Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Writer's block or something

So I haven't posted anything in like a week. I think I should post something. Something epic. Something worthwhile. I got nothing. These are not the droids you are looking for.

I've been under a bit of stress lately, but I don't really want to post the details. Let's just leave it at something has come up, and you remember that "Perseph-a-thon" I started at the beginning of the month? Well, I could really use the cash. Nothing has come in to my paypal and my Google ads have only made me 21 cents this month. That sucks. That really, really sucks. And that something that came up isn't a new game or shoes, but something really necessary.

I'll find some way to take care of it, I always do.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Fundies say the damnedest things

Here's a collection of recent posts by fundies to TheologyOnline.com, which I'm currently banned from. They truly do say the damnedest things.

On why it should matter whether or not President Obama is Muslim:
Because America is a Christian nation founded by Christians. And Christianity as a religion is different from all others in that you can't force it. Catholics are Christian, which you know us fundies profess in our section if you read it.

If you are not Christian, you should pack your bags and leave, or never come here. I don't see you people moving to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. Or a former Soviet state that is atheist. Why not?


On the question of the death penalty for homosexuals:
homosexuality is clearly a choice. they can only reproduce by molesting children and turning them into homosexuals. Of course they should be killed, preferably on television and next thursday opposite that homosexual show "Glee".

On Ghandi:
Bob Enyart talks about the headlines including criticizing those who are copying the hunger strikes of control-freak Mahatma Ghandi, which were his way of saying, "Do what I say or I'll kill myself."


On Atheism:
Phony Atheist Miracles. -

Life from non living matter.
Matter from nothing (or eternally existing matter).
Humans from fish.
Planets from clouds.
The manipulation of time and space.
and the clincher...

... people from embryos (cheers, Graph).


On right and wrong:
We are better off listening to God when he says "do not murder" without
interjecting our own thoughts.

More on right and wrong:

That's why so many people say evolution is dangerous. It puts the culture in charge of morality. You might say that some bad ideas come from religion, but lets face it, you are only saying that because you like your own flavor of culturaly based morality better than God's standards! But according to you, in certain circumstances, those very ideas could be right, so why would we listen to you when you say something was a bad idea? Obviously you can't actually say it is bad, because you aren't thinking about what the aliens might think. So there really is no right or wrong when God is out of the picture.



On Muslims:
deport them to Iran


More on Muslims:
Sorry Bybee, but your Rodney King "Why cantz we all jist git along" mentality doesn't work with Islam (or for atheism as well).


Even more on Muslims, answering the question "what's your solution?":
The same as what's in the Old Testament. If the United States/Christianity is attacked by a muslim in that country, go in that country and kill every single man, woman and child. Make the worship of the moon god illegal and the worship of the true god mandatory. Convert them to Christianity for their own good.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

This one's for the kids, well sorta

There's a few stories in the news lately that just make me want to give people a good, hard, unforgiving bitchslap. Maybe I'm starting to get old, but I keep finding myself more and more saying "What the fuck it this world coming to?" Seriously.

I'm going to start off by saying this, in no sense am I trying to tell anyone that may be reading this how to raise their child. I'm not a parent myself. I do have a goal some day of being a high school teacher and I currently substitute teach, so I do have a bit of an interest as I do work with children. I can't tell you how to raise your kid, I'm not sure about that myself. I can, however, point out things that are severely fucked up.

Now that I have that out of the way, here's the news story that got me started.

Girl, 6, thrown off squad over ‘booty’ cheer

So let me get this straight. Girl comes home and practices cheer, mom finds it way inappropriate, mom complains, gets a run around, mom goes public, girl is no longer allowed to cheer. Did I miss something? I have to say, I think the mother was in the right here. Congrats to her. Lets take a look at the cheer, shall we?

“Our backs ache, our skirts are too tight, we shake our booties from left to right!”

WTF? Now I'm not prudish in any way, but even I have to say that sounds at least a little suggestive. It's certainly not something I want to hear out of the mouth of a 6 year old. Why do we have 6 year olds chanting this? Who runs this squad? Pedobear?

It would seem to me that the right thing would have been to go with a cheer that would be more appropriate for 6 year olds, not something that might entice a pedophile. But what do I know? If I heard a 20-something say the same cheer I'd want to see her booty shaking in the tight skirt.

If that's not fucked up enough, the related stories that were linked annoyed me further. I got to say, it's rather disturbing. Little girls dancing rather seductively to "Single Ladies", 6 year olds in heels, and 8 year olds getting bikini waxes. What the fuck is this world coming to? Where does it stop?

Really? What ever happened to allowing little girls to look and act like little girls? Just a thought. The song "Girl Poison" by Angelspit comes to mind here.



Am I the only one that's finding this to be severely fucked up? Am I over-reacting? Let me know.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

If there is no God, there is no right or wrong.

Only nature.

So says a fundie.

They say the damnedest things, don't they? But let's take a look at this idea, shall we?

For starters, I'm an atheist. I do not believe that any god exists. I have yet to see proof of such. Because I don't believe that God exists, I don't believe in right and wrong. Murder, rape, theft, and eating babies are just fine by me. It's OK in the animal kingdom, so it's OK for people too. Right?

Of course not.

The reality is that I actually do have a concept of right and wrong. Fundies would say that I do because God gave me one. Wrote it on my heart or some nonsense. And because I have a sense of right and wrong, I know that God exists. Sounds a bit like circular reasoning to me. I'm not buying it. If you bought it, I suggest you take it back. According to some of the things I read in the Bible, this God makes folks like Hitler and Stalin look like amateurs. Why anyone would agree that they are made in his image is beyond me. I'll get to those things in the Bible later. Let's talk about where right and wrong really comes from.

I'm going to focus on the big wrongs, things that are usually touted as absolutely wrong. Murder, rape, theft, and deceit. Seems like every time I get in an argument about morality with a fundie the question of one of those always comes up.

"Is Murder wrong?"
"ummmm, yeah!"
"Absolutely wrong?"
"I think most people will agree that murder is wrong."
"So you do believe in absolutes!"

Yeah and it just goes from there. So why is murder wrong? Animals kill members of their own species and humans are animals, right? Yes, humans are animals, but we are an animal that understands that murder is not conductive to the survival of our species. It doesn't really fit in to how humans organise themselves into societies. Same goes for those other wrongs - rape, theft, and deceit. Throughout thousands of years of human evolution, these concepts have become part of our nature. We need to be told murder is wrong about as much as we need to be told to hold our breath when our heads are underwater.

There's a bit more though. Weird thing about humans, we can feel what it's like, to an extent, to be another human. We can project our feelings on to another of our kind. We can understand the feelings of another of our kind. Those things being said, if I, as a human, understand that something is harmful to me, then I understand that it is harmful to another of my kind. I wouldn't want anything harmful done to me, therefore I shouldn't do harmful things to others of my kind. Harmful things tend not to be good for survival. If an animal understands anything, it understands what it needs for it and it's species to survive. Our needs as humans are a little different from what other animals need so we tend not to do exactly as the animals do. This is why we don't eat our babies. This is why males of our kind do not regularly gang rape females of our kind.

It is nature, our nature as human beings, that dictates right and wrong, not the nature of how other animals behave. God does not make right and wrong. We do.

And if you are still looking to God for your moral absolutes, maybe you can learn a thing to a few from this video -



So what say you? Did you really need the Bible to know that murder is bad, or did it just make sense without you being told anything about it?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

And here's a rare point where I agree with President Obama

Ain't this just a grand country for allowing me the freedom to disagree with the guy in charge with out the risk of getting myself in a lot of trouble?

Yeah, well I'm not disagreeing with him on something he said in his 9/11 speech -
"As Americans we are not — and never will be — at war with Islam," the president said. "It was not a religion that attacked us that September day — it was al-Qaida, a sorry band of men which perverts religion."

Source

I really wish more people would understand that. I don't hate Muslims, I hate al-Qaida. Just the same, I don't hate Christians, I hate Westboro Baptist Church.

There's no sense in hating a religion as a whole just because some assholes that pervert the religion do very awful things. Hate only those that committed the act, not the faith they claim as theirs. Why does this seem to be so hard to understand?

Saturday, September 11, 2010

One pastor decides not to burn Qurans today, other's might though.

Rev Terry Jones has decided to cancel the Quran burning planned for today. He's gone to NYC to have a meeting with those in charge of the mosque being built near Ground Zero. I'm not sure what if anything he hopes to accomplish, but he says he's trying to persuade them not to build it.

Well good for him. That's a lot more civil than burning Qurans. I'm glad to see he came around.

Wish I could say the same for others.

The Phelpses of Westboro Baptist plan on burning Qurans and American flags today. I'm not surprised really. Heck if they would have announced that a few weeks ago, the publicity could have been all theirs.

Pastor Adam Briggs of Damascus Road Bible Fellowship is still voicing his support for burning Qurans, along with other books as well. This guy has some serious issues. I think he actually gets off on burning books.

Both Phelps and Briggs are total fucking douchebags that are an embarrassment to the human race as a whole. I've had my run-ins with Briggs before, he's a whack-job if I ever saw one.

But enough about those scum. This is not a day for their self-righteous attention whoring. This is a day for those who died to be remembered. A day for those in our military to be thanked and honoured. A day to show those that attacked us that we remained strong.

Rogue chose this song to honour those in the military the last time I saw the Crüxshadows, I can't think of a better song.

I bought some new music, let's review it!

One of the main things I go to DragonCon for in recent years (besides the scantly clad girls) is the music. And it seems every year there's more and better bands. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

I picked up 3 CD's at DragonCon this time around - Dying and Falling from I:Scintilla, Hate Lives In a Small Town from Voltaire, and Celldweller's self-titled album.

OK, ladies first. Well at least the band that's fronted by a lady first. I was trying to explain I:Scintilla's music to my father. Normally I don't discuss music with him because to him The Rolling Stones were the greatest band that ever and will ever exist, but their frontwoman, Britney Bindrim, is related to one of my dad's oldest friends. I:Scintilla is kind of a mix of metal, punk, and electronica with rather amazing vocals. Britney has some serious pipes and the drums guitars and electronics back her up quite nicely. If you are into metal or industrial, I suggest you look them up. If they are coming to your town, I suggest you see them. They put on a good show and I actually think they sound better live than on the CD. Speaking of the CD, Dying and Falling has a rather good mix of music on it. It's a great showcase of many of the things the band is capable of. There's a mix of fast and moderate, hard and light, guitar heavy metal and electronic. While I can't find a song on it I don't like, Ammunition has got to be my favourite. Also, the album art is pretty cool too. It's all paintings by Britney Bindrim.



Next up is an old favourite that did something unexpected and it turned out pretty cool. In fact when I heard of this album I actually thought it was a joke. Voltaire's latest album, Hate Lives In a Small Town, is a country album. I was talking to him about it at DragonCon after having heard a few of the songs he posted on Facebook. I thought it was good, but not what I would have expected, then I got to thinking some of his other songs did have a country feel to them. He even said a lot of his songs actually are or can be country songs. Honestly, I hate country music. Oddly enough, so does Voltaire. However the country music on Hate Lives In a Small Town is not modern country, but more old timey country. Think Johnny Cash. Now think Johnny Cash with Voltaire's warped and spooky sense of humour. That's about what this album is like. If you like old timey country and western, you will probly like it. If you don't like that, well, listen to it anyway, you may like it as well. If you like anything Voltaire has done in the past, you will like it. I enjoyed it and like I said, I hate country.



Finally, a band I never heard of before. They have been around a while, I just somehow missed them. Celldweller is a one man act, that one man being Klayton. Klayton is a very cool, very talented and very nice guy with a pretty damned impressive resume. I'm surprised I never heard of him. I've heard his music before and probly so have you. He's done a lot of work in T.V. and movie soundtracks. My girlfriend wanted their CD after we saw their live show at DragonCon. I wasn't about to tell her no, I wanted it too. The live show was just wow. A mix of very hard rock and pounding electronics with 2 really busy guys switching between keyboard, drums and guitars, singing and dancing all the way coupled with intense visuals on 3 screens. The CD provided more of the same, sans visuals of course. I'm glad I went to their show, more so that I bought their CD. If you like your music intense and aggressive with rock and classical influences, buy this CD. Seriously. If they (should I say he?) are touring anywhere near you, go see them. This is another CD that not only can I not find anything I don't like on it, I can't even find anything I can call my favourite, it's all that good.



So yeah that about covers my DragonCon music purchases. Just another reason I'm broke at the moment. And another reason for the Perseph - A - Thon. I know I haven't been making a post every day like I said I was, but I'm going to try to make up for that this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the music. I might be back later with a rant later on, watch for it.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

The first (and hopefully not) annual Perseph-a-thon.

Yeah, so I spent more than I expected to spend at DragonCon and well, I think I might have to sell my ass on the corner to pay my bills. I'd rather not do that, care to help a guy/girl out?

I may be exaggerating. I'm not really that bad off, but, well I could stand for some cash. I need things that I can't afford. OK, I really, really, really want things I can't afford. And it would make it a bit easier to pay my bills. Or at least help me avoid a late fee or two.

Yeah so I've been a little irresponsible and I'm looking for you the reader of my blog to bail me out. Hasn't that been done before? Like I'm recalling someone that got them self into debt and set up a website to take donations to get out of it. That's kinda what I'm doing here though by my next paycheck I should be alright. Though I do have my student loans and a credit card that I'd really like paid off. Wanna help me with that? Heck, now that I think of it, that would be a better place to spend any monies donated rather than on the other things I want.

So you want to help me get out of debt? Sure you do.

Wait just a damned minute. This changes what I had planned. I was originally looking for money for a new camera, a new laptop, a good quality steel boned corset for me and another for my girlfriend. Was even going to offer to model said corset, and try to get my girlfriend to do the same. Wow. I've got some nerve, don't I? Trying to get the Internet to help me buy stuff when I have loans to pay. I really ought to be spanked. No, wouldn't do any good, I like that.

Plans changed for the better. And if I can get at least one of those debts off my back, that would make life a bit easier and make things more affordable. So, how about it? You do want to help me right?

Right?

If you decide to, and I hope you do, click on the tip jar in the sidebar. It goes to my paypal account. And if you are reading this on my facebook, here's a link to my blogspot blog.

So what do you get out of this? That's a good question. My gratitude not enough? That warm fuzzy feeling you get when you have done something nice for someone not enough? Since I'm taking the more responsible approach, pictures of me tarted up in a new corset are not going to happen anytime soon. But I will post them when I do get that corset. Until then, how about some new and interesting content? I'm considering a change with this blog. Instead of the whining I usually do about my life or my job, I'm looking at doing more rants about things in the news or just some general rant about something. I would like to do one a day. Something like some of my more recent posts to my blog. That work for ya? New and interesting post every day? At least for a start? Then further down the line maybe some new graphics?

That's what I'm thinking. If you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.

Also, if you are like me and rather short on funds, just click a google add or 2 every time you come to my blog. It's not much, but every bit helps. Exactly one month from today I'll post what was donated before sending it to those I owe. Thank yous in advance.