Friday January 18, 2008 - 2:02AM EDT
The Conferderate Flag is often cited as a symbol representing slavery in the United States past. This is often the reason people dislike the flag. But anyone hardly ever mentions in the same conversation that it is also the symbol of a group of rogue states that tried to rip the country apart. Which was the main reason at the time for the Civil War to be fought. It almost seems odd that you could support the Confederate flag and support the United States of America at the same time. How do you support the symbol of a group whose purpose for existence was to split the US in two. Supporters often cite tradition or proud heritage. But that kind of stuff is tertiary and there are plenty of other symbols of that that can be used. The Confederate Flag is rooted in hate and the implicit destruction of the United States. Any kind of state support of such a symbol is pure insanity. Do you think Germany allows government buildings to display swastikas?
In another odd twist. I loved the show Dukes of Hazard when I was a kid and I had a little toy car.
Tuesday January 15, 2008 - 3:37PM EDT
There is this kind of running joke or not even joke but idea about Oprah Winfery running for president. Some would probably love to see it others see it as a joke beyond measure. But when you take an honest look at those who have been president and those who have presidential aspirations Winfrey is no more or less viable then what we have already seen.
There is really no need to analyze much further than vast majority of presidents and presidential hopefully were rich white guys who used their money and influence to find some way in to politics at some point or another. So what is the big deal if a rich black woman does the same. Why is it different? Well other than the two obvious reasons it isn't.
Sunday January 13, 2008 - 8:21AM EDT
I keep reading these stories from video game analyst or experts that say the Nintendo Wii is not going to dominate for long and PS3 is going to eventually catch up because of its superior hardware and up coming software. Someone is smoking something and it is not me. These assclowns parade out the same reasons and kinds of games that people said would make the PS3 dominate when it was released. But it didn't. And these same clowns still think the Wii is some kind of novelty. Well at least they got something right. It is a novelty the most popular of all the consoles. The one thing these so called experts or prognosticators of a PS3 rise are forgetting is that the Wii expanded the market to more than just 18-32 year old males and they dominate that expanded market. Neither XBOX 360 or PS3 has my 50 year old relatives talking about wanting to get one for themselves. That expanded market which has the potential to be bigger than the hardcore gamer base doesn't give two flying fucks about Metal Gear Solid, Grant Theft Auto or the processing power of PS3. I just don't get the wild imaginations of some of these people, their thinking is way too narrow.
Monday December 10, 2007 - 1:13PM EDT
So I wake up and read this article on some Christian Biologist fired for not believing evolution. Are you still with me? Because I think my head head would have exploded with a lightning bolt from Rael after reading that. Mainly from shock. Shock of what a fucking crackpot that clown is. How in the hell do you get away with studying to become a Biologist and not believe in evolution. That is like being a plumber and not believing wrenchs work and you decide to just use your Rael-given hands to do things. I would have fired his ass too. Biology and evolution are like peas and carrots or some junk. You can't possibly be a reputable or decent biologist and forsake evolution or just be forced to use its principles because it is your job. Well I guess you can try but I wouldn't trust a fucking word that came out of your mouth. This clown is almost as bad as that other crackpot who came up with his magical reducible complexity theory. How in the hell is this person suppose to learn anything is he has already solved it all by attaching Rael as the answer to all his questions. He would be a nearly worthless addition to a team researching anything. Well maybe not completely worthless because he probably does have knowledge of many things (rooted in evolutionary priciples) but could you ever trust him to advance anything with such a stance on how he thinks things work. That is what is always lost in these arguements. That science and "beliefs" are both seen as static unchanging concepts. But the only thing that is static are "beliefs". Science implies flexibility with the presentation of observable information. Unfortunately that kind of concept is lacking from scientific teaching and understanding as most people see it as just another tome of knowledge to explain the world along with all the other crackpot ideas out there based on a whole lot of nothing.
The good part in this case is that although this assclown is suing to get his job back as a reasearch biologist (while someone telling them he doesn't support any of the methods or knowledge required to acutually do his job) some state anti-discrimination organization has dismissed his claims. The guy was suing because he felt discriminated for his beliefs. Fuck that shit. I'm not hiring plumbers who don't use wrenches. I hope the official description of his firing was intellectual incompetence. I hope his lawsuit fails. It is ludicrous. Oh yeah apparently he got a job at some baptist university where they probably specialize in hiring crackpots who's understanding of science is less than that of a 9th grader.
The worst part about this is that this person someone became a biologist while not even taking the basis of it seriously. This is not new and is on of my annoyances with people and education in general sometimes. If real scientists stand on the shoulders of giants people like him are sitting on their shoulders having lunch.
Thursday November 29, 2007 - 1:37AM EDT
Let's see what I can ruminate on today. There is always tons of crap. Damn I am too tired right now. Time for bed.
Wednesday October 31, 2007 - 12:09PM EDT
You know what question I am sick of hearing. "Do you believe...?" It is asked so often but means so little. It is subjective opinion but it is rarely treated that way. I hate answering that question because I don't go around "believing" in things. It is pathetic how people will just make up something to be real in their head. A person can believe whatever the hell they want it doesn't make it reality. Just because someone believes in aliens doesn't put any substance to their existence. When that question is asked often times the only acceptable answer will be whether you do believe or not. Any kind of analysis of the question and situation based on facts is derided as cynicism or something like that. So if you ask me what I believe the only thing I'll answer with is "I believe you are an idiot".
Sunday October 21, 2007 - 6:32AM EDT
I haven't posted in a long time. I am busy as all get out. But it is good. Because for the first time ever all that I am working on is stuff that I like doing. This website is the most exciting one right now.
http://www.wishuponahero.com/Wednesday September 26, 2007 - 1:55PM EDT
All the headlines about Michael Vick and the possible prison time got me thinking again. At the very worst he could face 40 years in prison. That just makes me think about the guy who molested a 12 year-old and was put on probation because he was too short to go to prison. Or the countless other rapists and sex offenders who get a couple years in prison then are free to live (although now they complain about being monitored and not being able to live certain places, they should feel priviliged just to not still be in jail). Why are those sex crime punishment laws so leinient in some cases. It doesn't make any sense that the possibility exists for a rapist to serve less time then someone who kills dogs. Some of this has to do with the odd discrepancies in how state laws are implement. There is still a who lot of inefficient nonsense regarding the incongruencies of state laws left over from a long passed time of a lose federation of states.
Sunday September 23, 2007 - 9:51PM EDT
You know what is funny? How a whole bunch of industry analysts thought the Wii was going to be the 3rd place market niche machine mainly because that is what gamecube was. I didn't understand their analysis when they made it and I still don't understand it now. There was no analysis. It was more like them simply transplanting the previous state of console heirachy into the yet to be created next one.
Saturday September 8, 2007 - 3:14PM EDT
I think if I have kids I want one to have a name of African heritage. African is way too broad, maybe a masai or ebo name. I'll find a group and pick one.
Speaking of culture things. Did I ever mention I've grown tired of Western Judeo-Christian culture. Well maybe not tired, but I'm just sick of that being the dominate view in my life. I've tried to expand out and I have in many ways but fuck I'll be glad when and if the dominate culture in my life (and on earth) is unified and contains a wider range of things than what I grew up with. I don't know whether my jadedness is something that is common or not though. At first glance it seems that most people want to just focus on their own little cultural world and that is it, but I could be wrong, it could be a matter of tradition and people just never get exposed to variety.
Not that I don't have gripes about other cultures that I have learned about. Some aspects of Confuscianism are disturbingly harmful or just plain wonky. And there are also certain ritualistic things in Japanese culture that I could do without. Though I do admire their championing of practicalness above many things. I wish I knew more about African culture. I probably do, but the white man probably stole it from the slaves and called it their own.
Speaking of the white man or THE MAN. I make jest of the term a lot but sometimes my grandfather or older aunts use the same term and it is not a joke to them. Because whether people want to believe them or not they had some real experiences with that they called THE MAN and as much as people like to deny it some bad shit happened.
It is so disturbing when I hear these people talk about private sector doing best for the people in some cases. Often the view of conservative leaning people. Do those people not remember the civil rights movement, when we gave state governments and private sector a chance to do right and they fucked it up. The fact that there was debate on not renewing the voting rights act because the south "learned its lesson" and shouldn't be subject to such rules was disappointing. Sometimes I think too many people have forgotten what used to go on in this country.
But this always seems to be the swing of the pendulum as my ethics teacher described. The liberal 60's and 70's lead to the conservative backswing in the 80's and 90's. Now I think it is swinging back I guess.
Healthcare is another issues a lot of idiots seem to have an opinion on. They just like to pick a side and talk about it. I've heard one person say something even handed and intelligent about it. It was this documentary where the person said, look there is a problem neither side has a perfect solution but we need to figure out something. Most people just criticize the other side, and ignore the holes in their criticism. Like people who support private saying certain universal plans in other countries have long waiting lists (1 million plus people). But then they neglect to mention 1 million people compared 45 million people who don't have care in the private system country. Baffling. Then the universal people don't recognize that most studies show that care is diminished across the whole in a universal system, you have to admit that not tell me that universal is the answer without mentioning caveats. Universal is the answer but no current universal system is perfect. I just want more even analysis of things. FUCK! this goes on with everything, I hardly run into anybody who can analyze something without emmotional attachment or some other reason not to give even analysis. That is not true I do know some people who can do that, but it is rare. I just don't get it sometimes.
Saturday September 8, 2007 - 2:37PM EDT
For some reason I was just thinking about this. It pisses me off that no one takes seriously or they criticize any kind of repayment or reparations for slavery and the utter destruction of Native American culture (native cultures all around the world for that matter) yet prosecution for holocaust atrocities (although that has also been wratched down a notch little by little over the years) seem to be much more "important" just goes to show you who has the power and voice is our current society.
On a side note not wholly unrelated, it fucking pathetic how those in power rarely have a grasp on the reality of subordinates.Once in a while you'll get someone who has an idea but for the most part the higher echelon lives in a fantasy world. Well not neccessarily a fantasy world, but one of narrow views. That is not to say the lowers don't have similar issues, but it is ludicrous to think that on the whole each group has a grasp on the larger group. They like to pretend but failure is apparent.
Sunday August 12, 2007 - 1:35AM EDT
I learn about things in general. I'm not talking about some kind of profound understanding gained with the experience of life bullplop. I'm just talking about just everyday things that are real but we never hear about. Anyway the more I learn about things the more I look with disdain upon people who assert anything about their ideas and opinions. Especially when they do it with certainty or confidence. I have no confidence in my ideas, always uncertainty they are loaded with. I just can't respect anybody that stands by their ideas vehemently without any... I don't know how I should describe it. Sounds weird I guess.
I suppose I just view everyone and their damn ideas and its a complete wash. I'll go with some ideas more than others. I just can't stand people forming philosophies based on their limited experience in their little lives. Even the combined experienced of all human society seems to me to be so pithy as to be almost worthless. It is weird to even think about things in such a way because I am apart of the society and my own ideas come from it. I should probably just stop thinking about it, become an alcoholic and resign myself to metaphysics.
I got a lot of problems with you people and you are going to hear about it - comments(19)
Tuesday July 31, 2007 - 11:24PM EDT
No, but seriously I do. That sentence really doesn't make sense. I've been thinking about a few things lately, besides the idiocy of all humans. Yeah that includes YOU! Punk bitch. No, but seriously. I was thinking how it is odd how going to school growing up I was and pretty much everybody was taught that Christopher Columbus was the "first" to the new world and was a pioneer. This is what I like to refer to now as "white man's history". It really is. Well it is euro-centric if you want a more pc term. While Europe and their descendants raise up the big C as a pioneer within their culture, and he deserves it within European culture, they didn't bother to even consider the whole rest of the world. Shit they didn't even consider some people awfully close to them. Vikings had been to "The New World" a thousand years before. Then of course there are the Chinese who somehow created frighteningly accurate maps of the earth a thousand years before Europeans. Lets also not forget those strange African-like artifacts discovered on coastal areas in the the new world that predate European discovery by hundreds of years. Oh yeah, and of course the Cherokee, Sioux, Seminoles, etc... had settled there thousands of years earlier. I suppose the European discovery is the one that took hold and is most documented so it deserves it great mention and place. But sometimes when I think about how we are taught these things, manifest destiny still lurks.
What's next. Oh yeah on the news tonight was some report on how to talk to your kids about sports role models considering all the recent "controversy". All I could think was who in the fuck came up with such a fucking waste of news time. Someone with their head up their asses. That kind of crap passes as newsworthy.
I had some other things to say but I forgot. Let me think..
Saturday July 21, 2007 - 4:30PM EDT
With the recent checker computer champion and chess computers "intrigue" brought up. Games like checkers, chess and cards may come down to skill between human players but they are nothing but massive mathematical calculations for computers who aren't affected by emotions and errors like people. A computer can be designed that can beat or draw any human chess player any day of any week for the rest of existence because there are a finite number of known combination of moves in chess. They just haven't designed a computer yet to calculate all the combinations.
Friday July 20, 2007 - 10:44AM EDT
This recent Harry Potter leaking has brought up one of those nagging questions I always have about things like this. The thing I am referring to is release dates. I am still baffled as to why they do this. The same thing goes on with video games. Why is it that when they have made the product and it is ready for stores they either ship it out and tell them not to sell it or store it in warehouses for weeks or months trying to protect its secrets. I really have no sympathy for the Harry Potter publisher's anger or anyone else when they simply keep a product in storage for no seemingly logical reason. They could avoid the whole hoopla of leaks by just shipping the damn thing out when it is finished printing. Video games are a slightly different story because it takes more time to manufacture them and there is probably a period where they need to build enough of them so that everyone can get it at the same time, but they still do the same shit where a system or game will be sitting in a store or warehouse ready to go yet it will just sit there until an official release date. My only idea as why this occurs is because of the brilliance of marketing executives. I'm being sarcastic if you haven't guessed already. I just think these assclowns shouldn't get all up in arms about release dates. I wonder who was the original assclown who came up with this release date bullshit. It seems like something that should be just a part of the internal process as a goal marker but not integrated so rigidly into the marketplace. I guess someone might argue it gives people a date to know exactly when something is available. Well I hardly think stating that something is available on the release date or earlier would be much different than saying just on the release date. Besides in the age of technology we have a company can announce to the minute exactly when they ship or send things out anyway. Maybe release dates made sense when communication wasn't as pervasive or fast as today and there wasn't an easy way to inform people within a decent amount of time to the debut of something so you had to set a release date way in advance so people would know. But today that kind of idea doesn't apply. It's just funny how the author is imploring people not to spoil things. You already spoiled things by letting books sit in a damn warehouse collected dust.
Monday July 16, 2007 - 8:21PM EDT
So in this recent dustup of a senator and allegations of escort purchasing and who know what else I hear the familiar chime of forgiveness of god. Well I've heard that bullshit statement enough already. Seems like when some people do something wrong they stand by their forgivness of god and walk with an air of peace that it is disgusting. Fuck you and your god because your statement protects you not from my mighty wrath. Ha, no my wrath may not be mighty or even something they even care about but when people like to announce to the world that they believe or have ask for the forgiveness of god it tells me that they are trying to hide or justify their actions. As far as I understand what is between you and god and not something that needs to be professed to have any extra effect or truth in your own mind. But this is the human mind in all its intricacies. What these assclowns do is simply resolve within themselves that it is ok and put whatever issue there is to rest. It is maddeningly frustrating to watch because they take no responsibility for the effect they have on other people. In the case I mentioned above it is a personal matter anyway so I really don't care either way. But the same excuse is used in countless other things. I don't care what they believe in it takes more than saying you repented or ask for forgiveness from some magical entity for me let it pass. But this is the way of people and their religion. So many of them in one view propose treating fellow man rightly but then within the same realm of understanding the most important thing above all else is allegiance to an incorporeal idea that exist only in one's mind. As long as you ask for forgiveness from some deity then you are golden. What a fucking load of BS. That kind of thinking is so damaging to the welfare of human society. But this is the idea that has been passed down and I am baffled that hardly anyone sees the contradiction. It is a tangled mess. I have profoundly more respect for someone that says I messed up and there is nothing I can do about it than someone asking for god's forgiveness. If you ask for the forgiveness of those you hurt and simply your fellow man that is most respectable (in a relative sense, because your probably still a bastard regardless).
Whenever I think about people's behavior I always think about biology. Growing up we are rarely ever taught that human behavior is the result of biological processes. I've come to a point where I can't imagine that there is a better way to understand it all than through biological processes. It is still in its infancy and it may take a very long time to understand it completely if we ever can in the span of time humans exist. I think about all the reasoning rooted in pure philosophy and religion that look to explain how people behave and how it is slowly but surely being replaced by more sound reasoning. Particularly morality. That was one of the things that was always rooted in pure philosophical discourse. But we are now seeing (those that are actually paying attention) that "moral" behavior may be part of a group of rather simple biological urges.
Richard Dawkins has a theory that the gene is the base unit of evolution. Meaning that genes do everything the can to survive. It took me a second to understand what that meant but it is a very interesting idea. We as humans have always seen ourselves as the center of things, as being most important. What if that is not the case. I am not talking about humbling yourself to a god, which still puts you yourself pretty high up there in importance. I am talking about, or what Dawkins is talking about is the gene being the center of things. That we as humans are simply the protective vessel and transport for the gene to reproduce. Think about that for a minute. We humans are like a bottle only important in relation to the water inside. We have no real use in ourselves. All our ideas of society are utterly worthless all that matters is the DNA we have inside. It is hard to wrap your mind around because we are used to thinking of ourselves as being it. In the context of this idea all philosophical discourse on the meaning of life is comically off-base. I like to think about it this way. There are single celled organisms like amoeba that we consider alive but they really don't resemble anything like a human. They move on their own and copy themselves by breaking apart. One could probably build a little robot capable of the same and essentially create life. Imagine that it is these little organisms that run the world. Except they only have one aim in life. Acquire energy to make themselves be able to reproduce. Now imagine that is what a gene is. A tiny little organism that is only interested in reproducing. We humans and every other creature for that matter is just the result of evolution and the gene finding increasingly better ways to reproduce and protect itself. Better to be inside a creature than just spawning haphazardly in a pool of goo where the who knows what kinds of chemicals in the environment will destroy you. You are better protected and can reproduce more efficiently that way. So we are just the giant personalized transport vehicles of genes. It is like if cars had thought and they thought this world was theirs when really it is just people who drive them. Maybe that is a bad analogy but it kind of invokes the picture I want you to see. Damn I'm hungry.
That dude in the white hat - comments(21)
Thursday July 12, 2007 - 4:41PM EDT
Oh yeah one more thing I forgot to mention. Apparently the new Pope has said all churches outside the catholic church are not real, invalid, untrue, etc... I am going to do him one better. I declare all churches invalid, along with mosques, temples, synagogues, shrines etc.. A supreme ruler of chodabot.com this is my decree. Accept it.
Thursday July 12, 2007 - 4:35PM EDT
Well I just read the headline that our fearless leader regards a report on satisfactory progress as reason to be optimistic. I guess this just confirms his appalling low standards he keeps on most things. I don't even know why people even pay attention to what he says. It really doesn't matter that he is President of the United States because nothing he says matters to most people anymore. I would just totally ignore all coverage of this clown and all the rest of the assclowns in the White House if I were a news outlet. Nothing of worth or substance comes out of the administration's collective mouths anymore (that something ever did is also debatable). People get up in arms about our current leadership wreaking so many things and doing terrible things. I'm not going to argue that they haven't but I'd also have to think the world better be more resilient and be able to survive 8 years of assclowns. By my reckoning the assclown parade seems to be perpetual anyway. Well I suppose only one more year then history will have its way with that last 8 years. Most likely in the shed over a barrel. Then again history as Napoleon put it so well is just a lie that even agrees with.
Playing more loserball - comments(19)
Friday July 6, 2007 - 10:10PM EDT
Well I keep seeing these fucking articles about tomorrow and being lucky. I fucking hate that shit. Can I personally shit in path of any assclowns that attach some kind of special significance to tomorrow's bunch of fucking numbers? How lucky are they going to feel then when they slip in feces, crack their head open and die.
Sunday July 1, 2007 - 1:06PM EDT
Why Doesn't Evolution Get Rid of Ugly People?
That is another blogger and not a news story but still I feel obligated to rip their half-brained reasoning since it was linked from a major news site. The initial idea presented in the beginning has to do with "problems" with evolutionary theory. Well the the problem is that the writer has such a rudimentary and unscientific understanding of evolutionary theory that the problems are mainly in their own mind. The main problem is that the writer refuses to even touch on the fact that the issue is the question of what exactly "bad" is. Bad is simply a human idea that differentiates in meaning from person to person. Evolutionary theory as a standalone doesn't consider the term "bad" because it is horribly unscientific. They cite some paradox the is explained away by biologist from some reason or another. The only paradox is in the mind of the person that doesn't understand evolution, not in evolution itself. First off scientific theory is by it own nature never complete so to assume that evolution is a perfectly complete explanation is the mark of a fool. Of course to assume that there is anything else that fits better is the mark of an even bigger fool, but that is neither here nor there for this topic. Now I do see that they are trying somewhat to question what "bad" is but still asking the original question is a fairly worthless exercise and in the article they are not emphasizing that. The simply take a different route and answer their question with some clever reasoning. I would have liked to have seen the article lay waste to this common human idea about the perfection of nature. It is ruinous, this idea to our understanding and maybe even to our survival. Modern evolutionary theory does lay waste to that craptastic idea of natural perfection. Besides perfection again is another human ideal that we have transposed on to our surroundings. We take it much to far and it is to the detriment of our continue understanding.