Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible -- Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another; human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there's room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me I say, "Do not despair." The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass and dictators die; and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers: Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate; only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural.

Soldiers: Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written, "the kingdom of God is within man" -- not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men, in you, you the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power! Let us all unite!! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people!! Now, let us fight to fulfill that promise!! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers: In the name of democracy, let us all unite!!!

Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940)
Photo and transcript from American Rhetoric

Methaphors on Vision

Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'? How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye? How aware of variations in heat waves can that eye be? Imagine a world alive with incomprehensible objects and shimmering with an endless variety of movement and innumerable gradations of color. Imagine a world before the 'beginning was the word.' -- Stan Brakhage, Metaphors on Vision

Cheney and Iraq

The 1994 video clip of Cheney discussing the disastrous consequences of removing Saddam from power has been circulating around the net for a while. Critics of the administration have used this video to cite the hypocrisies of the administration and some are even calling for his resignation or impeachment. I however see this video clip as being wholly consistent with the policies of the Project for A New American Century (PNAC) and those who share their ideology of American social, political and economic world domination.

Let me sum up. The PNAC believes that American foreign (and domestic) policy should be geared to secure and promote American dominance of the world. They don't necessarily advocate the whole Napoleonic take over the world by force routine, but firmly believe that we should be the world's only true super power. To that end, we should do everything we can to ensure that we will have all the resources we need to continue our dominance, most notably oil.

Let us not forget the image of Rumsfeld and Saddam shaking hands in the 1980s even as the reports of Saddams killing of Kurds was being made public. Those who today deplore Saddam's human rights record didn't seem to mind twenty some years ago that he was killing hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. The difference? Twenty years ago, Saddam was willing to play ball when it came to his country's oil reserves.

During the first Gulf War, we got a taste of what Saddam was really like when he crossed the border and invaded Kuwait. Unable to ignore an international for retaliation, we led an international coalition to push him back into his own borders. Call it biting the hand that feeds, Saddam began to stray and began to eye deals with France, Germany and China for access to its vast oil reserves, a proposition that was utterly unacceptable to the PNAC crowd.

So, no longer willing to play ball, it was time for Saddam to go. Not because of his human rights record, or his weapons of mass destruction, or even his alleged connection to terrorism, but because he was no longer an asset in the long term plan for American foreign policy.

I firmly believe that when the likes of Bill Kristol, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld and co, assert that the Iraq war is crucial to survival of the American way of life, they mean it. But not for the reasons they would like us to believe. Like it or not, our lives depend on fossil fuels, to the point that if there were to be a sudden change in the oil supply, the fabric of our Nation would be ripped apart. One only need to look at the recent oil price hike to see how tenuous our economy is when it comes to the price of oil, it is linked to everything.

Knowing that the world, and even American populace would not support a war for oil (no matter the consequences of our not fighting it) they used the 9/11 terrorist attack to sell the war. Remember the line from the PNAC document Rebuilding America's Defenses "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor". The events on 9/11 proved to be the event they needed to launch their war.

Many believe that the war is being fought over oil profits, I totally disagree. Profits are just gravy, the PNAC is fighting for what they see is the American right to exist as the world's only super power. I hope to write more on this as time goes on, and will post more as I continue to find information to support my position. For now I leave with this thought, this war isn't about the Bush Administration, it isn't even about one, or two, or even a dozen political leaders, it is about an ideology that permeates a new political power in this Nation. This isn't a conspiracy theory, it is something even more frightening, reality.

Staying Put

On second thought, I won't be moving the blog to the new site. As I began to really work with the software that I am using for my main website, I realized that it probably isn't the best tool for managing my blog. So I have decided to leave the blog here and only post my longer essays on my website.

Where's The Fire?

Inspired by the words of Ann Coulter I had this to say following the news of Snow's potential departure: "The Bush Administration is hemorrhaging staffers like teenage girls fleeing an R Kelly party."

A New Home...

Hi all... I have decided to move the blog onto my webiste and incorporate it with my longer essays, photos, etc. Please visit my new blog on 2 Grooms Media.

Something to Ponder

Jeremy Rifkin articulates something that I have been struggling with, for quite some time. America love it or leave it.

Hello... Old News Calling

Apparently in an AP news article, David Hyde Pierce was "outed" and his PR team has confirmed that the story was correct in reporting that Brian Hargrove is his long term partner. I think that it is good that David has come out in a way that doesn't sensationalize or commodify his sexuality. The mention of his partner was no different than if Brian had been his wife, and it hasn't really been a big deal.

Here is David with another of my favorite Broadway sensations, Harvey Fierstein at Broadway Bares, and AIDS benefit.














Photo courtesy of Harvey Fierstein's Mypace page.

Hello... Old News Calling

Apparently in an AP news article, David Hyde Pierce was "outed" and his PR team has confirmed that the story was correct in reporting that Brian Hargrove is his long term partner. I think that it is good that David has come out in a way that doesn't sensationalize or commodify his sexuality. The mention of his partner was no different than if Brian had been his wife, and it hasn't really been a big deal.

Here is David with another of my favorite Broadway sensations, Harvey Fierstein at Broadway Bares, and AIDS benefit.

Musings and Wanderings

I have finally been rescued from the dark depths of cyber darkness. We are once again connected to the net that is the worldwide web. How wonderful it is to be able to return emails, visit friend's blogs and my space pages and well... as Trekkie Monster would remind us all, visit some porn.

Alone in Darkness

We have been without internet now for several weeks. The drought is about to come to an end, and not a moment too soon. I feel separated from the world, news, action, essentially everything. I need a reboot.

My Life and Other Musings

So, a little less than a month ago, I finally finished my undergraduate studies. It only took me a little more than thirteen years to finish a four year degree (in all fairness, seven of them were spent away from academia) but hey, I finished. In the end, I am happy to say that I graduated with honors, though Latin honors were just not possible (long story short, wasn't able to finish a thesis in one semester, so sue me).

I was fortunate enough to find work soon after graduating, though I admit I wasn't looking for something all that exciting, just something that will pay the bills. So now I have to readjust to the life of a 9 - 5, Monday - Friday schedule of the working class. Great fun. I actually really enjoy my job, nice and relatively stress free.

So now, I work, and look at grad schools.

Oh, and post from an internet cafe because my job hasn't brought in quite enough to get us internet, I have been cut off from the civilized world for weeks and it is driving me nuts.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

"I've often thought what a pleasant place the world would be if there were no great enthusiasts. How nice to have lived in the eighteenth century where, in a certain society at least, one could consider almost any problem without having continually to make reference to a doctrine. But there's nothing to be done about it. Free inquiry is unfashionable. Faith is in the order of the day: Freud, Marx, Stalin, Jesus... every man can now wear a complete suit of doctrinaire armor..." Getting rather drunk, he continued to denounce the new dark age until he had said all that he felt, pronounced very clearly his hatred of systems and programs, of all selfless leaders, and, far worse, of those vacuous professional followers who scurry like terrified sheep from pillar to post, from Communism to Catholicism, moaning softly, ecstatically, like rutting sheep in the spring, kept always in line by a sharp-toothed dog whose brutal presence is more than compensated for by the divine, aloof yet watchful presence of some good shepherd with his crook. -- Gore Vidal, The Judgment of Paris 1952

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did." -- Jack Handy

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

You see there is a major difference--and it remains a vital difference --between a friend and a gay person, a friend in office and a gay person in office. Gay people have been slandered nationwide... it's not just enough anymore just to have friends represent us, no matter how good that friend may be... A gay official is needed not just for our protection, but to set an example for younger gays that says that the system works. -- Harvey Milk

Merci, Non

Surfing the web today I learned that it is once again OK to consume French products. Bill O'Reillly has lifted his ban on France following the election of the far right of center Sarkozy to the Presidency.

Watch him blow is own horn.

Heterosexism

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light. -- Plato

Heterosexism is the oppression of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons by believing in the superiority of heterosexuality. This belief creates a situation where everyone, not just the homosexual, is harmed. The basic fact is that heterosexism hurts everyone.

The heterosexual who supports heterosexist ideas, is hurt in several ways. First, many people eliminate someone from their life because they feel that their homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism will reflect upon them. Others just dislike people because of their sexual orientation, and deny themselves the opportunity to know many people around them.

Even though everyone is affected by heterosexism, the hardest hit groups are gays, lesibans, bisexuals and transgendered persons. Discrimination because of their sexual identity can destroy the morality and emotions of someone who is not heterosexual. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons, often face discrimination in employment, as well as everyday living.

When someone is discriminated against, their self esteem is often hurt or in extreme cases, even destroyed. For people growing up in a heterosexist environment, it can lead to a great deal of self-hatred and in some cases suicide.

Heterosexism is a serious problem that plagues us all. But there are things that can be done. Acceptance is only the beginning. It must be followed with education and familiarization. Homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism is all around, but so is heterosexism. Take the time to educate yourself and others; a world with less ignorance is a world worth living in. Remember, if you can, love someone who is gay, bisexual or transgendered because a comforting word could save a life.

_____________________

I wrote that over 13 years ago while a freshman at CSU. If I remember right, it was for a brochure I was putting together on Heterosexism and the Queer community. I came across it today, and wanted to share.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

You see there is a major difference--and it remains a vital difference--between a friend and a gay person, a friend in office and a gay person in office. Gay people have been slandered nationwide... it's not just enough anymore just to have friends represent us, no matter how good that friend may be... A gay official is needed not just for our protection, but to set an example for younger gays that says that the system works. -- Harvey Milk

Is it just me or....

OK so, am I the only one who has seen Wag the Dog?

Why Can't I Sue?

I know I have been silent lately, if there is anyoe still out there, but, that will hopefully soon change as this blog becomes my primary writing outlet.  

Until then, I would like to go back in time and file a lawsuit against all the heterosexual literature, film, television and music I have been subjected to in my life.  This suit will also be brought on behalf of those who have struggled with their sexual orientation because of the bombardment of the heterosexual lifestyle into 
our daily lives.  I mean if two kids who stumble upon a book in a public library can 
be that damged, why can't I?  Story
 

Hate Speech and the Media

Recently, a number of celebrities have come under fire for their offensive speech. Some have used racially motivated hate filled slurs in the private sector, and others in more public forums. Most recently radio shock jock Imus, lost his job for a sexist and racist rant directed at a college basketball team. In each of these cases, a whole slew of apologies, press events and appearances with noted African-American community representatives (mostly Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson). All these add up to one convoluted apology for their racist/sexist/classist/homophobic remarks. The media acknowledges the apology and the nation is free to move on until the next celebrity says something and the process is repeated.

During the time that the celebrity's tirade is in the headlines, the media and American public are outraged that the celebrity had the nerve to say what they did. Even in the apologies, most offenders apologize for "what they said" and if "their words caused pain or harm" to the people on the receiving end of their remarks. Without fail though, the original outrage, media attraction and subsequent apology all focus on the specific incidence of speech and not the cultural and deeper roots of racism that lie behind the speech. In effect, the speech is addressed but the attitude is rarely even acknowledged.

The focus on speech and not the deeper causes of the speech does two things. First, it reinforces the notion of political correctness which I believe allows most Americans to stand behind a veil of ignorance with plausible deniability that racism exists. The average person with white/male/Christian/heterosexual privilege, can say that the problem of racism has been taken care of because it's presence has been erased in the general consciousness of most Americans. If I don't see it, it doesn't exist.

Second, it creates an environment where only the most outrageous speech is acknowledge and addressed as racist. Media Matters has compiled a long list of equally offensive and more subtle racism in the media today. This list shows how sometimes racist comments are not as blatant as Imus and frankly, I think the more subtle the hate speech, the more dangerous.

I grew up in a family that had serious problems with race, I hate to say it but I think in certain members the problem persists today. I fear that I once repeated one of the most hurtful racist remarks to a teacher once, without even realizing that it was hate speech. I won't repeat it here, but suffice it to say, it was pretty horrible and I think it ruined that relationship with that particular teacher.

The point is, no one in my family would consider themselves to be racist. Largely because racism, in their view, is the KKK burning crosses on lawns, and not the more subtle racism that hides below the surface. Which to me, is even more dangerous than Imus and his rants, because they become a part of a cultural fabric, perpetuating racist ideologies and are seldom questioned.

I want to be careful and say that I believe that hate speech of any kind is dangerous, and I am glad that we live in a civil society which recognizes hate speech as a form of an -ism. However, if all focus is placed on outlandish speech, then we are at risk of not acknowledging the deeper roots of speech and the actual -ism at work. We have to acknowledge both the speech and the ideology behind it if we are to have any hope of creating a truly civil and healthy society.

Media Matters coverage here.
Another interesting take from Harvey Fierstein here.

The Date Has Been Set

I have my official Honors defense date.... 07 May.  This means my final draft has to be in to my committee by 23 April.  May the Gods help me.

Maybe Brian Kinney was right.

A recent article on 365gay.com got me thinking about the current state of the queer community. The article deals with the death of the gay village, specifically the Castro district in San Francisco. The Castro is considered by most to be the central queer community in the country and, at least according to this article, it is dying. What is happening in Castro, is happening in some degree in many large cities with a significant queer population.

As members of the queer community gain social acceptance, we are being brought into the fabric of “mainstream” society and the need to be in communities made up of people largely like us is dissipating. While it is obviously a good thing that we are making headway in terms of civil and social justice, is our progress a matter of integration or assimilation?

The conflict between maintaining cultural and individual identity is not new or exclusive to the queer community. Immigrants face the same conflict when coming into American culture in trying to decide how much of their native cultural identity to hold onto in their new homeland. When my grandparents came from Hungary after the failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution, they decided to keep as much of their cultural identity as possible. They did not Americanize their name and taught their children, and me, their native language.

While they chose to maintain a connection with the old country, many others did not. Some with difficult Hungarian names shortened or changed them so that they would be more pronounceable. They worked as hard as they could to learn English and when it came time to teach their American born children, they did not pass down the tradition of the Hungarian language. These families wanted to assimilate into the American culture and gain the acceptance of their American born neighbors, a new addition to the melting pot.

American culture is described almost exclusively as a melting pot, where individual identities were expected to meld into the whole. In the melting pot, different influences add to the overall taste, but individual identity is associated first and foremost with the mixture. When someone comes along and decides to keep their identity, it is seen by many to be a direct threat to the whole. The melting pot creates what is generally accepted as a mainstream and dominant culture. In the case of American culture, it is most commonly aligned with a white, heterosexual, predominantly male, Christian identity, which is seen as neutral. Anything other than this is abnormal and a threat to the greater culture. (read for an interesting take on the melting pot theory)

Instead of the melting pot, I would prefer to see the development of a culture where individual identities and cultures can be maintained while still coming together to form shared community. Individuality and social identity do not have to be mutually exclusive. I can be proud of my Hungarian and American heritage, without it being a threat to either. I can be proud of my queerness, without it being an insult or affront to those who don’t share my effectual orientation. I can be in a committed relationship, which may not fit every definition or characteristics of other’s relationships without it being a threat.

Brian Kinney rejected the idea of queer marriage, not as a rights issue but as an issue of assimilation. More and more people are coming to support the queer community, and I totally support that notion. But, I wonder, is the support conditional on “us” looking more like “them”? To take it one further, do they support all of the queer community including drag queens, leather daddies and bathhouses? If not, then do we have to give up these things in order to gain and win acceptance?

The queer community is not united, like any minority we are subject to internal hatred and struggles, which keep us from moving forward. There are many within the community who want to “whitewash” our heritage in hopes of gaining a greater acceptance to the society as a whole. The need to clean up our image often manifests in internal conflicts with the “less desirable” aspects of our community. Like it or not, we have a history and we can’t deny it, we have to embrace it, understand it and grow from it. We would not have the queer liberation movement if it weren’t for a few drag queens willing to stand up for themselves chanting:

'We are the Stonewall girls

We wear our hair in curls

We wear no underwear

We show our pubic hair...

We wear our dungarees

Above our nelly knees!'

In short, we should be proud of who we are, and our quest for liberation should not have to come at the abandonment of who we are. What the queer liberation movement should be fighting for is integration and not assimilation. If we are to gain liberty and acceptance as a default of assimilation, then we haven’t won anything at all. We’ve only changed ourselves to fit in, and that is unacceptable.

Mea Culpa

Mea Culpa

In the past, I have been very hard on Christians and Christianity in my writings on this Blog. I realize that I too have a long way to go on the road to tolerance and realize that prejudice on any level, for any reason, isn’t valid. While I still fundamentally oppose the integration of government and religion, I recognize that people have the right to their own private ethics and opinions on any subject. I would not want anyone censoring or denying me the right to my spirituality and as such, I shouldn’t deny anyone else theirs.

I also want to take a moment to acknowledge those within the Christian community who have had the courage to do what so few others (in public and private life) have. In the past couple of years schisms have begun to form in almost every major Christian Religion over the treatment of Gays and Lesbians. In a time when civic leaders won’t stand up for the rights of the GLBT community, churches have stepped up to the plate and have risked everything for what they believe to be right. I for one, would like to publicly thank those leaders for their courage.

I will continue to take on those who I feel teach hatred and intolerance, but I will also try to recognize those who choose to not use the Bible as a weapon.

Inspired in part by this Craigslist Posting.

A Few Words on Heterosexism and Homophobia

First, Ann Coulter is just a horrible, horrible person.



Second, George Takai weighs on on the Pro-basketball player's comments:



I wish I could write more on this, but I have to go to campus.... I can't freaking wait to graduate.

The Pledge and the Truth

This is a repost from my Myspace in response to a post from some other people.  The text of the original post can be found in the Snopes.com response.



A couple of people have posted the bulletin calling for some sort of boycott of Pepsi’s supposed new can. I feel that I need to say a few things on this so forgive my soapbox, but I just think in this day and age these things need to be said.

First, this posting is a hoax. Pepsi has absolutely no plans to introduce this can and never did. The genesis of this hoax comes from a Dr. Pepper can which was briefly put into production after September 11th, but was pulled after the public objection to the exclusion of the words “under God”. Dr. Pepper is not a Pepsi product, it is an independent company. All the information can be found on Snopes.com here.

Second, I know that there are a lot of things floating around the internet, My Space in particular. I have personally seen so many messages come by that are outright lies about a whole variety of subjects. The internet can be a great tool for communication and education, but we have to be responsible users, and responsible citizens. It doesn’t take much time at all to do a little bit of research on any posting and find out if it is valid or not. There are even a number of websites that are dedicated to debunking internet hoaxes from financial to political. www.snopes.com is one of them, as is http://urbanlegends.about.com. Or you can simply Google the main idea and come up with a whole set of valuable information.

Third, I want to take a moment and talk about one of the main ideas in the Pepsi hoax, and in this is a history lesson. The pledge was originally published anonymously in 1892 in The Youth’s Companion, the Reader’s Digest of its day. Though it was published without an author, it is believed to have been written by Francis Bellamy, a Socialist Baptist Minister. I won't go into great detail but the pledge was actually based in his Socialist ideals and inspired by the French concept of liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality and fraternity) which was the motto of their revolution.

The original language of the pledge was: ‘I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ By 1924 the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution were successful in changing ‘my Flag’ to ‘the flag’ and adding ‘of the United States of America’ to the pledge.

Please note that until 1954 (62 years from its creation), it did not include the words ‘under God’. It was only after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus that the United States Congress added the two words and solidified the pledge as we know it today.

So, what does all this mean? Well, it seems that the only time the pledge is questioned is the inclusion or exclusion of the two words ‘under God’, which were not part of the original spirit of the pledge. It was written to focus on a shared community and the hope of liberty and justice for all, in a nation that is united for the common cause. It had nothing to do with God.

For the record, I don’t believe that ‘under God’ should be in the pledge, nor should it be printed on our money, on our courtrooms or on any surface associated with our Government. I find it odd that a deeply religious Bellamy, saw fit to leave God out of the pledge as the founding fathers saw fit to leave it out of the Constitution. We are nation of the people first and their Gods second, and we should not forget that.

Read more here.

I'm Trying, Really I Am

I am attempting something this semester that I have never done before: be a C student. After my having stressed way too much over environmental sciences last semester and getting an A-, I decided to take my final science class as pass/fail. So now, all I have to do is get a C in the class and it will have the same impact as an A in my GPA. Sounds great right?

The problem seems to be that I don't know how to do C level work. As it is, most of my classes aren't that hard and I haven't given them my all in study power but have still maintained a high GPA. Long story short, I just don't know what level of work to do in order to get a C.

The real sad thing is that because I am such an over-achieving geek, I will do the A level work anyway. Oh well..

Yeah... um...

OK, so I haven't had a lot to say on this blog lately. I have sat down a few times to write brilliant things about the war in Iraq, the Presidential election, same-sex marriage, etc... but haven't really been able to finish a single thought.

It isn't any kind of writers block, just more of a can't put words together block. Well that and MySpace, but that is a whole other addiction.

Of Man and Reason

Hobbes begins Chapter V of Of Man writing: “When a man reasoneth, hee does nothing else but conceive a summe totall, from Addition of parcels; or conceive a Remainder, from Subtraction of one summe from another: which (if it be done by Words,) is conceiving of the consequence of the names all the parts, to the name of the whole; or from the names of the whole and one part, to the name of the other part” (110). Hobbes words illustrate the shift from a metaphysical pursuit of ideal Truth, to the dissection of reality in order to determine mechanical explanations for the world around us. Considering his views of practical reasoning in mechanical terms, it isn’t very surprising that he has a very negative opinion of the “ancient” Philosophers’ metaphysical view of reality. After all, our purpose is not to define reality, but to explain reality as has been defined by G-d. While on one hand it does give rise to the idea of humanism, the individual’s relationship to the world and the pursuit of knowledge, it also seems to limit the possibilities of such a pursuit.

Perhaps I am an idealist, but it seems to me that the purpose of man having reason isn’t to simply understand the world as it is but imagine how it can be. When our reason is limited to only what is before us, then how can we truly begin to understand what it means to be human. “What is our purpose? What is my purpose?” These questions haven’t gone away after centuries of the new paradigm of thinking. If the answer to all metaphysical questions lies within God then why are we still asking those two central questions? The mechanical paradigm has seemed to ignore the really difficult questions instead, leaving their answers to an ubiquitous deity, which may or may not exist. How can we as humans ever hope to evolve or progress if our path is one of mechanical definitions and needs and not the path of Truth. Honestly, we may never return to the higher ideals, as there is no financial profit in philosophy and life is so much easier to live if we leave the hardest questions up to someone else to answer.

A Moment to Relax

Ok really...I'm just avoiding writing.

Todays Warm and Fuzzy Thought

Gods grant me the serenity to change the things I can,
accept the things I cannot,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

-- The Serenity Prayer

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

"Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies." -- Milton Berle

A Stay of Execution

I just found out today that I actually have until April 10th to defend my thesis and still have my honors distinction show on my diploma. I was thrilled to know that I have almost another month to complete the monster of an essay. Now, back to work.

Today's Warm and Fuzzy Thought

Thanks to Spradmonkey over at Live Journal for this one.

He turned me onto a website called OBJECTIVE:Ministries let me share some jems:

Macintosh Computers and Darwin Propaganda:

However, these propagandists aren't just targeting the young. Take for example Apple Computers, makers of the popular Macintosh line of computers. The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism! While they currently don't advertise this fact to consumers, it is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans. Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism. They try to hide all of this under a facade of shiny, "lickable" buttons, but the truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism.

But is this really such a shock? Lets look for a moment at Apple Computers. Founded by long haired hippies, this company has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural "values"2. But there are even darker undertones to this company than most are aware of. Consider the name of the company and its logo: an apple with a bite taken out of it. This is clearly a reference to the Fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with an apple3 by the serpent. It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness4.

This company is well known for its cult-like following. It isn't much of a stretch to say that it is a cult. Consider co-founder and leader Steve Jobs' constant exhortation through advertising (i.e. mind control) that its followers should "think different". We have to ask ourselves: "think different than whom or what?" The disturbing answer is that they want us to think different than our Christian upbringing, to reject all the values that we have been taught and to heed not the message of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Given the now obvious anti-Christian and cultish nature of Apple Computers, is it any wonder that they have decided to base their newest operating system on Darwinism? This just reaffirms the position that Darwinism is an inherently anti-Christian philosophy spread through propaganda and subliminal trickery, not a science as its brainwashed followers would have us believe.

Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair:

1st Place: "Life Doesn't Come From Non-Life"
Patricia Lewis (grade 8) did an experiment to see if life can evolve from non-life. Patricia placed all the non-living ingredients of life - carbon (a charcoal briquet), purified water, and assorted minerals (a multi-vitamin) - into a sealed glass jar. The jar was left undisturbed, being exposed only to sunlight, for three weeks. (Patricia also prayed to God not to do anything miraculous during the course of the experiment, so as not to disqualify the findings.) No life evolved. This shows that life cannot come from non-life through natural processes.

2nd Place: "Women Were Designed For Homemaking"
Jonathan Goode (grade 7) applied findings from many fields of science to support his conclusion that God designed women for homemaking: physics shows that women have a lower center of gravity than men, making them more suited to carrying groceries and laundry baskets; biology shows that women were designed to carry un-born babies in their wombs and to feed born babies milk, making them the natural choice for child rearing; social sciences show that the wages for women workers are lower than for normal workers, meaning that they are unable to work as well and thus earn equal pay; and exegetics shows that God created Eve as a companion for Adam, not as a co-worker.


Now, here is the question. Is this site for real? I would like to think that it is a parody but, can't pinpoint the exact proof. So either this site is a parody and is genius or it is real and quite frightening. Any thoughts? Oh and the wikipedia site doesn't count.

Sands of Time

This first came to me when I attended a Steven Covey 7 Habits of HIghly Effective People seminar... recently it showed back up in my box to remind me of the story. It may be sappy but I think worth it.

When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.


A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded t o fill it with large rocks. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.


The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.


The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."


The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.


"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things-- your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions--and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.


The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.


The sand is everything else--the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.



"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."



One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked.


It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Official Announcement

I would like to officially annouce today, on this blog, that I do not intend to seek the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for President in 2008. I just figured that with all the people who are throwing thieir hats into the ring, it might be easier for us to assume that everyone is running for President unless otherwise noted.

It looks like HIllary is in.... this is going to be interesting.

Let The Games Begin

Today marked the first day of classes of the new (and my last) undergraduate semester. I can honestly say that I am excited about all of my classes and I think I am going to close out on a great semester. I am taking this great class on Social and Political Philosophy, which should provide some good blogging fodder.

On that note, for those of you who have been reading my blog for a while (what few of there I am sure there are) you have probably noticed that I have been all over the map with my posts lately. I would expect that trend to continue as I try to figure out who I am, and exactly what it is I am trying to say.

I am a work in progress and maybe one day there will be a great unveiling but ‘till then, bear with the construction.


Oh and enjoy the "video" for the song I haven't been able to stop listening to for days (may or may not be safe for work, depending on how fascist of a company you work for).

We Remember Those Who Inspired

It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

-- Martin Luther King Full Speech can be found here.

Our Thanks To A Great Man

The inventor and mass marketer of instant Ramen Noodles died today and starving students everywhere should have a bowl in honor of the man who invented the food which has sustained our lives.

Here's to you Momofuku Ando, and thanks for the cheap alternative to real food.

Give me back my chair you iconoclast.

The Dork

You scored 50 anxiety, 64 awkwardness, and 41 neuroticism!




You aren't particularly anxious, and you don't count things--but you do notice sometimes that you don't exactly fit in. Polite people would call you an eccentric, but you truly are The Dork! And proud. Just because you feel a little awkward at parties doesn't mean you're not happy with yourself and fairly relaxed. Your low anxiety score implies that you are able to relax, can enjoy the here and now, and have a healthy amount of self-confidence. Your high awkwardness score implies that you are socially inept, probably stick out from the crowd, and perhaps feel uncomfortable in large groups of people, such as at parties. Your low neuroticism score implies that you don't exhibit subtle neurotic behaviors--your nails are probably an acceptable length, your pencils aren't covered with bite marks, and your bookcase isn't arranged alphabetically by genre. Congrats!

Link: The Neurotic Test written by littlelostsnail on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

The Voice I Have Been Searching For

Saddam Footage Update and Some Other Stuff

The BBC is reporting that the Iraqi government is launching an investigation on who leaked the execution video. Apparently it was taken with a personal cell phone video camera which were supposed to be forbidden from the execution.

What is really interesting is that CNN is not reporting the story but has pulled all reference to the video from their site. Fox News hasn't reported the story on their website and still has the link to watch the footage. Interesting statement on the US Media.

The MA Legislature passed the first step to banning same-sex marriage in the state. Apparently if the Constitutional Amendment passes, the marriages that have been conducted will still be valid but further marriages will be banned. This will create a legal quagmire that the married couples will have to fight their way out of. From here, the law has to pass again in the next State Congressional session and then be put before a vote of the people. Hopefully, it won't make it to the ballot box because as I have said before, matters of civil rights should never be put before a voting public.

The news isn't all bad on the Gay front. Former Joint Chiefs Chair John Shalikashvili has made an about face and now supports the lifting of the failed "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the Clinton Administration and favors allowing Gays and Lesbians to serve openly in the military. This during the same week where the British Air Force announced that it is actively seeking to recruit gay and lesbian pilots. Another example of American policy that is a little behind the times.

Oh, and will someone please take Pat Robertson's broadcast licence away? What the hell is wrong with this man. I hope he doesn't try to apologize for this like he has for all the other idiotic shit he's spouted.

If Only.....

I am deeply in love with Betty White. I have always loved her characters and her ability to bring to life something that I think we should all have.... moxy.

A couple of my favorite moments:

Roasting William Shatner (not good for work)



Golden Girls

Phoenix Rising

After the exhausting end to the semester in December, I essentially took a personal vow to take the rest of the year off. I had burnt myself out with a heavy course load and way too much work at the end. Though I have to say that it was all worth it and my GPA is worth the stress. However, when the semester was over, I needed a break. So I took one.

Then came the Holidays, snow and whatever was going on in my stomach each contributing to my desire to do as little as I possibly could until the end of the year, and that time has come. Today is the first day in weeks that I feel awake and ready to do anything. I have really enjoyed the past couple of weeks and have gotten to better know a couple of people whom I hope I can build an even better friendship with, but now it is time to get back to work.

So like the Phoenix, I burnt myself to ashes and now I hope I can rise up and meet the challenges of the next few months.

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and I hope it brings lots of love and hope to each of you.