Actually I have never dropped acid but I do love that phrase. It comes from the book 'Jarhead' by Anthony Swofford which was about his experience as a Marine in the first Gulf War back in early 1991. The phrase came in a letter they received while in Saudi Arabia addressed to "Any Marine" and later became a rally cry for Swofford's particular unit. It pops in my head from time to time when I feel a rally cry might be called for but, sadly, it is not very office appropriate.
The reason I bring it up here is more due to the current Iraq war. Well, not the war as is (i.e. at the moment) but as it was back in aught three; I recently viewed the HBO Miniseries from last year called Generation Kill! Which is based on a book by the same name I happened to read a bunch of years ago...Both the book and the miniseries are AWESOME! Sad, a little anyhow, but AWESOME! Jarhead (also a movie) is also quite enjoyable but comes with a more specific point of view, or bias, that Generation Kill does not have. I am not saying Generation Kill is without judgment, of sorts, but tends to be much more objective by comparison. That said, the two stories go together really well and they both kind of highlight the surprising dumb-assed-ness of our military in times of war. This from the dominant military on the planet!
And no, I am not anti-troop. I am anti-war and I am no fan of civilian casualties. Truth is though, there is simply no real way to put professional soldiers on the ground who are armed to the teeth in any place and not end up with dead people, or horrendous errors, misfires, mistaken identities, etc. Those people are trained to kill and trained killers are going to kill...It's the leadership that is at fault when shit like Iraq happens. Not that anyone will ever be held accountable or anything. The leadership has a chain and it goes all the way to the top (with a stopoff at the former VP's office on the way up and back down) and it's that fucker, and close compatriots, who should be paying the fiddler.
Sorry to open with more political ranting, but let me get this out the way right quick; my one beef with the new administration is that they are really backing off/downplaying any sort of recrimination/investigation in the wide variety of war crime, anti-American activities, torture, constitution shredding spy action and so forth from the last eight years. I see why they say things like this as they are busy looking and moving forward to some degree and a whole lot of investigations, trials, inquiries and the like are time and money consuming...But fuck, I commit a crime I don't get a pass due to semantics, or wars on terror, or my position of power, or some kind of "Timexecutive Privilege"...I go to fucking jail.
Isn't that why we bothered with all this constitutional law stuff in the first place? A crime is committed then shouldn't there be an arrest? Investigation? Judicial action? Just saying; after all the fourth amendment has been violated and the NSA just had yet another whistle blower come out and say that even the pretend notion of "monitoring international calls to terrorists" really meant monitoring all communication in the U.S. period. Big brother indeed...And here all the angry republicans are worried about the Democrats ruining America with their crazy spending.
Anyhow, the point here really is that 'Generation Kill' is very, very well done and I highly recommend the book or mini-series or both. The other reason I am thinking about stuff like this is that, unlike our nation, my home state of Illinois doesn't mind wasting any time by impeaching our governor in record time! I am not even sure if the guy is guilty of anything either...yet watching him flail around on national television like a big, purple dong at a kid's party and then show up at day three of his own impeachment and simply continue to flail around?! Man, dude...I am not convinced of much of anything and I have no doubt that the senate is right now impeaching your ass (by right now I mean right while I am typing these words). So, so long Rod...Thanks for the stupid toll road signs and all that...Now please just go away...Forever. While you are leaving, Rod, could you yell, "I LIKE TO FUCK A LOT AND DROP ACID!" while you are moving your shit out of the governor's office? That would be classic icing to a bizarre cake. That man is bizarre...The denial he must live in.
Those first few chunks were written right during the Illinois impeachment trial and then I ran out of gas...SOOOO...Let's change subjects!
Tonight and last night I helped out a currently rehearsing theater production by substitute acting for someone who had to miss an entire week of rehearsal just 2 weeks prior to opening. It's a show I was vaguely aware that the company is doing but I hadn't looked to closely at it nor did I have the foggiest idea as to what it was about, etc. I did know that it's dinner theater which is something I have no experience with nor do I desire any BUT when asked to help I will help and it did turn out to be quite the surreal experience. Best described as living out one of those, "went to school/work in my underwear" sort of dreams. The show itself needs A LOT of work thus far (not abnormal for something two weeks out) and the regular cast has just, kind of, gotten off book and are not very comfortable with their dialogue, their songs, the blocking, or their bodies (apparently) as it was...well...Shitty.
It is apparently about a cruise ship and has some very stereotypical Italian accents and themes and I was subbing for one of most stereotypical Italian accented themes and I have never officially done an Italian accent. Thus I dug real deep and ended up doing a so-so Santino Marella and went with it. The show has an improvish bend which normally would be awesome if it weren't for the fact that the awkward performers aren't there yet thus it was nigh impossible to tell when they were rehearsing and when they were just screwing around. Loads of extra talking and goofing off and the blocking seemed indirect and it is "set" in a dining area of a cruise ship so there is no one area where the audience was. That and it had songs. Really poorly performed songs and at the end of the whole thing there was a group song, "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen in fact...And the poor cast had not, apparently, had ample rehearsal time with that one so it was literally a circle of "actors" (large cast too!) standing and awkwardly singing Queen. The first time through it sounded like a group of zombies were singing it. So, even with a script in hand I sit here awaiting day two with only a marginal idea of what the fuck was going on!?! Naturally, I cannot wait to do it again.
Related to this, a few folks have asked me if I have any plans to do another stage return this year and my answer is, Yes! At least, I plan to audition for another show right in the first week of march. The same group I worked with last spring is doing another comedic spring production and it appears it shall be a series of one-acts by David Ives. Never read the man but I am told he is "British funny" so we will see. Multiple plays with multiple directors and casts can be a recipe for logistical nightmares but more likely could be a very fun time. After all, my very first theatrical experience was an evening of one-acts so it is fitting to do one here near the end.
Ah, the theatre...What a bizarre, entangled bitch you are. The funny thing about me and theatre, despite all the shows I have done, the degree in it I have acquired, I fucking don't like it that much. It's true! I enjoy entertaining, I enjoy the buzz of performing, I respect the "art" so to speak but there are few things in the world I hate more than having to watch fucking plays. Being in the "world" (sort of) I have many, many actor/director friends who do many, many plays and productions and guess how many of them I see? Nearly none. I avoid it at all costs so if you have seen me at a show (and despite this rant, I do end up going once in a while) you have SEEN A MIRACLE!!! And yeah, sorry if I didn't care for your show very much either. I have never seen a play that I liked...Ok, once back in college but it was really, really funny...Other than that, I have seen a professional production that I liked (Spamalot) and every other show I have ever seen? Crap. Bullshit stinking, boring, tedious fucking shit. You were good in it though! The show just sucked and it wasn't your fault so don't feel bad about it. If it really were that good then you'd still be doing it then, wouldn't you? Right. You're not...Because it was shit. Do not worry, my shows were shit too!
In actuality, I just got burned out on theater after college. We did SO many shows and were required to see all the rest of the other shows so copious amounts of my ISU time was spent watching play after play after over-dramatic, poorly cats, poorly choiced, crappy, barely audible baloney (though every once in a while there were live tits!) that I wouldn't sit through again if you blew me during it. Theater...Fun to do...Painful to watch.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration has happened...So GET ON WITH IT!
I wasn't able to drink in today's big historical moment as much as I would have liked to. Being at work we tried to watch as much as we could but sadly we had a non-stop rain of ignorant phone calls. Which resulted in a somewhat frantic division of attention and made for kind of a dull thud occur where there should be a trumpeting to the heavens, so to speak. I am a bit bummed about that because I would like to feel more excited about today then most of my compatriots are. I sort of liken it to the end of a traumatic period in life that you have known the 'horror' (to be a little dramatic) so well that now that it is finally over you don't know how to feel about it?!? Of course, I am speaking of the Bush years...I am so inclined to negative thinking about government, about the President in specific, that I am still not fully adjusted to this whole "new President" thing.
Not the end of the world as today is merely a ceremony and now it is officially and finally time for that whole, "proof in the pudding" thing to happen. Hopefully, we will start seeing some of that tomorrow because he does not have one second to spare. I am happy as shit Obama won and he's *insert milestone here* but I am eager to get the show on the road and see what's what. Critics on the right have already decided that "we" think, "every thang gonna be a'ight" just like that *snaps fingers* and that we are also (as always) sheeple who are drinking this kool-aid (or "fool-aid" in some cases) so we had better watch out. For what? I have no idea. It is just STUNNING to hear and see this kind of horseshit after witnessing the last 8 years. Didja drink that kool-aid in 2003? Still waiting for the WMD to surface, are ya? Think throwing the 4th Amendment out the window is A-Ok, you know, "to protect your safety?" Big fan of torturing people then saying we don't? Illegal, pre-emptive war all good with you? Appointing Equine coordinators to head FEMA pretty much what you would have done?
Oh, and then there's that evil spectre, who has returned from it's 1990-something grave to haunt us, THE LIBERAL MEDIA!?!?! Look how the liberal media, the same one that didn't jump on the "Iraq war is AWESOME" bandwagon, and didn't aid in anointing number 43 illegally into office in 2000, and tell us everything the Bush Administration did not want us to hear for the better part of the past 8 years...Because they are all part of a liberal conspiracy to take away our fucking guns, abort babies and force us all to drive tiny, death-trap cars right into a Socialist Amerika Republic of Giant Vaginas who hate freedom almost as much as they hate themselves! Or whatever it is you fine folks on the right are told to believe by Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, or maybe Anne Coulter these days. I hate to continue my nasty, divisive diatribe here but when I see shit like this it just makes my stomach turn. Behold:
Keep drinking the Obama Kool-Aid!! There will be more problems in the US since we will now be run by special interest groups, european country's and Islam.
That's some sound logic right there...I suppose the Oil, Gun, Pharmaceutical, Tobacco, Natural Gas Lobbies (to name just a few) have been totally power less the last 8 years? European Country's? Not sure what you mean there nor what possessive you intended, and I assume the Islam crack is attached to the unbelievable stupidity of everyone who was at a Sarah Palin rally last year? I mean, seriously, you are still buying that "secret Muslim" crap?
I have been encountering a lot of veiled racism like this...White people seem to think that having a black president isn't that big of a deal and say a lot of shit such as pointing out that this isn't a "historic" day because we've had 43 other Presidents and apparently they all had low-key, low cost inaugurations that no one bothered to pay any attention to until today. Most black people I have talked to are still blown away that a black person (of any percentage, whites who talk like this also like pointing out he isn't "black enough") is the President. Can you not even "try on" some one else's shoes a minute? Why do you feel slighted by this being special? Why is it whenever black folks do something they have never done you all got sit there and bitch about it? That simply implies to me that you think only white people deserve to be special? And the Media slobbers on everything they touch always and forever why do you folks keep insisting that they (the media) somehow made all this happen?! Look at the crowd shots from today? Did the media make those millions and millions come out and stand in the cold like that? Did the media make those millions and millions who voted for Obama? If that's true then did they also make the last two elections go the other way? To do what, exactly? Make things appear balanced temporarily?
Yeah! And I am sure you have felt that way about inaugurations forever! Or is this simply more because you voted for the other guy and don't think black people deserve shit...Despite the one being inaugurated clearly worked a little to get this gig...But that's neither here nor there and frankly so is this comment.
Yes, he will make America less safe (if that is even possible after what has just happened these last 7 years!?!) just because and no Republicans would ever, ever give out an economic bailout! The couple already given out in the last several months were really secret Muslim, liberal, socialist using their magic liberal powers to manipulate a misunderstood President Bush to give out those bailouts...or something. And now one of my favorite claims I have heard more than once today...
Listened to the whole speech. He said NOTHING. Don't tell me it was the best speech ever. He literally said NOTHING, just like he did NOTHING for IL and will continue to do NOTHING for our country. Sad 4 years of liberalism to come ...
Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Stupid cynics don't fail anything...THEY KNOW! Look how great everything is?!?! (keep looking!) Now, and only now, everything is falling to shit and we are gonna be forced to become Socialist European Union member, The Liberal States of the Amerikan Republik" or something. Surely, B. Hussein's speech will look even more like NOTING when you see the in-depth, awesome-ness that we had in 2001:
Our national courage has been clear in times of depression and war, when defending common dangers defined our common good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.
Allow me to repeat a line in bold because the Liberal Media made me:
We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.
AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!!
Oh and think about Katrina while you read:
Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of us are diminished when any are hopeless.
Here's a nice one from Bush's second inaugural address:
All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.
Yeah? We will not ignore your oppression we will stop it by oppressing you! IF you have oil in your country that is. We haven't done a whole lot of oppression to those rascally North Koreans nor have we done diddly fucking dick about that something-something happening in Darfur...Probably because they were created by the liberal media or something, right?
Whatever, I don't even know why I am going on about this or pretending to be surprised at all. I think a lot of it has to do with my worry that we, collectively as a species, country, society, will never be able to pull ourselves out of the hole we are in due to so very many of us completely deluded by political horseshit. This is particularly painful when I read anything about global warming or climate change...Nothing can or is being done about these issues because there is still a significant amount of stupid motherfuckers out there going on and on about Al Gore and "junk science" and just plum, old fashioned, "I don't believe it." Now, I don't buy the extremes either (i.e. Gonna run out of gas in 20 years!, We don't do anything by 2012 we're fucked! kind of thinking) but to sit here and say that none of it's true and the whole environmental movement is another way to "trick" you into becoming a Socialist controlled by "big Government" is so depressing that I barely have words for it.
I don't want to save the world anymore than you do as we all know it's the human environment that is endangered...Not the "world" it shall go on with or with out us no matter what...But why trash the place? Don't you want your kids to have what you had? Let me show you some examples (check the comments) of what kills me every time I read them:
Global warming is a farce that is discounted by 50% of scientists. But when they speak out they are ostracized and attacked by the far left wing nuts. Let Al "THE BORE" Gore spend a few winters up here. I ever run into him, I'm going to stick his global warming tongue to a flag pole.
Face it. The "global warming" nut cases will never admit they are wrong, even if the entire Northern Hemisphere were covered by 35 feet of ice. Then they'll just say it's caused by "global warming" in the Sahara desert or some such gobbledygook. There have always been doom predicters like the charlatans who claim to be able to foretell earthquakes, famine, floods etc. 50 years ahead...but can't accurately predict a non-blizzard 3 hours in advance. Weather historically is cyclical so now it's much easier to say there will be "climate change." Oh yeah? What a revelation. Stop the presses! Scratch the surface of these phonies and you'll likely find that, like Al Gore, they're getting richer because of their panic attacks.
Global warming is a hoax. It's always been a hoax. It's a far left mantra that carries big political stakes and money to those who wish to take advantage. 100 years from now they'll laugh at these babbling fools and discover the earth climate has actually dropped a degree in overall temperature. The earth has been here over 4 billion years, our industrial age lasted less than 200 years and we're supposed to beleive man is destroying a planet that withstood, floods, meteors, earthquakes and fires? Jump in your Prius' and put your headphones on, we don't want to your stupid rants...
You see? It's all a liberal conspiracy to make people buy things they don't want from Al Gore! So, why bother seeking new and cleaner energy resources? Why bother trying to preserve biodiversity and attempt to restrict the deforestation of all the rain forests! Fuck it! They are ours to exploit after all God made them for us?!?! It's the same, tiny thinking I see in the above comments that fuels the same tiny thinking in the anti-Obama crowd and really, in general terms, it's the same crowd.
Is it everybody? No, of course not. And it is a little silly of me to sit here today and be sad that there happen to be a handful of crazy morons posting on the Internet and that somehow we are ALL doomed because of it. There will always be opposition to any position and if I really believed in 'democracy' I would want a certain amount of dissent and disagreement. And really I do! We need crazy conservatives to be in government just as much as wack-a-loon liberals and everything in between as that is the "American Way." I just wish the "debate" would be more substantive than the hate fueled stupidity I posted examples of above, which represents the bulk of what I encounter both off and online. To let 20th century thinking (racism in particular) to hold our country back...To let a dated hatred of Al Gore interfere with your entire scientific outlook and obstruct and drag back any efforts to perhaps clean up our act a little.
I drag out the Al Gore stuff largely due to the notion that I happen to buy some of this global warming stuff. How can it be that our environment wouldn't be affected by our over-population? Deforestation? And energy waste? Why am I so special to understand that GLOBAL (as in the whole planet) getting a warmer climate (by a degree or 2) doesn't necessarily mean winter will magically just go away? No argument, no facts are sent my way just baseless name calling; Fool-Aid Drinker, Gullible Warming, etc. And ya'all just go and drive off in your SUVs as retard as retard can be...I suppose. Some day I may delve deeper into this topic on here as I have been spending A LOT OF TIME thinking about energy, climate change and understanding why adapting to a "Green Economy" could be the best solution to our ills that we could possibly ever come up with but I think I have already blogged another book here as it is.
Anyhow, final thought to THIS post is simply a plea to get on board a little better my "conservative friends," would ya? I know, I know you didn't vote for him, you don't support him, blah blah blah...You will survive, after all I just survived the worst President in American history, and say, most of you survived Bill Clinton and most of ya'all still got your damn guns! So it probably can't get much worse than it has, can it? So, instead of bitching about black people deserving or not deserving this or that, or arguing with pure insult and making empty claims about Obama's empty claims...Start suggesting what we, they, he, you, I SHOULD be doing. Give us a plan, man! McCain didn't have one perhaps it's your turn to shine! So, quit yer bitching and start contributing. Turn off your Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and turn on your brain! Lord knows, I have turned off my Keith Olberman and Rachael Maddows and I never listen to NPR or Air America (or any radio at all). But hey, I am probably completely full of shit too...So, why bother?
Not the end of the world as today is merely a ceremony and now it is officially and finally time for that whole, "proof in the pudding" thing to happen. Hopefully, we will start seeing some of that tomorrow because he does not have one second to spare. I am happy as shit Obama won and he's *insert milestone here* but I am eager to get the show on the road and see what's what. Critics on the right have already decided that "we" think, "every thang gonna be a'ight" just like that *snaps fingers* and that we are also (as always) sheeple who are drinking this kool-aid (or "fool-aid" in some cases) so we had better watch out. For what? I have no idea. It is just STUNNING to hear and see this kind of horseshit after witnessing the last 8 years. Didja drink that kool-aid in 2003? Still waiting for the WMD to surface, are ya? Think throwing the 4th Amendment out the window is A-Ok, you know, "to protect your safety?" Big fan of torturing people then saying we don't? Illegal, pre-emptive war all good with you? Appointing Equine coordinators to head FEMA pretty much what you would have done?
Oh, and then there's that evil spectre, who has returned from it's 1990-something grave to haunt us, THE LIBERAL MEDIA!?!?! Look how the liberal media, the same one that didn't jump on the "Iraq war is AWESOME" bandwagon, and didn't aid in anointing number 43 illegally into office in 2000, and tell us everything the Bush Administration did not want us to hear for the better part of the past 8 years...Because they are all part of a liberal conspiracy to take away our fucking guns, abort babies and force us all to drive tiny, death-trap cars right into a Socialist Amerika Republic of Giant Vaginas who hate freedom almost as much as they hate themselves! Or whatever it is you fine folks on the right are told to believe by Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, or maybe Anne Coulter these days. I hate to continue my nasty, divisive diatribe here but when I see shit like this it just makes my stomach turn. Behold:
Keep drinking the Obama Kool-Aid!! There will be more problems in the US since we will now be run by special interest groups, european country's and Islam.
Submitted by Christyne 12:56 PM CST, Jan 20, 2009
That's some sound logic right there...I suppose the Oil, Gun, Pharmaceutical, Tobacco, Natural Gas Lobbies (to name just a few) have been totally power less the last 8 years? European Country's? Not sure what you mean there nor what possessive you intended, and I assume the Islam crack is attached to the unbelievable stupidity of everyone who was at a Sarah Palin rally last year? I mean, seriously, you are still buying that "secret Muslim" crap?
It means we don't have to watch you media people slobber all over yourselves about this "Historic" day. So much for equality. This day illustrates how we are not.
Submitted by Donald 9:38 AM CST, Jan 20, 2009
It means tons of taxpayer's money is being wasted on an event, while fellow Americans are hungry, homeless, destitute, and dying.
Submitted by Mary 9:19 AM CST, Jan 20, 2009
Where are we now?? How about fearful of a neophyte president who will make America less safe, and who will reach into my pocket to bail out those that cannot control themselves.
Submitted by mike 9:18 AM CST, Jan 20, 2009
Hitler was a charasmatic speaker, too. Be careful of great speakers - and their actions.
Submitted by Deja vu? 1:03 PM CST, Jan 20, 200
Listened to the whole speech. He said NOTHING. Don't tell me it was the best speech ever. He literally said NOTHING, just like he did NOTHING for IL and will continue to do NOTHING for our country. Sad 4 years of liberalism to come ...
Submitted by is he done yet? 12:57 PM CST, Jan 20, 2009
Yes, he said NOTHING...In fact, he just stood up their and mur-murred incoherently while those of us all hopped up on liberal kool-aid heard what we wanted to here...I, for one, have been doctrinated by the liberal media to hear:Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
That is NOTHING. Wishful thinking, which is nothing, language and words (also nothing), and an idea that I think is good (means NOTHING). Then he goes on later with this stupid, empty crap:What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Stupid cynics don't fail anything...THEY KNOW! Look how great everything is?!?! (keep looking!) Now, and only now, everything is falling to shit and we are gonna be forced to become Socialist European Union member, The Liberal States of the Amerikan Republik" or something. Surely, B. Hussein's speech will look even more like NOTING when you see the in-depth, awesome-ness that we had in 2001:
Our national courage has been clear in times of depression and war, when defending common dangers defined our common good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.
Allow me to repeat a line in bold because the Liberal Media made me:
We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.
AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!!
Oh and think about Katrina while you read:
Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of us are diminished when any are hopeless.
Here's a nice one from Bush's second inaugural address:
All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.
Yeah? We will not ignore your oppression we will stop it by oppressing you! IF you have oil in your country that is. We haven't done a whole lot of oppression to those rascally North Koreans nor have we done diddly fucking dick about that something-something happening in Darfur...Probably because they were created by the liberal media or something, right?
Whatever, I don't even know why I am going on about this or pretending to be surprised at all. I think a lot of it has to do with my worry that we, collectively as a species, country, society, will never be able to pull ourselves out of the hole we are in due to so very many of us completely deluded by political horseshit. This is particularly painful when I read anything about global warming or climate change...Nothing can or is being done about these issues because there is still a significant amount of stupid motherfuckers out there going on and on about Al Gore and "junk science" and just plum, old fashioned, "I don't believe it." Now, I don't buy the extremes either (i.e. Gonna run out of gas in 20 years!, We don't do anything by 2012 we're fucked! kind of thinking) but to sit here and say that none of it's true and the whole environmental movement is another way to "trick" you into becoming a Socialist controlled by "big Government" is so depressing that I barely have words for it.
I don't want to save the world anymore than you do as we all know it's the human environment that is endangered...Not the "world" it shall go on with or with out us no matter what...But why trash the place? Don't you want your kids to have what you had? Let me show you some examples (check the comments) of what kills me every time I read them:
Global warming is a farce that is discounted by 50% of scientists. But when they speak out they are ostracized and attacked by the far left wing nuts. Let Al "THE BORE" Gore spend a few winters up here. I ever run into him, I'm going to stick his global warming tongue to a flag pole.
Face it. The "global warming" nut cases will never admit they are wrong, even if the entire Northern Hemisphere were covered by 35 feet of ice. Then they'll just say it's caused by "global warming" in the Sahara desert or some such gobbledygook. There have always been doom predicters like the charlatans who claim to be able to foretell earthquakes, famine, floods etc. 50 years ahead...but can't accurately predict a non-blizzard 3 hours in advance. Weather historically is cyclical so now it's much easier to say there will be "climate change." Oh yeah? What a revelation. Stop the presses! Scratch the surface of these phonies and you'll likely find that, like Al Gore, they're getting richer because of their panic attacks.
Global warming is a hoax. It's always been a hoax. It's a far left mantra that carries big political stakes and money to those who wish to take advantage. 100 years from now they'll laugh at these babbling fools and discover the earth climate has actually dropped a degree in overall temperature. The earth has been here over 4 billion years, our industrial age lasted less than 200 years and we're supposed to beleive man is destroying a planet that withstood, floods, meteors, earthquakes and fires? Jump in your Prius' and put your headphones on, we don't want to your stupid rants...
You see? It's all a liberal conspiracy to make people buy things they don't want from Al Gore! So, why bother seeking new and cleaner energy resources? Why bother trying to preserve biodiversity and attempt to restrict the deforestation of all the rain forests! Fuck it! They are ours to exploit after all God made them for us?!?! It's the same, tiny thinking I see in the above comments that fuels the same tiny thinking in the anti-Obama crowd and really, in general terms, it's the same crowd.
Is it everybody? No, of course not. And it is a little silly of me to sit here today and be sad that there happen to be a handful of crazy morons posting on the Internet and that somehow we are ALL doomed because of it. There will always be opposition to any position and if I really believed in 'democracy' I would want a certain amount of dissent and disagreement. And really I do! We need crazy conservatives to be in government just as much as wack-a-loon liberals and everything in between as that is the "American Way." I just wish the "debate" would be more substantive than the hate fueled stupidity I posted examples of above, which represents the bulk of what I encounter both off and online. To let 20th century thinking (racism in particular) to hold our country back...To let a dated hatred of Al Gore interfere with your entire scientific outlook and obstruct and drag back any efforts to perhaps clean up our act a little.
I drag out the Al Gore stuff largely due to the notion that I happen to buy some of this global warming stuff. How can it be that our environment wouldn't be affected by our over-population? Deforestation? And energy waste? Why am I so special to understand that GLOBAL (as in the whole planet) getting a warmer climate (by a degree or 2) doesn't necessarily mean winter will magically just go away? No argument, no facts are sent my way just baseless name calling; Fool-Aid Drinker, Gullible Warming, etc. And ya'all just go and drive off in your SUVs as retard as retard can be...I suppose. Some day I may delve deeper into this topic on here as I have been spending A LOT OF TIME thinking about energy, climate change and understanding why adapting to a "Green Economy" could be the best solution to our ills that we could possibly ever come up with but I think I have already blogged another book here as it is.
Anyhow, final thought to THIS post is simply a plea to get on board a little better my "conservative friends," would ya? I know, I know you didn't vote for him, you don't support him, blah blah blah...You will survive, after all I just survived the worst President in American history, and say, most of you survived Bill Clinton and most of ya'all still got your damn guns! So it probably can't get much worse than it has, can it? So, instead of bitching about black people deserving or not deserving this or that, or arguing with pure insult and making empty claims about Obama's empty claims...Start suggesting what we, they, he, you, I SHOULD be doing. Give us a plan, man! McCain didn't have one perhaps it's your turn to shine! So, quit yer bitching and start contributing. Turn off your Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and turn on your brain! Lord knows, I have turned off my Keith Olberman and Rachael Maddows and I never listen to NPR or Air America (or any radio at all). But hey, I am probably completely full of shit too...So, why bother?
Thursday, January 08, 2009
First Post of the Year or ARMAGEDDON IS COMING!!!
Happy new year!
Everything is SO different now that it is finally 2009. *pause to take it all in*
So, had a half and half holiday vacation as the entire first week was used up on weather related trauma as my freaking car was stuck in the snow from the Friday I got home from work all the way until Saturday after Jeesus B-Day. Which was fun because, in addition, it was like 5 below most of the week and I had put off groceries, laundry, Holiday stuff all until I got off of work. I live near many a store so it shouldn't have been that bad but walking around in below zero weather and trying to buy groceries in small piles, a little at a time, and trying to carry that shit over ice and tundra kind of sucked. Exhausting in fact, each day I would go out and try and move my car, dig, push, rev engine fruitlessly and it would not fucking budge. Essentially, the small snow drift I parked in got plowed up a little and then froze in such a way that the car was lifted off the ground as if it were on blocks. ON the 24th I made it my focus to get the fucker out as it had warmed up a little and I was sure I would get it out and dug and dug (with my boots, no shovel) and pushed and bitched and moaned and made zero progress and I was PISSED!!! So, that was Christmas.
The next week, once the temp. suddenly rose to the low 60's and the car was freed, I crammed the whole two week vacation into one week which was kind of nice. Spent the New years with HS friends, saw the north side friends, south side friends, went to the field museum, saw a local hockey game, got the laundry done and I bought myself a freaking treat. The treat being one of those fancy-schmancy HD flat screens with a blu-ray player. Thus I have entered the modern age of televised distraction...in HD! It's nice, my XBOX 360 now regularly causes me to shit my pants as gaming in HD is a whole new experience. LOVE IT.
So, last night I was flipping channels on my in-house movie screen and landed on the "history" channel. Have you watched anything on there recently? Remember how it used to be the WWII/Hitler channel? Now-a-days, in between the Hitler shows, they are now the ARMAGEDDON CHANNEL!!! Every single show I see on that channel whether it be about Dinosaurs or The Universe always somehow has a segment about the eventual destruction of the earth/extinction of mankind. And it's HILARIOUS! I swear the "history" channel programming meetings really must be something to behold...Those fuckers are absolutely obsessed with the end of the world. And you know what? The end is imminent! How do I know? Because it is motherfucking Armageddon week on the "history" channel!?!? Not only is the end imminent it has a precise date (this apparently according to the Mayan Calendar, the I Ching, Merlin, The Hopi Indians, Mother Sheppard, Nostradamus, and this Internet program called the "web.bots") so get your shit together people because we are ALL GOING TO DIE ON DECEMBER 21, 2012!?!?!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
*runs back and forth in front of computer, flailing arms and screaming for 20 minutes*
Don't believe it? Well, there's even a Roland Emmerich movie coming out this year about it! It HAS to be true and I don't need to think about it at all or apply an sense of logic because it has happened before?!?! Remember the dinosaurs? They were fucking WIPED OUT by Armageddons! when someone tells me what the Mayan Calendar says then I just take it at face value because it's REAL! Forget the notion that it, and basically every "prophet" in "history" who have made "predictions" always seem to be incredibly vague and then later shown to be correct in hindsight...You know, just like your daily horoscope can seem like it is relevant because really you can interpret whatever the fuck it, they, psychic hot line says to mean whatever the fuck you want it to mean and so on.
What this stuff really has sparked in my curiosity is that I feel this "prediction" stuff is part of one of our most unique traits as a species and that is our incredible ability to tell stories. In fact, and I have not fully thought all of this through yet, from one point of view it is almost all we, as a collective species, are good at (outside of over populating (fucking) and excessively wasting resources (piling up garbage) while we scourge the planet like an infestation, but that's a different post) is telling stories. We have so many ways we do this as our brains are wired to relate to tales, be it religious metaphor, anecdotes, and especially entertainment. We just love our shadows on the wall! Think about it; almost every art form be it music, painting, theater or film/TV all of it exist to convey information, to understand, to tell a narrative, convey a feeling, in essence to communicate thoughts to another via paper, oral tradition or visually and this prophetic shit is no different.
This kind of story is one of the rock solid tenets of story telling and helps explain how some of this stuff sort of maintains itself over time. This is the stuff Star Wars was made of as Lucas was all ga-ga over Joseph Campbell and his various thesis revolving around myth. The conventions of story telling demonstrated in Star Wars are common in almost any kind of narrative tale in existence and go all the way back to, at least, Greek times (Aristotle's "Poetics") and before that in Egyptian hieroglyphics and cave paintings of early man. All exist to communicate their 'story' and show others what is important to them, or their god in some cases. And it is all so very important and we, as a species-culture, value this stuff beyond almost everything else.
Which is why, I think, we are so damn good at advancing technology that involves TVs, film, computer animation and so on. In fact, I am starting to wonder if there is anything else we can do as well as entertainment technology. We need the stories, we like to believe the stories...The stories are about US! It's art, media, philosophy, theology, communications, understanding, learning, relating...All from story. It's kind of fascinating to me because 90% of all it also happens to be mostly bullshit. In a harsh, inhumane point of view, we collectively bullshit ourselves and each other so much that it is no wonder things are as they are and it is so fucking hard to come to consensus with anyone who doesn't invest in the same stories as you do. It's mind blowing when you really apply thought to all of what I am trying to say here.
At any rate, surely the end is coming (just like it was in 2000) so go ahead and finance that major purchase or sleep with that one person you always wanted to sleep with because the sands are running out the hour glass people. It's no wonder that climate change, middle east conflict, failing economy, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes are all happening these days (because, you know, that kind of shit never happened before this century;-) because we are gearing up for the end. The Christians are pretty stoked about it so everyone, who deserves to depending on which metaphorical narrative you believe in, are going to heaven and everything (for them) is going to be AWESOME! Which is why I believe the "History" channel is also obsessed with Armageddon. So, fuck the "environment" and the "future" it's all bunk and phooey anyway...Get yourself a Dodge Durango (hurry up they might go bankrupt this year!) that gets 1 mile to the gallon and start throwing Styrofoam and six-pack holders into all the streams and rivers...WE ARE (some of us) GOING TO HEAVEN FOR CHRISTMAS IN 2012!!!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOO!!!!!
*rides nuke from bottom of a bomber*
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS WE GONNA DONE BLOW.
THIS.
SHIT.
UP!!!
Everything is SO different now that it is finally 2009. *pause to take it all in*
So, had a half and half holiday vacation as the entire first week was used up on weather related trauma as my freaking car was stuck in the snow from the Friday I got home from work all the way until Saturday after Jeesus B-Day. Which was fun because, in addition, it was like 5 below most of the week and I had put off groceries, laundry, Holiday stuff all until I got off of work. I live near many a store so it shouldn't have been that bad but walking around in below zero weather and trying to buy groceries in small piles, a little at a time, and trying to carry that shit over ice and tundra kind of sucked. Exhausting in fact, each day I would go out and try and move my car, dig, push, rev engine fruitlessly and it would not fucking budge. Essentially, the small snow drift I parked in got plowed up a little and then froze in such a way that the car was lifted off the ground as if it were on blocks. ON the 24th I made it my focus to get the fucker out as it had warmed up a little and I was sure I would get it out and dug and dug (with my boots, no shovel) and pushed and bitched and moaned and made zero progress and I was PISSED!!! So, that was Christmas.
The next week, once the temp. suddenly rose to the low 60's and the car was freed, I crammed the whole two week vacation into one week which was kind of nice. Spent the New years with HS friends, saw the north side friends, south side friends, went to the field museum, saw a local hockey game, got the laundry done and I bought myself a freaking treat. The treat being one of those fancy-schmancy HD flat screens with a blu-ray player. Thus I have entered the modern age of televised distraction...in HD! It's nice, my XBOX 360 now regularly causes me to shit my pants as gaming in HD is a whole new experience. LOVE IT.
So, last night I was flipping channels on my in-house movie screen and landed on the "history" channel. Have you watched anything on there recently? Remember how it used to be the WWII/Hitler channel? Now-a-days, in between the Hitler shows, they are now the ARMAGEDDON CHANNEL!!! Every single show I see on that channel whether it be about Dinosaurs or The Universe always somehow has a segment about the eventual destruction of the earth/extinction of mankind. And it's HILARIOUS! I swear the "history" channel programming meetings really must be something to behold...Those fuckers are absolutely obsessed with the end of the world. And you know what? The end is imminent! How do I know? Because it is motherfucking Armageddon week on the "history" channel!?!? Not only is the end imminent it has a precise date (this apparently according to the Mayan Calendar, the I Ching, Merlin, The Hopi Indians, Mother Sheppard, Nostradamus, and this Internet program called the "web.bots") so get your shit together people because we are ALL GOING TO DIE ON DECEMBER 21, 2012!?!?!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
*runs back and forth in front of computer, flailing arms and screaming for 20 minutes*
Don't believe it? Well, there's even a Roland Emmerich movie coming out this year about it! It HAS to be true and I don't need to think about it at all or apply an sense of logic because it has happened before?!?! Remember the dinosaurs? They were fucking WIPED OUT by Armageddons! when someone tells me what the Mayan Calendar says then I just take it at face value because it's REAL! Forget the notion that it, and basically every "prophet" in "history" who have made "predictions" always seem to be incredibly vague and then later shown to be correct in hindsight...You know, just like your daily horoscope can seem like it is relevant because really you can interpret whatever the fuck it, they, psychic hot line says to mean whatever the fuck you want it to mean and so on.
What this stuff really has sparked in my curiosity is that I feel this "prediction" stuff is part of one of our most unique traits as a species and that is our incredible ability to tell stories. In fact, and I have not fully thought all of this through yet, from one point of view it is almost all we, as a collective species, are good at (outside of over populating (fucking) and excessively wasting resources (piling up garbage) while we scourge the planet like an infestation, but that's a different post) is telling stories. We have so many ways we do this as our brains are wired to relate to tales, be it religious metaphor, anecdotes, and especially entertainment. We just love our shadows on the wall! Think about it; almost every art form be it music, painting, theater or film/TV all of it exist to convey information, to understand, to tell a narrative, convey a feeling, in essence to communicate thoughts to another via paper, oral tradition or visually and this prophetic shit is no different.
This kind of story is one of the rock solid tenets of story telling and helps explain how some of this stuff sort of maintains itself over time. This is the stuff Star Wars was made of as Lucas was all ga-ga over Joseph Campbell and his various thesis revolving around myth. The conventions of story telling demonstrated in Star Wars are common in almost any kind of narrative tale in existence and go all the way back to, at least, Greek times (Aristotle's "Poetics") and before that in Egyptian hieroglyphics and cave paintings of early man. All exist to communicate their 'story' and show others what is important to them, or their god in some cases. And it is all so very important and we, as a species-culture, value this stuff beyond almost everything else.
Which is why, I think, we are so damn good at advancing technology that involves TVs, film, computer animation and so on. In fact, I am starting to wonder if there is anything else we can do as well as entertainment technology. We need the stories, we like to believe the stories...The stories are about US! It's art, media, philosophy, theology, communications, understanding, learning, relating...All from story. It's kind of fascinating to me because 90% of all it also happens to be mostly bullshit. In a harsh, inhumane point of view, we collectively bullshit ourselves and each other so much that it is no wonder things are as they are and it is so fucking hard to come to consensus with anyone who doesn't invest in the same stories as you do. It's mind blowing when you really apply thought to all of what I am trying to say here.
At any rate, surely the end is coming (just like it was in 2000) so go ahead and finance that major purchase or sleep with that one person you always wanted to sleep with because the sands are running out the hour glass people. It's no wonder that climate change, middle east conflict, failing economy, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes are all happening these days (because, you know, that kind of shit never happened before this century;-) because we are gearing up for the end. The Christians are pretty stoked about it so everyone, who deserves to depending on which metaphorical narrative you believe in, are going to heaven and everything (for them) is going to be AWESOME! Which is why I believe the "History" channel is also obsessed with Armageddon. So, fuck the "environment" and the "future" it's all bunk and phooey anyway...Get yourself a Dodge Durango (hurry up they might go bankrupt this year!) that gets 1 mile to the gallon and start throwing Styrofoam and six-pack holders into all the streams and rivers...WE ARE (some of us) GOING TO HEAVEN FOR CHRISTMAS IN 2012!!!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOO!!!!!
*rides nuke from bottom of a bomber*
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS WE GONNA DONE BLOW.
THIS.
SHIT.
UP!!!
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