Writer's Words (page 6)

Under the influence of this reaction against natural law, some Christian apologists have seized upon the latest doctrines of the atom, which tend to show that the physical laws in which we have hitherto believed have only an approximate and average truth as applied to large numbers of atoms, while the individual electron behaves pretty much as it likes.

I can, however, imagine the modern liberal theologian maintaining with an air of profundity that all creation is miraculous, so that he no longer needs to fasten upon certain occurrences as special evidence of Diven intervention.

It is no credit to the orthodox that they do not now believe all the absurdities that were believed 150 years ago. The gradual emasculation of the Christian doctrine has been effected in spite of the most vigorous resistance, and solely as the result of the onslaughts of freethinkers.

...But the Buddhist priesthood — as it exists, for example, in Tibet — has been obscurantist, tyrannous, and cruel in the highest degree.

the death knell of Microsoft.

I began selling things for friends, taking a nearly usurious 60 percent cut of the action for auctioning off their old stereo equipment, beaded purses, Ted Williams autographed pix, neon signs, vintage Boy Scout hats, and whatnot.

“Sire Gibson, forgive me, but why does lord Steward wish to march on a geek stronghold?”. “Knave! You insult the lady with your ignorance!”.

Definition for poetaster: writer of insignificant, meretricious, or shoddy poetry.

In all these encounters eros and thanatos are exquisitely mixed. The dead body of the first woman's father is clearly visible as she confesses her confused passion; the prostitute turns out to be under the threat of AIDS; the orgiasts, resenting William's intrusion on their saturnalia, threaten him with humiliation and death, and he is “redeemed” only by the intervention of a mysterious woman, who pays for his life with her own.

... and, finally, in the movie's central sequence, he succeeds in invading a secret orgy, where masked couples disport themselves sexually in a display that is more grim than wanton.

With the film's sensational response at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the actress changed her look from frumpy slacker to sleek ingenue and has been on a whirlwind of studio meetings.

He [Marque de Sade] defied them [morality], chronicling his defiance in volume after volume of denunciation and invective, liberally interwoven with sexual outrages of one kind or another.

in an ecstasy, girls swoon, men get woozy...

portmanteau words, worth a chortle.

In summary, almost every concern that you might think of has already been (at least) thought about. In a perfect world, every concern could be addressed perfectly. But in this world we just have to slog through.

Totally '90s in its preoccupation with angst and property values,...

The grass-roots campaign to slip prayer back into school is aimed at a chink in the Supreme Court's rulings: the court has never expressly stated whether voluntary student prayers are permissible.

[Steve] Jobs had to run through the demonstration without giving any hint of the rickety state of the software. With the auditorium full, the lights were dimmed, and at 9:39, while in the wings his crew had gathered and chanted a good-luck mantra, “Please don't fuck up, please don't fuck up,”,...

... but I instantly disliked them as being superficial, unedifying and self-indulgent. Subsequently I read snippets of interviews and came to the conclusion that he was insincere as well.