'07-'08

"No time for love Dr. Jones."
- Randal (clerks)

I don't have any time so I just want to say happy new years to everyone out there on the internets. Lets try to make it a good one.

Peace!

Bertrand Russell

There's a couple of Russell quote on this site, one right at the top, the other all the way at the bottom that you've probably never noticed. I felt like writing a little something on the subject because I just finished reading "Why I Am Not A Christian," which I found to be quite the interesting read. Most of the attacks against religion I've heard before but It's interesting to see how we are slowly heading in the right direction. There was a part about how he was attacked because he said that if a toddler is caught touching themselves they should be left alone, drawing attention to the subject only increases their curiosity. The church said this was immoral. You know what the doctors tell you today? The child is simply exploring their body, all of it, they do not yet have the same sensations as adults in those areas and so whenever practical its is best to simply ignore the behavior, drawing attention to the behavior simply increases their curiosity. As a historical work I found the entire book quite fascinating. It's a very strange sensation to read any comparison to Hitler in anything but the most extreme fashion. To see Hitler used simply as an example of a fascist leader and not the embodiment of evil is really odd, until you realize that the article was written in 1925, Hitler was just a fascist at that point.

One of the most interesting parts is actually not by Bertrand Russell at all, its in the appendix, it's the telling of the "Bertrand Russell Case" in which a judge declared Russell "Unfit" to teach at a Public University. I'm no lawyer but even a layman can see the horrible injustice of the case. One of the biggest injustices being that the person suing to keep him out was the parent of a young woman who did not want her daughter to be taught by an atheist. The problem is that it was not a co-ed school at the time, and so there was no possible way that this young lady could be taught by Lord Russell. That was deemed irrelevant. Prior to the trial there was a huge public battle in the media on which Russell himself kept nearly silent saying that those who don't follow the orthodox must expect to be attacked on occasion and its usually best to simply ignore the attacks. But once the lies entered the court room he felt he must defend himself. I can't recall the exact wording but the judge had no interest in hearing what Russell had to say because he had no standing in the case.... but the girl who couldn't be his student did... There was lost of other fucked up things in the case but that was probably the pinnacle for me. It was also very interesting to see how attacked him and who defended him. Other than it was exactly who you would expect, everyone who actually knew him defended him, those who had studied under him or worked with him lavished praise upon him. Those who prefer to stick with existing dogma hated and vilified him.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.
- Albert Einstein

Huckabee's good and evil

Ok you'll probably need to click on it to zoom in enough to see what the individual pictures are but its fuckin priceless, bestiality and necrophilia are the best. Thats not a line you get to say very often...

Anyway thank you to Blog of the Moderate Left for the image, and PZ for pointing it out, he's also in the pic.

Vegan

I have no intention of becoming a vegan but I might have a new roommate soon and shes vegan, and cute. Forgetting all the obvious thoughts running through your head about what I'm thinking (they're right), there's also the simple fact that I've always meant to learn how to cook, but cooking for yourself sucks. I'm just too apathetic about my own comfort to worry about cooking good food. I don't worry about heat until it drops below 60, inside. At the same time I'll do almost anything for a friend, so I think having a roommate will help motivate me to learn to cook. The fact that I need to learn how to cook vegan food that I'm willing to eat too just adds to the challenge. The fact that the roommate is single female and cute simply means I'm more motivated than I might otherwise be.

The real point of this post though is asking if anyone knows any good vegan recipes, and if you've got some that are easy to make thats a plus, like I said I'm learning to cook. I'm looking at you Granola Guy, I have this strange feeling you might know a thing or two about hippy food.

Christmas

I don't think I've actually mentioned christmas yet this year on the blog and thats not by accident. I may be a fairly outspoken atheist but I love christmas. The reason is quite simply, I love my family and this holiday is the excuse we use to get everyone together. Christmas Eve the immediate family sits around and talks, we eat steak, talk some more then we decide if were actually going to bother going to church this year, last year we came really close to saying screw it but at the last moment my mom decided she wanted to so grudgingly we got ready. Honestly I even like my church, ok so other than christmas I haven't been there since high school but I did meet some great people there, and got to do some amazing things the mission trips to Guatemala obviously being the high point. The actual sermons are pretty freaking dull and my mom has to elbow everyone else in the family in order to keep us from screwing around but on christmas even that stuff isn't so bad. If nothing else I used to like it because they would give us a candle and turn down the lights for a few songs, and being a minor pyro as a child I did enjoy that. Christmas day I still wake up early, although these days it has less to do with childish excitement and more to do with the fact that I'll have slept on my parents couch right in front of the window so we can enjoy christmas morning together. We do the present thing then make breakfast. Eventually we get around and go see other parts of the tribe, making sure to hit the homes of those with little ones because thats the best part of christmas, although I still think everything about santa is creepy. Then we eventually end up back at the parents place and a few aunts and uncles stop by for a drink. The next day is my moms side of the family, my dads sides party having been the weekend before. Now my dads family is fun because there's every age covered right down to toddlers. My moms side is also fun for the exact opposite reason. On that side I'm the youngest. It's a very different sort of party but its great and I don't get to see those cousins as often. So thats how my christmas goes down and I love it.

But I fucking hate the christmas season. Shitty fucking songs done over and over by every hack played constantly on the already shitty radio stations. Bull-shit being taught to children about some creepy old man who's constantly watching them, even as they sleep, then taking the kids to the mall to go sit on some fat guys lap while the kid cries and the parents snap a photo. In this over protective age when kids are taught to be wary of strangers, especially strange men, this seems like a really odd lie to tell children. I hate the material greed associated with this holiday. It seems really strange to me that religious folks remember the birth of a man who said to sell all your possessions, by going out a buying a bunch of crap. Admittedly the crap thats bought is as presents but there is a huge amount of desire to receive said presents too. I hate that we shove this holiday crap down everyones throats so hard that those who aren't feeling so jolly are made to feel even worse and suicides reach there highest levels of the year. I hate how every year the conservatives talk about the war on christmas, oh no other people was equality too, if they are equal with us then we're not superior and thats an attack on everything that makes this country great. I don't know their argument is something like that. I hate the fact that the fucking christmas season has slowly devoured every holiday in its path. I thought it was bad enough when it started right after Thanksgiving. Now I see shit out in stores by Halloween. Remember that annoying song the twelve days of christmas, seems excessive right? Half way through that shit you just want them to shut the fuck up about the pear tree we get the point, and thats just twelve days, I would love it if this unholy disaster only lasted two weeks. But no, if you can stay away until the last six weeks your ahead of the curve these days.

This is what happens when religion mixes with capitalism, and honestly I don't think its religions fault this time. I would think that religious people would be the most appalled at the mockery this holiday has become. It wasn't that long ago that many christian denominations were against the celebration of christmas. So now that this has become a full grown rant I'll sum it up real quick. I love the private celebration of christmas in spite of its supposed religious origins, it's the public christmas season that I can't stand. and I probably wouldn't care so much, I'd just be a grinch, except I really do like the private side.

Anyway enjoy the holiday.

Lack of Democracy

Why do we call ourselves a Democratic country? Is voting every couple of years really all it takes be a democratic society? I personally do not believe you can be democratic and have such perverse economic inequality at the same time, and with numbers like these I think perverse is putting it mildly.

So not to be accused of simply bitching, what would I do to correct these problems? Thanks for asking.

Numba One.
Abolish Corporate Personhood. Nike is not a person, Wal-Mart is not a person, ExxonMobil is not a person this should be clear to any 10 year old but the courts have seen things differently. As long as corporations hold inalienable rights but are not able to be imprisoned for doing harm we cannot be a Democracy. So step one is Corporations go back to being subservient to the will of the people.

Step Two.
Public Campaign Finance. Maybe this should be step one. If we do this first then we're way more likely to accomplish Numba One. Get corporate money out of politics, thats it. Stop allowing anyone to buy politicians.

Step Three...
Well I don't really have a step three yet. I'm sure I need one because I like prime numbers but honestly I think it'll be a huge enough battle to get through the first two steps that I'm not that concerned with what we'll need to fight for after that. If anything we might need a few more baby steps before public campaigns would fly.

Religious Violence

With a twist.

(ok this is a semi-serious issue that I'm going to take very very light hearted and some would say offensively because I can)

Ok heres the scene, We got some jews and christians on a subway. One of christ's little helpers says Merry Christmas, so some crazy mashugana replies Happy Hanukkah. Woah. Apparently the keeper of the cross figured thems was fighting words and attacked the chosen one. While his ten deep posse cheered him on, "Oh, Hanukkah. That's the day that the Jews killed Jesus," said one of the bitches. Then "bam" outta left field comes captain muhammad all old school batman like to "kapow"save the day. Another kosher fiend jacked the E-brake at the station and the 5-0 swarmed 'em like a plague of locus. The apostles were taken away and in a nod to irony the NY "we don't profile" PD also arrested the hero of the story for being brown. Luckily it only took a little sheeny magic to set his savior free. Now the jesus humpers are facing

"charges that include assault, attempted assault, menacing, harassment, unlawful assembly, riot and disorderly conduct, Silverstein said."

Good for them, there should also be a charge for being a douchebag. But I do need to comment on the charge of Unlawful Assembly. What the fuck is that? I'm pretty sure the right to assemble in in the constitution, the very first amendment actually. Although that does only cover peaceful assembly, so maybe thats why its a law, but I would think the others laws would cover non-peaceful assembly. I know this might seem like an odd plea in this case but I don't like the very idea of any law restricting the right to assemble. As for the rest of this case, fuck the intolerant bastards who get upset when someone wishes to acknowledge that there is more than one way to worship an invisible sky daddy. Especially pathetic when he attacked a guy for saying Happy Hanukkah during Hanukkah rather than say Merry Christmas which isn't for two weeks. And for some reason all I can think of now is this old article I saw, the premise is what would happen if christians and atheists switched roles, and atheists acted the way christians do. Oh and why the fuck is there a question of if this is a hate crime? Seems pretty clear cut to me.

Long story short, a big thank you to the hero of our story, Hassan Askari, thank you for doing the right thing, thank you for helping a person in need, thank you for putting yourself in harms way (and harm was inflicted), and finally thank you for the incredible irony of a muslim man coming to the aid of a jew. This is what makes america great, oh sure we have our problems as the christians demonstrate in this story, but there is also hope. How many other countries would you even have jews muslims and christians on a train together, let alone then have the muslim save the jew? This half of the story gives me hope for a better tomorrow. And of minor note, Walter Adler needs to get some new friends, he wasn't alone when he got attacked but it was a stranger who came to his rescue, I know if someone ever sucker punched me around my friends my concern would be restraining my friends before they did critical damage to the sucka.

Hat tip to the incredible PZ Myers for pointing this out. Happy Holidays everyone, and lets avoid the violence.

Snow Day

Sorta, were getting let out early from work because were supposed to get about 10 inches of snow by mid afternoon. Its hard to tell how much there is already probably 6 inches or so. It's very pretty out. I just wish I had a sled. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't get at least a little snow in the winter time.

Peace!

bored

I should really be working but I just can't do it. I finished a crappy rant earlier but it showed up as from Saturday because thats when I started it.

I'm bored outta me gourd and I don't know what to do.

Maybe I should work on doing something with my life. Eh that always ends up depressing because I then have to think about how little I've done thus far.

I could go creep out the new girl. She still being kinda a bitch to me, I not interested in her anymore, maybe I should just have some fun with that fact. Man, sometimes I wish I was an asshole, that could be fun, but nooooo I've gotta immediately think, oh shes still a nice person theres no reason to be mean to her.

I've already read the latest XKCD, its a good one, its about nerd sniping.

I found another webcomic I like, its been around for a while and its amazing. Perry Bible Fellowship I think the name is intentionally as random as the comic. Unfortunately I already read all the ones on the site, thats what I did this morning.

Ah a new Jesus and Mo, umm... What the fuck is a Jinn? I probably don't want to know.

I would just go play some flash games but that shit is too obvious. ugh, 45 more minutes.....

A Compliment

In talking to hot intern she gave me one of the nicest compliments I've ever had. She was working on her internship evaluation and I made a joke about if I was in the write up. She said oh well yeah of course, first was something about being a nice guy, followed by, "if you're having a bad day, go see Tim." Thanks hot intern, that means more than you'll ever know.

Weird

To my surprise my most popular posts seem to be the ones about my mundane life problems, at least in terms of comments. So here is an odd one. Not odd as in I've never encountered this problem because I suck with women, you know the whole chain letter issue, not this is odd in the legitimately odd sort of way. I'm not really looking for advice because I'm pretty sure of what I'm going to do. I just need to tell this story, although the ending is far from being written. A friend calls me up and asks if I'm still planning on moving to a new place?
Yeah were going to try to find someplace a little bigger after the new year.
Do you need another roommate, or would it be possible to have another roommate?
Well we haven't picked a place yet but there's no reason it can't be a three bedroom instead of two. Why who needs a place?
Blah Blah Blah.
You mean the same Blah Blah Blah that I've been flirting with?
Yeah.
Uhh... well... I guess... um... sure?

I then talked to her and she seemed really excited, she's been in college and still living at home and just really wants to get out. Which is totally understandable. My parents are awesome but I went nuts the last time I lived at home. If I say no then I'll completely blow any chances with what seems like a very nice girl. But if I say yes then its going to be insane. We've hung out a few times, never had a real date although I thought we were going to once, and now we might be moving in together? Most people would probably say thats moving a bit quickly, and they'd be right. Shit seeing as absolutely nothing has happened between us I hope she realizes that I'm even hitting on her. I know this sounds like a recipe for disaster but whatever, its not like I'm swimming in options here. So there you have it, oh actually as for her knowing my intentions I think she does. She was hanging out with said mutual friend when he gave me her number, he failed to mention that they were together so when I called her 1 minute later (as he fully expected me to) I felt like a total ass but it probably made my thoughts apparent. In this case thats probably a good thing. Anyway so thats my weird ass situation, a girl I'd like to call my girlfriend sometime soon may soon be living with me. Hopefully in that order, otherwise it's going to be all the more awkward.

Ok now you can tell me what an idiot I am.

Politics

Want to see why no one pays attention to politics? Heres a standard campaign feud, this time the battle ground is the recent energy bill. Pretty simple Republican in congress votes against it, Democratic candidate (who I support) is going after him for not voting for it. The problem is that they both make it sound like such a clear cut case. Kuhl (R-NY-29) claims that there was too much pork and not enough help to actual families. Massa (D-hopefully soon to be NY-29) says that the main purpose was to stop subsidizing the oil companies that are setting record profits. Both seem like reasonable positions, and rather than get into the details of this specific case I want to look at why this way of doing politics is flawed. Well flawed in a democratic sense. The problem is this is bill is over a thousand pages long. The truth is going to be far far more complex than either is able to talk about to a reporter or during a debate. So those who are highly informed don't care what they have to say because they know what the vote meant. Those who are not informed but have a strong opinion will simply agree with the person they already like because they make good points and will ignore the other or claim the other is a liar. And then finally the uninformed, without a preset notion of who they like, this is who everything is for, they listen and go, yeah they both make good points but they're both lying. So who is really swayed at all by debates? Are debates really about swaying public opinion at all? Is our whole political process really intended to encourage voter participation? Or has it slowly evolved into the multi-year mess that we see today where apathy is the most popular political stance? There are so many scandals going on right now that I've given up trying to keep track. The presidential races have become a clusterfuck, the republican options are disturbing to say the least, I mean shit Huckabee is surging in the polls, a man who pardoned a rapist-murderer who then proceded to rape and murder again, thanks Huck, and people like this guy. Then there is is frightening religious rhetoric which I'm not even going to bother insulting. Guliani would be a disgrace to a student council meeting, although I did respect the one honest moment when he said why yes of course the presidents mistresses should have secret service protection too. Then there's Romney, I've met child molesters that are less creepy. And I love how everyone touted his "JFK" speech, other than you know JFK said there should be absolute separation between church and state and Romney said hey its cool be any sort of christian you want, hell we'll even let the jews in, and those treacherous muslims but we'll be keeping an eye on them. As for easter religions well they're ignored, but at least they were slighted the way the second largest "religious" group was, you know, none at all. Yeah he told us to go fuck ourselves. On the other side we've got Hillary, yup. Shes a woman that would shake things up, otherwise shes just business as usual. I don't think she'd be a bad president the way bush is a bad president, I just don't think she'll be anything special, other than the whole first with a vagina thing. Obama, he's decent. I like 'em but nothing to get terribly excited about. He's only half white, so that would be something new. Edwards, yup he's there too, again he'd be alright probably shake things up a little more than Hillary but still nothing amazing. Kucinich would be awesome which means he has no chance. So there you have it, mediocrity on one side, near evil on the other. Sweet. That might be another reason why everyone hates politics. This rant changed course, I had something else entirely when I started it but that was a few days ago and I never finished. So take it for what it is. Just a stupid rant against a stupid fucked up system.

My Love Problem

I finally figured out the true cause of all my problems with women. It has nothing to do with looks or lack of money. Those who think it's do to my lack of tact, or my general awkwardness around certain women may have some valid points but ultimately they are wrong. It's not even my lack of ambition thats holding me back from finding my true love. I have finally found the problem, and the problem is... chain letters. Yup, chain letters. Especially once you're friends with a few idiots who love fucking myspace bulletins. By my very careful calculations of number of chain letter received vs number read vs number responded to (which is a constant - 0) which is then multiplied by the average time span of bad luck which can range from one bad kiss to an eternity of solitude. So by punching in the relevant data I should be able to find my dream girl in about two more ice-ages. Seriously who the fuck sends chain letters? Admittedly with emails its so easy to forward pointless crap to many people that I think the senders fail to realize the pain and suffering they are doling out to their unsuspecting friends. Myspace on the other hand is just redunkulous with the amount of bad luck that gets dished out everyday, an hour on Myspace and you might as well throw away the dreams and break out the tissue box, you're done.

I mean here is one I just got from a girl I was acquaintances with in high school and occasionally run into around town, but of course we're friends on myspace.

Don't know how this one is suppose to work!!!!!!
miss you ღ
ღIt's funny how many people have posted this. Guess we're all in the same boat, missing someone.. be honest...if you really miss someone, a friend, a love, or a family member right now & can't get them off your mind...then repost this titled as "I miss you...". Within 1 minute & whoever you are missing will surprise you. If you break this you will have the worst love life starting in 1 hour...ღ

Ok so that was pretty lame even by chain letter standards but still, that one alone should leave me with "the worst love life starting in 1 hour" and ending when? Fuck my love life is ruined because I didn't want to annoy other people with junk mail. What sort of a friend would send this instrument of pain? I mean I might send these to my mortal enemies but I don't really have any, at least not mortal enemies that are also myspace friends. I did once receive like an actual paper chain letter. It was hilarious, I was fairly young so I was excited to get any piece of mail let alone one from a friend from kindergarten who I hadn't seen in years, and had moved out of the area. I tore into it, I read it once. WTF? I read it again. Then looked up very quizzically at my mother. Um, he sent me a chain letter? WTF? So fuck chain letters, fuck them for being annoying, fuck them for making me think I've
been sent something real and fuck them for ruining my love life. Oh and of course fuck anyone who sends out chain letters, if you're that desperate for attention just give me a call, damn.

This might be my most random post ever. Its friday, a good time for a pointless rant.

Well I'll be a monkeys uncle

Everyone likes a story about monkeys, right? Heres a little more proof that we're not so different after all.

Sick

I feel like crap. Unfortunately I'm at that annoying spot of being sick enough that I don't want to do shit, but not quite sick enough that I feel justified going home from work. Plus I went home early yesterday.

Bumper Stickers

Rob had a thing about bumper stickers, then I saw an ad over at the Rude Pundit so heres a few Highly irreverent stickers from See Sharp Press.

We'll start with a simple one.

Now lets we can move on to one of my all time favorites, very subtle.


This ones funny, and dirty at the same time, but I don't think I could actually put it on my car.


And finally one that might get your car keyed.

Mmmm... Classy.