Scandals '06

a year in review.
Citizens for Ethics: Politicians Gone Wild

First off this only includes congressional scandals nothing for the Prez, secondly the list is actually from Fox news so they put Jack Abramoff in the same category as Pat Kennedy, who the fuck is Pat Kennedy you say, well that's Teds son, why is his insobriety a scandal. (crickets chirping) I'm not really sure why. When its your child still under your roof then yes their actions are a reflection of your parenting, but Teds not a young man. His child in question, Patrick, is 39 years old. If he was able to get out of a DWI by name dropping who his father was that's an embarrassment to the cop not to the father. All I'm saying is it's a Fox list so its about equal numbers of Repubs and Dems, the difference being at least one of the Repubs is sitting in jail at the moment. Yes there was on real Dem scandal, don't hide money in your freezer. If its legal money and you just don't like banks then your insane, if your doing it because its illegal then well its also a bad idea to have 90 grand in illegal money chillin at your place if your a senator, but you knew that already, you would think an actual senator would know that too.

Virgin Birth for christmas

Wow first the big G to the D goes and rapes poor Mary and she’s forced to give birth to the bastard son, and now he’s off raping lizards. A little sheep fuckin’ I can turn a blind eye, I mean at least it’s a mammal. But a Lizard, god should be ashamed, the creature is cold-blooded for bastard child’s sake. We also run the risk of people running around praying to virgin birth lizards and shit, and then of course within a few years the VB lizard followers from Malaysia will start fighting with the VB lizard followers from London and soon you’ll have massive wars being fought over who’s virgin birth lizard is really divine and which ones are just children without fathers. I see massive wars being fought. And that’s why science is evil….

UK: Yahoo News: Virgin Birth Expected

Fuck Google!

Ive praised them before as they offer great services at a price I like, free. but WTF, half the blogger sites I go to I can't post comments anymore. I never had this problem before so Im making a not so giant logical leap to assume its the fault of the google change over. So Fuck you Google, why couldn't you do what you did with Myspace and Youtube, don't change shit just ad a little powered by google, and rake in your cash. but no you had to go create some new serivce and it sucks. you couldnt leave well enough alone so this time Fuck you.

Friday round up

I dont normally do round ups, Im lazy. But heres some shit I found and wanted to share.

Kos Diary -Gore and Hansen at AGU: Scientists Act Up!

Yahoo News - Dinner with the Gov, for a buck

Liberty Papers - 13yo pregnant child molester... WTF

The Rude Pundit - A Marionette Is Better Than Cheney

Dwindling in Unbelief - God Hates Christmas Trees (ok this was a couple weeks ago but its good)

LATimes - Most Americans are Surender Monkeys Via Cursor

NewsDay - See, their economy is improving, oh and there's genocide Via Buzzflash

The Onion - Christmas brought to Iraq by force

U.S. soldiers instruct an Iraqi to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas

To Gore or Not To Gore

I mean the eco-politician who won the popular vote for presidency in 2000 not the bad-ass Dead Rising game where you beat zombies with anything you can pick up (get it gore, hahahe...) Sorry just played it for the first time last night. Back to Gore, Al Gore. I’m undecided if I think he should run for Pres in '08. There’s very good reason for both. First I need to say that I think he would be a great president, especially now that we know he does have a personality. The question is his if he can win, because your actually ability to govern comes in some where after height on the list of what americans look for in a President, luckily he’s reasonably tall too(6'1").

So lets take a look at why he shouldn't run. Well there's the obvious fact that he's run once before and wasn't selected. We talk about giving people second chances but we don't really mean it. Probably the biggest reason though not to run for prez is that as soon as he announces then all of his environmental work will be tainted. The opposition will then be able to say, see all this global warming mumbo jumbo is just a political move for the democrats. And in the eyes of all together to many people, they'll be right. So oddly, for the sake of the environmental movement, it might actually be better NOT to have their biggest promoter as the most powerful person in the world.... I might have just decided in my own head. The shear ridiculousness of the last sentence might have put me over into the Gore camp.

Well let’s look at the reason to run Gore. He’s intelligent which seemed to hurt him last time around, but after 8(maybe less) years of bush I think were ready for intelligence again. Unlike most politicians he’s actually willing to voice an opinion about issues. As I mentioned before he’s finally shown the world that he’s Not an uptight stiff with no personality. I’ve been concerned all along with the general election, in the primary I see gore easily beating Clinton, for several reasons, one I Don’t see her winning the general election and I think most Dems would rather run someone that’s not named bush or Clinton. That leaves Obama, another one im up in the air about, I need to see some substance from him, then I’ll decide. But I’m realizing that if the Dems come out swinging for the next two years and actually accomplish some things, or at least make valiant efforts which force the republicans to show their true colors then honestly I think the Dem primary will be the general election. If the Dems can show some backbone for two years then the repubs won’t have a chance. At which point we need to get the Best Dem to run not just the most winnable, yeah its really really sad that those aren’t mutually exclusive but they’re not, and you know they’re not. At this time unless Obama really comes forward as a leader, then I think Al will be our best person available in ’08.

But, there are still lingering issues. A big one for me is this little anti-first amendment crew known as the P.M.R.C. founded by Tipper Gore, lets just say I’m not a fan of the Tippster. Come on her name’s Tipper. If Al was elected then you know she would be closer to a Hillary first lady than a …what da hell’s her name?… Laura type. If nothing else I’m confident that she would try to tighten control over free expression in music. That doesn’t bode well in my world. Then again with the changing world of music ownership it might not matter. Sure she would deprive children of being able to buy music at their local mall, but big deal they usually only sell pop crap anyway, they’ll still be able to buy online, or download music (legally or not) and so maybe the power of a group like the PMRC is gone. And considering that I can’t find an actual site for them (it wasn’t on the first page of google) I’ll make an assumption that the original PMRC group has gone the way of the dodo. So maybe I shouldn’t use fear of Tipper against my buddy Al, need to do a little more investigation on the issue before I decide.

Here’s a reason I like Gore that I’ve never even thought of before. He has a strong scientific background. I’ll put this in mild terms, I would suspect that Gore would not allow creationism, ID, or any other religious dogma to be taught as science. To put that another way I wouldn’t be shocked if he is an atheist. Now I have absolutely no evidence to back this up and I would almost guarantee that he says he’s christian, wouldn’t be surprised if he even praised god in public from time to time. He is a politician and that’s what you have to do in this country if you want to climb the political ladder. So in my book this is a big advantage for him, we may only make up like 10% of the population but then again it only takes 20% of the country to pick a president. Before anyone argues that point look it up, in 04’ 62 million people voted for bush. Out of just under 300 million at the time that’s just slightly over 20% so bite me.

As I alluded to before, the only people I see coming to the fore are not inspiring me. Hillary is the big gun but she carries so much baggage that she alone could ruin my theory that the Dem primary is the only race that will matter. Again that’s making the big assumption that the Dems show a spine for the next two years other wise its still open. So with no one else impressing me I think I'm routing for Gore. Oh and one last thing, If Gore gets big support early on then Hillary, Obama and crew can continue to do their jobs as senators boosting up the party while Gore campaigns. It could be the best route for the party and the country, some of us do still think about more than just the party.

Oh I lied there is more. Dennis Kucinich I don’t know much about this cat but from what I’ve heard Id like him, but he’s another that I just can’t picture winning the general election, maybe as Al’s VP? Hmm... We might be on to something.

E-Mails from Jesus

holy crap, this is good stuff. Emails From Jesus (and Satan)
its exactly what it sounds like, emails from our lord and savior, and his friend satan.

This is deffinately going into the links but does it go under religion, humor or EAC? i guess i need to verify if this is actualy the big J or not, I wonder if they have broadband in heaven, I guess it would be hell if they didnt.

Anyway if your not convinced you should move your hand an inch and click then well...

all I have to say is this.

Even satan didnt have anything worth adding. It should be noted that this was sent in by a reader.

The Church of the Non-Belivers, brought to you by Wired.com

Wired.com Response to "the Church of the Non-Believers"

Gotta start this off with a big 'ol tip of the hat to my latest e-friend MoJoey over at Deep Thoughts for pointing me towards this article in Wired. And a thank you to Mr. MoJoey for adding me to his ever-expanding Blogroll of the un-believers.

So I haven't actually made it to the responses to The Church of the Non-Believers, because im still reading the original article. So far its really quite good and I see why It drew so much attention. At the same time what amazes me most is that the author says that people talked about this, there was very little in the way of, your all going to hell, fire and brimstone, and all that jive. This impresses me, There have been few discussions that I've seen on the topic of natural vs. supernatural that have maintained their dignity. Admittedly this was letters and not a back and forth debate that does lent itself to civility. If you want to see an example of un-civilized and highly un-intelligent debate then I refer you to this, YouTube video just read through the comments, their kinda funny. That video itself probably deserves its own post, hmmm.... back to Wired.
It includes a story of an interesting church, the god type, but in trying to defend the church and religion in general it makes it all the more clear that in order to make religion fit our modern world you need to hack it to bits and leave only stories and a god, which is fine, but then there is my cynics view that while it probably does give a lot back to its parishioners, it still seems like commercial exploitation of confused teens, but again I’m cynical. Oh and of course theirs the not so minor point that just because something is useful or helpful doesn't mean its correct. I could be happy thinking that eating pizza will help me lose weight it doesn't mean its true, and it could kill me.

To me this whole debate about the "new atheists" boils down to would I rather lose the most important war in history, or win a battle that gains me nothing? The New Atheists are in it for the war, they see faith in the supernatural as being maybe not inherently evil but build a base that can easily be corrupted not to mention that it's absurd. There is some confusion for me when Dawkins says that he has never advocated for banning religion. Which is a delicate point, we don’t want to Ban it, we want people to really think about what they believe, we want children to be given a chance to learn all the options, if they are given the chance to weigh all possibilities and still chose religion that’s fine. I am convinced that there would be far far more atheists than there are today if we were all given the chance to question god. I'm still not sure if I'm with the New atheists or not, but I think I’m with them. I think the only thing holding me back is my limited knowledge of real evolution, I know a little more than what they taught in school but not enough to really give me the confidence to go in with both feet. So if anyone wants to send me a copy of “the selfish gene” I would appreciate it.

Oooh, got a new author to try out, Dennett.

In fact, he argues that neutral, scientifically informed education about every
religion in the world should be mandatory in school. After all, he argues, "if
you have to hoodwink – or blindfold – your children to ensure that they confirm
their faith when they are adults, your faith ought to go extinct."

Hmmm… reading on I’m* not sure I like this guy, to me nothing is un-questionable. There are things that I would feel silly questioning, like Gravity, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be questioned. It seems as if his point is that our morals should not be questioned, well why not, I'm all for more understanding, and I’m staunchly opposed to any one trying to limit freedom of learning.

*(Word wants me to put “I is” which might be correct but it sounds stupid so I is not gunna)

I will say that this author ends this perfectly, we could be wrong. And again this is why even the most extreme atheist cannot be a fundamentalist. I'm still not sure where I want to stand on my atheism, I haven’t told my Mom, most if not all my friends know, or would probably assume it. I have no desire to tell my grandmother, well the Irish one, the other probably wouldn’t care. But do I wish to openly attack religion, sorta. I was passing around a thing today at work about how god hates Christmas trees. Hmm… minor note, Word just automatically capitalized Christmas (again) but not god. Go to Jeremiah 10:1-4 and read the first 4 verses and you’ll get the joke I'm passing around. All I’m saying is that I think people know I'm not religious, but for some reason it’s a big leap from not being religious, even to the point of not believing in god(s) and being an atheist. I think this is simply because of the connotation of the word atheist, which is why I want to be more open about it, like the whole gay pride thing, the connection get mentioned often.

Happy Solstice everyone!

just another day in paradise

I had some whole thing going, It was all about emotions and other things I’m not good at but then I got reminded why I'm perfectly happy being me. My very good friend and I just went to lunch with a new intern. I had been introduced to her once before and yet in the span of lunch we had talked about shit that would make well most people blush. At one point she was seriously crying she was laughing so hard. It was great, she’s a cool ass chick, which I mean in only the best of ways, some people might try to say that chick is derogatory or something, well those folks can suck my left nut, I could say that she was an fun, engaging woman, but that’s the wrong description. That describes a boring stuck up female who annoys you a little but is still amusing at times. This lovely young woman was a cool ass chick. It doesn’t hurt that My friend and I have been friends long enough that pretty much nothing is off limits. I mean hell, the fucker pinched my cheek at one point, which a moment later was turned into joking about pinching ass cheeks, and as he said that joke I was just about to make a similar comment about grabbing asses. The moral of the story is simple, I'm a simple dude. I can get depressed at times but it doesn’t take much to get me back in a great mood. The laugh of a beautiful woman does it every time, even if she is unavailable as the case may be, it doesn’t matter. Its also nice to know that while my friend and I have ridiculous conversations, we aren’t the only ones who find it amusing.

So yeah I'm feeling good at the moment, I might be moving soon, which sucks but it will cost less than half what I'm paying now so that’s very very cool. Of course the person I might have for a roommate has done time, but oh well as long as I can keep him clean then he’s an awesome guy, he’s made bad decisions in the past but hey everyone deserves a second chance. As I just eluded to he did have drug problems in the past, there were a few times when he would randomly show up on a Friday or a Saturday and just chill for a few days. He’d just pass out on the couch. I knew what he was doing, he wanted to get away from that shit but he just wasn’t quite ready. I never hassled him about it, I’d let him hang out we’d play video games or whatever and Id just sorta let him be. It took him doing a little time in the clink in order to get him to see that he simply has to straighten out. I think having a clean roommate will help him, im also pretty much sober during the week so that’s gotta be good for him too. And that dudes lived on the street so he knows how to eat for cheap. Don’t know if he can make shit that tastes good but he can make it edible for nothin’.

And its snowing pretty good out right now. Theres something refreshing about the first snow of the year, give it a week and ill be all set, but its great at first. Everything is pristine and white. By the end of the winter its just a nasty brown sludge everywhere followed by muddy ass spring, but muddy is welcome at that point. Any way for no real reason today is turning into a very good day. Yesterday was a blast too, I went and saw the fam after work, played some pool with my cousin, my uncle, and my grandfather-who was a little off, even forgetting that he’s 90 hes usually pretty good, although he does cheat. Then went and saw some friends, was supposed to watch them get tattooed but they were done when I got there, hung out at there place for a bit then ran up to the bar at the other end of town for karaoke night, which is Japanese for shitty songs done badly. But I saw the crazy ladies who I adore, and that’s also where I ran into my possible new roommate. So yesterday was a good day and with a little luck today will be too. Gotta check out the possible new pad, with the possible new roommate and the friend that’s moving in next door to the possible new crib.

UPDATE: well I'm not moving just yet. The place in question turned out to be just like what I have now, billed as a two bedroom but its not really. The second room being basically a closet. Oh well Ill keep looking.

indignation

why is it that if I talk to a religious person they think its perfectly acceptable to simply say, "well I think your full of shit and that deep down you really do beleive in god" they would be pretty damn offended if I said well deep down I know that you know that there really isnt a god and that you only pretend to believe in something supernatural because it fills a void in you knowledge of the universe, its far easier to say "god" than to learn about all the different sciences, biology and astronomy in particular.

My book club idea i think is going to get interesting, Im pretty sure I mentioned this before but I challenged my uber religous buddy to read the bible with me, we'll do it book club style. the same night we decided on that we went to another friends house, hes pretty much ambivolent (which is a religious idea few mention) and his girlfriend is religious but I never knew before in exactly what way. I think this is going to get more interesting because shes got about as rational a view as one can have about something as irrational as god. shes of the god is everything, jesus was not born of a virgin dont be silly, of course hes the son of god, but then again im the daughter of god were all gods children. This is a view that is far more flexible and can work with science most of the way. Her BF of course probably isnt going to read much of it but he will be in the background cracking jokes and occationally throwing in bits of wisdom. Hes a rational person like most who doesnt hold strong beliefs about much, this lends him to being able to boil down a complex issue into the only bits that matter and say it in away that anyone can understand and is difficult to argue with. Its not that hes a genius, far from it, hes fairly average intelligence but completely doesnt give a fuck about much of anything (other than his kids, hes a great dad and shes and even better mother I gotta show 'em some love on that) which should be a nice counter to the three people whos opinions are pretty well set. I think im going to write up some ground rules to this book club, like how we have to attempt to respect each other, but that we ARE going to offend each other, if an atheist a deist a theist and an asshole (he nicknamed himself Dick, he'd agree) all sit around and talk about the bible, were going to offend each other. The important thing is to some how say that yes we will offend eachother, we are going to be going inside eachothers "safe-zones" this will get confrentational, but at the end we can do this because we are friends. Im very comfortable doing this with my theist friend because as I have said before we've been friends so long that there isnt much of anything left we could do to hurt our friendship. The friends girl friend on the other hand ill need to be a little more careful with, im not all that worried, shes not exactly feeble.

Now the only thing is which version, shes reading a NIV study bible, which is probably a good route to go with for people lacking in biblical knowledge, but my buddy is all about the litteral so he might want the James. Ill try to talk him out of it, of course if we do the james verision then I can get em for free from the mormons...

theres one in every crowd

Taxing Virtual Assets

click it fool! Seriously its funny, the first two are ok, but the third is great, but read 'em all!

reflection

Ah theres nothing quite like that feeling ya get when an atractive young lady gives ya the eye and cracks a big beautiful smile while you walk through the courtyard of the psych-center...

on the lighter side..

The Onion: Kansas bans the practice of evolution

Anti-evolutionists such as Hellenbaum have long accused microorganisms of
popularizing "an otherwise obscure, agonizingly slow, and hard-to-understand"
biological process. "These repeat offenders are at the root of the problem,"
Hellenbaum said. "We have the fossil records to prove it."

Oh yeah. Good times.

This doesn't deserve its own post, so im adding it here, I just need to say, I can't help but chuckle when I see a head line, "Supreme Court to hear Bong Hits 4 Jesus." and this isn't from the Onion, its a real news story, its a decent little freedom of speach case but that headline is awsome.

Top Ten List

DU: Top Ten

You know the bar has been lowered a bit when you look at only one side of the political spectrum and being arrested for trying to have sex with a 13 year old doesn't even get you into the top 5. Top 5 idiots that is.

Oh theres also one about Bush talking shit to Webb whos son is in Iraq and watched 3 of his friends killed recently, remember republicans support the troops...

Personally I would have changed the order a bit, but then again you cant have GW at the top every time. The O'Reilly thing is funny but not that big a deal, it is funny though. I did like the one with the guy talking all sorts of shit about how if you don't swear on the bible then you can't be a senator, although the reality is that you don't have to swear on anything, you just raise your right hand. The other part thats missed on him is that a christian swears on the bible because that somehow means that if they break the oath then they're lying to god or something, whatever its supposed to mean the whole point is that your swearing a oath with your hand on something you hold sacred. It a muslim swears on a bible instead of a koran then it defeats the point. Of course they are elected officials so it would be cool if we could trust them on their word alone, but clearly thats not the case, then again bush was sworn in on a bible, hell ashcroft was sworn in on a freaking stack of bibles (probably to sell on eBay) and them sonsabitches lied they asses off. Thats probably why US law only says that they have to raise their hand, not bibles involved, oh and because of the whole, you know this country was founded with religious freedom in mind, also because this is (supposed to be) a secular government.

UPDATE: good info about the Webb incident, but Im adding the link because of the photo/caption, seriously its worth the click. Just click it mother fucker, what don't you trust me? ok ok, stop screaming No, and just click the link already, its good.

President '08

NYT: early 'maybe' from Obama

You know whats amazing, there is a picture of four people who may run for president in 08 as democrats, the only ones I don't know are also the two White Males...
As a Senator Im still on the fence over Hillary, shes been a mixed bag. But as a Presidential Canidate I have major concerns, notice that I said as a canidate, I think she would be decent as a President. Then again I think most of the people in the courtyard might do better than our current President (I work in the psychcenter complex). The only issue with Hillary is that the opposition hates her, in the same way the Left hates bush, the right Hates Hillary, that would make for a very tough election. as for her being a women, I think that will be a major factor, Im not really sure if it helps or hurts but its a factor, not so much for me, I don't care either way, but it will be an important part.

Obama, the little I know of him I like. Again like Hillary I don't care that hes black., but it will be a major factor, exactly how it swings things who knows but it has to be a factor. Oh and Im sure some creative people on the right will show their amazing lyrical skills and call him Osama, get it Obama Osama, ha ha ugh...

anyway, still along time to go before all of that, and the fact is all those mentioned are senators with a whole lot of accountabliting (way better word than accounting) to do. They need to show their vision of the future, they can't just stand back and say, hey were not as bad as them. They need to kick a little ass for the next two years, and thats going to be tough if all the big guns are out campaigning.

and another ones gone, and another ones gone, another one bites the dust.

Yahoo News: Bolton Resigns

sticking with the music theme,
nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye!!

I wonder why he assumes the Dems wouldn't pick him? ha.

Actually Ive only read the title so far, but that got me all giddy so I had to say something.

House of Death

Why do I have to read a british newspaper to learn about whats going on with the US government?

The Guardian: The House of Death

I wish this were fiction. Theres not much more I can say.

It ain't gunna happen but....

Smirking Chimp: Hearings on Bush Crimes Will Unite Nation

We could unite the country, by putting Bush on trial. I love the idea, and it might even work, but its not going to happen. for those who still support him, I wonder how much it would take to change their minds, because really whats left, drop nukes on kansas city? theres lots of bigger cities but most of them are liberal so it might not swing those voters.

Which leads to a question Ive often wondered, why is it that those who vote for republicans because of terror, are the people who live in places that have absolutely nothing to fear from terrorism. The only two US cities to have mulitple terrorist attacks, NYC and DC vote Democrat or maybe they are concerned about terror, which is why they vote Democrat.

Anyway, check out the article, its worth a read.

Chavez Wins Again

Yahoo News: Chavez Wins Re-Election

The man our press often refers to as a dictator was just re-elected, and seeing as he had a 61 to 38% victory he sees this as the people wanting him to do even more. Its like in 2004 when Bush somehow got re-elcted (Diebold) by a massive 50.73% to 48.27% which was the closest re-election in US history but thats good enough for a Mandate from the masses, and incintive to increase his right-wing stance, so like wise Chavez who actually did win by a large margin is feeling re-affirmed. I find it interesting that his socialist revolution has pretty much consisted of using the funds from a state-owned oil company (buy CITGO) to help the poor, hes put billions of dollars into social programs, and now with this big win he's looking at nationalizing the Utlities. In most of the US the utlities are either government owned or extremely tightly regulated (when the aren't you get rolling blackouts in Cali, thanks Enron) and we put billions into social programs. Their is a big difference in that in Venezuela the state controls the oil industry, in the US the Oil industry controls the state, its a subtle but important difference. The other huge difference is that the US had all of these programs in place while the right-wing president tries to get rid of them, in Venezuela they did not have these programs and their left-wing president is trying to create them. At this point there society may be quite similar to ours in its structure, they may still be a ways behind us, but the important thing is the direction, our country is subsidising the richest while theres is subsidising for the poorest.

Frikin' Sweet

Ok you may have seen these before, it so you've already enjoyed them but hey you can enjoy it a little more, and if not check this out. The Propagnada Remix

I saw these in some magazine, ya know the old school sytle wit da paper and shit? I liked em then, now that i've seen more, I like em more. so heres a few.

Oh and to the folks at the Propaganda Remix. I hope you dont mind me stealing your images, their awsome and this is really just a free ad albeit not a very good one as this isnt a very popular site.

honkeys givin' dough to cracka's

Ok so I see a link to an article over at BuzzFlash, a site I like, denouncing the action of the Boston University Republicans. College republicans are pretty easy targets but I figured it could be funny so I checked out the Article. The group is of course opposed to affrmitive action, I already siad they were GOP, so they decided to create a scholarship for white students. Its a scholarship for $250 which might buy you 2 books and some combo's. The idea wasn't that they wree really going to help a white student, at least not much, the idea was that it was going to spark controversy and debate. Its confrontaional, it takes a stand in a way that will get attention without actually hurting anyone. Any you can set up a grant for anyone, my friend once found a scholarship for engineering students named Matt. Anyway I appaude their actions, I completely disagree with their goals, affirmative action is important in order to bring minorities to and even playing field and it doesn't even do that but it helps a little. But I can still applaud the action, they have an issue they want talked about and came up with a mildly creative way to stir up enough controversy to get the issue disscused. If they have anyone at the school with some background in this issue (and I bet they do) then these frat boys are going to get crushed in the debate that they started. I was always meakly in favor of affirmative action. Im an optimist and always wanted to think that real equality is the best and this is what the frat boys will agrue too, the difference is I ment it. We would be a better society if the only thing that mattered for a job/college/scholarship were merit/qualifications/need in the case of scholarships. but we don't live in a perfect world and slowly I admited that yeah we need Affrimative Action you look at the stats and yeah we still screw the miorities pretty hard, not that this is exactly news to anyone. Then I went to a confrence for work and saw a whole presentation about subversive racism. I won't get into it in detail but it fully convinced me that nothing were going to do is going to truely bring them to an even playing field so anything we can do is acceptable.
Ok well Im not going to get to finish this or add the links so you can read for yourself but if you go to Buzzflash in the blogroll then it might still be there, if not you'll have to search the boston globe for it. but Ill do my quick recap.
I disagree with these people's stance but I like they way they are going about getting their opinion heard. I disagree with them because the only ways you can be against affirmative action are to be mis/uniformed which most likely isn't the case for these students. You could be an idealist as I mentioned earlier, this is possible and it is the deffence they will use. Or they are racist, which I guarentee is at least part of it. Im not saying they are klan members or anything like that but I would guarentee that the moderates are subversive racists and I bet some are outright racist when not in public. As for the subversive thing, I ran out of time but its a very interesting area of psychology, possible the only interesting part.... sorry gotta trow in the psych jab from time to time, I work with "those people."
And finally this is an area that I find annoying about some liberals, if they were on the other side of the issue they would approve of similar tactics, but when the opposition does it then its wrong, were better than that. Be honest they're methods are fine, they want to have a debate about Affirmative Action, fine this is a topic we can destroy them on even when were stuck playing by their rules. We can win this easily, but rather than attack the tactic, learn from it, we need to be on the offensive like they are, that way we set the ground rules we can fight in our arena not theirs.

Ok well have a great thanksgiving, eat turkey fall alseep in front of the TV watching a football game you don't care about. or you can have a traditional thanksgiving, invite all your neighbors over have a huge feast then kill them all and take their land. either way, Im lazy so falling alseep in front of the tv is my plan but do what you wish, either way have a good one, and if your neighbor invites you over, well just watch your ass...

Music

I spent the weekend with my favorite sister down in Pittsburgh. It was fun, I ate vegitarian/ some vegan food, and it was actually good. I was a bit shocked. Im more the cheese burger and fries kinda guy but they had some hippy food that was bangin'. And we're talking Pittsburg here, back when she lived in San Fransico it would have been expected. In Pittsburg you get a sandwich and the fries and coleslaw are in the sandwich, thats not a joke. But I just feel like putting some tunes/videos up so Im not really going to talk any more about my trip to Pitt.

Heres some videos,
First up is The Mighty Mos Def, I've never been all that into rap/hip hop but I enjoy intelligence where ever it can be found, Mos Def is clearly one of the most intelliget lyricists in the music biz at the moment. This tune's called Ghetto Rock



The Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated, nothing more needs to be said.



I liked this Jay-Z song the first time I heard it, and while part of it was the hook, I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one, I realized it was the deffinate Rock beat, then I noticed that Rob Zombie is in the video and helped write the song, suddenly it all made sence. And I still like the song.
So here it is 99Problems



How about some Bloodhound Gang, not intelligent, but highly entertaining.
here is their classic song Fire Water Burn, AKA the roof is on fire.



My Favorite Eminem song which isn't saying much, he got a bit political. I liked it because you knew that the failues of the president were getting pretty outragous when Slim Shady decided that he needed to stop talking about how he hates his wife and mother and tell us how much he hates the president instead... ok so maybe it wasn't all that revolutionairy for him but it was a decent song and video. And I like anything talking shit about baby bush. Here's Mosh



Rage Against the Machine: Testify
This video might anger some liberals, well sorry, I like gore but I don't think he would have been great. Better oh yeah, but I didn't vote for him cause I hate censorship so I couldn't vote for the husband of Tipper the loudest voice in the PMRC.



Crappy video of a good song by System of a Down: Prison Song

Ive been touched by his noodly appendage

Last night I went and plundered the nearest chain books store, I prefer the local one but I knew they wouldn’t have the scholarly volume I was interested in. So after a bit of searching the booty was found. For some reason it was placed in the humor section instead of the religion area, I’m sure it was an honest mistake by some new stock personnel. The book I refer to is none-other than The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (not to be confused with “the flying spaghetti monster speaks” which was written by a false prophet) by the greatest prophet the world has even known Bobby Henderson.

This book has changed my life. I suddenly feel fulfilled. There has been something of a void in my life, I found every religion I had ever looked into as having similar faults, Buddhism was close but I could never live up to those morals. So I was looking for a peaceful religion (which takes Christianity and Islam out of the running) with great ideals but relatively loose morals. Then I came across the Prophet Bobby’s website, www.venganza.org and suddenly I knew I was in the presence (sorta) of someone who truly understood the universe. The website was filled with knowledge but left me yearning for more. That is why I highly recommend purchasing the gospel of the one true creator.

One point that isn’t mentioned as often is the outright dismissal of Dogma, which forced me to look up exactly what dogma means as I only really know about

OK minor note, I’ve said it before but I work at the coolest office ever, My boss and I just spent 15 minutes taking about parties at college, I liked his- No Pants Party. He said the reality was that it just meant knees had to be showing but that after a few hours it really was a no pants party. That sounds like a good time. He may not know it but my boss has clearly been touched by his noodly appendage.

Back to Dogma, which is more than just a Kevin Smith movie, not to discount the movie any it’s a good flick, but Dogma is the idea that some truths are simply unquestionable. So that the idea of a religion outright dismissing the idea of dogma is quite revolutionary. They admit that they could be wrong, there might not be a FSM despite the overwhelming evidence in favor of such a being. Imagine if Christians said well these are the things we think are true, but its possible they have errors and we will update ourselves as necessary. Its like the exact opposite of Bush, no one is infallible not even our almighty creator the FSM. He has good days and bad just like anybody else.

I'm just a good pirate costume away from being a Pastafarian, so to all my brothers and sisters out there who have been searching for the answer, or at least an answer, then I invite you in to be touched by his noodly appendage. We welcome all with open arms, if you choose another path, that’s cool too. We are a religion of peace and understanding, we take no offence with those who chose to worship another, we feel they are misguided but they are not bad people.

One thing that is often brought up and cannot be discounted as a reason for choosing the one true faith is that our Heaven has a Beer Volcano and a Stripper Factory, whats yours got? Angels, yeah but are they scantily clad?

Also I wish every religious book contained a simple Q&A section like the Gospel of the FSM, it would save so much confusion.

Q: Your “religion” offends my beliefs. What should I do about feeling mocked?
A: Our alternative beliefs are in no way mocking your beliefs more than yours mock ours. FSM belivers are peaceful, open-minded, well educated, and reject dogma outright. We’ve never started a war and have never killed others for their opposing beliefs. Compare our record to yours.

I also liked the question before it which was simply your “religion” offends my beliefs which the prophet quickly retorts with, “that’s not a question.”

Conclusionairily, this is an excellent book, it’s a fantastic religion and a worthy read for anyone interested in the Intelligent Desgin debate, even if you aren’t in the market for a new Religion. To those who aren’t happy with their current religion, I highly recommend you give the CoFSM a test drive, if your not satisfied then return it (the religion not the book) at no cost to you, and most likely your old religion will take you back. With that I say ARRGGH to you and your mates, have a great day ye scurvy landlubbers.

BTW: conclusionairily is a word we made up in like 7th grade when we were told we needed transitions for our paragraphs In conclusition sounded lame so we used that instead, the teacher didn’t think our creativity was as important as using real words.

hehehe

I needed the one version but I thought it might look messed up and I didn't want anyone to missout on this classic pic, so here it is twice.

TFSMIF (thank flying spaghetti monster its friday)

Nothing much to report on the political front, and its friday so I feel like relaxing, I was hoping to post a song called "the Brews" because it was our way to kick off friday nights back at college. It starts with,

"Friday night we'll be drinkin' Manishevitz
Goin' out to terrorize Goyem
Stompin' shagitz, screwin' shicksas
As long as we're home by Saturday mornin
Cause hey, we're the Brews
Sportin' anti-swastika tattoos
Oi Oi we're the boys
Orthodox, hesidic, O.G. Ois

Orthopedic, Dr. Martins good for
Waffle making, kickin' through the shin
Reputation, gained through intimidation
Pacifism no longer tradition"

The friend that I usually started the night off with was usually rocking Doc's and even got an anti-swastika tatoo eventually, a-la the Dead Kennedy's.

Oh and two of the band members are jewish and so this entire song is full of yiddish and other jewish reffernces. They had an album called "white trash, two heebs and a bean" from that you can probably guess the racial make up of the band.

But I couldn't find a good version of it so instead here is NoFX's masterpeice, this one song was an entire album, its the second longest song in punk history. And its here in three parts. The longest was Crass with Sir! Yes Sir! And these guys first started in 1983 when I was 1, they're about to turn 40 and are still a great punk band.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3


Hell its friday i think i'll go nuts with the videos.
More Nofx im looking for non-live videos so you can actually hear the music and NOFX is one of relatively few bands I like that has a lot of non-live videos available.
So heres a little diddy called The Man I Killed



how bout some Anti-Flag another favorite, their new stuff is pretty much Emo still a good message but lost a lot of the edge, I'm not hating just that they've changed in a direction I'm not a big fan of, maybe they will convince Emo bands to actually have a point instead of just being boring music about how their lives suck, maybe?
anyway heres Anti-Flag with this is the end, for you my friend.

More A-F with the aptly name Die for your Government

eh I'm goin to lunch hope you enjoyed the videos

America, Fuck Yeah!

Did we seriously just take the house, the senate and for a little icing on the cake get Rumsfeld out in the same day? Holy freaking crap batman. I mean really who called that one? I think my house predictions were almost dead on, my senate predictions were vague enough that Miss Cleo could have spotted them as another way of saying I don't fucking know, but I never even contemplated that we'd get the entire legislative branch AND get rid of Rummy all in one fell swoop. Am I dreaming, did our country finally wake up out of our 5-year hate induced zombiedom? Bush loved taking about mandates well you just got a great big mandate upside the head motherfucker.

Fuck a gridlock like so many predicted we're on the express bus to vetoville, Bush is going to wear that veto stamp right out, better get some more ink. But now the pressure is on, well it will be as soon as they're in session. The Dems just took this country, now they need to show what they can do with it, they need to push through value defining laws, nothing hidden, just big bold laws that like re-affirming that no one can be held without a trial, no one can be tortured, habeas corpus is an inalienable right that NO ONE has the right to take away AKA fuck you Bush. They need to demand that a clear concise plan is laid out in Iraq, immediately, again FUB. Any two people can have a civil union by law, and churches or other institutions may grant marriages to who ever they want and those unions/marriages will be recognized by all entities in this country. Domestic spying without a warrant is illegal and anything else is an impeachable offence, we won't try you for the past ones, but no immunity either, in other words if you straighten up we'll let you go but if you do it again we throw the book at you.

If the Dems stand up and kick a little ass then, well it'll all get vetoed but that’s ok, hell its the whole idea, we clearly state what our plan is then this forces the true repedophilican agenda into the open. Every time the president vetoes a bill he's saying fuck you to every person who voted for a Democrat, Oh we better pass a stronger bill about signing statements too, which Bush will approve with a signing statement that this law doesn’t apply to him. We want to force bush and the other republicans to say fuck you to the people as often as possible, sure it wont change much because everything gets shot down, but it will be a constant reminder of who is and has been fucking this country, and I'm not talking about just some good old wholesome fuckin, nah this was like American History X jail sex, they kind where they guy says after words, "I had to get three stitches" its been that kind of fucking, but some how those fear ruphies worked better than I ever though possible, but we seem to have woken up finally, and now we're going to the cops, hope fully the rapist goes to jail, and if not we'll theirs always the lifetime movie style justice for the raped.

Of course if the Dems don't stand up, if they bitch and fight within the party, if they water down their bills because they don't want them to get vetoed well then fuck them too, that’s when I'll dump that (D) from after my name and proudly declare myself a member of the Green Party.

So it’s all up to the Dems, raise your voice, point your finger and grab your nuts cause its on now!

good saying

I was just screwing around looking at t-shirts from Carry a Big Sticker and came across a nice saying from the king of one-liners, Confucius.

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

they had other good ones too but that was my fav, not nessicarily my favorite to buy and wear but I liked the saying.

Be nice to America, or we'll bring democracy to your country.
War is not Pro-Life.
A picture of the Statue of Liberty with, give me your rich white men

Just go to the link if you want to see more.

I love this Country, I just hate the people running it

Hate is a strong word, and I hate Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

the reasons keep pouring in all the time. And I already had a bit of a rant, well assuming that a post titled Donkey Raping Shit Eaters qualifies. So instead hes a song from a political-funk-rapper AKA The Coup

I just watched the video, theres actually a bit cut out of the middle of the song, that explains how he ends up in a party with rich white guys.

Why Vote Against the Republicans?

The Rude Pundit is my hero. The Rude Pundit - Why vote against the Republicans?
This is one of the best things I have read on the internet in a while. Its angry it says the f word a lot and it makes its point. I hope this doesn't piss off his rudeiness but Im'm just copying and pasting the whole article here.

So without further ado here is some rudeness.

Why Vote Against Republicans? Because Fuck Them:America, the good ol' USA, is a country that was brought into existence by groups of terrorists and insurgents aided by foreign powers. Its first rallying document was the Declaration of Independence, a list of reasons why King George III and the British sucked balls. However, no matter what that hand-scrawled Declaration told the colonists, a good many people living in Massachusetts or Maryland could've bottom-lined it for you: "Why revolt against the British? Because fuck them, that's why."

The history of great movements in this nation, of any nation, is a tale of people who are finally, at the end of the day, so fed up with the status quo that all of the rational reasoning mounts and piles up until it all, in essence, comes down to "Fuck them." ("Them" being, of course, whoever the powerful are in a historical moment.) The French Revolution, the American civil rights movement, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, all uprisings of the average person, through the ballot box, the legislative process, or the gun, against those who are dicking them over. Sure, sometimes it doesn't turn out for the best and sometimes things get even worse (see the media-manipulated Republican "revolution" of 1994 with its dunderheaded motto of "Throw the bums out"), but such is the end result of constant, endless disempowerment of the masses, the unending thrum of voices calling wrong what the people know in their guts is right.

Now, even through the deadening fog of Fox "News" rhetoric, multiple jobs, dying pensions, depleting health care, the waterboard effect of credit card debt, force-feedings of fatty foods, soul-killing reality TV, the entire cultural apparatus telling us we must want more and more stuff and shit, the dead-ends of public debate, government-instilled paranoia, dementia masking itself as religious faith, the unsubtle shove towards xenophobic isolation, an antagonistic corporate media, the vicious street-beating death of American intellectual thought, and Bush-worship masked as patriotism, through it all, man, all of it, we have come to this magnificent moment, frightening and exhilarating in its implications, where we, as a majority, are looking at the ruin and waste that surrounds us, piles of shit that we are told are mountains of gold, and we can finally, in this savage season of 2006, at long last come to say, "You know what? Fuck them."

Fuck them for trying to make us believe that America's acts of mass destruction, its bumblings into conflagration and apocalypse, in Iraq are actually just speed bumps, commas, if you will, on the road to a peaceful world of democratic nations bowing down to blow the cock of American hegemony.

Fuck them for holding themselves up as arbiters of morality and when they were confronted with a simple moral equation, they cast their lot with savages and genocidal maniacs. No, not the embryonic stem cell research vote, you backwards ass anti-science fundamentalist fucks. On torture and judicial rights, where even those who proclaimed themselves defenders of the detained and imprisoned ended up dancing like slut marionettes on a puppet pole in the Oval Office when it came down to actually, say, defending the detained and imprisoned.

Fuck them for making Americans fucking hated around the world, as if we're all ex-Nazis or, maybe more accurately, members of Pinochet's Chilean army back in the day, squandering the real triumph of America as a beacon of rights and fairness. However unreal that image was, it's better than being "that big ass country that tortures innocent people."

Fuck them for leaving New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to die, as if somehow those parts of the country were gangrenous toes that could just be cut off.

Fuck them for telling us we're too stupid or traitorous to understand what it is they're doing in trying to re-make the earth in their image, for keeping secrets in the name of their own security while literally and figuratively selling out ours.

Fuck them for lying to us about so goddamn much, about science, about their own policies, about what they actually, really were recorded saying, about what's genuinely important, like the out of control debt and the melting planet, instead trying to get us to think that, if a couple of guys wanna get married or if some pop singer's tit jumps out of her blouse, Godjeebus will smash the earth with his mighty Bible-club of divine justice.

Fuck them for...well, you know what? Just fuck them.

Fuck them all, all the Republicans in Congress, all members the conservative spooge-bucket brigade, all their corporate masters yanking on their nipple clips and shoving cold cash up their asses for their obeisance, all the liars and sinners and avaricious rats of the evangelical right, and especially all the wads of fuck in the White House. They all had their chance and they fucked it up. So fuck them.

When you walk into the voting booth on Tuesday, no matter where, with that rage burning in you, stab that motherfuckin' punch card, beat the shit out of that Diebold touch screen, and yell, "Fuck them" as you vote them into oblivion.

And if on Wednesday morning it turns out they've dicked us over one more time by hacking the vote, by screwing with the polls, then maybe we've reached a point in this America where it's time to fight or flee.

Donkey Raping Shit Eaters

Well where do I begin, first I see two top page articles about how some one thought it would be a great idea to publish all of Iraq’s military info on the web to help find some WMD. Plan doesn’t make any sense so far but don’t worry its about to get a whole lot worse. What was included was fairly detailed information about how to build a nuclear weapon. It’s a damn good thing Iran doesn’t have the internet or else we sure would have egg on our face, in the form of a mushroom cloud. This just in, Iran does have the internet, and we (and by we I don’t mean you or I) just gave them a big boost in getting those nukes ready for some Israel bombin’. So who could be some unbelievably ignorant to actually post detailed nuclear secrets on the web…. Take a wild ass guess. Yup our favorite defenders of our nation, who value security over your freedom, yup the Republicans. And so how will this play out, well the NYTimes has an article about it which means that by now Little Green Footballs and other right wing hate sites will be saying that we need to kill everyone at the New York Times because they exposed Republican incompetence, er sorry they’ll say the NYT divulged nuclear secrets by pointing out that they were available on the internet. Its not the fault of those who put them on the net, they were trying to cover their asses by looking for WMD that didn’t exist so you can’t blame them, no in this country we blame the messenger. Its what we do, again by We I don’t mean you or I, well maybe you do, I don’t really know you that well, I mean we spent that one incredible night together in Mexico but I don’t even know your name. When I asked you just said don’t speak…
So after reading that lovely piece of reassurance what did I stumble across next? Oh yes that we are no longer searching for a missing soldier because the Iraqi government told us not to. So Kerry is pure unrelenting evil because he made a shitty joke that he proceded to fuck up and their fore he hates the troops and wants the terrorists to win. Bush goes looking for a missing soldier and is told to stop, so he does. Now that’s strong leadership right there, showing them that he’s the decider alright, and if that solider is tortured to death then that’s just part of the price we pay. Oh and just a few months ago if we captured a torturer then we could have put them up for war crimes but now we can’t at least without indicting ourselves in the process.
So that’s what it means to support the troops ignore them when they go missing and teach Iran (and any terrorist with a computer) how to build nukes. If that’s what we call supporting the troops then shit Kerry should be happy they say he not supportive, not supporting can’t be as bad as supporting like that.

and thank you to trey parker and matt stone, the title is a line from the south park movie.
Bigger thank you to Buzzflash, Crooks and Liars and AmericaBlog for the articles. I would thank the NYT and the Chicago tribune because they wrote the articles that the blogs were about, but I can't view those articles without paying and Im cheap so screw that.

Election time

Were getting close and the ugliness surrounds us. The RCCC is bombarding us with disgusting ads, Kerry is making stupid comments, Rush Limbaugh being the piece of shit that he is, and everyone involved in campaigning in any form is completely stressed out. Its one thing to have job that has a very high work load, its altogether different when that work is trying to sway public oppinion. The public as a mass is such a strange entity. How much does the public actually pay attention? How manipulated are they by campaign ads or GOTV calls? In the end it really is emotion, do I like this person or not? everything else is just fluff. The Repedophilicans have understood this for a while and have been kicking the shit out of the dems with that little piece of knowledge. Humans are simple, were driven by our emotions, some of us work very had at being objective about the world but in the end, and this is particularly true of human interactions, we are emotional. You probably have at least on friend who is actually a jerk, you know they are and you don't like it but they are still your friend and your not even sure why. Its the same with politics you vote for some one because you like them. When you first hear about them you hopefully look at the issues and their stances, you try to see if their values are similar to yours or not. You might also look at that letter in parenthesis next to their name, and in a rather short period of time you decide if you like them or not. Once you decide, conciously or not, who you like, its almost impossible to change that short of the person coming out as a pedophile, or a total racist or some major breakthrough like that, because any minor issue your going to look at through this lens that anything bad about that opponent is an unfair attack and anything good from the opposition is overblown by the biased media. We all do this, theres no new information in what I just said but its interesting when you catch yourself doing it. Not that it matters I still think Randy Kuhl is an asshole and that Eric Massa seems like a good person. Would I be friends with him normally? probably not, forgetting the age difference, hes a very intense person with a huge millitary background, thats just not really the kind of people I usually surrpound myself with, but the people I do hang out with would have a chance in hell of winning an election for all sorts of reasons.

Another classic post that had no point whatsoever but I liked writing it, hopefully somebody read it and enjoyed it. If not, eh. go below and watch a video or something.