The Svengali Blog

2008-10-31T13:47:00.000-04:00

"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity -- myself especially -- are in a state of shocked disbelief."

Mr. Alan Greenspan

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?

2008-10-09T00:44:00.003-04:00

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)

They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!

Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!

Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?

2008-10-07T11:44:00.002-04:00

“A certain idea of globalization is drawing to a close with the end of a financial capitalism that imposed its logic on the whole economy,” Mr. Sarkozy said last month. “The idea that the markets are always right was a crazy idea.”

Phelpzor the Destructor

2008-08-17T00:04:00.004-04:00

2008-07-24T22:31:00.001-04:00

The say lovers and drunkards are for hell,
A controversial dictum not easy to accept.
If the lover and drunkard are for hell,
Tomorrow Paradise will be empty.

- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

2008-05-26T03:16:00.002-04:00

If people think they are being fed shit they will spit it out...

Notice I didn't say, "If people are fed shit..."

2008-05-23T17:28:00.004-04:00

"Old men with ringworm in their beards limp dusty lanes
to gather like bony dogs at the god-lined square
where the king's justice is dispensed; to nod like crows
at slips of the tongue by which a horse is lost, or delicate
mistakes
of venue through which murderers run free. 'Long live
the king!' they squeak, 'to whom we owe all joy!'
Obese with imagined freedom if not fat, great lords
of lords look down with cowdog eyes and smile.
'All's well,' they sigh. 'Long live the king! All's well!'
Law rules the land. Men's violence is chained
to good (i.e., to the king): legitimate force
that chops the bread-thief's neck and wipes its ax. - Death
by book.
Think, sweating beast! Look up and think!
Whence came these furs on the backs of your kind
protectors?
Why does the bread-thief die and the murdering thane escape by a sleight by the costliest of advocates?
Think! Squeeze up your wrinkled face
and seize the hangnail tip of a searing thought:
Violence hacked this shack-filled hole in the woods where
you
play freedom games. Violence no more legitimate then
than a wolf's. And now by violence they lock
us in - you and me, old man: subdue our vile
unkingly voilence [sic]. Come into the shade.
I would have a word with you and your wart-hog son."

-John Gardner, Grendel

My Thoughts On Intelligent Design

2008-03-05T12:49:00.001-05:00

If God really did create the world, he must have spilled coffee on the owner's manual.

Daring Movie Style Prison Break Ends...Not Like In The Movies

2008-01-09T23:19:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/09/nj.jailbreak/index.html

This of course made some headlines when it first happened because of its similarities to the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" in the style of the escape. Apparently, however, in the real world things happen differently than in the movies. Who would have known?

2007-12-11T13:08:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the animal theme from last time, here's something else that makes me sick to my stomach:

5 year old kills bear

Do we really need to wonder why we have a violence problem in this country when 2 1/2 year olds are taught how to kill things? Fuck video games, its things like this. And before someone tries the old "well the bear would have killed him if he hadn't killed the bear routine," if that idiot grandfather hadn't taken a 5 year old hunting, or better yet, hadn't gone hunting himself, he would never have been in the position of having to kill the bear; something tells me this family doesn't need the bear meat to survive. As someone on ESPN.com commented, in 20 years he can join Mike Vick in prison...

A True Story

2007-12-08T16:05:00.000-05:00

This really happened (within the bounds of recollection, i.e. some details may be fudged) but whether or not you believe me is your business.

It seems that lately the treatment of animals has been in the news a lot. Between the vegetarian movement, PETA, and Michael Vick, just to name a few, the debate over how to treat animals and whether they should be treated humanely seems to be gaining more and more steam. Some religious people will argue that animals "don't have a soul" and thus aren't worthy of our respect or protection. Other people just don't care, arguing that animals lack the sentience to understand even if we were to perform kind gestures for them.

One day when I was in elementary school, 4th or 5th grade, my mom was driving me home from somewhere when we came upon a car that had seemingly stopped in the middle of the road for no reason about a block away from our home. When we came to a stop behind the car, we saw the reason that it had stopped in the middle of the road: a duck was standing directly in its path, several feet in front of it, preventing the car from moving without hitting the duck. Although it explained the reason for the car stopping, it now begged the question of what the duck was doing in the middle of the road. When we looked more closely, the answer to this became evident as well. A second duck was crossing the road further behind the first; the first duck was standing between the car and the second duck. There was something wrong with the movement of the second duck - it was limping while it walked and its wing may have been bent at an awkward angle. It became obvious not only that its leg and possibly wing where broken, but that the first duck was standing in the path of incoming cars (risking being running over by a heedless driver, as it were) to enable the second duck to cross the road! It was obvious that with its injuries, the second duck would never have been able to cross without help because it would have been too slow to avoid an incoming car. This story has always stuck with me - compassion is more universal than we might like to believe, transcending even species. It may be true that animal behavior is no more than chemicals and neurons firing off in their brains, but then again, so is ours. The fact is that that duck did more for its friend than most humans would have. Think on that next time you wonder whether or not animals understand what we do for them.

Oh Those Pythons...

2007-11-01T14:19:00.001-04:00

"Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly."

- Terry Jones

Thoughts To Live By

2007-07-17T14:47:00.000-04:00

"Always devise your rules as if you didn't know whether you were going [to] be at the top or the bottom of the pecking order."

-The God Delusion

I Do Not Fear Death

2007-07-17T14:43:00.000-04:00

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

-Mark Twain

On Religion

2007-05-26T12:45:00.000-04:00

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religions in it.
-John Adams

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
-Abraham Lincoln

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.
-Thomas Jefferson

I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
-Thomas Jefferson

The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.
-George Washington

'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

In My Office

2007-05-14T21:01:00.000-04:00

(how the fuck do I have an office?)

Senator Frank Lautenberg

2007-05-14T20:40:00.000-04:00

...and little old me

Examples of the Evils of Science

2007-05-09T21:53:00.000-04:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18529275/

Funny how things work, huh? Meteorological science saves hundreds of lives by providing an accurate warning 40 minutes before a tornado was to strike (yes, not that much time but still better than nothing and as that link attests to it obviously saved a lot of lives). Now, I don't know about what the actual people in this town believed in so I'm not going to comment on them specifically, but you know that as this was going on, somewhere out there the same people that for years have been railing against evolution and science education in public schools are going to continue criticizing science as "theory not fact" (which isn't even a correct usage of those words) and pushing for the elimination of science from school curricula in favor of creationism or the more p.r. savvy "intelligent design."

Hypocrisy is funny.

I didn't know countries like this existed

2007-05-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

Doubtless if you have been following the news, you have probably heard of the current controversy in Turkey over the election (by the parliament) of an Islamist to President. I wasn't particularly intrigued by a story of internal politics in a random country, but then I saw this article and this article. Honestly, I was dumbfounded - the miliary defending secularism rather than some sort of right-wing dictatorship? People coming out to defend "the secular republic"? With all of the news on religious fundamentalism spiralling out of control all over the world over the course of the last 20 years, I had honestly forgotten that there are places where people actually respect humanistic principles of secularism and understand the importance of preserving the modern rationalistic worldview which increasingly seems threatened.

There are still aspects to this story I am uneasy about. I don't know all the background, obviously, but I don't know if its acceptable for the military to force an apparently non-threatening, democratically elected party out of the parliament, even if it is religiously affiliated - non-secular people's religious choices should still be respected, although in a framework in which they cannot infringe on the rights of others. And in other stories I have read, the Turks seem to be quite fiercely nationalistic, which I view in almost the same light as religious fervor. Still, I applaud these people for bravely standing up for the cause of secularism, and I will be rooting for them in the coming weeks and months.

Brett Myers is a good guy

2007-05-03T18:17:00.001-04:00

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/john_donovan/05/03/phillies.bullpen/index.html

Looks like he took time out from beating his wife to make a selfless decision for his team...

Nazi propaganda at Williams

2007-05-03T00:03:00.000-04:00

Williams College in Massachusetts sure has a diverse student body:

http://www.williamsrecord.com/wr/?section=news&view=article&id=8886

If you don't want to read the whole thing, basically what happened is this piece of work named Julia Cordray and her neo-Nazi (literally) boyfriend took issue with Holocaust remembrance posters that had been posted on dorm room doors and so they decided to make a parody poster with a picture of Hitler and a marijuana leaf (for some reason) on it. So obviously a lot of people got really frightened, security took her into custody and questioned her, etc etc and ultimately nothing happened. In typical neutered college administrator fashion, Williams (which, I am told, has a number of Jews in its senior administration) made a very weak public statement on the matter and is basically not going to punish Ms. Cordray. Several of the deans decided to hold a meeting to discuss issues of sensitivity, etc. Julia was invited, but thoughtfully chose to blow it off because she "had theatre practice." Furthermore, she has ruled out any sort of apology and has claimed that she didn't expect anybody to be shocked, offended, or frightened by the posters. Now, she may either just be saying this publicly, or she really believes it. If it is indeed the latter, her inability to comprehend the meaning of what she did reminds me a lot of the protagonist of Camus' The Stranger, emotionless and oblivious to death and murder as he was. To be succinct, Ms. Cordray disgusts me. She argues that "The original HRD posters made me uncomfortable. I felt that the ideology behind the symbols and their method of distribution came from an all too familiar genre of passive propaganda that tries to define anything but its own voice as errant. I object to the idea that a religious sentiment should govern how we remember a major historical event, especially for members of a community as diverse as Williams College." Now as some may know, I personally am not a fan of political correctness for the sake of political correctness; for example, I oppose affirmative action because I believe everyone should be judged on their own individual merits, talents, and abilities, not the color of their skin. Just like it is wrong to reject somebody from a college because of the color of their skin, so too, I feel, is it equally wrong and maybe even "racist" to accept someone to a college because they are one particular color and not another. This is just one example of what I mean when I say "political correctness for the sake of political correctness." Not only do I feel these kinds of things are unjustified, they are generally done not out of any real conviction on the part of the doer, but rather so that the concerned organization can get "the right kind of p.r." - never a good reason to do anything in my book. Now the point of this little digression is that displaying Holocaust remembrance posters is most certainly NOT "political correctness for the sake of political correctness." Remembering the 12 million people that were murdered by the Nazis as well as the countless victims who survived but bore unbearable scars is necessary to pay respect, remember the victims, and perhaps most importantly remind everyone to what depths humans can sink to help prevent something like that from ever happening again. I find it unacceptable, at a time when people get riled over the outcomes of sports games and at a place that is supposed to be training the next generation of the elite, that something like this is allowed to fester. I find it unbelievable that a place of higher learning like Williams has evidently decided not to discipline Julia in anyway, or that the response on Williams' campus seems much more muted than one might expect. That Nazi sympathizers are given more protection than the legacy of their victims should be vomit inducing to anybody who believes in the humanist, rationalist ideals and the modern mission of triumph over prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance. I'd like to remind all four people reading this that the Nazis did not go from ideology to genocide in one day. They got their mandate through acceptance, apathy, disinterest, and finally empowerment. All this in and of itself legitimizes the actions of people like Ms. Cordray and her boyfriend. At the same time, her total refusal to even consider the opposite perspective is ironic given her claim that these Holocaust remembrance posters allegedly serve to "define anything but its own voice as errant." This of course is bad enough, but her implied acceptance of what Hitler stands for is even more disturbing. You can argue that just because she put Hitler's face on the poster doesn't necessarily mean she endorses his views, but I believe that her behavior since this incident invalidates this point.

Finally, some people evidently consider this a free speech issue. I am just going to copy and paste my thoughts that I wrote elsewhere on this matter, copied not-quite-verbatim:

I'm certainly no legal expert, but I think the reason this transcends a free speech issue, in my opinion, is because of the act of putting the poster up on people's doors, regardless of the fact that no one specific group was targeted. I think if she had, for example, written an editorial in the newspaper criticizing the Holocaust poster this would be a non-issue. However, I think the act of posting the picture of Hitler on people's doors constitutes harassment and a violation of their space, insofar as I don't think most people at Williams approved of having a neo-Nazi message put on their doors. Now you might say, "Well we don't know if people necessarily approved of having Holocaust remembrance posters put on their doors either so they shouldn't have been allowed to do that," and you would be at least partially right; I know at Dartmouth nobody (except UGAs) is allowed to tape stuff to other people's doors without permission. But I think this ultimately can be construed as intent to intimidate - regardless of what she claims, you'd have to have dropped out of the sky not to realize that you are going to scare the crap out of at least some people if they wake up and find you left a picture of Hitler's mug on their door. So, bottom line, she may have a First Amendment right to criticize the Holocaust posters or even (and it disgusts me to say this) glorify Hitler in a public medium such as a newspaper, but I don't think she has any right to put her posters on people's doors, any more than I have a right to walk up to her and kick her in the stomach.

"Joke"

2007-05-02T13:03:00.001-04:00

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, Naturally…I assumed you had stolen the car.”

To All You Libertarians Out There

2007-04-30T13:05:00.000-04:00

I believe in government; I just don't believe in bad government.

Wisdom For the Ages

2007-03-14T15:18:00.001-04:00

"The noble person is not a tool"

- Confucius

Good to know

2007-03-14T15:17:00.001-04:00

"If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you won't beat 'em on the ice."
-- Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe

Quote of the Day

2007-02-19T16:36:00.000-05:00

""What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!" -Pope Leo X"

I Like This Quote

2007-01-31T21:32:00.000-05:00

This is a really good quote by tennis pro James Blake. I wish more people understood this:

"It's funny because it's always "first African-American to do this or that" or "first African-American since Arthur Ashe." It's great to mentioned in the same sentence as him but I -- my mom especially -- gets antsy. "Why can't I just be American? Haven't I achieved enough on my own to just be James Blake: American?"

...To Kill the Unborn in the Womb

2007-01-15T16:04:00.000-05:00

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2007/2007-01-12-05.asp

A Chronology

2006-12-29T20:09:00.000-05:00

Late 1960s: Eric Clapton meets Pattie Boyd, then George Harrison's wife, and falls desperately in love with her.
1970: Eric Clapton releases the song "Layla," based on a Persian poem about a moon princess married off by her father and the subsequent insanity of a man who was desperately in love with her. The song was about his unbearable feelings for Pattie Boyd and about how much and how badly he wanted her and how much he was suffering without her.
1977: Pattie Boyd divorces George Harrison.
1979: Eric Clapton marries Pattie Boyd.
1985: Eric Clapton leaves Pattie Boyd for model Lori del Santo.
1989: Eric Clapton divorces Pattie Boyd. OOPS.

Pretentious, Ironic, Slightly Comedic, Existentialist, Stream of Consciousness Thoughts

2006-12-16T20:04:00.000-05:00

"It's scary how much we value possessions in this country. Whoa, that dude's car is sweet."

Personalities

2006-10-25T19:44:00.000-04:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2006/columns/story?columnist=thompson_wright&id=2637763&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

Consider that Albert Pujols is touted as one of baseball's nice guys. They used to do stories on ESPN about how great he was.

Freedom of Speech, As Loved By All Americans

2006-10-20T20:20:00.000-04:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2632446

Why the hell didn't we let the South secede?

Push it to the Limit, by Paul Engemann

2006-10-07T22:48:00.000-04:00

Push it to the limit
Walk along the razor's edge
but don't look down, just keep your head
and you'll be finished

Open up the limit
past the point of no return
You've reached the top but still you gotta learn
how to keep it

Hit the wheel and double the stakes
throttle wide open like a bat out of hell
and you crash the gates
(crash the gates)

Going for the back of beyond
Nothing gonna stop you
there's nothing that strong
So close now you're nearly at the brink
so, push it

(Ooo yeah)

Welcome to the limit
(The limit)
Take it maybe one step more
The power game's still playing so
you better win it

Push it to the limit
(The limit)
With no one left to stand in your way
you might get careless, but you'll never be safe
while you still feel it

Welcome to the limit
(The limit)
Standing on the razor's edge
don't look down just keep your head
and you'll be finished

Welcome to the limit
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)

Push it to the limit
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)

(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)

Push it to the limit
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)
(The limit)

Freedom of Religion Under Assault

2006-09-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

I wanted to talk today about H.R. 2679, a bill introduced into the United States House of Representatives entitled, "Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005." Here is the link for the bill itself: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:1:./temp/~c109eCLmgE::

I feel its important to bring this bill up because this is an example of the kind of assault that radical Republicans, in conjunction with the conservative Christian coalitions, are waging on the rights of people in America to be free to practice any religion of their choice, to be free from religion if they choose, and, most importantly, to avoid having the government eliminate any choice. Basically, the gist of the bill is that, in lawsuits regarding the Establishment Clause, the winner of the lawsuit will no longer be able to win attorney's fees, thereby making the only possible court ruling injunctive in nature. The Republican authors of the bill claim that this is designed to help prevent "intimidation" of county, city, town, state and the federal government that supposedly occurs when somebody sues to stop an overtly religious (read: Christian) by eliminating the possibility that, if the plaintiff wins, the government would then be forced to compensate them for their legal fees. According to the Republican authors of the bill, the big bad ACLU threatens the poor, innocent country, city, etc. governments by reminding them that if they go to court and lose they will have to foot the ACLU's bills, and therefore the tendency in Establishment Clause cases is for these municipalities to settle rather than going to court. The purpose of the bill, supposedly, is to have more of these kinds of cases make it to court by eliminating this "intimidation."

Of course, this is pure nonsense. The true intent of this bill is to limit the ability of individuals to challenge public displays of religion. If John Q. Atheist doesn't like the thought of his kids walking by a Nativity scene in a park (analogous to Christian fundamentalists not wanting their kids being taught evolution in schools, if you want), he would be unable, or at least much less able, to risk fighting this public display favoring a particular religion in court because, if he were an average person, he probably wouldn't be able to afford to foot the bill. Even if he were to win, with today's spiraling legal costs he would run the risk of bankrupting himself fighting for his rights, making it less likely that he would want to try in the first place. And yet, this bill is allegedly designed to get more of these cases into the courts. Yeah right. And honestly, who the hell has ever heard of an individual intimidating a government agency?

Listening to the debate on this bill in the House, I felt a mixture of amusement, and disgust at some of the rationales used by the chief author of the bill, Representative John Hostetler of Indiana, to justify why it was wrong for religious public displays to be challenged or ruled illegal and taken down. Here are a couple examples of his arguments: first, he claimed that because in the Constitution the year 1787 is referred to as, "In the year of Our Lord, Seventeen Hundred and Eighty Seven," this somehow represents a legitimation of Jesus Christ and an endorsement of religion - that is, Abrahamic religion - within Constitutional bounds. What? Never mind that this was a standard, formulaic way of writing dates in 1787, and that most of the Founders were Deist. Clearly the presence of two insignificant words takes precedence over and in fact invalidates the First Amendment. The Bill of Rights was just a show for those sissy girly-men up in Massachussetts Bay. Read between the lines to get the REAL Constitution! He then tried to claim that because Thomas Jefferson was in Paris during the ratification of the Bill of Rights, this means he didn't endorse what was in it. Never mind the fact that Thomas Jefferson spent ten years working on the idea of separation of church and state, or that, as Representative Barney Frank of Massachussetts pointed out in rebuttal, that Jefferson himself first coined term of the "wall of separation of church and state."

The fact is, there is no panic. As several Representatives pointed out during the debate, there is no chance that this bill is going to pass. Why, you ask, do I feel like bothering you with this? Because I want to point out the assaults on rights and freedoms by radical Christians and their allies. The simple thought that somebody even WANTS to discourage and make it all but impossible for citizens to challenge the public imposition of religion should be repulsive in and of itself. Conservatives say that liberal claims of Republican abuse of power during the past decade are preposterous, partisan, and nothing but a poorly run P.R. campaign. Well, this example isn't preposterous, because its occuring as we speak. And what, exactly, is partisan about fighting for people's religious liberties? Watching the debate on C-SPAN, it struck me that there were a grand total of 15 people in the House at the time of the discussion, with 3 Representatives arguing against the bill and two for it. The majority of the House was nowhere in sight. This bill hasn't become a major news item. In short, it's safe to say that the majority of Americans are not informed about this attack on one of their most basic liberties. And, personally, I think that this is a crime in and of itself.

The Evil Liberal Media

2006-09-25T18:42:00.001-04:00

A caption on Tucker Carlsson's MSNBC show: "Is Hillary the Devil?" You can probably guess which Hillary is being referred to. Honestly, is this journalism or demagoguery? This is one of just many little examples, all over the news stations. In spite of all this, of course, Coulter and company talk about the "liberal media" attacking their paragons, for which they get paid handsomely by the way. How can anybody be stupid enough to believe this garbage?

Hate Mail

2006-09-18T21:48:00.000-04:00

So recently, for the first time ever, I made a group on Facebook. It's called, "Just Because The Bible Says Something Doesn't Make It So," and, well, you can probably guess what it's about. If you are on Facebook, look it up.

Anyway, so far I have received two pieces, via Facebook messaging, of what I have decided to term hate mail about it. They are really more funny than anything, but they serve to illuminate the sad state of certain people in this country. I am pasting them below, and in the future I will include any new messages that are sent to me. Note that because I am not vindictive and I feel pity more than anything else for these people, I am omitting their names. Also keep in mind that these are both high school (!) students.

Without further ado:

Subject:

Message:

hey! i was reading your post and i was just wondering why you cant stand religion?? im a strong christian and it hurts me when i see people that are so agaisnt religion bc it was shows me you have seen the huge impact that religon and especially God can really do in your life and if you think its something just to opress someone or its just a cover up is not true maybe for some people but people who really know God knows what religion really is so i ask you before you put down christntly and religion try it out it proberly wont work at first but get to know God and i promise your life will be better bc for me i know its true bc it has happend to me...reply

Subject:

your group

Message:

I was just scanning your group and wanted to let you know that you are wrong. There is a God there is a creator who put us on this earth. you want proof, then look around you. Scientist have said they dont know how this earth can be here, one little tweak in the distance from the sun, the atmosphere, and everything, there could be NO life. you tell me, dose that just happen by chance? If you think so, then that is a shame. We were created by God to serve him. this earth was created for us to live on, but one day adam and eve sinned against god, he ate from the tree in the garden of edan that he wasnt suppose to and at that point death entered the world. you can ask me any question about this earth or how god can be real and i'd be happy to give you the answers. God loves you and its no accident that I scanned by this group. we all have a purpose in this life. unless you accept jesus as your lord and ask him for forgivness of your sins, u are lost and heading to a place that the bible says is a place of wheeping and mashing of teeth... Hell. you dont have to go there and thats the good news. repent turn to jesus and live for him. its not by works that you are saved it is by the blood of the lamb. one day he is returning, and its soon. things are happening/on there way towards happing that the bible says will happen. we dont know the hour or the date but the time is nearing. even scientist say that this world has not to much time left, if you have any questions message me back.

In christ's love

XXXXX

I kinda wonder if the second one is a joke, given that the guy's avatar was a picture of John Krasinski from The Office, and I wouldn't consider that a show that would appeal to a person of this character. Then again I've noticed that most of these Christian demagogues actually have a pretty faint understanding of the so-called ideals which they parrot, so I suppose it wouldn't surprise me.

More Sports Insanity

2006-09-14T13:06:00.000-04:00

Apparently football is so important that you are supposed to put it ahead of your pregnant wife...New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was fined $8,000 by Giants Head Idiot Tom Coughlin because he skipped a team meeting to go to an ultrasound for his wife. Isn't it so much better when all the stories about players' family lives involve them getting arrested for domestic abuse or something like that? I just love it how these football coaches are charged with creating a "culture of accountability" on their team and then shit like this happens. Yup...you gotta be accountable enough to put a stupid football team ahead of your wife and unborn child's health. You know marriages have been destroyed over husbands skipping ultrasounds *thinks Nine Months* Kudos to Burress on this one for doing what he knew was right. The one consolation for the side of justice in this one is that 8000 bucks is only about 1/3 or so of one of Burress' game checks *cough*

Where Were You When The Attacks Happened?

2006-09-11T23:54:00.000-04:00

I was in Mr. Campbell's second period English 2 class. Mr. McQuade came knocking on our window and told the class that we all had to walk down to the gym for an announcement. His faced looked serious and grim.

High School Football and 12 Year Old Baseball on ESPN = The Beginning of the End?

2006-08-26T17:03:00.000-04:00

I already mentioned this last time, but now apparently ESPN is also broadcasting high school football on its main station. High school football! These kids were falling all over the place from cramps! They're younger than me. I love how nobody raises any objectives to this, and then people don't understand how something like Maurice Clarett can happen. It is so sad to watch grown men arguing about which 17 year old's ass the sun shines out of. Pathetic. And I wonder, is this media oversaturation the beginning of the end? Modern barbarians at the gate? Only time will tell.

A Good Read

2006-08-18T00:25:00.000-04:00

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/phil_taylor/08/16/youth.sports/index.html

I thought that this was a very well-written article, and I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment.

Quote

2006-08-13T18:04:00.000-04:00

"You have a lovely daughter."
-spoken to Otto Frank by Karl Silberbauer, SS-Oberstabsfeldwebel in the Nazi Sicherheitsdienst, the officer who arrested the Franks in 1944 Amsterdam

Purpose

2006-08-11T00:52:00.000-04:00

I haven't yet gotten around to explaining the purpose that I envision for this blog, or for that matter posting anything substantial. I'm going to be off in the fall, so I'll have some time to do that, I suppose. Right now, I am honestly just tired. I've been taking classes for literally a year. I've been on since last September, with an average of 3 weeks break in between, and it's turned out to be a pretty stressful year. In the fall, if all goes according to plan (which it very well may not) I'll be interning in a law office of some sort, but even so I anticipate that I'll have the opportunity to get refreshed in a way I haven't really been since the start of this previous Fall term.

One of my favorite emotions is nostalgia. Sometimes I feel nostalgic at the most random times. I like feeling nostalgic, but none of my friends know that. Nobody knows it, except I suppose for you fine people reading this. I don't think I've ever told anybody. A few minutes ago I read something that made me nostalgic...for a time that never was.

Suicide Solution?

2006-08-02T01:37:00.000-04:00

I have no problem with suicide in principle; there are circumstances in which it is a legitimate choice. But in choosing suicide, one must be sure that he has nothing to live for, not that he has something to die for.

What's Next?

2006-07-29T16:23:00.000-04:00

Maybe passing a law saying that a parent can sell their youngest daughter into slavery? There's Biblical precedent...

http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/CCPA/CCPASenatetext012405.html

I believe the people who will have the balls to ignore this law are heroes. And those who drafted it and voted for it are criminals. They are criminals, and they should be held accountable for every abuse and every beating that any teenage girls are forced to undergo from fucked up, moronic, good conservative parents who get pissed when their teenage girl has no choice but to tell them that she got knocked up and needs an abortion.

P.S. Fuck the family unit.

I Think We've Been Through This Before...

2006-07-23T16:48:00.000-04:00

(these are my own thoughts, reprinted from a forum I originally posted them on, slightly edited)

Hezbollah thinks the best thing they can do for their people is sacrifice them in the name of Allah. If they seriously wanted to do what's best for their people, they would never have provoked Israel in the first place. They had to have imagined what Israel's response was going to be, especially if you consider the timing, coming on the heels of the similar Gaza attack a few weeks before. No, they don't need a real, stable, happy nation, they need fucking martyrs. This has been pulled out of the same page as the Arab League decree following the formation of the Israeli state that forbade member nations from actually housing Palestinian refugees and instead forcing them back into Israel where they would be housed in those camps by the Israelis or whoever's idea that was: festering wounds are so much easier to exploit. Of course, I don't think that the Israeli government actually gives a rat's ass about any of the captured soldiers. I wonder if they aren't secretly thanking Hezbollah for giving them an excuse to justify an incursion back into Lebanon after 6 years...the Israeli response has been way too broad and harsh to be about a couple of kidnapped soldiers or even a couple of The funny thing is that both sides think they have gotten the other to play into their hands, but the reality is that they are both getting what they want. Israel has an excuse to try and reestablish a presence in Lebanon, and Hezbollah is undermining the moderate Lebanese government and increasing support for its policies one Israeli missile at a time. If Israel was actually serious about resolving this in a way that would last, they would lend support to the struggling Lebanese government, which was trying, though unsuccesfully, to disarm Hezbollah before this latest flareup. If Israel had cooperated and worked in conjunction with the moderate government, Hezbollah would probably be on its way to being disarmed right now. Instead they went and bombed the shit out of the country, probably dooming the government and destabilizing it potentially for years. God forbid an Arab and a Jewish government cooperating on a common goal as a way to build trust in each other. If anybody in the goddamn Middle East could look beyond their petty self-interest and their "he hit me first" mentality for one minute, that alone would be enough to make the region at minimum a lot less screwed up than it currently is.

Well the rocket fire's been going on for six years, if it had been a good justification then why didn't this crisis earlier? I mean, it should come as no surprise that that sooner or later this flared up into a full conflagration, but why did Israel wait 6 years if it was just going to use the rocket attack justification. The funny thing, of course, is that if Israel had never invaded Lebanon in the first place, Hezbollah would never have come to exist. Hezbollah was created as a response to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.

I don't mean to downplay the fact that Hezbollah is a very dangerous organization and that the Iranian government is about to attempt to lead the world down the path of World War III. Israel is not much better. The Israeli government is packed full of a bunch of hawks ultra-Orthodox extremists who are just as firm and stubborn as any of the mullahs. So much for Kadima's "moderate" policies. The Arab terrorists are bad because they think that Allah wants them to blow up infidels. The Jewish settlers are just as bad because they unapologetically claim that god somehow granted them this land and so its within their rights to uproot whoever stands in their way. I've heard some of the rhetoric of West Bank leaders and honestly its just as bad as the stuff that crazies like Nasrallah pout. Both sides, the extremist Arab terrorists and the ultra-Orthodox Israelis who are the ones that push for this sort of vindictive military action, think they are right because they have a mandate from heaven. Well the irony is that neither side does, because heaven doesn't exist. There is no god, religion is a lie, yadda yadda, I think we've been through this before, but the bottom line is that both sides get riled up for equally absurd reasons. Meanwhile the politicians are of course just playing games. This is why I was so impressed with Sharon's plan for unilateral involvement. What other instances in history are there of a country handing over land to what is essentially an enemy nation, against the wishes of a sizable chunk of its own population (to the point that the army had to use force against some of its own citizens). I thought that it was a very bold move, and that it was a farsighted thing to do and a good thing to do. Of course in the screwed up world of the Middle East, a gesture like that didn't do any good and the Palestinians went ahead and elected a bunch of terrorist fucks, followed up by Israel assassinating people, followed up by Hamas attacking and kidnapping soldiers, followed up by Israel sending in soldiers and tanks and blowing stuff - and people - up, followed by rocket attacks, and more rocket attacks. It never ends. It just devolves into a "he said, she said" circle with no end. One bad deed is followed up by another. So what's the difference? I mean, they all do the same stuff. Imagine Iraq on a 50 year scale. What I want to know is, when are people going to stop looking at it as "400 Lebanese killed and 35 Israelis killed" and started looking at it as "435 people killed"? We are all the same people. There should be no "they." That is just part of the same pernicious lie, the greatest lie in history, out of which sprung religion and hatred of anybody that looks different and/or doesn't share one's narrow views. One CNN reporter said that civilians are the "currency" of the perpetual Mideast conflict. I thought this was a great analogy. You are always dealing in people. "35 were killed today in an Israeli attack" and "8 were killed by Hezbollah rockets." The leaders make their speeches and the fanatics make their promises, but in the end it is people that become the exchange rate. If anybody REALLY gave a shit about the lives of innocent people, this would all have been peacefully settled long ago.

Anti-nationalism is the way

2006-07-17T02:00:00.000-04:00

I've abandoned the preconceived notions of nationality, race, and religion that people tried to beat into my head as a child and I would encourage you to do the same. The fact is, there is only one race on Earth: the human race. We all feel hunger, and thirst, and love. The differences in people's DNA is so small as to be insignificant. All of these notions of "race," "nationalism/patriotism" etc have been invented as a way of artificially keeping people separated from one another and prevent any sort of REAL cooperation among humans, by encouraging each so-called "race" to view themselves as different and superior from all others. If people could actually manage to look past their petty self-interest for TWO SECONDS they would understand that fighting one other is counterproductive, national borders are meaningless, and religion (which is false, there is no god, of course) is the most pernicious fabrication ever to curse human history. Maybe in the next 3, 5 or 10,000 years the world's population will begin understanding this and we can stop with these absurd wars and "grievances."

It Is a Good Day to Die

2006-07-13T19:01:00.000-04:00

I'm not advocating suicide in the present circumstances, but given the kind of shit that's been going down in the world, generally over the last few years but more specifically in the last two months or so, and given the size of the stormclouds that are looming, almost inevitably, just over the horizon, I almost envy the people that are close to dying. The world is in for some deep shit, very very soon. If ever there was a good time to check out, it would be right fucking now.

Things That Piss Me Off

2006-06-11T01:04:00.000-04:00

I hope to make this a recurring column on my blog...today's edition:

Dumb, obscure programs that pointlessly require you to restart your computer to "update your settings" or some such garbage. Fuck you, Shockwave, ZoneAlarm, and I'm sure many more. If you seriously can't make your piece of crap program update itself without forcing somebody's entire goddamn computer to restart itself, then you are not earning the money that you make. Somebody is in the middle of something, they update some stupid program, and guess what?!?!? You have to restart your computer. Programs that do that are incredibly frustrating, unbelievably inefficient, and do little more than waste your time.

Interesting thought

2006-06-04T13:45:00.000-04:00

The hooded sweatshirt is the successor to the monastic robe

Think on that...

Religion Is Fascist

2006-05-16T18:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/16/film.davinci.protests.ap/index.html

Need I say more?

The same nutjobs who supported and upheld Gibson's dogma now want a movie banned because they don't like it. What are they so afraid of? That things like this will reveal how fraudulent religion truly is? Until religions - adherents, leaders, etc. - respect others' positions, I feel no need to respect theirs.

Are you fucking kidding me?

2006-05-11T11:18:00.000-04:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2440983

What a tool. Seriously. This guy is a walking self-parody. They sent him four totebags to get him to shut the hell up and it didn't work. This guy is the reason, I think, that conservatives hate liberals. They think that all of us are like this. I don't know who this guy thinks he is, but he is doing a lot more harm than good because he's honestly making good, legitimate, liberal causes sound like a joke. People 18 and under are being discriminated against because they are denied totebags at a Mother's Day event? Please. How does that even make any sense? Mother's Day is a day to honor, logically enough, MOTHERS (not to be confused with motherfuckers, like this guy). I mean, granted there are women under 18 that are mothers, and I'm sure that they WERE given totebags if they showed up to this particular Angels game. But you know something else? I'm sure that underage mothers have a lot more serious problems than not getting a fucking totebag at a baseball game. I'd hate to get therapy from this guy...

Yesterday or Today

2006-05-09T18:05:00.000-04:00

Depending on where you live, May 8th or May 9th is V-Day, the 51st anniversary of Germany's surrender in World War 2. The U.S. media has devoted absolutely zero time to this fact, which is a travesty. I think it is very important that people should take some time to reflect. It seems very clear to me that in 51 short years we have already forgotten the lessons that Nazism, fascism, and the death of so many innocents were supposed to teach us.

Incidentally, Dartmouth has invited Elie Wiesel to be our commencement speaker for 2006. An excellent choice.

News Flash

2006-05-07T21:58:00.000-04:00

I haven't been very good about posting so far because I've been super busy at college, as usual. Eventually I will get around to posting my thoughts on what I want this blog to be about and what kind of stuff I am going to be putting in it. But that time is not now.

For, I just wanted to post this CNN link because I found it to be very interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/07/titanic.survivor.ap/index.html

Generally speaking I think stories like these are crap because they are generally done as filler on slow news days. I'm sure a few people will find stories about random people with a marginal claim to fame interesting, but the majority of people don't give half a damn and neither, I'm sure, does the writer of the article. In this case, however, what fascinates me is the age of the person involved. It's really amazing to imagine a person who lived through events as disparate in time as the sinking of the Titanic and say, 9/11. It might sound cliche but it really never ceases to interest me. I think it's part of this weird thing that humans like to sometimes do which is to wonder, "If X dead person were alive today, what would he/she think of what we have done with their legacy?" Sort of like wondering what Alexander Graham Bell would think of cell phones or the Founding Fathers would think of the modern United States government. We have a tendency to seek the approval of earlier generations, as though they somehow had the ability to think more clearly or with more foresight than we can and therefore their opinion would improve the modern world for the better. This is of course nonsense because why couldn't they have improved their own world if they know so much, but nevertheless its something that I think a lot of people can't help but think about.

I don't know, maybe I'm way off here.

First Post

2006-05-01T14:16:00.000-04:00

The first post of my new blog...with many more to come