I can't figure it out, but I always find myself laughing my butt off. One side of me is like 'Why are you laughing at this crap' but the other side is like 'Make it stop, I can't breath'!.
So, without further delay, check out around 6:11 in the follow clip...it is hysterical:
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Debate! WARNING: Religion Content
So in the 'Under God = Bullshit' thread we got into a nice conversation. One poster wrote:
'Can a society define it's ethics without some association to some religion? - Nope, I don't think so.'
I think that is an awesome place to start because, as I'm sure you can guess, I disagree. I think a large amount of people gather their ethics and morals from religion but I don't think it is required to follow a religion in order to be ethical.
Before I get into why, we need to define what we are going to call religion. Obviously anything that is inspired by some intellegent greater power that told some dude to write a book is a religion. But what about some of the middle eastern philosophies? Like Taoism or Buddhism. Budda was some fat guy that sat under a tree and came up with a way to look at the world. He was hardly devine. And Taoism is a philosphy that developed over a LONG time from stories and observations. I wouldn't consider either a religion in their pure form (although some people have taken them and turned them into a religion, dorks).
So taking Taoism, someone who has read about Taoism and believes it is a pretty spiffy way to look at the world and follows its tenents would have a common set of ethics that other Taoists have, but it wouldn't be from a religion, right?
I tell you that so I can ask you this, what about atheists? Some of these people are almost militaristic in their non-belief, yet they have ethics and morals...I don't see a group of crazy atheists running around killing people because they wroke up with a sore tooth or something.
I think ethics and morals are a learned behavior and are reinforced by society. Sure, if the family you grew up in is a religious family and if the society you hang with is mostly religious you can make the arguement that your ethics were religiously based. But I think you can also learn ethics and morals if you group up in an athiestic family and an athiestic society. Afterall, religion developed as nothing more than a codifed set of what the hell made sense back in the day to control the masses...social control. Whether you believe it devinely inspired or not, in the end that is what it boils down to.
Discuss.
'Can a society define it's ethics without some association to some religion? - Nope, I don't think so.'
I think that is an awesome place to start because, as I'm sure you can guess, I disagree. I think a large amount of people gather their ethics and morals from religion but I don't think it is required to follow a religion in order to be ethical.
Before I get into why, we need to define what we are going to call religion. Obviously anything that is inspired by some intellegent greater power that told some dude to write a book is a religion. But what about some of the middle eastern philosophies? Like Taoism or Buddhism. Budda was some fat guy that sat under a tree and came up with a way to look at the world. He was hardly devine. And Taoism is a philosphy that developed over a LONG time from stories and observations. I wouldn't consider either a religion in their pure form (although some people have taken them and turned them into a religion, dorks).
So taking Taoism, someone who has read about Taoism and believes it is a pretty spiffy way to look at the world and follows its tenents would have a common set of ethics that other Taoists have, but it wouldn't be from a religion, right?
I tell you that so I can ask you this, what about atheists? Some of these people are almost militaristic in their non-belief, yet they have ethics and morals...I don't see a group of crazy atheists running around killing people because they wroke up with a sore tooth or something.
I think ethics and morals are a learned behavior and are reinforced by society. Sure, if the family you grew up in is a religious family and if the society you hang with is mostly religious you can make the arguement that your ethics were religiously based. But I think you can also learn ethics and morals if you group up in an athiestic family and an athiestic society. Afterall, religion developed as nothing more than a codifed set of what the hell made sense back in the day to control the masses...social control. Whether you believe it devinely inspired or not, in the end that is what it boils down to.
Discuss.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Good Conversation on Jesus Camp (Bill Maher)
This is good, particularly the part in the middle between Bill Maher and the Fox News Christain.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Under God = Bullshit
So I went to this Singles meetup on Friday night. I'll keep most of this short. In a nutshell, it started with 16 people, boiled down to 6 who went to a different bar, which boiled down to myself, this other guy and this chick. Ok, so we had been drinking for about the past 5 hours so we were relaxed, to be sure. I think we started to talk about immigration and that turned into a conversation about religion. It turns out the chick that was there was a Christain, which in itself isn't a problem. As I've expressed before I believe belief is very personal and I don't hold a person's personal belief against them...it's when it goes outside of the personal and starts to be pushed upon others that I have the issue.
Ok, so she was pretty cool in that she didn't shove religion down my throat, etc. However, we got into one of the biggest mythes that have been shoved down American's collective throat for a long long time: that the US was founded as a Christian nation. What a load of shit.
1) God is not mentioned in the Consitution, not once. Read it. It was on purpose.
2) The majority of the founders believed in deism and freemasonry rather than Christianity.
3) 'Under God' was not put into the Pledge of Allegence until 1954. This was done as propaganda during the Cold War since everyone knows the commies were Goddless.
4) 'In God We Trust' was not added to money until the Civil War.
So how does any of that equate into the country being founded as a Christain nation? And on top of that, if it was founded as such a nation explain the explicit separation of Church and State. This whole thing is simply an attempt to muddle the waters and it's fricken annoying.
The chick I was arguing with was adament that Under God was in the Consitituion and that is was always in the Pledge, etc. That is what pisses off, lack of critical thinking. Why would you by that shit? Hopefully she looks it up like she said she would. Can't wait to talk to her next time. :)
Anyway, here is more for your reading pleasure if you are curious about the facts.
Ok, so she was pretty cool in that she didn't shove religion down my throat, etc. However, we got into one of the biggest mythes that have been shoved down American's collective throat for a long long time: that the US was founded as a Christian nation. What a load of shit.
1) God is not mentioned in the Consitution, not once. Read it. It was on purpose.
2) The majority of the founders believed in deism and freemasonry rather than Christianity.
3) 'Under God' was not put into the Pledge of Allegence until 1954. This was done as propaganda during the Cold War since everyone knows the commies were Goddless.
4) 'In God We Trust' was not added to money until the Civil War.
So how does any of that equate into the country being founded as a Christain nation? And on top of that, if it was founded as such a nation explain the explicit separation of Church and State. This whole thing is simply an attempt to muddle the waters and it's fricken annoying.
The chick I was arguing with was adament that Under God was in the Consitituion and that is was always in the Pledge, etc. That is what pisses off, lack of critical thinking. Why would you by that shit? Hopefully she looks it up like she said she would. Can't wait to talk to her next time. :)
Anyway, here is more for your reading pleasure if you are curious about the facts.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 4
The VW car commercial where two people are chatting about whatever and WHAM, someone hits them. It's too trumatizing and, more importantly, it isn't funny. Bad no funny, bad!!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 3
My Stupid Mortgage Company.
So I'm trying to make a mortgage payment. I have the money in my PayPal account because that is how my customers want to pay me. I login to the website to make a payment, but the website doesn't take credit cards, only checks. Ok, fine. So I figure I'll just call them up and pay over the phone. I can't find a customer service number. Pleanty of numbers for new loans and crap but none for existing ones. I end up having to call one of the other numbers to get the existing customer service number. Arg. When I finally get the right number I call it and I get their stupid automated teller system that wants me to talk to it. Fine. So I talk to the stupid thing and it figures out what my account number is. It wants me to confirm it by saying Yes. I say Yes. It says 'What?'. I say it again...still can't figure it out. I proceed to say it in different tones and speeds, etc and FINALLY it figures out I'm saying yes. Piece of shit. So then it says it is going to transfer me, fine. Then, like it forgot something, it goes 'Oh! By the way, blah blah blah'. What the hell? Why is it trying to be a person? Just get on with it.
So I finally get in touch with a real live human. He proceeds to tell me that they do not accept credit cards. *sigh*. I thank him for his time but before he let's me off the phone he tries to get me to refinance the loan. Come on! I just refinanced the damn thing last year and there is no way I'm getting a better rate. Turkeys.
The result of all this is I need to transfer the money from PayPal to my checking account anyway to make a payment, which is going to make the payment late. :( Punks.
So I'm trying to make a mortgage payment. I have the money in my PayPal account because that is how my customers want to pay me. I login to the website to make a payment, but the website doesn't take credit cards, only checks. Ok, fine. So I figure I'll just call them up and pay over the phone. I can't find a customer service number. Pleanty of numbers for new loans and crap but none for existing ones. I end up having to call one of the other numbers to get the existing customer service number. Arg. When I finally get the right number I call it and I get their stupid automated teller system that wants me to talk to it. Fine. So I talk to the stupid thing and it figures out what my account number is. It wants me to confirm it by saying Yes. I say Yes. It says 'What?'. I say it again...still can't figure it out. I proceed to say it in different tones and speeds, etc and FINALLY it figures out I'm saying yes. Piece of shit. So then it says it is going to transfer me, fine. Then, like it forgot something, it goes 'Oh! By the way, blah blah blah'. What the hell? Why is it trying to be a person? Just get on with it.
So I finally get in touch with a real live human. He proceeds to tell me that they do not accept credit cards. *sigh*. I thank him for his time but before he let's me off the phone he tries to get me to refinance the loan. Come on! I just refinanced the damn thing last year and there is no way I'm getting a better rate. Turkeys.
The result of all this is I need to transfer the money from PayPal to my checking account anyway to make a payment, which is going to make the payment late. :( Punks.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Rant Coming in 3...2...1...
I lurk around on a few blogs from time to time that represent the more conservative side of the aisle so I can get my blood pressure up...masochistic I guess. Anyway, one of the things that really gets me is how a certain strain of people just blames every muslim for the actions of the fundamentlist sect. The arguement goes that Islam teaches violence and hate (you don't have to go any further than the uproar about the Pope's idiotic quoting of a Byzantine King saying something similiar). They claim that followers of Islam are, by nature, violent.
What a load of shit. Sure, there are fundamentilist muslims and yea they want to kill you. Some even put the number as high as 3 million. Ok, let's take that figure and think about this some. 3 million out of 150 million followers is a very low total percentage...2% of the whole. So what 2% of the whole believes is enough to condem an entire group of people? Yikes.
But let's not stop there. Apparently, this 2% of the entire muslim population is a greater threat to America than Nazi Germany or the USSR during the Cold War. Are you kidding me? They don't even compare. The fundies, the extremists, are not an organized whole. They are not a nation. They don't have anywhere close to the industrial capacity that Germany or Russia had. So how on Earth are they compariable? If a war had started between the US and the USSR millions of people would have been dead inside of an hour. To think that a group of extremists without state sponsorship or any industrial capacity at all could even get near that sort of threat is extreme naiviety at best and purposefull insanity at it's worst.
Don't let the obvious differences distract you. Listening to some of these turkeys talk about it (and we are talking about some pretty main stream people here - see Fox News sometimes) this is the Greatest Threat To Civilization Ever. This is World War III. This is the prelude to the rapture! Yea, hardly.
Ok, I got off the topic I wanted to nail. Back to the people that believe 2% of a group is enough to condemn the entire group. I've always maintained that in any group (particularly religious groups) you have a small percentage that are totally and completely dedicated and extreme about it. Literal, even. Islam has them, Christainity has then, even Star Trek has them. There isn't a whole lot of difference between the Islamic and Christain crazies.
But dude! Christain crazies aren't blowing themselves up! I would submit that in order to be part of the crazy group you don't have to go blow yourself up. Before 9/11 the biggest terror attack on US soil was Oklahoma City. Guess what group of crazies Tim was part of?
To drive the point home, check out this link. That's write, soliders of christ right here. How is that any different then what some people accuse Islam of doing to their young? It's the same damn thing, but it is a small and extreme part of the whole...just like it is in Islam.
Get some damn perspective.
What a load of shit. Sure, there are fundamentilist muslims and yea they want to kill you. Some even put the number as high as 3 million. Ok, let's take that figure and think about this some. 3 million out of 150 million followers is a very low total percentage...2% of the whole. So what 2% of the whole believes is enough to condem an entire group of people? Yikes.
But let's not stop there. Apparently, this 2% of the entire muslim population is a greater threat to America than Nazi Germany or the USSR during the Cold War. Are you kidding me? They don't even compare. The fundies, the extremists, are not an organized whole. They are not a nation. They don't have anywhere close to the industrial capacity that Germany or Russia had. So how on Earth are they compariable? If a war had started between the US and the USSR millions of people would have been dead inside of an hour. To think that a group of extremists without state sponsorship or any industrial capacity at all could even get near that sort of threat is extreme naiviety at best and purposefull insanity at it's worst.
Don't let the obvious differences distract you. Listening to some of these turkeys talk about it (and we are talking about some pretty main stream people here - see Fox News sometimes) this is the Greatest Threat To Civilization Ever. This is World War III. This is the prelude to the rapture! Yea, hardly.
Ok, I got off the topic I wanted to nail. Back to the people that believe 2% of a group is enough to condemn the entire group. I've always maintained that in any group (particularly religious groups) you have a small percentage that are totally and completely dedicated and extreme about it. Literal, even. Islam has them, Christainity has then, even Star Trek has them. There isn't a whole lot of difference between the Islamic and Christain crazies.
But dude! Christain crazies aren't blowing themselves up! I would submit that in order to be part of the crazy group you don't have to go blow yourself up. Before 9/11 the biggest terror attack on US soil was Oklahoma City. Guess what group of crazies Tim was part of?
To drive the point home, check out this link. That's write, soliders of christ right here. How is that any different then what some people accuse Islam of doing to their young? It's the same damn thing, but it is a small and extreme part of the whole...just like it is in Islam.
Get some damn perspective.
Monday, September 11, 2006
What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 2
Every night, around 2 am, every channel on my cable box switches to Univision, the mexican channel. Everychannel. I mean, i can flip the box to any channel on it and they are all Univision. It lasts for like 60 seconds or so. What the heck is that all about?
What Is Pissing Me Off Today - Part 1
So I had this bright idea to start this series of posts about what happens to be pissing me off on a given day or whenever something stikes me as pissworthy enough to post about. Couple of notes before the first installment:
1) By 'pissing me off' I don't necessarily mean anger or frustration. In fact, most of the stuff that I'll probably write about as 'pissing me off' are probably things I find particularly stupid or lacking sense. That doesn't mean I'm not going to write about things that for anger or frustrate me (see: Bush, Cheney, Religion, etc etc etc).
2) Ok, I lied. On one note.
So, for the first installment for What Is Pissing Me Off today...Car Commercials!
What on earth do people dancing on chairs have to do with selling cars (Superbowl commercial for the Hummer)? Or, most recently, four guys escaping from the office in the middle of the day to drive down a dirt path in their H3? The stupid car is only in like 1/6th of the commercial...the rest of it has nothing to do with anything regarding a car. Since when was artsy crap necessary to sell a car? With some of this stuff you can't even tell they are trying to sell a car until the end (the office one is a good example).
The commercial that looks like a home movie of these guys recording their friends off roading in a truck when a meteoroid whacks it IS a good car commercial because (a) it has a car in it and (b) it is funny. Which remind me...the FCC needs to pass some regulations that all commercials need to be funny, damnit.
R.
1) By 'pissing me off' I don't necessarily mean anger or frustration. In fact, most of the stuff that I'll probably write about as 'pissing me off' are probably things I find particularly stupid or lacking sense. That doesn't mean I'm not going to write about things that for anger or frustrate me (see: Bush, Cheney, Religion, etc etc etc).
2) Ok, I lied. On one note.
So, for the first installment for What Is Pissing Me Off today...Car Commercials!
What on earth do people dancing on chairs have to do with selling cars (Superbowl commercial for the Hummer)? Or, most recently, four guys escaping from the office in the middle of the day to drive down a dirt path in their H3? The stupid car is only in like 1/6th of the commercial...the rest of it has nothing to do with anything regarding a car. Since when was artsy crap necessary to sell a car? With some of this stuff you can't even tell they are trying to sell a car until the end (the office one is a good example).
The commercial that looks like a home movie of these guys recording their friends off roading in a truck when a meteoroid whacks it IS a good car commercial because (a) it has a car in it and (b) it is funny. Which remind me...the FCC needs to pass some regulations that all commercials need to be funny, damnit.
R.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Opps!
"One of the hardest parts of my job is to try to connect Iraq to the war on terror." -- Pres. Bush, CBS Evening News, 9/6.
Maybe that's because Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror?
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