Saturday October 8, 2005 - 9:44PM EDT
Well aside from Ted Rall's article on how charities are for suckers that I linked to a while ago I have seen no other article like it. Now with the new hurricane people want more money. Disgusting. Then if someone trys to say anything against charity no matter how logical it sounds they will be instantly villified.
I can't stand these ludicrous morons who want to preach intelligent design. The evidence against that monstrosity and for evolution is in everything they do in life. If they believe in this intelligent design hogwash they might as well throw away most of any medications they take and don't even bother going to a doctor or a hospital for treatment because all their stuff is based on evolution. That is the funny part about this. While some people want to bring up intelligent design under the guise of being an alternative to evolution they fail to realize their acceptance of evolution in everyday life. I know lets give them alternative to chemotherapy. We will just bonk you over the head instead and see if that makes the cancer go away. Or you could always pray for the cancer to go away. While the critics of evolution fault "gaps" in evolution it is those very "gaps" is what makes it great. Evolution doesn't puport to be the end all the explain all. Those who study science and evolution are always looking to add and update evolution to get a better picture of things. It is implicitly always looking for alternatives and improvements. No one who supports intelligent design, even these so called scientests who do, could have studied evolution with any kind of intensity. My chinese teacher used to say this confucian saying; "Studying without thinking is foolish, thinking without studying is dangerous." I think that applies nicely to those intelligent design clowns. Now Confucious had his own fucked up views but in this case I think he was right on.
Thursday October 6, 2005 - 10:20PM EDT
Election rules are such a scam. They have this rule that TV air time should be equal among all canidates except when the candidate can't pay for it. That essentially makes the whole law null. It is those kinds of loopholes that infect our legislation. Legislation is rarely effective with the purposefull loopholes and add on garbage that are continually added.
In other news there is vaccine for two types of HPV viruses that are associated with cervical cancer and cause genital warts. This seem freaking huge to me. But somehow it is not getting the attention it should be. Maybe I'm missing something.
Thursday October 6, 2005 - 10:13PM EDT
So there is this story begining to float about a BBC documentary that said Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and Give the Palestinians a state and some other garbage. Have you guessed how I am going to view this. No you haven't. I'm not going to deride his belief. I am going to deride shifting responsbility for action to something else so that you can do it. People do it all the time and God is the worst shift. When people make a decision but consciously reason it is because someone of something else compelled them it makes me angry. Especially in the case of God. What a load of garbage.
Thursday October 6, 2005 - 8:22PM EDT
I feel like trash. It hit me mid-day and has gotten progressively worse. Was suppose to get have a drink in the city. The last two times I had chinese food I got the strangest fortunes in the cookie. They were as follows.
- You are pretty.
- You are headed in the right direction.
Time to pass out.
Thursday October 6, 2005 - 3:44PM EDT
I read this headline today saying Bush says more sacrifice needed in war on terror. Normally I'd link to the article but you can find it anywhere. Besides it is the wording that is the spooky part. It sounds so sinister. When you hear shit like that, 'more sacrifice' and 'war on terror' it is spooky. It sounds like the begining of facisim. The arguement you hear now is that pulling out of Iraq would open the way for more terrorism as the current Iraq government couldn't handle themselves. Sounds a lot like what the USSR and US did to Afghanistan in the 70's and we see where that got us. So that arguement seems to have some merit. Something has to be said for self-determination though. It seems though in modern times this is more difficult than ever for countries. Seems that instead of forming cohesive nations things become even more fractured with various groups seeking to break away. I really don't understand national soverigntiy sometimes. There is something to be said about the laws of the US. They still are probably the freest in the world. There may be other properous contries but something always comes up where you hear about strange rules and regulations that hinder what we would consider to be our most basic rights. Sure we deal with the risks and consequences of our freedom, but it has only proven the U.S. stronger. Some think you can legislate human behavior and want all these weird rules and restrictions. But I'll be damned if those very same people didn't reap the benifits from the very kind of thinking they are against. It is pathetic.
Back to Iraq. The U.N. has proven to be such a weak little bitch time and time again. And the rest of the world still cowers under the power of the U.S. Now that is pathetic. Countries call out criticism of the U.S. easily but they can't even organize themselves enough to do anything about it. There is no way in hell the U.S. should have been able Iraq if the rest of the world's nation were as organized as they were vocal in criticism. The U.S. can't take on the world but the rest of the world keeps supplying the rhetoric that it can. As for pullout. I don't know why anyone keeps criticising the U.S. anymore when they just stand there and watch a country go to hell. I don't see any offers from the U.N. to take over the operation. Well I don't see in the news, but who knows what kind of trash goes on behind the scenes. If the rest of the world wanted the U.S. out of Iraq is should have happened already. Then again I forgot how inefficient governments are.
Wednesday October 5, 2005 - 11:51PM EDT
I've had plenty of the ranting posts on various topics. I've had the depressed give up posts. I've had the angry at my crappy life situation posts. I've had all different kinds of posts. Well is this one going to be different? Hell no, since when do I change for the better. You figure out what category this shit goes under. My head is filled with the usual cluster of thoughts what comes out in this email is really up to chance or whatever. I'd like to start by saying that I am eating fried clams and drinking the cheapeast strawberry flavored white zinfandel I could find. Yeah it taste like soda and that is why I drink it. I'm watching a Current Affair and the story is former strippers who found god and started preaching to other strippers. All I can think about when I see these well endowed blondes is sex. And I ain't getting any right now and it fucking sucks. This blog is my therapist and I'll quote Tony Cox in Bad Santa "you need many many years of therapy". Yup I need many years of therapy. Fuck. Where was I. Oh yeah what I am doing tonight. Eating fried clams mainly because I want to get rid of them from my refridgerator. I've always tried to eat well the last 3 years or so but ever since my dad discovered some weird heart problems that may be genetic I've ramped up my healthy eating. He might need a pacemaker. I don't need that kind of shit. Maybe it is the reason I always seemed to be out of breath when I was a kid and the chest pains I get every once in a while. I don't know, that reminds me I need to make a doctors appointment. Where was I. Oh yeah my pathetic life. I should drink more often, it numbs the pain. But I don't, I should but I don't. Everyday at work I say to myself I am going to have a drink, at home or swing by the local watering hole. But I don't. I go home and wash clothes, cook diner, read some and work on some websites for a little. Pathetic. Drinking really takes the edge of. I should have drank more in college. I would have had more fun, instead of the depressing drag through the mud it was, made good friends though and learned Japanese. Its true ladies and gentlemen alchol equals fun. It is not some sort of advertising gimmick, it actually happens, no matter what your local D.A.R.E. teacher says. Now I'm just alone in a big fucking townhouse going to work with no hot women or at least women who want nothing to do with me. I come home every weekday to a big empty house and I am hit in the face with the stale stench of failure. Just finished my bottle of wine, all 450 empty calories. I didn't eat much today, too freaking depressed. I'm drunk, but not really drunk. Still depressed. I have work tomorrow though and need to get new tires because I got two flats, fuck. My head is empty, what else is there to say. Nothing. For now at least.
Wednesday October 5, 2005 - 10:49AM EDT
So I read this brief article on the new Supreme court nomination. Basically it was an article on her probable abortion views. It was also about her "church ties". It appears that we might have another bible banging idiot in government. I could give a shit about abortion. I couldn't care less about life in the first place. Abortions for all. Hey at least I am honest instead of the rest of the losers who want to pretend they care about "life". But this woman's church ties is what is pathetic. I can't fathom people and their "faith" anymore. Beyond some kind of metaphorical psycological assistant "faith" is a load of trash. It is freaking disgusting how it pervades our society to a point where it erodes logic and common sense. I don't give two good goddamns that people go to church or do these weird things in their home. But when those fuckers start making decisions, giving reasons or acting the fool (read evolution) based on kooky religious dogma they can all go to hell. Ha, the irony of lexiconal usage (I don't think lexiconal is even a word). I'm sick of these people extending religion into areas in which is doesn't belong and is of no use. While your bitch ass is praying to god I'll go find a fucking cure. Religion is the ultamite excuse to just sit there and do nothing. I don't know why some people can't accept not having ultamite causality. Don't be a weak little bitch and accept anything as god's will. That is bullplop. There was a recent poll I read that said something like less than 25% of people thought Hurrican Katrina was from god or caused by god or something like that. I think you already know what I think of those numbers. Yes I am in the company of morons. There shouldn't be a single person on the planet to attribute a hurricane to some mystical being that created everything. That is ludicrous. FUckers need to stop playing loserball. I don't even feel like posting this anymore. But it is just one button press. So here goes.
Tuesday October 4, 2005 - 6:02PM EDT
This movie just isn't that good. It is a space western. Which is an interesting idea but this one doesn't get it right. The gold standard of space westerns are Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star. Both Japanese animation. They are both excellent with Cowboy Bebop being superb. I can't be sure if Serenity borrows from those but it probably does, because its idea of a space western is far from original. That is the problem. It is an amalgalm of previous sci-fi shows and western type lingo. I suspect the only reason this movie had any audience is that the audience is too young or too stupid to see the endless rip-offs employed in this movie. Sure lots of movies copy but this just does it bad. First off it takes the idea of space western too seriously. It literally tries to just set a western in outspace. Down to the retarded floating horseless stagecoach that they somehow have to tied down. The camera work is mediocre at best and reflects something shot for a TV series (which incidenty is where this movie came from). They don't use the camera to do anything except show pictures. In a feature film you have the time and the obligation to really do some interesting stuff with the camera and this movie fails miserably at it. Story is pretty basic and could have been lifted from the countless stories in the sci-fi universe that came before it. It has some decent action and the acting is competent but I couldn't shake the feeling throughout the whole movie that I've seen this before, and seen it done much better. That may be the tough part about a cross genre movie like this. Unless you really try you end up just ripping-off bits and pieces from the two genres just to get something intelligible. To get something unique is very difficult. Cowboy Bebop does this well and if you have seen that than this movie is complete garbage in comparison. I wouldn't recommed seeing this movie in the theaters just wait until its debut on HBO or UPN.
Tuesday October 4, 2005 - 12:53PM EDT
So I went to a few creationists articles on the web to see what these guys purport. First off, it is bold faced lies about evolution and and science. They have the most obvious fabrications to anyone who has actually studied evolution. Secondly is a series of half truths used as full truths to support their points. They will take any tiny piece of info extrapolate it out into some far reaching dogma and base their argument on it. Third is the strange way they like to use any kind of corrections made in evolutionary theory as evidence of it being completely incorrect. They take the fact that scientests have updated and corrected the theory as they have learned more as signs of fatal weaknesses. I guess when you have something like the bible which hasn't been wrong for 2000 years you tend to think that way.
Monday October 3, 2005 - 12:44PM EDT
Why is it that when "we are at war" certain people lose all reasonable thinking in relation to war. Their tagline and excuse for criticising or supporting anything is "we are at war". Take a look, you'll see it. It is the common calling card of Cindy Sheehan opponents. Which I still don't see how exactly to oppose someone like that beyond just ignoring them. War is not valid reasoning in itself. War needs reasoning itself to be "valid". Which is usually not good enough (except in the case of alien invasion and the civil war). It is freaking spooky to hear people use the phrase "we are at war" as reasoning for or against something.
I was just thinking about those who want to criticize war protestors who don't support the war. That is ridiculous to criticize those people. They pay taxes and last time I checked a stealth bomber ran about 2 billion dollars. Everyone supports the war whether they like it or not. The only way you support war is to keep your mouth shut and let it happen. It is bad enough as it is without people championing it.
The study of ethics is always interesting to me. Even more so than philosophy which it is a subset of. Mainly because I think, how can you codify a rarely understood human psyche into hard rules. How can you take something as ephemeral as emmotion and human interaction and create standards by which to live by. That's why I can't stand when people sometimes want to stand by their ethics so steadfastly. As if you can create a set of rules that apply to every situation. But I think that is what these ethicists search for. Some kind of order in chaos. I'm all for order but I feel like I'm just as accepting of chaos.
Religion is the same way. Humans trying to create order from chaos. I guess I'm just accepting of the chaotic base of things. When I say chaos I want to specify that I mean the unknown. The unknown to people. The infinite chaos I am fine with. I search for knowledge and order in things but am not bothered by the fact that I may never know all, the humans may never no all. That there is no definate goal or ending to things. Just because I don't know where the road is going to end doesn't mean I am going to make up where it ends or stop walking along the road.
This is how islam, judaism and christianity works. They define god as the unknowable thing, essentially that same thing I refer to when I talk about the unknown. But the trick is that they believe they know the unknowable and they call it faith. I call it wacko. Then of course there are the endless esoteric practices that abound that have nothing to do with those religions philosophical tennants but are merely tradition. I say, you can follow the core teachings of all three religions and not be considered part of them simply because you do not take part in their traditional practices. Which somehow has become what the religion is all about. Buddhism is kind of a different story. Buddhism originally wasn't really a traditional religion in the sense that we think of it today. It was more of a philosophical take on how to live life. The gods in Buddhism that exist today were not a part of it originally. In fact some may argue that Buddhism originally was athestic or agnostic. I don't know much but tidbits about many other religions so I won't venture into them. One thing that baffled me were the religions that treated women so poorly. It makes their message so weak when they have all these rules restricted half the people that are apart of it. This really only occurred to me when I studied the ancient history of Japan and China. You see that in ancient times women had just about equal standing with men in many aspects of life and that the weird rules regarding women came into effect later in time. Especially with confucianism. They had a target on women for some reason. Of course there is the whole adam and eve story which is ridiculous. And if I recall that story comes from folklore that came before it which didn't have anything to do with women as it implies. But I can't be sure, I could be wrong. This is why I get mad when people want to make the bible the centerpiece of study. Regardless of whether it is taught in a secular manner if you teach just the bible you are ignoring all the stuff that came before it from which it borrowed. Besides the fact that the bible is an imperfect record of history, you have some pretty serious translation issues that change things around through its various languages from its original language (which was ancient greek). You can't use the bible as a base because it is not a base. The base is the history of that area of the world before the bible. Teach that not the bible. Teach where the bible came from and maybe you wouldn't have so many wack jobs taking it word for word. I don't get how a single area of the world came to dominate religion (judaism, christianty and islam). Damn them. They are all part of the same ilk.
What would a more complete teaching of history do for the world? Maybe it's because of my lack of allegiance towards any group of people or ideas(except the eagles, I bleed green) but I don't understand the biased stilted history that we are taught everyday. Can anyone be objective? I guess this goes back to that question of subjective coinsciousness.
Monday October 3, 2005 - 1:24AM EDT
There are a few movies I am excited to see. Haven't been pumped about coming movies in a little bit. One movie that I am not excited to see is the Chronicles or Narnia movie. Never read the books and the trailers although impressive do nothing to stoke interest for me. The movies I am excited to see are Memoirs of a Geisha, Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead. There is some movie coming out called Capote that is stirring up oscar buzz. But it seems like one of those overhyped pieces of trash. I'll see it though before I make final judgement. I want to see DOOM. It doesn't look particularly good. But looks fun, like Resident Evil. I liked Resident Evil, mainly because it was a zombie movie and I like zombie movies.
I haven't shaved in a few days. I look pretty rough. I really don't care either.
History of Violence (5) - comments(0)
Sunday October 2, 2005 - 4:47PM EDT
This is another one of those different movies. But it is not different for the sake of being different or different just because it wants to be. It is different because it has to be to tell its story. Actually the basic aspects of the movie are pretty standard and well done. It is the movie as a whole that is different. It doesn't have your typical ending. It makes it more realistic because you see just a bit of people lives and it makes no attempt to sew up the open ends for the sake of making things look good. The thing I noticed first was the use of tight camera angles to start the movie. It setup the tension that was used throughout the whole movie. The plot could have been done two ways. It could have been a tricky one or it could have been straight. The plot was played straight here. No funny business or complex logic. One thing that also stood out was the violence. But it wasn't gratuitous. It was violence with a purpose. You can't often say that about movie violence. Usually it is unneccessary to the plot. Even a movie like Kill Bill where violence is a huge part of the movie. It is more part of the style in Kill Bill then a plot mover. In this movie the violence moved the plot along. What I mean is that in Kill Bill people dying was a plot mover but the actual act of cuting someone's head off wasn't. In History of Violence the actual act of shoting somebody is integral to the plot. There is also a silent subtext to the movie about redemption or change or somemthing like that. It doesn't come out and make ask that question but I think you are supposed to ask it yourself. The DP did a great job on lighting because it really was used well. Even the film stock's neutral colors were a perfect selection for the movie. Suffice to say that production values were very high. It was a good movie. Though not for everybody.
Friday September 30, 2005 - 12:41PM EDT
When it comes to doing tech work. I can do anything. Nothing is too difficult or escapes my graps. I have a "put me in coach" mentality. Unfortunately it is tough to find a coach to put you in. All the tech stuff I know has come from self learning. I just say to myself that looks interesting and I go conquer it. Doesn't help me get jobs though. They just look for geeky assclowns who went to top schools and have done all this stuff. They're not better than me. I'm better than them. I'm the best. Put me in coach.
Friday September 30, 2005 - 11:55AM EDT
Emmy for Sony PlayStation 3D work
I'd expect a little more from a group with such a name. But alas they have proven their ignorance. This is clearly an award Nintendo should have one. Every console and game maker out there copies either Nintendo or Wolfenstein. What a box of happy horseshit. Sony has never created an innovative game in their history. Have you seen Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. Crash was a pathetic attempt at trying to duplicate Mario 64. Besides Super Nintendo had the super-fx chip way before playstation soiled the market with its hoardes of terrible games. This award is digusting at best. Sony didn't do jack shit on early 3D based polygon games. Mario 64 is the first legitamite 3D based polygon game. It set a standard that was never matched by the pretenders of its time. Besides Sega's Virtua Fighter series came well before Sony's trash. This thing makes me sick.
Friday September 30, 2005 - 10:35AM EDT
SO I read this brief article on some disagreement on whether the US should retain control of the internet. Obviously the US doesn't want to relinquish control and other contries want a piece of the pie. Frankly this should be a non-issue. Mainly because of a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude. This is one of the few things you could really apply that to without getting into too much trouble. The Internet has grown immensely under US management and there is no slowing it down. The reason people give for sharing control with the UN is that the US could radically shift policy and take control or block certain portion of the net. There are many reasons why the US should maintain control at this time. The question is in my mind is, with the growth and success of the Internet and the fact that the US has never done anything or shown any desire to suddenly change things why the desire by the UN and other countries to suddenly wrest control of it from the US. Maybe it has something to do with other things US does. But still it just seems a little weird. Besides, the way the Internet is constructed could one country really control it. Besides the governing bodies have an international makeup although they are in the US. It just seems like that this is the last thing they should be fighting over right now. In fact the only other country I'd think could share responsibility for "running the Internet" would be Japan.
Friday September 30, 2005 - 12:40AM EDT
This movie is solid and I like it. But I just can't let go some of the gaping holes and slight of hand tricks in the plot. Solid performances by the cast. It was entertaining and had a tricky ending. Which made and broke the movie. To resolve the tricky ending, which can be difficult, they had to take some liberties. Liberties, which depending on the watcher can be let go or not. In my case I couldn't let everything go. The motivation for the antagonist was sketchy at best and could have done with a bit more back story to strengthen his resolve. They ignored a few plot points that they made seem important but never revisited them. It wasn't a huge complex world where you can let that shit go. The whole story took place in two places so you better resolve everything in the end. Particularly disturbing was the portrayal of airline procedures. That is where they took a lot of liberties to resolve the tricky ending. Since most people don't know airline procedure that well it would make sense to pull tricks there. Still even not knowing procedures it seems awfully far fetched some of the things they try to get away with.
I wouldn't go out of my way to see the movie but if you have nothing else to do and want some decent entertainment you can get it with Flightplan.
Thursday September 29, 2005 - 6:36PM EDT
his country had enough resources to help the region for generations to come.- full article
The US leadership problems seem tiny compared to Venezuela. This man is talking about hooking South America on black crack and can't even organize the government in his own country enough to pick up the trash regularly. Pathetic. Building a future on petroleum is foolish. Everyone is trying to release themselves from the oily grip and this man is pushing his poison like a street dealer. This man's singular focus is beating the United States at everything. He is like a jealous little kid.
Thursday September 29, 2005 - 4:52PM EDT
Poll shows Americans split on evolution
I hope these polls are wrong. Because if they aren't I'm going have to do a drive by from LA to Brooklyn. I'm in the company of morons.
Thursday September 29, 2005 - 4:48PM EDT
I just found out some lawyers representing people in the lawsuits in Dover, PA about blocking that ridiculous intelligent design BS are from the lawfirm I used to work at. Makes me feel sort of good to have worked there now. I hope they rip that school district a new one.
Thursday September 29, 2005 - 4:39PM EDT
Seen some recent hoopla over teaching bible courses in schools. Can I just take a shit on those peope that champion this right now and get it over with. These assclowns want to treat the bible as this end all uber-important book to mankind and history. Lets say what the bible really is first. A rehash of previous knowledge and thought throughout the ages before its arrival. Condensed and biased to whoever wrote whatever edition you like to read. The bible is not the end all books to all books before its time. First of all, the course should be religious thought and its influences. You can't possible single out the bible as this singular symbol of religion in america. SHit fuck the bible, I wonder how aware people are of the influence of traditional african religions on current religious practices in america. They sure as hell wouldn't champion teaching that. Besides no course would give the treatment the bible deserves. It would sugarcoat everything. It wouldn't give the raw history of the bible. This man puts it nicely
"At this time in America, it's better to simply talk about religious influences when they come up during the study of literature, art, and history, and not take the text of one religious tradition and treat it with special deference."- full article
In fact I like the way he put it so much I'll leave it at that. Just read the parts about the clowns in the article that think biblical literacy is a educational advantage. What a load of happy horseshit. They need to get their noses in books about evolution, that is where the advantage is. Damn assclowns.