Of course, if you aren’t Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, you won’t understand them or appreciate them that much. Just rest assured that for us on the other side of the Tiber (or whatever river is closest to Constantinople), this kind of snarky parodying of our more liberal (read “heretical”) co-religionists is highly entertaining. Yes, I do need to get a life. I know.

Anyway, you can already see three of the “unholy cards” displayed immediately below this post, and there’s plenty more to come!

My sincere apologies for hurting your feelings. It was not my intention. Please forgive me.

Mr. Shea, of course I forgive you!  How could I not?  I too have been a bit too polemical in my own dealings with you.  For that, I apologize.

From now on, this blog will not speak ill of anyone, no matter what.  I will only criticize ideas, not people.  This is my solemn pledge.

Yesterday, I cast my vote for John McCain.  I hope that you, my loyal readers, will find the courage to do the same.  We must build the culture of life, one brick at a time.  Thus, our gaze must be fixed on the candidate who is more likely to appoint pro-life Supreme Court Justices. 

That brings me to our next subject.

Some of you have been attacked by certain Catholic bloggers for your Republican sympathies.  Let it be known that Mark Shea openly mocked my comments, comparing me to a battered-wife engaged in self-delusion concerning her abusive husband.  I feel your pain.

And the most pathetic proof of this is the Abused Spouse Syndrome I am seeing in the comboxes from people who write stuff like:

[M]ark my words, when the GOP loses, they will dramatically liberalize their platform to win the next go-around. They will kick the pro-life movement off like a flee.

If the GOP loses, they will conclude that it was because they were pro-life and such, and will adjust accordingly to attain victory.

This will happen.

Don’t make hubby angry or he’ll slow the car down to 35 and shove you out the door–cuz he really loves you and it’s for your own good. Just be a good little wife and don’t rock the boat with too many demands. He really loves you down deep. You have to believe that. It’s just that he’s got so much on his mind and all. You’d deserve it if he hauled off and beat you and then got himself a new girlfriend. You’ve got to do better at pleasing your man!

Quite frankly, this respected Catholic apologist is on a rampage, and I’m not sure why.  He has no idea how many people he’s hurting.  Just scrolling through his posts…I can’t bear to read them.  There’s rage in every word.  I no longer see a formal difference between “Catholic and Enjoying it!” and “The Raving Atheist.”  Point out anything on the latter, and I can show you its parallel on the former.

Take, for example, the Godidiot of the Week.  In the same vein, Mr. Shea has his own Sin Makes You Stupid posts.  

Why anyone would ever think this sort of thing is actually constructive public discourse is entirely beyond me.  Mr. Shea is falling fast!  He’s become polemical, bitter, angry, flippant…and for what reason?

His blog has become a Catholic Pharyngula.

Bottom line:  Someone must stop him before he destroys himself.  We can’t afford to lose this valuable witness to Christ.  Email him, call him on the phone, I don’t care!  Just talk some reason into him!

Name:  Sliding Puzzle Madness

Problem Definition:  Solve an n x p rectangular sliding puzzle, where n and p are integers such that n > 1 and p > 1.

Goals:  Alert the user if a puzzle is invalid or unsolvable.  Use graphics to redisplay the puzzle after each move.

Sources of Information:  The user will enter a two-dimensional n x p array of the integers 1, 2, …, (n x p) – 1 in a random order to represent a rectangular sliding puzzle game board (the blank space will be denoted by nil).  This will be done at the command line.

Solution Strategy: 

Step (1)                          

Test to see if the puzzle is valid.  All indices must contain either nil or an integer value i such that 1< i < (n x p) – 1.  Moreover, the puzzle must not include duplicates of any value, including nil.  

Step (2)                          

If the puzzle is valid, then test to see if it is solvable.  String the rows together as a list such that each row is appended to the end of the previous row.  Use a recursive algorithm to select the first unselected index (until there are no more unselected indices) and then count the number of proceeding indices containing values less than that contained by the now selected index (ignore the index containing nil).  Add these counts together to obtain the number of inversions (pairs of indices a and b such that a precedes b, but the value of a is greater than that of b).  If p is odd, and the number of inversions is even, then the puzzle is solvable.  If p is even, and the blank space is positioned on an even row in the original puzzle, and the number of inversions is odd, then the puzzle is solvable.  If p is even, and the blank space is positioned on an odd row in the original puzzle, and the number of inversions is even, then the puzzle is solvable.  In all other cases, the puzzle is unsolvable. 

Step (3)                          

If the puzzle is solvable, then use a hill-climbing search with a look-ahead of ten moves to find a relatively efficient solution path.  Expand the game-tree to a depth of ten levels, assigning each node a heuristic value immediately upon generation.  If any node has a heuristic value of zero, stop the expansion process and move from the game-tree’s root to that node (recording each intermediate move).  Otherwise, move from the game-tree’s root to the leaf node whose heuristic value is lowest (recording each intermediate move; if two or more leaves have equal heuristic values, then choose the first one).  Repeat Step (3) until a solution path is found, using this leaf-node as the root of the new game-tree.

Step (4)                          

Utilizing graphics, display each intermediate move recorded in Step (3).  This will allow the user to visualize the solution path. 

Individual Responsibilities:  This is not applicable because I am working alone.

Therefore, if you’re having difficulties counting your blessings, start by thanking God you aren’t a math major.

Please enlighten me to the mysterious ways of cyberspace.  Also, let me know if you even want me to link to your blog (some of you might have privacy concerns).

Can you place me on your blogroll as well?