A Few Words about the Impending Impeachment Proceedings

Our Constitution does two very powerful things; it both lays down the fundamental laws of the country and establishes the three branches of government. The Legislative branch makes the law, the Executive branch executes the law, and the Judicial branch interprets the law. This natural balance created a check to each branch that was to keep any one branch from becoming too powerful. The most important thing that we as a country can do is to make sure that this system remains in check. Almost every single one of our laws, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, right to bear arms… were designed with the intent of empowering the people with the ability to keep the branches of power fairly equal with one another.

That is why the upcoming impeachment is so important. The reach of the Executive branch has never been more powerful, and it did not get that way by following the rules of the Constitution. To use a metaphor: When George Washington cut down the cherry tree he used the wood to make a small box and in that box the president puts his powers. Over the years we’ve taken things out and put things in, but on January 20, 2009 if George Bush and Dick Cheney are not appropriately held to account for what they’ve added to the box, this administration will hand over a box with more powers then any president has ever had -- more powers then the Founders could have imagined. That box may be handed to Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, or any number of other potential presidents and whoever gets it is not going to give away the power that they’ve inherited. The only way that we take power out of that box is to punish George Bush and Dick Cheney now so that the next president cannot govern as they have.

The Founders of our country made six separate references to impeachment in the Constitution. They wanted us to know the power of impeachment, use the power of impeachment, and planned for impeachment to keep us strong. It is time to start impeachment hearings and regain the balance that once made our country strong.

Modern Female Empowerment is Bullshit

Standing in a bookstore I overhear two well dressed, mid-thirties, successful looking, short haired, long-skirt laden ladies standing in the fitness isle perusing a book called The Art of Pole Dancing: A Spin-by-Spin Guide and heard the following conversation (we’ll call one of them Tiffany and the Christi):

Christi: Yeah, so I’ve been doing it for Jeff for a couple of weeks now.

Tiffany: Oh my God, REALLY?

Christi: Absolutely, its sooooo empowering. I’ve never felt more in control of our relationship. It’s like, when I start dancing, I’m the one who is the boss and he has to sit there and pay full attention.

Tiffany Wow, so if I pole dance for Steve you think that I could take control of him? Do you think it would empower me too?

Christi: Oh yeah, I was watching TV, I think it was on Oprah or something, and they were talking about how we need to empower ourselves more in life. And I think that my dancing empowers me because I feel beautiful and strong when I do it and because Jeff does whatever I say!

Tiffany: I never really know what people mean when talk about empowerment.

Christi: I think it means when a women feels powerful and can do whatever she wants.

Tiffany: Thank God for women’s lib, my mother and grandmother were awesome. Ok, I’m buying the book. Mom, here comes Tiffany's empowerment!

That is when I realized that the feminism of the 60’s and 70’s has been co-opted by the newly redefined female empowerment of today. Empowerment is now being marketed as anything that makes a woman feel good or gets her noticed by others. New shampoos brag about how strong and shiny they make your hair, good makeup gives you confidence, and the vehicle that you drive gives you recognition as an important person with money. All of this pseudo-empowerment is done while constantly bombarding women with juxtaposing and equally persuasive advertisements about body image to reinforce the notion that the females primary role is as a passive sex object to be gazed upon by whoever chooses. Not only did the two women I overheard in the bookstore actually believe that empowerment means getting control over whoever you want by making yourself a pretty piece of meat, but they also thought that it was what their foremothers had intended when they fought for equality.

So please humor me for a minute and let me explain something to all of the women out there who are not still shaking your head in abject disbelief over those two individual’s comments:

True feminism is about absolute equality between the sexes. Empowerment is that ability to act upon that equality. Yes, that means that you can dance around a poll if you so choose, but it also means that you knowingly are taking a subservient position to please someone else at your own expense. You are nothing more then an amusement for someone else. Your power exists only because they give it you. If you forget that part, or choose to ignore it, you will no longer have the power to choose whether or not you want to be submissive because it will be automatically assigned to you.

So please, for the love of my mother’s and her mother’s generation, do not throw out everything they worked so hard for because your man shuts up for a moment and makes you feel pretty.

Entry for August 05, 2007

I had a conversation this weekend with a female friend that really surprised me. We were talking body types and she was dumping on herself for the same reason that all women dump on themselves, because they don’t weigh 90lbs. Now I will never understand why women can’t see this, but no straight man wants a woman built like that. Fashion magazines, supermodels, and clothes designers are generally either gay men or unhappy women. So why on earth would any straight woman believe that that goal of 90lbs is what straight men want? Furthermore, if you think that you need to be 90lbs to feel good about yourself, who the hell are you really trying to please and why?

So here, for all of the women, let me explain what I, a straight male, look for when judging a woman on just physical beauty: Smile, healthy physique, face, and above all else, curves. I want to know you are a woman. A 90 pound rail thin girl looks like a 14 year old boy to me and is, thus, not attractive. So you have a couple of extra pounds? Good, the last thing that any man wants is someone perfect. Perfect people must beget other perfect people. And frankly, I don’t have time, energy, or drive to keep up with that.

Entry for July 25, 2007

Thought for the day:

It is better to claim ignorance than to prove it.

Well, it's ugly

Attached is the ultrasound from tonight. It is due February 8th, 2008 and is currently 8cm, upside-down, and already does not want to cooperate. Also, a certain family member asked me to add the button at the bottom and I had no choice but to comply.

The defining silence of people not watching

Winston Churchill once said that there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies; I believe that this is also true with getting books into the hands of children.

So this last week brought upon a mass migration of people of all ages heading to their local bookstore to get their copy of the last installment of Harry Potter. This, I believe, is a good thing. Any time people turn off the TV, shut down their computers, and pick up a book, they are bound to get smarter -- even if that book is technically a children’s book.

Being that I’m a quick reader, I had it finished early and actually flipped on the TV (very rare for me) to see if I could catch the weather. And there on the nightly news, was a playful exchange of news people talking about how they couldn’t wait to get home and dive into reading. Yep, the people who make their living trying to get us to keep watching TV were telling us that they couldn’t wait to turn off that TV and read a book. It was wonderful and so subtle that I don’t think that anyone else really caught it. Intrigued, I flipped over to one of the 24 hour news channels and there they were showing video of children reading with a scrolling message along the bottom with the projected sales of the book, how long the book is, and some general information about the author and thought to myself: in culture of immediacy and technology, a good book still trumps all.

The Shitters

Do you know anyone who is never completely happy with anything? Now I’m not talking about scoring something an 8 out of 10 rating on something or a “Hey that was pretty good”, but people who immediately after finishing something they feel compelled to start degrading whatever it is that they just experienced. You could have just walked from having the best steak dinner, with a perfectly matched wine, excellent ambiance, and they would have to find something to immediately shit on. And I know that we can all slip into this occasionally, but some people just live in this world of constant complaining. I don’t know whether it is some sort of subconscious self-actualizing situation where they feel it necessary to insult everything that might make them feel better then they believe that they should feel. Maybe it’s some sort of holdover Puritan thing about feeling good about yourself or maybe it’s just because they are a miserable people who want to make everyone else as miserable as they are. Either way, these people piss me off and I do not know why I allow them around me - yet, I do.

So, we're gonna have a baby...

I was against it at first, but it sometimes just happens, even in the best of families. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. We think that the important thing is to keep our wits about us and to immediately borrow some money. If that doesn't work, I plan on threatening to give the child to relatives, which should loosen their purses. Baring a failure in that tactic, I will raise the child as I would raise any other living thing, I will leave it alone in the woods and hope for the best. If it finds its way back, I will try to nurture it, teach it, and love it. And if that too does not work out, I hereby leave my future child in your hands, with all perpetuity and legally binding clauses, the reader of this.

Thank you and good luck.

New Website!!!

Hello All,

Well I did it, the new brianhamilton.com website is up and running. Only one of the six picture pages is currently up, but I am uploading pictures as I write this. In the upcoming weeks an interactive family tree should also appear. Anyway, please give me some feedback and tell me what you think.

Brian

If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people.

We are currently approaching ½ trillion dollars in direct costs of the Iraq war. The pentagon current estimates are that by the time that we leave Iraq, we will have spent 2 trillion dollars. With that money we could have bought each of the 300 million people living in the US:

Three 60” HTDV’s, or

New Harley Sportser, or

One semester at Harvard, or

High speed internet for 100 years, or

We could have paid for every single US citizen’s health care for 10 years.

So if we can find the money to kill people, why can’t we find the money to help them?

Are we just too tired and beat-down to do anything about it?

It's your money, how do you want it spent?

Whatcha gonna do about it?

Anything?

Wimp

Diversity

As I watched Bill Moyers interview Anglican Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori a couple of days ago, I was amazed at the tremendous pressure put on that one woman over how her entire sect of religion is controlled, directed, and labeled. Since becoming the first female Anglican Bishop, she has had to contend with several in her domination refusing to take communion with her and threatening to brake away from the domination altogether. So when asked about religions exclusiveness, she responded, “desire to control, I think, is one of the basic human failings, if we can control access to the sacred, or control how the larger world understands those we like or do not like, [then] we have the ability to change things in creative or destructive directions.” What further intrigued me is that this was a person fighting just to be included in something the she was simultaneously attempting to promote.

This got me thinking about my history. Think back through history to those who have chosen to exclude others, what happened to them? Were they stronger because they kept the same beliefs, with the same people, for a long period of time? Or were they eventually undone by a collective group of people, pooling their assorted efforts, for a common cause against the exclusivity? I believe that in almost every case that I can think of, equality eventually won.

Exclusion, no matter how small, weakens your cause. That is the reason that our Statue of Liberty says:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Lady Liberty (or at least the female poet Emma Lazarus who wrote the lines) knew that it the true strength of any Republic rests on the backs of different people, from diverse backgrounds and cultures, who want nothing more than to help your cause. Moreover, it all comes down to simple math. Suppose you had to come up with the best soup ever made, would you select two of your close friends and attempt to make as many recipes as you could? Or would you reach out to the world at large and ask as many people as you could? What if you knew that there were other competing teams trying to come up with the same thing? Now imagine that this is your favorite sports team, your religion, or your government -- wouldn’t you want the best and brightest, no matter what?

So whenever you hear of a group, club, or organization, excluding anyone based color, race, religion, or sex, you should immediately see it for what it is: Either a group about to accept a new member, or one that is about to go extinct.

Variety is the spice of life

Yesterday I was on the hunt for a spice named Adobo and had mild realizations that, even through the stores are getting larger, the selection is becoming smaller. But maybe a further explanation is in order:

Adobo is an extremely popular spice in the Latin American world for meats. It is very common in every grocery store near even the smallest Latin population. That being said, I live in Michigan, so I expected some problems. Meijers is a huge Super Wal-Mart-like store here in Michigan, so they were my first choice. Strike One. Next up was the Kroger, which is smaller, but located near a small and recently imported Mexican enclave. Strike two. So, with much regret, off to Wal-Mart I went. Surely Wal-Mart, with its selection of billions of items, acres of shopping, and constant market research would have a 2oz bottle of spice. But alas, I struck out.

What happened next surprised me. As I walked back through the spice and condiment isle I realized that I was low on ketchup. Stopping about 10 feet from where the spices ended, I was in immediately dumbfounded of the selection of ketchups available. There were, and this is not an exaggeration, 19 different types of ketchups. Upon choosing one I realized that since I had one item, I might as well pick up a couple of other things that I needed.

It was while picking up these couple other items that I slowly started realizing what was happening. Isle after isle, shelf after shelf, was a cornucopia of remarkably similar items, almost identical in price, size, and type, all next to each other on the shelf. There were over 40 different waters, hundreds of breads, and a selection of cereals that was spread over two 100 foot isles. Yet, everything seemed the same. The cereals were all made by a couple of large companies, the bread was all about the same, with the general variations on white vs. wheat, and the water was, well, water. Nothing that I found in this store had any real variety.

What I did find was massive quantities of similar items with different packing. Everything was a fake choice. It was the equivalent of going to a car lot that spanned acres and acres, to only find Hyundais. Sure, the Hyundai may be economical and cheap, but is it what you always want? Is only having the option of the same bland option an option at all? If your choice comes down to the blue one with the better radio or the red one with nicer wheels, how do you know that you wouldn’t have been happier with a Toyota, Ford, or a used Jaguar from the 80s? And what about motorcycles? Bikes? Electric cars? A scooter? Who knows? Not us, because all we have to see is the same thing in different packaging.

So now I sit lamenting at my computer, Adoboless, and all because I just wanted to add a little spice to my life.

Entry for July 10, 2007

The vast majority of scientists, and the majority of religious people, see little potential for pleasure or progress in the conflicts between religion and science that are regularly fanned into flame by a relatively small number on both sides of the debate. Many scientists are religious, and perceive no conflict between the values of their science -- values that insist on disinterested, objective inquiry into the nature of the Universe -- and those of their faith.

But there are lines that should not be crossed, and in a recent defense of his beliefs and disbeliefs in the matter of evolution, US Senator Sam Brownback (Republican, Kansas) crosses at least one. Senator Brownback was one of three Republican presidential candidates who, in a recent debate, described himself as not believing in evolution. He sought to explain his position with great nuance in a May, 31st article in The New York Times, in which he wrote: “Man was not an accident and reflects an image and likeness unique in the creation order. Those aspects of evolutionary theory compatible with this truth are a welcome addition to human knowledge. Aspects of these theories that undermine this truth, however, should be firmly rejected as atheistic theology posing as science.”

Humans, evolved, body and mind, from earlier primates. The ways in which humans think reflect this heritage as surely as the ways in which their limbs are articulated, their immune systems attack viruses and the cones in their eyes process colored light. This applies not just to the way in which our neurons fire, but also to various aspects of our moral thought. The way that disgust functions in our lives and shapes our moral decisions reflects not just cultural training, but also biological evolution. Current theorizing on this topic, although fascinating, may be wide of the mark. But its basis in the idea that human minds are the product of evolution is not atheistic theology. It is unassailable fact.

This does not utterly invalidate the idea that the human mind is, as Senator Brownback would have it, a reflection of the mind of God. But the suggestion that any entity capable of creating the Universe has a mind encumbered with the same emotional structures and perceptual framework as that of an upright ape adapted to living in small, intensely social peer-groups on the African savanna seems a priori unlikely.

In Brownback’s defense, it should be acknowledged that these are deep waters. It is fairly easy to accept the truth of evolution when it applies to the external world -- the adaptation of the orchid to wasps, for example, or the speed of the cheetah. It is much harder to accept it internally -- to accept that our feelings, intuitions, the ways in which we love and loathe, are the product of experience, evolution and culture alone. And such acceptance has challenges for the unbeliever, too. Moral philosophers often put great store by their rejection of the ‘naturalistic fallacy’, the belief that because something is a particular way, it ought to be that way. Now we learn that untutored beliefs about ‘what ought to be’ do, in fact, reflect an ‘is’: the state of human mind as an evolved entity. Accepting this represents a challenge that few as yet have really grappled with.

It remains uncertain how the new sciences of human behavior emerging at the intersections of anthropology, evolutionary biology and neuropsychology can be best navigated. But that does not justify their denunciation on the basis of religious faith alone. Scientific theories of human nature may be discomforting or unsatisfying, but they are not illegitimate. And serious attempts to frame them will reflect the origins of the human mind in biological and cultural evolution, without reference to a divine creation.

Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's Pardon

I find it strange that the people defending this action are pointing a finger at the Clinton pardons as a justification for Bush’s action. The reason I find it odd is that it is the same people who would rank Clinton at the bottom of presidents throughout our history. So essentially, they are arguing that Bush isn’t the worst president ever. That is how bad it has gotten; the only argument that the supporters of Bush are now using is that he isn’t the worst president ever.

If you haven’t seen it, watch the Olbermann video below. It’s his July 4th commentary and it is good.

The 4th of July

In our natural culture of hero worship we tend to either look to our leaders as though, by mere election, they’ve been elevated to the level of heroes strong enough to overcome any odds, or as if their cult of personality will doom us all. It is during times of great trails when our country evenly splits that we must look to our past for guidance. Not because the leaders we have today are lacking or superior in any way, but because leaders of the past give us perspective on the direction we are headed today. It is in your interpretation and understanding of that history that allows you to see the present and near future. Always remember who you are, where you came from, and what is really worth fighting for. And above all else, forever support a country that allows you do to so.

Happy Independence Day

Star Spangled Banner
|Funny Jokes at JibJab

Gay Marriage

I have a couple friends who are gay and it has always seemed odd to me that they are… …well… …normal. Yep, they are just people who happen to have a different sexual preference then me. And after a while, it really doesn’t seem any weirder then having a different taste in ice cream or liking cats over dogs. It’s just a variable that doesn’t seem to positively or negatively impact my life in any way.

So when someone seems overly upset about “the gays” I’m always a bit confused. Do they:

A) Think that gay people are personally out to destroy their individual marriages?

B) Just grossed out about thinking of two guys having sex (Few people seem to disapprove of two women together, as long as their hot)?

C) Actually angry about something bigger that I just wasn’t grasping?

I had originally added a D) They do not know any gay people. But then I realized that everyone knows someone who is gay.

With some research and thinking, I came up with the following:

Since our inception as a country we have been in a constant state of flux between what we now refer to as conservative and liberal directions. Both the conservative and liberal paths come from the differences in moral development and experiences that individuals travel through in their life. Cultural policy changes are generally based on shifting morals.

Jean Piaget (2006) tells us that “all morality consists in a system of rules, and the essence of all morality is to be sought for in the respect which the individual acquires for those rules”. On an individual level, rule acquiring starts a young age and develops from the parenting model out. There are two distinct parental models that most children are raised with that help them develop how they see the world and work in conjunction with any life experiences that they are exposed to. These two parental models are universal in their usage and produce individuals who, even though they can be culturally and geographically different, are split into two distinct groups that share the same basic beliefs to how the world moralistically operates.

The first of these two groups is the strict father model, wherein there is a set of assumptions that believe that the “world is a dangerous place, and always will be, because there is evil out there in the world. The world is also difficult because it is competitive. There will always be winners and losers. There is an absolute right and an absolute wrong. Children are born bad, in the sense that they just want to do what feels good, not what is right. Therefore, they have to be made good” (Lakoff 2004).

The model goes on to describe how a strong and strict father is needed as a guide to “protect the family in the dangerous world, support the family in the difficult world, and teach the children right from wrong”. This strict and physical discipline teaches the individual how to behave if they do not want to be punished by the world. It also teaches an Adam Smith Invisible Hand of morality, wherein, everyone will pursue their own self-interest to an end equally beneficial to all who are have the personal responsibility and follow that same self-interest. This model leads to the underlying belief that those who are good moral people are disciplined and self-reliant. Bad people are those who are immoral because they are dependent on others.

This strict father model of raising children leads to adults who believe it is immoral to give to those who have not helped themselves. They also believe that it is the right thing to do when the government rewards those who have pursued their own self-interest and punish those who have not. The political result of this is a conservative base that sees very little positive in almost all social programs and believes that they are the moral authority. This leads towards national and international policy based on the same strict father model and policy that sees it moral to punish and reward based on an individuals ability to remain self-reliant and disciplined enough to be successful on their own. It also has the tendency to see the world in that original “good” and “bad” mentality and treat all who are not the moral authorities as their children in need of guidance.

The antithesis to the strict father model is the nurturing model of parenting. This gender neutral model assumed that “both parents are equally responsible for raising the children. The assumption is that children are born good and can be made better. The world can be made a better place, and our job is to work on that. The parents’ job is to nurture their children and to raise their children to be nurturing of others” (Lakoff 2003). This parenting model relies on empathy and responsibility. It is the parents’ responsibility to be morally responsibly, protect, and provide nurturing values (freedom, opportunity, fairness, communication, and honesty) all while remaining strong so that they continue to be productive in their society. This nurturing parent model leads to different distinct variations of personal responsibility, but all have a supporting role in the wellbeing of all. Social program, international aid, and safety nets are the policy themes of this model. Both models have a fair share of individuals who, for different reasons, will eventually gravitate towards the other side.

So the historically conservative issue with gay marriage arises because of the simple fact that same sex-marriages go in the opposite direction as the strict father model of the family. A marriage between two lesbians does not have a father, and a marriage between two men consists of a partnership of men who are deemed feminine and less man-like. Since defending and expanding the strict father model is the absolute highest moral value for conservatives, same-sex marriage constitutes an attack on the conservative value system as a whole, and on those whose very identity depends on their having strict father values.

They are not fighting to keep gays from marrying because they think the individuals are personally attacking their marriage; they are fighting because it undercuts everything that they believe by showing them that other ways work just as well as their own. And that is more dangerous to them then anything else.

Lakoff, G. (2003). Don’t Think of an Elephant. White River Jct., VT: Chelesa Green Publishing.

Piaget, J. (2006). The Moral Judgment of the Child. NYL: Free Press.

Spirituality

What do you think of when someone tells you that they are “spiritual”? Do you think that they are Christian? Do you then see them as Earthy, Hippy, New Agey? Do you assume that they’ve spent long stretches of time trying to figure out who they are in relation to the universe around them?

So what is Spirituality? Is it different to everyone? Is it a term that has been stretched so thin that no one can really define it? Would you say that you are Spiritual? Why? Why not?

Entry for June 20, 2007

I am a non-believer in religion. I do not believe in a God, or Gods, and no words will ever change that. I do not believe that I am an Atheist because an Atheist’s belief seems to be absolute and I know that I am wrong too often to pretend I can be absolutely right on anything. Also, I have a problem with the term “Atheist” because it is defined as “someone who denies the existence of God” and that, to me, seems odd because there are no other words in the English language to describe someone who does not believe in something else. There is no word to describe those who do not believe in fairies or dragons, there is no term for those people who question the existence of Bigfoot, and no one has ever coined a saying for individuals who know that Santa isn’t real. So the only reason for a term to describe someone who does not believe in a God or Gods is so that some people can identify, or be identified, as those who don’t believe as certain others do. Atheism is an argument waiting to happen, it is a disagreement that wishes to be fought over, and it is a fight that will never have a clear winner. So I choose to be a non-believer, someone with strong convictions about my great doubts, that will probably never be overcome, and an individual who will not believe in absolutes.

Attention All Women

It has come to my attention that a high percentage of women under the age of 40 have been seriously misled as to what is “hot”. So here and now, I would like to let all women know that no strait male over the age of 14 finds Paris Hilton attractive. Please, stop wearing those ridiculously enormous sunglasses, knock it off with the ever-changing, bad, blonde hairstyle structures, and please leave vacant and vapid expressions to individuals in a coma. It is not hot, is not attractive to men, and makes us want to run away from you.

Thank you.

Confused

The news just reported that Ruth Graham, who is 87 and the wife of well-known Evangelist Billy Graham, who is 88 and blessed with fluid on the brain, prostate cancer, Parkinson's disease and age-related macular degeneration, fell into a coma Wednesday morning and appears to be close to death. The family is readying the task of burial and dealing with the inevitable fallout from the loss of a member of the family. In the interim, they are praying for her recovery and encouraging others to keep her health in their prayers.

This I find absolutely confusing.

If they truly believed that they were all going to a special place to live out eternity in absolute bliss, wouldn’t they be happy about it? Is it not incredibly greedy on their behalf to want her to live in a state like that knowing that she’s on her way to the best place that they can image? It’s like they are all standing outside the gates of Disneyworld yelling at her to come back as she goes through the turnstile. Sure it’s natural to want our loved ones to stay here with us, but if you honestly believed in an afterlife like the Christian heaven, wouldn’t you want yourself and everyone you love to get there as quickly as possible?

Reality Check

Reality Check
Between the new PhD in Public Policy and Administration and the current political climate, I’ve been a bit centered on our country, present day occurrences, daily bickerings and how they all relate to our own history. When I get mired in frustration or ecstatic in hope I ground myself by trying to remember just how small and inconsequential all of this really is. This is how I do it:



The above picture was taken by Voyager 1, while 4 billion miles away, of Earth. Along with this picture, I read the following by Carl Sagan from Pale Blue Dot:

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light."

Next time that you think that the universe is out to get you or that you are righteously special, look at the above picture, read the quote from Dr. Sagan, and think to yourself, “Am I really that important?” and I promise that you’ll feel a bit more… ..grounded.

Motorcycles are no longer cool

For Memorial Day Kela and I are traveling through a couple different places in the South, seeing some friends and family, and trying to relax in the warm and welcoming comfort of Southern hospitality. Our first sojourn along the way, Anderson, SC, was a stop to a motorcycle club on their way to somewhere else. My immediate impression of motorcycles is a flashback to 1969 with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper riding across the country on a self-realization trip. Or a band of 60’s Harleys rolling down the road, unencumbered with the trivialities of “normal” life.

Now my mother was at Atlamont when the Hells Angels took over the Stones Concert and killed one member of the audience and remembers it with distant horror. The Hells Angles were the quintessential motorcycle gang in our history. Vicious, merciless, and badass, they were cool in an awful way. Their motorcycles were the identifying marker of who and what they were.

Fast forward almost four decades and now Steven, an orthodontist who drives a Volvo 960 during the week, and Colin, a retired CPA with a wife actually named Muffin, ride down Main Street on their monthly trip to the Sam’s Club four towns over and back. Motorcycles use to be the pinnacle of coolness, up there with leather jackets, drugs, and anonymous sex. Now they are mostly for retired, balding guys who are trying to recapture an age which they missed because they were trying to pay off a house and put kids through school.

So it is bad that motorcycles are no longer the symbol of free expression and personal autonomy? Maybe. Is it a good thing that anyone can escape into a world where all rules are self-made and followed only on choice? Perhaps. Is it safe to assume that people are just experiencing a Disneyfied motorcycle fantasy with delusions of coolness? Yes. Do I want one? Possibly.

Net taxes could arrive by this fall

The following story is from News.com (http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6186193.html)

The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful.

State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.

At the moment, states and municipalities are frequently barred by federal law from collecting both access and sales taxes. But they're hoping that their new lobbying effort, coordinated by groups including the National Governors Association, will pay off by permitting them to collect billions of dollars in new revenue by next year.

If that doesn't happen, other taxes may zoom upward instead, warned Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "Are we implicitly blessing a situation where states are forced to raise other taxes, such as income or property taxes, to offset the growing loss of sales tax revenue?" Enzi said. "I want to avoid that."

A flurry of proposals that pro-tax advocates advanced this week push in that direction. On Tuesday, Enzi introduced a bill that would usher in mandatory sales tax collection for Internet purchases. Second, during a House of Representatives hearing the same day, politicians weighed whether to let a temporary ban on Net access taxes lapse when it expires on November 1. A House backer of another pro-sales tax bill said this week to expect a final version by July.

"The independent and sovereign authority of states to develop their own revenue systems is a basic tenet of self government and our federal system," said David Quam, director of federal relations at the National Governors Association, during a Senate Commerce committee hearing on Wednesday.

Internet sales taxes
At the moment, for instance, Seattle-based Amazon.com is not required to collect sales taxes on shipments to millions of its customers in states like California, where Amazon has no offices. (Californians are supposed to voluntarily pay the tax owed when filing annual state tax returns, but few do.)

Ideas to alter this situation hardly represent a new debate: officials from the governors' association have been pressing Congress to enact such a law for at least six years. They invoke arguments--unsuccessful so far--like saying that reduced sales tax revenue threatens budgets for schools and police.

But with Democrats now in control of both chambers of Congress, the political dynamic appears to have shifted in favor of the pro-tax advocates and their allies on Capitol Hill. The NetChoice coalition, which counts as members eBay, Yahoo and the Electronic Retailing Association and opposes the sales tax plan, fears that the partisan shift will spell trouble.

One long-standing objection to mandatory sales tax collection, which the Supreme Court in a 1992 case left up to Congress to decide, is the complexity of more than 7,500 different tax agencies that each have their own (and frequently bizarre) rules. Some legal definitions (PDF) tax Milky Way Midnight candy bars as candy and treat the original Milky Way bar as food. Peanut butter Girl Scout cookies are candy, but Thin Mints or Caramel deLites are classified as food.

The pro-tax forces say that a concept called the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement will straighten out some of the notorious convolutions of state tax laws. Enzi's bill, introduced this week, relies on the agreement when providing "federal authorization" to require out-of-state retailers "to collect and remit the sales and use taxes" due on the purchase. (Small businesses with less than $5 million in out-of-state sales are exempted.)

It's "important to level the playing field for all retailers," Enzi said during Wednesday's hearing.

While it's too early to know how much support Enzi's bill will receive, foes of higher taxation are marshaling their allies. Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, said Wednesday that he'd like "to see an impregnable ban on taxes on the Internet."

Jeff Dircksen, the director of congressional analysis at the National Taxpayers Union in Alexandria, Va., said in written testimony prepared for the hearing: "If such a system of extraterritorial collection is allowed, Congress will have opened the door to any number of potential tax cartels that will eventually harm rather than help taxpayers."

Internet access taxes
A second category of higher Net taxes is technically unrelated, but is increasingly likely to be linked when legislation is debated in Congress later this year. That category involves access taxes, meaning taxes that local and state governments levy to single out broadband or dial-up connections. (See CNET News.com's Tech Politics podcast this week with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey on this point.)

If the temporary federal moratorium is allowed to expire in November, states and municipalities will be allowed to levy a dizzying array of Net access taxes--meaning a monthly Internet connection bill could begin to resemble a telephone bill or airline ticket with innumerable and confusing fees tacked on at the end. In some states, telephone fees, taxes and surcharges run as high as 20 percent of the bill.

These fees that states levy on mobile phones, cable TV and landlines run far higher than state sales taxes at an average of 13.3 percent, cost the average household $264 a year, and total $41 billion annually, according to a report published by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute this month. Landlines are taxed at the highest rate, 17.23 percent, with Internet access being virtually tax free, with the exception of a few states that were grandfathered in a decade ago.

Dircksen, from the National Taxpayers Union, urged the Senate on Wednesday to "encourage economic growth and innovation in the telecommunications sector--in contrast to higher taxes, fees and additional regulation" by at least renewing the expiring moratorium, and preferably making it permanent. Broadband providers like Verizon Communications also want to make the ban permanent.

But state tax collectors are steadfastly opposed to any effort to renew the ban, let alone impose a permanent extension. Harley Duncan, the executive director of the Federation of Tax Administrators, said Wednesday that higher taxes will not discourage broadband adoption and his group "urges Congress not to extend the Act because it is disruptive of and poses long-term dangers for state and local fiscal systems."

Sen. Daniel Inouye, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, said: "Listening to the testimony, I would opt for a temporary extension, if at all."

If the moratorium expires, one ardent tax foe is predicting taxes on e-mail. A United Nations agency proposed in 1999 the idea of a 1-cent-per-100-message tax, but retreated after criticism. (A similar proposal, called bill "602P," is, however, actually an urban legend.)

"They might say, 'We have no interest in having taxes on e-mail,' but if we allow the prohibition on Internet taxes to expire, then you open the door on cities and towns and states to tax e-mail or other aspects of Internet access," said Sen. John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican. "We need to be honest about what we're endorsing and what we're opposing."

Entry for May 19, 2007

Have you ever been somewhere, listening in on a conversation (or possibly trapped where you are forced to listen) and wish you could jump in regardless of the consequences? Well, this happened to me this morning. And not being able to respond at that time, I now present just my side of the conversation with the adult voice from the Peanuts filling in the other side:

So you honestly think that a being capable of creating space, time, and matter, 125 billion galaxies, of which there are 400 billion stars and 4 trillion planets in our galaxy alone, with 1.8 million known living plant and animal species on this planet (several billion if you count the extinct ones), and you think that this being thinks YOU are important? Oh please, get over yourself. You aren’t cosmic shit. You are not special by any stretch of the imagination. And if there is a divine being, it would have the power to create something infinitely more interesting than you.

Whaa-whaa-whaa?

Died for your original sin?!?! What sins does a baby have? What kind of horrible being do you think would create a life already convicted of the worst crimes that can be imagined? How horribly cruel is that being that you’re calling a God?!??

Whaa-whaa-WHAA.

Look, I understand that you think that there is a super-cool guy out there in the sky who controls everything, but there is an old argument by some dead dude that goes something like this: If your God wants to stop evil, but can’t, then he is not all powerful. If he can prevent evil, but is not willing, then he is cruel. If he is able and willing, then evil wouldn’t exist. If he is not able or willing, then he isn’t actually a God. See how easy that was? No God, you’re on your own. Sorry.

Whaa-whaa-whaa!!!

Fine, fine, whatever, I look at it this way: The same freewill that allows you to believe in a supernatural being is the same freewill that allows me to behave myself. You choose to believe in a fantasy world because you think that its rules are sacred. I use my freewill to believe in rules for the sake of humanity and to keep myself safe. Either way, we are basically supporting the same rules. Except with my way, I can change my rules as science, morals, and technology evolves. You are now stuck because you’ve chose to submit your freewill to something that is uncompromising and your freewill no longer exists while it is in sublimation to that divine law. Therefore, I can choose to be a better person then you because I can take in more factors and current judgments about present day situations.

Whaa

Same to you.

There, I feel much better now. Thank you.

Open Question for Everyone

Is it safe to assume that with the ever increasing connectivity of information leading to a technological Lamarckian view of knowledge, or, where new generations of humans inherit the acquired discoveries of past generations (allowing for cosmic insight to accumulate without limit), that this process would channel towards an overall collectivist mindset in those knowledge’s benefactors?

If they answer is yes, will this collective attitude manifest itself into global Socialist governance and has it already started in countries where information is shared equally and with efficient fluidity?

If not, will the ease of access to any information create a subset of individuals whom choose to absorb said information and an equal subset who do not? Would this split not eventually lead towards speciation?

Caveat: I am making the assumption that those who take full advantage of the technological Lamarckian view of knowledge raise a higher percentage of children who will do the same and eventually mate in-kind.

Thoughts? Insults? Ideas?

On Disney and Southern Baptists

On June 18, 1997 the Southern Baptists approved, by an overwhelming majority of delegates, a boycott the Disney Company and its subsidiaries. At the time they claimed it was for the "anti-Christian and anti-family direction" that they believed that the saw in Disney (cnn.com). It citied Disney’s tolerance of homosexuals and subsidiaries production of controversial books and films like "Pulp Fiction". Of course, all of this hit Disney’s bottom line in ways immeasurable, mainly because it had no measurable impact whatsoever.

It wasn’t until this last week, upon seeing a couple of the Disney movies (Beauty and the Beast, Jungle Book, and Little Mermaid) when I finally figured out the real reason for the Southern Baptists frustration. What I realized was that it had nothing to do with the Disney Theme Park’s “Gay Days”, or anything to do with films like Pulp Fiction. Instead, it was because Disney is the standard for children’s entertainment and that that product is almost entirely secular. Essentially, the Baptists were pissed because Disney wouldn’t help them to sell their religion. The Southern Baptists decided to boycott Disney to force them into providing some Christian products to legitimize their beliefs in the eyes of their most impressionable of their congregation.

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out, and I’m almost ashamed to admit it here, but I figured that if I didn’t come clean on my own shortcomings, I would be no better then those Southern Baptists.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9706/18/baptists.disney/

Entry for May 14, 2007

Have you ever reread a book and found something new? Some undiscovered line or thought that you’ve somehow missed in subsequent readings? This weekend it happened to me and I’m better for it.

When our friends Tom and Kate invited us to go camping this last weekend, and being the nerd that I am, I decided to raid my bookshelf for something appropriate to read in the woods. This led me to rereading Thoreau’s Walden, after a morning sunrise over the lake, and for the first time in years.

Buried in the book by a fire I found the line, “I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have all been introduced” and sat thinking as the embers seemed to crack and hiss their approval of my fresh discovery.

As much as I would like to argue the belief, I think that we need fear to feel alive; it is the curse of being mortal. So many things we have done are aimed at controlling the fear of death, but nothing every really seeks the root. It is the one disease that we will all get, suffer with, and eventually die from. Moreover, no one has, or will, ever come back to tell tales of eternal light. So we sit in the dark, warmed by the glow of our little advancements, safe in the knowledge that evildoers are being hunted, encouraged by passing tales of myth and guesses, all the while knowing we will someday find the darkness, and are complete.

Happiness comes in all forms, most of which are denials. So it is reassuring to see mortality for what it is, because that is the only true way in which to learn to enjoy the sun as it warms us for one more day.

Science is Cool

From apples to zebras, all 1.8 million known plant and animal species will be listed in an Internet-based "Encyclopedia of Life" under a $100 million project, scientists said on Tuesday.

The 10-year scheme, launched with initial grants of $12.5 million from two U.S.-based foundations, could aid everyone from children with biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species.

"The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named species," James Edwards, executive director of the project which is backed by many leading research institutions, told Reuters. "At the moment that's 1.8 million."

The free Encyclopedia would focus mainly on animals, plants and fungi with microbes to follow, blending text, photographs, maps and videos in a common format for each. Expansion of the Internet in recent years made the multi-media project possible.

Demonstration pages at http://www.eol.org include entries about polar bears, rice, death cap mushrooms and a "yeti crab" with hairy claws recently found in the South Pacific.

"This is about giving access to information to everyone," Jesse Ausubel, chairman of the project who works at the Rockefeller University in New York City, told Reuters.

The Encyclopedia would draw on existing databases such as for mammals, fishes, birds, amphibians and plants. English would be used at the start with translations to other languages.

Edwards said the project would give an overview of life on earth via what he termed a "macroscope" -- the opposite of a microscope through which scientists usually peer.

Species would be added as they were identified. Edwards said there might be 8-10 million on earth, adding that estimates ranged from 5-100 million. Fossil species may also be added.

The encyclopedia, to be run by a team of about 25-35 people, could help chart threats to species from pollution, habitat destruction and global warming.

The project would be led by the U.S. Field Museum, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden,
Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library -- a group that includes London's Natural History Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, England.

Initial funding comes from a $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Extra funds would be raised in coming years.

Ausubel noted that 2007 was the 300th anniversary of the birth of Sweden's Carl Linnaeus, influential in working out ways to classify species. "If he were alive today we think he'd be jumping up and down celebrating," he said.

Entry for May 11, 2007

I’ve heard quite a few people say the line “I don’t worry about the government monitoring me because I have nothing to hide”. To them, I offer this video. Enjoy.

On this National Day of Reason

On this National Day of Reason I offer forth the story of Mosey the Pirate form The Gospel according to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

While brooding atop Mount Salsa having lost his pirate ship, Captain Mosey received advice from the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the form of ten stone tablets. The Flying Spaghetti Monster proclaimed these were to be forever called the "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts", or the "Commandments" by Mosey, with his pirate gang referring to them as "Condiments". Why transporting the new sacred tablet back down the mountain, Mosey dropped two. This accident "partly accounts for Pastafarians' flimsy moral standards". The FSM's commandments address the treatment of people of other faiths, worship of the FSM, sexual conduct, and nutrition. They are as follows:
The Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts"

1. I'd really rather you didn't act like a sanctimonious holier-than-thou ass when describing my noodly goodness. If some people don't believe in me, that's okay. Really, I'm not that vain. Besides, this isn't about them so don't change the subject.
2. I'd really rather you didn't use my existence as a means to oppress, subjugate, punish, eviscerate, and/or, you know, be mean to others. I don't require sacrifices, and purity is for drinking water, not people.
3. I'd really rather you didn't judge people for the way they look, or how they dress, or the way they talk, or, well, just play nice, Okay? Oh, and get this in your thick heads: woman = person. man = person. Samey = Samey. One is not better than the other, unless we're talking about fashion and I'm sorry, but I gave that to women and some guys who know the difference between teal and fuchsia.
4. I'd really rather you didn't indulge in conduct that offends yourself, or your willing, consenting partner of legal age AND mental maturity. As for anyone who might object, I think the expression is go fuck yourself, unless they find that offensive in which case they can turn off the TV for once and go for a walk for a change.
5. I'd really rather you didn't challenge the bigoted, misogynistic, hateful ideas of others on an empty stomach. Eat, then go after the bitch.
6. I'd really rather you didn't build multi million-dollar churches/temples/mosques/shrines to my noodly goodness when the money could be better spent (take your pick):
A. Ending poverty
B. Curing diseases
C. Living in peace, loving with passion, and lowering the cost of cable
I might be a complex-carbohydrate omniscient being, but I enjoy the simple things in life. I ought to know. I AM the creator.
7. I'd really rather you didn't go around telling people I talk to you. You're not that interesting. Get over yourself. And I told you to love your fellow man, can't you take a hint?
8. I'd really rather you didn't do unto others as you would have them do unto you if you are into, um, stuff that uses a lot of leather/lubricant/Las Vegas. If the other person is into it, however (pursuant to #4), then have at it, take pictures, and for the love of Mike, wear a CONDOM! honestly, it's a piece of rubber. If I didn't want it to feel good when you did it I would have added spikes, or something.

So let us all now bask in His noodly goodness and spend this National Day of Reason contemplating those less fortunate than us, how we may help them, and what we can do to improve ourselves. Because lets face it, we all need some work.

Now if you'll join me (no need to stand, we're not that formal) in the The Flying Spaghetti Monster Prayer:
Our saucer, which art in a colander,
Draining be Your noodles.
Thy noodle come,
Thy meatballness be done on earth,
As it is meaty in heaven.
Give us this day our daily sauce,
And forgive us our lack of piracy,
As we pirate and smuggle against those who lack piracy with us.
And lead us not into vegetarianism,
But deliver us from non-red meat sauce.
For thine is the colander, the noodle, and the sauce,
Forever and ever.
Ramen

Go in Reason and Thought

Entry for May 02, 2007

It's going to be a fun(ny) election.

Entry for May 01, 2007

Is it just me, or is Christopher Hitchens is trying to become Oolon Colluphid?

Confessions from a Guilty Atheist

I love churches. Not for any religious reason, really, I’m just there for the whole production. Here you have a wonderful building, usually constructed with grand opulence, a show full of pageantry, incense, singing, dancing (in some), outfits of all designs, food and drinks, and speeches on everything from birth to death and after. It’s one hell of a show!!! Vegas has nothing on a good religious service.

Now before you out there in Brightsville start in with your “oh please, there’s just as much proof that God created the universe in some sort of Christian / Muslim / Jewish / Zoroastrian / Whateverian way as there is that the Universe was sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. People just need myth to feel blah blah blah”, let me tell you that I know. Really, I agree. But I am still a sucker for a good show.

So if you see me sitting in the back of a church this weekend, munching popcorn with my feet up, let me go ahead and apologize. Chances are that the guy up front in the funny religious uniform and I will never see eye to eye, but at least when that collection plate comes around, I will be one of the only people in the room who drops in $10 and feels that they’ve got their moneys worth.

Entry for April 12, 2007

On July 24th of 2006 I posted a blog called “Who will you cry for when they die?” and posed the question “Not counting family members, loved ones, and pets, who will you shed a tear for when they pass?” Mine was Kurt Vonnegut.

Last night he died and I cried. So it goes.

From Reuters:

Thu Apr 12, 1:27 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American literary idol Kurt Vonnegut, best known for such classic novels as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died on Tuesday night in Manhattan at age 84, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Longtime family friend, Morgan Entrekin, who reported Vonnegut's death, said the writer had suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, the newspaper reported.

Vonnegut, born in Indianapolis in 1922, also wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But his novels -- 14 in all -- became classics of the American counterculture. He was a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and 1970s, the Times said.

The defining moment of Vonnegut's life was the firebombing of Dresden, Germany by Allied Forces in 1945, an event he witnessed as a young prisoner of war, the newspaper said.

Dresden was the basis for "Slaughterhouse-Five," which was published in 1969 against the backdrop of war in Vietnam, racial unrest and cultural and social upheaval, the Times said.

Vonnegut became a cult hero when the novel reached No. 1 on best-seller lists, the article said, adding that some schools and libraries have banned the book because of its sexual content, rough language and depictions of violence.

The novel featured a signature Vonnegut phrase, "so it goes," which became a catch phrase for opponents of the Vietnam war.

After the book was published, Vonnegut went into severe depression and vowed never to write another novel. In 1984, he tried to take his life with sleeping pills and alcohol, the report said.

Vonnegut's books were a mixture of fiction and autobiography, prone to one-sentence paragraphs, exclamation points and italics, the report said.

Some critics said he had invented a new literary type and other accused him of repeating himself, of recycling themes and characters. Some readers found his work incoherent, the Times said.

"Cat's Cradle" was published in 1963 and although it initially sold only about 500 copies it is widely read today in high school English classes, the newspaper said.

Vonnegut's last book, published in 2005, was a collection of biographical essays, "A Man Without a Country." It, too, was a best seller, the newspaper said.

His first play, "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," opened Off Broadway in 1970 to mixed reviews and around the same time he separated from his first wife, Jane, the Times said.

Vonnegut, a fourth-generation German-American, is survived by his wife photographer Jill Krementz, their daughter and his six other children, the New York Times said.

Did you know...

Who does this remind you of?

Manichaean Paranoia is the belief that you are leading the forces of good against the empire of evil. It is the idea that your moral superiority justifies you in committing immoral acts.

I don't know. What do you want to eat?

So I was standing in the Health and Diet section at Barnes & Noble starring at the selection of books on food and it convinced me to go on a starvation diet. Not because any book that I saw there advocated it, but specifically because they didn’t. There was a book on why you shouldn’t eat meat because of all of the hormones that they inject in the animals. I can’t eat mass-produced vegetables because they are all treated with chemicals and genetically engineered. All seafood is out because of the mercury. No organic food because of lack of local over-site and possibility of e.coli-type contaminates. And to top it all off, I can’t drink water because of the buildup of estrogen progesterone and other prescription drugs that aren’t filtered out through the body or by water treatment plants. There is nothing that I can eat or drink that is actually good for me. So here I now sit, hungrily, eyeing a bag of Doritos made of things called disodium phosphate, inosinate, and guanylate, and wondering if my health is really worth it.

MP3 Player Advice

I’ve been meaning to write something like this for years… and having just spent the last two months shopping for one, and getting pestered by friends who know I’m an uber-nerd, I’ll give it a whirl. MP3 Players come is a couple different flavors and price points, all varied for the needs of the individual. Here is a quick breakdown of the available options on portable MP3 solutions:

High Capacity Players:

TV, Movies, and Digital Photos are these physically largest in class aim. The gold standard was the classic iPod, but has since been supplanted by the Toshiba Gigabeat. The Gigabeat may not have the iPod name, but it is lighter, has a better screen, more video capability, and longer battery life. There are also other options in this category, such as the Creative Zen (a good choice, but heavy), the Philips Gogear (slow with a small screen), and the Cowon iAudio X5L whose main drawback is its lackluster controls and proprietary cables. The iPod, while no longer the technological standout in this category, is the cheapest High Capacity Player for the buck, and the only one that is able to connect to iTunes (the worlds largest online music library). Expect these models to start at $250 and up, depending on how my gigabytes you “need”.

Mid-Capacity Players:

Smaller in size, storage, and “wow” appeal, these 4GB(ish) models work off of flash memory instead of the hard-drive setup used in the High Capacity Players. This leads them to be a bit more problematic, but less expensive alternative for those not interested in watching Star Wars or 24 on a 2” screen. There are a bevy of new options in Mid-Capacity Players, including the Archos (ill-refined in my option), the Cowon iAudio 6 (which was slow when I tested it), the iRiver (a good alternative to all others with excellent sound and controls, but iffy screen), Samsung YP-Z5 (basic player for a high price), Sandisk Sansa E260 (good for music only people, meaning it doesn’t support video at all), the Siren Edge (should be avoided at all cost for its terrible design), with the he easy leader in this category as the iPod Nano. All of these models fall around the $200 range.

Mini Players:

Cheap(er), basic, and easily portable, these tiny flash players are the small, go-anywhere, models that fit most people’s essential needs. The only option here is slightly larger storage capacity, and a screen. To me, the screen makes all the difference. The best player of the group is easily the Apple iPod Shuffle. It’s tiny, cheap (under $80), and clipable to almost any piece of clothing. Unfortunately, it is one of the last models in the category that does not come with a screen. So playback consists of either a random setting, or a shuffle setting. The other options in this category, the Creative Zen V Plus and the Sandisk Sansa C140 are both better options to me. The drawback with the Sandisk model is that it only runs on AAA batteries, which requires either a separate battery charger, or a never-ending supply of batteries. The Creative Zen is ugly, larger, and was hard to operate with my fat fingers, but did everything that I could have wanted in a Mini Player.

Things to Remember:

1,000MB = 1GB, and each song (MP3) is about 4MB.
1GB of memory in a player is equal to about 250 MP3s.
1 hour of video is about equal to 800MB.
Each picture is about 3.5MB.

So a smaller GB High Capacity Player (30GB) will hold 7,500 songs or about 37 hours of video, a Mid-Capacity Player (4GB) will hold 1000 MP3s, and a Mini Player (1GB) will hold about 400. Almost all models have adapters that can send their signals from the player directly into a car stereo, but only one (the iPods) have special controls prebuilt into some new vehicles and home stereos. Also, the iPod models are currently the only players that work with iTunes, but you can expect this to change as soon as some of the current lawsuits work themselves out.

So the real questions you need to ask yourself are as follows:

Am I going to want to watch video on my player?
About how many songs am I realistically going to store on my player?
How physically large of a model do I want to carry around?
Do I want an icon, some nice techo arm candy, or something that I’m actually going to use?

And of course, how much do I really want to spend to conveniently listen to music?

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone out there.

Quote for the day

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

Epicurus 305 BCE

Quote for the day

"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one" - J.D. Salinger

Happy Valentine’s Day

Hoses are black,
Mallets are steel,
Two days in a diaper,
Tells you just how I feel.

Have a safe and happy Valentine's Day.

After 9-11, what should have happened?

I think we can all now admit that the War in Iraq was a bad idea and that the War in Afghanistan may be a lost cause.

Now before you start in with all of the “Hindsight is 20/20”, and “Monday morning quarterbacking”…, let me tell you we study the past so that we can deal with the future. So as the Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and historian David McCullough said, “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are”. Or more simply put by Thucydides, “History is Philosophy teaching by examples”.

So what examples should be taken from the post 9-11 tragedies that lead towards our failed campaigns? What should have been done differently or not at all? And what can we do to instill this knowledge into future generations?

Follow this question on Yahoo Answers

And I feel fine...

About a year ago I wrote a blog on how, in order for the keep up interest, the 24 hour news stations had to make every insignificant story the most important thing ever. At the time, I felt it was just the news. Now I realize that it is all of us who equally share the blame. And if these actions continue, and somehow unify into one self-important, cosmic collection, it may eventually rip apart space and time, wholly undoing the very fabric of our universe.

What we all seem guilty of is maintaining a constant state of fanatical movement from one angry mob to another in a hopeless attempt to find a unifying, cohesive cause. Everything from the "war for civilization" we are fighting in the Middle East, to the "global emergency facing our plant through our own careless lifestyles", all the way to whether or not everyone is praying enough, to the right God, in the right way, so that He will not send down upon us a Judgment Day of boiling blood and bowl-shaking demons, hell bent on ripping our souls from our still pulsing bodies.

Is this cataclysmic scaled arguing overwhelming the good causes in all of this? How do we get excited about real issues in a level suitable for intelligent action? How do we keep perspective when the norm is believing we are catastrofucked? Why are we so damn addicted to feeling like every little piece of our lives must be the most important moment ever? Who knows, maybe everything that is going on right now is the most important thing to have ever faced humanity as we know it. Or maybe it's just our stem cell destroying, endangered species consuming, eroding morality, democracy annihilating, war mongering, self inflicted narcissistic, gas guzzling bandwagon, which is on a direct collision course with the apocalyptic death machine that is reality, that haunts us.

Or maybe, we all know that reality happens to be plain and boring - and that scares us the most.

Pan’s Labyrinth, sadistically enchanting

This last weekend the misses and I ventured out through the freshly snow covered world to see what is being billed as an adult fairytale. Side jokes about the certain adult fairytales involving female prison shower scenes aside, we were excited about the prospect of a good fantasy flick aimed above usual Disney marketing level.

The first thing that I feel I should tell you is that this film is subtitled. This fact seemed to surprise only me, but I still need to share as it does lend to the level of mysteriousness presented when you look at the movie experience as a whole. The second thing is that even though the protagonist is a little girl, this is by no means is this a children's movie. Parts of this movie are stomach-churningly violent, but do work effectively in framing the story, characters, and underlying message.

In true Brothers Grimm style, the labyrinth, fantasy characters, and main individuals work well as both stunning allegorical pieces and indispensable parts in a symbolic tapestry representing a greater lesson to be learned. Entertainment and story are just the natural outcropping when that undertaking is successful. No where in recent movie memory have I seen that done more creatively than in this movie.

On a quick side note, an interesting outcropping of this movie was that after viewing it I finally and truly understood the appeal of religion.

I give this movie four out of four stars for making me think about it for a couple of days, and for moving me without resorting to jingoism, tired clichés, or overworked Hollywood storylines.

You don’t deserve shit

Alright, so I was reading through this months Popular Mechanics (come on people, you know I’m a nerd) and I came across and ad for the Tempur-Pedic® bed spouting the now commonly used phrase “You Deserve It”. Now I’ve seen this stupid phrase on everything from daytime TV ambulance chaser attorneys, to a time-share across from the “scenic New Jersey Turnpike”, all the way to an odor eating shoe insole. So you know what? Fuck you. Seriously. What the fuck makes you think you deserve my naked tired ass, fresh from an accident on the I95, which I had to walk home from?

Besides, what the fuck is “you deserve it” suppose to mean? Are you trying to imply that I should feel guilty about buying your odor eaters? Does my life suck that bad that I deserve an attorney with a bad hairpiece and a law degree from the Community College of Nicaragua? Am I normally incapable of living my fucking life, but somehow will find the strength to relocate next to an 8 lane highway because of your selfless, delightfully enchanted, encouragement? Maybe it’s that I’m just too stupid to lie down, so I must deserve your “Space Certified” sleeping apparatus to sooth my primate brain.

So you know what there you pity inducing, forcibly self-loathing, disappointment encouraging, marketing douche bags? You can go ahead and kiss my ass, because you deserve it.

Some places speak distinctly

Over my life I have moved many times, more so in the last decade, and have come to realize that I miss certain select places within each of those locations just as much as I miss the people. And as it seems trite to drone on about friends and family, I would instead like to say something about the comfort of places lost.

I am currently living in Saginaw, MI and am not very happy about it. We had to move here so that my wife can finish the last of her med school. For this I blame neither her nor Saginaw. But still, I cannot find anywhere here that feels just right.

The last place we lived, in Roswell, Georgia, had two comfortable places located fairly close to each other. The first is in a small glass nook in which a breakfast table was located at my father and Sherry’s house. It was a wonderful place to curl up with a hot mug of tea and a good book when the weather darkened. The second was the most wonderful trail I have ever had the enjoyment of getting to know. It had everything from a 50 foot waterfall, to a covered bridge, to secluded paths weaving for miles over all sorts of terrain. I miss both immensely.

Before Roswell was a house in Anderson, SC near my mother and Edgar. The house lent itself to being welcoming though age and want -- but it was the distinct loop of streets around the house that seemed to speak the loudest. I was forever finding reasons to walk that route, dog happily trotting beside me, whenever possible.

Maine enjoyed a most warm bedroom paradise. It was that it was a converted attic bedroom above a second floor that we had rented out, and it was just the first place I remember feeling tangible love after leaving hurricane devastated Cayman. The bedroom itself was tiny, the bed was too small, and the floors all creaked. Still, it felt safe and needed me there.

In Grand Cayman we lived in two separate places. One for 90% of the time that we lived on the island, and the other for the last 10% before the storm. Neither felt hospitable in a warm way. Instead, there was a rarely touched beach way back in the National Reserve that drew Kela, our then new dog Lucy, and myself to it every time it could muster a voice strong enough to reach us. Hours, afternoons, thoughts, and memories slipped away there; always with no regrets and a promise to return. Hurricane Ivan destroyed that spot. I hope it returns to call someone else someday.

Previous to Cayman was Kennesaw, GA where Kela and I purchased a fixer-upper in hopes of something I no longer remember. Each room in the house took hours of work; carpet was laid everywhere, tiles redone, walls painted, decks rebuilt. Everywhere in that house felt mine and still does.

From there back I remember sparks of the fires of places. A spot near the river off of La View Circle, the top of the mountain near 7 Loves Lane in Woburn, my crawlspace in Dunwoody, the kitchen where I had a surprise party in the Order, the room in which I got to see Superman on my birthday, and the bed where I played with my Grandmother while my sister was born.

I don’t have a place that nurtures my soul here in Saginaw and I’m not sure I’ll find one. It’s not for lack of want or looking, but it still taunts me with its illusiveness. Maybe there isn’t one here. Maybe I don’t want to find one. Maybe it doesn’t want to find me. Or maybe one just doesn't exist.

Religious view on intelligent life elsewhere?

A new report released today shows that “two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have stumbled upon alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them” (1) and I’m just overly curious how the religious community will process and respond to alien life. Now I’m not saying that this find is in any way intelligent, but what happens when we do actually find another self-realized being?

I know that the Christian Church has no official position on this matter of intelligent alien life, but wouldn’t they immediately have to have one? How could they continue to assert their divine importance of humanity with existence of different life elsewhere? Could ancient scripture actually be stretched thinner to accept the entire universe and all of its new possibilities? Seeing how most religious text claimed man’s unique status, the earth’s position as the center of the universe, and that we were created in any perfect image, could it still claim to be valid? Or would the find of intelligent life elsewhere make most of our present organized religions so emaciated and archaic as to make them impossible to believe in?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/01/07/mars.life.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Fun with Latin

Simple, convenient sayings for everyday use:

Vivere commune est, sed commune mereri.

Everybody lives, not everybody deserves to

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Homines libenter id quod volunt credunt

Men easily believe what they want to

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Bibamus moriendum est

Death is unavoidable; let’s have a drink

Why they still believe

I have a number of friends who, after all that has happened and has been revealed since the beginning of the war in Iraq, still unwaveringly support the president’s decision to invade and still condone his actions in the decrease of government openness while similarly taking away individual citizen’s rights. Mutual friends have asked me why these individuals still continue to adamantly support this president who has been so wrong, unjust, and illegal on so many fronts. And I suppose, this is a question that many of you have about people you know as well. So let me take a minute to explain why this is so.

In the beginning of this conflict they listened to the government say again and again and again that something was true (or hinted and suggested and made connections – think about the nonexistent link between Iraq and al Qaeda), and then when the president finally denied the statement, its was not enough to penetrate what had already become a mountain of lies. This mountain of lies is part of the indoctrination process that imposes a willful blindness to evidence and contradictions.

These lies and contradictions are more readily embraced by the educated class to the degree that the more educated and specialized individuals become, the more interest they have invested in the system that provides them with special privileges and rewards for continued support. For this reason, we often see people whose consciousness has not been totally atrophied, yet they fail, sometimes willfully, to read reality critically and they often side with hypocrisy. In most cases, these individuals begin to believe their lies, and in their roles as functionaries of the state, they propagate these same lies.

This chosen ignorance is steadfast in its unawareness and hostile to anyone who dares try to disrupt their balancing act with what the rest of us would call 'reality'. Any attempts by anyone from friends and family, to simple facts from the media, are quickly internalized as mistruths meant to lead them to a path that they've already decided to be false. It is a sad place that they are in, but it is one that they have chosen because it reaffirms that they deserve to be part of the crowd who is told that they are right, just, and special for still believing.

Saddam taunted, hung, and made into a martyr

I understand the want and need for revenge - especially with someone like this who deserves it - but it does not solve anything. It does not bring back those people. It does not undo the pain their friends and family must still live with. All it does is creates an artificial end without addressing how and why a crime was allowed to happen.

There is no way for a government sanction killing without simply justifying more killing. It is obviously not a deterrent and only pushes the social acceptance that killing begets more killing. Only when that cycle is stopped can we move on to actual deterrents and social change towards acceptable revenge with a focus on initial prevention.

* Video does not show hanging

Lake Superior State University Banished Words List

Lake Superior State University proposes an exit strategy for 2006: the 32nd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.

On Dec. 31, 1975, former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and some colleagues cooked up the whimsical idea to banish overused words and phrases and issued the first list on New Year's Day. Much to the delight of word enthusiasts everywhere, the list has stayed the course into a fourth decade.

Through the years, LSSU has received thousands of nominations for the list, which is closing in on its 1000th banishment.

This year's list is culled from more than 4,500 nominations received mostly through the university's website, www.lssu.edu/banished. Word-watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from the news, fields of education, technology, advertising, politics and more. A committee makes a final cut in late December. The list is released on New Year's Day.

So gitmo chipotle-flavored eggnog, curl up with an undocumented alien, and cut-and-run to the 2007 list. It won't be coming to a theater near you.

GITMO -- The US military's shorthand for a base in Cuba drives a wedge wider than a split infinitive.

"When did the notorious Guantanamo Bay Naval Base change to 'Gitmo,' a word that conjures up an image of a fluffy and sweet character from a Japanese anime show?" -- Marcus W., St. Louis, Missouri.

COMBINED CELEBRITY NAMES -- Celebrity duos of yore -- BogCall (Bogart and Bacall), Lardy (Laurel and Hardy), and CheeChong (Cheech and Chong) -- just got lucky.

"It's bad enough that celebrities have to be the top news stories. Now we've given them obnoxious names such as 'Bragelina,' 'TomKat' and 'Bennifer.'" -- M. Foster, Port Huron, Michigan.

"It's so annoying, idiotic and so lame and pathetic that it's 'lamethetic.'" -- Ed of Centreville, Virginia.

AWESOME -- Given a one-year moratorium in 1984, when the Unicorn Hunters banished it "during which it is to be rehabilitated until it means 'fear mingled with admiration or reverence; a feeling produced by something majestic." Many write to tell us there's no hope and it's time for "the full banishment."

"The kind of tennis shoes you wear, no matter how cute, don't fit the majestic design of the word." -- Leila Hill, Damascus, Maryland.

"That a mop, a deodorant or a dating service can be called 'awesome' demonstrates the limited vocabularies of the country's copywriters." -- Tom Brinkmoeller, Orlando, Florida.

"Overused and meaningless.' My mother was hit by a car.' Awesome. 'I just got my college degree.' Awesome." -- Robert Bron, Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand.

GONE/WENT MISSING -- "It makes 'missing' sound like a place you can visit, such as the Poconos. Is the person missing, or not? She went there but maybe she came back. 'Is
missing' or 'was missing' would serve us better." -- Robin Dennis, Flower Mound, Texas.

PWN or PWNED -- Thr styff of lemgendz: Gamer defeats gamer, types in "I pwn you" rather than I OWN you.

"This word is just an overly used Internet typo. It has been overused to the point that people who play online games are using it in everyday speech." -- Tory Rowley, Corunna, Michigan.

NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS -- Heard in movie advertisements. Where can we see that, again?

"How often do movies premiere in laundromats or other places besides theaters? I know that when I want to see a movie I think about going to a shoe store." -- Andrea May, Shreveport, Louisiana.

WE'RE PREGNANT -- Grounded for nine months.

"Were men feeling left out of the whole morning sickness/huge belly/labor experience? You may both be expecting, but only one of you is pregnant." -- Sharla Hulsey, Sac City, Iowa.

"I'm sure any woman who has given birth will tell you that 'WE' did not deliver the baby." -- Marlena Linne, Greenfield, Indiana.

UNDOCUMENTED ALIEN -- "If they haven't followed the law to get here, they are by definition 'illegal.' It's like saying a drug dealer is an 'undocumented pharmacist.'" -- John Varga, Westfield, New Jersey.

ARMED ROBBERY/DRUG DEAL GONE BAD -- From the news reports. What degree of "bad" don't we understand? Larry Lillehammer of Bonney Lake, Washington, asks, "After it stopped going well and good?"

TRUTHINESS – "This word, popularized by The Colbert Report and exalted by the American Dialectic Society's Word of the Year in 2005 has been used up. What used to ring true is getting all the truth wrung out of it." -- Joe Grimm, Detroit, Michigan.

ASK YOUR DOCTOR -- The chewable vitamin morphine of marketing.

"Ask your doctor if 'fill in the blank' is right for you! Heck, just take one and see if it makes you 'fill in the blank' or get deathly ill." -- R.C. Amundson, Oakville, Washington.

"I don't think my doctor would appreciate my calling him after seeing a TV ad." -- Peter B. Liveright, Lutherville, Maryland.

CHIPOTLE – Smoked dry over medium heat.

"Prior to 2005 . . . a roasted jalapeno. Now we have a 'chipotle' burrito with 'chipotle' marinated meat, 'chipotle' peppers, sprinkled with a 'chipotle' seasoning and smothered in a 'chipotle' sauce. Time to give this word a rest." – Rob Zeiger, Bristol, Pennsylvania.

i-ANYTHING -- 'e-Anything' made the list in 2000. Geoff Steinhart of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, says tech companies everywhere have picked this apple to the core. "Turn on…tune in…and drop out."

"Banish any word that starts with it. i am just tired of it. it's getting old. -- Brad Butler, Adrian, Michigan.

SEARCH -- Quasi-anachronism. Placed on one-year moratorium.

"Might as well banish it. The word has been replaced by 'google.'" -- Michael Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.

HEALTHY FOOD -- Point of view is everything.

Someone told Joy Wiltzius of Fort Collins, Colorado, that the tuna steak she had for lunch "sounded healthy." Her reply: "If my lunch were healthy, it would still be swimming somewhere. Grilled and nestled in salad greens, it's 'healthful.'"

BOASTS -- See classified advertisements for houses, says Morris Conklin of Lisboa, Portugal, as in "master bedroom boasts his-and-her fireplaces -- never 'bathroom apologizes for cracked linoleum,' or 'kitchen laments pathetic placement of electrical outlets.'"

LSSU accepts nominations for the banished-words list throughout the year. To submit your nomination for the 2008 list, go to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit.php.