Thursday, September 29, 2005

Euthenasia for youth in Europe

Dutch to set guidelines for euthanasia of babies - Children's Health - MSNBC.com

Number one: I don't believe people should suffer. Sounds like a ringing endorsement for euthanizing terminally ill infants, right?

Wrong.

One person in the article said that such a law (allowing euthanizing infants) is "prone to abuse." How? Here's an example. For whatever reason, a woman decides she doesn't want an abortion, but she doesn't want the child. She essentially abuses her body to help ensure a weak and/or very sick infant. You can follow the logic from there, as thinking about this is making me sick. But I guarantee: if I can think of it, someone else will.

That's one way of saying the law would be "prone to abuse." God only knows how many other ways a person could "abuse" this law. The thought is terrifying.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

I'd love to take a peek at Dumbledore's tax returns...

An interesting link regarding the correlation between health and where you live

Saturday, September 24, 2005

They must be putting crack in the water there...

Israel launches �crushing� retaliation - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

I'm going to refer to three quotes in todays diatribe:

Hamas blamed Israel, claiming it fired missiles into the crowd, and said its rocket attacks were in retaliation. Israel denied involvement, and the Palestinian Authority said Islamic militants
apparently caused the blast themselves by mishandling explosives.

A senior Palestinian security official confirmed Saturday that friction caused a rocket-propelled grenade in a truck to explode, which then ignited about 10 other grenades. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.


Uh, okay. So event eh Palestinian leadership says it was Hamas' fault for the explosion that caused this chain of events. Are these morons (in Hamas) even aware how stupid they look right now!?

In a nod to Hamas, Abbas reiterated Saturday that elections would be held in January as scheduled and that he would not let outsiders dictate who can participate. Israel has demanded that Hamas be barred.


Would we have allowed England to tell us, "No, you can't have George Washington run for President"? Fuck no. Why should we be expecting the Palestinians to be dictated to?

Hamas identified two of the dead as Nafez Abu Hussein and Rwad Farhad, local field commanders. Several hundred gunmen, some firing into the air, joined a funeral procession for Farhad, who was 17. Farhad's mother, known as Um Nidal, said all three of her sons have been killed in fighting with the Israelis. "I am so proud," she said. "I wish I had more sons to offer."


This is where I say: they must be putting crack in the water there or something. This is a clear indicator what value they put on life. I realize that the vast majority (I hope) of Palestinians, and even Muslims, have a higher value for life; but it should make it clear what kind of an enemy we face. I honestly think that it is people like this that made President Bush, after getting such recommendations to invade Iraq and what other stunts extremists could pull from such a location (etc, etc), say something to the effect of, "I wouldn't put it past them."

And people wonder where stereotypes come from. If people don't want stereotypes applied to them, go to the people they know LIVING the stereotype and tell them to STOP IT!! Police your own people, for fuck's sake!

Friday, September 23, 2005

Read Letter Day

Voyage to Xanadu, my first published work, is out in bookstores

NOW

. Well ... not in the actual stores. You can order it on Amazon.com. Just search for "Voyage to Xanadu," and it'll be there.

Go buy it NOW! Go, go, go!!! ;-)

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Time

I've been thinking about time. Now this is a real "why is the sky chartreuse" kind of question.

Why is it that we can move freely in the primary three spatial dimensions (x, y and z), but we can only "move" in one direction when it comes to time? We have 24 hours in a day, but what if the Gumbeble from the planet Clarion have a day that is equivalent to 13.9416 of our hours. That's a "day" to them?

Time is, in my opinion, nothing more than an arbitrary measurement used to track events. What if time isn't real? For that matter, the way we measure space (meters, feet, etc) is also an arbitrarty measurement. A bunch of people got together, put some marks on a stick, and agreed it was a measurement of distance. So is space not real, as well? This cannot be true (on a strictly physical sense, not metaphysical or spiritual), as I can touch this keyboard and see what I'm typing on the screen. Time cannot be seen or touched. None of our five senses perceive time--only physical things such as aromatic airborne molecules (smells), colliding photons (sights), etc. All physical things that can be measured in some physical way.

Time is completely different. We can't sense it. We have a biological clock, but is that a "sense," like I can feel how cool the rain is today? And it is the only known dimension we cannot travel through. I'd really like to ask a prominent physicist, how do we know that time is a real thing, like my computer is "real?" What if time is strictly a concept? A creation of our minds? Or just some way to relate to events?

Okay, just for shits and giggles, let's say that time is NOT a real dimension. Wow. Thinking like that made my brain hurt. Anyway. As unscientific as this statement is, there have been cases of people seeing into the "future." But, if we did know the future, we can do things now that would help prevent the foreseen future from happening. Now, if time were a dimension like left, right, up, down, etc, whatever is in the "future" should be fixed, just like things in the past; and just like I know my car is still parked in the same spot outside (I hope). But when we make a change in the now, the future is different. Could this be termed "temporal inertia"? A force was exerted--us doing something different--and something was changed--the future. Just like that guy out there exerting force on the car door, hotwiring the ignition, and driving off with my truck. It ain't there no more, buddy.

Hmm. As I think on this, I just proved that time does have something in common with space, and things that occupy space. It can be moved. I guess that would make it more real. Just because we have an arbitrary measurement for "time" doesn't make time arbitrary. I guess that's where I got mixed up. We have arbitrary measurements for space, and space is pretty real...on the surface, anyway.

But the concept of temporal inertia is interesting. And being able to foresee the future indicates some way of sensing time. And we sense the past using memory.

Now here's another interesting thing. "Memory" is nothing more than a bunch of chemicals in our brain arranged so that we have this thing called a "memory," right? Just like neurons fire when we see a light, or hear music, etc. Do future events register chemically in our brains (for us prophets, anyway) also? So when we die, these chemicals that create memory are gone, and so is the memory.

But the light we saw may still be there. And there will always be a trace of that light in the universe. And the sound waves will continue to travel. And this plasic keyboard sure will be around (maybe in a landfill) for thousands of years. Particles that made these things will always exist. Things we had once sensed with our senses.

But not memory. It's gone. Pfft. And, I guess, our futures once we're dead. But what happens to the memory and futures? Like the light and sound and plasic keyboard, it must remain in some form. It is a known law of physics that nothing is created or destroyed, in the whole mass-energy equation. So the memories MUST still exist somehow.

You say, yes, as chemicals. No, that was what was used to REGISTER the memory, just like the neurons were used when we saw the light and typed on the keyboard. The light and keyboard are real. So must the memory be, right?

Of course, now I see I'm arguing that time is real, and events are like physical objects that can be moved. They cannot be moved in the past though, right? Unlike the truck which is now on I-95 by now, the event of the truck being stolen is still fixed in time. It cannot be moved, unlike future events.

So there are two things. One, you cannot move through time (except forward and at a steady rate, unlike space), and you can only affect one direction of the dimension known as time. Note that I'm ignoring Einstein saying that the faster you move, the more time slows down. Okay... time still moves at a steady rate if you're still moving at half the speed of light.

...

Our movement through space affects our movement forward through time. Dammit. The more I think about this, the more I come to Einstein's conclusions. I need a drink. So, therefore, space and time are bound together. Should x, y and z be considered different dimensions? Is left, right, up, back, etc, simply another arbitrary measurement of space (let alone meters, feet, etc)? If this is so, each infinitessimal piece of space is bound to its own infinitessimal piece of time.

Hence why they call it "space-time."

Something still doesn't quite add up. I'm still stuck on how we can move freely through space but not through time; and yet space and time are bound together. I need to step back and think about this.

Yeah, I'm posting this rambling, anyway. Maybe someone can help me out with this.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Who the fuck cares!?

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's son arrested - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

Gov. Bush said it best: "'My son’s doing fine. It’s a private matter. We will support him. We’re sad for him. But I’m not going to discuss it on the public square with 30 cameras,' the governor told reporters."

So his son is out having a wild time. Who gives a fuck? Let him be young while he still can. Sheesh.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Part of my view on Christianity

Paul, Christianity, Jesus, Marcus Borg -- Beliefnet.com

This is only page three, but I take to heart the very last paragraph here: "...For those who take Jesus and Paul seriously today, they invite us to challenge unjust systems of convention and domination in our time."

Can't put it any plainer than that. How many of our heroes, even in modern history, have defied the "convention" of the times? Care to name a few? I can think of two...and they were both killed, also.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Genesis 1 and 2

I've notice something very interesting about the first two chapters of the Bible: In chapter 1 of Genesis, God said, "Let there be light," and God said, "Let there be an expanse of water..." Etc. And on the seventh day God rested (Genesis 2:2-3).

In chapter 2, after humans have been created by God, ..."the LORD God formed the man [e] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (read all of Genesis 2:4-7 for context).

LORD God? Is this a different God? I know that in Genesis 1:26, God said, "Let us make man in our image..." OUR image? Whoah, now I'm confused. And when the LORD God made man in Genesis 2:7, was this the LORD God saying to God, "Gee, your humans weren't good enough. I made them all over again!"

No...because in Genesis 2:4-6, it said that the LORD God made the earth and heavens (etc).

People sometimes say there are so many contradictions in the Bible. Not too often you find them within several verses of each other.

Strange. Anybody have a good explanation for these two chapters?

Evade the Settled Thought: The Dr. Laura epsidoe... or Why I Love the West Wing

Evade the Settled Thought: The Dr. Laura epsidoe... or Why I Love the West Wing

And why I also love the West Wing. God, that show is awesome. And this excerpt brings up a marvellous point, one I'm sure I've ranted about in the not-so-distant past: who are we, as humans, to limit what God thinks is right or wrong? Got told His people this stuff "in the day" because the Hebrews were supposed to be a nation apart; and He even specifically mentioned in Leviticus 18 that He wanted the Hebrews to obey these laws so they were NOT like the other nations they were driving out.

Well, it's now about three or four thousand years later, and situations change. Should we stop listening to what God may be saying now and instead go back to something that worked just fine millennia ago? Shall we cast out the homosexuals, sell our daughters, kill people who work on the Sabbath, etc?

Speaking of working on the Sabbath...maybe that's why the Jewish leadership wanted Jesus nailed to a cross. Luke 13:14-16. Luke 14:4-6. Even Jesus understood that things change, and not everything needs to be treated literally. I can't understand why we humans have the audacity to limit God and think that He is constrained by what was written so many years ago.

Monday, September 12, 2005

No greater love...

Like spoiled little children with dynamite...

Belfast suffers most widespread riots in years - Europe - MSNBC.com

Last time I looked, the Bible said, "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." These Protestant rioters are acting like spoiled brats given an endless supply of dynamite. And they instigate other Protestants to join in on the "fun." The Catholics are no less guilty with their antics either. Supposedly the past ten years is the quietest Northern Ireland has seen, with these "exceptions." It's hard to imagine that people who worship not only the same God but the same Jesus are so stupid enough to go out, instigate, and kill one another. "Fucktard" doesn't even begin to explain this kind of behavior.

I realize there is a long, bloody history between the denominations in Northern Ireland. But neither can be considered Christian, or Christ's own, until they get over themselves and stop this perpetual temper tantrum. They need to put their past behind them. Or else.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

For L.A. homeless: a gym, movies, and hair salon | csmonitor.com

For L.A. homeless: a gym, movies, and hair salon | csmonitor.com

On one hand, I think it is GREAT to offer some luxury to those who have found themselves out on the street. What a change of pace. But I also agree that the $17 million could've gone towards affordable--and permanent--housing for these homeless people. They need to find a happy medium.

The $17 million complex in question (in LA) has a gym and a hair salon. One may say, "Gee, that's an awful lot of amenities for a homeless person." Well, they can't STOP being homeless (and perhaps jobless) if there's no way for them to look better. They need to be able to shower and get haircuts (etc) if they're going to be presentable for job interviews. So something like this is a necessary step to helping the homeless find a permanent place to live. Can't pay for an apartment if you don't have a job (generally).

So it warms my heart to see something like this has been created. But to stop there would be folly.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

GOOGLEWHACK!

depillatory dynamite - Google Search

Hot damn! And on my first day! Of course, it helped that I misspelled "depilatory"... :P

...

Jesus. I can't believe I'm Googlewhacking. I'm so pathetic... I need a life.

About my last two rants...

This is the link that leads to the blog in question.

I ranted on the comments to this blog entry. The blog entry itself shows President Bush and cohorts out picnicing ... or something. Now, like many others I'm sure, when I saw this picture, I thought, "Gee, isn't there better things he could be doing with his time, considering what's going on in Louisiana and Mississippi?"

Yes, he could. But, playing devil's advocate here, he does NOT have an easy job, any way you put it. I do not know for a fact if he's taken more "vacations" than other sitting presidents. But I know if I had his job, I'd be amazed if I still had a full head of hair by the end of my first term. Being the President is a thankless job. Period. Even if I don't particularly like him, I can recognize this fact.

Someone commented somewhere on another blog (I think it was Wil Wheaton's blog) that many people seem to be targeting the federal (and, therefore, the Republican-led) government. I think it should be stated that both federal and state governments failed their people.

Okay. This post was much more even-keeled. That's because they have me back on my meds. Wheee....

No I did NOT stop. Dammit!

FEMA: 2005 Hurricane Season

This is the FEMA page on Katrina. There's a link there for "Volunteer or Make a donation." Okay. Fine.

*click*

Here is where the link went to. Now, I'm all for helping these poor guys out, but I find it extremely pathetic that the link to the Red Fucking Cross is TWO MORE SCREENS down! Bush/Clinton are right on top.

Self-aggrandizing.... !!!

okay... breathe... one...two...three...

It's a government website. Both of them. And look who the President is. Easy there, sport. It's okay... people are only giving money to beaurocrats and money managers... less of it is going to the victims... it's okay...

NO IT IS FUCKING NOT! *gag* *mmph!*

We are sorry for the latest outburst. Rest assured, the offending individual has been properly taken care of. Please go on with your normal lives.

Sincerely,

Bangor Mental Health Institute Staff

Some of what went on after Katrina

HaloScan.com - Comments

Pressed for details, she doesn't hesitate. She speaks of two girls being raped and murdered inside the dome, one aged seven. The other was 16 and was "slit open" by a knife after she was raped in the woman's bathroom, she says. Much of what she tells is similarly described by several other dome evacuees. A boy aged seven was also raped by two men.

Almost everyone talks of gunshots in the night, including one shooting of a National Guard soldier. Ms Farrell says the soldier died, others spoke of him being wounded in the leg and surviving. Meanwhile, she adds, a black-market trade flourished in marijuana cigarettes, crack cocaine, guns and alcohol, in plain view of the authorities. Men were flashing their penises at the women, who dared only go to the bathroom in groups of five. When the bathrooms became so foul that going into them was impossible, people began squatting down just anywhere to relieve themselves. "Human beings don't live like that, people in the street don't live like that," she says.


Anyone out there who can still say anarchy is a good thing needs to be kicked in the nuts. Repeatedly. This is ANARCHY, motherfuckers. Reading shit like this makes me want to go puke. No, not the reading of it...knowing that it happened. Jesus. Maybe a totalitarian state government isn't such a bad thing. It'll keep the whack jobs in control. I mean, how the fuck do you prevent this kind of shit without bringing Big Brother in?

Okay... breathe... calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean...

All right. I think I'm in a proper frame of mind now. I just need to publish this and forget about it while I still can.

No!

I can't forget about this! (here we go again) Where does this kind of evil start from? Why can't people ALWAYS be on their best behavior? What the fuck did raping children do for anyone? RRRRRGH!

I'll say it again. Three things:

1. Major worldwide catastrophe...
2. A select group of people leave Earth for another planet and start things over again...
Or
3. Jesus Returns.

Those are the only Three Things that could ever fix this fucked up planet.

Okay... whew... summer breezes... summer breezes... God. I'm starting to sound like a Pat Robertson with that last rant. I better stop. Now.

Even Timothy Leary would've stayed far, far away.

THIS IS FUN TO MAKE A BLOG ON THE COMPUTER WEBSITE

I think my ears are bleeding. Holy Hallucinogens, Batman!

Old news, but still interesting

Have you Googlewhacked? | CNET News.com

I'm trying to think of good Googlewhacks to use... something tells me a good Googlewhack is gonna sound like a punk band from the 80's. Necessary Napkins... Hot Pink Spatula... hmm... Depillatory Dynamite... the possibilities are endless.

Now here's a ballsy politician...

Will Congress rethink commitments and costs? - Tom Curry - MSNBC.com

This is Senator Clinton (D-NY) who said this. I'm quoting the article here:

So how will Congress pay for the new spending needs due to Katrina? Part of Clinton’s answer was to raise taxes. “We should be prepared to ask for sacrifice particularly from the richest people in America,” she argued.


How refreshing (kind of). Regardless, if this woman is intending in the future to run for the presidency, saying anything even CLOSE to "we need to raise taxes" is political suicide. But she said it, and she may be right. I have to give her kudos for her brass. It would be nice to have a president that didn't dance around the issues, no matter what kind of ugly things he/she may have to say.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Our global neighborhood

90 nations offer aid to help U.S. with Katrina - Hurricane Katrina - MSNBC.com

It is always good to hear of people helping out their neighbors; or even of charities from other states sending money and things to the victims of Katrina. But to have NINETY foreign nations (even the poorer of these nations) pledge to help the victims of Katrina... it lets the rest of us know there is still hope for humanity.

I'm a bit toasted after an elaborate dinner at my fathers, but I am still "there" enough to recognize the impact of such generosity and magnanimousness. It is beautiful.

Anyway, that is my thought on this subject. It is a thought of hope; something so desparately needed in this world.

Yet another fund for Katrina victims

Ex-Presidents Bush, Clinton team up again - Hurricane Katrina - MSNBC.com

Don't get me wrong. Sending money to help these people is a good thing to do. However, as we create more and more fund groups, you have to end up getting more and more people to manage that money, and that means more and more money that SHOULD be going to victims go to these money managers themselves. Sure, some of these people working for these funds may be volunteering time; but it is unfeasable for all their work time to be done for free. They have mouths to feed, too.

So money goes to employees instead of victims. It's part of having an administrative overhead. What would be best, in my mind, is having only one or two charity funds (i.e. the Red Cross) receiving this money. There's less administrative overhead, and less confusion for those of us who wish to donate money. And, of course, the victims get MORE money. Very important.

It's like a Marine once told me: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Scammers hit Web in Katrina's wake - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

Scammers hit Web in Katrina's wake - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

I have no adequate words to express my rage at this kind of bullshit. If you're going to make a charitable contribution, send it to the Red Cross.

The Crown Prince of Blog?

WIL WHEATON DOT NET

Just about every blog that has any kind of reader interest has either had or still has a link to Wil Wheaton's blog. Waiter Rant had it. Dude.Man.Phat STILL has it. And so forth. Hell, the RSS readership on Waiter Rant (for what that's worth) is 154. Wil Wheaton has over 16,000 subscribers.

Whalloping Warp engines, Batman!

Wil Wheaton writes. He's a published author (apparently) and has this blog, to boot. His writing (so far) is pretty damn good. He may be a washed-up child actor, but he may very well have a future in the literary field.

Just thought I'd share this with you all.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

dude.man.phat.

dude.man.phat.

My latest fave blog. Man does this guy abuse the stars. Well, in literary form anyway. This blog gets a "Medium-Sized Puddle" in my Wet My Pants From Laughing meter (9 out of 10).

Did I just say that?

NEW and IMPROVED "Bicycle Race" lyrics!

Queen once did a song called "Bicycle Race." In tribute to them, and to the fact that gas is now $3.19 here in Northern Maine (up twenty cents from YESTERDAY), I rewrote the main verse:

I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
Even more with the gas price hike

$3.19. And it's supposed to top $4. God. I don't know how we're going to survive this winter with heating oil being up about that high, too.

They warned us this would come...

Spyed Kids - - MSNBC.com: "VeriChip of Delray Beach, Fla., can implant RFID chips under the skin of people older than 12 to provide instant access to medical information. Nick Minicucci, who has a chip, also convinced his diabetic daughter to have one installed. 'If she was unconscious somewhere, and couldn't tell people what was wrong with her, the wrong treatment, or no treatment could be fatal,' he says. Far from the usual sci-fi fantasy, the chips can only be read by people with the protected scanners, and the medical information is hidden behind two passwords. Emergency-room staff in the eight U.S. hospitals with the system scan every unresponsive patient to check for the chip."

I don't have a link for it, but die-hard Christians who have read Late, Great Planet Earth warned us of this: this is the mark of the Beast. 666. Whatever. Needless to say, I'm quite worried. Soon, it's only a matter of time before the government has us all implanted with these chips "for our own safety." Just like they now enforce seat belts "for our own safety." And if you don't wear your seat belt, you get fined. What if you don't get an implant?

And if you are NOT a "religious nut" (like I'm sure some of you must think these doomsayers must be), look at it from an Orwellian standpoint. 1984 is just around the corner.

Now I really wish I could get off this planet. NOW!!!