To Whomever May Arrive Here

It's been a long time since I posted anything. My mind, as well as my physical self, are in a completely different place than before. I want to delete this blog, but being the packrat I am, I can't bring myself to completely remove it just yet.

For now, it stays, but understand that these posts were made by me around 4 years ago, before going to college and I have since graduated with a Bachelor's Degree. I don't credit my schooling for changes in ideology. Hell, the school I went to didn't do much to make any student a more critical thinker of politics, science, philosophy or religion. I credit my own self-reflection.

Why do I post this? Well, reading back on some of these posts, I cringe when I read some of it. Some of it still makes me laugh, but some of it I can only explain as a backlash against the situation I was in. I was a right-leaning centrist before, and I commented on whatever stupid thing annoyed me that day.

Listening to right-friendly radio programming you tend to get reminded often of the stupid things the left is up to. I also had two superiors at work who had liberal views on things, though we were friendly, and they tended to harp on the virtuous things the left was up to, or the dumb things the right was up to. So, I tended to get in a tiffy about what the left was doing. I didn't have a whole lot of arrogant right-wingers in my face, inspiring me to write anything about them.

But where I was once a right-leaning centrist, I am now a libertarian (small "l," meaning I'm not part of the Libertarian Party). I like it here. You can see the forest for the trees.

I'm not trying to persuade you to stay away from the blog, but read it knowing I now consider this person a kid, even though he was about 24 when he wrote it. Forgive me my past ramblings. Have fun. Read it. Laugh. But don't think I still think this way, or will defend any particular point.

Can't we all program along?

Al Gore's crappy, nationwide television station, Current TV, is being sued by our crappy, local, public radio station, The Current, surprisingly, over it's name. First of all, in the two times I've been forced to listen to DFL Radio The Current, I didn't hear shit I liked. At one point, they played something very obscure that lead someone to chime out, "Dude, they played this band no one's ever heard of? This station is awesome." Sorry, no. Believe it or not, the reason no one's heard of your band is not because the poo-poo music industry is trying to hide them from the public, and it's not because people have poor taste in music. It's simply because your music isn't mainstream. Get over it. The Current sucks, and I'm very disappointed that my tax money goes into it. Now I haven't seen Al Gore's TV network yet, but if it's as good as the internet, I'll give it a try.

Well I'll Be Dipped...

Have a look at this.

NEW YORK -
Saddam Hussein told aides in the mid-1990s that he warned the United States it could be hit by a terrorist attack, ABC News reported Wednesday, citing 12 hours of tapes the network obtained of the former Iraqi dictator's talks with his Cabinet.
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One of Saddam's son-in-laws also explained how
Iraq hid its biological weapons programs from U.N. inspectors, according to the tapes from August 1995.

Now from the headline, "Saddam Reportedly Warned U.S. of Terrorism," and the first paragraph it sounds like Saddam was on the red phone with George Bush, telling him some dudes were going to fly planes into the World Trade Center next Tuesday, which obviously isn't what happened. I'm sure it was a non-specific warning, and almost useless, so I don't see anything of particular interest there. But further into the article is where you find the real news, and by further into the article, I mean the last two paragraphs...

Charles Duelfer, who led the official U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction, told ABC News the tapes show extensive deception but don't prove that weapons were still hidden in Iraq at the time of the U.S.-led war in 2003.

"What they do is support the conclusion in the report which we made in the last couple of years, that the regime had the intention of building and rebuilding weapons of mass destruction, when circumstances permitted," he said.

See, the Associated Press has to make it look like we did something wrong, and then leave the important details at the end of the story. Basically, the invasion of Iraq was justified. There were no WMDs found, but there was definitely intent to acquire them. So what if they warned us of any terrorist attacks? Like I said, I don't think it could have been anything specific enough for us to have prevented anything, and even if it was, that was on Clinton's watch, not Bush's. And that's all I have to say about that.

Take a Good Look, 'Cause He's....

From T-Rizzle's blog on nin.com...

The Grammys make me hate music, and certainly everyone in the ass-licking music industry.

Awww, Twent didn't win a Gwammy so he's upset. :'( Well, we didn't seem to hate the Grammy's when we were nominated for one back in 2000... Hey, I fucking hate the music industry too, but I'm a consumer. You work in it. For fuck's sake, shut your fucking mouth and make your fucking CDs for me to consume, dick head.

In a related story, according to theninhotline, Trent narrated a commercial for the organization of frothing nutjobs we lovingly call "PETA." (I'm not posting a link because I'd hate to think I sent anyone to a webpage with a link to PETA's website on it) Apparently Trent actually speaks from experience when he says he wants to fuck someone like an animal. Good thing it doesn't appear to affect the music much, being a jackass. But I will be disappointed if there's a song about fur and KFC on the next album, due out in November 2017.

A Small Taste of Karma?

A hotel in Mecca has collapsed, killing 15 people.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - At least 15 pilgrims were killed Thursday and 39 injured when a building near the Grand Mosque collapsed around them just after they returned from midday prayers, the Interior Ministry said.

Early speculation of terrorism was immediately ruled out when authorities realized that Christians, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Sikhists, Baha'i, Jainists, Shinto, Zoroastrians, and even Scientologists don't suicide-bomb innocent people.

(Oh come on, it's a joke. Honestly, I'm not happy these people died. I'm just making a politically incorrect joke at their expense. I sincerely apologize..... if you didn't get it.)

Yellow Funding Proposals

Some South Korean stem-cell research guru has been outed as a fraud.

SEOUL -- South Korean investigators said yesterday that the apparent landmark stem-cell research by cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk had been faked, turning the onetime national hero into a disgraced fabricator.

The story itself is not what is of interest to me. Just so it's out there, I agree with stem-cell research, so I find it kind of disappointing that someone would mess with data like this. What came to my mind while reading this was simply how much faith we put into "experts." I tend to believe a doctor when he's talking about something related to his field of expertise as I'm sure most people do. One brand of science I don't buy 100% is the theory of global warming. There is evidence of it, however the actual cause is still very much unknown, and research needs to be done on it. But what happens next is a bunch of scientists in a big pissing contest over who gets the grant money to do that research. Then stuff like this happens. Here's another bit of the article...

The government had showered Dr. Hwang with honours and research funds estimated at about $40-million (U.S.).

It opened a state research hub in October, meant to serve as the heart of global medical efforts to find cures for diseases now considered incurable.

So, whoever can cook up the most impressive proposal gets the money (in this case fraudulantly), and that's why we have all these sensationalized "George Bush personally caused global warming with Karl Rove's weather machine" theories. I'm not saying that all global warming scientists are liars. Far from it. I'm just saying that you have to remember that global warming (or global climate change, as they call it now, because the Earth doesn't seem to be warming up, but we had an active hurricane season) is still just a theory, with holes. Don't bet the farm on its cause or even its existence just yet.

Update: I was just going through my blog, and thought I'd mention something about the above blog post. In the past, I've been overly critical about global warming. It exists, but scientists say humans contribute to about 20% of it. The rest is natural. The bottom line is that no matter what Al Gore is super serial about, global warming is not a crisis. I completely agree that something should be done about pollution, primarily for health reasons, but Al Gore is still a tool, and, no, I'm never going to watch "An Inconvenient Truth."

Redneck Christians

Don't you hate it when those stupid Republicans refer to God to appeal to those redneck Christians? Its even worse when those Republicans are Democrats!

"As the Bible teaches us, to minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship, to ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "Let us vote no on this budget as an act of worship and for America's children."

Wait... I thought Bush was the first politician EVER to mention God to appeal to Christians. (Actually every president since Washington has) You now have far-left nut, Nancy Fucking Pelosi spouting off religious rhetoric; can all you liberals please shut the fuck up about Bush's spirituality bothering you? (Or at the very least bitch and moan about her and call for her resignation. I mean, there's that mythical seperation of church and state she's blatantly defying!)

Actually the article was about the House approving budget cuts (yay), specifically of entitlement spending (double-yay), and drilling in ANWR (triple-yay). When the Senate OK's drilling in ANWR, drinks are on me! Now if I could just find more than two friends who understand how drilling in ANWR is a good idea...

Update: Sadly, the Senate did what the Senate does best--fuck everything up--and rejected the bill. Guess it'll be a while before we get past the enviro-mental-cases and into ANWR.