The Flak

Dissension in the Ranks

2005-09-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

You know what pisses me off? People talking about what pisses them off and how things could be better. Or how they could be worse. Can't you people find anything better to do than talk about the present? and yourselves? and the situation around you?

If you really want to bitch about something, bitch about how much you have to bitch. It's more fun, anyway.

And get an imagination. There's more to life than reality.

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/071405/eighteen-year-old-anarchists.gif

Have We Come a Long Way?

2005-08-24T22:52:00.000-04:00

In 1607, a few men sailed across the Atlantic and built the foundations of what would become the United States of America -- the 'Land of the Free'.
But these foundations were built on stolen land. Today we know that. Today we repent for the injustice done against the first Americans. We're supposed to respect Indian property and culture, right?

Last month, the North Atlantic Division of the Corps issued a draft permit, allowing the creation of a 1,526 acre reservoir on the Mattaponi River. This reservoir would greatly harm the environment, flooding hundreds of acres of wetlands and destroying the Cohoke watershed.

And it would have a disastrous effect on the people of the Mattaponi and Pumunkey tribes, who to this day hold the river sacred.

The city of Newport News maintains that the reservoir is needed to meet the city's projected water needs. However, there is undeniable evidence against this claim. The damage to the wetlands would be massive. The NN reservior in New Kent County is providing more than enough water for the city. The proposed reservoir would flood land held sacred to a people who have more right to it than anyone.

And yet they push on.

I took a trip to this beautiful place last weekend. Today, the Mattaponi River remains much the same as the first English settlers found it 400 years ago. Much of the land surrounding the river was once part of the Mattaponi reservation, but the size of the reservation has dwindled. A few years ago, Assistant Chief Carl 'Lone Eagle' Custalow of the Mattaponi tribe expressed great hopes for this pristine land:

"When I was a boy in the early fifties, my father, Chief Webster Little Eagle Custalow, would bring me on a crisp spring morning to the banks of the Sandy Point tract on the Mattaponi River. I still feel the thrill of seeing the river flowing, the herons fishing, and ducks nesting in the marshes. Occasionally an eagle or an osprey would soar overhead. I used to long for this large piece of our original Homeland to become part of our Reservation again. The fish, wildlife and bird habitat make Sandy Point an especially sacred site for our Tribe.

"When I returned to the Reservation and became Assistant Chief of the Tribe, I had this vision of a modern Hatchery, a beautiful three story Cultural Center built over the water and a Living History Village to study and teach our culture to tribal members and the general public alike...

"The vision for my beloved Reservation, the beauty of it all and the chance to protect rich Virginia natural resources, forests, meadows and wetlands, while strengthening our cultural heritage, gave me the will to hope..."
(read the entire letter here.)

Groups such as The Southern Environmental Law Center and The Sierra Club are fighting for this hope, but hope is fading quickly.

We'd like to think that the American government has changed its ways, but Native Americans have been getting the short end of the stick, 400 years and counting.

Plain Jane America - No More

2005-08-19T23:07:00.000-04:00

So these wise econologists get this idea... elephants and lions and the like are nearing extinction in the great continent of Africa, so why not bring them to a protected habitat in our own Great Plains.

Part of me panics and says America has no less of a population issue. Then I remember all the green empty spaces in many states, in every state, and I remember the 17 kids per family in India - and I kind of grow to the idea.

Ted Turner, owner of CNN and other entitities as well as the single largest private land owner anywhere, has showed interest and support in the idea. I say slim chance it does happen - but bravo if it does AND makes a difference to their numbers.

Benefits? Ecotourism and biodiversity, mainly.

Mars Encounter

2005-08-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

I thought some of you guys might be interested in this.
Throughout the month, the distance between Earth and Mars will decrease until August 27, when the planets will be at their closest in recorded history. Astronomers aren't sure when we will be this close to Mars again, but it may be as long as 60,000 years. On August 27th, the distance between Earth and Mars will be 34,649,589 miles. Mars will appear with a magnitude of -2.9, and will be, next to the moon, the brightest object in the sky. It will rise at nightfall and reach its zenith at 12:30am.

Natalee Holloway: Raise Your Hand if you Still Care

2005-07-31T21:53:00.000-04:00

So im sure that by now everybody knows that when they drained that pond in Aruba, they didn't find Natalee's body. Yet im equally sure that by now nobody was really biting their nails over it either. I know I sure wasn't! And if I was, it was because I was so annoyed with the whole drawn-out situation. Listen up Fox news.
#1- i hate to say this but when i read about a crime, i sometimes have to smack my forehead and think that the victim was kind of asking for it. if i went to some seedy bar in aruba and trusted 3 random guys to drive my drunk ass back to the hotel, i could pretty much assume that i was about to get raped and tossed into the ocean. seriously.
#2- ok it's kind of a bummer that people are like that, but they just are, and being 18 natalee should have realized that by now. of course her disappearance warranted some media coverage, but her story is dominating CNN like leather is outta style. SHE JUST ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT. NO ONE IS. It's just embarassingly obvious why the media is fixated on it too: what tv station doesn't jump at the chance to shamlessly showcase shot after shot of rich, barely-legal blonde girls in exotic locations?
#3- bad stuff happens to other people too. If an overweight minority got 'lost' in some mundane location such as, say, Oregon, the media wouldn't care!

I rest my freaking case!

"London is a Leaky Tap"

2005-07-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

Bombs going off in Subways…hmmm…sounds an awful lot like a literary allusion to Hell. Just goes to show that while we popularly believe that we-in-reality control the world-of-fiction, it is really those characters that pull our strings.

But more to the point, metros remind me of giant, blind worms slithering beneath the city. Sort of like the giant worms slithering above ground (whoops, metaphors again, sorry). But when you think about the people in them, it’s more like an ant colony. Working, working, working. For Pete’s sake, it took 50 people dying to spice up the commuting habits of these droll Londoners. At least the Iraqis know how to keep life exciting.

Which reminds me of a quote by Shaikh Zakaria al-Tamimi: “This is because Iraqis are like chicken and nobody cares about the killing of a chicken, but the British are the lords of this world.”

I wonder how many Londoners cried about the bombings and then went home to some chicken? And of course, they cried more after dinner. Tragedy like this can’t be gotten over that quickly. (drip drip drip.) And, to further enliven the hypothetical, I wonder how many of those crying, chicken-devouring Londoners have the title ‘lord’? It all comes together, sort of like a mystery novel. The unraveling of the knot.

Or if this was compared to a literary work of slightly more enduring character, we could return to the Hell symbolism and endorse human primitivism and naturalism or even the inborn guilt of man(andwoman)kind. But that stuff is beyond this situation. It’s not some storybook to be moralized. Of course not. (drip drip drip.)

Breaking News?

2005-07-08T13:10:00.000-04:00

I put this in my own blog a few minutes ago, and figured I'd put it in here too. Cur non.

I felt like posting about the London thing yesterday, but never got a chance to. Everything about it is so wrong on so many levels. First of all, just that someone would do that in the first place is sick. Sick beyond belief. But what do we do with it? Feed it to you, because you LOVE it. All day on CNN was nothing but the London bombing. Why? Because the populace can't get enough. Before every commercial break? "Log on to our website for FREE VIDEO FEEDS from the London bombing, including interviews and special news reports!" Hell, if I didn't know better, I'd think CNN bombed the place. And how Eurocentric do we have to be to care so much? Doesn't this happen every other day in Israel? 33 dead in the Middle East is lucky to land a spot on the news ticker anymore. CNN Newsbreak: "London Police Cheif Thinks The Seperate Bombings Were Co-ordinated." Thanks. Let the police deal with it. We know what happened, and how terrible it is. The next step? Catch some al-Qaeda guys and give stupid American citizens more reason to hate Arabs. And I blame al-Qaeda for that, because they intentially fuel hate, which is disgusting. But isn't al-Qaeda pretty much a branch of U.S. Military? They wouldn't exist if our tax money hadn't funded all their weapons. It really just seems like the ball is in U.S.'s court, and we should do something about it. I wish.

Oh, Dear China

2005-07-07T08:03:00.000-04:00

China, you humor me. Immensely. NASA may think it has some huge victory, or minor confidence boost, in their recently successful Deep Impact.

Yet, NASA - maybe an entire decade or two - relies on the one and only upcoming Discovery shuttle mission. Nonetheless, China who is number three in the line of getting things up into space seems to have some rather heightly ambitions. They are currently "focused" on a moon probe, yet some people are taking time already having planned their own Deep Impact mission.

Well no, their mission they like to say is more about preventing a comet or asteroid moreso from hitting Earth. Star Wars anyone? O wait, that never happened.

Nonetheless, despite any initial to blow it out of the "sky", China says their mission would be to soft land a vessel and merely use a huge ass engine to thrust the meteor off course. Okay.

Oh but wait, they aren't even sure yet if their radio signals are working. Does anyone else agree that China needs to split up the first 4 or 5 decades of space technology into multiple missions? The next thing they will say is they have a Mars probe that will detach and wildly send itself off halfway to the comet. Grow up China, you already have a bigger military - I think someone is scared of the celestial space above as an attack ground.

24 Years Between Them, But Mommy Doesn't Care...

2005-07-03T22:29:00.000-04:00

A Lebanon mother was sentanced to 30 days in jail for giving her 15 year old daughter written permission to have sex with a 39 year old man.

America's Guide to Dominating the World Economy as a Developed Country

2005-07-02T22:09:00.000-04:00

Step 1: sell poor countries all the stuff they need to grow the food that you want

Step 2: be a large enough market so that your needs are all they produce

Step 3: subsidize the farmers in your own country so that they can beat all the competition from the aforementioned poor countries

Step 4: ignore the poor farmers in the poor countries with no other crops, no other income, and nothing to pull themselves out of poverty

Reference: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/94EDA125-897B-4494-8D97-1FC747697890.htm

This is an ongoing process/experiment, but clearly a successful one.

What Generation is this Again?

2005-06-30T14:25:00.000-04:00

So, as mentioned previously, podcasts have arrived. And so has a new, cheaper, slicker, better, in-color iPod. 60 GB with photo capabilities.

How much longer before Pocket PC and iPod are one in the same? I think those making pocket Dells and the like, have a much quicker route to allowing huge hard drives and music capabilities on their 2006 line. Is it coming? Why bother let it coming, when the next step is to merge into a cell phone as well?

Either way - it's sexy and I'm jealous that it is only $100 dollars more than the non-color 4 GB Mini I just bought. I feel highly retarded as a consumer, and well... always have.

Nevermind though, because Podcasts are about to take the biggest step in their carving revolution yet. Now that over 3,000 (and rapidly growing) are free and online through iTunes 4.9 - they are getting attention in places and homes never expected to be heard of.

Personally, I have subscribed to the ABC News Shuffle and AfterNote, the ESPN Radio Podcast, iTunes New Music Tuesday (podcast form), and the Podcast Network's Movie Show. All of which are delicious and through the settings menu can check for updates and auto-sync when my iPod is docked. So easy - I love you Apple.

Apathy in the Blogosphere

2005-06-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are not familiar with the fairly new practice of "blogging," it is a modern form of journalism and critical discussion through the revolutionary medium of the internet. This practice takes the average person, with no necessary background in journalism, and lets them express their views and concerns across a network accessible by billions. Unfortunately, a recent plague of extreme apathy and lack of "posting"(the act of writing an article on a "blog") has stricken this widespread blog network. One blogger, "Calder," on a notable socio-political blog that I will leave anonymous out of respect, is quoted posting "I'll post something big and controversial as soon as I get the motivation gathered." Is this an attitude formed by the simplicity and accessibility of this new media form? If you look around, one does not see such respectable news networks as the televised FOX News quitting their groundbreaking stories. This could lead one to believe that it is at the heart of the nature of "blogging" that has brought upon itself this affliction. This comes as a great blow to myself, as a self-proclaimed "blog journalist." I ask simply of the reader, if you are familiar with this world of "blogging," to remain active in your blog community despite your predispositions in everyday life. Thank you for your time; I hope you have learned some about this new technology and perhaps have grown more motivated.

America, America, America......

2005-06-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

My friend comes from China. He moved here a couple years ago (during his freshman year of high school) and is now getting ready to move on to college. He speaks Chinese fluently, as can be expected, but we always had trouble communicating in English, regrettable since he’s probably one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.

To the point, though. Last year, during the summer, he was doing his summer work for AP English, which the school had signed him up for. The summer work: reading David Copperfield. Imagine trying to read David Copperfield in whatever language you’ve been taking in school (Spanish, French, whatever) and you have an idea what that was like. Excruciating. But he had to take AP. Cause he’s smart. Don’t you love our education system?

Now I know an artist at VCU, who came from Ecuador, also during high school. He was put in AP English, too, though his most interesting experience was with Chaucer (again, just imagine). However, now he is near the end of his studies at VCU. He is getting a degree in sculpture. But he has to get another English credit to graduate. That’s right. They can refuse to give him a degree in sculpture, no matter how good he is, just because he can’t write a benign term paper for English 201. This just doesn’t make sense to me.

Both of my friends mentioned here are amazing visual artists. The Chinese one in particular continuously amazes me with his skill, versatility, and creativity. But my fellow Americans in the field of higher education administration are screwing them for all their worth. This is sickening to see. An education system that is actively holding back its immigrants. America is supposed to be about inclusion and assimiliation. You know, the American Dream and all that shit. Well, Ni and Jaime have a dream and more than enough ability to achieve it. If only we’d let them out of this prison we built with our own stupidity.

Charging Iraq and Selling More Weapons

2005-06-06T23:47:00.000-04:00

A New York Times article reported a few weeks ago that at the peak of the Iraqi tensions and occupation, we were selling weapons to countries once banned from sales, or countries never heard of. The sad thing here is, this doesn't even scrape the nation's debt hole.

In most cases, the sales aren't that bad - we are merely helping out undemocratic nations in a democratic-spreading terror and lies war. Kuwait and Egypt are perfectly harmless in the current decade. But unstable Saudi and Uzbekistan and others like them make me worry that Cheney is so blood-thirsty that they are ignoring mistakes discovered in Afghanistan (yes, back in the only legitimate campaign Bush ran) - Don't sell weapons to people you plan to piss off in your lifetime.

Either way, it's all hunky-dory now, but why not spread peace? Why not sign a clean air bill or a nuclear arms bill? Oh, that's right - we're selfish America.

Real dancing?

2005-06-05T21:35:00.000-04:00

Lafayette's prom was this weekend. I just want to know what happened to real dancing? When did the salsa and foxtrot give way to mindless booty shaking? I mean, don't get me wrong. I like getting out there and doing my own thing as much as the next person, but the type of dancing high schoolers do nowadays is not very artistic and is sometimes obscene. I went to governor's school two summers ago for German, and we took dance classes. At the dances we had every weekend, people would actually do stuff like the waltz and the cha cha. It was very tasteful and quite a refreshing change from the average high school formal. I understand that the music played at prom doesn't exactly lend well to ballroom dance, so I think it would be nice to have more of a variety. They could keep some rap but also include some Latin for salsa-ing and big band for swing dancing. This would have a lot of benefits, like reducing the simulated sex on the dance floor and preparing high schoolers for stuff like weddings and other functions. I know with my sister's wedding in 3 weeks, I'm going to make a fool of myself, at least until the DJ starts playing Nelly.

Theme and Variations on "Current Event"

2005-06-04T22:49:00.000-04:00

In my opinion, my personal opinion, the phrase ‘current event’ is an awful phrase.

For starters, any event can be current if it is discussed currently or relived currently or treated currently. Hitler is current. Gandhi is current. Jesus (yes, I’m using the deutschified version) is current. Eve is current.

For a main course, the word implies some sort of vibrancy, some sense of anbaric shock. And yet nothing like that accompanies it. Some current events have that, but many don’t.

And I guess for dessert, the same purpose can be achieved by less disputable terms, like recent events (ignoring arguments about the flow of time) or breaking news. Or recently broken news. Why use a term that stirs up controversy when you can use one that doesn’t? It distracts from the focus of the events (though it does add a little vibrancy).

And for coffee and cigars, I just don’t like the words current event. The rhyming implies structure and order, yet most often, they present a world without order. It’s just plain misleading.

So We're in the Garage?

2005-06-02T22:20:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I ran across an article on a convention in CA called D: All Things Digital. The guests were Gates, Apple, and many, many others. They all had neat things to say and I've already covered Apple's newest promises and promotions. But - the bloggers in attendance got their own morning of discussion.

I'd like to share with you two main ideas I ran across in the sub section of the article.

Although some criticized blogging to "go back to the roots of journalism" - having one man newspapers - others say this just gives people another countless way of getting their information and also allows for the reader to decide how participated they want to be in the news. This is great - you can go from limited to reading to fully engaging comment wars (or even eventually posting in the case of The Flak).

Second - creator of Movable Type ( a swell, famous software bit for making blogs that I admire ) says that blogging is like punk rock - eventually they'll make it mainstream, but someone will always be in the garage. And I think that analogy fits snugly here. The watchdogs become watchdogs, the greats become emulated, and slowly the blogosphere makes its presence blend with the media. It seems every other day I find an article on the BBC or elsewhere about a blog with an influence. A half hour after major speeches now, news teams on TV will "jump to visit the blogosphere" and see what journalists are saying - sometimes half a day before the first newspaper articles are read.

I just hope Google/Blogger gets it together and adds the features most demanded by its users. Then I won't be tempted by Movable Type.

Congratulations...You're Not Helping Anyone

2005-06-02T21:51:00.000-04:00

Families and students of my wealthy New England town often slap a college sticker on the rear-window of their automobile as soon as an attendance letter is mailed back to the admissions office. Riding high with revered names plastered to their windows, far too many proud parents and relieved seniors, in their happiness or pride, unknowingly cause feelings of inferiority and contribute to the escalating problem of competition notoriously involved in the town’s college process. What is it they believe the name of a college will engender when rudely shoved into the eyesight of a following driver? Surely a parent’s intention is not to say, “Look at what my child did, you anonymous driver stuck behind me in traffic! She may be attending Princeton on her own merit and intelligence, or she may have a sub-normal IQ and was offered admission solely to lead the varsity Tiddlywinks team—but that does not matter, and you will never know the circumstances. All that matters is that my child is better than yours. Which means, of course, that I am better than you. It was nice having you on my tailpipe.” If a parent was simply proud of his or her child’s accomplishment and understandably enjoyed, after years of difficult parenting and devotion, hearing other’s remarks of admiration, then college stickers would have no use. The social circle of parents in my town is so tightly wound and competitive that word travels like wildfire and compliments would undoubtedly be abundant.

The same goes for seniors. Where you’re headed next year is no secret, and if you’re going to college, then congratulations: you will be getting a fantastic education, no matter where you are, and it’s almost refreshing to see a sticker representing an institution not nearly as renowned as the “top schools.” But if that’s all it is, pure proud representation, then let’s dispose of the anonymity. Your friends are happy for you, your parents are happy for you, and your teachers are happy for you, too. It’s the people who know and care about you that matter. No stranger is going to get out of his car at a red light, knock on your window, and ask to shake your hand. Wear your college gear around your friends and celebrate your future, but take a second to think about what you may be inadvertently doing. These stickers can logically do nothing but cut-down and hurt others, endorse competition and rivalry, and sometimes promote the idea to aspiring children that anything short of the Ivy League and its peers is a failure in the eyes of the public.

Parents and students: you’re happy; you’re on a high after so many years. So am I. It’s understandable to have placed a sticker on your car in a bout of happiness and pride. Now, if you’ve got one on a car, do the right thing and remove it. At least part of you probably dislikes the competition of the college admissions process and, most importantly, no hard-working child or proud parent deserves to be subject to even fleeting feelings of inferiority.

Art is not dead.

2005-06-02T20:26:00.000-04:00

I must say that I thought the art show at Lafayette today was great. It's awesome that there is a tangible art community at our school -- people actually seemed to be enjoying themselves and the artwork. I'm always really excited to see the creative, intellectual students show their stuff. It's sometimes disheartening walking through the hallways and picking up bits and pieces of brainless conversation, but I was very impressed with the Lafayette art/drama/music students today.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

2005-06-01T20:46:00.000-04:00

After reading Calder's post, I was reminded of an entry I wrote on my own blog back in February. It speaks for itself, but this is just my take on the fundamental question of whether or not there is a God.

February 18, 2005 - Truth is stranger than fiction

My ears are still ringing from a lecture I just attended at Roanoke College by a University of Mary Washington professor, Bulent Atalay (author of Math and the Mona Lisa). Before his words blur in my mind as they physically have in my ears, I will write it down.
The lecture explained the math behind art. Now, I have never been crazy about math, by which I mean I am exchanging notes in pre-calc with Alisha every 10 minutes: "This is so boring I'm going to saw my head off with this scantron sheet to break the monotony." Our teacher just plods along, marching to the beat of Virginia SOLS, sketching linear functions and exponential equations on the board with a dying marker. This routine never gave me any type of rush whatsoever. And why should it have? Algebra, Geometry, Calculus- it was all made up anyway. Why should we have to memorize all this crap that these dudes made up to torture us with...? I don't know what my thoughts ever were beyond that point because I tend to zone out with that catatonic stare that can dissociate you from reality for indefinite amounts of time, and you suddenly realize that you have been having a staring contest with the lower left corner of your desk for Lord knows how long. You looked weird; there was probably talk. Well okay that happens to me a lot and I have no excuse, other than that my daydreams of philosophy and religion are of greater importance than learning math.
I have to say that I am always thinking about God. Not in a pious way necessarily, but in an objective intellectual way. Question everything- above all question your faith. All I can say for certain at this point is that there is definitely a God. Atheists always say we have no tangible proof of the presence of God, but I insist that everything is proof- and not in the old Sunday school sense of "God made your sweater because he loves you." Open your mind for one minute to look at the precision of nature. Nature is method. Doesn't it seem that some intelligent force meticulously crafted this universe for it to be so full of intricacies, laws, patterns- math? Isn't it a coincidence therefore that a few great minds "made up" the formulas which turned out to be the governing forces of the universe?
For example, Atalay talked at length about the parabolic spiral, and how it is 'nature's favorite.' The exact curve can be found in things from a chamber nautilus to a ram's horns to hurricanes to the spinning of galaxies. That is no accident. That was not random.
For my staunch atheists, smug in their disbelief, I ask you how such perfection and uniformity was created from lumps of dust and gas floating in space. If you were to sit and shake a shoebox full of the same material, would your efforts form such a masterpiece as the Earth with it's fragile environments? My friend it will not ever, ever happen. Because there is a divine logic which governs All. If even that is too much for you to swallow, let me take you back even further; where did this original dust and gas come from? For the Big Bang theory to work , one must concede that there had to be something to bang and someone to bang it. There is a force.
All these ideas had come to me on their own but in a vague way; I had known intuitively that God and Science were compatible, but my arsenal was weakened by my lack of any concrete knowledge. Atalay shined a bright beam of light through my nebulous ideas, illuminating my mind with the facts and numbers to support what I had believed all along. This was what I had waited for: validation of my theories.

30 Minute Death

2005-06-01T16:50:00.000-04:00

For those who attend Lafayette High School, this message is regarding the diplay outside today. What did you think? I thought it is a good idea to discourage drinking and driving but I feel like it would be much more effective to show a video of real footage. Sure the skit did affect some people, but it just did not do it for me. I know its not entertainment, but seriously, how many funeral cars really show up at the scene of a car accident? Kids need to see the genuine effects of this, not a made up skit. I'm almost positive if people see a kid's stomach ripped open they will think twice about boozing and cruising.

Metrocity IV

2005-05-31T22:20:00.000-04:00

A young woman was raped today in the Darfur province of Sudan. She has not been named.

There have been many rapes in Darfur. This girl is a proverbial drop in the ocean. She doesn’t count. Perhaps she will get treatment from a relief organization. Perhaps not.

One young woman in Sudan was raped today. Two young women in Sudan died today, Three of whom were rape victims. Four young women in Sudan were not raped. Five were afraid. Six were scared for their lives. Seven didn’t eat. Eight ate. Nine were raped.

Ten upon Ten upon Ten commandments were written in blood (in Arabic) in the Darfur province of Sudan. Meanwhile, One young woman was raped. They were written, painstakingly, by hand. And, meanwhile, this young woman, the protoantagonist of this essay was, as you should well know, raped.

Zero of the young women mentioned above have names. They are just little drops in the ocean, stray drops from the inkwell, hastily scrawled letters in a commandment, nonexistent people.

We Can Do Better with our Basis of Ethics.Really now.

2005-05-31T16:38:00.000-04:00

I started off on this blog replying to a post about religion affecting our schools, and it was asked what was so wrong with Christianity after I attacked it as a socially destructive system. Christianity, like many mainstream religions of the modern world, can be summed up into two basic doctorines:

1) The belief system must spread. People must be converted, the only good person is a Christian person, everyone else is going to 'hell,' and it is the duty of every Christian to spread this message. People are encouraged to go on 'missions' to manipulate and convert other people to the Christian belief, and churches spend thousands of dollars to attract new members (A local evangelical and nondenominational church has allowed for the creation of a Christian club at my high school, purchases very nice musical instruments to be abused by unskilled performers during popular youth pagents, and are now campaigning to attract the growing hispanic community in Williamsburg)

2)Humilty, submission, the need to grovel. Don't get me wrong, believing in a higher power is all well and good,but dedicating your entire waking life to something that may or may not exist is simply self destructive. Christianity teaches complete denial of self. It discourages any form of self-gratification or fufillment -everything goes to 'God.' This is extremely dangerous, as people waste their entire lives living dispassionately and with hopes for dying, and then they die and rot in the ground like everyone else. People waste their lives on grovelling, meanwhile holding pretensions of superiority that are both hypocritical and lead to painful flukes of humanity such as war and genocide.

These two basic aspects of Christianity and other monotheistic Western religions (think Islam, which is possibly even more frightening in the modern world) are really very bad for people. It becomes apparent that these belief systems are almost viral- highly contagious and spreads quickly into weakened vectors, and once a person is infected, they suffer. Not only that, but these beliefs are so archaic and warped from their orginal intents, that they are largely inapplicable to the modern world. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was written by priests in Nice, Italy three hundred years after Jesus died and afer a very close vote on whether or not Jesus was actually divine (by the way, Jesus is a Germanic warping of the Greek translation of his Hebrew name, Yeshu). The Old Testement is full of absurd little moral codes that have no bearing whatsoever on modern society, and only had use in the backwater, rural communities of the Middle East, such as not wearing clothing made of two or more materials, not eating shellfish or split-hoofed animals, or not having sex with people of the same sex. The idea of 'an eye for an eye' was also codified in this text, which even Jesus (a hero of mine) found repellant and unacceptable.

Just say NO to 'God.'

Pre-Pre-Gulf War II Details Enclosed

2005-05-30T23:45:00.000-04:00

So it turns out that I agree with Saddam for sending out UN investigators. Why let them snoop about if members of the UN are simultaneously pester-bombing you and not letting their own people know their doing it!? Wouldn't you not cooperate as well? Not to say that the man is any less evil - I just want to further my statement that I think we, U.S.itain, are far more deceptive.

Now that they admit the intelligence errors, admit to a pre-pre-emptive strike force, admit that Saddam wears briefs, what's left? What is there to justify the deaths? So far the only news on the Operation Lightning front is that 30 have died. Sounds like a quiet way of saying we aren't doing so hott.

Is it 2008 yet? Obama? You there?

You can't trust me for another 6 months and 16 days.

2005-05-30T23:13:00.000-04:00

A lot of kids complain about laws that discriminate based on age. They feel that many of these laws infringe on their human rights, or are downright degrading. I agree with these individuals in all aspects of their arguments. A birthday is not something that changes who you are. You won't wake up on your 18th birthday fully aware of your responsibilities to society and with the wisdom you'll need to be an adult, if you didn't possess these values beforehand. I'm writing this because a friend and I came into conflict with the county police last night, for the offense of breaking curfew. Nothing more. We were simply sitting in a parking lot in Colonial Williamsburg, talking, and we ended up in the back of a police car. My parents were awakened at 4:00 in the morning to pick us up at the police station. Was our offense worth the trouble my parents had to go through, and the time of these police officers? I personally feel as though I was treated like a delinquent.

A boy in Richmond, UK has challenged his town's use of curfew zones for the same reason -- he feels as though these laws punish him for his age, not for any wrongdoing. Richmond's laws give police the power to escort home children under 16 who are found without adult supervisors between 9pm and 6am.

It is very sad that lawmakers must judge a person's intelligence on age, as if at that magic age of 18, all of us were perfectly capable of behaving ourselves. I can complain, but I can't think of any other way to keep twelve-year-olds from buying cigarettes or beer.

Which holiday is this?

2005-05-30T17:41:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it seems that we are living in a nation of holidays and celebrations. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, and even St. Patricks day have been commercialized and excessively capitalized upon year after year. Even schools manage to always find some way to incorporate the upcoming holiday whether it be in constructing paper valentines or watching A Christmas Carol in a class. Every year, Memorial Day always seems to be left off that special list of note worthy holidays. Sure there are various parades and the president makes a visit to Arlington, we even get a few days off of school but where is the sincerity? It amazes me that on the holiday created to honor those in service to our country that most americans will be consuming mass amounts of alcohol and eating barbeque until they are sick. Where is the reverence in that? As John McCain so perfectly puts it, "War is awful. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. Whatever is won in war, it is loss the veteran remembers." In no way could a lavish parade or a Miller Lite ever truly honor those who serve. Instead of traveling 4 or 5 hours to have dinner with family we don't even remember or instigating the development of the college beer gut, Americans should spend the day in quiet remembrance of those lost to war as well as those who are currently stationed in Iraq. I believe that this should be a day when all political ideas and affiliations should be set aside so that Americans can effectively stand behind the brave men and women in the middle east. For whatever reason, wrong or right, our nation is at war and today of all days is a day to remember that fact whether your life has been changed by it or not. Honor for those in the service begins here at home, not in a country thousands of miles away. Americans need to take the time to remember all these things and be thankful that they have the freedoms and rights that are defended daily by our armed services. Memorial Day should not be recognized as simply a day off from school but as a day of significant remembrance and support for the men and women who protect and serve. Without them, the United States would not exist as we know it today and it is for that reason that Memorial Day should be more appropriately honored.

*************

2005-05-30T16:45:00.000-04:00

I play at Water Country, an Anheuser Busch adventure park. When we march through the park to play, I see all these little girls, like 6 and 7 and stuff, walking around in bikinis and crap. Their parents are dressing them like hussies, some worse than others. It seems like an odd system of values.

During one show, we pulled out a Festhaus dancer (on her day off) to come up. She had to dance during the song, and she danced, well, like a pretty hot 20 something girl will dance. (It was fine til our drummer hiked the tempo up like 20 clicks.) What got me was the little girls in the audience watching her, and imitating her. There was so much wrong there, especially when these parents don’t mind their 6 year old girl shimmying.

I have trouble coming to terms with these parents. In fact, I haven’t come to terms with them. It revolts me. This is supposed to be a fucking family park—is this what families are now? Breeding grounds for this crap?

The S*X Market

2005-05-30T16:21:00.000-04:00

Saturday, May 21, 2005 New York held its very first Er*tic Expo just across the street from the beautiful Madison Square Garden, right next to the Hotel Pennsylvania. Appearing at the expo were all of newest and hottest s*x toys, p*rn stars, and even an exercise program to make a man’s “private parts” larger. Oh, we can’t forget about Leon Kassman, who flaunted his newest invention, “the hermaphrodite c*ndom.” (I will spare the details but it sounds more like Hotel California to me.)

A $40 billion worldwide market, the s*x market. If this is so, a $40 billion market, and the national debt as of May 24, 2005 at 7:57 pm (GMT) is $7,776,794,995,935.55 (as informed by www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ ) then that means with a population of roughly 6,523,841,408 in the world (and growing by the minute), and roughly 296,167,508 people living in the United States…

…

Wow.

Much to my surprise, I found p*rn star Tera Patrick could do the math as well. As picked out of the Reuters article entitled, S*x toys, p*rno stars in Er*tic Expo, she said,

"P*rn is getting more mainstream," said Tera Patrick, one of the industrys
most versatile players, a hard-core actress who has become publisher of
Genesis Magazine.

Asked if that was changing the industry, she said. "It enriches the business
through more movies, DVDs, pay-per-view on demand, the Internet.

"It means I make more money."

Amazing, isn’t it?

So many people are spending so much money on m*sturbation and being kinky.

So now I wonder the demographics of the situation. Males to females. Who spends more? Which country spends the most? Is more money being made on ways of flying solo, or being kinky? Or being very kinky? I shudder.

...Like a Phalanx of Geese...

2005-05-29T23:21:00.000-04:00

Lots of people, of all races, complain about racial profiling. The issue has had several heydays, the most recent after 9/11. However, the oldest and often the largest issue is racial profiling by the police. The police does racially profile: it pulls over more blacks than whites, common knowledge.

However, the same people who complain about vehicular racial profiling engage in it themselves. Notice, whenever driving on a four-lane road, that whenever a driver sees a large truck or a semi, they immediately move to pass it, assuming that it is slow. This profiling is especially clear when a four-lane road is condensing to a two-lane road. The mergers always attempt to whisk by the big truck. And when the big truck is going fast enough, they can’t get by and their actions hold up the line and even introduce a possibility of danger to themselves and others (and the truck driver, whose size limits his/her visibility). Granted, many of the large trucks are slower, especially on roads with stoplights, but by no means all. These people operate on a complete assumption, even stronger profiling than what the police uses.

It seems to me hypocritical to engage in extreme cases of profiling and then to criticize the government’s profiling. Perhaps the police could stand to try and reform their profiling methods (whatever that means), but it is simply stupid to endorse profiling by your actions and then to attack it with your words. It takes more tact than that.

And Your National ID, Please (No, Really.)

2005-05-28T23:07:00.000-04:00

Finally someone did something about it. HP and Gates in some odd fashion have announced their system is ready to implement a National ID card to every American citizen. I say, sweet! But many apparently think that this allows their government to find out some odd secrets or info that they don't already know.

Well, to those opposed, you're all lunatics. Who would ever think that this system is going to require more info than the state governments... or DMV can already tell about you? Especially here in Virginia where you have to bring in multiple forms of ID, a stool sample, and 6 relatives. They know everything about you already - get over it. If anything, I would be MORE suspicious of you if you chose to hide your information from the government. Are you the terrorist? No? Oh, then stop whining and let the thing come up in Congress and pass with a bipartisan standing to improve the security of this nation.

RIP Yoda

2005-05-27T17:08:00.000-04:00

Rest in peace Yoda...

Although the furry green fellow dies in later episodes of the star wars saga, his reputation has been so tarnished by these past two movies that i find it hard to take the old sage seriously.

It was bad enough when I see the admirable Jedi Master being made a fool of in the audience as he prances around fighting count Dookoo in Episode II. In Episode III, though, Yoda just humiliates himself as he's being "cool" Yoda, jumping up on Wookies' backs and fighting with charm, instead of showing the awesomeness that behooves such an experienced warrior in the jedi arts.

Maybe I'm too much of a stickler to authenticity, but I dont think Lucas should be defaming such an amazing creation by making him out to be the clown as well as the wise one. Somewhere, Jim Henson is spinning in his grave...

Enter Bruce Lee!

2005-05-27T00:48:00.000-04:00

After viewing Enter the Dragon, a masterpiece by Bruce Lee, I must confess, Lee is THE man. What's remarkable about the movie isn't the somewhat low-key plot and unimpressive score, but the pacing, and the impressive composition of Lee's character as a more complex, feeling, and intense character than any of the Kung-Fu characters I have seen of late.

I find that in movies these days, the timing or pacing is an art few have achieved. In the recent Star Wars movie, scenes and settings change so quickly that one can barely keep Obi-Wan separated from the Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker or Tatooine from Natalie Portman's tatoo!

In comparison of Lee to a competitor for the best kung-fu actor, such as Jackie Chan or Jet Li, Bruce has something neither of them have. He has wit, cunning, intellect, emotion, vengeance, and intensity unparallelled in his counterparts. As he himself said, he fights by "not fighting at all," which makes his fight sequences that more baffling as he seemingly does everything without very much effort. The other cinematographic note is that the film covers Lee's actions more than his dialogue, making Lee's true acting ability do the talking as one can see him sneak up on opponents and strike, proving once again, that Bruce Lee is the MAN!

Houses Passes Stem Cell Bill

2005-05-26T09:12:00.000-04:00

So yesterday the House passed a bill to increase federal aid for stem cell research, stem cells are an extremely promising source of cures or treatments for many illnesses/conditions including spinal cord damage, some cancers, MS, muscular dystrophy, etc. President Bush has declared that he will veto this bill if the Senate also passes it. His reason for this veto are that "taxpayer dollars should not go towards the destruction of life" this is a bullshit statement for many reasons:

1. Stem cells are not more "life" than the millions of skin cells that flake off a body everyday. Although they are embroynic stem cells, alone they cannot support life. Leaving this individual cell in a petri dish for years will not cause a baby to emerge. Besides, the stem cells left are not those of a child that will be born if they are not used, they will simply be discarded.

2. Taxpayers dollars go towards the execution of many inmates on death row each year. As an enthusiastic advocate of the death penalty, Bush supports money towards this cause. How is execution less of a destruction of life than using extra cells to prolong and save lives of those with dehabilitating conditions?

3. The number of lives that can potentially be saved by researching the uses of stem cells would far outnumber the number of embryoes (embryos?) that even exist for stem cell harvesting, there are only a few thousand left, the number of people affected by spinal cord injuries alone account for more than that.

I hate how Bush uses Christianity and the Bible to account for millions of senseless things he does each day. I don't think someone should be so into and focused on one thing that they're blinded to everything else in the world. I don't think that one's entire life should be based on a book, it just seems ludicrous, especially when it involves being so hypocritical. Spending money on destroying life is alright only if it's destroying life that has already done something wrong. Spending money on something that could potentially have amazing benefits is WRONG. Why? Because the Bible says so. Al Qaeda believes that the Koran states that women should be fully covered and that all of Western civilization should be destroyed, since their holy text says that are they right? A text can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and none of those interpretations are ever fully correct. Instead of just blindly believing what his crazy born-again fundamental pastor/preacher/whatever says, Bush should research what he is voting for and it's benefits before he makes decisions.

P.S. If you ever wonder why the United States is suddenly no longer #1 in the world for medical research, thank Bush. I personally plan on trying to find a job overseas when I finally graduate medical school.

How to Piss Off a Biologist

2005-05-26T08:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, so you are an Albanian fisherman and are netting one day and you stumble upon an endangered leatherback turtle. What do you do?

Well apparently, you swap it for a USED Mercedes from an Italian fish trader, as did Albanian fisherman, Hysni Xhemali.

Supposedly, the turtle is now in great care at a zoo instead of on his route to the, "sweet waters of the lagoon surrounding the ancient Greco-Roman ruin city of Butrint."

Biologists will soon be filling Xhemali's mailbox with hate mail.

Okay... so biologists are pissed off. The turtle's eggs can now be properly maintained and can grow into adult Leatherbacks, therefore, extending the existence of the Leatherbacks.

I can agree that the fisherman is an idiot. But hey, did he not kill to birds with one stone?

So the guy was fishing, netting - which kills a large majority of Leatherbacks, stumbles upon a Leatherback, pulls it out of the water, makes a trade. He got a Mercedes; the turtle's eggs can now be monitored for further existence of the species. Two birds, one bad stone.

Podcasting War of 2005... Anyone? Gates?

2005-05-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

So okay, Yahoo! admits to having a running bet (only mocking Apple's statement of a running bet about Yahoo!'s new low music service charge getting raised quickly) that Apple will require users to eventually have subscriptions in addition to paying for music! Absurd, I thought.

Well, iTunes is releasing a new subscription service in its soon-to-come next version. But - hold your stallions - this is for podcasting, not for general ownership of an account. Podcasts are defined by a BBC News article as "downloadable "radio shows" that can be created and listened to by anyone with the right equipment."

So - that sounds neat - I am kind of curious if this will spawn a new wave of radio hosts, or will this just create a lot of online wanna-bes ready to get their voice heard and promotoed through iTunes. I assume you have to have some popularity before iTunes will hook you up with their services. That's another question - will online independents who already release podcasts (usually for free) get any representation in this? Or will they dissect themselves from the movement and remain a free service to their listeners. Don't make the world sell out, Apple! Ugh!

Talk about sell-outs Apple - they have apparently seduced themselves to including Intel chips - oh wait! that's just a rumor too.

More news on iTunes and Podcasting: Internet News - Reuters

Theme and Variations on a Current Event

2005-05-25T00:15:00.000-04:00

Well, here’s what you’ve been waiting for: Hobart’s new 20 quart Legacy ™ mixer. I’m sure you were impressed by the ease of use in their standard 60 quart model, but you’ll really be frazzled by this impressive new model. Supposedly, it has made extraordinary strides in ergonomics (not to mention the new Intuitive SmartTimer). At least if you’re working a minimum wage factory mixing job, you can stop worrying about your back problems. Now…just to feed the family on the $18,000 yearly income.

First impressions: Hobart is extremely condescending. They expect you to be happy about this? You have to buy a new mixer just for the ergonomic support (and Intuitive SmartTimer) when you have survival to worry about. And terrorism. Gadzooks!

Second impressions: This is a “rad” innovation. Responding to the criticisms that America is materialistic and money-minded, Hobart has attempted to adjust that at the grassroots (or factory-roots) level by trying to shift the huge lower income population’s attention from tangible money to intangible ergonomics (and intuition). It’s an admirable effort by the company that already brought you that impressive 60 quart mixer to positively alter the fabric of America’s bloated society.

Third impressions: Such a paradox as found in the prior impressions is realistically impossible. This is either a false reality or Hobart is some sort of deity. Since I can be assured by Google News that this is indeed real reality, Hobart must be a deity.

Upon further reflection (4^th) I think that Hobart must be the evolved God of Creativity and Muses, and though he is reclining in the divine-hot-tub-esque cauldron of inspiration, at least he is establishing for humanity an extremely worthwhile Legacy ™.

Get out of our schools!

2005-05-24T22:00:00.000-04:00

So they won't let up. I agree. A mother in Pennsylvania decided her kindergarten-aged son's favorite literature was a Psalm and wanted to read it to his class as part of a "Me Week." Lay off! And thumbs up for the intelligent minded principal who explained - uneffectively - to the woman that it would not only be a combination of church and state but also a promotion of a particular religion. That SO violates the Lemon test, darlin'! I don't care if you hand out pamphlets outside of the edges of school property - just don't infiltrate a government run system.

Autism is a World

2005-05-24T17:38:00.000-04:00

Everyone has had a time when they wanted to tell somebody something, but the words just wouldn't come out the way we wanted them to. Isn't it maddening- carefully choosing and organizing trying to make them understand? Next time you feel like miserably scrawling "nobody understands me!" in your journal, think about this:

I came in about 1/3 into the program, so I wasn't sure what was happening at first - on the screen there was a home video of an autisic girl who appeared to be mentally retarded. Her face looked...different, you know-contorted, and she was intently fiddling with plastic spoons in a sink of running water, kind of mumbling to herself. She looked like one of those people who is totally unreachable, like they're in their own mysterious world...the world of autism. Hence the title: "Autism is a World." But as they're showing this girl fumbling around, there is a disembodied female voice narrating her feelings in a really eloquent, expressive way- like an author almost. It turns out that these were the girl's actual words that she had written, and she was really 26 years old and in college. Apparently, some specialist had had the ingenious idea of giving her a handheld typing device, and when she concentrated, she could type what she wanted to say. Someone held up the device for her as she painstakingly hunted for and pressed each individual key with her index finger, because her motor skills were shaky.
But! It was just so amazing to see that someone who's family thought they were mentally retarded actually had a high IQ yet couldn't express herself because her body wouldn't cooperate. Now her parents could actually get to know her daughters personality. It literally gave me chills to hear such eloquent sentences coming out of this woman's mind via a simple device, while simultaneously watching her struggle to pronounce simple phrases and barely controlling her facial expressions. How agonizing would it be...to be thinking coherent thoughts and wanting to talk to your family but your mouth just wouldn't do it? It made me think about how many other people are prisoners in their own bodies.

So...Tom, Boxers or Briefs...?

2005-05-24T08:31:00.000-04:00

Tabloids, E!, Newspapers, Oprah, Entertainment Tonight, web rings, MTV, fan websites, the list goes on…

They are all common places in which fanatical people stalk their favorite stars. Searching to know the latest love triangles, who is cheating on whom, what perfume their wearing, how big their engagement rings are, what their middle name is, whether or not they prefer boxers over briefs…

But my question to these people is what do they care? Do they honestly believe that knowing this information will somehow bring them closer to their favorite stars? That maybe once meeting the star they will say, ‘Hey, Tom I hear you are dating Katie Holmes!’ and somehow Tom Cruise will remember that and remember you so that one day you may meet again and marry?!

By fantasizing about other peoples lives is it that we only realize how mediocre our lives are. Correct?

Let me set up the scenario that inspired this rant…

I walk into my living room yesterday afternoon to find my mother, father and sister gathered around the television like a nice happy family. They were watching Oprah. As I pass through the room (which I have to do to get to the laundry room, my destination), I notice that Tom Cruise is her guest. I become interested because I figure they are talking about his new film, War of the Worlds, and being the movie buff I am, I joined in the family gathering. Much to my dismay, I soon realize they are chatting about nothing more than his new found relationship with young actress, Katie Holmes. Oprah was definitely balls to the walls on her questions, getting straight to the point-- so that all the ladies in the audience would leave with the most current Tom Cruise updates.

I just shook my head and carried on my way to the laundry room, but was stopped when Oprah had the audacity to ask him if he planned on asking her to marry him. Now, if I were either party in that relationship I would not announce that on national television so that tabloids and the press can badger me in any way they wish. I ask my mom, “What do we care? Oprah wouldn’t want to be badgered about when she is going to marry whatever that guys name is? Maybe if we didn’t invest so much of our time in other peoples lives we would respect our own a little more.” My mother just stared and smirked that smirk she always does when I rant like that.

But seriously, if we didn’t invest so of our time in trashy novels, in who is marrying who, who is the hottest star, and those damn teenage chick flicks, wouldn’t we all be a little more content with what we are fortunate to have?

Talent In The Bulrushes

2005-05-23T22:43:00.000-04:00

Did you know that the original bassist for Saosin, Zach Kennedy now plays for Ashlee Simpson. He and Beau Burchell were originally in Open:Hand, a rock band that I must say is amazing. Now the point here is you may think Ashlee Simpson sucks, but guess what, she's got talent on her squad so next time you dis her posse, think again. Her bass player could kill you.

Disappearing Stars

2005-05-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

If you go to the supermarket this week you can find any number of magazines with the headline "Disappearing Stars" and articles detailing the drastic weight loss of Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan. Being the loser that I am, I read some of these magazines. In the newest issue of Us, there are pictures of both Lindsay and Nicole through their stages of weight loss. Each of these pictures has a description by an "expert" a.k.a. an intern at a health center in NYC. This "expert" describes how Lindsay and Nicole look "bloated" and "have a little tummy" before their weight loss. Anyone who knows what both of them look like now, and looked like before knows that neither has ever been anywhere near fat. It says Lindsay was previously a size 6, and Nicole was smaller than that. A size 6 is half the size of an average woman today, a size 6 is not overweight, or even close to being overweight. By writing such articles, magazines cause these eating disorders and unhealthy behavior. When I look at Lindsay Lohan before she lost 20 pounds I see someone that was thinner than I am now, if she's bloated am I obese? I see the same behavior at school. Girls that are size 00 (even smaller than a size 0) talk about their love handles and how fat they are. The thinner you are the more you're embraced and complimented in today's society. It's ridiculous and an unattainable standard for real women. Instead of talking about how "fat" ridiculously thin stars are to begin with and then berating them for losing weight, magazines should be showcasing women that look real and are proud of it. There are celebrities that have curves, why aren't they on the cover for staying true to themselves in a world where they are punished for it?

Jeans, Birkenstocks, and an I <3 NY shirt…

2005-05-23T18:04:00.000-04:00

Spamalot, one of Broadway’s hottest new shows is packed for every performance…through December.
Not just that, their making about a few hundred dollars a ticket. Those who are willing to pay that extreme amount of money are showing up in jeans, Birkenstocks, and the brightest I <3 NY t-shirt they could find on Canal Street. But, after thinking twice…Spamalot, is a “hilarious and haphazard musical search for the Holy Grail” presented to you of course by the Monty Python lads. I guess the Birkenstocks could be found acceptable.

Nope, I disagree. My grandmother tells me stories of the days in which attending the theatre was a social event. One may find themselves being looked down upon, criticized, and judged if not presenting themselves with “appropriate attire.”

I have never been to New York, never stood on Broadway, never really experienced the real thing. Fortunately, my mentor is taking myself and about 20 other lucky adults and angst/artsy teenagers to see not one, but two Broadway shows. Great, awesome, maybe I could see Spamalot, after rolling a couple thousand pennies… or not. So I will venture to Avenue Q, and Alter Boyz. Should be interesting, both shows highly recommended, talked our way in to a fairly large discount on the tickets, so you know, I get excited. BUT WAIT…OH MY GOSH, whatever am I going to wear? I present the question to my mentor and she replies with “Oh, these days people will wear anything…it doesn’t matter.”

I panic. Doesn’t matter? My ass it doesn’t matter. For the love of God if my dad wears jeans to my Graduation they won’t let him in--BUT they’ll let you see a Broadway show…?

Perhaps, somewhere lost in my own dreams of Stage Managing on Broadway, I have conceived a respectful taste of what a good audience is like. Perhaps, I am too critical. It isn’t as if their attire will affect their reaction to what’s on stage…or will it?

A friend recently viewed Movin’ Out live on Broadway, actually to be correct, he watched the first five minutes of Movin’ Out live on Broadway. After he paid approx. 6500 pennies or so, he fell asleep.

Now, I can speak for myself in saying that when I pay money to view a performance, no matter the type, I will watch it--regardless of if I dislike it or not. Now, when I pay to view something and I dress up I am less likely to yawn, get fidgety, fall asleep, etc. Seeing as 5,892 of us Americans a night are spending on average $77 to see a play in which puppets sing about being gay, how a B.A. in English gets you nowhere, and how the “internet is for porn,” I would imagine a fair amount are paying to sleep. Maybe they should have saved their money and bought themselves a fake Louis Vuitton… instead of pretending to be sophisticated by going to the ‘theatre’ in their “Birks.”

Regardless, you’ll find me strutin’ my stuff to see the play in which puppets sing about being gay, how a B.A. in English gets you nowhere, and how the “internet is for porn." I will be wearing the “appropriate attire,” laughing at the ridiculousness of the content of the most popular Broadway hits, shaking my head at those snoring teenagers in the group that I traveled with, and counting on one hand the number of people who will wear “appropriate attire.”

Henry says, "Three for society."

2005-05-22T02:36:00.000-04:00

Well, check out this society. Two homosexual Israeli men are at Jack the Pelican and asking a third man to come fall in love with them. In front of their exhibit is a "large double bed" - doesn't that make it a queen? or? - and the rest of their exhibit are watercolors done from images of past lovers that they courted online.

Gil and Moti seem to have a craving for eroticism - and developing a love triangle... or pentagon... or...

What amuses me is the Reuters reporter, Claudia Persons, seems highly enveloped in getting to know exactly what happens in this bed. Every other question she asked seems like it would be, "So how's the sex, guys?"

Well Gil and Moti say that it's great. Kidding. They actually try to steer Claudia away from the topic, saying it's not the goal of the exhibit. The goal is in the process of getting a third to love them both - and often as an inidividual, not two separate identities. But says Gil, "if there's sex, OK, but it's not something we're interested in discussing."

To conclude, I think 1.) This is a terribly brave thing to do giving their background and the setting. 2.) It is sad that their background is what it is - because it is all the more reason for the Bush administration to ignore their goal and that is, "make love not war." Seriously, why not bang each other all day - why do you have to go overseas just to kill each other?

Worth on Outcries Against Religion

2005-05-21T08:47:00.000-04:00

It's slightly annoying to me when people use any reason they can to be offended about religion. I have a friend who is openly Jewish and during the Rick and Mick controversy she said that it was a violation of separation of church and state as well as a personal attack on her and other non-Christians. She had meetings with the principal, making a lot of drama out of something that to me wasn't such a big deal. She even researched Rick and Mick before they came to our school and found out they were planning a pizza party after school where they would evangelize aggressively. But the tickets they passed out were unclear. My friend complained that naive non-Christians would be lured by the offer of free food and unknowingly subject themselves to radical Christian evangelism.
My view is that the assembly during school was clean--it didn't really mention religion. I thought it was stupid, jumping from slapstick humor to statistics on teen suicide, but I didn't feel pressured to believe anything I didn't want to. If nothing else, it got me out of class. The after school event was a little iffy, but since the people it bothered the most had already researched Rick and Mick and gotten all worked up about it, they were aware of the situation and were by no means forced to go. I think some people used the whole thing as an excuse to be overly passionate. They made themselves martyrs, claiming religion was being forced down their throats, when really they could have just avoided what made them uncomfortable and let the whole thing pass.

Now, Squint Really Hard...

2005-05-20T03:06:00.000-04:00

While Lucas rolls in 16.5 million on opening night, the FAA has proposed legislation that allows them to take control and authority over any future dispute of advertisements in space. And no, they don't mean people will be about and orbiting - they mean earthbound citizens looking up in the night sky seeing ads "as big as the moon." Right.

Such ads would destroy "the darkness of the sky," I agree, but only if they are such an insanely huge size. Sputnik however was a small vessle and visible - so maybe such a craft isn't anywhere near out of conceivability.

I know lots of people see a spotlight in the sky and drive towards it to see what's going on. Just great that New Jersey gets another excuse for being terrible drivers.

GI Jane?

2005-05-20T01:34:00.000-04:00

OMG!

So you know how everybody was wondering if Bush was going to reinstate the draft? Well it turns out that yeah, they have the list all set up, but they aren't planning on drafting anyone right now. The kicker is, for me, that the plan is so start drafting WOMEN too, from now on. Now I ask you, is this a good idea? That is a rhetorical question, because it's obviously retarded. For one thing, women are too waify to fight. I mean not to be sexist, but I have 4 words for you, Lambs To The Slaughter. I mean, some of us are beefy enough to fight...but not most of us! I weigh about 115. WHAT THE HELL DOES BUSH THINK IM GOING TO DO TO SOME IRAQI TERRORISTS? And getting shot isn't even the least of your worries...what about how much women in the Army get harassed? They get the crap knocked out of them. Also, I would hate to be in some all-chick unit with a bunch of butch-lesbians.

Taking into account what lengths I would go to to avoid getting fucked up, I think it's safe to say that every other American woman 18-26 would get pregnant to avoid the draft. I mean seriously. I would do it. I know everyone else would too. Just find someone to knock you up so you won't have to get mowed down like a flower.

In conclusion, My Dear President Bush:
Women in the draft- they will get pregnant to avoid it, and if not, they will be no help on the battlefield because they'll just be abused and in the way. I say we only draft prisoners and ripped women.mmkay? Long live the U.S of A! Long live me!

Stainless Steel Feels Soooo Good

2005-05-19T02:52:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it does or maybe it doesn't but people in London are going to know far better, far sooner than you ever will.

Sister Mary and Doctor Robbie are here to see you! Well, patients in a London hospital are being thrown for a twist when they are now interviewed by a doctor who can control a robot's parts remotely to inspect the patient. Sounds highly erotic to me - but maybe I'm daydreaming. Well, wouldn't you want a little remote controlled love once in a while - controlled by a human on the other end of course. In fact they addressed the whole issue stating in the Reuters article that " As part of a pilot study, patients will be assessed as to how they respond to the robots' metallic ministrations."

Anyway, I'm all for the idea. I envision such multi-purpose robotic arms can be installed somewhere in a house with the appropriate TV and digital/satellite hub attached. Or maybe localities can have their own centres full of these hubs that broadcast to all participating doctors - similar to the Dr. Know in AI.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this could eventually cut down on wasted time if nothing else. The doctor will still see the patient and inspect him/her. The patient can then be referred to a hospital doctor or to come in for treatment from a nurse/assistant. The possibilities are plenty.

Theme and Variations on a Current Event

2005-05-19T00:04:00.000-04:00

I am not typing on a typewriter nor am I typing on a computer. False. The statement is false. Thus I am typing on a computer and on a typewriter. False. Can’t do both, or I’d be rather more talented than I am at present. David Sedaris used to write on a typewriter. Now he uses a computer. That’s odd because he’s a luddite, and he shouldn’t use a computer. But his boyfriend got it for him so he uses it. I guess love is stronger than technology. In literature, that is. Unfortunately, not in all cases. Movies for example. They talk about love, but the technology is what actually comes first, if you read between the pixels. And besides, Sedaris loves his luddite-hood, yet he overcame that to use the computer. Or maybe he goes and vomits after every time he uses it. Or…maybe he vomits after he uses it, but because he’s anorexic and not because he’s a luddite. In which case…well, that’s not worth pursuing.

I just find it confusing. Luddites are generally the type of people who will call you out on hypocrisy. But if they are hypocrites themselves, the situation gets sticky. Stickier. Stickiest.

Maybe it’s cause Sedaris is white, and white people as a race are smitten with hypocrisy.

I’ve decided that I’m typing on neither a typewriter nor a computer. I can’t deal with the stigma of either.

Dialogue:

Coemgen1: You’re a liar. You are typing on a computer or a typewriter. You’re typing!

Coemgen2: No, I’m typing on neither.

Coemgen1: You’re a liar.

Coemgen2: Yes. And?

Coemgen1: That’s bad.

Coemgen2: But I’d rather deal with that stigma than with the stigma of typing.

Coemgen1: Me, too, actually.

Coemgen2: I know.

Coemgen3: That stands to reason.

Coemgen1: You and your damned logic.

Coemgen3: Wrong.

Coemgen2: It’s holy logic.

Coemgen3: Wrong.

Coemgen1&2: Pray then, what is it?

Coemgen3: Forsooth, it is earthly logic.

Coemgen1&2: You’re a liar.

Coemgen3: So are you.

Coemgen1: Am not.

Coemgen3: Am too.

Coemgen2: Am maybe.

etc., etc., etc.

Independent variable: typing
Dependent variable: stigma
Control: fallac(y)(ies)
Conclusion: maybe

In God You What?!

2005-05-18T18:01:00.000-04:00

Let me take you back to just 5 months after 9/11 - February 2002. People were crazy for legitimate reasons. This was a time where you were an over-zealous, patriotic, Bush-lover or... you were Satan.

In February of 2002, legislation was brought up in a number of states including Indiana (which it was shot down), Virginia (which it was passed), Florida, Utah, Arizona, New Jersey, and Michigan to have our national motto - "In God We Trust" - posters hung on public school walls.

Personally, I know plenty of students here, dozens even, that would disagree with believing in any God. Yet, this is one school of hundreds of thousands who practice this mandate to this day. What even more amazing is that some people, like Stephen Ehardt (R), consider that the four word phrase have zero religious meaning! Excuse me? How is it secular? Trust is great - but I believe it was granted in my Constitution that it wouldnt be pressed on me without a fair balance to appreciate other types of religion and government. And yes you are blending the two so you also enact my freedom to post my beliefs in government as well.

Well the administration says not quite, in which recent student president candidate (and now winner) Calder G. was denied posting anarchists' symbolism on his campaign fliers. A hall strewn with LOGOS fliers including Christianity symbolism. Maybe it's a fear/hate issue with the Anarchists, but to me it's like you can post any religion/government based symbol as long as its a cross or fish or latent with Christian phrases.

That ain't right. I wonder what the reprecussions for stealing that poster are.

Reference Article 1

Reference Article 2

Reference Article 3