? Right? Okay, it'd make for a short movie, but...

News from the land of the bizarre

A woman from Illinois has been jailed for leaving her three kids - all under the age of 5 - at home alone while she went to the taping of The Jerry Springer Show. That she'd gone only became apparent after the three kids went over to a neighbour's house when they got hungry after their mother had been gone for five hours. Over four hours later, she returned home to be arrested.

She said "I didn't think I'd be gone that long."

Okay then. That makes it all okay.

Is anybody surprised that it was Jerry Springer?

Nancyboys and Fairies League

So, I watched both of the championship games today. The AFC Steelers-Broncos was first, then the NFC Seahawks-Panthers.

Considering that both games were supposed to represent the two best teams in their respective conferences, both games were - well - boring. In both games it almost seemed like the losing team didn't care and the winning team were just walking all over them.

Still, we'll see how the Seahawks do - without their "12th man" (the Seattle home crowd bellowing so loud that the visiting team can't hear the plays being called) - when they travel to Detroit in two weeks time to take on the mighty steamroller that is the Steelers in the superbowl. Because it's a road game for both teams, the Seahawks' "12th man" won't be in dominance and the crowd will be pretty much 50/50 Seahawks/Steelers.

Y'know, I've only been watching this game for a few years, but even I can remember when home teams used to get penalised if their fans were so noisy that the visitors couldn't hear the play calling or the audible pre-snap counts, especially if the home team were encouraging them. Now Seattle even has a #12 flag that they raise in honour of their fans doing precisely that.

Maybe we'll see if Seattle really deserves to be there.

News from the land of the bizarre

Here's a story:

A women went into a Florida hospital to have a baby. After the baby was born she was told she'd caught a streptococcus infection - a bacterial infection routinely treated with antibiotics - and she was moved to another facility where they cut off her arms and legs. And now she's having to file a lawsuit to find out why the hospital deemed quadruple amputation was necessary - because they refuse to tell her.

Think I made it up?

Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.

Friday Rodent Blogging

Y'know, Imo's an old man. He's old. If he were human he'd be buying a zimmer frame, yelling at people to speak up and telling stories about his memories of the war. The Boer War.

Yet he still finds the energy to run on that damn wheel of his. And look at him, ears back, tail high, eyes slitted, legs a-pumpin'.

He's keeping in shape.

For what, we're not quite sure. It's probably the end-stage of some evil plan or other. Soon comes the day when we'll be forced to bow before our gerbil masters.

Or something.

And now for a nicer hamster story

This is a picture of Aochan, a rat snake living in a Japanese zoo, with Gohan, a hamster that was fed to the snake. In October.

Apparently, Aochan refused to eat Gohan and the pair now share a cage with every indication that they enjoy each other's company. Gohan has even been observed falling asleep draped across a creature that should send him scurrying into a corner, screeching in terror.

And this kind of thing itsn't unprecedented. Witness the lioness that keeps adopting baby antelopes.

Not quite lions and lambs, but it's no wonder that the nutbars think we're living in the Last Days.

Or maybe it's simply proof of Sir Arthur Eddington's famous postulation that "not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."

Yeah, you're scum

Apparently two students got drunk one night and decided to wrap up a hamster in an envelope and send it through the post.

Yeah, it's illegal, but it's also cruel.

Students. That means they go to college. Cambridge University, in fact. Shit, never has the term "educated idiot" seemed so appropriate. The Beeb article neglects to mention what subject the pair of morons are studying, but it's a sad statement of our education system that one of the top Universities in the country boasts idiots like this in the classes.

The hamster, named "First Class" by the post office, is okay and was discovered by the postie who emptied the pillar box. First Class had chewed her way out of the envelope she'd been sealed in, and had the postie not spotted her, would have died in the sorting machine.

Yeah, you're scum. Check out the pictures. Fuckin' Hooray Henries.

Hi, I'm Doombreed and I'm a child

Mrs Doombreed and I went to the cinema yesterday. What did we see? Was it Hostel, a bloody gorefest from the mind of Tarantino? Was it King Kong, an effects-packed event movie? Was it Brokeback Mountain, the gay cowboy movie that has the religious right up in arms? Was it Munich, the hot thriller about the revenge bombings for the massacre of the Israeli Olympic team? Was it Glory Road, the socio-political drama about the first all-black college basketball team?

Nope. We went to see Hoodwinked. Which is a kids movie. Animated. About Red Riding Hood. And a plot to steal the recipes for all the goodies in the forest. Being investigated by a frog in a suit.

And I loved every second of it. It was hilarious, it was slick, it had the guy who voiced Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove as the voice of The Big Bad Wolf.

I'm Doombreed, and I'm a child.

And if you're a child, no matter what your chronological age, I heartily recommend Hoodwinked.

Doombreed rating: *****

P.s. Next week is Underworld: Evolution. Sweet.

Quit whining

Today's coverage of yesterday's Steelers-Colts game might have left the unsuspecting reader with the impression that the Steelers lost the game. Certainly, they're whining about it as if they lost.

Steelers' linebacker Joey Porter said, of a decision by the referee to overturn an interception by Troy Polamalu:

"I know they wanted Indy to win the game; the whole world loves Peyton Manning, but come on, man, don't take the game away from us like that."

Two articles in my local newspaper contain several similar accusations of bias or incompetence. What stuns me is that during the game, the refereeing was - if anything - biased against the Colts. A typical example was, early in the first quarter, a Colts defensive player was flagged for "facemasking" (grabbing an opponent's facemask), despite the fact that it was the Steelers' receiver he was tackling who was doing the facemasking.

The game stats show the truth. Nine flags thrown against Indianapolis for a total of sixty-seven yards in penalties, two flags thrown against Pittsburgh for eight yards in penalties. Gee, that's some biased-towards-Indianapolis refereeing.

The Polamalu interception? I understood the explanation for it being overturned, even if many pundits around the country didn't. Polamalu caught the ball as he went to the ground. The rules require that he controls the ball until he gets back to his feet. If at any time he loses the ball, it's incomplete. He lost the ball before he could get back up.

See? It's that simple. And if a Brit that's been living here in the US for only a few years can get it, why are all these Yanks so mystified? Even the NFL themselves don't seem to understand why the call was made. Yep, the NFL broke with tradition and publicly criticised the decision of one of its referees. That's how much the whole world wanted the Colts to win.

And, y'know ...

It's all a moot point anyway because the decision made no difference to the game and the Steelers won anyway!

I could understand all this bellyaching if the Colts had won, but they didn't. They lost. Quit whining.

Bleh

Well, that was a depressing Sunday.

Both the Colts and the Bears went tumbling out of the playoffs, despite both teams making a late rally and counterattack.

What especially pissed me off was Terry Bradshaw (who was once a quarterback for the Steelers) having a go at Peyton Manning (quarterback for the Colts) because he said in the post-game press conference that there had been "some pass protection problems."

(simply put: Between the quarterback and the defensive guys is a group of guys called "the offensive line". They have two jobs: On a running play they have to push the defensive guys out of the way so the guy running with the ball can get through; and on passing plays they have to keep the defensive guys away from the quarterback long enough for some guys to get downfield in position to catch a pass. That second job is called "pass protection" for obvious reasons. When pass protection fails, the defensive guys get through and tackle the quarterback (a "sack"), or at least cause him to throw the ball before he or his receivers are ready)

The pass protection for the Colts sucked today. And remember, when the pass protection fails, it's the quarterback who's eating turf play after play. So, yeah, Manning had the right to be a little bit pissed that every time he turned around there were Steelers in his face, and the fact that he controlled himself and described this farce as "some pass protection problems" is admirable.

Bradshaw, now a pre- and post-game pundit, held forth about how the quarterback, as the leader of the team, shouldn't be publicly criticising them.

Fuck that. His offensive line needs to know that they suck and suck bad. They should be lambasted in every form of media for their complete lack of ability.

Instead, they'll blame Mike Vanderjagt, the kicker, for missing the last-gasp equalising field-goal. People will remember the ball going sailing off to the right of the goalposts, but what they'll probably forget is that it was a kick that Vanderjagt should never have had to make and wouldn't have had to, had the Colts been playing like the Colts.

As for the Bears, they played bloody well considering their quarterback was only on his fourth professional game, and had only played once before this season. The Bears can at least have the satisfaction of knowing they played as well as they could have been expected to.

Nancyboys and Fairies League

I watched the Denver-New England game. Some background may be in order. The New England Patriots have won the last two superbowls, and three out of the last four. And they've been insufferable for it. They even went into this game claiming they'd found a way to beat Denver. So anyone who knows me will immediately be able to pick out which team I was rooting for.

Not only did New England's secret plan not work, Denver pretty much buried them. Nicely done.

Today I was a Denver fan. Tomorrow I'll be an Indianapolis Colts fan. And the Chicago Bears. Gotta love the Bears.

Hilarious II

This actually IS too funny. I almost died whilst reading it. Warning: Not for those with weak hearts or diseases of the lung.

Hilarious

This is almost too funny.

And don't start thinking it's cruel. I bet that dog's having the time of its life.

Friday Rodent Blogging

Wooaaah! Extreme close-up! Imo does his Wayne's World bit.

This is nice

The government in Britain is expected to relax Sunday trading laws, allowing businesses to open longer. I know, I know, I'm an atheist, so I'm bound to like this. But maybe not for the reasons you might think. I have no problem with those that want to treat Sunday as something special. If you want to go to church, go. If you want to spend the day praying, pray. If you want to strip naked and smear yourself in bacon grease, go right ahead.

Just don't force me to participate.

Here's a quote from the article:

Ministers want to relax the curbs after pressure from supermarket chains, which want the Government to bring England and Wales into line with Scotland, where there are no restrictions. But the move faces opposition from small traders and religious groups who want to "keep Sunday special".

The "small traders", I get. At the moment, when the big shops close, the small shops get big business, and relaxing Sunday trading laws would impact that. But this "keep Sunday special" crap annoys me. It's as if people think that they can't have a special day of the week without the muscle of the government enforcing it. Here's a thought - be an independent adult human being and take control of your own life. If you want Sunday to be special - or, indeed, any day of the week, or, if it comes to that, any day of the year, or, in extremis, every day of the year - make it so. Don't force your superstitions on me, and don't force me to pay to police our forced observance of your superstitions.

The True and Unalterable Word Of God

Until we want to change it.

Oops.. Didn't think that through, did we?

Remember the furore over the leaked memos claiming Bush 'n' Blair discussed the possibility of bombing the headquarters of Arabic news station Al Jazeera?

Remember how both Bush 'n' co and Blair 'n' co claimed the memos were fabrications? Utterly false? "Outlandish and unbelievable"?

Well, the two guys responsible for the documents' exposure are being charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Tiny problem.

They can only be charged if the documents are genuine.

Y'know, because if they're, like, fakes, then they're not, y'know, like, official secrets, are they?

Oops.

Naughty link time

I post this link not out of any slobbery adolescent slave Leia fantasies (which I don't have, no sir, not me) but simply for information purposes. Anyone who has a desperate need to buy or make their very own slave Leia costume can find out how at Leia's Metal Bikini.

Stop looking at the pics, people. Sheesh.

I KNEW it!

All those times I've been criticised for being a slow riser in the mornings are finally laid to rest. I'm not lazy, I'm simply protecting the world from the dangers of my sleep inertia which is, according to a new study, every bit as mentally debilitating and potentialy dangerous as drunkenness.

So there.

Palmer accepts apology

Carson Palmer has accepted Kimo von Oelhoffen's apology for the hit that ended his, and probably the Bengals', season today. Van Oelhoffen's hit, which is described in that second article as an "unintentionally firm tug", sent Palmer out on the second snap of the game.

"I'm not gonna lie, it affected me a little bit," von Oelhoffen said. "That kid deserved a shot to play in this game. It's always horrible when somebody gets hurt. We're all football players -- we're together, we compete against each other, but we're together."

[...]

"How would it affect you if you had just torn one of the most promising quarterback's knees out? You do not like to see that happen. But he'll rebound," von Oelhoffen said. "He's young and he's going to be around for a long time. ... I hope he gets better because he's a great player."

The Steelers, though, are getting pissed at suggestions that had Palmer played, the result would have been different.

What several Steelers disliked was the insinuation that the injury greatly influenced the game, and that they needed something like that to win in Cincinnati, where they have won five of their last six.

"I'm not going to sit here and let that be a reason to spoil our victory, Carson not playing," linebacker Joey Porter said of the Steelers' 14th victory in 17 road games over the last two seasons. "This is the NFL and people get hurt; it's not the first time someone's got hurt in a game. We've had people get hurt all year. You take your wounds and keep on ticking."

The Steelers played four games without their own starting quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, with two knee injuries, and left tackle Marvel Smith also missed substantial time.

"We came away with a victory. If Palmer had played, I think the same thing would have happened," Porter said.

I guess we'll never know. But one thing's for sure, it couldn't have been any worse with Palmer playing.

Bengals 17-31 Steelers

Yeah, so, okay. When I started this Bengals trip I did say that I expected them to play like England. Today I was proved right.

First, we have the strong start. Two plays in, Palmer fires a 60-odd yard missile downfield which Henry catches right on the money. Unfortunately, not only does this play take Henry out, who landed badly after a tackle, but a Steelers defensive player "accidentally" grabbed Palmer's ankle, then "accidentally" slammed his shoulder into his knee, a knee which "coincidently" happened to be Palmer's bum-recently-seriously-injured knee. Bye-bye Carson, see you next season. Yeah, I admit it, I'm having a little difficulty seeing such a fortuitous (for the Steelers) event, which seemed so unlikely and so deliberate, as accidental. But, whatever.

Bengals backup comes out. I didn't even bother memorising his name. Jon something-or-other. And, well, hope was maintained. For about a quarter and maybe half of the second quarter. Cincy took the lead. The defense was almost everything that the season had promised. The offense were making plays. Jon what's-his-name was moving the chains and scoring points. Dreams of a matchup in Indy were surfacing.

And then, half-time.

That's when the Bengals went home and sent out the Ohio State Varsity Girls Volleyball Team (B-squad) in their uniforms.

Jon whatever-the-hell-his-name-was couldn't hit a cow's arse with a shovel, and that's when he could be bothered to throw. Most of the time he was merrily trotting around the backfield waiting for the Steelers' defensive line to get bored enough to sack him. One play, he was so well protected whilst looking downfield and apparently not seeing three - count 'em, three - open receivers waiting for a throw that he fumbled the ball. I shit you not. Twenty yards away from the nearest Steelers guy, standing completely in the open, he just .. drops the ball. Must have run into some sort of fly-type insect or something.

Pretty much the only successful throws he made were to guys in black helmets. Hint: You're supposed to be throwing to the guys whose helmets look like tigers, y'know, orange and black stripes?

Meanwhile, the defense manfully tried to stop a Steelers offense that includes a guy called, and the size of, "The Bus", who was pounding up the turf as fast as he was pounding up the Bengals. Tried, with limited success. The Sleelers offense even got so cocky and relaxed that they started trying out circus-trick plays to impress the crowd. And scoring from them.

And, with all the predictability and inevitability of an England-Germany World Cup quarter- or semi-final, the clock ground down and my team were stuffed and mounted.

But, once again, like England, we were crap, but not that crap. At least we scored, eh, Giants?

June. Germany 2006. A chance to live it all again.

Can't wait.

The God FAQ

Ever wanted a place to answer all your questions about religion? All those questions about various deities answered in simple, no-nonsense terms? A place to go when your faith is troubled?

Look no more:

The Official God FAQ.

Friday Rodent Blogging

This is Imo, who is Not Talking To Us.

He is Not Talking To Us because we cleaned out his cage. Gerbils need their bedding changed less than hamsters do, so by the time Imo's cage needs cleaning out he's usually amassed a fairly sizable pile of chewed up cardboard, which he digs in, sleeps in and, yes, prepares to ambush me from. So, when we remove it, he spends the first hour or so Not Talking To Us. Then he gets down to the business of re-stockpiling.

Reaching into his cage during this hour of Not Talking To Us was recently rejected by the makers of Fear Factor as being "way too life-threatening" and "beyond insanity".

Robertson opens mouth again

Pat Robertson, founder and host of TV's most prominent religious nonsense show, The 700 Club, self-styled mouthpiece of God, all-round annoyance to anyone with a brain, and source of such brilliantly Christian rants as "we should assassinate Hugo Chavez", "9/11 was caused by gays and feminists", "Judges appointed by the Democrat Party are a greater threat to America than Al-Qaeda", and "people who live in Dover, PA, are damned to hell for upholding the Constitution", as well as such wonderful examples of pure, solid, logical thinking as "Hurricane Katrina was caused by abortions" and "Atheism is a religion" has opened his mouth again, and it's all true to form.

God gave Ariel Sharon a stroke as punishment.

Okay, it sounds like the tagline of a bizarre BDSM movie, but, yes, Pat believes Sharon got laid low by that ole time wrath of God.

Pat Robertson is living, breating, bullshitting proof that there is no God.

As Calvin said; "I find it hard to believe in God when some people haven't been struck by lightning."

In this hellbound Atheist's opinion, anyway...

Neil Gaiman

Gaiman is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. I first encountered his work via one of my other favourite writers, Terry Pratchett, with whom Gaiman collaborated on the excellent Good Omens, a typically Pratchettesque - which pretty much just means funny and irreverent - novel about the apocalypse.

From there, I bought Neverwhere, an absolute must-read for anyone who's spent any time traveling on the Tube. American Gods was borrowed from my local library, and I just purchased Smoke And Mirrors with a gift card that the exquisite Mrs Doombreed gave me for Christmas.

He's worth checking out, if mindbending weirdness and challenging, intelligent fiction is your cup of tea.

Pic added

I decided to add a pic and, disdaining the unleashing of any pictures of The Horror That Is Doombreed upon the world, I decided to resurrect my old forum-posting avatar, suitably altered with the addition of a Bengals helmet and the legend "WHO DEY?", the Bengals warcry.

Cool.

The Raven Armoury

Searching through my "favorites" folder the other night, I uncovered an old and dusty link to the Raven Armoury.

The Raven Armoury, as well as being responsible for the Golden Demon Slayer Sword awarded to the winner of each year's Golden Demon UK championship, have an oustanding array of sharp pointy things made using traditional methods and materials. So exacting is their craftmanship that they currently have a waiting list over three years long on most commissions, and their stuff can run into thousands of pounds.

But find something you like, such as the various versions of Snaga the Sender - The Axe Of The Deathwalker, and suddenly it all seems worth it...

Excuse me whilst I go wipe the drool from my chin.

"Prove Christ Existed"

Oh, now this should be good. An Italian court has ordered that a priest appear to prove that Christ existed.

Theists have long argued that there is ample evidence that Christ - or, at least, some form of god - exists, and that it would be a simple matter to prove such to the satisfaction of a court of law. This is, of course, bull, but it doesn't stop the claim.

Once you dismiss the entire bible as inadmissible hearsay, with the caveat that it was, for over a thousand years, in the sole keeping of an organisation with a vested interest in promoting it as truth, you're left with non-biblical sources.

Namely; Josephus - the Jewish historian whose writings we have three versions of: the one that comes to us via the Vatican which calls Christ "a doer of wonderful works", the one that comes to us via the Jewish church which doesn't mention Christ at all, and the one that comes to us via archaeology, written in Arabic, which describes Christ as a "charlatan"; and Tacticus - the Roman historian who mentions "Christus", but fails to even mention - even to debunk - any rumour of any hint of any belief concerning any supernaturalism about the man.

Add zero archaeological evidence of the man himself - and even the Vatican admits that the Turin Shroud is a fake - nor any other records, and you've really got a lost cause.

Still, it'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Bengals 3-37 Chiefs

Well, this was not the Bengals finest hour.

Still, in the playoffs anyway. First game is at home against the Steelers, which should be fun.

11-5-0