Blind and Dumb.

Re: [Kirsten Andersen Fan Club] Spies like us -- A heated rebuttal to miss Parker.
From Phreadom to kirstenandersenfanclub. 2:15 pm (1 minute ago)

I can't help but comment on this.

My response is aimed at Kathleen Parker, who I'm sure will never read this... but I'll write it anyway.

Let's see how concise I can make this.

Miss Parker, the very same wide reaching, rights infringing powers you feel the need to give our government at the cost of our liberties are the same kind of powers that the government has been using anyway in the past both foreign and domestically which have led us to the very point we are now at.

CIA black ops and the like on foreign soil... military actions in foreign countries for the monetary betterment of our country, costing the lives of thousands of innocent civilians... assassinations of democratically elected foreign leaders to be replaced with military dictators that were more in line with our goals. The setup of drug networks to fund illegal arms trades and military actions etc.

Frankly one of the biggest causes of modern middle eastern based terrorism is our involvement with Israel. Almost every speech I've seen where they (rarely) actually tell you what Osama himself said, refers to our involvement in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict... and how our backing of an illegal occupation and genocide to the tune of $15,000, 000.00 per DAY is driving Muslims to feel that they are being persecuted and need to defend themselves by whatever means necessary. We're funding the Israeli military, selling them military equipment and bulldozers etc... so they can fly around in their helicopters firing missiles into the cars and houses of suspected Palestinian "terrorists" etc. And what can those terrorists do in return? Throw rocks? Shoot at the tanks with their rifles?

It's not our supposed "Freedom" that they hate... it's our government's reckless and blind action as a Big Brother rogue nation stomping all over the rest of the world... and particularly on the third world type countries that can't do much to defend themselves. If a country was funding your enemy to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars per year in aid and military hardware, to be used in wiping our your people... even though the world courts had almost unanimously convicted your enemy of war crimes, with your country being the ONLY dissenting vote in 2 of the 3 votes... would you not hate that country?

Or how about watching that country then attack another nation under the excuse of them having Weapons of Mass Destruction, although they were NO THREAT WHATSOEVER to the United States... while leaving your enemy, convicted of illegal occupation and war crimes, to sit on an arsenal of 400 Nuclear Warheads?

Or how about watching them kill HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of innocent civilians... men, women and children as a result of this illegal war... mostly children.... and then watching them have the gall to call it an outrage when you kill A SINGLE PERSON from their country. And then teach their soldiers to pass out toys and candy at important strategic locations to draw crowds of children, to discourage "terrorist" attacks by using the resultant crowds of children and human shields... and then calling the "terrorists" monsters and evil when they finally strike anyway.

It takes an astounding level of ignorance and a pervasive lack of understanding to justify the kind of sheepish drivel that Miss Parker has written below. The very government she advocates, to the detriment of our most basic freedoms and liberties, is the very government whose same actions have caused the very "terrorist threat" that we now face. The answer is NOT the further erosion of our freedoms and rights, but instead a matter of calling our government to be accountable for it's past and present actions which have at the very root fueled this present "terrorist" boom... pardon the pun.

The answer is not in fervently avoiding the blame that lies very squarely here at home, and killing thousands more innocent civilians abroad under the banner of a Christian nation... which only throws fuel on an already raging fire... but in taking a look inward... taking a look at our own actions... and trying to understand how rebranding our country in the 1950's as an expressly Christian nation in opposition to the "godless heathens of communism", in violation of our most basic founding principles... and proceeding to wage a secret imperialistic war the third world countries over the next 50+ years while funding the number one enemy of the arab nations under the excuse that a 3,000 year old book and imaginary sky god gives them the right to come in and displace and slaughter anyone else who happens to be already living there and disagrees. And then labeling anyone who fights back against those imperialistic actions as a "terrorist" and justifying their further persecution and genocide.

How would you feel if some other country or group came into your home under the banner of some other religion and killed a bunch of your people while claiming a divine right to do so and sought to displace you from house and home and replace you with their own people, government and belief system?

Think about it.

And before you snap off a response, do yourself a favor and read this:
http://largo.phreadom.net/US-foreign-policy/

Maybe you'll start understanding a bit of how and why the rest of the world REALLY doesn't like us... and not because of the bullshit excuse that they "hate our Freedom".

On 12/31/05, William Kistler wrote:

If you've got nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear. Papers please, citizen.

President Bush has said that the terrorists hate us because of our freedoms, so he is getting rid of America's freedom so that the terrorists don't hate us anymore.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Kathleen Parker weighs in on the chicken little watch by The New York Times
Jewish World Review
December 30, 2005 Author: Kathleen Parker

I've been trying for several days now to get upset about the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program. No, wait, make that President George W. Bush's illegal, warrantless, domestic spying scandal.

That sounds more darkly nefarious, more richly conspiratorial and, most important, more impeachable. But is it true? Is Bush spying illegally on Americans? As usual, it depends on whose head is talking and how one spins the yarn.

"The president has authorized a domestic spying program without court approval" sounds like Big Brother is breathing down all our necks. "The president has authorized national security agents to wiretap suspected terrorists" sounds like common sense.

Thus, try as I might, I can't muster outrage over what appears to be a reasonable action in the wake of 9/11. As a rule, I'm as averse as anyone to having people "spying" on me. I'm also as devoted to protecting civil liberties as any other American.

But the privilege of debating our constitutional rights requires first that we be alive. If federal agents want to listen in on suspected terrorists as they plot their next mass murder, please allow me to turn up the volume.

Meanwhile, unless I start placing calls to Peshawar using phrases such as "I want my 72 virgins now," then I figure I'm safe to make my next hair appointment without fear of exposure. OK, fine, so I highlight.

I'm not making light of legitimate concerns about government power over private lives — vigilance is critical and debate worthwhile, but this seems like a manufactured controversy. It also reminds us yet again that America's decency may be her greatest weakness.

It is our nature to project onto others the principles, values and qualities we hold dear. But it is our enemies' nature — and their strategy — to take advantage of those same principles. If not for our open-heartedness toward diversity and our generous spirit in welcoming all comers to these shores, Sept. 11, 2001, might never have happened.

Instead, 19 terrorists traveled freely and lived among us undetected because we were too fat, dumb and happy to imagine that anyone would want to kill us. We were innocent then, but no more. Now we look for dots and try to connect them. We use sophisticated technology to track calls, collate data, and match suspicious-sounding words with names and numbers to create a mosaic of potentially murderous intent.

Sometimes we might get it right and prevent another attack; sometimes we might mistakenly eavesdrop on an innocent conversation. What we save — possibly thousands of lives — compared with what we lose (mostly the exposure of our embarrassingly dull lives) would seem sufficiently self-evident to preclude the meme-driven hysteria now clotting airwaves: Bush lied; Bush spied. And, oh yes, People Died.

Or maybe not. Maybe people didn't die because federal agents acted in the moment and wiretapped someone they thought might be a threat to U.S. security. Maybe thousands didn't get blown up on the Brooklyn Bridge as Iyman Faris had plotted because agents wiretapped Faris' phone.

Now we learn that Faris, who pleaded guilty in October 2003 to working with al-Qaida, is prepared to sue Bush for illegally wiretapping him. The crux of his case would be that Bush's NSA policy violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires a warrant from a special court before an American citizen can be wiretapped.

That, at least, is his attorney's position. Other legal authorities assert that Bush is well within his constitutional authority to pursue foreign intelligence and to monitor communications without a warrant. For more on this, read "Unwarranted Complaints" in the Dec. 27 New York Times (nytimes.com/2005/12/27/opinion/27casey.html) by David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey, both lawyers who served in the Justice Department in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

However the fine legal points are resolved, the current tenor of debate seems out of tune with events. In theory, I don't want to be wiretapped without due process, no matter how unlikely it is that anyone would want to know the shade of my highlights.

But in practice, the task of getting scores or hundreds of warrants to wiretap terrorism suspects mid-conversation seems impossible to imprudent.

More to the point, I want the government to connect all the little dots it can in order to prevent another slaughter on American soil. How rich that Bush should be treated as a criminal for trying to prevent another 9/11 attack, while a known al-Qaida terrorist could be set free on a technicality.

Our decency may kill us yet.


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--
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away".
            -- Philip K. Dick

--------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: This was followed up in the #phreadom chat channel with some (expected) "feedback" from proc, being an Israeli Jew himself, after I mentioned that I had posted a rather heated rebuttal on the mailing list and then posted the above copy of that post here.

<proc> Israel was doing just fine without the US until then.
<proc> while the US voted in favor of the UN's palestine partitioning plan, they were a reluctant suporter
<proc> it was the USSR who initially were rather pro-Israel
<proc> but when they saw that Israel wasn't anywhere near subservient enough, they quickly moved to the arab side.
<proc> haven't finished reading phreadom's thing
<phreadom> that seems to follow a logical progression in a number of ways.
<proc> also, if you read Osama's stuff, the thing that catalyzed him was the action in Lebanon
<proc> NOT ANYTHING about the palestinians.
<proc> in particular: Sabra and Shatila.
<phreadom> proc: I agree.
<proc> something Sharon is personally responsible for.
<phreadom> I was going to clarify that, but couldn't remember the exact stuff.
<phreadom> his vision of the towers falling etc.
<phreadom> could you point me to some links etc?
<proc> I have no problems with your arguments, except some inaccuracies
<phreadom> so write a comment and correct me. :)
<proc> on OSama's speeches?
<proc> don't have time
<phreadom> that too... the stuff about Lebanon etc.
<phreadom> okee doke.
<proc> you can post my things
<proc> the lebanon stuff is IN his speeches
<phreadom> right, that I know.
<phreadom> I just can't find the speeches offhand.
<phreadom> they're not very widely "printed" from what I've seen.
<phreadom> I'd have to dig on Al Jazeera or something.
<proc> another thing: shooting missles in houses and cars: they are not "terrorists". The controversy is that the terrorists surround themselves with their children on purpose.
<proc> the problem is the mild collateral damage
<proc> if anything, Israeli intelligence is impecable.
<phreadom> mild?
<proc> yes, mild.
<phreadom> maybe as far as Israel vs Palestine.
<proc> you don't fucking go around masterminding guerilla operations, and then go hang out with your family.
<phreadom> that sounds like an excuse.
<proc> it isn't an excuse
<proc> there's one answer to guerilla warfare
<proc> and that's what Israel is doing.
<phreadom> "he shouldn't have been living in his home, with his family, trying to resist an illegal occupation. it's HIS fault that we blew up his family."
<phreadom> *cough*
<phreadom> yeah. yep. uh-huh.
<proc> here, I'll rephrase that.
<phreadom> and in the case of Lebanon, I was under the impression that that was a US military action?
<phreadom> or am I wrong there as well?
<proc> "He was an enemy combatant in enemy territory controlled by a semi-hostile foreign body (the PA), he was slated for elimination."
<proc> no, Lebanon was an Israeli action.
<proc> one which I personally do not approve.
<proc> It served very little strategic purpose.
<proc> It galvanized resistance and cost many soldiers their lives.
<proc> Though, the partial occupation of Lebanon kept the Hezbolla at bay
<proc> now they can lob mortars right into Israeli land.
<proc> they can, and do.
<phreadom> proc: by a small twist of that definition, Osama is justified in killing Americans?
<proc> I'll contrast the two different "illegal occupations". The arabs are a direct immediate violent threat.
<proc> Oh, he quite is.
<phreadom> considering that we are supporters of enemy combatants in a hostile foreign body, slated for elimination.
<proc> Though, he's executing a revenge operation.
<proc> His ultimatums are very vague
<proc> and offer no place for negotiation.
<phreadom> right. also, he's been doing a lot of blowing his own people up lately... or at least people claiming to be allied with him have been.
<proc> I'm not some slinky lefty trying to defend his stupid beliefs while trying not to be a hypocrite.
<proc> he has his justification.
<proc> I just happen to be on the other side.
<proc> Guerilla is very hard to deal with.
<proc> especially when there's very strong international pressure, as there is on Israel.
<proc> The best way of dealing with guerilla would be taking over the source.
<proc> In this case, putting pressure on their families.
<proc> But that would be a PR catastrophe.
<proc> Israel ain't doing well in the PR dept as it is.
<phreadom> Israel moving into the middle east is what started this shit... that and the US meddling.
<phreadom> I say kick the fucking Israeli's out. move em to France or something.
<phreadom> :)
<proc> before Israel, the land was controlled by the British
* phreadom ducks and covers
<proc> whom neither the arabs nor the jews liked.
<phreadom> that doesn't say a whole lot.
<proc> before them it was under turkish rule
<sig11> heh yeah. I was suprised to learn that Israel had to fight teh brits too
<phreadom> the british controlled most of the fucking earth at one point.
<proc> it was NEVER under arab rule.
<proc> EVER.
<phreadom> marching around planting flags with imperialistic glee.
<phreadom> sort of like the US seems to be doing lately. ;)
<proc> the closest you go is when the Caliphate controlled part of it.
<phreadom> little flags with "democracy" written on them.
<phreadom> the turks were muslims, were they not?
<phreadom> it may be a matter of semantics, sure.
<proc> yes they were, but they are completely different anthropologically
<proc> and they all hate each other
<proc> the Turks opressed the native arabs more than either the british or the jews did.
<sig11> the "democracy" flags didn't come until after WW I
<phreadom> sig11: didn't we go back to being isolationist between WW1 and WW2 ?
<proc> phreadom: religious division is not the right way. what these people care about is the "race"
<proc> they don't say "jews" they say "zionists"
<phreadom> proc: ?
<phreadom> that sounds backwards.
<sig11> oh I was thinking British
<proc> as I've said before, the arabs hate each others' guts so bad, they only hate the jews more.
<phreadom> I would consider the jews the race... and the zionists the religion.
<sig11> I'm off to lansing. BBL
<proc> what they means is that you'll hear an arab say something "I don't hate the jews (as in, the religion), I hate the zionists"
<phreadom> sig11: the british didn't have a reason other than "let's rule the world." fuck democracy... it was a BRITISH flag. ;) heh
<proc> (I'm parphrasing a quote I heard multiple times from multiple arabs)
<proc> gtg
<proc> bbs
<phreadom> k
<phreadom> feh. I still think of "jew" as the "race" and "zionist" as the "religion"... and those are looser words than Madonna's pussy to be sure.

Also, Sean tried to comment on this as well, but blogger for some reason wouldn't cooperate with him. Here is his comment:

(16:31:30) Sean: Sometimes you go off on huge rants, and I get tired of reading them.

This is a fine exception, and i think you describe well the problem facing the perception of our countries actions.

I find it sad that people so easily justify resorting to anything because of a blind fear of possible terrorism, and blanked excuses like "in the wake of 9/11".

It is often chirped that if we allow terrrorism to change our lives then the terrorist have won. I agree with this except that those the chirp it most just seem to associate changin our lives with our style of living. How about the Rights we hold so high as our own Freedoms to not be encroached on by our government? Not having to prove you are not a terrorist, or plaquate yourself that it does not matter because you are not doing anything wrong. Our lives and world have changed greatly since 9/11 and sadly that is more our fault then the terrorists. Our reaction to terrorism has been short sighted and over handed. Sadly the majority of Americans support this, or just do not care. I have no answer for how to make people care that the fundamentals of our country are changing for the worse, until this effects everyone enough to care I sadly see no change.

*shaking head in despair and disbelief*

2005: The year the US government undermined the internet

This is horribly depressing.

Just read it... I can't say anything more about it right now. Too depressed.

A quote I ran across....

"Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...The progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face of its constant and bitter opposition." -- H.L. Mencken

I would have to say that for the most part I agree with this. Some parallels could be drawn with religion as well, but that goes without saying...

Also, I have to say that there might be some areas where government has aided the people... at least in some incarnation. Such things as organization of work forces etc... a military force to protect the people... government in some forms is simply a matter of civil organization. People trading some of their income or freedom for safety in numbers and a shared work load etc.

It's great to see quotes like this... but you should always stop and think about it... critical thinking... without which we are easily led around like sheep.

Oooo damn that's gotta sting. ;-)

A federal judge bitch slapped a healthy dose of reality into a bunch of Intelligent Design proponents that were on a Pennsylvania school board.

Judge rules against 'intelligent design' in science class.

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A Pennsylvania school district cannot teach in science classes a concept that says some aspects of science were created by a supernatural being, a federal judge has ruled.

This brought a grin to my face from ear to ear. ;-)

Thanks Jen!

And a choice quote from it... his choice of words were exquisite.

Intelligent design claims the complexity of some systems of nature cannot be explained by evolution but must be attributed to a designer or supernatural being.

The Dover Area School District, about 25 miles from the state capital, sought to become the first in the nation to require high school science teachers to teach the concept of intelligent design as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution.

Jones described the school board's decision as "breathtaking inanity."

Yes indeed.

1984 or a Brave New World?

I'd shoot for the latter probably.

Let’s see some ID, please.
The end of anonymity on the Internet?

Honestly there hasn't been a lot of real anonymity for awhile, as different agencies have been fond of subpoenaing ISP's for their user records to trace back on-line activity for a few years now at least.

Also, there is always encryption and using older systems that don't include this type of hardware...

But it always brings me back to the same question... where can you go and what can you do nowadays if you really want to be FREE like the founding fathers intended? Free in the true Libertarian sense of the word? Is there ANYWHERE remotely civilized? Or is it even possible at all? Maybe in the middle of the Amazon? But you have to figure that pretty much anywhere you go... every square inch of the earth is owned by some screwed up government that wants control of you in some way or another.

*sigh*

Remember... it's not really the active oppression of 1984 that leads to the totalitarian oppression of these dark futures... it's the apathy of the people... and things like Patriotism and Religion are the opiates of our modern masses.

Bullshit.(tm)

Go get your bibles!

Read along now kids. ;-D

This is one of the best shows ever. (I've watched every episode.)

The Problem with God: Interview with Richard Dawkins

http://beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17889.html

The renowned biologist talks about intelligent design, dishonest Christians, and why God is no better than an imaginary friend.

British biologist Richard Dawkins has made a name for himself defending evolution and fighting what he sees as religiously motivated attacks on science. Dr. Dawkins sat down with Beliefnet at the World Congress of Secular Humanism, where his keynote address focused on intelligent design.

This man is my hero. Please read and consider this.

I would personally have liked to have seen some of the points fleshed out a little further, to dispel any ambiguity etc. But the point comes across loud and clear none the less.

Thanks proc!

Topics of the day...

Let's start with Thanksgiving...

I've been seeing a lot of news about the native Americans protesting Thanksgiving... bitching about how it was the beginning of their downfall etc... while I can understand wanting to clarify the impact that the pilgrims had... we should probably take into account Columbus.. the "French" MILLENIA before that... (yes, the French... or neolithic Solutreans from what is now southern France, something like 16,000 years ago, landed in North America and their bloodline persists to this day in the northeastern "Native American" bloodlines etc.) and the Spanish... and how it was mainly the native American's lack of resistance to the imported diseases that led to their annihilation, and not purely a willful genocide by immigrants.

That aside, many of the "native Americans" today that bitch about their people etc... have never been directly oppressed. It's very similar to black people bitching about slavery and being called African American when likely nobody alive that they know was either a slave or came over from Africa.

You're in a "free" country now... one made up of many people from different cultures.. it's your job to make the best of what you have... not whine about things that happened to your ancestors centuries ago and demand restitution for ills that were never done to YOU.

Now, on to the next topic... gun laws.

I was astonished to hear anti-gun activists saying that their constitutional rights were being violated when they were prevented from suing gun manufacturers when a gun was used in a murder or violent crime.

*blink blink*

Umm.... what the fuck?!?

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! You don't sue knife makers when someone is stabbed... you don't sue a car maker when someone is hit and killed by a car... or a carpenter when someone is pushed down a stairwell. You get the point?

You have a constitutional right to bear arms... far more so than the modern government would like you to believe. Trying to deprive that right is not only patently unconstitutional on the part of the anti-gun parties, but patently absurd to boot.

On to the final point... global warming.

Many people today would like to say that scientists and environmentalists etc are just playing Chicken Little and making a big deal of nothing about global warming... insisting that it's simply a part of the natural cycle of the earths global climate ebbs and flows... ie; that every few tens of thousands of years the earth gets hotter and colder naturally and that the current warming trend is purely natural and nothing to worry about.

Well, to soundly put the smack down on that nonsense, scientists have taken polar ice cores showing the earths atmospheric changes over the past 650,000 years and shown beyond a doubt that the current CO₂ levels are far higher now than EVER in the past 650,000 years due solely to human causes. The fact that the earth has gone through some severe global warming spells naturally throughout history, but still made it through... and that the levels now far exceed anything EVER in the past 650 millenia... what exactly are we in for? I would hope that it would cause the naysayers pause for a moment to consider just how seriously in trouble we are as a species... life as we know it... ALL life on earth... is in grave danger. A chain of events can very easily take place which would wipe out essentially all life on earth and lead to an evironment akin to the atmosphere on Venus.

A few follow ups to these points would be the study of the actual level of advancement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas before the intervention of the Europeans... how they were in many regards more scientifically advanced, by centuries in some respects, than their European counterparts. It would be interesting solely in that regard to study what factors led to the stunting of the advancement in the old world in relation to the advances in the new world. And to wonder which might be the dominant world culture had things gone a bit differently.

Also, would be to contrast the racism exhibited by modern day Native American and Black people in contrast to actual perception by the white majority. This was really brought home today when I say a man of native American lineage, from the tribe that met the pilgrims at Plymouth, leading a protest that was chanting "down with racism" etc. I'm sorry, but I didn't see any white people there bitching about the native Americans... I honestly saw them thanking them for helping their ancestors survive the first winters etc. I realize that there is a bittersweet history there, but if anyone is being a racist today, is it certainly not the whites, but the native Americans themselves... and justifying it under the age old guise of ills done to their distant forefathers etc.

A List of interesting articles.

(like B list... but better. har har)

Anyway... I went looking for that research on stem cell research and ran across a slew of very interesting articles... so I figured I'd share. :-)

There Is No God <-- PENN JILLETTE (of Penn & Teller) IS MY HERO.

Chris Mooney, 'The Republican War On Science'

Arguing the Ethics of Stem Cell Research

The Patriot Act: Section 215 (It should properly say "The USA Patriot Act", as that is the actual name of the act.)

Evolution and Religious Faith

Vatican Outlines Opposition to Gays in Priesthood

There was something else I wanted to write about as well... but I can't remember at the moment. I really need to write this stuff down when I think of it... (which is usually when I'm driving between sites for some reason... which makes it hard to stop and write.)

"I forgot the taste of fears and how they haunt the lips you're kissing...
and how the soul can waste it's tears on someone who is missing...
and now I shed such tears, but never cry... this is how I want her...
and how I kiss her lips... and taste goodbye... this is how I want her..."

Echoes of the past.

There is a new study out that shows that the United States, which used to be by far the preeminent force in stem cell research, has now fallen far behind many other countries... and can we guess why this is?

Religious fundamentalists and other of their ignorant kin trying to supress medical and scientific advances because their small minds think that it conflicts with their personal religious views.

I've posted on this topic before... but it's nice to see that it's having such a profound effect on our standing globally, as well as our level of medical advancement and our economy etc...

Like the supression of literacy by the church centuries ago... and my favorite thing to note, the Libraries of Alexandria etc.. here's just another case of religion holding back the advancement of humanity out of fear and ignorance. (although I know it can easily be argued that the churches supression of power was a political maneuver and not one of fear and ignorance. although that also parallels quite nicely with modern politics where a politician is now judged on how strong his faith in god is, and not how intelligent or skilled he is. sometimes I weep for humanity.)

I hate religion.

My new favorite song.

where are we?
what the hell is going on?
the dust has only just begun to fall
crop circles in the carpet
sinking, feeling
spin me ‘round again
and rub my eyes
this can’t be happening
when busy streets
amess with people
would stop to hold
their heads heavy

hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
all those years
they were here first

oily marks appear on walls
where pleasure moments hung before
the take-over
the sweeping insensitivity
of this still life

hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
[you won’t catch me around here]
blot out two hearts
they were here first

ohm what you say
mm that you only meant well
well of course you did
ohm what you say
mm that it’s all for the best
of course it is
ohm what you say
mm that it’s just what we need
you decided this
mm what you say
mm what did she say

ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mint-sweet darkness
paper word cut-outs
[paper word cut-outs]
speak no feeling
no unbelieving
you don’t care a bit
you don’t care a bit
ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
sick sweet darkness
paper word cut-outs
speak no feeling
no unbelieving
you don’t care a bit
you don’t care a bit

-- Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

Also, their official band website: http://www.imogenheap.com/

Aroo? (o_O)

So yeah... chatted with my boss for awhile today.

He leans rather towards the Republican side of the fence... or Libertarian for that matter.

Plus he's a strong Christian.

Considering all that, it was a good conversation. He countered almost every single thing I said somehow... gave me some food for thought. By countered, I don't mean that he disproved anything I said, but has his own side of almost any issue, or some kind of rebuttal to minimize the importance of it etc.

He was saying he won't shop at K-Mart anymore because they're changing their wording of "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" to be more secular or religion-neutral or something. Then he mentioned something about Halloween being banned for being Pagan and also mentioned Easter...

I told him that they were all Pagan Holidays and that the Christians just made a habit of stealing all the other religions holidays and moving their dates to the dates of the previously existing Pagan holidays etc.

Christmas, Easter etc. Easter was a Pagan fertility ritual, hence the bunnies and eggs etc. Christmas is a conglomeration of many previous religious festivals.

Also, in relation to my earlier post about the French, my boss countered that the French bailed on the revolutionary forces immediately after the first battle and didn't return again for several years until the very last battle, when their navy showed up and sealed the defeat of Cornwall in South Carolina.

So I need to make a list of all his claims... ie; that Michigan doesn't have a high unemployment rate, and hasn't at all recently as a whole state. That the swift boat vets were right in their claims against Kerry, and that Kerry was a lier in regard to at least 1 of his Purple Hearts. That Kerry only served 88 days on the river in Viet Nam and not 2 tours etc. That the Native Americans helped the revolutionaries more than the French. He essentially defended Israel and slammed on the Muslims, slammed on Clinton (a lot) and slammed on the Democrats and Liberals in general.

I'll have to try to remember all of it and do some research of my own.

That's all for now. Time for me to head "home".

Theory

The following quote should be read a few times over by anyone tempted to stray down the path of doubting evolutionary theory simply on account of it "only being a theory" as I've often heard it put.

It seems that the latest tactic of the Intelligent Design camp, upon losing some footing in the school systems and legal circles, on account of Intelligent Design being a religious idea and not a scientific one, has been to attack the validity of Evolutionary Theory in hopes that they can gain ground by weakening what they see as the enemy.

Most people in the world use the word theory to mean uncertainty, guesswork, or a rough idea, but in science it has a different meaning. A scientific theory explains facts or phenomena that have been shown to be true by repeated independent tests and experiments. An educated guess in science is called a hypothesis.

Scientific theories are not laws, which describe phenomena thought to be invariable. Theories are generally used to describe why certain laws work. For example, the law of gravity is known to be true for falling bodies, but how and why it works is explained by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. Einstein's theory was accepted as true only after repeated experimentation and observation. Yet not even laws are absolute. They are rarely overturned, but they may be amended should new data warrant it.

-- Maia Weinstock, Discover magazine vol.26 no.11 November 2005.

It should also be noted that the scientific community is essentially wholly in agreement as to the validity of Evolutionary Theory. Any minor disagreements are over such things as Punctuated Equilibrium etc... ie; the pace at which the evolution took place, etc. The fact that Evolution happens is essentially accepted as fact.

Anyone telling you that the scientific community itself doesn't believe in Evolution is lying. Period.

So today I kicked a hornet's nest.

I was sitting here at work this afternoon, reading my e-mails, when I saw the following e-mail in my inbox:

Subject: Seeing Red?

Subject: Wear RED!

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red. By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once "silent" majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.
The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can we do to make things better for you?" is...We need your support and your prayers. Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear some thing red every Friday.

IF YOU AGREE -- THEN SEND THIS ON -- IF YOU COULD CARE LESS -- THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON --- IT IS YOUR CHOICE. WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE. THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED---- SO WEAR RED! --- MAY GOD HELP AMERICA TO BECOME ONE NATION, UNDER GOD.

Now... any regular reader here might guess that an e-mail such as this might just push a button or two with me.

And let me tell you, you would be right.

So, here was my inevitable response, mass mailed out to the entire tribal government (well over 200 people, as the above e-mail had been):

While I’d like to point out first off that I do support our troops, I’d like to share some history and facts in response to this e-mail.

First off, we’ll point out a few things… the color Red, which aside from representing the blood of patriots who died forging our freedoms, also happens to be the Republican party color.

Then the reference to the “Silent Majority”, which comes from a speech by former U.S. President Richard Nixon addressing the war in Viet Nam. (http://www.watergate.info/nixon/ ... silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml) This is actually somewhat poignant if you contrast it with the current events of the war in Iraq.

Also, I fail to see a valid reason to link faith with God to supporting our troops in Iraq. Or even necessarily to support the current administration's foreign policy in order to support our troops. Our troops are brave men and women who have chosen for any number of reasons to put their lives on the line in defense of their loved ones, their fellow countrymen and the ideals of Freedom and Liberty. Whether or not I agree with the causes behind the war in Iraq, which I do not, I still have the utmost respect for those men and women who have chosen to put their lives on the line to defend my life and liberty as they see it.

I consider myself a patriot and regularly defend the ideals posited by the founding fathers etc… but I do not agree that it should somehow be requisite to proclaim faith in the Christian God, or refrain from any criticism of the actions of the current Presidential Administration in order to consider yourself a true patriot.

Some further things to consider:

“Under God” was not added to the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, and was done so in violation of the principles of the Founding Fathers and the United States Constitution. (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/ ... printer_preview.asp?idArticle=3264&R=C7A618B14)

Patriotism without question is a dangerous venture. (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm)

The original motto of our country was “E Pluribus Unum”, “Out of many, (come) one.” This statement celebrates the diversity of beliefs and ethnicities of the American people, a people who can be patriots and support their troops regardless of race, gender, creed etc.

Putting such a constant emphasis on “Under God” and religion and faith in relation to discussing support for our troops only serves as a means of dividing the people between Christian Patriots (or other monotheistic Abrahamic religious beliefs) and non-Christian people who are implied to not be patriots if they don’t share the same religious beliefs.

In closing, I would like to encourage everyone to support our troops in Iraq… they are good men and women who have been put in a terrible position, and many are dying as a result. But I would rather address the reasons they are there, and hope for their return rather than just cheering for them while they fight and die.

Let’s also not forget that while most Americans do support the troops, the majority of Americans no longer support the War in Iraq after finding out that Saddam and the Iraqi people really had nothing to do with 9/11, and that Saddam was not a threat to the United States etc. Supporting the troops does not mean supporting the war.

I think the ending of that e-mail also says something… it gives the options of agreeing and spreading it, or not caring and deleting it. How about having a different viewpoint? Sharing opinions?

“MAY GOD HELP AMERICA TO BECOME ONE NATION, UNDER GOD.”

How about we help each other to understand the history and culture of our nation, of the people who lived here before we did, of the many different religious beliefs that make up our society… the many different people… and also those of the people we now treat as enemies… may we help each other to learn, to understand, and to live together in peace, under the same sky.

Thank you.

Shortly after this was sent, people started stopping me in the halls to thank me for sending this out, and a flood of overwhelmingly positive e-mails started coming in. So far I've had only one negative response, and oh was that person unhappy with me. :-/

I'll let their response stand on it's own merit, along with my subsequent reponse.

Oh my God Justin, get over it, while you are here in your cushier job, you are very eligible for service too, as anyone of us. This mumble on, shows that for e-mail list, you are not to be involves. Just spit it out and save your jargon for the political area, as for e-mails I don’t care either.

Sincerely

Your Coe-worker that don’t give an either too.

sk

to which I replied:

For the record, no, I am not eligible for service. I have a medical history of Asthma as a child and am therefore legally ineligible for military service, this comes as a result of actually contacting a recruiter when I was 19 and attempting to test in and being informed of the law forbidding my enlistment.

I’m sorry that you were offended by my e-mail. Thanks for your response.

and her closing reponse:

Too much information, end of e-mail. sk

I think we can safely say that I wasn't too crushed by this lone negative respondant, but I was a little bummed. I generally at least prefer a somewhat intelligent, or at least informative, response. :-P

Yay.... but no...

Dover school board booted out in elections.

Yay!

But Kansas mandates teaching of intelligent design.

*shakes head*

Some people just DO NOT GET IT.

Yay for the Vatican.

Evolution in the bible, says Vatican.

THE Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution and interpret the biblical account of creation literally.

Three cheers for the Vatican.

More stuff.

Cheney seeks legalizing torture.

That one really speaks for itself I think. I think I've also posted something on that topic on here before... a few weeks ago.

Also, it's been on my mind again lately that the United States is descending into a technological dark age. I hear rumors that this is being discussed outside of the United States, but I really don't hear much about it here domestically.

Essentially our legal system is stifling innovation and such to the point where most cutting edge work is being done outside of the United States... and a fair amount seems to be done in open violation of United States copyrights and patents etc.

The legal system here has been so thouroughly bastardized in the service of greed and power that I think soon there will be no choice but to openly violate it. It's beyond ridiculous at this point.

It's like Bill Gates said once... he sees the future of the industry being not in actually inventing anything, but in licensing Intellectual Property to anyone else who tries to. That's where the real money is in his mind.

Can you see the problem there?

YAY FRENCH.

I was reading an interesting article today that completely reaffirms my existing stand on backing France.

Not to mention that I love French Fries, French Toast (and French Kissing)...

*sigh*

Read it for yourself.

The American obsession with hating the French is just about as stupid as stupid gets... but considering what president we elected, and the majority religious belief etc... it really doesn't surprise me that such a nation full of fucking IDIOTS would go along like with the fashionable mob sentiment like the clueless sheep that they are.

I'd almost bet that maybe 1 in 100 people under the age of 30 or 40 actually have a clue about the actual history of the relation between France and the United States.

Wow. No beating around the bush here.

Israel: No place in U.N. for Iran.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Several world capitals have condemned Iran's leader for saying Israel should be "wiped off the map," and Israel's prime minister has suggested that Tehran should be expelled from the United Nations.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad didn't mince his words when he, among other statements, "quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

The president then said: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism,"

hrm. That, along with the rest of his statements, make it pretty damn clear that he hates us and he hates Israel and wants nothing short of our destruction.

So... I have to say, I don't see any good reason why they should still be in the U.N. either. Kick their fundamentalist religious asses to the U.N. curb posthaste.

I didn't like the bastards as it was... murdering teenagers for being gay... and not secretly either. Public executions, by decree of the law.

*sigh*

Not even going there right now.

SUCK IT CON BOYS.

This is for all those morons out there who tried to diminish the scale and veracity of the Valerie Plame case.

Grand Jury in CIA Leak Case Adjourns.

SUCK IT. SUCK IT. AND THRICELY SUCK IT YOU FUCKS.

She was covert. A crime was committed. You are a fucking idiot.

Nuff said.

In the news...

Court: laws treating gay and straight teen sex should be equal. Kansas high court rejects harsher treatment of illegal gay sex.

Some excerpts:

• The case involved an 18-year-old man, Matthew R. Limon, who was found guilty in 2000 of performing a sex act on a 14-year-old boy and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Had one of them been a girl, state law would have dictated a maximum sentence of 15 months.
• A lower court had ruled that the state could justify the harsher punishment as a way of protecting children's traditional development, fighting disease or strengthening traditional values. But the Supreme Court said the law was too broad to meet those goals. (highlighting done by myself)
• "The statute inflicts immediate, continuing and real injuries that outrun and belie any legitimate justification that may be claimed for it," Justice Marla Luckert wrote for the court. "Moral disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate state interest."
• "A lot of the reasoning used here by the state comes up again and again," she said. "What the court is saying is, `If you've got a better reason, you would have told us by now. The ones you've come up with are not good enough, and they amount to not liking gay people."'

Christian DVD sparks riot. Muslims clash with police outside Egyptian church; 1 dead, 90 wounded.

How's this for "Freedom of Religion"? ;-) This is the kind of bullshit that makes me still try to protect Freedom of Religion here is the USA. While I think they're all stupid idiots and wish they weren't religious, I'm not about to threaten bodily harm and death if people believe differently than I do. This bullshit in the middle east and other Muslim dominated areas is ludicrous.

The riot was sparked by the distribution of a DVD of a play that was performed at the church two years ago. The play, "I Was Blind But Now I Can See," tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.

Bush salutes Reagan, angers Schwarzenegger. California governor upset by fundraiser appearance.

To make a long story short, even Republicans in California don't like Bush and are ashamed to be associated with him. Governor Schwarzenegger was trying to raise last minute funds, and was pissed that Bush would show up right before the vote and remind people of just how fucking stupid the Republican party is being right now, as it's going to swing Independants and Democrats back away from his initiatives.

It's nice to see that even a lot of Republicans are realizing that they made a big mistake in voting for Bush. :-)


FDA approves first brain stem cell transplant. SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Federal regulators on Thursday approved what would be the first transplant of fetal stem cells into human brains, a procedure that if successful could open the door to treating a host of neural disorders.

Just another case of conservative, traditionalist, "moral" and "ethical" prudes holding back the advance of groundbreaking lifesaving medical discoveries and procedures... in the same vein as the Christians razing the Libraries of Alexandria and setting humanity back by centuries because they didn't like what was written in those libraries. Which just happened to be the sum of most known worldly knowledge... information on what built rome... sewage systems, human sexuality and reproduction, machinery, industrial methods etc etc. Some people believe that we would have been on the moon in the 18th century if not for the traditionalist religious prudes destroying what didn't agree with their ignorant belief system to preserve a belief system based on ignorance and illiteracy. *sigh*

*Grumble* I hate Christians... I hate religion... but I digress.

Such an experiment showed promise in Batten-afflicted mice, but such an ethically charged test has never been tried before in humans.

"I'm sure there is no threat to anyone's identity," said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. "But we are starting down that road."

What's more, some of the brain cells to be implanted will be derived from aborted fetuses, which Caplan also said raised ethical concerns for some.

and...

McGlynn said Batten disease was chosen because mice genetically engineered with the disease were readily available and because it's a brutal, fatal disease with no cure -- a fact the FDA considered when weighing whether to approve such a novel human experiment.

McGlynn said the stem cells had to be tested in humans.

"You cannot ask a mouse how it's feeling," he said.

For Marcus Kerner, a federal prosecutor in Santa Ana, California with a Batten-afflicted son, the FDA's approval Thursday gave him hope his child may actually survive.

He said he will apply to have his 5-year-old son Daniel enrolled in the experiment.

"It is a horrific, terrible way to watch a child die and there is currently nothing available to stop it," Kerner said. "I think this is going to be a major medical breakthrough that will save Daniel's life."

Bush vows not to be distracted by political problems. 'The American people expect me to do my job'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, jarred by investigations of White House officials and congressional leaders and an uproar over his Supreme Court nomination, said Thursday there was "some background noise here, a lot of chatter" complicating the work of his administration.

... Oh man... I don't even know where to start in on this one.

But I'll give it a shot none the less. ;-) This is just too priceless to pass up.

The president promised to remain focused on seeking peace in the Mideast, invigorating the economy, rebuilding the hurricane-shattered Gulf Coast and protecting it from the new storm approaching this weekend.

... Ok, let's see...

You created the current catastrophe in the middle east, and also served to exacerbate the existing problems in the middle east which are themselves largely the responsibility of the US.

You have single handedly annihilated the US economy and created such a staggering deficit and debt that our great grandchildren will still be bearing the weight of it.

You're spending Federal tax dollars to repair a state, or even local, problem directly resulting from people being stupid enough to live BELOW SEA LEVEL in an area that was going to inevitably be flooded. And now, to make matters worse, you're assisting in rebuilding the same fucking shit! So all these retards are just going to get flooded and killed again, and you're just going to spend even more of my tax dollars on a bunch of stupid trash 2,000 miles away that I couldn't give a fuck about. If you're stupid enough to live where you're not supposed to, when the shit hits the fan, THAT'S YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM. NOT MINE. And what's worse is that they just keep doing it because they know that even though it's their own fault, the government will continue to bail them out! And just to exacerbate the issue... even now, while most of the people have left and most of the shit is destroyed, rather than doing the smart thing and calling it a loss and moving out of the immediate area to somewhere ABOVE FUCKING SEA LEVEL OFF THE COAST, they're just moving the fuckers back in! Gee, nothing like setting the pins up for another strike. FUCKING IDIOTS. (also see the previous point about our economy, as the use of tax dollars to aid these stupid fucks is just crippling our nation even further on top of the war debts... pushing us towards $500,000,000,000.00 in debt, where we're now having to borrow from other nations again for the first time since almost the inception of our country I believe.)

*sigh*

Ok... that's enough of that for now. Just figured I'd give a taste of the news with the Phreadom flavor. ;-)

And with that, I bid you a good day. :-)

Swastika...

I've decided to do a little history/culture lesson for those of you who read this that might not be aware of this...

The swastika is not a hate symbol. Allow me to explain.

The swastika is actually one of the oldest symbols known to man, having been used as a symbol of good luck and the like for over 3,000 years by cultures from Japan, China, India, Southern Europe, The Americas etc.

Even the United States own 45th Infantry used the swastika as their symbol from 1924 to 1939 until it's association with the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany forced them to come up with a new design.



Some links for further information:
History of the swastika.
45th Brigade Combat Team, Shoulder Insignia.
Swastika (at Wikipedia).

So, try not to just jump to the "NAZI!?!?" conclusion the next time you see this symbol. Have a little more cultural awareness. :-)

More random updates...

Mike just pointed out some good music to me... a band called Thunderbirds Are Now. You might want to check them out. :-D Not my normal genre, but the fact that I find myself still rocking out to them after 45 minutes says something good about them. :-P

I sat around yesterday working on a new logo for Phreadom... here's what I came up with:

A few things that went into the logo were the hand holding the torch, as a beacon... as the website says "A beacon of truth in dark times". Also, the three stars... 3 is an important number in numerology, and while personally I think numerology is a huge crock of shit, some of the ideas behind it are very fitting in a symbolic sense.

Three solves the discord created in the polarity of two, resulting in a new integration and wholeness. This can be seen in the divisions of a human: mind, body, and spirit makes us whole. Three can also relate to expansiveness and learning through life experiences. It is considered to be lucky, and is often associated with money and good fortune. Three can depict several people joining together to achieve a common goal, whether through a social or professional affiliation. Three also represents communication of all kinds, expression, drama, acting, and humor. Although three possesses attributes of wisdom, understanding and knowledge, negatively it can exhibit pessimism, foolhardiness and unnecessary risk taking. Three is seen as a very magical number. In some cases, the number three can take on some negative aspects and is seen as demonic or unnatural, as there are no creatures in our world who walk upon three legs.
-- From Wikipedia

Also, the Latin words "Cogito" and "Percipio", which mean "to think, ruminate, ponder, consider, plan" and "to gain, learn, perceive, understand" respectively.

Mike was putting forth the idea to flesh that out into a more rounded sum of "cogito, eruditio, percipio, devenio veritas", which means roughly "Think, learn and teach, understand and reach the truth.", with Eruditio meaning "instruction, teaching / knowledge, learning" and "devenio veritas" meaning "to come to, arrive at, reach ... truth".

So I may end up doing another variation on the logo to try to fit those aspects in.

some more quotes, hopefully not too many repeats.

I was posting a bulletin on myspace and decided to dig up a list of quotes after one of the questions I was responding to asked me to list a few quotes. This should be most of the good ones I had.

---------

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Didja' ever have to make up your mind,
Pick up on one and leave the other behind,
It's not often easy, and it's not often kind,
Didja' ever have to make up your mind?
-- Lovin' Spoonful

Formerly,We Suffered From Crimes.
Now,We Suffer From Laws.
--Tacitus

"Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished."
-- Goethe

A woman is like your shadow; follow her,
she flies; fly from her, she follows.
-- Chamfort

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759


Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last, "I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom."
The other creatures laughed and said, "Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!"
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet, in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, "See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!" And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more Messiah than you. The river delight to lift us free, if only we dare let go.
Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.
But they cried the more, "Saviour!" all the while clinging to the
rocks, making legends of a Saviour.
-- Richard Bach

"Science is an eternal struggle against our desire to have the universe be ordered in some emotionally satisfying way."
-- Josh Swink

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of
exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it...He who receives an idea from me, receives instructions himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should be spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature ... Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.
-- Thomas Jefferson

I managed to say, "Sorry," and no more. I knew that he disliked me to cry.
This time he said, watching me, "On some occasions it is better
to weep."
I put my head down on the table and sobbed, "If only she could come back; I would be nice."
Francis said, "You gave her great pleasure always."
"Oh, not enough."
"Nobody can give anybody enough."
"Not ever?"
"No, not ever. But one must go on trying."
"And doesn't one ever value people until they are gone?"
"Rarely," said Francis. I went on weeping; I saw how little I had valued him; how little I had valued anything that was mine.
-- Pamela Frankau, "The Duchess and the Smugs"

Neither the Jeffersonians nor their Federalist opponents admitted to being a political party. To them the term party meant the same as faction. It also meant the victory of selfishness and contention over the selfless unanimity they felt a republic needed.
--?

"You see, they [conservatives] love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually undestanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world." - Al Franken

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." —George W. Bush, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini

"So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society. This circumstance, if duly attended to, would furnish a lesson of moderation to those who are ever so much persuaded of their being in the right in any controversy. And a further reason for caution, in this respect, might be drawn from the reflection that we are not always sure that those who advocate the truth are influenced by purer principles than their antagonists. Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of a question. Were there not even these inducements to moderation, nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties. For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution."
- Alexander Hamilton - federalist papers no.1

If you see a blind man, kick him. Why be kinder than God?
- Old Iranian Proverb

The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist.
- George Bernard Shaw

CYNIC n. A blackguard whose faulty vision causes him to see things as they are, not as they ought to be
- Ambrose Bierce

I don't mean to sound cold or cruel or vicious, but I am, so that's the way it comes out
- Bill Hicks

"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." --Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 B.C.

"The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology."
— Michael Parenti
political scientist

"The United States spends more on arms annually, $275 billion presently, than the rest of the Security Council combined. U.S. arms expenditures are approximately 25 times the gross national product of Iraq. The U.S. has in its stockpiles more nuclear bombs, chemical and biological weapons, more aircraft, rockets and delivery systems in number and sophistication than the rest of the world combined. Included are twenty commissioned Trident II nuclear submarines any one of which could destroy Europe."
— Ramsey Clark
former U.S. Attorney General
Letter to the U.N., November 1998

This is not about the left wing or the right wing. It's about how to stop these wing-nuts from turning the world into a military playground for the Fortune 500. It's not about ideology. It's about human decency and common sense.
-- .John Perry Barlow

"Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy . . . censorship. When any government...undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked, contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free."
--Robert Anson Heinlein, "If This Goes On-"

"WHY ARE YOU PROTESTING"
"Because ever since I was a baby crawling around the TV set I've been suckered, lied to and propagandized. The kind of psychological abuse I've been subjected to may not be as bad as sexual abuse but, believe me, it leaves lifelong scars nonetheless. I feel empty, soulless, mindfucked....and now it's payback time."
--Adbusters

I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect, has intended us to forgo their use.
-Galileo Galilei

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away".
-- Philip K. Dick

Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. [...] In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
- Stephen J. Gould, "Evolution as Fact and Theory" - Discover, May 1981

----------

The following quotes are all pretty politically leaning... they are actually part of a 2 sided post, this list followed up by retorts from the other side. I don't feel like posting the other side this time because they're idiots. :-) If you're really curious, look in my archive, I posted them all before.

----------

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a
conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

Standing Tall for America means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but
multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans benefits and combat pay.

Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then
demand their cooperation and money.

HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but
creationism should be taught in schools.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

You support states rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the 80s is irrelevant.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

'Intelligent design' debate back in court.

'Intelligent design' debate back in court.

I've covered this stuff in the past, but this is an interesting article on CNN that covers a lot of the relevant topics.

Scientific Fact: Men are more intelligent.

Men more intelligent than women, says academic.

Academics in the UK claim their research shows that men are more intelligent than women.

Is this a clever thing to say about women's IQ?

Academic says men are more intelligent than women.

Now before you start flying off the handle, try to at least read the articles and get a basic grasp of what you're talking about.

Generally speaking, Men are on average 5 IQ points higher than women... also, across the board, as IQ's increase, the ratio of men to women grows increasingly disparate. Also, of particular note, is the fact that although women are generally less intelligent, they use their intelligence more efficiently.

Sorry ladies, that's just the facts.

yeah yeah...

I know I'm lagging on updates... I've been busy.

I read the rest of The Ghost Dances, and have some additional comments on that... as well as some thoughts on some other things that Mike (proc) has been talking about and saying about me.

Also, I had a bit of a debate about which was the smarter sex...

I'll get to that stuff later. Errands to run!!

The Ghost Dances.

The Ghost Dances.

This is the link that proc posted in reference to my recent Katrina posts etc.

From the little that I've read so far, I don't really see the relevance, however interesting a read it might be. I'll finish reading it later and give an updated opinion on here.

But for now, it's dinner time. I'll be back later.

bleh.

Well, Mike (proc) has decided to read my blog and say that I'm pretty much talking out of my ass, contradicting myself and missing the point. In general that I'm just wrong.

He also said that I ignored most of what ??? said and only focused on a few points pedantically and that I should use my intellect to actual positively affect changes in my own life and make goals and plans etc.

Now, I'm aware that I was somewhat talking in circles on my Katrina posts, which is the reason I asked him to read them over in the first place... but I don't believe I ignored anything Jon said. And I'm not saying that he wasn't partially right on a few points. I believe I said exactly that in my comments.

*sigh*

Shit just aggravates me.

As for his comments about my Katrina posts... I'm pretty sure he's at least somewhat right, and I plan on doing a little more reading that he suggested about me doing a "Ghost Dance" etc. He also asked how I could hate my government and most of the populace, but still love my country. Another valid question... but he essentially headed off my response by saying that I shouldn't love the country that was founded either.. as that came with it's own shortcomings and we should always only learn from the past and not yearn for it as he said I seemed to be doing. I believe a more correct way of putting it would be that I believe that the founding fathers had some VERY basic and fundamental aspects of this countries foundation CORRECT... almost perfectly so... and that our government since then has eroded those basic cornerstones of this country. I long for those to be restored and not further trampled. I don't think he has a valid argument against some of those most basic points.

I'm sure we could get into a Hobbes & Locke type of discussion about the juxtaposition of personal liberty with the good of the group in a society such as ours. I believe this has valid arguments on both parts... I do NOT however feel that there is a valid argument against the separation of church and state, or of trying to tear down sound scientific studies in favor of religious dogma etc. And using my tax dollars in such ways is also simply wrong... I don't pay my tax dollars to teach superstitious beliefs contrary to scientific facts. I don't pay my tax dollars to support illegal wars and a corrupt government that lies to it's own people and even persecutes them through continued ridiculous legislation that strips away our civil liberties and freedoms under the guise of protecting us from some phantom threat blown far FAR out of proportion and caused in part at it's core by the very actions that the government is trying the symptoms as excuses to perpetuate.

Anyway... I'll do some more reading and try to post something more coherent later. I'm really aggravated now.

*grumble*

Tax dollars should be used in a neutral and secular type way for the benefit of the infrastructure that supports our society as a whole. Not to teach or maintain religious superstitions or even support them in any way beyond what any one else would receive. eg; if we all get some funding simply for being americans, and someone happens to be christian... that's fine. However, if someone is getting funding with my tax dollars simply for being a christian, then no. Don't fund it... don't teach it in public schools outside of a philosophy or religious or cultural studies class... don't pretend that it's remotely scientific in any way... it is simply not a valid option.

Build roads, maintain safety nets, provide security, research advancements and improve our school systems etc. Make a happier, healthier, more intelligent population that can in turn better provide for future generations while ensuring our future. Proactive health care, better schooling... hell, there's tons of things it could be used for that I can't think of right now. We pay taxes in order to belong to the GROUP. Those taxes should provide for the GROUP, not for a particular religious belief. And as far as Katrina goes... if they want their state taxes to go for that, then while even that is questionable, it makes a lot more sense than using my federal taxes to rebuild what is essentially a stupid decision and shortcoming on a state level. And the point that really got me steamed here was not so much the government getting involved in the first place, which I also don't agree with, but am much more inclined to overlook... but with the fact that after this ridiculous and avoidable disaster (something rather chronic with our government lately), they want to go back and rebuild the mess and let it happen all over again!

ARGH!!

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK. FUCK!

This stupidity is literally destroying the world and bankrupting our country in the process... our children for generations to come will be suffering the effects of this idiocy... terrorism is expanding at a record pace... international relations have been shredded... and all the government can do is tell more lies, spread more misinformation and further avoid simply telling the truth, getting to the heart of the matter and educating it's people and making the sweeping changes that need to be made that would have avoided 9/11 and the subsequent illegal war etc.

There is a difference between doing what is RIGHT and doing what you think people want. Similar to how there is a difference between scientific fact and religious belief. One might feel nice to some people, but one is fact and is the better route regardless. And whether or not someone chooses not to believe or side with something because they don't like it... doesn't make it not right or not true. And in the case of belief, when someone doesn't want to admit to a course of action based on the FACTS because it doesn't agree with what they want... it's generally cause to take a closer look at that person and what exactly their goals and intentions are.

Religion is shit. The US' help in forming Israel was shit. The fact that the US won't admit today that their backing of Israel and it's part in war crimes against the Palestinian people, and that causing a good part of the unrest that contributes to modern "terrorism"... not to mention the US' actions in the middle east and elsewhere... and the US' stance on proclaiming itself an overtly Christian nation "under god" and "in god we trust" etc...

I long for some of the ideals of the founding fathers, but at the same time I -AM- learning from the past and I want to see the government pull it's fucking head out of it's collective ass and create a sound foundation which respects the basic rights of it's people and stops pandering to religion and superstition and starts using common fucking sense and puts the smack down on this litigious whiny fucking supertitious population of stupid selfish babies.

Get the bible out of court rooms, get the 10 commandments out of there... stop swearing the president in on a bible, stop using "under god" and "in god we trust" in violation of the constitution and basic rights of a vast portion of the American populace. Stop fighting ridiculous illegal wars based on lies and avoiding placing the blame for 9/11 where it actually belongs. Start acting like a responsible leading, unifying, neutral and secular force that works for the betterment and protection of our people along with the world as a whole.

What I hate the most is that time and again I just come back to the fact that most people are selfish ignorant sheep and therefor what is popular is what goes... not what it right or true. The smartest people are always doomed to be drowned out by the majority... doomed to just sit there pulling out their hair, saying to themselves "Can't they fucking see what they're doing to themselves!? Can't they see that they're causing their own problems!?.. that they're screwing themselves, taking away their own rights and freedoms, and making life worse for everyone!?".

I really don't think I'd feel bad if a virus swept the planet and killed off every single human being, and maybe even most primates as well, just to be sure the planet had awhile to heal itself, if it's not already too late.

A response to a comment.

After my last post about my views on our governments response to Hurricane Katrina, in respect to using federal tax money to fund the rebuilding of New Orleans, ???? had made the comment "hahaha, yes i agree with justin here. but come on j, they ARE going to use your tax dollars to fix it. there's not much we can do about that except not work, or do it under the table. . ."

I typed out a response to here, and while having just awoke, I feel it somewhat sums up my frustration recently with matters in general. So I decided that I would include it here on the main page so that it wouldn't be so easily overlooked.

The point isn't whether or not they're going to use my tax dollars to do it... the point is that they're stupid and wrong to be doing it, and using my tax dollars to do it is just wrong on top of that. Adding insult to injury in a way.

This post was something like my previous posts about the US Gov using $15,000,000.00 PER DAY of our tax money to support Israel, a move which is one of the very foundations of modern terrorism. I have NO interest in supporting an outright religious country with my tax dollars, a country which was carved out of the middle of Muslim territory... rekindling an ages old hatred of the Christians based on the animosity resultant from the Crusades, and that, along with what we did to the Muslims in Afghanistan during the cold war, and those in Lebanon etc.. our meddling in the middle east, and the deaths and manipulation of thousands of Muslims there... that, coupled with our almost sole backing of Israel, who continues it's pogrom against the Palestinian people... not to mention our governments despicable moves to convert itself into an overtly Christian nation, in direct violation of the Constitution... much less common sense and respect for the people of this country... I mean, the list goes on... and when it comes down to it... our government has been one of the very key movers in CAUSING the problem of global terrorism which has exploded in recent years. They don't hate us for our freedom... they hate us for being a Christian nation which stands with the Judeo-Christian god, backing Israel and other actions against Islam and the Muslim nations of the middle east. Using them for their oil... using them to fight our wars for us and then abandoning them... killing thousands of innocent people in covert operations and such... they hate us for being a country of greedy fat lazy imperialists who think we have the right to run the world and use everyone else like toilet paper, telling them how to live their lives and how to run their countries... they don't hate us for our freedom... because frankly we don't have very much. And anyone who thinks we're "FREE", is fucking blind and stupid. We are not the most free nation on earth... we're not even very close any more. We're a nation of extremely litigious, self-centered fat babies who think that everything should be handed to them on a silver platter, and if we don't get everything we want (and think we somehow deserve), we cry about it and threaten to sue anyone we can... we think we have a RIGHT to all the oil in the middle east... that we have a RIGHT to drive SUV's and Hummers and pollute the environment to the point where Global Warming is now causing the very hurricanes that lead us right back to Hurricane Katrina and the ones that tore through Florida. And as we continue to blindly consume and wage wars based on complete bullshit lies to perpetuate our way of life and it's subsequent destruction of our environment, downfall of the US through bankruptcy of not only the economic kind, but of academia, intellectualism, freedom etc as well. As spy cameras are put up on every street corner, and in every business and essentially every facet of your lives... while your phones are tapped, internet connections monitored, your media censored and filtered... everything about your lives spoon fed and controlled, every action monitored, cataloged and databased.

And in the meantime we have shit like this... Katrina... where a city that was built below sea level and continually sinking, is even considered for being rebuilt, at a cost which could cripple our nations economy, on top of the already staggering costs for a war based on a complete lie which is costing us hundreds of billions already and the lives of not only almost 10,000 allied troops, but of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives, to fight a country which had NOTHING to do with 9/11... NO Weapons of Mass Destruction and which was absolutely NO THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES. So on top of that COMPLETELY WRONG WAR... we have our government doing shit like both seeding the roots of dissent globally, stoking the fires of terrorism through continued imperialistic actions coupled with Judeo-Christian religious overtones, while doing things domestically like trying to stifle sound scientific advancements like the theory of evolution through natural selection, in favor of pseudo-science and simply downright dogmatic religious superstitions etc such as Creation "Science", Intelligent Design etc... and forcing these things which are NOT AT ALL scientific, to be taught along with actual sound Science in classrooms... so we're outputting a generation of children who are being taught that superstitious dogma that in reality is in direct conflict with actual scientific fact, is somehow valid "science"... we're taught that we should continue to get whatever we want and be a nation of god loving consumers who should go on our merry way guzzling gas and destroying the environment and causing the very wars, terrorism and global environmental meltdown which are tearing our entire planet apart as both matters of nature and nations alike.

My tax dollars going to Katrina is just a drop in the bucket of just how far gone things really are. There's a reason I just can't type anymore of this shit sometimes... and it's because it's so disheartening to see just how screwed we really are. Sometimes I just need to close it out for awhile and think about personal things and focus on my own life for awhile. Work on fixing something I actually have control of and not lose faith in life itself because the world around me is going to hell in a hand basket and there's not a damn thing I can do about it because the majority of people are blind sheep whose self-interest and lack of understanding of the world around them will always steer the herd in the direction of destruction.

Misanthropy.

*shakes head sadly*

Now I'm sure many of these points can be further broken down and clarified etc... or debated ad infinitum... but the points generally stand. When you really take a step back, these are the major issues. These are the very causes of our environmental troubles and our political woes. The very downfall of our nation, which is ever increasingly becoming more overtly religious and more concerned about placating the people than in doing what is best for people and maintaining actual freedom and liberty and separation of church and state. Our government is going in the very opposite direction of where it should be going!

I seriously wouldn't have a problem if someone like our founding fathers wanted to overthrow our current government. Get rid of the religious bullshit, get rid of the SEVERE infringement on our personal freedom and liberties that our government continues to advance every day. Put us back to a point where we really are FREE as our founding fathers fought and died to let us be... where we really have the choice to live by ourselves, for ourselves... where we really have the choice of freedom of religious belief or disbelief... where being a patriot really does mean to love your country and question your government, and be always vigilant and ready to overthrow it and shed blood if necessary to maintain that freedom and liberty.

This nation is but a pale shadow of what it once was... a diseased and bloated corpse of the great nation it was founded as. I hate our government and I hate the majority of our people... and it kills me because I do love my country. It kills me that people just can't see the problems... that even as obvious as some are, people just turn a blind eye to the solutions because of the implications. So we blindly march away from freedom and liberty and peace and all things good... to march towards ignorance, obedience, superstition, pollution, consumerism... downfall, decay, decline... a lack of privacy, knowledge, advancement, freedom... every idea patented, every gene patented... every step or breath you take almost a risk of being sued for patent infringement... for stealing someone else's "Intellectual Property".