I really liked The Five Gospels as an attempt to cut through Christian dogma and translate known gospel writings as accurately as possible. Many scholars of "The Jesus Seminar" reviewed the translations and, at meetings, voted on whether they believed the historical Jesus of Nazareth actually said words attributed to him, or whether they were added midrashically, or by later church traditions.

The translations are good and the discussion of the historical opinions is good. I personally don't believe that history determines faith or vice-versa, but that they inform each other. If some miracle proves not to be scientifically true, the important part to me is what the Biblical writer was trying to say about God by saying that the miracle happened. (I'm firmly in the minority here - it seems that many evangelical Christians are horribly threatened by any hint that the Bible might not be a literal historical document, and they have no trouble saying so, even on Amazon.com.

But I never bought the follow-on book, The Acts of Jesus, from most of the same people, because I didn't want to spend $25 on the hardcover (I paid about $16 for the paperback version of The Five Gospels, and at that time, it really made a difference). I've just been stuck in the mentality of waiting for the paperback version, and for some reason, I wondered today why it had never come out.

Well, it had - but it was no better than the hardcover. Take a look at these two Amazon prices:

On the left, with the orange stripe, is the original hardcover version of The Acts of Jesus. It retails for $35, and Amazon sells it for about $24, shipping in 2-3 weeks. On the right, with the blue stripe, is the paperback version of the same book, which retails for $25 and, unlike the hardcover, is apparently out-of-print. Amazon can find one for you, maybe, but it'll cost you more than the hardcover version!

(I'm using these graphic Amazon links because Amazon serves them, and therefore updates the prices every time you see them, but they're a bit flawed. As I write this, the paperback link says "Buy New: $25.00", but Amazon doesn't have any in stock and can't sell it to you at that price. They can get you a used copy for $108.82, though!)

I suppose it's just one of those book industry things. After all, Best Book Buys can't even find the paperback edition. But if I recall correctly, the paperback versions of The Five Gospels and The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholar's Version sold fairly well, so it puzzles me.

As so many things do.

AP - Disgraced Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist doctored trial evidence and may have destroyed hair samples that could have exonerated a man now on death row, according to a confidential police memo obtained by The Associated Press. [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

All those damn rules about "innocent until proven guilty" and "fair trial" really do interfere with imprisoning the ones we just "know" did it, don't they? Here's a really spooky part, involving the case of Curtis McCarty, who has been on Death Row for about 18 years for a crime he may not have committed:

The results, the memo said, showed that Gilchrist "wrote over" her original notes from 1983 that concluded McCarty's hair was "not consistent" with strands found at the crime scene — meaning he was excluded as a suspect.

Three years later, McCarty was tried for murder. During that trial, the memo said, she testified from her altered notes, saying McCarty's hairs were consistent with strands found on the body of 18-year-old Pamela Willis, the daughter of a police officer.

The Tulsa police analysis indicates "Gilchrist wrote over the word 'not' to reflect the word 'show,'" the memo states. In another instance, Gilchrist added the word "completely" underneath the word "not," the memo says.

"The impact of this alteration was that McCarty was left in as a potential suspect rather than excluded," the memo says. "The Board has tremendous concerns and suspicions concerning Gilchrist's analysis of this case."

Remember, when conservatives hear someone has been on Death Row for 18 years, their first reaction is to eliminate appeals so people like McCarty would have been executed about a decade ago...

Reuters - Norris McWhirter, who founded GuinnessWorld Records with his twin brother and turned the book into aglobal best seller, has died aged 78, a spokesman said onTuesday. [Yahoo! News - Entertainment]

Twin brother Ross McWhirter was killed in an IRA attack in 1975, IIRC.

Today, Atrios quotes an article Condolezza Rice wrote in 2000 that basically says everything the administration is doing in Iraq toay is doomed to failure. But afterwards, he hits the phrase everyone should be repeating:

Look, for too long these people have swept this stuff aside by chanting "9/11 changed everything." No, 9/11 didn't change everything. What 9/11 did is prove that these people were wrong about absolutely everything. And, what Iraq has proven is they still haven't learned anything.

That's it right there, and needs lots of airtime:

9/11 didn't change everything. 9/11 proved the neocons were wrong about everything.

Although not as gripping to me as part one, the Los Angeles Times concluded its story about how the government lied to a district court, an appeals court, and the US Supreme Court, all to create a definition of "state secrets" so it could lie about more things in the future. Still well, well worth reading.

I really like the movie A Mighty Wind, including the music, and I'd like to purchase the soundtrack, but I haven't seen it around here, and I never remember to add it to a mail order from Amazon or wherever.

For the longest time, the album wasn't available on the iTunes Music Store, but a month or so ago, it appeared as linked above - but I can't buy the album. I can only buy individual songs.

Now I'm an adult, so I'm not one to cry if I can't get a $17 album for $10 through the iTunes Music Store. However, there are 17 tracks on the album, and every place online that's selling it is doing so for less than $14. Here's Amazon's current price:

I'm just fine with purchasing music with the light restrictions Apple imposes, but I'm really not going to pay more to get restricted music than I'd pay to get the unrestricted CD, and so I do without. I live with the restrictions of digital music because it's cheaper and more convenient. When it's neither, I have no trouble passing.

Maybe I'll just get the songbook and play the damn stuff myself.