A friend of mine has suggested that if you want to save the world, ask a child. I know she's not the first. But really, why ask a child? What's so special and wise about someone who can't think for themselves? They haven't seen the world, so how can they fix it? Is the world even broken?
Yes, my friends, that and more. Ask a child because they do think for themselves. Ask a child because when you get an answer, they won't be thinking of themselves. Ask a child how to help a child. Ask a child how to help your againg parents. Ask a child about death when you're feeling down. Ask a child about pain when you're feeling cocky. If you're hot shit, why ask someone who sits in their own shit?
Why not?
The people who haven't decided that the world is normal and nothing can change, they're the people we need to have as advisors. Advisors should NOT be seen-and-not-heard. Advisors like these need to be given priority, and given an honest ear.
Young blood runs in the streets in Athens and Gaza and Mumbai. Young blood runs in the veins of the movers, the shakers, the visionaries and the revolutionaries. Tap the flow of the second to stem the flow of the first.
Ask anyone under three feet tall anything and you'l get an answer in Ifspeak. Why did we stop speaking Ifspeak? Ifspeak is the language of the people who advance our world. Can'tspeak is the language of the people that drain our world. What if we really could eliminate global hunger? We can't, you say? What if we just run the numbers. We can't redirect those resources anyway? Why not? Why should you be the one to say that ntohing can change. Push your pencil elsewhere, Jack, I'm pushing the truth.
Showing posts with label lies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lies. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The real family values
Why is it that senators who run on a platform of "family values" and one-man-one-woman marriage law are always the ones who get caught with an intern or in the airport bathroom, or maybe soliciting an "escort"? Why is it that people are so damn afraid of people unlike them? Or even more, people like what they're afraid to be?
Please, someone, anyone, explain these things to me. Why in a nation where the separation of church and state is a part of our law, we have let our law be dictated by the Bible? Why any religious group except for mainstream Protestant Christians faces more challenges, prejudice, and persecution?
The Mormons were declared heretics and cast out. They found a home (what kind of God declares a lake home to his chosen people if it is too salty to even drink from and sustain life?), and established their own society according to their beliefs. That's how the colonies got started in the first place. Now it is only a splinter group that still practices polygamy, but just because the idea of polygamy makes the "family values" people feel uncomfortable, they persecute this group every chance they get.
I'll admit, I won't let a Jehovah's Witness in unless there is nothing good on TV. That's actually more than a little bit cruel, now that I think about it. But would you rather spend two hours knocking on doors and getting turned away, usually rudely, or talking about god and the afterlife with someone who doesn't believe one word you say, but will listen, entertain the idea, and bring you ice tea and snacks? I appreciate the fact that these people feel that they are duty bound to attempt to convert others. They honestly believe that they are saving souls. That's a noble thing to try to do. But I always wonder, while we're discussing the fine points of Genesis, is there someone down the block that would actually be listening and believing what this person has to say? Am I preventing this person from actually "saving a soul?" I don't know what to believe when it comes to religion, but I do believe that everyone is entitled to believe and practice whatever they want, without interference from other people.
I do know that religion is a very sophisticated brainwashing system. Brainwashing is one of those terms that depends on perspective. It's education when your side does it. It's indoctrination when the other guy does it. Religion, regardless of any basis in facts, organizes people, gives people something to think, say, and do (or tell others to do, even as they sin themselves). Religion is a necessary part of society.
But is bigotry a part of that, too? Must there always be an enemy, a subversive? This country has been jumping at shadows. It makes me angry. Jaded, too, and at times resigned to "this, too, shall pass." But then I see a loving couple who by all rights should be married by now. Or I hear someone explain their own twisted version of "morality." If only I could count the number of times I've wanted to kick in the television in the process of kicking the pundit or politician on the screen, when they began discussing that is or isn't immoral. I'll tell you what's immoral. It's deciding that people whom you have never met, who have never done anything to you, whose personal conduct does not have any bearing whatsoever on your life, that they are not equal. That they are not entitled to the same rights as everyone else.
We've seen it over and over again through history. Racism. Sexism. Social elitism and either a legal or de facto caste system. Heteronormativity.
Yeah, that's a big-ass word. That's fancy speak for straight people deciding that anyone who isn't like them, who doesn't feel or think like they do, is by definition inferior. That one man can only love one woman, and that anything other than that system is not only immoral in their eyes, but actually worthy of active defamation, persecution, and legislation against it.
Walk around on any given day, and just listen. Listen to how many times "gay" is used as an adjective synonymous with "wrong," "perverted," or "stupid." Any given day. Roger Waters has a new song, for which there is a comic strip projected behind the stage, helping to tell the story in the song. It is the story of how in the early 1960s, Waters went hitchhiking to Lebanon. I love his musical work, both with and after his time with Pink Floyd, don't get me wrong. At one point, when he was sleeping on a porch, a man who had lost a leg in WWII came up and asked him if he'd like to come back to his place for dinner and a roof over his head for that night. He said that his wife cooked very well, and would be delighted to have a guest. In the comic, there is a thought bubble from the young Waters' head which reads "Thanks God. Monopod, but not queer." I will admit, the prospect of getting taken to someone's home and raped is an unpleasant one, but really, the vast majority or rapists and pedophiles are straight men. In prison, maybe, male-on-male rape is relatively common, but that is a special case.
There is no arguing that homophobia and animosity toward gays is pervasive in our society. This is a part of people's learning from an early age, and to many people is as natural as male chauvinism or support of Jim Crow laws and distrust toward non-whites in decades past.
It is interesting, though, that although blacks and women generally enjoy an equal legal footing with the rest of society after their respective liberation movements, even after "gay liberation" in the 80s, we still face legal (not to mention social) roadblocks toward health plans, employment, adoption, foster parenting, military service, and marriage.
There was an unprecedented conservative backlash when the concept of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality really gained popular support. I have said before how much I admire and stand in awe of the right-wing propaganda machine. This is no different. Their ability to play on people's fears, deliver misinformation and straw-man arguments, instill new fears, drum up hate, and all the while pass themselves off as being pro-family values, protecting the masses, and most of all, not be seen my many was the hatemongers they are is staggering.
Let's talk about family values. More than half of all children are now born out of wedlock. Divorce rates are over 50%. Obviously, most people don't take the old-fashioned family unit seriously unless they happen to be voting to "protect it." Lemme tell you something, if it is so fragile that it can be destroyed by gay marriage, we are obviously not talking about the same "family." Sprechen ze englisch? Are you sure? We're both talking about the same kind of family where there are two parents, a house, 1.7 cars, a white picket fence, and 2.7 kids? Where they are still "family" to one another for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do them part? Well, it's true, 63% or American families are now considered dysfunctional according to the L.A. Times.
Let me tell you, two women or two men are far more likely to be good, prepared parents than your average two yahoos who had some fun one night and she got knocked up. They are more likely to be good parents than a married couple who decided that maybe they'd like a baby, but didn't think it through (it happens a lot). Think about it. There is so much red tape to adopting a child, you really have to want to adopt that kid (unless you're celebrity in Hollywood....). Now think about all the extra red tape gay couples face. It's true. It's part of the administrative decision checklist: are they "morally fit" to raise this child? What the fuck do you think? Becoming a foster parent is even worse. In many states an municipalities, it is actually illegal for a same-sex couple to become foster parents.
That is especially not right. The foster care system in this country is overworked and overbooked. Foster parents are underpaid for the responsibility, but if they raise the tax breaks, more people will do it just for the money, with no real regard to the people. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Many children fall through the cracks. Turning away qualified, caring foster parents is downright criminal.
While we're at it, let's talk about transgender rights. The laws are patchwork laws, and are often on the wrong side of things anyway. Most of the law is a gray area up to individual judges, and we all know how bad that can be.
Have you ever walked into a bathroom (or out of one) and had people either tell you you're in the wrong bathroom, or stare, glance away, and say something to someone near them? It doesn't happen terribly often, but just plain weird looks do. Double takes, basically.
Funny story. About two and a half weeks after freshman year started, I stopped to use the toilet in between classes. Then when I went to the sink to wash my hands, another girl came out of a stall and started washing her hands at the sink next to me, at about the same time. We had seen each other around campus. We both looked up, looked at each other, and said, "I thought you were a guy."
It's less fucking hilarious when someone says "get outta here, dyke." That's when the asskicking happens. It don't care if your dad has threatened to kill me before, tell me that and I'll rearrange your face before he can get here. And the unconscious don't make phone calls.
Please, someone, anyone, explain these things to me. Why in a nation where the separation of church and state is a part of our law, we have let our law be dictated by the Bible? Why any religious group except for mainstream Protestant Christians faces more challenges, prejudice, and persecution?
The Mormons were declared heretics and cast out. They found a home (what kind of God declares a lake home to his chosen people if it is too salty to even drink from and sustain life?), and established their own society according to their beliefs. That's how the colonies got started in the first place. Now it is only a splinter group that still practices polygamy, but just because the idea of polygamy makes the "family values" people feel uncomfortable, they persecute this group every chance they get.
I'll admit, I won't let a Jehovah's Witness in unless there is nothing good on TV. That's actually more than a little bit cruel, now that I think about it. But would you rather spend two hours knocking on doors and getting turned away, usually rudely, or talking about god and the afterlife with someone who doesn't believe one word you say, but will listen, entertain the idea, and bring you ice tea and snacks? I appreciate the fact that these people feel that they are duty bound to attempt to convert others. They honestly believe that they are saving souls. That's a noble thing to try to do. But I always wonder, while we're discussing the fine points of Genesis, is there someone down the block that would actually be listening and believing what this person has to say? Am I preventing this person from actually "saving a soul?" I don't know what to believe when it comes to religion, but I do believe that everyone is entitled to believe and practice whatever they want, without interference from other people.
I do know that religion is a very sophisticated brainwashing system. Brainwashing is one of those terms that depends on perspective. It's education when your side does it. It's indoctrination when the other guy does it. Religion, regardless of any basis in facts, organizes people, gives people something to think, say, and do (or tell others to do, even as they sin themselves). Religion is a necessary part of society.
But is bigotry a part of that, too? Must there always be an enemy, a subversive? This country has been jumping at shadows. It makes me angry. Jaded, too, and at times resigned to "this, too, shall pass." But then I see a loving couple who by all rights should be married by now. Or I hear someone explain their own twisted version of "morality." If only I could count the number of times I've wanted to kick in the television in the process of kicking the pundit or politician on the screen, when they began discussing that is or isn't immoral. I'll tell you what's immoral. It's deciding that people whom you have never met, who have never done anything to you, whose personal conduct does not have any bearing whatsoever on your life, that they are not equal. That they are not entitled to the same rights as everyone else.
We've seen it over and over again through history. Racism. Sexism. Social elitism and either a legal or de facto caste system. Heteronormativity.
Yeah, that's a big-ass word. That's fancy speak for straight people deciding that anyone who isn't like them, who doesn't feel or think like they do, is by definition inferior. That one man can only love one woman, and that anything other than that system is not only immoral in their eyes, but actually worthy of active defamation, persecution, and legislation against it.
Walk around on any given day, and just listen. Listen to how many times "gay" is used as an adjective synonymous with "wrong," "perverted," or "stupid." Any given day. Roger Waters has a new song, for which there is a comic strip projected behind the stage, helping to tell the story in the song. It is the story of how in the early 1960s, Waters went hitchhiking to Lebanon. I love his musical work, both with and after his time with Pink Floyd, don't get me wrong. At one point, when he was sleeping on a porch, a man who had lost a leg in WWII came up and asked him if he'd like to come back to his place for dinner and a roof over his head for that night. He said that his wife cooked very well, and would be delighted to have a guest. In the comic, there is a thought bubble from the young Waters' head which reads "Thanks God. Monopod, but not queer." I will admit, the prospect of getting taken to someone's home and raped is an unpleasant one, but really, the vast majority or rapists and pedophiles are straight men. In prison, maybe, male-on-male rape is relatively common, but that is a special case.
There is no arguing that homophobia and animosity toward gays is pervasive in our society. This is a part of people's learning from an early age, and to many people is as natural as male chauvinism or support of Jim Crow laws and distrust toward non-whites in decades past.
It is interesting, though, that although blacks and women generally enjoy an equal legal footing with the rest of society after their respective liberation movements, even after "gay liberation" in the 80s, we still face legal (not to mention social) roadblocks toward health plans, employment, adoption, foster parenting, military service, and marriage.
There was an unprecedented conservative backlash when the concept of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality really gained popular support. I have said before how much I admire and stand in awe of the right-wing propaganda machine. This is no different. Their ability to play on people's fears, deliver misinformation and straw-man arguments, instill new fears, drum up hate, and all the while pass themselves off as being pro-family values, protecting the masses, and most of all, not be seen my many was the hatemongers they are is staggering.
Let's talk about family values. More than half of all children are now born out of wedlock. Divorce rates are over 50%. Obviously, most people don't take the old-fashioned family unit seriously unless they happen to be voting to "protect it." Lemme tell you something, if it is so fragile that it can be destroyed by gay marriage, we are obviously not talking about the same "family." Sprechen ze englisch? Are you sure? We're both talking about the same kind of family where there are two parents, a house, 1.7 cars, a white picket fence, and 2.7 kids? Where they are still "family" to one another for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do them part? Well, it's true, 63% or American families are now considered dysfunctional according to the L.A. Times.
Let me tell you, two women or two men are far more likely to be good, prepared parents than your average two yahoos who had some fun one night and she got knocked up. They are more likely to be good parents than a married couple who decided that maybe they'd like a baby, but didn't think it through (it happens a lot). Think about it. There is so much red tape to adopting a child, you really have to want to adopt that kid (unless you're celebrity in Hollywood....). Now think about all the extra red tape gay couples face. It's true. It's part of the administrative decision checklist: are they "morally fit" to raise this child? What the fuck do you think? Becoming a foster parent is even worse. In many states an municipalities, it is actually illegal for a same-sex couple to become foster parents.
That is especially not right. The foster care system in this country is overworked and overbooked. Foster parents are underpaid for the responsibility, but if they raise the tax breaks, more people will do it just for the money, with no real regard to the people. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Many children fall through the cracks. Turning away qualified, caring foster parents is downright criminal.
While we're at it, let's talk about transgender rights. The laws are patchwork laws, and are often on the wrong side of things anyway. Most of the law is a gray area up to individual judges, and we all know how bad that can be.
Have you ever walked into a bathroom (or out of one) and had people either tell you you're in the wrong bathroom, or stare, glance away, and say something to someone near them? It doesn't happen terribly often, but just plain weird looks do. Double takes, basically.
Funny story. About two and a half weeks after freshman year started, I stopped to use the toilet in between classes. Then when I went to the sink to wash my hands, another girl came out of a stall and started washing her hands at the sink next to me, at about the same time. We had seen each other around campus. We both looked up, looked at each other, and said, "I thought you were a guy."
It's less fucking hilarious when someone says "get outta here, dyke." That's when the asskicking happens. It don't care if your dad has threatened to kill me before, tell me that and I'll rearrange your face before he can get here. And the unconscious don't make phone calls.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Cult of Global Warming and the Temple of Speed
Golbal warming is a lie. Now let me elaborate. The carbon in fossil fuels came from living things. That carbon was once in the carbon cycle. Life was fine. We have precise data going back 650,000 years or so. The carbon in the most recent oil deposits was trapped 65 million years ago. But we have evidence that there was life.
Evolution kills. It's not just a t-shirt slogan, it's a fact. People weep over each species that goes extinct, and although each of those species is irreplacable, another will take its place. If it's niche is destroyed, then nothing will fill the space beacuse there is no space. Having the planet warm a few degrees will not be the end of the world. It has happened before. We know it has, because ALL of that carbon was once in the atmosphere and in plants, and we have "evidence" that CO2 on its own causes heating. Life thrived. There's a 12 foot long dragonfly hanging from the ceiling of the museum to prove it.
I put "evidence" in quotes because that assumption could just as easily be ass-backward. Higher temperatures cause more plant growth and more plant decay, as well as greater and faster decay of animals, which all release CO2. The shirt doesn't match because it's ugly, or it's ugly because it doesn't match? You be the judge. Either way, you're not going out in that, are you?
The plantet will warm if we reintroduce this carbon into the atmosphere. The different heating pattern will cause climate change. Dry spots become wet. Wet spots become dry. Dry spots stay dry, wet spots stay wet. The system will be different, and it will put a strain on local affairs on scale to dwarf the dust bowl. Indivisual people will be screwed. The human species will either adapt, or nuke ourselves. On the global scale, farmland will have moved, but the crops will still be able to get anywhere. Who knew I'd ever argue for globalization, eh?
Let's talk about "alternative" fuels. Or solar energy, or wind. Covering eastern Colorado with wind turbines like they're corn will rob the wind of its energy, and mean no storms in Kansas. Yay, no tornadoes, right? Wrong. No rain. Climate altered on a scale so complete and ruinous that all the carbon dioxide in the world cannot compete with. Your energy has to come from somewhere, you know.
What about putting solar power all over? That means less heat warming the planet and fueling life, instead fueling its destruction. Try removing one third of the heat in the room you're in right now. Fucking freezing, isn't it? We'll have changed the climate near each solar farm more comprehensively than CO2 ever could.
Hydrogen. That's dumb. That's really the best way to describe a substance that requires massive amounts of electricity (from one of the methods above, most likely), and burns to produce a more efficient greenhouse gas than CO2. There's a reason why the tempuraute drops twenty degrees less on a cloudy night than a clear one. You guessed it, the thing keeping your tomatoes from freezing is the greenhouse effect. Hydrogen power will give us one or more of the problems listed above, and STILL not fix our so-called greenhouse gas problem.
Corn ethanol. We've been through this. Turning your food into food for your self-righteous little Civic is a road to starvation, for the both of you. We need to distill fuels from what is currently pure waste, and is burned or allowed to decompose. Wood alcohol is the way to go. Fermenting and distilling the corn stalks instead of the corn ears is the way to go. Hell, your grass clippings could power your truck for a while.
When we use wood methanol and waste-material ethanol to power our vehicles, we can emit as much carbon dioxide as we bloody well please and not change the climate one iota (aside from urban smog from still air), since all of that carbon dioxide will have just come from the carbon cycle itself. We'll be feeding life.
_______________________________
The real issue threatening our livelihoods today is the end of "cheap" oil. By cheap, I really do mean $120, $130 a barrel. As oil gets more and more expensive, it will put more and more of a strain on our system until it snaps. That may come in the form of a massive recession, it may come in the form of a world war, and it may do both. Then, life as we know it will be forever changed. Ever seen Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior? That'll be a damn documentary if we keep going like we are. I personally support effecive United States military presence in the Middle East. I'll elaborate on that later. But suffice it to say, I believe in securing our fuel. End of story.
_______________________________
Carmakers: Especially Detroit, you need to get it through your thick skulls that you need to increase your vehicles' power:cubic inches:weight ratio. Yes, that's a three part ratio. Hotrodders have known it for longer than you board members have been alive. The real way to meet American demands for power is to improve that ratio. Gas milage will be improved, trust me. It'll be a side effect of being able to get the same performance numbers out of less gas, less volume. The Europeans know what's up. They've heard the gospel of Economy. They could do better, but the're willing to make concerted efforts to improve their numbers, rather than make excuses for laziness.
I'll admit, I worship at the temple of Horsepower and Speed. I want it, I want to channel it, I want to express it better, I want to have it at my beck and call, and I know I'm not the only one. What Sunday services mean to us is getting back from church and watching stock car racing. It's taping IRL racing while singing hymns. It's bench racing (and maybe some real runs) before sitting down to fried chicken. I'll drive a damn small-block tank of a car for two years after gas cost me $20 a gallon. But I'll be smart about it. Drive properly. Use alternative combustion fuels. Squeeze every last drop of power out of every last drop of fuel come hell or high water. I'll get 150 miles to the gallon on vintage Springfield iron before the carmakers pull their thumbs out of their asses and get innovating.
Can you say DOHC eight valve V-twin? Bring on the failures until it works. S&S could do it. They're probably working on it. In the meantime, how about it? I know there's enough talent in this country to pull it off? A true American sportbike.
Evolution kills. It's not just a t-shirt slogan, it's a fact. People weep over each species that goes extinct, and although each of those species is irreplacable, another will take its place. If it's niche is destroyed, then nothing will fill the space beacuse there is no space. Having the planet warm a few degrees will not be the end of the world. It has happened before. We know it has, because ALL of that carbon was once in the atmosphere and in plants, and we have "evidence" that CO2 on its own causes heating. Life thrived. There's a 12 foot long dragonfly hanging from the ceiling of the museum to prove it.
I put "evidence" in quotes because that assumption could just as easily be ass-backward. Higher temperatures cause more plant growth and more plant decay, as well as greater and faster decay of animals, which all release CO2. The shirt doesn't match because it's ugly, or it's ugly because it doesn't match? You be the judge. Either way, you're not going out in that, are you?
The plantet will warm if we reintroduce this carbon into the atmosphere. The different heating pattern will cause climate change. Dry spots become wet. Wet spots become dry. Dry spots stay dry, wet spots stay wet. The system will be different, and it will put a strain on local affairs on scale to dwarf the dust bowl. Indivisual people will be screwed. The human species will either adapt, or nuke ourselves. On the global scale, farmland will have moved, but the crops will still be able to get anywhere. Who knew I'd ever argue for globalization, eh?
Let's talk about "alternative" fuels. Or solar energy, or wind. Covering eastern Colorado with wind turbines like they're corn will rob the wind of its energy, and mean no storms in Kansas. Yay, no tornadoes, right? Wrong. No rain. Climate altered on a scale so complete and ruinous that all the carbon dioxide in the world cannot compete with. Your energy has to come from somewhere, you know.
What about putting solar power all over? That means less heat warming the planet and fueling life, instead fueling its destruction. Try removing one third of the heat in the room you're in right now. Fucking freezing, isn't it? We'll have changed the climate near each solar farm more comprehensively than CO2 ever could.
Hydrogen. That's dumb. That's really the best way to describe a substance that requires massive amounts of electricity (from one of the methods above, most likely), and burns to produce a more efficient greenhouse gas than CO2. There's a reason why the tempuraute drops twenty degrees less on a cloudy night than a clear one. You guessed it, the thing keeping your tomatoes from freezing is the greenhouse effect. Hydrogen power will give us one or more of the problems listed above, and STILL not fix our so-called greenhouse gas problem.
Corn ethanol. We've been through this. Turning your food into food for your self-righteous little Civic is a road to starvation, for the both of you. We need to distill fuels from what is currently pure waste, and is burned or allowed to decompose. Wood alcohol is the way to go. Fermenting and distilling the corn stalks instead of the corn ears is the way to go. Hell, your grass clippings could power your truck for a while.
When we use wood methanol and waste-material ethanol to power our vehicles, we can emit as much carbon dioxide as we bloody well please and not change the climate one iota (aside from urban smog from still air), since all of that carbon dioxide will have just come from the carbon cycle itself. We'll be feeding life.
_______________________________
The real issue threatening our livelihoods today is the end of "cheap" oil. By cheap, I really do mean $120, $130 a barrel. As oil gets more and more expensive, it will put more and more of a strain on our system until it snaps. That may come in the form of a massive recession, it may come in the form of a world war, and it may do both. Then, life as we know it will be forever changed. Ever seen Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior? That'll be a damn documentary if we keep going like we are. I personally support effecive United States military presence in the Middle East. I'll elaborate on that later. But suffice it to say, I believe in securing our fuel. End of story.
_______________________________
Carmakers: Especially Detroit, you need to get it through your thick skulls that you need to increase your vehicles' power:cubic inches:weight ratio. Yes, that's a three part ratio. Hotrodders have known it for longer than you board members have been alive. The real way to meet American demands for power is to improve that ratio. Gas milage will be improved, trust me. It'll be a side effect of being able to get the same performance numbers out of less gas, less volume. The Europeans know what's up. They've heard the gospel of Economy. They could do better, but the're willing to make concerted efforts to improve their numbers, rather than make excuses for laziness.
I'll admit, I worship at the temple of Horsepower and Speed. I want it, I want to channel it, I want to express it better, I want to have it at my beck and call, and I know I'm not the only one. What Sunday services mean to us is getting back from church and watching stock car racing. It's taping IRL racing while singing hymns. It's bench racing (and maybe some real runs) before sitting down to fried chicken. I'll drive a damn small-block tank of a car for two years after gas cost me $20 a gallon. But I'll be smart about it. Drive properly. Use alternative combustion fuels. Squeeze every last drop of power out of every last drop of fuel come hell or high water. I'll get 150 miles to the gallon on vintage Springfield iron before the carmakers pull their thumbs out of their asses and get innovating.
Can you say DOHC eight valve V-twin? Bring on the failures until it works. S&S could do it. They're probably working on it. In the meantime, how about it? I know there's enough talent in this country to pull it off? A true American sportbike.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Welcome: how's ya like it? (the rant)
As an aside from my main blog, Your Daily Redneck Moment, I will be putting in my two cents on political issues, doubletalk on both sides, and tossing in some philosophy just for good measure.
First of all, I would like to ask all three presidential candidates, as well as all of the news media, what the fuck? Seriously, I've been asking for clarification, telling you to shut up, or explaining why I don't even care about whatever you're freaking out about, but no matter how loud I talk to the TV, all ya'll don't listen. I know I haven't been the only one shouting at my TV during some of these televised events. On behalf of all of us, who do you think you are, and where do you get off telling us what to think?
Global warming: not a lie, but definitely bad science. In the past, higher CO2 has been because of increased solar heat, based on solar activity cycles and how close we are. Hotter = more plants, more plants = more carbon in the air as they decompose. You 'scientists' have decided that the cart is pushing the horse.
Life is resilient. It will survive an increse of 12 degrees at the pole and 1 degree at the equator. Extinction is natural. Life has survived asteroid impacts that would have destroyed the human race. The Ice Age caused millions of extinctions, but life survived. Calm down, people. This means we get NEW critters to eat.
KATRINA WAS NOT A PRODUCT OF GLOBAL WARMING. That disaster was product of idiotic planning. Seriously, have you ever tried to keep water out of the lowest point in your yard? It doesn't stay gone very long. Now imagine placing all of your electronics in that low spot and blaming the fact that it was THE WORST PLACE YOUR COULD POSSIBLY PUT THEM on illegal immigrants and bad sci-fi writers, and blame them for the fact that now, you have no TV, and your cell phone contains algae.
Sounds like drunk-idiot logic, doesn't it?
__________________________________
Danica Patrick's good or bad indy-car preformance is billed as the only be-all, end-all indicator of whether or not women can race. When AJ Allmandinger fails to qualify, nobody says, "Maybe men just can't make it in motorsports." They say, "AJ needs a better crew, more money to research, and most of all, give him time." We have one, count em, one, woman racing in indycar. Sometimes, its the person, or the other circumastances, that determines their performance. We need a larger sample size, and I will punch the next newscaster that says Danica's performance is an indicator of all women. Face or gut, buddy? Here, I'll even take off my rings, just to be nice.
One the same token, this is the first time that a woman has had a serious bid for the U.S. presidency. But when she doesn't get nominated, or somehow she IS nominated and loses the general election, let me tell you, it is because she is a calculating, double-talking politician, and we know it. I don't care if you're God incarnate, if you act like she has, I'm not voting for you.
(Alice Cooper for president)
Don't treat Hillary Clinton's performance as an indicator of whether women can get elected, treat it as an indicator of whether THAT woman can get elected. I say no, she can't.
Same with Barack Obama. He scares me. He scares me on a deep level, because he has such a following of impressionable, outspoken sheep. Really, that's what most of the young generation is, sheep. Obama's a great speaker. So was Hitler. So was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They all have different adgendas. If JFK and Barack Obama somehow, with some kind of time-space anomaly, could switch bodies, it is likely that JFK-body/Obama-brain would not have won in 1960, and that Obama-body/JFK-brain would be nominated and elected this year. It's not just about someone's demographics, it's also about their beliefs. And it's about what they're going to do once they have power.
Maybe Obama honestly thinks he can be America's messiah. Whatever. Maybe he'd do precisely what I want him to do. Maybe he'd mean well and accidentally screw up our country more. He's naive. He also isn't specific. Please, anyone, tell me what SPECIFIC changes he'll give us, and how. Maybe he'd be shot before May. I don't know. But there are two many unkowns, and I'd rather have the devil I know than the devil I don't.
Which brings me to John McCain. The straight-talk-express is anything but, but the well-oiled neocon propaganda machine is predictable. Fox News has the most comprehensive news coverage because they try to preemp anyone else getting ahold of the story, and they put out the party line about whatever happened. By knowing what ACTUALLY happened and how they're trying to sell it (video and pictures vs. judgements, descriptions, and absolutes), one can tell what they're trying to cover up and why.
The propaganda machine is such that we can say with relative certainty what we'll get with a McCain presidency. Even if it's disturbing, curtails our freedoms more (and makes us WANT it; as the people did in Fahrenheit 451), and gives the appreance of improving our position while actually employing shortsighted policies to undermine it, we know what we'll get.
I don't believe any of the candidates will do the right thing for this country, and the more news bather I hear about it, the more I want to go postal. But the solution is to turn the TV off, tape all of the broadcasts for posterity, and just chill. Seriously, people, just chill. Local politics are much more important, and that's where democracy really works. one out of 300 million is not much, especially when your vote doens't actually count for much, but one out of 3 million is something. One out of 1 million even better. Local politics have low turnouts anyway. Improve your own communities, cities, and states, people.
_______________________
Let's talk about that buzzword of the day: terrorism. Terrorism is the use of violence to intimidate. Activism is the use of peace OR violence to affect and inspire change. Psychological terrorism is the continued repetition of the concept that we are ALWAYS in extreme danger from our enemy du jour. The man in the the cloak with the talisman can keep you safe.
Now let's distinguish violent activism and terrorism from another form of violence: the snap-and-shoot-up-a-mall-or-build-a-tank-and-rampage-through-a-small-Colorado-town. That has no adgenda but revenge. It is criminal, but not terrorism. School shootings are not terrorism-- they are terrible, but not terrorism.
Terrorism is raining napalm on people who may or may not be enemy combatants (but probably aren't.. or weren't until you napalmed them) in order to clear jungle and, primarily, instill fear and terror in those who want to fight you.
Terrorism is "shocking and awing" the enemy into blind submission. Terrorism is a point of view. Terrorism is training and arming people who hate the people they're suppost to keep peacful.
"Death solves all problems: No man, no problem." -- Joseph Stalin.
Terrorism is telling people that in order to keep them safe, one must search for and invent enemies among them.
Terrorism is what the government is doing right now.
Arrest them.
_________________________
Ethanol. Is tha tnot the most idiotic fuel you've ver heard of? Ask any distiller: You don't get that much ethanol from a given volume of corn. Even if we use OUR ENTIRE FOOD CROP to make fuel, we'll still need oil, and then we'll need foriegn food, too, which means we'd be subject to whatever country sold it. Think about that.
Methanol can be fermented out of and distilled from wood, which is why it's called wood alcohol. That's what Indy cars run on. Pikes Peak competitors like it, too. Per gallon, it has less energy than gas, but by distilling things that don't need oil-based fertilizers and would otherwise have been left to rot, we really would be getting a net energy GAIN from it. But corn's more glamorous than sawdust.
________________________
Isn't nuclear just stupid? It has a lower accident rate than coal, but when you have a coal accident, it doens't pollute rivers, kill thousands, and render an area uninhabitable. Accidents can, will, and HAVE happened. Plus, it's not zero-emmissions: we need to store all that radioactive poison somewhere. For longer than civilization has even esisted so far.
We'll eventually run out of uranium, too. It's just like oil: a finite naural resource. Dumbass.
And get this: now they want to ship all that spent fuel by highway and train THROUGH EVERY MAJOR CITY IN THE U.S. in order to stuff it in a Nevada mounatin and contaminate their drinking water. No more hanging out at the railyard. It starts in 2010. Allegedly. The containers are supposed to be unmarked. That semi in traffic that's tailgating you might be darrying enough poison to contaminate the s=whole city.
I know a guy that literally lives spitting distance from the train tracks. Think about that, nuclear waste going by right outside your house. Is that really safe?
I love eating at Giuseppe's Old Depot Restaurant in Colroado Springs. Best pizza in the whole state. I'm not sure I would ever be comfortable eating at the train depot with at least three trains going by during the meal, just feet away, some of which may be carrying unmarked nuclear waste.
Whoever decided this was a good idea, c'mere. I'll put my rings back on for you. Face or gut?
First of all, I would like to ask all three presidential candidates, as well as all of the news media, what the fuck? Seriously, I've been asking for clarification, telling you to shut up, or explaining why I don't even care about whatever you're freaking out about, but no matter how loud I talk to the TV, all ya'll don't listen. I know I haven't been the only one shouting at my TV during some of these televised events. On behalf of all of us, who do you think you are, and where do you get off telling us what to think?
Global warming: not a lie, but definitely bad science. In the past, higher CO2 has been because of increased solar heat, based on solar activity cycles and how close we are. Hotter = more plants, more plants = more carbon in the air as they decompose. You 'scientists' have decided that the cart is pushing the horse.
Life is resilient. It will survive an increse of 12 degrees at the pole and 1 degree at the equator. Extinction is natural. Life has survived asteroid impacts that would have destroyed the human race. The Ice Age caused millions of extinctions, but life survived. Calm down, people. This means we get NEW critters to eat.
KATRINA WAS NOT A PRODUCT OF GLOBAL WARMING. That disaster was product of idiotic planning. Seriously, have you ever tried to keep water out of the lowest point in your yard? It doesn't stay gone very long. Now imagine placing all of your electronics in that low spot and blaming the fact that it was THE WORST PLACE YOUR COULD POSSIBLY PUT THEM on illegal immigrants and bad sci-fi writers, and blame them for the fact that now, you have no TV, and your cell phone contains algae.
Sounds like drunk-idiot logic, doesn't it?
__________________________________
Danica Patrick's good or bad indy-car preformance is billed as the only be-all, end-all indicator of whether or not women can race. When AJ Allmandinger fails to qualify, nobody says, "Maybe men just can't make it in motorsports." They say, "AJ needs a better crew, more money to research, and most of all, give him time." We have one, count em, one, woman racing in indycar. Sometimes, its the person, or the other circumastances, that determines their performance. We need a larger sample size, and I will punch the next newscaster that says Danica's performance is an indicator of all women. Face or gut, buddy? Here, I'll even take off my rings, just to be nice.
One the same token, this is the first time that a woman has had a serious bid for the U.S. presidency. But when she doesn't get nominated, or somehow she IS nominated and loses the general election, let me tell you, it is because she is a calculating, double-talking politician, and we know it. I don't care if you're God incarnate, if you act like she has, I'm not voting for you.
(Alice Cooper for president)
Don't treat Hillary Clinton's performance as an indicator of whether women can get elected, treat it as an indicator of whether THAT woman can get elected. I say no, she can't.
Same with Barack Obama. He scares me. He scares me on a deep level, because he has such a following of impressionable, outspoken sheep. Really, that's what most of the young generation is, sheep. Obama's a great speaker. So was Hitler. So was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They all have different adgendas. If JFK and Barack Obama somehow, with some kind of time-space anomaly, could switch bodies, it is likely that JFK-body/Obama-brain would not have won in 1960, and that Obama-body/JFK-brain would be nominated and elected this year. It's not just about someone's demographics, it's also about their beliefs. And it's about what they're going to do once they have power.
Maybe Obama honestly thinks he can be America's messiah. Whatever. Maybe he'd do precisely what I want him to do. Maybe he'd mean well and accidentally screw up our country more. He's naive. He also isn't specific. Please, anyone, tell me what SPECIFIC changes he'll give us, and how. Maybe he'd be shot before May. I don't know. But there are two many unkowns, and I'd rather have the devil I know than the devil I don't.
Which brings me to John McCain. The straight-talk-express is anything but, but the well-oiled neocon propaganda machine is predictable. Fox News has the most comprehensive news coverage because they try to preemp anyone else getting ahold of the story, and they put out the party line about whatever happened. By knowing what ACTUALLY happened and how they're trying to sell it (video and pictures vs. judgements, descriptions, and absolutes), one can tell what they're trying to cover up and why.
The propaganda machine is such that we can say with relative certainty what we'll get with a McCain presidency. Even if it's disturbing, curtails our freedoms more (and makes us WANT it; as the people did in Fahrenheit 451), and gives the appreance of improving our position while actually employing shortsighted policies to undermine it, we know what we'll get.
I don't believe any of the candidates will do the right thing for this country, and the more news bather I hear about it, the more I want to go postal. But the solution is to turn the TV off, tape all of the broadcasts for posterity, and just chill. Seriously, people, just chill. Local politics are much more important, and that's where democracy really works. one out of 300 million is not much, especially when your vote doens't actually count for much, but one out of 3 million is something. One out of 1 million even better. Local politics have low turnouts anyway. Improve your own communities, cities, and states, people.
_______________________
Let's talk about that buzzword of the day: terrorism. Terrorism is the use of violence to intimidate. Activism is the use of peace OR violence to affect and inspire change. Psychological terrorism is the continued repetition of the concept that we are ALWAYS in extreme danger from our enemy du jour. The man in the the cloak with the talisman can keep you safe.
Now let's distinguish violent activism and terrorism from another form of violence: the snap-and-shoot-up-a-mall-or-build-a-tank-and-rampage-through-a-small-Colorado-town. That has no adgenda but revenge. It is criminal, but not terrorism. School shootings are not terrorism-- they are terrible, but not terrorism.
Terrorism is raining napalm on people who may or may not be enemy combatants (but probably aren't.. or weren't until you napalmed them) in order to clear jungle and, primarily, instill fear and terror in those who want to fight you.
Terrorism is "shocking and awing" the enemy into blind submission. Terrorism is a point of view. Terrorism is training and arming people who hate the people they're suppost to keep peacful.
"Death solves all problems: No man, no problem." -- Joseph Stalin.
Terrorism is telling people that in order to keep them safe, one must search for and invent enemies among them.
Terrorism is what the government is doing right now.
Arrest them.
_________________________
Ethanol. Is tha tnot the most idiotic fuel you've ver heard of? Ask any distiller: You don't get that much ethanol from a given volume of corn. Even if we use OUR ENTIRE FOOD CROP to make fuel, we'll still need oil, and then we'll need foriegn food, too, which means we'd be subject to whatever country sold it. Think about that.
Methanol can be fermented out of and distilled from wood, which is why it's called wood alcohol. That's what Indy cars run on. Pikes Peak competitors like it, too. Per gallon, it has less energy than gas, but by distilling things that don't need oil-based fertilizers and would otherwise have been left to rot, we really would be getting a net energy GAIN from it. But corn's more glamorous than sawdust.
________________________
Isn't nuclear just stupid? It has a lower accident rate than coal, but when you have a coal accident, it doens't pollute rivers, kill thousands, and render an area uninhabitable. Accidents can, will, and HAVE happened. Plus, it's not zero-emmissions: we need to store all that radioactive poison somewhere. For longer than civilization has even esisted so far.
We'll eventually run out of uranium, too. It's just like oil: a finite naural resource. Dumbass.
And get this: now they want to ship all that spent fuel by highway and train THROUGH EVERY MAJOR CITY IN THE U.S. in order to stuff it in a Nevada mounatin and contaminate their drinking water. No more hanging out at the railyard. It starts in 2010. Allegedly. The containers are supposed to be unmarked. That semi in traffic that's tailgating you might be darrying enough poison to contaminate the s=whole city.
I know a guy that literally lives spitting distance from the train tracks. Think about that, nuclear waste going by right outside your house. Is that really safe?
I love eating at Giuseppe's Old Depot Restaurant in Colroado Springs. Best pizza in the whole state. I'm not sure I would ever be comfortable eating at the train depot with at least three trains going by during the meal, just feet away, some of which may be carrying unmarked nuclear waste.
Whoever decided this was a good idea, c'mere. I'll put my rings back on for you. Face or gut?
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